Chapter 136: Li Qiang's Expedition to Caofeidian (3)

Under the night sky, searchlights illuminated a battlefield spanning dozens of square kilometers. On one side, a black tide of zombies surged forward, sprinting with deafening roars; on the other, silent human soldiers stood as immovable as reefs, clad in plate armor and gripping their firearms, poised for battle.

The Jiyun River Bridge on the S103 was the first to open fire. While they engaged, rear units continued constructing defensive fortifications layer by layer. The General Staff’s new tactical doctrine called for "deep, wide defense"—a strategy of annihilating zombies while executing a phased, depth-based withdrawal.

A heavy machine gun company, equipped with 18 heavy machine guns, tightly locked down the bridge. They utilized a four-man crew per weapon: an observer, a primary gunner, an assistant gunner, and an ammunition feeder. A second heavy machine gun company stood by as a reserve, ready to rotate in when barrel changes were required.

In front of the machine guns on the bridge, three rows of 1.5-meter-high barbed wire were deployed. That was the extent of the available obstacles; large-scale distribution of wire to field armies would only follow the completion of the Haihe River defensive line.

As the zombie horde approached the western Jiyun River defense line, the entire line of heavy machine guns along the western perimeter of the three-kilometer "pocket" formation opened fire from across the river at a range of 2,500 meters. They mowed down the zombies like wheat being harvested.

The military-standardized Type 15 14.5mm heavy machine gun featured a muzzle velocity of 995 m/s with armor-piercing incendiary rounds and 1,250 m/s with sabot rounds. With an effective range of 2,500 meters, the total weight of the weapon was under 85 kg, with no single component exceeding 20 kg for transport. Although post-apocalyptic material constraints made these units roughly 10 kg heavier than the original blueprints, they remained remarkably lightweight for the survivors.

The lack of high-grade alloys reduced the barrel life from 6,000 rounds to 3,000. This issue could only be resolved once rare-earth mining sites were reclaimed; for now, the deficit was compensated for by increasing the number of rotating guns. Furthermore, the trigger mechanisms of newly produced weapons were redesigned with advanced mechanical engineering to prevent soldiers, who possessed superhuman strength, from crushing them. The mounts were also improved to allow for horizontal sweeping at a height of 1.5 to 2 meters—designed specifically to target the zombies' only fatal weakness: the head.

The tongues of flame from the heavy machine guns reached out 2,500 meters into the dense, rapidly encroaching horde. The sheer density of the zombies allowed the gunners to achieve the ideal of never wasting a shot. Each 14.5mm round severed limbs or torsos upon impact, often piercing through seven or eight zombies before ricocheting. Because only headshots were fatal, zombies with gaping holes in their torsos would often be knocked back into those behind them, only to scramble up and continue the charge.

Layer after layer of zombies was erased, yet the horde pressed on, soon piling up a wall of corpses that slowly crept forward. Despite the gunners' training in short, controlled bursts to balance accuracy with barrel cooling, the 3,000-round limit was reached in less than 60 minutes. On the bridge alone, 18 guns fired at least 54,000 rounds, eliminating fewer than 30,000 zombies. As they swapped barrels, the reserve company took over, maintaining an uninterrupted curtain of fire.

When the wall of corpses filled the 276-meter-long Jiyun River Bridge and reached the first line of barbed wire, the frontline gunners began a rapid disassembly of their weapons—breaking them down into seven major components: barrel, receiver, cradle, mount, base, ammo box, and seat—to retreat and redeploy at rear positions. This process repeated as they fell back through successive trenches.

Only when the flanks reported that the entire horde had entered the pocket—bisected by the Jiyun River—and artillery support was requested, did the troops hold their ground, refusing to retreat further. By then, they had withdrawn ten kilometers.

The 155mm artillery fire shook the earth, creating walls of flame that sealed the base of the pocket before sweeping westward. Experimental air-burst shells proved underwhelming; despite a theoretical coverage area of over 90,000 square meters, the 46 kg projectiles lacked sufficient lethality after accounting for fuzes and explosives. Many zombies continued to charge even after being struck. Reliability, however, was high; out of thousands of test shots, only one failed to detonate, and that dud simply became a heavy iron weight that crushed a few zombies upon impact.

The annihilation of 400,000 zombies took less than four hours, even in the dark of night. It consumed 28 million rounds of heavy machine gun ammunition and 500,000 artillery shells.

"Human ingenuity remains the only way to deal with such a massive horde," Li Fengyi remarked while reviewing the consumption report. "In the face of properly functioning industrialization, zombies are nothing but dross."

Commander Liu nodded thoughtfully. "True. Zombies have superior stamina and speed, and one bite is a death sentence, but they lack intellect. Once a generational gap in technology is established, unless the enemy demonstrates absolute tactical genius, it is nothing more than a one-sided slaughter."

"As long as we maintain our industrial production and technological upgrades, we will be fine," Li Fengyi said, as if it were a simple game. Liu glanced at him, finding the young man overly optimistic, though he kept his criticism to himself out of respect for Li’s mother.