Empire Conquest

Chapter 525 - 521: Both Courageous and Strategic

East Fan Flame Ocean, "Wasp" number.

In the early morning, when the sky had not fully brightened, Spur had arrived at the Command Bridge.

As usual, he would first review the previous night’s navigational log and the telegrams received, and then while having breakfast, listen to the briefings.

Usually, Tanimoto would eat breakfast in the officers’ mess after completing the briefing, then head back to his quarters to sleep.

Although personally, Tanimoto was still a Saiyi military man, after the Southwest Fan Flame Ocean Battle, he officially became a Brigadier General in the Newland Navy.

Simply put, he now held dual nationality.

There was nothing important that needed to be specifically reported to Spur, and the battle reports received last night weren’t much different from the previous few days.

That being said, during this operation, Spur’s talent was displayed most comprehensively.

More than a month ago, when he encountered Spur rushed aboard the "Wasp" and learned about what Spur was planning to do, Tanimoto was almost scared stiff.

In Tanimoto’s words, only the most insane person could come up with such a crazy tactic!

It could also be described as bold.

At that time, Tanimoto felt that Spur was evading responsibility, even giving up on himself to a certain degree, almost like a willful act of desperation, completely disregarding the consequences.

Influenced by this, Tanimoto’s mood became very gloomy for a while.

That was until the battle with the Consortium Group Joint Fleet.

Even when the force strength was about the same, and the encounter happened 4 hours earlier than anticipated, Spur was able to maintain control over the situation.

To be precise, he made accurate judgments about the development of the battle.

At that moment, if it had been anyone else, even Tanimoto, they would have immediately ordered a turnaround and retreat to break contact with the Joint Fleet.

The reason was straightforward, the Joint Fleet had three fiercely powerful Fast Battleships, whereas Spur only had two at his disposal.

If the situation became uncontrolled, then the two small carriers hiding behind the two Beika-class Battleships would have been discovered and subjected to relentless shelling.

Clearly, if there had been a retreat at that point, there would not have been the subsequent victory.

Even if, in the end, the three Fast Battleships were not sunk, the victory attained held incomparable value.

Not to mention anything else, if the Joint Fleet wasn’t crushed and continued to use Colombo Port in Sri Lanka as a base, remaining active in Bengal Bay, Spur’s command of the 31st Special Mixed Fleet would definitely have stayed in the East Fan Flame Ocean and would never have gone to the North Fan Flame Ocean to attack the transport convoys.

If that were truly the case, then the situation would definitely not have been turned around.

Of course, not sinking the three Fast Battleships was indeed a regret.

But, being able to lure the Joint Fleet over, as well as determining that the Joint Fleet’s Commander lacked both experience and courage, then setting a trap to heavily damage the Joint Fleet, and managing to command the battle effortlessly amidst unforeseen circumstances, and finally achieving victory,

That ability alone made Tanimoto’s admiration soar.

Of course, this was just the beginning.

Afterward, when Spur suggested to Nizi to let Hal command the two repaired fleet carriers, and to concoct some ploys in the Land Heart Sea, Tanimoto was even more profoundly impressed. This was not just commanding ability, but a superior strategic vision.

Fundamentally, the operations in the Fan Flame Ocean were mere trifles.

To really make a significant impact, one had to devise strategies for the Land Heart Sea.

Here, Spur’s ability to judge the battlefield situation was most clearly demonstrated.

The key point was that his proposal was sure to suit the tastes of the Bulan Royal Navy, striking just the right chord, and would certainly receive the full cooperation of the Bulan Royal Navy.

As for the specific actions, they were nothing but straightforward.

Of course, Spur didn’t let the 31st Special Mixed Fleet idle either.

While Hal led the 41st Special Mixed Fleet to the Land Heart Sea to support and assist the Bulan Royal Navy’s counterattack on Malta, Spur also took the 31st Special Mixed Fleet on a rampage across the Fan Flame Ocean.

Spur’s planning and command abilities for air combat became well demonstrated when arranging interdiction operations.

However, most of that was merely polite talk, as mostly Spur just determined the general direction, such as the operational scope of the Fleet, and Tanimoto was responsible for the work at the tactical level, such as arranging ship-borne aircraft to search for and attack the Liangxia Empire’s transport convoys.

The key was to maintain as much of the Air Force’s combat capability as possible, which meant minimizing operational losses.

The issue was that logistics could not keep up.

Despite the Aus continent being to the east, due to infrastructure limitations, the Newland Navy had not deployed much force on Aus’s western coast nor had they been able to station many troops, making it difficult to provide support and protection to the fleets operating in the Fan Flame Ocean.

Even replenishing lost ship-borne aircraft proved to be quite problematic.

As a result, it was necessary to make the most of the escort battleship, especially the numerous Destroyers.

As for fuel, that wasn’t a major issue.

Upon reaching Aus, Spur requisitioned four Fast Tankers and six Regular Tankers, allowing the four Fast Tankers to accompany the Fleet, while the six Regular Tankers were left in Perth.

Even while maintaining a high sailing speed, the 31st Special Mixed Fleet was able to operate in the Fan Flame Ocean for three months.

Relatively speaking, food and other provisions, particularly fresh fruits and vegetables, were what needed to be considered.

Although the issue of scurvy had been resolved through technical means, the appetites of officers and soldiers still needed to be adequately catered to in practice.

Actually, it wasn’t solely reliant on medication.

According to regulations, after a fleet had been at sea for a month, every officer and soldier would receive a lemon each day to supplement vitamin C, which was difficult to obtain from other food sources.

However, these were all basic necessities.

To improve living conditions, before leaving Perth, Spur had arranged for dozens of long-range patrol planes to transport fresh vegetables and fruits to the fleet.

One of the greatest advantages of being located in such a remote place was not having to worry about information leaks.

The native population in Perth was less than 20,000, and aside from fishermen, nearly all were farmers who didn’t pay much attention to the newly arrived Newland troops.

Furthermore, the local communication facilities were extremely primitive.

Perth had only one radio at the post office.

Without using the radio, even driving to a town with a radio or phone would take at least two days.

Clearly, Perth was an intelligence black hole to espionage personnel.

Relatively speaking, it was more reliable to send submarines to monitor ships entering and leaving the port from outside, at least there wouldn’t be a situation where discoveries couldn’t be communicated.

Of course, all these were minor details.

Among the telegrams received last night, there was one matter worth attention.

A Liangxia transport fleet would soon be leaving Lion Spring City, likely destined for Gwadar carrying weapons and ammunition.

The key was that the convoy would definitely receive protection from an escort fleet and would be sailing in coastal waters.

The telegram came from Huacheng. The intelligence agency had not confirmed the reliability of this message and hadn’t provided specific details about the convoy, such as the departure time, the total number of transport ships, how many battleships would escort, which ports they would stop at along the way, or whether they would go directly to the destination.

Of course, there might be precise intelligence tomorrow.

What was certain was that due to the threat of the 31st Special Mixed Fleet, hundreds of ships were stranded in Lion Spring City, many of which were military transports carrying the equipment and supplies needed for the march on Boss Bay, especially tanks that needed to be transported in bulk.