Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 388 Project Shield
The Krante General Staff's guess was correct; in fact, Victoria II had already made up her mind long ago.

The Empire must fight this war! And the sooner the better!

The reason is simple: to train troops!

Currently, all countries on the continent are in a period of transformation. Due to the development of the steam industrial revolution, all countries have begun to research and manufacture various new types of weapons.

It's like playing a strategy game, with different factions, different unit types, and different tactical approaches.

I have a mine-laying vehicle, how do I use it?
I massed a lot of troops in the early game. Should I go straight for the base or use a front-to-back attack?

Are there any other tactics that can be used with transport aircraft?
These things can't be learned just by talking about them on paper. Players who play RTS games now should understand this well. Each race they choose has its own strategy. I might choose Zerg and want to annoy the opponent to death, which sounds great, but when I get there, I find that the opponent has built a bunch of towers at home and killed the Zerg. That's not so great.

That's how war is. What I think is useless; I have to see what the enemy is thinking, and whether the units on both sides counter each other. If they counter each other, how to use them is also a problem. If you plan to fight a decisive battle with basic attacks, and the enemy airdrops to raid your base, you deserve to build a huge army and end up frustrated and dying.

Currently, generals in various countries across the mainland are facing the same problem.

Besides rifles and machine guns, they have a bunch of new soldiers, but they don't know how to use them.

For example, should air combat ships act as the vanguard or provide rear cover?
Should the mechs be deployed in conjunction with infantry, or should the mechs be deployed first and then the infantry, or vice versa?
How can reconnaissance airships cooperate with ground troops in forward operations?
And then there's the cavalry—you have to understand that before this, cavalry was the main force of all countries. Now that there are mechs, will the cavalry be repurposed for reconnaissance, or will they be abandoned altogether?

When it comes to tactics, every general can certainly come up with a perfect coordination plan, but the problem is that whether the plan is actually effective can only be known on the battlefield.

Let's put it to the test and see what it's really made of.

This is also Her Majesty's idea. Winning or losing is not important, nor is the number of soldiers who die. What is important is that the Imperial Army must adapt to the new era of warfare in the shortest possible time. Only by understanding the tactics of other countries can an army be effectively built to protect the Empire.

Therefore, this plan is also known as "Project Shield," which is designed to create a shield to protect the country.

And the first players to appear for the Empire this time—cough cough, the first to appear were General Hao and Li Wei.

General Howe had military experience in suppressing the rebellion in Melisia, so he was sent to the front line as the vanguard general. Because he and Li Wei had cooperated very well, General Howe asked his superiors to let Li Wei cooperate, and the Queen agreed.

Therefore, Li Wei boarded the Sky Eye and, together with General Howe's Royal Navy Third Fleet, headed to the border between the Empire and the Duchy of Tiris to prepare for reinforcements.

Although the Empire and the Duchy of Tiris have signed an agreement, Tiris still retains sovereignty. Currently, the Duchy of Tiris has not been attacked, so the Empire cannot rashly enter its territory; it can only wait until Tiris is invaded by the Krant before taking action.

Meanwhile, Li Wei wasn't idle either; he was currently on the Cyclops, playing games with General Howe.

Or, to put it another way, playing wargames.

General Hao also asked Li Wei for his opinion on this battle, and Li Wei's tactics were very simple and direct modern—control the sky!
Once we gain air superiority, we can blow the enemy back to the Stone Age, and the rest will be minor issues!
As for how to do it, Li Wei also gave his own ideas.

First, use the Sky Eye's high-altitude reconnaissance to reach the enemy's position, lock onto their anti-aircraft positions and artillery positions, and then the Empire can launch a long-range saturation bombardment. Once the enemy's anti-aircraft firepower is destroyed, the airships can go directly to bomb, and then the infantry can cooperate with the mechs to sweep away the remaining troops.

Simple and straightforward, without too many twists and turns.

However... to say whether there are any problems, there definitely are.

"You know that the Kingdom of Krant uses chimeras, right?"

"I've seen it."

Faced with Li Wei's question, General Hao nodded solemnly. As a high-ranking officer of the Empire, he had naturally seen the synthetic beast corpse that Li Wei had brought back.

"To be honest, if that thing digs a hole in the battlefield, it'll be a real problem..."

"No, what I'm worried about is not that rat that can dig holes."

Li Wei waved his hand.

"No matter how powerful that thing is, it's still flesh and blood. The Knight Mech is enough to turn it into roast meat. I'm worried about something else."

"what is the problem?"

"Since the Kingdom of Krant uses chimeras, there must be more than one type. Could they also have chimeras specifically designed for anti-air combat?"

"An anti-air chimera?"

General Hao frowned, seemingly not quite understanding what Li Wei was saying.

