The terrifying artillery barrage lasted for nearly half an hour.
The reinforcements, with three thousand artillery pieces and one thousand rocket launchers, fired over six hundred thousand rounds of various types of shells within half an an hour, expending over twenty thousand tons of ammunition.
Van Fleet's ammunition expenditure was just for fun; with the aid of modern technology, more durable gun barrels, faster reloading and replacement, and modular rapid replacement of damaged components for readiness.
This allowed for a far greater projection of firepower than decades ago.
The scale of firepower delivered by these three thousand artillery pieces and one thousand rocket launchers in that half-hour was unprecedented, even on Blue Star.
After all, since entering the new era, Blue Star had never fought a truly high-intensity war; these weapons usually appeared unremarkable, seemingly without any outstanding features.
It was simply because their scale of application was still far from sufficient.
Artillery, as a weapon, only truly demonstrates its value when used on a large scale, and the shock it delivers is also the greatest.
And at this moment, the defenders of Mengchuan City were clearly the ones most profoundly shocked.
After the overwhelming bombardment ended, it took another half an hour for the smoke and dust outside the city to finally dissipate.
The battlefield before them was already scarred, with not a single intact piece of ground visible.
Everywhere were shell craters and various corpses, some of Elves, some of Orcs, and even more of Dwarves and Goblins, races that were the main force in the allied army.
Corpses were everywhere, yet it was difficult to find a few intact bodies among them.
The moat, previously filled by the allied army with sandbags, had now been completely buried and disappeared under the dense, indiscriminate artillery fire.
It was as if there had never been a moat there at all.
This was just the area closer to the city gate.
Further out, the allied army's main camp, visible from the city wall, still had flames that hadn't even extinguished.
Under the towering black smoke lay a ruin where no signs of life could be seen.
The city's defenders, who had witnessed this apocalyptic scene, were all pale-faced; with shells raining down and bombardments everywhere, they couldn't believe what they would do if they were the ones standing beneath the city wall, facing a bombardment of this scale.
The bombing range was too large; in addition to 155mm howitzers, there were also a large number of extremely powerful various rocket bombs.
Occasionally, several fuel-air bombs, thermobaric bombs, and white phosphorus incendiary bombs would be mixed in.
Ordinary shells, martial artists and mages above the fourth rank could still find ways to resist and protect themselves without much problem, but when facing the endless variety of rocket bombs, they had no means whatsoever.
It could be said to be impossible to guard against.
In this environment, only martial artists and mages above the seventh rank could survive on the battlefield.
The actual situation was indeed like this; unless intentionally interfered with by Wei Wei and some high-level beings in Mengchuan City, most high-level martial artists and mages in the allied army successfully escaped.
But once entangled by an equally strong opponent and unable to escape for a time, even a high-level individual would perish here.
The Elf race's eighth-rank priest and An Qi, the princess and allied army commander, were among them.
The former died directly on the spot.
Wei Wei initially thought An Qi had also died, but unexpectedly, when a group of cavalry was dispatched to clear the battlefield outside the city, An Qi was unexpectedly brought back; this fellow still had one breath left.
Of course, it's not to say that she, a seventh-rank martial artist, could withstand the bombardment of two fuel-air bombs and dozens of shells; rather, as the princess of the Elf race and the new Elf King's most beloved daughter, she possessed many life-saving treasures.
These allowed her to barely survive in this hellish environment.
But it was only just barely clinging to life.
When she was brought back, there wasn't a single good piece of flesh left on her entire body.
For a prisoner of war of this caliber, Wei Wei certainly wouldn't let her just die like that; after sealing her with magic, she used life water to save her.
In the future, whether used as a bargaining chip for negotiations with the Elf Kingdom or for other purposes, she would be very useful.
The spoils of war obtained from clearing the battlefield after the battle were far more than just An Qi as a captive.
After clearing the frontal battlefield outside the city, Mengchuan City's cavalry advanced several kilometers, cautiously probing as they went, and entered the allied army's main camp.
Before entering, they found that the fires ignited by incendiary bombs in the camp hadn't extinguished yet, but it was eerily quiet inside.
Initially, they thought there might be an ambush and were quite cautious.
But upon truly entering the main camp, they discovered that it was already deserted.
Most of the camp had been burned to the ground, and the rear camps untouched by the war were also empty.
Mengchuan City's cavalry searched the camp for a long time and only found a few hundred living people; these were either crippled by the explosions and couldn't run, or were completely terrified and didn't even have the courage to flee.
From these people, they finally understood that even before the bombardment stopped, a large-scale rout had occurred among the soldiers who hadn't gone out to battle in the allied army camp.
No matter how the mid- and high-ranking martial artists and mages tried to stop them, they couldn't.
Even later, when Mengchuan City's artillery fire directly hit the allied army's main camp, those mid- and high-ranking martial artists and mages also began to scatter with them.
The phrase "a defeated army crumbles like a mountain" was vividly demonstrated at this moment.
Because the area north of the allied army camp was a mountainous region with rugged mountain paths, and several essential passages were narrow valleys, a severe stampede occurred among the allied forces during their escape after the large-scale rout.
Everyone only regretted not having two more legs, fearing that those terrifying shells would fall behind them.
Their escape was utterly reckless, abandoning armor and discarding weapons without regard for consequences.
As for the logistical supplies abandoned in the main camp, they were countless.
Post-battle statistics showed that the unburnt materials captured in the allied army's main camp alone included over three hundred thousand sets of ordinary weapons and armor, and over one hundred thousand sets of mid- and low-grade armor and weapons inscribed with magic runes.
Ordinary food supplies exceeded one hundred thousand tons, and various magical ingredients exceeded twenty thousand tons.
More than five thousand barrels of life water, used as military medicine, each barrel approximately one cubic meter, this life water was of the same concentration as the one Wei Wei initially traded to Su Yi.
As for the casualties, that was even more absurd.
The most elite units of the allied army, totaling two hundred thousand, had gathered beneath the city with An Qi, ready to take Mengchuan City in one fell swoop.
Afterward, during the statistics, it was roughly estimated that over one hundred sixty thousand allied soldiers died on this frontal battlefield, and the total number who managed to escape from the battlefield after the shelling did not exceed forty thousand.
The situation in the rear main camp was even worse than the bombed frontal battlefield; the frontal army at least had some protection like armor, but the soldiers in the main camp had no defenses whatsoever, and there were nearly a million allied troops stationed in the main camp!
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