Munitions Empire

Alas, the Dwarf Empire of the north had no machine guns. Thus, the Ice Cold Kingdom's tactics were invincible when facing the Dwarf Empire's troops!

Unless there were sharpshooters who could barely suppress the machine guns, troops armed with Shireck flintlock guns simply had no way to contend with the devastating weapon that was the Maxim.

Moreover, expecting soldiers armed with flintlock guns to fire in the rhythm of snipers was not a very promising option in the first place.

"Rat-tat-tat!" Off in the distance, that infuriating, unstoppable, constant gunfire began again.

The roar of the heavy machine guns was like a death chant echoing in the soldiers' ears of the Dwarf Empire, as if it were a religious rite of passage.

"Damn it! How have they not run out of bullets yet? Do their bullets cost nothing?" the despairing commander asked, his voice tinged with a sob.

He wasn't really expecting an answer, for he knew no one would give him one. He just wanted to vent, to let out the crushing despair and helplessness that was overwhelming him.

Just like that, a whole battalion of soldiers who had just filled the gaps lay prone on the ground, bombarded twice by artillery and swept by machine gunfire for several minutes, leaving few survivors.

The few soldiers who had luckily survived the frontline collapse scrambled back to their starting point, only to shockingly discover that apparently none of their comrades had made it back.

Though nowhere near full strength, a battalion had over 400 men, yet in less than half an hour, fewer than 100 remained, a sight that would demoralize anyone.

That fluttering flag of the Ice Cold Kingdom in the sky was getting closer and closer to Furnace Fortress, and the white flags being raised all around seemed to be multiplying.

Valiant fearlessness is just an adjective; when a battle becomes a rout, the vast majority of people will choose to go with the flow and surrender.

"Sir! Sir!" Seeing his immediate superior preoccupied with a white flag raised high on the flank, the disheveled company commander couldn't help but speak up.

He was still waiting for reinforcements. Otherwise, his men were doomed on the battlefield! It wasn't easy for him to come back; retreating casually in battle made it very easy to be mistakenly shot by the enforcement squad.

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"The right wing... is gone!" The commander, snapping back to reality, felt that his luck for the day had pretty much run out.

With the flank's position surrendered, his location became a perilous front line—not the worst fact. What was truly terrifying was that there was practically no retreat left for them; the walls of Furnace Fortress, pocked and riddled, stood just a few hundred meters away.

"Hold your ground! I have no more troops to support you!" the commander shouted at his subordinate.

"Sir! You can't just..." The company commander began, but swiftly clamped his mouth shut. He saw his immediate superior had already drawn his Shireck flintlock gun.

"Reserve troops, follow me! Fix bayonets! Push the enemy back! Retake the position we've lost on the flank!" Not aiming to execute anyone as a warning, the commander, pistol in hand, was ready to lead the charge himself.

He loudly encouraged his soldiers, "For Furnace Fortress! For the Dwarf Empire of the north! Attack! Attack!"

"For..." The soldiers behind him had just begun to prepare a tragic cry to join the slogan and charge with fixed bayonets when their shout was cut off by a roar from the opposite side.

"Ura!" Soldiers of the Ice Cold Kingdom who had seized the enemy position let out a deafening cheer; this war truly thrilled them.

The enemy was like paper, crumbling at the slightest touch; they just needed to advance and the enemy would quickly collapse and retreat.

To be honest, Moss had never fought such an overwhelmingly easy battle before. Those drawn-out engagements where they would fight a whole morning just to annihilate 600 enemies were insignificant in comparison to this war.

Moreover, because the opposition hadn't dug any trenches, nor had any kind of adequate defensive positions, the few armored vehicles provided by the Great Tang Group in support of the Dwarves finally made it to the front lines, where they exhibited their godlike prowess, becoming invincible war machines.

Due to their limited accuracy, the tactic of aiming for the vehicle's wheels was one that the soldiers of the Northern Dwarf Empire could not use, nor even think of.

Additionally, since the terrain on the battlefield was quite flat and open, these armored vehicles indeed became like primitive tanks.

Once they appeared on the battlefield, they swaggered through the bullets and barrages, reaching the enemy lines with ease, then calmly began mowing them down with the Maxim guns mounted on top.

Expecting a flintlock shot to penetrate steel plates, especially from a hundred meters away, was unrealistic. Thus, those Northern Dwarf Empire soldiers who fired from afar undoubtedly became foolish targets to be shot down.

Still, even so, the limitations of the armored vehicles were unmistakably exposed in this experiment-like battle.

Without the enemy having even attacked, three of the armored vehicles coming from afar broke down en route to the attack.

Of the ten armored vehicles that had travailed from the rear to the front line, only six made it, and then three of them went out of operation before even joining the battle.

Within the remaining three, one had flipped over after falling into a shell hole, injuring the driver inside; another's wheels were accidentally shot, losing its combat capability mid-way.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Only one made it into the battle successfully, and it achieved substantial victories—it effortlessly captured a small elevation and defeated the 1,000 soldiers defending it.

It was also the appearance of this monstrosity that completely broke the psychological defenses of the Furnace Fortress troops, leading to widespread surrenders.

Hundreds of Furnace Fortress soldiers laid down their weapons and handed over their defensive positions. This caused the entire frontline defenses to waver.

By the time the fortress's commanding officers managed to stabilize their troops, it was already the afternoon of the day the battle broke out.

Having barely secured a moment to breathe at the cost of many lives, the Furnace Fortress troops hadn't even had the chance to eat a delayed lunch when a series of bad news came pouring in.

The first piece of bad news was that the southern defense line of 20,000 troops had been breached by the enemy, almost completely annihilated, and was forced to fall back to the city to continue resisting behind the walls.

The second piece of bad news was that the northern troops had surrendered. They lost the courage to continue the fight against the 10,000 cavalry troops from the Ice Cold Kingdom and put down their Shireck Flintlock Guns.

The third piece of bad news was that, because of the first two pieces, the lord of Furnace Fortress, the aged Emperor of the Northern Dwarf Empire... had died suddenly... his breath failing to come...

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This doesn't count as a make-up update, but I actually only wrote an extra 1,000 words today, truth be told, I didn't manage to write more, I'll continue to make it up tomorrow...