Munitions Empire

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The Great Tang Kingdom is an interesting country, with strong production capacity and abundant raw material supply, capable of manufacturing a vast amount of materials and equipment every day.

Yet this country seems to be in a perpetual state of shortage, lacking oil here, steel there, and even occasionally facing a crisis in food supply.

Compared to other countries, Tang Mo, as the King of the Tang Country, was truly tormented and joyfully afflicted by this phenomenon.

Every morning, the array of news he heard was always a mix of good and bad, some worth celebrating and others headache-inducing.

For instance, when he heard that Qian Jinhang had already boarded the train and would soon arrive in Chang'an, he was so happy that he even considered adding a bit more to his breakfast.

But when he heard that the disaster relief supplies in the southern regions were about to run out, he felt that having an extra bite seemed almost sinful.

In fact, vast tracts of land in the Tang Country were in a state of abundance, especially the northern areas unaffected by calamities. Qi Country was also a major grain producer, especially around Beiyuan City, which, like the northeastern plains of some country, was an excellent place for agriculture.

The soil there was extremely fertile, and the terrain was very flat: and a lot of bodies had been buried during the war two years back... Hmm, it was absolutely a prime spot for cultivation.

Unfortunately, transporting grain from the north to the south was not easy, as the railway lines in the southern regions had been destroyed by floods, cutting off transportation and requiring some time to repair.

The hastily repaired railways were heavily used by the military, after all, about one million troops and captives were stationed around Xicong in the southern regions, and all these people needed to eat.

In the meantime, the Tang Country had no choice but to redistribute the grain hoarded in the southern regions to even further south: the areas impacted by Strauss's battles were simply too large, and the populations too vast.

It was no joking matter. The entire northern plains of the Chu Country, or now the southern plains of the Tang Country, were crowded with tens of millions of refugees who had no food, had just suffered a disaster, and had been entangled in battles with various troops for a long time.

Compared to disaster-afflicted areas in the Tang Country, the southern plains could truly be described as utterly devastated: the locals were ragged, emaciated, and appeared ghost-like, turning the whole region into a ghost realm.

There were no alternatives. If relief efforts weren't urgently coordinated and the livelihood of the people wasn't restored, then the Tang Country's occupation of the region would equate to inheriting an endless and insoluble trouble.

Only by ensuring the people had food to eat and jobs to do could the area genuinely settle down and become an inseparable part of the Tang Country.

Thus, despite the fact that the southern regions themselves were also short of grain, the Tang Country had no choice but to reroute its reserve disaster relief grain to its newly occupied southern plains, to barely sustain the former citizens of the Chu Country who were barely clinging to life.

The effect was significant: after receiving the aid, the chaos in the southern plains subsided at a visibly fast pace.

The locals surrendered their guns and gradually began to resume production under the organization of Tang Country officials. Their lands were actually quite fertile, but unfortunately, previously, these lands belonged to the nobility of the Chu Country.

Now, the Tang troops helped them kill off these landlords, drove away those high-and-mighty Chu nobility, and turned these fertile lands into ownerless territories.

Then, the Tang Country enacted decrees stating that these lands would be allocated to the farmers for cultivation at no cost, which quickly stabilized public sentiment, and the rest fell naturally into place.

Although the Chu Country also attempted a few counterattacks, their troops were annihilated by the Tang Army as soon as they left the mountains and entered the plains.

When it came to fighting on the plains, the Tang Army could truly be regarded as the best in the world, while the Chu forces were second-rate, so they were almost guaranteed to lose.

However, in the muddy southern regions, where roads were virtually nonexistent, the mobility and repositioning of the Tang Army were greatly hindered, which suddenly brought road construction back to the agenda.

Regrettably, the Tang Country was already too preoccupied to think about constructing temporary railways and roads on the southern battlefront, as the already fragile transportation lines of the Chu Country were strained to support even the existing material deployments.

Oil, ammunition, food, medicines... all these were in urgent need. Where was the capacity to consider some damned cement asphalt road roller?

To put it frankly, had it not been for the capture of a batch of extra food supplies prepared by the Dahua Empire at South Wind Pass, the situation for the Tang Country might have been even more passive.

The food supplies from South Wind Pass indeed alleviated a critical need for the Tang Country, but those supplies were also disappearing at a visibly fast rate.

Firstly, the surrendering Dahua troops in the southern oil field region numbered over a hundred thousand; they too needed food and drink, and the southern oil field region itself had been tormented by rainfall for a long time, making it impossible to be self-sufficient in food.

