Munitions Empire

"What!" Ying An jumped up from his chair, staring at Luff's face, frozen in disbelief, unable to even vocalize his questions.

He never expected that the Emperor of the Laines Empire, the furthest nation involved in the war, would become the first captive of the Great Tang Empire's Emperor!

By comparison, the Great Qin Empire has been fighting hard to this point, and the battlefront is still in the Dahua region. Despite the unsightly situation, they haven't completely collapsed yet... it's practically a miracle.

"Don't be so excited! Our Great Tang Empire Navy's General Lu Qianshan received a confirmation call, annihilating the Laines Empire's main naval fleet and capturing the Emperor Leines I of the Laines Empire alive," Luff repeated calmly, adding a few more details.

In fact, before this battle, only a few generals in the world knew about someone like Lu Qianshan. Even those who were well-informed, probably only remembered him as the 'border general of Zheng Country.'

No one could have imagined that this 'unknown' general, transferred from the Army to the Navy, would achieve the great success of 'annihilating the enemy fleet' and 'capturing the enemy emperor alive' on his first solo fleet command mission?

"Isn't your Navy's Marshal Bernard? Was he unwell and not personally commanding the fleet's sortie?" Ying An had a certain understanding of the Tang Empire's military commanders.

He knew that the most formidable commander in the Great Tang Empire's Navy was Marshal Bernard, as after all, the Great Tang Empire still only had three marshals until now.

"Oh, that's what I was going to tell you next... Marshal Bernard personally led the Empire's main naval forces south, annihilating the combined fleet of the Great Qin Empire and the Dorne Empire... your three aircraft carriers, Dorne's seven aircraft carriers sunk..." Luff supplemented.

As the Imperial Chief of Staff, he of course knew the results of all battles. Now the Great Tang Empire had more or less stabilized the situation, with the military campaigns in all directions favorable to the Tang Country.

In fact, as the Great Tang Empire's Emperor Tang Mo held a press conference announcing these victories, the northern Ice Cold Empire, Poplar Empire, and the goblins on Shen Island immediately quieted down.

They were incredibly fortunate; the battle was already over before they could draw their swords. These countries could now continue to watch and wait for a definitive result to emerge.

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Ying An was dumbfounded, he couldn't believe that the seemingly most powerful combined fleet in the plan was annihilated so quickly.

Understanding the other party's feelings somewhat, Luff stepped up to Ying An, patting his shoulder twice: "I understand that you might have a hard time accepting it... but it's okay, I'll soon send you to Chang'an, the Imperial Capital... there, you will definitely be able to see Leines I."

"You can communicate more..." Luff left the room after saying that: "The dishes are getting cold, hurry up and eat. Don't bother seeing me out."

Standing in place, Ying An no longer had the appetite to continue eating, his mind was now filled with "Qin Country is finished"...

...

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Ying Duo bellowed with an awkward laugh after hearing about the annihilation of the Laines Empire's fleet and the Emperor's uncertain fate.

He was unwilling to believe such a thing could happen; deep down, he didn't want to admit that the grand strategy of the three-nation alliance against the Tang Country had collapsed.

"Your Majesty! Regardless of everything, the joint fleet has indeed suffered heavy losses..." Prime Minister Ying Ke reminded from the side.

The total Chief of Staff for the allied fleet, who later took over from Supreme Commander John Cleves, Mike Ravel, survived, his identity was confirmed. After being brought ashore, he reported the exact news of the fleet's destruction.

In fact, besides the Courage Destroyer, all 73 warships of various types in the fleet were sunk, and Qin Country also lost several submarines.

Qingluan Port was attacked by Tang Army's carrier-based aircraft, leaving gaps all along the Shu Country coastline, all needing reinforcements, leaving the Qin leadership at their wit's end and having contested over it for some time.

In the end, to protect the coastline, Qin Country reluctantly mobilized more than 200 aircraft to strengthen coastal defenses. But with these forces spread out along such a long coast, it was still a drop in the bucket.

Therefore, in the days to come, Qin Country had to send more troops to the coast daily, draw forces, and deploy heavy weaponry... and undoubtedly, all this was drawing blood from the frontline troops! It was weakening the first-line combat forces!

"I know!" Ying Duo impatiently interrupted Prime Minister Ying Ke, subconsciously evading matters related to the joint fleet.

"There can't be worse news already!" He ended the meeting in annoyance, standing up and walking out: "Write a report on the navy matters and give it to me later! Strengthening the defenses near the old capital is what we should currently prioritize!"

Nobody could have expected, the next morning, a bigger shock followed: The leaderless, dying Dongqing garrison chose to surrender after consecutive days of strikes and bombings.

Hundreds of thousands of troops handed over their weapons, obediently building a POW camp for themselves just like the Qin Army near Xiajian.

Dongqing was preserved, the oil pipeline from Dongqing to Heishui, the smelting plants, chemical plants, and refineries in the outskirts of Dongqing, all intact, were handed over to the Tang Army.

This surrender held the greatest significance for the Tang Army as it secured the railway between Dongqing and Xiajian. Now, with simple repairs, the Tang Army's Engineer Corps could reconnect the railway between Hezhe and Dongqing.

With the support of this railway, along with other highways, the Tang Army's logistical supply issue was fundamentally resolved, allowing their frontline troops to move once again.

However, this time, their offensive suddenly met unprecedented difficulties: On the outskirts of the Qin Army's defensive line on both wings of the old capital, the Tang Army encountered minefields and actually unearthed mines.

For both Qin Country and Tang Country, this was an extremely malicious incident: Both countries are signatories to the weapon ban treaty, and mines are one of the prohibited weapons.

Now, Qin Country has blatantly violated the treaty it signed, which touched the bottom line of the Great Tang Empire.

Soon, Tang Country held a press conference to confirm to the outside world the news of Qin Army's use of mines. Public opinion was in an uproar, since the last time Mirage Country blatantly violated the treaty, they paid a heavy price.

Now, it's Qin Country's turn.