Munitions Empire

It is said that different professions are worlds apart, Liu Zhian didn't understand the pain of the Qin Country Air Force; at this moment, the Qin Country Air Force was almost powerless to fight anymore.

On one hand, it was due to the psychological disadvantage of the pilots: most veteran pilots of the Qin Country were personally trained by Tang Army instructors, they were well aware of their own limitations.

The skill of those Tang Country flight instructors who returned to their homeland six months ago was known to these Qin Country pilots very well. The two sides were on entirely different levels: the opposing pilots consumed oil more than these Qin Country pilots consumed water.

Even though Qin Country pilots were unstoppable during the Shu Country battle, that experience was gained by defeating weaker opponents. When they faced formidable adversaries, they could only back off.

During World War II, the achievements of many German ace pilots, including famous world number one ace pilot Hartmann, were actually gathered from grinding on the Eastern Front.

Their skill level was far superior when facing Soviet pilots, allowing them to easily achieve the feat of shooting down dozens or even hundreds of enemy planes. The full series is hosted on My Virtual Library Empire, known as MV7LEMPYR.

However, when these German fighter ace pilots were transferred to the Western Front to fight against the British and American Air Forces, their achievements appeared much more genuine: many pilots had records of just a dozen or twenty planes, which reflected their true skill level.

Of course, the length of their service also mattered, but the terrifying numerical difference clearly indicated the issue; the truth was that air combat on the Western Front was much more brutal than on the Eastern Front.

From a professional perspective, most of the Eastern Front was purely air combat, pilots focused more on shooting down enemy fighter jets, testing the pilots' flying skills and reflexes.

The situation on the Western Front was different; British and American combat mode was escorting bombers, forcing German pilots to concentrate a lot of their efforts on intercepting bomber formations.

Facing British and American bombers with dozens of self-defense machine guns, the German fighter jet formation couldn't maintain its integrity, their firepower was clearly at a disadvantage, naturally affecting their results.

Simply put, the Western Front's air combat was more like positional warfare, personal valor and ability seemed insignificant in front of steel walls, so achievements couldn't explain anything.

Qin Army pilots were somewhat caught in this predicament: during the Shu Country battle, they basically fought against opponents of similar skill, which quickly helped them find their rhythm.

Propeller fighter jets dogfighting in the air, rolling and entangling in duels, ultimately deciding a winner — such air battles were thrilling and romantic, Qin Country pilots were delighted with them.

But now, facing the Tang Army, the Tang Country pilots' tactics appeared much more aggressive and dominant. Relying on their fighter jets' performance advantage, Tang Army pilots followed a wild approach, moving swiftly, and Qin Country pilots were very uncomfortable with it.

With the support of air-to-air missiles, Tang Country pilots easily tore apart the Qin Country Air Force. Qin Country's elite jet fighters suffered heavy losses, and a precious number of jet fighter pilots also perished.

Don't underestimate these dozens of individuals; they represented the core of the Qin Country Air Force. They were ace pilots, most were even instructors and seeds.

These people were the backbone of the troops, their experience, ability, and courage were all top-notch. Losing these people was like extracting the tendons and bones from the troops they belonged to, the combat capability suddenly dropped to the bottom.

To put it seriously, these troops even lost their ability to regenerate; after losing their most essential pilots, they even had difficulty training new ones.

For a time, the Qin Country Air Force faced a situation where the old and new generations couldn't connect, so the Air Force commanders were unwilling to send their elite active forces into the battlefield for nothing.

There's no choice; in the face of air-to-air missiles, Qin Country pilots often didn't even have the chance to eject before being 'taken out' with their planes.

These pilots couldn't return to base, which meant they couldn't continue to contribute. Losing over 200 pilots within a month was something entirely unacceptable for Qin Country!

Although these losses came from several directions in the southeast and north, they were ultimately Qin Army pilots. Their being shot down also meant that the Qin Country Air Force lost a portion of the courage needed to continue flying to meet the fight.

The second reason why the Qin Country Air Force was unwilling to fly into battle was that they were severely weakened! Yes, their troops were heavily transferred and dispersed to newly established battlefields!

There was no choice because the Tang Army's advance was too fast, causing the Qin Army to have more and more fronts, and they had to send air force to support.

In the Shanchong direction, the Tang Army suddenly broke through, so fast that entering Shu City was almost becoming the front line. Fearing the Tang Army would attack Shu Country from the entry point, the Qin Army had to deploy massive troops at Shu City.

To cover these troops, the Qin Army assembled 100 Type 183 jet fighters, 200 P-series fighter jets, and dozens of Stukas along with 17 bombers...

Such a substantial force couldn't have been created out of thin air; all other directions were already tight, so they were transferred south from the old capital direction.

As a result, the Northern Region's Qin Country Air Force power was severely weakened compared to the start of the war. Combined with losses in combat, abandoned planes and equipment during retreats, the Qin Country Air Force here even fell to less than half of what was at the war's outbreak!

Some Northern Air Force planes were pulled back to Shu Country because it was already in a critical condition: on one side, the Tang Army's 6th Group Army moved into Chu Territory, Zhang Xuan's troops needed air force support; on the other, the joint fleet suffered a crushing defeat, and Shu Country's coastline needed defending forces.

These two directions weren't minor issues, hence the Qin Army had to solve them: ultimately, nearly 300 planes were allocated to Shu Territory, and the remaining Qin Country Air Force became incapable of fighting anymore.

With these two reasons, the avoidance of battle by the Qin Country Air Force's northern region troops could be understood. Ying Duo had to accept the Air Force Commanders' approach: he wanted the air force to continue fighting, but after given reasonable explanations, he also understood the dilemma the air force was facing.

For the air force, pilots were even more precious than planes; if valuable pilots were wasted, subsequent operations would fail even more completely.

Ying Duo did not gamble on future prospects, and the air force commanders couldn't assure victory in the skies against Tang Country teachers equipped with air-to-air missiles.

To restore the air force's regenerative capability and wait for advanced fighter jets to be deployed at the front line, the Qin Country Air Force could only avoid battle passively. However, their 'endurance bearing the disgrace' appeared as betrayal to ground troops.

In the eyes of Qin Country's army, the backbone of the air force had already been broken by the Tang People.

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Not in good shape today, just two updates for now, will continue to compensate tomorrow.