Munitions Empire

Preparing for a wedding does not require the Tang Empire's military to do anything, so various exercises continue to take place as usual.

New weapons are constantly emerging in the Tang Empire, so soldiers need to keep up with the times, mastering the methods of using these new weapons and understanding their performance characteristics.

As weapons evolve, the demands on soldiers also increase. Old model tanks in the past had no rangefinders or infrared night vision searchlights. All these devices require human operation, and with more and more precision instruments, illiterate people simply cannot use them.

However, this practice of acquainting themselves with new tactics and new weapons through exercises also leads to much grumbling among many commanders.

In the past, they had never fought such frustrating battles, recently they decisively and thoroughly lost when competing with their own people.

At the headquarters of the recently formed 9th Group Army, a staff officer just back from a business trip threw the document bag he brought back onto the table and complained tiredly as he massaged his shoulders: "There's no training effect at all... It's just a waste of time, fuel, morale, and everyone's effort."

His trip was to study new tactics at the Staff Department, and the newly formed 9th Group Army also sent personnel to participate in two exercises, where the performance of two infantry regiments in urban warfare could simply be described as miserably inept.

General Feng Kezhi, the commander of the 9th Group Army, also felt disgraced, as the troops he commanded suffered heavy losses in the exercises and were completely outmaneuvered by the simulated enemy forces.

The only consolation is that the other troops didn't perform well either, with only the troops that were sent to Fengjiang to "learn" achieving some results.

"It's not entirely without effect; at least it serves to heighten our vigilance," an officer who had been recently promoting urban combat training came over, opened the brown document bag on the table, took out the documents brought back by the complaining staff officer, and began to read.

The only tank regiment in the 9th Group Army's commander was also very dissatisfied with the exercises he participated in: "Sending the crew of Tank No. 4, or the Panther Tank, to fight against Type 59 is like a clueless performance. What's the point of that?"

The group army, newly established after the war, had not yet seen combat, so they had no battle honors, not to mention that most of their soldiers were also new. According to the equipment distribution methods of the Great Tang Empire, the 9th Group Army really didn't get anything decent.

To this day, the armored regiment is still equipped with the old Tank No. 4, and sending such tanks to fight against the simulated enemy forces' Type 59 tanks is practically akin to courting death.

"Neither the range nor the penetration of the cannons can compare; the most outrageous part is night combat, the Panther Tank might stand a chance, but for us still equipped with Tank No. 4, without proper night vision gear, how can we even fight?" This regiment commander, originally a cavalry officer from Qi Country, studied in the military academy for more than a year, and finally became a regiment commander, only to be utterly defeated in the exercises.

The enemy forces made no rational engagement and directly resorted to night raids, and on the very first day of the exercises, the 9th Group Army's armored regiment was sent packing home.

Someone in the headquarters who knew the inside scoop laughed and continued: "Consider yourself lucky. You don't know about the Air Force, where the J-6 unit from Dragon Island bullied a bunch of Butcher Fighter pilots. Isn't that like beating up kindergarten kids?"

"You know what their commander said? 'It's because we didn't use afterburners'! An afterburner is basically a function to temporarily increase engine output, allowing planes to fly faster. Listen to this! Does that sound like any sort of justification?" added the well-informed officer, fearing that a group of country bumpkins from the Army might not understand, and even explained what an afterburner was.

In fact, he himself didn't know how fast a J-6 could really fly, as the specifications of supersonic jet fighters were still classified, with even the upper echelons of the military having only a rough idea.

The armored regiment's commander added a story about a brother unit's ordeal: "The 1st Armored Division was directly dumbfounded when they engaged in an exercise battle against the Blue Army. They started with a barrage of rock-precision rocket artillery, using the latest technology... Goddamnit, rocket artillery with a range of 300 kilometers, more accurate than Scud missiles..."

This was indeed a bit too advanced, but the Great Tang Empire was indeed studying large-caliber rocket artillery and planned to outfit this type of artillery with gyroscopes and other equipment to improve its accuracy.

However, the entire equipment program had not yet started, so even the Tang Army themselves hadn't equipped themselves with this sort of game-changing "new weapon."

As a result, in order to improve the troops' alertness on the battlefield, the Tang Empire's simulated enemy forces directly used the data, tormenting some participating units to abject misery.

