Munitions Empire

The scene had already become extremely chaotic. General Valen stood at the stern of his warship, beside the helm, watching as the two leading warships began to turn their rudders.

The warship closest to him had seen the signal flags command at the first opportunity and, along with the enormous pressure brought by the enemy ships, had almost no hesitation in turning the rudder to the left, preparing to flee the battlefield.

The warships farther away were already too late to change course as they had been caught up by the Great Tang Group's warships and were under fire.

Several more warships caught fire, and General Valen did not need a telescope to closely observe the colossal seafaring monster with its slender hull.

Such a strong, invincible, and ruthless monster of a warship should have belonged to the Taren Kingdom, General Valen mused silently.

Then, he saw the numerous main cannons on the warship about 1000 meters away, targeting his flagship.

Immediately after, he saw the slender warship's cannons spew flames, and then the deck beneath his feet trembled violently.

He watched as a massive explosion swept away the bow of his warship; the triangular sails and masts at the front broke off together, crashing into the sea ahead.

The cannon on the bow's side was lifted high by the explosion, then, along with the surrounding corpses and deck fragments, plunged into the water, creating a splash.

General Valen was knocked to the ground by the huge vibration, and after struggling to get up, he saw his adjutant with a piece of wooden decking piercing his face, convulsing non-stop not far from him.

Clearly, his adjutant wasn't quite dead yet, but in such a brutal state of combat, no one would think to try to save him.

Valen struggled to his feet; he did not want the remaining soldiers to think he had died in battle. He had to stand at a high point at the stern, visible to all the crew.

"Steady! Steady!" Valen, clutching his longsword, staggered around the increasingly tilting warship, loudly reminding the surrounding soldiers.

Then he saw that the warship, which had fired upon his, rapidly overtook his sailing warship, which had lost most of its speed.

The enemy didn't even bother to fire again, simply accelerating past his damaged flagship, rushing towards the fleeing Taren Kingdom warships in the distance.

Valen wanted to shout for them to come back; he wanted to stop them for a decisive duel to the death.

But he knew that was now a luxury. His warship was seriously damaged, incapable of continuing the fight.

"General! The bow is sinking, we're taking on water!" an officer climbed the stairs in a rush, reaching the stern, and reported loudly.

As he spoke, his gaze inadvertently fell on the body of the dead adjutant on the deck, causing him to involuntarily swallow.

While he was reporting, the gunner of the 75mm caliber cannon on the Brunas-class warship, following closely behind the Wolf 1 Cruiser, saw the enemy flagship, now essentially incapable of sailing, through his scope.

Without any hesitation, this gunner pulled the firing lanyard, unleashing a 75mm caliber shell.

This shell hit the Taren Kingdom fleet's flagship accurately, and the point of impact was precisely where the black gunpowder was stored.

The explosion of the shell ignited the black gunpowder, which then burst into flames violently.

On ordinary days, this powder was stored in barrels; now, for firing, many of the barrels had been opened.

And so it was that the gunpowder in these barrels was ignited, instantly setting fire to various surroundings.

The fire began to spread across the ship, and another 75mm caliber shell smashed into the hull of this huge warship. Discover more stories at

A more ferocious explosion tore off a large section of the hull; sea water poured in crazily, and the whole structure of the sailboat trembled violently, tilting sharply to starboard.

Valen, supporting himself on the railing of the ship, watched his warship capsizing bit by bit with a pale face. He was powerless to stop what was happening and could only watch helplessly as his flagship sunk to the bottom of the sea.

"Commander! Order to abandon ship!" an officer stepped over the body of a sailor and approached Valen with difficulty, pleading, "If we don't abandon ship now, it'll be too late!"

"I will sink with the ship! I am the sinner! I am the sinner of the Taren Kingdom!" Valen wailed, unwilling to accept the reality that the sea battle had ended in a disastrous defeat.

However, his breakdown did not elicit any pity; another 75mm caliber shell flew in, striking right between Valen and the officer who had come to advise him.

Then, the flames that suddenly burst open engulfed both Valen and the officer, and the Taren Kingdom fleet's flagship, which remained in the sea, disintegrated into a pile of scrap wood with the explosion.

...

Brunas, while coordinating the dispatch of supplies to all surrounding kingdoms, took over the telegram from Hotwind Port from Li'ao's hands.

