Empire Conquest

Chapter 549 - 545: Intrinsic Reason

Time was pressing. After returning to the Navy headquarters to receive the combat orders, Bai Zhizhan took Zheng Jiangming’s car to the suburban airport overnight.

Zheng Jiangming did not go to the Prime Minister Mansion to attend the meeting, as he had not yet reached the level of being a distinguished guest of the Grand Secretary.

However, he did not send Bai Zhizhan to the airport without reason.

It was only then that Bai Zhizhan realized the Army had planned more than just attacking the Boi Country!

In retrospect, Xue Yuanzheng was wrongly blamed.

According to information revealed by Zheng Jiangming, the Army’s original plan was to move north from the Boi Country, either by crossing the Caucasus mountain range or by traversing the Broad Sea.

In short, the plan was to attack the Luosha Federation from the direction of Chains Bridge.

This way, they could attack the Luosha Federation from two different directions.

Including the front facing the Tiaoman Empire on the West Continent, the Luosha Federation would be fighting on three fronts simultaneously.

That was why Peng Huaisong had proposed early on that following this plan, there was hope to meet the Tiaoman forces in the capital of the Luosha Federation by the summer of the New Calendar 103.

However, the problem was that Xue Yuanzheng did not support the Army’s proposal.

As for the reasons, Zheng Jiangming pointed to the East Ocean in the Southwest.

Bai Zhizhan was not foolish and immediately understood Zheng Jiangming’s implications.

After defeating the Luosha Federation, the Empire’s Army, which already had nearly 10 million troops, would face a situation lacking substantial adversaries. Since it was not possible to cross the East Ocean to attack the Newland Federation, the Army would inevitably need a new opponent, with Aus being the only option.

However, the problem was that advancing into Aus depended on the Navy, not the Army!

Without naval support, no matter how large the Army’s forces were, they could not cross the Southwest East Ocean to land in Aus.

Clearly, that was the issue.

Looking at the current situation, the Imperial Navy would not be able to advance into Aus in the second half of the New Calendar 103, even extending into New Calendar 104.

To be precise, after focusing on the main direction and attacking the Howay Islands, there would be no surplus forces left to attack Aus.

Therefore, if Aus was to be attacked in New Calendar 103 or 104, it would mean postponing or even abandoning the campaign against the Howay Islands.

Undoubtedly, this was an unacceptable outcome.

Choosing to attack Aus instead of the Howay Islands would result in prolonging the war by two to three years and increasing the casualties by over a million.

Furthermore, the significance of attacking Aus was minimal.

Attacking Aus now would only serve to satisfy the vanity of the Army’s officers and soldiers, especially the senior generals, and to prove the Army’s worth through war.

Clearly, this was also why Xue Yuanzheng was not very interested in this plan.

Ultimately, it was about controlling the pace of the campaign against the Luosha Federation.

As Zheng Jiangming said, at least before the Navy entered the Land Heart Sea, the Luosha Federation could not be defeated yet and had to continue acting as the black hole of war for the Alliance Group.

This involved strategic aid provided by the Newland Federation.

Although there were no exact statistics, plenty of intelligence confirmed that after the Southwest Fan Flame Ocean Battle ended, the Luosha Federation received more aid than Bulan Kingdom, becoming the Newland Federation’s top aid recipient, and the North Sunset Ocean route became exceptionally busy.

In fact, this was also why Dunz could assume the position of Commander-in-Chief of the submarine forces and gain extraordinary authority.

Apart from maritime losses, the consumption on the frontlines of Giant Continent and West Continent was also tremendously horrifying.

Just during the battle at Atla, the Luosha Federation lost over 2000 tanks, and the consumed ammunition and other combat supplies exceeded 5 million tons.

Even if only one-tenth of it came from the Newland Federation, it was equivalent to the capacity of two groups of transport fleets each with 50 vessels.

In a sense, the Luosha Federation had become a black hole devouring war materials.

