Imperial Elite

Chapter 30 This car...

How to counterattack when ambushed by artillery should have been a simple question for Joe, who had watched his friends play in high-level matches many times.

It's nothing more than dodging, hiding, and retaliating.

Although our target is quite large, artillery is also difficult to move in field conditions, and everyone is basically in the same boat.

Moreover, from a firepower perspective, we have three cannons against one cannon. If we can find out where the gun crew is hiding, then the advantage is on our side!

The problem now is that Joe has no idea where that damned cannon is hidden.

After reprimanding the infantrymen who were pushing forward to avoid bullets, Joe didn't go back to the car. Instead, he took out his binoculars and nervously searched for the exact location of the cannon behind the Teutonic Line.

Judging from the fact that those two tanks were killed in one shot, Joe, who felt that he was no better than them, had no doubt that if he hadn't found that damned cannon before it finished loading...

Then his fate will certainly not be much better than the other two tanks. They are all products from the same batch, so it's impossible for one to be much better than the other.

Just as Joe was looking through his binoculars, an infantry sergeant waved at him and shouted, "You're looking for that cannon, aren't you?!"

As Joe looked at the sergeant, the sergeant pointed in a direction. "There! Right there in that wood..."

Before the sergeant could finish speaking, Joe raised his binoculars and looked in the direction the sergeant was pointing. Then Joe saw a flash in a forest, followed by a familiar whistling sound in the air.

'Holy crap! Artillery fire! We're doomed!' Just as this thought popped into Joe's head, a loud 'BOOM!' rang out beside him.

The explosion left Joe's head spinning. He didn't have time to check if he was injured or where the blast had hit him.

As soon as Qiao got back into the vehicle, he shouted to the gunner, "Eleven o'clock! That collapsed pile of wood in the woods! High-explosive shell! Fire!"

At Joe's command, three cannon shots rang out from inside the car.

Then another fireball rose up from the woods.

Although the fireballs rising from the woods indicated that the second cannon hidden there was no longer convenient to fire, Joe was unsure whether there was a third cannon hidden there.

If Joe were commanding a proper tank with a turret, he would definitely order Herbert to drive the vehicle into the crater left by the heavy artillery bombardment, leaving only the turret exposed to observe secretly.

Those who frequently play Slavic hypotension treatment games know that this head-selling tactic can sometimes be quite effective.

However, Joe is not commanding a proper tank with a turret.

So, while lamenting that no matter what sins he had committed in his past life, he was now driving this kind of tank on the battlefield, which could be considered a form of spiritual practice even with his hair still attached, Joe shouted at Herbert.

"Forward! Move forward at top speed! We can't stop here!"

With the roar of its engine, the Lucky Bella began crawling through the mud of the no-man's-land once again.

Faced with the Lucky Bella's engine that wouldn't budge despite its roar, Joe, holding the binoculars, was gritting his teeth in frustration.

Too slow, too slow. At the current speed of the Lucky Bella, even a blind Teutonic Knight could hit this tank with a single shot.

After angrily questioning Herbert whether he hadn't eaten breakfast that morning, explaining why he couldn't even press the accelerator.

Herbert said to Joe with a sob in his voice.

"My damn engine is broken! I've already stepped my foot into the gas tank! It just won't move!"

"I******!"

Upon hearing the news, Joe immediately displayed the linguistic talent unique to people from the working-class background of Bonitania, and the gospel he spread echoed throughout the entire vehicle.

However, spreading the gospel doesn't solve the problem, as Lucky Bella is now behaving like Turtle Bella.

Qiao gritted his teeth and went to the location of the former observation tower. He removed the iron bar that the logistics guy had stuck there, pushed aside the metal plate above his head, crawled out, and immediately raised his binoculars to observe all the places behind the Teutonic defense line that might be hiding artillery.

Overall, this was an extremely dangerous act, because at that moment, the Lucky Bella, as the last tank on the battlefield, was already attracting the attention of almost the entire battlefield.

Joe then poked his head out of the tank, looking around with binoculars, as if he were shouting in the middle of a battlefield, "All eyes on me! I have an announcement to make!"

Even the machine gunners on the Lucky Bella, with their triggers held tight, suppressed the Teutons in the trenches with a dense hail of bullets.

