Munitions Empire

Of course, Lu Qianshan knew that the Laines Empire's fleet was already on its way, and he not only knew, but also knew the specific location, and even roughly how many ships there were.

Yes, roughly how many ships... Because the scale was too large and the organization too complex, nobody could clearly state exactly how many ships the Laines Empire fleet had.

Ships occasionally fell behind, as some transport ships were originally very slow, and the closer they got to the destination, the more likely some would lag.

Some merchant fleets even deliberately fell behind: they themselves did not want any conflict with the Great Tang Empire, as that would seriously affect subsequent commercial activities.

War, after all, will eventually end. Even if the Great Tang Empire loses Dragon Island, it will likely continue to exist. When doing business with the Great Tang Empire, who knows if they will hold one's past actions against them?

The Tang Country might not pursue the Laines Empire's acts of war, but for a small company or enterprise, it's very easy to be targeted.

The Great Tang Empire could easily impose sanctions, refusing to sell certain machine tools or parts, crippling a small enterprise. At that point, just by not allowing a shipping company's ships to dock for supplies, that company could incur massive losses.

Of course, companies daring to leave the fleet and pretend to fall behind are those with close ties to the Great Tang Empire, and also because the goods they're transporting aren't particularly important.

After all, if you were shipping a load of soldiers, falling behind at this moment would mean offending the Laines Empire, which these shipping companies couldn't afford either.

So, the ships falling behind were mostly transporting spare parts and miscellaneous items, second-category goods that didn't require an urgent docking.

This was the first time the Laines Empire was organizing such a large-scale cross-sea landing, and they had little experience on all levels.

They were simply relying on their sheer size, wanting to crush the Great Tang Empire with overwhelming force, utilizing ten or a hundred times the military strength to seize Dragon Island!

To stop this massive fleet from approaching Dragon Island, the Great Tang Empire Navy stationed forces nearby, all mobilized under the command of Lu Qianshan.

Firstly, a fleet centered around a remaining aircraft carrier had already set off and was now blocking the Laines Empire Navy fleet's path.

Secondly, the Tang Army also deployed numerous submarines, ready to launch attacks and sink the invading enemies if necessary.

To be prudent, Lu Qianshan also gathered a large number of land-based aircraft on Dragon Island which could be dispatched at any time to launch attacks on the Laines Empire fleet.

The entire Dragon Island sea area had now become a trap, waiting for the Laines Empire fleet to dive right in.

However, in terms of numbers, the Laines Empire fleet still held absolute superiority, with a comparison of 5 to 1 in aircraft carriers, Laines Empire winning completely; and a battleship ratio of 5 to 0, Laines Empire similarly victorious.

The Laines Empire's land troops landing on Dragon Island exceeded 100,000, while the garrison on Dragon Island was less than 80,000, with 4 divisions, the Laines Empire still held an advantage... Of course, this advantage wasn't as large as imagined.

The Laines Empire's intelligence department couldn't determine exactly how many Great Tang troops were on Dragon Island; they could only guess. Ultimately, they estimated that the Tang troops on Dragon Island wouldn't exceed 20,000, a significantly inaccurate guess.

In fact, it wasn't that the Laines Empire's intelligence department was clueless. Instead, their superiors, at the very top, Leines I, the Emperor of the Laines Empire, could only accept the "fact" that Tang troops numbered 20,000.

The logic of the matter was this: when Leines I decided to land on Dragon Island, he began calculating how many troops he could deploy to Dragon Island at once.

After calculation, he could only send 100,000 troops to Dragon Island, which was almost the limit of Laines Empire's sea transport capabilities.

So... How many Tang army troops could Laines Empire's 100,000 soldiers defeat? A cautious estimate would be about 20,000 Tang troops, and this was a rather optimistic estimation. Any more would be overstating it.

The question then was, how many Tang troops were actually on Dragon Island? The Laines Empire's intelligence department believed there were about 50,000. This figure seemed reasonable but was unacceptable to Leines I.

With Laines intending to attack Dragon Island up and down, how could the army claim they couldn't defeat the garrison on the island? That would undermine their efforts.

Thus, the number of Tang troops on Dragon Island was adjusted to 20,000, roughly the upper limit that the Laines Empire's 100,000 landing troops could barely overcome.

As for the possibility of more Tang troops appearing, Leines I believed that by then, they would hold sea and air superiority, allowing the suppression of the Tang country's ground forces.

The source of this confidence was unknown. In fact, even if the Tang troops didn't launch their aircraft, they had enough anti-aircraft missiles deployed on Dragon Island to clear out the Laines Empire Navy's planes.

"Your Majesty! The reconnaissance fleet at the front sent a message. They found a fishing boat from the Great Tang Empire Navy..." A Laines Empire naval officer approached Leines I, saluted, and reported.

Leines I appeared to be in relatively good spirits, not showing the effects of seasickness and vomiting that had afflicted him during the journey. He was excited, anticipating becoming the master of Dragon Island.

"Sink it! We can't let it expose the fleet's position!" Leines I ordered sternly, looking pale yet spirited.

"Yes!" The officer immediately went to deliver the order.

Seconds later, the Laines Empire cruiser Dream, which had already aimed its main guns at the fishing boat, fired, and after several volleys, the fishing boat was hit directly, bursting into flames.

What no one knew was that this fishing boat was intentionally left there to prompt an attack from the Laines Empire fleet, thereby solidifying the narrative of a sneak attack.

There was no one on the fishing boat; hours earlier, they had been picked up by another vessel. Not far from the blazing fishing boat, a Great Tang Empire submarine recorded the entire incident of the Laines Empire fleet opening fire and sinking the Great Tang Empire fishing boat.

The opportunity Lu Qianshan had been waiting for finally arrived. Upon hearing that their fishing boat had been sunk, he immediately grabbed the phone: "The Great Tang Empire is under attack! Dragon Island is under attack by Laines Empire Navy warships! We will treat this as an act of war! All troops... commence counterattack! Repeat! All troops! Commence counterattack! Commence counterattack!"