Munitions Empire
Chapter 1155: 1075 Shen Army reinforcements

Chapter 1155: 1075 Shen Army reinforcements

In the northern part of South Island, a transport ship full of soldiers docked at a small fishing village pier, which is usually used only for mooring small boats. The transport ship is not very large itself, so it managed to dock barely.

Gangplanks were lowered, and one after another, goblins carrying Shireck Type 1 rifles disembarked from the deck. The pier was already crowded with people; these were the Mirage Country infantry reinforcements.

After confirming the landing site of the Tang Army, the Mirage Country military stationed on New Island started to mobilize. They hadn’t been bombed, so the command and dispatch were very orderly.

“What a fool, Shengwu Zhong, in the end, it’s up to me, Shenwu Erlang, to support him,” the commander of Shen Army’s 3rd Corps said with a smirk, standing on the makeshift pier.

“General! The 3rd Division has landed, and the subsequent troops are expected to arrive by tomorrow night,” an officer reported to Shenwu Erlang about the gathering of his troops.

Shenwu Erlang, unaware of how dire the situation in South Island was, waved casually and ordered, “Then let’s camp here overnight, and regroup tomorrow morning to reinforce the central part of the island.”

“Yes, Sir!” Seeing the countless soldiers crowding the pier densely, the officer felt confident about the combat capability of his own corps.

However, another person’s confidence was collapsing. Now, Shengwu Zhong was as frantic as an ant on a hot pan at the command center located on the outskirts of Great Southern Bay.

He had already sent out a telegram to the headquarters for the third time, requesting more support and hoping that the Navy could appear on the battlefield as soon as possible.

The originally anticipated 300 Zero Fighters, which were expected to firmly suppress the Tang Country Navy, could now hardly be relied upon.

Having lost nearly a third in bombings, and another seventy to eighty planes shot down in continuous dogfights, Shengwu Zhong could no longer muster any decent air power.

Although he still had about 120 Zero Fighters left, along with a Dragon Bomber squadron that had suffered heavy losses and was reduced to less than half, these planes really couldn’t be easily deployed anymore.

Flight crew members, who had been painstakingly accumulated by Mirage Country, had been lost by 300 just barely two days into the battle, a responsibility Shengwu Zhong truly could not bear.

Thus, he could only relinquish air superiority over the southern part of the island, allowing the aviation units to decide themselves how many aircraft to deploy against the enemy paratroopers at Leping and Dongshan.

Unable to rely on air power, the ground forces’ advancement was also exceedingly slow: the guard units deployed on the beach were crumbling, but they could only fight desperately alone.

Reinforcement troops were blocked at Leping and Dongshan, unable to approach the beach: the 2nd and 3rd Armored Corps, upon which great hopes were placed, seemed to be struggling unexpectedly against the Great Tang Empire’s lightly armed paratroopers.

Unable to alter the situation in the short term both in the air and on the ground, Shengwu Zhong had no choice but to pin all his hopes on the sea.

If only the Shen Army’s Fleet could break into the Tang Army’s landing zone, the main force of the Shen Army, possessing 12 battleships, could instantly destroy the Tang Army’s landing fleet!

Regrettably, what annoyed Shengwu Zhong was that the main fleet of the Mirage Country Navy, which was supposed to be arriving soon, had slowed down on its own: for some reason, they seemed unwilling to approach the Tang Army’s landing zone.

The staff member reported to Shengwu Zhong with a wry smile, “The headquarters just sent a message, the naval fleet has halted, waiting for us to provide air cover. If we cannot secure air superiority near the landing zone, the naval fleet will not be able to engage in battle.”

In fact, the Fleet Commander of the Navy, Shen Haifeng, had received a telegram from Shen Hai’ang, whose squadron suffered heavy losses. Shen Haifeng was frightened by the attack capability of the Tang Army’s carrier-based aircraft: he was unsure whether his fleet would also suffer heavy damage.

After all, his fleet was the only reliance and capital of Mirage Country: if something happened to his fleet, the fate of Mirage Country would be…

Therefore, Shen Haifeng immediately sent a telegram to Shen Haiping, the naval officer at the headquarters, requesting effective air cover and support.

Only with sufficient air cover would the navy enter the battlefield. If not, they could only wait until nightfall when it was absolutely safe to enter the battlefield and engage in a decisive battle with the Tang Army.

Upon receiving the telegram, Fleet Admiral Shen Haiping immediately requested more aircraft cover from Shenwu Ke, the army representative at the headquarters. As a result, Shenwu Ke had to consult with Shengwu Zhong about supporting the navy.

This matter had come full circle back to Shengwu Zhong: Shengwu Zhong also wanted to support the navy, but he really didn’t have the capacity.

The aircraft and pilots under his command had already suffered heavy losses, the remaining were too intimidated to support the naval operations. He would have liked to call in the air forces from New Island and Ben Island to join the battle, but conditions did not allow it.

