Chapter 1327: 1244 a chaotic Qin Army

“What kind of battle is this?” The Qin Army commander Wang Luo angrily smashed his cup on the ground, unable to even locate his own troops. This was the first time he encountered such a frustrating battle.

Even back in the days without radio, he was never this detached from his army. At least when sending troops out, whether they encountered the enemy, whether a battle occurred, whether they won or lost, there was always some result, right?

But now, he had no idea where his troops were, what kind of enemy they had encountered, or how the battle was going.

Originally, he tried to regain control of the entire army, but as frontline military and division-level command posts were destroyed one after another, his staff wisely shut down all the command radios at the Northern Cluster headquarters.

This kept them safe until now, and other logistical departments that could be contacted, as well as the guard units near the command post, followed suit, shutting off the radio and using couriers to transmit messages. Those damned mysterious missiles never appeared again.

That’s right, missiles! After losing 4 division commanders and 11 battalion commanders, someone finally saw the attack that was as if from the heavens. A missile landed with pinpoint accuracy on the military communication tent, sending the communication officers inside and the nearby command post to the sky.

In order to transmit orders amidst the alleged strong electromagnetic interference, Qin Army’s communication troops, without exception, increased the power and frequency of their radios to restore command and dispatch in a complex environment.

Then, like fireflies in the dark, they shone bright and distinct. The anti-radiation missiles launched by A-6 Wanderer Electronic Warfare Aircraft hovering in the sky were like moths rushing towards a flame, completely relentless.

The opposition didn’t even understand the basic working principles of these anti-radiation missiles, didn’t know any countermeasures, and thus had no way to deal with this one-sided node attack.

The frontline radar station established at Xiajian managed to start its operations, when the radar screen was still a dense array of noise due to interference, it was blown away by the anti-radiation missiles fired from the Wanderer.

Because of the distance, this time the radar operators were only startled, but the radar antenna matrix and other radar equipment painstakingly transported to the front line by Qin Country had to be transported again.

Relying on couriers and cavalry motorcyclists to command and dispatch hundreds of thousands of troops, over a thousand tanks was simply impossible, reverting suddenly to a state of command from twenty years ago, but needing to dispatch a military from twenty years into the future–a complete disaster.

Wang Luo had not yet figured out where exactly his troops were, yet his forces had already collapsed and retreated under aerial bombardment.

If they were routed, it would actually be fortunate. The most unfortunate ones were those left behind, knowing nothing, waiting for orders that never came.

They foolishly waited in place for a day, and the same happened on the second day–no orders received. What they didn’t know was that their allied forces meant to be on their flank had already retreated for a day and a night.

Now, these Qin Army troops are like protruding positions, always facing the possibility of being surrounded and devoured by the Tang Army.

And these troops only had one or two days’ worth of food and ammunition for one battle, waiting in place like fools, still trying to find their division headquarters, military headquarters, despairingly calling out on radios filled with electric noise, petitioning for the food supplies they should have received yesterday.

“Brothers of the Qin Army! You have been pushed onto the desperate battlefield, facing the invincible cavalry of the Great Tang! Now, you have no chance of escape, do not have any illusions, lay down your weapons and surrender! The Tang Empire will treat prisoners well! People of Qin, Tang people… are like family!”

“Click!” Turning off his radio, the battalion commander of the Qin Country’s infantry regiment paced irritably within a civilian house in Qili Village, “How are we supposed to fight this battle? We’ve been idling here for a day. Whether to attack or retreat, we need some clear instructions.”

Beside him, the second battalion commander wore an expression of worry. Like the first battalion commander, he received orders to retreat to Qili Village, but upon arrival, it seemed they had been completely forgotten.

“The grains should have been sent yesterday, but we can’t contact the logistics unit, and no truck even passes by… don’t even mention passing by, the whole road is filled with wreckage, it’d be a miracle if a truck could make it through.” The first battalion commander managed to pull a cigarette box from his pocket, only to find the last cigarette left inside, worsening his mood.

His troops had already begun using their emergency military rations–this was portable rations soldiers carried themselves, and they weren’t allowed to eat it lightly.

After all, with rice and grains directly available and the logistics unit cooking for them, who would want to use the costly and scarce but extremely valuable “marching rations?”

Be it canned goods or sealed biscuits, the long shelf life made them excellent goods to store for emergencies.

Qin Country’s production capacity for such supplies was inherently low, soldiers were generally not allowed to consume the more expensive canned and sealed goods. But due to insufficient supplies, these rapidly advancing troops had to eat these precious consumables.

“My biggest worry now is our ammunition reserves–even if we can fight while starving for two or three days, if we encounter the Tang Army, the ammunition we have wouldn’t last a day.” The second battalion commander actually hoped for battle but worried about his insufficient ammunition.

“The reinforcing troops aren’t following up, the division headquarters is said to be bombed, yet we haven’t faced enemy aircraft…” For the infantry of Qin Country, their understanding of bombing still remained at the level where airplanes would fly overhead and drop bombs.

What they didn’t know was that the Tang Empire’s anti-radiation missiles were already in another realm. The attack methods of the A-6 attack aircraft were beyond their comprehension.

In reality, these two Qin Army battalion commanders were overthinking it; they were nothing but ants within the encirclement.

Beyond their vision, the armored corps of the Tang Empire began to move, like a massive pincer, they were encircling the Qin Army from the north and south.

Meanwhile, the Qin Army near Xiajian was unaware that danger was already on both sides; they were still waiting, waiting for their superior’s orders to reach them.

Unfortunately, their superiors really forgot them, or perhaps there were too many such Qin Army battalion or company level units scattered across the battlefield, their senior commanders couldn’t manage, unable to give any orders and directions to these troops.