The Imperial Artillery Regiment was very cautious, and they were always doing their own night work outside the range of the Resistance Artillery Battalion. This made the Resistance artillery staff look a little helpless with the ballistic estimates, because none of the predicted positions were within the range of his strikes.

The Imperial artillery, having cleared the night zone twice, began to move forward. Under the guidance of the Air Force units, roll call shelling was carried out against the anti-aircraft fire of Pompeii-3. At this time, the sky over Pompeii was no different from the daytime, but it was not the sun that emitted light, but a large number of flares dropped by Imperial fighters.

The Empire's flares were reasonably distributed, illuminating the whole of Pompeii without being too densely thrown. The artillery was not directed by the planes flying over Pompeii, but by the Prue hovering around the town, who could rely on the help of these illuminations to pinpoint the position of the Resistance without being dazzled by their own flares like Prue in the high altitude of the town.

The accuracy of guided artillery bombardment was quite terrifying, and even if the Empire did not care much about and invested in their artillery regiments, and even if the artillerymen used some of the artillery, which were very old compared to the federal artillery equipment, the resistance air defense positions still did not last long. Under the intensive attack of the Imperial artillery, an hour later, the surface of Pompeii became a state of non-fortification for the air force.

The Resistance supply depots were then hit by the anti-aircraft positions, but fortunately the Resistance logisticians had moved the supplies from these above-ground warehouses to the relative safety of underground warehouses and some relatively sturdy and concealed buildings, or the detonation of ammunition from the warehouses would have lifted a block in the vicinity of the warehouses.

While the Resistance was silently enduring the indiscriminate bombardment of the Empire, two artillery battalions of the Resistance began their counterattack. The target was the Imperial Artillery Regiment, whose position had been exposed by the shelling. The Resistance artillery staff deliberately waited until the Imperial Artillery Regiment was carrying out a random attack to attack. Because at this time. Only then can the most accurate position of the Imperial Artillery Regiment be obtained through the data of multiple targets, and the vigilance of the Imperial Artillery Regiment that has no key targets is also the lowest. At the order of the staff officer, nearly thirty guns in groups of three extended their barrels from their well-designed bunkers and launched an attack.

The Empire was obviously not anticipating the Resistance's artillery response, although they had already known that the Resistance had a lot of artillery stationed, but the previous nearly three hours of random shelling had made the commander of the Imperial Artillery Regiment a little careless, and he actually forgot to change his position and let the Resistance artillery hit the right one. The Resistance responded with a firing that silenced many of the artillery of the Imperial Artillery Regiment. But due to the insufficient density of fire, they simply inflicted heavy losses on one Imperial artillery regiment.

In the sky, Pru was the first to attack the Resistance's artillery positions, and the fighters swooped down on the inner bunkers while informing their own artillery regiment of the enemy's position.

The Resistance commander was apparently prepared for such a scenario, when the walls of the earthen houses near the artillery positions collapsed, and two wheeled armored vehicles, equipped by all countries, were released from these houses, slingshot, four-barreled low-altitude defensive armored vehicles.

A dense 30-millimeter barrage headed towards the swooping Pruc, and special tungsten core armor-piercing shells pierced through the modest super-tension ceramic composite steel armor on the fuselage. Twisted the inside of the fighter into a mess. In the city, the attack angle is narrow, and the attack route can only follow the street. In the face of the high-density firepower network, Pru had no chance, several fighters rushing to the front were torn to pieces, while the rest of the fighters could only pull out high, the farther away from some terrifying air defense vehicles inside, the better.

"Call for rear artillery support, third, third squadron, can your anti-tank missiles lock on to them?" The angry Pru commander asked them about the squadron with anti-tank missiles.

"There is no way, sir, all three artillery regiments are shifting positions and cannot attack." The wingman replied.

"This is the third squadron, we can take out some of the anti-aircraft vehicles inside, sir. Their engines are like street lamps in the dark night, attracting our thermal missiles, so let's do it. ”

"3rd squadron, no problems"

The two squadrons of Pru broke away from the crowd of planes in the air, entered the attack position from a high altitude, and after locking on to their respective targets, delivered a missile under their wing to the vehicle.

The Pelican missile shoots into the air like an arrow, as a small missile, it can only attack the top of the weakest defense of the armored vehicle, it can destroy the vehicle in one hit, so in its program, you need to climb high first to ensure that you have enough altitude.