However, there were still occasional stragglers who would raise their rifles and fire in Joe's direction, causing flashes of light to appear on the armor plates around Joe every now and then—sparks from rifle bullets hitting the armor.

The occasional sharp metallic clanging sounds around him made Joe, who was holding binoculars, extremely panicked.

But the more flustered Joe became, the calmer his voice became, even with a hint of coldness in its calmness. At the same time, Joe's mind raced faster and faster, to the point that he felt like he was in bullet time as he looked at the Teutonic trenches.

Although Joe didn't find any Teutonic artillery behind the Teutonic trenches, his mind was racing, and he frantically issued orders to his crew.

"There's a machine gun crew hiding behind that sandbag at the two o'clock position. Take them out!"

"Several infantrymen should have just passed by at the one o'clock position. Fire a shot!"

"Herbert! Turn right! There's a damn mud pit ahead!"

"Infantry?! What the hell are you guys hiding for?! There's almost no one left in the trenches! Charge!"

Under Joe's command, the Lucky Bella, like a fiery hedgehog, stormed into the Teutonic defenses and began a massacre.

The fear of being targeted by a cannonball at any moment made Joe focus all his attention on the direction of the Teutonic defenses ahead, completely unaware that he was wreaking havoc within the Teutonic lines.

Upon discovering that a breakthrough had been achieved in this direction, Battalion Commander Buntania, who was in charge of this section of the defense line, immediately went all in, committing all his troops to the attack.

As the infantry charged toward the Teutons at the sound of whistles, their battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Winston, watched with gleaming eyes as the Lucky Bella ravaged the Teutonic trenches.

Looking at Joe, who was directing the tanks and infantry from the roof of the vehicle with binoculars in hand, Lieutenant Colonel Winston sighed, "This warrior is truly a model of the Bunitas. He is not willing to bend his back even when facing the Teutonic gunfire. If there were more warriors like him, the Teutons wouldn't be so arrogant."

Although the Bonitan Expeditionary Force had many lieutenant colonels, Lieutenant Colonel Winston was quite different from the others. Before returning to active duty and serving on the front lines in 1915, Lieutenant Colonel Winston held a minor position in Bonitania, being merely the fourth Duke of Faborough. His ancestors had entered the Hanoverian Empire during its establishment, his father had served as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Conservative Party Whip, and he himself was only the First Lord of the Admiralty before resigning in 1915.

Of course, he would be demoted from First Lord of the Navy to a lieutenant colonel of infantry sent to fill in the gaps at the front. It wasn't that the Duke of Winston thought it would be better to fight for a title and a family fortune on the frontier.

Instead, it was Winston, as First Lord of the Navy, who made several blunders after the start of the war.

Winston's diplomatic efforts immediately swayed the Sultanate of Buntania, which had previously leaned towards the Teutonics.

Faced with the Sudanese nation's blatant disregard for their authority, Winston realized that if they weren't even afraid of dreadnoughts, they were clearly no ordinary enemy! A decisive blow was necessary! Amphibious landing, initiate!
Then Dardanelles suffered its worst defeat since the start of the war in Bunitania.

The landing force was blocked on the beach by the Sudanese garrison. Even with the navy's best efforts to support them, the landing force could not make any progress. Hundreds of thousands of troops were stuck on the beach and could not advance an inch. In fact, when the tide came in, seawater would flood into the landing force's trenches. This environment caused a large number of casualties among the troops.

Ultimately, in this failed battle, Bonitania lost more than 200,000 men on that beach, their bodies piled high and covering the entire area.

Following this crushing defeat, the Duke of Winston naturally faced fierce criticism and attacks.

Normally, after making such a huge blunder, Winston's political career would be over.

But the Duke of Winston thought differently.

Winston thought, "I was previously accused of hiding in a safe place and blindly driving those good young men with patriotic hearts to their deaths, so why don't I just go to the battlefield myself?"
We, the Fabolo family, have no cowards! We are utterly loyal!
When Winston arrived at the front lines, he discovered that the environment there was indeed slightly different from what he had imagined.

After all, the last time Winston participated in the war was more than a decade ago in the Southern Dark Continent campaign. Back then, although trenches were dug, they weren't as dense as they are now, and the cavalry was still able to charge.

Now, let alone cavalry charging, even infantry trying to cross the no-man's-land might have their boots "eaten" by the mud.

