Doctor, I'm really strong!

Why only the Il-2? Wouldn't it be better to have some strategic bombers?

Liu Jiuli also wanted to, but the problem is, do you know how difficult it is to manufacture a strategic bomber?

That's not just a simple increase in size. If the manufacturing difficulty of a frontline attack aircraft is like building a 200-piece Lego set, then the manufacturing difficulty of a strategic bomber is like building a 1:1 scale Gundam with Lego. Strategic bombers are known as the "air force's aircraft carriers" and belong to the most technologically advanced batch of air force combat equipment.

When you are able to build a strategic bomber, it brings not only an advantage on the battlefield, but also a fundamental change in the entire national strategic system, meaning a shift from defense to offense.

Moreover, the attack missions of strategic bombers are completely different from those of frontline attack aircraft. If we consider Longcheng as the frontline, then it is the main target of attack aircraft and armed helicopters. However, the attack range of strategic bombers includes the capital of Yan State. They are not the same operational concept at all.

Precision and speed are needed at the front lines, while bombing from the rear is meant to destroy the enemy's war potential.

Using the Pacific War as an example, the Battle of Midway was a frontline operation, while the bombing of Tokyo was a strategic bombing.

Moreover, the modified Il-2 has sufficient attack capabilities. Don't underestimate it just because it's a ground attack aircraft. After being tempered by the fires of war, with feedback from the front lines and optimizations from the rear, it now has a payload of over five tons. It can carry laser-guided bombs and bunker-buster bombs weighing up to five tons each. It's designed to open the enemy's brains.

Even the propellers have been changed to coaxial counter-rotating propellers. The noise problem has been solved using Originium Arts engraving technology. Night vision devices have also been added to enhance night combat capabilities. Combined with rockets and machine guns, it's definitely a Black Reaper.

These Il-2s all took off from land-based motherships 200 kilometers away from Dragon City. They first brought death and flames to the enemy. Along with the flames burning in Dragon City, a wave of steel was surging in on the distant horizon.

"Coordinates have been entered!"

"Loading complete!"

"fire!"

Fifty kilometers from the front line, 20 barrage-class land-based ships raised their 410mm triple-mounted main guns, gently awakening the enemy's dormant spirits.

泰拉1101年12月25日，上午8:11分，泰拉人民共同体发起反击。

The campaign was codenamed "Winter Is Coming".

Section 227: As long as we launch an attack, everything will be alright.

(Second update! (～￣▽￣)～)

The battle lasted only twenty minutes before Dragon City was breached. This fortress, which had stood for a thousand years, was finally forced to open its arms under the onslaught of five-ton aerial bombs.

On the one hand, the enemy's strength was too weak, and what combat power could raw recruits possibly have?

On the other hand, the pressure from the community was too great. Anyone would despair watching the overwhelming land-based warships pushing towards them.

The sheer size of the land-based warship is a terrifying deterrent. Few people in the world can remain calm when a mountain is rolling towards them; they'd be more likely to turn pale with fright.

What if that number becomes hundreds or thousands?

That's a torrent of steel!

Beneath the surging tide of steel, feudal cities were shattered, and a new order, in its most ferocious form, proclaimed its arrival to the world.

Inside the Yan Kingdom's palace, with a shattering sound, the blanket in the Yan Emperor's hand fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.

"Dragon City...has fallen!"

"Yes, Your Majesty, Dragon City has fallen! The Red Bandits have invaded the Nine Bend Plains!"

"Damn it! What are those good-for-nothings doing? They have failed the Emperor's grace! Issue my decree: all surrounding prefectures and counties must immediately send troops to aid Jiuqu, and annihilate those Red bandits at all costs! At all costs!"

"Your Majesty, this is absolutely not the case! The current army is mostly composed of new recruits. If they enter the battlefield, it will be like throwing eggs against rocks. They will not be able to hold off the enemy at all. Instead, they may fall into the enemy's trap because of their offensive. At this time, we should order the nearby prefectures and counties to defend their positions and quickly recall the main force to reinforce them."

"Silence! This is my decree, you must not speak again!"

Emperor Yan was no fool. He knew that the best option at this moment was to defend the place, but at this time he was not calculating the economic or military benefits, but the political benefits.

According to the contents of those banned books, once the Red Bandits occupied a certain area, they would immediately seize the land from the local tyrants and distribute it to the peasants, shattering the original ruling order of the area. Even if they could not occupy the area, they would make the local unruly people difficult to manage. Once some things are started, there is no going back.

