176: bombing Ganzhou

Inside the command center, Jiang Xin's gaze was fixed on the two red areas marked as Corpse King lairs on the electronic map.

A cold and cruel smile played on his lips, as if he could already see the scene of judgment descending.

"Li Yi," his voice was steady but filled with a killing intent, "immediately contact the Lujiang main base. Order: Tonight at 11:00 PM sharp, the missile forces will launch the first round of strategic bombing on the two target urban areas, north and south of Qianzhou City!

After the first round of bombing, the peacekeeper bomber squadron will take off immediately. They must thoroughly 'cleanse' the core areas of these two urban districts with high-explosive incendiary aerial bombs before 12:00 AM tonight!

Remember, once 12:00 AM passes, the ammunition will refresh, and the missile forces will immediately conduct a second round of saturation strike! After the missiles are expended, the peacekeeper squadron will take off again for a second round of bombing!"

He turned around, looking at the loyal Flight Commander beside him, and sneered, "I want these filthy scoundrels to witness, in despair, what missile carpet bombing and saturation bombing truly mean! What a true steel storm is!"

The reason he set the attack time precisely at midnight was to perfectly utilize the red alert system's almost bug-like 'daily ammunition refresh' mechanism.

This meant that he could unleash double the firepower in a single night, delivering two consecutive waves of devastating strikes! This was a crushing art of war that only he could employ!

"Understood, Commander!" Li Yi snapped to attention, saluting perfectly, his eyes gleaming with excitement and ferocity.

As an ordinary hind pilot who had risen through the ranks to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, commanding all flying units of the entire Red Alert Legion, thanks to his distinguished military achievements and rare wind-element Superpower, Li Yi had long become a core senior executive within Jiang Xin's Red Alert Legion.

He quickly turned and, via an encrypted communication channel, relayed Jiang Xin's orders word for word to the missile forces and air base far away in Lujiang.

Late Night

Lujiang Base

The residential area was already asleep, but the military zone was brightly lit, permeated with a tense atmosphere of impending war.

At the pre-set launch positions several kilometers outside the base, 40 v3 rocket launchers stood like sleeping steel behemoths.

These terrifying weapons, all upgraded to three-star level after the baptism of the Lujiang Zombie Tide battle, had now completed their final checks.

All v3 rocket launchers were refitted with thermobaric bomb warheads, which had the widest killing range and the most terrifying power! Each missile was enough to turn an area the size of several football fields into an absolute death zone!

Missile force Commander Zhao Gang sat in the mobile command vehicle, his eyes fixed on the constantly flickering parameters on the screen. The public communication channel was silent, with only a faint hiss of electricity. All personnel were waiting for the final command.

"All units, attention!" Zhao Gang's voice, clear through the radio, reached every launch vehicle: "Adjust parameters, confirm target coordinates!"

"Vehicle 1 debugging complete, coordinates confirmed, ready to launch!" A calm technician's voice was the first to sound. "Vehicle 2 complete!" "Vehicle 3 complete!" ... "Vehicle 40 ready!"

Cold reports came in sequence, like a countdown to death.

Zhao Gang took a deep breath and issued the final command in the most steady voice: "Final coordinate confirmation! Qianzhou City South District, North District!

South District longitude X°-Y° East, latitude X°-Y° North. North District longitude X°-Y° East, latitude X°-Y° North!

Squad 1 targets the South District! Squad 2 targets the North District!"

"Squad 1 understood!" "Squad 2 understood!"

"Launch countdown! 10, 9, 8... 3, 2, 1! Fire—!!!"

With Zhao Gang's command! "Boom boom boom boom—!!!" All 40 v3 rocket launcher vehicles simultaneously lurched downwards! The immense recoil even shook the earth! 40 strategic missiles, like towering pillars, spewed blinding white exhaust flames that were impossible to look at directly, tearing through the dark night sky, roaring upwards with a resolute determination to destroy everything!

The tremendous sonic booms were like continuous thunderclaps, clearly audible from tens of kilometers away, making people's eardrums ache!

Lujiang Base Residential Area

A man who had gotten up to use the restroom was awakened by the tremendous roar and the bright light outside his window. He rubbed his eyes and walked to the window, then was stunned by the sight before him! "Old Zhang! Old Zhang! Wake up and look! It's missiles! So many missiles! The army is launching missiles again!" He frantically shook his sleeping roommate, his voice distorted with excitement.

The same scene unfolded in many corners of the base. Countless awakened residents rushed to their windows or balconies, gazing in awe at the white streaks of light rising from the ground like inverse shooting stars, tearing through the long sky, their faces illuminated brightly by the glow of the tail flames.

"My God... how many must there be..." "It must be thermobaric bombs! I watched previous battle broadcasts, that kind of tail flame is unique to thermobaric bombs!"

"Where are they going to flatten this time?"

"It's magnificent! And terrifying too..."

The chatter among the populace was filled with awe, pride, and a hint of reverence for war itself.

