Munitions Empire

In a small village filled with captives, beside a number 4 tank, riddled with bullet holes, Liu Guozhu received the Third Class Cavalry Medal that belonged to him.

This medal was exclusive to the tank forces, personally designed and established by His Majesty Tang Mo of the Great Tang Kingdom.

Being able to receive such a medal on the first day of the war, Liu Guozhu could be said to have stood out among the many armored troops commanders.

He stood at attention and saluted, then shared a warm embrace with the infantry platoon leader who had also received the Third Class Blade Medal—their grueling fight in the afternoon had not been in vain, as soon as the regiment headquarters arrived and took over the prisoners, they immediately received the medals issued by the division headquarters.

To commend these valiant frontline soldiers, the division headquarters specifically sent a car to transport the chief of staff to them, who personally awarded the medals to both men.

For higher honors, such as the Second Class Medals, they would need to be reported to the higher-level military headquarters or the frontline command for approval, which would be much slower.

"Thank you for bravely fighting for the Great Tang! His Majesty will not forget your merits!" the equally young chief of staff stood at attention and saluted, smiling as he spoke to the two heroes who had received the medals.

"Long live the Great Tang! Long live the King!" Liu Guozhu shouted, feeling that all the hardships of the previous battle were worthwhile.

After the small award ceremony was over, Liu Guozhu could finally take a rest. As evening fell, they had to wait for the fuel supply, for the ammunition vehicles to arrive, and to take their meals, so there was basically no need to continue the attack.

The reconnaissance troops had already spread out to scout the nearby enemy situation. Aside from the newly arrived regiment headquarters in the village, there was also a battalion headquarters of the infantry and some engineers who were preparing to build a supply station there.

Everyone had a good meal because the Qi Military really had accumulated a lot of good things. There were military tins produced by Qi Country, fresh vegetables, and even beef and alcohol among the war spoils.

All took the time to rest because after a day of fighting, they were truly exhausted. Some corners were already filled with the sounds of soldiers' snoring, and collapsed houses inside and out could be seen crammed with sleeping soldiers.

Liu Guozhu walked to the corner of the village, where he saw the enemy artillery that had threatened the safety of his tank crew and which he had taken out.

It was a knockoff 76mm caliber anti-aircraft gun, originally meant to defend against airships. It posed almost no threat to aircraft, but obviously, it still had some effectiveness when firing horizontally at tanks.

The good news was that it had no armor-piercing rounds at all, merely managing with high-explosive shells. The bad news was that even with high-explosives, it could threaten a number 4 tank.

Since Liu Guozhu had actual combat experience against an "anti-tank gun," the regiment headquarters' staff hoped he would quickly write up some summary of his experiences and share as much of this knowledge as possible with the other tank crew members in the regiment.

So that night, Liu Guozhu could stay at the regiment headquarters, enjoy a room with lighting all to himself, and let the clerical officers of the regiment help him polish his manuscript.

Some said that each of the regiment's clerical officers was as beautiful as a flower, with ample bosoms and shapely behinds, but Liu Guozhu didn't see what was so special—after all, he was still young and somewhat naïve.

Liu Guozhu strolled along the village pathway, where he could still make out mortar shell craters and even found the low wall his tank had crushed.

Some bloodstains on the bricks and tiles hadn't yet been cleaned up, and from time to time, vehicles laden with petrol or ammunition would arrive, slowly driving into the village.

The signal corps were busy erecting a long antenna; with this equipment, the regiment headquarters would be able to timely convey orders to every battalion headquarters.

Scrawny recruits were carrying the heavy cables, connecting the generator to the equipment, while telephone lines were also extended into some of the intact buildings.

Those places were brightly lit, without any concern for light discipline—after all, even though there were explicit regulations to control light, nobody paid attention to these details when it came to practice.

Especially when the enemy forces were either too late or too weak to counterattack, violating battlefield safety procedures became a kind of taken-for-granted bad habit.

The staff officers of the regiment and some clerical personnel had to work overnight to sort through and analyze the Qi Army's documents. The useful and very important ones had to be sent to the division headquarters promptly, while the rest could be tidied up a bit, to get an understanding of the Qi Army's deployment.

This place used to be the Qi Army's headquarters, so naturally, there was an abundance of files and materials. The Tang Army even captured more than twenty wireless radio sets here, as well as a large amount of gasoline and generator sets.

The captured officers from the Qi Country also provided much valuable intelligence, such as the locations of nearby field hospitals, ammunition and arms depots, barracks, and checkpoints.

The overnight interrogations and analysis of documents allowed the advancing Tang Army to finally gain an approximate understanding of Qi Country's hinterland situation.

