Munitions Empire

Of course, Shenwu Yuan wasn’t idle either. He had his subordinates restore order to his supply troops, tally the losses, and had his artillerymen reload the cannons, making ready for another round of battle.

Unfortunately, the rate of fire of the muzzle-loading cannon was indeed heartbreakingly slow, and the losses in the rear were severe, the chaos significant, so these tasks wasted a considerable amount of time for the Shenwu military.

By the time Shenwu Yuan was ready again, his current strength no longer held any clear advantage.

He didn’t know that the troops in front of him had grown from over 400 to nearly 600, nor was he aware that the enemy’s firepower had more than doubled!

With the addition of a second machine gun, troops from the Great Tang Group could be said to be invincible. The attacks of the Shenwu military were simply suicide and posed no substantial threat.

Now, the only thing that could pose trouble for the Great Tang Group was the handful of Shireck muzzle-loading cannons that Shenwu Yuan held in his grasp.

But this threat was clearly not going to last for long—sooner or later, a telegraph would land ashore, and as soon as contact with the fleet was established, Shenwu Yuan’s artillery positions were sure to be lost.

Nevertheless, Shenwu Yuan had some reliance. Early on, he had sent out messengers calling for help. The Shenwu allied forces stationed further away were expected to arrive within a few hours to reinforce.

As long as the reinforcements arrived, Shenwu Yuan was confident he could launch another attack and drive this sinister enemy into the sea!

As for the enemy at sea, they could be left to those bastards in the Navy to deal with. After all, Shenwu’s Navy was the mightiest in the world. Annoying as it was, they had the strength.

When the Navy’s fleet arrived, it would be possible to crush the enemy at hand. It was common knowledge for the Shenwu military that their Navy had never been defeated since becoming one of the four powers of the Endless Sea!

In the past, the Navy of Zheng Country, nearly equal in strength, had been so battered by defeats that they dared not even leave their naval port.

The fleets of the Poplar Kingdom and Taren Kingdom in the western part of the Endless Sea could only whimper under the domination of Shenwu’s Navy!

So, Shenwu Yuan never considered the possibility of defeat. He was thinking about how to possibly tie down these landed enemies and ensnare them in one fell swoop!

This was far more interesting than hunting down Zheng Country’s remnants in the mountains, and it would also add a considerable feat to his military exploits.

"Form ranks! Prepare to attack!" Finally, after half a day without a new barrage from the enemy, Shenwu Yuan could not hold back any longer.

He speculated that although the enemy’s cannons were formidable, they were cumbersome to load and ridiculously slow-firing—wasn’t this in line with objective laws? If a powerful weapon had no flaws, wouldn’t that truly be unreasonable?

Since the enemy’s weapons had flaws in the rate of fire, exploiting this became the preferred strategy for Shenwu Yuan’s attack.

At one point, he even thought that the enemy’s weapons were of the kind with tremendous power but required a long time to prepare.

Therefore, he continued to speculate whether he could survive the enemy’s relentless firepower and wait until they ran out of bullets, then charge in and crush the opposition!

And so, he commanded his troops to launch another attack, and after a barrage of cannon fire, another battalion of Shenwu soldiers, wielding flintlock rifles, crossed the shrubbery and charged toward the sands where the Great Tang Group troops had landed.

On the beach, the 1st Company commander excitedly watched the signalman unwrap the waterproof oil paper and begin to piece together the scattered parts.

Because of its size, the pedal generator had by this point been modified to a hand-crank version. To ensure stable power generation, it typically required three soldiers to operate the generator simultaneously, maintaining power supply for the telegraph machine.

There was, in fact, an even simpler and more convenient method—connecting the telegraph directly to an automobile, which was Great Tang Group’s latest technology.

Remember the Rolls-Royce at the exposition, the one fitted with a battery and radio? Since it could power a radio, it could also power a telegraph; there was no difference.

As a newly born technology, it was naturally first applied to the military field. With the advent of the battery, the supply of electricity to the troops became much more convenient.

Unfortunately, the first automobile to land had become waterlogged, laying paralyzed in the sea until now, unheeded, so the telegraph machine had to be powered by the hand-crank generator for the time being.

Finally, almost two hours after initiating the landing, the troops of the Great Tang Group on the beach had established contact with their fleet behind them.

Just as the 1st Company commander was excitedly preparing to call in fire support, the enemy’s second charge began.

Solid cannonballs once again fell onto the beach, still wildly inaccurate, but looking very intimidating. Explore more adventures at empire

The iron balls smashed into the sand, bounced up, and shattered a landing boat that had yet to be pushed back into the sea.

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The shell pierced directly through the boat’s hull, leaving a gaping hole. Wood splintered violently, injuring two sailors, though their lives were not in danger.

