Chapter 193: Crushing Them
Chapter 193: Crushing Them
Machine guns used calibers below twenty millimeters.
Anything above twenty millimeters was classified as an automatic cannon.
Weapons of this size carried tremendous kinetic force.
When a round struck a person, it did not merely leave a hole.
It tore the entire body apart.
The effect was horrifying.
An army of cold weapons and wooden sailing ships had no chance against a modern battleship.
The technological gap between them was simply too vast to compare.
For the first time in its history, the Kingdom of Edrath endured the baptism of artillery fire.
The fall of Sacred Redbud Harbor meant the gates of the kingdom had been blasted open.
Once the enemies inside the harbor were cleared out, the Sixth Army began landing and establishing defenses.
Over the past year, Thunder God had already explored a large portion of the surrounding seas.
Based on the current findings, this planet appeared to possess only one continent.
Beyond the continent beneath their feet, there were only countless islands of varying sizes.
Thunder God only needed to sail south from Newhaven, cross the equator, avoid the scattered uninhabited islands, and travel around more than half the planet to reach the western coast on the opposite side.
The mountain range dividing east and west happened to split the continent into two halves.
An icy ocean lay to the north, making passage impossible for ships.
The southern seas were plagued by violent winds and waves.
Because of these conditions, east and west had never established maritime routes between them.
Thunder God had not specifically come for the Kingdom of Edrath.
The Sixth Army had simply chosen a landing site that happened to lie within Edrath territory.
It was pure coincidence.
In truth, Thunder God had appeared in the nearby waters more than once.
Because of its immense size and astonishing speed, those who saw it called it a steel beast of the sea.
Many believed it to be some kind of ocean monster.
Not long after the Sixth Army’s defensive units landed at Sacred Redbud Harbor, two transport ships docked outside the harbor and began unloading large quantities of troops and supplies.
Air transport was faster.
Sea transport, however, possessed far greater carrying capacity.
A single ship could deliver more than one thousand soldiers at once.
It could even carry more than ten tanks.
After the defensive units secured the area, the rest of the Sixth Army landed and joined them.
They then began occupying Sacred Redbud Harbor City.
Elsewhere, after the Third Army completed its operational planning, airships continued delivering its remaining troops.
The commander of the Third Army stopped waiting.
He gave the order to attack.
The Third Army began its offensive soon afterward.
That day, Ivy witnessed the true combat strength of the Federal Army.
A deep roar filled the air.
Bomber after bomber took off from the airfield inside her territory.
They tore across the sky like drawn blades, flew directly over the enemy forces, and released a storm of bombs.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The earth shook.
The distant battlefield became a sea of flames.
The enemy collapsed after only one exchange.
The Third Army advanced in orderly formation while mortars continued pounding the survivors.
They gave the enemy no chance to escape.
The sight made hearts race and cold sweat gather.
Only when the Third Army drew close did the bombardment stop.
Heavy machine guns were deployed to guard against surprise cavalry charges.
Meanwhile, ordinary soldiers used automatic rifles to clear out the remaining enemies with terrifying speed.
Inside Ivy’s livestream, the comments were unusually consistent.
"Whoa!"
"Whoa!"
"Whoa!"
"Holy crap!"
"Good heavens!"
Against an army capable of killing with such efficiency, no number of enemies seemed enough.
The viewers felt their blood race even as chills ran down their backs.
"There is no way to fight them."
"They are not even from the same era."
First came the air strike.
Then came the artillery barrage.
After that, the survivors were shot one by one.
The Steel Federation clearly possessed more ammunition than it knew what to do with.
Its principle remained the same.
Compared with losing skilled soldiers, wasting extra ammunition was always preferable.
The comments continued pouring in.
"Is this not going too far? Automatic weapons against an army of cold steel were already absurd. They even used air strikes, and then followed with an artillery bombardment?"
"This is completely ruthless!"
"It proves the player in the east is unbelievably wealthy. Ammunition means nothing to him, so he can produce and expend as much as he wants. It also shows how powerful the eastern industrial system must be. Without enormous production capacity, it could never sustain this rate of consumption."
"I am so jealous!"
Ivy murmured, "It would be wonderful if this army belonged to me."
"Wake up. Why are you dreaming in broad daylight? Hahaha."
The metal storm of modern automatic weapons tore into armies from the age of cold weapons.
The tragedy of the expeditionary army repeated itself.
Every battle became a one sided massacre.
When the Third Army attacked the surrounding territories, many lords had no time to react.
Before they could even gather their troops, their lands were already occupied.
Once some lords realized how powerful the Third Army was, they began calling upon one another for aid.
They assembled all available troops in an attempt to resist.
When more than one hundred heavily armored knights led tens of thousands of soldiers in a charge against the Third Army, Ivy and her viewers once again witnessed an overwhelming spectacle.
The Third Army positioned several machine guns on high ground.
Then the firing began.
Rat tat tat tat tat!
The heavily armored knights were cut down in moments like wheat before a sickle.
The soldiers behind them fell in vast numbers as well.
The scene was too gruesome to watch.
"Hiss..."
"How is this any different from beating up primitive people?"
"This is incredible!"
Following the Federal Army, Ivy witnessed battle after battle.
Without exception, the Federal Army crushed everything in its path.
Nothing could stop its advance.
These explosive scenes of warfare drew enormous attention to her livestream.
Her popularity quickly climbed toward the top of the rankings.
More and more viewers flooded into the room.
Everyone loved watching such spectacular battles.
"Did any unlucky player spawn in the same world as Ivy?"
"Warning. Extreme danger ahead!"
"A group of monsters is about to enter the battlefield!"
"A whole pack of unstoppable tyrants is searching the west for opponents!"
Many streamers were broadcasting War and Conquest.
Most players in the same world began at roughly similar levels, so their wars quickly turned into chaotic struggles.
But Ivy’s world was unique.
No other game had produced such an absurd technological gap.
The livestream was astonishingly entertaining.
Half a month later, the Third Army had attacked and occupied every surrounding territory.
During that time, the Fourth Army arrived by airship to provide support.
It also brought a group of survey specialists.
The moment they landed, the specialists began working.
Under the protection of the Fourth Army, they started searching the surrounding region for uranium deposits.
Yes.
Uranium.
Caelum had pursued the Global Strategy for two years.
Slow progress had been expected.
The greater problem was that the eastern continent possessed very little uranium.
Because of that, he had no choice but to turn his attention westward.
That was why he launched the western campaign only a little over a year after the Steel Federation was established.
His true objective was uranium.