Empire Conquest
Chapter 357 - 353: Fast, Accurate, and Ruthless

Chapter 357: Chapter 353: Fast, Accurate, and Ruthless

After strategic goals had been adjusted, there came the military simulation war games with Spur and Tanimoto acting as hypothetical enemies, and the combat plans derived from these simulations.

Afraid of suffering losses?

If they were truly afraid of losses, the Newland Navy would never organize five carriers into three Special Mixed Fleets, let alone disperse them into two.

Keeping five carriers together and trailing behind the First Fleet would be safer than any cunning tactic.

Pressing forward with ten battleships, the Liangxia Navy might not be able to handle it.

All these tricks were designed to annihilate the 41st Special Mixed Fleet commanded by Bai Zhizhan.

Like Tanimoto mentioned before, Bai Zhizhan had become a general considered invincible in a hundred battles by the Liangxia Empire, and his reputation was quickly catching up to Chen Bingxun.

Otherwise, why would the Liangxia Royal Family marry off the prestigious Little Eldest Princess to him?

In the past few decades, no princess had married a commoner, let alone the emperor’s own sister.

Previously, only Chen Bingxun had received this honor, and by the time he became the Prince Consort, he had already led fleets to decisive victories in the Fan Flame Ocean.

At that time, Chen Bingxun was just one step away from being hailed as "War God."

Bai Zhizhan, on the other hand, was more than just a step away from "War God."

The high regard in which the Liangxia Royal Family held him had a lot to do with the lack of naval talent. During the era of Chen Bingxun, the Liangxia Navy was rich with talent.

If he won a few more battles, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Putting aside other factors, as long as Bai Zhizhan could subdue the two major families with his military merits and ensure strict obedience, he could lead the Liangxia Navy to defeat all strong foes.

To use Tanimoto’s words in a moment of urgency, "Doesn’t everyone have a clue about how to win the last great war?"

Liu Xiangzhen, well, wasn’t really a big problem.

On both the operational and tactical levels, Liu Xiangzhen had experienced failures; it was just not publicized, and the Liangxia Navy was not willing to admit it.

In the Flame Sea Battle that followed the outbreak of war, Liu Xiangzhen’s command of the Special Mixed Group suffered heavy losses.

Even though he defeated Commander Lan Yun of the Mobile Fleet on the operational level, he missed the opportunity to annihilate the Mobile Fleet tactically.

According to post-war simulations, if Bai Zhizhan had commanded the Special Mixed Group and advanced eastward by 100 kilometers, Lan Yun would have suffered a devastating blow after the surprise attack on Chengjiang Port and would have had no chance to deploy the Plane Group against the Special Mixed Group, let alone sink the "Ling River" and severely damage the "Heng River."

It has to be said that within the whole combat plan, trapping the 41st Special Mixed Fleet was the most challenging part.

Bai Zhizhan holding a grand wedding in the Imperial Capital?

Clearly, no one would believe that.

Bringing up Bai Zhizhan’s wedding was actually a feint, a method of convincing the Liangxia Authorities that the Newland Federation would definitely enter the war in October.

If the Liangxia Authorities took it as truth and believed that even firing the first shot would not be a problem, it would be more than ideal.

Once the Liangxia Navy fired the first shot, Rofuss would easily convince the more than 200 million citizens of Newland to fully commit the only nation capable of contending with the Liangxia Empire to the war.

The hatred for the enemy alone could motivate more than 200 million Newland military and civilians to fight for years.

Even if the Liangxia Navy did not fire the first shot, it would not matter.

Once the Liangxia Authorities believed it was true, everything else would be easy to handle.

This was precisely why all deployments were centered on annihilating the 41st Special Mixed Fleet, with the ultimate aim of ensuring Bai Zhizhan’s one-way journey.

It must be said that Tanimoto was the number one hero of this battle!

Without Tanimoto, even Spur would not have thought that Bai Zhizhan would dare lead a line of carriers deep into enemy territory.

It wasn’t that they couldn’t think of it, but that after the thought occurred, they wouldn’t believe it.

