Chapter 418: Prairie Fire

*Rum-rum-rum. * The tank tracks rolled over the stone road, and the stone road shattered.

Dozens of tanks entered Kano Town, and the town immediately became lively.

The buildings in the town were dense, and the tanks could only shuttle along the main road, which created a great obstacle to finding the remnants of the Central Army.

Su Xiao sat on a tank. He was commanding this tank. Although he didn't know how to command a tank in battle, he could sense the enemy's position.

Su Xiao commanded the commander, and the commander commanded the soldiers inside the tank; this was no problem.

"House at five o'clock, about 20 people."

Hearing Su Xiao's instruction, the tank commander immediately ordered the gunner to aim.

"Switch to incendiary shells."

Tanks could not only fire high-explosive shells and armor-piercing shells but also incendiary shells, smoke shells, etc.

An incendiary shell was loaded and fired with a *boom*.

The incendiary shell broke the house's glass window and exploded inside the house with a *bang*.

It wasn't the sky-high flames one might imagine; a cloud of white smoke erupted inside the house, and there was a faint orange-red glow within the white smoke.

A few seconds later.

"Ah!!"

Several screams came one after another, and several Central Army soldiers with white smoke rising from their bodies rushed out of the house, with no open flames on their bodies.

These Central Army soldiers ran very slowly, their steps swaying like zombies.

Logically, incendiary shells should cause sky-high flames, but now, except for a large amount of white smoke and faint sparks, there were no open flames on those Central Army soldiers.

This type of incendiary shell is called a "white phosphorus shell," which utilizes the property of white phosphorus to spontaneously ignite in the air.

This type of incendiary shell was widely used during World War II and was later abandoned because it caused huge psychological and physiological damage to the soldiers of the warring nations, with a level of cruelty rivaling that of dum-dum bullets.

The Central Army soldiers bombed by the "white phosphorus shells" were still wailing, and the Northern Army didn't fire.

A Northern Army recruit just raised his muzzle, but was immediately held down by a veteran beside him.

"Just let them burn to death."

"But..."

Struggle appeared in the recruit's eyes.

"My brother was blown to death by these Central Army trash an hour ago; there's no 'but'."

The veteran sneered and continued to watch the wailing Central Army soldiers.

War is the root of hatred, whether it's a war between two countries or a civil war within the same country.

The tank unit continued to move forward, while Su Xiao sensed the surrounding enemies.

*Ding! *

A bullet hit the circular hatch beside him, sending up a shower of sparks.

Su Xiao felt a chill in his heart. He hadn't sensed this shot; he only sensed it after the bullet landed. There was a sniper!

He tilted his head to look at the bullet hole on the hatch and judged the sniper's position based on the position of the hole.

"Looks like others have come to join the fun."

Su Xiao looked at a clock tower behind the town, where a black gun barrel protruded.

If one looked closely, that wasn't a gun barrel, but a silencer.

There were contractors, no doubt. The one who fired this shot must be a contractor. There were only a few powerful gunmen in the Fullmetal Alchemist world, and it was unlikely that those few could block Su Xiao's perception.

"Seven o'clock direction, clock tower."

Although the commander didn't see where the enemy was, he still ordered the gunner to aim in that direction.

"All tanks, concentrate fire on the clock tower at seven o'clock."

Su Xiao shouted. As the initiator of the alliance, he certainly had the right to command the tank unit in battle.

A dozen tanks around turned their muzzles, and the sound of gunfire was constant. In less than ten seconds, that clock tower was razed to the ground.

Beside the ruins of the clock tower, a female contractor gritted her teeth and ran quickly toward the outside of the town.

"Where did this contractor come from, bringing a tank unit along? It's simply cheating."

The female contractor had a long golden braid, and the golden braid swayed left and right as she ran.

Her name was Mira. In the real world, she was a sniper. After arriving at Reincarnation Paradise, she was like a fish in water, not knowing how many contractors she had sniped.

At this moment, Mira was holding her beloved sniper rifle and fleeing. Facing that mighty tank unit, the only thing she could do was flee.

Su Xiao saw Mira fleeing. He didn't pursue her; the distance was too far, and it would be a waste of time. Besides, that shot just now wasn't aimed at him, but at Olivier, but Olivier was sharp and dodged the shot.

Two hours later.

The battle in the town gradually came to an end, and the remnants of the Central Army were cleared.

The Northern Army took over the town, and the first target was the train station.

Walking in the town, Su Xiao could occasionally see civilians walking on the streets. These civilians looked panicked and were very afraid of the Northern Army.

The Northern Army's first target was to control the train station. A group of Northern Army soldiers had just entered the train station when rapid gunfire came.

The gunfire disappeared five minutes later, and a dozen Northern Army soldiers dragged out several corpses, leaving large bloodstains on the street.

All the Central Army corpses were concentrated in the square in the center of the town, doused with gasoline, and set on fire, with rolling black smoke rising.

These corpses had to be dealt with immediately. War and plague go hand in hand, and that is precisely because corpses were not dealt with in time.

Not long after the train station was controlled, a whistle sounded. The Central Army didn't have time to blow up the train, which was also their only way out.

The Central Army generals didn't expect they would be defeated so quickly. From that large pile of military rations, one could see that the Central Army was prepared to launch a protracted war against the Northern Army.

A protracted war was somewhat whimsical; the total duration of the war hadn't even exceeded a day.

Trains drove out of the station one after another. This was the advance force, led by Olivier.

Su Xiao was not in a hurry to leave the town for the time being; he had to cover the rear.

The train seats were all removed to increase the number of soldiers transported. Tanks were driven onto flatbed trains. Fortunately, there were enough trains, otherwise, they couldn't transport so many tanks.

Even so, the transport couldn't be completed in one or two trips; they had to transport back and forth five times in total.

Olivier, as the advance force, cleared the way in front, fighting through train station after train station along the way until reaching Central City.

Su Xiao guarded the town and kept in touch with Olivier.

Two days later, Olivier had taken down six train stations. Not only did the number of trains increase, but the soldiers under her command also increased rapidly.

The generals of Amestris were not all incompetent. Some generals had long been dissatisfied with the behavior of Central City. Seeing Olivier's large-scale advance, those generals also wanted a piece of the pie.

The number of allies began to increase, from the original three groups to sixteen, and the army grew from the initial eighty thousand to over four hundred thousand.

This situation was something even Su Xiao hadn't expected. He had previously thought he would have to fight the Central Army to the death, but now it seemed that wasn't the case at all.

His actions and those of Mustang and the other two were like setting a fire on a withered grassland, and now this fire was burning larger and larger.

On the third day after the war started, Su Xiao took four thousand soldiers by train to Central City. This was the last unit stationed in the town. Now that the coalition army had too many people, there was no need to station here.

The number of trains was increasing, and more and more soldiers were participating in the war.

By the third day of the war, the number of troops had reached over 600,000. Generals everywhere could see that Central City was finished, and now it was time to pick a side.

However, among these 600,000 soldiers, the real main force was only a few tens of thousands—the subordinates of Mustang and Olivier.

Other generals were just making a statement. If a bitter battle occurred, these 600,000 troops would scatter like beasts in an instant. ===== CHAPTER 419 =====