Munitions Empire

The victor can always walk with their head held high, the company commander glanced at the cautious Shenwu Chun following by his side and continued forward with disdain.

He was not familiar with the affairs inside the city, so he had to bring along such a prisoner officer to get a brief on the basic situation within the city.

As they walked, the company commander was disgusted. He saw a row of bodies hanging from an archway in the street.

They were the corpses of Zheng Country people, all dressed in military uniforms, and it looked like they had been hanging there for some time.

The company commander stopped in his tracks and looked at Shenwu Chun, dragging out his words as he asked, "I say, what does this mean?"

Shenwu Chun carefully raised his head to glance at the hanging corpses and quickly explained, "The people of Zheng Country were dissatisfied with our military’s occupation and attacked our patrolling soldiers at night, so we killed some prisoners of war and hung them here to warn those stubborn elements..."

"Not a bad idea," the company commander’s face revealed a cruel smile, "I really should hang you up there!"

After saying this, he looked at his executive officer, "Have the Shen Country prisoners take down the bodies and bury them properly."

The executive officer was stunned, then nodded and turned to order, "Did you hear that?"

The company commander turned his gaze back to the increasingly tense Shenwu Chun, snorted, and continued forward. How to deal with these prisoners, he had to await the orders from above, not simply act on his own whims.

On the other side, Bernard, upon learning that the 2nd Battalion had reached Fengshun City and the port had been taken, immediately ordered the transport fleet, which was yet to be completely unloaded, to turn towards Fengshun City.

There was no choice; unloading heavy weapons and equipment in the wilderness was too slow. They had exerted much effort and had only managed to get half of the heavy equipment carried by the 1st Battalion ashore.

The equipment wasn’t guns and machine guns, as these weapons were needed for combat and had mostly been sent to shore as a priority.

The remaining equipment was bulky and difficult to transport. Using landing craft also made loading and unloading difficult, posing a real problem.

Among them were transport carts, vehicles, generators, large field tents, spare weapons and ammunition, and more.

The goods that arrived at Fengshun Port with the 2nd Battalion were even more numerous and disordered: These troops even brought cement and some rebar to renovate and strengthen the port facilities, repair the port, and expand the port’s throughput...

The subsequent fleets carried even more varied cargo, including manufacturing machinery, large generators, and boiler equipment, seemingly developing in the direction of a production and construction corps.

All these were to transform Fengshun City, or rather Dongwan Island, into a forward base, with more than half of the supplies not meant for the Battle of Dongwan Island anymore.

Because in Tang Mo’s view, the Battle of Dongwan Island, where the Great Tang Group’s 1st Division was against Shen Country’s garrison troops, was practically overkill, a minor affair.

He didn’t believe for a second that the 1st Division would be defeated, and he hadn’t even considered the possibility of the division suffering heavy losses in this battle.

Moreover, the Great Tang Group viewed Dongwan Island as a springboard for attacking Zheng Country, and subsequent troops had already begun moving towards this location.

According to Tang Mo’s attack plans, the Great Tang Group would stockpile up to 6 or 7 divisions on Dongwan Island, a total force of nearly 100,000 personnel in the future.

They planned to deploy a large number of warships, air force airships, and even fighter planes. How could such a large modern force possibly be defeated by an army more backward than the Qing Dynasty?

Therefore, in Tang Mo’s view, the most difficult part of the Battle of Dongwan Island wasn’t capturing Dongwan Island, but rather how to quickly build up the island.

That’s why, even before the battle of Dongwan Island had completely ended, Tang Mo had already started thinking about transporting the subsequent construction teams onto the island.

The civilians in Fengshun City were still wary of the troops that stormed into the city, not knowing where they came from. Liu Zhu, who had rushed to Fengshun City with the troops, originally wanted to say goodbye to Cao Fei and go back, but when he saw the airships in the sky, he couldn’t bear to leave.

Even from afar, he was full of curiosity about the huge Kirov Airships flying in the sky, looking like giant sharks.

Liu Zhu, who had lived on Dongwan Island his whole life, had never seen such giant machines flying in the sky. At this moment, he thought of Cao Fei’s words and looked forward to his future life with renewed hope.

In the city, next to an archway that spanned across the street, a group of Shen Country prisoners carrying ladders was busy. They were taking down the dried corpses hanging from the arch, laying them out one by one, covered with some ragged clothing.

Around them, some braver civilians watched everything unfold. At the time, they dared not speak out against the mistreatment of prisoners, but now, as they saw the bodies being taken down, an inexplicable sadness welled up within them.

Some were gently sobbing, others just watched numbly, the whole city drowned in a strange silence, devoid of any sound.

...

