Empire Conquest

Chapter 530 - 526 Despair

Until noon, Spur barely recovered his breath, or rather, gathered a bit of his spirits.

His first command afterward was to have the fleet turn back towards Aus.

By evening, as night was about to fall, he finally sent a telegram to Nizi reporting the fleet’s movements, no longer proceeding to Transfer Island to seek a decisive battle with the Liangxia Fleet.

Clearly, Spur was also worried about a sudden attack.

Theoretically, the possibility of the Liangxia Fleet sneaking up on the Newland Fleet from the Southwest East Ocean was nearly zero. It wasn’t that the Liangxia Fleet lacked the capability for a sneak attack, nor that the commanding officers lacked courage, but simply that it was impracticable, as many islands in the Southwest East Ocean had Newland Navy patrol aircraft. Not to mention a large-scale fleet, even a single submarine might hardly reach the vicinity of Samoa Islands undetected.

Yet, who could have predicted that the 51st Special Mixed Fleet would be ambushed near Wangxi Canal?

If anything, it was due to carelessness.

Had Hal not been complacent and sent out reconnaissance aircraft in the afternoon, perhaps they could have timely discovered the Liangxia Fleet, at least avoid a sudden attack.

But, there are no "ifs" in reality.

All hope had already sunk to the seabed with the two fleet carriers.

What needed consideration next was probably a do-or-die battle with the Liangxia military forces on Honu Island.

At this time, in Treasure Harbor.

Although Nizi did not faint on the spot upon receiving the telegram, his mood was even heavier than Spur’s, or rather, more desperate.

After receiving the last telegram, he issued orders for the remaining battleships of the 51st Special Mixed Fleet to standby in the Canal Zone.

Furthermore, he instructed the patrol aircraft and reconnaissance aircraft stationed at Wangxi Canal to deploy and search for the Liangxia Fleet, which might still be operating nearby, possibly even preparing for a sneak attack.

If anything, guarding Wangxi Canal had always been the top priority of the Newland Navy.

For over a decade before the outbreak of the war, the Newland Navy had been emulating the Liangxia Navy, holding an annual fleet exercise specifically targeted.

Crucially, the exercises were almost entirely about defending Wangxi Canal.

The reason is simple; Wangxi Canal is the most critical lifeline for the Newland Navy and even for the Newland Federation as a whole.

Given that the heartland of the Newland Federation is its East Coast and the surrounding Great Lakes area, and almost all its shipyards are near Sunset Ocean, so Wangxi Canal is the critical gateway connecting the eastern and western coasts of the Newland Federation, and the vital artery for the Newland Navy to deploy fleets to the East Ocean.

Not just occupation by the enemy, but even mere paralysis would cause the Newland Navy to lose the entire East Ocean.

What’s more, paralyzing Wangxi Canal isn’t a difficult task.

Theoretically, deploying several dozen bombers could destroy the canal’s locks, rendering the canal unnavigable for months, or even years.

This was exactly why the Newland Navy had always placed great emphasis on protecting Wangxi Canal.

Otherwise, Nizi wouldn’t have immediately put the forces in the Canal Zone on wartime footing, precisely speaking, ordered all units of the Navy Air Force stationed in the Canal Zone to deploy.

Although they hadn’t yet recovered from the shock of the 51st Special Mixed Fleet’s annihilation, Nizi’s actions clearly reflected the nature of a Commander-in-chief.

If anything, the current worry should be about Wangxi Canal getting bombed.

At that moment, what Nizi first thought of was that the Liangxia Fleet wasn’t actually aiming for the 31st Special Mixed Fleet; it might have been an accidental hit.

To put it plainly, the Liangxia Fleet was targeting Wangxi Canal.

Early on, when Spur proposed sending two fleet carriers to assist the Bulan Royal Navy in launching a reprisal in the Land Heart Sea, forcing the Liangxia Navy to move forward into Land Heart Sea prematurely and thus give up attacking Transfer Island, or give up supporting the ground troops assaulting Transfer Island, Nizi raised a concern. Would this force the Liangxia Navy to direct their guns at the more easily destroyed Wangxi Canal?

To put it bluntly, by paralyzing Wangxi Canal, all potential threats could be eliminated.

Apart from anything else, in order for the two carriers of the fleet to reach East Ocean, they could only bypass Nangu Continent by Joint angle, not only extending the journey by over 10,000 kilometers but also causing a delay of more than ten days.

Could the garrison at Transfer Island hold out for those extra days?

Moreover, with such a delay, the Liangxia Navy would inevitably grow suspicious and would certainly strengthen its forces near Transfer Island.

At least at a strategic level, there was no way to rule out the possibility of the Liangxia Navy’s surprise attack on the Wangxi Canal.

Of course, Nizi did not veto the operational plan that Spur had proposed due to this concern.

After that, he simply ordered the deployment of dozens of reconnaissance aircraft to the Wangxi Canal and requested that the Army hasten to bolster its defensive presence in the Canal Zone.

If possible, it would be best to deploy more fighter aircraft in the Canal Zone.

However, it now seemed that such defensive deployments had not deterred the Liangxia Navy.

What was more critical, in the loss of the 31st Special Mixed Fleet, even if the Wangxi Canal was not attacked, the Newland Navy was going to lose Transfer Island.

What could those remaining three smaller carriers achieve?

Moreover, since Spur had already returned to Aus with two smaller carriers, given the current situation, it is unlikely he would return to Treasure Harbor anytime soon.

From another perspective, if there still was a glimmer of hope, it lay in the Southwest East Ocean.

Indeed, this was also a key reason why Nizi did not oppose Spur’s decision to take his fleet back to Aus.

Given the current situation, what the Newland Navy could grasp was perhaps its last hope.

If they lost even that hope, defeat was virtually certain.

Consequently, the only asset that could be used toward Transfer Island was the "Independent" commanded by Frey.

With just one smaller carrier, they didn’t even qualify to spectate at Transfer Island.

After pondering the situation all night, Nizi finally sent a telegram to the commander defending Transfer Island, Major General Hancock of the Marine Corps.

Its contents were extensive, but the crux was one point:

Given the loss of maritime superiority, and the inability to regain it, the East Ocean Fleet could no longer provide effective support to the Transfer Island garrison. Nevertheless, the soldiers there still needed to fight to the death to buy time for the Navy to strengthen defenses on other islands.

The message was very clear: Transfer Island would ultimately be abandoned.

Also, how long to endure or to defend would be decided by Hancock based on the actual situation.

Of course, as per unwritten rules, before Transfer Island fell, unless Hancock decided to share the hardships with his troops, Nizi would arrange for aircraft to evacuate them.

After receiving the response telegram, Nizi boarded the plane returning to the homeland.

Actually, as Tanimoto had predicted, after the annihilation of the 51st Special Mixed Fleet, Newland Navy’s high command was no longer contemplating how to retain Transfer Island, but rather how to stabilize the situation after the fall of Transfer Island and even after the fall of the Howay Islands.

In other words, after this battle, they needed to consider how to prevent the Liangxia Navy from continuing its advance eastward.

By this point, the situation could not be more apparent.

As expected, after the fall of the Howay Islands, what the Newland Federation faced was a defense of their homeland, preventing the Liangxia military from landing on their western coast.

Additionally, they needed to extend their defensive line southwards to at least hold the area north of the Canal on the Beigu Continent.

Managing a defense line extending thousands of kilometers was certainly not an easy task.

Despite the vast separation by East Ocean, the initiative lay in the hands of the Liangxia Empire.

Evidently, the Newland high command had to contemplate mobilizing for total war!