Soon after, gunfire intensified from the flanks as a group of Shenwu soldiers burst out of the bushes, only to be met head-on by a barrage of fire from submachine guns wielded by Great Tang Group soldiers.

The two sides’ firepower was not at all on the same level, and although the Shenwu soldiers were brave, they could only hold on for a few seconds under the bullet rain.

More and more Great Tang Group security forces were landing ashore, and their firepower naturally became even more fierce. The submachine guns designated for squad leaders were nimble and adaptable, serving as a more reliable pillar of firepower than the Maxim heavy machine guns.

Under the support of rifles, this charge of Shenwu soldiers was repelled back to their starting point by bullets before they even reached half the distance of their first charge.

It couldn’t be helped—the Shenwu soldiers had taken advantage of the Great Tang Group’s unpreparedness during their first assault, and had faced the lightly armed Second Battalion, which allowed them a momentary upper hand.

But this time, standing in their way were troops from the First and Third Battalions, all proper infantry. Of course, the Shenwu forces stood no chance at all.

They didn’t even get a clear view of the enemy who had driven them back, much less fire a few shots, before they were routed.

"Dammit! What the hell happened? How could you run back so quickly?" Shenwu Yuan, mounted on his horse and furious with shame, glared at his subordinate officers and scolded, "This is preposterous! You’ve disgraced the face of Shenwu’s brave warriors!"

"Sir... the enemy’s weapons are tricky, we were shot before we could even return fire!" The Shenwu officer who had led the charge pleaded with a crestfallen face.

As a joke, if the French troops in Verdun in 1916 couldn’t manage a frontal assault on machine-gun positions, how could the goblins of Shenwu with their flintlock rifles? It must be remembered that the French military of that year still had courage and hadn’t yet learned their signature military salute...

After leaving behind more than a hundred corpses, this charge ended in utter confusion. Unlike the previous one, the Shenwu soldiers didn’t even see the beach, nor did they kill a single soldier from the Great Tang Group.

Seeing his offensive falter more with each attempt, the Shenwu Yuan was frantic with anxiety. He had no idea when the enemy might launch another terrifying artillery attack on his troops, so he had to grit his teeth and press another attack.

After all, he believed that reinforcements were bound to arrive. As long as he could pin down the enemy on the beach, victory would belong to Shenwu.

"Charge again! No retreat!" Shenwu Yuan stared down from his horse at the officer below and issued a death command, "The Third Battalion will follow up! All forces advance! Retreaters will be executed!"

He pointed his commanding saber forward and roared with fearsome intensity, "Attack!"

As if responding to his command, that sharp, air-tearing screech appeared once again, shattering all of Shenwu Yuan’s illusions.

The naval artillery bombardment from the Great Tang Group began anew. Sudden wailing sounds cleared away all the other noisy clamor, and in the moment of silence that followed, horrific explosions erupted among the crowd.

In an instant, the Shenwu army was thrown into chaos, limbs and body parts hurtling through the air, cries and screams intermingled, adorning the hellish scene before them.

The Shenwu army that was preparing to charge had barely assembled. Although not in neat formation, they had taken no defensive measures.

Caught off guard by the sudden artillery attack, the inexperienced Shenwu soldiers suffered heavy casualties and were thrown into total disarray.

On the smoke-filled battlefield, Shenwu Yuan staggered to his feet from behind his fallen horse. He could no longer hear anything aside from a persistent buzzing in his ears.

He watched as one of his subordinates, face bloodied, approached him, and he also saw beside a stack of bodies, some people sitting motionless on the ground.

Everything had happened so quickly and so unexpectedly. Just a moment ago, Shenwu Yuan was contemplating an assault, but now his mind was filled with the sole thought of fleeing this cursed place.

Almost instinctively, Shenwu Yuan shoved the blood-covered figure before him aside and began to stagger away, heading in the direction away from the battlefield.

In his desperation to escape, he ignored the searing pain on his face, didn’t bother looking for his lost sword, and didn’t even consider his subordinates.

Time blurred, and another round of artillery fire landed near the Shenwu troops. The dense barrage claimed countless lives, and it also caused Shenwu Yuan’s forces to completely crumble.

The remaining Shenwu forces scattered like headless flies, completely lacking in discipline. Anyone who could still walk was like Shenwu Yuan, not looking back as they fled into the distance.

On the beach, the battalion commander—oblivious to the collapse of the Shenwu army—stood by the telegraph machine, taking pleasure in the screech of shells flying overhead, and ordered, "Fire another volley! It’s too exhilarating! Heh heh heh."

The signalman glanced at his superior officer and could only shake his head and continue his task. While sending the telegraph, he internally scoffed, "You laugh so lewdly; does the regimental commander know about this?"

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