In the southwest waters of the Howaii Islands, the flagship of the 41st Task Force "Liu Changxun".

"Report!"

The communications staff officer suddenly appeared and shouted, which frightened Bai Huawei, who was staring at the map and pondering, several times in a row.

Without waiting for him to speak, Major General Liu Zunling, who was standing next to him, turned around and took the telegram from the awkward-looking communications staff officer.

Liu Zunling was the chief of staff of the 41st Task Force.

In addition, he is Liu Xiangzhen's youngest son, that is, Liu Zunshan's brother.

Before Bai Huawei's arrival, he had always commanded the 41st Task Force.

As for the message, it is very traditional and even a bit retro. Unlike in the past, the content was typed with an inkjet printer.

After a quick glance, Liu Zunling handed the message to Bai Huawei.

The message from the Treasure Harbor Garrison Command confirmed that during the battle in the northeast direction, the carrier-based fighters of the Nuland Navy were encountered.

The message clearly mentions that this is a witness report from the pilot.

In other words, this information has a high level of credibility.

The F-14 fighters of the Nuland Navy appeared less than 1,000 kilometers away from the Khowaii Islands, and more than 100 kilometers away, launched an attack with long-range air-to-air missiles, shooting down not only the heavy fighters escorting the escort, but also the early warning aircraft that was turning to evade.

These heavy fighters are from the west coast of Newland?

After reading the message, Bai Huawei's gaze fell on the chart in front of him again.

Although the traditional nautical charts have been replaced by large projection screens on the "He Yongxing", the first five ships of the "Chen Bingxun" class are still traditional nautical charts.

In fact, it is a siding on which a chart made of waterproof material is hung.

Compared to chart tables, the siding takes up less space, and there is no need to bend over and bury your head, so you won't have back pain even if you stare at it for hours.

Liu Zunling walked up and circled a fan-shaped sea area on the chart with an ink pen.

He didn't explain, and he didn't need to explain.

If the intelligence is correct, the Nuland aircraft carrier carrying those F-14 fighters is in the sea area circled by Liu Zunling.

Liu Zunshan's move was actually telling Bai Huawei that he didn't believe that those fighters came from the west coast of Newland.

Sending shore-based fighters to run thousands of kilometers, at least 3 refueling in the air, and also having to use large tankers, so what reason is there not to use heavy fighters of the Air Force?

The heavy fighters of the Air Force are significantly better suited for such tasks than carrier-based fighters of the Navy.

Besides, the F-15 of the Nuland Air Force is no worse than the F-14 of the Navy.

Among other things, the F-15 is more efficient for in-flight refueling.

The KC-135, which serviced the Navy's F-14 and had to install a hose refueling system, could not use the KC-10, which was more efficient for refueling.

It's just that Bai Huawei is not thinking about this problem.

"Why do you think the Nuland Navy put the fleet to the north?"

After Bai Huawei asked, Liu Zunling glanced at him, but did not answer, and then turned his gaze to the chart.

Obviously, this is a difficult question to answer.

For decades, the Nuland Navy has been aiming for, and only for, retaking the Howaii Islands.

Although geographically, the Nuwai mainland is at a higher latitude and the Howaii Islands are southwest of the Nuwaii mainland, from a military point of view, if the Nuland Navy wants to recapture the Howaii Islands at the least cost, it must attack from the southeast, not the northeast.

There are many reasons for this.

For example, the overall course of the Howaii archipelago is from northwest to southeast, with the largest islands in the southeast. If you choose to attack from the northeast, you will have to face several large islands to the east, which will require more troops. If you attack from the southeast, you will not only be able to avoid the defenders deployed on other islands, but you will also be able to choose a weakly defended location to launch a surprise attack.

However, the key is actually the Arryu region to the north, which belongs to the Arryu region to be precise.

As mentioned earlier, as early as more than 100 years ago, during the reign of Emperor Shiwu, the empire defeated the then Luosha Empire and gained the far north, including Arras. It's just that due to the limitation of national strength, the empire failed to send troops in time to occupy the Arras region in the northwest corner of the North Lonely Continent. At that time, the Newland Federation took advantage of the situation and sent troops to occupy and control the Arras region. It was not until the end of World War II that the Empire sent troops to retake the Arras region and made it the 45th Provincial Jurisdiction, which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central government.

Strictly speaking, the empire did not recapture the entire Arras region.

Just off the west coast of the Maple Leaf Country, next to the Gateway Islands of the Republic of Nuland, which until now has been under the de facto control of the Republic of Newland.

