Munitions Empire

What General Feng Kezhi did not know was that, at the same moment, Redman was also terrified by his own frontline combat troops. He had never seen such a way of fighting, nor had he ever seen such a reckless group of lunatics! The flanking forces of the southbound Tang Army had always been insufficient, yet the commanders of the Tang Army's front line managed to launch a round of ferocious offensive momentum with so few soldiers. These not-so-numerous troops advanced to the west, fought two encirclement battles within three days, annihilated the 100,000 Dahua troops that were prepared to counterattack, and occupied a vast area of territory. Because they fought so well, all the troops originally planned for defense were drawn into the battlefield by these frontline combat troops, like planets swallowed by a black hole. The stockpiled fuel was depleting rapidly, and the troops that transported ammunition were dispersed and diluted. It was even impossible to find the trucks from the company and battalion-level convoys, and now the transportation and supply were measured in squads and platoons. Even more exaggerated was that, at the frontline battle area, supplies even relied on truck drivers to find the troops themselves to complete the last leg of transportation. Not only was this very dangerous, but it also often led to chaotic situations. Some supply troops happened to run into the defeated Dahua troops during transportation, and then they even captured more than a hundred prisoners. About a dozen drivers, with their submachine guns, stood by the trucks transporting fuel, guarding the prisoners until the follow-up infantry arrived before they could continue on their way. The fragile supply often arrived late, which in turn was the main reason for the Tang Army to stop their advance. In contrast, the Dahua defensive troops' lines simply could not stop the Tang Army's advancing steps. The problem with the supply was not the most serious; the most serious issue was that the Tang Army's forces had been split by the vast territory of the Dahua Empire into numerous small groups. At the beginning, the Tang Army's combat formations were mostly at the scale of divisions and regiments, an infantry battalion plus tank and artillery battalions, accounting for supply and command units, was comparable to a reinforced regiment. Latter, as the battles continued, these troops were fragmented by the battlefield into ever smaller sizes. In the beginning, the Tang Army could fight large-scale annihilation battles and devour more than ten thousand of Dahua's main military forces at once. But later, the battles became smaller and smaller, and the size of the combat teams began to shrink gradually: several battalions' reinforced regiments started to turn into several companies' reinforced battalions. Even the supply troops had no formal organization, a few trucks from a transportation company would follow such combat teams as they advanced, and that was considered "having supply". Because as the fight continued, the fact that the Tang Army was getting farther from their supply stations and supplies were getting scarcer was true, but Dahua had problems of their own. The problem on Dahua's side was that the command was becoming more and more disordered as the battle went on, and the troops were getting worse — there was simply no morale to speak of, and they were in full retreat unable to organize any effective action. Not only was the offensive not guaranteed, but even retreats were problematic. Many troops scattered as they ran, and even their officers could not be found. Under such conditions, although the Tang Army had many shortcomings, they still maintained a rapid offensive. Even though their forces were dispersed into small groups, they still pierced into the flesh of the Dahua Empire like sharp needles. Now, the Tang Army's units had completely lost their formation: sometimes, a single assault gun providing cover for a platoon of soldiers could control a village, and sometimes, they did not even have armored vehicles, just an infantry platoon daring to proceed on the constantly advancing road. Liu Guozhu was just so: he and Vehicle 115 had even lost the cover of infantry, blindly continuing forward, not at all concerned about the possibility of enemy counterattacks. When the troops were scattered to this degree, Redman got a little restless too. He feared that the enemy might launch a sudden counterattack at some point, and his thin line of defense, as thin as a sheet of paper, would collapse entirely. He did not know whether the Dahua troops were really that weak or were brewing some kind of counterattack plan. He even suspected that the enemy's commanders were digging a big pit for him, just like the pit Tagg dug for Qian Jinhang. Even if the commanders on Dahua's side had no mature plans for a counterattack, the situation was not so optimistic: Redman worried that, if his troops ran into a large group of Dahua forces, they would be drawn into a hard fight. After all, this was within the enemy nation's territory. If the troops encountered reinforcements of more than ten thousand enemies or gathered fleeing soldiers during the attack, they might suffer a disadvantage. Because the Tang Army was too scattered, they could no longer achieve the encirclement and annihilation of large enemy forces. They could only ensure their tactical advantage by constantly breaking through and disintegrating the enemy. Therefore, these days he kept