Munitions Empire

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Sitting inside the cramped, crowded, and oil-scented tank, the young cadet, selected to become a future tank commander, felt incredibly stifled.

When he entered the military academy and achieved excellent results, being regarded as a top student, he never imagined that he would end up like this.

In his view, a military commander should ride a tall horse, survey the battlefield through binoculars, make strategic decisions, and command troops with authority.

Now, he could hardly see what was happening around him, let alone command thousands of troops with any degree of splendor.

At this moment, due to the noise, he had to yell at the top of his lungs to order the machine gunner next to him to open fire.

The space inside the tank was truly cramped; for him, it was hardly a place suitable for humans.

As the tank moved across the rough wilderness, his head occasionally bumped against the cold, hard steel plates of the tank's outer shell, a truly terrible sensation.

Moreover, the window he could use to observe his surroundings was just a series of incredibly frustrating slits.

Through this series of disjointed slits, he could barely make out the environment around his own tank, let alone clearly see the positions where the enemy was hiding—it was an impossibility.

With such observational conditions, the enemy could hide and fire until they ran out of ammunition and still might not be detected by those inside the tank, not to mention directing the tank to fire back.

The only consolation was that these new weapons were surrounded by steel plates, making it improbable for the enemy to cause any substantial harm to them.

The tank's vulnerable tires had been replaced by sturdy, steel-made tracks, turning this so-called tank into a terrifying presence without a weakness to the light infantry.

Unfortunately, for those operating the tank, its power was equally terrifying—the driver responsible for steering the tank forward knew this all too well.

To keep a straight direction in the complex battlefield environment was extremely difficult.

In order to avoid obstacles, even a slight turn in the tank's advance could cause a huge deviation in its direction of travel.

This was inevitable; today's tanks were not equipped with GPS navigation devices, so the tank operators had to judge their own positions on the battlefield.

At shorter distances, this was manageable, as there were some reference points from before departure to roughly determine one's location.

But as the distance increased, the tank crews could only rely on their experience and the remaining ninety-nine percent luck to judge the position of their tank.

At this moment, the "tank commander," who was a top student at the academy, felt he could hardly tolerate it anymore.

He knew that this exercise was important; the academy had deliberately arranged for over 150 students to witness this tank exercise, but he was on the verge of collapsing.

The unpleasant smell of machine oil assaulted his nostrils, making breathing feel like torture. Standing on the iron boxes of ammunition, he, who was practically squatting on them, finally opened the hatch above his head.

Due to the need to cram an extra person inside, the training Tank No. 1 had a pathetic ammunition capacity of just 500 rounds, over three-quarters less than the unmodified Tank No. 1.

On one hand, this was because Maxim's caliber was larger than that of the MG13 machine gun, so the ammunition capacity plummeted.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

On the other hand, it was also because they had to make compromises to fit an additional person inside.

The newly retrofitted turret was larger, more square-shaped to accommodate another person, and had almost no incline—just a simple rectangular box.

A gust of fresh air entered the tiny vehicle body, allowing the two people in the turret to breathe a bit easier.

Poking his head out of the turret, this academy's top student finally got a clear view of the surrounding situation. Enjoy exclusive content from empire

He withdrew his head and kicked the back of the driver's seat in front of him hard: "We're veering off course! To the right, adjust to the right!"

The student driving the tank gestured back as a way to acknowledge he understood.

Then, amid the bumpy ride, this so-called tank, with thinner armor than armored vehicles, began to slowly adjust its direction to the right.

However, it was only their tank that had adjusted its course; the rest of the tanks were each fending for themselves, creating a chaotic scene.

One tank helplessly watched as it plunged into a trench in the ground; although its length of over four meters could handle many battlefield obstacles, it still fell headfirst into a large pit.

On another side, a tank tried to knock down a bothersome small tree, and though it succeeded, it got stuck on the stump and was left far behind by the other tanks.

Still, despite this, the remaining tanks performed much better than armored vehicles did on their first battlefield engagement.

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At least, aside from these two malfunctioning tanks, the rest of the tanks actually performed well and demonstrated strong battlefield adaptability.