Within Dongwan City, Shenwu Chun paced back and forth anxiously in his command center; he had already received the news that Fengshun City had fallen.

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Before the fleet stationed at Fengshun City Port was entirely wiped out, they had sent a message reporting the surrender of its defensive forces and the situation of being caught in a pincer attack.

Shenwu Chun actually did not care about the remaining bit of the fleet from Fengshun City. What worried him was the shocking news sent by the fleet: the enemy had machines that could fly in the sky, enormous in size and resembling sharks.

This type of war machine soaring in the sky imposed unprecedented pressure on Shenwu Chun: because he knew too well what they were, Shen Country had defeated Zheng Country and taken Dongwan Island by relying on new weapons.

This time, the enemy had unveiled airborne weapons, wouldn’t Shen Country also face the risk of defeat?

Thinking of this, Shenwu Chun was extremely anxious, which is why he could only walk in circles, causing Shen Wenmao beside him to also become equally frustrated and restless.

"General! You, you must think of something! Once Fengshun City is lost, the enemy will quickly turn their sights to us!" Shen Wenmao was a civil official; what he feared most was Dongwan City becoming a battlefield.

Originally, when Shen Country had occupied Dongwan Island, Shen Wenmao had gone to great lengths to secure the opportunity to make money here. Who would have thought that such a lucrative position would become a hot potato?

In earlier times, those islands seized from Zheng Country were all full of resources. Which official sent there did not fill their coffers?

But, who would have guessed that when it was Shen Wenmao’s turn, his fate would suddenly become so vexing; such a vast island as Dongwan Island was about to be lost...

"What can I do? Huh?" Shenwu Chun frowned and looked at Shen Wenmao: "I have already sent out the telegram for reinforcement. I’ve also done all that I can do. What do you suggest I do?"

He had in fact already repeated all the actions that could be done: there were 30,000 troops on the island, now a third of them were lost.

The troops he could now assemble were almost all near Dongwan City. Two-thirds of the army, twenty thousand soldiers, prepared to defend the city, and the rest, well, all that remained was to leave it to fate.

The leadership in Shen Country wasn’t completely out of the loop, at least much better informed than their old adversary Zheng Country. After hearing Shenwu Chun’s report, they immediately made some basic assessments.

The invading enemy must be equipped with new bolt-action rifles, and they even had heavy machine guns that Shireck too could produce.

Despite their high cost and decent performance, Shen Country really didn’t have the extra funds to equip their forces on a large scale.

However, with war already upon them, Shen Country had no choice but to bite the bullet and place a large order with Shireck for new weapons, hoping to keep hold of Dongwan Island and preserve their hard-won fruits of victory.

On one hand, the Shen Country leadership informed Shenwu Chun about the new weapons, telling him not to fear, and to defend Dongwan City at all costs.

On the other hand, they assured Shenwu Chun that reinforcements equipped with the new weapons would soon be on their way to Dongwan Island, to allay his concerns.

With these two assurances, Shenwu Chun finally gained some confidence. Hence, he continued to deploy his troops and prepare for a desperate bout in Dongwan City.

However, Shenwu Chun, after all, had no combat experience with the new weapons. He was also unaware of tactics such as digging trenches, so he did not make good use of this precious waiting time.

That was inevitable. After all, even if he were aware of such tactics, the twenty thousand musket soldiers at his disposal could not rely on trenches for combat, could they?

New tactics are born from new weapons, and outdated armaments are incapable of executing modern maneuvers.

You tell me, would second or third-generation jets, like the F22, survive if they tried to break through enemy lines? And could a Standard Missile-2 intercept a DF-17 successfully?

So, Shenwu Chun gathered his troops, set up camp, and like a fool, waited for his reinforcements, waited for the enemy to arrive...

Meanwhile, the troops from the 1st and 2nd Battalions had already begun to mobilize and gather, heading north along the road towards Dongwan City.

It had been three days since the 1st Battalion landed on Dongwan Island, and based on their current marching speed, it was estimated that it would take another three days to reach Dongwan Port.

What was tragic was that the airship troops, originally planned to participate in combat, were rendered unable to fight due to malfunctions and insufficient gas refilling, forcing them to stay put.

However, the Navy continued to be as reliable as ever—after replenishing Shen Country Navy’s coal reserves in Fengshun City, the Great Tang Group’s naval fleet proceeded northward as planned, seeking out the remnants of the Shen Country Navy for a decisive battle.

The Shen Country Navy, meanwhile, had a reinforcement fleet heading south to support Dongwan Island. This fleet was composed of 15 steam-powered warships as the main force, along with almost all the available sailing warships they could find.

The commander of this fleet was none other than Shen Hai, who had previously sneak attacked the merchant fleet of the Great Tang Group.

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