Munitions Empire-Chapter 1206: Preparations for New Island 1126
"Intelligence indicates that the Tang Empire battleships have appeared near Linshui Port. They have never been there before." A Mirage Country officer stood behind Admiral Shen Haiping, reporting the latest intelligence on Tang Army movements.
Several countries are providing similar intelligence to Mirage Country. Although no one dares openly oppose the Tang Army, they still offer as much support to the weaker party as possible.
After all, with a tall figure shielding the front, others could fare slightly better, couldn’t they? It’s a form of self-preservation, even if it doesn’t appear entirely altruistic.
Merchant ships from all over the world congregate at Linshui. Equipped with radios, they relay information back to their countries or mention bits and pieces of intelligence during casual communication.
For instance, they marvel at how stunning the Great Tang Empire Navy’s new battleships are, boasting a displacement of over 40,000 tons. Such messages are intercepted by intelligence agencies from other countries, who leverage them to offer Mirage Country a favor.
"The Dongwan-class battleships have already left the South Island waters, and two aircraft carriers have been spotted near Beiyuan…." Shen Haiping could already deduce, based on the mounting pressure, that the main force of the Tang Empire Navy had departed Shen Hai. The only question was how many had been redeployed.
At this point, he had learned that the new Tang warships were called aircraft carriers. He couldn’t help but feel deep envy for the Great Tang Empire Navy, which possessed such advanced weapons.
As a navy commander, he thoroughly understood the strategic significance of aircraft carriers as revolutionary weapons. Just having naval aviation as an independent operational arm underscores the increasing importance of the navy.
Unfortunately, envy was all he could afford. The main Mirage Country naval fleet had been completely annihilated, leaving them incapable of launching a meaningful counterattack.
During a discussion held by Mirage Country leadership, they reviewed their failures and lessons learned: The Air Force claimed that the fighter jets purchased from Tang Country had significant technical deficiencies, leading to the rapid loss of air superiority.
The Navy, despite building its own warships, faced an insurmountable technical disadvantage against Tang’s new weaponry, which utilized advanced mechanisms beyond Mirage Country’s comprehension, resulting in an unprecedented defeat.
Ultimately, the blame didn’t lie with Mirage Country’s leadership or the courage of its grassroots troops. The Tang Army was simply too cunning, its technology too advanced, outpacing everyone’s expectations.
But this is war: blame matters little. The battle to defend the nation must continue. Mirage Country is doing everything possible to gather intelligence on Tang Empire Navy fleets to ensure thorough preparation for the next landing assault.
"A large number of merchant ships are being mobilized, but they’ve rarely concentrated together... This suggests they’re resupplying South Island rather than assembling to transport troops." Shen Haiping remained highly professional; as long as the operation didn’t involve aircraft carriers and Tang’s new equipment, he was adept at analyzing Navy fleet movements and logistics.
Clearly, the Tang Army continued to focus on resupplying South Island. It’s likely Shengwu Zhong had put significant effort into the devastating battle at Great Southern Bay, which has yet to recover.
As such, the Tang Army wouldn’t be able to utilize Great Southern Bay in the short term, meaning its next wave of landing fleets would have to set out from Beiyuan, Linshui, or other regions.
"That means we have at least fifteen days to one month!" Shen Haiping arrived at a fairly specific estimation.
In fact, his deduction was remarkably accurate. According to Tang Empire’s plans, efforts to overhaul Great Southern Bay, expand port capacity, and launch an advance toward New Island were scheduled for 27 days later.
Shen Haiping used small boat-shaped magnets on his map to mark a long chain connecting the waters between Beiyuan and South Island.
These routes were dominated by Tang Empire’s merchant fleets. If… he had a few submarines, he could substantially delay Tang Army’s logistics and supplies. If… he had a fleet, appearing in these waters at this time would undoubtedly cause significant discomfort for Tang forces.
Civilian ships wouldn’t have radar, nor the protection of extensive naval escorts. His fleet could inflict considerable damage, even if it meant being sunk in return—at least it wouldn’t be a lopsided annihilation.
Regrettably, it was too late for regrets. What he had to do now was utilize his remaining naval forces to trouble the Tang Empire Navy as much as possible.
First and foremost, he’d heard that Tang Country had begun selling submarines. Due to the war, however, Mirage Country had no channels for purchasing them. But perhaps they could borrow or replicate—if time allowed, who knows?
