Munitions Empire

Chapter 1059: They’ve already been quite polite.

“No! General, in fact, they have been quite polite already. If we do not reach a new agreement with the other party soon, such weapons might start falling every day,” Jiang Run reminded Li Mingshun.

If the past really saw treaty violations, or if Dahua Empire failed to give Great Tang Empire face, what everyone feared was merely the Great Tang Empire declaring war on the Dahua Empire. But now, there’s one more thing everyone worries about.

If the Great Tang Empire really possesses many such weapons, then the Imperial Capital of the Dahua Empire would no longer be safe, and their own lives would be in grave danger.

Li Mingshun scoffed coldly, with a stubborn streak: “Nobody knows how many of these terrifying weapons they have.”

Shen Chuan glanced at this warrior with disdain, retorting: “Yes, no one knows. But do we dare to gamble?”

When Japan was hit by the first atomic bomb, they probably had a similar thought: I bet the United States only has one atomic bomb! Well, after the second bomb fell, gamblers like that were silenced.

No one knows exactly how many such weapons the Great Tang Empire has, but everyone knows they only have one head.

Now, who will take responsibility for the third so-called missile if someone insists on being at odds with the Great Tang Empire? And if a bunch of so-called missiles are thrown at once, who will bear that responsibility?

Li Mingshun could not shoulder such responsibility, so he dared not say that he would take on the responsibility if more missiles were to fall.

Therefore, he could only ask the Chief of Staffs with some irritation: “Then, about this matter. What did Your Majesty say?”

“His Majesty did not issue any orders,” said the Chief of Staffs. “Therefore, we took the liberty to prepare to agree to the demands of the Great Tang Empire, to ease the tensions between the two nations.”

“What about His Majesty’s injury?” Li Mingshun meant to ask, was Zhao Kai’s injury just going to be let go?

“The imperial physicians all say it’s nothing serious…” The Chief of Staffs either did not understand or chose not to understand Li Mingshun’s question, interpreting it as concern for His Majesty.

Li Ming knew that the others were old foxes and would definitely not give him a straight answer at such a time, so he huffed and turned to leave.

As the highest commander of the Imperial Capital’s Imperial Guards and the commander of the city defense, recently tasked with the command of the air defense troops, Li Mingshun naturally had a lot of work to do. He could not always stay by Zhao Kai’s side.

He was not the kind of attendant who stayed by someone’s side. If he did not return to his post, he would lose control over the City Defense Army, and that was what Zhao Kai worried about most.

While leaving the basement, Li Mingshun met up with his adjutant and issued a series of orders.

On the one hand, he dispatched his most trusted and elite troops to take back control of the city gates. Although at present he did not see the Great Tang Empire spies carry out further sabotage, he had to be prepared for any eventuality.

On the other hand, he had to arrange for more loyal troops to be deployed around the perimeter of the Imperial Palace: the palace walls had collapsed, and the safety of the Emperor was the most critical, so he had to ensure the now-breeched palace defenses were quickly restored.

Furthermore, he needed to put the outer troops on alert and increase the number of patrol planes—he did not dare to believe the news from the Great Tang Empire, so he had to act to prevent a potential second attack,

Finally, he had to rush back to the city defense command post, where he would centrally coordinate and control all the military forces near the Imperial Capital, to forestall others from taking advantage of the chaos for their own nefarious purposes: sometimes, danger does not necessarily come from your enemies, it could also come from your friends!

Yes, that’s right. The Emperor of the Dahua Empire, Zhao Kai, has been favoring members of the Royal Family in the last few years. These people have indeed shown a decent level of loyalty on ordinary days, caring more about the Dahua Empire than external ministers—however, after these people gained power, their level of danger increased countless times compared to the external ministers.

Originally, Zhao Kai was strong, and these people were the faithful ministers and good generals of the Dahua Empire. But now, the Empire is in decline, the royal power is weakening, and the Crown Prince Zhao Ji is currently at the Wanliang front line overseeing the war… If something happens to Zhao Kai, it would really be a catastrophe.

…

“According to the message sent back from Dahua, both missiles hit the Imperial Palace of the Dahua Empire, but neither struck the core areas,” an officer reported loudly, holding a telegram from the Dahua Empire.

“The personnel casualty effect… is currently unconfirmed.” He glanced at the information in the report and paused before continuing.

There was no helping it; even if the spies of the Great Tang Empire were exceptionally well-informed, they could not obtain sufficiently accurate data on the losses inside the Imperial Palace of the Dahua Empire in real time.

After the missile attack, the Imperial Palace of the Dahua Empire quickly went into martial law, and soon after, even the streets around the Imperial Palace were off-limits to the public.

