Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1663 Rapid Reaction Force
Sixteen hours after the military order was issued, dark clouds covered the sky above Alexandria.

The air assault force—the 1st Rapid Reaction Regiment of the 1st Column of the Armed Imperial Guards—has arrived in Alexandria.

The royal army's three branches not only each had their own army, navy, and air force, but their command levels were also completely different.

The navy is organized into combined fleets, fleets, and detachments, while the army is organized into corps, battalions, and similar units. The navy's strategic unit is the fleet, and the army's strategic unit is the corps, but the Imperial Guard does not have a fully-fledged strategic unit; its largest unit is the column.

A column is a unit between an army and a brigade. It has the same rank as an army, but is much smaller in size because it follows the organization of the garrison. The quota of a column is 5600 people, the same as that of a garrison.

This perfectly suited the Imperial Guard's operational mission. Although the Imperial Guard possessed chariots, battleships, and aircraft carriers, it was essentially the "strategic air force" of the royal army. Its mission was long-range deployment, responsible for executing the emperor's orders as quickly as possible. Therefore, the Imperial Guard's size couldn't be too large; 5600 was just right.

Below the columns of the Imperial Guard were the regiments, which were different from the army. Compared to the army, a regiment was between a brigade and a battalion, with only 800 men, but its rank was the same as that of an army brigade.

Although small in number, the Imperial Guard's columns and regiments were combined arms units. In other words, they could independently accomplish campaign-level objectives without the support of other units.

Because they amassed large amounts of firepower rather than manpower, the Imperial Guard occupied very little space on the battlefield and could be deployed quite quickly. An entire column could be deployed within seven days, and the Imperial Guard's battleship transport convoys could deploy five such columns simultaneously. The first regiment in each column had to be deployed within 48 hours to create the environment for subsequent strategic deployments.

As for the armed Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards) within the Imperial Guards, they were the elite of the elite.

As for the armed Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards), they were a professional air assault brigade, the vanguard of the vanguard, the elite of the elite—the royal army had a special name for these "vanguards of the vanguard, the elite of the elite": "Selected Vanguard." This system, established by Commander-in-Chief Qi Jiguang, was mainly used to separately organize elite troops to undertake important responsibilities.

In the early days of firing squads, the primary purpose of the elite troops was to serve as grenadiers. This was because only the tallest and most experienced soldiers could throw grenades far enough to launch assault attacks.

In later eras, the role of the Vanguard became the Storm Assault Team—wielding automatic weapons to storm trenches and mop up cannon fodder units.

Today, as the vanguard of the entire Imperial Guard, the armed Jinyiwei are responsible for aerial assault operations. Therefore, the columns of the armed Jinyiwei are sometimes directly called the air assault columns.

The deployment of the Armed Embroidered Uniform Guard is faster than that of other Imperial Guards, and the use of the Imperial Guards' strategic air force is given the highest priority. An entire column of 5600 men will be deployed within 72 hours, while the elite of the elite—the 1st Rapid Reaction Regiment of the 1st Column of the Armed Embroidered Uniform Guard, consisting of 800 men, will be deployed to any location on Earth within 18 hours, just as Shangluo is seeing now.

The Stormtroopers of the Rapid Response Team were the first to arrive at the scene. As the transport plane flew over Shangluo, the first batch of 120 Stormtroopers jumped from the tail hatch of the transport plane.

In this unfamiliar territory, the Storm Commando did not choose the safe parachute landing, but instead carried rocket backpacks directly.

Holding the "Prototype Shaoping Type 5 20mm Torch-Shooting Storm Gun," 120 Storm Soldiers descended from the sky like meteors. As agreed, Shangluo had thrown a signal flare here beforehand.

The 120 people landed in a sudden 3000-meter drop, and activated their Torch Rockets 20 meters above the ground, almost instantly canceling out the kinetic energy of the fall and entering a levitating state. The acceleration generated during this process would probably make ordinary people dizzy, but it was actually fine for Qi cultivators, not much different from an elevator.

A drop of 20 meters didn't require any cushioning. The group plummeted from mid-air to the ground, landing on a barren hill outside Alexandria. The lieutenant colonel leading the group began roll call, and the junior officers started self-examinations—the rapid reaction force was a special forces unit composed entirely of officers; all the "soldiers" were junior officers ranging from second lieutenants, first lieutenants, captains to senior captains. Frontline commanders were all field-grade officers, typically managing battalion-level units elsewhere, but here they only commanded their own small squads of twenty or thirty men.

The average age of the "soldiers" is around 30. Considering that they are all former members of the Imperial Guard, they have undergone military training since elementary school, and have completed 16 years of military academy education and 8 years of formal service in their lives. Considering this service process, and considering that these armed Imperial Guards are often deployed in small teams and frequently cooperate with large numbers of army units in combat, officers are much more useful than non-commissioned officers in such situations.

Even the Stormtroopers of the Armed Imperial Guard, up to the rank of lieutenant colonel, never leave the front lines. The centurion leading this unit is also a lieutenant colonel.

The lieutenant colonel stepped forward and exchanged military salutes with Shangluo—Shangluo also had a military rank, which graduates of the Wutaishan Training Institute would automatically receive.

Although his military rank was actually that of a technical sergeant, which was equivalent to that of a corporal, his official position was the Grand Marshal of Demon Extermination.

However, the question of who should salute first when he met the Demon-Slaying Grand Marshal, Corporal Shangluo, was something the centurion pondered for quite a while on the plane.

He felt it unnecessary to mention that Shang Luo's rank was corporal; he should only report on his work.
"Reporting to the Grand Marshal of Demon Subduing. The First Rapid Response Regiment of the First Column of the Air Assault Team, the Geng-class combat squad, has completed its assembly. 120 men were expected, and 120 men are present."

Although Corporal Shangluo was the Grand Marshal in charge of subduing demons, he actually knew nothing about military affairs, so he couldn't just casually command the Imperial Guards. However, he did notice one thing.

Did you bring any equipment?

He noticed that these Imperial Guards carried nothing but their guns and backpacks.

There were no artillery pieces, no tanks, no mortars, and not even light weapons like machine guns.

Even more surprisingly, there were no rocket launchers, Wang Shi's favorite weapon, here—this was somewhat unexpected for Shang Luo. The biggest difference between Wang Shi and the armies he knew from the early Cold War era was that Wang Shi had a particular fondness for rockets.

Infantry use rocket launchers for assaults, aircraft use rockets for bombing, armored vehicles use rocket artillery, and the navy uses rockets to launch depth charges and proximity anti-aircraft missiles. Even supersonic passenger planes use rockets for propulsion.

(End of this chapter)