Munitions Empire

For John Cleves, the nightmare is just beginning. What he doesn't know is that, in another direction, on the deck of the Cruiser Courage, sailors from the Qin Country Navy are watching helplessly as a Harpoon Anti-Ship Missile crashes into the Destroyer Samura sailing beside them.

The enormous energy instantly pierced through the destroyer's hull, engulfing the entire superstructure in flames.

The terrifying explosion destroyed the hull, blew open the deck, and sent the destroyer's smokestack flying. The Samura Destroyer, which had come a long way from Dorne, began to break and sink within half a minute.

Immediately afterward, everyone saw that not far away, on the Qin Country's Pursuit of the Wind Destroyer, all sizes of Anti-Aircraft Guns were wildly pouring out ammunition in one direction.

Tracer Bullets formed a fiery web on the sea's surface, and within it, a shadow instantly hit the midsection of the Pursuit of the Wind Destroyer. The 220-kilogram warhead exploded, sending one-man-high searchlights flying from both sides of the destroyer's smokestack.

The 40mm caliber Bofors Anti-Aircraft Guns surrounding the searchlight were also pushed into the air by the explosive blast, and the sailors operating them tumbled into the sea. A horrendous gaping hole appeared on the destroyer's hull.

The ship's structure deformed and melted due to the intense burning explosion, the weakened keel began to crack, and seawater poured into the destroyer's interior through the fissures. The slender warship started to tilt, clearly about to sink into the sea.

Before the sailors on the Courage could cry out, further away, two Harpoon Anti-Ship Missiles almost simultaneously struck the Cruiser Miracle of Qin Country.

Two clouds of black smoke front and back made the entire Miracle shudder. A few seconds later, the Miracle's ammunition depot exploded, the No. 1 turret was directly blown off by the sympathetic explosion, the cruiser's bow was ruptured by an internal explosion, breaking apart and sinking, soon vanishing beneath the sea.

With its bow lost, the Miracle Cruiser's speed began to drop, and the explosion at the stern seemed to damage its propulsion system, causing the Miracle to soon be forced to halt on the sea, gradually being left behind by the high-speed fleet.

This was far from over, as the powerless Miracle soon exploded again, seemingly due to a problem near the boiler. With a muffled explosion, this brand new cruiser which launched just over two years ago capsized, leaving only its hull floating on the sea.

And these sunken warships were just part of the warships sunk by the second wave of anti-ship missiles fired by the Tang Army.

Due to communication failures, these losses couldn't be timely reported to John Cleves, the Commander of the joint fleet, who was unaware that his alert fleet deployed outside the anchorage had suffered severe losses, almost becoming incapable of battle.

This is no exaggeration. John Cleves deployed four outer alert fleets, placing them in Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest directions.

The fleet deployed in the Northeast direction was the strongest because that's where the Tang Army was most likely to attack. It had 17 warships, including 3 Battleships.

The Southeast direction was next, with 15 warships, including two Battleships; followed by Northwest, with a total of 9 warships and one Battleship in command; the smallest alert fleet was in the Southwest direction, possessing 7 warships, no Battleships.

In the central position was the main fleet, including 10 Aircraft Carriers, 4 Battleships, and 6 Cruisers and Destroyers responsible for monitoring.

Now, the 15 warships deployed in the Southeast direction were almost all obliterated, with one Battleship severely damaged, 2 Cruisers and 4 Destroyers sunk. Additionally, 2 Cruisers and 5 Destroyers were wounded…

The entire fleet was left with only one Battleship that escaped a disaster; now engaged in rescue efforts, aiding the salvage of other damaged warships, with no means to fight.

The 9 warships deployed in the Northwest direction were under attack at this moment. The sailors on the Courage Destroyer were lucky to witness this spectacular scene: besides themselves, the remaining eight warships were hit one after another, catching fire—a truly magnificent sight.

In the end, only the Qin Country Battleship Valiant Warship, tough and rugged, survived the Tang Army missile attack. It was hit by 3 Harpoon Missiles, fortunately not one hit a critical spot.

Thus, the Northwest's alert fleet was left with only the Courage Destroyer and the severely damaged Valiant Warship Battleship floating on the sea; the remaining warships... had all sunk, or were sinking.

John Cleves now probably confirmed the losses in the Southeast direction; he knew he had 8 warships wounded and approximately 6 warships sunk.

Adding the sunk Aircraft Carrier from the main fleet, the joint fleet had lost a large number of warships; the situation was becoming very dire.

At this moment, on the sea's distant surface, near the horizon, a flash suddenly illuminated.

Someone happened to see the flash and picked up a telescopic lens to look over. In the eyepiece of his telescope, the side of the Taren Aircraft Carrier on the sea was spewing billowing black smoke.

Right then, a Harpoon Anti-Ship Missile directly struck the carrier's side, penetrated the hull again, causing the thick smoke spewing from the side to be mixed with flickering flames.

"Com, Commander... Taren, the Taren Aircraft Carrier, the Taren is hit! It's on fire..." Unable to lower the binoculars, the officer shouted frantically inside the command bridge.

No one reprimanded him because, after hearing his shout, everyone grabbed their binoculars and looked towards the direction where the Taren Aircraft Carrier was located.

They quickly saw the massive explosion blow off Taren Aircraft Carrier's deck, where Stuka Dive Bombers parked on the deck were all tossed into the sea by the explosion.

Those planes were supposed to take off and form the third wave assault squadron, having just loaded torpedoes, awaiting orders for takeoff.

Now, a plane with a torpedo fell onto the deck fire, followed by another explosion, and flames consumed the Taren Aircraft Carrier's bridge...

John Cleves no longer dared to look, lowering his binoculars, his entire face had lost all color. It was a Dorne Aircraft Carrier, another Dorne Aircraft Carrier!

He had brought these warships, the ones carrying national hopes, here, and without even seeing the enemy, already had lost two carriers! How could he explain to His Majesty The Emperor? How could he... account to himself?