In the past six months, the Great Tang Empire has been busy building water plants, power plants, and various factories, but it hasn’t been busy gathering troops to prepare for a cross-sea landing.
Emperor Tang Mo is concerned with issues of food and wine, worried about how many new cinemas have been built nationwide, and cares about the newly ford eight football clubs, yet shows no concern for the situation on the Eastern Continent.
Even Pri Minister Roger has gone to the Shu Territory to personally inquire about agricultural production, Vice Premier Chu Muzhou has recently been inspecting work in the Fengjiang area, and the Empire’s Chief of Staff Luff is organizing the Central Region’s defense troop mobilization in Yongping... so many prominent figures, yet hardly anyone is inquiring about the operation plan to land on the Eastern Continent.
Only a few young staff officers in the Staff Departnt argue intensely every day over the landing point, as if just by debating here, His Majesty The Emperor would agree to their proposed plan and imdiately implent it.
The problem is, the more they discuss, the colder the issue seems to get. Even so of the originally eager generals, including General Feng Kezhi, have lost interest in landing on the Eastern Continent.
Everyone is thinking about how to build infrastructure, and the military has also done what it could. But the originally scheduled landing exercises have been postponed by three months and then another three.
...
In a trench lined with wooden boards, a soldier from the Dorne Empire is staring blankly at the beach in front of him. He has been stationed here for over a month, and his daily job is to wait here for the arrival of the powerful Tang People.
Not far in front of him lies a wide barrier zone made of barbed wire. Any enemy attempting to cross this area would be torn apart by machine gun fire from both sides.
The entire trench has been ticulously designed, and many details are said to be lessons learned from the lives of soldiers from Qin Country.
Ammunition is stored in small storage pits dug horizontally into the trench walls, readily accessible, and drainage channels are reserved below the trench.
Every once in a while, there is a capped bulletproof area, which can also serve as a temporary treatnt area for the wounded during intense battles.
And right behind these closed bulletproof areas, there’s usually a machine-gun post used to cover allies and suppress advancing enemy troops.
Behind the trenches, there are backup trenches, with communication trenches connecting the two, forming a crisscross pattern of defenses with three lines, so places even exaggerated to a total of five lines.
In the areas with the widest arcs of fire, artillery positions are set up, equipped with one or two 100mm or 105mm howitzers. Based on pre-asured firing paraters, they can blockade the beach and cause significant trouble for the Tang Army.
These artillery positions are reinforced with cent, covered, camouflaged, hard to detect and not easy to destroy.
Further back, larger caliber artillery is on standby, with parts of the underground ammunition depots, tens of ters deep, interlinked, serving as tunnels for mutual support when needed.
Everything seems to be designed very logically, so the Dorne soldier standing in the trench believes there’s no way the Tang Army would send themselves to die here.
He just doesn’t know that the wooden boards installed on the trench to prevent collapse are half as thick as specified.
And where he stands is even a model project; further out, the quality, depth, and even length of the trenches have been compromised.
"What are you looking at?" The squad leader walked up behind the soldier, pulling a generic cigarette from his pocket and putting it in his mouth, "Watching the sea every day, what’s so new about it?"
"My hotown doesn’t have a sea, it’s my first ti seeing such a large... sea. So wide, with such big waves, I’m thinking how could anyone co from the other side of the sea to attack such a strong defense." The soldier, seeing his squad leader, stood at attention and answered the question.
"That’s not sothing you should worry about. A new order just ca down from above allowing soldiers to take turns taking leave and visiting nearby cities for so fun." The squad leader finally managed to light his cigarette after several attempts with damp matches, then delivered so good news for everyone.
"Can I go to Winterless Port?" The soldier was curious about the nearby once very prosperous city, so he asked excitedly.
"I’ve been there, not much to see. It was badly bombed, and you can see craters on the streets." The squad leader blew a boring smoke ring, shook his head, and said with a sowhat vacant expression.
As if recalling sothing, he flicked ash from his cigarette and added, "But the girls there are nice, expensive, but really pretty, and know how to have fun... anyway, you wouldn’t understand much, just a rookie."
"I, I have a lover back in my hotown." The young soldier emphasized a bit defensively, but thinking of the rustic village girl, he felt a bit inadequate.
When he ntioned wanting to go to Winterless City, it was actually to get a glimpse of those urban girls. Listening to the radio equipnt officers boasting, the girls there were gentle, sexy, almost like goddesses.
"Then I wouldn’t recomnd going even more; I heard it’s really not that great over there now." The squad leader empathetically advised.
In a big city, a soldier’s small salary isn’t enough, and that place has beco disappointingly run-down.
The bombing by the Tang Army destroyed many flashy neighborhoods; the once bustling streets and sexy girls are almost gone, replaced by gangs selling Black Crow.
Once soone gets hooked on that stuff, their ager pay is quickly drained. That’s what he heard from a captain in the neighboring company, whose lieutenant was ruined by drugs...
"Can I go ho for a visit during the break?" the soldier thought of another destination.
The squad leader sighed, shook his head, and said, "Only two days, everyone only gets a two-day break. If I were you, I’d find sowhere to take a good bath, then go sleep in a clean bed."
He spoke the truth because living in this cramped trench is a suffocating experience. The place is filled with the stench of sweat and annoying fleas, rats are everywhere, and hygiene is a real issue for the soldiers.
If the Great Tang Empire doesn’t co over soon, there might be an outbreak of so plague here, wiping out all these soldiers...
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