Chapter 33: A traitor, there is a traitor attacking from behind!

"Get down! Take cover!"

The sergeant, lucky enough to have avoided being hit, scrambled at top speed to crouch behind the sandbags to his side, his face twisted with irritation as he shouted, "Damn it! Our shells can't penetrate it! What kind of structure is that building? How is it so hard?"

No sooner had he spoken than a soldier nearby cried out anxiously, "Sergeant Walter, that must be the town's bell tower. It’s likely a stone structure—it’s practically a bunker!"

"We need to switch to armor-piercing shells to get through that thing, otherwise it's useless!"

Hell!

The soldier didn't need to tell him; Sergeant Walter knew exactly what that thing was. He was just venting his frustration. Their infantry regiment had been ordered to capture this town and the surrounding villages, but who would have thought they would encounter a building as sturdy as a bunker here?

Under normal circumstances, their infantry guns didn't even carry armor-piercing rounds. After all, it was common knowledge that the Hanwu Empire's mechanization was backward and their border defenses were sparse. They had already breached several fortress zones along the Hanwu border, and in most other cases, infantry guns simply didn't require armor-piercing ammunition.

As a result, they now found themselves in an awkward predicament.

Meanwhile, inside the bell tower, the Hanwu soldiers were roaring with laughter.

"Hahaha! Cheklov, you did a great job! This really is an excellent defensive position!"

"Let those damn Black Eagle bastards go to hell! Hold this bell tower, and they won't get across the bridge!"

The town had a bit of history, to the point where a local lord had long ago built this stone tower—or rather, a small fortress—in front of the bridge. It was practically impregnable. Although the building was aged, it had been well-maintained, leaving it sturdy enough to hold its own even now.

Given the current situation, unless the enemy used 75mm infantry guns to bombard them continuously, it was highly unlikely they could crack their little fortress.

Cheklov, in charge of the machine gun, curled his lips into a smile, preparing to continue suppressing the enemy at the bridgehead with machine-gun fire, when another barrage from the distance came crashing down.

"Futile..."

He was just about to mock the Black Eagle Empire's artillerymen with disdain when, the very next moment, a 75mm shell shot accurately through the window and exploded inside the bell tower!

The Black Eagle artillerymen at the distant firing position cheered with excitement. One soldier, still biting into a chocolate bar, was warmly swarmed by his comrades, who showered him with praise for his marksmanship.

"Hauptmann, you truly live up to your reputation as an ace gunner. That was incredible!"

"Unbelievable! How did you manage to put a shell right through the window from this distance?"

The artilleryman named Hauptmann merely curled his lip with disdain and said with a laugh, "Nothing special. Practice makes perfect. It’s just that the backward Hanwu Empire hasn't seen what real artillery is!"

"Alright, boys, stop the chatter. Keep firing and suppress them—let's get the brothers up front to capture that bridge for good!"

Once the bell tower had been struck through the window, the loss of cover from that machine-gun nest caused the combat situation on the bridge to reverse instantly. Previously, the Black Eagle soldiers had been pinned down by the bridgehead machine gun, but now, it was the Hanwu soldiers on the other side of the bridge who were being suppressed by the enemy’s infantry guns.

A heavy machine gun that had been set up there was blasted into fragments, along with its gunner, by a few shells falling from the sky before it could even be relocated. The other Hanwu soldiers had no choice but to flee in a panic; under such heavy artillery coverage, they couldn't hold their ground at the bridgehead!

On the bridge, Sergeant Walter gestured to his men, and they charged toward the opposite end. As long as they could use the artillery cover to establish a bridgehead on the other side, the bridge would be theirs completely!

However, just then, he suddenly heard a sound coming from behind.

Curious, he looked back, only to be stunned by the sight.

Hauptmann, still busy directing fire against the enemy on the opposite bank, suddenly felt a tremor in the ground. A distinct sound of grinding metal and the roar of engines was gradually approaching from the rear.

He turned around, puzzled. What on earth was coming up from behind?

"What's coming? Is it our reinforcements? I hadn't heard that we had more reinforcements arriving."

Another artilleryman leaned in, looking back with curiosity, while a third dismissed it: "Don't worry about it. Who knows which unit just arrived?"

"On this battlefield, we're the only ones with mechs. This movement must be from a mech. A mech coming from our rear—what else could it be but reinforcements?"

No sooner had the soldier spoken than two massive iron cans—one tall, one short—climbed over the ridge on mechanical legs.

The two armored vehicles looked like giants standing on the high ground, looking down at the battlefield below. The Black Eagle emblem on the armor was strikingly visible.

Seeing that they were their own men, the artillerymen breathed a sigh of relief. Some waved at them, while others continued moving shells to resume the bombardment.

They had come from behind their own lines, they were domestic models, and they bore the insignia of their own army—how could they be enemies?

But in the next instant, a dense burst of machine-gun fire erupted. In the blink of an eye, the artillery position with its six infantry guns was swept by a storm of metal.

"Ah! My leg, my leg!"

"What the hell? What are you doing? Are you crazy?"

"Traitors! There are traitors!"

Panic-stricken screams echoed across the position one after another. The soldiers who hadn't been shredded by the machine-gun fire scrambled to escape in all directions, looking back in disbelief at the armored vehicles behind them.

They never dreamed that their own mechs would betray them, attacking the Black Eagle Empire's own forces from the rear!

As for whether these two mechs might have been captured by the enemy, with the pilots replaced by another group?

The thought didn't even cross the minds of the Black Eagle soldiers. Mechs weren't something just anyone could jump into and operate. Without long-term training, how could Hanwu soldiers know how to pilot them? This had to be an act of betrayal!