Chapter 399: What Era Is This, Still Using Traditional Artillery? |
“Demons! They are demons!”
The surviving rebel soldiers completely broke down.
They threw away their rifles, crying and screaming as they ran out of cover or barracks, trying to escape this slaughterhouse.
But what greeted them was the merciless strafing of the “Siegfried Mark 1.”
“Da-da-da-da-da!”
The heavy machine gun bullets acted like a scythe cutting grass, mowing down swaths of the fleeing crowd.
Meanwhile, the 170mm heavy mortar positioned somewhere outside the barracks continued its demolition work.
“Screech—BOOM!”
Another shell landed, completely collapsing another barracks building packed with rebels.
“We surrender! We surrender!”
Finally, someone raised a white flag.
Following this, more and more rebel soldiers threw away their weapons, knelt on the ground, and put their hands behind their heads.
The two “Siegfried Mark 1s” ceased firing. Behind them, the instruction unit’s combat engineers held their submachine guns and began moving forward to clear the battlefield and disarm the prisoners.
Another group of combat engineers kicked open the rooms where the Imperial Guards were held, rescuing these soldiers who had become prisoners under the attack of multiple Armored Knights before they even had time to resist.
They originally thought they were dead for sure, never expecting reinforcements to truly descend from the sky.
When the surviving Imperial Guard soldiers walked out of the basement and saw the field-gray painted “Siegfried Mark 1s” and well-equipped Saxon soldiers outside, everyone erupted into cheers of surviving a disaster.
“God bless! It’s the Saxon allies!”
“We’re saved!”
The battle at the Schöneberg barracks came to a close with unimaginable speed.
However, just as the instruction unit soldiers in the barracks were preparing to clean up the battlefield, a squad responsible for perimeter security sent a new alarm.
“Large number of enemy troops spotted on the street east of the barracks!”
“They’re dragging artillery too!”
A lieutenant responsible for security, hiding behind several crates and holding binoculars, saw a dense crowd surging toward them at the end of the distant street.
Within the crowd, several draft horses were laboriously pulling two 9cm FK M.75 bronze cannons that looked quite aged.
But regardless, artillery was a threat, so this squad leader quickly issued orders.
“Light machine gun team! Suppress them! Don’t let them deploy their artillery positions!”
“Yes!”
Set up behind a sandbag barricade at the street corner, the MG14 light machine gun belonging to the regimental guard platoon immediately roared.
Precise short bursts mowed down several rebel soldiers charging at the front.
The follow-up rebels immediately hit the deck, relying on buildings and flower beds on both sides of the street to return fire.
For a time, dense gunfire resounded through the streets again.
Urged on by the gunners, the two bronze cannons also began struggling to adjust their muzzles, preparing to fire.
But the next second, a wall on the side of the street was violently smashed open by a “Siegfried Mark 1.”
Ludwig piloted his machine, striding out of the dust and smoke.
Seeing that steel giant charging out of the barracks, the rebels exchanging fire with the instruction unit on the street instantly panicked.
“It’s an Armored Knight! Take cover quickly!”
“Artillery! Fire quickly! Take it out!”
Panic spread among the rebels like a plague.
Although Austro-Hungarian soldiers might see Armored Knights once or twice a year during exercises, that was merely a fleeting glimpse from afar.
For most of them, this was their first time fighting an Armored Knight at such close range.
It was only in this instant that they truly felt that massive size, the cold metallic texture, and the omnipresent sense of oppression.
The officer commanding these reinforcements was a major of the 35th Bohemian Regiment.
He was currently hiding behind a postal carriage, staring fixedly at that “Siegfried Mark 1,” his palms covered in cold sweat.
The heavy firepower of these reinforcements was hastily scrounged up from the Vienna arsenal.
He had forced the workers and technicians of the arsenal to take up arms as combatants, and dragged these two “9cm FK M.75” bronze cannons out of the warehouse as their only heavy firepower.
He originally thought relying on numerical superiority and artillery would be enough to deal with the small-scale “Royalist” counterattack in the barracks.
But he never expected that under the “excellent matchmaking system,” what he had to face was actually an Armored Knight that popped out of nowhere!
“Fire! What are you standing there for! Fire!” the major roared hysterically toward the two bronze cannons.
