Let the opponent fight in a way that he is not good at.

This is the most critical part of Stark's battle plan.

Although he had only recently been promoted to Commodore to become commander of Task Force 51 and had been given command of the Fifth Fleet, Stark had spent more than 10 years studying the generals of the Liang Xia Navy, especially the young generals who could become opponents.

Among them is Bai Huawei.

As mentioned earlier, Bai Huawei is more good at defending. The most representative thing is that in the fleet confrontation exercise organized by the Liang Xia Navy, the fleet commanded by Bai Huawei was always in a defensive posture in the early stage, and the opponent's fighting spirit and combat strength were consumed through defense. When the tide of events is reversed and he has a large enough advantage, he will turn from defense to attack and defeat his opponent through a decisive fleet showdown.

Relying on this style of play, Bai Huawei rarely tasted defeat in fleet confrontation exercises.

However, the only few failures were directly related to the fact that they failed to enter a defensive state in the early stage of the exercise and were forced to launch an active attack.

This also reflects from one side that Bai Huawei is indeed not very good at attacking.

How to force Bai Huawei to choose to attack in the early stage of the war will determine the victory or defeat of the sea!

From this point of view, it is not difficult to understand why Stark went to great lengths to plan this true and false serial plan.

It's just that it's not critical.

According to Stark's assumption, the decisive battle with Bai Huawei was a later task, and luring Bai Huawei to attack in the early stage was actually to distract the attention of Liang Xia's navy and let Bai Huawei lead the 41st Task Force to other places, so as to gain the time needed to achieve a decisive victory.

This "decisive victory" was not in the Aliu Islands, but in the Khowaii Islands, and in the westernmost part of the archipelago.

That's right, it's Transit Island!

Here, the overall strategy of the Republic of Nuland is involved.

If it were up to the Republic of Nuland to decide on the timing of the third global war, it would be postponed by at least another 10 years, preferably by 20 years.

The reason is simple.

In the next 10 years, the Nuland Navy will acquire at least three Nitz-class supercarriers, and even hopefully four. If the time is extended to 20 years, the Nuland Navy will be able to acquire 6 to 8 supercarriers. As long as the international situation remains stable on the whole, then whether it is 10 years from now or 20 years from now, the Liangxia Navy will still have 15 aircraft carriers.

Of course, this is only the ideal scenario.

As the Nuland Navy grows, the Liang Xia Empire will definitely make changes to the law restricting the Navy to allow the Navy to have more aircraft carriers.

It's just that after 10 or 20 years, the Nuland Navy will definitely be able to compete with the Liang Xia Navy in the Guia Ocean.

At that point, the Nuland Republic will have even greater strategic ambitions, such as an even greater victory in World War III. Even if it is impossible to completely defeat the Liang Xia Empire, it can strive to dominate the Guia Ocean and return the situation in the Guia to the way it was before the Second Global War.

Unfortunately, it is not up to the Nuland Republic to decide exactly when the war will start.

The key is that the Nuland Republic must not abandon the Western Continent Group and call out to the Liangxia Empire alone.

In this way, the strategic objectives can only be adjusted.

The reality before the Nuland authorities is harsh.

To put it simply, the window of time left for the Nuland Federation is only one year, at most one and a half years, that is, the period before the Liangxia Empire completes its mobilization for war.

If we don't get a decisive victory before then, it will be more than just a difficult ride.

To put it more seriously, at this time, the Nuland leaders could only ask for more blessings for themselves, praying that the leaders of Liang Xia did not have the ambition to cross the Guia Ocean and expand their territory to the isolated continent.

In any case, the balance of strength between the two sides is there.

Over the years, especially in the more than 10 years since the restoration of diplomatic relations with the Liangxia Empire and the recognition of its superpower, the public opinion circles of the Nuland Republic have been filled with arrogant remarks, and many people seem to feel that after decades of development, the Nuland Republic has caught up with or even surpassed the Liangxia Empire. Someone specifically searched and listed a lot of so-called "data" to prove that the Liangxia Empire was in decline, and it would definitely be surpassed and replaced by the rising Nuland Republic, and that day would come soon.

More typically, the manufacturing industry of the Liangxia Empire is declining, and the service industry accounts for more than seventy percent!

But the problem is that the Liangxia Empire has 1 billion people, while the Nuland Republic is only a little more than 400 million.

In fact, even the entire Beigu Group only has a total of about 600 million people, and the Xilu Group led by the Juman Empire has a total of only 500 million.

