Empire Conquest

Chapter 532 - 528: Decisively Taking Action

On the 15th during the day, the Newland battleships that had passed through the Wangxi Canal into the East Ocean kept in touch with each other using radio stations.

At that time, the radio monitoring station on the "Qinling" became the eyes and ears of the Bai Zhizhan.

Although older strategists like Li Mingbo felt that one should not trust what they couldn’t see, and radio reconnaissance was not reliable, Bai Zhizhan and Zhou Yongtao believed that the communication signals intercepted by the "Qinling" were of tremendous value and could be used as a basis to launch an attack.

The key was that those Newland battleships had parted ways at noon.

Based on the radio signals intercepted in the morning, the "Qinling" had roughly outlined the course of the Newland battleships.

Some battleships turned north, while others headed west.

Though there were fewer battleships heading west, more accurately fewer broadcasting ships, according to the analysis made by the chief communications officer of the "Qinling," those were almost all cruisers, whereas most of the Newland battleships heading north were destroyers.

From this, Zhou Yongtao boldly speculated that those heading north were the "Independent" carrier and two fleet carriers were moving west.

Furthermore, that northern fleet was undertaking the task of luring the enemy, or warming up for the lure mission, without paying attention to hiding their tracks.

After splitting up, the battleships in that fleet were still using long-wave radios!

Since they were luring the enemy, there was no need to hide their course.

Contrastingly, the Newland fleet moving west was noticeably "quieter," probably bearing the attack mission, thus needing to maintain concealment.

Of course, the most important thing was the enemy ship’s course determined by the "Qinling," drawn from the positions of the same enemy ship’s multiple telegraphic broadcasts. The course of those enemy ships moving west was basically consistent and showed no significant variations.

This fleet would pass north of the Galapagos Islands!

Around 3 p.m., they would enter the strike range of the 22nd Special Mixed Fleet, and it was very likely the only window for attack.

Key to note, those Newland battleships went into radio silence after noon.

Missing the afternoon opportunity for attack, after a whole night of sailing by the next morning, the 22nd Special Mixed Fleet might not be able to locate them.

To put it plainly, if they were to act, they must seize this opportunity!

At that moment, Bai Zhizhan had less than two hours to make a decision.

Don’t forget, August was winter in the southern hemisphere, with sunset around 5:30 p.m. If a decision wasn’t made by 2 p.m., it would be impossible to launch two waves of attacks before dark, thus unable to ensure the sinking of two fleet carriers.

Even dispatching reconnaissance planes were out of time.

In theory, even if Bai Zhizhan decided to deploy reconnaissance aircraft around noon, roughly at 12 p.m., following Zhou Yongtao’s bold speculation, as the distance exceeded 800 kilometers and a one-way flight took more than two hours, it was still impossible to spot the Newland fleet before 2 p.m.

At that time, Bai Zhizhan’s decisiveness was fully demonstrated.

At 12:15 p.m., Bai Zhizhan had Zhou Yongtao prepare the reconnaissance planes for takeoff, though he did not send them into the air after preparation.

Following that, he arranged the first attack aircraft group.

Using a follow-tactics, the attack aircraft group would maintain a 10 to 15-minute flight interval behind the reconnaissance planes, ensuring they could immediately launch an attack upon spotting the Newland fleet. Even if the reconnaissance planes failed to find the Newland fleet, the attack aircraft group could perform a dispersed search.

Additionally, right after the first wave of attack aircraft took off, preparations for the second wave of attacks were immediately commenced.

In fact, this was typical of Bai Zhizhan’s style.

Once he was convinced an opportunity was seized and there was a substantial certainty, he would go all out, committing all forces to launch an attack.

On the battlefield, Bai Zhizhan would absolutely not give the enemy time to retaliate.

Two waves of attacks, one could say they were thoroughly exhilarating.

Actually, when Bai Zhizhan made this decision, he did not have enough confidence, or rather, he was taking a considerable risk.

The key point was that the Newland Navy had already taken control of the Galapagos Islands.

Though there were no troops stationed on the islands, they built a pier that could service patrol planes and set up a radar station along with a long-wave radio station.

On the East Ocean, the Galapagos Islands were one of the primary anti-submarine support points for the Newland Navy.

This means, if the strike turned out to be fruitless, the Twenty-second Special Mixed Fleet might expose its whereabouts.

Moreover, if the ships heading west were not the two fleet carriers but that less valuable small carrier, the Twenty-second Special Mixed Fleet would still reveal its location.

Should the attack miss its mark, the Twenty-second Special Mixed Fleet would need to prepare to escape.

At the time, Bai Zhizhan hadn’t considered what would happen if the attack came to nothing.

Relying on instinct, he believed it definitely wouldn’t fail!

The Newland Navy had made so many maneuvers; frankly, all meant to draw the Empire’s Special Mixed Fleet towards the Fan Flame Ocean, preferably to confront the Royal Bulan Navy at Land Heart Sea. Consequently, in the end, the Newland Navy would inevitably employ all available resources to retake Transfer Island, defeat the Empire Navy there, secure the Howay Islands, stabilize the situation in the Middle East Ocean, and strategically regain the upper hand.

The focus was on the two fleet carriers.

Without the two fleet carriers, even if the Newland Navy exerted all efforts, they might not be able to regain control of the sea, nor foil the amphibious operations.

Sending just the small carrier might still mean walking into a trap.

For this reason, Newland Navy’s two fleet carriers not only needed to return to the East Ocean quickly but also hurry to Transfer Island at full speed.

So, was there a need to sail north and take a detour along the west coast of the homeland?

Even disregarding fuel issues or the waste of time for refueling along the way, just the added thousands of kilometers of journey would delay them by several days.

In this battle of speed, these few days were incredibly precious.

Tactically speaking, if the Newland Navy did not launch a Reprisal around the 20th, the Liangxia Navy could fairly accurately guess the whereabouts of the two fleet carriers.

Clearly, if the two fleet carriers first sailed north, they would unlikely reach Transfer Island before the 20th.

It was because of this that Bai Zhizhan dared to conclude that those heading west through the Wangxi Canal into the East Ocean were the two fleet carriers.

To put it bluntly, only Bai Zhizhan could seize this opportunity.

To be more direct, besides Bai Zhizhan, who else would dare lead a Special Mixed Fleet with only two large carriers deep into enemy territory and set an ambush right outside the enemy’s doorstep?

Without such boldness, could the brief window of two and a half hours have been exploited?

In making this decision, just an hour’s delay could have completely changed the outcome.

With only one attack launched, sinking the two fleet carriers could not be guaranteed.

Speaking of which, this battle could establish Bai Zhizhan’s status in modern naval warfare.

Before this, there were several Navy Generals who could rival Bai Zhizhan, such as Liu Xiangzhen, Newland Navy’s Spur, and Royal Bulan Navy’s Cunningham. After this battle, these individuals could only look up to Bai Zhizhan, at most considered prominent generals of the same era.

In modern naval warfare, there is only one War God!

What is even more remarkable is that Bai Zhizhan was not intoxicated by his victory.