Wasteland Commander-Chapter 435 - 126: The Final Gamble

The three battleships of the Dawn Army braved several rounds of missile attacks from the enemy and finally charged into the vicinity of the enemy fleet.

The Jiangzhou Fleet was clearly in disarray, unloading countless munitions towards the battleships.

The bow of the battleship immediately faced countless strikes.

For a moment, flames shot up into the sky, and smoke filled the air.

However, these were all surface appearances; the bow of the battleship had nothing of value, allowing the enemy to hit it at will.

And at this moment, the battleship’s guns started firing fiercely.

The Shenlong ship, as the flagship of the Shenlong class, hadn’t been put to great use for a long time.

Jiang Xin, as the captain, had been quite frustrated recently.

Thinking back to when the commander first arrived at Dawn Island and built the first battleship, how glorious he was then.

The Shenlong ship ran rampant over the Jiang Ocean, making the then-named Wanguo Island’s naval forces cry out in despair.

But in just a few months, everything had changed.

The commander’s forces grew larger, the warships stronger, and now even nuclear-powered carriers had emerged.

Logically, the battleships should have been retired or recalled by the commander.

But the commander did not do so, still keeping the battleships in service, though their main task had become fighting zombies.

Firing battleship guns at zombies felt like using anti-aircraft guns to kill mosquitoes, and they could only hit the mosquitoes on the shore.

But Jiang Xin had no choice and could only continue to command the battleship in combat, still hoping that one day, the battleship could return to the sea to fight for the commander.

Unexpectedly, such an opportunity really came.

The commander ordered three battleships to simultaneously cover the Iron Curtain and then go to fight the enemy.

With suppressed anger, Jiang Xin led the battleship to be the first to arrive, charging through the heavy bombardment and getting close to a conventional-powered aircraft carrier.

To prevent missing the target, the battleship’s guns got within a distance of less than a hundred meters from the enemy carrier.

It was practically point-blank range, with no way it could miss! 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Boom, boom, boom~~~!

The long-silent guns of the battleship began their crazed roar.

Each battleship had six triple-mounted main guns, along with numerous secondary guns.

At present, most of these guns were under the cover of the Iron Curtain, fully unconcerned about being destroyed by the enemy’s fire.

This point-blank firing method simply stunned the aircraft carrier.

The Dawn Army’s battleships were Three-Star battleships, with cannon calibers reaching 480 millimeters.

And equipped with armor-piercing shells, even the carrier’s deck couldn’t withstand them.

At such a close range, they could almost directly hit the carrier’s crucial components, scoring direct hits every time.

The continuous barrage of shells made the carrier riddled with holes!

The ship’s island was also a primary target of the battleship, taking twenty or thirty hits almost immediately, catching fire and burning.

"Concentrate fire! Target the ammunition compartment, fire at will!"

Jiang Xin shouted hoarsely, his face flushed with excitement.

This way of firing was truly thrilling; he didn’t know if he’d ever have another chance to experience it again, but today, he had to indulge.

The battleship’s guns adjusted position, concentrating fire on the ammunition compartment.

Boom, boom, boom~~!!

A dozen armor-piercing shells struck the same spot in succession, instantly penetrating the deck above the bulwark.

Then the high-explosive shells were fired immediately.

The enemy’s close-in weapon systems were desperately intercepting, continuously suppressing the battleship with fire.

However, this damned ship, despite both its bow and stern being on fire and smoking, had not been penetrated completely, creating an incredibly bizarre scene.

And at such close range, complete interception was unrealistic.

As several high-explosive shells struck, the ammunition compartment exploded.

Massive explosions erupted from the inside, and a gigantic fireball almost shrouded half the ship.

This was the first aircraft carrier ever in history to be blown up by a battleship.

Although several cruisers and frigates around were firing at the battleship, it was all to no avail.

The more they focused their fire on the center of the battleship, the less effective they were.

In this way, a conventional-powered carrier was blown up outright by a battleship!

Seeing that this carrier was done for, Jiang Xin turned the guns toward the cruisers.

These warships with air defense capabilities needed to be prioritized for destruction.

While he was recklessly firing, the other two battleships were doing the same.

The bow and stern were engulfed in thick smoke, and flames shot up into the sky.

After enduring a saturation strike, they couldn’t remain intact, even getting pierced and deformed.

Yet even so, the battleships remained unsinkable, still firing wildly, enough to infuriate Jiangzhou’s officers to death.

The other two battleships focused their fire on the frigates, these smaller ships were easier targets, and with one salvo from the battleship’s guns, they were nearly demolished.

Thus, the three battleships, by sheer determination, exuded a might of thousands, turning the enemy fleet into utter chaos.

Within half an hour, over a dozen warships had been sunk by the battleships.

Chu Yuan was already furious; if it weren’t for the Guards holding him back, he would have grabbed a saber and gone down to fight these battleships himself.

"Magic! This must be magic! Why can’t these warships be sunk?"

