Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 1173 - 1166: The War Begins

Chapter 1173: Chapter 1166: The War Begins

"I also want to participate..." His words had scarcely faded when Tangmo’s pleading voice came from behind him.

"You..." Cheng Ziang turned to look at her, hesitatingly said.

"I won’t be a burden, I will do my utmost to find the real culprit, to avenge Luo’er!" Tangmo implored.

"As long as you’re not impulsive, that’s the biggest help you can give us." Cheng Ziang let out a long sigh and shrugged helplessly.

Four days passed, and during these days, Cheng Ziang received several messenger letters from Fulanta. The letters stated that he had successfully infiltrated amongst those people, and they did not suspect him, a piece of good news that made Cheng Ziang feel confident.

Meanwhile, the search and clearing operation for the attackers was also underway. The Mobile Troop was spread out across the Lipei jurisdiction to search for the whereabouts of these invaders, while the Artillery Battalion was ordered to be ready for combat and to fire at any time.

In the afternoon of that day, the Joint Command received a report from a Reconnaissance Team. The report showed that behind the hills about forty-three kilometers southwest of Lipei, they had discovered an unidentified armed group suspected of being invaders, numbering around twenty people, and suggested requesting artillery fire coverage.

Receiving such a message for the first time, Wang Xu, as a decision-maker at the Joint Command, seemed quite conflicted.

"Has the announcement from Lipei been released?" he took a deep breath and asked a staff member.

"It has been released, we have informed all commercial and adventurer groups strictly forbidden from carrying weapons into Lipei territory!" the staff member replied affirmatively.

"Wang Xu, do we fire?" the Commander of the Artillery Battalion came up and asked.

As the commander of the army’s Artillery Battalion, he only had the authority to launch, not the authority to decide to fire; he could only order the guns to fire if Wang Xu nodded. After all, this was the Headquarters territory, and although the army headquarters was not strictly separate, there still needed to be a distinction.

"What if it’s just unrelated private armed forces? Wouldn’t that be a wrongful bombing?" Wang Xu fell into a quandary.

"Let’s fire, chief," the staff member stepped forward to suggest, "We’ve already warned all private armed forces entering the country. If they still carry weapons into our territory, they are our enemies, whether or not they are related to the attack. We should strike at them."

"Hmm," Wang Xu nodded thoughtfully, then said, "Commander Zhang, notify the Artillery Battalion to be ready to fire. Also, report the message to Headquarters, and ask them to decide!"

"Yes!" both men nodded simultaneously.

After much consideration, Wang Xu still did not dare to fire on his own and felt the need to seek approval from higher-ups. After all, if there was indeed a wrongful bombing, that was not a responsibility one person could bear.

The distance from the Joint Command tent to the Otherworld Gate was just one kilometer, and considering they were riding horses, the round trip would definitely not exceed half an hour.

Everyone waited quietly for a reply from Headquarters, and in the Joint Command tent, aside from the staff involved in command and coordination, the next largest group was the liaison officers from the subspecies.

As mentioned before, magic messenger communication is point-to-point, so it is not like radio that can listen to all channels with one receiver.

A typical Mobile Troop squad consists of five people, two of whom establish messenger communication. Each time they set out, the squad leaves behind a liaison officer in the Joint Command tent on standby to receive messages, so essentially every deployed Mobile Squad is based on a four-person team.

After about half an hour, the staff member finally arrived, though not because he had been negligent on the road; the half-hour also included the discussion time among the senior leaders of Headquarters.

He entered the camp and read the suggestion from Headquarters, which was only five words: "Make your own judgment." In other words, it was up to Wang Xu to decide.

After receiving the suggestion, Wang Xu pondered for a moment and finally made up his mind, slamming the table: "Fire!"

"Notify the squad to be ready for artillery targeting!" Wang Xu told the liaison officer of that small squad.

"Yes, sending immediately!" the liaison officer nodded and said.

"Artillery is ready, the area has been marked, we can open fire at any time!" reported Commander Zhang.

"Hmm, wait for a response from the Reconnaissance Squad." Wang Xu nodded.

Soon, the liaison officer received a reply from the front line and said to Wang Xu, "Commander, the front line is ready for guiding!"

"Good, fire!" Wang Xu nodded and ordered the Artillery Battalion commander.

Commander Zhang excitedly nodded, then ran out of the tent, and soon his robust voice could be heard outside, "Howitzer Battalion, a round of test fires, prepare, fire!"

As the signal flags waved, the artillerymen behind the guns pulled the lanyards with force, and eighteen cannons roared deafeningly all at once. For a while, sand and stones flew all over the position, the shells traced arcs through the sky, and whistled swiftly towards the designated area.

Elsewhere, as a part of the Reconnaissance Squad, a few members of the Mobile Troop tied up their horses, laying on the reverse slope of a low hill, quietly waiting for the artillery fire to arrive. After the Captain sent the reply, he looked down at his watch and then shouted, "One minute!"

A kilometer away from them, an unidentified armed group was setting up camp and starting a fire, prepared to take a brief rest, completely unaware that death was hurtling towards them at high speed.

Timing the moment, just over forty seconds, almost fifty seconds later, they heard a heart-wrenching screech from the sky. Following that, one by one, the shells hit the ground, causing violent explosions that made the earth tremble.

In a short span of time, eighteen consecutive shells exploded on impact, with the explosions deafeningly loud. Caught off guard, the group panicked and looked at each other in confusion.

Their horses, startled by the blasts, broke free of their reins and scattered in all directions, prompting some to chase after them while others remained rooted to the spot, bewildered.

"This is way off, they all missed," a team member said disappointedly, looking at the dust and smoke in the distance.

"What are you staring at? Hurry up and correct the coordinates and reply. Didn’t you see they’re about to run?" the Captain urged.

Quickly, the members of the Reconnaissance Squad corrected the coordinates and sent them back to the Joint Command. After receiving the reply, the Artillery Battalion adjusted their positions and fired again.

Unlike the initial test fire, this time, after correcting the coordinates, they executed three rounds of volley fire consecutively, sending a total of fifty-four shells whistling toward the intended target.

This was the first time the army had engaged in combat on the soil of the Otherworld since the Second Otherworld War over thirty years ago. To achieve optimum destruction, the Artillery Battalion pulled out all the stops for a three-round volley fire against an armed group of over twenty people.

"One minute!" the Reconnaissance Squad Captain shouted again on the other side.

"Boss, they’re about to run!" a team member yelled, pointing at the chaotic crowd in the distance.

"Snipers and support, open fire on them, suppress them!" the Captain ordered.

"Roger!" The two acknowledged as they briefly aimed and pulled the triggers at the distant enemies.

However, due to the great distance, their effectiveness was severely limited. Even the marksmen found it tough to hit their targets, while the machine gunners could only carry out approximate area fire, without much effect.

Despite this, the continuous firing from the two disrupted the group’s rhythm. Seeing clumps of dirt shoot up from the ground, they realized someone nearby was firing at them, but they couldn’t locate the Reconnaissance Squad immediately.

Both the machine gunner and the marksman had fitted silencers on their weapons. Although they were standard silencers and not the sound-eliminating Magic Silencers, it was still effective for those in disarray. The chaos made it impossible for them to discern the direction of the Reconnaissance Squad.

Soon, another round of pounding came. Howling shells densely smashed into the designated area, explosions creating clouds of dust that obscured the sky for a moment.

Clearly unfamiliar with Earth’s military tactics, if they had chosen to flee the area after the first test fire, they might have minimized their losses. But instead, they acted inconsistently, some hesitated and dawdled, thus squandering the precious time between the test fire correction and the volley fire.