Empire Conquest

Chapter 484 - 480: Continue to Advance

Zhou Yongtao indeed was recklessly bold, and his proposal had some merit; after all, to attack Transfer Island, the first thing to ensure was control of the sea, and striking Treasure Harbor was the most direct, or rather, the most effective method to seize and secure control of the sea, much better than waging a naval fleet battle.

However, this suggestion was not within Bai Zhizhan’s considerations.

After Zhou Yongtao put forward this proposal, Bai Zhizhan instinctively rejected it.

He had plenty of reasons.

If the war had not started yet, or before the Newland Federation entered the conflict, Zhou Yongtao’s suggestion might have been feasible, as the Newland Navy had not yet heightened its alertness.

A successful surprise attack could have allowed them to seize control of the sea in East Ocean in one fell swoop.

The problem was that the war had already entered its third year, and the Newland Federation had been participating for nearly half a year. How could the Newland Navy be lax in its defense?

Moreover, Treasure Harbor was the stronghold of the Newland Navy’s East Ocean Fleet.

At any time, there were dozens of ships moored in Treasure Harbor.

Additionally, Honu Island, where Treasure Harbor was located, had a year’s worth of fuel reserves for the Newland East Ocean Fleet, as well as hundreds of thousands of tons of ammunition and other supplies.

It could be said that Treasure Harbor was perhaps the military port with the strongest defenses in the entire East Ocean.

The reason was simple: to the east of Treasure Harbor, the Newland mainland was thousands of kilometers away, and Treasure Harbor was the only natural good harbor on the Central East Ocean.

Here, not only was it the Newland Navy’s headquarter, but it was also the necessary route to launch an attack on the Newland mainland.

As long as Treasure Harbor was defended, the security of the homeland could rest easy.

Furthermore, after the Northwest East Ocean Battle, the Newland Navy drastically increased its attention to port and other major military base defenses.

This was most clearly reflected in tactical deployments.

In order to prevent a surprise attack, the Newland Navy insisted on the principle of dispersed deployment of battleships.

For instance, before heading to Fan Flame Ocean, the carrier "Fenjin" had its home port in Yotun Port, south of the Howay Islands, and did not even return to Treasure Harbor during that period.

Besides, the "Fenjin" never stayed in port for more than 10 days.

If during this time the Empire’s Special Mixed Fleet had already left port and could possibly reach Central East Ocean, the "Fenjin"’s time at port would be further shortened.

To a large extent, Treasure Harbor was actually a transfer port, mainly serving transport vessels and escort battleships that followed the convoy movements.

As for the main battleships, they were either active in the open sea or went to other ports for rest and refit.

Apparently, attacking Treasure Harbor could at most weaken the combat power of the Newland Navy, especially its sustained combat capability, but it could not achieve the goal of annihilating the Newland Fleet in one stroke

Since it was not possible to obtain control of the sea once and for all through a surprise attack, there wasn’t much significance to it.

According to Bai Zhizhan, Nizi probably would have wished that the Empire’s Navy would attempt a surprise attack on Treasure Harbor.

After the Northwest East Ocean Battle, the Empire’s Navy had always been sending submarines to monitor Treasure Harbor.

At any time, there would be 2 or 3 Empire ocean-going submarines outside Treasure Harbor, whose primary mission was to monitor the vessels entering and leaving.

Upon spotting large battleships, they had to send a telegram as quickly as possible.

In less than half a year, 13 ocean-going submarines disappeared in the Central East Ocean, with at least 5 of them being sunk by Newland anti-submarine warships near Treasure Harbor.

In the submarine force, missing was equivalent to being sunk.

To date, not a single Empire Navy’s submarine had managed to come close to Treasure Harbor, always revealing their positions dozens of kilometers away from the port.

This tight anti-submarine defense was precisely to prevent a surprise attack.

In fact, this was also reflected in the intelligence aspects.

In Zheng Jiangming’s words, maybe in a few more months, it will be hard to obtain timely first-hand intelligence related to Treasure Harbor.

