On the bumpy sea, the Marines of the Tang Empire, whose clothes had been wetted by the splashing seawater, crowded together, rising and falling with the battleships under their feet.
"The coastline is ahead!" Behind these soldiers, the driver operating the infantry landing craft loudly reminded the Marine infantry on board his ship.
"Who invented this broken ship? The hatch opens right in front. As soon as we get ashore, won't we be beaten into pieces by machine guns?" A soldier, holding his assault rifle, complained softly among the crowd.
After so much training, they no longer vomit on board. Although their faces were still pale, they finally didn't have to spit their lunch into the backpacks of their comrades in the front row.
"Shut up, this design allows us to rush to the beach as soon as possible." The veteran in front scolded, the oncoming waves shattered right in front of the landing craft, and the salty and wet seawater hit the camouflage-covered It felt like a light rain fell on the helmet.
This is much better than the conditions when veterans like them landed on Dongwan Island. At that time, most of them climbed ashore from the sea.
These young people today are really dissatisfied. What a blessing it is to have a ship send them to die under the enemy's gun.
The sound of the engine was so loud, and the sound of the waves lapping against the hull was so loud that they couldn't even hear their nervous heartbeats.
"Your Majesty will bless all the brave soldiers! He is the God of Almighty! He is the God of War! He is the God of Health! Devote everything you have piously, and your souls will reach the peaceful shore! For the Tang Empire!" Standing there! The platoon leader on the bow raised his arms and led all the people in praying to the gods they worshiped.
"Long live my emperor!" All the soldiers responded with a low voice, extremely pious and determined.
"Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!" Behind him, the shells fired from the destroyer passed over the dense fleet of landing craft and landed on the beach in the distance.
The explosion stirred up pillars of sand and water dozens of stories high, and the atmosphere on the entire landing craft became even more solemn.
"After opening the door, quickly spread out to both sides! Don't get together! Keep moving forward to avoid enemy attacks! Pay attention to your steps! Don't trip over the sea water and rocks!" The squad leader began to remind his men that they didn't want to do it again. Repeat the mistakes made during the last landing exercise.
The pilot driving the landing craft could see clearly that the smoke grenades fired by the destroyer had formed a sheet of smoke on the beach that obscured his vision.
This is what a landing operation really looks like: it is basically impossible to watch your troops climb ashore under the muzzle of enemy machine guns.
The smoke will obscure everything, and the enemy can only shoot blindly, which will greatly reduce the accuracy of the attack and cover the advancement of large numbers of troops to a position where they can play a role.
The landing troops will spread out in the smoke and advance to a closer distance, and then they will launch an attack to attack the enemy's strong bunkers, and finally complete the beachhead breakthrough and establish a solid beachhead position.
During the entire process, the landing force will even be covered by tanks, and can contact the warships behind them through communication equipment to fire to suppress the enemy's fire points, destroy bunkers or bombard enemy positions.
If the enemy's defense deployment can be accurately understood before the war, special teams can even be arranged to guide corresponding warships to bombard divided enemy bunkers to ensure that these strong bunkers can be completely destroyed.
Of course, this is talking about landing operations against the enemy's heavily fortified coastline. In fact, in most cases, the landing beaches may not even have enemy bunkers, only simple minefields, or only a small number of garrisoned troops.
"We're here! We're here! The front door is open! Machine gun crew! Cover fire! Cover fire!" The captain opened the hatch and shouted loudly to the machine gunners on both sides of him who were responsible for covering.
The machine gunners hiding behind the shields immediately started firing, but they were firing blanks, just atmosphere groups.
As the front door slowly fell down and crashed into the cold water, the Marines in the landing craft began their unlucky charge.
As soon as I stepped into the sea water, my socks were completely soaked in an instant. Holding weapons and backpacks, carrying dozens of kilograms of equipment and supplies, and walking on the beach with one foot deep and one foot shallow, these Marines really felt that they were about to be tortured to death by their superiors.
Some people fell directly into the water without being able to stand still. Because the things they carried were too heavy, they barely stood up after taking a sip of sea water.
The water in the helmet dripped down the brim and got into the collar, which made me feel sour. Everyone kept moving forward, and kept moving forward under the supervision of the platoon leader and squad leader.
The sand quickly got into the shoes, rubbing against the tops and soles of the feet, making every step difficult. But they could only continue to stagger forward in the smoke until they reached the soft sandy beach full of craters.
In addition to the salty smell of sea water, the air is also filled with an unpleasant and choking smell - the smell of smoke bombs is not pleasant, and breathing in these smoke bombs is simply more uncomfortable for the nasal cavity than smoking secondhand smoke.
