Empire Conquest

Chapter 483 - 479: Planning

Keeping the Eleventh Special Mixed Fleet in the Fan Flame Ocean, and even sending the repaired "Imperial Capital" along with four large carriers to attack Howay Islands?

It was plausible, but it required one precondition.

Strategic deception.

While discussing this issue with Liu Changxun, Bai Zhizhan repeatedly emphasized the need to find a way to divert the Newland Navy’s attention.

There were ways, such as feigning an aggressive attack on Tuk Fortress.

Strategically, this demanded that the Empire’s Navy be ready to advance into the Southwest East Ocean, or at least make the Newland Navy believe it.

Clearly, this was too difficult.

Not to mention anything else, the Empire’s Army had already launched a strategic offensive in the northwest direction, and the Navy had to commit significant forces to push into Boss Bay.

Hence, even if it were possible to mobilize the Fleet, there wouldn’t be enough forces to advance into the Southwest East Ocean.

Without pre-deploying bombers, without deploying Marine Corps, without dispatching a landing fleet and transport fleet, without transporting ammunition and other combat materials to forward bases, and without sending reconnaissance aircraft and submarines to gather battlefield intelligence, how could they make the Newland Navy believe?

Even if it was just a feint, they couldn’t just limit themselves to verbal pretense.

Fortunately, someone came up with a solution.

Three days after Bai Zhizhan returned to the Imperial Capital, on March 12, Wang Kaiyuan came to the Navy headquarter to find Bai Zhizhan and proposed a feasible plan.

Indeed, it was a chain of tricks.

Strategically, they would pretend to prepare for an advance into the Southwest East Ocean and attack Aus, while on the tactical level, they would make it look like they were going to attack Wei Island soon.

In Wang Kaiyuan’s words, even if the Newland Navy saw through the strategic-level feint, they would believe that the Empire’s Navy’s real intent was to attack Wei Island.

This would definitely lead the Newland Navy to strengthen their defensive deployment on Wei Island.

Chances were they would even send the two small carriers stationed in the East Ocean for a show of force.

Of course, this also meant that ultimately, they could only mount a full assault on Transfer Island.

Wang Kaiyuan also mentioned that as long as the Navy headquarter approved, the Sixth Bureau could take action, and by May, they would know if the strategic deception had been effective.

After Bai Zhizhan personally stepped in, Liu Changxun decisively signed off, allowing Wang Kaiyuan to implement the strategic deception operation.

In addition, Bai Zhizhan was to prepare for the heavy assault on Transfer Island.

Since a battle plan had already been drafted, what followed was the confirmation of forces and participating troops, followed by the drafting of detailed battle plans.

It should be said that this was the most thoroughly prepared offensive operation by the Empire’s Navy after the war began.

There’s no need to elaborate on the fleet aspect.

According to the initial plan, they would form two Special Mixed Fleets centered around four large carriers and four fast battleships, tasked with seizing control of the sea and air around the battlefield.

They would also utilize four long-range cruisers and twelve large destroyers to provide coverage for the carriers and fast battleships.

In addition, they formed a fire support fleet consisting of four small carriers, eight battleships, twelve heavy cruisers, twelve light cruisers, and ten destroyers.

A convoy fleet would consist of four light cruisers and twelve destroyers.

Lastly, using including twenty large landing ships among hundreds of various ships, they would carry out the task of transporting and deploying three Marine Divisions.

To provide logistical support for the Marine Corps, they planned to mobilize and form four transport fleets.

In terms of the air force, besides the ship-borne aircraft, they would also deploy over one hundred long-range patrol aircraft on the North Ma Islands, though their main task was to cover the transport fleet.

At this stage, Bai Zhizhan proposed that the key was to determine the whereabouts of the Newland Fleet before the engagement.

Although there were only two small carriers, they could still deploy dozens of ship-borne aircraft, posing a significant threat to the Special Mixed Fleet and the Landing Fleet.

Moreover, two "Beika" class Fast Battleships completed earlier this year had already arrived at Treasure Harbor.

Even without carriers, the Newland Navy might still use these two Fast Battleships to launch a nighttime assault under the cover of shore-based air force.

Moreover, the Newland Navy might add two more Fast Battleships in the second half of the year, and possibly even four.

There was sufficient intelligence to suggest that the first two ships of the "Nanda" class could be completed ahead of schedule and the last two might also be delivered to the Newland Navy within the year.

Furthermore, the Newland Navy still had several old Battleships and numerous Heavy Cruisers.

After being heavily damaged in the Northwest East Ocean Battle, due to the long construction cycle of fleet carriers, the Newland Navy increased the construction scale of cruisers and other medium-small warships, focusing on combat-powerful cruisers capable of operating independently.

Just the Heavy Cruisers alone, the Newland Navy ordered more than a dozen at once, with three levels being constructed simultaneously!

As for the Light Cruisers, there were even more.

The key point was that the construction cycle for cruisers was much shorter, especially for Light Cruisers, which could be completed in a few months and quickly join the fleet after delivery.

Furthermore, the Newland Navy also had numerous submarines.

After formally entering the war, nearly half of the new warships of the Newland Navy were long-range submarines.

The reason was straightforward: submarines were less difficult to build and could be constructed by smaller shipyards.

According to intelligence provided by the Sixth Bureau, the Newland Navy had more than 80 long-range submarines, increasing at a rate of two per week.

By next year, the growth rate could even reach three per week.

What was even more lethal was that there were no Newland Navy activities in the Fan Flame Ocean, so there was no need to deploy submarines, meaning all of the Newland Navy’s long-range submarines were operating in the East Ocean.

To date, more than 100 Imperial transport ships had been sunk by Newland submarines in the West East Ocean and Flame Sea.

As a result, the Imperial Navy was forced to use two-thirds of its Destroyers and about half of its long-range patrol aircraft for escort and anti-submarine operations.

Besides, the Imperial Navy had already started considering constructing or converting escort aircraft carriers.

Even under the most ideal circumstances, when attacking Transfer Island, the Imperial Navy would face hundreds of Newland Navy’s medium and large warships.

This was definitely not a threat that could be ignored.

In combat near Transfer Island, these Newland warships could rely on the islands behind them and move under the support and cover of the shore-based air force.

Although without fleet carriers, the Newland Navy could not win in a fleet decisive battle, but by utilizing its numerous warships, it could still cause considerable trouble for the Imperial Navy, possibly even thwarting the landing operations or turning Transfer Island into another Sai Island.

At worst, they could hold out for several months in that direction, waiting for two fleet carriers to rejoin.

From a strategic importance perspective, the Newland Navy would inevitably fight desperately at Transfer Island.

Given that the war machine of the Newland Federation had already begun to operate at full speed, the difficulty of attacking Transfer Island was definitely greater than that of Sai Island, and the two were not comparable.

By then, the Imperial Navy would have no choice but to fight another fleet decisive battle to maintain control of the sea.

Clearly, all previous efforts were likely to be in vain because of this.

It was at this time that Zhou Yongtao was the first to propose that before attacking Transfer Island, they should consider crippling the Newland Navy’s combat capabilities in the East East Ocean.

To put it bluntly, that meant raiding Treasure Harbor.

In Zhou Yongtao’s words, if they could cripple Treasure Harbor, even if they subsequently engaged in a fierce battle with the Newland Navy on Transfer Island, there would be nothing to worry about.

After the Newland Navy lost its combat capabilities, how could it fight a decisive battle of life and death with the Imperial Navy?