Empire Conquest
Chapter 390 - 386: A Change is Coming

Chapter 390: Chapter 386: A Change is Coming

"The matter of accepting the surrender should be delegated to General Liu," Bai Zhizhan stated. Not only Liu Changxun, but even Xue Yuanzheng furrowed his brows at these words.

To represent the Imperial Navy in accepting the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom’s surrender was an honor of the highest order.

When making this arrangement, Xue Yuanzheng had carefully considered, first of all, to exclude senior generals like Liu Changxun, Peng Huaisong, and Situ Jingde.

According to Xue Yuanzheng, a mere speck of a country was not worthy of an admiral of the Empire!

In essence, it was about not competing with younger officers for glory since, for generals of the commander-in-chief level, honors were already plentiful.

Thus, within the Imperial Navy, only Bai Zhizhan and Liu Xiangzhen qualified.

Although going to accept the surrender was merely a ceremony and would not affect command authority, looking back afterward, one would likely have deep regrets.

"Are you sure about this?" Xue Yuanzheng pressed.

"We hurried back actually for another matter."

"More important than accepting the surrender?" Liu Changxun was also quite puzzled.

Bai Zhizhan seldom bickered with Liu Xiangzhen before the outbreak of the great war, but after the first assessment of military merits, Bai Zhizhan did not intentionally hide his edge. He would fight vigorously for anything beneficial to himself or the fleet and its officers.

"It’s related to the surrender, to be precise, it’s using the event."

Bai Zhizhan didn’t keep them guessing any longer and shared his thoughts.

To use the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom’s surrender, specifically to go accept it, was to initiate an operation to attack Wei Island under the guise of conducting the surrender ceremony.

Naturally, the plan was not as straightforward as it sounds.

The key was that after the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom’s defeat, even if the Long Sorrow regime acted as host, there was justification to organize a grand surrender ceremony.

The Saiyi Imperial Kingdom had initiated the war with despicable sneak attacks, causing the Liangxia Empire to suffer heavy losses. Following the victory, there would certainly be an immense celebration.

To proclaim to the world, to showcase national might, and to boost troop morale, the event needed to be conducted with extraordinary flair!

Sending a few main battleships would also seem only appropriate.

Since carriers were the main force in defeating the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom, even if the signing of the surrender document didn’t take place on a carrier, at least one carrier should be sent to participate in the ceremony, even if it were to depart shortly after making an appearance.

How many carriers did the Imperial Navy have available for deployment?

And what if the carrier "Peijing" was sent to the East Capital Bay?

Moreover, the venue for the surrender ceremony was bound to be East Capital Bay.

Chen Bingxun was the one who led the fleet into East Capital Bay and with heavy cannons, opened the doors of the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom.

Furthermore, signing peace treaties outside the enemy’s gates, forcing the capitulation within sight of their city, was a common tactic of the Empire.

During the surrender ceremony, there would certainly be several main battleships in East Capital Bay, such as the four "Longjiang" class battleships re-assigned to the Second Fleet.

Hence, most of the still battle-worthy main battleships of the Imperial Navy would be present at the surrender.

Would the Newland Navy miss such an opportunity?

This was the crux of the matter.

A few days earlier, before Bai Zhizhan returned to the Imperial Capital from the front, the Sixth Bureau received intelligence that two of Newland Navy’s small carrier fleets had already left Noke Naval Base.

Based on the timetable, these two small carrier fleets could arrive at Treasure Harbor in the first half of the next month.

Although the fighting power of a small carrier fleet was not as strong as that of a full fleet carrier, two could effectively suffice for one; the key was providing fighter cover for the fleet carriers.

Bai Zhizhan thus concluded that the Newland Navy had plans to launch a sneak attack on East Capital Bay.

He also mentioned that the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom’s declaration of surrender at this time might be related, suggesting that the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom’s surrender was a trap set for the Empire.

