Munitions Empire

"You're saying that my entire fleet has been annihilated!? You want to tell me that all of my 70 warships... first-grade warships! Have all sunk!?" The King of the Taren Kingdom sat on his throne, shattering the glass in his hand on the floor.

The grand hall wasn't particularly glittering with gold, nor were the Kings of Taren known for their extravagance. They seldom renovated their palace because they invested a significant portion of their income into fostering their fleet.

Therefore, the number of warships in the Taren Kingdom was very high. In addition to first-grade warships, there were hundreds of second-grade warships and armed merchant ships to secure their trade routes.

The King who had just spoken now stood up in anger, walked up to his Prime Minister, and asked furiously, "Those were 70 warships! 70 warships! Those ships were enough to destroy a kingdom! Yet you tell me they've all gone... all sunk! Have you gone mad, or are you a fool?

Hmm?"

"Your Majesty! The situation is likely as such! Our fleeing soldiers have brought back some prisoners who were sent back by the enemy, which has confirmed they indeed belonged to our fleet," said the Prime Minister, his face also looking dreadful, but he had no choice but to speak up. Experience more on

Although unwilling to accept reality, he knew that if they didn't immediately think of countermeasures, this kingdom built upon the sea was quite doomed.

As a Prime Minister, he certainly did not wish to see his king taken prisoner, nor did he want to witness the destruction of the kingdom he served. Therefore, he had to do his utmost to help this madman before him overcome the crisis.

"Your Majesty! Now that it has come to this, we must think of a way to face the crisis at hand," a navy General could not help but speak up at this point as well.

The surrounding Ministers were buzzing with discussion, as they too had just learned of the news that the fleet that had sailed out had been completely sunk.

Those were 70 warships! Almost the entire wealth of the Taren Kingdom. Such a loss was not easily borne.

The King's face remained unpleasant as he looked at the speaking navy commander and questioned loudly, "What can be done? What can you do? Hmm?"

"We, we need to, need to, replenish, replenish warships! More warships!" the navy commander answered nervously.

His answer was not satisfying as those warships had been sunk, and hastily launching a few new ones wouldn't change anything.

The disparity in the strength of the two sides was too great, the enemy's quality advantage could not be compensated with a numerical advantage, which was the most fatal issue.

It was obvious that the Great Tang Group had very formidable new warships, which was also a definite piece of information obtained from the prisoners sent back.

These prisoners had all experienced that naval battle, and their memories of the enemy's terror were fresh. They brought back very important news, news about ironclad warships.

The Great Tang Group's possession of steel-made warships was no longer a secret; after all, the captured sailors had witnessed those powerful ships themselves.

They were interrogated separately, yet provided almost identical intelligence: the enemy ironclad warships could fire at ease from a distance of 1000 meters, sinking sail warships.

This message was also corroborated by the land forces: during the attack on Hotwind Port, they faced unprecedented shelling, with the enemy using very powerful cannonballs, even more powerful than those provided by Shireck.

Arming warships with such cannonballs clearly meant that ordinary sail ships could not withstand them, so it was easy to understand why those sail warships were sunk.

Thinking of the cannonballs presented yet another insoluble problem: traditional wooden warships simply couldn't withstand such attacks no matter what.

Too fragile in defense, this made the expensive sail warships lose their purpose. The only path to reinforced defense was to find a way to thicken the hull to withstand cannonball attacks.

But this led to another problem: thickening the hull and covering it with steel would further increase the ship's own weight, slowing down the already sluggish speed of the warships.

Losing speed, these "turtle shells" would become even harder to maneuver, which also meant they would be more challenging to deploy, and fleet coordination would become even worse—this was completely adding insult to injury.

"The intelligence brought back by those prisoners sent back is truly shocking; I even feel that it's a kind of bluff by the enemy..." At this moment, a Minister spoke up with a pretense of depth, sharing his thoughts.

"A bluff? Are you saying they didn't annihilate Valen's fleet? Or are you suggesting that our defeat on land is a lie?" Another Minister scoffed, speaking sarcastically.

These two usually had differing political views, so their arguing at this time was not at all surprising.

The Prime Minister glanced at the two quarreling men, sighed, and advised the King standing before him, "Your Majesty! It is very certain that the enemy possesses a formidable navy. We must now carefully consider how to respond if the enemy's warships sail south."

