September 9, Orkney Islands, Scarpa Naval Base.

Looking at the Imperial Navy flag slowly lowering from the flagpole, Li Shenzhi had a very unreal feeling, like dreaming with his eyes open.

It has been 47 years since the first Imperial Navy warship sailed into this harbor and the Imperial Navy flag was raised at the pier.

Although according to the agreement reached with the Bran Kingdom after the war, the entire military port will be returned after 7 years, including the military base near the port, but as the eighth commander of the Imperial Navy's post-war Sunset Ocean Fleet, and the nephew of Generalissimo Li Mingbo, the last commander-in-chief of the Imperial Navy, Li Shenzhi did not believe that he would be the last commander to lower the Imperial Navy flag at Scapa Naval Base.

At the beginning of the year, Li Shenzhi once thought that this kind of unlucky thing would not be his turn.

In fact, Scapa Bay was also the last naval base of the Empire in the North Sunset.

In its heyday, at the end of the last war, there were more than a dozen military bases of all sizes on the side of the Imperial Navy alone.

Because it was too far away from the isolated continent, Scapa Bay was not very valued at that time.

Prior to the resumption of diplomatic relations with the Republic of Nuland, the Imperial Navy's number one base in the North Sunset was Bermuda, followed by Guantanamo, Cuba. At its peak, at the beginning of the Polish-Iranian War, there were more than 1,000 combat aircraft deployed in these two places.

After establishing diplomatic relations with the Republic of Nuland, it gradually abandoned the military base on the west coast of the North and Sunset Oceans in accordance with the agreement on the establishment of diplomatic relations.

Of course, the main reason is still the strategic contraction that followed the Polish-Iranian war.

It was from this time that Scapa Bay's position was cemented, eventually becoming the Empire's only naval base in the North Sunset.

However, "unique" does not mean "important".

To a large extent, Scapa Bay is more of a symbol of where the Imperial Navy once was, the overlord of the entire Sunset Ocean and the entire Western Hemisphere.

Even if we don't withdraw now, we will have to withdraw in a few years.

One of the preconditions for the resumption of diplomatic relations with the Republic of Nuland was to abandon the military bases seized and controlled in the North Setting Ocean during World War II. Reciprocal, the Republic of Nuland is committed to setting aside the dispute over the Khowaii Islands and not to undermine the status quo by force.

In order to circumvent this problem, the Imperial authorities signed an agreement with the Kingdom of Bran to lease Scapa Bay for 20 years.

With this agreement, the Imperial Navy kept Scapa Bay.

Although the agreement stipulates that the lease will be automatically extended for 5 years in the year before the expiration, as long as both parties do not object, and so on, in the current situation, especially since the Kingdom of Bran has clearly fallen to the Nuland Republic, there is no reason to continue to extend the lease period.

In this way, Scapa Bay will have to be returned to the Kingdom of Bran after 7 years.

However, restitution and retreat are clearly two different things.

Next to the pier, the cruiser "Wuzhou", which was the last to depart, sounded the whistle of anchoring.

It was also the flagship of the Imperial Navy's North Sunset Fleet, a cruiser that had been in service for more than 20 years and had a displacement of less than 10,000 tons.

Shabby enough!

In its heyday, the Beixi Luoyang Squadron had 14 aircraft carriers, large and small, as well as hundreds of ships, in addition to nearly 1,000 combat aircraft.

Today, there are fewer than 10 ships and a few helicopters.

But who is to blame for this?

Almost everyone believes that the first person responsible for the empire's decline from prosperity to decline is Lian Xusheng.

First of all, after the end of the war, Lian Xusheng proposed to help all countries, including the defeated countries, rebuild, and spent tens of billions of gold dollars. It was precisely by relying on the assistance provided by the empire that the countries of the Western Continent, led by the Empire, were able to recover quickly after the war.

Although the Empire did not have diplomatic relations with the Newland Republic, which did not have diplomatic relations at the time, the Newland Republic also benefited greatly, and most of the funds for its reconstruction came from export trade, and it was the countries of the Western Continent that sent orders to Newland enterprises.

Secondly, Lian Xusheng actively advocated sending troops to Boi, and the empire fell to the altar in this war.

Obviously, such a view is actually very one-sided.

After the end of the war, the empire helped other countries to rebuild after the war, more like the export of capital, and the empire gained financial supremacy.

To put it another way, without the post-war export of capital, there would have been no international financial system dominated by imperial gold dollars.

Even in the case of prosperity and decline, the imperial gold dollar, which is tied to oil, is still the world's main settlement currency, and the empire also firmly controls the pricing power of oil, and dominates international finance and trade, and obtains immeasurable benefits through the control of coinage.