Urged and beaten by the officer, the two hastily assembled gun crews finally frantically managed to complete loading.
With trembling hands, the gunners aimed at the steel target rapidly approaching.
On the other side, Ludwig appeared to handle the situation with ease.
He piloted the “Siegfried Mark 1,” walking unhurriedly down the middle of the street, as if strolling in his own backyard.
The two MG08 heavy machine guns mounted on the machine’s shoulders were currently taking turns firing short bursts under his increasingly proficient control, laying down deadly lines of fire on the street.
The rebel soldiers lying on the ground were suppressed to the point where they couldn’t lift their heads at all, only able to watch helplessly as that massive figure got closer and closer to them, and watch the enemies behind the Armored Knight begin to advance.
Ludwig’s main attention was quickly drawn to those two ridiculous bronze cannons.
He controlled the machine guns’ trajectory, sweeping toward the positions of the two bronze cannons, trying to interfere with their aiming.
However, those gun crews composed of factory technicians demonstrated higher proficiency than actual artillery units.
Boom!
One of the bronze cannons fired first.
An orange-red flash of light flashed at the muzzle. A shell dragging a faint trail of smoke shrieked toward Ludwig.
But Ludwig… or rather, these physically modified Armored Knight pilots, had shockingly fast reaction speeds.
The instant the muzzle flashed, he didn’t even look at the incoming shell. Relying entirely on a top-tier knight’s intuition and muscle memory, he abruptly controlled the machine to perform a small-scale emergency lateral shift to the left.
Driven by the magitech muscle bundles, the heavy “Siegfried Mark 1” burst with agility inconsistent with its size.
The massive metal feet scraped a trail of sparks on the ground, and the entire machine, in a posture defying common physics, forcibly shifted two meters to the left horizontally.
The shell practically brushed past the right shoulder of the “Siegfried Mark 1.”
Immediately after, with almost no pause, Ludwig executed another lateral shift in the opposite direction.
This was an instinct he had honed through countless actual battles and simulated confrontations within the Teutonic Knights.
When artillery of various nations had to engage in close-quarters combat with Armored Knights, to improve the hit rate, the most common tactic was the “double tap”—two guns firing two shells consecutively with a very short time interval, anticipating the opponent’s evasive maneuvers.
The first shot was a lure; the second was the kill shot.
For ordinary Armored Knight pilots, this tactic was indeed very difficult to deal with, easily resulting in crashing headlong into the second shell after evading the first.
But who was Ludwig?
He was an Armored Knight pilot who could rank near the top within the entire Teutonic Knights.
He knew this routine all too well.
Sure enough, the instant he completed the second evasive maneuver, the second bronze cannon fired.
The shell landed precisely at the position where he had performed his first evasive maneuver. If he had hesitated for even a single second just now, he would have been hit.
Of course, then again…
Even if hit by this kind of antique artillery, for the latest Armored Knights, it wouldn’t be a big deal, at most denting it.
But for Ludwig, it would simply be a stain on his career; he would definitely be mocked by his colleagues in the Knights for a lifetime upon returning.
“Hahahaha, Ludwig, you actually got hit by a bronze cannon?”
Ludwig would absolutely not let this happen.
Missing two consecutive shots threw the rebel artillery position into chaos.
The gunners frantically tried to reload, but Ludwig didn’t plan on giving them another chance.
He concentrated all the firepower of the two heavy machine guns near those two bronze cannons.
The dense rain of bullets smashed into the artillery position like hail, striking the gun shields, sending sparks and dirt flying.
How had those arsenal workers temporarily acting as gun crews ever seen such a spectacle?
They screamed, clutching their heads and scurrying away like rats, not daring to approach the two cannons anymore.
Ludwig’s “Siegfried Mark 1” was like a tiger amongst a flock of sheep. He strode toward the rebel position, the assault cannon in his hand continuously firing toward where the rebels were clustered.
Panic quickly consumed these reinforcements.
“Run! Run away!”
“We can’t beat it! We can’t beat it!”
The soldiers threw down their weapons, crying for their parents as they fled to the rear in a rout.
However, just as Ludwig prepared to press the attack and completely crush this rabble, a strong sense of crisis suddenly surged from the bottom of his heart.
He remembered the words Morin had repeatedly emphasized during the pre-battle meetings: “You are knights, not berserkers… Your mission should be as a mobile fortress and a spearhead for the infantry, not breaking away from the group to play individual heroism.”
