Munitions Empire

It's a pity that by the time Shireck's new tanks enter mass production, it will likely be a year later, and by then, the war will probably be over.

"Think about the Air Force. We might be in a better situation here in the Army, but I heard their planes are a whole generation behind the enemy's, completely incapable of fighting." After offering this explanation, that officer inexplicably mocked the Dahua Air Force.

Lately, the commanding officers of the Army have been quite critical of the Air Force, tossing verbal jabs, even using veiled criticism during meetings, accusing the Air Force of inaction...

The cause of this was the Air Force's recent avoidance of combat, which had led to dissatisfaction: the expensively assembled Air Force had 90 percent of its planes destroyed on the ground, with pilots too scared to take to the skies for combat, allowing the Dahua Army to be bombarded by the enemy Air Force—how could anyone not have an issue with that?

The Air Force Commanders themselves were actually quite aggrieved: their pilots were not as skilled as their adversaries, nor were their planes. Going up was simply a death sentence; how were they to fight this battle?

Intending to preserve their strength, they had therefore stopped engaging in air combat, but once air superiority was lost, the Army's discontent was almost uncontrollable.

General Feng Kezhi was aware of the Air Force's predicament and understood the choice to avoid engagement before the arrival and increase in numbers of new planes at the front line.

But while he understood, whether those below him did was beyond his control: to silence criticism, the Air Force had to present results.

Hearing Army officers start to mock the Air Force both openly and covertly, General Feng Kezhi chuckled bitterly and steered the topic back to the Army: "Where do we stand anyway? Our Dahua Type 2 tanks are already under a lot of pressure fighting against Tang Country's Type 4 tanks, and now there's this damn new tank—its name I don't even know! And that's not all... there's also that, that what..."

He couldn't remember the name of the armored vehicle he had heard about earlier, which had inflicted heavy losses on the Dahua Military's reconnaissance troops, almost as much as enemy tanks had.

The aide-de-camp immediately kindly reminded him: "It's an eight-wheeled armored vehicle. Extremely fast on highways and often raids our troops. That thing also emerged in this war, never having been seen before during the battles in Qi Country."

"Damn it!" muttered General Feng Kezhi, finding the impression of Tang Army's Lion-type tanks, which had first appeared in the direction of Wangchun City, etched more deeply in his mind.

After all, that vehicle had appeared before him, causing many unexpected troubles. It was much more agile than tanks, and its ability to appear and vanish like a specter made it particularly troublesome to deal with.

The Lion-type armored reconnaissance vehicles, often acting alone, had excellent off-road capabilities. Light vehicles with heavy guns also had a formidable anti-tank capacity. Those vehicles could retreat as fast as they advanced, hitting and running without "giving a damn"!

The Tang Army's basic reconnaissance tactics were to advance for reconnaissance, withdraw when advantages were found, relying on their maneuverability not just to fully scout out Dahua's defensive deployments, but also often to fire a few shots and gain the upper hand.

This was why General Feng Kezhi hated these vehicles so much. Once, during an inspection at the front line, he had encountered a Tang Army weapon of this kind. The enemy had attacked his convoy out of nowhere, and it was only because he had alighted from his vehicle and entered a shelter in time that he had narrowly escaped disaster.

The aide continued: "The broadcast said that thing is called a Lion-type armored reconnaissance vehicle, a kind of wheeled armored car. The engineers believe that by using wheeled vehicles, the enemy is deliberately seeking higher travel speed."

General Feng Kezhi finally remembered it was called a reconnaissance car, and he grew even more furious: "Right! A reconnaissance car... Well, their reconnaissance cars are all more formidable than our tanks! Whereas our reconnaissance troops still use cavalry! Cavalry on horses!"

Dahua's troops didn't have advanced things like armored reconnaissance vehicles; they didn't even have wireless communication equipment.

Therefore, the reconnaissance troops of the Dahua Military were extremely outdated, tantamount to being a replica of Tang Army reconnaissance units from five years ago: a vast number of cavalry units, relying on the naked eye to find the enemy, and after scouting, running back to report everything they had seen firsthand.

This task was not only dangerous but also highly delayed: by the time the cavalry returned to report, enemy tanks might already be within one or two kilometers.

The Tang Army's off-road speed was almost on par with the cavalry, which is why Dahua's troops were always unable to catch up or escape. The huge disparity in armaments left General Feng Kezhi with no choice but to maintain a defensive position, much to the frustration of this Great General of the Empire.

Standing beside General Feng Kezhi, the technical consultant from Shireck awkwardly admitted the technical disadvantage: "Indeed, the enemy's heavy armored vehicles present a significant threat to our tanks, including the Lion-type armored reconnaissance vehicles, as well as the Type 4 tanks and Type 4 assault guns... and that all-new kind of tank can destroy all of our various tank models."

However, he quickly offered a defense for his consortium: "We can confirm that the Tang Army has an advanced type of onboard real-time communication equipment, and we are conducting research in this area. Results will soon be forthcoming."

General Feng Kezhi glanced at the Shireck consultant and refrained from exposing his lie: Shireck had promised many research endeavors, but all of them were in dreams.

Technology that the Great Tang Kingdom had been using for years, not only had Shireck failed to develop, but they hadn't even understood the basic principles.