Apparently this procedure gave the Resistance enough time to react, and the commander of the armored car immediately activated the heat-insulated smoke grenades on the vehicle, and suddenly, a large amount of smoke enveloped the armored vehicle. On the thermal sensor of the Imperial fighter, dozens of red dots that were originally extremely bright disappeared without a trace in an instant.

The pelican, which lost its target, still pierced into the original target like an arrow, but what commander would be stupid not to move? You can tell from the smoke that keeps changing shape from inside that there is no one.

If the lack of a target was expected by the Imperial pilots, the scene after the smoke cleared was unacceptable to them. In the modest streets of Pompeii, the original chariots have disappeared completely. If it weren't for the wreckage of several Pruws scattered throughout the town, they wouldn't have believed that some of the armored vehicles had ever been there.

"I hate guerrilla warfare." The captain of the third squadron exclaimed, it was clear that some of the resistance vehicles had entered the houses again, and that there must be interconnecting tunnels underneath the houses, as the experience of the Empire and the resistance had been fighting for a long time.

The Resistance is far inferior to the Federation and the Empire in the construction of permanent fortifications, but they have their own unique way of defending, which is tunnel warfare. Tunnels through wide streets prevent people from being exposed in the open field, and more spacious tunnels connecting several important positions ensure that the Resistance's precious armored vehicles can be used to the fullest extent rather than being destroyed by the Empire on the way to the transfer. These improvised tunnels formed the resistance's defensive system, a combat method that was best suited for infantry defense.

The development of this tactic of the Resistance was also due to the ease of excavation of the sand. Sand though is easy to flow. It is easy to collapse when subjected to excessive vibration. However, by infiltrating a small amount of cement into the sand wall, the sturdiness of these tunnels will be qualitatively improved, and it will be able to withstand the passage of mechs from above.

Although the Imperial Artillery Regiment suffered a surprise attack, they quickly completed the transfer of positions and launched another attack. The accurate 180mm destroyed the Resistance's improvised artillery positions, which were buried in a pile of rubble by the buildings above them in a dense blast of explosions.

"Have you figured out the position of the Imperial artillery?" The Resistance artillery staff officer asked the officer beside him.

"Right now, sir."

"Did the 3rd and 3rd Battalions reach their new positions?"

"No calls. Sir, do you want us to rush? The adjutant picked up the phone on the side.

"Hurry up, or the Empire may have to shift its position." The staff officer frowned and urged.

At this moment, a communications soldier ran into the temporary command room covered in dust, "Report to the commander, the 3rd Artillery Battalion has entered the No. 7 position, and the 3rd Battalion will be able to fully enter the position in three minutes." The telephone line of the command connecting the eastern regions was damaged in the artillery shelling of the Reich. ”

"Good. When the ballistic calculations were completed, a messenger was immediately assigned to inform them of the shelling. Adjutant, immediately organize manpower and repair the telephone line. "The Resistance forces are trying to prevent the Empire from detecting the location of their headquarters through the density of communications waves. A large number of wired communication equipment is used, and the biggest **** of these devices is once the line is damaged. It will need to be repaired manually, or there will be no way to communicate. However, the Resistance Army, which lacked a large number of electronic concealment and jamming equipment, was only able to use this cheap and highly restricted wired communication equipment.

The Resistance's underground makeshift hangar, the underground bunker dug by the Resistance, trembled incessantly during the shelling, and from time to time sand and cement shards fell on the mech's body, making the sound of Sissiso.

"Instructor, will we be buried alive?" Lelena is the only female member of the entire Death Cross, belonging to the third commando team, she was already a little afraid of the dark, she heard the small sounds on her mecha from time to time, and asked with some concern.

Night connected to the girl's communication, "Rest assured, this fortification will not be destroyed by the Empire's 180mm grenades." ”

"Oh." The girl replied simply, obviously still nervous.

Night knew that Lelena was not only afraid of the darkness, but was nervous about the upcoming big war, and the atmosphere before this big war was not comparable to the usual petty tasks, so Ye simply connected to all the pilots' communications and asked, "Are you nervous?" ”

"Instructor, we're not nervous, but we're a little excited." It was Dennis, the leader of the 3rd Commando, who immediately responded to most of the pilots.

