Chapter 2328 - 2065: No Absolute Advantage

Speaking of attacking Kushan Central Asia, as well as the part of South Asia that doesn’t rely on the sea, the Han Dynasty has no problem maintaining supply lines. But once past the Central Asia part and into true South Asia, the largest distance of most territories from the coastline is just over a thousand miles.

That means if you strike from Aksai Chin through Central Asia, with the Han Dynasty’s strong military power, there’s basically no problem. But not only must Chen Xi still build a road, even coming out of Aksai Chin and striking near South Asia, you will still be restrained by the Kushan Navy.

A distance just over a thousand miles with the current godlike marching speed means you can be ambushed and surrounded effortlessly, as long as Kushan can think straight. At this point, they can easily cut off the Han Dynasty’s supply line, and no matter how extraordinary their military might, they can’t continue advancing.

Obviously, even if Jia Xu uses the usual Central Plains warfare mindset in simulations, adding various sea landings by the enemy navy, once you strike South Asia, if there’s no way to suppress the Kushan Navy, then war can’t continue.

Because no matter how wilful or strong the land forces are, once their logistics and supply lines are cut, collapse is not far away.

Of course, striking directly from the Indochina Peninsula, with fast marching and strong forces to blow up Kushan’s frontal blockade, abandoning rear logistics and supplies, living off the enemy, is another option.

But not to mention the difficulty of quickly blowing up Kushan’s blockade upfront and forcing entry into Kushan’s hinterland, once you go in, how to get out; tens of thousands of miscellaneous soldiers can pile up and kill your Military Spirit Legion. Although there are many pitfalls in the caste system, its advantage of class stability is still obvious.

For the upper echelons of the state, possessing an extremely large number of lower classes, even if the Han Dynasty achieved a forced breakthrough with living off the enemy as a prerequisite, and Kushan played dumb, not creating large-scale human-free zones for the simplest scorched earth.

The army that entered could easily be killed by Kushan using geographical and troop advantages, to an extent akin to the Romans having an airborne legion land in Ye City, though initially causing great destruction, once the Han Dynasty responds, it can quickly be annihilated.

Therefore, since this method is unfeasible, the Han Dynasty’s most correct choice is actually the simplest, steadily and methodically, step by step, using regular soldiers to deal with Kushan, and finally to defeat them.

In this way, the Han Dynasty cannot bypass the navy; someone must intercept the Kushan Navy. Without defeating the Kushan Navy, just intercepting them, making them incapable of interfering with the Han Dynasty’s logistics supply line and negating Kushan’s naval capability that affects the Han Dynasty’s strength, relying on land force strength, the Han Dynasty can drag and ultimately wear out Kushan.

It’s just that the Han Dynasty’s navy, according to Chen Xi’s feeling, is a bit challenging to reach this level. The finished Seventh Generation Ship that Lul Jun created previously cost one hundred million coins per vessel; this is far too expensive. Once one was built, Chen Xi gave the planning document back to Lul Jun.

Afterwards, Chen Xi stopped the construction of Seventh Generation Ships. Considering the current situation, the Seventh Generation Ship’s advantages in the ship are obvious, and shipbuilding technology isn’t perceived by Chen Xi to be much worse than Kushan’s, yet compared to the price of Sixth Generation Ships, the Seventh is indeed too expensive.

A single construction cost of one hundred million coins, and a vessel due to technical improvements and worker proficiency now costs less than ten million; before a breakthrough in combat power emerges, it’s better to stop building Seventh Generation Ships.

This is why Chen Xi suggested that Lul Jun combines the ship advantages of Seventh Generation Ships with the cost advantages of Sixth Generation Ships to create a new type of Sixth Generation Ship.

After combining the two, although it’s equivalent to another slight downgrade, its cost can be fixed at around ten million coins. At this level of cost, with the money previously spent on Seventh Generation Ships, ten new Sixth Generation Ships could now be built.

Chen Xi has a nation in his hands; he can’t pour all the money into one industry. He needs to attend to all aspects, and the current Seventh Generation Ship appears to Chen Xi as a failed product; one Seventh Generation Ship might defeat five Sixth Generation Ships, but against the new Sixth Generation Ships, it’s probably just three or four.

But the price is simply too expensive; Chen Xi has to consider the balance between scale and combat power. The navy he wants to build will eventually phase out Fourth Generation Ships and Fifth-Generation Warships,

the navy’s size will be controlled around two hundred thousand, while the Seventh Generation Ship’s capacity, though about three thousand, realistically accommodates around two thousand for combat.

If purely Seventh Generation Ships are used, over a hundred ships would be needed, with costs exceeding one hundred billion coins, not including maintenance and other aspects, which is too expensive.

If the now-designed combination of some Seventh Generation Ship advantages and Sixth Generation Ship cost advantages is used, around two hundred ships would be needed, but the cost would immediately drop to twenty billion.

