Nanyang Storm 1864

1931st January 4

This was 11 days later than the planned "Battle of San Francisco". The Great Chu Empire's expeditionary force launched a fierce bombardment with 4786 cannons at four o'clock in the morning, thus beginning this grand battle.

The cannons roared, turning the outer defenses of the US forces into a sea of ​​fire. Half of the dark sky was illuminated by the fireballs from the explosions, creating a truly spectacular scene.

The barbed wire, bunkers, trenches, wooden stockades, and other defensive structures painstakingly set up by the US military were blown to pieces by the overwhelming and fierce artillery fire, leaving a scene of devastation everywhere.

The U.S. military had very few artillery pieces remaining, barely managing to muster seven or eight hundred, and ammunition was also in short supply, so they could only silently endure the baptism of artillery fire.

The intense artillery fire lasted for more than three hours, until around 7 a.m., when the barrage of artillery fire began to extend.

"Quickly, quickly! The Easterners are coming up! Get into position and prepare for a counterattack!"

On the devastated front line, covered in dust, an American officer crawled out of a bunker, his ears ringing from the bombing, but he still loudly urged his soldiers to engage in battle immediately.

Thanks to years of trench warfare in Europe, the US military's field trench construction standards were entirely inherited from Europe, giving it considerable anti-artillery capabilities.

The trenches were dug deep and wide, and were supported by wooden planks to prevent them from collapsing during artillery fire.

The anti-artillery bunkers were built deeper and supported by thick wooden beams at the top, making them difficult to completely destroy unless a heavy artillery shell hit them directly overhead.

Large numbers of American soldiers, like gray rats, were driven into the bombed-out trenches by their officers. Many of them had blank, numb expressions on their faces, completely stunned by the bombing.

In just over ten minutes

The American trenches were already packed with soldiers, and some people were peeking ahead.

On the front lines, a large number of Chu soldiers appeared, their backs shrouded in black smoke. In front of them were Cheetah tanks, billowing black smoke, charging menacingly forward.

Along a defensive front stretching over 60 kilometers, the Great Chu Empire's expeditionary force deployed more than 220 tanks, forming three attack arrows to test the strength of the American defenses.

These Chu Cheetah tanks were spread out, with a distance of two to three hundred meters between each other, forming an attack front three to four kilometers wide with more than a dozen tanks.

Behind the tanks came a large number of fully armed Chu infantry, forming a long skirmish line, gradually closing in.

When they approached within a distance of more than a thousand meters, the Jagdpanther tanks stopped advancing, turned their turrets to search for any remaining heavy American positions, and opened fire to suppress them.

After hours of barrage bombardment, the US positions now resemble the surface of the moon, riddled with craters of all sizes, charred soil mixed with weapon fragments and the remains of soldiers, and the air thick with the smell of gunpowder.

At this moment

The artillery barrage suddenly turned back, raining down shells onto the front-line trenches, instantly creating a cloud of blood mist, and sending severed limbs and charred dirt flying into the sky.

This is the "returning spear artillery technique" invented by the Great Chu Empire during its conquest of Europe. It was specifically designed to target the defending soldiers who emerged from their bunkers after artillery bombardment. The German, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman armies all suffered greatly from this tactic.

Now it's the Americans' turn, and they're clearly not much better off.

As the army of the Great Chu Empire, which had experienced the Eastern Front in Europe, it possessed extremely rich war experience, first-class weaponry and training, and extremely strong combat capabilities.

Thousands of artillery pieces seemed to have eyes, raining down on the front lines, causing extremely heavy casualties for the American troops; it was nothing short of a massacre.

In the storm of steel, U.S. troops stationed on the front lines suffered heavy casualties, several times more than in the previous three hours of shelling.

This single counterattack crippled the American troops defending the front lines.

This round of attacks was so sudden, so frequent, and so deadly, yet it didn't last long.

In just 20 minutes, this hellish steel storm came to an abrupt end.

Just as the shelling stopped, a Cheetah tank, about a kilometer away, quickly started moving and rushed towards the American position, followed by fully armed Chu soldiers, all running forward.

Just a few minutes

The Jagdpanther tank charged to a position more than 100 meters in front of the trench, and rotated its turret to sweep the remaining targets with its heavy machine gun, covering the infantry's advance!

The Chu infantry surged forward like a tide, and at a distance of about 20 or 30 meters from the American trenches, they almost simultaneously pulled out grenades, threw them out, and quickly lay down.

