Empire Conquest

Chapter 658 - 6 Intelligence Boss_2

No one denied the Navy’s importance, but in the post-war large-scale regional conflicts, the absolute main forces were not the Navy.

According to Bai Zhizhan, "The Navy was born for total war."

In an era where peace is the theme, if the fleet isn’t sufficient to deter the enemy, ground forces must be relied upon once war breaks out.

In fact, as early as last month, it had been confirmed that Shi Shouliang would organize military operations facing Boss Bay.

Otherwise, he would not have been allowed to establish a battle command in the Northwest War Zone under the pretext of planning the "Westward 150" exercise and start laying out the strategy for military operations in advance.

Zhou Yongtao brought it up again, actually to elicit a statement from Zhang Xiaotian.

Although Zhang Xiaotian was Zhou Yongtao’s subordinate, Zhou always treated this subordinate with courtesy.

The reason was simple: he was the Little Eldest Princess’s nephew, meaning his father was the Little Eldest Princess’s brother from the Zhang family, a genuine Imperial Relative.

Of course, he was also Bai Zhizhan’s nephew and the spokesperson for the Bai Family.

Similarly, Zhou Yongtao was also a spokesperson for the Bai Family.

In several meetings last month, Zhang Xiaotian did not express his opinion on the choice for frontline Commander, indicating he didn’t see Shi Shouliang as the only candidate.

But now, a decision definitely had to be made.

Fortunately, Zhou Yongtao had already agreed with Zhang Xiaotian privately, and now having Zhang make a public statement was also to save face for the others.

A great battle was imminent, and one thing to avoid was changing generals at the last minute.

After some discussion, Zhou Yongtao adopted Qin Fenglie’s suggestion and said that he would issue the Prime Minister Order to recognize Shi Shouliang as the frontline supreme commander at an appropriate time.

He did not make the appointment immediately because the great battle had not yet broken out.

Subsequently, Qin Fenglie and others took their leave.

However, before Zhou Yongtao could call his secretary in, a phone call came through.

An hour later, during lunch, the head of the Military Intelligence Bureau, Lin Shiping, arrived in a hurry.

It had been his phone call that came in.

It was this call that prompted Zhou Yongtao to move lunchtime to 11 a.m. and have the secretary prepare an extra working meal.

Since he had skipped breakfast, having an early lunch was also quite normal.

Speaking of which, Zhou Yongtao and Lin Shiping were old acquaintances.

Lin Shiping was a protégé of Wang Kaiyuan, more accurately, the last Senior Intelligence Officer mentored by Wang Kaiyuan. Later, during Zheng Jiangming’s tenure as the head of the Military Intelligence Bureau, Lin rotated through all four deputy director positions as well as that of the managing deputy director, and took over as the director after Zheng’s retirement.

To date, he had served 14 years as the director!

According to the military’s assessment, he was the most impressive director of the Military Intelligence Bureau since Yang Zhiyuan.

But then again, which Military Intelligence Bureau director wasn’t formidable?

Lian Xusheng’s assessment best underscored the value of the Military Intelligence Bureau.

In the era of ’The Great Power Triumvirate,’ the Liangxia Empire remained the global hegemon and the number one superpower thanks to the contributions of the Military Intelligence Bureau.

For this very reason, whenever faced with emergencies and significant changes, the Imperial Chief Minister would first think of the director of the Military Intelligence Bureau.

Intelligence is the key basis for making correct strategic decisions.

The intelligence that Lin Shiping brought was exactly what Zhou Yongtao needed most at the moment.

Aside from dozens of meticulously processed satellite photos with details marked, a similarly annotated analytical report, there were also some non-objective intelligence sources.

Actually, these were reports from espionage agents.

The most critical piece of intelligence was that the Tiaoman Ambassador had already given assurances that they would not sever ties with Iraq due to the annexation of Kuwait and would support Hussein’s claim in the international community. That is, Kuwait originally belonged to Iraq, and it was separated by the former Suzerain in the struggle for independence. Therefore, Iraq had sovereignty over Kuwait, was reclaiming lost territory, and had not violated international law.

However, the Tiaoman Ambassador didn’t promise military support.

The reason was, Iraq’s military power was already strong enough.

After eight years of the Iran-Iraq War, especially the last six years of grueling warfare, Iraq had emerged with the most formidable military force in the New Moon Region.

Whether in terms of troop numbers or equipment scale, Iraq ranked in the global top ten for military strength.

Having fought Boi Country for eight years without collapsing, even if facing the number one military superpower now, they could certainly hold out for some time.

Moreover, the Newland Republic also took a wait-and-see stance.

Because Newland primarily relied on Boi Country and valued the relationship more, staying neutral at this moment meant supporting Iraq.

Simply put, the Newland Republic would definitely sing a different tune when the Liangxia Empire called to action.

This was also where Hussein’s confidence stemmed from, unwilling to continue the negotiations.

"According to my judgment, the Tiaoman Empire’s reluctance to provide direct support and the Newland Republic’s wait-and-see stance actually show a lack of confidence," Lin Shiping said.

It was only when Lin said this that Zhou Yongtao turned his attention to him.

But Zhou did not refute.

Why did the two superpowers lack confidence?

This round of military reforms had persisted for over a decade, with a plethora of new technologies being adopted and weapons and equipment designed based on new military concepts being introduced. But apart from a brief military operation six years ago, when the Empire deployed troops to Sri Lanka, the new equipment and tactics had not been tested.

To put it bluntly, whether the military transformation had value, how the next war would be fought, and what impact the new weapons and equipment would have on the way war is waged.