Munitions Empire

Chapter 425 414 pincer attack from both sides

in fact, the reaction speed of the military of zheng country was much faster than the great tang group had calculated. because... they had telegraph machines!

yes, that's right! zheng country actually had telegraph machines!

as for why they had telegraph machines, it was quite a dramatic story.

zheng country was a nation established on the power of the sea, resembling the taren kingdom in this regard; both placed great emphasis on the development of their navies.

previously, shireck had gone astray with the quixotic design of the ming wheel ship—a type of warship meant to be marketed to recover the initial investment costs for its development.

the buyer they found for the ming wheel ship was none other than zheng country!

among the four great powers of the endless sea, poplar kingdom had been weakened by the great tang group and taren kingdom had also been beaten down at that time. zheng country was so corrupt that it was a power in name only, leaving the navy of zheng country as the only one interested in the ming wheel ship.

the navy of zheng country, with its maritime foundations, was indeed innovative and smart. upon their first sight of the ming wheel warship, which propelled itself without the need for sails, they immediately realized its advanced nature.

steel warships were naturally stronger than sail-powered ones, and when combined with advanced breech-loading cannons, these warships could easily crush wooden sailing ships.

with the addition of power generators and telegraph machines, the new style of warship also held a commanding advantage in communication and command over sail-powered ships—they didn't care whether the power equipment and telegraph machines were pirated versions copied from the shireck consortium!

therefore, after the high-ranking naval officers of zheng country inspected the ming wheel ship, they immediately placed an order for 30 ships.

it was thanks to the higher speed, more robust hull, and more powerful artillery of the ming wheel ships that zheng country inflicted a heavy blow on zheng country's navy in the dongwan island battle and captured this strategic location.

using the pirated telegraph machines to transmit messages became zheng country's "exclusive secret technique," giving them the upper hand to keep zheng country under their thumb.

this time, when the troops of the great tang group landed, the commander of zheng country stationed in dongwan port received the news almost simultaneously with the garrison inside fengshun city.

because the zheng country navy's ming wheel ships stationed in fengshun port immediately used their onboard telegraph machines to send the news in the direction of dongwan.

at the same time, the frontline commanders of the great tang group did not realize that the military presence on dongwan island of zheng country was already quite modernized.

they had 3,000 men equipped with the shireck type 1 new rifles, a secret weapon so exclusive that not even their own military knew about it—shengwu yuan had never seen such weapons, which is why his troops failed to recognize the terrifying sound of the bolt-action rifles.

in addition to radio and wireless equipment, the island also had breech-loading cannons copied and pirated by shireck from the first generation of great tang group's cannons, known as slide-recoil breech cannons.

however, they were in short supply, with only two... yes, only two! because they were still in trial and had not yet been purchased on a large scale!

at this very moment, zheng country's temporary governor of dongwan island, shen wenmao, hurriedly pushed open the heavy door and walked into the grand hall of the city lord's mansion, originally constructed by zheng country in dongwan city.

in terms of the strategic stance, zheng country's superior forces were poised to pincer from both sides, and in terms of mobilization speed, they completely exceeded the imaginations of the great tang group commanders.

however, due to the distance they had to travel, the landing troops did not encounter any problems on the first night; they were still unaware that enemy forces were slowly closing in from both sides. at dawn on the second day, they began a new round of unloading and landing operations.

without a port, forcefully unloading on this kind of beach was incredibly difficult. it was already no small task to get vehicles onto landing craft in itself.

this was also due to the fact that cars from the ancient times were lighter and simpler in structure; otherwise, they would never have been able to board the landing crafts.

with the unloading distance reduced and procedures becoming more practiced, the landing on the second day went very smoothly.

after all, with no enemy harassment and no combat on the beach, more heavy weaponry and equipment quickly landed on dongwan island.

to enhance the troops' mobility, barrels of gasoline were brought to the beach, along with mess trucks and various auxiliary equipment.

the re-armed 2nd company finally found its purpose, as more and more engineers and logistics troops landed and began work, leaving less need for the 2nd company's assistance.

hence, the 2nd company was ordered to advance eastward, to protect the flank and serve as the battle reserve.

the 1st battalion commander's plan was actually quite straightforward: he intended to fight a defensive battle along the road until all the troops had landed.

after annihilating most of the enemy's active forces, they would immediately switch from defense to offense, gathering the 1st and 2nd companies for an all-out push south, to capture fengshun city.

he abandoned the earlier plan of rushing to fengshun city because the landing was too slow, and the previous plan had clearly underestimated the difficulty of landing operations.

therefore, he revised the battle plan on the spot, changing from a rush to capture fengshun city to a local defense. they would wait for the enemy's counterattack, then launch a counteroffensive to seize fengshun city.

once they took that place, the following troops could directly unload at the port, making the efficiency at least ten, if not a hundred times higher.

this approach not only captured the port to address the subsequent difficulties in resupplying but also avoided the troops being attacked from both front and rear.

at night, zheng country's troops couldn't continue to march, and the great tang group's landing speed also dropped to an empathetic level.

both sides spent the night peacefully. on the second day, zheng country's troops continued to advance both south and north, slowly approaching the great tang group's defense line, with the great tang group steadily sending more troops ashore, reinforcing their own defense line.

after the efforts of the 1st battalion and the navy, the 3rd company managed to restore its troop strength to 500 men by the second night.

the 1st company was in the best condition, with nearly 700 men, while the 2nd company still had only 400, as they had been continuously resupplied with weapons, inevitably slowing down personnel transport.

waging war requires flexibility; there's no such thing as a perfect pre-established plan! everything is subject to change, and the outcome remains uncertain.