Empire Conquest

Chapter 571 - 567: Clearing the Clouds to See the Sun

Lian Xusheng slept until the next morning, and when he woke up, not only was breakfast ready, but there was also a battle report from afar.

In the North Xuan region, the Tiaoman military had deployed heavy bombers to carry out two rounds of bombing at the landing sites, but the results were not noteworthy, and they had lost more than 20 bombers.

However, the Tiaoman military seized the opportunity.

Taking advantage of the return of the "Royal Ark" of the Bulan Royal Navy to Nara Fortress, the Newland military had gathered hundreds of transport aircraft yesterday afternoon, in a concentrated deployment, to transport thousands of tons of combat materials to Malta, and on the return trip, they evacuated over a thousand seriously injured personnel.

Critically, they delivered a large amount of anti-tank weapons and ammunition, such as 88 mm armor-piercing bullets.

Previously, due to a constant lack of anti-armor means, the Tiaoman military defending Malta suffered extremely heavy casualties when facing the Bulan military tanks.

It wasn’t that there were no anti-tank guns, but there was a lack of ammunition for anti-tank purposes.

The 88 mm high-altitude gun of the Tiaoman Empire was itself a potent anti-tank weapon, but required armor-piercing bullets, not air burst bullets for air defense.

Prior to this, the Tiaoman Air Force had made several airdrops at night.

However, the ammunition dropped was too little to keep up with the consumption in battle.

In addition to providing reinforcements to Malta, the Tiaoman military also undertook a more critical task that afternoon. They dispatched an armored force that had just been withdrawn from the Xifan Canal front to Tunisia to strengthen the defenses there, preparing for a decisive battle with the enemy.

Additionally crucial, the commander of this force was the previously famed Rommel from the march on the Xifan Canal.

According to the message sent by the Tiaoman Empire, as the hope of capturing the Xifan Canal recently had become unattainable, they decided to shift the focus to Tunisia.

Under viable conditions, they would organize and initiate a reprisal action, aiming to annihilate the landing enemy forces.

At least from a strategic perspective, only by promptly annihilating the landing enemy could the Tiaoman Empire stabilize the situation on the southern shore of the Land Heart Sea.

If Tunisia were lost, the consequences would be unimaginable.

For this, the Tiaoman authority particularly emphasized one matter.

Following the Alliance Army’s landing in the North Xuan region, there had been hundreds of attacks against the occupying forces within the Locke region under Tiaoman control.

Although the attacks were initiated by local resistance organizations, there were reasons to believe that the Free Locke government, based in the Bulan Kingdom, was providing behind-the-scenes support.

To enhance the impact of the reprisal action, both the Bulan Royal Air Force and the Newland Army Air Force had conducted intense strategic bombings on the same day of the landing on four major cities, including the Imperial capital of the Tiaoman Empire. These cities were central industrial hubs, and the scale of bombing set a new record since the start of the conflict.

All this indicated that the Alliance Group would concentrate its forces to defeat the weaker Tiaoman Empire first.

To stabilize the situation, the enemy’s advance in Tunisia at least needed to be resisted.

As previously mentioned, if Tunisia fell, Malta would change hands, and then the always fickle Raleigh Kingdom would seek other alternatives.

Even as powerful as the Tiaoman Empire was, it could not withstand a siege from several formidable foes alone.

This meant that the Empire must intensify its attack on Jibu Fortress and even invade the Narrow Sea before or after capturing Jibu Fortress.

Stated directly, that meant marching into the Xifan Canal.

By sending away the chief commander of the North Xuan region, the Tiaoman Empire clearly intended the Empire to clean up the mess, achieving two objectives with one move.

In this matter, the Empire also had no leeway for choice.

Indeed, it was for this reason that the Navy commander had adjusted the combat operations.

First of all, after completing resupply, the Eleventh Special Mixed Fleet immediately returned to Aden Bay to continue supporting the Army’s assault forces in attacking the fortress.

If needed, escort battleships could be mobilized to form a support fleet.

Next, the Navy headquarter had issued orders to the Twelfth Special Mixed Fleet, instructing Liu Xiangzhen to immediately rush over and join in the operation to attack Jibu Fortress.

According to the telegram sent by the Navy headquarter, the Twelfth Special Mixed Fleet was still in the Fan Flame Ocean and had not risked moving to the Sunset Ocean.

However, the Twelfth Special Mixed Fleet had so far maintained radio silence, so the Navy headquarter was only speculating and was not clear about the specific situation.

According to the message from the Navy headquarter, a few days ago, Liu Xiangzhen had made a bold deduction that Spur had already taken the fleet out of the Fan Flame Ocean, and it was possible that they had passed through the Sunset Ocean to return to the Newland homeland, so the Twelfth Special Mixed Fleet had been sailing towards Far View Cape for several days.

The related message was delivered by a seaplane to the Twenty-First Special Mixed Fleet, then given to the Navy headquarter by the Wei Jun.

Despite always regarding Liu Xiangzhen as a rival because he had served under him in the past and had made great achievements, the Wei Jun always held Liu Xiangzhen in high regard.

Regrettably, Liu Xiangzhen made this judgement a bit late.

Had it been in early October, he might have indeed caught Spur’s Newland Fleet in the southwest Fan Flame Ocean and taken them by surprise.

Moreover, the operation to bomb the northwest of Aus had also been declared over.

However, the Navy headquarter did not send the Twenty-First and Forty-First Special Mixed Fleets over, but instead ordered the Wei Jun to immediately lead two special mixed fleets to Transfer Island.

It was not to reinforce the defense of Transfer Island, but to launch a new round of attacks.

Clearly, this was a strategic consideration.

Seeing that Howay Islands were threatened, even attacked, the leaders of the Newland Federation, no matter how confident, would immediately send a fleet to assist.

Crucially, the fleet could not return to the East Ocean overnight.

This meant that on the side of Howay Islands, not only was there no fleet present now, but for the next month, and possibly a month and a half, there would be no available fleet.

By using this time, who knows, it might be possible to capture another city, like Leysan Island or Gardner Island.

As long as they landed on any of those islands, it meant that in a few months, the Empire’s Navy could directly attack the large islands on the eastern side of the archipelago.

However, the most crucial deployment had little to do with the Navy.

Xue Yuanzheng personally issued an order for the Army to accelerate advancement in the direction of Boss Bay and, according to the contingency plan, dispatch a unit of Armored Forces to launch a sudden assault towards the west.

Yes, it was to attack the Xifan Canal.

Of course, it was also essential concurrently to enhance the attack on Boi Country.

The related orders had been dispatched by the Army Headquarter to the front lines, but temporarily, no personnel adjustments had been made, such as not deploying Lian Xusheng.

The key was that the Army had not abandoned the idea of attacking in the northwest direction.

Additionally, given the current situation, even without launching an attack, it was necessary to maintain a high-pressure posture against the Luosha Federation to prevent them from using troops towards the west.

The Navy had also made adjustments, ordering the ships in Lion Spring City and Colombo to immediately move out to transport materials to the Army operating towards the direction of Boss Bay.

Just that, there was no immediate need to dispatch fleets.

According to the command telegram from the Navy headquarter, the Navy’s top priority was to capture Jibu Fortress and, while the Army attacked from the ground, send a fleet into the Narrow Sea to advance by sea route into the Xifan Canal, forcing the Bulan Royal Navy to send additional combat troops to the Xifan Canal.

Strategically, as long as they could quickly seize the Xifan Canal, even if they lost Tunisia, the Consortium Group would still be the victor of this round of battle.

Furthermore, for the Bulan Kingdom, losing the Xifan Canal meant defeat.