Empire Conquest
Chapter 403 - 399: Landing on Sai Island

Chapter 403: Chapter 399: Landing on Sai Island

Carrying out feint attacks with main-attack tactics and standards to attract the attention of the Newland Navy, and thus create the most favorable conditions for advancing into the Fan Flame Ocean, is the key to this series of strategic offensive operations and even the most important aspect, the significance of which will determine the future of the Empire!

The proposal of this plan was not the work of Bai Zhizhan, nor Liu Changxun or Xue Yuanzheng, or any single person, but the result of collective wisdom and efforts.

The key point is: after the Luosha Federation’s betrayal, the Empire must prioritize oil!

Although there are several oil fields in the Empire’s homeland and in the southern part of the Flame Sea on Poro Continent, the oil produced is simply not enough.

It’s not that the output is insufficient; it’s that the daily consumption of the Empire is too large.

For Liangxia Empire, which has over 500 million people and has achieved industrialization, oil is the most important and indispensable strategic resource.

Long before the outbreak of the war, the Imperial Authority had organized experts in military, economic, and social fields to strategize around oil.

If the most stringent control measures were implemented to minimize civilian consumption, how much impact it would have on industrial production and social order.

The simulations were conducted several times, and without exception, the results were very grim!

Although strengthening controls could extend the maintenance time of strategic reserves by half a year, within the subsequent two years, the Empire’s industrial output would decrease by at least 30%. After ensuring heavy industry and military industry, the light industries directly related to people’s livelihood would completely cease.

Rationing, enforced to wartime standards, would be tolerated by the public for a maximum of two years.

Two years later, even if oil supplies returned to normal, it would take a year to redevelop the light industries related to people’s livelihood.

Strengthening controls, therefore, equates to wasting a year of time.

In addition, it is necessary to enter a full-war state in advance, implementing rationing according to wartime standards, in order to reduce oil consumption.

This means that the Empire must achieve a comprehensive victory within 5 years after the start of the war.

The first 3 years would be almost like beating around the bush.

To defeat all the enemies in the final 2 years?

This is clearly impossible!

During the planning stage before the war, no one, including Xue Yuanzheng, had thought of enforcing full controls after cutting off import channels.

Everyone considered quickly capturing and controlling oil fields through military action!

As for difficulty, advancing into the Fan Flame Ocean and occupying Boss Bay is certainly much easier than defeating the Luosha Federation and occupying Baku.

Related war games were also conducted many times, and even under the most unfavorable circumstances, victory in Boss Bay was the easiest to achieve.

In the strategic plans formulated before the war, there was a common strategic turning point: whether the Luosha Federation would join the hostile camp.

Before this, the Empire’s Navy focused on the East Ocean to maximize its strategic advantage.

After that, it would have to turn towards the Fan Flame Ocean.

The next turning point would be after capturing and controlling Boss Bay.

That is, only with a stable supply of oil could the Empire’s Navy return to the East Ocean and have a decisive battle with the Newland Navy.

This strategy itself holds no secrets; it’s just that the Imperial Authority has never heavily promoted it.

Before the war, what the Imperial Authority publicized was the threat from the East Ocean, especially the Saiyi Imperial Kingdom, seldom mentioning the Fan Flame Ocean.

This was also to confuse and paralyze the enemy, and the effect was quite successful.

After the outbreak of the great war, especially after the Tiaoman Empire entered the war, the Bulan Kingdom did not immediately start a war with the Empire because they felt that the Empire would not immediately advance into the Fan Flame Ocean.

From another perspective, if the Bulan Kingdom had gone to war with the Empire in the first half of the year and cut off the shipping routes from Boss Bay to the Empire’s homeland, the Empire would have lost almost 24 million tons of oil, which is equivalent to three months of consumption under controlled status.

Without this oil, after the Luosha Federation betrayed them, the Empire’s situation had become even more embarrassing.

According to the words of Bai Zhizhan, this was a trap set by the enemy, and they shouldn’t fall into it.

Fortunately, Zhou Yongtao wasn’t foolish.

After Bai Zhizhan clarified, he immediately understood.

At 7:30 PM that evening, the 41st Special Mixed Fleet turned to sail toward the Volcanic Islands, having sent a telegram before that indicating the course change.

In the latter part of the night, the 41st Special Mixed Fleet changed course again, pouncing toward Sai Island in the North Ma Islands.

By the morning of the 26th, the operation to attack Sai Island began, led by over 100 heavy bombers stationed at the Volcanic Islands.

The 41st Special Mixed Fleet joined the battle in the morning, launching ship-borne aircraft that bombed the confirmed permanent fortifications.

As the island was not highly militarized, there truly weren’t many targets worth bombing, thus the bombing operations were declared over by the afternoon of the same day.

After nightfall, the fire support fleet accompanying the landing fleet arrived, consisting of two heavy cruisers and four light cruisers.

The bombardment lasted almost the entire night.

To be precise, they were suppressing the Newland Army on Sai Island.

Throughout the night, seaplanes borne by the cruisers hovered over Sai Island, periodically dropping flares and calling for the warships to open fire upon spotting targets.

After dawn, on the morning of the 27th, the Land Air Force’s bomber group visited again, dropping several hundred tons of bombs on the southeastern landing fields of the island.

Subsequently, the ship-borne aircraft from the 41st Special Mixed Fleet conducted a focused clearance of suspicious targets near the landing fields.

Finally, the fire support fleet carried out another round of covering bombardment.

The landing operation began at 9 AM, a standard amphibious beach assault.

Although previous battles, including the capture of Jeju Island, attack on the Volcanic Islands, and even the capture of Long Sorrow, were conducted by the Marine Corps through amphibious landings, the Marine Corps of the Imperial Navy couldn’t be said to be experienced, as those battles were not very challenging.

Even the fiercest battle for the capture of Liuhuang Island was not much of a difficulty.

At that time, after the Permanent Fleet commanded by Lan Yun was annihilated, the Saiyi soldiers guarding Liuhuang Island completely despaired and subsequently surrendered their weapons gradually.

The real fierceness was just in the days before that, contesting the beachhead positions with the defending forces repeatedly.

Before that, no one thought attacking Sai Island was challenging.

The Sixth Bureau provided detailed intelligence, stating that Sai Island only had a few thousand natives, and the defending force was an infantry battalion from the Saiyi Army, primarily tasked with maintaining order. After the Newland Federation joined the war, the Newland Navy sent a batch of officers and soldiers to prevent the local Saiyi soldiers from surrendering.

Based on this intelligence, the enemy force on Sai Island was estimated to be between 500 and 600.

Importantly, the defenders lacked heavy weapons, not even possessing many machine guns, since heavy artillery wasn’t needed for subduing natives or maintaining public order.

In most people’s views, the biggest trouble after landing on Sai Island was actually properly settling the thousands of natives on the island.

These natives, still uncivilized and consuming raw meat, had always been considered a nuisance by the Imperial Authority.

The reason was simple: to create a pretext for expansion, the scholars of the Empire declared that the natives on the various islands of the East Ocean were descendants of the Empire.

As such, they had to be treated as compatriots.

Regardless, over the past several decades, successive Imperial governments were unwilling to get involved in colonial actions against the natives.

On the first day, the landing operation went very smoothly.

Before noon, the Marine Corps battalion, acting as the vanguard, had all gone ashore, facing only symbolic resistance; moreover, after being bombarded, over a hundred Saiyi soldiers guarding the beachhead positions raised the white flag, surrendering to the Imperial soldiers and gradually leaving their defensive positions.

However, the smooth part ended there.

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