In Wuyang, the royal city of Qin, in the palace of Qin, King Qin Yingduo was discussing the war against Shu with his generals and cronies.
Frankly speaking, Qin seems to have a strong military, but in fact it is due to an obvious lack of stamina.
It itself has no borders with the Tang Empire, so if the Qin State cannot complete its set strategic goals in a short period of time, it is likely to lose because it cannot obtain enough support from the Tang State.
It has to be said that Shu, which is backed by Chu and Tang, is itself a country that can withstand consumption better. Moreover, Shu's economy is better, so it is easier to stabilize the situation.
Qin is different. Qin must gain an absolute advantage in the early stages of the war and connect with Chu as soon as possible, so that it can import what it wants from Chu and Tang and stabilize the subsequent situation.
Compared with Zhao Kai, the emperor of the Great China Empire, Ying Duo, the king of Qin, was obviously less arrogant. He is a very pragmatic man of action, very prestigious in the Qin State, and his ability is much better than Zhao Kai.
What's interesting is that the crown prince of Qin, His Royal Highness Ying Bo, is much smarter than the princes Zhao Ji and Zhao Yu of the Great China Empire.
His Royal Highness is diligent and studious, and has outstanding abilities. He has inherited his father's excellent genes, and he has also been recognized and supported by the ministers of the Qin State.
Compared with the intrigues within the Dahua Empire, Qin's internal affairs are obviously much simpler. Because of the objective existence of internal and external troubles, the officials of the Qin State were relatively more upright and capable, and did not have as many twists and turns as within the Dahua Empire.
"Our army has now attacked this position, and the speed is slower than expected, which is very disadvantageous to us." As a general of the Qin State, Wang Luo pointed to the map and introduced King Yingduo.
Their Qin army's advance was not smooth. The Shu army was more tenacious than expected, and the Qin army itself did not fight well.
Unlike before the war, the troops of Shu stubbornly held on to their positions. After making Qin's army pay a heavy price, they did not complete their attack plan and failed to capture the predetermined target.
Qin's air force commander Liu Chi stood aside like a little transparent. He did not dare to speak because Qin's air force had fought very ugly in the previous battle.
Before the war, the Qin State had high hopes for the Air Force, because the Air Force had always performed very well in the war against the Orc Empire.
But after the war broke out, the performance of Qin's air force could only be described as poor: offensively, it was not very good, and its defense was even worse.
The Qin State bombed Shu's large cities and destroyed Shu's strategic and in-depth industrial production capacity, which almost completely failed.
Nearly half of the hundreds of Type 17 bombers that were finally scraped together have been lost. There were also a large number of valuable pilots on these downed aircraft. Such losses have made Qin very uncomfortable.
Qin's aviation industry has just started, and being able to manufacture so many aircraft is already a waste of energy. Now that more than half of the aircraft accumulated before the war have been lost, subsequent replacement has become a headache.
Not all countries can produce two aircraft at the loss of one aircraft like the Tang Empire. Most countries are like Qin. Losing two aircraft may not produce one aircraft.
The massive losses made the Air Force's offensive unsustainable, and many previously planned bombing plans were forced to be cancelled. This also completely bankrupted Qin's attempt to quickly destroy Shu's industrial production capacity, and the bombing of Shu almost stalled.
On the other side, after severely damaging Qin's bomber force, Shu's air force also began to mobilize bombers to carry out a series of attacks against Qin.
The Qin Air Force also intercepted these Shu aircraft, and the two sides fought back and forth in the air, refusing to give in to each other.
Like Qin's bombers, Shu's bombers also suffered heavy losses in the attack, and the reasons were almost the same: the performance of the bombers on both sides was similar, and neither had much ability to protect themselves when faced with interception by enemy fighter jets.
Unlike the B-17 strategic bombers used by the Tang State, the air forces of the two countries use medium-sized bombers with weak self-defense firepower and limited range.
Therefore, when there is no way to control the air, such bombers will suffer huge losses when performing bombing missions.
It's just that although the losses are huge, the impact it can have is real. The senior officials of the Qin State who initiated the war probably never thought that their southern cities would also be involved in the war. Houses were destroyed, factories were bombed, and the losses were quite heavy.
The blame must fall on Qin's air force commander, so Liu Chi, the air force commander, has been the target of major criticism recently.
"The 1st Group Army was blocked at the Huaishan line. Our army is attacking desperately, but it is estimated that there will be no results within ten days." Wang Luo introduced the battle situation with some embarrassment. He could clearly feel that his king Yingduo's mood was full of anxiety.
