Empire Conquest

Chapter 550 - 546: Emergency Return

"Do you think it has anything to do with the defeat the Army faced at Atla?"

When Bai Zhizhan uttered these words, Zheng Jiangming visibly jumped in shock, his hands trembling involuntarily on the steering wheel.

Fortunately, he regained control of his emotions quickly and prevented the vehicle from going out of control.

Evidently, Bai Zhizhan’s statement was terrifying.

Although it was just Bai Zhizhan’s speculation, if it got out, the first person to be unlucky would be Lian Xusheng, and losing his official cap would be the least of his worries.

To put it gravely, it would amount to treason!

After a moment, Zheng Jiangming finally took a deep breath. "Do you really think that’s possible?"

Bai Zhizhan didn’t make a sound, merely nodding slightly.

In fact, when Zheng Jiangming mentioned Xue Yuanzheng’s attitude towards the continental war, Bai Zhizhan had already suspected that Lian Xusheng was actually serving Xue Yuanzheng.

That’s why Bai Zhizhan suspected that the defeat the Army suffered at Atla might be related to this.

The biggest suspicion was that, in this massive battle, the Imperial Army had lost fewer than 50,000 officers and soldiers in total.

Compared to the loss of main battle equipment, the casualties were obviously low.

"When I get back, I’ll find a way to check the specific details of the losses the Army suffered in the Atla battle and contact you if I find anything."

"Don’t be too conspicuous."

Zheng Jiangming nodded in agreement.

Soon, the two arrived at the airport.

The transport plane was still undergoing pre-flight checks, and after escorting Bai Zhizhan to the terminal, Zheng Jiangming did not hurry back to the Navy headquarter.

After all, he hadn’t quite recovered from the initial shock.

Luckily, Liu Xiangzhen was staying behind to handle the transfer matters with the Wei Jun, so he would go to Lion Spring City tomorrow to await the 22nd Special Mixed Fleet.

The only one leaving the Imperial Capital today was Bai Zhizhan.

Besides Bai Zhizhan and Zheng Jiangming, there were only a few service personnel in the terminal.

Bai Zhizhan did not give too many explanations, after all, Zheng Jiangming was in intelligence work, and many things did not need to be spelled out thoroughly.

In Wang Kaiyuan’s words, it was enough to get the meaning across.

However, they only waited a few minutes.

The first message from the airport’s telecommunication officer was good news.

The call from the Navy headquarter informed Bai Zhizhan, who was about to set off back to the Fleet, that the Marine Corps had just completed their operation of capturing Transfer Island.

Specifically, the last group of defenders had surrendered their weapons about three hours ago.

As of local time on September 15th, and Imperial homeland time on September 16th, after nearly two months of fierce fighting, the Imperial Navy had captured Transfer Island at the cost of more than 12,000 casualties.

In this battle, the Newland Army suffered more than 30,000 casualties.

The Imperial Navy managed to reduce their casualties significantly, largely because they learned from the Sai Island campaign, enhancing the direct fire support for the Landing Forces.

Of course, it was also greatly related to the improved quality of the officers and soldiers.

In fact, the main reason the defenders of Transfer Island surrendered was not because they had run out of ammunition or food, nor was it due to heavy casualties.

Of the approximately 2,500 Newland officers and soldiers who surrendered at the last, only 500 were severely wounded.

The other 2,000 officers and soldiers were not only uninjured, but also in fairly good physical shape, though their mental states were extremely poor and had nothing to do with "fighting valiantly."

Don’t forget, not long ago, the Newland soldiers on Transfer Island had given the Imperial Marine Corps a tough time.

In the initial stages of the campaign, the Newland Army had even made it extremely difficult for the landing forces of the Imperial Army to advance.

The disparity between then and now was truly vast.

At first, officers and soldiers of the Imperial Marine Corps thought that Newland soldiers were infected by the madness of the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom, that they would all die in battle on this island.

The key was, the Newland Army still had enough combat supplies; just in the last deeply buried bunker alone, there were hundreds of tons of ammunition.

With enough fighting spirit, they could at least hold on for another half month.

Nevertheless, after enduring grueling, extraordinary battles, the Imperial Navy and Marine Corps finally captured Transfer Island, which holds decisive strategic value.

However, it was uncertain when exactly they would attack the islands on the eastern side of the Howay Islands.

According to the previous plan, after capturing Boss Bay and entering the Land Heart Sea, the Imperial Navy would regroup in East Ocean. In the meantime, primarily through the Air Force deployed on Transfer Island, they would bomb the islands on the east side, like Treasure Harbor on Honu Island.

But, given the current situation, if conditions allowed, they might consider conquering another small island on the east side of Transfer Island.

How exactly to fight, that was the concern of Zhu Huasheng and the Wei Jun.

According to the latest arrangement, after leaving the Twenty-Second Special Mixed Fleet, Wei Jun would go to support the fleet as a commander, while Zhu Huasheng was transferred to command the overall landing operations.

Regardless, the large-scale combat operation toward Transfer Island had thus come to an end.

However, that was not the only news.

Just over ten minutes later, as the transport plane was getting ready, the Navy headquarter called again, asking Bai Zhizhan not to leave yet.

Shortly thereafter, Liu Changxun’s confidential secretary arrived at the airport.

The confidential secretary didn’t say much, and Bai Zhizhan didn’t ask questions; he directly got into the secretary’s car.

On the way back to the Navy headquarter from the airport, the confidential secretary mentioned that last night, a transport ship loaded with military supplies exploded and sank in the Lion Spring Strait. Due to the suddenness of the incident, the Navy headquarter determined it was an explosion of the military supplies onboard. More than ten hours later, a freighter carrying thousands of tons of grain returning from the Fan Flame Ocean also exploded and sank in the Lion Spring Strait.

This time, it was determined to be caused by naval mines.

It was then that the Lion Spring City garrison reported to the Navy headquarter that there were enemy mines in the Lion Spring Strait.

The critical point was, these mines had definitely appeared recently.

After capturing Lion Spring City, the Imperial Navy’s intelligence agency interrogated the surrendered Bulan officers, who confirmed that the Bulan forces did not lay mines in the strait before surrendering.

Afterward, for assurance, the Imperial Navy deployed minesweeping vessels to conduct three comprehensive sweeps of the strait and found no mines.

In the following months, thousands of vessels had passed through the Lion Spring Strait without a single one striking a mine.

If anything, the shallow waters near the islands and coast with hidden reefs were actually more dangerous.

Before this, seven freighters had mistakenly entered the submarine area and ran aground on reefs; three of them sank outright, and two were scrapped due to severe damage.

All of these proved that the mines that sank the freighters had appeared recently.

The critical question was, how had these mines appeared in the strait?

Submarines?

Clearly not!

The Lion Spring Strait was very narrow, and both the eastern and western sides were protected by anti-submarine nets and minefields, with anti-submarine ships patrolling at all times.

Not to mention entering, even approaching the Lion Spring Strait was impossible.

Indeed, the reefs also posed a significant threat to submarines.

Apart from that, the Imperial Navy’s submarines had to navigate on the surface when passing through the Lion Spring Strait and choose to do so during the day if possible.

If conditions allowed, they even needed escort ships from the Lion Spring City garrison.

Otherwise, they might even get hit and sunk by passing ships!

However, the confidential secretary also specifically mentioned that the relevant investigation was still ongoing, and there was no need to rush to conclusions nor was it necessary at this point.

The reasoning was simple, the garrison in Lion Spring City had already obtained some reliable clues.