Empire Conquest

Chapter 522 - 518 Striking East and Attacking West

By July 25, Bai Zhizhan’s concerns had become reality.

If those two fleet carriers had sailed at cruising speed, they would have been able to reach Wangxi Canal by July 24 at the latest, and the Sixth Bureau had already made arrangements.

However, by the 25th, no intelligence had been received.

Furthermore, the three ocean-going submarines that the Navy had sent to the Wangxi Canal area had not sent any telegrams, indicating that they had not detected any Newland carriers passing through the canal.

If the two fleet carriers did not go to the Wangxi Canal, where else could they go?

On that day, Bai Zhizhan sent a telegram to Liu Changxun, hoping that Liu Changxun would personally intervene to keep the Eleventh Special Mixed Fleet within the coverage of the shore-based air force as much as possible.

If possible, it would be better to temporarily delay the operation to advance into Boss Bay.

In a word, they were not to be careless or underestimate the enemy.

Fortunately, there was still enough time to complete the deployment and adjustments.

Based on the departure time of the Newland carriers, even if they had sailed at full speed in the past few days, they would not be able to bypass the Xuan Continent and reach the Northwest region of the Fan Flame Ocean until around August 10.

As for taking the route through the Land Heart Sea, the likelihood was not very high.

The Tiaoman troops had already occupied Malta and also seized air superiority, while the Raleigh Navy became increasingly active, making it impossible for the Newland Fleet to pass through the Land Heart Sea undetected.

Once detected, they would lose the element of surprise in the battle and could forget about launching a surprise attack on the Eleventh Special Mixed Fleet.

In fact, they might even be at risk of getting ambushed by the Eleventh Special Mixed Fleet themselves.

Actually, what really needed to be guarded against was the Commerce Raiding Fleet that had defeated the Joint Fleet.

Before this, the Sixth Bureau had provided a large amount of intelligence, suggesting that this fleet was still operating in the Fan Flame Ocean and had sunk several Imperial Navy submarines.

On July 21, they had even bombed a convoy heading to Sri Lanka.

As for the reconnaissance and patrol aircraft operating in the North Fan Flame Ocean, the losses were even more severe, with over 40 aircraft going missing while on missions.

As a result, the Imperial Navy had made adjustments, using long-range fighters for patrol duties, and each patrol consisted of two fighters. Even if the performance of the long-range fighters was not very good and perhaps not a match for the ship-borne fighters, they had enough time to send out a message.

This tactic had immediate effect.

Although long-range fighters were being shot down every day, under the threat of the shore-based air force, the Newland Commerce Raiding Fleet had evaded southward by several hundred kilometers.

It was undeniable that the threat from the Newland Fleet still existed.

The Commerce Raiding Fleet did not head north again, which was actually because the Imperial Navy had stopped sending convoys to Sri Lanka and Gwadar, leaving no worthwhile targets in the North Fan Flame Ocean.

In fact, due to the presence of this Commerce Raiding Fleet, the Imperial Navy’s operation to advance into Boss Bay had been delayed several times.

A large number of transport ships were gathered at Lion Spring City because the Imperial Navy was temporarily unable to provide battleship escort and the escort fleet was unable to cope with the bombardment from enemy aircraft, so they could not transport the combat troops and equipment to Gwadar, which meant continuously postponing the time to launch the attack.

For this reason, Liu Changxun had already made it clear to Bai Zhizhan.

The Imperial High Command had begun to consider whether to send the Special Mixed Fleet to take out the Commerce Raiding Fleet.

Anyway, they could not keep dragging on like this.

However, on July 29, a battle report from afar immediately rendered all the analyses and conjectures Bai Zhizhan had previously made futile.

On the afternoon of July 28 local time, Malta had been bombed!

In fact, as early as July 26, there had been plenty of intelligence indicating that the Bulan Royal Navy had dispatched two fleet carriers to the Land Heart Sea.

