Munitions Empire

The advantage of the navy over the army lies in their speed.

While the army troops were still assembling and resting, the naval warships, after replenishing some coal and fresh water, immediately set sail north.

Even the three Wolf-class warships, being cruisers, had more reserves of fresh water and coal, and thus didn’t even need to resupply.

The six ironclad warships advanced along the coastline and by noon the next day had arrived north of Dongwan Island, blocking the off-shore waters of Dongwan Port.

The Shen Country’s navy, stationed at Dongwan Port, tried to break out but ultimately failed. They suffered heavy losses, nearly wiping out their entire fleet.

Aside from one Ming Wheel Ship warship that remained in the harbor, all other warships that went out to battle were sunk, leaving Dongwan Island completely isolated.

As Shen Country’s fleet was still en route to the south, Fengshun City was already on high alert. After the annihilation of the navy, Shen Wenmao found that he had lost control of the situation.

Although he still had twenty thousand soldiers, the deployment of Shen Country on Dongwan Island had been completely disrupted, and even now they had not figured out which forces were attacking them.

Poor Shen Country, even now, was not very clear that nearly ten countries had declared war on them.

Among those were the Dwarves of the Ice Cold Kingdom, the Orcs of Gales Kingdom, the Elves of Poplar Kingdom and Songmu Kingdom, as well as Dorne Kingdom, Leite Kingdom, and Suthers Kingdom on the eastern side of the Endless Sea, and the Empire of Nanla...

So many countries hunting Shen Country’s fleets at sea and attacking their sailboats had caused incalculable losses to Shen Country.

The current state of the Endless Sea was total chaos, with naval warships from various nations, flying their battle flags, reigning over the seas with impunity.

As long as they caught up to a transport ship, they would menacingly check the flags it flew; once they confirmed it belonged to the Shen Country’s naval fleet, they would launch a frenzied attack.

Sometimes, a warship would follow a large Shen Country transport trade fleet, waiting until more warships gathered before launching a joint attack.

How bloody were such battles? So bloody that even the warships of many nations suffered losses, with some of their sail-powered warships being damaged or even sunk during attacks on Shen Country’s armed transport ships.

However, that was just an exception. In most cases, Shen Country’s fleets were completely annihilated, which also reflected from another angle just how brutal the naval strangulation warfare was.

At that time, one could see wood shavings floating everywhere on the sea surface, and frequently, injured surrending Shen Country ships could be seen docking at various ports, then hand over the goods on board.

In six days, the Shen Country trade fleets, mostly unaware of what had happened, had largely become the spoils of war for various countries.

This could only be blamed on their backwardness, or perhaps their ill fortune: due to the dealings with the Great Tang Group, the countries had already widely equipped themselves with telegraphs, allowing for message transmission at speeds unimaginable a few years ago.

Who could have thought that within just a few hours after the Great Tang Group declared war on Shen Country, Dorne Kingdom would do the same?

In the past, such brief hours might not have even been enough for a king’s order to leave King City… But now, within just a few hours, eight kingdoms had united and almost simultaneously engaged in war mode against one country!

The times have changed, and Shen Country must pay the price for their backwardness and isolation. Stay tuned with empire

Actually, it could be said that Shen Country was still doing fairly well because, even now, Zheng Country was unaware that someone had already made a move against Shen Country.

If they knew that Shen Country was in trouble, logically speaking, Zheng Country should have taken action at this time, but the reality was, they didn’t!

They had not heard at all that Shen Country had been beaten, nor did they know that the war machine of the Great Tang Group had started operating on Dongwan Island, which was once their territory.

On the 7th day after the landing on Dongwan Island, the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 1st Division of the Great Tang Group had all set foot on Dongwan Island, and the follow-up technicians and equipment had also landed in Fengshun City.

A large number of ships crowded outside the port of Fengshun City, as the port’s throughput was insufficient, and they could only wait for the ships in the port to finish unloading and return.

Luckily, the Fengshun Port had been modified by the Shen Country Navy. It took Shen Country four months to build a coal yard here for fuel stockpiling, which now served as a refueling facility for the Great Tang Group.

There were no large cranes, nor any night lighting, and the docks were small, not to mention there was even a shortage of manpower.

However, this was already much better than unloading troops in the open countryside, so the subsequent transport fleets were quite satisfied.

Bernard had been driven into a corner and had no better plan than to send a telegraph to the follow-up transport fleet, instructing that if the ships were sailing ships carrying less massive equipment, they should find their own places to unload and not wait in line outside the port.

Consequently, when the fleet of the Great Tang Group was blocking Dongwan Port, one could see the Great Tang Group’s transport ships unloading goods on the sandy beaches of the West Coast.

Supplies piled up like mountains on the beach, some even unguarded, with valuables worth thousands, even tens of thousands of Gold Coins, simply left there and at best covered with a piece of canvas as a conscientious effort to preserve them.

This sort of long-distance amphibious operation, lacking a thorough preliminary plan, meant that chaos was inevitable.

It was relying solely on more advanced weapons and equipment, superior tactics, that victory in the campaign was ensured. It was a strategic victory built upon tactical successes, bearing no relation to strategic planning.

If Nangong Hong were to learn in detail about the progression of this campaign, he would certainly be caught between laughter and tears: the strategic concept he had dreamed of had been realized through such a barbaric method and with such a disorderly process.

However, in the midst of such chaos, the troops of Shen Country could no longer witness it, as the 1st and 2nd Battalions, a total of five battalions including artillery reinforcements, had already moved north towards the vicinity of Dongwan City.

On the morning of the 8th day after landing on Dongwan Island, the troops of the 1st Battalion launched a probing attack, swiftly defeating the Shen Country forces in front of them, and captured a high point south of Dongwan City.

Afterward, the advancing 1st Battalion continued to attack, and by noon of the same day, the 2nd Battalion had taken the southwestern defense positions outside the city.

The attack by the 3rd Battalion went smoothly as well; by 2 p.m. that day, they had seized the enemy’s outer defense positions in the southeast direction.

Following that, the 2nd Battalion’s troops joined the battle, and heavy artillery demolished part of Dongwan City’s walls, leading Shenwu Xiong and Shen Wenmao to surrender with their remnants.

With that, the battle on Dongwan Island came to an end; the Shen Country troops, numbering 17,000, surrendered and became prisoners. All civilian ships and cargo vessels in the port of Dongwan City, including that Ming Wheel Ship warship, were now spoils of war for the Great Tang Group.

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