"That's good, in fact, it doesn't matter if you're nervous, take a deep breath, and when the time comes, just do what you usually train and protect yourself. It's almost dawn, and Pompeii will be our stage at that time. "The night encourages the people.

In the early hours of the morning, the shelling from both sides slowly subsided, and the Resistance artillery battalion had no new positions to move, and the Imperial army was because they had already fired most of the shells.

Kai looked at the rising sun in the east and gave the order for a full-scale attack on Pompeii, although this time period was not the best time for him to attack, but he knew that only a compact offensive would not give the Resistance time to rebuild the artillery position, and only to suppress the resistance counterattack to the greatest extent. Kai Ke didn't want his mech troops to blindly enter the inner areas guarded by 180 mm field guns, and in the previous month-long battle for towns with the Resistance, many Imperial mechs were attacked by the enemy's pre-ambushed artillery positions at the corners of the streets, turning them into a pile of expensive scrap metal.

Kai's original plan was for his artillery regiment to completely remove the Resistance's artillery positions around three o'clock, and then his mechs would be able to enter Pompeii in the darkness of night. In that environment, the mech's thermal sensors can be used to the greatest effect, clearly detecting some of the Resistance soldiers hiding in the house, rather than being affected by the heat of the outside world as in the daytime. However, the stubbornness and surprise attack of the resistance artillery not only took out almost an entire Imperial artillery regiment, but also greatly delayed the attack of Kai's mecha troops.

"Inform the mechs to advance as far as possible along the enemy artillery positions we have destroyed, and the resistance may not be able to establish artillery positions in these areas again in a short period of time. Tell them that if they encounter artillery positions in other areas and are not sure that they will be captured with slight losses, they will bypass what they can bypass, and let the infantry grab what they can't, and our artillery will be dumb during the day and will not be able to provide support. Kai ordered his lieutenant that he didn't want anyone in his mech unit to be hit by some field artillery that was no less than a mech sniper rifle. During the day, his artillery regiment could not have delivered a precise strike, for the sun's fierce rays were enough to dehydrate the artillerymen who were not well protected by the sunshade and were about to exercise violently.

A mixed group of mechs and infantry transports began to advance towards Pompeii, and Kai looked at the approaching town in front of him, knowing that a fierce battle awaited them.

If the Federation's attack on Emma was taken advantage of the extreme lack of supplies for the Imperial troops and the use of superior firepower and troops to take it in one fell swoop, this time the Empire's attack on Pompeii can be described as a difficult battle. However, Kai believes that he can successfully take Pompeii in one day, because he has many more trump cards, mechs, than the resistance.

Kai's frontal corps consisted of thirty Bears, six Tigers, the 3rd Battalion of the 29th Hussar Regiment and the 3rd Brigade of the 74th Desert Infantry Division, and the rest of the troops were divided into two groups, one was a reserve consisting of a squadron of Bears and the remnants of the Desert Division, and the other was a highly mobile force consisting of 48 mechs containing 18 wolf cavalry plus the remaining 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 29th Hussar Regiment, and they bypassed Pompeii and advanced towards Cambes, forming an ambush circle in the desert between the two towns, Ambush reinforcements from the Resistance, perhaps from Cambeth. Cambeth has the remaining 18 Ignorant Fire and 2 Wolf Cavalry of the Resistance, whose high mobility requires wolf cavalry to suppress, and their own combat effectiveness should not be underestimated.

The powerful corps of the Imperial Army entered Pompeii without being attacked by any long-range fire from the Resistance. It seems that the shelling of the Imperial artillery regiment last night still had a considerable effect. The entire town of Pompeii, like a sponge absorbing water, quietly absorbed the Imperial troops. Suddenly, the whole land roared, and the Resistance began to launch a fierce attack on the Imperial forces that entered the town.

First and foremost were the Empire's mechs, a trio of three who were warmly welcomed by the Resistance Rocketeers hidden in their buildings. Countless anti-tank rockets flew towards the bear like wasps, blasting fireballs on the Iron Giant's body.

The Imperial infantry also began to break into the buildings and engage the Resistance soldiers hiding inside, and in some streets where there were no mechs to attack, the Imperial soldiers hid behind sturdy wheeled armored vehicles and slowly pressed towards the Resistance's temporary street positions. (To be continued......)