Munitions Empire

The Dahua Empire's neglected farmlands were not wasted by the soldiers of Great Tang, a feeling that made Li Ping, an officer of the Dahua Imperial Army, quite uncomfortable, although he couldn't quite express why.

After all, the ground he stood upon was now under the control of Great Tang, and wherever he looked, there were the field tents of the Tang Country.

"I am the commander of the 7th Infantry Army of Tang Country…" The man with the large beard simply introduced himself and then waited for Li Ping to continue.

Li Ping got straight to the point, and his words surprised the bearded man, "I am not here for negotiations. The purpose of my visit is to discuss the issue regarding your country's use of a new type of bomb in Fengjiang City."

"Oh?" The bearded man raised his eyebrows, intrigued by the topic. He had assumed that the other party's purpose for coming was one of two things: either as a representative of the Dahua Empire coming for negotiations or representing himself to surrender.

In either case, he just had to do his job. But now, he realized that the other party wasn't here to surrender or to negotiate, but to negotiate, as Li Ping had said.

"This weapon is really… too… it's just beyond the bounds of human decency," Li Ping stuttered a little before thinking of an adjective to describe the white phosphorus bomb.

Having witnessed the power of such a bomb, he was deeply disturbed. He looked seriously into the bearded man's face and made a earnest request, "On behalf of General Feng Kezhi and the Dahua Empire, I ask that your country no longer uses such… such excessively powerful weapons."

The commander of the 7th Army was shocked by these words, his eyes widening as he looked at Li Ping, seemingly trying to discern something from Li Ping's face.

After a while, when Li Ping was nearly unsettled by the stare, the bearded commander scoffed and retorted, "Are you suggesting that we have even more powerful weapons but should stop using them just because you say so?"

"I know, I realize this request is absurd…" Li Ping's face felt so hot he thought it might ignite, and he stammered his explanation, "But, but if you could see for yourself the Dahua soldiers hurt by your new weapon, you'd know that such weapons should never exist on the battlefield."

"In the age of swords, firearms should not have appeared on the battlefield. In the age of firearms, revolvers, machine guns, and bolt-action rifles should also not have appeared," the bearded commander said in a calm tone.

He had witnessed it all. When he fought alongside Count Fisheo at Northern Ridge, he never considered that war would turn into something unrecognizable to him.

Back then, Northern Ridge only had 3,000 elite soldiers; a war would nearly end with the loss of over a thousand men. There were no tanks, no planes, nor warships like sea fortresses at that time.

More than a decade later, he now commanded a regular infantry army equipped with assault guns and self-propelled artillery, an army of tens of thousands and thousands of trucks and cars…

Now, powering his way was the Air Force's new bombs that could make the enemy howl in terror, and even to send someone to make such a ludicrous request…

Look, how wondrous the world is.

Hearing the bearded man speak so, Li Ping, the general from Dahua, immediately replied, "I understand, but have you considered that the use of such evil weapons could seriously damage the reputation of Tang Country…"

He knew it was absurd to make such a request and had never thought he would find himself carrying out such a foolish task.

But Great General Feng Ke had found him and assigned him this seemingly childish task.

When he left, General Feng Ke begged him to complete the mission, insisting that he must stop the Tang Army from continuing to use white phosphorus bombs, no matter what.

Having seen the devastating effect of white phosphorus bombs, Shireck's advisory team also believed that such weapons were exceedingly treacherous and that they should be internationally banned as weapons of the devil.

The commander of the 7th Army questioned further with skepticism, "Why would it impact us?"

"Because it's a weapon that only a devil would possess! It's the flames from hell!" Li Ping couldn't help but invoke ghosts and spirits in an attempt to instill fear in the other party.

But the other party clearly had no fear of devils or perhaps had a superior logic. To the Tang People, using new weapons to reduce their own casualties was an indisputable correct choice, "Ha! Why isn't it a weapon of the gods? Why isn't it the punishment that the gods have bestowed upon you sinners?"

"This…" Hearing this argument, Li Ping found himself at a loss for words: from his perspective, these weapons were certainly evil, but the Tang commander believed that they represented the just side, the side of righteousness.

This posed a problem: on the issue of waging war, the Dahua Empire was already in the wrong, as they had been the first to launch an invasion during Tang Country's flood.

Now, with the other side holding onto righteousness, trying to associate the Tang People with the devil was not going to be easy.

They simply didn't think they were wrong, so no sophistry or fallacious argument could disturb their thinking: that's the advantage of holding the high ground, the side of justice is always impervious to all and irreproachable.