According to speculation, the Bulan Royal Navy was preparing to forcefully attack Malta.

The reason was simple: if Malta could not be captured, then the Bulan forces could never hold the Xifan Canal.

In addition to the carriers, the Bulan Royal Navy had also mobilized two fast battleships, two Treaty battleships, and at least four old battleships, and had gathered the strength of two Marine Divisions at Nara Fortress, arranging dozens of transport vessels, and prepared ample ammunition and supplies.

At the time, Bai Zhizhan hadn’t felt that this had anything to do with the Newland Navy.

However, according to the message from the Tiaoman Empire, in the two consecutive bombing waves that afternoon, at least 200 enemy aircraft had flown over Malta.

Clearly, this greatly exceeded the aircraft capacity of two Bulan carriers.

In addition, the escorts—that is, those sent out to seize air superiority—were a kind of new fighter that had never been encountered before.

According to the Tiaoman military’s message, it was very likely the F6F.

Obviously, these fighters definitely belonged to the Newland Navy.

The F6F was still in the trial production stage with very limited output; even the Newland Navy itself didn’t have enough to massively aid the Bulan Royal Navy.

Moreover, the Bulan Royal Navy’s "Sea Fire" was about to enter mass production and its performance wasn’t much worse than the F6F.

The key issue was still the number of enemy aircraft.

There was sufficient reason to believe that Newland Navy’s two fleet carriers were in the Land Heart Sea, possibly including that small carrier.

Actually, this wasn’t hard to understand.

Recapturing Malta and controlling the maritime superiority of the Land Heart Sea, suppressing the Raleigh Kingdom and the Tiaoman Empire, would allow for the maximum impact of the severe blow dealt to the Joint Fleet.

Simply put, it was effectively forcing the Liangxia Empire to shift its focus to the west.

Three days later, on July 31st, the Bulan military launched a landing operation.

Due to the loss of air superiority, the Raleigh Navy’s old problem recurred; they pulled their prized fleet back and refused to provide cover for the Tiaoman troops in Malta.

As a result, the Tiaoman Empire had to temporarily halt its offensive operations in the North Xuan region, to be precise, the preparations for attacking the Xifan Canal.

All of a sudden, Malta became a strategic point of contention for both sides again.

Also on this day, the expeditionary force of the Imperial Army Air Force confirmed that four fleet carriers were indeed west of Malta and preliminarily identified them as the "Royal Ark" and the "Fury," the "Fenjin" and the "Lek," along with several main battle ships.

Since they couldn’t approach close enough for reconnaissance and were intercepted 20 kilometers away, the expeditionary force’s scouting report was highly uncertain.

In other words, it couldn’t be ruled out that the Bulan Royal Navy could be using escort aircraft carriers for striking missions.

As for those F6Fs, they possibly came from the Newland Navy’s expeditionary forces.

By August 1st, the Bulan Royal Navy’s landing forces had already secured a foothold on the beaches of Malta.

At this point, Bai Zhizhan had no choice but to admire the commander of the Newland Navy.

Under such unfavorable circumstances, he still managed to deploy tactics, and even had the courage to engage in guerrilla warfare, avoiding a decisive battle with the Imperial Fleet in a head-on confrontation.

This kind of boldness was not something just anyone possessed.

Of course, this also proved from another angle that the Newland Federation indeed was a formidable opponent worth paying attention to, one that required all available capabilities to defeat!

Besides, the Raleigh Kingdom was simply too weak.

Over the past few months, the Raleigh Kingdom had not expanded its military bases in Sicily, not even building a few more airfields would have been a good thing.

Unfortunately, the Raleigh Kingdom did nothing at all.

Otherwise, the Tiaoman military would not have been so passive.

But then, what could be done?

On the evening of August 1st, Liu Changxun sent a telegram to Bai Zhizhan, asking him to seriously consider whether to adjust the operation of attacking Transfer Island in a timely manner.

The implication was that it wasn’t too late to change course now.

But was he to just give up like this?