In other words, the total population of these two groups barely surpassed that of the Liang Xia Empire!

Don't forget, the Liangxia Empire was not alone, there were dozens of member states in the Eastern Bloc, and the official population exceeded 1.8 billion!

Whether it is a comparison between countries or groups, the total population of the Liangxia Empire and the Eastern Bloc exceeds that of the opponents combined.

What is even more terrifying is that the Liangxia Empire has long been fully industrialized.

With a population of 1 billion and an urbanization rate of more than 85 percent, less than 5 percent of the population is engaged in the primary sector, while nearly 25 percent of the population is industrial.

In other words, the Liangxia Empire had an industrial population of 250 million!

The secondary sector accounts for about 35% of the population in the Nuland Republic, i.e. almost 150 million industrial population, compared to less than 30 million in the Empire.

In addition, the share of the tertiary sector is actually a very huge advantage in times of war.

To put it simply, the tertiary sector is more like a reservoir of labor.

After the country enters a state of war, a large number of tertiary industry laborers will become alternates in industry, military, agriculture and other industries.

As for labor skills, it was not a problem at all for the Liang Xia Empire, which had long since universalized compulsory education and was promoting higher education.

The key is that the Liangxia Empire has never abandoned its war preparations!

Although more than 40 years have passed since the end of the Second World War, many of the industrial facilities built during the war and during the post-war reconstruction period have been preserved. After the Polish-Iranian War, in order to consume huge domestic production capacity, the Liangxia Empire began to make a fuss about infrastructure construction. When Zhou Yongtao came to power, he opened the prelude to a new round of infrastructure construction in the name of "inland development".

Now, the Liangxia Empire has more than 360,000 kilometers of railways, the largest in the world and almost twice as long as the second-ranked Nuland Republic. With 180,000 kilometers of highways, the Liangxia Empire is the largest in the world, and the second-ranked Republic of Nuland is only one-third of it. The Liangxia Empire has a total of 26,000 airports and operates more than 80,000 flights, all of which are the first in the world and several times that of the second-ranked Republic of Nuland. Other industrial indicators, even if some of them are lower than those of the Republic of Nuland, are only temporary or very one-sided. For example, steel production, the local steel output of the Liangxia Empire was lower than that of the Newland Republic before the outbreak of the Great War, but the Liangxia Empire has always been the first in the world for high-value-added special steel, far exceeding the Newland Republic.

It can be seen that what the Liangxia Empire lacked was actually war mobilization.

When the Liangxia Empire completes its war mobilization, the war potential that has erupted is enough to challenge the whole world alone!

The key, that is, the population!

Strictly speaking, it is actually an industrial population that has knowledge, has the necessary labor skills, can participate in socialized large-scale production, and is a social person.

It's just that if there is not even enough population, where is the industrial population?

Undoubtedly, this is the key to the Nuland administration's high regard for the country of Van Roe.

In this world, in terms of population size alone, it can match the Liangxia Empire, and it is expected to surpass the Liangxia Empire in the future.

In fact, this is one of the reasons why the Nuland authorities are reluctant to fight a third global war at this time.

Despite the difficulties, in the eyes of Nuland's leaders, as long as there is enough time, Van Roe will definitely be able to industrialize.

Only on the day when the Van Luo Kingdom is industrialized can it be expected to completely defeat the Liangxia Empire.

In any case, at least in this big battle, don't expect an absolute victory.

Then, all that can be fought for is a one-sided victory.

Clearly, this is the crux of the overall strategy of the Nuland Republic.

In a word: strive to recapture the Khowaii Islands, which are actually controlled by the Liangxia Empire, within a year, at most a year and a half.

In this way, the offensive operations of the Nuland Navy had to be carried out around the Khowaii Islands.

Attack on the Aliu Islands?

Although the Nuland authorities have always claimed sovereignty over the Arras region, no one can deny that this claim of the Nuland authorities is difficult to recognize, or lacks legal basis. Besides, the Arras region is cold and barren, and its strategic value cannot be compared with that of the Khowaii Islands.

Even if the Nuland authorities have the will, they will first take back the Khowaii Islands.

If you want to take the Khowaii Islands in about a year, there is no superiority in troops, and it is very difficult.

Fight hard head-on, and there is no chance of winning.

At this point, tactics are key.

First of all, it is necessary to divert the main force of the Liang Xia Navy, that is, the 41st Task Force.

Second, it is also necessary to strive to gain sea supremacy in one fell swoop and reduce the difficulty of operations in the later stage.

