Chapter 409: Siege (Part II)

Answering is one thing, but the aviation regiment responsible for pinning down the Decepticons' advance soon discovered that this was a very difficult Task.

The two Decepticons on the ground never once shifted back into combat mode to stop and fight back.

This was both good news and bad news!

Chen Zhongyuan was closely monitoring the frontline battle situation from Lop Nur and soon realized this point.

"... Frenzy once promised to provide us with some intelligence regarding the Decepticon Legion and the Autobots. He mentioned that the vast majority of Decepticons and Autobots lack, or have poor, anti-air combat capabilities... So, looking at the performance of these two guys, they should fall into this category..."

"But, if they don't stop to fight back and just keep running like this, we're also in a real bind..."

The staff officer also realized the problem; the aviation regiment dispatched by the Air Force was equipped exclusively with J-11 fighter jets.

Forty heavy fighter jets, coordinated with early-warning aircraft, were truly formidable; even if the United States F-22 fighter jets—which had been hyped to the heavens by various countries immediately upon entering service in the last two years—came, they would dare to take them on.

But the two Decepticons below were simply too difficult to deal with. The Missiles they fired could never lock onto the targets, and the test-fired Rockets were soon proven useless against Decepticons. Even when bullets occasionally hit during low-altitude strafing runs, they only sparked a little, and it seemed they couldn't hurt the targets at all.

The Army Aviation's aircraft soon arrived. The model of armed helicopter equipped by the PLA Army Aviation was the Z-9 improved version. The prototype of this armed helicopter was the France SA-365N "Dauphin" helicopter. Although it was an excellent twin-engine light multi-purpose helicopter, its own airframe was not suitable for conversion into an armed helicopter. Although it received "magic modifications" in the East, the drawbacks were also very obvious.

Not long after, the early-warning aircraft transmitted the frontline battle situation truthfully, and everyone in the command center looked grim.

"... This armed helicopter is a bit too useless..."

Someone couldn't help but mutter, and everyone fell silent.

The performance of the WZ-9 was inherently mediocre; it had few advantages and many disadvantages, the type that could barely be made to work when there was absolutely nothing else available.

The batch of WZ-9s urgently transferred by the Army Aviation were all Z-9Gs, which was an earlier and relatively mature improved model of the WZ-9 series.

Its advantage was that it corrected the shortcomings of the previous models, but its disadvantages were poor speed, insufficient range, and a small payload.

As a result, when facing the two Decepticons, all these shortcomings were exposed.

The newly arrived support armed helicopters could only barely keep up with the two Decepticons, who were dodging incoming ammunition while still moving forward.

And after firing all the four HJ-8 anti-tank Missiles and eighteen Rockets they carried, the Army Aviation suddenly and awkwardly discovered that they had no means left to hurt the Decepticons.

They had been told before coming that the aviation cannons were useless, but now they had to be used anyway.

This wasn't even the most embarrassing part; having arrived after traveling nearly four hundred kilometers, they soon realized that with their range of only six hundred-plus kilometers, they would soon be stranded if they kept chasing.

The Army Aviation was immediately blinded. Chen Zhongyuan, with a dark face, ordered them to withdraw and regroup. Fortunately, along with this team of Army Aviation armed helicopters, there was also an Army artillery spotting helicopter. After a long trek and being chased and driven by the J-11s and armed helicopters, the two Decepticons' route inevitably deviated. Although they failed to enter the optimal ambush zone, they did enter several alternative ambush areas.

Seemingly to regain some face for the Air Force and Army Aviation, several Army high-mobility wheeled heavy off-road truck units deployed within Xinjiang, which had already traveled over a hundred kilometers, finally bared their ferocious fangs.

As more and more detailed coordinates were sent out, one PHL-03 self-propelled rocket launcher after another—wheeled heavy off-road trucks loaded with WS-2 multi-tube guided rocket systems—slowly raised their launch tubes and began to conduct spotting shots.

After the spotting shots were completed, following the report from the command vehicle, an order was soon transmitted.

And so, terrifying Rockets roared out like Missiles, raining down toward the target area over a hundred kilometers away.

"Boom—"

"Boom—"

"Boom—"

The explosions soon kicked up pillars of sand that shot into the sky in the sea of sand. The flying yellow sand completely obscured the sky, causing the fighter jets speeding through the air to briefly lose their vision.

However, the explosions continued.

Since the founding of the New China, because of a series of foreign wars such as the Korean War, the counterattack against India, and the counterattack against Vietnam, as well as suffering quite a few losses during the standoff with the Soviet Union, the PLA had developed a severe case of "insufficient firepower" syndrome.

This resulted in a series of weapons independently developed by China in recent years, especially artillery and rocket launchers, having larger and larger calibers, becoming more and more powerful, and starting to become increasingly insane.

The range of the Rockets gradually surpassed that of short-to-medium-range Missiles, and their power even caused their former teacher—the Russians—to have many orders snatched away in the international military trade market in recent years; this is a glimpse of the situation.

Seeing that the Army had finally regained some face for the PLA, Chen Zhongyuan, who was also from the Army, finally looked better. Staying in the rear command center, he watched the frontline battle situation in real-time through military satellites that had just moved to the target area, and he nodded with satisfaction.

Truth and justice really do have to rely on big guns!

Don't say rocket launchers aren't big guns; at least they have "gun" in their name!

Just as he was watching with pleasure, suddenly, the communication soldier in the command center changed his expression and hurriedly notified him: "Chief, Lord Frenzy has entered our communication channel..."

Chen Zhongyuan frowned slightly but didn't say anything more. He nodded, took the communicator from his adjutant, and held it to his mouth: "Hello, Lord Frenzy, I am Chen Zhongyuan!"

In the communication channel, a stiff, mechanical voice soon sounded, saying: "General, I am Frenzy. After receiving the news that Decepticons have invaded your area, I have traveled day and night and have already arrived in the target area. Can you provide me with more specific coordinates? I need to deal with those two invading Decepticons in the shortest possible time to prevent more enemies from hearing the news and arriving!"

He was using Chinese; although serious, it didn't make people feel unpleasant.

Sure enough, as soon as Chen Zhongyuan heard his serious tone, he immediately suppressed his dissatisfaction with him illegally breaking into their communication channel.

So, after quickly telling the other party the accurate coordinates of the battlefield, Frenzy said thanks, and the voice never sounded again.

PS:

To be honest, writing these two chapters might offend quite a few military fans. But if you really calculate based on the combat power of Decepticons, even mass-produced cannon fodder, with the 2008 Army Aviation and an Air Force aviation regiment, unless the Missiles can hit the target, it is really difficult to severely damage a Decepticon.