Empire Conquest
Chapter 309 - 305: The Army’s Main Battlefield

Chapter 309: Chapter 305: The Army’s Main Battlefield

Relative to the Navy, the Army had greater divergence in its approach to ground offenses.

Still, at its core, it remained related to the Navy.

The reason was that operations facing the Fan Flame Ocean, Fanluo, and the Gangaro Plain had always been Navy-led, with the Army only providing assistance.

In the last great war, the Army had consistently pursued a defense-oriented strategy in the Southwest.

It wasn’t that they couldn’t beat the Bulan Royal Army, but they lacked the necessary conditions for offense.

Transportation.

Whether on the Toe Peninsula or after emerging from the Cloud Mist Canyon onto the Gangaro Plain, there were either no railways or insufficient roads for large-scale troop movements.

The entire Toe Peninsula had only one railway line leading to the eastern region of the Gangaro Plain.

This single-track railway, which took twenty years to complete, not only had very limited transport capacity, but also crossed dozens of rapid rivers.

Destroy one bridge, and the entire railway line would be severed!

After the last war ended, this railway’s western section was handed over to the Bulan Kingdom, guarded by the Bulan Royal Army’s Fanluo Corps.

The combat effectiveness of the Fanluo Corps was poor, and to hold the Gangaro Plain, they would surely destroy railway bridges to cut the line if necessary.

As for roads, even if they existed, there wouldn’t be many.

Due to poor transportation conditions, historically, the Empire had always expanded toward the Fan Flame Ocean by sea.

According to traditional tactics, the route involved sailing south from the Flame Sea, seizing Lion Spring City in order to control the Throat Strait, then breaking through the southern Xunfeng Strait and the Longyan Strait, before directly invading Silan Island upon entering the Fan Flame Ocean, followed by the Mua Sea and the southwest Jibu Fortress.

During this, the decision to seize and control additional footholds, such as the islands east and west of Silan Island, would be contingent on the situation.

Decades ago, Chen Bingxun had followed this route, triumphantly advancing all the way to Jibu Fortress, where he forced the Bulan Royal Navy to yield the trident of the Fan Flame Ocean. After the discovery of oil fields in Boss Bay, the Empire also built a sea transport channel for oil along this route.

Advancing along this route, other than the need for an initial sweep of the Toe Peninsula, had little to do with the Army.

A few key locations like Lion Spring City and Silan Island were actually islands, and only Silan Island was big enough to require a substantial force for occupation.

But now, the Marine Corps could handle it without involving the Army.

The current problem was that the Navy couldn’t split its forces to the Fan Flame Ocean.

According to prior discussions, even if the Empire were victorious in the battle against the Newland Navy, it wouldn’t be until next year, with four large carriers in service, that the Imperial Navy would have the capacity to dispatch troops to the Fan Flame Ocean. Indeed, even next year, it might not be possible for the Imperial Navy to deploy to the Fan Flame Ocean.

No matter how weak the Newland Navy was, benefitting from the vast East Ocean and its unique geographic advantage, the Newland Federation would definitely not be defeated in just a few months.

As long as the Newland Federation wasn’t defeated, the Imperial Navy would have to focus on the East Ocean.

Although next year’s operational plans hadn’t been discussed, everyone was well aware that even if the situation were favorable, the primary task would be to capture the pipelines and the North Ma Islands, then move into the Southwest East Ocean to cut off the sea routes from Newland Federation to Ao Country, and even prepare for an attack on Ao Country.

The necessity for attacking Ao Country had already been clarified during the Baku negotiations.

Even after the Bulan Kingdom declared war on the Liangxia Empire, the necessity to attack Ao Country diminished significantly, namely because the Bulan Kingdom would surely sever the sea lanes through the Fan Flame Ocean. Then, the Liangxia Empire and the Tiaoman Empire could only rely on the railroads of the Luosha Federation, eliminating the need to occupy Ao Country to block the East Ocean Fleet of the Newland Navy from launching submarines out of Ao Country to attack merchant ships in the Fan Flame Ocean.

