Empire Conquest

Chapter 531 - 527 Electromagnetic Countermeasure

On the flagship "Pu" of the Twenty-First Special Mixed Fleet.

After darkness fell, only when the last ship-borne aircraft had returned and landed smoothly on the flight deck did Bai Zhizhan quietly sigh in relief.

Merely two waves of attacks had annihilated the Newland Special Mixed Fleet, sinking two of their fleet carriers—it hadn’t surprised Bai Zhizhan.

What truly surprised Bai Zhizhan was that the Newland Fleet would be completely unguarded!

Not to mention sending out fighters to patrol the skies, even the radars on their escort battleships were turned off.

The commander of the Newland Fleet probably felt that this was their own backyard, with no need to worry about being attacked.

Of course, the price of complacency and underestimating the enemy was complete annihilation.

However, the victory had come so easily that it had actually caused Bai Zhizhan to worry.

When drafting the plan, Zhou Yongtao had suggested that should the opportunity arise, to also conduct a surprise attack on the Wangxi Canal, blocking the critical route the Newland Navy used to send reinforcements to the East Ocean.

Certainly, the difficulty wasn’t great.

According to Zhou Yongtao’s plan, all they needed to do was to approach the Wangxi Canal at night, launch an attack just after dawn, and then turn to retreat.

At most, deploying dozens of Dive Bombers would be enough to destroy those few locks.

If they aimed to expand their victories, they simply needed to deploy more bombers with mother-and-daughter bombs, like those used at Transfer Island, to create trouble for the Newland Army.

At the time, Bai Zhizhan had not rejected Zhou Yongtao’s suggestion.

The temptation was just too great.

If they could paralyze the Wangxi Canal for a few months, the Imperial Navy would not only be able to capture Transfer Island but might even have hopes of seizing or crippling Treasure Harbor.

However, Bai Zhizhan had not underestimated the risks of a surprise attack on the Wangxi Canal.

The real question came down to whether they could achieve the element of surprise in the campaign.

Should the fleet be discovered before nearing the Wangxi Canal, even if at night, by dawn they would surely face a full-fledged attack from the Newland Air Force.

Just two fleet carriers simply couldn’t withstand it.

That was the problem.

After engaging with the Newland Special Mixed Fleet, could they still achieve the element of surprise for the campaign?

That’s why, when formulating the plan, Bai Zhizhan prepared two sets of strategies, accounting for the two scenarios of whether they encountered the Newland Special Mixed Fleet first.

Only if they hadn’t encountered the Newland Special Mixed Fleet, and had not revealed their whereabouts, would they strike the Wangxi Canal in secrecy.

In fact, this was also related to intelligence.

Before August 14th, precisely before the early hours of the 15th, Bai Zhizhan couldn’t be certain that the Newland Special Mixed Fleet would definitely enter the East Ocean from the Wangxi Canal.

The key point was that the special fleet might well head south through the Sunset Ocean.

Moreover, they might even turn towards the Fan Flame Ocean to join up with the commerce raiding fleet there first, and then together ambush "Heng River," which acted as the bait. If they seized the opportunity, they might even manage to kill Liu Xiangzhen’s Eleventh Special Mixed Fleet in the Mua Sea or the Bengal Bay.

Indeed, the "Heng River" was the ship dispatched to the Fan Flame Ocean.

According to Bai Zhizhan’s arrangement, the Twenty-Second Special Mixed Fleet commanded by Wei Jun turned back in the southern part of the Flame Sea while the "Heng River," which had arrived in advance, took its place to deceive the Newland submarines lurking east of Lion Spring City, leading the Newland Navy to believe that the Twenty-Second Special Mixed Fleet was dispatched to the Fan Flame Ocean.

Afterward, the 22nd Special Mixed Fleet would first return to the northern waters of the Flame Sea.

Even if everything went smoothly, they would only head back through the Two-car Strait to the West East Ocean after receiving definite news, then proceed at full speed to Transfer Island.

The task Bai Zhizhan arranged for the Wei Jun was actually to act as reserves.

