Vital land combat equipment like Armored Knights, after Britannia, Gaul, and Saxony each developed their new generation models, would naturally see their retired, previous-generation models considered for foreign sales.
Therefore, in this turbulent 20th century, Armored Knights—a massive lethal weapon capable of deciding the course of a land battle—were no longer a rare sight. Every nation unable to independently develop Armored Knights would try every means, even bankrupting themselves, to equip themselves with a batch.
Because before Morin and the others developed anti-armor artillery, the only thing on the battlefield capable of dealing with an Armored Knight was another Armored Knight.
If they didn't want to be brutally beaten by a neighboring country using Armored Knights, they had to join this arms race.
Thus, the previous generation Armored Knights, which the three great powers should have retired and scrapped, underwent "refurbishment" and transformed into hot commodities on the Europa arms trade market.
Among these, the Gallic Armored Knights were relatively the best-selling.
Not just because the Gauls were good at marketing, but primarily because they were much purer when conducting arms trades.
The Britannians liked to attach a bunch of political clauses when selling equipment, while the Saxons employed a "buy my stuff and you're my brother" tied-selling model...
Basically, buying equipment from these two nations on a large scale meant tying yourself to them.
But the overall situation in Europa before the war broke out was actually unclear, and it was impossible to tell who the ultimate victor would be.
So this made these small nations rather hesitant when considering Britannian and Saxon equipment.
Their main worry was: what if they picked the wrong side? How would they deal with being "purged" by the victor in the future?
Against this backdrop, the Gallic sales model was touchingly pure...
As long as you were willing to pay, they dared to sell even "monkey models" (downgraded export versions) of active-duty models, and with no strings attached.
However, the price of these active-duty models was entirely unbearable for other small nations, so it was more about demonstrating an attitude. And this pure commercial spirit of "not asking about background, only looking at the money" deeply moved those small nations on the Balkan Peninsula who neither wanted to take a side nor wanted to be left without some hard-hitting hardware.
The Kingdom of Greater Serbia was one of their top clients.
Of course, the reason this country didn't want to take a side wasn't that they were afraid of picking the wrong one.
It was because, brainwashed by "Greater Serbianism," these Serbians felt they were their own side... Ultimately, four massive arms orders flew toward Paris like snowflakes.
Besides mountains of rifles and ammunition, the most important transaction was undoubtedly the 40 "Iris Mark II, Modified" Armored Knights the Serbians bought as a package deal.
For these true iron cans, the Serbians not only emptied two consecutive years of their military budget but also paid an additional, exorbitant fee to have the Gauls help "modify" a batch of Armored Knight pilots.
Yes, Armored Knight pilots required the "mana affinity" trait.
And small nations obviously wouldn't possess this kind of technology, so this "modification business" was essentially tied to the sale of Armored Knights. As the last improved and mass-produced model among the previous generation of Armored Knights, the "Iris Mark II, Modified" also inherited many characteristics of its generation.
Its appearance was basically a square tin can magnified countless times with limbs attached, looking highly uncoordinated and crude. As for overall performance, the high-EQ description was that it had a sense of heft, looking slow and powerful.
The low-EQ description was that its mobility was poor, and its efficiency in converting mana to mechanical energy was low.
Therefore, battles between the previous generation of Armored Knights were true iron-can brawls.
The pilots on both sides wouldn't engage in complex evasive maneuvers or kiting; upon engaging, they would just crash straight into each other, then compete to see who had a higher power output and who could tear off the opponent's limbs first...
But for these Balkan nations, Armored Knights could be difficult to use, but they had to have them.
And during the previous two Balkan Wars, these nations were also extremely cautious in deploying the Armored Knights they had spent a fortune to buy. Only one large-scale Armored Knight engagement occurred across both wars.
Most of the rest of the time, the Armored Knights were just bullying enemy infantry...
As for non-wartime situations, these Balkan nations also developed a much more suitable use for these Armored Knights: riot control. After all, facing mobs and rebels armed only with crude weapons, a hunk of iron that could flatten a carriage with one stomp possessed an irreplaceable deterrent effect.
And now, these two "riot control weapons," accustomed to parading their might domestically, finally met their true match.
The pilots of the two Armored Knights clearly understood their current predicament.
They didn't control their Armored Knights to perform complex tactical maneuvers like the pilots of the three great powers.
Instead, they directly raised their shields in front of them, taking heavy steps, shielding the group of panicked division headquarters officers from the left and right. "Boom! Boom!"
The heavy footsteps made the ground tremble slightly. The two Armored Knights, like two out-of-control bulldozers, rampaged along the main road of the village. The instruction unit soldiers, originally intending to rely on the terrain to attack, immediately disappeared among the buildings on both sides of the town's main road upon seeing these two behemoths.
The instruction unit soldiers had naturally undergone specialized training against Armored Knights.
So when the Armored Knights smashed through the civilian houses and charged out, the leading NCOs roared, directing the soldiers to retreat from the streets and dive into the alleys. Only, in the eyes of the Armored Knights, it seemed the attacking enemy had been scared off by them...
"Excellent, they are indeed afraid!"
