Munitions Empire-Chapter 1174: The 1094 Fleet at the End of Its Rope

On the bridge of the battleship Ben Island, the captain of Mirage Country cursed the ancestors of Shen Haifeng up to eighteen generations. From his mouth, he had already engaged in all sorts of unspeakable illicit relationships with every woman in Shen Haifeng’s family.

In his opinion, this was entirely Shen Haifeng forcing the main fleet of the Mirage Navy to march to their deaths against the Tang Army — and without hesitation.

Now, his warship was already ablaze and billowing smoke. The Styx Anti-ship Missile had pierced its side armor, leaving a massive, charred hole in its hull that nearly gutted half the ship’s compartments and ignited some of the anti-aircraft gun ammunition storages.

His damage control officers had exhausted themselves just to barely contain the fire, but the cruising speed of the battleship Ben Island had dropped to less than 30 kilometers per hour.

At this speed, escape was certainly impossible, and offensives were equally untenable. Though the Ben Island hadn’t sunk, it might as well have been a wreck.

Above its head hovered over a dozen Stukas, and with every dive they tortured every Mirage navy sailor aboard the battleship Ben Island.

Listening to the terrifying howl of those planes tearing through the air, these Mirage sailors continued fighting on the brink of collapse. To them, the battlefield now was nothing short of hell.

Planes would periodically dive from the sky, strafing with 20mm cannons before dropping 500kg aerial bombs that kicked up towering columns of water beside the battleship.

The Ben Island battleship kept turning, even refusing to execute the command to charge forward, instead circling in place to detach from the fleet.

Indeed, the remaining battleships of the Mirage fleet had already grown somewhat defiant: they started ignoring Shen Haifeng’s orders and charted their own courses.

This maneuver was also a desperate attempt to evade the relentless air attacks. Maintaining a straight course toward the landing grounds would render their pathways predictable, making it easier for carrier aircraft to launch precision strikes.

But if the Mirage battleships could pivot and drastically alter their course, implementing serpentine maneuvers, it would increase their evasiveness and potentially avoid more enemy strikes.

However, such irregular maneuvers had their downside, namely causing the fleet’s formation to collapse and eliminating mutual cover.

What drove Shen Haifeng into despair was that such actions substantially slowed the fleet’s charge toward the landing grounds. What had previously been a slim hope now became an impossibility.

While the Ben Island was executing evasive maneuvers in an attempt to dodge an aerial bomb, the battleship Mountain Frost, still charging with the fleet, took a direct hit from another aerial bomb.

The bomb struck the midsection of the Mountain Frost battleship, originally lightly damaged. It punched through the deck and detonated in the main boiler room, blasting apart the entire propulsion system of the warship in an instant.

The Mountain Frost’s speed plummeted from over 40 kilometers to less than 10 kilometers. Thick smoke billowed from the ship, and its once-sharp prow cutting through the waves seemed to have stilled entirely.

Watching with open eyes as the Mountain Frost battleship exploded, everyone in the bridge of the Ben Island swallowed hard.

On such an intense battlefield, an explosion like that all but signified the ship’s doom. The next wave of enemy attacks would inevitably follow, and its sinking now seemed unavoidable.

"What is this? What does all this mean?" The captain of the Ben Island battleship muttered incessantly, pacing inside the relatively cramped command tower.

In his view, the priority should now be to let warships still capable of retreat withdraw as quickly as possible — at least preserve some remnants of the Mirage Navy, however slight.

If battleships couldn’t escape, then at least some cruisers should flee? And if the cruisers couldn’t make it, then perhaps several destroyers could?

Yet up to now, Shen Haifeng had issued no retreat orders! He seemed hell-bent on burying the entire fleet here, an absolute disaster for the Mirage Navy!

"Mountain Frost’s ablaze!" On the bridge of the battleship Shen, a staff officer reported the latest "calamity" to Shen Haifeng. After a brief pause, he asked: "General! Shouldn’t we order the destroyer fleets to retreat… if they withdrew, the enemy likely wouldn’t pursue them."

"No! Continue attacking!" Shen Haifeng dismissed the staff officer’s suggestion. "Their escape is meaningless! If even a few destroyers manage to penetrate the enemy’s landing ground, it could at least render this operation… meaningful."

From his perspective, the fleet was already doomed. That was the overriding issue, not the prospect of a few fugitive cruisers and destroyers. He no longer saw significance in such withdrawals.