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Therefore, a portion of the grain stored at South Wind Pass must also be allocated to the southern oilfield regions: since they surrendered so thoroughly and managed to preserve the oilfield facilities intact, it's only right that we ensure they don't go hungry, don't you think?

Additionally, the newly conquered Wangchun City and Tengyun City also need food supplies. Previously, Dahua Empire had exploited these cities to gather military rations, and now they're under the control of Great Tang Kingdom, it would be wise to win over the hearts of the people, wouldn't it?

Great Tang Kingdom's own afflicted southern regions cannot be neglected. If the newly occupied areas have food and our core territories go hungry, that would be unjust and the people's morale would surely disperse.

So, Tang Mo had to figure out a way to use all available resources to transport the remaining grain from the north to the southern regions.

This was a massive project, testing the transport conditions, transportation capacity, and the strategic resolve of an entire nation.

For this reason, many areas in Great Tang Kingdom were paying the price for transporting the grain: many metals needed for industrial production in Tongcheng were starting to run short because the food transport was encroaching upon the industrial transport's share.

How to arrange the operation of the entire railway system efficiently was a complex and delicate science. Even the slightest mistake could affect the transportation efficiency.

The people in charge of scheduling were not of high rank and were scattered across various railway sections, each operating independently and being responsible for their own regional arrangements.

This led to unavoidable scheduling chaos in many areas, which further highlighted the problem of insufficient transport capacity. Even though the railway management of Tang Country was already the most advanced in the world, it was still impossible to avoid mistakes during busy periods.

The good news was that air transport, which was the first to recover or rather less dependent on ground infrastructure, played a tremendous role.

C-47 transport planes loaded with grain landed in droves at the temporary airfields near Xicong. After unloading the grain, they transported prisoners from Dahua Empire to the north for re-education through labor.

Those Dahua prisoners, who saw a real airplane, touched a real airplane, and flew on an airplane for the first time in their lives, vomited themselves half to death in the sky while also experiencing the true meaning of "traveling a thousand miles in a day."

This was double the transport efficiency: on the one hand, directly delivering grain from the north to the southern regions in dire need of it, and on the other, relocating mouths to feed from the south to the north.

With the transportation issue being severe in the north and south, the east-west transport was naturally affected. A large number of trains were diverted to support the north-south routes, inevitably reducing railway transportation capacity in the east-west direction.

Therefore, after barely completing the offensive towards Fengjiang, the westward advancing cluster led by Bolton near Fengjiang had to halt their offense, allowing the front to stabilize.

Sometimes, a war is not just about who can fight; Tang Army's offensive was thus constrained by its own logistics, forced to abandon an excellent situation.

Initially, while Dahua Empire was in chaos due to heavy losses, Tang Army could have launched attacks on Hidden Sword Gorge and the Fengjiang defense lines, potentially achieving a breakthrough and greater victories.

But unfortunately, troop movements could not keep up with the pace, and many forces could only mobilize slowly via road, unable to arrive promptly in the war zone to expand their victories.

In the end, they could only watch helplessly as the Dahua Troops fortified their defense and increased their forces, awaiting reinforcements from Qin Country...

"The current situation is that our forces in Xicong have been completely liberated, accounting for over three hundred thousand soldiers," Tang Mo said as he met with Luff after breakfast for a small two-person meeting, where Luff gave a brief overview of the situation.

"The plan from the Staff Department is to send a hundred thousand troops to approach Hidden Sword Gorge to establish a new defensive line there. There's no need for us to continue our assault from this direction; the Dahua Military is well-prepared, with the natural stronghold of Hidden Sword Gorge to rely on. An attack from us here is unlikely to be advantageous," Luff explained to Tang Mo the reasons for such an arrangement.

After finishing, he paused, and seeing that Tang Mo showed no intention of speaking, he continued: "The situation in the southern regions is still very tense, so I plan to send two divisions south to support Strauss."

The remaining forces, according to the Staff Department's plans, would be redirected to the western front, to join forces with Bolton's western offensive group, and together with the upcoming supply reinforcements, launch a new round of attacks on Fengjiang.

However, moving two hundred thousand troops to the Fengjiang war zone is no easy task at present.

It might well take until the last few days of autumn to complete the entire transport operation. This is practically a joke; by the time all the troops have assembled, it might have already started snowing locally.

Moreover, after such a long time, Dahua Military surely would have been fully prepared and waiting. Initiating an offensive when the weather is turning cold and air support is once again less reliable is clearly unwise.

"It seems that this year's warfare can only go so far," Tang Mo said, though somewhat reluctantly, he could only accept the reality.

Luff nodded, "If the other side doesn't end this war, next year we might achieve even greater victories."