Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 171 The Ever-Victorious Fleet
"War will definitely break out again."

Ryan's opinion on Lieutenant Colonel Catherine's remarks was simple and straightforward.

Unlike other officers who were optimistic about the war, Ryan knew from the day the war began that it would not end so easily.

He used the same rhetoric in front of Field Marshal Schlieffen, he used the same rhetoric in front of the Emperor, and he used the same rhetoric with the General Staff and the theater staff under the General Staff.

Most officers held different views on his perspective.

But their reactions were mostly the same: the war would inevitably end quickly.

This is not their fault. After all, in the past few modern wars, most conflicts between countries could be resolved within two to three months. If it took more than two or three months, it was likely that one side had stationed troops on the other side's territory, just like the Empire's current situation.

However, at present, only the Kingdom of Perijer has troops stationed there.

On the other hand, some officers initially doubted the prevailing view. Like Raine, they supported a major, protracted war because the industrial base of the Empire and Farland was not significantly different, and Farland had the United Kingdom as an ally.

Therefore, they thought the war might last for years. However, after Raine led his troops to stop the Farland army in the Alsace-Lorraine region, destroyed the headquarters of the Farland First Army, and cooperated with the Fifth and Sixth Armies to eliminate the Farland resistance in the Verdun region and neutralize Verdun, those officers began to become more optimistic.

The only ones who felt tense during this period were probably the Imperial Air Force.

The Imperial Air Force is a very young yet very old force.

Unlike Earth, this world has buoyancy units, which allowed humans to gain the ability to fly in the sky much earlier.

Initially, humans used hot air balloons and wooden hulls to launch their spaceships into the sky. After discovering methods for producing gases such as hydrogen and helium, they shifted to producing airships.

As has been said in the past, the Imperial Air Force's enemies have always been airships and aircraft, so with the exception of the Wave-class, almost all airships have followed the placement of top-mounted fire turrets.

But everything changed after Raine commanded the Wave-class battleships and captured two Lion-class battlecruisers through land attacks.

Air Force officers and ship captains immediately realized that automated turrets and automatic firepower would suppress ground units more effectively than any known weaponry, while the airships of Farland and the United Kingdom had not yet begun such modifications.

To put it bluntly, if the Imperial Air Force could quickly shift all of its firepower from top-mounted to bottom- and mid-mounted positions, then the Imperial Navy would be able to safely attack other countries' airships and ground forces using a low-to-high and high-to-low attack strategy.

The General Staff understood this, so it prioritized providing substantial financial allocations for the upgrade programs of the Wave and Zeppelin-class airships, which in turn provoked discontent from the Navy.

The issue is.

"However, now that the United Kingdom knows that the Imperial Navy is not upgrading its warships or building ships, they will probably soon find out what the Empire is up to."

Torn the documents that had been sitting on the table for some time into pieces and tossed them into the fireplace, Ryan returned to his desk without flinching under Lieutenant Colonel Catherine's watchful gaze: "The General Staff will probably start the war immediately after negotiations completely break down. What's the current movement of the United Kingdom's naval fleet? Ostend and the Kingdom are separated only by a strait. If war breaks out, we'll be the first place attacked." The Imperial Navy hadn't deployed a fleet to Ostend, firstly because Ostend was a designated supply port for both countries' warships, so there was no need to establish a regular fleet presence there to prevent impulsive clashes among the naval personnel.

Secondly, Ostend's port is not suitable for warships or the Empire's current cruisers. Those ships can only stay on the water several nautical miles from the port. To be honest, ships would be rocking like skewers from a night market vendor in those places. No one with a sound mind would want to anchor in such a place.

Similarly, for the reasons mentioned above, although Rein's troops were stationed in Ostend, only mid- to high-ranking officers were actually allowed to leave their posts and operate around the harbor.

Considering the nature of the troops and the existence of the airship force stationed just thirty kilometers from the coastline, Renn was certain that it wouldn't be long before the Kingdom's people would discover that the Empire's refurbished ships were actually airships.

The rest is no longer something those people in the capital need to handle.

Because Raine would never be willing to give up his only precious air mobility unit.

Once the Empire and the Kingdom officially resume a state of war, he would have to risk his head to immediately send troops to attack the United Kingdom's homeland or fleet.

The sole purpose of this action is to ensure that the United Kingdom loses its ability to produce large airships and other large aerial vehicles for at least one year.

Ryan didn't have much time to consider how the other branches of the Navy and Air Force would react, much less to consider whether doing so would lead to a so-called literal, irreconcilable conflict between the Empire and the Kingdom.

All he could do was to ensure that the kingdom posed no threat to him as much as possible, while his own troops still possessed tactical and equipment advantages.

But Catherine had a different opinion.

She came from the General Staff Department. Although she couldn't obtain more precise intelligence, she was very familiar with the rumors circulating within the General Staff Department.

"But General Bismarck seems to want to fight the kingdom at sea."

She sat there, her gaze fixed on the slowly burning fireplace, her whole being illuminated by the vibrant firelight.

"Both the High Seas Fleet and the Baltic Fleet have recently completed their pre-war training, and the continuous exercises have kept the morale of the troops at its highest level..."

"The United Kingdom's fleet hasn't fought a war in almost twenty years. The last time it fought was in 1897, when the enemy only had one gunboat, so it wasn't a real fleet battle..."

As she spoke, Catherine turned her gaze toward Ryan.

"But they are still the nation with the strongest fleet, and have not suffered a defeat in the past 109 years."

(End of this chapter)