Chapter 96: Recapturing Tianjin (1)

The roads at the front were being cleared one by one. The frontline command believed there was no need for any other obstacles, as these were merely a group of unarmed zombies who posed no threat in the face of modern firepower, inferior even to nomadic cavalry. With that energy, it would be more appropriate to transport more ammunition instead.

Out of caution, the Special Committee still ordered trenches to be dug at the front. At least, with some casualties to the cavalry, they would not be able to charge effectively. However, the zombies would not stop unless for some unknown reason; they did not flee.

How to respond to the fleeing zombie hordes? The mountain base had no contingency plan. Just recently, humans still believed zombies had never developed the consciousness to escape. Based on the latest zombie characteristics, the General Staff decided to use long-range artillery fire to intercept the running zombies.

One after another, warehouses were opened, and ammunition and weapons were transported to the front without cost, piled at various designated assembly points.

“No need to worry about air raids,” Li Qiang felt this was quite good, with such dense stacking, if an enemy air strike came, even if one missile hit, the Special Committee could return to the cold weapon era.

The warriors had prepared sufficient food and drinking water, standing by in the infantry armored vehicles. They would serve as the zombies’ food to attract them and undertake the final task of cleaning the battlefield.

The artillery and ammunition logistics bases were closest to the front line, with the most convenient transportation. Moreover, the roads around them were clear because much of the materials were still being prepared at the rear warehouses or in transit. Once the battle began, the materials would be consumed continuously, while replenishment from the rearmost warehouses would be transported over.

Compared to that, the food and water positions, which had only three transportation volumes per day, were a bit farther. They had prepared once for half a month’s food and water for 60,000 people. There were no through roads behind them; if insufficient, re-coordination could be made in time. Basically, if half a month’s quantity was insufficient, the ammunition would have been consumed as well, and there would be no need for more.

As for the trenches repeatedly requested by the Special Committee, the front tank soldiers thought it was superfluous, but he still dug a trench behind the artillery position. He did not want to disrupt the good relationship.

Hundreds of WZ551 wheeled chassis, WZ 8X8 wheeled chassis and BK wheeled chassis 100mm, 105mm, 120mm self-propelled wheeled heavy artillery, new 90-style 122mm wheeled self-propelled rocket artillery, 90A-style 122mm wheeled self-propelled rocket artillery were all concentrated in place on the north side of the Ziya River at the junction of the Beijing-Tianjin Expressway and the Binbao Expressway, lined up one after another along the Beijing-Tianjin Expressway northward.

On the other side of the highway, the road provided for ammunition vehicles to go back and forth for ammunition replenishment.

Because the road conditions were good, all self-propelled guns used were wheeled ones, to avoid damaging the roads, tracked armored vehicles had been required not to drive on highways except in necessary cases. Under the operation of professional military personnel, there was no need to worry about precision as much.

Each gun was surrounded by a full crowd of people, all trained personnel. During shift operations, they would soon complete independent operation under the leadership of experienced veterans. In peacetime, these were violations of operational norms, but currently no one was considering these.

They demarcated their own sectors, avoiding the highway in the extermination zone, which could be cleared last by tanks.

Li Qiang was a strong advocate of the tank artillery style. He placed the ZTZ99 main battle tanks on the north side of the Ziya River as the foremost defensive line. The Ziya River was their moat, which would consume the first wave of zombies. When attacking, the zombies’ corpses would have filled the river and would not obstruct.

The infantry armored vehicles slanted the side body toward the Ziya River, the vehicle front facing the highway, convenient for maneuvering in and out to exert firepower. Each armored vehicle had only the vehicle commander, driver, gunner, and 3 warriors. Only the operators within the shooting window and ammunition transport personnel were retained, which was sufficient. Between the armored vehicles were heavy machine gun and light machine gun positions, bearing the main extermination task, from the first generation Type 53 heavy machine guns of New China to the new-style 7.62mm machine guns of various calibers, all heavy machine guns were available. The Equipment Department would gradually standardize unified calibers in the future, currently mainly consuming the existing stock.

Each heavy machine gun squad retained only the shooting commander, shooter, and deputy shooter, three operators. The rest were all replaced by warriors performing unified tasks. No need to consider how to transfer, the positions were preset, ammo uniformly distributed by transport personnel.

During the preparation phase, ammo boxes had been piled full at the positions, within easy reach. Single chains, spare gun barrels and other easily worn parts were also placed within touch.

At the rear replenishment points, ammo and various firearms and equipment supplies were piled mountain-high.

Warriors outside these armored vehicles were all required to wear mail armor, but during operation, hands could not wear gloves, as the industrial department had not yet enlarged the gun trigger guards to accommodate gloved operation.

The mail gloves of the machine gunners hung on their waistbands, to be put on when needed. In the armored vehicles, there were iron pipes, tomahawks and other cold weapons, no one knew what changes the ten-thousand zombie horde would undergo, could it withstand this impact? Although professional soldiers all believed there was no problem, the Special Committee still inquired.

Considering the ground bearing capacity, the armored vehicles were about 100 meters from the river, they were the first line of defense.

The tense and busy work continued in this manner, until the start of the campaign, when the military arms production line was still in tense debugging, they wanted to strive for early production to ensure the stock. They had considered that ammunition would be consumed quickly, but they did not expect the consumption rate to be so fast.

The red flags of the participating troops illuminated the operational assembly area spanning 40 kilometers east to west and about 10 kilometers north to south. This area was half-surrounded by the Ziya River to the south and two rivers flowing into it on the east and west sides. The north was highly dense with various transport vehicles, personnel, and equipment coming and going.

On the 40-kilometer frontline, 1250 infantry fighting vehicles were arranged, in the middle 2500 light and heavy machine guns, plus 2000 large cannons of various calibers, forming a blood-and-flesh millstone to catch all the millions of zombies in one net.

The zombie extermination war in Tianjin began on August 10, 2015, and the propaganda department broadcast the battle process live on site.

First, armed reconnaissance vehicles scattered fresh blood everywhere, gradually luring the zombies to the designated area, then armed reconnaissance vehicles advanced from the reserved gaps to the north bank of the Ziya River, followed by tanks blocking the exits.

Large swaths of floating dust flew high in the sky, resembling a sandstorm, blackening half the sky.