Hearing the Prime Minister ask about countermeasures, the navy commander who had just spoken said worriedly, "If the enemy blockades us... that would be dangerous."

A Minister in charge of food supply was startled and immediately spoke up loudly, "Our grain here... it all has to come by sea..."

"The food supply should last us a while, but I'm worried about the collapse of trade," said the Minister in charge of trade, his face pale as he lamented with a hint of a cry.

There was no way around it; for the Taren Kingdom, which heavily depended on maritime transport and trade, the loss would be unimaginable if their transport routes were cut off and their ports blockaded.

Thus, he was already in despair, explaining to everyone with a mask of agony, "At most seven or eight days, without our trade routes, we will collapse."

The King too was very concerned about this actually happening; if his trade was destroyed, what could he use to revive his navy fleet and recover the collapsed army?

When money and food were needed everywhere, and these things were suddenly all gone, this truly was a devastating blow to the King of the Taren Kingdom.

And standing by his other side, the Minister in charge of food supplies, also didn't forget to twist the knife further in the King's wound, "Is the food supply really enough? Without maritime resupply... that's also very dangerous."

"Speaking of which, if they have such a powerful fleet, then why didn't they sail south earlier and attack us..." It was then that someone finally remembered another issue: If the Great Tang Group's fleet was so powerful, why didn't they just come and attack directly?

The naval commander thought for a long time, coming up with only one uncertain possibility, "Perhaps the enemy was afraid that we would stage a sneak attack on Hotwind Port..."

Indeed, he had guessed correctly; Tang Mo was worried about Hotwind Port having issues, which was why he had the fleet stationed there, ready to act.

However, the senior officials of the Taren Kingdom were unaware of this, and they immediately imagined the enemy fleet's presence at Hotwind Port as the enemy commander's prescient decision-making.

Thinking along these lines, these decision-makers of the Taren Kingdom found it even harder to comprehend the speed of Great Tang Group's information dissemination.

"Hiss... Did the enemy know we were going to Hotwind Port?" One Minister asked incredulously, looking towards his colleague.

The colleague spread his hands and shook his head, "It must be an intelligence leak! Such a large-scale operation, it's impossible to keep completely secret."

Mobilizing troops, assembling the fleet; if the enemy really had spies within Taren, they would definitely transmit information ahead of time... The question was, how did they manage to deliver intelligence so swiftly?

"But the enemy's preparation is too thorough, right?" The official who raised the question was somewhat resentful as he asked again.

"It's very likely that Shireck had launched an offensive in another direction first, raising their alert!" another Minister explained.

"And the enemy could actually halt their own fleet at any time?" This time it was the naval commander's turn to be incredulous.

The Prime Minister's face darkened as he snapped, pulling the discussion back on track, "What's the use of talking about this now?"

The King too was restless and anxious, looking at his Ministers and repeating the Prime Minister's words, "Yes, what's the use of talking about this now? What are the solutions? Speak solutions!"

"Gather, gather the remaining fleet?" one Minister proposed.

The naval commander shook his head and said, "Gathering all of our warships now may not even add up to 150."

"There are still that many warships; should be enough to put up a fight, right?" The Minister seemed somewhat reassured after hearing the number.

The naval general looked at this Minister as if he were looking at an idiot before responding sarcastically, "Are you joking? Do you know how many islands we need to defend, how many ports we must protect?"

"Then speak! Apart from those we can't mobilize, how many warships can we gather?" the Minister retorted defiantly.

The naval commander thought for a few seconds before giving a despair-inducing answer, "Of these remaining warships, we may not have even 30 that we can gather."

The officer continued with a complaint, "The fleet that General Valen took with him was pretty much all of our mobile strength."

"That damned bastard Valen, couldn't he have run if he couldn't win?" Suddenly, some Ministers, who didn't understand naval warfare, started berating the now dead naval General Valen.

Since the dead cannot argue back, whatever they said now could be refuted by others, but cursing that damned Valen wouldn't be questioned by everyone.

Of course, they had already forgotten that General Valen had once been a famous and formidable admiral at sea. They also forgot that Valen had led the fleet to a small-scale naval victory before, seizing a small island from another kingdom.

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