Empire Conquest

Chapter 526 - 522 News

Spur and his team weren’t waiting for this piece of intelligence.

Three days ago, on August 5th, a message came from Treasure Harbor that two Special Mixed Fleets of the Liangxia Navy had likely left the battlefield around Transfer Island, leaving behind four small carriers to provide cover and support for the landing operations. It was also very likely that the four new fast battleships had followed the Special Mixed Fleet and left Transfer Island as well. Covering the small carriers within the support fleet were several heavy cruisers.

The most direct evidence was that during the night of the 3rd, the assault transport convoy sent to Transfer Island encountered no interception, and all the dozens of ships reached their destination smoothly. Thereafter, on the morning of the 4th, Newland’s Army Air Force deployed more than 200 bombers in the largest bombing operation since the beginning of the battle against the landing fields on Transfer Island. As a result, in the skies over Transfer Island, there were only a few dozen fighters intercepting.

By the afternoon, both the Land Air Force and Sea Air deployed a large number of reconnaissance and patrol aircraft, but no large carriers were detected.

Moreover, according to reports from the garrison on Transfer Island, from August 4th onward, only fighters and dive bombers had been flying in to bomb.

This was a very compelling piece of evidence.

Torpedo attack aircraft are more cumbersome, and while they could operate from small carriers, they would take up too much space, leading to operational inefficiencies.

In carrying out ground strike missions, the efficiency of torpedo attack aircraft was very low.

Therefore, Newland’s Navy generally did not deploy torpedo bombers on small carriers.

If it was necessary to carry some torpedo bombers, they would control the number onboard.

Additionally, it had already been confirmed that the four small carriers of the support fleet were carrying fighters and bombers, not torpedo bombers.

Of course, this did not necessarily mean that the Special Mixed Fleet had definitely withdrawn.

Perhaps they had simply withdrawn to the rear for resupply, especially to replenish ammunition.

Because of this, Spur did not immediately adjust the operation but instead emphasized to Tanimoto to pay close attention to the messages coming from Treasure Harbor.

Three days had passed with no messages.

Even for ammunition resupply, three days were more than sufficient.

If the Liangxia Navy planned to continue its efforts, or to consolidate the fruits of its victory, it might attack an island to the east of Transfer Island earlier.

Moreover, the Liangxia Navy had already sent two Marine Divisions acting as reserves, so they certainly did not lack the manpower to launch the next round of attacks.

That’s why Spur had not yet sent the signal to start the next operation.

Now, led by Hal, the Special Mixed Fleet was in the North Sunset Ocean, but it did not sail westward and was waiting for news from Spur’s side.

According to Spur’s plan, Hal was to set out for the Wangxi Canal only after Spur gave the signal.

The reason was simple—if the situation changed and was not as Spur had predicted, then Hal would have to return with his fleet to the Land Heart Sea to assist the Bulan Royal Navy in a strong attack on Malta, aiming to capture Malta and then coordinate and cooperate with the Land Heart Sea Fleet to bomb the Raleigh Kingdom.

In other words, if it came to it, they’d have to break the Raleigh Kingdom first.

Of course, this was just a contingency plan.

If Spur’s prediction was correct, Hal would have to move to the Wangxi Canal as quickly as possible to meet up with Frey there.

In Spur’s plan, Frey still played a minor role.

At this point, the most critical step was actually how to covertly pass through the Wangxi Canal without being detected by the Liangxia Empire’s intelligence agencies.

When devising the plan, Spur put forward a very bold but valuable suggestion.

To use the not yet completed third lock chamber.

According to the plan, it wouldn’t officially be open for navigation until the end of the year. In fact, construction had been completed, but it had not yet undergone acceptance testing.

The third lock chamber was already usable, albeit with lower efficiency and some safety risks.

If preparations were made in advance, allowing two fleet carriers to enter the East Ocean through the third lock without being discovered by Liangxia spies, it was certainly possible.

Of course, key to this was Frey, who was playing a minor role.

To put it simply, they would have Frey’s "Independent" small carrier draw attention, while Hal would quietly slip away.

As for the escort battleships, most of them followed Frey, and after passing through the canal, they would join Hal’s Special Mixed Fleet.

If all went well, two Fleet Carriers would arrive near Transfer Island without anyone noticing. Even without the 31st Special Mixed Fleet commanded by Spur, which consisted of two small carriers, Hal would still be able to seize maritime supremacy and annihilate Liangxia Navy’s support fleet and landing fleet all at once.

Even if things regressed slightly, they could definitely crush the Liangxia Fleet.

Once maritime supremacy was reclaimed, and the initiative on the battlefield was obtained, would it still be difficult to eliminate the enemies attempting to land on Transfer Island?

After this battle, the greatest danger would be eliminated.

Not to mention anything else, at least the safety of the Howay Islands would be amply assured, and the homeland’s security would no longer be a problem.

From Rofuss in Huacheng to the common sailors and officers of the Navy, weren’t they all fighting to the death to guard Transfer Island, just to ensure the strategic security of the homeland?

In Spur’s words, it was only after the homeland’s security was assured that one could truly unleash their full potential.

Though it was far from time to rest easy, a victory in this battle would at least provide a chance to catch one’s breath, and gain more time.

According to Spur, at least two years.

As for why that was said, Tanimoto was very clear in his mind.

The current question was, would the Liangxia Navy fall for it?

To put it precisely, would Bai Zhizhan give up the operation to attack Transfer Island?

When the Communication Advisor delivered the newly received telegram, Tanimoto, as usual, instinctively caught the telegraph message without thinking too much about it.

Upon seeing the content, Tanimoto immediately froze, then passed the telegram to Spur.

Upon receiving and reading it, Spur was also startled.

It was intelligence from a submarine and it pertained to the Liangxia Navy’s Special Mixed Fleet.

Just last night, a submarine searching for prey to the east of the Volcanic Islands encountered a Liangxia fleet rapidly heading west. The captain judged that the fleet definitely contained large carriers and fast battleships, along with several cruisers, and even the fleet oilers serving exclusively the Special Mixed Fleet.

However, the Ministry of Navy and the East Ocean Fleet Headquarter that forwarded the telegram did not provide a definitive conclusion.

In other words, the discovery made by the submarine was uncertain.

Actually, this was quite normal.

Because the encounter had occurred at night, it was not possible to clearly identify the enemy ships even with the use of a periscope, let alone make accurate judgements about ship classes.

Normally, a submarine would make rough judgments based on the noise of enemy ships.

Obviously, judgments made by listening to sounds were even more unreliable.

Had Bai Zhizhan been duped?

After looking over the telegram again, Spur then turned his gaze towards Tanimoto.

"There’s simply no other choice for him, this is both unexpected and inevitable," Tanimoto exhaled deeply and couldn’t help but let out a bitter laugh.

Even Bai Zhizhan, known as the War God of the Imperial Navy, had his downfalls!

According to the propaganda of the Liangxia Empire, Bai Zhizhan was considered the foremost naval authority in the world after Chen Bingxun.

Toward Chen Bingxun, Tanimoto felt both fear and resentment.

Even without achieving victory yet, the thought of Bai Zhizhan being forced to abandon the operation against Transfer Island gave Tanimoto an indescribable sense of satisfaction.

However, Spur was not laughing.

After contemplating for a while, he called the Communication Advisor, who hadn’t left, over.

Three days’ time was already enough.