If the Qin army cannot penetrate the Shu army's defense line as expected, the war will become protracted.
Once it lasts, many variables will appear. Then there was no way to fulfill the "filial piety" Qin promised to the Tang Empire before the war.
This is definitely not good news, because if the Tang Empire cannot get what it wants, it will start to consider pushing the entire war in another direction: the direction of Qin's defeat.
"The logistics support problem is very serious. We temporarily allocated 10,000 vehicles...but it is obviously not enough." Wang Luo wanted to explain, but he didn't know where to start.
Although the Qin State's railway network has been constructed at a rapid pace in the past two years, military and civilian uses are crowded together, and the transportation capacity is actually only that much.
What's more, Shu often blew up railways during its retreat. After Qin entered Shu, it basically had to rely on automobile transportation.
Although the roads in Shu are in good condition, it is very expensive to rely solely on automobile transportation. Because Qin does not pay attention to supply transportation, in actual operation it can really be described as a disaster.
There are about 30,000 cars damaged on the road, and 50,000 cars of various models waiting for repair parts of various models. One can imagine what the frontline supply situation of Qin is like now.
Supplies were piled up in the supply depots built near the original border, but there were very few supplies that could be effectively transported to the frontline soldiers.
In order to maintain the offensive momentum, the Qin army also consumed a large amount of arms, which further caused difficulties in the transportation of other materials. Logistical delays seriously affected the morale of the Qin army, but there was no way to improve the situation for a while.
"The train can only go to Zhenna City. After passing Zhenna City and then going south, our logistics collapsed completely after entering Shu." Yingbo, the crown prince of Qin standing aside, pinched his chin and stared at the map and added: "Zhang Xuan has tried his best."
The Zhang Xuan he spoke of was also a general of the Qin army. Like Wang Luo, he was a pillar of the Qin State and a capable general.
Before, he had been fighting against the Orc Empire on the western front. This time he led his troops south and became the vanguard of the invasion of Shu.
"I have ordered that all the cars produced by Wuyang Automobile Factory be seized and provided directly to the military. However, there are only more than 2,000 cars this month. It seems that it is still not enough to make up for the losses on the front line." After Yingbo finished speaking, he found that his father's face The sadness on his face became even deeper.
"The cars produced by the Dahua Empire are not enough for our own use. If we want to buy them, we will definitely not be able to buy them." Ying Duo said worriedly to his confidants: "The import channels from the Tang Empire are almost cut off. This It’s extremely detrimental to us.”
Shu can import various products from Chu and Tang. As long as they spend gold coins, they can buy airplanes, cars... and even tanks!
But the Qin State cannot do that. Their various external trading channels have been cut off, and now they can only rely on themselves.
"You have done a good job. Cars and planes must now be given priority to supply the troops on the southern front! At any cost, we must capture Huaishan, an important town in the northern part of Shu! After capturing Huaishan, we must immediately attack westward. We must win the war Before the potential is exhausted, open the passage to the Chu Kingdom!" Ying Duo said while pressing his hand on the northern part of the Shu Kingdom.
"Don't worry about losses! Zhang Chi! Send out all the planes you can find to cover the ground troops' attack! Give up bombing the enemy's big cities and focus on supporting frontline operations!" He looked at the air force commander aside and gave instructions.
"Yes! Your Majesty!" Zhang Chi quickly expressed his stance: "Even if there is only one plane, I will fully support the ground troops in the attack!" 33
When he said this, his heart was bleeding. It took Qin State more than a year to save more than 1,000 aircraft. Now more than half of them have been transferred to the southern route. As a result, they have lost nearly 400 aircraft!
Listen, listen to this number. Even if he only loses 400 pilots, Zhang Chi, the air force commander, will have a difficult life.
But in fact, he also knew that he was not the only one who was sad. The air force commanders of the Shu Kingdom were probably vomiting blood right now.
The loss ratio in the air battle between the two sides remained at about 1:1. Qin lost 400 aircraft, and Shu lost at least 350 aircraft.
Such a loss is actually unbearable for Shu. The recent sharp decrease in the number of Shu aircraft attacking the southern city of Qin Town is proof of this.
After losing nearly 400 aircraft each, both parties realized a serious problem: Even if they could keep up with the rate of aircraft production, they would not be able to train a sufficient number of pilots.
This is a flaw that neither Qin nor Shu can solve. Until this problem is solved, the air battle between the two countries can only be maintained in a state of petty fighting.
Some people died, but not completely...
