Empire Conquest
Chapter 246 - 242: Trembling with Fear

Chapter 246: Chapter 242: Trembling with Fear

He had been on guard all night, and Tanimoto’s biggest worry was receiving news from the Permanent Fleet.

Although he could feel relieved after nightfall earlier in the evening, since ship-borne aircraft couldn’t attack high-speed battleships at night, Tanimoto still felt uneasy because the Liangxia Navy, besides having carriers, also had six extremely powerful fast battleships.

Among them, two were the newest Treaty Type fast battleships.

These were also the only two Treaty Type fast battleships the Liangxia Navy had, representing the culmination of various new technologies and equipment developed for main battle ships over the past twenty years—the concentrated essence. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say they were the strongest post-war Treaty Type fast battleships.

According to the intelligence received in the past few days, these two battleships had sunk the "Damen" and "Luo" fast battleships in the Watcher Strait and, after refueling and rearming at Mast Harbor and undergoing simple maintenance, had once again put to sea and had not yet returned to the military port.

More importantly, the captains of these two battleships were Bai Zhizhan’s classmates at the Naval Academy, all willing to take a bullet for Bai Zhizhan.

It was very likely that the Liangxia Navy would dispatch these two fast battleships to cover the "Heng River."

The four upgraded fast battleships, especially the two "North River" class, were also formidable in combat capability.

In theory, these fast battleships were also commanded by the Navy Command Department.

Although organizationally, fast battleships belonged to the fleet and were only deployed to cover carriers and respond to the commands of the Special Mixed Fleet Commander during combat, the current time was a period of war, the Southern Fleet was virtually non-existent, and the Domestic Fleet was also restricted by various parties.

After being incorporated into a Special Mixed Fleet, they had to follow the orders of the Navy Command Department, as, after all, the Special Mixed Fleet Commander was also appointed by the Navy Command Department.

Would the Liangxia Navy possibly redirect fast battleships to form a dedicated Special Mixed Fleet?

Clearly, that wasn’t out of the question!

If that were indeed the case, Bai Zhizhan might not only have two fast battleships but perhaps four, or even possibly six.

If Bai Zhizhan was out front taking bullets and Liu Xiangzhen was hiding in the rear, then giving four fast battleships to Bai Zhizhan wasn’t out of the question.

Commanding battleships in battle?

There’s absolutely no doubt about his capability.

Bai Zhizhan made his name in traditional naval battles and had served as a fleet staff officer in his youth, understanding battleships far better than a newer generation officer like Tanimoto.

If Bai Zhizhan had six, or even just four fast battleships, he would definitely choose to strike first.

Timing-wise, the fleet led by Bai Zhizhan could completely reach the vicinity of the North Ma Islands by the night of the 18th, intercepting the northbound Permanent Fleet.

A rapid march of a thousand miles—he had done it before.

Eliminating the third Air Corps, and later bombing the troop transport fleet, in fact, all hinged on the foundation of a rapid thousand-mile march.

It was precisely because of such worries that Tanimoto hadn’t slept all night.

He wasn’t waiting for news but waiting for "no news" as the outcome.

However, it wasn’t just a wasted night of staying up.

Although no news was the best news, Tanimoto didn’t dare relax, or rather, the time to relax hadn’t come yet.

To be honest, Tanimoto had already started to regret it.

Yesterday evening, or precisely shortly after he forwarded that intelligence, having concluded that Bai Zhizhan was entering the West East Ocean with the "Heng River," Tanimoto had immediately sent a message to Lan Yun instructing him to avoid traveling east and stay as far from the North Ma Islands as possible, not to rush to reach Liuhuang Island.

Although he hadn’t received a reply from Lan Yun and was still unaware of the Permanent Fleet’s whereabouts, Tanimoto speculated that upon receiving his message, Lan Yun would undoubtedly avoid traveling east and then head north, turning only after reaching the east of Liuhuang Island to make for the landing site.