"Let's put it this way: suppose you encounter a large flock of crows, perhaps hundreds, and these crows have bombs embedded in their bodies that will explode upon contact. If these crows were to attack an airship or a warship, do you have any good ideas on how to deal with it?"

"this…………………"

Faced with Li Wei's question, General Hao was momentarily stunned. It has to be said that this was indeed a difficult problem for General Hao.

Needless to say, the airships, especially the Eye of the Sky of Levi, were specially modified. Other airships didn't even have anti-aircraft guns; at most, they just had a top-mounted machine gun. After all, Imperial airships were mainly used for dropping bombs.

The same applies to airships like the Cyclops. While they possess formidable firepower, they lack significant anti-aircraft capabilities. Furthermore, if a bird the size of a crow were to fly towards the Cyclops, could its anti-aircraft machine guns alone effectively stop it? And what if, as Levi predicted, it could explode…

That would make the problem even more serious.

"Would such chimeras really exist?"

"What if there is?"

Li Wei shrugged. They certainly didn't exist in his real world, but they did in the game—exploding bats could even bring down alien motherships. This world was even more advanced; chimeras had already appeared. Li Wei didn't believe that Krant wouldn't have thought of something like exploding bats. After all, the Empire's giant ships and cannons were renowned throughout the continent. If Krant were to attack the Duchy of Tiris, they would undoubtedly be prepared to face the Empire, and therefore would certainly have their own methods for dealing with Imperial air power.

"Um…………………"

General Hao frowned and began to think. If anyone else had told him this, he would have called them delusional. But Levi was a Thistle Knight and had actually brought back a chimera corpse. Now that the existence of chimeras had been confirmed, General Hao really had to consider it. If the Krant Empire could even create such a thing, then creating a bird that explodes in the air didn't seem particularly strange.

But upon thinking about it, General Hao immediately realized that if the Kingdom of Krant really had such a thing, then the Empire's airships really wouldn't be able to do anything about it!
First of all, it's a bird. How big is a bird? Using a cannonball to shoot it down? That's like using an anti-aircraft gun to kill a mosquito. And if this thing can explode, that's even more troublesome. If it gets caught in the propeller of an airship, the explosion will be difficult to handle.

Using machine guns? But those things are hard to hit, and what if the enemy launches an attack under cover of darkness…

"If what you say is true, then it is indeed a problem."

After much deliberation, General Hao realized that if what Li Wei said was true and the other side really had such a thing, then the Empire's air warships really didn't have a good way to deal with these flocks of birds!

"You have no other way?"

Li Wei sat in a chair, leisurely sipping tea, and looked at General Hao with a smile. The latter was somewhat surprised by Li Wei's calm and composed demeanor.

"Do you have any idea?"

"of course."

Li Wei nodded.

"If you really can't think of a solution, I suggest you use a bird net."

"Bird net?"

"That's right. Hunters and biologists often use them to catch birds. Just hang them outside the cabin to effectively defend against birds swooping in. Of course, you can also find a way to shoot the net out of the cannon, which is also convenient for catching birds."

"Is there such a thing?"

It must be said that this was truly new knowledge for General Hao.

"You can give it a try, since we have nothing else to do right now, don't we?"

“Indeed… Hmm, I’ll try to collect some bird nets. If the other side really has the kind of synthetic beast you mentioned, then setting up bird nets should be able to effectively defend against some attacks.”

"I don't know either, but it's better to be prepared."

As Li Wei spoke, he glanced at his watch; there wasn't much time left before the deadline set by the Sasha Alliance.

Do you think the Sasha Alliance will make a move this time?

"I think a fight is likely to break out."

General Hao took a drag of his cigarette, staring intently at the map before him, his brows furrowed.

"If they really want to invade the Duchy of Tiris, then the only way is to attack the Sun Fortress."

What is the military strength of the Duchy of Tiris?

“Basically nothing.”

General Hao spread his hands speechlessly.

“They think it’s a very foolish thing to spend money on the military, but it’s not incomprehensible. After all, it’s caught between the Empire and Francis. If either of us or Francis wants to annex the Duchy of Tiris, then no matter how much they struggle, it’s meaningless.”

"You just didn't expect a newcomer to suddenly appear out of nowhere, did you?"

Li Wei chuckled, while General Hao nodded.

"In fact, Francis once thought of building the defensive line into the territory of the Duchy of Tiris in order to resist attacks from Krant, but Tiris refused. Now it seems that we don't know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing."

"Whether it's good or bad, it's their own choice."

Li Wei poured himself a cup of tea and spoke calmly.

"And all we can do is do what we are supposed to do."

"indeed so."

General Hao took a deep drag on his cigarette and stood up.

"I'll send people to prepare now."

After saying this, General Hao turned and left the conference room, while Li Wei opened his pocket watch with a bored expression and stared at the hands on it.

There are 24 hours left until the ultimatum expires.

Everything will change in 24 hours.

(End of this chapter)