This became a major basis for the Nuland Republic to claim sovereignty over the Arras region.

The main problem in the Arras region is that it is sparsely populated.

Although in the past few decades, the empire has been encouraging immigration to the Arras region, such as exempting immigrants living in the Arras region from personal income tax, providing living subsidies for local residents, and later even unconditionally providing 5 square kilometers of land to any imperial citizen who goes to the local area, but the relatively bad weather and harsh living environment, the encouragement policy of the imperial authorities is still not enough, at least not enough to impress the people of the empire, and the effect of the immigration policy can be said to be minimal.

Until now, there were less than 5 million inhabitants in the entire Arras region!

Compared to the total population of 1 billion, this is obviously too small a number of residents.

In addition, about 3 million of the 5 million inhabitants live in the southern region, on several islands at the southern tip of the Aliu archipelago.

As for the northern region, it is almost entirely deserted snowfields.

From this, the Aliu Islands are the core of the Arras region.

From the Arras region to the Northern Lonely Continent?

Obviously, this is an idea that only exists on paper.

Although the Arras region is part of the northern isolated continent, the east is the Maple Leaf Country, and its southeastern gateway archipelago is close to the west coast of the Newland Republic, but between the extreme north region and the Arras region, there is a strait tens of kilometers wide and perennially high winds and waves.

Crucially, from the core of the empire to the Arras region, there were no railways or roads, and the only way to do so was by sea.

In addition, from the Arras region to the west coast of the Nuland Republic, even to the Maple Leaf Country, there is no road with military value, and it can only be taken by sea.

Since it is by sea, what reason is there not to choose the Howaii Islands, but to go to the Arras region, where the environment is harsh?

For the Republic of Nuland, the Arras region is also an insurmountable place of death.

Attacking the empire itself from the Arras region is also on paper.

However, it cannot be said that the Arras region is worthless.

Over the past few decades, the empire has spent a lot of money building several integrated military bases on several islands in the southern part of the Aliu archipelago.

The main ones are air bases and naval aviation bases.

Using these bases, especially the anti-submarine patrol aircraft deployed at these bases, the Imperial Navy has created the world's most dense anti-submarine network.

To put it simply, from the south of the Aliu Islands to the westernmost transit island of the Khowaii Islands, along the Emperor's Seamount that runs through the Beitou, an anti-submarine barrier has been established with the submarine sonar base array as the mainstay, reinforced by anti-submarine patrol planes and anti-submarine ships, and cutting off the entire Bei'an Ocean.

This invisible barrier is the outer line of defense of the Empire's core circle of interests.

The point is, there are not many islands in the Guia Ocean north of the Khowaii Islands, all the way to the Aliu Islands.

During World War II, the Imperial Navy's submarines took full advantage of this geography and traveled through the Guia Ocean to the waters off the west coast of Nuland mainland to carry out a mission to break diplomatic relations. It was also during this period that the Imperial Navy discovered a secret, that is, it originated in the Guia Ocean, flowed through the Saoyi mainland, went east along the Kuril Islands and the Aliu Islands, and finally reached the Guia Warm Current on the west coast of the North Lonely Continent.

With this warm current, which averages at an average speed of about 5 knots, the submarine was able to reduce the crossing time by about a fifth.

After the war, the Guia Ocean became a paradise for Imperial submarines and Nuland submarines.

Of course, the shortest route from the eastern part of the huge continent to the west coast of the North Lonely Continent is through the Guia Ocean.

At its peak, during the Polish-Iranian War, there were more than 100 Imperial and Nuland submarines operating in the Guia Ocean combined!

One of the worst submarine accidents in the history of the Imperial Navy took place here.

Although the Imperial Navy claimed that the cause of the wreck and sinking of the "Jiaosha" was an oxygen leak, it was only said to deal with the people, and the real reason was a submarine confrontation that almost triggered the third global war, and the opponent of the "Jiaosha" was an attack submarine of the Nuland Navy. It was not the Nuland submarine that sank the "Jiao Shark" with a torpedo, but the "Jiao Shark" exceeded the maximum dive depth when it was confronted.

Of course, the losses of the Nuland Navy were also enormous.

At the bottom of the Guia Ocean are the wreckage of at least 3 large attack submarines of the Nuland Navy, as well as the remains of about 400 officers and men.

According to rumors, at least 1 Newland submarine was torpedoed and sunk by an Imperial submarine during the confrontation. It was only because the comprehensive strength was far inferior to the empire, and if it started a war, it would definitely be defeated, and there was no chance of victory, so the Nuland Navy swallowed its anger and did not dare to publicize it to the outside world.

