Munitions Empire

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The place got its name, Youdianzi, from the frequent layer of dark crude oil found on the land; it was once an important oil production area, or a petroleum production zone.

Later, the Dahua Empire introduced advanced oil extraction equipment from the Tang Country and began to establish oilfields here; Youdianzi became purely a geographical name and started to be subordinate to the oilfields.

The lives of the people here didn't become any richer because of oil production; on the contrary, they suffered terribly because of the nobility's oppression. Only recently were the nobles, who had always been powerful and oppressive near the oilfields, completely eradicated.

Unlike in the past, after the Tang Army arrived here, they began to repair the oilfield facilities, brought in many pieces of equipment, and also distributed food, giving the local folks a good start.

However, the shadow of war has always loomed over this oil-rich land. After the Tang Army arrived, they began to transform the airport and construct a plethora of military facilities.

On the mountains near Youdianzi, steel antennas taller than the trees were erected, no one knew what they were, only that they were a new type of weapon from the Tang people.

After these steel structures were deployed, people were no longer allowed up the nearby slopes; the locals all received compensation, and no one clamored to go hunting in the mountains anymore.

The Troops from the Tang Country would regularly deliver various kinds of food to the villages at the foot of the mountains, even delicious instant noodles and luncheon meat, and occasionally condiments such as soy sauce. These supplies were far tastier than any rabbits caught while hunting, so interest in hunting waned significantly.

Recently, trucks that had never been seen before started to arrive in Youdianzi, carrying all sorts of cannons. A warehouse was constructed, surrounded by barbed wire and signs warning of the dangers of munitions.

Those tall cannons were soon placed in positions fortified by sandbags and camouflaged with nets; they had excellent fields of fire all around.

The artillerymen of the Tang Country, dressed in clean uniforms, would operate these cannons daily. A single cannon would be serviced by a dozen people, as if it was something incredibly precious.

In fact, the local people couldn't see that the Tang Army had also deployed a large number of Anti-Aircraft Guns around them. How important the southern oilfields were, only the Tang Army knew.

In places like Youdianzi around the periphery of the oilfields, the Tang Army had deployed many new 88mm Anti-Aircraft Guns. They were large and agile, making them excellent anti-aircraft weapons.

At the same time, in order to command these Anti-Aircraft Guns, the Tang Army also installed radars on the surrounding high ground to provide early warning and rudimentary fire control.

With the support of these radars, the Tang Army's Anti-Aircraft Guns could calmly set time-delay fuses to explode the shells at relatively precise altitudes.

And within the core inner circle of the oilfields, the Tang Army had deployed a large number of smaller caliber Anti-Aircraft Guns. Numerous Bofors 40mm Anti-Aircraft Guns, along with searchlights, formed a nearly impenetrable net of firepower.

This was just the nighttime air defense; daytime air defense was handed over to the Air Force fighter squadrons. More than 150 Butcher Fighters were stationed at airports near the oilfields with the aim of intercepting any enemy aircraft trying to approach the oilfields.

Indeed, the 88mm Anti-Aircraft Guns were not without their drawbacks; for stability in shooting, they had a heavy base design, and their weight approached 5 tons while being transported.

But these drawbacks seemed trivial compared to their excellent performance: they had a fearsome rate of fire for their caliber, as well as very precise anti-aircraft sights, fast response, and a terrifying anti-air capability.

After all, when it came to air defense capabilities, it was indeed hard to find another Anti-Aircraft Gun that could purely outperform the 88mm in terms of performance.

Inside the air defense command center of the Tang Army in the southern oilfields, a group of commanders were studying the operational plans of the Dahua Air Force. They had to anticipate every possible move of the enemy and prepare targeted contingency plans.

Everyone was very busy, cross-referencing various pieces of information, determining the enemy's time of action and the specific scale of the operation.

This was science, an analysis based on substantial intelligence data. The so-called breaking of the enemy's codes was almost a joke here.

No one believed in decrypted messages because such messages could also be intentional leaks by the enemy. Therefore, even if content from decrypted messages were available, it could only serve as a reference and had nothing to do with decision-making.

What really influenced the commanders' decisions was actually data, those bits of intelligence that were not easily faked or that would be costly to fabricate.

If the enemy planned to attack from one direction, communication messages would correspondingly increase: this was not easily faked, and no matter how secretive, the volume of messages for large troop movements would uncontrollably increase to tens or hundreds of times the norm.

At the same time, the amount of oil, food, and ammunition being gathered would also increase accordingly. If these data could be obtained, they would prove the other side was actively preparing a bona fide military action.

An Air Force technical officer assured Xiao Yun, the deputy commander of the Air Force who was in charge of operations, "The enemy bombing the oilfields will definitely choose to do so in formation during the daytime, as their technology dictates. They lack sufficient navigation equipment at night."

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