Have I gotten a bit carried away?
Ludwig glanced at the infantry and knight squires falling further and further behind him, then at the chaotic street ahead, and instantly calmed down.
He wasn’t currently charging alongside a squadron of over a dozen Armored Knights…
He was leading two other Armored Knights in an unfamiliar urban environment, fighting a battle where they were at an absolute numerical disadvantage.
Under these circumstances, what he should do wasn’t to charge up like a brute and go full “Musou.”
But rather, like a guardian deity, to advance steadily and provide reliable fire support for the infantry.
Under Morin’s tutelage, Ludwig’s tactical mindset had long since changed.
He was no longer that Teutonic Knight who only knew how to charge, but a modern armored force commander who understood coordinated operations.
Ludwig knew very well that in this complex urban street combat environment, his best choice should be to utilize armor and firepower advantages, cooperating with infantry and mortars to advance steadily, rather than charging up alone to slaughter all sides.
Thinking of this, Ludwig unhesitatingly chose to retreat.
He controlled the “Siegfried Mark 1” to move backward slowly, while maintaining suppressive fire on the street ahead.
However, this retreat of his made the two people lurking at the corner of the alley ahead so uncomfortable they almost cursed out loud.
Those two Armored Knight pilots from the Britannian “Ranger” squadron had already been waiting here with their “stealth mode” on for a long time.
When the sound of artillery rang out earlier, these Armored Knights who had retreated into the shadows to hide had already realized something was wrong.
When they saw a Saxon unit possessing Armored Knights launch an attack on the barracks, they were dumbfounded.
However, these experienced Armored Knights also quickly came up with a countermeasure.
Their original plan was to use the cannon fodder rebels outside as bait to lure out that Saxon Armored Knight that popped out of nowhere to advance alone.
Then, utilizing a two-on-one advantage, launch a surprise attack from the flank to rapidly destroy it.
They watched as that “Siegfried Mark 1” was about to plunge headlong into their ambush circle.
Yet the other party actually stopped at the last critical moment, and even started retreating!
“Damn it! Why is this guy so vigilant?” a “Ranger” pilot cursed in a low voice.
“We can’t wait anymore! If he retreats to the barracks, we’ll lose our chance!”
The other said decisively: “Charge out! Take him out!”
With the resolute voice of his companion coming through the communication stone, the magitech cores of the two “Hound Mark 4 Modified” Armored Knights lurking in the alley emitted a sharp shriek, and they violently charged out from the shadows.
Their appearance was like two agile cheetahs pouncing from the darkness, instantly shattering the brief tranquility on the street.
Seeing two Armored Knights he had never seen before suddenly pop out in front of him, Ludwig was first startled, then a wave of lingering fear surged in his heart.
He secretly rejoiced that he hadn’t let victory go to his head just now and chose to retreat cautiously.
Otherwise, once caught in the pincer attack of these two enemy machines, the consequences would be unimaginable.
The enemies before him were models he had never seen. They looked a size smaller than all the Armored Knights of the Saxon Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with sleek lines and full of aggressive beauty.
Especially their running posture; the hydraulic shock absorbers at the joints of their bipedal legs emitted faint hissing sounds, making their massive bodies appear exceptionally agile, like… like hounds hunting.
The possible affiliation of these two Armored Knights flashed through Ludwig’s mind instantly.
The f*cking Britannians!
Only this country that invented Armored Knights possessed the technology to build something with such absurd performance!
The two Armored Knights charged out of the alley. In just a few large strides, they closed the distance to a dangerous range.
Ludwig didn’t have time to overthink. Almost instinctively, he made the most correct reaction.
He violently raised the massive kite shield on his left arm in front of him, simultaneously controlling the “Siegfried Mark 1” to retreat rapidly without hesitation.
As the heavy machine retreated, every step stamped deep marks and glaring sparks on the hard flagstone road.
And the “Hound Mark 4 Modified” charging at the front obviously didn’t want to give Ludwig any chance to breathe.
During its high-speed charge, its right arm swung forward violently, a heavy, powerful straight punch aimed straight for Ludwig’s chest.
But this was no ordinary punch.