A dense barrage of grenades slammed into the trenches, exploding rapidly and unleashing a new wave of carnage within the trenches.

Without hesitation, the Chu soldiers rushed over and jumped into the trenches, sweeping through them in groups of several and expanding outwards to both sides.

By around 8:40 a.m., a gap of more than 60 kilometers had been breached in the US front-line trenches, and the front-line trenches had fallen, as if the enemy had been swept away.

At this moment, a dense swarm of Expeditionary Force warplanes and bombers flew in from the sky and began a frenzied bombing and strafing attack on the second and third lines of American positions, and an even more brutal battle began.

The Great Chu Empire's expeditionary force launched a fierce offensive that the American forces found difficult to withstand.

Bad news kept coming in about the loss of key fortified areas on the periphery, and the US troops on the front lines were forced to retreat step by step, constantly making urgent requests for reinforcements from the rear.

A white militia of two or three thousand men was sent up, and they were wiped out in half a day.

This situation continued to occur along the hundreds of kilometers of front, and in just one morning, more than a dozen White militia regiments were lost like a meat grinder.

As soon as the Chu warplanes spotted any exposed artillery positions, infantry assembly areas, military camps, or vehicles, they would swoop down and drop bombs, then frantically circle and straf the area.

For the key defensive areas of the US military, the artillery fire from the rear of the Great Chu Empire roared in, quickly turning the positions into ruins and leaving corpses strewn everywhere.

Finally, there would be the attack of the Chu army. If they were driven back, they would inevitably face another round of fierce artillery bombardment, and so on.

The total number of U.S. soldiers stationed on the first and second lines exceeded 100,000. In just a few hours of fierce fighting during the day, nearly half of them were lost, and the rest were scattered.

Faced with the fierce offensive of the Great Chu Empire's army, President Hoover, who was personally stationed in San Francisco, was also horrified and deeply felt the cruelty of war.

He could only send reinforcements to the front lines, only to have them quickly depleted.

Do not know why?
After capturing the front-line positions, the armored forces of the Great Chu Empire, which held absolute power, did not re-enter the battlefield. Instead, they used infantry to repeatedly probe the enemy lines, while coordinating with air forces and ground artillery to inflict massive casualties on the American forces.

President Hoover often had the misconception that these fierce and cunning Easterners were slowing down their offensive to lure more American soldiers to their deaths.

After about three weeks of aerial strangulation, the US Air Force's strength has been almost completely depleted, and it has lost air superiority on the battlefield.

This allowed the Great Chu Empire's warplanes to wreak havoc, and in conjunction with their overwhelming ground artillery fire, inflict heavy casualties on American soldiers.

However, the three lines of defense in the suburbs are in grave danger. Once the Chu army breaks through, the San Francisco Bay Area will be completely exposed to the invading Chu army.

This horrific scene left President Hoover little time to think; he was only focused on urging the American militia in the rear to rush forward and reinforce them, determined to fill the gap.

In the headquarters of the Chu expeditionary force

Dozens of staff officers were issuing orders to the front lines via field telephone, instructing the attacking units not to commit too deeply, to slow the pace of the attack, and to annihilate as many American troops as possible.

Prince Chu-Zheng Hui, the Chief of Staff of the Royal Army of Chu, who was in charge of the central command, stood in front of a large map, leisurely drinking tea. Many high-ranking generals of the command headquarters were gathered around him.

"Unexpectedly, the Americans are so easily defeated, allowing the Third and Eleventh Armies to slowly wear down the enemy, turning this position into a giant meat grinder and the final graveyard for the American troops."

"Yes, Commander-in-Chief. The relevant instructions have been issued to the Third and Eleventh Army Groups."

"Well, our army only deployed four divisions, and the enemy couldn't hold out. Your Highness overestimated the Americans."

"Commander-in-Chief, we have absolute air and artillery superiority in this war. The only question now is how to wipe out this resistance force. The outcome is already a foregone conclusion."

"Yes, the young men attacked too fiercely, they stunned the Americans. I would rather annihilate these American troops in open field battles than fight a city war. If San Francisco is completely destroyed, the Empire will have to spend a lot of money to rebuild it. We must share the burden of His Majesty the Holy Emperor!"

"The commander-in-chief is concerned that our army will slow down its offensive in the afternoon, feign weakness, and lure the enemy to launch a counterattack on our positions under cover of night. At that time, we can inflict heavy casualties."