The Nine Bend Plains are the lifeblood of the Yan Kingdom. Even at a great cost, the Yan Kingdom must reclaim it before it deteriorates!

However, what Yan Huang couldn't understand the most was why the community still had the power to fight back. Were they just bluffing, or were they really pressing in with a large army?

Or is this... a trap?

Even if that's the case, so what? Their home base has been raided, and the main force has to go back to rescue it. This isn't a game where you can just play the next round if you lose. In reality, there's no turning back once you lose. Even if Liu Jiuli is smiling and digging a hole in front of him, Yan Huang has to jump in himself, fill it in, and make sure it's firmly packed down.

It's a real, open conspiracy; you have no other choice.

When the emperor's edict was delivered to the front lines, the Grand Tutor was completely dumbfounded.

"Why? Why does the Community still have troops?!"

The Grand Tutor could not accept this reality, because based on his life experience, from any perspective, the community had no soldiers left to fight, so why could it conjure up a large-scale land-based fleet to launch a surprise attack on its homeland?

Well, the Grand Tutor didn't miscalculate anything; he simply didn't understand the community's productivity level.

The economic base determines the superstructure. If you misjudge the economic base, then all subsequent estimations will be completely wrong.

As the ancients said, "A small error at the beginning can lead to a huge mistake in the end." This perfectly describes the current situation.

However, withdrawing troops is not as simple as packing up and running away. If you leave at this point, you'll be sent away by a counter-offensive from the enemy. You must withdraw steadily and move quietly.

The idea is good, but will Liu Jiuli give him the opportunity?

"Grand Tutor! Something terrible has happened! The Commonwealth has dropped a lot of leaflets on our positions, and the contents of them are..."

Propaganda warfare is also part of the war. Liu Jiuli was well aware of the importance of using his voice effectively, so there were many war correspondents on the front lines. Their role was to take all sorts of shocking photos when the Commonwealth attacked Longcheng.

Then the publicity department immediately started working, printing more copies, and producing high-definition leaflets with pictures, facts, and content.

The final step was to drop these leaflets on enemy positions, causing the enemy to start wildly imagining things.

What's the point of you fighting to the death on the front lines when you can't even protect your hometown?

It's like killing someone by breaking their spirit.

At this moment, the Grand Tutor's heart was ice-cold, but he couldn't let anyone see the problem. On the surface, he remained calm and said, "Hmph, they've even resorted to such a low-level trick. It's clear that the enemy is at their last gasp. Tell our soldiers that the enemy has no strength to launch an attack. The next victory will surely belong to us. Issue an order to the entire army to prepare to take Iron Grid in one fell swoop!"

"Yes!"

The Grand Tutor was also anxious, but summoning troops was useless. What he needed to do now was to bring his troops back safely as the main force to resist the community's attack and prevent the enemy from having the opportunity to wreak havoc on the Jiuqu Plain.

But the enemy's psychological warfare offensive has already begun. If we turn around and run now, wouldn't that be telling everyone that our house has been robbed and we need to go back and defend it? Morale would definitely plummet, and when the enemy surrounds us, we'd only die faster.

At this point, we absolutely cannot rush things; we must remain calm and not only refrain from retreating, but we must also launch an attack.

After all, only one-fifth of Iron Grall remains, and the other units of the Allied Forces are on the other side. We can contact them at night and reveal some information about our situation. No matter what the Allied Forces think, they will definitely mobilize. Then we can attack from both sides from the east and west, take Iron Grall, and achieve the strategic goal of cutting off the community.

It would be much safer to march back home then. As long as the alliance's pocket formation leaks, the main force of the Yan army will be safe.

After figuring this out, the Grand Tutor summoned his trusted confidants and senior generals to carefully deduce the battle plan, and then the order for a general offensive was issued to the entire army.

As long as they start attacking instead of retreating, the soldiers will assume the enemy's leaflets are rumors.

How could someone calmly continue fighting after their hometown was robbed? It's a rumor, definitely a rumor.

After all, the rear is so far from the front line, and the enemy's advance is also more than a thousand kilometers away. If you explain these objective conditions to the soldiers a little, they will "rationally" accept the explanation that "the enemy is spreading rumors" and keep telling themselves this, believing that there is no problem with their hometown, that the rear is safe, and that they can go back to their hometown to get married before the New Year.

You can call it self-deception if you want, but it's more than enough to maintain morale. The Grand Tutor's actions did indeed solve the problem of unstable morale within his own army, and even gave the soldiers a hypnotic effect, making them think, "This is the final battle, and we will surely win." All they had to do was launch an attack, and everything would be fine.

