Mirage Musaburo's guess was correct. In fact, while the artillery fire was being prepared, the Tang Army's tanks began to attack. The Tang Army's speed was even faster than Mirage Musaburo thought.
Covering the steady advance of the infantry, the tracks of the tanks ran over the battlefield that was already full of craters. The positions that had been damaged by bombing and shelling had not yet been completely repaired. The Mirage soldiers hiding in the trenches were suddenly attacked by the Tang army.
Terrified.
The machine gun position soon began to roar. They tried to stop the attacking Tang Army, but the tanks of the Tang Army covered each other and cooperated seamlessly. Soon a tank stopped, and the turret slowly turned towards the firing machine gun position.
The Tang Army infantry hiding behind the tanks all fell down. They were in a tacit understanding. After discovering the machine gun position, they used submachine guns to suppress the enemy's firepower.
The coaxial machine gun on the tank turret finally began to attack, and the tracer bullets rushed towards the fire-spitting bunker perforation. Then the gunner who found the target stepped on the firing pedal.
There was a loud bang, the 75 mm caliber artillery sprayed out a cloud of white smoke, and a shell rushed straight into the bunker, and then exploded near the perforation of the bunker.
The huge destructive power caused the bunker to become silent instantly. After confirming that the other party was completely silent, the No. 4 tank began to advance forward again.
The Tang Army soldiers behind it got up and began to move forward. Directly in front of them, another cloud of black smoke rose into the sky. It was a shell fired by another tank and hit another target.
The soldiers of the Mirage Kingdom had never seen such a terrifying war machine. They stationed in the trenches were now completely panicked.
The commander of the Mirage Army had no choice but to draw his long sword and loudly ordered all the soldiers to fix their bayonets and prepare for hand-to-hand combat: "Fix bayonets! Wait until they get close to the trench and fight them!"
This was about the most realistic solution he could think of, because there were no anti-tank guns on his position, so there was nothing he could do against the Tang Army's tanks.
Whether it was a machine gun or a rifle, the power of the No. 4 tank was too small. They were completely unable to stop the Tang army's attack, so they could only watch as the Tang army's tanks sent the infantry to the front of their position.
Soon, the Tang Army's No. 4 tank approached the huge anti-tank trench. This huge deep pit really caused huge trouble for the Tang Army's tanks.
There was no way, the tanks participating in the battle had to start to make a detour. They had already deliberately searched for the areas of the trenches that had been bombed, and then began to cross the anti-tank trenches in these areas.
Due to lack of cooperation, the artillery of the Mirage did not take advantage of the Tang Army's tanks to slow down and concentrate, thus wasting such an excellent opportunity.
Soon, the tanks of the Tang Army rushed out of the areas where some anti-tank trenches had been destroyed, and formed their formation again.
This time, the Mirage Army could not stop the attack of these Tang Army tanks. Soon, the tanks of the Tang Army ran over the trenches of the Mirage defenders while strafing.
The next second, the Mirage soldiers who had already inserted bayonets into their rifles raised their hands and threw them, and were beaten by the submachine guns in the hands of Tang Army soldiers who jumped into the trench.
They managed to avoid the tracks of the tank and were not crushed to death by the tank. But the dense bullets soon gave up the idea of bayonet fighting.
The automatic weapons equipment rate of the Tang Army is really too high. Most of the German grenadiers in World War II could only be equipped with Mauser rifles, but most of the Tang Army's grenadiers were already equipped with Thompson submachine guns.
The two sides were not on the same level at all. The Tang army's firepower was too fierce, and the Mirage defenders were completely unable to withstand it.
A group of Mirage soldiers hiding in the trenches were holding rifles with bayonets inserted, waiting for the opportunity to fight the approaching Tang Army soldiers.
But what they were waiting for was a grenade that flew into their trench. Before they could react, the explosion blew away most of them.
The remaining people staggered around, and when they were about to get up, they were shot down by Tang soldiers who jumped into the trench.
A dozen soldiers were wiped out in this huge crater without even shouting a slogan "Long Live Mirage".
This crater was left by a 500-kilogram aerial bomb dropped by a Stuka dive bomber. It turned out that the crater was topped by a concrete bunker.
After being blown up by an aerial bomb, a huge circular crater was left across the trench: the Mirage soldiers did not have time to repair the crater, so they directly used it as a hiding foxhole.
Now this place was occupied by the Tang Army. The infantry who followed the tank attack here eliminated all the Mirage soldiers in the pit, and then started cleaning up on both sides along the trench.
The soldiers of the Tang Army were very skilled in handling this kind of battle situation. The weapons in their hands were made for this purpose. Hand grenades and submachine guns were the optimal solution to trench warfare in this era.
