It wasn’t just a group of airmen desperately learning and training; in fact, in a secluded part of the sea, unknown to the public, another group of people was also desperately studying and training.
They had practically become non-existent, simultaneously piloting and controlling a ship that did not exist! This ship had not returned to port for a long time, continuously traveling on the ocean, relying on a supply ship to replenish its fuel and food at sea.
On deck, all the men had beards on their faces, looking like Viking pirates, smelly and with their fronts stained with oil.
These sailors had been living at sea for more than a month, exhausting their fuel and almost using up all essential living supplies.
The transport ship that arrived was a supply ship specially modified for submarine crews, replenishing diesel and various food for this submarine as part of this training and experimentation.
The purpose of this trip was to test the combat limits of the submarine crews at sea, which also included some technical personnel among the trainees.
In reality, because extra technicians had been added, the number of people aboard the submarine was greater than usual, therefore the consumption was also larger than under typical conditions.
However, for safety considerations, it was still necessary to carry these personnel; at least with them present, the submarine would not be paralyzed at sea due to technical failures.
At this moment, this submarine was no longer the only one from Tang Country; the second submarine had also been launched, and the third one had joined the fleet not long ago.
The other two submarines were responsible for training the submariners, conducting stealth navigation training in the waters near Dragon Island at this time.
Both submarines carried two sets of crew members, with an apprentice at every position, which allowed for training a greater number of qualified submarine officers and soldiers more quickly.
The training of submarine personnel was not easy; Tang Mo strictly trained his submarine troops according to German World War II submarine training manual.
They had to make do with sleeping in places originally meant for storing torpedoes, every corner inside the submarine was transformed to install hammocks, and then twice the number of personnel was arranged to live as possible.
Each submarine carried only a few training torpedoes, and for the sake of safety, even some of the practice torpedoes were not loaded with explosives.
Yet training unfolded under these harsh conditions, avoiding the surrounding fishing boats and cargo ships, like phantoms they honed their skills, turning themselves into cold and shadowy assassins of the sea.
Yes, they were assassins! Their frequent training exercise was to track distant cargo ships at periscope depth.
They simulated taking up positions at the torpedo tubes, then adeptly aligned their bow with the direction of the enemy ship’s advance, and then pretended to launch torpedo attacks at the target.
At night, these sailors would even surface and stealthily follow distant cargo ships, watching these massive vessels enter Weigang or Dragon Harbor before finally resting content.
The training of the two submarines was very concealed, but it was not completely without flaws. At least, many ships reported various strange experiences after entering the vicinity of Dragon Island to the maritime authorities of Dragon Island.
They claimed they were tracked by unidentified vessels, and some even captured photos of vague outlines.
These outlines were actually not clear, only a shadowy figure could be dimly seen on the moonlit surface of the sea.
Judging from the shadow, it was a huge object, looking somewhat like a whale, yet somewhat longer and thinner than a whale.
Most of these reports were dismissed by the Tang Country maritime departments with reasons such as "whales" and "dolphins," but it was harder to avoid the issue during the day.
Many seamen claimed to have seen a strange "shark fin," something like a tube that wasn’t very fast, increasingly odd the more they looked at it.
However, most of these seamen only saw that tube-like object from a distance, so they weren’t sure if what they saw was indeed a shark fin or a dolphin’s dorsal fin.
Because from certain angles, the fin also looked like an elongated "straight line," similar to a tube, so that was also a plausible explanation.
But explanation aside, the real sensation of being followed was indisputably authentic. Thus, some legends started to spread, suggesting the presence of sea monsters near Dragon Island.
As the saying goes, speakers might be unwitting, but listeners could be intentional, and many started linking these sea monsters to the previous rumors of "dragons" on Dragon Island.
There had also been rumors of dragon resurrections on Dragon Island before, but it was later proven that those weren’t dragons, but secret aircraft from Tang Country.
Now there were rumors about sea monsters, leading people to feel that this legend might also have a somewhat tenuous connection to new weapons.
But guesswork remains guesswork, for without any evidence, everyone could only speculate and continue searching for evidence within these speculations.
The factories on Dragon Island were working overtime day and night, producing outdated aircraft models, including the tri-engine biplane transporters, tri-engine biplane bombers, biplane fighters, and biplane trainers previously used by Tang Mo.
These planes were selling very well, creating a steady stream of profit for Tang Mo. With pilot training and the sale of these planes, Tang Mo had earned over 120 million Gold Coins.
