Empire Conquest

Chapter 554 - 550: Undercurrents Surge

"Did Liu Changxun send you?"

"He said you were here," Bai Zhizhan didn’t directly answer Li Yunxiang’s question. After all, Li Yunxiang was now an Air Force Admiral of the Army, which had no direct relation to the Navy.

Li Yunxiang laughed and said, "To tell you the truth, don’t you find all this a little too coincidental?"

"What?" Bai Zhizhan furrowed his brows as he asked.

"A few days ago, I too received a message forwarded by the Navy headquarter. Based on my estimation, the bombers flying to the Lion Spring Strait for minesweeping had been modified, primarily to reduce structural weight to carry more fuel. The problem is, stopping Newland’s bombers from laying naval mines in the Lion Spring Strait isn’t particularly difficult."

"Easy?"

"Doesn’t the Navy have quite a few warships equipped with radar?"

"Cruisers all have radar."

"So, would it be difficult to dispatch a few cruisers to patrol the southern side of the strait?"

"This..."

Li Yunxiang laughed again and added, "If needed, we can even deploy a troop to land on Sumatra Island and establish a few radar stations there. As long as there are enough radars deployed on the periphery to ensure that enemy aircraft flying from the south can be detected at night and several dozen night fighters are positioned in Lion Spring City, it wouldn’t be too troublesome to block those naval mine-carrying bombers outside of the Lion Spring Strait."

"But that doesn’t guarantee that all incoming enemy aircraft will be shot down."

"Once the enemy aircraft are spotted, wouldn’t it be easy to deduce where the naval mines were dropped? Besides, the focus is on protecting not the entire Lion Spring Strait but the main shipping lanes."

Bai Zhizhan was taken aback again, but this time he didn’t argue with Li Yunxiang.

As Li Yunxiang had said, if enemy planes dropped naval mines on the main shipping lanes, they would certainly be detected, and minesweeper ships could be sent to clear the mines.

Of course, this would undoubtedly affect the navigation of the shipping lanes, but it wouldn’t be enough to completely block them.

To speak of it, there are three main shipping lanes in the Lion Spring Strait, and their cumulative usage rate doesn’t even reach twenty percent, with them being idle most of the time.

The reasons are simple; there just aren’t that many ships that need to pass through the strait.

Forget war times, even in the past—more precisely after the end of the last great war—when the Empire withdrew from the Fan Flame Ocean region, trade between East and West cooled rapidly, and the Lion Spring Strait was no longer bustling. Even if it wasn’t deserted, it could be said to be rather quiet.

"According to what you’re saying, we don’t need to make a big fuss about it?"

"Young Brother Bai, this is war, and there will always be battles of one kind or another. In my opinion, if Newland’s Army hadn’t deployed long-range bombers in Aus or tasked the bombers with minesweeping, that would have been strange. We should have expected the current situation a long time ago."

Bai Zhizhan furrowed his brows; Li Yunxiang’s words had a profound implication.

"Still not clear on it?"

"You’re certainly not wrong, but..." Bai Zhizhan held back his words as they reached his lips, feeling that discussing the situation with Li Yunxiang was like trying to show off in front of an expert.

"A few days ago, I didn’t go back to the full meeting hosted at the Prime Minister Mansion, but I received the news."

"You mean..."

"We don’t need to guess what the Grand Secretary is thinking. The key is if we can’t defeat the Luosha Federation in the near future, is there any possibility of sending troops to Aus?"

"Unlikely."

"If that’s the case, what’s the point of what Newland’s Army is doing in Aus?"

"Wait, you mean..."

As he said this, Bai Zhizhan widened his eyes, looking at Li Yunxiang with an incredulous gaze.

Evidently, the statement from Li Yunxiang, or rather the implications of what was said, had shocked Bai Zhizhan, overturning all his previous guesses.

"Understood?"

"Brother Li, this kind of matter is not something to joke about."

"I’m not joking with you."

Bai Zhizhan let out a sigh, then swallowed hard.

According to Li Yunxiang’s implication, the reason why the Imperial Authority, to be precise Xue Yuanzheng, was reluctant to defeat the Luosha Federation was not because they would send troops to Aus afterwards, but after defeating the Luosha Federation, domestic pacifists would force the Imperial Authority to sit down and negotiate with the opponent.

If it was necessary to defeat the Luosha Federation quickly, without the option of deploying troops in Aus, not to mention sitting down for negotiations, what should be done?

Obviously, the only viable method was to eliminate the internal threat before defeating Luosha Federation, ensuring the path to the ultimate goal remained unblocked.

In a sense, the number one opponent hindering the Empire’s final victory wasn’t across the East Ocean, halfway around the globe at the Newland Federation, but rather within the Empire itself, leftist politicians who spouted morals and ethics while calculating interests everywhere.

As the saying goes, any great empire collapses from within.

Although Li Yunxiang did not state it explicitly, his meaning was quite clear.

Perhaps, Xue Yuanzheng had long known that the Newland Army had deployed long-range bombers in the northwest of Aus and was aware that the Newland Federation would lay mines in the Lion Spring Strait.

Even if Xue Yuanzheng didn’t know, these developments played right into his hands.

However, the possibility that there was a traitor within the Empire, secretly in contact with the enemy, could not be ruled out.

The key point was, regardless of which possibility it was, under the current circumstances, Xue Yuanzheng might use the fact that the Newland Army was laying mines in the Lion Spring Strait to deal with the dissidents within the Empire, or even more cunningly, wipe out the opposition in one fell swoop, thereby unifying viewpoints within the Empire.

If that were true, it would certainly be a bloodbath.

Thinking of this, Bai Zhizhan couldn’t help but be moved.

Liu Changxun hadn’t asked him to find Li Yunxiang, but had wanted him to leave the Imperial Capital, to avoid the upcoming storm.

From start to finish, Liu Changxun knew the reality of the situation, and everything he did was to protect Bai Zhizhan, to keep him out of the inner struggle.

As for why he did this, it was obviously with the hope that Bai Zhizhan could, as a legitimate military officer, become the Imperial Navy Commander in the near future.

Perhaps, keeping Bai Zhizhan out of the loop was Xue Yuanzheng’s intention.

His status as Prince Consort, coupled with his humble origins and unparalleled military exploits, meant that in the event of a loss of control, Bai Zhizhan was the best candidate to pick up the pieces.

This also showed that Xue Yuanzheng had no absolute certainty.

"Really though, you shouldn’t think too much about it. We’re all the same, as long as we can remain true to ourselves, that’s enough."

"Brother Li, it’s easy for you to say."

"Of course, we have to trust the Grand Secretary. At least from what I know, the Grand Secretary is the only politician we can trust. Under his leadership, we have a great chance of achieving ultimate victory. Under someone else, I’m afraid all our efforts and sacrifices would turn to naught."

Bai Zhizhan managed a forced smile.

"If you have nothing else these next few days, accompany me around. If we decide to attack Socotra Island ahead of schedule, we might even be able to deploy a number of long-range bombers there."

"What’s there to see?"

"How do you know there’s nothing worth seeing if you haven’t even been there?" Li Yunxiang smiled and said, "If I were you, I definitely wouldn’t miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Bai Zhizhan felt stunned, thinking that Li Yunxiang was being deliberately enigmatic.

"Get some rest early today; I’ll come over early tomorrow."

Bai Zhizhan was speechless, but the evasive look on Li Yunxiang’s face made him feel that if he pressed more questions, Li Yunxiang would only become more smug.