Munitions Empire

Chapter 666: 625 industrial layout

Chapter 666: 625 industrial layout

The recent operations of the Tang Army’s Armored Corps had been quite monotonous, as they lost the opportunity to make rapid flanking maneuvers and surge forward aggressively. They could only follow the infantry, slowly squeezing forward, inch by inch advancing.

This was completely at odds with their previous tactics, and left them somewhat at a loss: The prefer the unrestrained rush forward, and were not particularly interested in covering infantry.

Thus, equipping infantry with assault guns was actually a relief for the Armored Corps, freeing them from the heavy burden of supporting the infantry.

Moreover, the senior commanders of the Tang Army were unwilling to sacrifice tank units in siege battles. They preferred to let these armored units run like cavalry, strike the enemy like lightning, encircle and destroy their opponents.

So, on Luff’s recommendation, both Tagg and Redman withdrew their armored units. The 1st and 4th Armored Divisions began to rest and resupply, handing over the main offensive tasks to the cheaper infantry.

On the other hand, in order to reduce infantry casualties and test new weapon systems, the main thrust of the attack could only be delivered by units equipped with assault guns.

...

The Air Force was also deliberately stockpiling fuel, conserving ammunition, and reducing the number of aircraft sorties, as the rear factories had decreased their output capacity due to expansion efforts.

In addition, with the Air Force reallocating some of its units to coastal defenses, this directly resulted in a drastic decrease in bombing runs by the frontline Tang Air Force and a steep drop in support density.

As a result, the offense of the Tang Army had slowed down, which also aligned with the continued strategy of luring the enemy.

It seemed that this situation had given Shen Country and other nations a misconception: they believed the Tang Army was running out of steam.

Planes were fighting less and less, armored units were almost invisible, and more and more tanks without turrets were appearing — all signs seemed to point to the weakening of the Tang Army!

For everyone, this news was undoubtedly exhilarating; it was also another reason why Shen Country kept reinforcing Beiyuan City without halt.

In fact, Tang Country’s reduction of front-line engagements and slowing of the offense aimed partly to entice Shen Country to continuously reinforce Beiyuan City, and partly to reallocate resources and improve the domestic industrial production environment.

Alice had lately been restructuring the industrial capacity within Tang Country, which was a necessary task: many new factories needed to start production, which required withdrawing skilled workers from mature facilities, inevitably reducing the output of some existing factories.

Although the Great Tang Group’s apprenticeship program had gone a long way to mitigate the shortage of workers, the construction of new factories would still inevitably affect the production of the old ones.

It couldn’t be helped: the country’s industrial development could not stop, and the need for more factories meant that existing human resources had to be allocated rationally.

Recently in Anpu, a new production line was being built to manufacture a type of armored vehicle known as the Model 113. This all-tracked armored personnel carrier was not complex in design and relatively cheap, potentially a good fit for large-scale equipping of the troops.

Supporting this new factory meant withdrawing 100 skilled workers from the tractor factory and the plant producing tank chassis for the Model 4.

Tang Mo’s calculation was to assign the task of severing the enemy’s maritime supply routes and encircling Beiyuan City to the navy fleet, which hadn’t been involved in battle. This would minimize casualties and alleviate the pressure of siege warfare.

He had confidence in his own fleet, or rather, he had great confidence in the Dongwan-class battleships. As long as these warships reached the battlefield, the situation could fundamentally change.

As a result, the military supplies for Shireck’s forces would be completely cut off, and the ground troops trapped in Beiyuan City would be in a dire situation.

All along, Tang Mo had been mindful of at least 100,000 Shireck prisoners of war in Beiyuan City! With these laborers, Tang Mo could undertake his next development plan, laying two new railways and building a large number of factories.

Anyway, these laborers were free of charge and didn’t need much consideration for their life or death. If Shireck wanted to negotiate peace, they would have to pay a war indemnity, which would be an additional income.

In short, Tang Mo was already contemplating the post-war division of spoils, his sights set beyond the current battle situation.

The Great Tang Group hadn’t slowed down its growth due to the war, but rather accelerated it significantly.

And the advisors from the Shireck Consortium who were stationed in the Ice Cold Empire finally saw a pile of junk from the front lines of the war with Qi Country.

As expected, most of the equipment didn’t reveal much; their understanding of these weapons was still too superficial.

The entire world was actually being dragged forward by the industrial production ideas of Tang Country; they couldn’t even keep up with copying, let alone learning, understanding, and surpassing.

Tang Mo was able to present a mature metal formula that had been validated through countless experiments and practice, whereas the same formula would require Shireck’s technicians to experiment repeatedly, retracing the steps taken by Earth’s civilizations in the past.

That was the disparity between them; the more precise and complicated the technology, the more pronounced this was. By the time Tang Mo introduced even more advanced things, perhaps these Shireck engineers still pondering over the old technologies wouldn’t even understand what they were looking at.

“Damn it, can’t they obtain some finished products?” a Shireck advisor complained irritably as he tossed a piece of rusty metal onto the table.

How could he discern anything from a machine gun wreck that was severely warped and deformed, lacking many parts...

“Stop complaining! Getting these things already isn’t bad at all,” an advisor from the Shireck Consortium suggested without lifting his head, “You should know that the Great Tang Kingdom hasn’t retreated a step since the war began!”

“They’ve always been on the offensive, and any abandoned or damaged equipment would be left behind them, not falling into our hands! These few items were obtained by those below at great risk to their lives.” He put down a paratrooper’s steel helmet still stained with blood and sighed as he explained.

“Let’s go see that thing called an airplane and see if it can inspire some ideas,” another impatient Shireck engineer from the side suggested.

He had come all the way from Brunas to the Ice Cold Empire just to take a look at the wreckage of an airplane...

———-

I have something unexpected today and can’t make up the chapter. I will make it up tomorrow.