Alien Arms Empire

Chapter 572 Chapter 572 Logistics of the Qi Army

 The king of Qi, Jiang Xian, is dead. He cannot die any more. When an officer from Qi State found the carriage that had been overturned by the explosion of an aerial bomb, he could only see the body of the King of Qi State, which was sieved by bullets inside.

He held the body and cried bitterly. Many soldiers from Qi gathered around him and watched everything that happened in front of him in silence.

Tang Jun's planes were still hovering overhead, and from time to time planes would swoop down and shoot at the crowd.

Those terrible aerial bombs left huge craters in the manor, destroying the place beyond recognition and causing the houses to collapse and shatter into pieces.

There are corpses everywhere, some were once extremely valuable, some were powerful, and some were just the most ordinary soldiers like them.

　　Less than half of a regiment of the Praetorian Guards is still alive, but those who are alive have lost the goal they want to defend.

The entire central organization of Qi State was destroyed by attacks from the sky in the past two hours, and almost nothing was left.

If some people hadn't stayed in the royal city for the convenience of doing things, the government affairs of the entire Qi State might have been paralyzed at this moment.

 Anyway, the prime minister of Qi died, and his body was next to the carriage. The king of Qi died, and his body had just been carried out of the carriage.

Several important generals of Qi State died. Some of their bodies can still be found, while some were so bombed that even their bodies could not be found.

A lot of important ministers of Qi State died, some died beside the carriage, and some died in the corner of the yard. One of them was happier, and died on the body of His Majesty the King's concubine.

As time went by, more ministers were found, and they were all dead. They were beaten to death in another courtyard by Tang Army paratroopers who were anxious to leave.

 Captain Ma is also dead. He committed suicide... Not to mention that he cannot escape the blame for the death of the king. Even if so many important officials of the court die in one go, he basically has no hope of living.

Anyone who dies here and has any relatives left in his family will have his house confiscated and his family exterminated as long as the other party pursues this matter.

 So he chose dignity, giving himself dignity and also giving dignity to those who wanted to vent their hatred.

By the time his men heard the gunfire, it was already too late. Captain Ma shot himself in the head, and the bullet penetrated his temple. The scene was a tragic mess.

This time it became even more lively, everyone had no command and leader, His Majesty the King, the spiritual totem, had just died, and the ministers of the country were almost wiped out... The remaining soldiers and generals had no intention of fighting under the harassment of the plane.

They found a few stretchers to carry the bodies of the Prime Minister and His Majesty the King, and then left without caring about the remaining bodies.

No one realized that Donghe Bridge, the gateway to the east of the royal city, had been occupied by the enemy, and no one thought about counterattack or searching for those Tang paratroopers. These Qi soldiers retreated like this, abandoning the manor that was full of smoke and fire, and retreated towards the King of Qi's city in embarrassment with a few corpses.

What they didn't know was that a Tang Army armored force was already approaching the manor, and another Tang Army armored force was already advancing toward Qi King's City.

 In short, they knew nothing. They just wanted to bring the news of the death of the King of Qi back to the royal city, and then find someone who had the final say to take over everything.

 …

On the southern battlefield, outside Luo Town, which had been boiling like hell, Qi Army soldiers once again poured into the Tang Army's positions like a tide.

Qin Xiong held the binoculars and quietly watched his troops attack the Tang Army's position. He saw with his own eyes the young lives being cut down one by one by the opponent's roaring machine guns like wheat.

 Without artillery preparation, using human lives to attack the enemy's machine gun positions is almost the same as forcing people to die.

  But with no other option, Qin Xiong had to adopt such an inefficient method, forcing the soldiers to attack the Tang army's increasingly solid defense line again and again.

 He really had no choice, because all the cannonballs he brought had been consumed. Now the Qi army has a strength advantage, but it has no ability to continue fighting.

The bullets of the soldiers are not bad. Anyway, there are not many opportunities to shoot during the attack. No matter how many bullets are used in the machine gun, it is still a small number.

 But those shells that support artillery are not so easy to transport: a shell weighs dozens of kilograms, or even hundreds of kilograms, and a car cannot transport much.

The mechanization level of Qi's troops was originally low, and there were not many oxen and carriages, so the number of artillery shells that accompanied the army was actually not many.

This is also an important reason why the Qi generals are unwilling to move away from the railway: their logistical supplies are so dependent on the railway that they cannot move their troops without the railway.

 Modern large corps are supported by logistical support. Without transportation supplies, fuel and ammunition, such a large corps will in turn become a nightmare for generals and a black hole that swallows everything. How much food do 100,000 people need to eat every day if they are crowded together? In order to maintain the consumption of these people, how many people must be traveling on the road to transport food and other supplies?