After the war began, taking the Third Special Mixed Fleet deep into the West East Ocean?

That was not an option!

Given the current situation, Bai Zhizhan could’ve easily waited with the 41st Special Mixed Fleet in the rear, watching the commotion, until next year when they could re-emerge after obtaining four large carriers.

It had to be admitted that Tanimoto understood Bai Zhizhan better than Spur did.

The development of the battle situation was almost entirely within Tanimoto’s predictions, or rather, guessed by him; they had all appeared in the war games he had conducted privately with Spur.

However, there was one aspect that differed slightly from Tanimoto’s anticipation.

The 41st Special Mixed Fleet moved out overnight to a sea area less than 200 kilometers away from the Newland 17th Special Mixed Fleet, and after daybreak, even allowed a heavy cruiser to break radio silence.

Moreover, that heavy cruiser had participated in numerous sea battles; its radio signal characteristics had long been mastered.

Was this negligence, or a deliberate lure for the enemy?

Subsequently, a seaplane appeared to the west of the Newland 17th Special Mixed Fleet, but it was shot down by a fighter before it could spot the 17th Fleet.

The fighter had dived from a high altitude, and the seaplane didn’t even have time to start its radio.

After that, a reconnaissance aircraft came flying in this direction.

Fortunately, the flight path of that reconnaissance aircraft did not directly target the 17th Special Mixed Fleet, and when it flew over the vicinity of the 17th Fleet, it happened to be above a dense cloud cover. Although it only flew in the clouds for about ten minutes, that was enough to miss the 17th Fleet entirely.

Tanimoto was very aware that good luck was hard to sustain.

Even if the luck continued to hold, by noon, due to the lack of return of the downed seaplane, Bai Zhizhan would become suspicious.

Thankfully, there was no need to wait until noon.

Although Tanimoto had expressed concern when Spur decided to launch an attack, considering the telegram had been sent by a heavy cruiser, and Bai Zhizhan had previously dispatched heavy cruisers on solo missions in prior sea battles, there was no guarantee that Bai Zhizhan’s carrier fleet was there. However, Tanimoto could not deny that the operational area for the 41st Special Mixed Fleet was only so large, and since Liu Xiangzhen and Frey had already been exposed and Hal had been discovered, it was certain that Bai Zhizhan must be nearby – finding him was just a matter of time.

In that case, what reason was there to delay any longer?

Moreover, Spur made the decision to attack only after receiving a telegram from Hal, that is, after Hal had sent out the reconnaissance aircraft.

According to the combat plan, Hal was originally tasked with drawing the enemy out, so he was to focus on scouting and search and would immediately report upon spotting Bai Zhizhan.

By dispatching the attack aircraft group ahead of time, an immediate attack could be launched as soon as the 16th Special Mixed Fleet’s reconnaissance aircraft found the target.

Only then would it be possible to catch Bai Zhizhan by surprise!

In fact, Tanimoto also believed that Bai Zhizhan was following behind that heavy cruiser, using it as bait.

If Spur attacked the heavy cruiser, the Newland 17th Special Mixed Fleet would be exposed.

Given the combat capabilities of the Liangxia Navy’s shipborne air force, as long as Bai Zhizhan retained half of his ship-borne aircraft–precisely those able to mount an attack–there was a very good chance that he could wipe out the Newland 17th Special Mixed Fleet, or at the very least inflict heavy damage on it, and thus secure an invincible position.

It was evident that being able to initiate an attack promptly was crucial.

Of course, it wasn’t just one attack – it was two.

To use Tanimoto’s words, when dealing with an opponent like Bai Zhizhan, you do not show your hand unless you intend to, and once you do, you must be swift, accurate, and ruthless, absolutely not giving him a chance to counter.

The most effective method was to launch two consecutive attacks.

In this case, arranging the attack tactics had to be done with great care.

Both Tanimoto and Spur were experts in aerial combat tactics.

Furthermore, the distance was just too close, so close that the commanders of the shipborne air force did not have to take into account the operating radius of the ship-borne aircraft when arranging tactics!