Munitions Empire

John Cleves anxiously paced back and forth on his bridge. He never expected his fleet to be discovered so quickly, nor did he expect that the Tang Army, despite being at a disadvantage in numbers, would dare to take the initiative to come here and seek a decisive battle.

This gave him a very bad feeling, and he began to doubt whether there was something wrong with the fleet's strategy for the decisive battle. The Great Tang Empire, which had always maintained a technological lead, might have come up with some kind of trump card to turn the tide of the battle.

From a strategic perspective, although his combined fleet was large and formidable, it could not afford to fail. Once the combined fleet suffered a heavy blow, the control of the southern sea area would change hands, and the sea routes between Dorne and Qin Country would be completely cut off.

For both countries, this is definitely not good news. Once the sea routes are cut off, Dorne's intention to send troops will fall through, and Qin Country will not be able to receive more support from Dorne and the entire Eastern Continent...

In fact, another purpose of the combined fleet preparing to attack Nanshan Port is to lure the main force of the Great Tang Empire Navy into a decisive battle, thereby indirectly ensuring the safety of the sea route between Dorne and Great Qin in the southern sea area.

"Commander! The commander of the Qin Country Navy has sent a message using light signals, asking if they should launch the second batch of fighter jets..." An officer approached to ask his commander.

"Signal them to launch according to the plan, expand the patrol range of the fighter jets and force the Tang Army's aircraft away from our fleet," John Cleves gave his command.

"Report! The Stanly cruiser on the periphery has been hit by a missile..." An officer hurried over to report the newly confirmed news to John Cleves.

In fact, the information they received was already very late, because at this time, the peripheral fleet was almost completely wiped out.

No choice but to use flags and light signals for communication because the radio was suppressed. By the time the message was relayed to the Aircraft Carrier fleet, half of the warships transmitting the signals might already have been engulfed in a sea of fire.

"..." Hearing this news, John Cleves knew that Tang Country's carriers had begun their attack. However, his fleet had not detected any torpedo bombers or dive bombers, which was frustrating.

"Did the opponent use destroyers to advance and launch missiles at us?" John Cleves subsequently asked because the intelligence he had on Tang Country only allowed him to deduce this conclusion.

During the Battle of Mirage, the Great Tang Empire used anti-ship missiles, a weapon everyone now knows is the "trump card" of the Great Tang Empire Navy.

However, according to investigations by various intelligence departments, this weapon is large and can only be carried by warships, so the navies of various countries do not fear this new weapon as much.

If it can only be carried by warships, it proves that the Tang Army has already pushed its missile warships to the forefront! To John Cleves, this seemed like an opportunity!

Thus, the Supreme Commander of the combined fleet immediately turned around and looked at his air commander: "Have the Stuka carrying torpedoes take off immediately! Search and advance in the direction of the Stanly cruiser! Find the enemy's advancing fleet and destroy them!"

"Yes!" The air commander was already impatient. He saluted and then went to relay the message. Ten aircraft carriers, launching hundreds of attack aircraft, attacking the enemy's fleet in one go, the destructive power was sure to be astonishing.

He even began to imagine his attack aircraft group obliterating the enemy's advancing fleet, helping the main fleet win this naval battle...

Unfortunately, he hadn't yet turned around when another officer hurried over to report more bad news to John Cleves: "The alert fleet in the northeast direction has been heavily damaged, three destroyers have been hit, and two cruisers have caught fire... they are all sinking, the situation is very dire."

"What?" Even the usually composed John Cleves began to lose his composure. His counterattack hadn't even started yet, and his fleet had already suffered so many losses. The speed was just too fast.

It's not that he couldn't afford the losses, but at this rate, a breach would soon be opened in his outer defenses, and then the enemy would begin to threaten the core carriers and battleships of the fleet. What then?

"What are you still waiting for? Launch the attack aircraft immediately! Go!" He barked at the stunned air commander, then turned to his staff officer: "Have part of the fighter jet unit search in the direction with the heaviest ship losses! Find the enemy's fleet! At all costs!"

"Yes!" The staff officer swallowed and hurriedly went to arrange the task.

A few seconds later, at the core position of the combined fleet, a fireball suddenly rose from the deck of a Dorne Empire aircraft carrier.

Black smoke rose straight into the sky, and the entire warship seemed like an ignited powder keg, exploding from the middle, breaking in half.

The massive explosion tore up the deck, and the Stuka attack aircraft taking off on the deck were flung into the sea. On the surrounding alert warships, the sailors widened their eyes, staring at the horrifying scene, momentarily forgetting to exclaim.

Inside the bridge of the combined fleet's flagship, the Dorne Empire Long Live aircraft carrier, less than a kilometer away from this carrier, John Cleves also watched in shock at the scene unfolding before his eyes.

What he feared had happened: the enemy's anti-ship missiles had started hitting his most treasured aircraft carriers! If this continued, his fleet would be in great trouble by nightfall.

"This shouldn't be! This is not normal." He muttered two sentences, not knowing what he was talking about, then stepped back from the porthole and suddenly ordered loudly: "Have the attack aircraft group move as fast as possible! Hurry! Or we're all done for!"

Now, he could no longer afford to confirm the enemy fleet's position because he knew he had only one "lucky gamble" opportunity. Regardless of direction, he had to dispatch the carrier aircraft and attempt to retaliate!

If successful, he could drive away those "enemy ships" launching anti-ship missiles, but if failed, his fleet would be completely sunk by the enemy's anti-ship missiles.

Unfortunately, at this moment, all the officers of the combined fleet still didn't know their judgment was wrong from the very beginning, and in fact, it was absurdly wrong.