The Newland Federation had no choice but to continue supporting the Luosha Federation, thereby consuming what was hardly an abundant strategic potential with very low efficiency.

In comparison, the losses in maritime transport were actually greater.

According to Zheng Jiangming, of the 10,000 tons of goods shipped from the Newland Federation, only about 4,000 tons successfully arrived at the Luosha Federation’s Murmansk.

Replacing sunk transport ships also required a vast expenditure of resources.

Furthermore, the utilization efficiency of aid materials in the Luosha Federation was extremely low.

For example, the 1,500 M3 and M4 tanks provided by the Newland Federation were all assigned to secondary troops and never used on the front lines.

This indicates that as long as the Luosha Federation hadn’t been defeated, it would continue to drain the Newland Federation’s war potential.

However, these weren’t the main reasons.

Zheng Jiangming mentioned another point.

The key reason Xue Yuanzheng didn’t want the Army to quickly prevail in the Giant Continent battleground was that he didn’t want to provide domestic appeasers with a reason to call for a ceasefire.

Although the Newland Federation hadn’t been defeated yet, the Imperial Navy had already achieved enough strategic advantage and essentially regained the overseas territories it had lost in the previous major war. As for seeking more overseas territories or expanding its sphere of influence, that had never been the Empire’s goal.

Control or occupy the East Ocean?

Even if the military and civilians of the Empire entertained such thoughts, the Imperial High Command wouldn’t be that oblivious.

Even Xue Yuanzheng recognized that completely defeating the Newland Federation would be extremely difficult and definitely require a terribly high price.

To put it another way, even if the Newland Federation were defeated, it would undoubtedly be a Pyrrhic victory.

This implied that it was politically unfeasible.

In the long run, the most ideal outcome the Empire could pursue was to make the Newland Federation admit defeat and accept an international order led by the Empire.

Furthermore, there was no clear or actual conflict of interest between the Newland Federation and the Empire.

years ago, the Newland Federation had common interests with the Empire in overthrowing the international order dominated by old empires like the Bulan Kingdom.

Conversely, the Luosha Federation had direct conflicts of interest with the Empire and posed a severe threat to the Empire’s homeland.

Thus, the primary reason for deciding when this war should end wasn’t based in the East Ocean.

In the Giant Continent!

Once the Luosha Federation was defeated and the threat to the homeland eliminated, what reason remained to continue fighting or what practical benefits could continuing the fight bring?

If anything, absolute homeland security had been the highest goal the Empire had pursued since its establishment.

Back in the day, Emperor Shiwu had waged war against the Luosha Empire precisely for homeland security.

Using Zheng Jiangming’s words, even if Xue Yuanzheng wasn’t willing to compromise after the Luosha Federation’s defeat, domestic appeasers would propose a ceasefire.

The key point was, no one could guarantee that allies like the Tiaoman Empire would want to continue fighting!

Don’t forget, for the Tiaoman Empire, the Luosha Federation was also the top threat.

Geopolitically, the previous Luosha Empire, now the Luosha Federation, had always been the foundation for maintaining the alliance between the Liangxia Empire and the Tiaoman Empire.

Moreover, the Tiaoman Empire had already defeated the Locke Republic and controlled the western regions of the West Continent and even sent troops to control the North Xuan region.

Besides the Luosha Federation, the Tiaoman Empire had already become the de facto overlord of the West Continent!

So, after the Bulan Kingdom declared defeat, relinquishing control of the Land Heart Sea and even handing over the Xifan Canal, what reason did the Tiaoman Empire have to continue fighting?

For over a century, what the Tiaoman Empire sought was to dominate the West Continent and sail across the Sunset Ocean, wasn’t it?

Evidently, as long as the Tiaoman authority deemed that cutting their losses was the most ideal choice, then after defeating the Luosha Federation, the great war was very likely to come to an end.

Regrettably, peace certainly wouldn’t last forever.

As expected, war would erupt again 20 years later.

Actually, that was also the key reason why Xue Yuanzheng consistently insisted on achieving a comprehensive victory as his goal.