Empire Conquest-Chapter 737 - 42 Suddenly Turning Hostile

August 12th night, Prime Minister Mansion of the Imperial Capital.

The meeting had lasted all day, with a diplomatic meeting in the morning and a Cabinet meeting in the afternoon. After dinner, it was all military generals who came.

However, the Minister of Defense also stayed for dinner.

As to when the evening meeting would end, Luo Youbin didn’t know.

Like usual, he could only instruct the staff to be prepared to provide services immediately when the Grand Secretary and the attending generals and officials needed them.

This meant serving tea, pouring water, and arranging the usual late-night snack sent over at 11:30 pm.

Luo Youbin felt quite emotional, knowing that if the trend continued as it was, it wouldn’t be long before everyone would have no leisure time at all.

This all-day meeting was related to the events that had occurred the day before.

In the early hours of August 11th, the Joint Forces had pushed forward the "Carpet Bombing" operation into its second phase: targeted eliminations.

This phase mainly involved striking at the Ike military’s long-range weaponry, especially tactical ballistic missiles like the "Scud."

In the first wave of bombings at dawn, the Imperial Army launched over 500 cruise missiles and deployed nearly 400 combat aircraft to strike every known missile launch site within Iraq, especially the fixed ballistic missile launchers, in multiple rounds of intense bombing.

As for the results of the bombing, there was really nothing good to say.

In fact, it was the first time since the start of the war that the Imperial Air Force had employed laser-guided bombs and other precision munitions on a large scale.

In the initial assault, the main forces, which included 16 "Attack-11" stealth attack aircraft and 44 "War-16A" heavy multi-purpose fighters, dropped over 200 laser-guided bombs with a total weight exceeding 100 tons, destroying at least 174 targets.

Compared to the previous days of indiscriminate bombing, the use of precision-guided bombs had increased nearly tenfold.

Moreover, the "Snowy Owl" squad, tasked with air defense suppression, launched hundreds of Anti-Radiation Missiles, destroying dozens of air defense radars.

It was under the protection of "Snowy Owl" that "War-16A" aircraft were able to penetrate deeply into Iraqi territory to bomb the heavily protected ballistic missile launch sites.

Overall, the efficiency of precision-guided munitions in this battle was fully demonstrated.

The issue was a severe shortage of precision-guided bombs, and only a few advanced combat aircraft produced in recent years could carry and utilize them; most combat aircraft that had been in service before New Calendar year 140 were not capable of using precision munitions.

According to the plan, it was now up to "War-16A" to take the lead in hunting down ballistic missile launch vehicles.

Furthermore, the Alliance Army’s air forces were to continue prioritizing the bombing of military targets in Iraq, particularly military bases and the Republic Guard.

Although the Joint Force Headquarter had predicted that they could shorten the aerial strike duration to 15 days and start ground warfare a month and a half early, the General Staff Department hadn’t approved this plan and still required a 30-day schedule for aerial strike operations.

The reason was, they needed 30 days to transport combat supplies to the front lines.

However, yesterday morning, the situation suddenly changed.

Without any warning, the Tiaoman Authority issued a very strong statement, demanding the Liangxia-led Joint Forces to cease their military operations against Iraq unconditionally, respect the choices of the Ike people, and promised to withdraw troops from the Boss Bay area.

This was equivalent to demanding that the Liangxia Empire give up Boss Bay.

Following that, the Tiaoman Authority recalled its ambassador from the Liangxia Empire.

Within the next few hours, other member countries of the West Continent group successively recalled their ambassadors from the Liangxia Empire.

At that time, the Tiaoman Authority also sent a diplomatic note, demanding that the Liangxia Empire cease military operations within 24 hours and recognize the referendum conducted by the people of Iraq and Kuwait; otherwise, it would sever diplomatic relations with the Liangxia Empire and expel Liangxia diplomats.

The Tiaoman Authority certainly had no intention of negotiating but directly cornered the Liangxia Empire.

According to the diplomatic note from the Tiaoman Authority, the sovereignty and ownership of Kuwait were to be decided by a vote by all citizens of Iraq and Kuwait.

This proposal essentially recognized Kuwait as a part of Iraq.

Iraq had more than 20 million people, while Kuwait had fewer than 3 million. Under Saddam’s regime, almost all Iraqis believed that Kuwait was rightfully a province of Iraq, hence the invasion of Kuwait was justified.

What was the point of such a referendum?

Additionally, with the Iraqi military invasion preceding, why should the Joint Forces stop their military actions?

Even if there were to be a referendum, Iraq must withdraw its troops first!

In summary, the Tiaoman Authority had absolutely no intention of negotiating.

In fact, there was no room for maneuver, so it was not even an ultimatum.

As a result, last night, Zhou Yongtao ordered the recall of diplomats from the Tiaoman Empire, and other member countries of the West Continent group.

It was just a few hours later than when the Tiaoman Authority had sent their recall.

Afterward, Zhou Yongtao personally called all the leaders of ally nations and other countries participating in the Joint Forces.

Busy until the early hours of today, Zhou Yongtao repeated the same message dozens of times to dozens of national leaders.