88: Chapter 88 The Steel Torrent! The Lament of American Machinery and the Collapse of Faith

"Report! A call from Old K! Wan Hong has been captured! Bao Youxiang has abandoned the city and fled!" the communications staff officer shouted excitedly.

Zhang Cheng stood on top of the command vehicle, binoculars in hand, gazing at the river flowing surgingly eastward.

Upon hearing the report, he threw a fierce punch into the air, his eyes burning with the desire for battle.

"Good! Old K did a great job! This dagger has been thrust deep enough!"

Zhang Cheng turned around, picked up the communicator, and his voice spread throughout the entire army, carrying an air of dominance capable of sweeping away all resistance:

"I am Zhang Cheng. Brothers, the south bank is the final piece of the puzzle for our unification of Wa State! It is also the final grave for that old thing, Bao Youxiang! Now, I order—cross the river! Crush them!"

"Rumble—"

The earth began to tremble. The torrent of steel, which had been poised and ready, holding back its strength for seven days, let out a deafening roar.

On the river surface, engineering troops, under the cover of dense smoke screens, quickly erected several heavy pontoon bridges.

Amphibious armored vehicles charged into the river like dumplings being dropped into a pot, kicking up huge sprays of water as they sped toward the opposite bank.

Meanwhile, in the rear, at the artillery positions, hundreds of M109A7 self-propelled howitzers raised their barrels high.

"Fire!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Countless artillery shells tore through the sky, carrying the whistling sound of death, and slammed fiercely into the Wa State army positions on the south bank.

This was not a probing shot, but a devastating barrage of firepower!

The Wa State army positions on the south bank instantly turned into a sea of flames.

Trenches were flattened, bunkers were overturned, and those carefully camouflaged firing points were as fragile as paper in the face of heavy artillery.

Soil, rubble, and human remains were thrown into the sky, as if a rain of blood were falling.

"Tanks! The tanks are coming!"

Amidst the smoke, the Wa State army on the south bank watched in terror as massive M1A2 SEPv3 main battle tanks rumbled across the newly erected pontoon bridges.

That thick armor and those thick, long barrels exuded a suffocating sense of oppression in the morning light.

American advisor Sam was in a frontline bunker, his face covered in dust, but his eyes remained fierce.

Although he was panicked, he had not yet despaired.

He had absolute confidence in American-made anti-tank weapons.

"Anti-tank teams! Move up! Use the javelin! Use the TOW!" Sam roared, "Let these bumpkins see what high technology is!"

"Whoosh—"

A javelin anti-tank missile, trailing a long flame, locked onto the leading M1A2, diving from high altitude straight toward the tank's vulnerable top armor.

"Die! Tin can!" Sam grinned hideously, as if he had already seen the image of the tank exploding.

However, the moment the missile was about to hit, the area around the tank turret suddenly erupted with a shotgun-like barrage of intercepting projectiles.

"Bang!"

With a loud explosion, the javelin missile was blown up in mid-air just over a dozen meters from the tank!

The fireball bloomed in the air, and shrapnel clattered against the tank armor, but it didn't even scrape off much of the paint.

That was the Trophy active protection system (APS) equipped on the M1A2 SEPv3! A divine weapon specifically designed to intercept anti-tank missiles and rockets!

The tank was unscathed, its turret rotating slowly, the dark muzzle aiming directly at the position where the missile had just been launched.

"Boom!"

A 120mm high-explosive shell drilled precisely into that bunker.

The missile-launching team and their equipment were instantly turned to ashes.

"This... this is impossible!" Sam's smile froze on his face, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.

He could never have imagined that this force, which he regarded as "local warlords," would actually have such active protection systems currently in service with the U.S. military! And they were using them so skillfully!

"I don't believe it! Fire again! Fire all missiles at once! Saturation attack!" Sam roared hysterically.

A dozen anti-tank missiles shot out from various corners, like a pack of wolves pouncing on prey.

But the result was desperate.

Those tanks were like they were cheating; the APS systems activated one after another, intercepting the incoming missiles one by one.

Occasionally, a fish that slipped through the net hit the tank's frontal armor, but it only left a shallow dent and was completely unable to penetrate that thick layer of depleted uranium composite armor.

"This is a generational gap! This is a crushing defeat!" Zhang Cheng watched this scene through his binoculars and sneered coldly, "Bao Youxiang thought he could overturn the heavens just by having a few foreign guns? In front of my torrent of steel, those are nothing but fire pokers!"

The M1A2 tank group, like an unstoppable steel monster, crushed through barbed wire, rolled over trenches, and charged directly into the Wa State army's positions.

The coaxial machine guns and the remote weapon stations on the turrets fired wildly, turning the Wa State soldiers who were still trying to resist into pulp.

Meanwhile, the roar of propellers came from the sky.

Dozens of "Reaper" armed helicopters swept across at low altitude, their rocket pods spitting out dense barrages of rockets, turning the Wa State army's second-line positions into a sea of flames.

The Wa State army's defensive line completely collapsed.

Their American equipment, which they were so proud of, seemed as ridiculous as children's toys in the face of a true heavy armored cluster and air-ground integrated strike.

The "impregnable fortress" that those American advisors boasted about became the biggest joke at this moment.

"Run! We can't fight this!" "The tanks are monsters! The missiles are useless!" "We are surrounded! There are enemies behind us too!"

When the news that Wan Hong had fallen reached the front line, the collapse of morale became the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Tens of thousands of Wa State soldiers threw away their helmets and armor, fleeing frantically in all directions.