Munitions Empire

When Emperor Qin Ying Duo heard the news, he was completely stunned. He really hadn't expected that the general he appointed would be captured alive right in front of battle...

The problem is, Ying An is royal kin, and his troops hadn't even been defeated. The army was still there, yet the commander was captured alive... How many years has it been since something like this happened?

Ever since Shireck widely introduced muskets, war no longer required commanders to take risks. Personal bravery became less important, and leading charges didn't depend on commanders risking their lives in combat.

From that time, commanders could generally die in war or be captured, but they wouldn't be captured alive before their own troops were routed.

Ying An was captured alive, and what's more, he was taken from the headquarters set up within the city by the enemy. The Tang Army entered as if it were unguarded and captured the frontline commander of Qin Country.

Years of battles have made Qin Country renowned for its generals, besides Ying An, Zhang Xuan, and Wang Luo, there's also Liu Zhian and Chen Li.

Chen Li is currently responsible for mobilizing and reinforcing the old capital and is not in the Imperial Capital Wuyang. So this time, only Liu Zhian is left as the commander.

"It's not that simple... How could the headquarters of the Central Cluster be breached so easily?" Liu Zhian said after a long silence, recovering from the shock.

"Even with helicopters, the Tang Army couldn't just storm into a cluster headquarters! Local people must have cooperated!" He gritted his teeth, clearly harboring murderous intent towards the people of the Dahua region.

"General Liu, isn't it a bit too late to pursue who helped and who was involved now?" The Chief of Staff had always been somewhat against Qin Country's high-pressure policies on occupied areas, especially the Dahua occupied area.

The more exploitation, oppression, coercion, and threats towards local people, the worse the outcome actually is. This requires a degree of moderation, which is truly hard to grasp.

It's like being a stepmother to an adult child; if you're strict, the child rebels, thinking the stepmother is bullying him. If you're lenient, the child thinks you're easily bullied, becoming reckless and unmanageable.

"Let's not talk about the locals for now. Dongqing probably can't be held. It's unrealistic to go there and arrest people for questioning..." Prime Minister Ying Ke shook his head, dismissing the idea of pursuing the original inhabitants of Dahua from a practical standpoint.

There's no way, time doesn't allow it: by early tomorrow morning, the news of Ying An's capture will probably spread along the frontline. Such matters can't be kept secret; with so many Qin Army troops involved in the battle in Dongqing City overnight, tens of thousands might already know about this.

How long the Qin Army can hold without a commander is obviously a question mark. If they end up turning against the local original inhabitants of Dahua, it will only lead to a more complete and rapid collapse of the frontline.

"The current plan is to immediately select someone to take over the Central Cluster! Stabilize morale and hold the defensive line... to buy enough time for subsequent warfare!" Qin Country is good at warfare, and the Chief of Staff naturally has his insights. He voiced another direction, which Emperor Qin Ying Duo found very reasonable.

"Have the highest-ranking generals over there immediately take over command authority! No matter what, Dongqing must be defended!" Ying Duo ordered.

"Your Majesty, such matters must be handled with care in the future! If the Tang Army repeats their tricks and captures one of our senior generals after another, it would be hard to account for in terms of the war situation and public opinion." Liu Zhian suggested from the perspective of a frontline commander.

"Indeed, the safety of the headquarters must be prioritized in the future." Ying Duo nodded in agreement with his viewpoint.

Previously, there were incidents where division, army, and even corps headquarters were attacked by missiles, leading to the deaths of senior officers. Now, with the Central Cluster Supreme Commander Ying An being captured alive by the Tang Army, their strikes on headquarters are truly unprecedented.

This tactic really struck at the heart of the Qin Army. Command and control, battlefield communications, senior commanders... one crucial node after another was eliminated by the Tang Army before the battle even broke out.

And the remaining, large-scale, courageous, and battle-hardened grassroots troops of the Qin Army could only inexplicably retreat, flee, and eventually collapse into disarray.

"The other side must have some means of intercepting our communication signals, probably within a distance of around 300 kilometers..." Liu Zhian speculated based on his recent thoughts.

His words piqued the interest of Emperor Qin and others, who all turned their attention to him, waiting for him to continue.

The Qin Country general didn't keep them in suspense and continued: "Communications in the direction of the old capital haven't been disrupted, and wired phones are mostly able to communicate normally. This indicates that the enemy's jamming range is only up to around Dongqing and can't interfere with telephone communications."

"Makes sense." Ying Duo suddenly understood, nodding with some excitement: after so many failures, finally someone had identified something useful.

"If they can detect our radio communications, then they can locate our senior headquarters! The higher the rank, the more communication stations there are..." Liu Zhian, being experienced, knew the military situation well, articulating it clearly.

"The missiles weren't aimed at the headquarters; they were targeting the radio signals!" He analyzed a series of data on the Xiajian debacle and reached an extremely accurate conclusion: "The attacks were on the communication room; the headquarters was just collateral damage."

"I see!" For the first time, Emperor Qin felt he had grasped evidence of the Tang Army's actions, and this understanding provided him with a measure of security.

At least knowing how the enemy attacked gave him a feeling that he could counterattack. This was infinitely better than the previous state of passively enduring attacks without knowing anything.

"Find a way to have the technical department create a high-powered signal transmitter to cloak our stations... at least deceive the Tang Army's missiles." Liu Zhian offered his suggestion.

Everyone nodded frequently, agreeing that this approach seemed very good. At the very least, it could protect the various levels of frontline headquarters, preventing them from being immediately taken out by missiles.

"Despite this, our own communications still haven't been restored... Therefore, extensively laying telephone lines in subsequent areas is a necessary means to ensure communication." Liu Zhian, not being a technical expert, could only use existing methods to strengthen Qin Army's own communication methods.

Undoubtedly, telephone lines were the best option he could think of.