World War: Battleship Arms Dealers

He paused as he passed the still-smoking Type 92 infantry gun. The gun crew was cleaning the breech, preparing to move it. A gunner saw him and nodded.

"Thanks," Matsumoto said.

"Of course," the gunner replied. "This gun is good, accurate, and easy to move. It's just that we don't have enough shells; each of us only carried twenty."

Matsumoto continued walking forward. Behind him, the sounds of gunfire continued, but they were gradually fading into the distance. The battle in the Augustov Forest region had only just begun, and his squad was almost wiped out.

He touched his pocket; inside were Ono's amulet and the last thing Oshima saw in him before he died.

The war continues, the death continues. And these soldiers are merely grains of flesh and blood in this giant meat grinder, thrown in, crushed, and then forgotten.

Matsumoto looked up, and snow began to fall from the gray sky. Snowflakes landed on his face, cold like tears.

East Prussia, Insterburg, Headquarters of the 8th Army.

The air in the meeting room was thick with the smells of cigar smoke, old leather, and paper. A huge operational map of the Masurian Lakes region lay on the long table, covered with dense symbols and arrows marked in red and blue pencil. The dim light from the low ceiling cast a yellowish glow, making everyone's faces appear tired and aged.

Erich Ludendorff stood before the map, a slender pointer in his hand. The 49-year-old German Chief of the General Staff had a sharply defined face and eyes as sharp as a scalpel. His uniform was impeccably pressed, but the dark circles under his eyes betrayed days of sleepless nights.

"The Battle of Augustov officially ended at 4 PM on February 21st." Ludendorff's voice was flat, devoid of any joy of victory, as if he were reading an engineering report. "The main force of the Russian 20th Corps was annihilated. 247 officers and over 86,000 soldiers were confirmed captured. 132 artillery pieces, 87 machine guns, and rifles were seized..."

He paused, glanced at the document in his hand, and said, "The number of rifles is still being tallied, but it's estimated to be over 4."

The senior German officers seated around the table began to murmur amongst themselves. Paul von Hindenburg, seated at the head of the table, nodded slightly. The 67-year-old general had deep wrinkles on his face, but his eyes remained clear. He tapped the table with his thick fingers.

"Our losses?"

"The German casualties were approximately 21,000, including 4300 killed in action, 6700 seriously wounded, and the rest slightly wounded," Ludendorff replied. "In addition..."

He turned to the other side of the map, where the deployment locations of the Japanese troops were marked in yellow.

「樱花国派遣军四个师团，总伤亡约2万5千人。具体明细：第3师团损失6300人，第7师团5800人，第9师团6700人，第11师团6200人。」

The meeting room fell silent for a moment.

"A quarter." General Hermann von Eichhorn, sitting to Hindenburg's left, spoke slowly. "A force of 100,000 men, a quarter lost in the first battle. And this was only the first large-scale battle."

Ashhoren was the commander of the 10th Army and the main commander of this flanking maneuver. He was fifty-nine years old, tall and thin, and always liked to twirl his neatly trimmed mustache with his fingers when he was thinking.

"How did they perform?" Hindenburg asked, turning his gaze to Ludendorff.

Ludendorff picked up another thick report from the table: "This is a summary of combat assessments for each unit. Overall..."

He turned to a certain page and began to read:

"Individual combat effectiveness rating of Japanese soldiers: Grade A. Characterized by: extremely high battlefield discipline, absolute obedience to orders, extremely strong endurance (continuous combat for more than 48 hours in an environment of minus 20 degrees Celsius), and... an almost fanatical will to attack."

"Fanatical?" An artillery general raised an eyebrow.

"Yes." Ludendorff looked up. "The assessment report mentioned many times that Japanese soldiers would launch bayonet charges when they ran out of ammunition or when their positions were breached, even knowing it was a suicidal attack. This 'gyokusai' spirit had a considerable psychological impact on the Russian army."

"But what's the cost?" Ashhorn said coldly. "These charges resulted in a casualty rate far exceeding normal levels. We saw in reports that a Japanese battalion, facing an attack from a Russian battalion in a defensive battle, should have held their ground and waited for reinforcements, but instead chose to launch a full-scale counterattack, ultimately resulting in almost total annihilation."

Ludendorff nodded: "That's their biggest problem—tactical rigidity. Japanese officers seem to have been instilled with the idea that offense is always the best defense, even if it's tactically unreasonable. That's how they fought in Port Arthur and Fengtian, and ten years later, nothing has changed."

"Regarding equipment?" Hindenburg asked.

"Inconsistent quality." Ludendorff turned to the next page. "Their rifles are their own, Type 38, 6.5mm caliber, with good range and accuracy, but insufficient stopping power. Russian soldiers can often continue fighting after being hit, unless it's a fatal shot."

He paused for a moment, as if searching for the right way to put it:

"But what's really interesting are those 'Lanfang-made' weapons. The Japanese army was equipped with a light machine gun that they called the 'Type 11,' but our men privately called it the 'crooked-neck machine gun.'"

A few soft laughs rang out in the conference room.

"This machine gun," Ludendorff continued, "is very unique in its design. It has a high rate of fire, theoretically 500 rounds per minute, but in actual combat, it's difficult to maintain that rate due to heat dissipation issues. Moreover, the loading process is extremely cumbersome, requiring a specially designed hopper, and each reload takes 15 to 20 seconds."

"20 seconds?" a general, a machine gun expert, exclaimed incredulously. "Our MG08 can change its ammunition belt in just 5 seconds."

"Yes, that could be fatal in intense fighting," Ludendorff said. "The assessment report records several instances where Japanese machine gun crews were wiped out by Russian raids while reloading."

"Then why do they still use this kind of garbage?" someone asked.

Ludendorff looked at Hindenburg, and the two exchanged a glance.

"Because it's part of the contract," Hindenburg said slowly, his voice low. "According to the tripartite agreement between us, Lanfang, and Japan, the Japanese army must use the 'standard equipment package' provided by Lanfang. Machine guns, infantry guns, some ammunition... are all manufactured or designed by Lanfang."

"This is clearly a business ploy," Ashhorn sneered. "The Lanfang people defeated the Sakura Kingdom, and now they're selling them weapons and even stipulating that they have to use them. What shrewd businessmen."

"It's not just about business," Ludendorff continued. "Our technical department analyzed the captured samples. These 'Lanfang-made' weapons have one thing in common: a deliberately simplified design for mass production, but at the expense of reliability and service life."

He walked to the table, picked up a folder, and pulled out several photos to distribute to everyone. The photos showed some twisted and deformed metal parts.

"This is the damaged bolt assembly of the 'crooked-neck machine gun.' Material analysis shows that the steel used in key components is of lower quality than German standards, and the heat treatment process is also problematic. It is prone to deformation and jamming after continuous firing."

"And their infantry guns." Ludendorff pulled out another photograph, this one of a short-barreled cannon. "Type 92, 70mm caliber, very light, two people can tow it. Range is only 2.8 kilometers, but accuracy is good. The problem is..."