Munitions Empire

"Circle back! Circle back! See that firing anti-aircraft gun position! Prepare to attack! Prepare to attack!" Inside the swiftly turning aircraft, a Tang Army pilot shouted through his oxygen mask while yanking his control stick.

"I'm circling from the left! He's trying to attack me! They're trying to attack me!" exclaimed the pilot excitedly from within the cockpit of another plane veering to one side.

The two aircraft diverged in different directions, tracer bullets chasing one of them across the ground as it gradually moved away, but they were always a step slow.

"Raise the angle! They're probably going to dive!" Based on their past experiences, the Dahua Empire's anti-aircraft artillerymen began cranking their wheels to point their guns higher into the sky.

On both sides, the anti-aircraft gun positions did not fire nor reveal themselves, a routine they were already well acquainted with. As soon as the enemy began to dive, they would fire from the blind spot in their field of view, ambushing the Stukas on their fixed paths.

This time, however, the Tang Army aircraft, after veering far away, did not begin to climb but flew back at this unfamiliar altitude.

Meanwhile, two other aircraft climbed at a distance, distracting the Dahua anti-aircraft artillery troops who were adjusting their firing angles, while the two Tang Army planes that didn't climb directed their noses straight at the anti-aircraft gun position that had just fired at them.

"Cover me! Testing new weapons!" The lead pilot was somewhat excited, ready to deploy the new weapon in combat.

New weapons provided by the Great Tang Group were often tremendously powerful and produced unexpected and extraordinary effects when used for the first time in battle.

He was indeed eager to see how the new aerial rockets he was carrying compared to bombs in terms of power and battlefield performance.

Unlike the traditional Stuka Dive Bomber, the attack angle of his Il-2 Sturmovik was flatter, and the method of attack was completely different.

If the Stuka utilized the diving momentum to elevate bombing precision to the level of a missile, enhancing the destruction rate with each bomb, then the Il-2 Sturmovik's method of attack was like grazing the ground, raking it with concentrated fire!

For destroying sturdy targets, the Il-2 Sturmovik's effectiveness was not as good as the Stuka Dive Bomber's, but it performed better than the Stuka when targeting a wide spread of ground targets.

Piloting this Il-2 Sturmovik that appeared for the first time over the battlefield, the Tang Army pilot aligned the crosshairs on his sights onto the just-fired Dahua anti-aircraft gun position.

His sides were protected with thick armor steel plates, and the glass in front was several centimeters thick. His entire body was wrapped in armor, maximizing his safety.

Thus, he was not worried at all, calmly aiming his aircraft's nose at the target on the ground. Then, he pulled the firing trigger, igniting the aerial rockets mounted beneath the wings.

The aircraft's body trembled gently the next second as two rockets ignited, trailing thick smoke from under the wings of the Il-2 attacking the distant hillock.

To ensure safety, the Tang Army pilot initiated an attack using two rockets in a salvo.

Without having time to confirm the effect of his attack, he immediately pulled up the aircraft, performing an evasive maneuver. As Dahua's anti-aircraft units often appeared in pairs, he had to keep changing his flight path constantly.

Only unpredictable changes could obscure the Dahua anti-aircraft gunners hidden in corners plotting attacks, preventing them from firing prematurely.

Indeed, another anti-aircraft gun position couldn't resist revealing itself, firing at the climbing Tang Army Il-2 Sturmovik but was then suppressed by the cannons of another Il-2 that followed.

Four 20 mm caliber cannons firing simultaneously was undoubtedly a spectacular scene. The firing anti-aircraft gun position instantly fell silent, its camouflage net shredded by the cannon fire and blown aside.

As the two Il-2 Sturmoviks pulled up, two obliquely approaching rockets hit precisely the Dahua Empire's anti-aircraft gun that had fired first.

The 132-mm caliber rockets were absolutely powerful; the huge explosions engulfed the hillock and the Dahua anti-aircraft guns on it.

One rocket hit its target accurately, and the other landed very close to the Dahua anti-aircraft gun position.

When the Dahua officer, just strafed by the Il-2 wingman, clumsily got up to look back at their comrades' position, all he could see were the flames burning.

"What new weapon is this?" flashed through the Dahua officer's mind, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth.

