Munitions Empire-Chapter 896 - 819 Eyewitnesses
Chapter 896: 819 Eyewitnesses Chapter 896: 819 Eyewitnesses In the noisy bar, a man reeking of fish sat down in a booth, making the dancers next to him instinctively move away.
The next second, he slapped several gold coins onto the table, and those women who had been avoiding him returned with smiles plastered all over their faces.
They greedily snatched up the gold coins from the table and, enduring the nauseating smell of the sea, flung themselves onto the man, allowing him to grope and toy with them.
This was clearly not a place concerned with decency, so nobody cared about anything, both parties were merely playing their parts—one providing money and the other selling their bodies, every aspect was incredibly natural.
“You’d better have brought back some useful information this time,” said the man seated in the booth, clutching a glass of fine wine, flanked by higher-class women.
He wore a suit from Tang Country, appearing cultured and gentlemanly, so the women were more willing to earn his money; they too could enjoy themselves during the transaction.
“All my information is bought with my life, heh heh,” the man said, holding the waist of a woman next to him and grabbing the prepared beer in front of him, gulping it down in one go, then smashing the glass onto the table: “Ah! Refreshing!”
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“This is for you,” the cultured man said, pulling a check from his breast pocket and pushing it toward the man. All the women’s eyes were fixed on that check, many seeing the conspicuous number “500” under the dim lights.
A whole 500 gold coins—a fortune unimaginable for an ordinary person. Yet, in this den of iniquity, some could spend 500 gold coins in just one night.
The man grabbed the check from Shireck Bank and carelessly stuffed it into his pocket, then, holding a woman, said, “Over 600 kilometers south of Dragon Island, I saw a Stuka flying in the sky.”
“Your job was to gather intelligence, not spout nonsense!” the man holding the wine glass was shocked by the information the other man brought back.
As an expert in intelligence, and one who had dealt with many weapons from Tang Country over the years, he was no laughingstock but a true expert of repute.
From the battles of Qi Country to those between Dahua Empire and Tang Country, gathered from data of thousands of flight missions, no Stuka Dive Bomber had undertaken bombing missions extending beyond 300 kilometers.
This had almost become a consensus, and it was believed that the range of Tang Army’s single-engine fighters and bombers was about 600 kilometers.
In other words, 300 kilometers was about the maximum attack range of these Stuka dive bombers; beyond that, they couldn’t return to their base.
Compared to the range of aircraft from other countries, this was not short; they were all approximately the same distance without a significant difference.
But to claim to have seen a Stuka dive bomber at sea was highly abnormal.
“There are no islands nearby, are you sure everything you saw was real?” the initially gentle man leaned forward, scrutinizing the fish-smelling man closely.
“You know me, I never talk nonsense… that’s why my information is so valuable, isn’t it?” the man with the stench of the sea said as he grabbed another glass of wine, downing it in a gulp before again slamming the glass onto the table.
“Did you really see it with your own eyes?” the suited man reclined into the booth’s sofa, staring at the man for confirmation.
“I really did see it with my own eyes! It was a Stuka, genuine and authentic,” the man, a yearly seafarer, had genuinely seen a Stuka dive bomber flying in that maritime area.
“This is not good news!” muttered the man in the suit, suddenly uncertain of what to do.
At this moment, he was frantically wondering why Tang Country’s Stuka would appear in the maritime area over 600 kilometers south of Dragon Island.
Logically, this was utterly impossible—unless Tang Country had found a way to extend the aircraft’s range significantly.
From any perspective, this was not good news; what used to be a non-safe zone of about 300 kilometers over land was clearly extending to well beyond 600 kilometers.
For the navies of various countries that considered Tang Country’s Dragon Island a hypothetical target, this was a complete disaster!
If a circle of 600 kilometers radius centered on Tang-controlled islands were drawn, plus the possible flight path from Island A to transfer to Island B, the range of Tang Nation Air Force’s control was terrifyingly expanded.
That’s almost like saying a third of the Endless Sea is a danger zone; how can the navies of various nations even operate?
