Munitions Empire-Chapter 1033 - 955 Battle among the Three Armies

Chapter 1033: 955 Battle among the Three Armies

Since the establishment of the various military branches, the competition between them has never ceased. The Army wants more soldiers and tanks; the Navy desires more warships; the Air Force craves more airplanes…

Everyone hopes to be the decisive force on the battlefield, the pillar that supports the nation’s fate.

As for national defense, countries tend to prioritize their military developments based on geography, among other factors. Island nations prioritize their navies, while continental countries maintain a tradition of ground forces.

Speaking of the Navy, as long as a country has its own coastline, the navy is undoubtedly a branch that should be developed. It’s evident that even nations without coastlines maintain navies.

Moreover, nations around the world now trade with the Great Tang Empire to some extent, making the sea routes of the Endless Sea busier than in the past 10,000 years combined.

Cargo ships of steel, designed by the Great Tang Group in the form of the Freedom Wheelers, started traversing these routes regardless of monsoons or currents, multiplying the transport scale of the Endless Sea by hundreds or even thousands of times!

Due to increased speed and the assurance of stability in navigation, the importance of maritime routes has increased unprecedentedly, and nearly every capable country has built significant naval forces.

Traditional naval powers like the Poplar Empire, Mirage Country, Dorne (inheritor of Winterless Port), and the emerging naval power Laines Empire all boast massive fleets.

These nations have at least ten battleships each, with innumerable cruisers and destroyers; some possess hundreds of warships, far surpassing anything from the past.

The Army needs no introduction, being the traditional backbone of every great power: the leading empires of the world now have standing forces of hundreds of thousands and the ability to mobilize millions of troops.

These troops are not the quantity-over-quality kinds of the past but elite forces formed in the image of the Great Tang Empire’s Army.

While still lagging behind the Great Tang Empire’s Army, these forces have made significant strides compared to their own pasts.

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Most of these troops are at a World War I level, equipped with plenty of artillery, and soldiers clad in steel helmets and wielding rifles with bayonets—their combat effectiveness is commendable.

Additionally, these countries have a plethora of vehicles, enabling them to mechanize their elite forces, a step ahead of World War I technology.

Furthermore, equipped with various models of tanks, boasting several or even dozens of armored divisions, their tanks generally match the performance levels of the early World War II era, and their offensive capabilities are astounding.

With the development of the Air Force, countries around the world have begun to pay significant attention to it, given that the Air Force represents a swift method of attack from any direction.

No one wants to be on the receiving end in a war, so the more responsive and direct Air Force has caught the eyes of many military theorists.

The Great Tang Empire’s Air Force played a pivotal role in several of their wars abroad, prompting nations worldwide to explore theories on achieving victory through air power.

Deploying hundreds or thousands of planes to devastate the enemy’s rear, and cripple industrial capabilities has become the main direction of study in the large-scale Air Force theory.

As bombers from the Great Tang Empire began to enter service worldwide, the aerial offensive capability of these countries was enhanced like never before, and the large-scale Air Force theory became a buzzword.

In reality, this theory was born long ago, based initially on the airships sold by the Tang Group.

After acquiring airships, many countries began theorizing about aerial raids to crush enemy will, laying the foundation for the large-scale Air Force theory.

However, the theory at that time was too immature; airships as the implementers of bombings could not satisfy the demands of the Air Force.

Thus, the large-scale Air Force theory of that period was still incomplete, resembling more of a wishful thinking than a practical theory.

But as nations equipped their forces with advanced performance biplane bombers, the theory was revisited and seemed to find a solid basis.

Later on, as countries began to commission the “medium bombers” sold to them by the Great Tang Empire, the prophets who had been crying out for a large-scale Air Force theory finally saw the dawn of victory.

Twin-engine bombers capable of flying over 500 kilometers at high speeds provided the Air Force with a much greater offensive capability.

These planes had some self-defense capacity in the sky, making them difficult to intercept while also being able to carry more bombs than before… With such performance, the confidence of the various nations’ Air Forces indeed soared.

If one could concentrate and deploy hundreds of such bombers at once, under the protection of fighter jets, it would be easy to lay waste to a city.

Just a continuous military campaign of over ten days will paralyze the large cities deep within the enemy’s territory, devastate the industry, and weaken the war potential.

Coupled with the Army’s tank assault tactics, a smaller price can be paid to gain an advantage in the early stages of the war. Around the question of which of the three military branches is stronger or weaker, military theorists from various countries have engaged in fierce debates.

