Munitions Empire-Chapter 988 - : Plan 910 Rejected

Chapter 988: Plan 910 Rejected

Great Tang Empire Staff Department, two special forces commanders who deliberately rushed to attend the meeting looked at the plan under discussion and murmured privately, “The target is about 33 kilometers away from the defense line, mingled among civilian targets, and the defense forces nearby are at a high level.”

“Attacking is not too difficult, the main difficulty lies in infiltration.” Another one looked at the map and expressed his opinion.

“Indeed, a night raid is not too difficult, the difficulty is how to blend over 200 people in, and then suddenly launch an attack during the night.” The leading special forces commander nodded in agreement, “But I heard there will be arrangements on their side.”

“Can we rely on Dahua’s arrangements?” His deputy somewhat distrusted Zhao Yu’s people, “If they were reliable, the fight wouldn’t have turned out this way.”

The leading commander was also worried about problems arising, “You’ve got a point. Even if we break in and complete the attack… extraction will be troublesome. If the frontline attack doesn’t go well, we could very likely end up trapped in the city.”

“Will there be any contingency plans by that time?” The deputy curiously asked.

The leading commander flipped to the back of the document, taking a close look at the alternative plans, “Hey! Goodness, helicopters…”

“Hah, that’s a tough one for them.” The deputy shook his head as well, “Do they think the enemy’s anti-aircraft artillery is just for show? Moreover, if Hueys burst into Shanping City, who in the world wouldn’t know that it’s our Tang Army’s troops doing?”

Hearing his adjutant say this, the leading special forces commander outright laughed, “You’re right; this is akin to outright admitting that if the plan goes awry, the entire special forces team involved in the operation will be doomed.”

“If we aren’t abandoned, it would mean exposing the helicopters, which in itself is a ludicrous plan.” After saying this, he tossed the plan onto the table.

This type of military operation plan isn’t necessarily executed just because it’s been demanded and crafted.

It also needs to be considered in reverse – the difficulty of executing the plan, whether it will trigger other issues, necessitating adjustments, enhancements, and the perfection of every detail.

Of course, many plans end up directly burnt and thrown into the trash, without even a single copy being preserved: Some commanders are fanciful, only considering what’s convenient for their own troops, submitting plans that are not very viable.

Some plans are saved only to take up space, such as this one from the military advisory group in Fengjiang, proposing a secret special forces operation – far too risky with no practical operability.

As expected, in the front rows of the meeting room where higher-ranking military officials were seated, someone voiced their opinion, “This kind of target, if it were on our side, should be handled by an air strike. Entrusting it to the special forces is too risky, isn’t it?”

In the Tang Empire’s arsenal, in fact, there’s a lack of effective means to strike targets that are thirty to fifty kilometers deep. Theoretically, any target at that distance would typically be dealt with by the Air Force’s tactical bombers first.

After all, the Great Tang Empire boasts an unparalleled and invincible Air Force, they have various models of aircraft to choose from: including Stuka and Yir, as well as Junkers 88 and the Flying Fortress.

Some heavy-duty, specially modified aircraft can even carry a ten-ton bomb to complete a bombing mission, which is envied and unattainable by other nations.

However, on the flip side, precisely because of such a powerful air force, the Tang Empire’s army actually lacks the capability to strike targets beyond 50 kilometers.

The Tang Army seldom equips artillery with a caliber above 200 millimeters and to be precise, even the capability to strike beyond 30 kilometers is weak.

This shortcoming is not an issue for the Tang Army itself – after all, they can just hand it off to the Air Force. And to further step back, in the eyes of Tang’s commanders, a distance of thirty to fifty kilometers doesn’t really count for much; if it really comes down to it, they could just mobilize the Armored Corps to march directly through!

However, this sort of thing, when viewed by other nations, is painfully problematic, making them want to cry: for them, a distance of thirty to fifty kilometers is equivalent to a “chasm” they would need to fight over for several months.

Actually, coming back to it, the army’s shortcoming isn’t without solutions, such as the Great Tang Empire equipping quite a few Scud missiles over a period of more than a year.

But using Scud missiles with a range close to 300 kilometers to strike targets beyond 50 kilometers seems excessively wasteful, no matter how you look at it.

Additionally, what’s regrettable is that the current Scud missiles have an attack error margin exceeding 200 meters, which simply does not meet the precision required for decapitation and can only be used to strike targets the size of a city.

Clearly, the precision of the attack could not be relied upon to strike the Shanping command center this time, and another reason is that the Scud missile’s warhead is simply undestroyable in the explosion, leaving such a large tube near the crater which even a fool could guess is a new weapon from the Tang Country.

