Empire Conquest
Chapter 328 - 324: The Ruse of Self-Injury Strategy

Chapter 328: Chapter 324: The Ruse of Self-Injury Strategy

He wasn’t mistaken—it was indeed an explosion, a ferociously powerful explosion.

Zhang Guozhu had only been out on the open-air corridor for a few minutes. It wasn’t that the wind was strong, but rather that the Command Bridge was quite low, and the explosion had occurred far too distant.

At this moment, it was 5:35.

Even the lookouts atop the mainmast could only see fireballs rolling upward into the night sky.

When he returned inside the Command Bridge, the communication officer brought him a report that had just been received.

The explosion had happened on a bulk cargo ship. Judging from the magnitude of the explosion, it was carrying either explosives or ammunition, definitely more than ten thousand tons.

The explosion’s force was the key. It was so tremendous that not only the exploding cargo ship, but also the adjacent dozen or so cargo ships had been affected. The ship trailing behind was even flipped over by the massive wave generated by the explosion.

According to a report from the 42.5 Subsquad, it was suspected that the cargo ship was carrying ammunition.

The report explicitly referred to "ammunition," not "explosives."

Crucially, following the massive explosion, many smaller-scale explosions occurred near the blast point, as if artillery shells and bombs were detonated after being hurled into the air.

Simply put, from a distance, it looked like fireworks and firecrackers stacked together and then ignited.

However, whether it was explosives or ammunition, that cargo ship had already been blasted to smithereens.

A few minutes later, the "Carp" of the 42.5 Subsquad sent another telegram. Three cargo ships from the same convoy had already capsized, with the last one about to go over.

The lookout on the "Carp" clearly witnessed that at the same time as the large explosion, smaller explosions occurred near those four cargo ships, precisely below the waterline of the hulls—though on a much smaller scale. Although the lookout believed those were torpedoes, the Captain thought it impossible.

The Commander of the 42.5 Subsquad believed those were artillery shells or bombs that had been blown away.

It wasn’t until the third report that it was mentioned that five Newland cargo ships might have been attacked by torpedoes.

Where did those torpedoes come from?

As this suspicion arose, Zhang Guozhu glanced at his watch.

It was already 6:25.

Because it was the latter half of the year and they were in the high latitudes of the Northwest East Ocean, sunrise came much later than in summer, around 6:40 a.m.

There were only fifteen minutes left until daylight, too much of a coincidence, right?

Moreover, where did those torpedoes come from?

Before that, the 42.5 Subsquad had already sent in a report indicating that apart from several fast cargo ships suspected to be armed merchant ships, there were no Newland Navy warships in the area of the incident.

Since their main enemy target was the opposing commerce cruisers, the armed merchant ships were not equipped with torpedoes.

Could it be that the destroyers of the 42.5 Subsquad had launched an attack on their own accord?

Certainly not.

No destroyer had reported being under attack, hence there was no possibility of a reprisal, so those destroyers had no reason to use torpedoes against the cargo ships.

If there were to be an engagement, their artillery would suffice.

Utilizing artillery, they could fire at sections of the merchant ships such as the bridge or the steering compartment to halt their motion, whereas torpedoes could only sink them.

Besides, if Imperial Navy destroyers had launched torpedoes to sink Newland merchant ships, the wireless channels would be buzzing with activity by now.

So far, the wireless channels had been utterly quiet, sufficient evidence to prove those warships of the Empire uninvolved.

If it wasn’t the 42.5 Subsquad’s destroyers, could it be...

Submarines!

That’s right, it had to be submarines.

However, it definitely wasn’t Imperial Navy submarines.

As early as the end of last month, the Navy headquarters had contacted all long-range submarines and assigned them new missions.

Now, half of the long-range submarines were by Guan Island, and the other half near the Howay Islands.

In other words, there were no Imperial Navy submarines in the Northwest East Ocean.

The idea of pulling submarines out of the Northwest East Ocean was to avoid incidents like this.

