Imperial warlords: Cannons are the only truth

Bang! ! !

With a dull, loud bang.

A light tank leading the charge came to an abrupt stop.

Immediately afterwards, more gunshots rang out.

Hidden in buildings, ruins, and bunkers, the anti-tank gunners of the 1st Royal Guard Division easily penetrated the unsuspecting enemy tanks that rushed into the city.

The Quzhou defenders launched a counterattack instantly.

Zhuo Yongwang's troops, who had been deliberately let into the city, were caught off guard by the sudden counterattack.

Especially after seeing their own tanks being shot down one after another by the enemy, the underestimating attacking force immediately panicked.

The dense barrage of fire quickly tore apart the attacking force's formation.

It was assumed that after such intense artillery bombardment, the city's defenders would have been terrified.

Moreover, our side also has hundreds of tanks supporting us.

Even though the 1st Division of the Royal Guard was renowned as the "Iron Division".

But seeing the city of Quzhou riddled with holes by bombs, and with their own vanguard breaking into the city as if it were empty, Zhuo Yongwang's attacking force did not take the city's defenders seriously.

Based on past experience, the garrison in Quzhou should be unable to fight any longer.

Faced with the enemy's sudden and concentrated counterattack, Zhuo Yongwang's attacking forces had no choice but to hastily switch from offense to defense, which quickly turned into a rout....................

The whole process took only a little over half an hour.

The surging attacking force collapsed like a tidal wave.

Such a rapid change even left Zhuo Yongwang and the others watching the battle somewhat bewildered!

Although Zhuo Yongwang saw that the situation was not going well, he immediately sent more troops to try to push forward and stop the collapse.

But faced with the overwhelming tide of fleeing soldiers, the newly dispatched troops were utterly powerless and were instead swept up in the retreating army...

The defending troops in the city seized the opportunity to launch a counterattack.

Gao Shengwu's "Iron First Division" truly lived up to its reputation as one of the few capable fighting forces in the Great Qian Empire. The first day's offensive by Zhuo Yongwang's troops after the counterattack was launched had already sealed its fate of failure.

The first assault team to charge forward was entirely armed with submachine guns, followed immediately by another assault team, all armed with light machine guns.

The Royal Guard's First Division's assault troops, entirely equipped with automatic weapons, charged ahead led by officers. Their fearless ferocity made one wonder if they were truly the army of the Great Qian Dynasty...

This is Gao Shengwu's most proud officer assault regiment, the absolute elite force that earned the reputation of "Iron First Division"!

The ferocity of the Royal Guard's 1st Division's counterattack even shocked the military advisor, Salo, who was observing the battle.

The Quzhou garrison, which was originally on the defensive, has become the attackers.

However, Zhuo Yongwang, who was personally overseeing the operation, was unwilling to accept that the first day's offensive had failed after firing nearly 10,000 shells.

Zhuo Yongwang ordered Hu Zhenmin, known as the "number one fierce general" of the five-province allied army, to lead his troops to forcefully counterattack and set up heavy machine guns to mow down the fleeing troops!

This indiscriminate firepower finally stabilized the retreat of Zhuo Yongwang's troops for the time being.

Hu Zhenmin, commander of the 108th Independent Brigade of the Five Provinces Allied Army, personally led his troops in a counter-offensive.

However, after more than three hours of fierce fighting, Zhuo Yongwang's troops were defeated by the intense offensive of the Royal Guard First Division.

At 4:30 p.m., Zhuo Yongwang finally had no choice but to issue an order to temporarily halt the attack.

The first day of the siege by the anti-rebel army failed to achieve its goal and instead incurred a very heavy cost.

Zhuo Yongwang's troops not only consumed nearly 10,000 shells, but also had their hundreds of light tanks, which were pushed forward across the entire front, caught off guard by the Quzhou defenders' anti-tank guns and were almost completely wiped out!