If it were anyone else in this situation, they would probably start to have a headache, but Winston was overjoyed.

As a former First Lord of the Navy, Winston established the Land Warships Committee as early as 1911 to begin research on land warships, now known as tanks.

Winston believed that everything would be fine as long as the tanks launched an attack!
Tanks are the best equipment to break the stalemate in trench warfare!
Then, until October, when the tank force had lost more than half of its tanks, Winston had not seen a single tank on the battlefield.

Even now, as Winston watches the Lucky Bella begin to crush the Teutonic defenses, a sense of satisfaction wells up within him.

Look, look, look at the pinnacle of Imperial engineering, and my foresight, how it destroyed the Teutonic defenses. Would this magnificent sight have existed without me?
Satisfied, Winston had his personal valet take a few photos, as he could say he had witnessed the battle of his creation. Upon returning home, Winston planned to have a painter create a portrait of it to hang in his manor.

With the Teutonic lines completely broken, Winston excitedly prepared to order his troops to continue their advance, determined not to stop until they were utterly exhausted.

Then Winston saw the tank circle around in the woods and then turn back.

How could he come back? They've only broken through one line of defense; there are many more behind. What was that tank commander doing?! He's cowardly! He's derelict in his duty!

Fueled by this anger, Winston picked up his cane and walked toward the returning tank.

When Joe was stopped by a lieutenant colonel waving his arms, Joe was very confused and didn't know why the lieutenant colonel wanted to stop him.

"Go back! Continue the fight!"

The lieutenant colonel waved his cane and shouted at Joe.

"You've only destroyed one trench; you can't stop here!"

Faced with the lieutenant colonel waving his cane, Joe scratched his head, completely unable to understand how the lieutenant colonel had come to this conclusion.

Yes, I just destroyed the Teutonic resistance here, and also destroyed two Teutonic cannons and their artillery crews.

However, the Lucky Bella was in terrible condition at this point. Perhaps Herbert had downshifted to increase the engine speed in order to get the Lucky Bella moving.

After breaking through the Teutonic trenches and rushing into the woods behind them to confirm whether the Teutons actually had a third, mysteriously powerful cannon, the engine temperature had already reached a frightening level.

In fact, it's not just the engine; even the main gearbox is now overheating, and the auxiliary gearboxes on both sides can only barely operate, preventing the Lucky Bella from getting stuck and forcing it to go in one direction.

Faced with this situation, Joe felt that the car would break down after a while, but he didn't know whether it would break down completely or if it could be repaired and still be runnable.

Rather than leaving the car on the battlefield, it's better to drive it back.

However, considering that the infantry lieutenant colonel might not understand the situation, Joe ordered the car to stop, then got out and explained the problem they were facing to the lieutenant colonel.

However, after Joe finished explaining, the lieutenant colonel looked at Joe as if he were an alien and said, "Isn't it just an overheated engine and gearbox?"
Why not just pour water on the engine and transmission to cool them down before continuing the fight? Like we do with water-cooled machine guns…

As he spoke, the lieutenant colonel's voice gradually softened, and the way he looked at Joe changed slightly.

"Wait, you're Joe? Joe Harrison?"

This wasn't the first time Qiao had been recognized; she was already used to people suddenly calling out her name while they were talking.

So Joe nodded, indicating that he was indeed Joe Harrison.

Then the lieutenant colonel looked at Joe, and then at the Lucky Bella parked to the side.

"Is this vehicle really no longer fit for combat?"

There was an inexplicable sense of regret and disappointment in the lieutenant colonel's voice, like an old father asking the coach, "Can't he really join the team?"

Although he didn't know why the lieutenant colonel made that sound, Joe explained to him that the car's engine had recently burned out, and that pouring water to cool it down could cause parts to deform due to the drastic temperature change. If they were lucky, the engine could be restored to normal, but if they were unlucky, it might break down completely.

While explaining, Joe also invited the lieutenant colonel to enter the Lucky Bella and experience just how "enthusiastic" the overheated engine really was.

Feeling the temperature inside the car, the lieutenant colonel wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Although the engine and transmission are prone to overheating, the rest of the vehicle should be fine, right? I see you just successfully destroyed the Teutonic trenches."

Hearing the lieutenant colonel say that, Joe shook his head and sighed, "This car... actually has quite a few problems..."

(End of this chapter)