CHAPTER 1677: CHAPTER 1594: PORT CHANGES HANDS

"Goodness me! Our Emperor sure knows how to keep us busy," the Tang Army company commander joked with a grin as he manned the radio in the trench. "We haven’t even beaten the Dwarves yet, and now the Elves are added to our plate."

"Haha!" Several soldiers laughed heartily; they didn’t really think taking care of a few Elves would be that big of a deal.

They managed to take down thousands of Dwarves each day, especially in the familiar yet unfamiliar Eternal Winter City.

The Great Tang Empire left behind so much when it moved on, and frequently sent people back to check things out, so they were very familiar with every blade of grass, every house in this city. Perhaps, even more so than the soldiers of the Dwarf 4th Group Army who were stationed here.

With the Emperor of the Great Tang Empire declaring war on the Elves, the Tang Army’s assault seemed to intensify. Just as Elf Imperial Concubine Iryn’s speech concluded, a large-scale bombardment by the Tang Army commenced.

As a few Tang Army soldiers chatted in the trench, countless rockets whizzed overhead, their sharp sounds chilling to the bone.

In the distance, columns of black smoke rose in the city, and the pitch-black smoke merged with the hazy gray sky.

Even though they were far from the bombardment zone, everyone could still feel the tremors beneath their feet. One could only imagine the devastation experienced by the target area.

In the port district, a small Tang Army squad was maneuvering. They circled around a collapsed building and aimed their guns at a relatively intact structure.

Gunfire emanated from that building, with Dwarf soldiers inside using machine guns to prevent the Tang Army from advancing directly.

Signaling an attack to his comrades, the squad leader, holding his weapon, was the first to dash towards the building, setting up a temporary cover position beside a broken window.

Behind him, the second soldier, weapon at the ready, entered the room and confirmed there were no enemies guarding one side. The third soldier followed almost immediately, aiming at the other side.

The Dwarves hadn’t set up any sentries here, and the attacking Tang Army soldiers saw through the door’s crack a few Dwarf soldiers nervously reloading their empty Boposha submachine guns.

Occasionally, a Dwarf soldier carrying a Mosin-Nagant Rifle would pass by, climbing upstairs to reinforce the windows on the second and third floors where the firing was ongoing.

Checking his watch, and confirming that they wouldn’t be deploying any heavy artillery to blast the entire building at this moment, the Tang Army squad leader signaled an attack once again.

One by one, his team members stealthily exited the room, aiming their guns at the Dwarf soldiers still engrossed in reloading ammunition.

A Dwarf soldier seemed to sense danger and looked up, only to see a Tang Army soldier with the barrel of a gun pointed right at his face.

Instinctively, he wanted to drop the drum magazine and reach for the rifle beside him, but a brutal massacre had already begun.

Dense gunfire erupted instantaneously, and the Tang Army rifles, fitted with silencers, produced a crisp sound that remained distinctive in the corridors.

A Dwarf soldier fell after being shot, and his comrade beside him, without time to even react, followed suit. The chaotic gunfire subsided, leaving only the constant sound of machine guns from the second and third floors.

The Tang Army soldier responsible for cleanup discarded an empty magazine and inserted a new one into his rifle. The soldier beside him, who had not fired, kept watch over the staircase, ready for any unforeseen situation.

A Dwarf soldier exited a room, seemingly wanting to check out what the strange gunfire was all about.

Just as he stepped out, a bullet nailed him to the wall. At point-blank range, the Tang Army pulled the pin of a hand grenade and expertly tossed it into the room the Dwarf had just vacated.

A few Tang Army soldiers swiftly moved past the door, rushed up the stairs, and as they opened fire on the Dwarf soldiers on the second floor, a muffled explosion sounded from downstairs. Dust swirled as the ground shook, and the Dwarves finally realized intruders had arrived beneath them.

"Enemies! Enemies!" a Dwarf Officer shouted anxiously, his voice echoing down the corridor, tinged with helplessness.

On the frontlines, with their suppressive fire lost, the Dwarven defensive line faltered, and the Tang Army began advancing, drawing near to the building.

The Dwarves, realizing the situation was hopeless, fled en masse, escaping to the other side of the building. The machine gunners couldn’t even manage to take their Maxim heavy machine guns with them.

Precious ammunition was abandoned, as were the corpses on the ground and a variety of miscellaneous items.

The Tang Army didn’t pursue the retreating Dwarves. Instead, they stayed back to clear the building’s interior, joining forces with the forward assault troops to establish a solid defensive perimeter around the area.

They had achieved their objective, capturing the desired location, and with their ammunition depleted, there was no need to continue taking risks.

"We’ve captured the tax building..." Grabbing the shoulder-held radio, the Tang Army officer overseeing the battlefield reported their success: "The port has been cleared... Yes, we should have secured the port by now."

"Encountered some trouble along the way; we ran out of anti-tank rockets during the battle, so the assault was a bit passive... Other than that, all is well." He finished speaking, hung the radio back on his shoulder, and surveyed the scattered debris around the room.

There were some Dwarf military food packages and a few empty ammunition boxes. He also spotted some bandages, which at least indicated one thing: the Dwarves seemed to have adequate supplies.

However, the Dwarves’ weapons were outdated, with Mosin-Nagant Rifles, Boposha Submachine Guns, and two Maxim water-cooled heavy machine guns...

If they hadn’t expended the rocket launchers they carried during the assault, these items wouldn’t have held them back for even a minute.

Within an hour of Tang Mo declaring war on the Poplar Empire, the Tang Army occupied the port of Eternal Winter Port, expelling the last Dwarf troops.

By evening, the Dwarf troops organized a limited counterattack. About 300 Dwarf soldiers attempted to reclaim the lost position, but they failed.

Despite leaving over 100 corpses behind, the counterattack ultimately ceased. The Tang Army couldn’t even comprehend the purpose of such madness by the Dwarves—they had no heavy weapons and not even artillery support, simply wasting their own lives and the Tang Army’s ammunition.