Chapter 677: 677 Neighbor’s Good Things
Chapter 677 677 Neighbor’s Good Things
It is not just a group of aviation people who are studying and training desperately. In fact, in a certain unknown sea area, another group of people is also studying and training desperately.
They have almost become non-existent people, and at the same time they are steering a ship that does not exist! This ship has not returned for a long time. It has been sailing on the sea, relying on a supply ship to replenish fuel and food at sea.
On the deck, all the people had beards. They looked like Vikings. They were full of smell and had oil stains on their fronts.
These sailors have been living on the sea for more than a month. They have exhausted their fuel and almost all the necessities of life.
The transport ship that arrived was a supply ship specially modified for the submarine force. It replenished the submarine with diesel and various foods. This was also part of this training and experiment.
The purpose of this trip is to test the combat limits of the submarine force at sea, and the training personnel also include some technical personnel.
In fact, due to the addition of some additional technicians, there are more people in the submarine than actually, so the consumption is also greater than the actual situation.
However, for safety reasons, these personnel must still be carried. At least with their presence, the submarine will not be paralyzed at sea due to technical failures.
At this moment, this submarine is no longer the only submarine in the Tang Dynasty. The second submarine has also been launched, and the third submarine has been commissioned not long ago.
The other two submarines are responsible for training crews. At this time, they are conducting covert navigation training in the waters near Long Island.
Both submarines carry two groups of members, with an apprentice in each position, so that more qualified submarine officers and soldiers can be trained faster.
The training of submarine officers and soldiers is not that easy. Tang Mo strictly trained his submarine soldiers according to the German submarine training manual of World War II.
They had to sleep in the place where the torpedoes were supposed to be stored. Every corner in the submarine was transformed into a place to install hammocks, and then twice as many people were accommodated as possible.
Each submarine only carries a few training torpedoes, and some of the training torpedoes are even uncharged for safety reasons.
But the training still started under such difficult conditions. They avoided the surrounding fishing boats and cargo ships, practiced their skills elusively, and trained themselves into cold and dark assassins in the sea.
That’s right, they are all assassins! Their regular training involves tracking distant freighters at periscope depth.
They will simulate seizing a torpedo launching position, then skillfully point their bow in the direction of the enemy ship, and then pretend to launch a torpedo to attack the opponent.
At night, these sailors will even surface and secretly follow distant cargo ships, watching these huge guys sail into Weigang or Longgang before giving up.
The training of the two submarines was very covert, but it cannot be said to be completely flawless. At least many ships will report their various strange experiences to the Long Island Maritime Department after entering Long Island.
They claimed that they were being followed by unknown ships, and even captured some vague outlines with their cameras.
These outlines are actually not clear at all, and you can only vaguely see a dark shadow on the moonlit sea.
You can tell from the shadow that it is a huge object that looks a bit like a whale, and more or less slender than a whale.
Most of these reports were excused by the Tang State Maritime Department with excuses such as "whales" and "dolphins", but it was not easy to fool them during the day.
Many sailors claimed to have seen a strange "shark fin", which looked like a pipe, was not very fast, and looked weirder and weirder.
However, most of these sailors only saw the tube-like thing from a distance, so they were not sure whether they saw a shark fin or a dolphin's dorsal fin.
Because from a certain angle, the fin is also an elongated "straight line", which is similar to a tube, so it makes sense.
However, explanations are explanations, and fooling is fooling. The feeling of being followed is real and genuine. So some legends spread like wildfire, saying that there were sea monsters near Dragon Island.
The speaker was unintentional and the listener was interested. Many people began to connect the sea monster with the "flying dragon" on Dragon Island.
There were rumors about the resurrection of the flying dragon on Dragon Island before, but it later turned out that it was not a dragon, but a secret weapon aircraft of the Tang Dynasty.
Now there are rumors about sea monsters. No matter how you think about it, it makes people think that this legend may also be inextricably linked to new weapons.
But speculation is still speculation, because there is no evidence, so everyone can only guess, and keep looking for evidence while guessing. The factory in Longdao is working overtime day and night to produce outdated aircraft products. Models include the three-engine bi-wing transport aircraft used by Tang Mo before, the three-engine bi-wing bombers, bi-wing fighter jets, and bi-wing trainer aircraft...
These aircraft are selling very well, creating a steady stream of profits for Tang Mo. Tang Mo earned more than 120 million gold coins through pilot training and selling these planes.