After careful communication and coordination, the coalition forces finally decided to launch a surprise attack in the early hours of the next day to completely capture Irongrad.

Chapter 228: Full-scale Counterattack

(One more chapter to come, (～￣▽￣)～)

Despite his refusal to admit defeat, when the time came, the Grand Tutor secretly ordered the main force of the Yan Army's land-based naval fleet, especially the main force of the Yanlong Army's land-based naval fleet, to retreat, since they couldn't abandon their homeland.

The remaining main force of the Yan army prepared to launch a full-scale attack on Steel Grid.

At the same time, the red flag of the community was planted on the winding plain, and the clanging tracks crushed the ancient aristocratic families.

"Open the granaries and distribute the grain!"

"Arrest all the local gentry, hold a public trial, and then execute them!"

"Fellow countrymen of Yan, we are the Red Army, the Taila Red Army! We are a people's army, and we will be stationed here from now on. The Red Army soldiers promise you that we will not disturb the people or plunder them..."

If the development of the community during the Red Guard era was a gentle process, then the reforms in Jiuqu of Yan Kingdom can only be described as brutal, as they were entirely aimed at thoroughly purging the local ruling class.

Emperor Su Cizong smiled with satisfaction and gave a thumbs up.

“Smash the local traditional order and distribute the land and food.”

Given the current strength of the community, controlling the important production areas of Yan is absolutely unrealistic. Liu Jiuli is not the foolish Showa who would rather starve than give up, but he will not let the traitors of the Yan court get away with it.

The propaganda team and the Terra Red Army began to treat the local people like a people's army. Everything is afraid of comparison, and comparison will hurt. Especially when the people's army is compared with the Yan army, the damage is direct and real, and there is no way to defend against it.

The Red Army did not take a single needle or thread from the masses. They provided medical treatment and assistance to the local people on a daily basis. They also distributed all the spoils they captured to the local people without taking a penny. Furthermore, they led the local people to establish a new agricultural commune system.

It's perfect, isn't it? But it's impossible to educate the local people in a short period of time.

Every regime has a tendency to change its mindset. The local people may indeed remember the Red Army's good deeds, but expecting them to change their minds in a month or two is unrealistic. Liu Jiuli would rather believe that Mei Xizong was an imposter disguised by Gorbachev.

Therefore, Yan Jun is needed to help improve the efficiency of education in such situations.

When the Red Army withdrew and the Yan Army regained control, and the gentry and nobles returned, it was obvious what they would do next. But for the common people, what they had in their hands was theirs, and they had no right to take it away.

Those people stole the money, which stirred up anger.

Some truths are so simple, and the simpler they are, the more unbreakable they are.

The news that the Red Army had entered the Jiuqu Plain and had massacred a large number of gentry and nobles quickly reached the Yan Kingdom's court.

The imperial court was immediately furious. You see, many high-ranking officials owned land there. After all, it was the richest place in Yan Kingdom. All the high-ranking officials who rose to the emperor's side would receive benefits from there. The most powerful faction in the Yan Kingdom's court was connected through economic ties there.

This source of income has now been cut off by the community.

Cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents; even orphans without parents can feel the weight of this saying.

That's all my money!

They actually gave all my money to poor people, what a terrible thing to do!

The immense pressure immediately fell on the local armies and the soldiers at the front. Everyone was condemning the Grand Tutor for disregarding the overall situation and failing to quickly return to rescue Jiuqu, thus causing the court to suffer such humiliation.

Therefore, people can only truly empathize when their own interests are involved.

But the Grand Tutor is in a difficult position. Even if he rushes back now without caring about anything else, it will still take time. The straight-line distance between them and Jiuqu is more than 800 kilometers. Even if there is no Red Army ambush along the way, this long road is not easy to travel. You people sitting in the office enjoying the air conditioning, don't talk nonsense without understanding the pain.

As for the Yan army near the Nine-Bend Plain, they are basically militia and new recruits. Expecting these people to fight against the well-equipped Red Army with thousands of land-based ships is truly laughable.

There were warriors who tried to launch attacks, but they were either beaten down or thoroughly thrashed. At one point, the Terra Red Army was less than 100 kilometers from the capital, causing the Yan Kingdom's court to be alarmed three times a day.

At this point, it was clear to everyone that the war was over; even if the allied forces were still capable, the Yan Kingdom was no match for them.

What the Yan Kingdom court found most unacceptable was that, under such circumstances, the community could still muster such terrifying counterattack power. Wouldn't things turn upside down in a while? This kid is so terrifying that he must not be allowed to live, otherwise he will surely become a great threat in the future.