Imperial Elite

Chapter 18 Bell Tower
Normally, if it were just some figures appearing behind the tank, Joe would have been just as indifferent as Britannia was about the Hyberian famine.

A bunch of skinny infantrymen, how could they possibly fight against machine guns?!
But at that very moment, the observation tower on the Lucky Bella was destroyed in the recent shelling.

After the observation tower was destroyed, the hole that appeared on top of the Lucky Bella was large enough for the Teutons to throw in anything that would damage the plants, such as grenades, pepper spray, or entrenching tools.

Even a spiky, invincible braid could walk through that opening on its own without worrying about bumping into a rock.

This made Qiao quite nervous.

Although Joe was certain that there wouldn't be an invincible, top-haired guy on the other side, he still couldn't stand it even if the Teutons threw a grenade into the car through that hole.

So Joe immediately ducked back into the car, trying to whisper to the two machine gunners in the machine gun turret at the rear of the vehicle to adjust the position of the machine gun and keep watch on the people behind.

However, the vehicle was too large, and the engine was not separated, so Joe's soft words had to turn into a loud roar before the two machine gunners started to turn the turret.

But after the loud roar, it wasn't just the machine gunner in the rear turret who heard Joe's order; the people in the thick fog outside the vehicle also heard it.

"Hey! Don't fucking shoot! They're on our side!"

As a voice with a thick Yorkshire accent rang out, Joe breathed a sigh of relief.

Then several infantrymen carried a person out of the thick fog.

"You're really good at running, kid. This trip almost exhausted us brothers."

Qiao looked closely and realized that these were the guys from the trench reconnaissance team he had asked to follow him today.

He then shoved his head back into the car and shouted, "Don't be nervous! We're all on the same side, we're all on the same side!"

Joe opened the hatch and stepped out of the tank, looking at the trench reconnaissance team members with some confusion.

"What are you guys doing here?"

As they were talking, Joe got a good look at the guy who was being carried on the shoulders of these guys.

"How is Cecil doing with you? Is he alright?"

A moment later, as these veterans from the battlefield reconnaissance team sat atop the tank, marveling at the behemoth that moved through the mud as if it were nothing, like country bumpkins wandering into Cybertron, Joe finally understood what was going on.

When they first launched the attack, after witnessing the power of these massive tanks, the guys thought Joe was an honest man, so they followed Joe's advice and kept a distance from the tanks, staying behind the Lucky Bella.

Because Joe's attention was entirely focused on helping Herbert watch the road and prevent the car from getting stuck in a ditch, he didn't notice the guys following behind.

During the shelling, although these guys managed to huddle in a shell crater and escape the bombardment, as a trench reconnaissance team, they still managed to find traces left by the Lucky Bella and also picked up Cecil, who had fallen from the top of the tower.

With the help of infantry, Joe felt a little more at ease, even though they were few in number.

From a respectable standpoint, with the support of infantry, the Lucky Bella now possesses a certain capability for both offense and defense, enabling it to capture certain strongholds or hold certain positions and cripple the Teutons.

From a somewhat cynical perspective, with these guys sitting on the roof, Joe could now confidently stick his head out of the hole without worrying about a passing Teutonic soldier shooting him.

As for Cecil, who fell from the top of the tower, Joe didn't know whether the guy was lucky or not.

You could say he was lucky; he was pulled down by the observation tower.

You could say he was unlucky, but aside from being knocked unconscious, he was surprisingly unharmed and even managed to be picked up by the old guys in the trench reconnaissance team.

This made it really difficult for Joe to comment on his luck.

However, since they had found Cecil, Joe didn't hesitate to borrow Cecil's binoculars.

However, when borrowing equipment from Cecil, Joe realized that just as he found Cecil's luck difficult to assess, Joe's own luck was also difficult to assess.

Although Cecil had a telescope, his most important tools—a map and a compass—had disappeared.