Targeting not only the Imperial Navy but also the main high-ranking officers, as well as the political figures who went there to accept the surrender.

Putting it bluntly, even if only Emperor Xia were killed, it would still be a huge gain.

If Emperor Xia died at the surrender ceremony and if tens of millions of Saiyi people believed it was a treacherous murder by the Liangxia Empire, the "Jade Shattering" slogan could potentially turn into action.

And let’s not even talk about tens of millions of people, even tens of millions of animals would be extremely troublesome to deal with.

Subsequently, Zhou Yongtao gave a simple tactical briefing.

If two small carrier fleets deploy fighters and dive bombers, and the "Fenjin" only carries torpedo attack aircraft, more than 60 ship-borne aircraft could be dispatched in one wave of attack, with the ability to launch two consecutive attacks, enough to deal a fatal blow to the dozens of battleships moored in East Capital Bay.

Even if the Imperial Navy’s carriers were not in East Capital Bay, they still might not escape.

"You’re suggesting we take this opportunity to finish off those three carriers?" Liu Changxun was the first to ask a question.

"There’s no need for that since we can’t confirm from which direction the Newland carriers will enter, and starting a search in advance would definitely raise an alarm. Besides, by next month, we probably won’t be able to deploy the Air Force in the northern region of the Saiyi Main Island, so searching is out of the question."

Upon hearing Zhou Yongtao say this, Liu Changxun nodded slightly.

"So what do you want to do?" Xue Yuanzheng asked directly.

"Take this opportunity to launch a sneak attack on Wei Island," Bai Zhizhan answered.

"This..."

"We don’t know from which direction the Newland carriers will come, but if East Capital Bay comes under attack, they’ll undoubtedly be near Saiyi soil."

"Our carriers went to Saiyi..."

"Send the ’Heng River.’ If necessary, disguise it as the ’Longjiang.’"

After pondering for a while, Xue Yuanzheng finally nodded.

"If we obtain concrete intel, make sure the ’Heng River’ retreats in time," Zhou Yongtao added.

"That’s a minor issue," Liu Changxun took over the conversation. "There’s one thing I’ve never understood. Even if the Newland Navy is sure we’re deploying carriers for the surrender ceremony, how can they be so certain that they can approach undetected and launch an attack? The operational range of carrier-based aircraft is just a few hundred kilometers, and with so many of our battleships in East Capital Bay, even a casual setup would have enough patrol planes and seaplanes, perhaps even patrol ships deployed on the perimeter. Theoretically, a fleet with three carriers could not get close."

"Do they need to get that close?"

Bai Zhizhan’s retort left Liu Changxun unable to respond right away.

"A one-way attack?" Xue Yuanzheng hasn’t figured it out either.

"There’s no need for that, the Newland Navy isn’t the Saiyi Navy; they wouldn’t necessarily send their pilots to certain death."

"You mean..."

"If the Newland Navy’s target is not the battleships, but the generals and political figures, then having the ’Fenjin’ carry twin-engine medium bombers could launch an attack from one thousand to even fifteen hundred kilometers away. The carriers won’t need to take the risk of approaching Saiyi territory. After completing the bombing mission, these bombers would fly to a prearranged area at sea, where submarines deployed in advance would be responsible for rescuing the pilots. Although the success rate isn’t one hundred percent, the problem wouldn’t be too big. The key thing is, the temptation is too great to kill our main generals and political leaders in one strike."

"Based on what you’re saying, the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom’s surrender now was premeditated!"

Bai Zhizhan nodded, indicating that Liu Changxun was not mistaken.

"The problem is, we can’t prove this speculation."

"We’ll know by tomorrow," Xue Yuanzheng said. Liu Changxun initially stunned, quickly realized the implication.

If there really was a plan in place, it definitely had considered the involvement of the Luosha Federation, and the declaration of war announced by the Luosha Federation tomorrow would be the most powerful evidence.

If Bai Zhizhan wasn’t wrong, a storm was coming!

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