The reason was that the spies lurking on the Howay Islands, especially on Honu Island, were successively exposed, leaving behind very few counter-converted Saiyi intelligence personnel.

Although information related to Treasure Harbor could still be obtained indirectly through other channels, there would certainly be delays, and the timeliness would not be good.

Regardless, a surprise attack on Treasure Harbor was not of much value.

Zhou Yongtao’s suggestion also reminded Bai Zhizhan.

Even if they did not launch a surprise attack, they could take advantage of this point.

They could use the idea of a surprise attack on Treasure Harbor to divide the Newland Navy forces, lure the Newland Fleet away, or decide the time and place of a fleet decisive battle based on this.

If a fleet decisive battle was inevitable, they must strive for it to occur at a time and place of their own choosing.

In short, Bai Zhizhan asked Zhou Yongtao to find Zheng Jiangming and discuss this bold idea with the people from the Sixth Bureau.

In the end, Bai Zhizhan gave Liu Changxun a positive response.

As long as the combat operation started in June, and intel indicated that two of the Newland Navy’s fleet carriers were still in the shipyard for maintenance, then four large carriers would suffice. They could send three fleet carriers to the Fan Flame Ocean and launch an assault on Socotra Island while marching on Boss Bay.

After determining the main combat forces, Bai Zhizhan then began drafting a detailed battle plan.

At this time, Li Mingbo had already returned to the Navy Headquarter.

This was also the first time he had returned to the Navy Headquarter since going to the Fan Flame Ocean last year to rendezvous with the Tiaoman warships.

Accompanying him back were the officers and men of the eleventh Special Mixed Fleet Headquarter.

However, these officers and men did not come to the Imperial Capital; all of them went to Mast Harbor to participate in the acceptance testing of the four large carriers, adapting to the new environment.

It must be said, Li Mingbo really helped a lot.

Liu Changxun had brought Li Mingbo back precisely to share Bai Zhizhan’s worries.

As Liu Changxun put it, Li Mingbo had always been Bai Zhizhan’s right-hand man, so assisting Bai Zhizhan in solving problems was part of his job.

As Chief of Staff, he had to be ready to handle these tasks.

After entering the planning stage, they had to carry out corresponding preparations in parallel, especially deploying troops and transporting combat supplies to the front line.

All of these were matters that required a great deal of effort.

It was not that Bai Zhizhan could not handle them, but after worrying about these issues, he would have no energy left to think about anything else.

Obviously, Li Mingbo did not need to think about other issues.

To put it bluntly, as for the military achievements Bai Zhizhan had made, not to say half, at least a good portion of them belonged to Li Mingbo.

According to rumors within the Navy, Li Mingbo had always been the best supporting role in the Imperial Navy, with that role highlighting Bai Zhizhan, the bright flower he set off.

At the Fleet Headquarter, Li Mingbo also earned the nickname "Master of Supporting Roles."

Whether in the Imperial Navy or the world over, it was hard to find a few right-hand men as hardworking, loyal, and capable as Li Mingbo.

In terms of personal ability, Li Mingbo definitely could not compare with Bai Zhizhan, and not even with Zhou Yongtao.

But in terms of importance, Li Mingbo could at least rank after Bai Zhizhan and definitely ahead of Zhou Yongtao.

As Bai Zhizhan put it, without Zhou Yongtao, he could still command the fleet in battle, but without Li Mingbo, he would have to find another Chief of Staff.

Precisely because of this, Bai Zhizhan was able to dedicate his energy elsewhere over the next two months.

Officially, his job was to solve problems for Liu Changxun.

Even before Li Mingbo returned, Bai Zhizhan was focused on the strategic level, but at that time, there were not too many trifles to deal with, and Zhou Yongtao was covering the ordinary affairs. It had little impact on him, allowing him to spend more time on the Navy Headquarter side.

In March, to be exact, from the end of March to mid-April, the most critical actions were actually those of the Tiaoman and Raleigh forces advancing into the Xuan Continent.