Countless materials were sent to Tang Country as compensation goods, including grain, iron ore, copper ore, tin ore, saltpeter, nickel ore, and countless slaves.
And now, these things had turned into highways, into railways, into locomotives, into all kinds of weaponry and military equipment.
In the past few months, various countries had paid more than half of their dues and had obtained many new technologies from Tang Mo.
With raw materials in hand, the development of Tang Country became even faster. Tang Mo already had technology, and now he had labor and raw materials, constructing at a shockingly fast pace.
Recently, Tang Mo had been busy equipping his troops with new Type 56 assault rifles and outfitting the forces with M113 armored reconnaissance vehicles and Lion armored scout vehicles.
Of course, there were also the renowned Bee 155mm self-propelled howitzers, and the famous No. 4 Tanks and No. 4 Assault Guns.
There were more and more planes, including a large number of transporters and bombers. The Tang Army’s fighter squadrons had always been very small in scale; the number of Butcher Fighters hovered around 300 and had not grown significantly.
These heavy weapons and equipment were all waiting for large-scale enlistment, as the troops required a large number of tanks and armored vehicles and gradually became gluttonous gold-consuming behemoths.
The mobilization of any heavy-armored corps required a vast amount of resources, especially fuel. Nowadays, when a Tang Armored Division started up, it consumed roughly the same amount of fuel as three motorized infantry divisions.
To feed these fuel tigers, Tang Mo had no choice but to import a large amount of fuel from Chu Country and Ice Cold Empire at a very high price to fill the gap in increased consumption.
The main oil production area of Tang Country was Dragon Island, which, despite its high output, was rather inconvenient to transport. Therefore, Tang Mo was eager to find a stable, continuous supply source of oil.
Chu Country was an obvious choice; once swallowed, Tang Country would almost have achieved its strategic goal in becoming self-sufficient in oil.
Unfortunately, Tang Mo could not yet declare war on Chu Country directly; although he had a technological advantage, he was severely limited in manpower.
The vast territory of Qi Country forced him to waste his troops on garrisoning these newly acquired lands. His regular army had been expanded to several hundred thousand, but a third had become new garrison troops.
The number of troops actually available for offense seemed not much more than before the outbreak of the Tang-Qi War, but Chu Country’s military strength was much larger than previously estimated.
An attack on Chu Country had to be strategic; unlike the plains prevalent in Qi Country, the mountainous landscape of Chu Country meant that armored corps seemed to have little effect in combat.
According to the suggestions from the Staff Department provided by Luff, if the Tang Army wanted to conquer Chu Country, they would need to train 300,000 infantry and be prepared for losses of over 100,000 men.
This estimate was somewhat pessimistic, but the actual results were not much different. The war would likely start off smoothly for the Tang Army, which could expect to capture the capital of Chu Country within two months.
But after that, many Chu troops would retreat to the mountains and harass the Tang forces. The war would be protracted, and Tang’s casualties could be three times that of the Qi annihilation!
The Tang soldiers would have to capture each undulating mountain using the most primitive methods, and by then each inch of land would likely be soaked in blood.
However, for Tang Mo, there were gains for every investment; the mountainous terrain of Chu Country meant it not only had an abundance of oil fields but also countless mineral deposits.
Follow current novels on freewebnσvel.cѳm.
Steel, copper, nickel... even rare earth elements, and uranium, which Tang Mo would definitely need in the future, were likely plentiful.
It was fair to say that occupying Chu Country would allow Tang Mo’s Great Tang Kingdom to achieve a closed-loop economy, becoming a completely self-sufficient nation.
Then, no matter the adversary faced, Tang Mo could respond confidently. He could even close his doors and develop alone, pushing technology to heights beyond others’ reach.
Regrettably, the Dahua Empire would not continue to watch Tang Mo’s expansion. Zhao Kai would definitely not sit idly by and let Chu Country be swallowed.
So, declaring war on Chu Country was almost tantamount to declaring war on the Dahua Empire, forcing Tang Mo to seriously consider whether he had the capacity to wage war on two fronts.
This was not an easy question to answer; even if his elite forces could defeat the armies of Chu Country or the Dahua Empire, the strategic disadvantage could drain the Tang military’s strategic reserves.
He could fall into a two-front war and exhaust his strategic fuel reserves in the conflict, which was not a scenario he wanted to face.