Chapter 35: The Highway of Death

The imbalance between productivity and markets is a fundamental tension. Emerging powers, unwilling to be perpetually oppressed and exploited under the old order, find their grievances increasingly acute. In such a climate, the international order can never satisfy the interests of every nation and region. More often than not, disputes can only be resolved through war—where the winner takes all and the loser must submit.

This is an era of great contention! Any force capable of fighting will always find favor with patrons. Despite the slight embellishment in Zhang Shan’s recent thrashing of the Yamato forces, his record was actually quite credible in an age where sinking a single destroyer was routinely inflated into sinking a battleship.

What was truly absurd was that the first to accuse Zhang Shan of fabrication was not the victim, the Yamato people. Their high command remained unexpectedly silent, their buried rage and volatility betrayed only by the accelerated mobilization of the Guanbei Army. The one who truly stepped out to dissent was Emperor Constantine XVIII of Lacia, who had questioned the veracity of the Grand Duchy of Beria’s claims on more than one occasion at balls and other informal gatherings.

It was truly cringe-worthy. In the end, it was simply that the Emperor had provided no support, yet his unruly subordinate had achieved such resounding success, leaving the Emperor with no face.

Just then, the Electors of Lacia made their move.

"What?" Zhang Shan was taken aback when he heard the news.

Anna pushed up her round, black-rimmed glasses. She had realized that upon arriving at Zhang Shan’s side, she had truly become a mere tool. She dropped the pretense, opting for comfort, and put her glasses back on during office hours: "The Orlov family wishes to invest in our Beria Aviation Consortium. They have pre-ordered one hundred next-generation fighter aircraft and are willing to pay fifty million rubles as a deposit."

Seeming worried that their Prince might not understand the nuances, Anna added, "Your Highness, this doesn't require anything from our country; it is purely a forward-looking investment. To put it bluntly, as allies of our family, the Orlovs are giving us money in a way that minimizes the risk of angering the Emperor. It is almost a gift."

Zhang Shan understood the logic. To call it an investment in the future was a polite way of saying they were finding an excuse to funnel money to him.

Zhang Shan did not answer immediately. He picked up a map and looked at the Orlov family’s fief—the region east of the Raul Mountains.

Zhang Shan looked puzzled: "Could this be..."

Under the bewildered gaze of his subordinates, Zhang Shan replied, "Tell the Orlov family that fifty million is too stingy. Either they invest five hundred million rubles, or they sell me half the shares of the Raul Automobile Plant near Yekaterin City. Our family can join them in developing the next generation of tanks, and we can use British Pounds for our stake."

Anna: "???"

It was truly miraculous. Someone was handing over money, and he didn't even want it! This was an ally risking the Emperor's wrath to provide funding! Couldn't he just hoodwink them, hand over some scrap blueprints to satisfy them, and then turn around to buy munitions from Alica?

You're actually eyeing their factory? What kind of maneuver is this?

Zhang Shan stared at the bespectacled woman: "Do as I say. Trust me, this will be far more effective than them simply dumping cash into the Grand Duchy of Beria."

The industrial foundation of the Grand Duchy of Beria was too weak. Building aircraft was manageable, as the main bodies of planes in this era were largely made of wood, and the other mechanical parts could be outsourced to jewelry shops. But once it came to tanks—those steel-hungry behemoths—a sufficient steel production capacity was mandatory.

The problem was that industrialization could not yield results in a year or two. Crucially, the iron ore in the Grand Duchy of Beria was of poor quality; it could not compare to the rich iron deposits in Kifris or the several provinces in the central Empire that possessed iron mines. Furthermore, the Grand Duchy was frozen solid, covered in permafrost, making the cost of industrial development twice that of other regions. This strategy of "borrowing a shell to hatch an egg" was, in fact, the most advantageous for the Beria family.

Throughout the month of June, the Yamato Guanbei Army, hampered by supply disruptions, suppressed their frustration and focused on moving troops. On the grasslands, supply stations that were once twenty kilometers apart were now spaced every ten. A supply train would barely leave one station before the next was already in sight. More importantly, Commander-in-Chief Honda, having learned his lesson, equipped every station with a large number of Type 92 13mm anti-aircraft machine guns. Though these were subpar, with only 30-round magazines, their sheer numbers posed a genuine threat to Lacia's pilots.

Additionally, a large number of field airfields were established. If a supply station came under attack, Yamato pilots on duty would risk their lives to engage in night combat. This significantly reduced the effectiveness of the TB-3 squadrons at Zhang Shan's disposal.

Interestingly, there were some things the Yamato people simply lacked—such as field air defense. Once outside the supply stations, the damned Lacia cavalry would immediately use mobile radios to call in aircraft for carpet bombing or strafing runs. The 6mm machine guns on their armored cars and tanks were truly no match for the 8mm hardened aluminum armor of the I-16 fighters. With speeds approaching 500 kilometers per hour, the planes were nearly impossible to hit, and even when struck, the rounds often failed to penetrate.

This resulted in massive transport losses. It was considered a success if even seventy percent of the supplies departing from the so-called No. 1 Supply Station reached the Red Tower defense line. The Yamato people sorrowfully dubbed this supply route the "Highway of Death."

Indeed! The Khanate's riders, lacking an air force to take down the supply stations, occupied the entire grassland instead. They operated in small teams of two or three, appearing everywhere like ghosts of the plains. Whenever the Yamato sent out patrols, whether in small or large numbers, they were wiped out in an instant. The Yamato were helpless; these cunning Khanate riders never engaged in a head-on confrontation, preferring to harass them endlessly.

They did not know that Zhang Shan had deployed five cavalry divisions across the grassland to harass this supply line in rotation. He had also set up ten field airfields around the enemy's supply lines, equipped with small radios. Each airfield kept only a few aircraft—three I-16s—ensuring they could scramble at a moment's notice. If a large enemy force arrived, they would fly away; small groups were left to be finished off by the Khanate riders.

Even worse, the Yamato's Type 96 aircraft were already inferior to the I-16s, usually resulting in a 3-to-7 disadvantage in combat. That was not all; the pilot loss ratio between the two sides was 9 to 1. The reasoning was simple: unless a Yamato pilot crashed directly along the supply route, they would be hunted down by the Khanate riders the moment they landed, provided they were three kilometers off the main path.

Zhang Shan, knowing well the Yamato habit of killing and abusing prisoners, had long ago issued orders to take no survivors among Yamato pilots. Conversely, the grassland was vast enough that any Lacia pilot who survived their landing could generally be rescued. For a Yamato pilot, a plane crash was a death sentence.

Under immense pressure, Yamato Army pilots began to show signs of refusal to fly and war-weariness. As the fighting dragged on, the airspace over the grassland effectively became the domain of Lacia's pilots. A single pass of cannon fire from a Lacia plane would turn the Yamato supply convoys into scattered debris.

Consequently, the Yamato soldiers were greeted by the sight of armored cars, tanks, and truck wrecks littering the grassland, with countless corpses left unburied in the wilderness. Yet, General Honda acted like a gambler who had lost his mind, refusing to admit defeat: "As long as we take the Red Tower! The Grand Duchy of Beria will surely perish!"

He was that certain!

General Honda maintained the supply lines at a staggering cost, and the results were finally felt as June drew to a close: the Lacia defenders of Red Tower caught their first glimpse of the demonic forces of the Yamato Grade-A divisions.