Empire Conquest-Chapter 761 - 53 Full Retreat

Prime Minister Mansion at the Imperial Capital.

Due to the four time zone difference, when the combat erupted, it was already 8 a.m. here, and Zhou Yongtao had just finished breakfast.

Although he had long been mentally prepared and knew that the Western Continent would not wait until the ultimatum expired to take action, for once preparations for an attack were made, they would certainly choose an unexpected time to launch the assault to achieve a strategic or at least tactical element of surprise, receiving the message from the Northwest War Zone headquarter still took Zhou Yongtao by surprise, or he found it a bit hard to accept.

Almost at the same time, the Luosha Army launched an offensive along the entire Volga River.

There were three main points of assault, from north to south in order: Ulyanovsk, Saratov, and Volgograd.

In addition, a large number of forces also launched feint attacks in the north at Perm and in the south at Rostov.

This tactic was not particularly unique in itself.

For the past few decades, the Eastern Group had always used this method to deploy defense, and their general direction was not wrong.

The key was actually the intensity of the assault.

According to reports from the Northwest War Zone headquarter, in just the first hour, the Western Continent had launched thousands of missiles, half of which were ballistic missiles.

In fact, this number was less than expected.

Previous predictions estimated that in the first round of assault, the Western Continent would launch over 10,000 missiles, with more than 5,000 of them being ballistic missiles.

But the key was, a large portion of these missiles were medium and short-range ballistic missiles with terminal guidance capabilities!

While the numbers decreased, the efficiency of the missile assault had actually increased by several times!

In this first hour, all military bases within 500 kilometers to the east of the Volga River were targeted for prioritized strikes, and almost all of them had lost their operational capabilities.

Although some field bases remained, they definitely could not support a defense operation.

Even extending to 1,000 kilometers, nearly two-thirds of the military bases were severely hit, many of which were completely destroyed, and the rest could not be put into use in a short period.

Naturally, the Air Force of the Western Continent, especially the Strategic Air Force, participated in the first round of assault.

Relatively speaking, the main force was the missile troops, with the Air Force mainly supporting front-line tasks.

That was to cover the Armored Forces crossing the Volga River.

Because almost all the forward bases within the Battle Zone were hit, from a defensive point of view, the first line of defense that the Eastern Group had built along the river had already collapsed, and even the second line of defense, stretching from the Ural Mountains to the northern shore of the Broad Sea, was questionable whether it could hold.

As long as the Western Continent deployed sufficient forces and was willing to bear huge combat losses and spend more military materials, breaking through the second line of defense wouldn’t be very difficult within this month. Or to put it another way, the Eastern Group would definitely not be able to hold the second line of defense.

This is why the Northwest War Zone Headquarter mentioned that they hoped to adopt a backup operational plan, focusing the defense on the third line of defense.

Interestingly, the Northwest War Zone Headquarter attributed the colossal loss suffered to the Military Intelligence Bureau!

According to the combat report, the key issue was the use of a large number of ballistic missiles with terminal guidance capabilities by the Western Continent.

However, several years ago, the Military Intelligence Bureau had issued a related warning, but the General Staff Department and the Army did not give it enough attention.

Now when problems arose, they were pushing the responsibility onto the Military Intelligence Bureau, a very irresponsible approach indeed!

However, now was not the time to pursue accountability.

The first line of defense had already been breached by the enemy, and the second line was also in imminent danger. If they retreated, would they defend the third line of defense, which only existed on the map?

Clearly, this was also what Zhou Yongtao had been considering but had not been able to make a decision on.

The so-called third line of defense actually referred to the line from the Shim River to the Salt Sea.

It was evident that to fall back to the third line meant that they had to abandon the territories west of the Ural.

Leaving aside whether they could hold their ground on the third line, just the retreat might make it not so easy to fight back.

What’s more important was that the third line of defense was not a complete defense line but was divided into four segments.

On the very north were the Northern defense lines centered around Leaf Castle, which were essential to defend against Eastern Luosha’s administrative Capital, and Yamaguchi, which they must pass through to advance westward.

Most importantly, it was to defend Leaf Castle, as the city had incredibly significant political implications.

Besides, defending Leaf Castle was not very difficult.

Even if the Western Continent’s offensive action succeeded and breached the second line of defense, the Ural Mountains would block their path, making it necessary to attack Leaf Castle from the south. This would require forceful attacks on several major cities, including Chelyabinsk, to the east of the Ural Mountains.

Clearly, this required a significant force and would consume a lot of time.

From a military perspective, if the Western Continent gathered forces to attack Leaf Castle, it would be advantageous, as it meant they could not deploy sufficient forces in other directions for an offensive in the short term, thus unable to expand the defense line’s depth or put pressure on the Eastern Group.

If the Eastern Group got a chance to breathe, the Western Continent would have something to worry about.

So, even after achieving a breakthrough, the Western Continent might not necessarily attack Leaf Castle.