Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 41 FK.96 Field Gun

Local time, August 9th, midnight.

The Farlan army's advance is a bit too slow...

Ryan, wearing a pair of muddy military boots, stood on a small hill in the Vosges Mountains, looking with some displeasure at the group of Farlanes who were resting outside the city of Mulhouse.

They were in a safe area further behind the Imperial Army's third line of defense. Only a few artillery pieces were capable of bombarding this area, and there was no guarantee of accuracy or that the city of Mulhouse would not be accidentally hit.

But the speed of their advance that Ryan had predicted at the beginning was enough for this group of Farlanes to rush directly into the outer city area of ​​Mulhouse.

In fact, for the empire, all border cities took into account the issue of reconstruction after the buildings were destroyed during the construction process. Therefore, the peripheral buildings of Mulhouse are basically wooden buildings that are easy to dismantle and rebuild, rather than the standard European wood and stone mixed buildings in the central area.

In Ryan's plan, the first wave of attack would destroy some buildings and force the Farlanes to leave Mulhouse, but now it seems that he overestimated them.

But this is not important.

Because this group of Farlans were not even as good as the enemies that they had thought were the worst, and driving them into the bombardment area would definitely be easier than before.

Rubbing his eyes, Ryan looked back at the mountain road he came from.

There was a gravel road just wide enough for a truck to pass through, and a truck was slowly moving up the hillside.

A cannon was towed behind the truck.

That was an FK.96 field gun that Brigadier General Bryan had transferred from the rear to Ryan using his authority.

Ryan actually didn't like this 77mm caliber artillery very much, because it was heavy and large, and ordinary infantry battalions and infantry regiments could not carry it at all.

Fortunately, his infantry battalion had a few more trucks than the average unit, which gave Ryan enough transportation capacity to pull the artillery to a more forward position.

What’s funny is that when Ryan was about to take away the artillery, the soldiers of the Fourth Battalion thought they had no artillery to use.

Then they discovered that Reindo had not one truck, but four.

There are not one, but two 77mm FK.96 guns.

Now everyone has artillery to use.

On the mountain road, Ryan led his men up the hillside to make room for the truck, but at this moment, Ryan suddenly felt two flashes to his east - near the Rhine River.

A few seconds later, the Second Battalion's communicator, carrying a radio, stumbled over and said to Ryan, "Captain, we just received a call from the left wing. The first to seventeenth firing points have been completed!"

"So fast?"

Ryan was surprised by the actions of the Fourth Battalion. He immediately picked up the telescope and looked at the location of the firing point that he had memorized long ago.

Then he saw a series of concealed fortifications half-buried underground, made up of four or five Esco explosion-proof walls.

The construction of these fortifications was very sophisticated, because Ryan found that even if the soldiers walked behind them, only the small pointed top of their heads would be exposed.

This shows that they dug deeper underground during construction so that soldiers could move around while standing instead of lying down.

"Quite clever."

Ryan sighed and then opened the map.

The soldiers of the 4th and 2nd Battalions have completed the construction of almost all the firing points on both sides of the front line. Now only the artillery firing points have not been laid out.

Ryan could see on the map that two loaders were constantly moving back and forth on the left and right sides of the first front. Because it was late at night and the artillery units were still projecting firepower to the front line at a low frequency, the Farlans had not yet rushed towards the front line.

Ryan didn't understand why the Farlans didn't attack, but he could confirm that this group of Farlans were more or less night blind.

Because these Farlans rarely enter an environment without light, only a few scattered dots can be seen on the map in the dark. Without a doubt, they must be scouts.

As for the trenches... the occupied trenches are still brightly lit...

From the mountain, it looked like there were several long strips of fire on the ground.

This gave the Imperial Army still in the city of Mulhouse an excellent view.

As long as they turned off the lights and extinguished the candles, they would have an excellent environmental advantage to attack the Farlans unilaterally.

Some smart people even climbed onto the roof, holding a rifle that had no reflective mechanism in reality and had a simple flash suppressor installed on the front, and frantically picked up French fries.

Ryan actually doesn't like this kind of people, especially in Battlefield and Zhou Zhou Zhou.

But he just likes to play this way, so he can't say anything to others.

Pulling his attention back from the map, Ryan discovered that the artillery was pulled to his right.

"Okay, stop!"

He roared immediately.

The truck driver quickly slammed on the brakes and poked his head out the right window. "Captain?"

"If you go any further, you'll be within the Farlane's artillery range! Don't you see the reverse slope ahead? Tell the boys from the Second Battalion to lower their artillery. This is the bombardment point!"

"Yes!"

Several engineers and artillerymen sitting in the carriage immediately responded and stepped forward. After a busy period, the 77mm artillery piece weighing nearly one ton was set up on the hillside.

Ryan looked at his watch and used a telescope to observe the situation on the other side.

Military trucks had left the front lines and were moving along the trail toward the Rhine.

An FK.96 artillery piece was also pushed behind the fortification made of Esco explosion-proof wall. Next to it, several figures gathered together. It was a heavy machine gun position set up to protect the artillery.

At this time, it was exactly one o'clock in the morning of August 9th.

"Captain, headquarters is calling!"

The communicator pulled the phone next to Ryan, and Ryan could even hear Brian's conversation with the people of the Seventh Army through the receiver.

He immediately took the phone and heard Brian's voice: "Captain Flig, how are the preparations going at the front?"

Ryan stepped on a large rock and looked down at the trench below where flames were blazing. "No problem. The bag has been woven. We are just waiting for the prey to come in."

"Really? Well done, Captain."

That was all Brian said in reply, and then his voice giving orders to the troops came over the phone.

next moment.

The roar of machine guns rang out in unison throughout the suburbs of Mulhouse and on the streets facing the attack routes of all the Farlans.

The bullets, trailing bright orange light, wove a large net on the ground, and with just one volley they drove back half a regiment of Farlanes who had been blocked outside the city of Mulhouse.

Ryan didn't even need to open the map to see the panicked retreat of the Farlanes. The heavy machine gunner next to him also saw it. He put his finger on the trigger, making a slight sound.

"Wait, it's not time yet."

Ryan put a hand on the machine gunner's shoulder: "We have to wait a little longer."

(End of this chapter)