Munitions Empire

Just as Nangong Hong was about to take his leave, a servant brought in a new piece of intelligence. After Tang Mo received the intelligence, he was slightly stunned, and then his expression turned even colder.

He handed the telegram to Nangong Hong, who took the thin sheet of telegram paper, only to realize the terrible weight it carried.

For it was written on the telegram, "Shen Army slaughters over a hundred thousand residents of Beiyuan City, and the massacre continues to this day."

"Your Majesty, this…" Nangong Hong looked up to Tang Mo, to see a face that was extremely unsightly.

"If I do not avenge this, I am not fit to be King!" Tang Mo clenched his fists and said through gritted teeth.

Then he turned to the servant and commanded, "Go, summon Luff! I must know the location of our fleet!"

Even when the coastal line was threatened by the Shen Navy's fleet, Tang Mo had never shown such anxiety, nor had he ever asked about the whereabouts of his own fleet.

But now, he was asking, which made Nangong Hong acutely aware that Tang Mo was truly enraged and ready to make the Shen people pay the price. Enjoy new stories from My Virtual Library Empire

Soon, Luff rushed in and reported to Tang Mo that Bernard's fleet was nearing the war zone.

"Your Majesty! Bernard's fleet has left Linshui and is on its way to the war zone. It is estimated that it will soon appear near the Shen Nation's shipping route," Luff, pointing at the map, gave an approximate position of the fleet.

Tang Mo nodded slightly, then commanded, "Don't be courteous with the Shen people! We will not accept any form of surrender; we want no prisoners—sink all the Shen ships we see! Do not spare a single one!"

"Yes, Your Majesty, I will immediately send the electrical order to Bernard," Luff replied, bowing his head slightly, knowing that a true slaughter was now beginning.

...

On the vast sea, aboard the flagship Dongwan 3 battleship of the Tang Army's main fleet, Bernard received the specially addressed telegram from his aide.

After seeing the bloody words on it, he immediately issued the combat order, "Raise the blood flag! Gentlemen, His Majesty's will! This battle, we take no prisoners!"

"Raise the blood flag!" the aide repeated the order loudly. Below the national flag and the Navy flag, a bright red banner slowly rose; the signal lamps flashed incessantly while the surrounding warships continuously signaled with flags, the whole fleet bustling with activity.

"Correct the course! The whole fleet, turn 5 degrees to port!" Bernard commanded again, they were now approaching the enemy's shipping route, and the entire fleet was brimming with murderous intent.

All the warships slightly shifted their course; the three leading battleships, massive as mountains, straddled the sea, and billowing smoke poured out of their stacks, rolling over the surface of the sea relentlessly.

"The Fengshun Class 31 on the perimeter spotted a Shen transport ship heading due east!" Soon, a signalman came to report that the patrol destroyers on the fleet's outskirts had located a target.

"Sink it!" Bernard ordered without hesitation.

"At once, General!" the signalman went to convey the order immediately.

In the distance, on the forward deck of the less fire-powerful Fengshun Class destroyer, a 150mm caliber main gun turned, its slender barrel aiming at the distant enemy transport ship, frantically changing its course.

"Boom!" Without a moment's hesitation, after targeting, the front main gun of the destroyer spit out a tongue of flame.

A huge column of water rose up from the side of the transport ship, and the seawater fell onto the deck of the ship like raindrops.

"Missed!" the observer in the mast yelled down to the people below, "The shot veered left!"

"The shot veered left!" the message was loudly relayed as the destroyer plowed through the waves, riding the swell of the sea.

"Boom!" The main gun fired again, still missing the target. On the sea, hitting a ship wasn't an easy task.

It required a bit of luck, strict practice from regular drills, and most importantly, the support of precise fire control technology.

"Boom!" The third attack was also of no effect; the enemy ship continued its desperate escape, water columns from the explosive shells rose on either side of its hull, but none hit the enemy ship directly.

However, as time passed, the distance between the two sides closed, as Fengshun Class destroyers had high speed, at least much higher than the enemy transport ship.

Whether it was Shen Nation or Shireck, both reserved high-performance boilers produced for their warships in desperate need of good equipment, so their civilian ships had even lousier power systems.

The average cruising speed of transport ships of this era was around 17 kilometers per hour, which converts to a pitiful speed of less than 9 knots. How problematic was this cruising speed? Actually, it wasn't much faster than the speed of a U-boat while underwater!