Secondly, he was desperately manufacturing small motorized craft equipped with gasoline engines. These fast, small boats were packed with explosives for the explicit purpose of carrying out "suicide attacks."
In fact, relying on his expertise, he made a series of modifications to the design: Shen Haiping did, indeed, have some skill in this regard.
He considered weapons capable of sinking these swift small boats—typically rapid-fire guns and small-caliber anti-aircraft cannons—so he reinforced the boats’ front with steel plates to defend against such firepower.
Coupled with evasive maneuvers by the boats, their odds of being sunk at long and medium ranges remained relatively low. As for close range… well, once they’re on the verge of collision, losing a few boats hardly mattered, did it?
Each boat carried more than a ton of explosives. Purely in terms of explosive yield, the destructive power was substantial. However, the inherent issue was that these collision-purpose boats were not shells; the explosives neither detonated inside enemy ships nor underwater, rendering maximum damage unlikely. They appeared terrifying but mainly inflicted heavy injury rather than complete destruction of Tang Empire warships.
Admittedly, retrofitting naval motorboats was somewhat easier than aircraft. Mirage Country’s Air Force had deployed over a hundred suicide planes in the past two months, none of which succeeded in their missions.
The Tang Army’s airtight anti-aircraft radar network was one of the reasons for this failure, as was the declining quality of Mirage Country pilots.
Mirage Country’s ability to train pilots was hindered by low literacy rates and a scarcity of schools, meaning the pool of qualified individuals was naturally small.
Now, heavy losses made replenishment harder. Among the 1,000 pilots recently recruited, some were even illiterate.
No choice—they had to fly regardless. Some received only fundamental takeoff training before being sent to perform suicide missions on planes, because… aviation fuel ran low.
With reserves unable to be replenished and supplies dwindling, this was the inevitable consequence of the Tang Army’s blockade.
Meanwhile, as war preparations intensified, Mirage Country ramped up Zero Fighter production to the maximum possible output. These aircraft also demanded fuel to function.
Despite losing nearly 200 aircraft in suicide operations—many being Dragon Bombers—production of Dragon Bombers has almost ceased altogether.
With no targets fit for bombing, why bother producing slow, obsolete Dragon Bombers? Resources would be better spent manufacturing relatively advanced Zero Fighters.
Although Zero Fighters were outdated, outclassed by pirates and overwhelmed by Tang’s modern jet fighters, they were at least easier to produce.
After all, they had just one engine and required only one pilot. Even for suicide missions, they were more cost-effective than heavily-equipped bombers like the Dragon.
In any case, alternative options were scarce. Mirage Country hastily implemented modifications, replacing tail rudders and other components with wooden parts, creating fragile "attack aircraft" with poor flying stability.
The sole purpose of these planes was attrition, flown by Mirage Country’s least-experienced pilots to kamikaze onto Tang Empire ships at any given opportunity.
Besides self-sacrifice tactics, Mirage Country was also feverishly constructing a circular defensive line on New Island.
The limited material reserves ruled out large-scale use of reinforced concrete, so Mirage Country resorted to building fortifications with improvised materials.
Firewood and soil were heavily utilized; trenches often reinforced with locally-sourced wood for structural stability. Wooden roofs were added at intervals, turning sections into concealed bunkers.
Though fragile and easily destroyed, the sheer quantity and concealment of these bunkers made up for their deficiencies. Mirage Country civilians were conscripted to build these structures, using wooden hammers to compact soil around bunkers. Some even stacked sandbags between the wooden supports.
With so many bunkers constructed, machine guns were scarce, and assault rifle and infantry teams had to stand in for machine gun crews and occupy these defenses.
To thwart Tang Army landings, large numbers of mines were buried on the beaches—one of the few weapons capable of genuinely troubling the Tang forces.
Like other nations, Mirage Country began prioritizing anti-aircraft artillery as well: numerous anti-aircraft guns were deployed across New Island to form a dense defensive network.
Many of these anti-aircraft guns were freshly manufactured, while others were relocated from Ben Island. In addition to air defense, many guns were also assigned anti-tank roles.
According to Shenwu Ke’s New Island defensive plan, Mirage Country’s remaining "Navy" forces would cooperate with Army troops during Tang Army’s landing phase, launching combined assaults from air, land, and sea to crush the arrogant Tang Expeditionary Force.
