Iron Dynasty

Chapter 1169

Hadrian’s Wall.

This was the wall built by the Roman Emperor Hadrian to resist foreign invasions. Over the years, this wall, which now only had mounds of earth left, had become the boundary separating Scotland and England.

“Charge again! The Scots can’t hold on for long.”

In the trenches on the south side of Hadrian’s Wall, Butler ordered another charge. After Scotland announced its independence, he led a 300,000-strong army of Englishmen north, where they encountered resistance from the Scots at Hadrian’s Wall. In recent days, in order to defeat the enemy, both sides had fought fiercely, but compared to the Scottish militias, many of the English soldiers were veterans on the battlefield. Coupled with their numerical advantage, Butler had gained the initiative in the war in just two months. Facing the dwindling Scottish army, he constantly launched charges, hoping to break through this line of defense and enter Scotland in three days.

But his hope was quickly dashed. When the military-green steel monsters swooped down from the Scottish Highlands, all the English soldiers were shocked by the scene in front of them.

“The Empire’s army has landed.”

Butler said. Although the coast was blockaded by the Chinese Empire, this did not mean that Britain had been completely cut off from the outside world. It was not impossible to secretly and individually cross the English Channel. Because of this, they still maintained intermittent contact with the European continent. Through intelligence, he determined that the monsters in front of him were the Empire’s tanks. Scotland simply did not have the ability to build such machines.

“Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh…”

While the English soldiers were in a panic, a formation of forty-two tanks stopped in front of the Scottish position. Then, one shell after another roared from behind the Scottish position. When these shells landed on the English position, huge explosions occurred. Every place where a shell landed was blown into a huge crater. The soldiers hit by the shells were directly sent flying into the air by the airwave, and their bodies were even torn apart. But what terrified them even more was that they could not find the enemy’s artillery position within their visible range.

Scottish position.

Lu Jun and Hainasen were observing the English position on the south side of the wall. After preparing the army, he immediately led the army to the battlefield. After all, it was only a two-hour drive from Falkland to the battlefield.

“Hahaha, these damned Englishmen deserve to be bombarded enough.” Hainasen laughed very happily. Due to the range of the howitzers, their artillery was set up on a high ground, five kilometers away from the front line, which also prevented the artillery positions from being attacked by the enemy.

In Lu Jun’s eyes, the howitzer shells were like raindrops in a downpour falling into a calm lake, creating one ripple after another. With each explosion, gunpowder smoke and dust flew in the air, taking away the lives of the English soldiers. Looking at this scene, Lu Jun pursed his lips tightly. With such a significant generational gap in weapons, the outcome of England’s defeat was already determined. He did not want to waste too much time in this war, so after the carpet bombing, he ordered the tanks and infantry to advance.

Just like in the war against Austria, he was given command of the Scottish army after entering the battlefield. So now, the Empire’s army was only responsible for providing firepower coverage, while the melee combat on the battlefield was to be carried out by the Scots themselves. Hainasen did not refuse this decision. For him, it would be more meaningful for the Scots to defeat the English themselves.

“Boom, boom, boom…”

“Da da da…”

The vanguard, composed of forty-two tanks, slowly advanced toward the English position. As they moved, the tanks continuously fired at important targets, and the machine gunners poured out bullets. The Scottish soldiers followed closely behind the tanks, hiding their bodies behind the tanks. Now their positions in the trenches had been occupied by the Empire’s machine gunners and mortar crews. The Chinese soldiers would clear the obstacles for their advance.

…

English position.

Butler shook the dust off his body and climbed out of the trench. He then saw the advancing tanks and the Scottish soldiers following behind the tanks. He pulled his adjutant, who was lying in the trench, and told him to lead the English soldiers to prepare for a counterattack, but he found that the adjutant had a bullet hole in his forehead and was bleeding. This scene suddenly reminded him of the war in India. At that time, he was also in such a desperate situation, but this time, they had no way to retreat.

Shuttling through the trenches, Butler looked for living soldiers to join the counterattack, but what shocked him was the casualties caused by this bombardment. The tanks were moving very fast. Before the English soldiers could organize an effective counterattack, the Scottish soldiers behind the tanks had already rushed into the trenches. They took out the grenades supplied by the Empire and threw them into the Englishmen’s trenches. Then, they jumped into the trenches with their bayonet-equipped firing rifles and fought the English soldiers in close combat. At the same time, the Empire’s tanks provided fire support for the Scots on the front line of the English position. The machine guns continuously swept over the areas where the Englishmen were putting up a fierce resistance.

However, the Englishmen’s will to fight was very strong. Although many Englishmen had died in the bombardment, they were still fighting stubbornly against the Scots. The first batch of attacking Scottish soldiers was quickly driven back by the English soldiers, who still had a numerical advantage.

Facing this situation, Lu Jun was very calm. The number of English soldiers was almost three times that of the Scottish soldiers. Even with the Empire’s fierce firepower, it was impossible to kill so many enemies at once. So, a counter-charge like this would not succeed in one go and would require repeated attrition. Hainasen had been informed of Lu Jun’s plan in advance, so he was not furious about the failure of the first charge.

According to Lu Jun, the more impatient the Englishmen became, the calmer they had to be, because England’s fragile economy could be dragged down by this war of attrition at any time. On the contrary, Scotland, which had the Chinese Empire’s support, would receive a large number of food supplies from Africa and was not afraid of a war of attrition with England at all. Meanwhile, to force England to surrender, Xie Yuan was leading the Naval Marines to attack London. This was his and Lu Jun’s plan to make a feint to the east and attack in the west. Lu Jun was responsible for trapping Butler on the front line so that he could wipe out the English nobles in one fell swoop.

“Bombard!”

After looking at his pocket watch, the Chinese Empire’s warships outside London suddenly launched an attack on London Port. One shell after another landed on the London dock, once again turning the place into a fiery hell. But when the citizens of London thought that the Empire was just conducting a routine bombardment, they suddenly found that one landing craft after another, carrying soldiers, was heading for London Port. Noticing this, the London garrison immediately concentrated on the port, but the Chinese soldiers quickly occupied the dock and built a defensive system. Machine guns spewed out tongues of fire, and bullets flew toward the British soldiers who were continuously coming to reinforce.