At dusk that day, when groups of Norman warships appeared in the northwest sky, almost everyone of the hundreds of thousands of federal officers and soldiers stationed in Austria felt a kind of oppression. How many enemy warships are there? 30, 40 or more? Where is our fleet? Can you make it in time? Can you give force control to the field? These problems, like layers of dark clouds before the rainstorm, convey to people the negative emotions of depression, anxiety, and pessimism.

What should come will always come. At the moment when the Norman fleet appeared, Weiss decisively ordered the orderly evacuation of the factory workers, and all the combatants withdrew from the water tower, factory and other battle positions, and entered the anti-shelling bunkers set up in the open area to stand by. Sure enough, the Norman fleet was not purely here to "flex its muscles". Reaching the edge of range, they launched an indiscriminate artillery attack on the city. Raindrops of artillery fire fell on the outskirts of the city and then gradually extended into the city. Everywhere the artillery fire went, the red flames burst out, the smoke of gunpowder billowed out, and the sand and rocks flew wildly, let alone being outdoors, even staying inside the building may not be safe - from a realistic point of view, every time you experience a large-scale enemy shelling, you are fighting against fate. Death is a momentary farewell, but the pain may last forever and leave a lifelong legacy. After a lot of experience, it is possible to become steel, or it is possible to be alert and deaf.

The bombardment of the Norman fleet lasted from dusk to night, for more than two hours, except for the south and east of the city, the huge Aocheng was basically cleaned by artillery fire. During this period, the Federal Air Defense Forces deployed in the Olympic City invested hundreds of large-caliber anti-aircraft guns, and the Federation warships and combat aircraft also arrived in batches and entered the battle, but this time, in the absence of the main battleships to participate in the battle, the tactical strategy of the Norman Empire Air Force was significantly different from the past: all the ships were divided into three teams, and the strongest team was deployed at an altitude that was difficult for the Federation fighters to reach, and its firepower sometimes dealt with the Federation warships, sometimes bombarded ground targets, or both; The two teams, which were slightly inferior, were mainly focused on dealing with the Federation fighters, but as long as the pressure on them was slightly reduced by the Federation fighters, they switched to shelling Aocheng.

Before the end of the bombardment, the Norman fleet held the line and refused to retreat, and several active attacks by the Union aviation were thwarted. As a result, Aocheng, a city known for its heavy industry, burst into flames, and the fire seemed to ignite the city, burning the sky red. By the time the Norman fleet had finished shelling, the surviving Union soldiers and civilians had to treat the wounded while fighting the fire. By dawn, the fires that had spread throughout the various districts of Aocheng had not been completely extinguished, but the Norman fleet in the sky and the Norman army on the ground had arrived in unison.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, the rumbling of artillery rang out on the side of the Normans. Their long-range shelling, which is close to the limit of its range, does not take into account the accuracy of the fire at all, but unfolds brutal and indiscriminate covering fire. On the following day, they projected tens of thousands of shells into the west and north of the city at a rhythm of one hour of artillery bombardment and two hours of rest, and completely and thoroughly combed through the defensive positions of the Union army around the city and the fortifications in the west and north of the city like a farmer's plough. During this period, the M3 and M4 defense areas garrisoned by the 9th Corps of the Federal Army were not spared, but they suffered much less physical and mental damage than the outer defense area.

While the command, officers, and non-commissioned officers and soldiers were speculating about when the Normans would attack, the Norman army launched a tentative night attack on the Federal Army's defensive positions west of the city. Under the cover of part of the armored fighting vehicles, the Norman infantry managed to break through the outer minefields, penetrated deep into the trenches and barbed wire strips, and stormed the forward positions of the defenders with flamethrowers and explosive projectiles. With the determination not to give up an inch of land, the federal army quickly mobilized troops to reinforce the theater of operations, and the soldiers went up one after another, and the wounded were transported backwards one after another. In the area of engagement, less than ten miles wide, the two sides exchanged fire for more than four hours, and the Federal forces on the defensive not only lost more troops than the Normans, but also fought very hard. If the Normans were to assault with all their might, it was still a big unknown whether the position could be held - these were the news that Weiss had received during the regimental meeting, whether it was objective or not, it was an undeniable fact that they brought a terrible defeatist mood to the Union troops, but fortunately, most of the officers had become accustomed to this succession of bad news, and had learned to use the cold humor they were not very good at to temper the anxious and pessimistic atmosphere. Another positive factor was the strategic victory of the Union army in Austria, which also made the top of the Union army determined to exhaust the Norman army in Austria, even if it was at the expense of 100,000, 200,000 or even more. Based on such a strategic decision, elite combat units and sufficient combat supplies are constantly arriving in Aocheng, and the administrative system of the federal army has also shown amazing efficiency......