Even with a telescope, without a map and compass, I still can't figure out where I am!
In addition, although the fog has receded somewhat, visibility is still low. Looking a little further away, all you see is a white blur, making it seem like the image quality is too low and the picture hasn't loaded.

This terrible situation left Joe still unable to accurately determine the direction, so he could only have Herbert find a direction and make do with it for now. At the same time, he briefly explained to the old guys in the trench reconnaissance team the infantry-tank combined arms tactics he had seen from his good buddies.

Of course, given that these guys from the trench reconnaissance team are definitely smarter than their ankles, they would know to dodge if such a huge vehicle, almost two stories tall, came by.

So, I won't go into the most basic tank-infantry coordination course, which is how tanks don't crush infantry. Instead, I'll start with the most practical stuff: how infantry should cooperate with tanks and how tanks should cover infantry.

Simply put, tanks may look imposing, but they are actually quite powerful.

Just as even a mighty Argus has a vulnerable heel, tanks also have flaws such as poor visibility and weak close-range perception.

If the Teutons were truly willing to risk everything and send someone carrying a three-and-a-half-pound bomb to charge up and stick to the tank, then Joe would be completely helpless.

This is where the infantry comes in handy. They need to spread out around the tanks to keep watch and prevent any guys who are prepared to tear the tanks apart with a set of anti-tank gymnastics from rushing up.

By the way, take advantage of its smaller size to scout out any dangerous targets around the tank, such as field artillery, so that the tank can detect, fire, and destroy the enemy first.

Since the infantry has so much to do, the tanks' job is simple: charge forward under the infantry's cover and crush the Teutons with machine guns and cannons.

Regarding Joe's tactic of "you take the lead, I'll take the blame, there's no risk in this between us," the veterans of the trench reconnaissance team all said, "No wonder he's a hero who can be in the newspapers, he's so thoughtful, let's do it this way!"
After confirming the tactics, Joe's crew and the trench reconnaissance team quickly discovered a small problem: their vehicle had been crossing the Teutonic lines for so long, yet they hadn't seen a single Teuton. "You're not even on the Somme, where are you?!" At first, the people in the vehicle felt something was wrong; these Teutons were definitely up to something!
So everyone in the vehicle, plus the trench reconnaissance team on the roof, watched their surroundings warily, fearing that a Teutonic might jump out of the thick fog.

But after driving for an hour, everyone felt something was wrong... It had been so long and they hadn't seen a single person. Could it be that during the shelling earlier, they had accidentally driven back to the rear?
Hey Herbert, do you remember when we crossed the trenches?
Hearing this question, Herbert was also helpless. "From my driver's window, I can barely see the trenches, let alone distinguish the road from the sky."

After another hour, even the veterans of the trench reconnaissance team couldn't hold on any longer.

This state of intense concentration was very physically demanding, so they took out the biscuits from their pockets and started eating them with water from their water bottles.

After Joe shared the chocolates the officers had given them, the crew members began to eat in shifts.

Then a group of people started sharing cigarettes and black tea brewed with the heat of the tank engine by the hole in the roof. Joe felt that if he hadn't been there to make them have the most basic respect for military discipline, these guys would probably have taken out the beer hidden in the ammunition boxes.

During the conversation, Joe learned that not all the soldiers in this battlefield reconnaissance team were the old indomitable veterans who had joined before the war; one of them, named Edward, had joined the army after the outbreak of the war.

And this guy's reason for joining the army was even more unfortunate than Joe's.

Before the war, Edward, a distinguished graduate of the London School of Economics, was a senior employee of a trading company, and was poised to become a partner.

There was no place in the entire Old World that Edward hadn't been; he even spent several years trading furs in Lucia, a place considered barren.

I wouldn't call myself extremely wealthy; I'd just say I have enough to eat at the end of the year after taxes have been paid. My biggest dilemma is: should I buy my next house in London, Paris, or Germania? Sigh… it's such a difficult decision…

Then the war broke out. With the navy requisitioning all the cargo ships and the Teutonic submarines destroying the last few, Edward's company went bankrupt instantly.

