Chapter 146: The Art of War of the Qinhuangdao Qinglong County Zombies (4)

When Li Qiang led the 4th Sharpshooter Company to arrive, the vanguard of the zombies had already surged to within twenty to thirty meters of the defense line. To clear the field of fire, there was only a single, meter-and-a-half-high strand of barbed wire in front. If a machine gun barrel needed to be replaced just once more, the defense line would be breached. Although the barrels of the heavy machine guns were glowing red hot, no one dared to risk changing them.

With a loud crack, one of the heavy machine guns finally suffered a catastrophic barrel explosion. In accordance with the special committee's regulations, the primary gunner who was struck fell backward without a sound, twitched a few times, and went still, his blood pooling on the ground beneath him.

Sensing that fresh human flesh was within their grasp, the zombies succumbed to their primal frenzy, howling as they charged forward in rapid strides.

Bang, bang—a rapid sequence of single-shot Type 81 rifle reports echoed across the narrow canyons. To any civilians unfamiliar with firearms, it would have sounded like continuous fully automatic fire.

The soldiers of the 4th Company deployed one squad per exit, standing in double-layered, intersecting ranks right at the openings, while leaving one squad behind to safeguard Li Qiang.

The 4th Company soldiers assumed a standing firing stance, their rifle butts firmly braced against their shoulders, firing shot after shot. Their weapons seemed fused to their bodies as individual bullets accurately drilled into the zombies' heads, blooming dark red flowers of impact. The effectiveness far surpassed that of the heavy machine guns, and they quickly managed to stem the zombie assault.

Heavy machine guns could not guarantee that every single round would strike a zombie's head, and those that failed to hit vital organs would continue pressing forward. In contrast, the precision marksmanship of the 4th Sharpshooter Company hit the zombies in the head almost every single time; whenever a shot was fired, a target went down. Occasionally, when a soldier missed, a squad leader would step in to guide them while casually putting down any slipping-through-the-net zombies with a single shot.

The leader of the 9th Squad, tasked with Li Qiang's close protection, said to him, "Commander-in-Chief, those are newly replenished soldiers whose training is still insufficient."

Each infantryman was issued five standard magazines of thirty rounds each. Seeing that the 4th Sharpshooter Company's semi-automatic firing rate was no slower than full-automatic fire and their ammunition was depleting rapidly, Li Qiang simply ordered another unit to exclusively supply ammunition to sustain the 4th Company's consumption.

Due to the topographical constraints of the exits, it remained impossible to emplace more heavy machine guns. Far away within Qinglong County town, heavy artillery opened fire. The shells blasted into huge boulders, and the shattered rock fragments rained down on the soldiers stationed at the heavy machine gun positions in front of the 4th Company, knocking several men to the ground on the spot.

Li Qiang hurriedly ordered the soldiers to fall back. Countless zombies surged out of the canyon, their heads and faces caked in thick dust and dirt. The dust churned up by the artillery shells ended up obscuring the infantrymen's field of fire.

"Bazookas!" Company Commander Gao roared. Grabbing a Type 40 rocket launcher, he aimed at the zombies and fired. With a thunderous boom, the rocket detonated right in the middle of the horde, and several more rockets were quickly launched after it.

Unless a rocket hit a zombie's head, any other impact was treated as nothing more than a minor scratch. Due to their rate of fire, the bazookas were less effective than the rifles, and a growing number of zombies continued to rush forward.

Illuminated by the blazing fires, the ash-covered, dirt-stained zombies bared their fangs and brandished their claws like demons of hell descended upon the mortal realm.

Li Qiang pulled his chief of staff close and asked, "Can this exit be covered by the outer artillery group?"

After calculating for a moment on his handheld PDA, the chief of staff replied with some uncertainty, "Only the artillery in Xiaoyingzi Town along Provincial Highway S252 might be able to reach it, though the angle is still a bit skewed. If we have the soldiers on the ridge pull back, blast away the two-meter-high hilltop, and then have our troops retreat a bit further back, it should work."

