Munitions Empire

In the King City of Qi Country, King Jiang Xian was holding a military meeting with a military advisor from Shireck and the generals who stayed behind, discussing how to continue sending reinforcements to the front line to ensure an impregnable defense.

"Your Majesty, the most dangerous situation is with the Third Prince. His troops are the least equipped, so we should prioritize providing reinforcements to the Third Prince,” a veteran general reminded his king with a worried expression.

"The veteran general’s suggestion is sensible. Although the Third Prince’s defense line is near the border of the Dahua Empire, it’s quite possible that the Tang Army might indeed venture out from there the advisor from Shireck agreed, nodding his head.

"Tomorrow, new supplies from Shireck will arrive at the port. I will immediately allocate the supplies to reinforce the Third Prince,” King Jiang Xian, seeing everyone’s agreement about aiding the Third Prince, readily consented.

As everyone was discussing, a servant rushed into the meeting room, and before Jiang Xian could reprimand him, he handed a telegram to Jiang Xian, “Your Majesty, an urgent telegram from the First Prince requesting presentation to Your Majesty immediately

Jiang Xian’s face darkened as he snatched the telegram and skimmed through it, his expression suddenly turning panicky, “What does this mean? What is he talking about?”

The advisor from Shireck cast a puzzled look at the telegram in Jiang Xian’s hand, which shockingly stated, “Some extremely fast flying objects are heading for King City. I hope father can prepare in advance and take cover immediately.”

No wonder Jiang Xian was here asking what it meant; the device mentioned in the telegram was too bizarre that even this military advisor from Shireck couldn’t comprehend the true implication.

What do “extremely fast flying objects” mean? Are they airships that fly very quickly? Even if airships could fly fast, how fast could they go?

Besides, if it were airships, intercepting them would be the solution. What then, was the point of sending such a cryptic telegram? Wait! That’s not right! The telegram didn’t mention airships, but ‘flying objects’! If they were airships, the First Prince would surely recognize them and would have directly said airships. Why emphasize ‘flying objects’?

With this realization, the advisor from Shireck suddenly understood! The Tang Army must have introduced some new type of weaponry that flew at such high speeds they couldn’t be intercepted, prompting the First Prince to send this alarming telegram.

But how fast is “extremely fast”? This fast? That fast? Or so fast? Is this testing my imagination or my comprehension skill?

The advisor from Shireck felt as if his head was swelling, and at that moment, a Qi Country general took the telegram from King Jiang Xian’s hands and began to analyze it carefully.

Almost guessing the same as the advisor from Shireck, this veteran general from Qi Country also roughly understood the meaning behind the First Prince’s telegram.

Only to hear the veteran general say to Jiang Xian, “Your Majesty! This matter is grave! If this old servant’s judgment is correct, we should immediately seek refuge outside the city

Because there was no way to calculate the speed of B-17 bombers, the telegram simply used the vague adjective “extremely fast,” leaving Jiang Xian and others unable to determine the exact timing of the enemy attack.

What they didn’t know was that when these B-17 bombers flew over the First Prince’s head toward King City, they were less than two hours away from Qi Country’s King City.

To be precise, it was less than an hour and a half! While this lengthy duration might have allowed civilian evacuation, Jiang Xian and his group were unaware of it. ʀãℕÖʙƐş

They didn’t know when the enemy would arrive or what destructive power the incoming enemy had, so their reaction was quite sluggish.

To ensure Jiang Xian’s absolute safety, both the royal family and the advisor team from Shireck began their evacuation. They had quite a few cars and, at worst, carriages for transportation. Plus, since they hadn’t evacuated the civilians in time, there was no congestion, allowing these individuals to quickly reach a manor outside the city that had been prepared in advance.

Next, everyone in the manor, which offered a view of King City amidst the woods, waited quietly yet with some tension for the arrival of these extremely fast flying objects.

About 40 minutes later, the B-17 bombers that had flown over the First Prince’s head appeared in everyone’s line of sight.

The faces of the Shireck advisor group turned unsightly at once, for they certainly knew how far King City of Qi Country was from the border. These flying objects that could cross over 800 kilometers in less than two hours were terrifyingly more advanced than airships.

What they didn’t know at that moment was that even more shocking events were to follow. Under their gaze, those B-17 bombers, having come from afar, began to lower their altitude and roared past Qi Country’s King City.

Onboard the shaky B-17 bombers, the pilot was reminding the bombardier that they had arrived over the target.