A Serbian officer hiding behind an Armored Knight shouted excitedly, the terror of being suppressed just moments ago instantly vanishing. In his view, these ambushing soldiers were just like the infantry of other countries and the mobs in his own country—scattering like birds and beasts at the sight of Armored Knights.
Even the two Armored Knight pilots thought so.
Looking at the empty street through the "sympathetic state" vision, an inexplicable sense of heroism surged in their hearts.
Who cares what kind of divine troops descended from heaven; in the face of Armored Knights, don't you still have to obediently make way?
However, when the Gauls sold them the Armored Knights, they didn't throw in high-tech gadgets like communication stones.
Communication between the two Armored Knights relied entirely on the pilots roaring at each other through loudspeakers, or waving their clumsy mechanical arms to make gestures. "Break out towards the south! It's closer to the other units over there!"
The pilot on the left turned on the loudspeaker. His somewhat distorted Serbian echoed down the street; the unique language was also his confidence to broadcast so brazenly.
The other Armored Knight waved the war hammer in its hand to signal receipt.
These officers of the 2nd Division headquarters, under the escort of the two Armored Knights, charged along the main road towards the south entrance of the village. But in a corner they couldn't see, Rommel made a hand gesture. The soldiers beside him immediately understood and, using the houses for cover, silently moved towards the village entrance.
At this time, the 2nd Company led by Model had also attacked into the village from the south.
When he saw the two iron cans spewing black smoke and charging over, his reaction was identical to Rommel's. He directly roared at the people around him: "Everyone scatter! Into the alleys! Don't go head-to-head with the iron cans!"
Thus, the south entrance of the village, which was fighting fiercely just a moment ago, instantly fell dead silent.
This eerie quietness conversely led the Serbians, intent on breaking out, to a massive misjudgment.
"It seems the south side was also scared off by us!"
The commander of the 2nd Division wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Looking at the approaching village entrance, a look of joy at surviving a disaster finally appeared on his face. He had really thought his division headquarters was going to be wiped out by the Saxons just now.
"I said keeping these two darlings at the division headquarters was a wise decision!"
Seeing this, the two Armored Knights revved their engines even higher. The magitech engines let out an overloaded roar. The massive metal footpads stomped the dirt road into mud pits one by one, charging toward the village entrance with an indomitable momentum.
Although a few bullets occasionally flew from nowhere along the way, taking down soldiers of the guard company moving with the division headquarters, to the Armored Knight pilots, this was nothing but the incompetent fury of the attackers.
"Charge out quickly! Converge with the nearest friendly forces!"
However, just as the first Armored Knight stepped out of the village entrance while shouting, and the pilot could even see the boundless plain in the distance...
An accident occurred.
"Boom!"
Without any warning, an adobe house beside the leading Armored Knight suddenly seemed to be violently slapped by an invisible giant hand.
The wall shattered instantly, and a sky full of dust billowed out. Nearly two seconds later, two cannon roars arrived belatedly.
"Artillery! Infantry take cover quickly!"
This Armored Knight pilot's reaction wasn't considered slow. After all, he had received proper training from the Gauls. So the moment he heard this sound, he subconsciously tried to raise the shield on his left arm.
But for the previous generation of Armored Knights, intention and physical action were often disconnected, because the latency of the older "sympathetic operation devices" was not low.
So just as the heavy shield on the left arm was raised halfway, the pilot felt the entire world jolt violently.
"Clang! Clang!"
Two teeth-aching sounds of metal impact overlapped almost entirely.
The first armor-piercing shell, carrying immense kinetic energy, directly shattered the spell shield, whose defensive threshold wasn't high to begin with, and then violently drilled into the Armored Knight's right knee joint.
The complex transmission unit and magitech muscle bundles were shredded to pieces in an instant. The entire Armored Knight lost its balance and fell forward. But what was truly fatal was the second shot immediately following.
The hit location of this shell was also very tricky. Just as the Armored Knight was falling forward, it punched in from a position slightly above the cockpit.
"Boom—"
Following a somewhat muffled sound, that Armored Knight, which was still trying to raise its shield, looked as if its soul had been extracted.
Its massive body swayed stiffly, and then, right under everyone's watchful eyes, it face-planted straight into the ground.
"Crash!"
More than ten tons of metal smashed onto the ground, kicking up a visible wave of dust.
A plume of black smoke billowed from the cockpit, and there was no further movement inside.
"Wh... what is going on?!"
The 2nd Division commander following behind almost had his eyes pop out. His mouth hung wide open, temporarily speechless.
That was an Armored Knight!
A vital weapon of the nation bought with a massive sum of money!
Gone, just like that?
As for the pilot of the other Armored Knight, he was also scared out of his wits at this moment.
But he was still in the cockpit after all. His survival instinct made him execute the most correct reaction, and he indeed saw the flash of fire in the distance when the second round of shelling began.
"Watch out for enemy artillery! Two o'clock direction!"
While roaring to alert the friendly forces around him, he desperately drove the "sympathetic operation device," attempting to fully position the shield in front of him. Because he wasn't the primary target, he successfully raised the shield during the two volleys.