To put it simply, if the 21st Special Mixed Fleet came up empty-handed, unable to annihilate the Newland Fleet or destroy the Wangxi Canal, the Wei Jun would have to provide cover for the Landing Fleet near Transfer Island and, together with the support fleet, prepare to face an attack from the Newland Special Mixed Fleet.

The plan itself was not complicated; the key was the return time of the 21st Special Mixed Fleet.

Of course, what enabled the smooth execution of this strategy was the reliance on two dedicated flagships.

Their role was not simply to act as communication relay points but to leverage the full potential of the radio interception equipment installed on the flagships.

On the way back, it was through signals captured by the "Kunlun" that they could ascertain at which moment and location they were discovered by Newland submarines.

More importantly, the Newland Navy was clearly unaware that the Empire’s Navy’s dedicated flagships could carry out electronic reconnaissance missions.

It was precisely for this reason that the 22nd Special Mixed Fleet continued sailing towards the southern region of the Flame Sea.

Thanks to the telegraphs from Newland submarines intercepted by the "Kunlun," Bai Zhizhan speculated on the whereabouts of the Newland Navy, or more accurately the Newland Special Mixed Fleet.

In Zhou Yongtao’s words, if the Newland Navy took the submarine’s reconnaissance reports as a reference, then the special mixed fleet previously spotted in the Land Heart Sea must have returned through the Wangxi Canal to the East Ocean to arrive timely at Transfer Island and launch a reprisal alongside the commerce raiding fleet returning from the North Fan Flame Ocean.

If they had sailed south and bypassed the Joint angle, it would have delayed them by an additional ten or more days.

This length of time would render the Newland Navy’s reprisal meaningless.

From a military standpoint, if they did not return through Wangxi Canal, the Newland Special Mixed Fleet was more likely to head eastward in the South Sunset Ocean towards the Fan Flame Ocean to rendezvous with the commerce raiding fleet and strengthen their commerce raiding operations in the Fan Flame Ocean, and even sever the shipping lanes of the North Fan Flame Ocean.

Of course, it also presented an opportunity to eliminate the 11th Special Mixed Fleet.

In short, whoever had planned this round of operational actions must achieve a swift and decisive victory and absolutely avoid wasting time in transit.

Speaking of which, "swift and decisive victory" was also a major characteristic of this great war, aiming at attaining sea control as the ultimate goal, typical of modern naval warfare led by carriers.

"Qinling" also played a significant role.

Although it wasn’t until the early morning of August 15th that it received intelligence from the rear, already on the evening of August 11th, the "Qinling" intercepted a large number of long-wave telegraphs from Newland warships. From this, it deduced that the special mixed fleet, centered around two fleet carriers, would soon enter the East Ocean through the Wangxi Canal.

The reasoning was more than sufficient. The broadcasting Newland warships totaled more than 20, and it was clear that so many battleships were not required to escort a small carrier.

By the early morning of the 15th, the "Qinling" once again determined through the intercepted radio signals that the two fleet carriers had passed through the Wangxi Canal.

Within the captured long-wave communications were signals from two unfamiliar radio transmitters. The Chief Communications Analyst of the "Qinling" hypothesized that maybe the "Lek" and "Fenjin" had replaced their long-wave radios during repairs, thus the lack of corresponding radio signals from those ships.

In order to emphasize the importance of this information to Bai Zhizhan, the Captain of the "Qinling" even made a guarantee.

This was, in reality, somewhat redundant.

Already during the attack on Transfer Island, the electronic reconnaisance capability of the "Qinling" had been confirmed, earning trust from Bai Zhizhan and other main commanders.

In several large-scale night naval battles, it was the "Qinling" that first discovered the approaching enemy ships and issued timely warnings, enabling the fleet to prepare for combat.

Overall, the two dedicated flagships, through electronic reconnaissance, provided commanders with a plethora of crucial intelligence.

It’s also worth mentioning that this was the first time that electromagnetic warfare and electronic reconnaissance played a role at both tactical and campaign levels on the marine battlefield, where previously it was mainly manifested at the campaign and strategic level.

Even at the end, it was electronic intelligence that was the primary basis for Bai Zhizhan deciding to launch an attack.