Munitions Empire

If you ask which country in the world most urgently needs amphibious equipment, it has to be the Rabbits. Hence, Tang Mo didn't even need to search on purpose; he could easily find a whole bunch of amphibious equipment from the Rabbits' pocket.

In those days, the Rabbit's amphibious landing divisions were under Uncle Eagle's tutelage, which is definitely beyond the expectation of many. The young and promising Kaisen II purchased many armored vehicles from Uncle Eagle that were never shipped back to his country.

Some of these armored vehicles were directly used to fight the Rabbits back then, while those in poor condition had their parts scavenged and were thrown away as scrap metal into recycling stations.

After the Rabbits' million-strong forces crossed the great river, they found these discarded scraps in the recycling stations and, lamenting the waste, picked them up to use for themselves.

It was with these LVT war vehicles discarded by Uncle Eagle, that the Rabbits built their own amphibious combat vehicle troops—saying the Rabbits are fans of Uncle Eagle isn't wrong at all, considering they've been die-hard fans for seventy years without even being asked.

Thus, when selecting amphibious landing equipment, Great Tang Empire had no hesitation, choosing what the Rabbits used: the Type 63 amphibious tank and the Type 77 amphibious armored vehicle.

These two weapons weren't very technically sophisticated, just slightly more complex than World War II armored vehicles. Nevertheless, they were indeed genuine amphibious armored vehicles that substantially enhanced the troops' beach landing capabilities.

More interestingly, the chassis of this Type 63 amphibious tank was also used as the base for the 122mm caliber self-propelled howitzer. With this, Great Tang Empire had already prepared a new chassis for the update and replacement of its own self-propelled artillery.

The only regrettable thing is that Great Tang Empire doesn't own 122mm caliber howitzer guns, so the Type 63 had to make do with a smaller 105mm howitzer fitted on its large chassis.

There was no choice, as the 155mm howitzer was too heavy; the Type 63 chassis couldn't carry it, and after testing, it had to be honestly abandoned.

If we talk about the shortcomings of the Type 63 chassis, or rather, the Type 63 vehicle family, there are some: these vehicles have poor protection, and the Type 63 tank can only be fitted with Tang Empire's existing mature 75mm gun, which honestly isn't very satisfying in terms of firepower.

Although compared to other countries' main battle tanks, the firepower of the Type 63 amphibious tank isn't considered weak, when compared with its own tanks, the difference is substantial.

Due to recoil issues, the Type 63 tank used by the Great Tang cannot adopt the 88mm or 105mm caliber cannons previously used by the nation. It had to settle for the slightly inferior 75mm cannon, simply because the Great Tang never produced the original 85mm cannon used by the Type 63 tank.

After this modification, the Type 63 tank of the Great Tang Empire became a thin-skinned vehicle with insufficient firepower and a subpar sighting system, essentially a "second-rate product."

Compared to those tech-heavy, superior performance main warfare weapons of other countries, the Navy Marine Corps' Type 63 tank could be dubbed a disgrace.

And that's not even the most pitiful aspect; due to its inadequate sighting system, the Type 63 amphibious tank cannot fire at sea, and even if it did fire forcibly, it couldn't hit the target.

Thus, the only mission for this type of tank is to land with the infantry and then draw enemy fire to cover the infantry in capturing the beachhead.

As for what comes next... that would be the tank landing ships' job to bring the proper Type 59 main battle tanks ashore to take over the Type 63's tasks and steamroll the opposition.

Because the Army has equipped a large number of Type 113 armored vehicles and is reluctant to phase them out (there wasn't time to phase them out), the Navy could only purchase Type 77 amphibious armored vehicles for their own private use.

After all, unlike the Rabbits who had a large number of Type 63 armored vehicles to convert into amphibious armored vehicles, the Navy and the Army had to go their separate ways, with the latter using the Navy Marine Corps' armored vehicle chassis to modify self-propelled artillery.

Overall, as Great Tang Empire's weaponry developed, an unstoppable chaos spread within the military—many pieces of equipment exhibited a strong transitional and experimental nature.

After enduring the agony of updating equipment such as the Butcher Fighter Jets, Stuka Dive Bombers, and Flying Fortresses... as well as the Army's Panther Tank and other armaments, many senior officers began to favor the experimental nature of equipping a small number of units to see how things go.

Everyone is worried, worried that if they continue to pile up equipment in large quantities like the past, will they encounter similar situations in the future.

They don't want to experience the embarrassment of having good equipment but not being able to use it again, so even with the superior performing Type 59 tank and J-6 Fighter Jet, neither the Air Force nor the Army are in a rush to equip them.

Everyone is waiting, waiting for better equipment to come out, especially the Air Force: they would rather wait for the legendary Type 7 Fighter Jet than continue equipping the barely capable all-weather J-6.