However, these tanks were still not perfect; they lacked the means of communication, and some of the detail designs were not quite flawless, obviously not yet ready for combat on the battlefield.

"Hey! You've strayed from the path! Move over! Move!" Watching one of the remaining three tanks getting closer to his own tank to avoid an obstacle, the tank commander with the hatch open yelled hysterically.

Unfortunately, his shouting was completely drowned out by the roar of the engines, and it seemed like the other crew didn't even notice their direction was off, still recklessly approaching the exercise's preset "trench."

"Damn it! If only we had a device for shouting to each other," the tank commander who had opened the hatch and stuck his head out complained.

"They are blocking each other's view, it seems installing devices to allow these tank commanders to communicate would be an effective way to solve the problem," Mathews said to his assistant, who was busy taking notes while watching the exercise from a distance.

"If we were to go into actual combat, these tanks' frontal armor would need to be thicker, otherwise, it wouldn't withstand the enemy's potential means of attack," Mathews added after seeing his assistant writing furiously.

Tang Mo not only gave him the design for the lever-action rifle, but later also provided the designs for the machine gun, for the submachine gun...

It could be said that Tang Mo was Mathews's teacher and also the great figure who enlightened him. Whatever Mathews had achieved today was entirely the result of Tang Mo's tutelage.

Now, he was in charge of this new project called 'Tank' initiated by Tang Mo, which made Dwarf Mathews extremely excited.

He truly loved the design of this ultimate land warfare weapon! He was very optimistic about the design of these steel-beamed, iron-boned revitalized armored heavy cavalry.

"If there were more tanks, communication would be most needed... Only by informing each other of their situations could they avoid many unnecessary losses on the battlefield!"

On the exercise field, the "tank commander" who had opened the hatch finally managed to slow down the tank and avoided another that was almost charging across his path.

It was only at this moment that the other crew realized they had deviated from the exercise route, which had caused this close call.

...

"Exactly! Communicating the battlefield situation is the foundation of the cooperation between tanks!" the instructor leading the students on a tour began asking questions. After a student finished responding, he started evaluating the quality of the answer: "You spoke well! Classmate!"

"Teacher! I think communication between tanks is very important, and so is the infantry! Without enough infantry cover, tanks become very vulnerable on the battlefield," another student followed up.

"You've made a good point! You can write a paper on this topic when you get back and hand it to me. The combined attack of infantry and tanks is a good subject; you're on the right track," the instructor said with a slight nod, taking note of the impressive student.

While the exercise was in full swing, at the docks of Dragon Island's harbor, a ferry with the help of a tugboat came to a stop next to the port dock.

The gangway was lowered, and a beautiful girl with fluffy ears was the first to jump down the gangway, standing on the concrete ground of Dragon Island's dock.

"Ha! Dragon Island! Here I come!" Yue'er clenched her little fists and excitedly stated her arrival while gazing at the already super-sized bustling city with vigor.

"Get in the car!" Before Yue'er knew it, a Rolls-Royce had pulled up beside her with the door already open, and Tang Mo's voice came from inside.

"Hm?" Yue'er hadn't expected Tang Mo to pick her up personally. Excited and a bit shy, she obediently bent her head and climbed into the car.

Then, it was Tang Mo's turn to be surprised.

Because the moment Yue'er got into the car, she threw herself into Tang Mo's arms without any reservations, and her soft red lips clumsily pressed against Tang Mo's.

"You... what are you doing... Mmm..." Tang Mo didn't get to finish his sentence before Yue'er's actions cut him off.

"I've caused you trouble," Yue'er said after their lips parted, batting her large eyes at Tang Mo: "I don't want to be a nuisance to you anymore..."

"..." Tang Mo had certainly not expected Yue'er to rush from Brunas to Dragon Island just to kiss him.

"I don't want to be bullied anymore. I have to... for myself, for you... live well!" With that, Yue'er bravely charged again, aiming for Tang Mo's lips.

Tang Mo couldn't help but smile wryly at being 'attacked' by a young girl and then reached out to hold Yue'er's slender waist.

Ah, you get what you pay for—Rolls-Royce really is a good car... This backseat space... indeed... worth every penny.

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Finally, an update... I still owe everyone 4 updates.