CHAPTER 1427: YOU CAN’T WIN A VERBAL ARGUMENT WITH 1344.

The Qin Country issued a public statement, declaring that their frontline troops’ use of landmines was not ordered by the higher-ups, and they were "voluntary."

This statement was feeble, but it used a large amount of space to condemn the Great Tang Empire for its missile attacks on cities. They accused the Great Tang Empire of using missiles to attack the capital city of Qin Country, Wuyang, causing numerous civilian casualties.

However, such condemnation was of no real use, as the Great Tang Empire was unlikely to change its combat plans because of it.

The missiles for the second attack on Wuyang City landed the next afternoon, and once again, Ying Duo’s secretary received a call, leading Emperor Qin Ying Duo to leave the palace for safety.

Then, the Great Tang Empire issued their statement: in light of Qin Country’s extensive use of landmines, Tang Country would conduct a ten-day missile attack on Qin Country’s capital, Wuyang, as a form of punishment and warning.

If the Great Tang Empire continued to encounter landmine ambushes, the missile attacks would not cease. And if, within a month, Qin Country continued to use landmines extensively on the frontlines, then the Qin higher-ups would have to take responsibility for the use of landmines.

The tit-for-tat at the press conferences wasn’t fatal; what truly decided the outcome of the verbal battle was the victory or defeat on the battlefield.

Qin Country was losing the war, which rendered their clamor largely meaningless. The defensive lines near the old capital were gradually being breached by the Tang Army, and without the shield of landmines, the Qin Army’s fortifications were virtually vulnerable.

Even though ten thousand Qin Army troops had reached the frontline and bolstered the strength under Liu Zhian’s command, all these troops were immediately thrown into the trenches, gradually being consumed on the battlefield.

A force of ten thousand, which used to hold significant sway on the battlefield, now under the assault of the Tang Army, managed to barely hold on for just over ten days.

Had it not been for a snowfall during this period which slowed down some of the Tang Army’s attacks, the collapse of the Qin Army’s defense lines would have occurred even faster.

On another battlefield, the Qin Army was retreating into their defensive lines, gathering forces at locations like the Lian Mountain Line, Si Mountain Line, Xishan Line, and Yecheng region, attempting to form a pincer position to resist the Tang Army’s advance.

However, the Tang Nation’s 6th Group Army involved here was highly agile, using small mountain special units to clean up the Qin Army’s outer defensive lines. This kind of combat was very fragmented but remarkably effective.

Zhang Xuan’s deployed troops at the peripheries suffered heavy losses, and gradually, gaps began to appear in the Qin Army’s defensive lines, leaving each stronghold isolated and unable to support one another.

Then, the main force of the 6th Group Army easily encircled these isolated strongholds, removing these nails, and annihilating the Qin Army within.

Though this tactic seemed to progress very slowly, in reality, the Qin Army sustained heavy losses, and the speed at which they lost positions was also very fast.

What infuriated Zhang Xuan was that the Tang Army’s small units frequently conducted night raids on his outer guard units and positions; the enemy had the advantage of night vision devices, allowing them to move as if at home during nighttime.

The hit-and-run tactics left the Qin Army quite unadaptable, and it wasn’t until they accidentally killed a soldier from the Tang Army’s night combat unit during an encounter that they found a more complete night vision system on the corpse.

It was only at this point that the Qin higher-ups truly realized their opponent was armed to the teeth in the truest sense of the word, and their night vision devices were simply unreasonable.

As Zhang Xuan’s southern group retreated step by step, beginning to lose large swaths of territory, even the captured Chu Country royal capital, Yecheng, started to totter, the Great Tang Empire’s naval fleet returned to the seas off Shu Country and began attacking coastal regions like Qingluan Port.

The Tang Army’s aircraft were so formidable that even the Qin aircraft along the coast could only be relocated to more inland airfields awaiting orders.

Coastal airports were destroyed, coastal radar stations were destroyed, coastal barracks and various security facilities were destroyed...

If the Great Tang Empire indeed had landing troops appear along the Shu Territory coast, the Qin Army stationed within the Shu Territory would certainly be unable to withstand them.

So, a large portion of the troops which Qin Country had mobilized with great difficulty had to be redeployed to Shu Territory, towards the entry to Shu, and towards the Chu Territory...

And the troops dispatched to the southern Shu Territory would continue to be scattered across the long coastline, a regiment here, a division there; in the end, even after dispersing twenty to thirty thousand troops, they couldn’t leave a noticeable trace.

The result was: the coastal areas of Shu Territory were still full of vulnerabilities, and if Tang Country landed, there would be danger everywhere... The first thing Sun Guang did after being promoted to Supreme Commander of the coastal defense troops was to send another telegram to Qin Country’s mainland, requesting fifty thousand more troops to strengthen coastal defense...

Of course, this was impossible because there were also Zhang Xuan and Liu Zhian waiting for reinforcements to arrive. The troops that could be spared for Sun Guang’s forces were naturally limited, and likely the ones for Liu Zhian and Zhang Xuan were also insufficient.

Out of the over a million mobilized troops, after being dispersed like this, less than three hundred thousand made it to Liu Zhian’s hands.

And these troops lacked substantial heavy weaponry: the Qin Army had suffered too much in the previous wars, making it impossible to replenish large quantities of heavy weapons, and they still hadn’t restored the structure of the heavily armed units.

From the great defeat at Xiajian to now, Qin Country had lost a total of ten armored divisions, with almost none of their tanks making it back near the old capital.

Actually, it’s already considered good that some officers and personnel escaped back; most of these armored units didn’t even return personnel—they were either eliminated by attack aircraft or abandoned their vehicles and fled, being captured.

With a shortage of personnel and weapons, Qin Country could only barely restore the structure of three armored divisions, and these divisions were mostly equipped with the type 4 tanks and Panther tanks obtained from Dahua.

Using World War II tanks to fight second-generation main battle tanks... obviously, it was impossible. The Qin Army’s armored corps could only move covertly and dispersed at night, being used as expendables to fill the defense line.

There was no choice; as soon as they gathered to launch a counterattack, these tanks would be wiped out by the Tang Nation’s Air Force—compared to being consumed one by one, gathering the tanks was an even quicker form of suicide.

Thus, Liu Zhian could only hold back and scatter these tanks behind the defense line, taking advantage of poor weather for occasional counterattacks. This tactic dispersed valuable armored units, but the effect was very limited.

And facing the Tang Nation’s concentrated armored units, the defense formed by a few or a dozen tanks was simply insignificant. For a moment, Liu Zhian’s box-like defense line began to waver.

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Another Chapter coming tomorrow...