The Fourth Calamity never believed in the steel torrent!

Chapter 123: If we hold out for a day and a half, the army group will arrive!

Just as Andrei's troops finished sending the telegram and began a forced march toward the factory, at the Luga No. 1 Heavy Walking Machine Factory.

"No, don't shoot! We're just civilians! Please don't..."

A fat man wearing glasses, who appeared to be the factory supervisor, was pleading with an armored soldier in front of him.

Upon hearing his pleas, the Fear Knight, who was originally prepared to finish him off with the submachine gun on his arm, suddenly paused for a moment, then lowered the gun.

Seeing this, he breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that his pleas had finally worked. But to his surprise, the fear knight drew a greatsword and with a single, light swing, severed his head.

"Hey! I said, don't forget our headquarters' orders! All the skilled workers here have to stay; they're invaluable!"

Seeing his companion's killing spree, another Dread Knight expressed his dissatisfaction, but he simply laughed it off without a care in the world.

"Hahaha, Brunson, you're far too cautious! Besides, I didn't kill the skilled workers; I only killed the factory owners here!"

“A factory like this can’t operate without workers, engineers, or experienced workshop supervisors, but it won’t be affected in any way if the factory owner is gone!”

"Furthermore, these cowardly and apathetic Cambrian people have a natural awe of authority, and by cutting off the heads of their factory owners, we will instantly become even greater authorities, and our words will carry more weight!"

After offering a few casual explanations, the Fear Knight tossed the severed head toward the workers huddled together in the distance, then switched to the Cambrian Empire's language and said:

"You all saw it, didn't you? This foolish factory owner tried to mobilize the armed forces to rebel, and this is what happened to him!"

“If any of you disobey orders, you will all die. You know, we dare to kill factory owners, so why would we care about killing a few small fry like you?”

How could a group of workers possibly understand the thoughts of these fear knights?
Faced with this group of steaming, over two-meter-tall, and incredibly burly canned goods, they quickly nodded repeatedly, not daring to utter a single word of dissent.

Not only their factory owners, but all the workers who had tried to resist these people were dead.

The rifles they took from the armory barely scratched these guys, while with a single burst of speed, their greatswords could easily cleave dozens of people into pieces.

After bringing the situation under control, the Dread Knight said to his companion beside him:
"That's about enough. I believe they won't dare to resist for a while. Let's quickly prepare the weapons we brought and set up defenses here immediately!"

"Theoretically speaking, General Ron's army group won't arrive here until at least tomorrow afternoon, which means we'll need to hold out here for a day and a half!"

The Fear Knights present, along with the other paratroopers who landed with them, were not concerned about holding out for a day and a half.

In their view, given the quality of these Cambrian troops, as long as they relied on the sturdy factory buildings for defense, holding out here for a day and a half would be no problem at all.

Although their unit couldn't carry heavy weapons, they still managed to bring back quite a few valuable items.

Using the Empire's latest rocket-propelled drop pods, they can now transport power armor, cyborgs, and light mechs. With this configuration, the average Cambrian Empire army is no threat at all. As long as the enemy doesn't go completely mad and immediately bombard the factory with heavy artillery, they will be fine.

As for whether they will actually use heavy artillery to bombard this place right away?

Are you kidding me? Don't these Cambrian people think about the future? They don't think they can just handcraft equipment without factories, do they?

The Black Hawk Empire force, which was rapidly occupying the factory area, was unaware that an independent regiment was advancing rapidly in their direction.

What they didn't know was that when the two sides started exchanging fire, they would give each other a huge surprise.

Andrei was still leading his troops forward at top speed, but because most of the soldiers in this unit had limited training, even with the forced march underway, their speed was not very fast.

Compared to the forced marches that Andrei envisioned for elite troops in World War II, and the forced marches of the iron army during the Korean War, these guys jogging along can hardly be called forced marches!
"Damn it, our soldiers really need to practice marching more. Did they train how to form ranks and fire guns while they were training in the rear?"

Seeing the queue growing longer and longer, Andrei couldn't help but complain. Beside him, Lieutenant Colonel Yuri sighed and said:

"There's no other way. Our superiors are trying to save money, so the amount of military rations allocated is limited. With forced marches like this every day, the soldiers' ration consumption will at least double!"

"Compared to that, it's much cheaper to practice how to line up and how to hold a rifle every day!"

Upon hearing this, Andrei couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"Come on, are we that short of food right now? What time is it already? Why are you still reluctant to use up a single ration?"

Upon hearing Andrei's words, Lieutenant Colonel Yuri also sneered.

"Heh, food shortage? How could that be? Our Cambrian Empire is the largest grain producer on the entire continent!"

"But I don't know why, no matter how much grain was allocated from above, the quartermasters always ended up showing a food shortage. It's a puzzling statistical problem..."

After Lieutenant Colonel Yuri's hint, how could Andrei not know what was going on?

Good heavens, so these quartermasters are still thinking about profiting from the national crisis at a time like this?
Despite his anger, Andrei was not at all surprised.

There are always people who try to profit from national crises. The Russians have been corrupt for a long time. Back when Leningrad was defended, food was rationed throughout the city, and everyone could only get a small loaf of bread. Yet, some families were still able to hold banquets every day.
In a feudal country like this, it would be surprising if there were absolutely no losses.

"Fine, since that's the case, you lead the remaining troops and run slowly. I'll take my elite assault team ahead to scout ahead!"

"If you're lucky, my commando team might already have taken care of the enemy by the time you arrive with your troops?"

(End of this chapter)