The Air Force representative immediately explained, “The issue is our aircraft cannot appear near Shanping, that would be tantamount to entering the war.”

“But special forces operations require feasible alternate escape routes, as stipulated in the manual. The alternative plan is to deploy helicopters… this is simply nonsense, isn’t it?” A general in the front row turned back, looking at the speaking Air Force representative: “Afraid of giving the enemy something to exploit, and then pass an even bigger advantage over to them?”

Purely from a tactical standpoint, deploying special forces for this mission is less satisfactory than directly engaging paratroopers: anyway, being discovered by the Dahua Empire puts us in a defensive position in the court of public opinion, so why not just drop a division of paratroopers to straighten out Shanping’s rear?

But if we’re deploying paratroopers, wouldn’t it be easier to have the Great Tang Empire’s Armored Division push through the front? Can the Dahua troops near Shanping stop the 1st Armored Division’s Panther Tanks?

Speaking of which… it makes one think, why not just dispatch a hundred Stukas and Yir Attack Aircraft to blow up the Shanping City command center—wouldn’t that be both convenient and fast?

“How much confidence does Luo Xiao actually have to be so certain he can break through Shanping’s defenses amid chaos and meet up with the infiltrating special forces?” A general on one side sneered, voicing his viewpoint.

He was a Major General, of course he need not give face to Luo Xiao. Marshal Le Fu actually did not agree with this plan either, but he also had to consider how to capture Shanping.

This discussion was not any formal meeting, so many generals had drifted off topic while talking: “I’m curious, why do we care so much about the opinion of other countries? Even if they have evidence to accuse us of deploying aircraft to assist Fengjiang, what can they do to us?”

A Major General sitting next to him shook his head and explained, “It’s different.”

He paused for a moment and then continued, “If we want to further assist Fengjiang, we could entirely come up with more suitable options for us. Why must we choose the most direct and impactful option of support?”

“Exactly!” Marshal Le Fu glanced at the officer who had asked the question: “This is politics! Not war! This isn’t something we can do however we please.”

“We can support Fengjiang, and if that’s not enough, we can still offer to sell them weapons. If that fails, we can directly intervene!” He picked up his teacup in front of him, put it to his lips, and retorted, “With so many options available, why go straight for the last resort? Do you have a reasonable explanation?”

“I’m just terrified by the idiocy of the Fengjiang bunch…” The general scratched his head embarrassingly and smiled awkwardly: “I’m just anxious on their behalf here.”

“Tell Luo Xiao and his men not to rush. The war continues, and as long as the Fengjiang’s western defense line stands, the situation remains under our control,” Marshal Le Fu commanded after taking a sip of water, “What’s the hurry? Since it’s come to this, let’s move towards a war of attrition!”

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“Wait until the mercenaries on the road have all arrived, join the battle, and then look at the situation!” He said this while looking at the two Marshals sitting beside him.

“Although both sides will reinforce their positions, waiting is indeed the best option we can choose at the moment. Luo Xiao should change his approach promptly and focus on the western front,” Marshal Tager offered his opinion.

“I support the views of Marshal Le Fu and Marshal Tager,” Redman also spoke up. “If there are no tanks, wait until we have tanks. Poplar Empire and Ice Cold Empire are both peddling their tanks, aren’t they? It’s a good opportunity to test them on the battlefield.”

The two special forces command officers sitting in the back row, upon hearing the big shots’ opinions, knew they didn’t need to take risks this time. They were not afraid of taking risks but didn’t want their comrades to face unnecessary dangers.

Clearly, if special forces were deployed to attack the enemy’s command center this time, the participating troops would probably suffer more than half of their strength in losses. Forcing the mission is not impossible, but the losses would be immense. Each special forces soldier is costly and hard to replace—squandering them recklessly is certainly unwise.

“It looks like we won’t have an opportunity to take action,” the leading special forces commander shrugged his shoulders.

“That’s a good thing,” his deputy followed up.

While the two were whispering in the back, Marshal Le Fu had already directed the conversation in front at a different angle: one of the real reasons the Great Tang Empire was so restrained, not wanting to get involved in the war.

“We haven’t started a war with the Dahua Empire, so shouldn’t the Dahua Empire give us an explanation why the rail transport from Qin Country to Great Tang has been interrupted?” He posed the question, then answered himself: “A considerable length of this railway, which is invested and built by our Great Tang Empire, is now destroyed and rendered useless. Should we just let it slide so easily? Our Great Tang Empire has to endure the loss from trade disruption, the damage to the railway, and the shrinking of the market…”

“There is no such good deal in this world!” He sneered, “Either compensate us with money or face death!”