The few airfields on the island had already been severely damaged, and the remaining two useable airfields could only accommodate so many planes—bringing in more aircraft would be pointless.

In other words, Mirage Country had fallen into a vicious cycle they couldn’t break free from. Their only hope was probably to wait until nightfall when Tang Empire’s aircraft could no longer participate in the battle, then let the fleet rush into the landing zone.

Of course, aside from being unable to support with aircraft, other supports were adequately provided by Mirage Country’s Army themselves: Shenwu Zhong hoped for reinforcements of more than two divisions, and the headquarters immediately transferred the elite 3rd Corps stationed on New Island.

“Where do Tang People’s aircraft take off from? It’s still unclear, isn’t it?” Shenwu Zhong paced back and forth in his command post, his unease clearly visible to his subordinates.

“Yes, we can only guess. Some think the Tang Army might have a super-large ship that can launch planes…” a staff officer casually said.

He didn’t realize he had hit the nail on the head, so after stating the most logical possibility, he continued to speculate: “Others say, there might be a huge airship that can release planes, a very big airship.”

“And some say, the Tang Army’s aircraft might have a massive fuel tank hung on them, taking off directly from Beiyuan City… they can fly all the way here.” The more he said, the more outrageous it seemed, leaving Shenwu Zhong speechless: “In addition… there’s a rumor that a small island has recently surfaced, where the Tang Army has built an airport…”

Such speculations were all baseless and no one could discern which one was true. Such utterly useless things were of no use to Shenwu Zhong.

In fact, he really had no way to deal with the Tang Empire’s secret weapon that could launch aircraft: the Navy were cowards, not daring to enter the battle, and his own subordinates in the Army and Air Force were a bunch of incompetent fools!

“…” At a loss for words, Shenwu Zhong ultimately chose to continue waiting: besides the performances of the two Armored Divisions attacking Leping and Dongshan, the only thing he could hope for was a sudden attack by the Navy.

Either his Armored Divisions would break through the Great Tang Paratroopers’ lines in the afternoon and charge towards the beaches in the south, or the Navy fleet would rush into Tang Country’s landing zone and crush the Tang Empire’s fleet after nightfall… There was no third option.

Actually, Shenwu Zhong was busy all morning: he ordered the Shen Army stationed near Great Southern Bay to fortify their defensive positions, forcibly conscripted people into the military, distributed weapons, dug trenches and constructed barricades, striving to turn Great Southern Bay into a fortress.

Furthermore, he requested the urgent transportation of anti-aircraft guns and other weapons from New Island, to strengthen the anti-air defenses on South Island as much as possible: the newly emerged fast Tang Army bombers were truly impossible to intercept with Zero Fighters. His only hope now lay with the anti-aircraft guns.

The third task Shenwu Zhong was tackling was mobilizing all available forces to repair the battle-damaged field airports on the island.

The mere two airports could not support large-scale aerial warfare, Shenwu Zhong indeed needed more airports to accommodate more planes. Because without increasing the number of planes, he truly had no way to cover the Navy operating near South Island.

Unfortunately, the logistics and maintenance capabilities of the Shen Army were limited, they estimated it would take at least two days to repair the two least damaged airports — Shenwu Zhong was truly afraid that by then, South Island would already be occupied by the Tang Army.

Helpless, although Shenwu Zhong had complaints about the speed of the airport repairs, he could not make them go any faster.

…

“Report! Marshal! The alert destroyers in the southeast have spotted the enemy fleet!” Inside the command bridge, an officer brought the latest intelligence to Bernard.

“Just arrived at Beiyuan 061?” Bernard was startled, he had been searching for Mirage Country’s main fleet, even suspecting that the alert destroyers had overlooked the enemy’s fleet letting them penetrate deep into his alert zone.

But now he realized, Mirage Country’s fleet was still on the outer perimeter of his alert circle… It seemed that the enemy had slowed down and wasn’t moving southward at full speed!

“This is getting interesting… They are scared…” Bernard, who had not been able to completely destroy the Shen Army’s field airports on South Island, keenly sniffed out an opportunity.

“They plan to wait until nightfall… to negate our advantage in carrier-based aircraft, and then battle us!” he said, pressing his hand on the nautical chart and speaking to his chief of staff beside him.

“Very likely.” The chief of staff nodded his head in agreement to Bernard’s analysis.

“Then why not… go big.” Bernard clenched his fist and slammed it on the map: “Anyway, whenever they come, we’ll give them a surprise with the River Styx.”

“I think that’s no problem.” The chief of staff agreed once more: “Even if the Shen Army’s main fleet heads south at high speed, they can’t threaten us now.”

“Then let’s execute Plan Number Two!” Bernard declared resolutely.

——-

Two updates today

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