Empire Conquest

Chapter 581 - 577: Rendezvous

From December 3, when the Tiaoman Army left Alaman, to December 10 when they captured Suez City, it took less than 8 days in total.

The timing, it must be said, was very precise.

Even half a day longer, and the Tiaoman Army would have exhausted their last few barrels of fuel outside Suez City.

In fact, when Suez City’s garrison surrendered, the Tiaoman assault force had already run out of fuel, and it was only by capturing fuel that they were able to enter Suez Port.

On the same day, the Imperial Navy’s transport fleet arrived.

As the fleet entered Suez Port, a minor incident took place.

A small group of Bulan troops who did not want to surrender tried to lay mines in the main shipping channel of the port, aiming to block it by sinking cargo ships.

However, the first to enter the military port were several destroyers, one of which was stationed near the main channel.

The speedboat carrying the Bulan troops appeared and, before they could deploy the naval mines, it was fiercely attacked by the destroyers. Following this, the mines exploded from being hit by cannon fire, obliterating the speedboat and the more than ten Bulan troops onboard.

This incident led to the remaining surrendering Bulan troops being isolated for questioning, and it took several months before they were sent to a prison camp supervised by the Tiaoman Army.

That night, the Tiaoman Army received supplies provided by the Imperial Navy.

This also marked the first face-to-face meeting between the Imperial Army and Tiaoman Army on the battlefield since the outbreak of the war.

Regarding earlier encounters, including a few Tiaoman naval ships visiting the Empire and reconnaissance units from both sides meeting north of Suez City, those were not meetings but rather just contacts or connections. In military terms, the meeting took place here at Suez City.

For this, the Tiaoman Army, acting as the host, held a banquet for the visiting Imperial Navy officers and men.

All this time, it had been the Tiaoman Army assaulting the Xifan Canal, while the Imperial Navy was indeed on an expedition, and it was the Tiaoman Army that occupied and controlled Suez City.

At this banquet, Bai Zhizhan met the celebrated commander of the Tiaoman Army, the legendary Desert Fox.

However, Rommel was now an Army Marshal of Tiaoman.

On the very day Suez City was captured, Rommel received a Promotion Order from the Tiaoman Emperor himself, promoting him directly from Admiral to Army Marshal.

This was several ranks above Bai Zhizhan.

While Bai Zhizhan had consistently been victorious, up to this point, he was only a Vice Admiral in the Imperial Navy.

Yet, in Bai Zhizhan’s presence, this Tiaoman Army stalwart showed no airs, but was instead very courteous.

This was completely understandable, as the status of a Vice Admiral in the Imperial Navy was far from insignificant, and Bai Zhizhan’s fame had already spread worldwide.

In naval battles, Bai Zhizhan was the only one who had never tasted defeat.

In comparison, there were too many undefeated generals on land, with many outshining Rommel, such as Lian Xusheng.

Even within the Tiaoman Army, there were many whose abilities and talents surpassed or equaled Rommel’s, such as Guderian, who had swept through the Locke Republic, Modell, who withstood the Luosha Army in the homeland defense battle, and later Manstein, who commanded the reprisal operation.

Furthermore, among the Allied Group, there were similarly numerous renowned generals.

In fact, in the North Xuan region, there was one who had recently commanded the Bulan Royal Army on the west side of the Xifan Canal and held off the Tiaoman forces – Montgomery.

In the months prior, Rommel had not been able to advance a single step in front of the defenses arranged by Montgomery!

Had the Imperial Fleet not taken a daring move into the Narrow Sea and quickly advanced to Suez City, disrupting the deployment of the Bulan Royal Army, Rommel, despite having sufficient supplies, might not have been able to breach the Alaman Defense Line, manned by one hundred thousand troops of the Bulan Royal Army, deployed by Montgomery.

Before that moment, Rommel had stood before that line for several months and suffered extremely heavy losses.

From this perspective, Rommel could at most be considered a distinguished general, but he had not achieved a record of winning every battle.

As for military ranks, they were merely titles.

Speaking of which, Bai Zhizhan held a title more significant even than "Marshal."

In any case, Bai Zhizhan was a Prince Consort of the Empire, and by the standards of the Tiaoman Empire, he was a true member of the Imperial Family, even possessing a right to the throne, though his ranking was surely beyond the first hundred, and his chances of inheriting the Imperial throne were scarcely higher than those of a small asteroid striking Earth.

However, this status as a member of the Imperial Family made Bai Zhizhan a true, and highly exalted, noble.

To a Tiaoman military officer brought up with traditional education, "nobility" was an extraordinary status.

Clearly, even after having received the rank of Marshal, Rommel was still just a general from the common classes until he had acquired a noble title.

As for the banquet, there was not much to say.

Even with scarce resources, organizing a banquet was not a difficult task.

The key point was that when the Bulan troops surrendered, they did not destroy the warehouses storing supplies, and the beverages used to entertain the officers of the Imperial Navy included many captured spoils, some of which came from the Newland Federation as strategic aid to the Bulan Kingdom.

Indeed, this was the part that interested Bai Zhizhan the most.

He had long heard that the Newland Federation had extremely abundant resources, so plentiful they were essentially inexhaustible, and the materials they provided to allies were not even diminished.

Regrettably, this was not the case.

Among the captured spoils, many were inferior goods disguised as higher quality.

A typical example was military chocolate, which had cornflour mixed in. Though spices and other flavorings were added to maintain the natural cocoa flavor, the texture was greatly inferior, and its nutritional value—essentially the calorie content—was definitely not as good as real chocolate and much cheaper to produce.

Without a doubt, this indirectly indicated that the resources of the Newland Federation were not so abundant as to be inexhaustible.

Even if they had not yet reached a state of resource scarcity, they certainly did not have enough, or they would not have tampered with the aid materials provided to their allies.

This also suggested that the Newland Federation was nearly reaching its limit in terms of war potential.

If this was indeed the case, then the war could be expected to end in a way most favorable to the Empire.

Besides this point, at least until now, the Empire had not faced a problem of material shortage, although luxury imported foods like chocolate were regulated soon after the war began, and not only could they not be purchased normally, but their prices were also exorbitantly high on the black market.

But crucially, the materials needed for the daily life of the populace were nearly sufficient and were not regulated.

Take food, for example, which was still primarily sold through the market, and the supply was very abundant, enough to aid several major allies.

Apart from that, after the Ter Republic joined the war, the Empire began to transport food to the Tiaoman Empire by land.

In general, the Empire remained an exporting country of living materials.

It was at this time that Bai Zhizhan learned from Rommel that the Newland Federation had already initiated full-scale war mobilization.

Clearly, this was the crucial point.

Up until now, the Empire had only mobilized partially, without enforcing conscription or bringing all industries under control.

If the Newland Federation, even having conducted early full-scale war mobilization, still couldn’t turn defeat into victory, then they would most likely lose the war.