Even drinking water is a problem: being blocked outside Luo Town, these Qi troops need to transport even drinking water several kilometers, which is simply a nightmare for the logistics troops.

 In order to maintain the food consumption of the 1st and 3rd armies as well as the surrounding troops, Qin Xiong had no choice but to reduce the replenishment speed of artillery shells.

 Because there were only a few roads behind them, they were blown up by the Tang Army's planes and blocked by their own troops, and they were already overwhelmed.

 Relying on these inferior dirt roads to transport the grain stored in the southern defense line to the vicinity of Luo Town is also a big project for Qi's transportation team.

Does the Qi army stationed at the border also need to eat? How would they feel as they watched others cart away the few grains left in their warehouses?

Just to adjust these contradictions, transport various reserves, and distribute materials to the front line, Qin Xiong has almost exhausted all his energy.

 He can still find time to visit the front line now, and that has been achieved at the expense of sleep. But seeing his troops go up to die like this, Qin Xiong felt that he might as well go to sleep.

 The eldest prince still has no plans to leave the station. It seems that this prince is ready to wait for Qin Xiong's side to get a result before deciding his choice.

Qin Xiong knew that the Second Prince had already led the 2nd Army to retreat toward Beiyuan City along the Eastern Railway. As for how fast the retreat was, he didn't know.

Anyway, it seems that the 2nd Army should be rescued in the royal city. Only God knows whether it will be late or not, so Qin Xiong is not in a hurry.

 He decided that what he had to do now was to continue fighting here, maintain the situation, and buy more time for the rear.

Whether it is asking for help from the Mirage Kingdom and the Great China Empire, or seeking peace with the Tang Kingdom, it will take time. The more stable he is here, the better it will be for Qi.

As for the logistics behind him that were on the verge of collapse, Qin Xiong had selectively forgotten about it. It was as if the problems that kept him awake at night wouldn't exist if he didn't take the initiative to mention them.

You must know that every artillery shell he uses now needs to be transported from the permanent defensive position in the south dozens of kilometers away.

The food his troops eat also comes from there, and the food stored there, as well as the cannonballs and bullets, are not unlimited.

 Originally, the food stockpiled on the southern front was probably enough to stay in place for about a month and a half. What I thought at the time was that it could be replenished through the railway anyway, so there was no need to hoard so much.

The figures on the books were enough to last for three months, but in fact, because Tang State went crazy buying grain in the past two years, many smart people misappropriated some strategic reserves to make their pockets richer.

The war has been going on for more than a month now, and several granaries and ammunition depots on the southern front have been blown up and captured. Overall, we are almost on the verge of running out of supplies.

If the hundreds of thousands of troops knew that they had no food and no ammunition, then there would be no need to fight this war...

"General, the tank troops of the Tang Army have advanced far enough to threaten our flanks." An officer hurriedly brought back a piece of news that shocked everyone in the command bunker.

After being replenished and rested, the Tang State's 1st Armored Division launched an attack on the flank of the Qi Army's main force near Luozhen.

Anyway, the Tang army inside Luozhen already has sufficient troops, so they don't have to worry about Luozhen's defense line being penetrated.

With no worries, the 1st Armored Division of the Tang Dynasty soon played the role of an offensive force again, and began a roundabout attack to threaten the flanks of the Qi troops attacking Luo Town from the north.

 Now they have swept through several surrounding villages and are in a position that is very uncomfortable for the 1st Army.

"We have to think of a solution." Another officer glanced at Qin Xiong, who was silent, and made his thoughts clear.

Waiting here is definitely a dead end. They have almost no ability to continue attacking Luo Town. If they don't run away at this time, are they really digging their own graves here?

Qin Xiong also knew that he could no longer persist here. He closed his eyes in confusion, and finally gave the order: "Order the 1st Army to retreat 10 kilometers back, get out of the way, and hand over the defense area to the 19th Division."

When several people heard this, they knew that Qin Xiong was planning to remove the eldest prince's family assets first, and they all breathed a sigh of relief.

 Just listen to Qin Xiong continue to order: "Stop the attack, withdraw the troops, and build fortifications in place..."

As a famous general of Qi State, Qin Xiong still has his own pride: even if he is about to run away, he still has to show that he is still here to persevere...

There is no way. No matter from which point of view, he cannot give up the position near Luo Town: he must put on a posture of killing through the south of Luo Town and fighting all the way to the royal city to rescue His Majesty the King. Otherwise, how could he explain to Jiang Xian? —

 Another update

 (End of this chapter)