Empire Conquest

Chapter 670 - 12 Preparing for the Front Line

Tiaoman Empire Capital, Prime Minister’s Mansion.

When the secretary came in, Wolfgang was discussing the current situation with several key Cabinet Ministers, or rather, he was in a rage.

There’s nothing surprising about it; Hussein’s military adventurism was truly unexpected.

Why would he do anything else but provoke the Liangxia Navy?

In this world, the last thing you want to do is provoke the Liangxia Navy.

With the strategic advantage of global deployment, the Liangxia Navy dominated the seas for decades after the war, and even now, it’s an invincible presence in the ocean.

If anything, the strategic advantage of the Liangxia Navy is the least controversial.

To some extent, provoking the Liangxia Navy is akin to courting death.

Although Wolfgang was not optimistic about the military strongman who came to power through a coup, and always felt that relations with such a person wouldn’t last long, what he had never imagined was that this guy would provoke the powerful Liangxia Navy before securing a key victory.

Has his brain leaked water?

Doesn’t he understand that you can’t touch a tiger’s buttocks?

Has he forgotten the retaliatory bombing caused by a misfire over four years ago?

Wolfgang even felt that maybe the guy was a bit off because of the torture he had suffered in his early years in prison.

Actually, as early as last month, Wolfgang had warned Hussein over the phone.

No matter what, don’t stir up the Liangxia Navy, and certainly don’t provoke them.

To get Hussein to comply, Wolfgang even explicitly mentioned that if the Liangxia Empire was the one to start trouble, the Tiaoman Empire would take necessary actions in the international community to ensure most countries maintained neutrality and would not join military actions initiated by the Liangxia Empire against Iraq.

Of course, the Tiaoman Empire would continue to provide assistance to Iraq.

The key was that Hussein had agreed and even made a verbal guarantee.

Apparently, to this military strongman, a verbal guarantee was no different than flatulence.

Thinking of these, Wolfgang got very angry.

To be fair, he shared some of the blame.

Before opening fire, the military had conducted an analysis, focusing on the deployment of the Liangxia Navy.

According to military opinion, the Liangxia Navy had deployed a carrier battle group in Boss Bay, and it was a large "Chen Bingxun"-class carrier, putting two more powerful battle groups each with a Super Carrier in the Mua Sea, actually to avoid premature conflict with Iraq.

This deployment mainly targeted the initial evacuation operations.

Of course, it’s understandable.

Kuwait has always been a major ally of the Liangxia Empire in the Gulf region. Its oil fields are almost wholly owned by Liangxia companies, and the tankers gathered in the Port of Kuwait are almost all from the Liangxia Empire, so the first consideration after the outbreak of war is to evacuate these tankers.

Also, there are thousands of Liangxia citizens in Kuwait, working and traveling.

These are mainly employees of oil companies and their families.

To facilitate this, the Kuwaiti authorities have demarcated a special residential zone for foreign workers outside the port and arranged for military police to maintain order.

Obviously, after the outbreak of war, the Liangxia Empire also needs to evacuate these citizens urgently.

The forward-deployed Escort Ship was performing the mission of covering the tanker evacuation, and functionally, it was more like a maritime traffic cop.

What threat does an Anti-submarine Guard Ship pose?

If the Liangxia Empire were truly preparing for war, what would be forward-deployed wouldn’t be just an Escort Ship.

Even the Fast Battleships built during the last great war pose a greater threat than Escort Ships!

And, what’s the use of sinking an Escort Ship?

Let alone an Escort Ship, even obliterating the "Zhu Shijian"-class carrier battle group wouldn’t significantly hurt the Liangxia Navy.

But, this was like handing the reason for war over to the Liangxia Empire on a silver platter.

As long as the Liangxia Empire declares war on Iraq on the grounds that their Battleship was attacked in international waters, not only the allies of the Liangxia Empire, but most countries will concur.

By then, what can the Tiaoman Empire do?

Besides, this also involves secret agreements with the Newland Republic.

Only if the Liangxia Empire wages an undeclared war will the Newland Republic take immediate action; otherwise, it will remain neutral.

Obviously, there’s no chance now of the Liangxia Empire waging an undeclared war.

This equates to blocking the Tiaoman Empire from directly participating in the war or using this war to divert domestic strife.

Without the support and involvement of the Newland Republic, the Tiaoman Empire can’t possibly confront the Liangxia Empire directly no matter what.

Wolfgang called this meeting to discuss this very issue.

Should we continue to support the Hussein Regime?

Although most military leaders expressed opposition, nearly all Cabinet Ministers believe that under the current circumstances, the chance to take the lead has been lost.

Now the concern is whether the Liangxia Empire will directly declare war on Iraq!

According to the discussion results, if the worst-case scenario were to occur—that the Liangxia Empire sends troops directly—what the Tiaoman Authority could choose is to declare neutrality and distance itself from the Hussein Regime, then sit back and watch the Liangxia Empire once again dominate the Boss Bay region.

Regarding this issue, Wolfgang had already clarified the stance of the Newland President over the phone before the meeting started.

What relieved him was that the Newland President was very sensible and further emphasized one point: the Newland Republic and the Tiaoman Empire share common interests in the Boss Bay area.