Can this be said to be Lian Xusheng's fault?

Obviously, if Lian Xusheng hadn't played this hand back then, it would have been impossible for the empire to gain financial hegemony!

As for the Polish-Iranian war, it was the same for other chiefs.

In addition, before replacing the Republic of There as the main belligerent, even the most powerful military strategists could not have imagined that they would suffer a crushing defeat.

The Liangxia Empire, which won the Second Global War, had the world's largest population and strongest army, and was supported by dozens of allies, turned out to be not only 50 million people, but also had not even completed industrialization, and had been suffering in the war for several years.

Of course, the root cause is a change in the international balance of power.

In the eight years that followed, the Empire's opponents were not only the Boi Kingdom, but also the Nuland Republic.

From this point of view, even if the empire had not suffered a setback in Poland, it would have suffered a crushing defeat elsewhere, such as Mexico, which was closer to the Nuland Republic.

To put it simply, with the rapid rise of the Nuland Republic as the third pole in the world, the expansion of the empire at the strategic level has also come to an end.

The transition from strategic expansion to strategic contraction is inevitable.

Fundamentally, prosperity and decline are inevitable outcomes for any powerful empire.

As long as the competition between the great powers still exists, and as long as the empire cannot maintain the strongest momentum all the time, the balance of power with other powers will sooner or later change. When the advantages of the empire are reduced, it must turn from expansion to contraction, and some interests must be sacrificed.

Obviously, this is not the reason why a certain Shousuke is not strong.

Objectively speaking, in the late stage of the Polish-Iranian War, Lian Xusheng's decision to withdraw troops was reversed to keep the revival capital, laying the foundation for his re-emergence more than ten years later.

That's the key.

In the later stages of the Polish-Iranian War, if it was a civilian chief, there was absolutely no way to suppress the military generals and make the military honestly accept the decision to withdraw.

With the situation at that time, there was even a possibility of a military coup d'état.

The reason is also very simple, the imperial army fought hard in the country of Poland for eight years, invested hundreds of thousands of troops, and more than 50,000 soldiers were killed and missing.

Say withdraw?

After the Great War, the Imperial army has not lost a battle!

At that time, the only one who could control the situation was a commander like Lian Xusheng, who had absolute prestige in the army and had absolute control over the army.

Even Lian Xusheng took 2 years to prepare for the withdrawal of troops.

If the empire had not withdrawn its troops from the Boi country at that time, but continued to fight, I am afraid that in a few years, the empire would have lost its hegemony due to civil strife.

Throughout history, powerful empires have collapsed from within!

From this point of view, Lian Xusheng's decision-making in the late Polish-Iranian War was not only not wrong, but also very wise.

As for the decision to go to war in the first place, in fact, there was no choice.

In addition to the fact that no one expected a fiasco, it also had a lot to do with the international situation at that time.

By the time the empire decided to send troops to the war, more than 20 years after the end of the Second Global War, international contradictions had become very acute.

In fact, the outbreak of the war of independence in the Poi-I region was itself the result of the intensification of the international situation.

To a large extent, the war, which has lasted for more than a decade, can be seen as depressurizing post-war tensions.

If the Empire abandons the Republic of There and acquiesces to the independence of the Bouillan state, it will soon be involved in another war, such as the New-Mexico border conflict, which was already raging at the time. If the empire were to get involved in the strife in the northern region, it would inevitably lead to a third global war.

According to the information that was later declassified, before sending troops to the Boi area, the imperial military had already drawn up a battle plan to send troops to the North Lonely region to help Mexico recapture the lost territories such as Southern California, New Mexico and Arizona, and the ultimate goal was to dismember Nuland into several countries!

The problem was that the Empire's military strength at the time was not enough to accomplish this feat.

It was at this time that Lian Xusheng, who returned to the official residence of the first assistant, approved the dispatch of troops to the Boyi region at the first time, that is, to officially participate in the Boyi War.

From this point of view, it was actually Lian Xusheng who saved the empire!

Obviously, in the current "general trend", the tiny Scarpa Bay is nothing.

Boarding the cruiser "Wuzhou", Li Shenzhi did not go to command the bridge, but stayed on the foredeck.

As the cruiser slowly left the dock, he raised his right hand and gave a standard military salute to the last officers and men left behind to see him off on the pier.

The Great War had not yet broken out, so the Imperial Navy did not announce the withdrawal of troops from the Scarpa Naval Base.

In addition, these left-behind officers and soldiers are also shouldering a sacred mission.

Destroy the naval base after the outbreak of the Great War, to be precise, destroy all the infrastructure inside the base, and blockade the military port with mines.

