Imperial Elite

Chapter 16 Armor, Attack!
September 15th, 1916 (Sacred Calendar), 1:00 AM.

In September, the Old World is no longer as hot as it was in summer, and the temperature is even cooler after nightfall.

Even at night, mist as high as three or four stories can appear in the fields, flowing over them like a tide.

At this moment, Joe, filled with praise for the designers of the Land Battleship Committee and fervent hope that their mother could leave Earth and embark on interstellar exploration beyond the solar system, jumped off the large recyclable industrial waste vehicle that Cecil called the Lucky Bella.

Pulling open the collar, a burst of steam escaped from Qiao's clothes. The steam rising from Qiao's hair made her look as if she had just come out of a sauna or steamer.

The crew members who followed Joe off the Lucky Bella were also steaming hot, just like Joe, as if they had just been boiled.

Thinking about everything he had experienced along the way, Joe felt that people can be unlucky, but they can't be this unlucky, can they?
Over the past two months of training, Joe had already figured out the performance of the Royal Fist.

Although Joe didn't make any special effort to show it, he had a good relationship with the crew members, and there were two and a half engineers in the crew.

The crew members were very resolute in carrying out orders. They could fix any minor problems themselves without the logistics staff having to help. As a result, Joe's crew became the most skilled crew in the entire C Company and even the entire heavy machine gun regiment.

After getting to know the Lucky Bella, Joe discovered that, apart from its insufficient obstacle-crossing ability, slightly lacking off-road capability, engine prone to overheating under high load, and defective track fixing that made it easy for the tracks to come off upon impact, it was still a good vehicle overall.

Its advantage lies in the fact that, despite its numerous flaws, this vehicle is so large that no truck can fit it, forcing these vehicles to travel over ten kilometers on their own to reach the front lines.

This distance of marching is a brutal test for these large creatures.

After all, during previous training in the woods, if none of the 48 vehicles of the heavy machine gun regiment broke down one day, the maintenance personnel in the logistics department would have to kneel in the roofless and wallless repair workshop to thank the Holy Mother for her mercy, the Son of God for his protection, and the Holy Father for his blessing.

Having become familiar with the equipment's performance, Joe planned to create an accident on his way to the front lines, leaving the big guy stuck in the mud so he could slack off and avoid going to the front lines.
It's that simple and easy. Even if the regimental commander and the garrison representatives came, they wouldn't be able to find any reason to complain. Surely nothing unexpected will happen.

Then, unsurprisingly, this simple and easy task went wrong.

Shortly after Company C left the camp, Company Commander Daniel's vehicle became stuck in the mud and could not move.

This should have been a good thing for Qiao. If the company commander's vehicle got stuck and couldn't reach the front line, wouldn't it be reasonable and logical for his vehicle to also experience some mechanical failure and get stuck as well?

Then Joe heard the company commander get out of the vehicle and prepare to board Joe's Lucky Bella to go to the front line, since it was the most skilled crew in the entire company.

Upon hearing the company commander's words, Qiao immediately panicked. How could this be? If the company commander came up, how could he stage an accident to break down the vehicle so he could slack off?
After all, although the observation tower on the train was ridiculously illegal, the commander sitting on top even had to use a copper pipe to communicate with the passengers inside.

But wouldn't this make it easier for Joe, who was in the car relaying messages and directing the passengers, to falsely convey imperial orders?

If the company commander comes up, then I'll be out of options and will have no choice but to obediently drive to the front line.

So before the company commander got into the car, Qiao jumped out and said, "Don't worry, company commander, Old Qiao is here to save the day!"

Joe, who couldn't even afford a driver's license in two lifetimes combined, had never driven a tank to rescue a stuck vehicle, or even a four-wheeled vehicle.

But Joe had a battle-hardened brother who had rescued not only tanks stuck in the ground, but also Dauntless, who was stuck in the ground.

Okay, saying it rescued the Dreadnought is a bit of an exaggeration, but my good brother did see how the Space Marines rescued the Dreadnought that had collapsed a floorboard and was stuck in the floor like a toaster. That scene reminded Joe of Tom and Jerry.

So, although he had never eaten pork, Joe had seen too many pigs run. He only added a little more skill, and while directing two tanks to pull the vehicle out of the mud, he also brought over a few unwanted wooden telephone poles, successfully getting the company commander's vehicle out of the mud pit.

At this point, Qiao felt that he had only escaped the misfortune of letting the company commander get on the bus.

