Empire Conquest
Chapter 333 - 329: The Stratagem of Sowing Suspicion

Chapter 333: Chapter 329: The Stratagem of Sowing Suspicion

On board the "Imperial Capital".

We had waited all morning and had not received any news about the start of the war. It wasn’t until lunchtime that the duty communications officer brought us a telegram from the Navy headquarters.

It wasn’t a message about the start of the war.

At 6 p.m. local time, Rofuss announced a final ultimatum to the Liangxia Empire through a radio broadcast from the Grey Palace.

The content was extensive, but the key point was singular.

The Liangxia Navy had to withdraw from the incident sea area within the next 24 hours, starting from the time of the cargo ship attack, which meant the deadline would be 5:30 a.m. tomorrow.

In other words, there were less than twenty hours left.

As for the reason: Liangxia vessels had sunk a Newland cargo ship.

At the time of the incident, the Liangxia Navy battleships were intercepting Newland cargo ships, so Rofuss asserted that it was the Liangxia vessels that had sunk those cargo ships.

The telegram also contained the latest battle reports.

Nearby the transport convoy, there definitely was a Special Mixed Fleet, and fighters had been dispatched to provide air defense cover for the transport convoy and the First Fleet’s battleships.

The 21st Special Mixed Fleet had also sent out ship-borne fighters, but their whereabouts had not yet been exposed.

Threatened by Newland’s fighters, the seaplanes dispatched by the 21st Special Mixed Fleet all returned halfway and did not continue to search eastward.

In addition, the 42nd Special Mixed Fleet had not retreated, and the 43rd Special Mixed Fleet had already caught up.

According to the plan, the 43rd Special Mixed Fleet was to accelerate and catch up with the 42nd Special Mixed Fleet after nightfall. Their specific position was to the southwest of the 42nd Special Mixed Fleet, maintaining a distance of about thirty kilometers to ensure that they could immediately move up to provide support when the battle started at night.

The key was to stop the Newland Fleet from making a westward night assault.

Of course, this problem was not actually serious.

The cruising speed of those Newland Navy battleships was around twenty knots. Even if they sprinted at full speed, they could only navigate a little over three hundred kilometers in one night.

As long as the preparations during the day were in place, there was no need to worry about a surprise attack at night.

The number one issue was the carrier mixed fleet that had not been found thus far.

After hurriedly finishing lunch, Bai Zhizhan and the others returned to the Command Bridge.

Taking this opportunity, the duty staff officer began marking the received information on the nautical chart.

Currently, the fleets of both sides were all located northeast of the Volcanic Islands and were on the brink of conflict, seemingly ready to engage in battle at any moment.

To the southeast of the Volcanic Islands, however, tranquility prevailed.

Although the North Ma Islands were situated south of the Volcanic Islands and were, from a geological perspective, products of the same geologic structural belt and thus could be considered part of an island chain, the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom, having occupied the North Ma Islands during the last great war, did not develop them in the subsequent twenty years due to unresolved sovereignty issues and in order to avoid conflict with the Newland Federation.

By the time the war broke out, only symbolic infrastructure like lighthouses and docks had been constructed on several of the islands.

In addition, the shore-based air force stationed in the Volcanic Islands had repeatedly visited the North Ma Islands, destroying facilities managed by the Saiyi military.

The real threat lay in Guan Island, the southernmost island.

However, that was almost two thousand kilometers away.

Forget about ship-borne reconnaissance aircraft; even long-range patrol aircraft taking off from Guan Island could only patrol for half an hour after arriving.

By comparison, Wei Island was a bit closer to the area of Fleet operations.

In all the pre-war combat plans, there was always a part dedicated to attacking or destroying Wei Island, at the very least bombing the airfield and seaplane docks.

However, every Navy General, including Bai Zhizhan, knew that before advancing to Wei Island, they first had to capture Guan Island.

Looking at it from the opposite perspective, as long as Guan Island was taken, then there was definitely no problem in attacking Wei Island.

Because it is a completely isolated island, located hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest island, and two thousand kilometers away from both Guan Island and the westernmost Transfer Island of the Howay Islands, the Newland Navy would surely opt to abandon Wei Island after it defends Guan Island from a tactical standpoint.

Why waste troops when it’s fundamentally indefensible?

Indeed, the Newland Navy did not focus on developing Wei Island, merely using it as a transfer station from the Howay Islands to Guam and onwards to Nanzhu Country.

Even up to now, all that was on Wei Island was an airfield and several hangars capable of accommodating large aircraft.

According to the latest intelligence, less than a thousand troops were stationed on Wei Island, in addition to a few hundred civilian aviation company personnel.

The route from Saint Buddha City on the west coast of the Newland Federation, passing through Honu Island, Transfer Island, Wei Island, to Guan Island, and finally to Marra City in Nanzhu Country, was the world’s first trans-East Ocean passenger airline route, and it was operated by several airlines from the Newland Federation.

However, this did not mean that Wei Island held no value.

The dozen or so long-range patrol aircraft there were a tremendous threat!

During the formulation of the battle plan, avoiding those patrol planes was simply a nightmare for the Combat Staff Advisors, causing Zhou Yongtao several sleepless nights.

The key was those patrol planes had a range of over 4000 kilometers.

Whether they were detected or engaged and shot down by fighters, it would mean that the 41st Special Mixed Fleet’s movements were exposed.

Avoid them?

If the operation went on for three days, more precisely, if the skirmishes prior to the battle lasted for three days, the 41st Special Mixed Fleet would definitely be discovered.

Moreover, the Newland Navy might even dispatch more patrol aircraft to Wei Island.

What to do then?

It had to be said, the sleepless nights spent by Zhou Yongtao, and the hundreds of hairs he lost, were certainly worth it.

He not only came up with a method, but it was a very clever one.

He had four "Wuzhou"-class ships each advance 200 to 250 kilometers ahead of the fleet under the escort of destroyers, to carry out aerial alert duties.

The key would be to have shore-based air force fighter jets provide long-range combat cover.

In simpler terms, when the "Wuzhou"-class anti-aircraft search radars detected the Newland patrol planes, they would direct the long-range fighters to intercept them.

This way, even if they were exposed, it would just be the Heavy Cruisers.

After the shore-based fighters intercepted, the Newland Fleet’s commanders would surely become suspicious and consider it a false show of strength by Bai Zhizhan.

False show of strength in all four directions?

In short, the goal was to confuse the Newland Fleet’s commanders and prevent them from deducing the 41st Special Mixed Fleet’s whereabouts based on the findings of the patrol planes.

Cry "wolf" a few times, and no one will believe it.

In reality, the key was deception, not actually getting the enemy to believe the "wolf is coming" lie.

The four Heavy Cruisers spread out in four directions, with intervals ranging from 200 to 250 kilometers, formed an air defense alert network that wasn’t entirely tight.

Not to mention anything else, if the patrol plane’s flight altitude was just a bit lower, it could possibly slip through two Heavy Cruisers.

Flying approximately another 200 kilometers forward, it might then possibly encounter the 41st Special Mixed Fleet.

If the Newland Fleet’s commanders determined the patrol plane’s report to be unreliable, then upon discovering the 41st Special Mixed Fleet, they might likewise consider it an erroneous report. Perhaps at the staff level, these "false" reports would be intercepted to prevent negative impact on the Commanders.

Any information was delivered to the Commanders by the staff, and not directly to the Commanders.

There was a crucial issue here.

The need for support from the shore-based air force meant that the Fleet’s operational range could not exceed the battle zone of the shore-based air force, which was also the operational radius of the twin-engine long-range fighters.