Munitions Empire

Chapter 550 513 Chemists and Engineers

To control the vast lands, relying on a minority of elite troops would not suffice; ensuring a sufficient number of basic military forces was essential.

The territory of the Great Tang Kingdom was already quite sizable, and 400,000 regular soldiers could not fully control the entire nation.

Moreover, out of these 400,000 regular soldiers, at least about 100,000 were not on the mainland of the Great Tang Kingdom but were deployed overseas.

This meant that the actual military strength of the Great Tang Kingdom was only around 300,000. And these 300,000 people had to be distributed across three defensive lines.

One defensive line was in the north, guarding against Qi Country, the second was in the west, to resist the Dahua Empire, and the last was in the south, targeting Chu Country.

The previous military deployment included roughly two divisions per defensive line, about 40,000 people, which accounted for approximately 120,000 soldiers.

Therefore, the maneuverable forces of the Great Tang Kingdom were left with only eight divisions, four Armored Divisions and four Motorized Infantry Divisions.

To increase the troops and prepare for future wars, the Great Tang Kingdom had to continue to expand its military, forming four new infantry divisions.

The high command structure of these infantry divisions was truly trained and had command experience, but the junior officers and the common soldiers were all newly recruited.

Everything for them had to start from scratch with training, and their equipment was not complete.

The newly formed divisions were generally only equipped with 75mm caliber infantry field guns, and after being issued with a full set of infantry equipment, they were virtually devoid of any heavy weapons.

Even though they were all junior soldiers, these soldiers indeed formed a vast foundation—in the future, with the outbreak of war, these junior soldiers all had the chance to distinguish themselves and get promoted, and there were bound to be Chinese among the future middle and senior officers.

Although reluctant to admit it, the high-ranking commanders of the Tang Army from Brunas were indeed relying on the Chinese, because it was a fact!

And some Chinese, or rather some locals, had already begun to emerge within the military: many educated young people from Dongwan Island, Linshui, and Tongcheng joined the military and became the backbone at the grassroots level.

These educated youngsters, who quickly mastered simple equipment maintenance and usage, soon took on roles as squad leaders and platoon leaders in the military. Many even joined the Armored Corps, becoming electro-mechanical operators or gun commanders.

...

A C47 transport plane wobbled down the runway, jumping slightly before its front wheel left the ground and then slammed back onto the tarmac, dragging along until it finally came to a shaky stop.

The side hatch was pushed open, and a group of travelers from afar, carrying their own luggage, followed one another off the plane.

The airport on Dongwan Island had been particularly busy lately; every day, the busiest air routes of the Great Tang Kingdom were used to transport key personnel and materials here.

To ensure the planes' secrecy, there were no direct flights to the Great Tang mainland for the time being. Nearly all the planes landed at the airport on Dongwan Island and then returned to Dragon Island.

Although countless people had seen the planes flying overhead, no one had really seen what they looked like. Thus, legends about dragons buzzed around, but a legend remained just a legend. Explore more stories at My Virtual Library Empire

Cameras of the time were fairly basic, so on the rare occasion when someone captured an image at sea, the true form of the planes was still indiscernible.

From the photographs, all one could make out was the vague shape of the character "士" flying through the clouds, which didn't prove anything at all.