Chapter 1654: Chapter 1571: Watching from Afar
Inside the command center of Eternal Winter City, General Moss was discussing the battle plan to stop the Tang Army’s advance with his staff.
They’ve been extremely busy lately, as they need to organize the arrival of troops at the front lines, distribute large amounts of supplies, and replenish losses.
The Steel Rampart has mostly fallen, and various supplies stored within it have become the Tang Army’s spoils, including food, medical supplies, and ammunition.
These supplies are undoubtedly precious to the Ice Cold Empire, and they must quickly replenish more similar supplies to the front lines for the surviving troops to continue fighting.
A staff member reported their limited intelligence: “We know nothing about the scale of the Tang Army’s logistics supply! Only one submarine saw a large number of transport ships near their shipping lanes.”
Due to the length of the supply line, the Tang Army couldn’t deploy too many anti-submarine forces across the Endless Sea, even though they have advanced escort warships, the Ice Cold Empire’s submarines could still bring back some intelligence.
At least, they could watch the Tang Country’s fleet pass by from afar, those huge fleets laden with supplies, forming a fleet of dozens of ships, escorted by one or two destroyers, traversing the ocean.
Upon hearing this news, General Moss immediately felt a bit energized and, with hope, asked, “Did we achieve any results?”
To him, or rather to the Ice Cold Empire, creating even small losses for the Tang Empire’s supply line might tilt the balance of victory in this war.
The staff member shook his head in regret and replied, “No, their merchant ships move quickly, and… with the escorting warships, our submarines dare not attack rashly.”
Honestly speaking, the naval technology of the Ice Cold Empire was too backward, they lost too much in the war with the Elf Race, including valuable time and funds for naval development.
The Poplar Empire and Ice Cold Empire both lost some warships in the war, and they don’t have enough funds to purchase more warships to replenish naval losses.
Later, countries started building aircraft carriers, building aircraft carriers for the Elves and Dwarves was significantly delayed. Meanwhile, their submarine technology progressed very slowly, which was one reason the Tang Empire chose the Ice Cold Empire as a breakthrough point to land on the Eastern Continent.
Most of the Ice Cold Empire’s submarines were old models, navigating at surface speeds of around 15 knots, barely able to chase the Tang Army’s large transport ships. However, the Ice Cold Empire’s submarines dared not appear openly near the Tang Army’s escort warships, so they could only wait by cruising underwater at low speed.
This kind of waiting was often fruitless, even if they encountered something, various reasons would cause a missed opportunity for attack—the Ice Cold Empire’s submarines could only navigate underwater at speeds of 3 to 5 knots, which was utterly insufficient for closing the distance for an attack.
This shows the enormous impact of modern submarine technology, or rather nuclear power, on submarines: a power source that allows submarines to maintain a speed of over 20 knots underwater can truly transform and upgrade the weapon.
The biggest problem was that the Ice Cold Empire’s submarine commanders received too little intelligence, no reconnaissance aircraft providing support, and no surface vessels aiding them. These submarines, except for a lucky few that happened to encounter passing Tang Army fleets, couldn’t see anything at all.
Even when encountering these fleets, due to the unilateral suppression by sonar technology, these Ice Cold Empire submarines dared not get too close, providing only a scant amount of intelligence for their country from afar.
The latest piece of intelligence was a submarine seeing, from afar, a massive fleet heading towards the Eastern Continent—a grand, endless sight.
“Lots of transport ships… how many?” Moss, upon hearing this news, first hesitated slightly, then immediately asked.
He didn’t want the Tang Army to receive sufficient supplies, which was his last motivation to keep fighting. If the Tang Army truly crossed the chasm of the Endless Sea, the resistance of the Ice Cold Empire would become meaningless.
The staff also knew where Moss’s psychological limit lay, but he had to honestly report the intelligence to Moss: “According to the intelligence returned, they’ve identified around 40 ships of various models, some larger, some smaller.”
Moss’s face turned a bit pale, and even his body wobbled: “If we deduce from this scale, the Tang People should have already built a fairly sizable port near the landing coast.”
“General! That’s not necessarily the conclusion, they might have their ships stuck near the coast, with very low efficiency in transporting supplies ashore. Otherwise, how do you explain their offensive slowing down these past two days?” The staff member noticed Moss’s unstable state and quickly tried to comfort him.
Their aerial reconnaissance indeed brought back no news, no one could get close to the Tang Army’s landing site, so no one knew what size port the Tang People had constructed on the coastline.
Those rumored fast-erecting docks had never been truly displayed, so everyone could only speculate, unable to ascertain the Tang Army’s “ability to construct temporary docks.”
“Let’s hope so… By the way, what does the Air Force say?” Moss’s face appeared slightly better, leaning on the edge of the table as he spoke.
Now, he could only comfort himself this way, otherwise he could hardly hold on: if the Tang Army had solved their logistical issues, Moss truly didn’t know what the Ice Cold Empire could use to continue fighting the Tang People.
Another staff member shook his head, knowing Moss was hoping the Air Force would launch another counterattack, thereby easing the pressure on the ground. But in fact, the Air Force couldn’t deploy more force: “They can’t launch a large-scale attack anymore. Recently, Dorne’s commander is negotiating with us, they think we should be responsible for such heavy losses.”
In the counterattack carried out a few days ago, the pressure on the ground troops sharply reduced. That day, whether building fortifications or engaging in defensive battles, the Dwarf’s ground forces were extraordinarily efficient.
Moreover, the Tang Army, lacking Air Force support, didn’t launch large-scale offensives. This somewhat created an illusion, as if the Tang Army wouldn’t engage in large-scale ground military operations without the Air Force.
Therefore, Moss desperately hoped the Air Force could organize another counterattack, allowing his troops to catch a breath and use this interval to build more fortifications and allocate more supplies.