"Hmm, this plan is feasible. Will the ammunition from the rear arrive in time?"

"Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief, before the start of the war, each main army group had stockpiled enough ammunition for a week, so brothers can fight freely. Currently, five special ammunition trains are arriving every day, transporting large quantities of ammunition from the rear to ensure continuous offensive power on the battlefield."

"Very good. Order the 7th Army, which is preparing for the assault, to rest and recuperate and await further orders. At the opportune moment, His Highness requires the 7th Army to outflank the American forces from the rear and annihilate them in one fell swoop."

"The Seventh Army Group has been mobilized and is ready to receive orders from its superiors at any time."

"Hmm, how's the reinforcement for the Army Aviation Corps going?"

"Reporting to the Chief of Staff, as planned, a fleet of ships carrying fighter jets and munitions will arrive the day after tomorrow, bringing the fourth batch of 820 fighter jets, half of which are bombers."

"Yes, now we need more bombers to penetrate deep into the American Midwest and East to bomb factories and shipyards, further weakening the Americans' war potential."

"The Imperial Headquarters had been planning this for some time, and the new long-range Fierce bomber has entered the mass production stage. At the latest, a batch of new aircraft, numbering approximately 600, will be delivered by June."

"That's wonderful, this is a timely help!" Prince Chu-Zhenghui laughed heartily, and the senior officers around him also showed proud expressions.

Driven by the strong demand for war, the economy of the Great Chu Empire showed a clear upward trend, which became even more pronounced in the new year.

This "Hercules Bomber" is a typical medium bomber with a long range of 1300 kilometers, carrying 1.2 tons of ordnance, and a combat radius of 600 kilometers.

If stationed at forward field airfields along the "Desert Defense Line," they would be capable of launching airstrikes against Denver in the central United States and major cities in Oklahoma in the South.

This will severely damage key U.S. forward military locations, logistical support facilities, and barracks, and will have a serious impact on the forward deployment of U.S. troops.

The aviation industry of the Great Chu Empire is among the world's leading industries, and the technical level of the Fierce Woman bomber is also top-notch in the world today.

This is more advanced than the SB2 bomber planned by the Tupolev Aviation Bureau of the Soviet Union, with a larger payload. The SB2 bomber is still on the drawing board, while the Husband bomber is already ready for mass production.

The bomber was designated "H-3" by the Imperial military, but the air force officers preferred to call it "Hercules" because of its wild horizontal bombing capabilities.

Within the Empire

They are currently secretly developing a four-engine piston heavy bomber, and its technical specifications are all classified, but it is sure to be amazing.

This self-propelled piston heavy bomber also had a civilian version, which was used as a transport aircraft to carry passengers between the Imperial mainland and various islands.

Due to the vast territory of the empire, it was undoubtedly a country of ten thousand islands.

Therefore, the demand for large transport aircraft is very strong, and it is expected to become the world's largest aviation market, with huge potential economic benefits. This is a sunrise industry worth at least 30 billion silver dollars.

Therefore, all the major aircraft manufacturing companies in the Great Chu Empire are vying to develop four-engine piston transport aircraft, with the standard being at least 2200 kilometers in range, and some even reaching 2600 kilometers.

You can fly directly from Manila, the capital of Australia, to Darwin in the north of Australia without stopping at any airport.

After refueling once en route, the plane will take off again and arrive in Melbourne, a city in southern Australia.

This would enable long-distance travel from Manila to Melbourne within 24 hours, greatly improving the timeliness of travel within the region and having significant application value in political, economic, and military aspects.

It is based on this

Several major aircraft manufacturers are investing heavily in the development of this new transport aircraft project, which, with a slight change in purpose, could become the prototype of a heavy bomber.

The thought of this filled the high-ranking officers present with excitement and pride.

This is a heartfelt pride in the strength of the empire; anyone who dares to openly offend the Great Chu, even if they are thousands of miles away, will be punished.

These ignorant and fearless Americans are like that. Back then, the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs repeatedly negotiated and strongly protested against the unequal laws targeting Chu's overseas assets, calling it "robbery."

The Americans turned a deaf ear and a blind eye.

This finally angered the Holy Emperor Taizu, who had long resided in the inner palace, who said: "This precedent must not be set. If all foreigners follow suit, we will not be able to protect our overseas assets, and the imperial prestige will become nothing but empty words."

Thus, a full-scale war broke out between the two countries. (End of Chapter)