The issue was that Ao Country itself held tremendous value.

Aside from other considerations, a large portion of the Bulan Kingdom’s resources acquired from overseas came from Ao Country, including the particularly important foodstuffs during wartime.

Beef produced by Ao Country accounted for eighty percent of Bulan Kingdom’s total imports!

Furthermore, Ao Country posed a threat to the Empire’s Navy’s control of the areas surrounding the Flame Sea and their advances into the Fan Flame Ocean.

The regions around the Flame Sea were of immense value in themselves, producing many irreplaceable and unique resources, such as quinine, which is essential for operations in tropical areas, and indispensable natural rubber, as well as several massive oil fields on Poro Continent.

It is evident that if the Imperial Navy intended to advance into the Fan Flame Ocean, they would have to consider attacking Ao Country.

Even if they did not attack Ao Country, the Imperial Navy would still march into the Howay Islands.

After attacking Ao Country, the Imperial Navy’s first move would be to invade the Howay Islands and seize the Newland Federation’s number one stronghold in the East Ocean.

Strategically speaking, taking the Howay Islands is tantamount to controlling the East Ocean, or at least the majority of it.

Invading the Howay Islands and advancing into Ao Country are not necessarily connected, and the importance of each is equal.

Clearly, the Newland Federation would definitely not give up the Howay Islands.

According to Bai Zhizhan’s assessment, even if the Newland Navy lost all carriers, or even all battleships, they would deploy sufficient ground forces on the Howay Islands and defend each island to the death, especially Honu Island where Treasure Harbor is located, engaging in a decisive battle with the Liangxia Army.

It’s not about holding the line at all costs, but delaying the advance of the Liangxia Navy as much as possible.

In the northern East Ocean, there is no better forward base than Treasure Harbor!

To control the East Ocean, advance onto Gu Continent, completely defeat the arch-rival Newland Federation, and put an end to the war with the Western Powers once and for all, no matter how much time it takes, how many troops are used, how great the sacrifice, or how severe the losses, the Howay Islands must be taken and Treasure Harbor captured.

From this perspective, the possibility of the Imperial Navy advancing into the Fan Flame Ocean in New Calendar year 101 was virtually nil.

Even if everything proceeded smoothly, managing to capture the Howay Islands in the first half of New Calendar year 101 would be a miracle.

That’s also the key reason for setting the oil reserves to last for one year and eagerly courting the Luosha Federation, as well as expanding imports from the Luosha Federation to ensure an uninterrupted oil supply for a year and a half to two years. The Imperial Navy needed one to two years to secure a decisive victory in the East Ocean.

As such, after the Newland Federation joined the war and the Bulan Kingdom declared war on the Empire, the battle on the Fan Flame Ocean front could only be relied upon by the Army.

That was the Army’s current top priority.

In discussions, Peng Huaisong explicitly mentioned that unless the Luosha Federation turned against them, the Army would definitely commit a large force in the direction of Gangaro Plain.

However, due to the abysmal transportation conditions, one should not expect the Army to achieve significant victories in that direction.

The offensive was actually aimed at tying down the Bulan Kingdom, particularly the Bulan Royal Navy.

The implication was that by launching an offensive in the direction of Gangaro Plain, they would force the Bulan Royal Navy to dispatch the Fan Flame Ocean Fleet in support of ground force operations in that area, including deploying ship-borne aircraft to bomb the northern rail lines of the Toe Peninsula, thus preventing them from entering the Flame Sea via the Throat Strait.

However, this was merely a feint.

After the war began, the prime task was to deploy troops to sweep the Toe Peninsula.

Interestingly, it wasn’t necessary to commit a significant force in the "main offensive" direction.

Although transportation was just as bad on the Toe Peninsula as it was on the Gangaro Plain, it was surely better, and being traditionally within the Empire’s sphere of influence, the difficulty of combat operations was much lower.

If anything, the biggest problem was not in the Southwest, but in the Northwest!