Empire Conquest
Chapter 439 - 435: Assault on Xunfeng Strait

Chapter 439: Chapter 435: Assault on Xunfeng Strait

January 19th night, north of the Xunfeng Strait.

After seeing the Destroyer in the front changing its course once again, Bai Zhizhan returned to the bridge.

For safety reasons, Li Mingbo proceeded to the Navigation Bridge, while Zhou Yongtao was at the Air Combat Command Center arranging nocturnal patrol missions for the pilots.

The staff were all busy, and Bai Zhizhan didn’t disturb them.

Four days ago, after making a bold decision, Bai Zhizhan ordered the Fleet to head full speed southward, directly to the Java Sea north of the Xunfeng Strait and the Longyan Strait.

At the same time, two Destroyer squads sped southward to get to the Xunfeng Strait and the Longyan Strait ahead of the rest.

However, Bai Zhizhan did not make a decision at that time whether to go through the Xunfeng Strait or the Longyan Strait but decided to observe the actual situation.

Last night, the 11.5 Squad arrived at the Xunfeng Strait first.

Then, four Destroyers began to deploy deep water bombs in the Strait, from north to south launching hundreds of them, as if they had actually detected submarines. However, after passing through the strait, the four Destroyers did not proceed into the Fan Flame Ocean. They circled near the Karakato Volcano and returned to the Java Sea by the same strait. For the next dozen hours, these four Destroyers ran back and forth twice in the Xunfeng Strait in a similar manner.

During this period, several patrol aircraft constantly hovered south of the Xunfeng Strait.

The 11.6 Squad reached the Longyan Strait several hours later, so they only managed to make two round trips, but used up many deep water bombs nonetheless.

Regarding the bet, Bai Zhizhan had already lost.

Shortly after the 11.5 Squad first crossed the Xunfeng Strait, a patrol aircraft from the port of Saigon reported a submarine in the southwest waters of the strait, identifying it as a Bulan Royal Navy ocean-going submarine. However, as ordered, the patrol aircraft did not engage.

Since it wasn’t carrying anti-submarine bombs, it couldn’t attack anyway.

In the next few hours, two more Bulan submarines were spotted on the Fan Flame Ocean side of the Xunfeng Strait.

Clearly, these three submarines were previously lurking inside or near the Xunfeng Strait, and they performed evasive maneuvers, startled by the random deployment of deep water bombs by the Destroyers, exhausting their limited battery power and thus were forced to surface for recharging after leaving the Xunfeng Strait.

Meanwhile, the 11.6 Squad managed to drive two Bulan submarines and one Newland submarine from the Longyan Strait.

By early this morning, the fire support Fleet guarding the Landing Fleet entered the Lion Spring Strait, bombarding Lion Spring City to cover mine-sweepers clearing the channel.

Importantly, they cleared the main channel!

If it were just to attack Lion Spring City, it wouldn’t be necessary to spend the effort clearing the main channel.

Objectively speaking, the waters to the east of Lion Spring City are quite open, hence more suitable as a landing site.

Besides, without securing Lion Spring City, there’s no way to approach the Throat Strait, so there’s no need to clear the Naval mines laid by Bulan forces in the Lion Spring Strait.

Before this, the Empire Army Air Force specifically bombed the eastern part of Lion Spring City, striking Changi Airport with five massive bombing raids, dropping over 3000 tons of bombs.

Of course, sending mine-sweepers to Lion Spring Strait was actually to deceive the enemy.

Three straits saw the appearance of Imperial Navy Battleships, and quite a commotion was made in each.

So where exactly was the Imperial Navy’s Special Mixed Fleet?

Or rather, from which strait would the Special Mixed Fleet storm into the Fan Flame Ocean?

One thing was certain, after causing such a huge commotion, the Special Mixed Fleet would definitely storm into the Fan Flame Ocean to seek a decisive battle with the Bulan Fleet.

To speak of it, this was precisely Bai Zhizhan’s objective.