Then, after discovering that a company commander could be rescued from a stuck vehicle, the company began to have its vehicles maintain a close formation while marching, so that if a vehicle got stuck, the other vehicles could pull the unfortunate one out.

Furthermore, the company commander didn't waste those utility poles either, having each of the other vehicle crews carry one and hang it on their own vehicle.

At this moment, Qiao realized that things were in trouble. Although the company commander wouldn't get on the vehicle now, he also had no way to get stuck.

However, no matter how difficult the situation, it could not deter the determined slacker. Joe, who was familiar with the vehicle's performance, decided to take advantage of the car's poor engine cooling. He would choose a road to make the car's engine run under high load, so that the engine would overheat and break down, and he could start working again.
In fact, when building the heat insulation wall, Qiao had already thought it through. This thing would make the passengers in the carriage more comfortable, but it would also make the engine, which was already a mess of cooling, more likely to overheat. Then he could use mechanical failure as an excuse not to go to the battlefield.

However, Joe did not expect that the driver, Herbert, would refuse his request.

Herbert stated that the order was to go to the front line, and he should simply follow the lead vehicle and maintain the same speed along its route. This was the safest approach and there was no need to cause any unnecessary trouble. Furthermore, their engines were more prone to overheating than those of other vehicles, so now was not a good time to conduct off-road tests.

Joe, who had no suitable excuse to refute, could have used his officer authority to force Herbert to obey his orders, but that would have seemed too deliberate, as if he had deliberately caused the car to break down. With no other option, Joe could only suppress his anger and ride the Lucky Bella to the front lines.

Because the vehicle was not designed with heat dissipation in mind, when it arrived at the front, apart from Cecil who was sitting at the top of the observation tower and could get fresh air, everyone else was still sweltering in the heat even when they opened all the available hatches during the march.

At the same time, due to the terrible suspension, or rather, the car had almost no suspension, when Joe finally stepped onto solid ground, he even had the feeling of the whole world shaking when he got back ashore after his first boat ride.

"Everyone, find a place to rest."

Just as Joe was stretching, the company commander walked over. Judging from the buttons on his collar, it was clear that the company commander, like the tank commander Cecil, had been staying in the cool observation tower during the march.

"We will launch the attack at 5:50, so go to sleep. The artillery will begin its preparation at 4:00. I think you will be able to wake up by then. The infantry here will cooperate with us to launch the attack. When you are driving and firing, please be careful not to fire at anything that is moving."

Although the company commander told everyone to rest, Joe obviously didn't dare to rest now, and it wasn't the time to rest peacefully. After borrowing a pair of binoculars from Cecil, Joe jumped into the trench.

Having dealt with infantrymen many times before, Joe knew who he should be looking for now.

Soon, Joe found a group of infantrymen in the forward trenches who were different from the others in both clothing and demeanor.

Whether it's the numbness these infantrymen exude about everything, or the marksman medals on their uniforms composed of two crossed rifles, they all silently proclaim their identity.

Unlike Joe and other new recruits who joined the army after the war began, these guys were veterans who had served in the army before the war even started. These men were typically called "old indomitables" in the military, unlike the new recruits who had barely fired a single bullet in their entire lives before enlisting.

The old indomitables were even able to fire their rifles at rates approaching those of machine guns while maintaining accuracy.

In the previous battles in the Low Countries, it was these old indomitables who shattered the Teutonic advance with their precise shooting.

However, as the war progressed, after several large-scale battles, few of these old warriors remained. Those who survived were used as trench reconnaissance teams rather than as ordinary infantry.

These trench reconnaissance teams would typically enter the no-man's-land between the trenches of the two armies at night to scout out enemy movements and identify their firing positions, so that artillery could strike the enemy's defenses more accurately.

If the troops launched an attack during the day, these trench reconnaissance teams would try their best to bring back the wounded who were trapped in no man's land.

Of course, the Teutons would also send out scouts, and if the two scouts encountered each other in the no man's land, they would begin a silent and brutal battle.

Any noise in the no man's land is likely to attract the attention of the frontline defenders. Since no one knows what is making the noise in the no man's land, the highly nervous defenders will usually fire machine guns at the area where the noise is coming from.

Sometimes, they would even call in artillery fire to cover that area.

Therefore, no one was more familiar with the terrain of the no man's land, the Teutonic defenses, and the deployment of troops than these trench reconnaissance teams.

