Empire Conquest
Chapter 291 - 287: News from Afar

Chapter 291: Chapter 287: News from Afar

In the following days, Bai Zhizhan, accompanied by Lian Xusheng and Li Qing among others, toured various places.

It was during these days, especially what he witnessed and heard, that Bai Zhizhan gained a new understanding of the Army and ground warfare.

In summary, it could be put in one sentence.

Capturing and occupying are two completely different things!

Take Lower High Kingdom, for example—its situation was much better. After all, before the last war, Ice Storm Peninsula had only one kingdom, the Gaoju Kingdom, which was a vassal state of the Liangxia Empire. The people had long recognized and accepted their status as a vassal state, preferring that to being ruled by the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom.

As vassal states, Gaoju Kingdom and the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom were considered equals, and their envoys stood together during imperial audiences.

Even so, the Imperial Army still had to face and solve a plethora of emerging problems.

In many places, the number one task of the occupying forces was to help local people survive the harsh winter, thereby consuming an astonishing amount of resources.

For example, in Tianzhou and Quan City, the Imperial Army set up dozens of supply stations specifically to distribute relief materials to war refugees.

The real challenge was resettling immigrants from the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom.

The Imperial Army built five immigrant shelters in places like Gaozhou and had taken in nearly two million Saiyi immigrants, almost all of whom were the elderly, women, children, deserters, and the wounded. Because they were not citizens of the Gaoju Kingdom, they could not be settled on the spot like refugees.

These two million immigrants, even by the lowest supply standards, consumed about a thousand tons of flour every day!

In just over a month, feeding refugees and accommodating immigrants consumed one hundred thousand tons of food.

To put it briefly, many combat units were bogged down in maintaining local order and involved in cumbersome affairs, with no capability to carry out combat missions.

Fortunately, there were no combat missions at the time.

And this was only in the Lower High Kingdom.

In the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom, there would undoubtedly be more troubles!

According to Lian Xusheng, not much military force would be needed to attack the Saiyi homeland, but the subsequent military occupation would definitely require an army of millions.

In the early stages of the war, where could the Imperial Army draw a million troops from?

On March 9, Bai Zhizhan arrived in Gaozhou, which was his last stop on the Ice Storm Peninsula.

More than two months had passed, and Gaozhou had essentially returned to normal.

Following Lian Xusheng’s introduction, Upper High Kingdom and Lower High Kingdom had merged, moving the capital to Gaozhou, so the reconstruction work here was prioritized.

Historically, Gaozhou had always been the royal city of the Gaoju Kingdom. It was only occupied by the Saiyi military during the last war and later became the capital of the Lower High Kingdom. Upper High Kingdom, that is, the Gaoju Kingdom, was forced to move its royal city to Tan City. However, Tan City was still called a secondary capital; Gaozhou remained the royal city in name.

Furthermore, Gaozhou was the terminal station of the railway line from the Empire.

This railway, built before the outbreak of the previous war and financed by the Imperial Bank, was intended to strengthen control over the Ice Storm Peninsula. The railway’s value diminished after being cut off at Kai Province to the north of Gaozhou, postwar.

After more than two months of hard work, the engineer soldiers of the Imperial Army had repaired the railway.

It was precisely for this reason that supplies could be delivered by rail, preventing millions of civilians in Gaozhou from starving.

As planned, Bai Zhizhan was to board the return train to the Imperial Capital. After arriving in Tan City, he would make a brief stop to meet the King of the Gaoju Kingdom in his capacity as Quasi Prince Consort of the Imperial Family. Although there was no need to discuss important matters, it was still crucial to maintain relations on behalf of the Imperial Family.

Regrettably, Bai Zhizhan did not board the train to Tan City.

As soon as he arrived at the train station, he received a telegram and subsequently headed to the airport, where he boarded a transport plane flying directly back to the Imperial Capital.

The telegram had come from the Navy headquarter.

Last night, yesterday morning in Empire time, three "Lvzuo" class Armored Cruisers of the Tiaoman Navy, accompanied by three Light Cruisers and a large ocean-going oiler, slipped out of Kiel Military Port under the cover of night, marking the beginning of a long journey.

Why?

According to the secret agreement reached in Baku, they were to stand by in the South Sunset Ocean!

This meant that the high command of the Tiaoman Empire had completed their preparations for war and would soon declare war on the Bulan Kingdom.

Similarly, the Imperial Navy also had to take corresponding actions.

During the Baku negotiations, Bai Zhizhan had promised to send several oil tankers to the South Sunset Ocean to ensure the Tiaoman Fleet could enter the Fan Flame Ocean when necessary.

This arrangement wasn’t just about fuel.

In the whole world, only the Liangxia Empire possessed a sufficient number of fast oil tankers, many of which were built to military standards and even served as fuel supply ships during wartime.

The Tiaoman Navy simply didn’t have oil tankers capable of keeping up with the cruisers.

Moreover, the one-way voyage from Tiaoman to the South Sunset Ocean was several thousand nautical miles; the tankers sent out were basically unable to return to Tiaoman.

If there was a place to go, it would be the Liangxia Empire, so it was only natural for the Liangxia Navy to arrange the oil tankers.

If it were just a few fast oil tankers, that would be one thing.

At any time during peacetime, the Fan Flame Ocean was home to dozens of oil tankers flying the flag of the Liangxia Empire, and it was no different now.

The key question was, should battleship escorts be arranged?

If needed, how many battleships should be arranged, and of what size?

Who should be sent to command?

All these needed to be decided in advance.

In fact, this was also the reason Liu Changxun sent a telegram asking Bai Zhizhan to return to the Imperial Capital immediately.

Perhaps arranging battleships and commanding officers was a simple matter, but after arrangements were made, there definitely needed to be time for preparation. Even if they set out immediately after being prepared, it would take more than ten days to sail from the southern ports of the empire to the South Sunset Ocean!

And that was in an ideal situation; there would undoubtedly be many problems in reality.

For instance, recruiting volunteers and arranging crews for the oil tankers was troublesome.

Drafting fleet officers and sailors?

Even if the Empire never lacked seamen, there was no reason to let trained naval officers and sailors steer the oil tankers on an almost suicidal, one-way mission.

To be honest, the Imperial Navy’s fleet officers and sailors were always in short supply.

In Puzhou and Cizhou alone, there were four large carriers and four fast battleships scheduled for delivery within a few months, requiring tens of thousands of fleet officers and sailors!

Clearly, there was no time to delay.

Six Tiaoman Navy cruisers were bound to arrive in the South Sunset Ocean within the month.

Unless something of monumental proportions occurred, the Tiaoman Empire would definitely declare war on the Bulan Kingdom before that.

From this, we could surmise April 1st to be the final deadline.

Therefore, there was even more need to accelerate the pace.

Upon receiving the telegram, Bai Zhizhan also felt deeply moved.

Once the Tiaoman Empire entered the war, the conflict would officially escalate into a global war.

However, the Tiaoman Empire’s entry into the war a month early was not necessarily a bad thing.

The reason was simple: once the Tiaoman Empire entered the war, the facade would be torn asunder, and the Newland Federation and the Bulan Kingdom would no longer be able to play their conspiracies and schemes.

Then, persuading the Army to compromise on the operation to attack the Saiyi homeland would become even easier.

From another perspective, the Tiaoman Empire’s deployment of its Fleet southward and its plan to declare war on the Bulan Kingdom early were probably not just about fulfilling an alliance.

Regardless, with a war to fight, there was no need to continue loitering about.