On the outside of the mechanical arm of that “Hound Mark 4 Modified,” a conical shaped-charge anti-armor warhead was visibly mounted!
At this moment, the sensitive contact fuse at the front of the warhead had already been armed.
As long as this fuse touched any object, the explosives inside the warhead would detonate instantly, forming a high-temperature, high-speed metal jet capable of piercing through the vast majority of armor of this era.
This weapon, developed by Morin, had once given Saxon Armored Knights a massive tactical advantage.
After being obtained by the Britannians, they rapidly developed various different weapon forms for it.
Ludwig naturally knew the power of the weapon in the enemy’s hands, so the shield he had raised in advance became an insurmountable chasm for that “Hound Mark 4 Modified.”
After all, the width of the street was limited; there wasn’t enough space for the “Hound Mark 4 Modified” to maneuver around like in a forest.
CLANG——BOOM!
The conical warhead smashed heavily into the center of the kite shield.
Accompanied by a loud bang, blinding flash and thick smoke instantly engulfed the front of the “Siegfried Mark 1.”
The high-temperature metal jet easily pierced the outer armor of the shield, but after penetrating several layers of composite materials, it rapidly lost its penetrative power, ultimately only leaving a scorched burn mark on the chest armor of the “Siegfried Mark 1.”
And Ludwig seized the moment the opponent’s attack failed and their momentum was spent to immediately launch a counterattack.
He controlled the Armored Knight to lean back with the momentum, simultaneously raising its thick mechanical right leg, delivering a simple frontal stomp that viciously kicked the abdomen of that “Hound Mark 4 Modified.”
BAM!
A dull, massive impact sound.
In terms of combat weight, the “Hound Mark 4 Modified” was almost five tons lighter compared to the “Siegfried Mark 1.”
This pure disparity in strength was something no technique could make up for.
That “Hound Mark 4 Modified” was like being hit by a charging rhinoceros. The entire machine instantly flew backward, crashing wretchedly onto the street, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Seeing this, the other “Hound Mark 4 Modified” jumped directly over its companion, the shaped-charge anti-armor warhead mounted on its mechanical arm thrusting straight for Ludwig’s cockpit.
But Ludwig had anticipated the opponent’s move. He twisted his waist violently, controlling the “Siegfried Mark 1” to perform a beautiful sidestep, narrowly dodging this fatal strike.
Because of the shield and the narrow space, the two “Hound Mark 4s” had no advantage whatsoever in a frontal assault.
Instead, for Ludwig, as long as he kept his shield raised and advanced steadily, he didn’t need to worry about being sneak-attacked from his flanks or rear.
While evading the attack, the shaped-charge anti-armor lance held in his other mechanical arm struck like a venomous dragon darting from its cave, thrusting backhand toward the magitech core of the second “Hound Mark 4 Modified.”
Two Armored Knights engaged in a fierce, lightning-fast melee in the narrow street.
Although temporarily fighting one against two, Ludwig, relying on the rare advantages of a heavy machine in urban combat, actually didn’t fall to a disadvantage.
He was like an indestructible mobile fortress. Every block was steady as a rock, every counterattack heavy and powerful.
Although those two “Hound Mark 4 Modifieds” were more mobile and coordinated better, all their attacks were neutralized one by one by Ludwig’s battle-tested kite shield and superb piloting skills.
They were like two hyenas circling a male lion. Although they seemed to hold the initiative, they could never inflict fatal damage on the lion.
What they didn’t know was that the true hunters had already prepared in the dark, waiting for them to make a mistake.
Just about three hundred meters behind Ludwig, behind the ruins of a bombed-out shop and a pile of crates on the street.
Two “RAK 15” 50mm high-muzzle-velocity anti-armor gun crews had already set up their guns and completed combat preparations.
The barrel height of this new type of artillery was extremely low, less than 1.5 meters, allowing the gun crews to practically hug the ground, its concealment far exceeding other traditional artillery.
The gun crew soldiers had also found a few dirty canvas tarps from the train station, casually draping them over the guns to act as improvised camouflage.
In the chaotic battlefield environment, without careful observation, it was simply impossible to spot these two teams of “campers” hidden in the ruins.
Those two “Hound Mark 4 Modified” pilots had all their attention focused on the dogfight with Ludwig. They didn’t even realize the threat of death had quietly descended.
“Armor-piercing shell loaded! Fire!”
