Munitions Empire

Chapter 628: 587 precise adjectives

“The effect of our bombing on the targets is really not so good.” On the slightly bumpy airplane, the pilot, clutching the control stick, complained to the co-pilot seated beside him.

Behind them, the navigator chuckled: “It doesn’t matter; we have plenty of bombs, so there’s no need to worry.”

“Bombing Beiyuan City risks harming civilians. Your Majesty is compassionate and hopes that we focus more on these goblins,” the co-pilot chimed in.

“The perimeter defenses are right ahead!” Glancing down at the earth below his feet, the pilot reminded the bombardier.

The bombardier gave a thumbs-up: “I’m ready! Open the bomb bay doors!”

With his command, mechanical sounds mingled with the wind, and the bomb bay doors of the Flying Fortress below slowly opened to either side.

The plane’s fuselage began to jostle even more because of the disturbance in the airflow, with bombs densely packed on the racks.

The B-17 bombers that took off from Nanye didn’t need extreme range, so they could take off without full fuel loads, reserving their takeoff weight entirely for the payload.

A fully-loaded B-17 is terrifying; it can carry over eight tons of bombs internally—what’s the concept here? A B-17 can match the firepower of 16 Stuka Dive Bombers!

However, the comparison is not strictly accurate because in terms of bombing precision alone, a Stuka might be more accurate than a B-17, and in a way, more ammo-efficient.

“Begin bombing!” The bombardier pressed the button and felt the bomb detach from the rack behind him.

Then the second bomb, and the third, like raindrops, these aerial bombs disconnected from the bomber’s racks and scattered in the wind before plummeting rapidly.

Under the desperate gaze of the Shenwu soldiers, these bombs fell onto their positions, and the shockwaves from the ensuing explosions quickly radiated outward.

The bombardier on the plane could clearly see, just like raindrops falling into a lake and creating ripples, his bombs were making similarly expanding waves.@@novelbin@@

Then from the center of those circles, massive explosions boiled up furiously, engulfing everything nearby.

The once intact trenches were instantly swallowed by the rising dust, and seemingly impregnable machine-gun bunkers were torn to pieces in an instant.

The small statures of the goblins were torn apart in the blast wave, as if by knife-like gales that sliced through everything standing in their way.

The Shenwu troops were witnessing aircraft as a weapon for the first time, foolishly staring at the planes overhead, recalling all the descriptions they had heard from the people of Qi Country.

The people from Qi Country had told them that airplanes are dreadful monsters, each appearance bringing terrifying death.

Those Qi Country folk, scared out of their wits, seemed like a joke as they described how their industrial areas were effortlessly leveled by the massive bombs dropped by the gigantic planes.

They recounted tales of aircraft that could screech as they dived, devastating bunkers or cannons with precision, killing everyone nearby before soaring off into the distance.

Those damned people from Qi Country also said that the planes would sometimes strafe the ground, killing clustered infantry in a whirling attack.

Before today, the people of Shenwu mocked the cowardice of those from Qi Country, thinking that the Tang Army had terrified them into spouting madness, wholly unbelievable.

But now, they had seen the Tang Army aircraft and experienced firsthand the true terror of this weapon. They had even forgotten to lift their rifles and fire a few shots at the sky to prove the bravery of the people of Shenwu.

The ground shook incessantly, and the massive blasts cruelly tortured everyone’s eardrums. Shenwu Liang stood on the position, staring at the Tang Army planes flying over his line, speechless.

He wasn’t even sure if anyone within the bombarded area could survive because all that remained was the pervasive gunsmoke and the intermittent flashes of fire within it.

“Is that, that an airplane?” Finally, as the highest commander of Shenwu in the area, Shenwu Liang managed to overcome his fear.

He stared at the exploding positions in the distance, his eyes filled with despair and trepidation, not even realizing his voice trembled as he asked the question.

After asking, Shenwu Liang waited quite a while before realizing that no one seemed to answer him. He shifted his gaze and looked to the Second Prince of Qi Country, who had accompanied him to inspect the positions.

The Second Prince finally snapped back to reality, looking at Shenwu Liang: “Yes, yes, that is the Tang Army, the Tang Army’s bombers…”

Actually, the Second Prince who had seen Tang Army planes before was also filled with shock at this moment. It was the first time he witnessed such a large-scale deployment of Tang Army aircraft, and now he realized that the air raids he had encountered before were just minor incidents.

