Huge steam gun carriages moved slowly along the muddy road, grass clippings and branches pressed deep into the ruts beneath their wheels. Hundreds of artillery carriages were lined up in a neat formation, moving slowly like steel giants. The deafening roar of the steam engines, the footsteps of the legionnaires, and the crisp and loud clanging of the heavy metal feet of the mechanical soldiers as they collided with the hard rock. All of these sounds intertwined together to form the unique war melody of the age of firearm steam warfare.
While the other travelers were prioritized and sent to fight alone in smaller units, Renyu was ordered to follow the main army, which Renyu was part of, and on the march took down two power plants, a Timonium mine, and two small cities.
These zones are not unguarded by enemies; some are occupied by horse bandits or guarded by neutral worker-mechanics. When the armies arrive, the Dilseys in these neutral zones often surrender under the lure of Mina's military might and money. Of course there are also small forces loyal to the Duke and Governor of Silari.
White and yellow flames shot out of the muzzle of the cannon, the heavy shells cut a beautiful arc and fell into the target earth, the robots that suffered from the shelling instantly shattered into parts in the fire, the battle was over in a few minutes.Mina's army occupied the power plant.
Ten minutes later an airship slowly landed on the empty tarmac of this power plant. A large amount of supplies were brought down, which included food, weapons, and parts of steel gun carriages.
Like on Earth, modern armies are dependent on logistical resupply, and as Mina's hordes rumble across the land, troop morale is replenished with supplies, and parts worn out during the movement of steam artillery carriages need to be replaced. This was no different than on Earth, the difference being that on Earth the supply was based on railroads and highways. In this world it was dependent on airships.
And for most airships to land quickly, they needed an apron. This apron is not a straight runway occupying a huge ground area like an airfield, but a forty-meter-high steel rooftop. Airships are so buoyant that they can only land on the ground if the helium in their airbags is slowly deflated without external help. However, this is not the case for the regular landing of airships. On the landing platform of the power plant, the 700-ton supply airship dropped eight thick winches formed by twisting steel cables, which were coiled by the staff on the tarmac onto a steel winch powered by a steam engine. Then the steam engine was turned on, and the winch was slowly tightened under the huge force of the steam engine, and the airship in the sky was pulled down smoothly, and parked steadily on the platform on the top of this steel building.
Hundreds of tons of supplies were unloaded, damaged, and badly worn parts were loaded onto the airship.Renyu watched the airship slowly lift off, and finally understood why every war in the western part of the continent, in the land of Vinci, must seize the neutral zone.This power plant's shutdown high platforms were originally built on purpose to trade with other regions. The looting of the neutral zone was also for these airship resupply high platforms.
Without these supplies, a man marching with twenty kilograms of armor and guns is not a small amount of daily wear and tear. And if the steam gun carriage did not have enough parts to replace them, it was estimated that it would not go more than a hundred kilometers before it would stop due to mechanical problems. Mechanical infantry if the joints and gears also need to be replaced from time to time, the shell to be set on the rust and corrosion of the zinc fast from time to time, if you do not get timely repair and maintenance, fighting less than half a month is estimated to explode.
In wars on Earth, commanders on both sides will rack their brains to give the other side's logistical lines a black eye. The Vinci Corps in this world is fighting around these points where supplies can be resupplied. According to the plan, the main corps could not stay too long after hitting this point, and could only leave a small number of remaining troops to hold out. Giacomo was determined to repair and fortify this neutral point in order to hold out for a while against the enemy's attack, so blimps replenished it with supplies at a high frequency of one per half hour. The original bullet-riddled power plant was refreshed with welded steel plates brought in from the blimps.
After repairing the neutral supply point, Renyu's main force continued to advance towards the hostile city-states with the support of a three-hundred-meter-long, one-hundred-and-fifty-meter-wide military supply dirigible with flat airbags. This military supply airship with a load capacity of up to four thousand tons was fitted with a set of self-landing equipment, and the sixty steel cables they came with were all connected to piling equipment. When descending, the steel cables and piling equipment were lowered first, the ground personnel fixed the piling equipment on the ground, and the steam winch on the airship slowly tightened the steel cables, allowing the airship to slowly descend.
