Munitions Empire-Chapter 1142 - 1062 Leping Night Battle

Within the village of Leping, in the infantry battalion headquarters deployed here by Mirage Country, the goblin battalion commander anxiously awaited his orders.

He heard that the enemy paratroopers had already been airdropped, but he didn’t know how many there were, nor did he know how far away they were from him.

Two hours earlier, he had received a telegram from above saying that a troop of about 1000 soldiers would reinforce his position, but after such a long wait, he hadn’t seen a single person.

Stuck here, he had no idea what the situation was like outside, and in the dead of night, he didn’t dare send anyone out to see if there was enemy activity nearby.

Joking! He only had a little over 470 soldiers at his disposal, divided into four directions to guard the entire village; he could only allocate about two platoons of troops to each position.

In such desperate circumstances, sending out patrols would risk losses, and then what would he do about defending Leping village?

In fact, he had always thought that it was foolish to only deploy a battalion’s worth of troops in Leping village by his superiors: not because he was particularly wise or insightful, but simply because he felt that it would be safer to have more soldiers in the area where he was.

Actually, if one were to think carefully, his idea was simply unrealistic: no commander would distribute their troops in advance to various locations for so-called defense.

Because regrouping the spread-out troops would take time, which would lead to a slower response rate across the entire defense line, a result no commander would want to see.

"What time is it?" For what seemed like the umpteenth time, the goblin battalion commander turned to his deputy and asked anxiously.

"Four o’clock..." The deputy glanced at his pocket watch and gave an exact answer. In the Northern Hemisphere in January, dawn doesn’t come early; it would still be dark from four to five o’clock.

In fact, it won’t be fully light until after seven o’clock, but by six-thirty, one can start to make out the surroundings.

"Have the soldiers stay alert! Reinforcements will arrive in two hours," the goblin battalion commander said, for some reason, trying to buoy his subordinates’ spirits.

In reality, since no attack had yet occurred, his words might have been meaningless. But he said them anyway, with a serious tone.

Just as he finished speaking, a series of explosions suddenly came from the entrance of the village.

"What’s going on?" The explosions so frightened the goblin battalion commander that he nearly dove under his desk, nervously questioning as if the people in the room might know something he didn’t.

"Boom!" Just then, a shell landed in the courtyard outside the house they were in, the massive explosion blowing out the windows and kicking up dust everywhere, causing the officers in the headquarters to duck and run in panic.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack! We are under attack!" a soldier shouted loudly, but his voice seemed feeble amidst the continuous gunfire.

Now even a fool would know they were under attack, but beyond that, they really knew nothing. They didn’t know the direction of the enemy’s assault or how far the enemy had advanced.

"Ratatat!" A burst of gunfire struck, and goblin soldiers running in the village streets fell to the ground, followed by a group of Great Tang Empire paratroopers, led by a night soldier carrying a rifle equipped with an infrared spotlight, crossing the street and breaking into the goblin headquarters.

"Who goes there?" A goblin guard spotted these unwelcome visitors, and after uttering a challenge, he was shot through the chest.

The other guards, in a panic, quickly returned fire, and a melee ensued in the courtyard of the headquarters. One guard after another fell, and a paratrooper from the Great Tang Empire was hit by a stray bullet and toppled from the top of the wall.

"We have enemies!" The courtyard was clearly indefensible, and a goblin guard rushed into the command center, shouting to those inside, "Retreat immediately!"

"What?" The goblin battalion commander, who had just come to his senses, cried out in disbelief: He really hadn’t expected the enemy to be right at his doorstep.

"Ratatat!" At that moment, the last goblin guard in the courtyard fell to a barrage of gunfire, and seven or eight Great Tang Empire paratroopers swarmed in, rushing into the courtyard that had been repurposed as a temporary headquarters.

"Bang!" The goblin battalion commander did prove his mettle; he drew his pistol and fired a shot toward the doorway, forcing the intruding paratrooper to retreat.

"Hold the line! Our troops will be here soon!" The goblin battalion commander took cover behind a desk and, holding his pistol, shouted loudly.

By his side, the deputy commander and several other officers also drew their pistols, clamoring to fight to the bitter end against the Great Tang paratroopers outside the building.

The next second, a hand grenade rolled in from the door, and at the sight of it, the goblin officers instantly became petrified.

They scattered in a panic, but momentarily couldn’t find shelter; as a result, the hand grenade exploded, instantly tossing the people inside the room into the air.

