"Hou Chensheng and Fu Weimin are that kind of virtue, don't take it to heart."

"Although I don't know much about General Fu Weimin, I know the roots of Lao Hou." Bai Huawei smiled and said again: "After you left the imperial capital, Hua Min went to Paxi in the Southern Lonely Continent. I only found out about it after she got there. ”

Ding Zhennan was very puzzled and didn't figure out what Bai Huawei meant.

"Go meet with President Nuland's special envoy."

"Started?" Ding Zhennan secretly breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that his worries were self-inflicted.

Bai Huawei nodded, and then said, "I only received a telegram from Hua Min before I left, saying that I would stay in Patsi for a while, maybe a few months. As for the specifics of the negotiations, she did not say, after all, the secret negotiations in Passy involved the core interests of the Empire. ”

"I understand."

Seeing Ding Zhennan nodding, Bai Huawei didn't hint again.

In fact, in the first sentence, it contains the key information that Ding Zhennan needs to know, that is, Bai Huamin's stay in Paxi Kingdom.

If the secret negotiations had not yielded results, Bai Huamin would not have mentioned that he would have stayed for a few more months.

In addition, Bai Huamin must have gone to Patsy as the special envoy of the first assistant, so all matters related to the negotiations were reported directly to the first assistant. In times of war, negotiations involving special envoys representing the Supreme Leader are already at the highest level, discussing matters of vital interest.

"What does that mean?"

Bai Huamin sighed first before saying, "Before coming over, Shousuke talked to me about the mission of this trip, but he didn't mention the matter on Patsy's side, but he repeatedly emphasized that the Southern Subcontinent is the top priority at the moment, and the fighting in the next few months will determine how the war will end." Shousuke also mentioned that the empire has passed the most difficult period, don't have ideological baggage, let us let go of it. ”

"That's what Shousuke said?"

"It's not Shousuke's exact words, but that's what it basically means."

Hearing Bai Huawei say this, Ding Zhennan sighed, and shook his head with a wry smile.

Obviously, when Shousuke said such things, he just hoped that the front-line commanders would not be timid, not that he had really overcome the difficulties.

In a sense, the test has just arrived.

As mentioned earlier, the outcome of the offensive and defensive battle in the Khowaii Islands was diametrically opposed to what the imperial authorities had predicted, and it inevitably had an impact on the development of the war, and the most prominent effect was that the launch of the strategic counterattack and the strategic offensive were advanced by several months as a whole.

In a modern war supported by logistical support, this is by no means something to be happy about.

Take, for example, the battle situation in the Guia Ocean.

After the end of the offensive and defensive war in the Khowaii Islands, if the empire chooses a relatively conservative strategy, that is, it only starts to consolidate the defense deployment of the Khowaii Islands, and does not rely on the Khowaii Islands to carry out a strategic strike on the mainland of the Nuland Republic, the only result that can be produced is to let the Nuland Air Force take this opportunity to attack the Khowaii Islands with strategic bombers deployed on the west coast of the mainland.

If this is the case, it is very likely that the Nuland Air Force will seize the initiative, or at least control the tempo of the war.

The reason is also very simple: there are only a few large islands in the Howaii Islands that are suitable for the deployment of strategic air forces, and at most a few large air bases can be built, while on the other side of the sea, the area of the west coast of Newland is more than 2 million square kilometers, and there are dozens of ready-made large air bases.

The key point is that the Nuland Air Force has only one strategic direction for the time being.

In other words, the Nuland Air Force can use all the bombers, and the indispensable cruise missiles, against the Howaii Islands.

Even if it has to send troops to the Western Continent next, the Nuland Air Force has only two strategic directions.

In contrast, the Imperial Air Force had at least 3 strategic directions. If the situation in the Beixuan region gets out of control, and it is necessary to block the sea routes in the south and sunset, the strategic direction will have to be increased by one or two, so the Imperial Air Force will certainly not be able to use all the bombers for strategic bombing operations against Nuland itself.

In addition, ammunition is extremely critical.

In a bombing campaign like this, which runs thousands of kilometers, especially before destroying the enemy's air defenses, the only ammunition available is cruise missiles.

It is a pity that on the side of the Empire, cruise missiles have always been in short supply, especially for air-launched models.

Even by the beginning of next year, the supply of cruise missiles may not be able to meet operational needs.

If it develops into a war of attrition, the Imperial Air Force may not have the last laugh.

