"The Tang Army has begun attacking the city!" Shen Wenxi appeared in a flurry at the secret command post where Shenwu Sanlang was located near the docks.
Gunfire and cannonades outside intensified, and Tang Army bombers started to appear in the sky, dropping aerial bombs accurately on the intersections and squares where the Shen Army was assembling.
Beiyuan City is a complex metropolis, segmented into several distinct parts which are easily identifiable from the sky.
The northern part of the city is the industrial zone, where many emerging factories are located, with chimneys and workshops visible everywhere.
With the start of the Tang Army’s bombardment of the city, the area had already turned into ruins. The Tang Army had no intention of keeping these outdated machines—junk purchased from the Ice Cold Kingdom and Qi Country, and to the technicians of Tang Country, they were barely worth the price of scrap metal.
The residential area is the largest, but due to the short time allotted for renovation and no particular effort to correct the situation, the buildings are mostly low-rise, with two or three stories being considered tall. There are also a few structures that are about four or five stories high.
If it’s a slum, then there are lots of dilapidated buildings. Although some have yards, typically, four or five families would crowd into them, leading to severe congestion.
These places had also been wrecked by the Shen Army themselves, as they deliberately set fires and committed murder here, leaving behind heaps of rubble and vacant houses.
The well-conditioned buildings that are left now serve as barracks for the Shen Army and are also a prime target for the Tang Air Force—dropping bombs on these locations easily annihilates a large number of the wounded from the Shen Army.
Another area is the port district, where the majority of the Shen Army’s anti-aircraft weaponry is deployed, with Maxim guns as well as 76mm caliber anti-aircraft guns.
The Shen Army desperately hoped to prevent the Tang Army’s bombers from destroying their vital ports, though their combat efficiency was not high.
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Up to now, in carrying out the mission of bombing Beiyuan City’s port, the Tang Army had lost only two aircraft, while nearly all usable equipment in the entire port had been destroyed.
The downed aircraft were both Stukas, lost to ambush by the Shen Army’s anti-aircraft machine guns while dive-bombing.
As they faced more and more bombing runs, the machine gunners of the Shen Army also started drawing on their experience. They began consciously leading their targets and only firing during the Tang planes’ dive-bombing runs.
"I’m not deaf, I obviously know they have begun the attack." Shenwu Sanlang looked at the water in the cup on the trembling table and did not seem particularly anxious.
He knew the Tang Army’s invasion of the city was just a matter of time; in fact, his troops had pretty much lost control of the industrial zone outside the northern city walls.
"I can’t fall into the hands of the Tang Army! Tonight, arrange for a ship to get me and Jiang Zhi out of here!" Shen Wenxi stared at Shenwu Sanlang, issuing his demand.
"The port is already gone, as you very well know." Shenwu Sanlang shook his head: "No one can leave here anymore."
"Don’t give me that nonsense!" Shen Wenxi slammed his hand on the table in front of Shenwu Sanlang and shouted angrily, "The air raids stop at night, surely a ship can get away then!"
"Today, an hour ago. The Great Vast Wave destroyer, the Calm Wave transport ship… The Great Vast Wave transport… all sunk." Shenwu Sanlang smiled as he delivered a terrifying piece of news to Shen Wenxi.
"How is that possible! How is it possible! The Tang Country’s planes couldn’t possibly fly that far!" Shen Wenxi yelled in anger, attempting to puncture what he thought was Shenwu Sanlang’s "lie."
"They weren’t sunk by planes." Shenwu Sanlang’s smile grew even more chilling: "They were sunk by Tang Army warships, a whole convoy, sunk without a single survivor!"
"..." Shen Wenxi realized their fleet was finished, but as a civilian official, he hadn’t previously grasped what losing sea control meant for a port city.
Now he understood, they were truly encircled! It’s not just about being unable to return to Qi Country—it’s that during this period of holding out, they would receive no support, no supplies.
"I should have left here earlier." Overwhelmed, Shen Wenxi found a chair to sit down, muttering to himself.
"Hah! You thought you could leave? Did you get the paperwork? Did headquarters authorize your departure?" Shenwu Sanlang mocked his compatriot.
He knew that the other man had only just received the relevant documents, waiting for permission, before rushing here, hoping to leave this place for the safety of Qi Country.
Unfortunately for Shen Wenxi, he still thought too highly of himself; if the fleet hadn’t been destroyed and the sea routes were still open, why would headquarters possibly authorize their departure?