Comparatively speaking, the importance of the Guia to the empire was even more prominent.

In other words, the Imperial Navy was on the defensive side in the Guia.

The reason is also very simple, the Nuland submarine will be able to pose a threat to the sea route from the mainland of the empire to the Howaii Islands after passing through the Guia. Further west, it could also impose a strategic blockade on the Narrow Empire, and could even pose a threat to the Empire's shipping routes in the southeast.

On the Guia side, on the other hand, the Republic of Nuland does not have a strategic route worth mentioning.

Now, to be precise, after the birth of submarine-launched cruise missiles, the strategic value of the Guia Ocean has become more prominent.

The Nuland submarine only needs to sail to the waters east of the main island of the Narrow Imperial State to attack the mainland of the empire with submarine-launched cruise missiles with a range of more than 1,500 kilometers.

For this, the Nuland Navy has built cruise missile submarines specifically.

This submarine is capable of carrying 168 submarine-launched cruise missiles, and if it is ready, it can launch all of these missiles within five minutes of receiving the order. If 14 cruise missile submarines attack at the same time, even if only 80 percent of the cruise missiles are successfully launched, they can hit more than 1,800 targets. Theoretically, enough to destroy all strategic objectives in any direction of the empire's mainland

What's more, the Nuland Navy also has dozens of large attack submarines that are also capable of using cruise missiles.

These submarines were dispatched at the same time, and attacked at the same time, even the Imperial Navy may not be able to parry.

It is precisely in this way that after the Polish-Iranian War, the empire invested tens of billions of gold dollars to build the world's most complete and largest anti-submarine network in the Guia Ocean.

Among them, the most critical support point is the naval aviation base on Keith Island.

The base has three Class A military runways with a length of more than 3,000 meters, one of which is up to 90 meters wide. Capable of accommodating up to hundreds of combat aircraft, the Imperial Navy has long deployed hundreds of anti-submarine patrol aircraft, as well as at least one carrier-based aviation wing.

After the outbreak of the war, the number of anti-submarine patrol aircraft deployed there had increased to 150.

In addition, there are several large integrated bases on the nearby islands, such as the air base on Ebony Island.

The island, a few hundred kilometers east of Keith, is home to the Air Force and is the closest to the Nuland mainland. In peacetime, deployed at the base is a brigade of strategic reconnaissance aircraft with several dozen strategic reconnaissance aircraft. After the outbreak of the war, the Air Force dispatched an additional expeditionary mixed wing consisting of four large early warning aircraft, four electronic reconnaissance planes, and 40 heavy fighters to the base.

In general, the empire is still mainly defensive in this direction.

Comparatively speaking, the Nuland Republic's requirements for defense in the Guia are less prominent.

Although theoretically, the Imperial Air Force could use the military bases on the Aliu Islands to carry out strategic bombing of the Nuland mainland, and hundreds of strategic bombers could be deployed on Keith and Ebony Islands alone, the threat from the Aliu Islands was not very prominent compared to the Howaii Islands.

The point is, there are no decent large ports on this side of the Aliu Islands.

Because of the lack of ports, logistics are extremely difficult, so the Aliu Islands are not qualified to serve as a support point for strategic strikes.

From the standpoint of the Republic of Nuland, since it can only be based on the mainland and rely on the interceptors deployed on the mainland to deal with the strategic bombers of the Imperial Air Force, there is no reason to take the Aliu Islands seriously. After all, in the face of the southwest and in the face of the northwest, you have to rely on heavy fighters.

Moreover, if the Empire intended to carry out a strategic strike on Nuland homeland, it would also deploy bombers in the Howaii Islands, which were in better conditions.

In addition, it was equally difficult to mobilize heavy forces to attack the Aliu Islands.

Just the bad weather can cause a lot of trouble with the attacking troops.

After the successful landing, there was also the problem of a lack of ports.

If the logistical support is not strong enough, even if it is defeated, it may not be able to hold it, let alone withstand the strategic counterattack that will definitely come.

Even in the last war, the Imperial Navy only sent troops to the Aliu Islands after gaining absolute sea supremacy in the Guia Ocean and defeating the Nuland Navy.

It was for this reason that no one thought that the Nuland army would send troops to attack the Aliu Islands.

In fact, in the battle plans drawn up in the past few decades, not much attention has been paid to the Aliu Islands, at least not as the main battlefield.

Even from a political point of view, there is no reason for the Nuland authorities to advance into the Aliu Islands before recovering the Khowaii Islands.

Why, then, did the Nuland fleet go to the Guia?