Munitions Empire

"Trash! All trash! We finally got a step ahead of the Great Tang Group, and yet those Gobur incompetents squandered it all away!" Sofia, in a fit of shame and anger, hurled an expensive glass imported from Brunas to the floor, where it shattered into sparkling fragments all over.

It seems the wealthy always prefer to vent their emotions by breaking something valuable, as if to assert their status when enraged.

That sense of being able to dominate the existence of all things is addictive, and Sofia seemed no exception to this commonality.

This woman, who had now managed to control two-thirds of Shireck’s real power through her schemes, had her beautiful face distorted with excessive anger at this moment.

She had been calculating and painstakingly managing to produce, in the most covert factories under her highest control, steel tanks that had successfully evaded the intelligence agencies of the Great Tang Group. But they failed to deliver a decisive blow on the battlefield.

In fact, this was a fairly reasonable outcome: in the Battle of Somme, the British troops were the first to deploy tanks, this secret weapon. Although it had some effect, it did not completely break through the German Army’s defenses and failed to achieve the anticipated results.

Shireck, exercising its influence, spared no expense to transport the stockpiled 50 airships and 300 Shireck-version tanks to the frontline. They originally intended to breach Dorne’s defenses, establish contact with Laines, threaten Jade City, and create pressure on the westward-advancing Great Tang Kingdom to distract Tang Mo from further expansion to the west.

But who would have known, as soon as the 50 airships engaged in battle, they were intercepted, clearly indicating that Dorne was well-prepared. This loss nearly wiped out Gobur’s Air Force, leaving it nameless and powerless to continue its offensive.

Even Shireck was affected to some degree: to support the Gobur Kingdom, Shireck had reassigned a group of airship commanders and pilots, resulting in a severe shortage of airship pilots on their side now.

These airship pilots were officers who could read and write and had at least some educational background; each was a technical talent not easy to come by.

For Shireck, losing several hundred airship crew members was painful, but it was far from crippling. At least, Sofia was still training a significant number of similar crew members.

What truly made Sofia uncomfortable was the loss of the "tank" drivers she had painstakingly cultivated and amassed.

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These people fought in tanks as confined as tin cans and required a certain level of mechanical operation ability, which meant they needed separate training.

They were far more expensive than ordinary infantry, and not troublesome to raise. Yet, these crew members had suffered more than 3,000 casualties in Gobur’s assault!

It’s no exaggeration—this accounted for about two-thirds of the tank crews involved in the battle, which was indeed too many.

To train so many talents, Sofia had nearly exhausted all her efforts. However, her highly anticipated thunderous strike had not achieved the effect she had hoped for.

Originally, Sofia planned that, despite the loss of these crew members, she could at least annihilate Dorne, slow down the development of the Great Tang Group on a strategic level, and simultaneously reach out to the disgruntled Laines Empire to form an alliance against the Great Tang Group.

In this way, at least strategically, Sofia could regain the initiative and force Tang Mo to make a strategic choice.

If Tang Mo decided to save the vital Brunas Jade City industrial zone, then the Tang Kingdom would have to move the main forces they painstakingly sent to the western front back to Brunas to hold the position.

The Tang Army traveling back and forth across the Endless Sea, burdened with such an effort, would have to abandon their western front operations, clearly to the advantage of Shireck.

At least Tang Mo wouldn’t be able to target Qi Country, Chu Country, and the Dahua Empire in the short term. Shireck was confident in gaining more time to help these countries build sufficiently modern militaries and set up enough defensive installations along the borders to lay traps and mines for the Great Tang Army.

And if Tang Mo clenched his teeth and chose not to look back at Jade City and Brunas, then Sofia could unite with the Laines Empire and strike from the southeast on two fronts against the Tang forces remaining in Brunas and drive the Tang Army into the sea!

By then, the prime industrial zones of Jade City and Brunas would be in hand, and Shireck’s production capacity would skyrocket to a terrifying extent.

Once this goal was achieved, the allied Gobur and Laines countries would become the strongest military group in the world. No matter how formidable the Tang Army was, they could only sigh across the Endless Sea!

The chance to achieve such a strategic objective was why Sofia was determined to invest so much. Yet, having invested plenty, she did not get what she wanted.