However, this had little impact on Edward. His savings and connections over the years made him realize that with the country in crisis, it was essential for him to make a fortune.

Once the war begins, the Empire will definitely need all kinds of supplies, and Edward, who has been engaged in international trade for many years, can just connect those thirsty factories with overseas supplies to fill their never-ending appetites, while also making a small profit for himself.

However, before Edward could even begin to show his skills, just like Joe, Edward also received a white feather. The girls who gave him the white feathers mocked him for being a coward and not a real man.

Of course, this didn't hurt Edward at all. He'd already paid taxes to the king, and now he had to fight for him? What was the point of paying taxes?!

Then, seeing that their white feathers were useless, the girls began to dig into Edward's background, and Edward was found to have a grandmother who was a Teutonic who had married into Bonitania!

You have Teutonic blood, yet you are unwilling to fight for the Empire, and in the past you frequently traveled between the continent and the homeland under the guise of trade. The answer is obvious: you are a Teutonic spy!
This espionage accusation really got Edward off his feet. "I'm a spy? What a load of rubbish! I've never even fired a gun, never been to a factory. The closest I've ever come to the military in my life was when I went to the dock to board a ship and saw warships leaving port. If that's enough to make me a spy, then Britannia's standards for espionage are way too low!"

Although the local intelligence agency in Britannia had invited Edward to their office for tea immediately and ruled him out as a spy.

However, those girls didn't care about any of this or that. They frequently called the police, reported him, and posted posters, keeping Edward busy dealing with everything.

Finally, Edward gritted his teeth and stamped his foot, "Fine! Didn't they say I'm a spy?! I'll fight for the King! How can that be considered a spy?!"

Go ahead and stir things up! You can stir things up until the expeditionary force runs out of supplies and suffers defeats; you can stir things up until the homeland is in chaos and the empire falls. All I'll do is push Teutonic's ass by the bedside!

After arriving at the front lines, Edward, who had traveled to almost every country in the Old World and spoke several languages, was selected by the trench reconnaissance team and became a member of the team.

After all, capturing prisoners is also part of the investigation team's mission.

After hearing Edward's story, Joe, who felt like Edward was another version of herself, had a lot to say, but in the end, she said nothing and just patted Edward on the shoulder with a sigh.

The other passengers on the bus were also sighing, saying that those white-feathered people were really inhuman. They even gave white feathers to people who were injured in the Boer War and needed crutches to walk. These people were either stupid or evil. They had almost plucked all the feathers off the pigeons in the square!

Just as everyone was collectively denouncing those white feathers, the main gunner, who was sitting on the roof of the vehicle smoking, suddenly pointed to a shadow in the distance and said...

"Wait, look over there, doesn't it look like a church bell tower?"

Following the direction the main gun was pointing, everyone looked in that direction and a shadow resembling a clock tower appeared in the thick fog.

Upon seeing the clock tower, everyone immediately fell silent.

Joe looked at the clock tower and quickly thought for a moment.

Since there's a clock tower there, there must be people there, so I can figure out where I am.

Only by understanding where you are can you decide what your next step should be.

As for places with buildings like this, there might be Teutonic people...

Logically speaking, their artillery units wouldn't be positioned so close to the town. If the enemy doesn't have artillery, then at this moment, there's nothing they can do to them.

Thinking of this, Joe immediately gave the order.

"Tanks, load shells and prepare for battle! Infantry, dismount and scout ahead to see what's going on."

The members of the trench reconnaissance team nodded and slid off the edge of the tank.

The crew members returned to their positions and began preparing for battle.

Just as the members of the trench reconnaissance team were about to enter the thick fog, Joe jumped off the tank, grabbed his binoculars, and gave chase.

"Wait, I'll go with you."

(End of this chapter)