Empire Conquest
Chapter 288 - 284: Dust Destined to be Forgotten

Chapter 288: Chapter 284: Dust Destined to be Forgotten

Li Yunxiang, being forthright, summoned his main officers that evening—some were with him returning from the Sea Air Force. They set up two tables at the frontline and combined the welcoming feast and farewell banquet into one event. Early the next day, Bai Zhizhan left Jeju Island on the transport plane that had brought him.

Mid-flight, they encountered several fighter jets.

They weren’t enemy planes, but escort fighters from Buju.

Compared to the Navy’s ship-borne fighters, these fighters’ most distinct feature was a conical fairing on the nose, using a water-cooled engine.

Indeed, these were two new models of fighters.

Before the outbreak of the great war, the Empire’s Army, like the Empire’s Navy, also preferred air-cooled engines.

This is not to say that air-cooled engines were better, but rather that several engine companies focused on developing the more versatile air-cooled engines.

By Year 98 of the New Calendar, the Empire’s Army acquired its first fighter that employed a water-cooled engine.

Due to the engine’s performance limitations, this fighter was not successful. The Land Air Force purchased over a hundred units, all of which were later given to flight schools.

In Year 99 of the New Calendar, on the eve of the war, the second type of water-cooled engine fighter barely met the Army’s requirements.

In fact, during the Baku negotiations, Bai Zhizhan had learned that the engine for that fighter came from the Tiaoman Empire. Officially, it was developed by the Empire’s engine companies, but in reality, it was produced domestically using blueprints secretly provided by the Tiaoman Empire.

Since a licensing fee was paid, the secret alliance between the two nations was not exposed, and thus neither side publicized this matter.

It was only after acquiring the advanced water-cooled engines from the Tiaoman Empire that the Army’s Tactical Air Force gradually but firmly moved away from the "air-cooled system" dominated by the Sea Air Force, starting to surpass the Sea Air Force’s combat planes in terms of speed, which represented a key performance feature.

After circling the transport plane, the two fighters took the lead.

As they passed the transport plane, the lead fighter wobbled side-to-side a few times, signaling the transport pilot to follow.

This gesture was provocative, but that was a matter for the pilots; Bai Zhizhan pretended not to notice.

They had a smooth journey to Buju.

"General Bai, look below."

After the pilot’s reminder, Bai Zhizhan looked out the window.

They were now above the port. The transport was turning, and Buju Port was in full view.

He wasn’t being asked to look at the port.

Having been in the Navy for decades, what hadn’t Bai Zhizhan seen about ports?

Furthermore, Buju Port was not large. Compared to the Empire’s military ports, it seemed quite modest.

What Bai Zhizhan was meant to see was on the northwest side, to the left of black beach and the partly submerged wreckages of ships not completely drowned by the sea.

Just some steel skeletons.

Why was the beach black, and why were the ships reduced to skeletons?

Bai Zhizhan shuddered as he realized.

Indeed, specialized incendiary bombs!

Shen Pu and Zhu Huasheng had mentioned that, during the assault on the Ice Storm Peninsula, the Army used unique incendiary bombs that not only produced high temperatures and burned for an extended period but also could not be extinguished with water and burned even more fiercely when in contact with it. They were heavily used in the fighting for Buju.

All the sunken ships were civilian vessels, and not very large at that.

Clearly, when Buju was besieged, a large number of civilians had gathered on that beach, queuing to board the ships that would take them back to their homeland across the strait.

The docks?

They were for transporting military troops and war materials, certainly not open to civilians.

It was quite remarkable to allow civilians into the port, and even to gather on the beach while arranging civilian boats for transport.

Unfortunately, very few could board the ships and return to the Saiyi mainland.

When the bombing occurred, it was likely that not a single person on that beach escaped.

The beach was completely scorched black, with some bright reflective objects, like confetti sprayed during a festival, which were glass crystals formed from sand melted at high temperatures!

Upon recognizing this, Bai Zhizhan was even more shocked.

The sand had turned to glass—how high was the temperature!?

Not to talk of flesh, even bones would burn to ash.

There were no remaining objects on the beach, the bombing must have been carried out repeatedly many times.

Imagine, on a frigid morning or evening, tens of thousands of people gathered on that beach, packed tightly like a market in a village fair, and then the air raid sirens went off, with tens or hundreds of bombers swarming in like dark clouds.

Then, incendiary bombs fell like raindrops.

In an instant, the beach turned into a hell on earth.

The people on the beach were like matches suddenly thrown into a furnace, turning to ash within the blinding light in a matter of moments.

The cold seawater seemed to turn into gasoline, as flames rapidly spread across the sea.

It was nothing short of a hellish purgatory!

Thinking of these, Bai Zhizhan involuntarily shivered.

Even just imagining it was chilling to the bone.

Moreover, the transport pilot even played a tour guide temporarily.

"The ground troops said that there were about one hundred thousand immigrants from the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom there at the time, and after the bombing, not even a fragment of bone was found. A few days later, some soldiers secretly went there to look for trophies, like gold teeth, gold watches, and gold jewelry. Those who returned to camp later contracted a strange illness and died inexplicably. The locals said it was because they disturbed the unrested souls of those who died tragically. After the incident, the Buju local government organized a tribute ceremony, and the Army has not cleared that beach to this day."

"How much longer do we have to fly?"

"We’re almost there."

Bai Zhizhan interjected, after which the pilot finally closed his mouth, actually turning off the internal intercom.

Bai Zhizhan was not afraid, but he felt that with the pilot’s eloquence, he should be narrating stories instead of flying planes—it was a waste of talent.

Or should he write a recommendation letter to the Navy Arts Group for the pilot after returning?

This sudden mischievous thought amused Bai Zhizhan, though the events at the beginning were too grim to laugh at.

True enough, those immigrants from the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom had indeed died tragically.

But who could be blamed?

After the last great war, the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom not only supported the puppet Lower High Kingdom but also tried to engulf this land through immigration, using various means to mobilize those clueless, particularly the impoverished people in their country to come here. In just twenty years, over three million Saiyis had immigrated to Lower High Kingdom, whose original population was only twenty million.

This was clearly the responsibility of the Saiyi authorities.

This scale of mass immigration was beyond the scope of colonial rule.

For example, the Bulan Kingdom had governed the Fanluo region for over a hundred years, and the total number of immigrants was less than a million, not even one percent of the local population.

Of course, neither now nor in the future, will anyone stand up to seek justice for the tens of thousands who died here.

They are like dust in history, stirred up by the storm, flying within the storm, and forgotten once the storm has passed.

While Bai Zhizhan thought about these matters, the transport plane had already landed on the runway.

Outside, Lian Xusheng, Li Qing, and others had been waiting for a long time.

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