"Now, we must consider the pressure that the Great Tang Kingdom is putting on the Laines Empire. Leines I, isolated and without help, might once again lean towards the Great Tang Group," an earl said from a sofa in the distance, addressing the infuriated Sofia.

After discussing serious matters, she added tenderly, "Getting angry will only put wrinkles on your beautiful face. Don’t ruin such perfection, okay, my dear?"

"I just can’t swallow this anger! I fought for a once-in-a-millennium opportunity for them, yet they failed to seize it! Those idiots! My great undertaking is doomed to be destroyed by these incompetent fools!" Although Sofia still carried a tone of subservience, she had become much more restrained.

Staring at the fragments of glass that glinted like diamonds beneath her feet, she continued with a morose expression, "Now, what shall we do to turn this defeat around?"

"We could launch another fierce attack! We never expected the isolated Leines I to make any significant progress in the North. For the rest, we’ll just have to continue our offensive from the Gobur front line," the Earl answered.

"You mean?" Sofia glanced at the other, seeking confirmation.

"Yes, we can call up troops from all the southern regions, and relying on the increasingly perfected railway network, transport them to Gobur at the fastest speed," the Earl suggested.

"I can’t spare that many shells or tanks in such a short time," Sofia remembered the losses of her tanks and became restless once more.

"We surely can’t just do nothing, can we? That’s what you taught me," the Earl said, her face filled with affection as she looked at Sofia.

"If only they all were as reassuring as you," Sofia stepped forward to the Earl, lifting her chin with her hand.

"Would I still have a place in your bed then?" The Earl narrowed her eyes, like a kitten basking in its owner’s affection.

"Of course, you’re so charming, far better than the others," Sofia said with a smile that conveyed the superior air of someone in command, utterly enthralling the Earl in the process.

"Lady Sofia..." Blushing, the Earl murmured sentimentally, seemingly having forgotten the fierce battlefield in the northern reaches of Gobur.

Sofia, with her arms wrapped around the Earl’s slender waist, had almost regained her composure, "You’re right! We must act now, even if we make mistakes, rather than do nothing! Rush the remaining tanks to Gobur! And also, as you’ve suggested, muster at least 300,000 troops, regardless of the cost, and break through Dorne!"

"Yes, Lady Sofia! Everything... as you wish." The Earl, infatuated, immediately echoed in agreement.

Just then, a maid hurried into the room, bowed respectfully, and reported to Sofia, "My lady, the head maid just brought back a message."

Sofia paused slightly, wondering whether her head maid, whom she had sent to Brunas, was now working for the Great Tang Group or Shireck.

This once-trusted confidant had now become a conduit, a window for communication between Shireck and the Great Tang Group.

As time passed, many rumors had eroded her trust in her former head maid, but she couldn’t bear to be without the intelligence she provided, and thus continued to make use of this unclearly aligned piece on her chessboard.

It was rumored that the head maid had become a little fan girl of Harry, the spokesperson for the Great Tang Group, desperately chasing after him. She had probably already disclosed all she knew about Shireck.

"Give it to me," Sofia was keen to see just how the Great Tang Group would react to their decisive action and all the commotion they had caused in Gobur.

The maid bowed slightly and handed over a piece of telegraph paper. Upon receiving the telegram, Sofia stiffened briefly, then her eyes immediately blazed with rage.

Because this telegram was actually a personal message from Tang Mo, written in a rather teasing tone. This deeply irked Sofia; she could not accept it!

She walked back to her desk and violently slammed the telegram onto it, causing her fiery red hair to tremble with the force of her movement.

The curious Earl, wondering just what the telegram said, walked up behind Sofia and cooed, "My lady... what’s the matter? Is it bad news?"

"In a way, it’s bad news. But... the telegram itself is meaningless!" Sofia stated coldly, "It’s like a boring prank."

The Earl sneaked a glance at the telegram on the desk, widening her eyes in disbelief upon reading its short content.

Because the content of the telegram read: "Your new weaponry is not bad, but I prefer to call the same type of weapon ’tanks’. I don’t like the word ’war chariot’; don’t use it wrong next time, okay?"

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