Empire Conquest-Chapter 739 - 43 The Great Battle Situation

When Luo Youbin delivered the late-night snack, he noticed the atmosphere was extremely tense, filled with a gunpowder-like smell.

Actually, it was just past 10 p.m.

When he received the call from the Grand Secretary, Luo Youbin thought that surely the generals had failed to come to an agreement, hence the early night snack, to let everyone cool down.

Compared to the diplomats in the morning and the Cabinet Ministers in the afternoon, the tempers of the generals were not that great.

Probably thinking that Zhou Yongtao would have other instructions, Luo Youbin deliberately delayed a bit, but in the end, the Grand Secretary had no further commands.

Actually, Zhou Yongtao had Luo Youbin bring in the late-night snack not to ease the atmosphere, but because everyone was hungry.

Those generals hadn’t eaten dinner!

Before coming to the Prime Minister Mansion, they had been meeting all day at the General Staff Department, and right before dinner, they received a call from the Grand Secretary.

What was discussed at the General Staff Department was the issue of combat operations. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Of course, if generals don’t discuss combat operations, what else could they discuss?

The problem lies precisely here.

Firstly, how to fight.

Secondly, what scale to prepare for, meaning how big the conflict should be.

The dozen or so leaders from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps argued for a whole day at the General Staff Department and never clarified a single issue; in fact, their differences only grew larger.

The most debated issue was whether it was possible to conclude the combat operations in Boss Bay within one month.

The Military Intelligence Bureau provided reliable intelligence: even if the Westland Group used all its strength, it would need a month just to complete the preliminary preparations necessary for initiating a strategic offensive. Therefore, the Imperial Army had to conclude the combat operations in the direction of Boss Bay within that time.

Simply put, there was a need to avoid a two-front battle.

To say it another way, this was also a very critical issue, determining the direction of the entire situation’s development.

During the meetings in the morning and afternoon, Zhou Yongtao had discussed this issue with the diplomats and Cabinet Ministers, and they had reached a consensus.

If it was possible to liberate Kuwait and end the combat operations in the Boss Bay direction before the Westland Group completed war mobilization, i.e., initiating the war, it might force the Tiaoman Empire to accept the fait accompli and then use active diplomatic mediation to eliminate the threat of war.

Even if it wasn’t possible to remove the threat of war, it would still seize the moral high ground.

To put it bluntly, it’s about making the Tiaoman Empire lose the reason to wage war.

So then, would it be possible to liberate Kuwait within a month?

After discussing for a day, the dozen or so generals concluded that it was "unfeasible." To be precise, they reached this conclusion at the Prime Minister Mansion after arguing for three hours in front of Zhou Yongtao until Zhou Yongtao stepped in.

In a nutshell, unless they were willing to bear the enormous cost of tens of thousands of casualties among the troops, launching a ground war before completing aerial strikes and engaging in a large-scale ground war with the not-so-weak Iraqi army, it was certain that Kuwait couldn’t be liberated within a month.

According to the estimate of the Army Chief of Staff, the current strength was not enough; if 2 Armored Divisions and 1 Marine Corps Division launched a ground war, the losses would be very large.

Continuing with aerial strikes would certainly take even more time.

Sending in reinforcements?

This method seemed feasible, but it was actually not.

Even if the Empire did its utmost, using all the ships it could find, it would still take about half a month to complete the reinforcement operation.

However, this meant that during this half a month, the combat supplies sent to the front would inevitably be greatly reduced.

The key point was that reinforcing Boss Bay would necessarily weaken the troops in other areas, thus posing a threat to the Empire’s strategic defense line.

Don’t forget, the main adversary of the Imperial Army was the Westland Group, so transferring ground forces to Boss Bay would almost all have to be pulled from the Northwest War Zone or the Western Battle Zone, or it would be necessary to mobilize the Reserve Teams planned for these two directions, thus weakening the forces available to deal with the Westland Group.

The lack of troops would only boost the Tiaoman Empire’s ambition to wage war!

To put it bluntly, if there were problems with the Empire’s strategic deployment, it’s possible that even the Newland Republic might become eager and join the war at the first opportunity.

When facing the Newland Republic, there was the issue of the Navy’s deployment.

Simply put, with the Army facing difficulties in reinforcement and the Air Force unable to quickly send more combat forces, the only option was to have the Navy increase its contribution, dispatching more carrier battle groups to the conflict, which would inevitably weaken the presence in the East Ocean direction.

If the Newland Authority believed the opportunity to seize the Howay Islands by force had ripened, the Newland Republic might very likely join the war at the first chance.

If it came to that point, even if there were no defeat, the blow would be severe.

Even by the most optimistic estimate, engaging in war with two superpowers at once, without proper preparation, the Empire would lose its seat as the world’s foremost power.

The key was the two-front battle.

Actually, as long as a major war broke out at this time, the Empire would inevitably need to fight on two fronts.

Thus, the second question was, after the war with the Westland Group started, would the priority be the Northwest, or should the main battlefield temporarily be shifted to Boss Bay?

This was where the most serious disagreement lied.

The Army side, of course, advocated for prioritizing the Northwest.

In the afternoon’s discussions, the Army generals even suggested giving up Kuwait for the time being to protect Saudi Arabia and the other oil-producing countries along the southern coast of Boss Bay.