Munitions Empire

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Just as Shenwu Sanlang was fantasizing about engaging the Tang Army in street battles within Beiyuan City, using the infrastructure the Tang Army was reluctant to destroy to wear them down, a sudden explosion came from the distance.

Shenwu Sanlang and his adjutant both stared in shock before rushing to the window, where they saw black smoke billowing from inside the city.

"What's going on?" a flustered Shenwu Sanlang angrily asked, not knowing whether he was questioning himself or his adjutant.

But the adjutant at his side was just as clueless, standing dumbfounded before the window, at a loss for what to say.

He racked his brains to find an answer to the question his general had posed and finally squeezed out a comforting guess, "Maybe, maybe there's been some mismanagement with the munitions or other flammable and explosive materials, it could be an accident."

This was the most reasonable explanation he could think of, and it was less alarming than the idea that the Tang Army had started bombarding the city, which made it somewhat reassuring.

But before he could internally congratulate himself on his quick thinking, another explosion occurred in the distance. This time, they watched from the window and saw it clearly.

"It's artillery fire!" They were all soldiers, and they instantly recognized the shots as being from the Tang Army's large caliber artillery.

"What's happening..." Shenwu Sanlang asked again, and even though he didn't elaborate, his adjutant clearly understood what he really meant.

What Shenwu Sanlang wanted to know was why the Tang Army had suddenly started bombarding Beiyuan City. This went against Shenwu Sanlang's judgment and completely upset his plans.

No matter what the Tang Army was thinking, their bombardment had already begun. Another shell fell, hitting a two-story building and collapsing two-thirds of it.

The enormous vibration shattered all the glass in the surrounding buildings, which were all freshly installed less than a year ago.

Rooftop tiles slid off from the shock, crashing and scattering on the ground, sending civilians inexperienced in war screaming in terror as they ran for their lives.

Because they had never witnessed such a terrifying explosion, they didn't even know to get down, and just stood there foolishly, waiting to see if the shells would land at their feet.

Even when the sounds of nearby descending shells were obvious, they couldn't distinguish them and hurriedly "picked up their boxed lunch," becoming corpses strewn around the craters.

This was the Tang Army's 155mm howitzer in action; they had just received orders to open fire from the newly captured positions on Beiyuan City.

Previously they had been cautious, entirely because they didn't want to startle the Shenwu forces into retreating without a second thought, abandoning Beiyuan City.

Now, with the Navy having moved northward, and nearly 300,000 Shenwu defenders unable to retreat within a few days, the Tang Army's attack had become unbridled.

Another shell fell and hit a street barricade; sandbags stacked atop were blown into the sky, some even flying into the windows of nearby buildings.

After a dozen or so shells had fallen, everything fell silent again. Aside from the several plumes of black smoke rising from within Beiyuan City, there was no other sound to confirm that the bombardment had indeed taken place.

Civilians from the surrounding buildings began to pour out, standing on the other side of the street, pointing and commenting on the unfortunate buildings that had been hit.

Among the rubble of collapsed ruins were all sorts of valuables, and some of the poor had already begun to swarm over, searching through the debris and bricks for food and other useful items.

"Mommy!" From the crowd came the cries of children, while some bewildered Qi civilians still didn't understand what the recent shelling meant.

Soon, a group of Shenwu soldiers arrived in trucks, starting to disperse the crowd and sternly ordering those near the ruins to leave immediately.

They didn't hesitate with those who refused to obey, opening fire on a few reckless beggars and madly despairing civilians until there was no one left on the streets.

Then... those Shenwu soldiers who had arrived began doing what the Qi civilians had been doing earlier: they too started scavenging, searching the bodies for anything of value.

They stripped rings off dead hands and even used bayonets to pry open mouths to see if there were any gold teeth.

Watching through their windows, the surrounding civilians saw these robbers and were furious but dared not speak out. They began to detest the Second Prince, who had brought these Shenwu people to them.

In fact, aside from a few, very few cared anymore about his former status as a prince of Qi Country.

The Second Prince was now seen as a lunatic, and while a few close associates still referred to him as Your Majesty to his face, behind his back, everyone simply referred to him as Jiang Zhi.

Soon, the superficial work was finished, and the Shenwu military began knocking door-to-door, urging civilians to start clearing the rubble.

