Empire Conquest-Chapter 862 - 101: Pressing Forward Under a Heavy Burden

For a long time, the Imperial Authority has regarded the Newland Republic across the East Ocean as a formidable enemy, rather than considering the Tiaoman Empire as a threat.

This is not only related to overall strength but also has strategic geographical implications.

Although in the continental direction, the Liangxia Empire and the Eastern Group have always adopted a defensive strategy, in the maritime direction where core interests are involved, the Empire has consistently pursued an offensive strategy. Not to mention actively compromising with the West Continent Group, they have not even given the West Continent Group much room for development. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

This is the key.

Even if the West Continent Group led by the Tiaoman Empire is very powerful, with comprehensive strength not inferior to the Newland Republic, they would still find it difficult to deploy because of geopolitical issues.

To put it directly, the Imperial Navy just needs to block the Xifan Canal, or at worst retreat to the Jibu Fortress, to keep the West Continent Group out of the core interest circle.

Attacking the Empire from the land?

Even if the West Continent Group has enough troops, they would still have to yield to a strategic depth of thousands of kilometers due to logistical constraints.

Since the Industrial Era began, no enemy has posed a threat to the Empire’s homeland from the land!

In comparison, the relationship between the Empire and the Newland Republic is at another level.

Strategically and geographically speaking, the Newland Republic is the only country capable of competing for global dominance with the Liangxia Empire.

To be honest, the Newland Republic possesses an unrivaled, even uniquely advantageous geographical position.

The crux is, the Newland Republic is not on the World Island, and it has ample territories and rich resources to compete for the throne of supremacy.

Globally, there’s no similar country!

In addition, the Newland Republic is close to the two major oceans.

Clearly, the Newland Republic is naturally an ocean-facing country and possesses unique advantages in the global competition for maritime supremacy.

In some way, it’s superior to the Liangxia Empire!

Even though the Liangxia Empire has never taken the Tiaoman Empire seriously, it cannot ignore the existence of the Tiaoman Empire, let alone leave it undefended.

Clearly, the Liangxia Empire is a dual-path empire at any time.

This means that the Liangxia Empire cannot concentrate resources on any one side and must always exert efforts in both directions simultaneously.

In fact, this is also why the Empire can never reconcile with the Newland Republic.

To stifle, or rather, to prevent the Newland Republic from growing strong, particularly in posing a threat to the Empire in the crucial East Ocean, the Empire has always controlled and occupied the Howay Islands, and has never even considered returning the Howay Islands to the Newland Republic, nor withdrawing troops from the Howay Islands.

Moreover, the Empire has been continuously strengthening military deployments on the Howay Islands.

On the military level, the Empire controls the Howay Islands primarily because the East Ocean is so vast, and almost all the islands are concentrated on the west.

Even the Howay Islands are located in the middle of the East Ocean, more than 5000 kilometers away from the west coast of the Newland Republic.

From the Howay Islands eastward, up to the Gu Continent, there are almost no islands!

This geographical environment creates a very severe problem.

Even if the Empire’s Air Force Strategic Bombers take off from the Howay Islands, they still need to fly over 5000 kilometers to reach the skies over the west coast of the Newland Republic. To bomb targets in the Republic’s inland, the bombers need an operational radius of 8000, or even 10000 kilometers.

In contrast, if the Newland Navy controls the islands in the West East Ocean, even the North Ma Islands relatively far from the Giant Continent, their bombers would only need to fly 3000 kilometers to bomb cities in the eastern coastal region of the Empire, and bombing the Imperial Capital would only require an operational radius of less than 5000 kilometers.

What’s more, there are many islands in the West East Ocean that are closer to the Empire’s homeland, such as the Saiyi Islands and the North and South Sado Islands.

This disparity forces the Imperial Navy to maintain a strategic offensive posture in the East Ocean, because once the initiative is lost, the homeland might not be secure.

Additionally, there are higher demands on the Imperial Air Force.

In the later stages of the last great war, the Empire invested a massive amount of funds, resources, and personnel to develop super bombers with an operational radius of over 5000 kilometers, aiming to carry out strategic bombing on Newland mainland from the Howay Islands as a base. Nonetheless, because of technical and cost issues, the project was ultimately abandoned.

Even now, this issue remains very prominent.

Specifically, the operational radius of the Imperial Air Force’s strategic bombers is approximately 2000 kilometers greater than those of other nations of the same era.

Moreover, during peacetime, the Imperial Air Force maintains nearly 800 large refueling aircraft, insists on using a faster oil transfer, and more user-friendly boom refueling system, all related to the bombers, as the Imperial Air Force’s tankers mainly serve the bombers.

To put it simply, all the Imperial Air Force’s aircraft models are aligned towards "large" due to their strategic strike missions.

For example, the Imperial Air Force’s electronic reconnaissance aircraft all use large civilian airliners as platforms, with ranges exceeding 10,000 kilometers. In wartime, the top mission of electronic reconnaissance aircraft is to assist bombers in operation, accompanying bombers to interfere and suppress enemy air defense radar and other electronic platforms.

Additionally, this is the main reason the Imperial Air Force insists on developing air-launched cruise missiles and imposes strict requirements on missile size.