Chapter 1331: 1248 First Close Encounter

The Tang Army’s airplanes were extremely fast, and their attack method was no longer the traditional bombing, but instead a barrage of rockets.

As a result, the Qin Army’s anti-aircraft troops were completely unprepared for such an attack. They could only watch helplessly as the Jian-6 roared away, leaving behind havoc on the ground.

In reality, the Qin Army didn’t suffer heavy losses, which was true. As a fighter jet temporarily adapted for ground attacks, the Jian-6 was really quite inadequate.

Although it was equipped with rocket launchers for ground attacks, its attack accuracy depended purely on faith. Its air combat gunsight was not designed for ground attacks, and the dispersion of the rockets was far from any so-called accuracy.

The lightning-fast attack looked intimidating, but in fact, once the Jian-6 had flown away without looking back, the Qin Army on the ground found they had lost almost nothing.

“Is anyone injured?” A Qin Country platoon leader ran quickly past his soldiers, but no one answered his question.

Everyone was very tense because this was the first time they were facing the enemy’s attack directly, but everyone was also bewildered because this attack seemed rather hasty.

“Someone died in the neighboring platoon, four unfortunates, killed by a rocket. We don’t seem to have any casualties here.” The deputy platoon leader ran over from another direction, and said tensely in a low voice.

“Scared to death… and the bomb dispersion is so large? Not even as good as a Stuka.” The platoon leader looked at the large crater in the distant field created by the rocket and made a disdainful remark.

“Tell the troops to watch out for air defense! Set up some camouflaged shelters! Create more disguises…” Although there were no significant losses, the sudden Tang Army attack was indeed nerve-wracking, and the Qin Army platoon leader issued an order to pay attention to air defense, then squinted at the distance again.

Several dozen kilometers in the direction he was looking was the border line of the Great Tang Empire. According to reason, the Tang Army’s attack should have already arrived.

If the Tang Army had moved a little faster, they wouldn’t even have had time to build this defensive line. But the Tang Army seemed to have no intention of attacking, allowing the Qin Army to stay under their noses for three days.

The Qin Country platoon leader couldn’t understand the sluggish response on their side, nor could he figure out the sluggish response on the Tang Army’s side. He didn’t know what was going on, but he knew this was definitely not a good sign.

At that moment, he remembered he had been eating his field rations for three days, and his troops were about to run out of any food supplies.

Dammit… if those damned logistics troops didn’t come soon, his troops would go hungry. Cursing in his heart, he shouted irritably, “Dig quickly! If you wait until the Tang Army comes, it will be too late to dig!”

The Qin Army soldiers, who had eaten only one meal a day, began swinging their engineering shovels to dig their ragged trenches a bit deeper.

The soldiers handling wood fetched some from the distant woods, tied these crooked pieces of wood together with ropes, and covered them over the trenches to make a simple cover.

Then they would cover the “roof” with waterproof cloth or ordinary fabric, then pile thick soil on top to reinforce it.

All the soldiers were busy, while the officers anxiously gathered to endlessly discuss what exactly was happening.

The communications soldiers sent to contact the division command didn’t bring back any decent orders, but everyone heard that the 3rd Armored Division next door seemed to have suffered quite a lot.

The 25th Infantry Division to the north also had no good news, the regiment next to them was likewise digging trenches, and no one knew what was happening. Everything seemed so absurd and bewildering.

“What on earth are those division commanders and generals doing? Can’t they give us a decent order?” While discussing this, the regiment commander was so angry that he nearly threw his water cup on the ground. But he remembered it was his only cup, so he stopped midway, making the action appear rather comical.

“Didn’t our division commander die? The new division commander was temporarily promoted and has no experience, so he’s trying to get a handle on things…” A staff officer from the regimental headquarters who had personally inquired at the division headquarters was most aware of what was happening.

The roads in the rear were blocked, and the Tang Army’s attacks were sharper than they imagined or experienced firsthand.

The division headquarters were destroyed, and the valuable high-power radio stations were all bombed, and the Qin Army’s command was now in complete disarray.

The logistics troops crowded on the roads couldn’t move, and no one could get effective orders. Everyone could only wait, waiting for someone to tell them what to do next.

There was nothing to be done, as acting blindly without orders would only make the situation more chaotic. So everyone could only wait patiently, like fools.

Possibly behind them was a convoy of logistics supply trucks, their trucks piled with food. But this unit didn’t dare distribute the food because they didn’t have the authority.

If they arbitrarily distributed their supplies to nearby troops, then when the order to allocate these food and ammunition came, they wouldn’t be able to explain where the supplies had gone…

This kind of thing is inherently hard to explain, and with the chaotic situation, coupled with some supplies, food, vehicles, and equipment being destroyed, reorganizing a similar supply would take more time than imagined.

In the village of Qili, while the officers of the regimental headquarters cursed those irresponsible division commanders and generals, the piercing sound of the hand-cranked air raid siren deployed at the entrance of the village suddenly began to wail.

Everyone rushed out of the houses and saw the soldiers responsible for vigilance desperately cranking the siren handle, making the alarm emit a piercing sound.

Everyone looked up and saw a massive formation of bombers appearing in the distance. Soon, the oppressive engine noise mixed with the air raid siren.

Only until this moment did everyone realize they seemed to be challenging the most powerful country in the world!

The distant Hong-6 bombers almost blotted out the sky, a formation of over a hundred planes with a dominating presence like a massive tide. Everyone looked up at the sky, watching the terrifying war machines fly slowly overhead.

“Where are our fighter jets…” The regiment commander squinted at the enormous gray and white vehicles densely passing over them and asked instinctively.