"Don't think too much about it, it's not surprising that some people have illusions about the fact that the post-war peace has been largely peaceful for more than 40 years."

"But do you think it's normal that even Qin Fenglie has such thoughts?"

Lin Shiping smiled bitterly and sighed, not answering Zhou Yongtao's words, because he didn't know what to say.

At the beginning, Qin Fenglie still believed that the scale of the war could be controlled. As long as he can defeat the Western Continent within a year, there is hope that the Nuland Republic will be prevented from entering the war and thus avoid the outbreak of a global war, which is why he has repeatedly stressed the importance of a quick victory.

Is this possible?

Although theoretically, as long as the Western Continent can be quickly defeated, the idea of the Nuland Republic entering the war can be dispelled, but from another point of view, the Nuland Republic is also unable to tolerate the defeat of the Western Continent Group, that is, the Eastern Bloc will dominate the world island, and then fight a decisive battle with it.

After the end of the Western Continent Group, even if there are two oceans, the Nuland Republic will only be able to live in peace for 50 years at most.

With the strength of the Liang Xia Empire, after dominating the World Island and eliminating the threat on the ground, it would take a few generations at most to establish a complete ruling order, and then it would be able to mobilize resources far beyond the Beigu Group to build a fleet that was enough to sweep the global oceans.

Historically, the core strategy of any country that stands on the periphery, that is, outside the world island, has been to prevent and contain the superpowers that dominate the world island.

The most representative is the once-glorious kingdom of Bran.

After defeating the Span Empire and the Tulip Kingdom successively, that is, becoming the world's number one overlord, the basic strategy of the Bran Kingdom was to prevent other powers from dominating the Western Continent. In the following hundred years, the Bran Kingdom successively aimed its guns at the Luosha Empire, the Locke Empire and the Riman Empire.

Even after losing the crown of global hegemon, the Kingdom of Bran did not give up on containing the number one power in the Western Continent.

If the western continent is enlarged into the entire world island, how similar is the location of the Nuland Republic to the Bran Kingdom!

From this point of view, the Nuland Republic cannot be the second power on the World Island in any way, the only one that can compete with the Liang Xia Empire!

To say, as long as the empire completes the mobilization for the war, it is sure to land on the isolated continent in this big war.

It can be seen that the Nuland authorities will never watch the defeat of the Western Continent group, and will inevitably enter the war before this.

Crucially, the Nuland Republic will only need half a year at most to complete the war mobilization, and the Eastern Bloc will not be able to defeat the Western Continent in any case.

According to the current plan, it would be very good to be able to stabilize the battle situation within half a year.

From the point of view of development, the third global war has broken out, and it is only said that the Republic of Nuland, as a third party, has not yet entered the war.

At this time, still fantasizing about stabilizing the situation is indeed very naïve and naïve.

"What's going on over there in the Bran Kingdom?" Zhou Yongtao didn't deal with Lin Shiping, he knew very well the reasons for the current situation.

As Lin Shiping said, the peaceful life has been too long!

"Not so good."

Zhou Yongtao's brows jumped a few times and turned his gaze away.

Before, the task he assigned to Lin Shiping was to find out the position of the Bran Kingdom and keep the Bran Kingdom neutral as much as possible.

It's not that the military power of the Bran Kingdom is strong enough to influence the strategic balance between the two sides, but the position of the Bran Kingdom has great political significance.

Although it was once an empire on which the sun never sets, and even before the last war, it had the world's Third Fleet, but after its defeat in the last war, the international status of the Bran Kingdom plummeted, not only losing almost all of its colonies, but also losing the basis for maintaining its independence.

Even after joining the Western Continent Group, the sea power of the Bran Kingdom was not restored.

Of course, the kingdom of Bran has been working hard to rebuild its navy.

Shortly after the end of the war, the Kingdom of Bran rebuilt the Royal Navy by leasing Portsmouth and Scapa Bay to the Liangxia Empire, and acquiring 3 second-hand small aircraft carriers from the Liangxia Empire. After joining the Western Continent Group, the Bran Kingdom took advantage of its unique strategic location to rebuild the shipbuilding industry, designed several types of aircraft carriers, and finally designed and built three vertical take-off and landing aircraft "aircraft-carrying cruisers" ten years ago, that is, small anti-submarine aircraft carriers, thus becoming one of the few countries in the Western Continent Group that can build aircraft carriers.

However, this does not change the fact that the kingdom of Bran has declined.

The Royal Navy's choice to build an "invincible" class "aircraft-carrying cruiser" with a displacement of less than 20,000 tons and can only carry "Sea Harrier" vertical take-off and landing fighters, that is, a glide take-off aircraft carrier with anti-submarine as the mainstay, is a direct reflection of the decline in the comprehensive national strength of the Bran Kingdom.

