Munitions Empire

Inside the Dwarves' headquarters, an officer anxiously said to Moss, "General! The situation has been confirmed. The Tang Army has indeed landed, and in significant numbers. They used some special devices that allow them to see far in the dark. They successfully launched a surprise attack, and the Fifth Position has been lost."

Although Eternal Winter Port has yet to be directly attacked by the Tang Army, everyone is aware that this could be a precursor to the Tang Army planning to seize the port.

Everyone is tense; the fortifications of Eternal Winter Port have been put on alert, and the destroyer fleet deployed at the port has already set sail since they don't want to be trapped and annihilated inside the port.

Knowing that the situation has somewhat slipped out of his control, Moss helplessly mused over the Tang Army's unexpected move, "It seems the Tang Army has taught us yet another lesson... How's the preparation for our counterattack?"

Upon hearing Moss's question, the adjutant immediately reported, "On the second defensive line, we've redeployed 3,000 soldiers to launch a counterattack to retake the Fifth Position. However, as of now, we have yet to achieve any substantial results."

This might be a cruel example of getting caught in one's own trap; the Dwarves built strong defensive fortifications, which the Tang Army seized and turned into impregnable fortresses that the Dwarf Troops find hard to reclaim.

The Tang Army relies on those reinforced concrete bunkers to hold their position firmly, and for a moment, the Dwarves really have no good way to deal with it.

These bunkers and lines of defense are nearly circular, with firing ports at 360 degrees. They were designed to cope with situations where the Tang Army surrounds them, so breaking through these solid structures from behind is no easy feat.

Although the Dwarves have the advantage of familiar terrain, it is offset by the Tang Army's advanced weaponry. In these confined spaces, the Tang Army's grenade launchers and C4 explosives exhibit fearsome lethality.

"True, since we built the fortifications so solidly, counterattacking would surely encounter considerable trouble," Moss said with a wry smile, aware of just how formidable those defensive structures were.

For Moss to attack such a line of defense, he had no particularly good method, resorting to using human lives to fill this chasm until it's full.

And even that may not suffice: if they cannot encircle and lay siege for an extended period, and if the garrison in those fortresses can receive supplies, the situation will worsen.

Of course, the Tang Army has its methods. They have long prepared bunker-buster bombs that can easily penetrate the tops of these defenses, even if the roof's thickness is sometimes as much as 3 meters, or even 5 meters. Furthermore, the Tang Army's bombs are extremely precise, usually guided by television and some equipped with laser guidance heads, capable of tracking laser signals.

The Tang Army's special forces possess laser designation equipment to mark targets for their aircraft, especially those immobile 'turtle shells.'

The Dwarves or any other countries don't possess such precision-guided munitions, so even if they have artillery capable of destroying these types of defenses, their accuracy may not be sufficient.

Most of the heavy artillery with calibers above 200 millimeters typically relies on railway mobility. To be used in a siege, the railways must first be completed and approach the frontline. With the Dwarves' construction capability, handling such a group of bunkers would take two to three months.

An officer beside him, knowing the staggering losses at the front, nervously asked Moss, "General, do we still need to continue the counterattack?"

To Moss, the casualties among the soldiers are merely numbers; he doesn't care about the losses but cares only about who holds the ground.

So he promptly and firmly said, "The counterattack is imperative, though the enemy landing isn't entirely a bad thing. As long as they've landed, it means they have no option to retreat. We didn't wait for the Tang Army Paratroopers, but rather the landing forces... All of this, it's still within our expectations."

Moss was initially waiting for the Tang Army's usual three-pronged attack, and now with no paratroopers landed yet, the Tang Army has essentially reduced it to a two-pronged approach, still within Moss's expectation.

Since it's merely simplified by one step, the countermeasure seems unnecessary to modify, just wait till tomorrow morning and let each unit respond as per the original plan.

What Moss doesn't know is, the Tang Army's paratrooper drop has not been canceled, only slightly delayed. Because the Tang Army used new types of transport aircraft, which have much greater range than Moss anticipated, the aircraft formations have more hover time.

After hearing that the Tang Navy's southern fleet had been attacked and the Dwarves' preparations were relatively well-done, the Tang Army's paratrooper commanders immediately decided to postpone the jump by half an hour.

Therefore, the initially planned parachute drop scheduled around 4 o'clock is now set to commence around 4:30.

Bernard's intention was also apparent; upon discovering that the Dwarves caught wind of the special forces landing, he planned on letting the beachhead draw the Dwarves' attention.

And indeed, this worked; the Dwarves' frontline commander Moss began shifting his focus from waiting for the Tang Army Paratroopers to annihilating the landed Tang Army.

He began deploying and mobilizing forces from the rear to concentrate at the front, during which the Tang Army's air raids continued unabated, their devastating power wreaking havoc on the Dwarf Troops, forced to move, causing them significant losses.

Around 4:35 a.m., the 76 transport planes carrying the Tang Army Paratroopers reached the skies over the Dwarves' defensive forces, proceeding with a massive parachute drop.

In numbers greater than Moss estimated, the Tang Army deployed three divisions of paratrooper units at once, with nearly 30,000 men directly positioned accordingly.

Thanks to detailed satellite reconnaissance photos, the Tang Army's landing positions were well-chosen, not too close to areas heavily defended by the Dwarves, facilitating assembly; yet not too far, allowing them to quickly organize an offensive to seize crucial traffic nodes after assembly.

The numerous parachutes naturally caught the attention of the Dwarf Troops, whose anti-aircraft units had been on high alert all night, started shelling, but didn't achieve significant results, merely shooting down a dozen or so transport planes.

Most anti-aircraft gun positions had been cleared by the Tang Army prior to the paratroopers' action, numerous cluster bombs covered suspicious areas, significantly weakening the Dwarf's anti-aircraft firepower.

Now, the Tang Army's three-pronged attack has been executed...