Unknown until investigated, but once understood, the commanders of the Tang Army realized that they seemed... damned well on the verge of victory!
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Indeed, the hinterland of Qi Country was almost an undefended existence. With nearly 500,000 troops stationed at the border, how could there be any forces left to guard the rear?

Previously in the war design, the Qi Army had not prepared to engage in breakthrough battles with the Tang Army but was ready to engage in mutual attrition with the Tang Army along the border.

Since there was no preparation for the current situation, it would be impossible for Qi Country to make corresponding adjustments based on the changes on the battlefield in a short time.

This was inevitable; how could the Qi Army, lacking automobiles and armored corps, possibly conduct mobile operations against the Tang Army in the wilderness?

"Almost all the villages nearby are undefended," said the commander of the 1st Armored Regiment while looking at the map and marking some positions. "Just allocate a tank with a few dozen men, and we can secure the villages on the flank; at least we don't have to worry about the security of our flank anymore."

"What if the Qi Army counterattacks?" a staff member at the regimental headquarters pointed to the map, where the Third Prince still clung to the border defense line, and reminded.

"The infantry following up will reinforce these defenses," the 1st Regiment commander remained full of confidence, believing that he could continue to advance toward the objective: "By tomorrow morning! We must get as close as possible to Nanye!"

"To take Nanye by tomorrow?" The staff officer was bewildered, he did not at all believe that the Qi Army would deploy a large number of troops in Nanye; they could be heading into a fierce battle if they charged over like this.

The tanks they had were treasures, the guarantee of the Tang Army's invincibility in battle, and also the basis for the Tang Army's ability to win despite being outnumbered.

If there were unnecessary losses, it would definitely affect the subsequent combat plans, which was obviously a problem that had to be considered.

In fact, the Tang Army's mad dash had already paid a considerable price: along the way, about one-third of their entire tank regiment had been left behind.

The 1st battalion should have had 47 Type 4 tanks, but two suffered mechanical failures and did not participate in the battle that morning. During the subsequent fighting to break through the positions, three more were hit and could not continue forward.

Then there was the continuous breakthroughs while moving forward; during this process, another seven tanks were immobilized due to engine failure or track breakage.

Yes, you read that right! The number of tanks that had to stop midway awaiting repairs from the logistics maintenance troops was greater than those destroyed by the Qi Army.

As of now, of the 47 tanks in the 1st battalion, only about 30 could proceed normally forward by tomorrow.

In fact, this was already an incredibly good maintenance rate—when World War II began, the German Army might not have had such a high operational readiness rate.

Similarly, the situation for the 2nd battalion was not much better. They also had only about 30 tanks remaining, with even two of the battalion headquarters' command tanks broken down.

The 3rd battalion was in even worse shape, as they were initially only equipped with a little over 30 tanks and were never at full strength—now, only 15 remained battle-ready.

A regiment that should have had about 150 tanks now had only about half that number combat-ready.

Even if we include the tanks repaired and returned to the ranks tomorrow, the best-case scenario would be a restoration of about two-thirds of the combat strength.

Similarly, trucks from the regimental and divisional headquarters had their share of destruction, mechanical failures, and blockages on the roads... about one-third were of no use.

This is an inevitable problem for mechanized troops in combat; no matter how reliable the machinery, when it accumulates to a certain quantity, the rate of failure will still be enough to make one's scalp tingle.

Not to mention automobiles, even the horse-drawn carriages of the Tang Military's transport units experienced axle breakages and other malfunctions, as overloading was very common. Some units carried twice the ammunition in order to maintain continuous combat operations.

Thankfully, these losses had their rewards. After the battle erupted, the Tang Army broke through the line and sprinted a hundred kilometers deep into Qi Army territory.

This had left all attempts at remedy and adjustment by the Qi Army far behind. Likewise, this pace of advance completely disrupted the preparatory movements of the Dahua Empire's border troops.

They originally planned to enter Qi Country in marching formation to assist, but before they could act, the Tang Army was already in front of them.

This was completely different from the plan: safely entering Qi Country and the preparations needed to breach the Tang Army's defensive line are not the same concept. The commanders from the Dahua Empire dared not lightly engage in a positional war; their tens of thousands of men could not withstand such attrition.

The Tang Army, which encountered virtually no significant resistance, stopped that evening; the Qi Army, finding themselves in a disadvantageous and desperate situation, took advantage of the precious night and began to prepare for a counterattack.

In the eyes of the Qi Country commanders, only by making good use of this precious night to turn the unfavorable situation around could they stabilize their front line before dawn and regain the initiative!

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There will be no additional chapters today; everyone should rest early.