The gun captain calmly issued the order.
Boom!
A distinctive, crisp, and short cannon roar suddenly rang out from the other end of the street.
However, before the sound of the cannon even arrived, the two “Hound Mark 4 Modified” pilots were already startled by an extremely fast streak of light.
This trajectory practically brushed past the cockpit of one of the “Hound Mark 4 Modifieds.” The terrifying speed was such that he couldn’t even see the shell’s trajectory clearly.
Boom!
The cannon sound arrived belatedly. Alarm bells rang wildly in the pilot’s heart. He immediately realized something was wrong and was about to remind his comrade through the communication stone.
“Careful! There’s an anom—”
Before his words were finished, he saw the muzzle flash in the ruins at the street corner.
But at a distance of over 300 meters, facing a terrifying shell with a muzzle velocity of 835 meters per second, seeing it… was already meaningless.
This knight of the “Ranger” squadron simply had no time to make any reaction.
He watched helplessly as that deadly streak of light drew a straight line across his retina, and then crashed viciously into his machine.
CLANG!
A harsh sound of metal colliding.
BOOM! Followed by the sound of the cannon firing.
The Armored Knight’s built-in spell shield, at the instant of being hit, underwent severe distortion, but ultimately succeeded in deflecting and bouncing off this deadly shell.
The shell spun, brushing against the armor of the “Hound Mark 4 Modified” and flying off.
In the cockpit, a layer of cold sweat instantly popped out on the forehead of that Britannian ace pilot.
He was completely dumbfounded.
Because he simply had no time to react at all!
As an elite of the Holy Britannia Empire’s “Ranger” squadron, he had experienced countless brutal battles and faced all kinds of artillery.
But no artillery had ever brought him such a strong sense of suffocation.
The speed of that shell was too fast! So fast it exceeded the limits of knights’ neural reflexes!
What terrified him even more was that the power of this artillery he had never seen before was also absurdly massive.
A single hit from a shell actually knocked the spell shield of the “Hound Mark 4 Modified” straight down to the red line approaching its defensive threshold!
What kind of monster is this?!
However, he obviously didn’t know that this new type of artillery named “RAK 15” had another even more terrifying characteristic: rapid rate of fire.
Thanks to the optimized design of the breechblock, and the relatively more compact 50mm armor-piercing shells, the theoretical rate of fire of this artillery far exceeded other traditional artillery of this era.
While that “Hound Mark 4 Modified” pilot was still experiencing lingering fear from surviving a disaster, the two “RAK 15s” in the ruins had already completed reloading.
“Armor-piercing shell, loaded!”
“Coordinated fire! Fire!”
A few seconds later, the two “RAK 15s” fired again almost simultaneously, one after the other.
This time, that “Hound Mark 4 Modified” pilot stared fixedly in the direction of the ruins at the street corner. He even saw the muzzle flash.
But unfortunately, he still didn’t have time to evade.
He could only watch helplessly as two blurry trajectories smashed right into his face.
The first armor-piercing shell accurately hit the front of the “Hound Mark 4 Modified.”
The spell shield, already on the verge of collapse, instantly shattered like a popped soap bubble under this fatal strike, turning into a sky full of magical light specks.
Losing the protection of the spell shield, the armor-piercing shell smashed heavily onto the relatively weak chest armor of the “Hound Mark 4 Modified.”
Although it was ultimately deflected by the sloped armor, the massive kinetic energy caused the entire machine to violently jerk backward, exposing a massive vulnerability.
And the second armor-piercing shell that followed closely seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
At a perfect angle, it poured directly into the cockpit of this “Hound Mark 4 Modified.”
The extremely high-speed armor-piercing capped shell unhinderedly pierced through the cockpit, exiting from the back of the machine, bringing out a shocking mist of blood and fluorescent liquid.
Boom! Boom!
With the sound of two consecutive cannon shots, time seemed to stand still at this moment.
That “Hound Mark 4 Modified” stiffened violently, then, as if losing all its strength, slowly fell to its knees amidst the smoke and fire.
Where the cockpit was, a terrifying large hole that went straight through appeared. Unidentified liquids gurgled and flowed out along the seams of the armor.
The light of the magitech core rapidly dimmed, and ultimately extinguished completely.
As if symbolizing the end of an era.
