Chapter 58: Andrei Must Be Desperate

The Asgardian Imperial Palace.

Emperor Odin was listening to the reading of Renkemp's report by his aide-de-camp while looking at a batch of freshly developed photographs on a slide projector with great interest.

"Interesting Andrei Belyavsky."

"Barbaric Rus."

"Ridiculous Yamato."

He delivered these three evaluations in succession, then raised his hand to signal his ministers to voice their opinions.

Njorde stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, this Third Prince Belyavsky is well aware of the gap between himself and the Yamato, and has adopted a fighting style that relies heavily on resilience. This minister is optimistic that he will emerge victorious."

Freyr, the Minister of War, chimed in, "I second that. According to our intelligence, the Yamato army is relatively small in scale. They do not have enough reserve troops to squander in the vast Belyavsky wilderness. Conversely, the Principality of Belyavsky, backed by the support of the Ancient Rus Holy Church, is currently reorganizing a ground army numbering over eight hundred thousand. The upper limit of their soldiers depends entirely on the quantity of arms available. Coincidentally, the weak industrial capacity of the Principality of Belyavsky locks the ceiling of its military strength."

This was the limitation of the Asgardians' perspective.

Infatuated with their own high-end industrial prowess, they only had eyes for large-scale factories and failed to take small, workshop-style arms shops seriously.

In reality, hand-assembled firearms could still kill just as easily.

Emperor Odin polled his ministers and found their opinions relatively unanimous: "Very well, continuing to support the Principality of Belyavsky aligns with our interests. The equipment for the fourth division can be released."

Njorde spoke up once more, "Your Majesty, we also need to arm our own military. Why not start with this batch of munitions and let the ordnance factories in Suteid handle this order?"

"Oh? Very well."

As newly conquered territory of the Asgardian Empire, Suteid possessed numerous munitions factories and decent industrial strength. Assigning the order there would, firstly, alleviate the arms production pressure on the Asgardian mainland, and secondly, throw a few scraps of meat to the new territory.

The production lines were similar anyway, and as for quality... would a beggar from the Principality of Belyavsky dare to demand quality?

Emperor Odin certainly had not forgotten how the Asgardian army had fought the Rus with brutal ferocity during the last Great European War.

Sending them defective goods to let those damned Rus and the even more damned Yamato slaughter each other was unquestionably in Asgard's best interest.

On the other side, the Britannians were quite satisfied with the results of the inspection. However, this time they too had grown tight-fisted, refusing to hand out checks as readily and instead offering a massive stockpile of [Lee-Enfield No. 1 Mk. I Rifles] under the guise of aid.

These were leftovers from the last Great European War, now relegated solely to equipping colonial forces.

Yet another obsolete rifle.

Its main advantage was sheer abundance, dumping thirty thousand units in one go.

Zhang Shan was not annoyed. To reiterate: one cannot know the cost of firewood and rice until running the household.

When his tens of thousands of Guardian Army soldiers were "crying out to be fed," lacking even rifles and practicing so-called marksmanship with wooden mock-ups, an old rifle was still a rifle.

Three months into the war, the domestically produced Mosin series in Rus had only just filled the gaps for the previous seven standing divisions. The equipment from the three Asgardian divisions was used to arm the eighth, ninth, and tenth divisions.

Aside from the early models of Mosin rifles they brought themselves, the remaining homeland defense brigades were equipped mostly with Type 38 Arisakas.

As for the six newly formed Guardian Army divisions, their arsenals were an eclectic collection of the world's weaponry.

In the past, Quartermaster General Anthony always looked at His Highness Zhang Shan with fond approval, given that he could genuinely procure weapons and equipment.

Recently, however, Anthony could no longer manage a smile when looking at Zhang Shan.

His once Mediterranean hairline had completely transformed into the hairstyle of a powerhouse—he was going bald!