20 massive missiles carrying thermobaric warheads first broke through the atmosphere, performed a brief suborbital flight in near-Earth orbit, adjusted their posture, and then re-entered the atmosphere, beginning their terminal penetration at a terrifying speed of Mach 20! The missile bodies violently rubbed against the air, generating an incandescent halo, like falling stars of death, plunging towards the land of Qianzhou!

"Whoosh—boom!!!!!!!!!!"

The first thermobaric bomb accurately detonated above the core of the South District where the Corpse Kings gathered! Instead of the traditional massive fireball, an extreme white light, countless times brighter than the midday sun, suddenly erupted, instantly illuminating the night sky of the entire Qianzhou South District as if it were daytime! This white light even made Jiang Xin and others in the command center instinctively squint their eyes!

After the white light came the arrival of destruction! The first wave of explosion evenly dispersed a special high-explosive fuel cloud over a vast area below, and the subsequent second ignition instantly detonated this large fuel cloud!

"Boom boom boom boom—!!!!" An even larger, hotter white fireball rolled and expanded! Terrifying heatwaves swept outwards like a tsunami! The oxygen in the air was instantly sucked out! The temperature in the area below soared to over several thousand degrees Celsius in a thousandth of a second!

Countless low-tier and unranked zombies didn't even have time to wail before they were directly vaporized or carbonized in this extreme heat! Even slightly stronger First-Tier Zombies were severely burned, their internal organs instantly roasted! Even the tough-skinned Second-Tier Zombies were like toys thrown into a steel furnace, their surfaces instantly charred and cracked, letting out painful howls!

Just the first round of thermobaric missile salvo almost eliminated more than half of the living forces in the Zombie Tide! The entire target area was turned into a scorched, deadly vacuum!

As soon as the missile forces finished launching, all obstacles had already been cleared from the runways of the two large Air Command Centers at Lujiang Base.

20 peacekeeper bombers were already poised on the runway, ready for takeoff. These behemoths were 55 meters long, with a wingspan of 56 meters and a height of 14 meters. Their dark gray paint absorbed all light, exuding a cold metallic texture. Their massive bomb bays were fully loaded with up to 58 tons of various aerial bombs, including high-explosive bombs, incendiary bombs, and more!

The crew members were conducting final pre-flight checks, the atmosphere tense and orderly.

"Command Center, this is Peacekeeper One, all systems checked, requesting takeoff clearance!"

"Peacekeeper Two ready!" ... "Peacekeeper Twenty ready!"

As the signal of "launch successful" came from the missile forces, Lujiang Base Air Force Commander Zhuang Qian unhesitatingly issued the order: "Peacekeeper squadron, according to the planned schedule, take off!"

"Boom boom boom—!!!!" The roar of 20 aero-engines instantly drowned out everything else! The massive bombers began to taxi, accelerating faster and faster, finally breaking free from the earth's shackles and soaring into the night sky with their noses held high!

The massive formation of peacekeeper bombers, carrying a suffocating pressure, headed directly for Qianzhou at supersonic speed! The roar of the engines and the sonic booms generated when breaking the sound barrier once again startled the Lujiang citizens who had just fallen asleep.

"They're here again! This time it's bombers!"

"Look! There are so many big guys in the sky!"

"Strategic bombers! My goodness! What a lineup!"

"Where are the troops going to completely wipe out the monsters this time?"

"So cool! This is the power of us humans!"

Under the gaze of countless shocked, curious, and proud eyes, 20 peacekeeper bombers, like mobile aerial fortresses, arrived over Qianzhou at an altitude of ten thousand meters.

At this time, the North and South Districts below were still a sea of fire. The terrifying high temperatures caused by the thermobaric bombs had not completely dissipated, and the air was filled with the stench of burnt flesh and scorching heatwaves.

"All units!"

"Open bomb bays!"

"Target area confirmed!"

"Drop bombs!"

Following the squadron leader's cold command, the massive bomb bay doors on the peacekeeper bombers' bellies slowly opened.

The next second, the shadow of death poured down like a waterfall! Countless hundreds of kilograms of high-explosive incendiary bombs, like hammers of punishment from the heavens, descended densely upon the struggling zombie horde below with a mournful whistling sound!

"Bang—!!!!"

"Boom boom boom boom—!!!!!"

"Rumble—!!!"

Dense, violent explosions rang out one after another! The aerial bombs, upon impact, not only unleashed even more terrifying shockwaves, tearing apart residual buildings and zombies, but also brought with them viscous, deadly incendiary agents, instantly forming spreading seas of fire!

Those zombies that had fortunately survived the thermobaric bombs didn't even have time to catch their breath before they were once again covered, torn apart, and melted by this indiscriminate steel storm!

The entire North and South Districts of Qianzhou were completely transformed into a hell on earth, with flames raging and explosions continuous! The roars of the Corpse Kings were completely drowned out by the angry roars of human war machines! Jiang Xin's "tycoon-style" saturation bombing was enacting a thorough massacre in the most direct and violent way!