Munitions Empire

The people of Shenwu were stupefied by everything before their eyes, unable to imagine something so huge could soar through the sky.

This was simply too insane; they looked up at the eyes that loomed over them and were completely engulfed in terror.

They felt targeted by a demon, and with the reverence one might have for sharks in the ocean, they couldn’t muster the slightest courage to struggle.

Many knelt on the ground, ceaselessly kowtowing to the monsters in the sky, as if they were pounding garlic.

Numerous soldiers even threw away their guns, fearful that these hovering monstrosities would unleash divine punishment for their disrespect.

"O heavenly gods above, I have sinned! I have sinned! Forgive me! Forgive me!" a Shenwu officer was no better off than the soldiers beside him, also kneeling on the ground, endlessly chanting.

Shenwu Chun had just been scared into falling on the ground, and at this moment, he was in a sorry state. He had already seen seven or eight of these colossal airships slowly descending on Fengshun City, completely blotting out the sky.

Of course, he had no idea of the tremendous power these things possessed, for he had never laid eyes on such things before.

A rabbit definitely can’t tell if an alien is a threat to itself, because it simply doesn’t know what an alien is.

Inside Fengshun City, the common folk of Zheng Country were also dumbstruck by the events unfolding before them; what Shenwu people hadn’t seen, they naturally hadn’t either.

They, too, had never seen what airships looked like and were petrified, unable to speak at the sight of the terrifying eyes on the airships.

Already terror-stricken by the Shenwu’s massacres, now witnessing all this, they were scared out of their wits—they simply didn’t know if yet another, more ferocious devil had come...

With no idea, and upon first seeing the shark-like paint jobs, they were not even sure if the strange creatures flying above their heads were made by humans.

Goblins were already bastardly enough; if orcs or elves and dwarves were to come, who knew what the scene would be like?

Some women held their children close, while some elders sighed and lamented; the men had wooden expressions, as the entire city seemed like hamsters beneath the shadow of an eagle’s wings, cowering and trembling in corners.

"Mommy..." a terrified child huddled in his mother’s embrace, not daring to look at the eyes in the sky.

"Great calamity is upon us, great calamity is upon us!" an elder leaning on a walking stick stared at the increasingly numerous airships in the sky, lamenting with a voice of despair.

"Boom!" Having applied explosives, the Great Tang ground troops blasted open the gates of Fengshun City, with splinters flying everywhere, cutting the Shenwu soldiers behind the door into pieces.

Amidst the screams and pleas for mercy from the Shenwu soldiers swept over by the explosion yet still alive, soldiers from the Great Tang Group charged into the city with their rifles ready.

Shenwu soldiers, already half dead from fright at the spectacle in the sky, immediately raised their hands; they clearly did not wish to have their heads plucked off by heavenly soldiers.

They were in awe of the enemy soldiers rushing in, each tall and formidable, and their actions were so swift and expert that it took one’s breath away.

The Great Tang soldiers almost unconsciously used their bayonets to skewer the writhing Shenwu wounded on the ground, quickly bringing silence to the area near the gates.

Such proficient thrusting made the Shenwu soldiers see themselves in their enemy, the familiarity sparked a sense of kinship, but also made them obedient and tame due to fear.

Helpless, they were well aware of their own brutality, so they were extremely submissive to any existence even more ferocious than them, fearing that they would show an even more brutal nature.

Strangely enough, upon entering the city, the soldiers of the Great Tang Group immediately unfurled a huge red banner on the ground, and in the very center of the banner was embroidered a strange dragon emblem.

The blood-colored Dragon Banner, the flag of the Great Tang Group, also served as the ground forces’ signal to communicate with the airships above—just before boarding, they had only just completed special training in this area.

At the very moment they saw the airships, the 1st and 2nd battalions knew they had to quickly notify the friendly forces above not to drop bombs!

Others did not know, but they were aware of the actual power of these airships—if they started bombing, then Fengshun City would basically be doomed!

Entirely different from airplanes, airships were slow, which meant their bombing accuracy was terrifyingly precise. In certain conditions, they could even hover and bomb with absolute precision.

The bombs fell in a near-vertical line, not in a parabolic arc—such an attacking characteristic gave the airships a level of strike accuracy that could nearly compete with guided missiles.

What was more dreadful was that the majority of the cities in this world were not made of steel and concrete forests nor constructed of cement, their ability to withstand bombardment was indeed limited.

Several hundred bombs would be enough to turn Fengshun City into complete ruins; that’s not an exaggeration but actually somewhat of an understatement.

