Munitions Empire

"The Qin Army has already appeared on the battlefield," Tang Mo put down the report in his hand and massaged the bridge of his nose. He had been a bit busy recently, and his body was struggling to keep up.

He couldn't neglect the several Princesses just because of the war, and on top of that, he had to work overtime to bring out new technologies and develop more research ideas... So, inadvertently, he felt a bit drained.

After all, he didn't possess the mental strength of a great sorcerer, nor the physique of a berserker—he was just an ordinary man, incapable of accomplishing things that were beyond his ability.

"Your Majesty, although being young is good, you still need to exercise some restraint," only Roger had the authority and standing to make such a remark.

Tang Mo chuckled foolishly twice, changing the subject, "Luff, is the Qin Army really as formidable as the report suggests?"

A slightly embarrassed Luff nodded and quickly took up Tang Mo's topic, "Bolton has already tried fighting a few battles, clashing several times with the enemy, and in summary… our losses are more than just a little bit greater than before."

"Normally, we would have to lose a dozen or even several dozen soldiers before we could snatch a village or a high ground from the hands of the Qin Troops... If it were Dahua Troops, we might only need to lose seven or eight men to achieve that." After saying this, he sighed, "The enemy is brave and tenacious, with resilience, but their weapons and equipment are slightly inferior."

To earn such evaluation from the Chief of Staff of the Tang Army, the combat strength of the Qin Army must indeed be strong. It was clear that not all the military circles of the Chinese were ineffectual.

"We captured some of the Qin soldiers and interrogated them. They disclosed their unit codes, and then they seemed to know nothing else," Luff, seeing Tang Mo not speaking, continued to add, "Now, we have learned approximately the unit codes of 4 Qin Army divisions."

As he spoke, he walked up to the map and roughly gestured, "Very scattered, here, here, and here... all are defensive positions, General Feng Kezhi clearly also understands the combat strength of the Qin Army, placing them in the most important positions."

"Is it true that the Shu Troops have also started to appear in the southern region?" Tang Mo posed another question. The subordinate countries of the Dahua Empire had all declared war on Tang Country, and their troops were also reinforcing the front lines.

"Yes, Your Majesty. Redman has also spotted different troops in the direction of Hidden Sword Gorge, their weapons and equipment differ from Dahua Troops, identifying them as Shu Country's Military," Luff nodded in response.

The combat style of different troops varies, making it very easy to distinguish them. Even if they wear the same military uniforms, they would display entirely different behaviors during combat. What's more, the Qin Army and the Shu Troops' uniforms and weapons are completely different from those of the Dahua Empire.

At present, Tang Army had clarified the Qin Army's equipment situation. Because of the natural barrier of Hidden Sword Gorge, there was no further news from the Shu Army side for the time being.

The steel helmets of the Qin Army resembled those of the Ice Cold Empire, showing their choice to align with the Ice Cold Empire in the modern military system.

The troops from Qin Country wore long green military coats, and their rifles were Mosin-Nagants; their bayonets differed slightly from those of the Ice Cold Empire, being finer and longer.

It was evident that Qin Country placed high importance on its military—soldiers were generally equipped with water bottles and other complete, modern gear, clearly a result of careful consideration.

This aspect was significantly different from the earlier Qi Country and Zheng Country, and from this, it was easy to tell that Qin Country was not weak and was willing to spend heavily on its military.

"It seems, capturing Fengjiang and crushing the Dahua Empire in one fell swoop, won't be easy after all," Tang Mo sighed with slight disappointment.

"That's not necessarily true. Although the Qin Army is tough in small-scale skirmishes, we still can't be sure about large-scale engagements," Luff consoled Tang Mo.

"In small-scale engagements, both sides' fighting spirit and courage are the keys to victory. As long as we dare to fight and dare to struggle, we can achieve certain results," he said. As the Chief of Staff of the Tang Army, his insights, gained over many years, were still valuable.

Therefore, his analysis made a lot of sense to the high-level officials of Tang Country seated around him, "But in large-scale battles, the human factor is greatly diminished. The competition lies in logistics, strategic reserves, and I believe that our advantages are still very obvious."

Tang Mo understood the implications of Luff's words: The Staff Department did not intend to give up on next year's spring offensive. Whether they could fight and defeat Qin Country and Shu Country would only be known after the battle.

He also felt that it would be very unsatisfying not to try. After all, if the Tang Army could capture Fengjiang, then they would maintain a relatively complete front line.

"Then let's continue preparing for the spring campaign," he said, and with that, the war meeting came to an end.

...

A submarine from Tang Country had been sunk; the sea surface was coated with oil slicks. Dozens of submarine officers and soldiers were captured, all because they hadn't expected that a transport ship would be armed with two 150mm caliber naval guns!

Even though these two naval guns did not even have gun shields, just covered with canvas as a temporary setup on the deck, they were still naval cannons...

When attacking a submarine without armored protection and with only one gun, a larger caliber naval gun clearly had the advantage.

Caught off guard while trying to seize some provisions for sustenance and continue causing chaos on the sea, the officers and crew of the Tang Army submarine suffered a significant loss.

They truly had not anticipated such dirty tricks from the enemy: first luring the Tang Army's submarine closer with a white flag, then suddenly opening fire with the naval guns, which severely damaged the submarine's hull.

Both sides fought fiercely for nearly an hour; unable to dive, the officers and soldiers on the Tang Army submarine fought bravely, nearly sinking the freighter.

After all, neither side had armored protection and was vulnerable to cannon fire... but in the end, the freighter took advantage of its greater tonnage and managed to sink the unfortunate U-boat.

However, such an event was unlikely to happen again in the future: before being sunk, the crew of the submarine destroyed their code machine and sent their encounter back to the submarine command center on Dragon Island.

This incident attracted the high attention of Navy Admiral Bernard, who strictly ordered U-boats from then on to cease using piracy tactics.

Indeed, this command was not good news for the anti-Tang alliance's shipping convoys because, from then on, Tang Army submarines would initiate direct torpedo attacks.

Although this reduced the efficiency of Tang Army submarines and shortened their cruising time, it also made their attacks much more ferocious.