Empire Conquest

Chapter 641 - 637: Daughter-in-law Becomes Mother-in-law

Waiting for Bai Zhizhan at Liuhuang Island, or rather coming to greet Wallace, were several high officials from the War Cabinet arranged by Xue Yuanzheng, as well as Li Yunxiang.

However, Bai Zhizhan’s journey back to his homeland was only halfway done.

After seeing off Wallace and Spur, precisely after the handover which involved assisting the Imperial Navy in embarking tens of thousands of Imperial Guard soldiers aboard the ships of the 5th Fleet, the fleet set sail again, this time bound for East Capital Bay, north of the Volcanic Islands.

The choice of the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom, rather than the Imperial mainland, was primarily due to the need to accommodate about 30,000 Newland navy officers and soldiers of the 5th Fleet.

Before the surrender of the 5th Fleet, the Imperial Navy had captured fewer than 30,000 Newland navy officers and soldiers in battle!

Furthermore, there had never been a time before when so many prisoners of war were settled.

Furthermore, the Newland Federation had not yet been defeated in battle.

Considering the potential for unexpected events, the Imperial High Command decided to construct a large camp at the southernmost tip of the Izu Peninsula on the right bank of East Capital Bay, specifically to accommodate and oversee the officers and soldiers of the 5th Fleet. If necessary, such as if the war did not end immediately, this would be the central location for detaining Newland prisoners of war.

In addition, the battleships of the 5th Fleet would also be temporarily anchored in East Capital Bay.

As arranged by the Navy headquarters, before the Imperial Navy officially took over, precisely before arrangements for the surrender of the Newland Federation were made, these battleships would still be maintained by the 5th Fleet officers and soldiers, but the number of those boarding would be controlled to no more than one-tenth of the standard crew size.

Of course, it was certain that the armament of the battleships would be removed or otherwise disabled, and the battleships would be rendered incapable of sailing.

Decisions about these battleships would be made once the Imperial High Command had made their decisions.

Relatively speaking, the open waters of East Capital Bay were an ideal location for accommodating dozens of large battleships.

In fact, the Imperial Navy had always kept the captured battleships in East Capital Bay, but most of these ships were unguarded, with at most some Saiyi Navy personnel in charge of routine maintenance.

For this reason, East Capital Bay housed hundreds of ships, large and small.

Most of them were cargo ships captured by the Imperial Navy’s commerce cruisers on the North-East Ocean route before the old Saiyi Imperial Kingdom’s defeat and surrender.

In addition, there were more than a hundred old Saiyi navy small vessels.

Because most were small boats with displacements of less than 250 tons and nearly zero combat capability, they were not valued by the Imperial Navy, much less considered for recycling.

Among the Imperial Navy personnel, East Capital Bay was also called the "Ship Cemetery."

In fact, this also led to the creation of an industry.

After the great war ended, relying on more than 2000 worn-out ships, East Capital Bay saw the emergence of dozens of shipyards primarily engaged in ship dismantling, developing a complete industrial chain, such as steel mills specializing in the recycling of scrap iron and steel.

Furthermore, this recycled scrap metal became a critical material for the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom’s post-war resurgence.

Starting from the ship dismantling industry, it took the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom a mere 30 years to become the world’s largest shipbuilding nation and to reindustrialize, relying on related industries.

If calculated by tonnage, these old ships almost all belonged to the Newland Navy and the Newland Federation.

It was for this reason that outsiders believed the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom had reconstructed after the war and reindustrialized on the corpses of the Newland Navy.

Of course, these were all matters for later discussion.

When Bai Zhizhan saw Li Yunxiang, he was also surprised because the surrender of the 5th Fleet had nothing to do with Li Yunxiang, the Land Air Admiral.

In fact, Li Yunxiang had not come for the 5th Fleet.

Moreover, it was only at this time that Bai Zhizhan learned that Li Yunxiang had become the Commander-in-chief of the Imperial Army’s Air Force, and that Xue Yuanzheng had already approved the establishment of the Air Force.

As expected, the Air Force headquarters was to be established within the year, and Li Yunxiang was to be the first Commander-in-chief of the Empire’s Air Force.

Moreover, what belonged to the Air Force was not only the Land Air Strategic Air Force but also the Tactical Air Force!

Simply put, anything that grew wings and could fly was to belong to the Air Force.

With this, Li Yunxiang had indeed become a significant figure.

Although the Air Force had not yet been established, if things continued this way, the Air Force would definitely be on equal footing with the Land and Sea Forces within no more than 20 years.

Given the situation of this great war, especially the impact of strategic bombing, the Air Force had already become the third service branch, equal in status to the Land and Sea Forces.

Furthermore, in the Tiaoman Empire, the Air Force’s status even surpassed that of the Navy, sharing equal status with the Army.

Even in the Newland Federation, its Land Air Force had effectively become independent, and its status was not much lower than that of the Army and Navy.

This was also the key reason why the Grand Secretary had approved the establishment of the Air Force ahead of schedule.

According to the previous arrangement, they were to consider establishing the Air Force after the end of the great war, as establishing a new branch of the military involved too many interests.

At this point, the end of the great war was not far off.

More importantly, in the upcoming battles against Newland’s homeland, aside from the strategic blockade by the Navy, the main method of attack would be strategic bombing.

It was precisely for this reason that it was necessary to elevate the status of the Air Force, and thus to establish it promptly.

Of course, one major benefit of establishing the Air Force was that it would no longer be restricted by the Army Headquarters.

Although the independence of the Land Air Strategic Air Force had secured the most crucial budget authority, another equally important authority—personnel appointments and removals—remained in the hands of the Army Headquarters, which also managed the promotions and commendations of officers and soldiers.

The problem that arose was that everything had to be run by the Army Headquarters.

Not to mention anything else, as of now, Li Yunxiang was still an Army General, while the Commander of the Tactical Air Force had already been promoted to General last year.

Even the budget authority was thwarted by the Army.

The reason was that the military budget allocated by the War Cabinet first entered the account of the service branches, then transferred to each type of forces’ accounts, and only after the forces received the budget could they, specifically speaking, according to approved procurement plans, purchase various kinds of weapons, equipment, ammunition, pay soldiers, or support research and development, etc., and it all depended on having money in the account.

The issue lay in this step of transferring funds from service branches to specific forces.

Over the past few years, the Army had been playing games with the transfers, such as demanding exorbitant prices for procurement of equipment and ammunition, and sometimes even deliberately causing trouble.

The most representative case was the "Divine Eagle" heavy bomber.

According to Li Yunxiang, if it hadn’t been for obstruction by the Army Headquarters, this type of combat aircraft with a range exceeding 2500 kilometers could have been put into production last year.

As a result, it still had not reached the anticipated scale of mass production.

Li Yunxiang had already discussed this issue over ten times with the Grand Secretary, but in terms of the military budget, the Grand Secretary could not offer much help.

From another perspective, this was also the direct motivation for Xue Yuanzheng’s decision to establish the Air Force ahead of time.

Similarly, this was also why Xue Yuanzheng decided to include the Tactical Air Force under the Air Force.

Everything that could fly had become part of the Air Force, giving the Army no reason to continue opposing the Air Force, at least not in terms of the budget, which spared a lot of trouble.

If the Army were to retain the Tactical Air Force, more problems would definitely arise in the future!

Of course, regardless, Li Yunxiang had finally come into his own.