Munitions Empire-Chapter 1041 - 963 Novice Chickens Pecking Each Other Evolution Version

Chapter 1041: 963 Novice Chickens Pecking Each Other Evolution Version

The battlefield was in utter chaos, and no one paid any attention to the few tank operators who had abandoned their tanks and fled. Everyone was locked in combat, either fighting one-on-one or ganging up on enemies when they had the advantage in numbers.

Of course, if you had a submachine gun at that time, you could bully several enemies all by yourself…

With more advanced tactics, soldiers rich in combat experience, and fiercer in battle, Qin Country had the upper hand in the melee, and soon a Panzer IV broke through the defense line, wreaking havoc at the entrance of the village.

How glorious Tang Army’s tanks were on the enemy’s territory back then, that’s how arrogant Qin Army’s tanks were now.

Lacking in actual combat experience, the Shu Country Troops had no choice but to abandon the village and start retreating. But due to organizational issues, the retreat quickly turned into a rout.

The much-awaited artillery support mostly landed on empty spaces, but afterwards Shu Country adjusted their firing parameters and turned the lost village into ruins.

During this period, most of the battles along the border of Shu Country were like this, with only a few well-fortified bastion areas holding up against Qin Army’s attacks, while most of the defense lines were breached by Qin Troops.

Just as Tang Country’s Staff Department had predicted, the much-hoped-for border defense of Shu Country didn’t play much role. Hundreds of thousands of Shu Army troops found themselves surrounded and retreating, putting them in an extremely precarious situation.

The Speaker of Shu Country, Liu Jing, could no longer afford to visit Tang Country and could only stay at home to supervise the war. Shu Country’s troops were defeated again and again, but because Qin Army’s field maneuverability was not as good as that of Tang Military, it wasn’t easy to surround and annihilate Shu Army’s forces.

This was basically the same as saying: I have the style of Tang Country’s military, but haven’t fully captured Tang’s essence…

Another sense of “Imitating me, you’ll survive; mimicking me, you’ll die.” Only now did the commanders of Qin Country realize that they were still a long way off from Tang Army of three years ago.

In recent years, Qin Country’s senior military commanders had been trying to learn the military tactics of the Great Tang Empire, but only today did they find out that Tang’s tactics were not something just anyone could master.

About three years ago, as long as Tang Army broke through the defense line, a large number of forces could follow, then utilize the field maneuver advantage to surround the enemy, causing terrifying casualties.

This is the so-called power of annihilation combat: as long as you encircle the enemy, you can eliminate a large number of them at a relatively low cost, which naturally has an extremely high cost-performance ratio.

However, when actually using this tactic, commanders of Qin Country found that although their tank units could tear through defense lines, they just couldn’t follow up with the same speed as Tang Army.

Their armored vehicles were too few; their logistical support was too weak. In a field situation, the time the troops stopped to rest and wait for supplies far exceeded the time to break through the enemy lines.

Now they knew, the real skill lies in the areas that people usually neglect. To realize Tang Army’s tactical theory, having a sufficient number of tanks is only the basic entry-level, just meeting a threshold.

A hundred advanced tanks could breach the enemy’s defense, but to expand the victory behind these hundred tanks, you need three hundred armored vehicles, five thousand battle-hardened veterans, two hundred artillery guns rallied together, and four hundred aircraft of various types, plus three thousand trucks for logistical supplies!

If we go into more detail, that’s an impressive railroad capacity, tens of thousands of tons of fuel plus hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition, and tens of thousands of tons of food and medicine…

Looking at the glorious Tang Troops, who could advance more than a hundred kilometers in a single day, it was thanks to the terrifying transportation capability, as well as the meticulous calculations and countless efforts of the transportation personnel from the Staff and Logistics Departments working together.

What about Qin Army? The day after they broke through Shu Country’s defense line, one-third of their tanks were stranded or immobilized on the road due to a lack of spare parts for repairs.

With a serious shortage of trucks, logistical supplies were slow, and a large number of troops had to stop halfway, waiting for additional ammunition and food to continue the advance.

The most embarrassing part was that because of the severe shortage of supplies, a bizarre spectacle emerged on the battlefield.

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Traditional Cavalry, with a large allocation of horse-drawn carts, became the fastest-advancing units, with Infantry moving faster than the Armored Corps in some cases. The mechanized units that ran out of fuel actually became the slowest trash.

The already poor border roads of Shu Country were deliberately sabotaged further, and now they were the nightmare of Qin Army’s advance.

In the stream of Qin Troops advancing along the limited roads, one could see soldiers everywhere pushing carts and pulling artillery, in a scene reminiscent of dockworkers.

From time to time, these units also had to scatter to avoid Shu Country’s Fighter Jets roaring overhead, a situation the high-ranking officers of Qin Country hadn’t anticipated.

What they hadn’t expected even more was that Shu Country organized over four hundred bombers, taking off from the Field Airports at the front line, to pay a visit to Qin Country’s border cities.

