It's better to conquer them than to command the steel torrent

Chapter 129 | Thank you for the arrow, Prime Minister Xie!
It's getting late.

Under the cover of darkness, an infantry company left its attack position and advanced to the edge of the city to deploy, using the dozens of shell craters left over from the daytime to build field bunkers.

Subsequently, a rescue team of more than 30 combat engineers carefully entered the combat zone at dusk along both sides of the street, followed by an imported British-made Scammer heavy truck about 100 meters away.

"Keep quiet."

"Enter the city quietly, and don't fire indiscriminately."

Three tanks were destroyed on Krakap Street, two of which caught fire and are still burning, while only one sustained normal damage.

The firelight illuminated the surrounding scene, where there were brick fragments and broken glass, and one after another, corpses with different deaths lay on the ground.

Ivanos's army's movements could not be kept secret. It is unknown who fired the first shot, but in the darkness of the night, both sides exchanged fire haphazardly.

Suddenly, flares illuminated the intersection, and the Imperial Russian soldiers were shocked to see that the tank's turret was pointed directly at them.

"Da da da - da da -"

The tank's coaxial machine gun spewed out a foot-long burst of muzzle flash!

Caught off guard, the first four or five engineers fell dead on the spot, while the rest fled in panic.

The Scammer truck driver was more astute; upon hearing of the gunfight ahead, he immediately turned around, floored the gas pedal, and sped away.

If this expensive imported heavy truck is easily damaged, he'll probably be unable to explain himself.

"No? You're really coming?"

Just fifteen minutes ago, Shank was discussing the possibility of an enemy night attack with everyone regarding Ivanros's army's nighttime operation, and as a result, he appeared out of nowhere.

As the saying goes, if we don't have guns and cannons, the enemy will make them for us. Mr. Shang also had his eye on that T-26 that wasn't completely burned. The defending forces only had about thirty Turan I and Type 32 medium tanks. Capturing even one more would be excellent.

An hour earlier, the Hungarian army sent a recovery team to inspect the vehicle and found that the T-26 had been penetrated by several 20mm armor-piercing tracer rounds. The gunner and commander were killed, and the driver abandoned the vehicle but was shot dead a few meters away.

Fortunately, the vehicle did not catch fire, but unfortunately, an armor-piercing round penetrated the lower front of the vehicle and damaged the gearbox.

So, Mr. Shang immediately called for help and reported to the city defense command to request a tractor-trailer to be dispatched.

Just then, Ivanros's army sent a rescue team that also secretly arrived, a classic case of enemies meeting on a narrow road.

A short while later, heavy trucks from Guangda Heavy Industry came from the direction of the business school, and the Hungarian soldiers quickly connected them to the tank with steel cables.

"Quickly, quickly, hang up the steel cable, okay, let's go!" Shang Ke called out impatiently.

The driver shifted into first gear and gently pressed the accelerator, moving slowly forward. Once the steel cable was fully taut, he pressed the accelerator again, and the noisy engine sounded surprisingly pleasant at that moment.

Damn!

It feels so good to take other people's things home and use them yourself.

Shang Ke couldn't help but sigh to himself: I really am full of bad ideas.

He then made a phone call to the city defense command, requesting several cadets from the Donau-Cassie Armored Academy to serve as the vehicle crew.

Then, a mischievous idea struck him, and he instructed, "Right, call someone who speaks Russian, and then find a piece of white cloth, or a light-colored cloth will do, and write on it with paint..."

At 19:20 p.m., the truck towed the T-26 with its damaged gearbox away.

Seeing that his side had returned empty-handed while the enemy had seized the tank, Lieutenant Colonel Smirnov was furious, his face turning ashen, and he tried his best to remain composed.

The next day. The sun rose in the east, and the sky was just beginning to lighten.

The Tsarist Russian soldiers noticed that there seemed to be a banner hanging on the bullet-riddled walls of several houses on the outskirts of the city.
Through the gunner's scope, one can see that it reads in Russian: "Thank you for the donation of a tank."

Lieutenant Colonel Smirnov, of course, saw it too.

This completely broke him down.

"The enemy is showing off! Damn it! Son of a bitch! Idiot! Idiot! You should have destroyed that tank before you retreated!"

He cursed Sukabré and finally couldn't hold back and smashed the binoculars.

However, the binoculars, which were hanging around his neck on a belt, bounced back and hit his chin.

The adjutant and staff officer next to him pretended not to see what was happening, unsure whether to laugh or be angry.

Lieutenant Colonel Smirnov, clutching his chin, roared, "Fire! Fire! Attack now! Bury them in the ruins!"

The 337th Infantry Regiment had six 76.2mm infantry guns—the standard regimental-level artillery of the Ivan Ross Army. In addition, it had one anti-tank gun battery and one mortar battery, equipped with six 40mm light anti-tank guns and six 120mm heavy mortars.

The Ivanos Empire was only a second-rate industrial power, weaker than its contemporaries, but its light and heavy weaponry was still decent.

In any case, it was much better than Japan, another poor imperialist country in history—the infantry regiment only had four old-style mountain guns as its main artillery.

"Boom boom boom——"

The Imperial Russian forces brought in infantry guns to bombard the buildings in turn, but the 76.2 mm shells were ineffective against the brick and stone structures. Seeing this, Lieutenant Colonel Smirnov requested fire support from his superiors and soon received support from a battalion of 122 mm howitzers.

After an hour of destructive firing, several houses on the outskirts of the city collapsed under the intense bombardment, and smoke and dust filled the air.

As for the white cloth with mocking words written on it, it had long been blown to pieces by artillery shells.

After the heavy artillery barrage ended, the two infantry companies of the first echelon quickly advanced in a dispersed formation, and the hundreds of men of the second echelon followed closely behind to the attack launch position.

Shank paid no attention to the Imperial Russian infantry surging forward shouting "Hurrah!"

He turned to the major commander of this small defense zone and instructed him: "Remember, you must strike the enemy flexibly. Except for key strongholds, if you can't hold the rest of the place, retreat. There's nothing to be reluctant about."

The major raised his hand in salute and said confidently, "Understood, Colonel. We will make sure this place leaves an unforgettable memory for the enemy."

Mr. Shang's personal presence on-site command was not for fun; he was there purely to assess the effectiveness of the city's defense system.

Looking at the situation from yesterday to today, he became even more convinced of the correctness of this set of tactics.

The great war has only just begun, and Ivanros's army also lacks experience in urban warfare and has no effective offensive strategies.

Tactics are one aspect, but there is also an objective factor that cannot be ignored: weaponry. The PPSh-41 has not yet been invented, and the Ivan Ross army currently has very few PPSh-41 submachine guns in service.

While a weapon-centric approach is certainly flawed, no one can deny the power of automatic weapons in close-quarters combat.

If anyone disagrees, let them take a bolt-action Mosin-Nagant rifle and go up against submachine guns and shotguns.

Mr. Shang returned to the business school command center.

Seeing him arrive so easily, Major General Ratz-Jené laughed and said, "Oh? The advisor is back. It turns out your idea was brilliant; the enemy has made almost no progress."

(End of this chapter)