Of course, this also directly reflects the position of the Bran Kingdom in the overall strategy of the Western Continent Group.

To put it simply, it is responsible for covering the strategic route from the western continent to Beigu, and dealing with enemy submarines that are carrying out the task of breaking diplomatic relations in the North and Sunset Oceans.

That is, the submarine of the Liangxia Navy.

But the problem is that the Bran Kingdom has never turned against the Liang Xia Empire, and it is the country with the closest contacts with the Liang Xia Empire in the entire Western Continent Group.

Until now, Scapa Bay was a military base for the Imperial Navy.

If anything, if the Bran Kingdom can remain neutral, even if it is tendentious, it can greatly reduce the combat burden of the Imperial Navy.

Not to mention anything else, at least there is no need to invest too many troops in the North Sunset Ocean, and Lu Xinhai can be stabilized.

Don't forget, if it weren't for the Bran Kingdom to launch an operation in the North Sunset Ocean and disperse the forces of the Imperial Navy, the Raleigh Kingdom and the Siban Kingdom would definitely not dare to be arrogant enough to take action in Lu Xinhai to deal with the Imperial Lu Xinhai Fleet with several large aircraft carriers and dozens of warships.

The key is political significance.

The Bran Kingdom is a member of the Western Continent Group, and if the Bran Kingdom has not declared war on the Eastern Bloc, then the slogan "Always External" has become a fart.

Other Member States were inevitably affected.

In addition, the Bran Kingdom is also the link and bridge between the Western Continent Group and the Northern Gu Group.

If the Bran Kingdom remained neutral, even if it did not officially declare war on the Eastern Bloc, it would definitely have an impact on the Northern Lonely Group on the other side of the Sunset Ocean.

It is for this reason that stabilizing the kingdom of Bran is the first priority of the empire after the war.

Lin Shiping just gave a brief introduction.

In his words, the efforts of the MIA in the Kingdom of Bran have largely failed, and have not achieved any tangible results, to say the least.

"As you mean, the Bran authorities are about to declare war on us?"

"I can't say right now." Lin Shiping sighed and said, "It's still a ground war, and the contribution of the Bran Kingdom to the ground war is not great, so there is no need to participate in the war at the first time." In my judgment, the Bran authorities may want to wait and see for a while. ”

Zhou Yongtao pondered for a while before saying, "I'm afraid your judgment is too optimistic. ”

Lin Shiping didn't speak, he was indeed a little optimistic, or he was optimistic in front of Zhou Yongtao, after all, this time was all bad news.

"On this very day, with the exception of the Western Camels and the Empire, several of the other major members of the Western Continent Group have either declared war on us or are about to declare war on us. If the kingdom of Bran is still wavering, will the kingdoms of Raleigh and Spann be so active? ”

"The Republic of Nuland."

Zhou Yongtao nodded slightly and said, "With the current situation, this is a more reasonable reason, but it cannot be ruled out that the Bran Kingdom will declare war on us in the near future. ”

"Even if war is declared on us, the impact will not be too great."

"There's a very critical issue here, I don't know if you've thought about it."

Lin Shiping tightened his brows and waited for Zhou Yongtao to continue.

"Like you said at the beginning, it has something to do with the Beigu Group."

"What's the matter?"

Zhou Yongtao smiled, the meaning couldn't be more obvious. Questions like this should be asked by him, and the heads of the intelligence agencies should give the answers.

"It's a possibility." Lin Shiping also reacted immediately and said: "After the three-legged situation was formed, the Bran Kingdom has always been the bridge between the Xilu Group and the Beigu Group. If the Nuland Republic has decided to enter the war, but only needs time to complete the pre-war preparations, then as a guarantee to enter the war, it is likely that the Bran Kingdom will take the lead in making a stand. This, in turn, allows us to judge whether the Newland Republic will enter the war or not. ”

"Even if the Newland Republic does not immediately enter the war, the Bran Kingdom's declaration of war on us will have a huge impact."

Lin Shiping nodded, and then couldn't help but sigh.

The forces deployed by the Empire in the North Sunset, or in other words, its influence in this direction have long been much less than before, and they may not be able to act in time.

Lin Shiping didn't answer, just because this issue had nothing to do with him.

Strictly speaking, the situation on the other side of the North and the Evening is related to the navy, and it is the navy's pot!

Just a few days ago, Zhou Yongtao personally ordered the withdrawal of the Beixi Luoyang Detachment deployed at Scapa Naval Base, temporarily abandoning the only naval base in Beixi Luoyang. Although a few submarines were left behind, and the deployment was still being adjusted, allowing the Nanxi Luoyang Detachment to send submarines north to strengthen the military presence in Beisunset, but due to the limitation of logistics support capabilities, the Imperial Navy's military presence in Beisunset could only last for a few months. By the time these submarines ran out of fuel and ammunition, the Imperial Navy would have nothing left of the North Sunset.