On the beach, the Type 63 amphibious tanks and Type 77 amphibious armored vehicles, plodding through the seawater like snails, have begun to come ashore. Their not very broad caterpillar tracks are churning up the sand and gravel while initiating smoke release, turning the entire landing scene into a wonderland.

The choking smoke caused some soldiers to start cursing, as they by now had occupied the enemy's first line of defense according to the exercise plan.

Next, they would need to continue advancing, establishing a defensive position on the periphery of the beach to prevent the enemy's counterattack. Meanwhile, the following troops landing on the shore would shoulder the heavy task of clearing out surrounding enemies and assisting the main forces in continuing the landing.

A tank landing craft with openable doors on the front side had already begun unloading tanks, and the lower-profile, better-armored Type 59 tank rolled out of the hold, strutting about on the beach.

The soldiers who landed subsequently had become orderly; they were no longer in disarray, yet they were still tormented to death by the smoke released by their own people.

The first batch of soldiers that had landed were sitting on top of a "bunker," pouring sand out of their boots; this was a simple camouflage made of sandbags and sand, treated as a bunker.

A passing tank turned at the gap in the barbed wire, and the tank commander, half out of the hatch, looked up at the 'bunker' with fellow troops on it and loudly reminded, "We're gonna need that thing later, don't damage it."

"Got it! Our shoes sure can't blow up the enemy's 'bunker'!" an infantry squad leader patted the sandbag he was sitting on and shouted to his comrades with a laugh.

Compared to the last landing exercise conducted on Dongwan Island, the effect of their exercise this time can be said to be very good. Soldiers with experience were no longer panicking, everyone was working methodically, there was even some semblance of a world's powerful army.

Everyone knows that the military of the Great Tang Empire is unrivaled in the world, but who can know how many exercises they have conducted in secret?

Understanding new weapons, mastering new tactics, all these rely on training to maintain. A weapon isn't ready for combat simply by issuing it to the troops.

You need to build a system around the new type of weapons, rely on this system to shatter the enemy's system, in order to win. If not, the existence of new-style weapons has no significance at all.

Currently, the Air Force is focusing its research on integrating radar with aircraft, seeking to forge a novel theory of air combat, and build an all-weather Air Force.

The idea for the Land Army is to modernize the chassis of their combat vehicles as quickly as possible, creating a new lineage of combat vehicles, simplifying logistical support, and bringing the variety of equipment back to a reasonable range.

You should know by now that the Air Force has a very large number of aircraft models. The Land Army has even more equipment models.

Just the tanks themselves come in three types, and it wasn't easy to finally phase out the Panther Tank, yet there are still many Mark IV tanks in service in the military.

That's not even what causes the most headache; what's more troubling are the various equipment variants that have sprung from it: including Mark IV tanks and tank destroyers, tank maintenance vehicles, and self-propelled artillery.

The Mark IV tank still serves as the "workhorse" in the Land Army today, tirelessly serving, and continues to play its role among the artillery, armored troops, and infantry.

Only problem is, it's just too old—so old that other countries' tanks are almost as advanced, that's why the army no longer dares to deploy it on the front lines, with most left with the second-line troops.

"If we really go to war... I genuinely don't know if we'll still have to dress up like it's a festival when charging onto the enemy's beach," Cao Fei, holding his sniper rifle, sat on the beach watching the subsequent landing of the Type 59 tanks and asked his partner.

To ensure the soldiers' safety, all participating landing troops were equipped with orange life jackets. These things look quite festive when worn, seriously undermining the urgency of the landing troops.

As a sniper, Cao Fei didn't land near the front, so by the time he clambered onto the beach, the "battle" had already ended. Although the air still hung with a choking odor, and there was still a thin layer of smoke, everything appeared to be back to normal.

"This thing is to prevent us from drowning," the observer poured seawater out of his boots, not looking up as he explained, "and I heard the color also protects against sharks."

"Last time we really fought on Dongwan Island, we didn't have all this nonsense. At that time, the enemy was easily defeated, and our victory was not in doubt," recalled Cao Fei, with experienced affirmation of the battle he took part in.

"Give me a break! Back then your enemies didn't have Maxim machine guns, didn't have sniper rifles with 3x scopes, didn't have 200mm howitzers, didn't have concrete bunkers, nor barbed wire or submachine guns," his observing partner put on his wet boots and mocked his comrade.

What he said was true. With the diffusion of technology, the world's nations have all changed from what they once were. Even though the Great Tang Empire still held an absolute advantage, on a regional level, that advantage wasn't as clear as before.

To say that the Great Tang Empire was wrong to spread its technology might not be entirely true: if the Great Tang did not sell so much of its technology, Tang Mo could not possibly have completed his industrialization so rapidly.

But to say it was right to sell so much technology seems inaccurate because technological iterations have indeed increased the cruelty of the battlefield, and it may very well cause the Great Tang Empire to pay a much greater price in the next war…

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Today I have something on suddenly, just one update, three more will be made up tomorrow.