Then, it is necessary to seize the initiative in the war, destroy the enemy's counterattack capability through active offensive actions, and avoid a war of attrition.

Although in the early stage of the offensive, it is necessary to invest more troops and consume more ammunition, but after grasping the initiative on the battlefield and suppressing the enemy, the number of troops invested and the ammunition consumed will be reduced, and the final consumption will definitely be much lower than that of passive defense.

It was precisely in this way that the Imperial Air Force had to immediately increase its forces to the front line and carry out strategic bombing of Nuland after the end of the offensive and defensive battle on the Khowaii Islands.

The effect of this is that the logistical burden far exceeds pre-war estimates.

Of course, the situation is similar in other directions.

It could have taken months to strengthen the logistical support, stock up the materials needed to launch the offensive, and the combat troops could be prepared for battle in an orderly manner, but because the offensive operation began early, almost all the pre-war preparations could not be completed in time.

Comparatively speaking, the least affected is the Northwest Theater.

After all, after the arrival of winter, the warring parties enter a state of "truce" and start fighting again, and that will be next spring.

The situation before the empire is simple.

In the coming months, before the arrival of next spring, the results of the Imperial army will determine the final outcome of the great battle.

Undoubtedly, the key is the Southern Subcontinent.

After pondering for a while, Ding Zhennan sighed heavily.

Bai Huawei could only sigh secretly, after all, if he wanted to be investigated, he had to bear the main responsibility.

"If I'm not mistaken, combat operations on our side will definitely have an impact on the negotiations."

"Do you need to talk about that?" Bai Huawei answered casually.

Ding Zhennan's gaze turned and stared at Bai Huawei for a while before he said, "The key is that the Nuland authorities are also paying attention to the battle situation here. ”

"You mean ......"

"The most critical point is that at the strategic level, the Nuland Republic has been defeated, and all that can be fought for now is to lose a little less."

"Losing less is winning."

Ding Zhennan nodded, and continued: "Obviously, under the current situation, with a truce with us, the Nuland Republic will lose completely. ”

"This ......"

"Although I am not a diplomat and do not know much about diplomatic negotiations, I understand that in the initial stage, our asking price is certainly not low. As the saying goes, ask for a price and pay back when you land. The offer is not high enough, and there is no way to negotiate later. Ding Zhennan smiled and said: "Since the Nuland army has thwarted the operation of the Nuland army to attack the Howaii Islands, it will definitely talk about the Howaii Islands, such as asking the Nuland authorities to completely give up their sovereignty claims over the Howaii Islands, and even recognize the Howaii Islands as part of the empire." ”

Bai Huawei was stunned for a moment, and then cast a shocked and disbelieving look at Ding Zhennan.

Annexation of the Khowaii Islands!?

Obviously, this is by no means a simple military issue, but a political question involving the national capital of the empire, as well as the law.

Shortly after the end of World War II, that is, after Lian Xusheng's first term as the first assistant, the two houses of the Imperial Council took advantage of the civilian first assistant to pass the Imperial Sovereignty Law, which aimed to limit foreign expansion, and clearly defined the sovereignty and territory of the empire.

At that time, the purpose of this law was to target the defeated countries and backward regions that applied for annexation to the empire after the war.

Among other things, even the Imperial Empire passed a bill to incorporate it into the Imperial Empire as a special province the year after the end of the war, and officially submitted it to the Imperial Foreign Office. After the rejection of the Empire, tens of millions of civilians took to the streets to petition the Imperial Family in the form of a procession, imploring the acceptance of the Empire and becoming subjects of the Empire for eternity.

This incident caused a lot of uproar, and it couldn't end for a while.

The point is, millions of narrow-minded people had already been granted permanent residency in the empire, and millions more had settled in the empire's occupied territories.

Finally, this matter would not have ended quickly had it not been for the Imperial authorities' relaxation of the criteria for household registration, the granting of partial citizenship rights to the inhabitants of the Oja, and the encouragement of the Emigrants to emigrate overseas and to guarantee their residency and citizenship rights in the occupied areas such as Ozhou.

If anything, the problem of the Narrowing Imperial State is not serious.

In the years following the end of the war, many defeated countries and backward regions successively issued requests to the imperial authorities for annexation by voting and other means. In the Guia Ocean alone, the inhabitants of dozens of islands passed the vote, not to mention the many colonies on the Xuan Continent.

Under the circumstances, if all of these regions were to be accepted, the empire would have to expand by at least 50 percent, and the population would increase by about 400 million.