Of course, the Shenwu people would not do the heavy lifting of moving bricks themselves, as their shorter stature was not meant for such work.

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In the interest of future convenience and in search of familiar faces, these neighbors finally took action and began to deal with the remnants of walls and ruins left by the bombardment.

Some people carried scattered bricks and stones from the streets, while others were responsible for piling these fragments in places where they wouldn't be in the way.

But no one spoke, because everyone present was worried, worried that the place they lived in might become the next such wasteland.

On another street, people stood around a huge bomb crater in a daze. Shenwu soldiers rushed over, forcing these civilians to fill up the massive hole in the road.

"We don't have enough material to fill the crater, sir," explained a man from Qi Country to a Shenwu soldier brandishing a bayonet, "You need to give us some tools and find us some stones and dirt, right?"

He felt his point was reasonable and he explained it very clearly, but the Shenwu soldiers opposite him ignored it all.

At an order from the leading Shenwu officer, several soldiers with bayonets stabbed the man to death next to the crater.

The Shenwu officer kicked the corpse into the crater, then turned to the frightened civilians from Qi Country who kept retreating, and sneered: "Who else wants to become a corpse to fill this hole, stand out now! Those who don't want to die, get to work!"

After speaking, he pointed to the other bodies lying around, killed by the bombardment, and commanded loudly: "These bodies can fill the pit, can't they? What are you waiting for? What are you waiting for?"

Pulling out his pistol and waving it, the officer from Shenwu, desperate and infuriated, could only watch as the civilians from Qi Country worked silently, heads down.

Though they were shaking with fright, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and reach for the corpses on the ground. Even a woman began to vomit continuously.

The officer from Shenwu approached the vomiting woman and shot her in the chest. The sound of the gun terrified the surrounding civilians from Shenwu, causing them to scream, while the Shenwu officer burst into laughter.

He then continued to shout at the crowd: "Get to work! This road needs to be fixed by nightfall! Otherwise, I'll kill you all!"

As he shouted hysterically, the civilians and soldiers alike heard a buzzing noise and all turned their gaze to the distant skies.

There, a swarm of dots was rapidly approaching. In people's vision, the planes grew larger and larger.

"Tang, Tang Country's planes!" A Shenwu soldier screamed in terror, his voice quivering with fear.

"Run!" Someone from among the civilians also shouted, and suddenly, the civilians from Qi Country, who had just been fearful of the soldiers from Shenwu, broke through the encirclement of military guards and ran wildly towards the distant streets.

High above in the sky, a large formation of Flying Fortresses, one after another, had now flown over Beiyuan City. The presence of the bombers was quickly noticed, with many people pointing at the sky.

Panic spread rapidly as the civilians within Beiyuan City seemed to realize that a great disaster was about to befall their city.

Some Maxim machine guns set up on rooftops started to fire frantically at the sky; unfortunately, their pitifully short range was no threat to the large bodies of the B-17 Flying Fortresses.

In fact, the probability of a Flying Fortress being shot down by Maxim guns, like the one that happened during the previous maritime attack, was extremely low.

Normally, even if a Maxim gun fired a hundred bullets and all of them hit, it might still not bring down a Flying Fortress.

It truly was a Flying Fortress in name and nature, sturdy enough to make all its enemies despair! To bring down such a fearsome bomber, the German Army in World War II even had to equip their combat planes with large numbers of 20mm and 30mm caliber cannons.

Moreover, the previous time, to ensure hits on the large ships at sea, they had used low-altitude bombing, which is what gave the Maxim guns a chance.

This time, the bombers of Tang Army were generally flying at an altitude of 2000 meters, a height where Maxim guns simply couldn't attack any targets.

Therefore, machine gun fire was completely futile, doing nothing but increasing the city's panic.

Amid the roar of machine guns, these Flying Fortresses hovering over the city opened their bomb bays.

Then, one by one, the bombs detached from their racks and, guided by the airflow, plunged rapidly towards the ground.

The once overbearing Shenwu soldiers who just a moment ago appeared invincible scattered like birds and beasts, leaving only their officer staring up at the sky, now mostly obscured by the planes.

Then the rain of bombs fell, and an Aerial Bomb landed perfectly on his face, squarely on top of his head, instantly replacing what used to be his skull.

The subsequent explosion shredded his body, the shockwave swept through everything around it, and then, unstoppably, shattered the glass in all the nearby buildings.