The situation was critical, and an increasing number of zombies were pouring in through the mountain pass. Li Qiang promptly ordered the soldiers on both heights to withdraw and establish a new defense line five hundred meters further back.

Once the soldiers were in position, he ordered the external artillery group to open fire. This time, the results were vastly improved. The artillerymen, who had already fired tens of thousands of rounds, leveled the hilltop by two meters before delivering precision strikes from nearly twenty kilometers away, dropping shells right into a two-square-kilometer zone just skimming the ridge. Frequently, shells even swept past the crest, directly carrying away the zombies standing upon it.

Although some zombies still managed to break through the artillery barrage, their numbers were now small and posed no threat to the defense line.

After less than an hour of combat, the artillery fire thinned out. Xiaoyingzi Town reported that ammunition was running low; with the night being dark, the roads steep, and the distance too great, ammunition logistics could no longer keep pace.

While the artillery in Xiaoyingzi Town was still firing, Li Qiang was already overseeing the construction of defensive fortifications. A five-hundred-meter expanse of open ground ahead served as a danger zone for shell impacts, making it impossible to station troops there. Instead, he deployed the five Zombie Assault Vehicles hastily fabricated by the Industrial Department prior to their departure.

The moment the shelling ceased, the 1500-horsepower tank engines of the assault vehicles roared to life, billowing black smoke.

A pair of massive, serrated crushing drums at the front and rear rolled across the rough, gravel-strewn ground, directly ramming into the zombie horde.

Catching the scent of human drivers enclosed within the steel-piped cabs, the crazed zombies swarmed over them in a frenzy.

The zombies in the path were ruthlessly crushed into pulp by the three-meter-high rollers. Industrial-grade chainsaws installed along both flanks of the assault vehicles featured coarse teeth that felled any zombie the moment it brushed against them.

With the terrain being narrow—eight hundred meters wide and a depth of only five hundred meters—the five assault vehicles could not build up high speeds. As a result, dense swarms of zombies trailed behind the vehicles, roaring and howling as they climbed aboard. Although the drivers could see through their rearview mirrors that zombies had piled up on top of the vehicles, the conical top design prevented the creatures from accumulating, causing them to be continuously pulled down by the zombies below.

Using his walkie-talkie, Li Qiang directed the assault vehicles to form an echelon line, advancing one vehicle every hundred meters from left to right in alternating crushing passes. The sparse formation left numerous gaps, prompting many zombies who realized the canned meat was out of reach to charge toward the main defense line instead.

While the zombie assault vehicles dominated the horde, their driver compartments were constructed of mere steel pipes and lacked protective armor. The terrain where the assault vehicles operated was rugged and uneven, causing them to leap high into the air and slam back down repeatedly. The soldiers on the defense line did not dare to fire casually and could only watch Li Qiang with anxious eyes.

Li Qiang issued his command: "4th Sharpshooter Company, blockading fire."

He glanced at the line of heavy machine guns arrayed beside him, knowing they could not hold back the zombies for long. Heavy machine gun barrels inevitably required changing, and ammunition belts needed replenishing. With zombies capable of crossing five hundred meters at a full sprint of forty kilometers per hour in under fifty seconds, fighting a protracted defense battle against the horde without sufficient depth was impossible.

He looked back again at the various vehicles parked haphazardly across the streets and alleys. Ever since the recapture of the Caofeidian heavy industrial base, all kinds of vehicles had undergone armored modifications. Although they were supposed to be fully mechanized troops, logistics vehicles could not naturally be armored units; during the recent upgrades, these heavy trucks had also been completely wrapped in thick protective barriers made of steel piping.

Li Qiang gave the initial order: "All forward heavy machine guns, set the maximum elevation limit to 1.8 meters." This was the standardized maximum elevation for the heavy machine guns.

The soldiers went about their duties without panic, calling out their status one after another: "1st Platoon, 1st Company, elevation calibration complete!" "2nd Platoon, 1st Company, elevation calibration complete!" ......