In any case, when a submarine hides underwater, it definitely lacks a comprehensive grasp on the situation of the battlefield, which could lead to mistaken judgments.

In addition, there were dozens of commerce cruisers, and a carrier mixed fleet at any time ready to provide support; there was no need to employ submarines for commerce raiding missions.

As for small submarines, they simply couldn’t reach the Northwest East Ocean.

If they weren’t Imperial submarines, whose submarines were they?

While Zhang Guozhu was pondering these questions, the Communication Advisor brought over a telegram.

It was now 6:35 a.m.

The sky in the east had already begun to lighten, and the sun was about to rise.

A telegram from Navy headquarter.

At the outset, at least three Newland merchant ships had sent out a clear text message through the international maritime communication channel, stating they had been "ambushed by submarines."

Because they were communicating with the destroyers of the 42.5 Subsquad using the fleet communication channel, the "Longxing" had not been monitoring the international maritime channel.

At this moment, Zhang Guozhu suddenly understood.

Obviously, they had been deceived.

There was only one key point: before the Newland merchant ships were attacked, nearby Imperial warships had not issued any warnings of a possible submarine attack.

Wasn’t this the same as having mud dumped into one’s pants?

Claims that Newland merchant ships were ambushed by submarines, and furthermore, by foreign submarines—who would believe that?

Meanwhile, in the Imperial Capital at the Prime Minister Mansion.

Xue Yuanzheng had also spent a sleepless night, not from worrying about the battle at the front, but because there was simply too much work to be done, leaving him busy until midnight without finishing everything.

Aside from reviewing documents, he had also made slight revisions to the draft of the speech prepared by his assistant.

When the secretary delivered the news, Xue Yuanzheng had just finished a late-night snack.

Due to the four-hour time difference, it was still just past 2:00 a.m. in the Imperial Capital.

"Do we need to convene an emergency meeting?" the secretary, Chang Weiguo, asked while cleaning up the dishes.

"Right now? No, there’s no need," Xue Yuanzheng breathed out and continued, "Arrange it for tomorrow morning. Perhaps by then we will have definite news."

Chang Weiguo didn’t ask any further questions and left with the dishes.

Once the secretary was gone, Xue Yuanzheng picked up the speech draft he hadn’t finished revising. He glanced at it and then tore it to shreds, throwing it in the wastebasket nearby.

Yes, it was the speech draft declaring war on the Newland Federation.

According to previous speculation, the Newland Federation would launch a direct attack or start with a similar action, and then claim it was compelled to do so after being intercepted by the Imperial Navy.

In any case, the idea was to strike first, then discuss the formalities.

This was precisely why Xue Yuanzheng had had his assistant draft the war declaration speech.

Nothing out of the ordinary, everything done by the book.

Normally, it was the Newland President who would first issue a war declaration, announcing the cessation of diplomatic relations with the Liangxia Empire and entering a state of war, and then it would be the turn of the Imperial Chief Minister to make a statement.

Since it was a defensive declaration of war, there was no need for the Emperor to come forward and issue a call to arms.

The declaration of war itself was pretty much by the book.

Last year, after declaring war on the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom, the Empire had already entered a state of war, so there was no need to declare a state of war again.

That’s why Xue Yuanzheng didn’t take the declaration of war seriously.

Before his late-night snack, he had just looked at the war declaration prepared by his assistant.

Who would have thought that tonight, Rofuss played a sorrowful trick, sinking several merchant ships and trying to frame the Imperial Navy.

No matter whether Rofuss used this as a pretext to declare war on the Empire, the speech draft prepared by the assistant was no longer useful.

After pondering for a while and even starting to write a few openings, Xue Yuanzheng felt unsatisfied.

Struggling for a while longer, he finally gave up his efforts reluctantly.

Mainly because he was too tired; perhaps after getting some sleep, upon waking, he would have a fresh idea.

Besides, Rofuss might not declare war tonight, so there was no need to rush in preparing a war declaration.

At that moment, the phone on the desk suddenly rang, and it was the military hotline.

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