Empire Conquest

Chapter 494 - 490 Worries abound

After saying a few simple words, Bai Zhizhan let everyone get to their proper tasks.

Of course, Li Mingbo stayed behind.

The fleet had just left the anchorage, and there were unlikely to be any significant issues in the next few hours, so there was no need for Li Mingbo to remain at the command bridge.

"The latest reports are that the landing fleet is also preparing, aiming to depart after daybreak."

Bai Zhizhan nodded and said, "Tell Li Jie there’s no need to rush, just proceed according to plan."

"Don’t worry, he’s not Jin Hong."

Hearing Li Mingbo say this, Bai Zhizhan couldn’t help but force a smile.

Li Jie was indeed reliable, but if you were talking about completely putting his mind at ease, Bai Zhizhan couldn’t do it.

Although the plan required at least five days to be reserved for the Special Mixed Fleet to seize control of the sea and airspace and to complete the fire preparation before the landing, due to speed limitations, the landing fleet had to depart alongside the Special Mixed Fleet and then gradually increase the distance between them during the voyage.

When it came to the landing operation phase, the landing fleet—under Li Jie’s command—would become the absolute main force.

While in the original plans the landing fleet included only six Longxing-class battleships and some twenty cruisers and destroyers, whose primary task was to provide artillery support for the landing forces without undertaking fleet combat missions, during the detailed planning of the operation, Bai Zhizhan made adjustments to the troop deployments and tactical arrangements, incorporating all four Xu Sea-class fast battleships into the landing fleet.

Of course, the four fast battleships would join the landing fleet once the landing operation commenced.

In addition, at that time, there was also going to be a support fleet primarily comprising four small carriers and two Xu Sea-class.

In other words, once they entered the landing operation phase, the landing fleet would become the main force, and Li Jie would take the leading role, with Bai Zhizhan stepping aside.

"Do you know what I’m worried about?"

After Bai Zhizhan asked, Li Mingbo just smiled.

"So far, we haven’t received any news about Spur, and those two small carriers also vanished over half a month ago."

"Maybe we’ll get some news soon."

"You could think that way, but if I did, defeat wouldn’t be far away."

Li Mingbo didn’t know what to say in response to Bai Zhizhan’s statement.

"If I believed our tricks could fool others, I would have no doubt. But to believe they could deceive Spur and Nizi, I don’t even convince myself," Bai Zhizhan stopped for a moment, and without waiting for Li Mingbo to speak, he continued, "On a strategic level, we have given up advancing through the Southwest East Ocean and are instead directly attacking the Howay Islands, and the conquest of Midway Island is hardly a secret."

"That’s just strategy."

"All tactical operations serve the strategic goal."

Li Mingbo pursed his lips, indicating that he had nothing to say.

"It can be said that as long as Spur and Nizi grasp this key point, no matter what tricks we play, they won’t believe we’ll attack Wei Island. Once they’re sure we’re heading for Transfer Island, Nizi will definitely position the two small carriers to the northeast of Transfer Island."

"To ambush us when we attack Transfer Island?"

Bai Zhizhan nodded and then said, "Don’t forget, there are hundreds of long-range bombers on Transfer Island, and several dozen even more threatening long-range patrol aircraft."

"We’ve already considered all these factors, so what’s there to be worried about?"

"Having considered them doesn’t mean we have found a solution."

Hearing Bai Zhizhan say this, Li Mingbo couldn’t help but sigh internally.

Creating the operational plans, or rather deciding on the tactics, mainly involved whether we could launch an attack before being discovered.

Fundamentally, this also related to the operational radius of the ship-borne aircraft.

According to the intelligence provided by the Sixth Bureau, the Newland Navy could almost certainly detect the existence of the Special Mixed Fleet within a range of 1500 kilometers, owing to the use of more than 100 B-17s and dozens of PBYs. Theoretically, the Special Mixed Fleet had a high likelihood of being spotted approximately 2000 kilometers from Transfer Island.

For shipborne aircraft, this was clearly an insurmountable distance.

Now, it was up to the carrier.

In line with the plan devised by Zhou Yongtao, the Special Mixed Fleet would make a full-speed sprint at night, covering about 500 kilometers, thus shortening the operational radius of the shipborne aircraft to 1000 kilometers. If they could sprint at full speed from the previous afternoon, they could shorten the distance by another 200 kilometers or more.

In fact, shortening it to 1000 kilometers would be enough.

Carrying 250-kilogram bombs and taking off overburdened, the "Vermilion Bird" and "Thunderbolt" could achieve an operational radius of 1000 kilometers.

Moreover, "Xiaotian" could fly beyond 1000 kilometers to perform 15 minutes of air combat mission in a state of air superiority.

If the distance could be shortened to 750 kilometers, "Vermilion Bird" and "Thunderbolt" could carry 500-kilogram bombs.

Tactically, as long as the first wave of attacks was successfully launched and the airport on Transfer Island was crippled, the Special Mixed Fleet would be able to get close enough to launch an attack.

Of course, from start to finish, only one Special Mixed Fleet could be active so as to keep the other in a covert state.

The key was whether the two Shipborne Air Force Wings of one Special Mixed Fleet could completely incapacitate the airport on Transfer Island in the first two waves of attacks.

For this purpose, Zhou Yongtao organized the staff at the headquarter to conduct several rounds of strategy simulation exercises.

The results proved that with proper tactical arrangement, two Shipborne Air Force Wings were sufficient to carry out the sneak attack, launching two waves of bombings to paralyze the airport on Transfer Island.

But they would certainly need to give it their all.

This meant that during the strike on Transfer Island, the particular Special Mixed Fleet would be unable to undertake other tasks.

This was the critical reason for the need of two Special Mixed Fleets to operate in conjunction.

One Special Mixed Fleet would launch a surprise attack on Transfer Island, while the other provided cover from behind.

If other threats were disregarded, there would be no issue with this battle plan.

Unfortunately, other threats had to be taken into account.

As Bai Zhizhan mentioned, those two small carriers had been missing for over half a month, and Spur hadn’t shown up, so the Newland Navy was likely already fully prepared.

Therefore, while bombing Transfer Island, they might very well come under attack.

To put it another way, deducing that the Imperial Navy was going to strike Transfer Island wasn’t difficult, so it wasn’t reasonable to expect much from the use of deception.

When it came down to it, this was sure to be a fierce battle!

Clearly, this is why Bai Zhizhan was now troubled.

If he knew where Spur was and could engage in a proper battle with Spur, Bai Zhizhan would not have the slightest worry.

But now, he didn’t even know where Spur was.

This situation was almost identical to the one before the Northwest East Ocean Battle, just with the roles switched.

Li Mingbo knew what Bai Zhizhan was worried about, but had no idea how to offer comfort, seeing as matters related to a decisive naval engagement weren’t really within the realm where he, as the Chief of Staff, had much say.

Perhaps, performing his own responsibilities well was the greatest help he could offer.

After making sure Bai Zhizhan had finished his late-night meal, Li Mingbo finally left the dining area.

Out on the flight deck, the aviation service personnel had already started bustling about. The first group of ship-borne aircraft scheduled to take off before dawn had been brought up to the flight deck and were being prepared for takeoff, a few of which were in front of and behind the island structure, testing whether their engines could function normally.

The Fleet had already set sail, and as long as nothing unexpected occurred, they would arrive near Transfer Island in 6 days, on June 28th, then deploy ship-borne aircraft to initiate the attack.

Let’s hope everything goes smoothly!