Munitions Empire

"How can such things be hidden? Do they think all our intelligence personnel are idiots?" A Great Tang Empire intelligence officer sneered and placed the intelligence he had obtained on the table.

Even if he were blind or a fool, he would know that the Laines Empire is expanding its military and preparing for war: their army is conducting exercises by the seaside, and their docks are piled high with steel.

Just asking around casually, one can find out that they are assembling more resources, seemingly wanting to finish building two hastily constructed aircraft carriers by the end of the year.

As a result, they would possess 7 aircraft carriers by this time next year, with five of them being large fleet carriers.

One Essex-class purchased from the Great Tang Empire, with four other improved models built by themselves: the so-called improvements mainly involved increasing the tonnage and squeezing in a few more fighter jets.

As for whether sacrificing speed and other performances for these additional fighter jets is worthwhile, only heaven knows.

"They think they're smart and everyone else is a fool," another intelligence officer in the room said, also sneering.

In reality, the scale of the Great Tang Empire's intelligence agencies deployed within the Laines Empire is quite significant, especially since this was where they exited long ago.

When they left, they left many secret agents behind, and these agents have been providing significant intelligence about the Laines Empire over the years.

Another crucial source of intelligence is telegraphs; the speed at which the Great Tang Empire deciphers secret transmissions from various countries is beyond the imagination of these empires.

They are essentially broadcasting in plain text, yet they still believe their codes can never be deciphered by the Great Tang Empire in this lifetime.

Yes, they are that confident: the set of cipher systems currently widely used by various countries is actually the Enigma cipher machine used by Germany during World War II. In theory, it's indeed very powerful. Even if the cipher machine is lost, as long as the codebooks are changed, decryption can be easily avoided.

But the supplier of this system is Shireck, and the entire technology was almost bought from the Great Tang Empire.

Countries are actually aware of this, but they believe that frequent changes of codebooks can evade the Great Tang Empire's code-breaking.

Regrettably, on one hand, the Great Tang Group nurtures more professional mathematicians than all countries combined, and on the other hand, these elites have the support of supercomputer technology.

This is practically a dimensional reduction strike on the Enigma cipher machine, and even astronomical trial-and-error calculations can be completed in seconds by the computer.

The past method of relying on manual verification for decryption is now completely outdated, and the Great Tang Empire's mastery of the use of codes by various countries has surpassed everyone's imagination.

So, for those countries coordinating their conflicts, enhancing cooperation, and banding together against the Great Tang Empire...the Great Tang Empire has known everything clearly from the very beginning.

The opponent's telegraphs were placed on Li'ao's desk, and Li'ao was more clear about various plans between Dorne, Qin Country, and Laines than the project leaders in those countries themselves.

"In the entire April, Brunas's internal steel consumption was about 90,000 tons. This approximately reflects their shipbuilding speed." The data on the Tang Country intelligence officer's desk was very detailed, and they even had photos of Brunas's dockyards.

The reconnaissance satellites of the Great Tang Empire brought back extremely clear satellite images of the major ports across the Eastern Continent, showing how many large docks were busy and how many aircraft carriers were under construction — the Tang Country knew it all thoroughly.

These satellite images were so clear that the Great Tang Empire's military intelligence personnel could even count the number of cabins and roughly estimate the buoyancy capacity of the opponent's vessels.

"Based on the current construction progress, it is estimated that by September next year, they can have at most 21 aircraft carriers, with Qin Country having 3, Dorne with 11, and Laines with 7," the intelligence officer easily calculated an accurate number.

If we add the Empire of Nanla, the Poplar Empire, and the Ice Cold Empire... the total number of aircraft carriers worldwide at that time would be about 30.

After all, the Ice Cold Empire and the Poplar Empire, due to the effects of war, had not fully recovered in national strength and had no energy for naval development.

So they each actually built only 2 aircraft carriers, and purchased an Essex-class from the Great Tang Empire.

Compared to the southern three empires' madness, the naval scale of these two empires was relatively conservative. They also seemed not very interested in immediately joining the Anti-Tang Alliance.

However, the Ice Cold Empire seemed very intent on extending its influence into the northern sea area, exerting influence over the Northern Island. However, their progress was slow due to the presence of Great Tang Empire's stationed troops on the Northern Island.

The Great Tang Empire's influence over the Northern Island was naturally immense, including political, economic, and military aspects, all under comprehensive control. So for the Ice Cold Empire to challenge the Great Tang Empire in the Northern Island area, they would need a careful plan.

The dwarves were much like those in the Laines Empire, waiting for the Great Tang Empire to fail so they could reap some benefits from its corpse.

Upon hearing this number, another intelligence officer maintained the most basic respect for their opponents: "It's not really a small number."

His colleague was not as polite, saying while laughing out loud, "Most of these aircraft carriers are concentrated in the southern seas of the Endless Sea; they are facing our 5 aircraft carriers."

"If they knew what kinds of weapons and equipment we are currently manufacturing, I think they would be eager to start the war early." As they spoke, the two of them laughed together.

The whole world was stalling for time, starting a secret arms race, so the Great Tang Empire was not idle either. Tang Mo increased the number of his new aircraft carriers to 8, a count that could allow the Great Tang Empire Navy to maintain an absolute advantage in all directions.

One must know these are brand-new steam catapult-type carriers, not at all from the same era as other countries' wooden deck contraptions.

Should a war break out between both sides, the Great Tang Empire Navy is very confident in instantly controlling the situation. It's like a game of chess; you make a move, and the other must follow suit; it's impossible to just watch without making any moves.

While countries worldwide were hoarding their power, the Great Tang Empire was also continuously stocking up on its strength, leading to this arms race.

And as for this arms race... since the inception of the Great Tang Empire, it has never been afraid of others! When the Great Tang Empire's war machine moves at full power, it truly is unstoppable!