Empire Conquest

Chapter 496 - 492: Argument

A few days before returning to Treasure Harbor, after gaining a comprehensive understanding of the situation in the East Ocean, and in particular the recent movements and deployments of the Liangxia Navy, Spur had issued a warning to Nizi, mentioning that the Liangxia Navy was very likely to launch a military offensive against Transfer Island, the westernmost island of the archipelago, in the near future.

At that time, Spur had emphasized one point in particular.

Over the past few months, the movements of the Liangxia Navy had been excessively frequent, obviously aimed at creating confusion, or rather, deliberately releasing smoke screens.

All this was to obscure their true strategic intentions.

So, only the attack on Transfer Island justified such a multitude of maneuvers!

To convince Nizi, Spur emphasized the actions of the Liangxia Navy in the Fan Flame Ocean, such as the march into Boss Bay and the bombardment of Jibu Fortress.

This was also the most difficult part to clarify.

Fortunately, Spur’s thinking was very clear.

There was only one key point: the Liangxia Navy had never dispatched the four fully combat-ready large carriers to the Fan Flame Ocean to accelerate the advance there.

Clearly, this made no sense!

Why would the Liangxia Navy leave four powerful carriers, with enough might to change the strategic balance, in the East Ocean if it wasn’t launching a major strategic offensive?

Could there be a more important mission in the East Ocean than advancing into Boss Bay?

If not, could it be on a defensive mission?

Obviously, that couldn’t be.

After occupying Sai Island, the Liangxia Navy had established a second defense line outside the primary one centered on the North and South Sado Islands.

In addition, they had crippled Guan Island with continuous bombardment.

Apart from Guan Island, the closest location to Liangxia Empire’s homeland capable of deploying long-range bombers was the Tuk Fortress, south of Guan Island.

Yet, it was still too far.

The direct distance from Tuk Fortress to Zu Island was over 3,500 kilometers!

To date, there had been no bombers with a combat radius capable of 3,500 kilometers.

If it was just for homeland security, that is, strategic defense, the shore-based Air Force deployed on the islands would suffice.

Moreover, the Newland Navy temporarily lacked the capability to launch an offensive.

Even if they could deploy long-range bombers to Guan Island and Tuk Fortress, threatening the Liangxia Navy, without a fleet, the Newland Navy would not be able to launch a strategic offensive under any circumstances, let alone pose a threat to the Liangxia Empire’s homeland or even attack peripheral islands.

In the East Ocean, the Liangxia Navy had an absolute strategic advantage.

Thus, if the Liangxia Empire’s strategic focus in the near term was on the Fan Flame Ocean—to solve the oil issue once and for all by capturing Boss Bay—there would be no reason to keep the four large carriers in the East Ocean, only sending three carrier fleet carriers to operate in the Fan Flame Ocean, and yet never launching an offensive.

After the Ter Republic joined the war, there was no longer an issue with capturing Boss Bay.

Militarily speaking, the Liangxia Empire could control the entire Boss Bay in a matter of months and seize the local oil fields.

In fact, the Liangxia Navy only needed to block the shipping routes into Boss Bay, preventing the Bulan Kingdom from reinforcing Boi Country, and the Ter forces would be able to take Boss Bay. Since the Bulan Royal Navy had already withdrawn the "Royal Ark" back to its homeland, and Jibu Fortress was in the Southwest of Mua Sea, the Liangxia Navy didn’t even need to deploy carriers. Simply by sending out a few fast battleships, they could blockade the routes to Boss Bay.

The primary mission of the Joint Fleet, formed with the Tiaoman Navy, was to blockade Boss Bay.

Since the strategic focus wasn’t on the Fan Flame Ocean, it had to be on the East Ocean.

To the southwest of the East Ocean, to attack Aus?

This was clearly redundant.

According to Spur’s analysis, unless the Newland Navy still had several combat-ready fleet carriers, possessing the capital for a decisive battle with the Liangxia Navy in the Middle East Ocean, there was no reason for the Liangxia Navy to waste time in the southwest of the East Ocean. Instead, they should directly attack the strategically more significant Howay Islands.

Of course, the difficulty was even greater!

Actually, the issue lay right here.

Regarding the previous analysis, Nizi believed, or rather, there was no controversy.

But the problem was, just like Hal and Frey’s views, Nizi always felt that the Liangxia Navy would hit Wei Island first, rather than directly advancing to Transfer Island.

The reason was that attacking Transfer Island was too difficult, presenting many unpredictable risks.

Although Transfer Island was an isolated island, for the Newland Army, a distance of over a thousand kilometers wasn’t considered an insurmountable barrier.

Thus, the Newland Army could use the Air Force deployed on the eastern islands to cover Transfer Island.

Not to mention anything else, the heavy bombers deployed on the eastern islands could pose a serious threat to the Liangxia Fleet attacking Transfer Island.

The Liangxia Navy indeed possessed a huge advantage, but not so great as to completely overwhelm the Newland Navy.

Besides, the Liangxia forces definitely couldn’t capture Transfer Island in one fell swoop, it would inevitably take a lot of time to engage in fierce battles with the Newland forces defending the island.

During this period, all Liangxia ships lurking near Transfer Island would be under threat.

Without ensuring absolute air superiority, on what basis would the Liangxia Navy attack Transfer Island?

large carriers, certainly far from enough.

If Wei Island were captured first, the Liangxia forces could deploy shore-based Air Force there, especially those long-range Fighters which were very active in the battles at Sai Island.

Additionally, Wei Island could serve as a staging area for the attacking forces.

Overall, with the support of Wei Island, the difficulty of attacking Transfer Island would be reduced considerably.

Actually, the key still lay with the Fleet.

This was also why Hal always argued against Spur, believing Spur was worrying over nothing, firmly convinced that the Liangxia Navy would first head to the Southwest East Ocean, the strategic key point.

In Hal’s words, even the formidable Bai Zhizhan couldn’t sweep the Howay Islands clean with just 4 carriers!

carriers, at most 500 ship-borne aircraft, less than 200 could be deployed at once, while a large island could station thousands, deploying several hundred at a time.

Clearly, there was no such problem when advancing to Southwest East Ocean.

As long as they captured islands one after another, fully utilizing the shore-based Air Force deployed on the islands’ airfields, they could compensate for the deficiencies of the ship-borne air force.

To this, Spur was at a loss for words, or rather, couldn’t directly refute.

After all, Hal’s points were valid, even the most formidable Fleet Commander couldn’t conjure up Battleships from thin air, and had to abide by objective rules.

In the end, Spur could only emphasize that Bai Zhizhan always fights unconventionally.

If everyone thought that the Liangxia Navy wouldn’t dare to attack Transfer Island directly, then Bai Zhizhan would certainly do so.

Additionally, news that Bai Zhizhan had already returned to East Ocean and that Liu Xiangzhen was commanding the Fleet in the Fan Flame Ocean had been verified without a doubt.

Regarding the debate between Spur and Hal, Nizi did not take a stance, or rather, agreed with neither.

In his opinion, the probability of the Liangxia Navy wasting time and forces in Southwest East Ocean was essentially zero, but the probability of them directly attacking Transfer Island wasn’t high either.

More likely was an initial capture of Wei Island, followed by a decision to move either south or east.

In Nizi’s words, the Liangxia Navy might just delay launching a strategic advance until the end of the year, after securing Boss Bay.

Indeed, that’s why, over the past few months, the Newland Navy had been working hard to strengthen the defense deployments on Wei Island.

Not to hold on to this isolated island, but to hope for holding out a little longer.

However, these debates had come to an abrupt stop just a few hours ago.