If Cunningham had already led his Fleet to the Northeast Fan Flame Ocean, after these incidents, he could only temporarily retreat.

If the Fleet retreats, how could Lion Spring City be defended?

As for whether they could engage in a decisive battle with the Bulan Fleet or when they would fight them, Bai Zhizhan was not particularly concerned.

The primary mission at the moment was to quickly take over Lion Spring City.

In terms of strategy, having the Eleventh Special Mixed Fleet execute feints could cause the Bulan Fleet to flee in disarray, making it an optimal tactic for attacking Lion Spring City.

If they could win without fighting, that would be even better.

But could they win without fighting?

Bai Zhizhan wasn’t sure, but as of now, the situation was still under control, and what had happened was not much different from what had been anticipated.

"Commander!"

The communications officer approached Bai Zhizhan, who had just realized that Li Mingbo wasn’t on the command bridge.

Otherwise, the communications officer wouldn’t have come directly to him.

A telegram from the Navy headquarters, signed by Zheng Jiangming.

Latest intelligence.

After reading just the beginning, Bai Zhizhan furrowed his brows.

More than ten days ago, the transport convoy that passed through the Xifan Canal into the Narrow Sea had been identified as a fleet because last night, agents from the Sixth Bureau confirmed that this transport convoy was hiding in a secluded bay in Cyprus and all the crew was on board.

What was also key was that two Fast Battleships from the Domestic Fleet had yet to appear!

Since no fast oilers were following them and the "Prime Minister" had been traveling southward at nearly 20 knots, had the two Fast Battleships been chasing the "Prime Minister", they would have run out of fuel long ago and definitely needed to refuel at some port or naval base in the South Sunset Ocean days before.

But here’s the problem, there are only a few ports in the South Sunset Ocean capable of supplying high-quality heavy naval fuel for Battleships, and they store thousands of tons of it!

Intelligence analysts from the Sixth Bureau speculated that the two Fast Battleships might not have moved southward but had quietly entered the Narrow Sea through the Xifan Canal.

Yes, disguised as merchant ships, they passed through the Xifan Canal at night, deceiving spies lurking in the area.

If this was indeed the case, the two Fast Battleships could have already caught up with the Bulan Fleet led by Cunningham.

Moreover, on the Fan Flame Ocean, there are plenty of Bulan cargo ships, many of which are oil tankers, making it not too difficult for them to obtain fuel supplies.

In addition, the Imperial Navy hadn’t yet attacked into the Fan Flame Ocean, nor had they dispatched submarines to perform counter-interference missions in the Fan Flame Ocean, so Bulan battleships could move about confidently and boldly, including refueling in the open sea, without worry of being exposed by Imperial submarines.

Furthermore, both Fast Battleships had undergone maintenance before they departed to engage the "Prime Minister."

As long as fuel is not an issue, these two warships could operate in the open sea for several months, with no need to return to port for maintenance anytime soon.

Even though the "George V" had persistent issues with its Main Guns that were never resolved, once in the Fan Flame Ocean, whether the Main Guns would even be needed was another question.

Relatively speaking, the value of hundreds of High-altitude Guns was greater!

For this reason, Zheng Jiangming issued a warning.

With a fleet consisting of three carrier carriers, two Fast Battleships, two battlecruisers, and a large number of cruisers and destroyers, the Bulan Fleet could very well have reached the Northeast Sunset Ocean, standing by in the Andaman Sea or Bengal Bay, ready to confront the approaching Imperial Fleet.

Clearly, through this action, Zheng Jiangming meant for Bai Zhizhan to heighten his vigilance.

Unfortunately, he had no idea the Eleventh Special Mixed Fleet had already entered the Java Sea and was planning to enter the Fan Flame Ocean through the Xunfeng Strait tonight.

At least according to their initial plan, advancing the fleet into the Fan Flame Ocean ahead of schedule was not an option.

Zheng Jiangming indeed had good intentions, and the intelligence he provided was valuable.

Yet, it still wasn’t comprehensive enough.

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