"One group! Move to the left! Look at the map! Idiot! Look at the map! Find the target reference object! Damn it!" The platoon leader saw the confused look on his face and wanted to rush over and give him a kick.
"Can't see! Platoon leader! You can't see anything at all!" The bewildered squad leader explained awkwardly.
The place where they landed may not be the planned location. There was smoke all around. The squad leader couldn't find the target he should attack at all, nor could he find any reference objects near the target.
"Then don't just stand there stupidly! Take your people forward! Move forward!" The platoon leader tore open the waterproof plastic sheet, took out his assault rifle, and reminded his men loudly: "Prepare the blasting canister! Remove the barbed wire fence. Got it!"
The surrounding soldiers ran forward. They felt that the real battlefield situation was nothing more than this. The surroundings were filled with a choking smell, their shoes were filled with sand, and they were carrying heavy bags and holding a damn rifle - what else? Could there be anything harder than this?
"Attack! Attack! The enemy's bunker is ahead! Pay attention to your position!" The platoon leader ran forward quickly and saw a rough outline as he ran. He found a safe position, jumped into a shallow crater, and lay on the edge to alert his men.
According to the arrangement of the exercise, there should be a barbed wire fence directly in front of the enemy's "bunker" and trenches on both sides. Their goal is to break through the trenches and go around to the back of the bunker.
"Explosive canister! Here's the demolition team! Come up!" The platoon leader followed the procedure to find the engineer demolition team to which his platoon belonged.
A squad leader followed his shout and returned, squatting next to the bomb crater to remind his commander: "Platoon leader... the barbed wire fence in front was broken by a shell..."
The destroyer's cover bombardment just now used real shells in order to create craters and enhance the atmosphere. Because of errors, accidents are inevitable.
The accident this time was that a cannonball happened to land on the barbed wire fence. The explosion broke the barbed wire fence, allowing the soldiers to pass directly...
The platoon leader crawled out of the crater, waved his hands in embarrassment, and issued a new order: "Continue the attack! Arrange machine gun cover, bypass the bunker and break through the enemy's trench defense line from the flank!"
"Yes!" The squad leader trotted back to his unit with his rifle. At this time, the smoke had dissipated a little. The platoon leader could see a figure not far away rushing through the barbed wire fence, and one after another touched the barbed wire fence. The trenches behind.
"The performance is much better than last time... at least there are more than half of the accidents." After looking at the news sent back from the landing force, Bernard commented with satisfaction.
"Yeah, it's much better than last time, but I still doubt, is it really necessary to practice like this? The coastline of the Mirage Kingdom is not necessarily fortified everywhere. There is no need for us to be so lenient to the enemy, right?" Standing behind Bernard Lu Qianshan expressed his thoughts.
He was a general of Zheng State before, so he naturally knew the training level of Zheng State's troops. Compared with what he was familiar with before, the level of training and exercises performed by the Tang Army was truly unheard of.
Against such an army, his defeat was not unjust at all. Even at this moment, he was a little bit happy, happy that he was now a member of the Tang Army.
"Your Majesty said something." Bernard said to Lu Qianshan with a smile.
When he said these words, Lu Qianshan immediately stood upright and straightened his chest, and all the staff officers present also stood up and straightened their bodies.
Bernard continued: "'The more you sweat in peacetime, the less you will bleed in war!' Now that we train more, we can become more skillful in fighting."
After he finished speaking, he stretched out his hands and pressed down. Only then did everyone stop standing at attention and return to their previous busy state.
Lu Qianshan immediately corrected his attitude and said with a look of shame: "My subordinate, Meng Lang, is far-sighted, wise and mighty."
"The landing craft has begun to withdraw from the beach... The second batch of landing troops is boarding the deck." Bernard was smiling when an officer came over and reported to Bernard.
"Pay attention to safety first, organize troops to board the boat!" Bernard continued to order: "How is the aviation force doing?"
"Takeoff and landing training is in progress, and the third wave of air support has completed its formation..." the officer responsible for contacting the aircraft carrier fleet reported immediately.
In order to keep confidentiality, the aircraft carrier did not conduct exercises with the landing fleet, but only reported aircraft support simultaneously. Of course, the drill over there was absolutely serious, and even the start time of the drill was accurately calculated.
"Let the troops calculate the preliminary damage assessment...according to the most stringent standards!" Bernard ordered, and then delegated the authority to command here to Lu Qianshan: "You come and keep an eye on it, don't make any trouble!"