As it turned out, the main focus of the Tang Army’s offensive had never been directed at him from the beginning. The brother who had died and the eldest brother whom he had always mocked for incompetence had been facing this terrifying force all along in combat…

Of course, he didn’t know that as the war progressed, the aerial power of the Tang Army was actually growing non-stop.

The Tang Army now possessed nearly a thousand aircraft, the majority of which were capable of ground attacks, including Stukas and Flying Fortress Bombers.

The Tang Army could now dispatch over 500 aircraft at a time to strike ground targets, which was quite a terrifying level.

Bear in mind that even during World War II, deploying 500 aircraft at once was considered a quite impressive feat. The Tang Army could achieve this largely thanks to the enemy’s lack of proper anti-aircraft capabilities.

A whole squadron of B-17 Flying Fortress Bombers flew over the battlefield, dropping countless aerial bombs. These bombs carpeted the positions of the Shenwu Troops, marking the first time they had witnessed what was known as carpet bombing.

But this was merely an appetizer that the Tang Army had prepared for the Shenwu Troops. In fact, before they could even reflect on the magnificence of the strategic bombers, they began to experience the terror of tactical bombers.

After the Flying Fortresses dropped their bombs and left the battlefield, while the smoke had not yet cleared, swarms of Stuka Dive Bombers began their performance.

Shenwu Liang indeed heard a heart-wrenching howl; he couldn’t afford to look at the flames and smoke on the battlefield and instead immediately raised his head to gaze into the vast sky.

He saw a small black dot suddenly turn and begin its rapid dive towards the ground, and then that terrifying, heart-thumping sound started its symphony.

“Woo… buzz… buzz…” Dragging an irritating noise, as if endless, Shenwu Liang immediately wished for the sound to stop.

Regrettably, things didn’t go as he wished. The sound continued non-stop until the small black dot in the sky turned into an airplane, and the noise eventually broke everyone’s defense, causing people to start crying and screaming non-stop!

Watching the airplane that seemed destined to crash into the ground drop a huge aerial bomb, then sharply pull up at the last moment and speed away, Shenwu Liang finally understood how accurate the Qi Country people’s adjectives for airplanes were.

Not exaggerated in the slightest and even restrained somewhat for the sake of saving face. It turns out these Tang Country airplanes were truly formidable, and those Qi Country people weren’t really cowards.

Just as he realized this, a 500-kilogram aerial bomb finally hit the ground. The moment it touched the earth, a destructive force was unleashed in a torrent.

Unlike the 100-kilogram or even 50-kilogram bombs dropped by the B-17 Bombers, the 500-kilogram aerial bombs carried by Stukas had an even more terrifying destructive capability.

Just one near miss was enough to completely destroy a bunker and the nearby trenches. The defensive structures, which had consumed vast amounts of manpower and resources, even at the expense of civilian lives, vanished in an instant.

The explosion of this bomb shook the earth, and even hundreds of meters away, the force of the blast could be clearly felt.

But before these Shenwu people could start to panic, a second bomb of the same kind was dropped, and the same scenario repeated itself as the ground trembled once again beneath their feet.

The dreadful howling in the sky continued, as if it were a sound from hell. Each time this sound rang out, the Shenwu Soldiers could only pray in their hearts, hoping that the target was not their location.

“That, that… General! I, I won’t just stand here, stand here anymore…” The Second Prince stammered, preparing to flee. He had no desire to gamble his life away in this place.

Before Shenwu Liang could say anything, the Second Prince had already started to run away with his Qi Country guards. Shenwu Liang glanced at him, knowing he couldn’t keep this puppet there, so he let him escape.

“General! You, you should take cover too,” the Shenwu deputy by his side urged him anxiously as he watched the Stuka Dive Bombers plunging from the sky.

Before, he never thought those new things flying in the sky of the Tang Army could be so formidable, but having seen them today, he now realized the severity of the problem.

Only by witnessing this kind of terrifying attack with one’s own eyes could one understand why the Qi Country’s military had crumbled so utterly.

“Woo…” As he made his suggestion, the devilish howl in the sky started up again.

All the Shenwu Soldiers around him looked up. Only those who have experienced it firsthand could understand what it feels like to hear that devilish sound headed straight for them!

Now they knew what it felt like, that sound coming closer, aimed right at them. It was despair screaming, it was the reaper calling them!

The next second, an aerial bomb detached from the undercarriage of a Stuka, rapidly enlarging within Shenwu Liang’s pupils.

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