He looked down at the contents of the telegram, furrowed his brows, and turned to the telegraph deliverer, Li'ao, to confirm, "Taren Kingdom's warships... appeared at Hotwind Port?"

Li'ao nodded and answered, "Yes, master. The telegram sent by Bernard is very clear, the sea battle should have broken out by now."

The telegram was sent by Bernard before the battle began, and Bernard had not sent back any more news during the battle.

Tang Mo frowned deeply, staring at the telegram and said with some frustration, "Things are more complicated than we thought."

"Indeed, master!" Li'ao agreed with him.

Then, he continued to comfort Tang Mo, "I'm not worried about Bernard's fleet, nobody can defeat our warships in a naval battle."

Tang Mo placed the telegram aside and said to Li'ao with some concern, "Yes, but that's not what I'm worried about."

"What is it then, my master?" Li'ao continued to ask.

Tang Mo didn't beat around the bush and directly stated his concern, "I'm worried about Dorne. Their expansion has been too rapid, creating a series of social issues that have not been resolved and might be taken advantage of."

"You mean..." Upon hearing Tang Mo mention Dorne, Li'ao also suddenly realized something and murmured.

Tang Mo laid out his analysis directly, "The attack comes from Taren; it's impossible for them to mobilize such a massive fleet northward just because of some speculation about the Battle of Dragon Island. Therefore, this attack on Hotwind Port must have a different reason!"

The timing didn't add up! He was certain that the Dragon Island settlers and transport vessels escorted by Taren's warships, which were led by Housen in their entirety, were annihilated or captured in the Battle of Dragon Island.

So no one could have passed a message to provoke Taren Kingdom into using such a large fleet to seek revenge at Hotwind Port, or to simply stir trouble.

If it's not about revenge, then the opponent's movements are very much worth pondering. Tang Mo let out a cold laugh, feeling that he had already guessed the enemy's thoughts.

Li'ao, being a smart man, caught on at once, and said in realization, "I understand, you're worried that Taren Kingdom didn't come for revenge for the Battle of Dragon Island, but for Dorne?"

Tang Mo nodded, affirming Li'ao's words, "Most likely that's the case, the Shireck Consortium must also be involved, they've joined forces! They're preparing to take action against us in Dorne."

Li'ao was a bit shocked, as the situation in Dorne could become incredibly dangerous if the enemy had prepared to this extent.

After all, with Taren Kingdom's fleet headed north, there lies Xilun Kingdom between Taren Kingdom and Dorne Kingdom... It's likely that this kingdom has also been preparing to make a move against Dorne Kingdom.

With this thought, Li'ao looked at Tang Mo and asked, "Master, if things are really like this, what should we do?"

Tang Mo didn't have a good solution, as he now couldn't divert any more military forces to deal with a new threat.

Therefore, he could only let the people in Dorne handle the string of thorny issues that were about to erupt on their own.

He instructed Li'ao, "Tell everyone in Dorne to be on high alert, and if problems arise, to take action immediately! I think they will run into trouble soon."

"Yes, master, I understand!" Li'ao took note of Tang Mo's orders, bowing his head without immediately leaving the room.

Sure enough, Tang Mo continued talking as though speaking to himself, "Poplar Kingdom has had problems lately, their internal politics are in complete disarray, and Marquis Leibart is at his wits' end, with the potential for unrest breaking out at any moment."

He discussed the various issues that had arisen recently from north to south, and each one was challenging enough on its own, let alone with all these issues bursting forth at once.

Calling this a coincidence would fool no one; the only one who could muster such massive forces and was willing to target the Great Tang Group appeared to be only the Shireck Consortium.

"The relationship between Songmu Kingdom and Poplar Kingdom has always been tense, so the unrest in Poplar Kingdom is also causing them distress, worrying about issues on their own borders at all times, hence they too are mobilizing troops and commanders." As Tang Mo spoke, he looked at the aged Li'ao, "The northeastern border of Suthers Kingdom is under great pressure, Shireck has joined forces with several surrounding kingdoms to press the frontier, and Suthers itself is in a state of internal and external troubles."

"The eastern border conflict of Leite Kingdom continues without a clear winner, leaving us without the possibility to break the stalemate." Having said this, Tang Mo paused for a moment.

Li'ao felt he should remind of the possibility that Bernard might have already achieved a great victory at Hotwind Port, "On the contrary, with the recent Battle of Hotwind Port, we have gained some advantage. Is there a way to utilize that?"

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