Furthermore, with the mysterious Tang Country submarines, good lord! More than half of the Endless Sea is a danger zone; how can one even fight this war?
“Later, I was chased away by a destroyer, a destroyer from Tang Country, very fast. It had a big iron lump on it, just like what I showed you before, I don’t know what it’s for,” the man reeking of fish spoke up, adding more to the conversation as the other party remained silent.
Destroyers of Tang Country had been photographed by many, and these new warships had a peculiar device above their bridges, usually covered with canvas and hard to see clearly, though some photos captured a rough idea of its odd shape.
The radar installed on the Tang Country warships was still a novelty, unknown to the navies of other nations.
However, as more and more new destroyers of Tang Country appeared, navies from various countries gradually discovered that Tang Country’s navy had equipped a new device, but its purpose remained unknown.
Complete secrecy was nearly impossible, but Tang Country had a special place, Dragon Island, where aircraft carriers secretly built were still a secret weapon unknown to the rest of the world.
“Alright, I got it,” the man in the suit stood up, casually tossed a few silver coins to the woman by his side, and walked away without looking back.
The man surrounded by women didn’t mind the departure and shifted his full attention to the women on either side, becoming even more unrestrained.
The women’s moans were drowned out by the music, and the bright lights hitting the spinning disco ball filled with colored glass, transformed the entire atmosphere of the bar into something magical.
Walking out of the bar, the man in the suit got into a car and soon disappeared into the night. The car arrived at a modest-looking manor outside the city, slowly stopping at the huge building’s entrance.
The man got out of the car and quickly walked into the place: it was the intelligence agency of the Dorne Empire, responsible for gathering intelligence from other nations.
Soon, the conference room was filled with people, all discussing the new intelligence they had just received, and many officials wore worried expressions on their faces.
“We must find out the reason why their aircraft’s range has increased! If we don’t, we might suffer in the next war,” a Dorne intelligence official was the first to emphasize.
“You’re right, but we indeed have no way to approach Dragon Island. The residents who land at Weigang and want to cross the entire Dragon Island into Dragon Harbor, it’s almost an impossible task, as it’s a military zone and civilians have long been barred from entering,” another official said helplessly.
They were not considering approaching Dragon Island for the first time; ever since various advanced aircraft started being manufactured there, many had contemplated strategies to approach Dragon Island and gather information.
Two years ago, some people pretended to be merchants to get close to Dragon Harbor, but later the commercial transport of Dragon Island shifted to Weigang, and Dragon Harbor was almost closed to outsiders.
In such circumstances, anyone trying to approach Dragon Harbor was undertaking a very dangerous task; they had to traverse Dragon Island and risk crossing Tang Army’s lines—it was nearly impossible.
“Maybe… they’re just testing the maximum range of the aircraft,” suggested an official from a distance.
On one hand, Tang Country indeed had some new weapons and equipment under experimentation; on the other, a lot of the intelligence about Tang Country later turned out to be completely baseless.
Intelligence agencies around the world, half-informed, had received strange intelligence and scared themselves more than once.
“Shireck’s investigation team once found an external fuel tank on the battlefield of the Dahua Empire; perhaps Tang People could carry such tanks to increase their aircraft’s operational range,” he finished, and the room fell silent.
Before Shireck transferred his shares to Tang Mo, he freely shared some of the intelligence data he had investigated with other countries.
This move was also the last struggle of some Shireck directors hostile to Tang Country; their action indeed had a significant impact, at least in some ways, strengthening other nations’ intelligence departments.
“That thing—we’ve checked with technical personnel from Tang Country, and they admitted it’s a range-extending fuel tank, not a special bomb…” he continued in the silence.
Indeed, his analysis made sense. Such auxiliary fuel tanks used as a range-extending measure for Butcher fighters were no longer a secret.
Many Butcher fighters would carry such tanks to increase their airtime, allowing them to stay longer on the front lines.
“You’ve mentioned a possibility, we also have to consider another possibility!” The leading intelligence official set the tone for the whole affair: this was also a way they applied for funding, the more investigation projects they had, the more funding they could secure.