So the commanders of the 1st and 2nd Battalion discussed it and decided to storm into the city first, and then stop the Air Force from bombing.

Their progress was swift, and the reason why only one flag was unfurled was that, according to tradition, the 2nd Battalion’s flag had been left behind halfway there.

The commander of the airship troops who had been preparing to commence the attack soon spotted the huge flag spread out on the ground and somewhat regretfully canceled the attack order.

He couldn’t bear the responsibility of bombing friendly forces, so he could only obediently order the airships to stand by and wait for news from the ground.

"Wait a bit longer! Let’s see how our ground forces are doing! I really want to see... there are still some enemy ships at the port..." After putting down the binoculars, the airship troop commander, standing at the front of the airship’s gondola and looking through the glass window toward the distant harbor, turned to his executive officer.

"Signal to airship number 4! Tell them we’re preparing to turn! The target is the harbor area... there are gun emplacements and warships," the executive officer immediately understood and gave the order.

On the ground, the civilians of Zheng Country were staring dumbfounded as they watched a group of soldiers they had never seen before hurrying past their homes.

These soldiers wore grey-green military uniforms, helmets on their heads, carrying slender rifles, with a bunch of stuff shaking slightly with their steps.

They looked more like peddlers hawking goods in the streets and alleys than fighters.

Timid as mice, they even checked cautiously against the walls at every corner to see if there was any danger.

When they ran, they tried to keep their heads down as much as possible, incomparable to the big-headed soldiers who barged forward with guns and uniform steps.

Yet it was these soldiers who rushed into Fengshun City, capturing groups of Shenwu troops without even the frightening sound of gunshots within the city.

The previously fierce and lawless Shenwu soldiers now hung their heads in defeat, their expressions as listless and dejected as the soldiers of Zheng Country had been.

What followed was that these somewhat startled civilians of Zheng Country were surprised to see among these timid-looking strange soldiers, many had a pair of black eyes.

The commander of the 1st Battalion, having entered the city gates, took a statistical report from an officer at the battalion headquarters and looked at the numbers.

It was more or less what he had estimated, barring the several dozen Shenwu soldiers who had been killed at the city gate and the dozen or so who had been injured by the blasts then stabbed to death, the rest of the Shenwu troops had surrendered.

Including various commanders and other assorted attendants, there were in all more than 3,100 Shenwu prisoners.

As for the Shenwu Navy docked in Fengshun City, they had all been sunk by a Brunas-class warship blockading outside the port.

The landing fleet transporting the 2nd Regiment had directly breached the port, and the 2nd Regiment was now unloading; their speed of disembarking was much faster than that of the 1st Regiment this time.

The Shenwu Country had stockpiled enough food in Fengshun City to feed 10,000 people for several months, and all of this was now war booty for the Great Tang Group. Additionally, several sailboats that had not managed to leave the harbor to join the battle were also captured.

In short, the battle of Fengshun City, which was supposed to last several hours, ended in just over an hour due to the sudden appearance of the airships.

The Great Tang Group captured Fengshun City without shedding any blood, even seizing intact key facilities such as batteries and docks.

Thus, the deployment of 6 legions of Shenwu troops in the direction of Fengshun City, totaling 9,000 troops, was completely annihilated by the Great Tang Group. The Shenwu forces’ situation of threatening the landing site from both flanks was utterly broken, and the Shenwu troops on Dongwan Island were in grave danger.

Meanwhile, the Shenwu Navy’s fleet stationed on Dongwan Island had also suffered heavy losses, with more than 50 sailing warships and 7 Ming Wheel Ships sunk, completely losing control of the sea near Dongwan Island.

Commanders Shenwu Yuan and Shenwu Chun perished in the chaos, and the defending general of Fengshun City, Shenwu Chun, surrendered. The Great Tang Group’s 1st Division, 2nd Regiment, was able to land at the port of Fengshun City.

The first phase of the battle ended with a complete victory for the Great Tang Group, and the airship troops, while intimidating the enemy with their debut and helping the ground troops achieve a major victory, ended up not dropping a single bomb, feeling extremely frustrated to the very end.

"Have the troops rest and reorganize quickly! There’s still a lot left to do..." The first thing the commander of the 2nd Regiment did after landing was to get accustomed to the stable ground. Find more to read at empire

He watched his troops disembark down the gangway, saw the cranes onboard the ships unloading vehicles and heavy weapons onto the narrow docks, his face full of dissatisfaction.

The port facilities here were so poor that it severely affected their unloading speed, but it couldn’t be helped—there was just too much here in need of renovation.

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