"Ye Fan, I will not give up! I’m a well-educated atheist, your tricks can’t scare me!"

"Drive the ships to ram them, we must overturn these few broken ships!"

Chu Yuan kept roaring, and at this moment, no one could suppress his temper.

Or rather, there was something that could suppress it.

For example, missiles.

Just as the battle reached its peak, the Dawn Army struck again.

A massive number of drones and rockets came down like a storm, crazily harassing the enemy’s missile defense system.

Under the harassment and distraction by the battleships, the Jiangzhou Fleet’s missile defense system was overwhelmed by the saturation attack, barely holding on.

And at that moment, the hypersonic missiles carrying anion salt finally attacked!

Boom boom~~~~!

Two missiles broke through and hit the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier!

The massive explosion instantly killed eighty percent of the people inside the ship’s cabin.

The remaining people were almost all injured.

This kind of massive nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is indeed hard to sink, but it’s possible to kill the people inside.

Just like the scene on Crescent Island, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was crippled!

Chu Yuan did not die; he escaped on a helicopter from the aircraft carrier, but one of his legs was broken.

With the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier out of action, the enemy’s missile defense capability declined again, unable to stop the Dawn Army’s hypersonic missiles anymore.

One missile after another broke through, and the next targets were all the cruisers with strong anti-aircraft firepower.

The Dawn Army had deployed a total of eight missiles carrying anion salt, all of which hit their targets. Two exploded on the carrier, and the remaining six destroyed six cruisers.

With these cruisers destroyed, the Jiangzhou Navy could no longer withstand the Dawn Army’s fighter jets.

Fighter jets and bombers came roaring in.

Especially the bombers, after dropping a series of bombs, this naval battle was basically over.

The enemy’s transport ships, frigates, and others, all sank under the bombing.

Over forty warships were repeatedly attacked, and in the end, only five warships were left, which surrendered directly.

Among them was a conventionally powered aircraft carrier, and the rest were transport ships.

The others didn’t want to surrender, but the Dawn Army gave no chance, destroying them on the spot to eliminate future threats.

With the navy’s surrender, the battle on the Celestial River ended.

The Jiangzhou Navy and Air Force were completely wiped out, leaving only the army units now.

Chu Yuan had already taken a helicopter and arrived at the army side, now suffering in the command post.

The surrender of the navy was tacitly approved by him; he didn’t have a choice as the officers didn’t listen to him anymore.

At this moment, his mind seemed to return to a few months ago, on the day the Dawn Army ambushed the first fleet.

History is astonishingly similar, the Dawn Army defeated him on the Celestial River once again.

And this time, the loss was incredibly frustrating; he still couldn’t understand how his forces crumbled so quickly.

Such a powerful carrier battle group, three battle groups in total, lost almost completely within half a day, it was simply unbelievable.

Now, combined, their four sides still had about 750,000 troops, all infantry units.

Though these infantry still had strong anti-air capabilities, and their numbers seemed advantageous, the reality was they were at a disadvantage.

Under normal circumstances, Chu Yuan would choose to retreat, to fall back and defend Jiangzhou.

Jiangzhou still had nearly 300,000 troops, and combined with these 750,000, it could form a million-strong army, which could still hold out.

But he knew now retreat was not an option.

If they retreated, Zheng Jinnan’s subsequent plans would become meaningless.

Moreover, if they retreated to survive a bit longer, how much longer could they hold out?

The steel reserves, ammunition reserves, ore reserves, petroleum reserves, and so on in Jiangzhou were almost exhausted.

And the weapon reserves were mostly used to equip the zombie units, leaving the stockpile almost depleted.

Going back would be waiting for death, so it was better to risk everything in a fight.

Through this battle, Chu Yuan also saw that Ye Fan indeed would not be the first to use a Mushroom Bomb.

Since that’s the case, there’s nothing more to fear.

Fight, if the tens of thousands of infantry in front of the Dawn Army were all fought to the last, then this battle would not count as a loss!

In this moment, Chu Yuan was like a desperate gambler, eager to bet all his chips in one go, to settle the score with Ye Fan once and for all.

For this, Chu Yuan summoned Liu Jingyan, Song Yuchang, and Xu Wei over.

"Leaders, at this point, I won’t hide anything. My godfather has already contacted foreign forces for intervention, and they will arrive in just over two days. Now our air and naval forces have been wiped out, but we are not without strength to fight. Our army still holds an absolute advantage, and we must fight to the death, everyone must help me!"

The group nodded one after another, reaching this step left them with no other choice.

Especially the forces of Bashu and Jiangnan, their remaining troops were also limited.

Even Jiangzhou suffered tremendous losses, and at that moment, no one noticed that Liu Jingyan’s thirty thousand troops still had twenty-seven or twenty-eight thousand remaining.

At this moment, facing Chu Yuan’s call, Liu Jingyan also responded positively.

The Alliance Army’s infantry began to shift from defense to offense, determined to wipe out the Dawn Army’s infantry at all costs!