And right at the moment he erected the shield, two more flashes of fire blinked from the bushes in the distance.
"Clang! Clang!"
Two holes instantly appeared on that shield, which was capable of resisting direct hits from ordinary artillery.
Two terrifying impact craters also appeared on the Armored Knight's frontal main armor, and the pilot inside was rattled dizzy.
And at a position nearly 500 meters from the village entrance, the two "RAK 15" gun crews set up on the left and right sides of the road were nervously opening the breeches and ejecting the spent casings.
"Armor-piercing shell! Reload! That last shot hit the target's shield!"
"Hold your fire! Observe the target's posture!"
One of the gun captains half-squatted on the ground, holding binoculars and watching the still-active enemy Armored Knight, hammering his thigh in frustration. With a crisp "click," the brass-colored casings were ejected from the chambers, rolling onto the ground carrying the smell of gunpowder smoke, while new shells were forcefully shoved into the breeches.
Simultaneously, the situation within the village also reversed in an instant.
At this time, Rommel had also led a platoon and linked up with Model. When they noticed an Armored Knight had fallen at the village entrance, they immediately realized the anti-armor gun crews that had maneuvered to the south of the village via trucks had struck.
Rommel and Model, who were just "avoiding the enemy's sharp edge" a moment ago, appeared highly tacitly coordinated at this moment.
They simultaneously issued the order to "intensify the feint," having the troops continue to pressure the enemy.
Gunfire instantly became dense around a courtyard where the 2nd Division headquarters personnel were hiding, and the line of fire gradually shifted near this courtyard. Many soldiers of the headquarters guard company on the nearby streets were shot down on the spot. The remaining men didn't dare stay on the streets any longer, scrambling into the surrounding houses in panic.
Under these circumstances, the instruction unit soldiers didn't force an assault, but took hand grenades from their chest rigs and threw them at the buildings and courtyard where the enemy was hiding.
"Boom, boom, boom"
Amidst a series of explosions, Serbian soldiers continuously cried out and fell amidst the shrapnel and blast waves.
"Protect the Division Commander! Protect the Division Commander!"
The pilot of the sole surviving Armored Knight was still dutifully fulfilling his responsibilities.
At this time, several hand grenades had even rolled to the entrance of the small courtyard where the division commander was hiding.
If he didn't do something, the entire division headquarters really would be wiped out.
At this moment, an unknown sense of mission drove this pilot to make a decision that could only be called a brain-cramp.
He ignored the two deadly anti-armor guns in the distance and forcibly controlled his machine to turn around, attempting to use the Armored Knight's body to block the line of fire and hand grenades aimed at the courtyard.
It was this turn that completely exposed the Armored Knight's poorly protected flank to the muzzles of the "RAK 15s."
"Boom! Boom!"
The two anti-armor guns roared almost simultaneously.
This time, the two armor-piercing shells, carrying devastating kinetic energy, accurately drilled into the Armored Knight's defenseless side armor.
The first shot punched directly through the magitech core, triggering a violent mana shockwave.
The second shot tumbled after piercing the armor and swept through the entire cockpit, directly shredding the upper half of the pilot inside to pieces.
"Screech—"
Amidst the sound of twisting metal, this behemoth also collapsed violently in a cloud of dust.
Almost the instant this last Armored Knight fell, Rommel and Model charged forward with the surrounding soldiers.
The two had no intention of taking prisoners at this moment. After taking down the Serbian soldiers around and approaching the courtyard, they directly tossed a volley of hand grenades inside.
At the same time, a few kilometers away inside the instruction unit's temporary regimental headquarters.
Morin sat in the trailer of the command truck, watching the red unit card representing the enemy 2nd Division headquarters on the system map turn gray.
"UR cards are indeed reliable..."
Morin tapped the small folding table nonchalantly, a satisfied smile appearing on his face. Then he focused his attention on the location of the 3rd Battalion.
They were currently attacking the enemy 1st Corps' corps-level supply distribution center. Two infantry companies had already launched an assault, while the other infantry company utilized their traditional skill of outflanking.
The commanders of these infantry companies also strictly followed tactical requirements, retaining a "security team" during the attack to scout and screen their flanks and rear. And the "security team" of one of the companies unexpectedly lit up an approaching enemy reinforcement unit.
Due to the special nature of the location of supply distribution centers, they are generally closer to the temporary camps of reserve forces, and many commanders usually assign the reserves the task of protecting supply distribution centers.
So Morin wasn't surprised at this moment.
He merely mentally calculated their path based on the movement speed of this lit-up enemy reinforcement unit on the system map, wrote down a series of map coordinates on a piece of paper, and called for a messenger.
"Take these coordinates to the artillery battalion. Tell them to execute an interdiction barrage based on these map coordinates!"
After the messenger turned and left, Morin also activated the main unit of the portable magitech communication equipment and set the communication target to the handset held by the 3rd Battalion commander.
When the rune representing "connection successful" lit up on the equipment, Morin immediately began micro-managing:
"Steiner, tell your troops not to go south! The artillery battalion is about to lay down an interdiction barrage on the enemy reinforcements coming over! Make sure to avoid the following areas..."