Zhang Shan desperately wanted to say, "Go on, keep smiling!" but seeing Anthony's bloodshot, sorrowful eyes from severe sleep deprivation, Zhang Shan decided it was best not to provoke the fellow.

An assortment of weapons from around the globe meant that almost every single model of gun used a different caliber of ammunition.

Frontline soldiers did not care about logistics; when they ran out of bullets, they simply held out their palms and demanded more from the supply corps.

Transporting and distributing ammunition for ten different types of firearms versus two types was a difference as vast as heaven and earth.

In a sense, Zhang Shan even had to thank Lieutenant Colonel Sakamoto on the opposing side, because their business dealings were growing steadily larger.

Almost every night, the [Night Witches] bomber squadron would pay a visit to the Yamato supply lines.

The primary focus of every night was to bomb a designated campsite.

How many bombs were dropped and how many hit their targets were beside the point. As long as the campsite was bombed, by the break of dawn, Lieutenant Colonel Sakamoto's men would drive large trucks outside the camp to dump trash.

Yes, crate after crate of brand-new, unused Type 38 Arisakas along with matching ammunition would be written off in the ledgers under the guise of "ordnance and ammunition destroyed by bombing."

Hearing his subordinates report that "the Rus across the line have more and more Type 38 Arisakas in their hands," General Honda felt as disgusted as if he had swallowed half a fly.

He desperately wanted to prevent ordnance from passing through the hands of the Fourth Division, but the problem was he had no one else to use.

Losses of equipment on the battlefield were bound to turn into a messy tangle of unaccountable waste.

When a wounded soldier was rescued and brought back, his weapon was very likely left behind on the battlefield. Then came enemy bombings, accidents during transportation, and a myriad of other mishaps that could write off equipment.

It was hardly possible to make every fallen soldier issue a magical certificate stating, "I am dead, and my rifle was captured by the enemy."

General Honda continued to endure, waiting for the completion of the steppe railway.

Building a railway across the steppe was far faster than ordinary people imagined.

Theoretically, the Yamato constructed the railway from south to north, utilizing the tracks and rail cars to transport materials like rails forward as construction progressed.

In practice, a large number of laborers could be deployed to grade the land in advance along preset sections. If truck transport capacity permitted, pre-fabricated ties could even be shipped ahead of time and laid out in the forward zones. Once the railway construction reached that area, the long and heavy steel rails could be installed immediately.

By early August, driven by General Honda's frantic urging, this colossal project had progressed rapidly, reaching over one hundred and sixty kilometers. Just as the railway was nearing completion, an unexpected raid caught the Yamato forces completely off guard.

In the eyes of the Yamato, the Principality of Belyavsky was nothing more than a punching bag, destined to take beatings passively from start to finish.

No one anticipated that those newly armed Khanate cavalry would carelessly gallop over to attack the Mongo Autonomous Dominion, which was allied with the Yamato.

"Charge!" The Khanate cavalrymen from Yakutsk charged enthusiastically toward the dense clusters of tents on the steppe.

For the Khanate cavalry to launch a frontal charge against heavily fortified Yamato positions would be suicide, but when it came to civil war among the Mongo tribes, this was right up their alley.

This was no symmetrical battle. The Mongo Autonomous Dominion, having already lost its main cavalry forces across the steppe, was virtually shattered upon first contact by a full six divisions of Khanate cavalry.

The members of the Mongo Autonomous Dominion were utterly dumbfounded. Facing the tidal wave of incoming cavalry, many of them were actually shouting at the top of their lungs, "We are allies of the Yamato—"

"We're here to slaughter the dwarfs' dogs!"

There was no mercy, only brutality.

The Khanate cavalry hurled grappling hooks, using their horses to drag down the entire stretch of wooden stake fences surrounding the autonomous dominion's capital.

Countless riders surged inward, using [Mauser C96 'Broomhandle'] pistols and sabers to teach these Mongo tribal traitors a lesson in the laws of the steppe.