It was clear that they could not outrun the destroyer at that speed, and as the distance between the two sides kept closing, the accuracy of the attacks was gradually increasing.

This was a given, as if the hulls of the two ships were side by side, it would be really difficult to miss with a shot of artillery.

"Boom!" Soon, the main guns on the destroyer fired another shell, and this time the landing point was very close to the target, almost making people believe it had hit the enemy ship.

Even the sailors on the destroyer had already started to cheer, but it was finally confirmed that the shell had not hit.

However, the sailors quickly reloaded, and another shell was fired. This time the enemy wasn't so lucky.

After firing 30 shells, the destroyer finally achieved its result. The shell hit the stern of the enemy ship, which began to billow thick smoke.

Following that, the transport ship began to slow down; it seemed to have lost its already slow speed, practically stopping right there.

"Boom!" The hit rate had been lower against a moving target before, but now it slightly improved against a stationary one. The second shell was fired, hitting the smoking target as well.

The shell struck directly on the superstructure of the enemy ship, the explosion shooting up to the sky, and one of the funnels on the transport ship slowly collapsed, looking very wretched.

"Boom! Boom!" As the distance between them continued to close, the small-caliber guns on the destroyer also began to roar. Artillery shells of all sizes struck the body of the warship, causing various explosions.

Seeing the transport ship tilting, the captain of the destroyer did not issue any orders to cease fire—his command was to sink the enemy ship without taking any prisoners, to follow this order was his duty.

Hatred only breeds greater hatred, and those idiots yelling for forgiveness must have water on their brain, mentally ill. The only way to forgive an enemy is to bury them by hand, and burying them alive makes forgiveness even easier!

"Should we conserve ammunition?" The executive officer put down his binoculars and turned to ask his captain.

"Continue the attack!" the captain calmly replied, holding his binoculars and admiring his handiwork.

Soon, the enemy ship, now close at hand, had its deck tilting and sinking into the water. The sea was strewn with Shen sailors and the wounded being transported back home.

"Give them a quick end!" the captain said, putting down his binoculars, "I'm being very merciful already."

Following his orders, the machine guns on the destroyer roared to life. Tracer bullets swept across the sea like rain, and in moments, the water was stained red with blood.

Soon, another Fengshun-class destroyer approached, its side signaling with flags, informing the fleet's main force of its imminent arrival.

In the distance, the black smoke billowing from three Dongwan-class battleships intertwined in the air above the horizon, presenting a magnificent sight.

Finally, the transport ship from Shen Country, overwhelmed by the amount of water it took on, capsized in the sea, leaving only a barnacle-covered hull slowly disappearing from the surface.

That huge propeller was just a knockoff, copied from the propellers used on the Great Tang Kingdom's Liberty-class transport ships—only without fully understanding them, they were all show and no go, the performance presumably a bit worse.

"Let's go!" Watching the sunken ship that wouldn't flip back over, the captain of the Fengshun-class destroyer responsible for perimeter patrol and search felt somewhat reluctant as he ordered.

The destroyer, which had slowed down for an easier attack, now picked up speed again and headed into the distance, leaving the other destroyer behind to continue toying with the unlucky Shen men in the water.

Very soon, the surviving sailors and wounded from Shen Country were witness to a shocking sight. The colossal Dongwan-class battleships, their smoke billowing, advanced closer.

All they could do was look up at the sea beast, despair welling up from deep within, for this was the most powerful war machine built by humans up to this point.

Looking down at these survivors from the side of the ship, the Tang Navy sailors were indifferent. They had heard about the Shen Army's massacre of civilians from Qi Country, so they looked at these survivors as if they were looking at a bunch of dead people.

Soon, more warships passed by, as this area used to be the busiest shipping lane in the northern seas.

There should have been countless Shen Country transport ships here, along with a substantial Shen Navy fleet cruising around.

"We haven't pinpointed the exact location of the enemy's fleet yet, but the cruisers that came here for a raid earlier provided some vague coordinates," the navigator said to Bernard, looking down at the map beside the chart table.

He pointed at several marked locations: "They had contact with the enemy's fleet here, here, and here, and got away with their speed... This suggests that the enemy ships should be operating within this range."

"Is there any way to find them?" Bernard was eager for battle.

"Not easy, if they are still around, then they should be in this area; if they've run out of fuel and returned, we might find nothing," the navigator shook his head as he replied.