These Tang Army soldiers leaned against the wall of the trench, firing at the overcoming Mirage soldiers, covering each other and advancing alternately. If there were too many people on the other side, they would use grenades to solve the problem.
The Tang army used a simple and incomprehensible rhythm of strafing and grenades to quickly clear a trench. By the time they could no longer find the Mirage soldiers, the battle in this position was often coming to an end.
The other part of the Tang army followed the tanks and launched an attack on the second trench, cutting vertically through the Mirage's defense line. This made the Mirage troops on the flanks worry that their defense lines would be penetrated, and began to collapse on both sides.
Once the breakthrough is opened, things will be much simpler - the soldiers of the Mirage who have lost the cover of the trenches are even less likely to be the opponents of the Tang army.
In the sky, the fighter jets of the Tang Army roared past. They were looking for the artillery positions of the Mirage. If they dared to fire, they would be attacked.
These planes even flew unscrupulously over the position at low altitude, wildly strafing the mirage targets on the ground. With these threats, the mirage's artillery fire was as depressing as the gasp of a patient on his deathbed.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! In fact, the Tang army's tactics have made new progress compared to before. The engineers following the assault force swarmed up and used their method to "return farmland to forest".
They used detonators and explosives to clear out the fortifications left by the Mirage troops, blowing up the craters beyond recognition.
With the destruction of these engineers, even if the Mirage troops counterattacked and recaptured these positions, they could only dig trenches and build bunkers again.
Sure enough, the Mirage's counterattack began an hour after the Tang army launched its attack. More than 5,000 Mirage soldiers came from all directions, desperate to recapture the defensive positions occupied by the Tang army.
Their offensive at all costs once forced the tanks of the Tang Army to retreat. However, these counterattacking mirage troops soon became unable to follow up and were eventually driven back to the place where they launched the attack.
That night, because he was worried about a night attack by the Mirage army, Redman ordered the 4th Armored Division to retreat back, returning about half of the area recaptured during the day to the Mirage defenders who had been beaten for a day.
In this day, the Mirage Kingdom lost at least 4,000 soldiers, and a large part of the defense line on the west side was still lost.
Just looking at the losses, the Mirage troops deployed near Beiyuan City can actually be described as suffering heavy losses. Even though there are hundreds of thousands of Mirage troops, if they lose 4,000 people every day, less than 10
By the end of the day, their troops were almost destroyed.
It was on this night that Mirage Saburo, who had been actively fighting back, came to his senses: He seemed to have fallen into a trap!
The Tang Army tried to attract the Mirage troops to the field defense positions to fight, and especially liked to attack the Mirage troops performing counterattack missions. This caused the Mirage troops to suffer heavy losses, while at the same time it did not cause damage to Beiyuan City behind them!
Therefore, he had to give up his original counterattack plan and seriously consider the feasibility of shrinking the defense line.
On the other side, Redman was also counting his losses: the 4th Armored Division lost two tanks during the offensive, both of which malfunctioned and were scrapped on the battlefield.
The crew blew up the two tanks during the retreat and did not leave them to the Mirage troops. By the time the Mirage troops approached, the two tanks were basically burnt down to their frames.
There is no way, the gasoline engine is so willful.
In addition, the following grenadiers lost 155 people. Although the Tang army had the advantage, it was still difficult to avoid casualties on the chaotic battlefield.
Another reason why the exchange ratio between the two sides was so terrifying was that there was a huge gap in the level of battlefield medical care between the two sides: the Tang army had a complete rescue mechanism, with military doctors accompanying the team and helmets to provide protection.
But looking at the mirage country, they have nothing: the soldiers do not have helmets but wear soft hats, the medical and medical personnel are all in the rear and away from the battlefield, and there is no tradition or mechanism for transporting the wounded.
In such contrast, the casualty figures appear very honest.
On the first day of the battle, the Mirage army suffered a heavy loss. They gave up on the foolish idea of recapturing their lost positions, and instead began to use the night to crazily reinforce their defensive positions.
They didn't repair it before because they judged that the Tang Army would not attack easily. Now that the Tang Army really attacked, they could only renovate their damaged trenches honestly and use this as a basis to strengthen their defense.
But this night was destined to not be peaceful: news came from the defensive position on the south side of Beiyuan City. The Mirage army stationed there discovered the Tang army heading north and took over the defense of the Qi army on the opposite position.
That's right, the eldest prince's troops have all been annihilated, and now the Tang army has completely surrounded Beiyuan City from two directions in the southwest.
This also meant that the 1st Armored Division, another main force of the Tang Army, was already at the forefront of the Mirage troops' defense line. Suddenly, Mirage Saburo, who was responsible for the defense of Beiyuan City, felt double the pressure.