After testing the fire at night, the Norman army's artillery bombardment on the next day was indeed targeted, and its ground artillery continued to carry out indiscriminate scattering, but the number of shells falling into the city was much smaller, and the artillery fire on the defenders' outlying positions continued unabated. Despite the increasing intensity of the Federal Air Force, the Norman Fleet's array continued to press forward, and every time between air battles, it launched precise strikes with cruiser-level firepower on several Union positions.

This change, in the eyes of the Federation soldiers, who were experienced in actual combat and had a keen sense of smell on the battlefield, was a prelude to the Normans' imminent general attack. As a result, commanders at all levels invariably urged their headquarters to seize the time to repair the fortifications and actively prepare for war. After nightfall, the garrisons in the various defense areas of the city did not dare to slack off in the slightest, and the federal army troops deployed in the east and south of the city were even more vigilant, beware of the Norman army outflanking and forcibly cutting off the defenders' rear routes.

As it approached midnight, the fierce gunfire caused hundreds of thousands of federal soldiers and civilians in Austria to widen their eyes and prick up their ears. However, the Normans did not storm the city that night, but as expected and feared, they stormed the defensive positions of the Union army to the east and south of the city. These two strongholds were to transform the original factory complex into a strong fortress group, which was used to increase the defensive level of the Austrian front and cover the main railway line from the southeast of the city to the rear. Once these two strongholds were lost, the Norman army would be able to cut off the ground connection between the city and the outside world with relative ease, so that the soldiers and civilians of the city would be surrounded by a heavy circle, and they would be able to seize more initiative whether they were besieging from all sides or only besieging them. Because of this, the Union army spared no cost to build forts with thick walls with large quantities of steel and concrete, built cobweb-strewn underground passages and bunkers between them, and mobilized elite ground forces, including six veteran fortress regiments drawn from the capital region and the eastern border district, before the Normans attacked, so as to achieve the effect of "good horses with good saddles".

The continuous exchange of fire outside the city in the second half of the night made the defenders of Aocheng really hang their hearts in the air, after all, no one wanted to know the bad news that Aocheng was besieged early in the morning. Despite the tactical support of the Normans in the night battle with warships and marines, and the onslaught of infantry led by armored units, the battle to the east and south of the city continued at dawn. The Federal Aviation Units, which were not confident in the night battle at the technical and tactical level, made a big move, broke through the Norman fleet's blocking and containment, and launched indiscriminate bombardment of the Norman troops on the east and south sides of the Austrian city, causing the proud Normans to abandon their armor in front of the Federal Army position, and finally had to retreat in disarray.

In this battle, the Normans left five or six thousand corpses and more than 200 wrecks of chariots in the south and east of the city, and the casualties were definitely more than 10,000, while the federal army suffered less than 2,000 casualties and about 4,000 wounded, the casualties were only half of the Norman army, and the loss of technical weapons was negligible, which saved a city for the crucial Battle of Austria.

Supposedly, the defeat of the attack in the east and south of the city should have given the Normans a blow to the head, thus slowing down the pace of their attack a little. However, after the troops attacking both flanks were withdrawn, the Normans had no intention of stopping, and they continued to shell the defensive positions of the Union troops to the west and north of the city, with a frequency of one hour of shelling and three hours of rest. Although the rhythm has slowed down, the continuous high-intensity artillery fire, like a sea otter bouldering and knocking on a mussel, cannot be knocked three times or twice, and if you have the patience to knock a few more times, sooner or later you will be able to knock open the mussel shell and eat delicious mussel meat.

In the afternoon, most of the Norman fleet, which had been on the battlefield for a long time, was abruptly withdrawn, leaving only two cruisers and two detachments of corvettes. After a period of observation, the Federation fleet "bullied" and took the initiative to challenge the opponent. The Norman battleships did not carry hard, they fought and retreated, and in the face of the huge disparity in the tonnage of ships and the number of guns, the thunders fired by the two Norman cruisers from time to time became the only effective weapon against the Federation fleet. As the Federation fleet crossed the center line of the battlefield, the ground artillery of the Norman army ceased fire along all fronts. It would be a mistake to regard this ceasefire as a forced retreat by the Normans to recognize the situation and understand the current affairs. After a pause of about five or six minutes, a dense cannon fire like rolling thunder suddenly sounded behind the Norman position, and hundreds of shells rose into the air and flew towards the approaching Federation fleet. These shells usually use trigger fuses, which only explode when they hit the target or fall to the ground, and with the help of optical means for direction finding and positioning, the shooting rate is even lower than that of the old flintlock pistol, but the cannon group fire is like a flintlock gun in the era of the flintlock gun, and the number wins. For the Federalist cruisers and armored cruisers at the head of the line, the bow or bottom of the ship was tickled by a normal-caliber shell, but the fragile propulsion system of the flying battleship prevented them from rampage like a bison, but had to push the enemy line flat like a steamroller. If the opponent has a large number of artillery and a certain number of flying ships to respond, then this kind of horizontal push is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and it is difficult to achieve it overnight.