Of course, after entering the landing operation stage, it is necessary to invest enough troops to ensure that the occupation operation is completed before the Liangxia navy launches a counterattack.

The key battle is actually to seize sea supremacy.

This is also the hardest part.

According to traditional thinking, to seize sea supremacy, it is necessary to find the enemy fleet for a decisive battle, and to gain sea supremacy by destroying the enemy fleet.

Undoubtedly, this is also a tactic that the Nuland Navy cannot use.

Even if 5 aircraft carriers are mobilized, and Stark is talented enough to be sure of annihilating Task Force 41, he may not be able to get a chance to fight a decisive battle.

In fact, this is also the reason why Liang Xia's navy arranged for Bai Huawei to command the 41st task force.

It is precisely in this way that Stark proposed the battle plan of "dominating the sea by land".

To put it simply, it is to blockade the Khowaii Islands by seizing an island of critical value and cutting off the route to the Khowaii Islands.

In the entire Khowaii archipelago, this key island is the transit island.

The transit island is almost 2,000 kilometers from Hounu Island, and about 2,000 kilometers west to Wei Island, which is exactly more than the combat radius of shore-based fighters.

As long as the transit island can be taken in one fell swoop, the Khowaii Islands can be blocked by combat aircraft deployed on the island.

At this point, the Liang Xia Navy will have no choice but to send a fleet to launch a counterattack, that is, a decisive battle with the Nuland fleet around the transit island.

The difficulty of attacking the transit island is not attacking the transit island itself.

Theoretically, as long as the preliminary preparations are fully in place, the transit island can be laid within 3 days, or at most 5 days, and there is no possibility of long-term attack.

In fact, the transit island itself is easy to attack and difficult to defend.

It is precisely because of this that in the past few decades, the Liangxia Navy has not attached much importance to the transit island, or has not invested too many resources in the defense and deployment of the transit island.

In peacetime, a shore-based aviation wing of less than 2,000 men was stationed at the transit island.

After the outbreak of the war, the Imperial Navy only added a few hundred additional personnel to serve the dozens of additional patrol aircraft.

The real difficulty is actually to seize sea supremacy.

According to Stark's judgment, Task Force 41 would certainly operate south of the Howaii Islands and west of Jotun Island, and would not be too close to the Howaii Islands. When the Republic of Nuland enters the war, Bai Huawei will also make appropriate adjustments to the area of activity of the 41st Task Force according to the situation.

To put it simply, it is to stay in the covered waters of shore-based aviation and at the same time provide cover for the Khowaii Islands.

As long as the 41st Task Force is still there, the Nuland Navy will not want to let go of its hands and feet, and at most bomb the Howaii Islands, and there will definitely be no way to launch a landing operation.

Obviously, Task Force 41 could have stayed south of the Khowaii Islands and dispatched carrier-based aircraft from 1,000 kilometers away to attack the Nuland forces that landed on the Khowaii Islands. Because they did not dare to let the fleet venture south, what could have been a quick decisive battle that could be completed in a few days would turn into a war of attrition.

Task Force 41 did not even need to dispatch carrier-based aviation, but only with cruise missiles to deal a head-on blow to the Nuland troops landing on the Khowaii Islands. Even for the sake of safety, they can go to the waters near Wei Island and dispatch carrier-based aircraft to provide escort cover for strategic bombers.

As long as Task Force 41 is operating in the vicinity of the Khowaii Islands, it will be a big problem.

Stark bets that Bai Huawei dreams of fighting a war of attrition.

It only needs to drag on for a few months, and when those aircraft carriers that were previously maintained in the port return to the fleet, Bai Huawei will turn from defense to attack at the right time.

In fact, what Stark tried to avoid was a war of attrition.

If anything, this is also the fundamental reason why Stark has made so many reputations, and it can be said that he has tried his best to lure Task Force 41 away even if he has to take risks.

Stark didn't have much luxury, he just wanted to get 3 to 5 days.

As mentioned earlier, if all goes well, the transit island can be laid in 3 to 5 days.

At that time, even if the 41st Task Force returned, there would be nothing to fear, at most a fleet decisive battle.

That's why Stark chose to make a feint in the waters east of Jotun Island.

As long as Task Force 41 is fooled, even if it turns back after reaching the island of Jotun, it will take two days to sail unilaterally.

If it had been known in advance that Task Force 41 had turned east, it would have been at least three days.

Now, Stark is waiting for news from Task Force 41!