When these veterans, who looked like they had just returned from the no man's land, saw Joe walking toward them with medals around his neck, they didn't give him a friendly look.

Their expressions softened only when Joe pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

After all, frontline infantrymen usually only have an allocation of two or three cigarettes a day, and often these allocations are delayed. Sometimes what is delivered is not cigarettes, but tobacco that can only be used in pipes.

Just as everyone started puffing on their cigarettes, one of the veterans recognized Joe, saying he was the guy in the newspaper, the so-called 'hero'.

Upon hearing this, Joe quickly introduced himself to them. When he arrived at the front, he was a junior engineer and, like them, was rolling around in the mud on the front lines until the idiots above him came up with some strange new equipment. That's when he was transferred there to receive training and use the new equipment.

As for heroes, those are just empty titles. If it weren't for you old indomitables holding back the Teutons, we would all be guarding the coastline in Buntania right now.

No one dislikes hearing kind words, and when they heard Joe say that, the veterans burst into laughter, and the trenches were instantly filled with a joyful atmosphere.

Joe immediately said that since he would be launching an attack with them the next day, he wanted to know what the terrain of this no man's land was like, where there were huge bomb craters, where the soil was soft, and where there were Teutonic barbed wire and trenches.

After smoking Joe's cigarette, and without making any unreasonable demands, the veterans began to explain to Joe their current environment and the situation in the no-man's-land.

As the veteran recounted, Joe carefully lay down beside the trench, raising his binoculars to observe the environment in the no-man's-land.

Joe quickly figured out the situation in the no-man's-land outside the trenches, and even inside the Teutonic's first trench.

The bad news is that, like the battlefields Joe had experienced before, this place is full of shell craters left by heavy artillery bombardment, and the recent torrential rains have filled those craters with water.

If he didn't want to be stuck in the mud and have to show off his muddy fists, he had to make Herbert carefully avoid those craters tomorrow, even the dry ones, since the soil there had already been soaked by the rain.

The good news is that the Teutons here are still armed with the same weapons as before: rifles, grenades, and machine guns, although they can call in long-range artillery fire.

However, it is indeed quite difficult for a howitzer to hit a moving tank.

Although these tanks have thin armor, they still have no problem stopping shrapnel from artillery shells.

If he were to encounter a high-explosive grenade hitting him from above, such a low-probability event, Joe could only lie on the ground and accept his bad luck, hoping that the weasels wouldn't recruit him. After all, Joe's good brother had already biologically cleared out that nest city and was now wearing medals and holding the rank of major, boarding a ship to head to the next war zone.

In short, barring any unforeseen circumstances, the Teutons in this defensive line were unable to threaten the firepower of their tanks, even though it was a tank that Joe considered almost industrial junk.

However, Joe couldn't be completely at ease, because even the trench reconnaissance team only knew the situation of this no-man's-land and the first trench of the Teutons, while their target for tomorrow's attack was a village located five kilometers behind the second line of defense of the Teutons.

No one knew what the road to that village was like, or what the Teutons had prepared there.

Before leaving the trenches and returning to his vehicle, Joe left two packs of cigarettes for the veterans and told them that his vehicle had "Lucky Bella" written on it. He added that if they trusted him, they could follow behind him during the attack the next day, keeping a slight distance.

He would have the vehicle cover their advance, trying to get them to the Teutonic trenches without being attacked.

The leader of this trench scout squad, a sergeant with a sharpshooter's badge on his chest, raised his hand and gave Joe a very casual salute, indicating that since they were all 'PBI' (Poor Bloody Infantry), and as friends who had shared cigarettes, they would fight alongside him tomorrow.

After saying goodbye to the trench reconnaissance teams, Joe returned to his Lucky Bella. Although there were still several hours before the battle began, this was not his first time entering the battlefield.

But Joe still couldn't sleep.

Soon, as time went by, the artillery shells rained down on the Teutonic positions, and huge fireballs lit up the dark night sky. Joe was now completely unable to sleep.

He simply got out of the car and half-heartedly answered Cecil's silly questions, who seemed incredibly excited about his first time on the battlefield.

With such intense shelling, how could the Teutons possibly survive?
Joe knew that the Teutons were not only alive, but also ready to retaliate if he launched an attack.

Finally, as the last shell fell, the booming sound of the explosion still seemed to echo in the air. The company commander climbed into his vehicle and waved.

"Armor, attack!"

(End of this chapter)