Empire Conquest
Chapter 129 - 125: Taking Care of Both Ends

Chapter 129: Chapter 125: Taking Care of Both Ends

Throughout the morning, Bai Zhizhan stood by the nautical chart table, only moving to go to the restroom.

If it weren’t for the battle, Li Mingbo would have let the captain execute a full rudder turn to see if Bai Zhizhan could continue standing there without moving.

No one went to disturb him, nor did anyone dare to.

The absence of news certainly wasn’t good news.

According to Bai Zhizhan’s earlier prediction, as long as Liu Xiangzhen made the right decision, which was the Mobile Fleet launching an initial attack on the Third Aviation Mixed Fleet to the north, he would seize the opportunity and dispatch the Attack Aircraft Group at the first instance, before Lan Yun realized the situation.

By time estimation, the Attack Aircraft Group of the Special Mixed Group should have departed by nine at the latest.

Thus, the attack would commence after ten-thirty.

However, at ten-thirty, the radio channels were still eerily quiet.

Although the distance to the Mobile Fleet had exceeded five hundred kilometers, far beyond the operational radius of the ship-borne aircraft, the long-range radios on board the planes worked at distances beyond six hundred kilometers and should catch radio signals at five hundred kilometers despite potential weather impacts.

Regardless, before and after launching the attack, the group leader’s plane would use the long-range radio to report the situation to the fleet.

For the next half hour, only Bai Zhizhan managed to remain composed.

In fact, even Bai Zhizhan wavered, he just didn’t show it, nor could he afford to, as the officers and soldiers were all looking to him as their pillar of strength.

A commander who lacks firmness, and still expects to win a battle?

The principle of "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link" applies just as well in the Navy.

Fortunately, it was just half an hour.

At eleven past ten, the communication officer brought news, intercepting a large amount of radio signals, some of which were definitely transmitted from the Imperial Navy’s airborne radios.

Because the signals were intermittent, it was impossible to decipher the content of the messages.

Additionally, many signals came from Saiyi’s warship radios, mainly from long-wave radios.

Then, just half an hour later, the radio channels went silent again.

Had the battle ended?

What was the outcome?

How many carriers were sunk?

Was there another round of attack?

However, these were not the concerns of Bai Zhizhan.

During those twenty-plus minutes, Bai Zhizhan asked the communication officer three times if any radio signals from other directions had been intercepted.

Was Bai Zhizhan not focusing on the Mobile Fleet?

That was clearly just a juicy bait!

After Li Yunxiang rushed back, Bai Zhizhan had explained to him that Takano might abandon the Mobile Fleet, which had already become a target.

To be precise, he made full use of it.

Since only the Third Aviation Mixed Fleet moving south from Cizhou Port could block the Two-Car Strait, the Mobile Fleet sent reconnaissance aircraft northwards before dawn, but did not send a single reconnaissance aircraft flying west. After the reconnaissance aircraft confused the fleet’s oil tankers for carriers, the Mobile Fleet immediately launched an attack. Moreover, upon discovering the fleet’s oil tankers, the Attack Aircraft Group split up to search and only sank the fleet’s oil tankers before heading back.

Were all these just coincidences?

If not, it could only mean Takano had abandoned the Mobile Fleet and required it to fully cover the breakout of the Main Battle Corps.

In fact, this also confirmed another of Bai Zhizhan’s predictions.

The Main Battle Corps was in the Flame Sea too!

If not, with only the Mobile Fleet breaking through, why would Lan Yun focus solely on the north without guarding against the Special Mixed Group relentlessly pursuing from behind?

In terms of threat, the Special Mixed Group was undoubtedly greater than the Third Aviation Mixed Fleet.

At one o’clock, Li Mingbo reminded Bai Zhizhan that it was time for lunch.

Bai Zhizhan was indeed hungry and even asked Li Mingbo to call Li Yunxiang from the Air Combat Center, so they could discuss the afternoon’s tactical arrangements over lunch.

Discussing matters at the dining table was a habit Bai Zhizhan had learned from Zhu Shijian.

Li Mingbo knew Bai Zhizhan very well and rushed to the officers’ canteen below, asking the chef to prepare some of Bai Zhizhan’s favorite snacks and meanwhile asking the unrelated officers to leave. When he returned with Li Yunxiang, Bai Zhizhan was already there, pouring coffee.

Throughout the morning, coffee had been the best seller in the officers’ canteen.

Not to mention others, Bai Zhizhan alone had drunk more than half a pot.

Moreover, Bai Zhizhan hadn’t eaten anything since having a late-night snack at dawn.

Breakfast?

At that time, he was too busy arranging search routes for the seaplanes loaded on the heavy cruiser to eat anything.

Soon, the chef served the freshly made snacks, Bai Zhizhan’s favorite sweet glutinous rice balls with added fermented rice.

Some malicious folks once used this preference to mock Bai Zhizhan, calling him a woman.

Women needed to drink brown sugar water a few days each month to replenish blood and restore energy.

Of course, those who mocked Bai Zhizhan were nothing but insignificant nobodies.

"Are you all not hungry?"

Bai Zhizhan wolfed down a few bites, then realized that the Two Li were staring at him.

Li Mingbo, being from the north, did not favor the southern flavors, and Li Yunxiang, though southern, didn’t like sweets.

Fortunately, the chef knew the preferences of the main officers and had prepared several other snacks.

"Eat something, we have a busy afternoon ahead!"

Once the chef brought the rest of the snacks, Bai Zhizhan had already finished a bowl of sweet glutinous rice balls.

As the Two Li began eating, Bai Zhizhan continued, "I know, you think I’m worried about the Main Battle Corps that we haven’t found yet, and you assume I want to ’bite off more than I can chew’ by waiting for news from the Fifth Air Corps and attempting to wipe out the entire Saiyi Navy in one go."

"Isn’t that the case?" Li Yunxiang didn’t bother to consider Bai Zhizhan’s feelings.

"To put it strictly, you guessed half right."

"Which half?"

"I am indeed waiting for news. Even though the Fifth Air Corps isn’t very strong now, and supplying their ship-borne aircraft to the Mobile Fleet doesn’t make us any stronger, those two fleet carriers are a real threat. If they slip away, they could cause endless trouble later."

Hearing this, Li Yunxiang immediately furrowed his brows, and Li Mingbo showed a surprised look.

Clearly, they hadn’t expected Bai Zhizhan to disregard the Takano-led Main Battle Corps and focus more on the Fifth Air Corps.

"It’s just that what really worries me is another force."

"The Newland Navy?" Li Mingbo asked tentatively.

Usually, Li Mingbo seldom spoke during tactical discussions; he preferred to be a soldier who just executed tasks.

"Not that serious," Bai Zhizhan said with a light smile, "Up to now, we haven’t received any news about the Third Air Corps. What we do know for sure is that when this corps left Long Sorrow Port, they took the last batch of Zero Fighters with them. The question is whether these fighters were sent to the Fifth Air Corps this morning, or if they were kept back and the fighters supplied to the Fifth Air Corps were actually Type 96 fighters."

"Isn’t it just a few dozen fighters?"

"What about the timing?"

Li Yunxiang paused, but quickly grasped the significance.

If it was the former, there wasn’t much to talk about. If it was the latter, it meant that the Fifth Air Corps wouldn’t be reinforced until the afternoon at the earliest.

Seizing this opportunity might allow for an easy and delightful annihilation battle!

At that moment, the door of the canteen was pushed open, and the duty signal officer rushed in hurriedly.