But the problem is that the empire is large enough, and adding 400 million hungry poor people is certainly not something to be happy about.

What's more, these regions are spread across the globe.

The most important thing is actually public opinion.

The Great War had just ended, and the Empire had already paid a very huge price, millions of soldiers had died on the battlefield, and all the subjects of the Empire had tightened their belts and lived a hard life for several years, so after the war ended, the only purpose of the Empire was to return to normal as soon as possible.

For the subjects of the empire, what they want most is to improve their lives.

Obviously, no one wants to provide assistance to the 400 million poor people who have nothing to do with them at this time.

Not to mention anything about helping others, it involves the core interests of the country and the vital interests of every subject of the empire, and there is no room for negotiation at all.

Strictly speaking, it was against this background that Lian Xusheng ended his first term of office, and only then did he pass the "Imperial Sovereignty Law".

Due to the restrictions of this law, the empire has not made a fuss about the sovereignty of the Khowaii Islands.

As long as the Imperial Sovereignty is not abolished, the Empire cannot expand its territory by annexation, even in times of war.

Even if the head had wartime privileges, he could only send troops to occupy them, and exercise jurisdiction through military occupation.

If anything, the Khowaii Islands have been occupied by the Empire since the Second Global War, and exercise jurisdiction in the military control zone.

In other words, in order to annex the Khowaii Islands, it is necessary to have both houses of parliament repeal or amend the Imperial Sovereignty Act.

"Are you kidding?" Bai Huawei thought about it for a while, and still felt that this was unlikely, after all, it was very troublesome to repeal or amend the formal bill.

"I'm just speculating, and making a fuss about this is not the same thing as officially swallowing it."

Hearing Ding Zhennan say this, Bai Huawei understood. "According to you, even if such a request is made in the negotiations, it is only a threat to the Nuland authorities to force the Nuland authorities to make a truce before it expands, so that the war can end as soon as possible?"

"The point is, it takes a lot of effort to make the threat work."

"This ......"

"If it's just a sentence, it obviously doesn't mean much. What's more, if the threats are not delivered, or if they prove to be false, not only will they not achieve the desired results, but they will also have the opposite effect, such as emboldening the Nuland regime. ”

Bai Huawei had already tightened his brows, thinking seriously about what Ding Zhennan said.

Ding Zhennan didn't rush to continue, and while Bai Huawei was thinking, he went to get two cups of coffee.

This is still Bai Huawei's arrival, the authentic "Navy Coffee", produced in the southeast of Kaliman Island, has always been priceless in the market.

"In order for the threat to be effective, you have to do it here in the Southern Subcontinent?"

"Do you think there's any other option?" After putting the coffee cup in front of Bai Huawei, Ding Zhennan said: "On the mainland battlefield, there is no need to explain more. Not to mention that it is winter, it may not be possible to open up the situation by next spring, but it may become a quagmire of war for us. Other directions, such as the Xuan Continent, Nanxi Luoyang and Aozhou, are not only secondary directions, but also do not have the conditions for large-scale military use. ”

"And a very important point, the relationship between the country and Nuland, or the symbolism of the country of the country."

Ding Zhennan smiled and said, "No matter how you look at it, the only one who can use troops at the moment is the Southern Subcontinent. The more we fought on our side, the more we shook the Nuland administration and made Nuland's leaders realize that as the war expanded, Nuland would definitely lose even more. ”

"To be honest, you're still thinking through it."

"It's a pity that we have so many troops in our hands." Ding Zhennan sighed before he said, "Shoufu too, he wants us to do a big job, but he is unwilling to invest more troops. Don't talk about me, if you were someone else, you wouldn't be able to use this force to achieve a strategic victory. ”

Bai Huawei smiled bitterly and shook his head: "It's useless for you to complain to me, but on the navy's side, I can guarantee the ticket, and I will definitely not hold back." As for the Air Force, it's not a big problem. Li Tianling has always said that as long as he agrees, he will definitely be able to do it. What you have to worry about is actually the ground forces. In my judgment, those two Army and Marine Corps generals are probably incompatible. ”

"It's not that serious." Ding Zhennan was speechless, because Bai Huawei went around and kicked the ball back.

"No, I don't count. It's just that I'm going to rest. This is a genuine cat poop coffee that you can't buy with money outside, so I'll leave it to you to taste slowly. Bai Huawei pushed the coffee cup in front of Ding Zhennan, and then got up to leave.

At this time, Ding Zhennan was even more speechless.