urging the Air Force to take off for reconnaissance. Whenever the clouds were slightly thinner, the Great Tang Kingdom's planes would continuously circle over the territory of Dahua. Even if the Dahua Empire's planes took off to intercept, the Tang Army's planes still used their altitude advantage to continue their reconnaissance relentlessly as if they wanted to see through the whole Dahua Empire. Unfortunately, he had no spy satellites to disperse the fog of war. The battlefield was not particularly transparent to the generals of this era, so command was still somewhat of an art. Redman, who had always advocated for offense, was under unimaginable pressure, sleeping only two or three hours a day, his entire being growing increasingly haggard. Despite having staff to help share the burden, the state of the war—turned into a child's play—left Redman in constant agony, his days filled with unease. The outcome of battles, critical to victory, resting in the hands of a tank, a company commander, or even a grenadier was a terrifying thought. What pained him most was his fear of hearing about defeat at the front line, yet what he heard was victory after victory. Receiving good news amidst despairing anticipation was undoubtedly what made Redman crumble. Yet he could not be dissatisfied, because good news was, after all, better than bad. Every time he imagined his King, Tang Mo, suffering defeat due to his mistakes, his whole body would tremble uncontrollably. Unwilling to betray Tang Mo's trust, Redman refused to rest, even with dark circles under his eyes, resembling a vampire. Or perhaps he simply couldn't sleep. The moment he closed his eyes, he subconsciously believed a telegram had arrived from the front line. This had nearly become a conditioned reflex for him, so every half hour, he would ask if there were any telegrams from the front. ... Qian Jinhang had not slept well these days either. His troops had been fighting in Xicong, and after a fierce battle, the Dahua military had nearly surrounded the city from three sides—it was within Dahua Empire's grasp. Yet, Qian Jinhang had actually halted all military efforts to attack Xicong a week earlier, knowing that his supply lines were in grave danger. Initially, he received telegrams about the situation from the rear, and General Feng Kezhi assured him that he only needed to stabilize the forces and maintain pressure on Xicong—the danger to the rear would be resolved soon. But with the fall of Wangchun City and the death of Han Zhiyuan in battle, Qian Jinhang began to receive only occasional and unfavorable news from General Feng Kezhi. Even though General Feng Kezhi didn't intentionally conceal information, Qian Jinhang was still unable to grasp the full situation—only able to speculate and piece together the dire circumstances facing Dahua from scattered telegram contents. Yes, extremely dire! This was a fact Qian Jinhang knew all too well: without needing to see for himself and based simply on the quantity of supplies being sent from the rear, he could tell that the Tang Army was almost at Tengyun City's doorstep. Although Dahua had stockpiled a massive amount of military supplies at South Wind Pass, as the war continued, it was inevitable that supplies had to be transported from Dahua's hinterland to the front line. However, since the Tang Army had drawn near to Sword Pavilion, it was impossible for supplies to be sent towards South Wind Pass anymore. Most materials originally destined for South Wind Pass were now rerouted to Sword Pavilion, with some being sent to reinforce Tengyun City, hoping that the troops there would halt the Tang Army's onslaught. As a result, the Dahua troops near Xicong had no choice but to rely on the reserves at South Wind Pass: hence the quantity of materials arriving at the front had halved, partly due to intentional withholding and partly due to genuinely strained logistics. This was also inevitable: some of the trains and vehicles that originally supported the Dahua forces attacking near Xicong were diverted to transport supplies to Sword Pavilion and Tengyun, leaving Qian Jinhang's forces with reduced transport capacity. Moreover, the rainy weather in the southern region compounded the difficulty of transport, thus the front line received even less supply. Without sufficient supplies, Qian Jinhang naturally couldn't launch any significant offensive, and like the Tang Army, he was left to watch time slip away in the rain. Only, while the Tang Army waited for their encirclement to tighten, Qian Jinhang awaited something he himself might not even know. Without orders to retreat, he could only patiently wait in place, helplessly awaiting his ultimate fate amidst the ruins of the one-third of Xicong City he had captured. "General!" An officer entered Qian Jinhang's command post, saluted crisply, then handed over a telegram. Qian Jinhang took the telegram and upon reading its contents, a smile spread across his face: it was a bitter smile, a helpless smile, a smile of despair. For the telegram was from General Feng Kezhi, the orders were clear and seemed casual: "Order, the rearguard under Qian Jinhang's command must immediately move to South Wind Pass, and command will be transferred back to General Ding Hong." In other words, General Feng Kezhi had withdrawn the troops attacking Xicong and redeployed them to South Wind Pass! And it seemed in consideration of His Majesty the Emperor's feelings, General Feng Kezhi did not order Qian Jinhang to retreat.