"Anyway, find out the position of the Bran Kingdom as soon as possible."

"I've made arrangements."

Zhou Yongtao just nodded and didn't say anything.

If anything, the relationship with the Bran Kingdom is largely determined by the navy, or rather the strategy advocated by the navy.

Among them, Zhou Yongtao is one of the main promoters.

Over the past few decades, the Empire has been trying to maintain relations with the Bran Kingdom, and the main purpose is to keep the only naval base in the North Sunset Ocean, to ensure the status of a "global navy", and to restrain the Western Continent and the Northern Orphan Group through sea supremacy.

To put it more bluntly, it is to maintain a military presence in the North Sunset Ocean.

But the question is, how meaningful is the military presence in the North Sunset Ocean?

Before the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Republic of Nuland, there was still a little political and military significance, that is, to prevent the countries of the Western Continent from communicating with the Republic of Nuland by controlling the sea control of the North and the Sunset, so as to achieve the goal of isolating the Republic of Nuland and containing the Republic of Nuland. However, after the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Republic of Nuland, that is, the recognition of the Republic of Nuland, the sea control of the North and the Evening became a pure burden for the Empire.

From a purely interest point of view, the empire should have withdrawn its troops from the North Sunset a long time ago.

But as a result, at the insistence of the Imperial Navy, Scapa Bay was retained.

To a large extent, the relationship between the empire and the kingdom of Bran was determined by this naval base.

Although in the beginning, in order to compete with the Nuland Empire, the Bran Kingdom rented the base to the empire to obtain capital to fight against the Riman Empire, so as to enjoy a special status in the Xilu Group dominated by the Juman Empire and became the most special member of the Xilu Group, but after getting closer to the Nuland Republic, the Bran Kingdom no longer needed to rely on the Liangxia Empire, and hoped to recover this naval base in advance.

Over the past few decades, Scapa Bay has become a knot between the two sides.

According to outside comments, if there is no such knot, the Bran Kingdom is more willing to act as an intermediary between the three major groups, and obtain the most benefits from this.

It is a pity that the Imperial authorities are still reluctant to abandon the Scarpa naval base due to the resolute opposition of the Imperial Navy.

At the beginning, when deciding whether to continue to lease Scarpa Naval Base, the decisive role was played by Zhou Yongtao, who was still serving in the Navy and was already a marshal.

This problem is detoured, and naturally no one else can be blamed.

After chatting for a while, it was almost time to have supper, and when Lin Shiping was about to say goodbye, Luo Youbin rushed over, and after knocking on the door, he went directly into the study.

Without something very important, he wouldn't be so anxious.

Nodding at Lin Shiping, after saying hello, Luo Youbin walked directly in front of Zhou Yongtao and whispered in Zhou Yongtao's ear.

Before he finished speaking, Zhou Yongtao's face had become very ugly.

After he finished speaking, Zhou Yongtao waved his hand slightly.

Although he was a little hesitant, probably to ask Lin Shiping if he wanted to stay and have supper together, Luo Youbin didn't dare to delay and immediately left the study.

Lin Shiping didn't ask immediately, it was a very serious matter, and Zhou Yongtao would naturally tell him.

After being silent for a while, Zhou Yongtao sighed heavily.

"Our fears have become reality."

Lin Shiping was stunned for a moment, but he didn't understand what worry Zhou Yongtao was talking about, after all, there are too many things to worry about now.

"Begin, Bran's fleet has entered Scarpa Naval Base."

"What?" Lin Shiping almost jumped up.

"As long as there are no surprises, the Bran authorities will declare war on us within a few hours."

Lin Shiping let out a sigh, and then closed his eyes.

This is indeed unexpected.

The point is that the Kingdom of Bran sent a fleet into Scapa Naval Base before the official declaration of war, and de jure, this is tantamount to an undeclared war.

Of course, it is not strictly speaking, a sneak attack.

The Bran Kingdom is a member of the Western Continent Group, and most of the countries of the Western Continent Group have declared war on the Eastern Bloc, so according to the principle of common defense, the Bran Kingdom is already at war with the Eastern Bloc and the Liang Xia Empire, and there is no question of declaring war before going to war.

Besides, Scapa Bay originally belonged to the Bran Kingdom, but it was leased to the Liangxia Empire, and the Bran Kingdom has been seeking to reclaim this military port.

It's just that after the Bran Kingdom entered the war, all the illusions of preventing the outbreak of a global war came to naught!