To put it bluntly, the Imperial Navy can't use it, and don't think about anything else!

For this reason, in the past half month, the officers and men of the fleet have laid thousands of mines in the harbor, and all of them are intelligent mines.

When the insurance is lifted, these mines can turn Scapa Bay into a backwater!

In addition, explosives were planted in all the buildings, and they were prepared for directional blasting.

At that time, it only takes one command to detonate these explosives and destroy all the infrastructure that cannot be taken away and can be used by the enemy!

These dozens of officers and soldiers have all volunteered to stay, but there is no need to worry about them.

"Wuzhou" was only the last surface warship to be evacuated.

Outside the harbor, in the deep waters to the south, there was an attack submarine of the Imperial Navy on standby, and the submarine was only half manned.

If a major war breaks out, the remaining officers and men will return the submarine to the Empire after destroying Scapa Bay.

As a matter of fact, among the officers and men who stayed behind, except for a few Marine Corps explosives experts, the others were officers and men of the submarine force.

Of course, whether it can return to the empire directly is still two words.

According to the deployment, after the outbreak of the war, all attack submarines operating in the North Sunset Ocean will immediately enter a combat state.

That's right, it is to block the route of the North Sunset Ocean and attack the transport ships between the Lonely Continent and the Western Continent.

In large-scale wars, breaking diplomatic relations is always the first task of submarines.

Don't look at the Imperial Navy has the world's most powerful surface fleet, only 15 large aircraft carriers and supercarriers, but many people ignore that the Imperial Navy also has the world's strongest underwater fleet, of which 40 "Nanjiang" class attack submarines have been built, and the number of planned construction is as high as 80, and the design of the next-generation attack submarine with more advanced performance has also been completed, and it is planned to start construction within 3 years.

At any one time, the Imperial Navy had at least 72 attack submarines in service.

Even if the 30 ships that are integrated into the aircraft carrier battle group are removed, there are 42 attack submarines used to carry out the task of breaking diplomatic relations.

In addition, the attack submarines of the Imperial Navy are known for their large tonnage and good performance, with the "Nanjiang" class having 7,000 tons, while the previous "Beihe" class also has 6,000 tons. In order to meet the performance indicators proposed by the Navy, the "Xuhai" class, which has completed the design, has reached a record 9,000 tons.

It's just that there are not many submarines operating in the North Sunset.

According to the information obtained by Li Shenzhi, the four attack submarines of the Beixi Luoyang Squadron will stay, and the Lu Xinhai Detachment may also send two submarines over. Even if the four submarines of the Nanxi Luoyang subfleet are counted, only 10 can carry out the task of breaking diplomatic relations in the Beixi Luoyang.

Of course, there are certainly not so many.

The main thing is that submarines are also needed to carry out the task of breaking diplomatic relations on the side of the South Sunset.

As for surface ships, not a single one!

As a matter of fact, in the absence of absolute superiority in troops, the deployment of surface warships in the North and the Sunset Ocean is tantamount to sending them to death, and there is no meaning whatsoever.

It is not an easy task to achieve absolute superiority in forces.

Even if we do not take into account the shore-based aviation forces that we will inevitably face, we must invest at least three aircraft carrier battle groups before it is possible to gain sea supremacy. If there is a competition for air supremacy with shore-based aviation, then at least six aircraft carrier battle groups need to be deployed, and they can only operate in the open ocean.

In fact, in the context of a global war, the Navy will certainly not be able to challenge a bloc alone.

This was also the key to the Imperial Navy's decision to abandon Scapa Bay.

The military base behind the enemy line cannot be held at all!

In addition, Scapa Bay is certainly not as important as Alexandria, so there is no need to waste troops for Scapa Bay.

That's right, Lee Shenzhi will go to Alexandria.

According to the arrangement of the General Staff, Li Shenzhi will serve as the commander of the Lu Xinhai detachment, responsible for the defense of Alexandria and the Xifan Canal.

Here is the last line of defense.

No matter what the cost, or how many troops need to be invested, the port must be held in order to control the Shifan Canal.

The time left for Li Shenzhi is only 2 to 3 days.

That's enough, though.

The "Wuzhou" sailed at a speed of 24 knots, passed the Strait of Dover, and will be able to enter the Luxinhai tomorrow and reach the eastern waters of the Luxinhai the day after tomorrow.

The key is that the "Tang Dezu" aircraft carrier battle group is operating in the heart of the eastern continent.

With aircraft carriers, there's nothing to be afraid of.

After decades of development, the most powerful thing in the Imperial Navy is still the aircraft carrier, and all the combat tactics are carried out around the aircraft carrier!