The prearranged intelligence officers only managed to snap some photos of the palace walls collapsing amidst the chaos before they had to withdraw and leave.

They immediately compiled everything they saw into a report and sent it to the Great Tang homeland. But their descriptions were actually not precise, and could only be used as a reference.

“From the written descriptions, the attack seems to have had a moderate effect. The destructive power of the Fuel-Air Explosive Bomb against old-style buildings is not significant, which is consistent with our test data,” said the officer before he looked up at the experts and generals sitting in front of him.

Luff looked puzzled at the experts in charge: “Then why did we still use Fuel-Air Explosive Bomb warheads this time?”

“Because we wanted to control the extent of the damage,” the expert, who had advised the use of Fuel-Air Explosive Bomb warheads before the strike, replied: “If we had started with Cluster Incendiary Bombs, it’s possible we could have burned down the entire Dahua Imperial Capital in one fell swoop.”

Against wooden ancient buildings, incendiary bombs are undoubtedly the best choice. The Great Tang Empire already had cluster bombs, and using them equipped with incendiary submunitions could ignite half a neighborhood in an instant.

In such a scenario, any rescue efforts would likely be in vain. If not afraid of violating weapons treaties by using White Phosphorus Bombs, the burning effect could potentially be even more devastating.

This was no joke; just about ten Dongfeng Missiles equipped with incendiary cluster bombs, and the great fire in the Dahua Imperial Capital could probably burn for three days and nights.

But to really start with such a terrifying attack would cause the entire Dahua Empire to be engulfed in anger over fear, and would truly become a fight to the death with the Tang Empire, derailing the plan.

The Great Tang Empire just wanted to resume trade with Qin Country to make money and gain benefits on the Shu Country front. Tang Mo had no intention of fully launching a unification war against the Dahua Empire right now; he felt it was better to wait.

He had more patience, for he was young enough: He hoped to meticulously lay out his plans for a few more years, reducing to a minimum the resistance the Great Tang Empire’s military would face within Dahua territory.

This way, he could avoid the tedious effort of integrating resources, calming the civilians in the occupied areas, and wasting more time maintaining regional stability.

All things considered, letting things take their natural course was the best choice for Tang Mo, which is why he had remained inactive so far, even though he was capable of sweeping through the Dahua Empire.

“There’s still no feedback from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; we need to be prepared for a possible second strike.”

“The second strike is still planned with two Missiles, but this time… I suggest we use Cluster Bombs, with incendiary warheads,” the expert recommended.

“Alright, I will report to His Majesty immediately and apply for a second round of missile attacks,” Luff nodded, actually looking forward to Dahua Empire being stubborn and unyielding, so he could indulge in the thrilling experience again.

Indeed, he found the process of launching Missiles to be extremely gratifying: he wanted to try it once more, to feel that solemn and sacred sensation.

“Report!” Before Luff could pick up the telephone beside him, an officer quickly entered and saluted.

Luff stopped what he was doing and returned the salute: “What is it?”

The officer, a liaison, immediately replied, “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called, the Dahua Empire’s Minister of Rites Jiang Run visited our Ambassador in the Dahua Empire in person. He requested our Empire to temporarily suspend the sale of ‘Super Long-Range Weapon Missiles’. He represents the Dahua Empire and is willing to negotiate with our country to discuss the ceasefire and re-opening of transportation in Fengjiang.”

“It’s not a delay tactic?” Luff immediately thought of another possibility.

“The people from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, the other party guarantees to give us a satisfactory result,” obviously, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had also guessed at this possibility; the officer immediately relayed what the Ministry had told him over the phone.

“Ha, if only they had been so sensible earlier,” Luff sneered, giving the expert beside him a look of some regret: “It seems we won’t be needing a second strike.”

“No matter, Missiles are very expensive; cancelling the second attack also saves us a lot of effort,” the expert said with a smile.

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“Marshal, the Security Bureau has sent over a very interesting piece of news…” At that moment, another officer hurried into the office and reported loudly.

“Hm?” Luff curiously looked at the intelligence officer who had just come in.

The intelligence officer handed a telegraph to Luff: “Our intelligence personnel embedded in Wanliang confirmed that the Dahua Empire’s Crown Prince Zhao Ji had boarded a train from Wanliang heading towards the Dahua Imperial Capital.”

“Is that so? Have we actually killed Zhao Kai?” For a moment, Luff became uncertain. He truly couldn’t believe that one threat from them could have really killed the Emperor of the Dahua Empire.

“Is that so? Have we actually killed Zhao Kai?” For a moment, Luff became uncertain. He truly couldn’t believe that one threat from them could have really killed the Emperor of the Dahua Empire.