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"Do you have any idea how much stuff we’ve taken from Qi Country? Do you know how many people are eyeing it right now? It’s impossible to leave, how could we possibly get away?" Shenwu Sanlang sat down with a smug look, the picture of triumph.
"You! You knew all along! And you still stayed here?" Shen Wenxi lifted his head in desperation, staring at Shenwu Sanlang before him.
Shenwu Sanlang burst into a hearty laugh, "The day I started slaughtering the Qi people and plundering their wealth to transport to Shen Country, I had already arranged an exit strategy."
He pointed to himself, "At least half of my share is secure. As for the rest... that’s beyond my control."
"So that’s it! I was short-sighted! No wonder, no wonder! Hahahaha, that’s exactly it, hahahaha!" While shaking his head, Shen Wenxi chuckled bitterly, appearing utterly mad.
He continued to laugh, then looked at Shenwu Sanlang, "So what you’re saying is, the money we plundered was, from the beginning, out of reach for the tens of thousands of soldiers here, right?"
"Not necessarily," Shenwu Sanlang shook his head. "If we could hold our ground, win the battle, and repel the Tang Army... then the huge sum of money we sent back to the country would indeed be distributed."
Shen Wenxi nodded again, then shook his head, "Is it because of this money that I was left behind to die?"
"I don’t know about that." Shenwu Sanlang handed an empty wine glass to Shen Wenxi, filling it with wine, "But I’ve come to realize in the past few days that the higher-ups seem to have been eyeing a sum of money for a while now, to deal with Shen Country’s crisis."
After all, the Shen Army had been crippled in the battle at Dongwan Island, and in theory, they didn’t have sufficient funds to quickly recover national power and conscript troops to expand the navy.
Yet, Shen Country managed to do just that! Anyone who thought about it carefully could guess that Shen Country must have accumulated a lot of debt and squeezed out quite a bit of its own finances!
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The country was undoubtedly aiming to profit from this war, to pay off debts and achieve self-redemption, because of this bad debt.
That’s why Shen Country was the first to choose a side and send troops to the battle after Qi Country fell into a passive state during the Qi-Tang conflict, and they had their reasons for doing so.
"Boom!" A loud explosion rang out as a Tang Army aerial bomb was dropped near the harbor, causing the secret command center where the two men were located to shake violently.
The chandelier above their heads swayed slightly, but unfortunately, it had been unable to light up since the day before. The last generator set in the power plant in the port area was destroyed, and Beiyuan City had lost all its electricity supply.
Now illuminating the room were some hastily installed candlesticks on the walls, their flames crazily flickering with the vibrations of the explosion, tearing at every shadow around, making the basement seem as if it were filled with dancing demons for a moment.
"General! General!" An officer rushed in, his voice clearly bearing bad news. As expected, upon opening the door, he began to report the situation outside, "We’ve lost the northern wall, and the south side is also collapsing!"
"What about the reinforcement troops? Weren’t they dispatched already?" Shenwu Sanlang asked in a drawn-out manner, as if out of obligation.
"The three battalions in the north have been defeated, the soldiers are nearly wiped out..." the officer replied with a grimace, "On the south side, the troops are counterattacking, but the losses are massive, they’re nearly spent."
"Send the reserve forces according to the earlier plan! Push forward! Hold the line! If we can’t successfully counterattack, then use the ruins and buildings to hold our ground! Hold on! We must hold on!" Shenwu Sanlang waved his hand, dismissing the officer.
With the battle reaching this state, as a commander, there was little he could do. So-called street-fighting was every man for himself; without walkie-talkies for detailed instructions, they could only rely on the fighting spirit of each troop to continue resisting.
"How much longer do you think we can hold out?" Shen Wenxi asked Shenwu Sanlang once everyone had left.
Shenwu Sanlang shook his head, responding, "No one can know such things now. How long each unit can fight depends entirely on their ammunition, their numbers, and how many living are willing to continue fighting."
He paused for a moment and then continued, "It’s possible that after three days, we’ll still hear gunfire in the city, or perhaps by this time tomorrow, we’ll be dead. Anything could happen, and whatever happens, I wouldn’t be surprised."
"Boom!" Another explosion came, but this time it was a 155mm howitzer shell that fell, not as loud and at a greater distance.
The battle continued unabated, and like ants, the Shen soldiers moved through the streets, ordered to the frontline with no idea of the situation they were about to face.
The commands they received were vague, telling them to engage the enemy upon contact, to hold every house, every yard, every wall!
For those goblins who had previously committed murder and arson around the city, the real horror of war was just beginning. Their hell was right in front of their eyes!
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