Chen Xi has a sound mind. Unless there truly is a breakthrough, or it’s said a warship is built with invincible-level combat power, Chen Xi would consider whether such cost is necessary; otherwise, for monetary aspects, Chen Xi must contemplate cautiously.

After all, there are not just one place to spend money. Such a big country needs Chen Xi to invest money in all aspects. Every amount spent needs careful consideration. The navy is important, but at present, there are too many important things in the country.

Based on this, Chen Xi stopped the construction of the seventh-generation ships. The benefits of the seventh-generation ships are not even comparable to the sixth-generation ships. Money should not be spent like this. Indeed, the navy needs some cold water.

"In short, with this country involved, because of the long coastline, we must have a navy." Chen Xi glanced sidelong at Jia Xu and said.

Upon hearing this, Jia Xu nodded silently. There’s no way around it. With the navy in play, the long coastline becomes a point where troops can be deployed at any time. How to arrange things, the logistics supply lines will never be safe. This way, it is completely impossible to fight.

"According to Ziyi’s previous statement, our navy is still a bit far off, basically destroyed by the opponent easily." Li Youu pressed his temple, speaking with a hint of heartache about maintaining the navy for so many years, only to have it annihilated.

"There’s no choice. The biggest difference between the navy and land forces lies here. Such bizarre situations often occur in naval battles, and any fleet that one has invested countless effort into can completely vanish in an hour. There’s no escape in such a place." Chen Xi said helplessly.

"I’ve heard about this, too. The gap is a bit big. How is Xingba in this regard?" Since it involves the future national strategy, Guo Jia also stopped drinking, looked at Chen Xi solemnly and asked.

"Xingba is already the most talented commander I’ve found in water and naval battles. Though with his abilities, he can also do well in land battles, we have plenty of commanders for land battles, why bother?" Chen Xi glanced at Guo Jia, directly dismissing what Guo Jia intended to say.

"But he was completely annihilated in just a few moves." Fa Zheng, who hadn’t spoken all along, chimed in.

"That’s normal. If you can’t beat them, that’s how it goes. In water battles, unless you can escape, being surrounded only leads to a dead end." Chen Xi spread his hands and said rather helplessly, "And realistically, we can’t find a naval commander better than him here. Even if there is, it would probably take a generation. As it stands, Gan Ning already belongs to the very strong group in naval battles."

"Is there any naval talent worth cultivating?" Guo Jia, upon hearing this, didn’t dwell on it further, turning to look at Li Youu. Now, it’s almost completely compiled, only the census for error correction remains in Li Youu’s hands.

"Such things can’t be seen. But in my opinion, there’s no difference between the navy and land forces. Feed them with war, and the satisfactory commanders will eventually emerge." Li Youu said with a nearly unchanging expression, "Zichuan, since you say it’s here, then what level is Zhou Yu?"

"If in our generation, there’s anyone who might overturn Kushan in naval battles, it’s him." Chen Xi paused for a while and said with a tone of uncertainty, "Of course, I mean it’s possible; he does have a huge advantage in terms of talent."

"I see." Jia Xu tapped the table, somewhat understanding Chen Xi’s arrangement.

"For naval battles, how much are the factors influenced by the warships?" Li Youu asked solemnly, regretting not managing Flying Bear years ago. Otherwise, what’s the navy, just charge across the sea and break the enemy ships in two.

"In the absence of generational differences in ships, the impact is small. Realistically, our sixth-generation and the seventh-generation ships recently built by Lul Jicai do not have a generational gap. This means if the opponent has high standards in naval warfare and is technically strong, it’s possible for the sixth-generation ships to overturn the seventh-generation ships." Raising his head to look at the beam, Chen Xi said somewhat uncertainly.

Of course, this is also because Chen Xi does not know about Lul Jun’s insane True Artifact Invincible Plan. If he knew, he would understand the massive gap between Lul Jun’s seventh-generation ships and other warships, akin to a chasm. Simply put, Lul Jun’s vision for the seventh-generation ships belongs to an I single ship battling your fleet, no, ten fleets level.

However, just one material costs five hundred billion coins. If Chen Xi were to see Lul Family Shipyard’s current construction plan, he would definitely think it insane.

"You’re still discussing this? Get to work!" Lub Su went out for a moment and returned holding a large stack of documents, finding the group chatting away. Furious, he slammed the pile of documents on the table, roaring at everyone.

"Get to work, get to work, get to work." Fa Zheng, Guo Jia quickly ran back to their places, picked up the documents, and diligently began reviewing them.

"Lul Family Shipyard needs a large amount of high-quality Refined Iron?" Lub Su looked at the document sent from their steelworks in Luzhong of Qingzhou, pondered for a moment, and gave the approval, considering that after years of development, the output of Refined Iron has been able to meet the needs for armor, weapons, and domestic use.