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The Battle of the Dilsey Plains was in its fourth month.Mina had gained the strategic initiative and the main corps had stayed for a month seven kilometers outside the large city-state controlled by the Governor. The city-states of this world cover no more than five square kilometers and are characterized by towering chimneys, about the size of Earth's thermal power plant chimneys, but taller and constructed of pure steel.
Small city-states had chimneys below fifty meters in height, large city-states had chimneys around seventy meters, and mega city-states had chimneys over a hundred meters. The city-state seven kilometers away was a mega city-state, the administrative center of Duke Silari in the Dilsey Great Plains.
Surrounding the Empire State Building-like chimney was a small area. Some areas were divided into twenty floors like a department store, this was the commercial area. There were areas that were cylindrical edifices with an oversized rotating mortar at the top of the edifice that could fire shells at areas up to four hundred meters away, this was the military area. There was also the area of the palace where huge rotating celestial models served as the ground surface of the building. As well as the industrial area that emits the noise of noisy rotating gears.
These areas are crammed together, not spread out flat on the earth like industrial parks on earth. On the one hand, it was too easy to make steel in this world, and there was enough steel to build such high-strength and compact structures, and on the other hand, the big chimney in the center of the city-state was supplying energy to the city-state with direct current, which had a relatively short transmission distance.
So many steel buildings, gathered together from a distance, looked like a small steel hill. Very spectacular and shocking. Around the city-state stood tall turrets and other defense buildings, as well as airship landing buildings, a single-mineral refinery factory, and a futures exchange where huge steam gears were precisely combined into mechanical computers.
A month ago, the main force Renyu followed was stationed in a neutral mine seven kilometers away from this city-state, and after five days of construction, a steam fortress thirty meters high and a hundred meters long and wide, almost the size of two office buildings put together, rose up. Under the protection of the army, countless airships airlifted over a large amount of metal materials, and the steam-driven Fortress Battery Bastion was constructed from the slag of the mine.
Steam fort boilers burn twenty-four hours a day. It provided power for the entire fort. With the support of this fortress, a pentagon shaped steam fortress with a scientific research institute at its core was also constructed two kilometers away, followed by the construction of turrets, barracks, flight platforms, and even a refining foundry that produced mechanical legions. In just twenty days, this mineral point turned into a solid fulcrum. Once this was completed, Giacomo ordered General Kalini and Renyu to station themselves in this steam fortress to confront the hostile city-states seven kilometers away, while he took the remaining forces to seek a showdown with the Duke of Silari's main force.
"Boom Boom Boom ......" the continuous sound of the cannon rang out, arriving in this world for such a long time, Renyu had already gotten used to such a loud noise. The powerful counter-thrust of the artillery made the gun carriage weighing eight tons tremble. The shells drew a beautiful arc and fell into the distant turret, a flame bloomed around the turret, of course, there were also three shells hit the turret squarely, the steel turret bent and deformed and groaned under the flame shockwave.
Standing on the robot carrier Renyu nodded in satisfaction seeing his battle results while looking in the other direction. There were enemy cavalry in that direction that were reinforcing towards here.
"Retreat!" Renyu saw fit to withdraw. The artillery vehicles quickly withdrew towards their own fortress. Ten minutes later, the artillery unit under Renyu's command withdrew to the vicinity of the fort. Under the protection of his own cavalry infantry as well as the fire support from the steam fortress, the enemy cavalry could only retreat after circling around outside of the artillery range.
General Kalini's mission is not to let the opposing city-state's troops come out, and Kalini's mission to Renyu is based on this strategic goal; Renyu will lead his mechanized units to destroy the city-state's outlying buildings every day. If there are more than ten counter-attacking units and the distance between them is more than 300 meters, he will withdraw, and if the distance between them is less than 300 meters, he will send a signal to the rear infantry to come and support him.
With this piecemeal attack, a large number of important defense and economic buildings around the original city-state had been reduced to rubble. Thirteen combat units had been annihilated, and more than fifty had been restrained. The effect of this was that in the entire Dilsey Plains, the two sides' engagement points were centered on the battlefield where Mina's twin fortresses and the city-state were facing each other.
According to Renyu's information, Duke Silari's main force tried to break through the two forts several times, and three times approached within 50 kilometers of the forts. However, they were stopped by the field army commanded by Giacomo. At this time, the Duke of Silari, who was already in a disadvantageous position, didn't dare to start a main battle, at least not when the other side had the support of the two fortresses.