As there were no enemy fighters to defend against, the first batch of B-17 bombers manufactured by Tang Mo didn’t have any self-defense weaponry installed. All gun stations on the fuselage were just reserved for weapon installation and did not equip any weapons or operators.

Thus, the B-17 bombers could carry more bombs while eliminating the need for many gun operators.

As the aircraft swept past the city, the turbulent airflow caused the plane to quiver slightly. The bomb bay doors were already open, and the bombardier, sighting through the bombsight, spotted smoke rising from the chimneys of suburban factories.

"Perfect!” the bombardier pressed the bomb release button, and a bomb detached from its rack and plunged rapidly toward the ground.

Following closely was the second bomb, the third bomb… The aircraft behind this one weren’t idle either, it too dropped a series of bombs without hesitation.

Because of this era’s grotesquely uneven development, there were too many houses built of wood or simply stacked stone, so the B-17s carried small aerial bombs, allowing them to carry an abnormally high quantity of explosives.

These small bombs, like raindrops, detached from the planes, one after another, scattering across the sky to create a dazzling trail of light wherever the aircraft passed.

"I’m following you! Drop the bombs! Drop the bombs!” declared the bombardier excitedly on the trailing plane, peering through the bombsight at the dense buildings below.

"I’m starting to drop bombs! I’m starting to drop bombs!” Another bombardier in the formation pressed the bomb release button.

Accompanied by the shouts over the radio, the bomb bay doors of the B-17 bomber opened as it swept across the city, scattering all the bombs it carried.

The explosions, one after another, covered the suburban factories, spreading continuously from these buildings up to the walls of King City, then beyond the walls to the wealthy district inside, only stopping when they reached the Royal Palace.

Then, the planes, one by one, slowly climbed higher, crossing the entire city before turning around at a higher altitude to fly back the way they came—slowly and steadily.

The planes arrived quickly and departed just as swiftly, like a gust of wind that vanished in the blink of an eye. If not for King City still ablaze and erupting with explosions, one might have thought everything that just happened was nothing but a dream.

Even from this distance, Jiang Xian could feel the earth trembling beneath his feet, seeing the golden spires of his own Royal Palace collapsing in the blasts, his favorite gardens being devoured by the fires of the explosions.

Of course, he also saw the mansions of his ministers crumbling in the explosions. He saw his own city walls of King City being blasted with gaping holes.

What made him feel as if he was choking on blood was the fact that his hard-earned ammunition factory, the military factory capable of producing Shireck Type 1 rifles, and the workshops capable of assembling cannons had all been reduced to nothing by the blasts!

Jiang Xian could even feel his heart bleeding. His entire King City was smoking! His King City was burning! Exploding! Collapsing! Becoming… unrecognizable!

This was only the first official day of the war! Just three hours ago, he had only just received a telegram from the front lines, the telegram announcing the Tang Army’s initial attack!

And yet now, his Royal Palace had been bombed! His military factories deep within his territory had been bombed! He, himself, had almost been bombed!

He looked at the Shireck advisors next to him with rage in his eyes. His gaze said it all without words—why didn’t you tell me about such powerful weapons?

The Shireck advisors also wore bitter expressions. They too were unaware that the Great Tang Kingdom had quietly developed such a terrifying weapon of war in just over a year!

"Hurry and get production back up!” Jiang Xian managed to say, suppressing the fury in his heart after a long struggle.

Almost immediately after, Jiang Xian realized a grave problem: he was helpless against these “incredibly fast aircraft” that came without a trace and disappeared just as quickly.

The anti-aircraft guns he had prepared for defense against airships, which could only target fixed objects, were so powerless against these planes.

Just now, there were only a couple booms from the anti-aircraft guns on the ground at the very beginning. After that, only the performance of the bombers remained, leaving the ground anti-aircraft guns collectively silenced.

If these planes came again tomorrow, what was he to do? If they came the day after tomorrow, what then…?

"Think of something… Quickly… Think of something Jiang Xian, feeling powerless, turned to look at the embarrassed Shireck advisors again, his voice weak and almost pleading as he muttered over and over.

He had no good solution. Now, the only thing he could think of was to hope that these Shireck advisors had some kind of countermeasure.

But at this moment, even the advisors from Shireck were at a loss, lacking even the courage to speak.

With that, the first wave of attacks by the Tang Air Force was complete. The tactical air force had destroyed most of the enemy’s supply points and heavy artillery positions in the front lines, while the strategic air force attacked the Qi Country King City, decimating the industrial district of the Royal City.

The results were glorious.

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