The Mirage Navy had painstakingly built its main fleet over a decade, assembling it laboriously — and today, total annihilation was inevitable. The navy would no longer hold the capacity to obstruct any forthcoming actions by the Tang Army. Soon, Tang Country’s navy could impose a relentless naval blockade on Mirage Country without consequence.

Under these circumstances, if he failed to bite off a piece of the Tang Army here today, the fleet’s destruction would amount to a senseless loss.

"But… General... those destroyers and cruisers simply cannot break through the enemy fleet’s blockade," the staff officer interjected rationally.

The Tang forces had dispatched two battleships and several cruisers into the other zone of combat — a massacre was transpiring there.

Without torpedoes, Mirage Country’s cruiser and destroyer groups stood no chance of challenging these capital ships head-on.

Against two of the Tang battleships, the continued offensives of cruisers and destroyers honestly amounted to suicide. The secondary guns on Tang battleships could effortlessly deal with such targets, not to mention the superiority of Tang Army warships in both rate of fire and accuracy.

With the latest round of artillery bombardment, several Mirage cruisers and destroyers had been hit and set alight. The once-madly-charging Mirage fleet was now thoroughly disorganized.

The entire queue had descended into chaos: some ships adjusted their courses, while others recklessly charged toward Tang battleships Dongwan 1 and Dongwan 2.

To the Tang sailors, these insane decisions seemed utterly senseless. At this point, their best option would have been to surrender or deploy smoke screens to escape.

Unfortunately, the Mirage destroyers were not equipped with smoke equipment like those aboard Tang Navy destroyers, as Mirage Country hadn’t yet copied that innovation.

The situation on the chaotic Mirage fleet remained dire. The battleship Pure Jade, hit by torpedoes, which initially suffered light damage, was now a pitiful wreck.

Though the torpedo strike hadn’t hit vital areas and the flooding was under control, it had slowed its speed considerably.

The Mirage fleet was now like a car bogged down in mud, grinding slower and slower, long bereft of its original momentum. Under persistent aerial bombardment, immobilized battleships were exceptionally vulnerable.

The Tang Army had dedicated their remaining Styx missiles to targeting Mirage cruisers and destroyers, as Mirage battleship fleets had mostly lost their combat effectiveness.

The battleships hadn’t fired a volley in ages, nor had they progressed significantly toward the beachhead.

At this stage of the battle, the six surviving Mirage battleships were all damaged, with more than half of them losing their ability to fight.

The newest and most advanced warships Shen and Goblin remained in the best shape, thanks to their superior anti-aircraft gun arrays and fortunate lack of direct Styx missile hits on critical areas, allowing them to barely hold position.

Pure Jade and Ben Island could also barely hold on, but both had ceased following Shen Haifeng’s orders to advance, as they were preoccupied evading torpedoes and bombs.

The Mountain Frost was critically damaged, essentially immobilized, and the Great Southern Bay battleship had long been left behind, unable to keep pace with the fleet. These two battleships were effectively deadweights on the battlefield, akin to soldiers with their lower halves blown off...

As Shen Haifeng looked upon his nearly obliterated fleet, he teetered on the brink of madness. He stubbornly rejected his staff officer’s suggestion to retreat and insisted on pressing the fleet forward.

But the Mirage fleet was no longer adhering resolutely to its commander’s orders. Many ships had begun to act independently, with one destroyer even claiming a main gun malfunction before terminating communications and fleeing.

For Shen Haifeng, hope still lingered. His battleships Shen and Goblin retained their combat capabilities. With an opportunity, he could perhaps achieve mutual destruction alongside Tang’s landing fleet!

This was his last straw — the sole strand carrying all his hope for salvation. Yet, as he held onto such hope, believing that Tang letting their two battleships leave his fleet unimpeded was a mistake, more carrier aircraft descended from the skies!

Bernard’s carrier fleet was never going to stand idly by watching enemy battleships storm their landing grounds. Over 200 aircraft swarmed the battlefield like locusts.

At this point, all hope was extinguished for Mirage’s main fleet. Torpedo bombers began concentrated strikes, and the miraculously lucky battleship Goblin was promptly hit by torpedoes, signifying Mirage navy’s final collapse.

During breakfast time, Shen Haifeng’s flagship Shen had its stern struck by aerial bombs, Pure Jade exploded into flames, and Ben Island was hit by torpedoes while turning to flee... just minutes later, the immobilized Mountain Frost began sinking in place.

At 8:13, Mirage Country’s central command received a telegraph: The fleet can no longer accomplish its mission. Upon reading the message, the Shen Emperor remained silent for a long time, seemingly mourning his fleet.

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Not feeling well, second chapter will be posted tomorrow…