Empire Conquest

Chapter 588 - 584: Steadily Progressing

The battle to encircle and annihilate the retreating forces at Alaman lasted less than three days.

As there was no hope of breaking through, and they were under intense artillery fire, on the night of January 5, General Bulan who was commanding these forces ordered a cessation of hostilities.

It wasn’t until the next morning that Bulan’s troops formally surrendered.

Of the approximately 200,000 Bulan officers and soldiers, fewer than 6,000 had died, and about 30,000 were wounded; the rest gave up resistance while they were still capable of fighting.

Only less than 10,000 Bulan officers and soldiers scattered during the night to attempt a breakout, a portion of whom managed to make it to Alexandria.

Bulan officers and soldiers who got lost and ventured deep into the desert almost all died in the sands, with only a very few lucky individuals reaching colonial strongholds along the upper reaches of the Nile River.

No one was surprised by this outcome.

The key point was that during these days, Bulan’s forces defending Alexandria made no move to come out and link up, not even showing any intentions to dispatch troops for that purpose.

It wasn’t that Montgomery was heartless, but rather he was helpless.

Before the Imperial Fleet entered the Narrow Sea, the main forces of the Bulan Army were all at Alaman, and they were deployed in depth across a defensive area of more than 300 kilometers. As a result, when Suez City came under siege and the defensive line collapsed, it was impossible for Bulan’s forces to return for defense in time.

Withdrawing an army is easy; trying to withdraw equipment and supplies, however, is quite difficult.

Indeed, the force at Alexandria numbered less than 50,000, so even if Montgomery knew that the forces trying to break out were running out of ammunition and food, he dared not rashly send out troops to assist. If the enemy caught that opportunity, there would no longer be a need to staunchly defend Alexandria.

Nearly 200,000 troops were completely wiped out in the short span of three days.

For the Bulan troops in Alexandria, the impact of this battle was undoubtedly significant.

But they only had to wait one more day.

On the early morning of January 7, under Rommel’s command, the Consortium Alliance launched an operation to attack Alexandria, with the armored forces of the Imperial Army commanded by Lian Xusheng leading the charge.

Such an arrangement could also be seen as a mutual sign of respect.

As Lian Xusheng put it, having Rommel as the overall commander with the Imperial Army taking the lead role at least looked good on the surface, without any issues of indebtedness.

Additionally, the 11th Special Mixed Fleet provided support.

Clearly, coordinating with the Imperial Army was bound to be smoother than coordinating with the Tiaoman forces, at the very least there were no issues with language communication.

Previously, during the northward advance, several incidents of friendly fire had occurred due to communication issues.

In the worst such incident, a mechanized infantry battalion was subjected to covering artillery fire from the fleet, resulting in the deaths of more than 100 Tiaoman Army soldiers.

However, the main forces attacking Alexandria were actually two Special Mixed Fleets.

It was just that before dawn, a supporting squadron composed of 4 Fast Battleships, 6 Heavy Cruisers, and 6 Light Cruisers bombarded Alexandria with thousands of tons of shells. Just the 400mm shells alone used up over a thousand rounds, while the expenditure on 200mm shells reached 3,000 rounds.

It seems that these shells were about to expire and had to be used up before becoming scrap.

In fact, the common method for dealing with expired ammunition was to expend it on the battlefield or use it during training and exercises.

Measured by the density of the bombardment, a new record was set.

Don’t forget, Alexandria was just a military port.

As for the destruction to the port’s infrastructure caused by the bombardment, Bai Zhizhan obviously hadn’t considered it.

Although according to the plan, the Imperial Navy was to be based in Alexandria in the future, deploy the fleet there, and act as a strategic maritime transit port, Zheng Jiangming had already safeguarded Bai Zhizhan early on, stating that the Imperial Navy had the capability to support Fleet operations in the Land Heart Sea without any infrastructure.

What was needed was simply a sheltered harbor.

As for the infrastructure in the military port, engineering vessels could replace it all.

For example, self-propelled floating docks could be used in place of shipyards and repair docks, oil tankers equipped with resupply capabilities could replace oil and water piers, dry ammunition transport ships could replace ammunition depots, and even barges fitted with heavy guns could substitute for coastal defense turrets tasked with protecting harbors.

By this point in the war, what the Imperial Navy had in abundance was a variety of engineering vessels.

Bai Zhizhan was well aware of this fact.

The Imperial Navy had vigorously developed its engineering ships specifically with East Ocean in mind—especially the North East Ocean facing the Newland Federation. There was a severe lack of ports and bases capable of supporting the Fleet there, and it was impossible to undertake infrastructure construction during a time of war.

To have the Fleet sail across the vast expanse of the East Ocean and conduct warfare on the other side of the planet, relying on engineering vessels for maintenance and support was the only option.

Moreover, the endurance of the Imperial Navy’s ships, particularly the carriers and other main battle ships, was not particularly outstanding.

Fundamentally, this was a sacrifice made after weighing all factors, reducing endurance to ensure other more crucial capabilities, such as speed, met design specifications.

At least as of now, it seemed the Imperial Navy’s decision to sacrifice endurance was not a mistake.

After the outbreak of the war, along with doing their utmost to construct carriers, fast battleships, and other main battle ships, the Imperial Navy had also created the world’s strongest fleet of engineering vessels.

It should be mentioned that most of these engineering vessels were actually built before the war.

Many engineering vessels had civilian characteristics and required only simple modifications—mainly the installation of self-defense weapons—to be transformed into military auxiliary ships.

With such support, there was naturally no need for hesitation when taking action.

The bombardment was just the beginning.

As daylight broke, the Air Force took the stage.

Since the 12th Special Mixed Fleet had risked the passage through the canal three days earlier, a Special Mixed Fleet’s ship-borne aircraft could be called upon to carry out support missions at any time.

Actually, there was no need to worry about airborne attacks.

Outside of Alexandria, the closest Bulan airfield at Malta was more than a thousand kilometers away and was simply unable to pose a threat to the two Special Mixed Fleets.

The result was that before launching the ground assault, both Special Mixed Fleets participated in the strike operations.

To the Bulan officers and men inside Alexandria, particularly to those fortunate to survive the war, this was likely the longest day of their lives.

According to the accounts of the few survivors, the entire day was filled with unceasing artillery and bombings.

Under a shroud of gunsmoke and flames, Alexandria turned into a boiling volcano, as if even the seawater in the harbor was ignited.

Even those who survived were but numb bodies.

Prior to the end of the intense bombings, the ground forces launched their assault.

Unlike previous attacks, the Imperial Army’s Armored Forces did not charge head-on, but more often played the role of Reconnaissance Soldiers.

Simply put, whenever they encountered resistance, they would immediately halt and then call for artillery support or air support.

Only after the Fleet’s guns or the ship-borne aircraft’s bombs had destroyed the enemy’s defenses did the ground forces continue to advance.

In Lian Xusheng’s words, there was no need to rush.

Clearly, this methodical tactic barred the Bulan Army from finding any opportunity for a Reprisal.

In fact, thanks to Rommel.

During the combat discussions, Rommel had made it clear to Lian Xusheng that Montgomery was skilled in Reprisal and that under no circumstances should he be given the chance to counterattack.

To draw Lian Xusheng’s attention, he even emphasized it several times.

It was by heeding Rommel’s warnings that Lian Xusheng chose to adopt the tactic of steady advancement.