Countless supplies were sent to the Tang State as compensation, including grain, iron ore, copper ore, tin ore, saltpeter, nickel ore, and countless slaves.
Now these things have become highways, railways, locomotives, and various weapons and equipment.
In the past few months, various countries have successively paid more than half of the payment for goods, and also taken away many new technologies from Tang Mo.
With raw materials, Tang State developed faster. Tang Mo had no shortage of skills to begin with, but now that he had labor and raw materials, the construction speed was staggeringly fast.
Recently, Tang Mo has been busy equipping his troops with brand-new Type 56 assault rifles. At the same time, he also needs to equip the troops with M113 armored reconnaissance vehicles and Lion armored reconnaissance vehicles.
Of course there are also the Wildbee 155mm self-propelled howitzer, and the famous No. 4 tank and No. 4 assault gun.
There are many more aircraft, including a large number of transports and bombers. The Tang Army's fighter force has always been small in size, and the number of Butcher fighters has always hovered around 300, without much growth.
These heavy weapons and equipment are waiting for large-scale deployment. The army needs a large number of tanks and armored vehicles. At the same time, it has gradually turned into a gold-swallowing behemoth with an excellent appetite.
Any heavily armed force needs a large amount of material support, especially fuel, to set out. Now that an armored division of the Tang Army is in action, its fuel consumption is almost equal to that of three motorized infantry divisions.
In order to feed these oil tigers, Tang Mo had to import a large amount of fuel from Chu State and Binghan Empire at extremely high prices to make up for the incremental gap in his single consumption.
The main oil producing area of Tang State is Longdao. Although the production capacity is high, transportation is actually very inconvenient. So Tang Mo actually wanted to find a stable source of oil that could continue to supply oil.
Chu State is obviously a good choice. As long as it devours this country, Tang State will almost achieve its strategic goal in terms of oil self-sufficiency.
It is a pity that Tang Mo cannot directly declare war on Chu State. Although he has technological advantages, his military strength is really stretched.
The vast territory of Qi State forced him to waste his troops on garrisoning these newly acquired lands. Although his regular army had expanded to hundreds of thousands, one-third of it had become new garrison troops.
It seems that the number of troops that can actually be used for offense is not much greater than before the Battle of Tang and Qi broke out, but the strength of Chu State is much greater than previously estimated.
Attacking the Chu State must focus on strategy. Compared with the Qi State whose territory is mostly plains, the Chu State has more mountains, so armored forces do not seem to be of much use in the attack.
According to the staff opinion given by Loew, if the Tang army wanted to attack Chu, it must train at least 300,000 infantry and be prepared to lose more than 100,000 people.
This estimate is slightly pessimistic, but the actual results are actually similar. In the early stage of the war, the Tang army may go smoothly, and it is even expected that they can capture the capital of Chu within two months.
But then there will be a situation where a large number of Chu troops retreat into the mountains and harass the Tang army. The war will last for a long time, and the losses of the Tang army may be three times that of the Qi army!
Those rolling mountains all need to be captured by the soldiers of the Tang Army using the most primitive methods. By then, it is estimated that every inch of the land will be soaked in blood.
However, for Tang Mo, if you put in the effort, you will be rewarded. The mountainous terrain of Chu State not only has a rich oil field, but also countless mineral deposits.
Steel, copper, nickel...even rare earths, and uranium, which Tang Mo will definitely use in the future, are estimated to be quite a lot.
It can be said that the occupation of Chu State was enough for Tang Mo's Tang Kingdom to complete its internal cycle and become a completely self-sufficient country.
No matter what kind of opponent he faces, Tang Mo will be able to deal with it calmly. He can even close the door and develop alone, pushing technology to a level beyond the reach of others in one fell swoop.
It is regrettable that the Dahua Empire can no longer continue to watch Tang Mo expand, and Zhao Kai will never sit back and watch Chu State be annexed.
So, declaring war on the Chu State is probably equivalent to declaring war on the Great China Empire. This made Tang Mo have to seriously consider whether he had the ability to wage a war on both sides.
This is not an easy question to answer. Even if his elite troops are capable of defeating the troops of Chu or the Great China Empire, their strategic passivity will drag down the Tang army's strategic reserves.
He may be trapped in a two-front war and exhaust his strategic oil reserves in a two-front war, which is not what he wants to face.
(End of this chapter)