Before the smoke from the explosion had time to clear, the paratroopers rushed into the room, starting to finish off the goblins who were still moaning and groaning on the ground, taking out those who were still struggling.

"Clear!" After firing two shots into the face of the last blood-covered goblin officer and confirming there were no survivors, the Great Tang Paratrooper raised his rifle and shouted to his comrades.

This was a tactic they had long since mastered: two shots to the chest, one to the head, even gods would shake their heads at this. If one desired even more security, eight shots to the body, five to the head…

In any case, the textbooks say, there is no carbon-based lifeform that a magazine can’t handle; if there is, then simply reload and keep firing…

Xiang Ziyu moved briskly through the trench at the village entrance; his troops had already cleared two defense lines, and he wanted to take advantage of the enemy’s delayed reaction to clear the remaining two defense lines as well.

The troops from Mirage Country clearly lacked combat experience; they had neither positioned machine guns on the village’s high ground nor prepared to fire flares.

In fact, they had never anticipated that the paratroopers from the Tang Empire would arrive this very night; the goblins had been primarily focused on defending against the Tang Empire’s landing troops.

During the years of conflict with the Dahua Empire, the paratroopers of the Tang Empire had not taken part in battle, and this had caused many to forget the once-renowned might of the Tang Empire’s paratroopers.

Moreover, the world’s most popular DC-3 transport aircraft, also known as the Type 47 transport plane, simply couldn’t take off from the Tang Empire to air-drop paratroopers over Mirage Country, so the enemy had not taken paratrooper defense seriously.

Another reason was that Mirage Country had always believed that their Zero Fighters could defend their airspace, so it never occurred to them that the first wave of the Tang Empire’s assault would come from the skies.

The entire outer defense perimeter of Leping Village was outward-facing; no one expected an attack to come from the flanks or from behind.

The goblins under attack were even incessantly cursing, shouting that they were friendlies and urging those inside the village not to shoot.

Unfortunately, their explanations only attracted more bullets; the gun grenade attacks from the Tang Empire were incredibly precise, and with the special forces equipped with night vision devices, clearing the battlefield was as easy as flipping one’s hand.

"Stop shooting! We are friendlies! We are friendlies!" As Xiang Ziyu continued to advance towards the next trench, the goblins inside still failed to grasp the situation. They waved to Xiang Ziyu, and only upon recognizing the height of their adversaries did they realize that the enemy had indeed come out of the village.

"It’s the Tang people! It’s the Tang people! Damn it!" The first goblin who spotted the Tang Army Paratroopers hurriedly retracted his head, but his comrade next to him wasn’t so lucky. Bullets swept over and pierced through their foreheads.

"They have reached close quarters! Hand grenades! Throw hand grenades!" The goblin platoon leader, his head drawn back, nervously reminded his soldiers.

Just as these goblin soldiers pulled hand grenades from around their waists, the hand grenades thrown by the Tang Empire paratroopers had already rolled into the trench, landing at their feet.

"Boom!" Accompanied by several explosions of hand grenades, the goblins in the trench lay scattered haphazardly, already silenced.

"Platoon leader! All taken care of!" A young paratrooper leapt into the trench, excitedly shouting to Xiang Ziyu.

As he excitedly prepared to move forward, a landmine underfoot detonated, instantly blasting him away.

"Damn it! To hell with this!" Xiang Ziyu was also blown away by the explosion, and when he got up, all he could hear was a buzzing in his ears.

He shook his head, struggling to stand, and looking down, he saw the body of his subordinate missing a leg.

"Don’t go down there! Booby traps! Those bastards!" Xiang Ziyu cursed with pain, then warned the others, "Landmines! Be careful! Landmines! Watch your step! Dammit!"

"These bastards dare to use landmines?" A soldier cursed angrily, the most terrifying thing about landmines is the psychological shadow they cast over everyone on the battlefield.

"Check for casualties! We need a medic here!" Xiang Ziyu called back. He wasn’t sure if that soldier was already dead, nor did he even know if he himself was wounded.

He felt his body and found no wet spots; by the moonlight, he saw no black marks on his hands, nor did he feel any pain on his body.

The medic rushed over to check Xiang Ziyu for any bleeding wounds, completely disregarding the fact that the battle was still far from over.

The sound of gunfire remained dense; another unit had already begun to eradicate the remaining soldiers from Mirage Country in the village. There were shouts everywhere, and soon a large fire broke out in the village. It was set by the people of Mirage Country themselves—they had lit their own homes, burning everything inside, civilians and themselves alike, to death.