An officer nearby sneered and commented, feeling indignant: "Be thankful! The 1st Armored Division bit the bullet and continued to advance despite losing half their forces, only to be struck by bombers! The whole armored division was unprepared for air defense and hadn't even reached the enemy's frontline before they packed up and headed home to write a self-criticism review."

The news has already spread through the military: the renowned 1st Armored Division has been thoroughly defeated, a truly unexpected outcome.

The 1st Armored Division is unable to save face and, I've heard, has started a series of intensified trainings, intent on seeking revenge in the next exercise.

On hearing this, the commander of the armored regiment that was eliminated from the exercise without even facing an air attack immediately expressed his dissatisfaction: "Isn't this exercise a joke? Isn't our air defense the responsibility of the Air Force? The Armored Division only has one Anti-Aircraft Gun battalion; where do we get the air defense firepower from?"

In the past, the ground forces of the Great Tang Empire never worried about air defense; wasn't it always the Imperial Air Force that chased down the enemy?

They used to worry about friendly fire, even emphasizing the need to cover the tops of tanks with the national flag or paint them bright yellow to increase identification and avoid being mistakenly bombed by the Air Force.

And now they want us to learn how to disguise our tanks with camouflage nets and branches and to reduce identifiable features? Are they out of their minds?

The officer spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness and said, "The Staff Department won't accept any excuses; they say figure it out yourself, use camouflage, position air defense early... Basically, the 1st Division did not pay enough attention to air defense and needs to improve."

The regiment commander thought this was absurd: "What a joke, the ground forces going back to train for air defense combat, isn't this slapping the Air Force in the face? When has the Imperial Air Force ever had an issue? When have we ever lost air superiority?"

The staff officer who went to the Staff Department meeting hurriedly replied: "Well, we have lost it before; facing the 'enemy's J-6', we did suffer heavy losses."

His sarcastic remark left people torn between laughter and tears, and the officer, not lifting his head from the document he was reading, commented dryly: "Alright, your joke isn't funny at all. In theory, we indeed cannot defeat a stronger future version of ourselves."

The past few confrontational exercises seemed reasonable, though challenging, they were still within everyone's understanding.

But now, with the emergence of some new military equipment, the mock enemy data for the exercises is becoming increasingly unbelievable. Even as the highest-vision commanders on this planet, the commanders of the Great Tang Empire still cannot imagine what a scene it would be to see tactical missiles used in vast numbers like artillery shells.

The staff officer who had returned from a business trip reflected and found that the most useful exercise was still the recent landing maneuver on Dongwan Island: "Actually, with such frequent exercises lately, I think the most useful one was the landing exercise, the one conducted on Dongwan Island."

"Indeed, the issues exposed by that exercise are truly alarming. We wouldn't know how bad it was without testing; our previous landing operations can be said to have been completely inadequate," chuckled a seasoned officer.

He had participated in the landing operation on Dongwan Island back then, which was practically child's play; the troops had voyaged across the sea, and the soldiers were almost vomiting out their guts mid-journey.

Disembarking troops was also very amateurish, with too few ships and too few men; if not for the Mirage Country's military on Dongwan Island being truly incompetent, they might not have won that landing battle.

Later, he was wounded in battle and transferred out of the Navy Marine Corps to take up a position in the Staff Department. When the 9th Group Army was formed, he was promoted as part of the core staff to serve in the headquarters of the 9th Group Army.

This veteran's words immediately resonated with many: "Exactly, compared to the past, that sampan-style landing was practically a joke played with the soldiers' lives."

They are not experts, though—a bunch of Army commanders discussing the level of landing equipment can only be deemed amateurs. But since they were idle and griping anyway, they could generally speak based on internal analysis materials they had already received.

Moreover, landing operations really aren't irrelevant to them: compared to the limited numbers of the Navy Marine Corps, expanding the battle results still relies on the regular Infantry of the Army coming ashore.

As the 9th Group Army, which has less heavy equipment and mainly relies on Infantry, there is indeed a good chance they will be chosen as the follow-up landing force, landing in the wake of the Navy Marine Corps.

So these headquarters officers really have started examining the details of landing, and encouraged by General Feng Kezhi, the commander of the Corps, they have even made some headway.

At least, they speak with authority. Just listen to one of the officers who spoke as if he were an expert on landing operations: "Also, the fleet arrangement for landing support, the distance from the enemy coast, control of air superiority, the use of airborne troops... there are really too many considerations."