Empire Conquest

Chapter 567 - 563: Attack the Enemy When They’re Unprepared

The fire preparation prior to the landing had lasted a total of six days, which was four days less than the planned time. On the morning of November 10, the Marine Corps launched the amphibious assault.

The chosen landing site was neither Nara Fortress nor to the south of the fortress, but rather to the north of it.

This was an extremely bold, equally unexpected tactical decision.

At its core, Jibu Fortress was actually a military port, or rather, it was built around a bay, similar to Verdun or Liege, it had fully transitioned into a group of comprehensive ground fortresses. Starting from the fortress’s outermost defense line, stretching over ten kilometers inland lay the vast East Xuan Plateau.

North of the fortress was the Mand Strait, and to the south was the Somali Peninsula, bordering Aden Bay and the Mua Sea.

For the attacking side, there were actually not many choices.

Since Jibu Fortress had already been fully militarized, attacking it directly was enormously difficult. Therefore, attackers often chose to land on the more open southern side.

Back in the day, the Imperial Army landed on the western side of the Somali Peninsula and then daringly advanced inland. Unexpectedly, they cut off the terrestrial passage to Jibu Fortress. At the same time, the Navy blockaded the Mand Strait, severing the maritime shipping route; eventually, after a prolonged siege and months of fierce bombardment, they managed to take over Jibu Fortress—more accurately, they forced the defense forces to surrender due to a complete depletion of ammunition and provisions.

If one were to land on the north side of the fortress, the Landing Fleet would first have to brave the perilous, narrow Mand Strait.

Obviously, if the operation involved deploying several Marine Divisions, necessitating the use of dozens, even hundreds of large landing ships, then simply getting the Landing Fleet deployed in the strait’s narrow northern waters—that is, securing a suitable landing zone—would be a massive trouble, or rather an impossibility.

After a successful landing, the difficulty of the ground offensive awaited them.

Because mere kilometers inland was the East Xuan Plateau, also the Coastal Mountains, the ground forces could not deploy, and the difficulty of the assault was tremendous.

To put it simply, the defending forces only needed to concentrate their troops to block off the coastal plains.

Circumvent the Coastal Mountains?

Not to mention whether there were roads or not, even if there were, what followed would be crossing hundreds of kilometers of uninhabited areas—deserts devoid of even a single oasis.

The difficulty of the offensive was so great that even Lian Xusheng would have to stop and reconsider.

As a result, the Landing Forces would have to attack the enemy’s defense line while still unstable, facing the risk of being crushed right after landing.

Of course, to be precise, the risk was greater.

Precisely because of this, in history, armies attacking Jibu Fortress either landed directly near the fortress or on the southern side at the Somali Peninsula.

This time, the Imperial Navy chose the northern Asab Region.

It must be admitted, they indeed achieved surprise in the battle.

Before this, the fort’s defenders focused on the south.

In order to prevent the Imperial Army from landing in the Somali Peninsula direction, the Bulan Royal Army not only expanded their defense line but also pre-emptively set up dozens of minefields.

To put it another way, on almost all of the beaches that the Imperial Navy could potentially select as landing sites, the Bulan Royal Army had buried landmines to a certain extent and left behind patrol troops mainly responsible for reconnaissance surveillance, ensuring that they could detect the landing Imperial Army at the first opportunity.

Moreover, every night the Bulan military dispatched small aircraft to patrol the coastal areas of the Somali Peninsula.

Most importantly, the main force of the fortress’s garrison was on the south side.

To be able to thwart the landing Imperial forces in a timely manner, the Bulan Royal Army had also gathered limited armored forces, meaning several dozen light tanks, to form an assault force specifically serving as a rapid reaction force for Reprisal operations, assisting the infantry on the defense line in crushing the advancing Imperial Army.

Of course, the Bulan military’s artillery was also concentrated on the southern side of the fortress.

And crucially, the Bulan Royal Army had one last trick up its sleeve.

According to the intelligence provided by the Sixth Bureau, the Bulan Royal Army had at least stored 200,000 landmines in Jibu Fortress, and these were distributed to the main forces guarding the fortress last month. Since it was impossible to prevent the Imperial Army from landing on the Somali Peninsula, the defending commander had already issued orders. As soon as the southern defense line was breached, the fortress’s garrison would immediately use these landmines to lay more minefields to the south of the fortress.

For this purpose, the fortress’s garrison had also specially organized a group of officers and soldiers to learn rapid minesweeping techniques.

If all 200,000 landmines were used, just sweeping them would take several months!

That being said, if the Bulan military could hold out for a few months under heavy attack, even if they ultimately fell, it would still be considered a victory.

As for the north, there were only a few scattered patrol teams.

It was evident that the Bulan military never considered that the Imperial Marine Corps would land on the north side of the fortress, on the western shore of the Mand Strait!

In response to the aforementioned issue, the Imperial Navy was also well prepared.

Firstly, only 24 Landing Ships were deployed in the first wave of the landing operation, half of which were Tank Landing Ships, and the assault force consisted of only half a Marine Division, more precisely, one infantry regiment, one reinforced tank battalion, and one reinforced mechanized infantry battalion.

All elite troops.

In addition, sufficient combat supplies were sent.

According to the plan, after the successful landing, the assault forces would actually be the two reinforced battalions, while the infantry regiment responsible for seizing the beachhead was in charge of defending the positions and providing logistical support for the frontline troops during the attack.

In this way, once the beach was secured, they could immediately push further inland.

Critical to this as well, the Landing Fleet involved was scheduled to take turns in action.

After completing the beach assault, the first batch of 24 Landing Ships had to withdraw within the stipulated 24 hours, vacating the landing zone.

The next day, the second batch of 24 Landing Ships would arrive.

Also with only 24 hours, this wave of Landing Forces had to offload their troops and supplies, and they too had to leave on schedule, regardless of whether they had finished.

Then came the third batch of 24 Landing Ships.

After the third batch completed their delivery tasks, the first batch of Landing Ships that carried out the initial beach assault would return.

In essence, the goal was to accelerate the turnover of troops and materials as much as possible, ensuring at all times that there were not too many Landing Ships at the landing zone.

Indeed, it was for this reason that the infantry regiment with a strength of 4,000 men was left behind, while the two reinforced battalions with a total of only 1,800 officers and soldiers advanced towards the fortress.

As for the other issue, the naval mines laid by the Bulan Royal Navy could only rely on minesweeping ships.

Fortunately, what the Imperial Navy had in abundance was precisely these minesweeping ships.

Perhaps because they had suffered greatly from naval mines during the last war, the Imperial Navy had always attached great importance to minesweeping ships and even more so to minesweeping technology.

Even during naval holidays, the Imperial Navy did not reduce its investment in the field of minesweeping technology.

Before the outbreak of the great war, the Imperial Navy possessed more minesweeping ships than the combined total of three other naval superpowers!

While most of them were old minesweeping ships built during the last war, the equipment on board, as well as technology related to minesweeping, had continuously developed without pause.

After the outbreak of the war, the Imperial Navy ordered 150 minesweeping ships in the first year.

Up to now, the total number of minesweeping ships in the Imperial Navy had exceeded 400, and that number was still growing at a rate of about 10 ships every month.

That said, daring to choose a landing site north of the fortress and for the Landing Fleet to take the risk of entering the mine-infested Mand Strait now was reliant upon the world’s leading minesweeping capabilities.