Chapter 52 The Opening of the School of Thought

Anyway, Boria had a good start. In addition to such factories, there were ten others operating across the entire territory, twenty about to begin production, and fifty under construction.

Zhang Shan remained silent for a long time, then turned to Anna: "The situation is urgent now, and we cannot afford to be overly particular, but Alika's excavators have already arrived at the port. In August, I want to see all munitions production transferred to underground facilities. Every factory roof must be fortified with reinforced concrete, or tunnels must be dug into the mountains, capable of withstanding at least 250kg aerial bomb attacks. Every gunpowder storage facility must have blast-proof partition walls."

Anna was slightly startled: "Your Highness, do you mean there is a possibility that the Yamato people might bomb Barovsk itself?"

Zhang Shan glanced at her, thinking to himself: They even dared to bomb Amber Port, let alone a tiny Barovsk.

In theory, the Yamato navy would not dispatch precious carrier-based fighter squadrons to help the army fools, but who could say for sure?

If possible, Zhang Shan definitely did not want his children to bet their lives on the assumption that Yamato aerial bombs would not fall on their heads.

Time came to mid-July. The bitter battle in Red Tower City continued, and the Yamato 2nd and 9th Divisions had become pitiful "building-gnawing divisions." Both sides engaged in fierce combat, fighting fiercely over one factory or apartment building after another.

Whenever the Yamato forces dared to deploy [Steam Knights] into the city, Commander Andrantov of the Rasia 8th Division would dare to call in Po-2 and TB-3 planes to bomb the Yamato mechs along with the buildings they were hiding in.

The funny thing was that because the Yamato forces lacked large-caliber field artillery capable of city combat, they often failed to demolish buildings. As a result, they had to return to square one, continuously feeding ordinary soldiers into the meat grinder, blowing up buildings with explosive charges, and even using elite heavy infantry for assaults.

As the fighting dragged on, the exchange ratio actually shifted, reaching 1 to 3 between the Yamato and the Rasia forces.

Lieutenant General Yoshikawa could not feel happy.

This was because the enemy had actually withdrawn their homeland defense brigades, and the newly rotated enemy designations were the Far East Guardian Army 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Divisions.

Just hearing the names gave a rough idea of what kind of opponents they were facing.

And reality proved it to be true.

When the enemy used weapons from the previous Great War, such as [Springfield rifles] and [Lewis light machine guns], to exchange medium-to-long-range gunfire with the Yamato troops, they had never won.

Unfortunately, assaulting buildings required infantry to go inside.

Once inside the rooms, it was a typical trade of lives.

These fanatical Ancient Holy Church troops possessed astonishing morale, daring to rush at the Yamato soldiers to fight to the death with Molotov cocktails, grenades, and TM-38 anti-tank mines.

On many occasions, elites of the Yamato Type-A Divisions were scared out of their wits and forced to retreat in panic.

Inside the command headquarters, Lieutenant General Yoshikawa held the latest intelligence sent by spies, his brows knitted into a deep frown. It read: [The Grand Duchy of Boria is reorganizing the 10 withdrawn homeland defense brigades into 5 infantry divisions].

"This is getting troublesome!"

Since the outbreak of the war in May, the Yamato forces had fought against so many homeland defense brigades in Red Tower City. Except for the first two that were genuinely crippled in the true sense of the word, the rest were just normal rotations.

Once casualties reached around thirty percent, the opposing commanders would find ways to carry out a troop rotation.

There were no encirclements, let alone complete annihilations. All rotations took place at night, and given the abysmal communications in urban warfare, it remained a mystery how the enemy managed to pull it off.

The enemy knew very well that the Yamato forces could not encircle Red Tower City, and brazenly played the rotation game.

At the very beginning in May, the Far Eastern homeland defense brigades could not even provide a rifle for every soldier.

By June, every single enemy soldier was equipped with Type 38 rifles.

By late June, every enemy squad had at least one [Chicago typewriter].

Starting in July, TM-38 mines were available in endless supply.

Lieutenant General Yoshikawa dared not imagine what would happen if this dragged on any longer. He could not forget that the enemy still had four standing divisions left untouched, including the 1st Division.

According to reports sent back by reconnaissance planes that risked their lives, the insignia of the 9th Division had already been spotted north of Red Tower City. This meant the Boria 8th Division was about to be rotated out.

"The enemy is getting stronger the longer they fight."

Yoshikawa's only comfort was that General Honda had promised personally over the phone to deploy all six Type-A divisions of the Guannei Army to Red Tower City. Coupled with a bunch of secondary Type-B divisions serving as support, the Yamato troop strength on the Red Tower City front alone would reach 300,000. This did not even count the other two flanking forces attacking Buriya and Primorye.

Now they were just waiting for the completion of the railway along the supply line.

Building railways was very troublesome in regions with harsh geological conditions. On the flat steppes, however, it was actually quite easy.

Locomotives and train cars were already available, sitting within Wyman territory.

With railway tracks manufactured in advance, the factor truly constraining construction speed was actually human resources. Building a railway required a vast amount of labor and materials to tamp down the ground, level it, lay down the ties, and finally install the tracks according to standards.

Under wartime conditions, as long as trains ran slower, minor flaws were completely acceptable.

When General Honda conscripted 100,000 Sericean laborers in Wyman to build the railway, he firmly believed that a modern industrial miracle was in the making.

Uh, whether it was due to the fixed anti-air guns deployed along the supply line scaring the Rasia forces, the frequency of Rasia air raids had dropped drastically of late.

There was a rumor: the industrially weak Far Eastern region had run out of all its aerial bombs. That Prince Andrei was trying everywhere to buy bombs, but the Rasia Emperor refused to support the endeavor, resulting in very few bombs being acquired...

Do not laugh; the industrial capability of the Far Eastern region was just that feeble. Intelligence before the outbreak of the war showed that the military and civilian factories above a designated size in the Barovsk territory totaled only ten.

All the core components of its Pacific Fleet had previously been transported via the Great Boria Railway.

Thinking of this, Lieutenant General Yoshikawa's gaze sharpened: "Drag it out! The advantage is mine!"

Interestingly, Zhang Shan thought the same way.

As Gonif handed over the 100,000 Guardian troops to Zhang Shan for training, combined with the homeland defense brigades previously organized and trained by Zhang Shan, the total number of soldiers under his command recognized by the system finally broke the 100,000 mark.

This allowed him to finally unlock the army doctrine he had been yearning for: [Human Wave Assault Doctrine]!

Looking at the three talents lit up in one breath within the system, Zhang Shan grinned from ear to ear.

The first talent, [Human Wave Assault], enhanced the reinforcement rate and minimum training level of his subordinate troops. This meant he could replenish his troops faster and whip units like the Guardian troops—who had never received any military training—into a combat proficiency close to that of homeland defense brigades in a shorter time.

The second talent, [Pocket Defense], was rather strange; this thing actually enhanced cavalry units, boosting not only the endurance and speed of his cavalry but also enhancing supply transportation capabilities.

The third talent, [In-Depth Defense], was the most crucial part. It added 5 points of organization and 5 points of entrenchment to Zhang Shan's infantry on foot in one fell swoop.

Organization could be crudely and simply understood as morale, but in reality, it referred to the ability of frontline soldiers to maintain combat effectiveness in cohesive formations under command.

And as for entrenchment...

Zhang Shan suddenly thought of a rather discriminatory dark humor story from yesterday.