Of course, the Great Tang Empire is an exception…

The Army of the Great Tang Empire is strong, recognized as the strongest in the world, and some newspapers and publications around the world often rank the world’s land forces with the Great Tang Empire Army invariably at the undisputed top.

However, there is controversy over who comes second. Some think that the Ice Cold Empire with the largest army size is the world’s second, while others believe that the Poplar Empire with its well-equipped forces is.

Some also think that the Laines Empire and Dorne Empire, with their considerable potential, should be ranked second… Before the civil war in the Dahua Empire, it was also often referred to as the second.

Then there’s the Air Force of the Great Tang Empire… That’s even less controversial. Just by looking at the Butcher Fighter Jets and Flying Fortress Bombers currently equipped by the Datang Empire Air Force, they are already ahead of other countries’ air forces.

Not to mention that the Great Tang Empire Air Force is also equipped with the Stuka and Yir Attack Aircraft that no other country has.

Other countries don’t even know yet that the Great Tang Empire has also equipped the JU-88 night fighter, and an even more powerful type 6 fighter.

The debate over the Navy is rather significant since the whole world is not very clear about the Great Tang Empire’s equipping of new types of warships like Aircraft Carriers, so there is no concrete concept of the Navy’s strength.

Compared to the Great Tang Empire Air Force, which truly swung battles, and the land forces that have meritorious achievements of territorial expansion, obviously the Navy of the Great Tang Empire has been much more low-key.

Other nations’ navies cannot get close to Dragon Island, so they can only collect various data about the Great Tang Empire’s naval warships through close photography.

So everyone knows that the Great Tang Empire has Destroyers and Cruisers, but exactly how many Beiyuan-class Battleships (Bismarck) they have is unclear.

Everyone only knows that in the past few years, the Great Tang Empire has sold all of its first-generation Battleships (Dongwan-class), so it is speculated that the Great Tang Empire has at least more than five Beiyuan-class Battleships.

In reality, the Great Tang Empire only has two Beiyuan-class Battleships, which serve as the flagships of the first and second carrier fleets respectively.

There’s no choice, compared to aircraft carriers, battleships have larger internal spaces, and their huge bridges make it easier to install electronic equipment. Compared to aircraft carriers, deeper-draft battleships are also more stable and comfortable while sailing at sea.

These are all excuses; in reality, it’s simply that sleeping behind 300mm thick steel plates gives commanders and staff a greater sense of security…

From here, it can be seen that all branches of the military in the Great Tang Empire are strong, and there’s no need for any debate. With the Great Tang Empire’s sufficient military budget, there’s no need to worry about which branch to prioritize for development.

But who is ever truly content? Although each military branch is already the strongest in the world, commanders of all branches are still not satisfied with their current state.

The Army is looking forward to phasing out a large number of old tanks and equipping the powerfully formidable Type 59 tanks; the Navy is eagerly anticipating the arrival of jet aircraft to take their turn in command; the Air Force is even more anxious, hoping to equip more type 6 fighters and dreaming of replacing all their Flying Fortresses with jet bombers.

The Army hopes to equip more helicopters to improve their response speed; the Navy wants to expand the Navy Marine Corps to enhance their landing capabilities; the Air Force loves money like life itself, with just their hoped-for in-flight refueling experiments being major money-burning projects.

Thus, the competition among the Great Tang’s military branches is still intense, and rightfully so: whoever wins receives the largest share of the budget, ensuring defense modernization by the next year!

And the debate between theories of great land forces, great air forces, and great naval forces will continue endlessly, because in the world Tang Mo came from before he crossed over, such debates were still ongoing.

Originally, with the victory of the Lighthouse Country in the Iraq War, the great air force theory had long prevailed, but with the outbreak of the Russia war, armies once again gained the attention of nations.

The Lighthouse Country’s tactic of relying solely on bombing by planes seemed not to be so effective anymore. If the Army can’t win and loses the land, that’s a real loss, and public opinion will crush you.

The former firm practitioner of the great land forces theory, Russia, seemed to have fallen, but the Rabbit, also following the great land forces theory, still firmly believes in its correctness. It’s just that the Rabbit is a bit special—its Air Force is increasingly becoming “great.”

Therefore, in the foreseeable future, the competition between branches of the military will persist and may even intensify. The Great Tang Empire will also continue to grow its three military branches, maintaining a lead over the entire world.

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