Munitions Empire

In the northwest of the Ice Cold Empire, where the temperature has already warmed up, bunkers made of reinforced concrete stand tall on the cliffs, with dwarf meticulously constructed defense lines, the quality of which exceeds those of Dorne by far.

The jeeps parked next to the position were lined up in a row. Today, the highest military commander in charge of this defense line came for an inspection, and everyone appeared rather nervous.

Compared to the degenerate Dorne, the Ice Cold Empire is undoubtedly more normal. The dwarves won large swathes of land in previous wars, and the areas they integrated are much easier to manage than those annexed by Dorne.

The Dwarf race is naturally more united, and once annexed, these dwarves were willing to obey the orders from Furnace Fortress. If it weren't for the machinations of the Great Tang Empire, the dwarves might have already moved south, annexed the Elf's empire, and begun their own path to supremacy.

"Attention!" Moss, along with his aides and adjutant, walked in the trenches, which had been reinforced with concrete, looking very tidy.

The entire defense line has been reinforced, and even the thickness of some bunkers can withstand the frontal impact of 350-mm caliber shells.

"We must be doubly cautious. The expansion conspiracy of humans has not stopped, and they must be scheming to invade the Eastern Continent, if not Dorne, then us." Despite being less than 1.6 meters tall, the famous Ice Cold Empire General Moss still exuded strong presence.

He wore a military uniform modified by the dwarves themselves, with red collar insignia on the stand-up collar. This military attire was quite distinctive, with boots shorter than other nations, adopting the traditional dwarf design with straight boots, devoid of any laces or decorations.

The dwarves built numerous defensive facilities in the northwest region of Eternal Winter City, which now has a special name, called the Northwest Fortification Zone. Inside the Great Tang Empire, it's referred to as the Fortification Area, while the dwarves call it the Steel Rampart.

The coastal defense line of the Laines Empire is called the Endless Rampart, the dwarf's defense line is called the Steel Rampart, the coastal defense line of the Poplar Empire is called the Forest Rampart, Dorne's defense line is called the Southern Rampart... Everyone seems to enjoy using the term "rampart", as if using this term provides a boost to sturdiness.

Unfortunately, on the Great Tang Empire's side, there are hardly any defensive ramparts, mostly well-known and lesser-known scenic spots...

Moss has almost always been supervising this immensely costly fortification area, witnessing its development from scratch, from crude to exquisite.

On a massive foundation in the distance, a turret with a triple-mounted 380-mm caliber heavy cannon could even rotate 360 degrees. Its armor thickness exceeded one meter, and the top had been overlaid with concrete, with added camouflage.

Since learning that battleships had limited use, countries tried every way to recycle reserved scrap materials. The most direct approach was to use the already produced spare turrets and spare gun barrels on the coastal defense lines.

Now, everyone's battleships have undergone some modifications; an extra layer of steel plate was added to both sides, supported by iron rods hanging outside the hull. Experiments proved that this could increase the main armor belt's resistance to penetration.

The area near the bridge was modified similarly, with some even using cement-like materials to fill spaces, being almost like a makeshift version of composite armor, which did have a certain effect.

Even so, countries were still not confident about the safety of their battleships, nor did they dare to stake everything on their technologically backward navy.

Therefore, similar "land-based battleship turrets" became fashionable: everyone deployed such weapons along the coastline. Their rate of fire and power were much greater than army artillery.

After all, beneath the base fortified with concrete, there was a whole set of ammunition supply mechanisms, allowing the turret to fire a shell every two to three minutes. If it really started working, the suppression effect on the beach would be exceedingly terrifying.

Moss walked into a temporary command post, with five meters of reinforced concrete above his head, providing quite a sense of reassurance, and such a command post was merely an ordinary temporary post on the position.

These command posts were connected to the main defense underground tunnels via corridors or traffic trenches and were all equipped with fixed-line phones.

Their visibility is excellent, capable of temporarily storing ammunition and the wounded, making them very convenient to use.

Moss walked to the map of nearby tunnels, trenches, and ammunition depots hanging in the command post and nodded in satisfaction, saying to his entourage: "From a distance perspective, we are the most dangerous. The Tang people's reconnaissance planes can fly over our heads, but their land-based aircraft cannot reach Dorne."

He's been emphasizing this point because, in his view, the Tang Empire's air force is extremely powerful and often used as a battering ram, and the Ice Cold Empire's northwest region within the opposing land-based aircraft's strike radius is actually incredibly perilous.

As a soldier, a general, he harbors no unrealistic hopes. As a famous general of the Dwarf Empire, Moss's instincts are exceptionally keen: "If I were a commander in the Tang Empire's armies, I would seriously consider starting an invasion from the northern tip of the Eastern Continent, so that during the amphibious assault, I could get strong support from paratroopers and bombers."

The Tang Empire's airborne troops are no longer a secret weapon. In the most recent airdrop operation, the Tang Army used paratroopers to directly disrupt the Qin Army in regions such as Jutian, overwhelming the Qin forces in Shanchong area all at once, directly threatening Shu.

With the cooperation of paratroopers, the Tang Army's armored group rapidly advanced, a combat case that shocked Moss and many other countries' commanders tremendously.

The covering advantage of air force, paratrooper disruption, coupled with the assault of heavily armored groups, is almost classic. The blitzkrieg effect that everyone dreams of achieving has been realized by the Tang Empire's army.

In the past, everyone was still studying breakthrough operations and had no particularly good methods for the fortification areas.

The Great Tang Empire taught everyone a lesson directly, causing Moss to increasingly dread the Tang Army's paratroopers.

Not only the paratroopers, but he also paid great attention to one detail: during the Battle of Anqing, the Great Tang Empire actually raided the Qin Army's command post, capturing the then Qin Army's overall commander Ying An.

This incident made Moss extremely nervous. He believed that the Tang Army must have an exceptionally elite unit, elite enough to execute some seemingly impossible missions.

Although the Ice Cold Empire's intelligence department believed that the Tang Army's capture of Ying An was largely due to local traitors' cooperation, with not much replicability, Moss still thought it prudent to guard against the Tang Army's "special forces".