The Permanent Fleet would travel all day and wouldn’t be able to arrive until the morning of the 20th!

In the upcoming day, the Permanent Fleet could be struck at any time.

That was an entire day!

Not to mention Liu Xiangzhen watching intently on the side, even if it were just Bai Zhizhan, with just one carrier, he could still annihilate the Permanent Fleet during this day.

Unfortunately, Tanimoto could no longer be of any help now.

In the past few days, during the battles surrounding Liuhuang Island, the search for the Special Mixed Group commanded by Liu Xiangzhen had resulted in the loss of nearly half of the long-range patrol aircraft, also known as the 97 Large Boats.

Liangxia’s battleships seemed to have acquired clairvoyance, always managing to spot the patrol planes in time and sending fighters to intercept them, preventing the patrol planes from getting close.

After losing dozens of patrol planes, Tanimoto didn’t even know where the few carriers attacking Liuhuang Island were!

To be precise, an area of the sea had been demarcated, specifically the area unreachable by the patrol planes.

This roughly saddle-shaped maritime area stretched over six hundred kilometers in its major axis and two hundred kilometers in its minor axis, covering an area of over a hundred thousand square kilometers!

Moreover, if patrol planes couldn’t reach it, could the unsupported Type 96 Land Attack aircraft get there?

If one needed to search this vast area for targets, namely carriers, even dispatching two hundred aircraft at a time would be a drop in the bucket.

In fact, there weren’t even two hundred Type 96 Land Attack aircraft left anymore.

It was for this reason that Tanimoto had previously determined, that Bai Zhizhan and Liu Xiangzhen weren’t together; the two were operating separately, as that area couldn’t accommodate two fleets.

That was a total of five Fleet carriers.

If combined, it would have been slightly better.

Split into two fleets, coordinating the command would definitely be a disaster, and they would have to use radio equipment, which made it very likely to expose their positions.

As a result, yesterday, Tanimoto felt it was highly probable that Bai Zhizhan had moved forward to the west side of the North Ma Islands and would continue to search eastward for the Permanent Fleet.

This was because staying to the southwest of Liuhuang Island would cause conflict with Liu Xiangzhen and might not result in any gains.

With Bai Zhizhan’s aggressive nature, he was unlikely to just stay in the rear passively.

Initially, he boldly led two carriers deep into East Ocean without the protection of fast battleships and later even sent away all cruisers.

Now, would he fear the already jittery Permanent Fleet?

Not to mention there was still one carrier left, even without any carriers, he would dare to lead his fast battleships to seek a decisive battle with Lan Yun!

Moreover, Bai Zhizhan would also consider that if the Permanent Fleet was threatened and didn’t go to Liuhuang Island, they would definitely return to the Saiyi homeland.

For this, he would have to move forward, near the North Ma Islands.

The battle didn’t erupt yesterday; perhaps, Bai Zhizhan just hadn’t found the Permanent Fleet.

By today, that might not be the case anymore.

Approaching noon, Tanimoto was already finding it hard to cope.

Since the bombardment of Liuhuang Island, Tanimoto had been pushing himself relentlessly. Even if exhausted, he would only lean on the chair for a brief moment and never deeply sleep.

He dared not sleep deeply.

Even though Prime Minister Wen Wei had assigned him as a Major General of the Navy to lead the Military Command Department without much pressure, Tanimoto never allowed himself to relax.

To put it bluntly, his perseverance thus far was due to his stubbornness.

Of course, it could also be called self-deception.

Deceiving himself that as long as he held on till the end, he could achieve victory.

Anyway, once that vigor was lost, it could not be summoned again.

Tanimoto was also aware that the battle taking place near Liuhuang Island would determine the fate of the Saiyi Navy, the lives of eighty million Saiyi military and civilians, and the future of the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom.

However, he was just too tired.

Not long after sitting down, he had fallen asleep until he was awakened by the sound of hurried footsteps.

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