After all, compared to steel helmets, leather caps obviously hold an advantage in everyday warmth because the raw materials are self-sufficient and inexpensive. But the bigger reason is— these countries greatly underestimated the importance of defensive capabilities.
This world had not yet experienced a massive and brutal war on the scale of the First World War, so there was no theory to support the idea that generals would make up their minds to popularize steel helmets or similar protective gear.
Not everyone had a system like Tang Mo, with the ability to accurately anticipate the future. Therefore, some countries simply copied the homework of the Great Tang Group and directly purchased steel helmets, while other countries did not do so for various reasons.
Some did it to save money, others did it to save money, and still others simply did it to save money— one reason was enough, no second was needed.
Due to the lack of steel production capacity, a steel helmet was definitely a luxury item: compared to rifles and machine guns, a so-called "hat" could be dispensed with.
"Nothing will happen," the squad leader still became vigilant. He stood up in the wind and snow, squinted his eyes, walked to the side, stretched his head out to face the wind, and looked in the direction of the border.
The night was pitch-black; through the horizontally flying snowflakes, everything was a swath of darkness, and the whole earth was so quiet it was chilling.
"There's nothing… If someone were approaching, they would have been exposed a long time ago." The veteran soldier also stood up and walked to his squad leader's side, advised, "Let's go back!"
The squad leader thought about it and felt the old soldier had a point. They had been busy on the border for almost a year, not idly; they too had their own advanced weapons!
They had buried tens of thousands of landmines along this type of border, almost covering every scarcely populated area. Although spread out, there weren't many mines per kilometer, but the deterrent effect was sufficient.
Simply burying a few dozen of these new weapons called landmines, and then putting a wooden sign in a place visible to the enemy with a warning about the minefield, was enough to deter any soldiers from the Ice Cold Empire with malicious intent.
And if the enemy forces invaded on a large scale and stepped on these mines, the explosions would immediately alert the defenders, providing early warning to the defensive troops.
This thing called a landmine was a new weapon developed by the Great Tang Group, but it quickly became a sought-after marvel that all the kingdoms rushed to replicate.
To slow down the speed of the enemy's advance and to inflict continuous damage, this weapon quickly became the commanders' little sweetheart, instantly surpassing the heavy machine gun, this stout fellow.
"I'm just being paranoid," the squad leader laughed, patted on the shoulder of his most trusted old soldier, took another look into the distance, retracted his head, and walked back to the campfire.
A few soldiers stuffed the quickly snow-covered firewood under their feet back into the campfire, making the leaping flames burn more vigorously.
Daring to sleep was out of the question; in this cold weather, whether they could open their eyes tomorrow was questionable.
So everyone could only huddle around the flames, waiting for the wind and snow to stop, waiting for the sun to light up the sky again.
The squad leader continued to sit down and chat with the old soldier. They talked about their children and the plump Dwarf actress, Maka.
Then came the unrestrained, joyful, and oblique laughter, the topics meant only for adults keeping away everyone's drowsiness.
As they talked, the old soldier suddenly stopped, tilting his ear and frowning as if he had indeed heard some consistent strange faint noises.
But the sound quickly disappeared into the wind, making it hard to discern. The old soldier listened for a few more seconds, then, doubtful, he let down his guard—he truly couldn't confirm whether he had actually heard anything.
Just at that moment, directly above them, a huge shadow was slowly drifting forward in the wind and snow.
In the dim airship cockpit, the commander of the Ice Cold Empire's airship listened with a grim face as his subordinates reported back.
The top of their airship had frozen over and was laden with thick snow; the entire airship's weight bearing had become extremely dangerous, but the previous weather forecast hadn't predicted this.
"We're already risking our lives to reduce weight…" the aide looked just as grim, reporting disheartened, "Two brave men have risked climbing onto the airship, are currently clearing off snow… Hoping… the snow stops soon…"
"Hope so," muttered the airship captain, as he looked through his own side porthole at another massive dark shape flying in the same direction, still very tense.
This operation had been meticulously prepared by the Ice Cold Empire for over half a year; if a problem arose at this juncture, they would become sinners of the Empire.
"Confirm direction!" Since they were traveling at night without the reference of stars, the captain had to anxiously verify their flight direction was correct every so often.
By now, they had already entered enemy territory. As soon as daylight broke, even a fool could spot their massive silhouette.
But none of that mattered! Because they were in the sky! In a space where the enemy had no means to stop them! As long as they continued flying towards their target, the enemy was powerless against them!
The enemy could only watch helplessly as they flew to their destination, then dropped bomb after bomb on those high-value, extremely costly strategic targets!
They were like a sharp knife, thrusting at the enemy's soft underbelly with the fastest speed! A strike to overpower the enemy, to end the war!
"The course is correct!" The pilot, steering the wheel, glanced at the compass in front of him and reported back to his commander.
"Send two more up! No matter what it takes… maintain the blimp's altitude!" After another look at the altimeter, the captain tensed up again and commanded his deputy, "For the Emperor! Ura!"
"Ura!" The deputy, his blood boiling, responded in a muffled voice, then headed towards the rear cabin.
Passing through the narrow hallway, the long corridor pieced together with iron nets, on both sides were the blimp's bomb bays, filled with explosives.
At the moment, only half the bombs were hanging on the racks. Due to the need for a long-distance raid, they had to consider the payload and could only carry half the ammunition.
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It was precisely because of the previous meticulous payload calculations that they were now safely floating amidst the snow and wind.
Just when everyone was filled with tension, it seemed like the heavens had heard the prayers of the Ice Cold Empire's dwarves.
The wind gradually died down, and the snowflakes no longer fell.
In the blimp's cockpit, the captain clenched his fists! The crisis was averted! Their opportunity was still alive!
In the now quiet night sky, thirty massive silhouettes quietly drifted towards the distant horizon.
On the ground, as the blizzard ceased, the old soldier by the campfire no longer heard the weird, continuous buzzing sounds from before.
"The snow has stopped!" The squad leader stretched and felt that the heavens were still looking out for them. At least the snow had stopped in the first half of the night.
"Yeah! Lucky us!" The old soldier nodded, dispelling the unease in his heart and managed a smile.
In the heartland of the Kingdom, next to a plain rural cottage, a man pulled out his pocket watch to check the time by the candlestick.
Then, he picked up the ceramic jar at his feet and stepped out of his house. Guided by the moonlight, he trudged to a clearing where he had spent all day piling wood.
On top of the woodpile were messy dried grasses, neatly stacked logs, and unswept snow.
The man swept most of the snow off the woodpile, then poured the black oil from the jar over the wood, immediately following that with pulling a box of matches from his pocket.
He struck a match and flicked it into the pile, igniting the fuel inside. A great flame shot up into the sky, clearly visible even thousands of meters up.
Inside the Ice Cold Empire's blimp fleet's command center, the navigator excitedly shouted, "I see it! The ground signal is visible!"
Today I'm not feeling so bad, thank you for your concern! As soon as Dragon Spirit finds his rhythm, updates will resume.