Qikun's armored troops had just embarked on their vehicles and set off, when they were directly confronted by Qing State's new armored forces.
"Company commander, a large number of armored vehicles have appeared on our flank and rear!"
"Company commander, we're facing a large mechanized enemy force ahead of us!"
Guo Daowu was utterly shocked, "How could this be? The Qing State Army in Wei County isn't supposed to have such equipment! They shouldn't even have enough for a full platoon of light armor vehicles!"
The Qing State armored forces seemed to appear out of nowhere, not giving Qikun's artillerymen time to set up before they were already within firing range.
A tungsten alloy sabot round suddenly went off and struck a Type 10 main battle tank of the Qikun people with precise accuracy. When the Qikun had designed the Type 10, they paid great attention to preventing the turret from being launched off, so the ammunition supply system had a high safety coefficient, but this was not enough to stop a terrifying armor-piercing round from penetrating the turret and then detonating violently inside, also setting off the ammunition.
Any of the fleets and armies under Bai Zhongqi's command previously had generally skipped the phase of using chemical energy weapons, but he still possessed an abundance of excellent formulas for chemical energy weapons, not just in terms of explosive power, but also in special applications with good effects.
Guo Daowu did not witness the first Qikun tank being blown up, for successive tanks and armored vehicles were being pulverized by the Qing State Army's armored forces.
The Qikun tanks did attempt to fight back, and when one 120mm armor-piercing round was fired, the 99A3 tanks provided by Bai Zhongqi to the Qing State Army immediately activated their active defense systems and launched a small intercepting projectile that deflected the armor-piercing round.
Basically, the weapons Bai Zhongqi provided to the Qing State Army were based on Earth's old era weapons of the final period, but some technologies had already been adopted from the products of the Intergalactic Era.
When Qikun's armored troops were hit hard, both in numbers and quality, by the Qing State Army, the Qikun people immediately hesitated. In fact, the Qikun Army of Amaterasu had long been considered a powerful force by the world military review community, possessing the world's second-largest navy and the fourth-largest number of armor vehicles. However, the Qikun Army of Amaterasu had long engaged in combat only with weaker opponents and had a conservative military ethos with insufficient tactical innovation and pioneering.
In the past, when they faced the armies of weaker nations, they'd just bombard with cannons and charge with tanks, which would basically end the battle, not to mention that the Army had its own aviation soldiers to provide fire support. But when actually faced with an equal or even stronger enemy, the Qikun fought very unsightly.
The irrationally acting Qikun armored soldiers yelled as they fired wildly at those Qing State armored vehicles, naturally, their hit rate was not high, while the silent Qing State armored vehicles methodically fired at those mad Type 10 tanks, destroying them upon impact.
By the time Cao Xiangrong and others charged out of the infantry fighting vehicle holding their newly issued rifles, the Qikun Army already had negligible combat effectiveness. What Cao Xiangrong and others did seemed more like chasing down those Qikun soldiers attempting to flee.
Cao Xiangrong had heard officers talking about the military theory of infantry-tank cooperation, but he had no clear idea of how to fight. His squad leader was also at a loss, just listening to the commands about what to do coming through his headset.
After debarking, Cao Xiangrong and his comrades quickly occupied a good firing position, transforming it into an offensive and defensive position. Then Cao Xiangrong and Yu Erbao set up an anti-armor missile launcher, much like a large rocket launcher.
For unfamiliar weapons, Cao Xiangrong naturally didn't know how to operate them, so he and Yu Erbao could only take the manual and attempt to set up the anti-armor missile step by step.
"There's a functioning enemy combat vehicle over there!" Yu Erbao, using the binoculars, spotted the target. These binoculars were one of the few pieces of equipment they had for this operation that weren't issued by Bai Zhongqi; originally, they were the prized possession of the company, but since the company had received many new optical reconnaissance devices, the old ones had been passed down to the squad.
Cao Xiangrong was a bit nervous. Even though the operation of the anti-armor missile was actually very simple, he still confirmed the steps over and over again, terrified of making any mistakes.
The squad leader shouted, "Ready, fire it quickly, or someone else will take the shot."
Cao Xiangrong acknowledged the order, aimed at the vehicle, and pressed the launch button. A missile shot out furiously, following a trajectory that had been adjusted on the fly, and it forcefully hit the rear of a Qikun infantry combat vehicle. The thin layer of armor couldn't stop the vigorous missile which, upon penetrating the armor, immediately rendered the combat vehicle inoperable.
Cao Xiangrong excitedly punched the air, "Got it!"
His comrades were also exhilarated. In the past, when the Eastern Land's Army had to engage in anti-armor combat, they basically relied on cluster grenades and rocket launchers. Even because of the prolonged state of civil war, with insufficient inflow of overseas arms, even rocket launchers were scarce.
So when the Qikun Army launched a rebellion beyond the border, their highly mechanized military was something that the local forces, who couldn't even be fully equipped with ammunition, could not contend with.
Guo Daowu's face had turned from shock to terror, "Why is this happening? The Qing State Army shouldn't be , shouldn't be! The Qikun Tensho Army is supposed to be the strongest on the Azure Planet!"
He led the Qikun Armored Soldiers in attempts to break out in every direction, but no matter where they went, they were repelled by combinations of more than a dozen tanks and combat vehicles.
"Battalion commander, the enemy is catching up!!"
Guo Daowu's face had turned ashen. The Qing State Army's 99A3 tanks were faster than the Qikun Tensho Army's Type 10 tanks, so they pursued ruthlessly, continuously hitting Qikun combat vehicles and tanks. Guo Daowu realized that today there would be no escape.
"Loyal to the Qikun Emperor until death!" Guo Daowu, eyes bloodshot, drew his command saber, shouting for the now-trapped Qikun troops to make one last charge.
Just as his cry faded, a bomb dropped from the sky, hitting his command vehicle squarely and instantly incinerating the battalion commander into a charred corpse.
Flying past overhead was a flying-wing-configured drone, nearly indistinguishable from the sky, model Sharp Sword. This drone was technically never commissioned because the C country had entered the Intergalactic Era, but under the modifications by Bai Zhongqi, it had converted into the current model, primarily used for ground attacks with a payload capacity of up to 10 tons, an airborne bomb truck.
Since the Qing State Army had virtually no pilots, Bai Zhongqi opted for unmanned equipment in the air. This approach also ensured that technical military branches wouldn't be scarce, and it was precisely aviation soldiers and armored soldiers, such technical troops, that could help the Qing State Army defeat the stronger Qikun Tensho Army.