72: War meat grinder (please add)

But the vehicles behind surged forward relentlessly, ramming aside the destroyed wrecks and driving unhesitatingly towards the enemy's gun muzzles.

At that moment, dozens of Armored Personnel Carriers in front of the tanks opened fire. A web of firepower from dozens of heavy machine guns firmly held back the charging forces at the intersection.

However, the pile of wrecked vehicles there grew larger and larger, becoming a formidable roadblock for the Black Hawk Empire forces instead.

Seeing this, Li Xiao immediately shouted into the command channel: 'Engineer teams, move up!'

The order was given. From dozens of vehicles in front of the wrecked vehicle barricade, several Engineers jumped down. Carrying toolboxes, they quickly approached the pile of scrap and pulled out the C4 explosives they had prepared in advance.

It turned out that before the battle began, Li Xiao and the others had considered this problem. Later, they decided to assign one Engineer to each assault vehicle.

On one hand, they could use C4 explosives to clear roadblocks caused by exploding vehicles clogging the road. On the other hand, it was also for launching suicide attacks at critical moments.

This was a helpless and tragic reality. Without armored units, they had to sacrifice countless lives for every meter they advanced.

A series of violent explosions followed. The piled-up wrecks were blasted apart by the shockwaves, tumbling forward and forming new obstacles.

However, Li Xiao didn't feel discouraged because this was intentional. The direction of the C4 blasts was deliberately set forward.

Because these wrecked vehicles were not only roadblocks for the Black Hawk Empire, but also shields for the Xiaoyao Squad. Most of the enemy's heavy machine gun bullets were blocked by these stacked-up vehicle carcasses.

Although they couldn't withstand tank cannon fire, being able to block heavy machine gun bullets made the charge considerably easier for the assault troops.

And in fact, the same scene was playing out simultaneously at all four assault directions on Xi City.

Relying on this method, the first wave of nearly ten thousand men closed in to a position about two to three hundred meters from the toll station.

At the Black Hawk Empire Xi City Combined Regiment headquarters, Lieutenant Colonel Chen Jun, the regimental Commander, watched the massive LCD projection screen in the command hall, displaying real-time combat footage from all four directions.

When he saw the Xiaoyao Squad using wrecked vehicles to block attacks and continuously advance, his eyes instantly turned sharp.

He called over the communications officer and ordered: 'Main battle tanks, rapid fire! All mortar companies, extend your fire to cut off the enemy Engineer units!'

The order was quickly transmitted via radio to the ears of all Black Hawk Unit Commanders. Following that, the tanks equipped with auto-loaders entered a frenzy mode. Shell after shell mercilessly rained down on the heads of the Xiao Yao Unit soldiers.

And the organized mortar companies fired shells even more intensely, as if they cost nothing. Fireballs continuously blossomed on the highway, and smoke instantly filled half the sky.

Less than ten minutes into the battle, Li Xiao had already lost over two thousand men on the frontal battlefield, while the Black Hawk Empire had merely lost some durability and ammunition.

'It seems I still underestimated the Black Hawk Empire's offensive capabilities!'

Li Xiao lowered his head in contemplation. Although the other three fronts were only feints, the casualties were also heavy. He was considering whether to start using the not-so-numerous M20S quad rocket launchers.

Just then, Liu Nian sent a message. The infiltration forces had already gathered at Xi City High School. He asked Li Xiao if they could launch the attack.

Li Xiao considered for a minute, told Liu Nian to hold position, and then ordered the first wave to dismount and launch a foot assault!

Thus, a large number of soldiers abandoned their vehicles, climbed over the wrecked cars, and charged from the highway into the toll station passage area.

But they were soon met with sweeping fire from the heavy machine gun web. Rows of soldiers fell into pools of blood. Yet, even so, not a single soldier retreated.

They surged forward wave after wave towards the armored defense line, leaving mountainous piles of corpses on the wide lanes in front of the toll station.

However, these corpses instead became human shields for those who followed to block bullets. At the cost of nearly a thousand casualties, the vanguard managed to push forward to a position about a hundred meters from the toll station.

Seeing that the troops at the front had drawn enough firepower, Li Xiao quickly ordered the players in the first wave to once again organize Engineers to blast the obstacles and guide the all-terrain vehicle teams into the battlefield.

Despite bullets whizzing overhead and shells constantly exploding on the ground, creating dense craters.

The Engineers still pressed on under the artillery fire, gradually clearing the obstacles.

During the ten-plus minutes spent clearing the roadblocks, over three thousand soldiers from the first wave had already fallen before the toll station, suffering over fifty percent casualties.

Fortunately, the roadblocks were now cleared. A large number of all-terrain vehicles poured into the toll station passage area from the cleared channel. This organized group of all-terrain vehicles numbered over a thousand.

They breached the defenses in a dense swarm like ants, their tires forced to crush over the corpses of their comrades as they charged towards the Black Hawk Unit.

Just as the all-terrain vehicle swarm charged past the human shields formed by the first wave infantry, the tanks blocking the road suddenly retreated, and five infantry fighting vehicles rolled out.

Then Li Xiao heard the ear-piercing roar of twin-linked rapid-fire cannons. Hundreds of armor-piercing shells per second formed a fan-shaped curtain sweeping towards the all-terrain vehicles.

Boom boom boom boom!!!!!

The dense swarm of all-terrain vehicles simply couldn't evade the rapid-fire cannon attacks. Each armor-piercing shell, dealing up to two thousand points of vehicle damage, could instantly destroy one all-terrain vehicle.

If you could look down from a high altitude, you would see the shells fired by the infantry fighting vehicles igniting the all-terrain vehicles like firecrackers, one spark at a time.

But not every shell from the infantry fighting vehicles found its mark, and not every all-terrain vehicle charging head-on was unlucky.

Over the short distance of one to two hundred meters, the infantry fighting vehicles intercepted nearly half of the all-terrain vehicle swarm. Of the remaining half, a large portion was taken out by heavy machine guns at close range.

Even so, over a hundred vehicles still managed to reach the Armored Personnel Carriers. The infantry on board fearlessly pulled the fuses on their C4 explosives and threw themselves at the Black Hawk Unit.

The deafening blasts of C4 explosions drowned out the tank cannons. Small mushroom clouds shot into the sky. Twenty to thirty Armored Personnel Carriers were destroyed at the cost of nearly eight thousand Xiaoyao Squad casualties.

Li Xiao's heart bled. Back when he counterattacked the combined company sent by Xi City to surround him, dealing with those dozen or so Armored Personnel Carriers and combat vehicles had been so easy.

And now, merely due to the disparity in equipment, they had to pay such a heavy price in blood.

With the constant heavy machine gun fire gone, the surviving thousand-plus soldiers in front of the toll station managed to hold on. However, the infantry fighting vehicle cannon fire hadn't stopped. Armor-piercing rounds easily pierced through the piles of corpses, inflicting fatal damage on soldiers hiding behind them.

'Second wave! Continue the attack! Liu Nian, your infiltration forces can begin their operation!'

The ten thousand men of the second wave launched a human wave tactic. With two hundred civilian vehicles drawing fire, they surged towards the toll station like a flood.

Due to the roadblocks and corpses, Li Xiao hadn't deployed the meng hu off-road vehicles and his troops with the first wave. Otherwise, he would have been completely wiped out by now.

Now he hoped the second wave could deplete enough durability from those tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, so that his rocket launchers could achieve instant kills, allowing them to push into the city district in one wave.