Empire Conquest

Chapter 572 - 568: Siege Warfare

After calming down, Bai Zhizhan also felt his worries were somewhat superfluous.

Although the Alliance Army had successfully landed in the North Xuan region, the Tiaoman Empire had no choice but to make strategic adjustments, but in the current situation, it was more like a flash in the pan.

The military strength was not enough; it was even fair to say that they had completely lost the initiative, and any reprisal launched by the Alliance Group would not yield good results.

A forced landing in the North Xuan region was actually a risky military move.

The key was that they had used all their fleets in one direction, thus leaving them with no way to cope with the Consortium Group’s attacks on other fronts.

The adjustments made by the Imperial Authority were very targeted.

Furthermore, the cost of combat had to be considered.

Even though the Newland Federation had the strongest industrial system in the world, not even inferior to that of the Liangxia Empire, it was hindered by the lack of a capable ally.

Not much needed to be said about the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom, which had already been defeated in battle.

The Bulan Kingdom was nothing more than a spent force, or rather, it was living off past glories, relying on the blood transfusion from colonies to still barely contend with the superpower hegemon. After losing its most important colony, the Fanluo region, the Bulan Kingdom, with no previous glory to draw on, was at most a second-rate nation.

The Luosha Federation was only slightly better than during the Imperial period, but compared to the two powerful neighbors on the same World Island, it was still not considered strong. The key point was, 20 years was just too short a time to transition the Luosha Federation from a serfdom society into the industrial age.

With such unreliable allies, the Newland Federation, no matter how strong, could not hold up by itself.

As for the issue of material shortages, it had always existed; it just wasn’t so apparent in the past, and only the Bulan Kingdom and the Luosha Federation were affected by it.

If this kind of reckless consumption continued, the military and civilians of Newland would soon experience the taste of material shortage.

On November 17, the Army launched a military operation to march into the Boi Country.

In addition to dispatching airborne troops to seize the enemy’s rear airports according to the plan, the Army’s armored forces also launched an attack from the front.

For the Boi military, which severely lacked anti-armor weapons, the only thing they could rely on was the rugged and complex terrain.

On the same day, the Army’s assault forces began to advance westward.

However, the vanguard was made up of the Ter Republic’s cavalry troops.

In fact, this too was part of the plan.

According to the original plan, marching to the Xifan Canal by land was only meant to tie down the enemy.

Now, it had become the main direction of attack.

Fortunately, the Ter Republic did not oppose such an adjustment.

Regardless, this related to the life and death of the Tiaoman Empire; the Ter Republic joined the Consortium Group mainly hoping to maintain relations with the Tiaoman Empire.

It could be said that the Ter Republic did not place much importance on relations with the Liangxia Empire.

At a time when the Tiaoman Empire faced a severe test, the Ter Republic had no reason to stand by indifferently; it definitely needed to consider the bigger picture.

At Jibu Fortress, the offensive operation was quite smooth.

On the night of November 22, the Army’s assault force, uncharacteristically, launched an attack without any prior preparation, especially without artillery preparation, and broke through Bulan’s last defensive line to the northwest of the fortress in one fell swoop, opening a route for a southward flanking maneuver.

By the morning of the 23rd, the Army had expanded the breach and also crushed the counterattacking Bulan forces.

Since the south was the flat Somali Peninsula, with no more defensible terrain, the Bulan forces began to withdraw towards the fortress on the 23rd.

Unfortunately, the retreat was too slow.

The fierce battle continued until the 25th, when the Army’s assault force broke through the Bulan’s last defensive line to the south of the fortress under the cover of Fleet artillery fire – or rather, the Fleet paved the way with artillery fire – achieving a full siege of the fortress and seizing the most critical victory.

At this point, Jibu Fortress was completely surrounded.

The last time such a situation had occurred was after Chen Bingxun had sacrificed himself!

Before this, only less than 50,000 Bulan troops had managed to retreat back to the fortress in time, so the total military strength of the fortress definitely wouldn’t exceed 100,000.

At least 200,000 were trapped outside the fortress!

With the fortress encircled and the sea routes completely cut off, not to mention just having 100,000 defenders, even if there were a million-strong army, they wouldn’t stand a chance of holding the fortress!

Besides, the Imperial Army had come prepared.

After completing the comprehensive encirclement of the fortress, the Army didn’t rush to attack the fortress but began to construct fortifications and built a temporary harbor south of the fortress.

Once the transport ships could dock, the Army first brought up the heavy artillery that couldn’t be transported over land.

Although the Navy’s fleet provided support, the Army preferred to use their own artillery, especially the heavy mortars that were developed specifically for assaulting fortresses.

These were large-caliber mortars.

This superweapon came from the Tiaoman Empire.

Before the outbreak of the war, in order to be able to break through the defense lines set up by the Locke Republic along the border, particularly the fortifications in the Ardennes Forest, and to secure the land routes to ensure that the supply lines for the assault force wouldn’t be cut off, the Tiaoman Empire had put a lot of effort into developing weapons specially designed for assaulting fortresses.

The result was this super cannon that could fire 1-ton special artillery shells.

Because the barrel was forged individually, each siege cannon had a different caliber, and it required the ammunition to be fitted with caliber-machined driving bands when used.

Indeed, it was a bit troublesome, but compared to its value, that was nothing.

After the Luosha Federation turned against them, the Empire got hold of the design blueprints for the siege cannons, then copied several of them, and sent them to the Northwest Battlefield for live-fire testing, the results were unexpectedly good.

The key was, the trajectory of the siege cannon was extremely curved.

Of course, this is also a characteristic of mortars.

By relying on the high, arcing trajectory, siege cannons could directly bombard the enemy’s defensive structures. Using shells equipped with time-delay fuses was the most effective against fortifications.

Under ideal conditions, the 1-ton shells would drop almost vertically.

Obviously, this was something the Navy’s heavy artillery couldn’t do.

Because the attack came directly from above, no fortress, however sturdy, could withstand it.

The thing to talk about, though, was the psychological pressure it generated.

Starting from November 30, which was right after the first siege cannon was put into position, they began to bombard Jibu Fortress at the rate of one shell per hour.

From this moment on, the fortress was no longer safe.

The siege cannon’s power was immense, but its precision was not very good.

Mainly because the barrels were short, and each shell had to be fitted with a driving band, which were made on the spot and definitely had significant margins of error.

For the Bulan soldiers guarding the fortress, no one knew where the next shell would explode.

By this stage, there was no need to launch a frontal assault on the fortress anymore.

In theory, as long as the control of the sea remained in the hands of the Imperial Navy, then simply by besieging, they could force the Bulan troops inside the fortress to surrender.

In fact, that was how the fortress had been captured through siege in the past.

The key was, there was not a sufficient water supply inside the fortress, and the stored supplies couldn’t possibly amount to much. Coupled with the continuous bombardment, the defenders could at most hold out for a few months. Even with ample preparations, to last half a year, they could only hope for a miracle.

That’s why, after the Army surrounded the fortress, the Navy took new action.

Starting from November 23, the Navy dispatched dozens of minesweepers to enter the Mand Strait to clear away the naval mines laid by the Bulan Royal Navy.

By the last day of November, they finally cleared a safe passage that allowed the fleet to pass through.

Because of this, on that very night, the 11th Special Mixed Fleet was the first to enter the Mand Strait, with the assault formation led by the "Nanzhu Sea" at the forefront, charging ahead.