This marks the first time in a century that the hinterland cities of Qin Country have been ravaged by the flames of war. Countless Qin citizens have become displaced, with large numbers of civilian dwellings destroyed and damaged.

The Air Force of Qin Country frequently launched planes to intercept these Shu bombers, but the effectiveness of these interceptions wasn’t particularly notable. Without radar early warning, they could only rely on the eyes of military and civilians on the front lines for vigilance, and then use telegraph and telephone to relay news of enemy air raids—a process which was obviously too slow.

What’s more, the bombers of Qin Country’s Air Force were also continuously being deployed to bomb the hinterlands of Shu Country. Under these circumstances, it was impossible for the ground visual lookout posts to distinguish whether the planes passing overhead were their own returning bombers or enemy invading bombers.

As a result, false alarms were as common as hairs on a cow, and friendly fire incidences by anti-aircraft gun positions occurred frequently. For a time, the number of planes brought down by friendly fire actually exceeded that of enemy takedowns.

There was no way around it. If you just find someone, hand them binoculars to watch for planes passing by in the sky, what could they really discern?

If requirements are loosened, enemy planes might slip through and, with the rear being bombed, the leadership pursuing accountability would undoubtedly demand responsibility. Yet, if standards are tightened and any plane sightings are reported, it often results in one’s own planes being attacked by ground artillery fire, or harassed by one’s own fighter jets.

In the end, everyone was at a loss as to what should be done. Some even naively thought that if the Great Tang Empire were to join the war now, it would surely have similar issues.

Unfortunately, they didn’t know that most of the Great Tang Empire’s planes were already equipped with an IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) radio device that, using radar and radio equipment, could differentiate between allied and enemy aircraft.

In just the first month of the war, Qin Country had advanced more than 130 kilometers into Shu Country’s territory, but the loss on both sides was greater than anticipated.

Qin Country had managed to assemble 300 fighter jets and 500 bombers for the war, but in this one month, over 170 of those planes were shot down, with fewer than 400 airworthy remaining.

The situation was also grim for Shu Country; they had deployed 1000 planes on the border at the start of the war, but now fewer than 700 remained operational.

Since Qin Country was on the offensive, their losses were even greater. While the situation was somewhat better for Shu Country, they were still at a disadvantage overall: they had lost ground, many of their armies were routed, and ground losses were greater.

Since the start of the war, Qin Country had lost over 200 tanks and Shu Country over 250, with the loss of armored vehicles roughly similar on both sides, at about 400 each.

However, in terms of manpower, the losses were more significant for Shu Country: Qin Country had roughly lost 15,000 soldiers while Shu Country had over 30,000 casualties and at least 30,000 captured.

These losses are a direct reflection of the actual military disparity between the two countries.

The pre-war analysis by the Staff Department of the Great Tang Empire reached similar conclusions to the above data. However, Qin Army’s actual performance was even worse, and Shu Country was also not as resilient as the Great Tang Empire had estimated.

Plainly put, Luff and his staff overestimated the strength of both the Qin and Shu armies, so while their conclusion was correct, the actual situation did not match their prediction.

The real situation was that the losses of the Shu Military were greater than estimated, and Qin Country’s strategic victory was not as significant as imagined… As for which side performed a bit better, only heaven knows.

As a result, Luff was extremely irritated, and the faces of the Staff Department were almost completely disgraced by these two idiotic countries, Qin Country and Shu Country.

He couldn’t criticize these two countries, so during the subsequent meetings, Marshal Luff, the Empire’s Chief of Staff, nearly died of anger from everyone’s jokes.

Even His Majesty The Emperor joined in mercilessly, telling a joke in the meeting room that nearly had Luff and the generals of the Staff Department tucking their heads between their legs.

But jokes aside, the world situation has indeed become tense because of Qin Country’s declaration of war on Shu Country. The emissaries of Shu Country hope that the Great Tang Empire can mediate between the two warring sides, while the emissaries of Qin Country have been continuously obstructing and delaying.

Diplomatic envoys from other countries are all inquiring about Tang Country’s stance on this war, and covertly probing whether Tang Country has further expansion plans.

In fact, everyone is waiting for a result—an answer as to whether the Western Continent is truly going to descend into chaos: If the Western Continent is chaotic, then the Eastern Continent will undoubtedly follow suit.

Everyone wants to gain their own advantages in the turbulent era, so they all are observing the attitude of Tang Country, to see whether Tang Country will go back on its word and join in this war.

However, unfortunately for them, the answer they received was not what they wanted: the Great Tang Empire did not show urgency to get involved in the war in the short term; Tang Country was very composed, at least on the surface, very composed.

Tang Mo had no thoughts of expanding the military or preparing for war; apart from mobilizing some troops and deploying them near Fengjiang, there were no other movements.

——-

Dragon Spirit has some family matters to attend to these days, updates will resume in a couple of days