They had just begun to adapt to the rhythm of fighting with Tang Army dive bombers when the Tang Army introduced a completely new type of aircraft and tactical approach.

"Why, why are the Tang People always ahead of our Dahua Empire? Why, why are we always caught off guard by the Tang People's advancements and suffer for it?"

By the time he realized something and looked toward the anti-aircraft artillery position he was in charge of commanding, all he saw was chaos and bodies strewn everywhere.

Just moments ago, a dense rain of 20mm caliber artillery shells had swept through, shredding the Dahua soldiers near the anti-aircraft guns.

Some unfortunate souls were literally cut in half by the large caliber shells while others, luckier, had a large hole in their bodies but their corpses remained largely intact.

Less than half of the remaining men, terrified by the bloodshed, stood frozen in place, letting the blood under their feet spread and flow.

"Fill in! Control the horizontal! You control the elevation! The rest of you, load! Load quickly!" he shouted as he went over to take over the command from the gun leader.

He lifted the body of the gun leader, whose shoulder had been blown off, from the seat and then sat down himself, his place stained red with blood, peering through the sight at the clear blue sky.

At that moment, two Il-2 ground attack aircraft, which had regained some altitude, swung back around, their noses again pointing in this direction.

"Doot! Doot!" A series of crisp whistle sounds cut through an area of exploding, burning flames from an unseen place.

That was the last unseen anti-aircraft artillery position using whistles to check on their allies. The Dahua officer sitting in the gun leader's position grabbed the whistle around his neck, placed it to his lips, and blew rhythmically.

The whistle from the other side seemed a bit excited; they too were relieved to have support. More complex tactical instructions could not be conveyed by whistle, so they were each fighting separately.

While the Dahua officer was signaling with his whistle, the Tang Army's two Il-2s each launched a pair of rockets, then split paths in a maneuver to preemptively avoid any head-on attack.

Powerlessly watching the enemy fire rockets from afar, the Dahua anti-aircraft artillery troops had no way to counter these "self-propelled bombs."

They could only fire at the white smoke trails and then wait for their own doom. Soon, four rockets consecutively struck the anti-aircraft artillery position, followed by four raging fires erupting.

The blast wave flung around broken bodies and fragments of anti-aircraft guns, turning the entire position into a sea of flames; in the scorching soil lay a whistle with its string snapped.

The third anti-aircraft artillery position then opened fire, as it had to make its presence felt; otherwise, the two high-flying Il-2s would begin attacking the supply base below.

With no alternatives, they fired, exposing themselves to ensure the safety of the distant camp.

But as soon as they opened fire, the two lower Il-2 attack aircraft launched their assault. The lead aircraft aimed its nose at the target and began firing its 20mm cannon.

The wingman followed and also began its assault, unleashing over 100 rounds from eight cannons, engulfing the last Dahua anti-aircraft artillery position in a shower of shells.

The gunners and commanders at the last anti-aircraft artillery position had never dreamed they would be directly suppressed by eight air cannons.

Just as the Dahua officer was thinking of how to possibly shoot down one enemy aircraft to report back to the air defense commander, he hadn't even spit out the whistle in his mouth before a 20mm shell shattered his head.

Elsewhere, the amply-armed Il-2 ground attack aircraft launched an attack on that supply area, devastating the Dahua logistics troops with intense strafing runs.

With no anti-aircraft gun cover and no solid shelters to hide in, facing the terrifying rain of cannon shells, they had only the most primitive way to preserve their lives.

Indeed, the most primitive way: duck and cover, scramble in all directions! But they hadn't run far when they were overtaken by shells from behind and torn apart by the horrific kinetic energy of the shells.

Rocket after rocket destroyed the supplies laid out on the open ground, explosions set off in succession, and ultimately, the fire engulfed the ammunition depot, turning small explosions into a massive blast.

With no Dahua troops to salvage the supplies or to extinguish the fire, the Dahua rear-support troops, terror-stricken by the sudden aerial assault, dispersed under the relentless attack of the four Il-2s.

And these four Il-2 attack aircraft from the Tang Country, having completed their assault plan and tested their various weapons, left the devastated Dahua camp behind, streaking off into the distant sky.