In the ensuing counter-offensive phase, Zhuo Yongwang's troops suffered even heavier casualties.

The number of dead and wounded by the indiscriminate fire of their own side alone reached nearly a thousand!

In total, Zhuo Yongwang's troops suffered over three thousand casualties and missing persons on the first day of the offensive...

Clearly, this will deal a significant blow to the morale of the anti-rebel army led by Zhuo Yongwang!

It is foreseeable that—if Zhuo Yongwang hadn't personally overseen the situation, it might have been even worse...........................

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"General, the offensive was thwarted today not because our army is not capable of fighting."

"It's because we really didn't expect the Royal Guard to be so powerful!"

"To be frank—seeing the Royal Guards' combat tactics firsthand today has completely changed my understanding of the Great Qian army."

"It's not a huge loss for us to be defeated by such an opponent for now!" said Klitschko Xavier, military advisor to Sharo.

"At least, under the strong orders of the commander-in-chief, the anti-rebel army fought a very fierce battle with the enemy."

"I must say—the performance of the anti-rebel army today has exceeded my expectations."

Klitschko Xavier's words were indeed true—the fact that the punitive expeditionary force, despite its complete rout, regrouped and fought fiercely for so long in the face of the Royal Guard's concentrated assault had already exceeded Klitschko Xavier's expectations........................

However, the price paid for this battle was indeed quite high.

Not only did they expend more than 9000 shells, but the tank force that the anti-rebel army had high hopes for was also destroyed in one battle.

When discussing this issue, we must mention the importance of intelligence.

If Zhuo Yongwang had known beforehand that the Royal Guard had equipped its tank units with a large number of anti-tank rifles to deal with his tank force, this tragedy would not have happened!

At a postwar military conference, Sharo's military advisor, Klitschko Xavier, lamented, "I have to admit—we underestimated our enemy!"

"The garrison in Quzhou is far stronger than we imagined."

"To win this battle, we must have a correct understanding and knowledge of our enemy."

Klitschko Xavier explained his views in detail to the audience in fluent Mandarin.

"Gao Shengwu's troops are the most valiant fighting force I have ever seen in the Great Qian army, without exception!"

"At least for now!"

Klitschko Xavier said very seriously, "Today, I witnessed their charge in its entirety."

"Based on this, we were able to summarize several characteristics of the enemy's operations."

"First, the dense charge launched by Gao Shengwu's troops was not the kind of dense charge of a large number of people."

"Their charge was a wave-like assault, one wave after another."

"Furthermore, those at the forefront were a large number of soldiers equipped with submachine guns and light machine guns and other automatic firepower, making the front-line firepower extremely dense!"

At this point, Klitschko Xavier couldn't help but show admiration: "Secondly, Gao Shengwu's troops were led by officers in the charge."

"We must admit—this situation is extremely rare in the Daqian army..."

"Now I finally understand why Gao Shengwu's troops are called the 'Iron Army'."

"To be honest, I didn't take the so-called 'Iron Army' title seriously before, and even doubted that the claim that Gao Shengwu's troops were the most capable troops in the Great Qian Dynasty was nonsense."

"But today I have completely changed my mind."

"Gao Shengwu's troops truly deserve this title."

"Third, the tactics displayed by Gao Shengwu's assault regiment in actual combat really impressed me."

"They actually dared to use the corpses as mobile fortifications to advance, and this kind of fighting can only be described as 'tenacious'."

"Gao Shengwu's troops were very flexible in their use of cover."

"This also greatly surprised me and gave me a new understanding of the Daqian army."

Klitschneider shrugged: "They would use the corpses as mobile fortifications, making full use of slightly higher mounds of earth, stones, and ditches."

"Gao Shengwu's assault regiment didn't just charge headlong into the enemy's firepower without fear of being killed. Their attack was a step-by-step advance, very tactically sound!"

"It's hard to believe—this kind of tactical approach can actually be seen on the battlefield of Daqian!"