Conquer Europe from the West

Chapter 172 Timing
To fight, or not to fight.

For Ryan, this was actually a very simple question, and the answer was very easy to give.

The Empire's navy is absolutely inferior to that of the United Kingdom in terms of strength. Therefore, for the Imperial Navy, they must achieve an overwhelming victory in this one and only fleet battle in exchange for the Empire's absolute control over the entire North Sea.

But the Imperial Navy has more to do than that.

After gaining control of the entire North Sea, the Empire also needed to immediately seize the entire sea route from Africa to Europe, and continuously send the resources of the Empire's African colonies back to the homeland to provide material support for subsequent battles.

Furthermore, the Empire also needs to wage war in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the far-off South America to seize the colonies and resources that rightfully belong to the United Kingdom.

After all, the main reason why the United Kingdom is the strongest in the world is that they control two-thirds of the planet's land.

This alone is far too difficult for the current empire.

However, the battle still needs to be fought.

After all, if the Empire and the United Kingdom were to choose to confront each other, what awaited both sides would be an endless Cold War and an arms race.

The news about the so-called expansion of the Imperial Navy, which was previously widely discussed by the United Kingdom, can be seen as a way of demonstrating the United Kingdom's fear of the Imperial Navy.

Admittedly, the Imperial Navy was weak, but anyone who actually went to war understands that fighting is largely a matter of luck. If you're lucky, you might be able to stay on the battlefield for years without incident, but if you're unlucky, you might die before you even leave the battlefield.

Schultz and McWeir are the people most qualified to speak on this matter.

"That depends on General Tirpitz's opinion."

After thinking for a long time, Ryan used this sentence as his reply to Lieutenant Colonel Catherine.

Although his tone was relaxed, Ryan's expression was still somewhat serious: "But it's certain that the navy will fight. The United Kingdom has really messed them up recently, and the lads are in high spirits. As long as the treaty is not renewed, the United Kingdom will definitely be the first to fire."

"They have hundreds of warships ready to be deployed at any time, far exceeding the Empire's main fleet, which is not a good thing."

"so what?"

Catherine immediately turned the tables and asked Ryan a question in return.

She didn't like this formulaic statement, because she had previously said that the Navy had issues with the Air Force, and that the United Kingdom was also provoking the Navy in various ways.

What Catherine wanted to hear was Raine's opinion on the entire operation, or even the campaign. This was essentially an assessment of Raine to see whether he had been focusing his attention on the Farlans or the United Kingdom recently.

But Raine's answer went in the wrong direction and didn't get to the point at all.

He did it on purpose.

Catherine was fully aware of this.

Raine naturally understood Catherine's meaning. At this time, the adjutant of the army group commander, a high-ranking officer of the Empire, and someone who had come all the way from the General Staff to meet him, was obviously not as simple as just coming to give some pointers on work as it appeared on the surface.

But here's the problem.

Those old hands in the General Staff are a bit too blunt.

They still seemed to regard Ryan as a rookie who had just graduated from school, thinking that as long as he followed the rules, he could get everything done without having to consider anything outside the rules.

But Ryan knows all about these things.

The reason Lieutenant Colonel Catherine would say these things and ask these questions at this time is simply because she is responding to the requests of certain people in the Army General Staff. It could be General Herringen, or it could be Krug or someone else. In short, the Army General Staff wants Rein to make a statement so that they can gain some benefits from the friction between the Navy and the Air Force.

If Renn were to say something like "it's good for the navy to go to war" here, then the army could support the navy and then pressure the Empire to allocate more funds to assist the navy in its operations, ensuring the smooth progress of the naval campaign. The reverse is also true.

But Raine had no intention of doing that at all.

Because the current budget allocation for the Imperial Air Force is actually just a pie in the sky that he promised to the Air Force half a year, or even more than half a year ago.

The cake was originally not supposed to be made, but someone forcibly took it from the emperor's private funds, and that's how it came to be.

Therefore, whether or not to support the navy was not a question between the military and the finance department, but rather a question of how much of His Majesty's private funds were left.

Ryan couldn't exactly let those Army General Staff guys go to the General Staff, hold a knife to their kidneys, and then say, "I want to expand the army, I want to buy new artillery."

I need the one from Shatou.

But he also needed to give Catherine an answer.

Or rather, he had to give the Army General Staff a satisfactory answer in this matter, in his capacity as a Navy honorary colonel, that would satisfy most of the generals.

He looked out the window; a light drizzle was hitting the glass, and in the distance was the same gray sky as always.

After a long while, until the dark clouds dispersed and sunlight began to shine through the gaps in the clouds, Raine finally spoke.

"The Empire's current military strength is sufficient to maintain the balance of power on all battlefields."

"A hasty change to the battle plan would make the current stable but fragile environment uncontrollable."

"We have enough time and space to maintain stability on the front lines, but on land, we are not so confident."

"If the Farlans can survive the past few winters, it means they can definitely survive the next few winters as well; it's just a matter of which parts they have to give up."

"What the Empire needs most right now is an opportunity to completely break the current stalemate."

A conservative answer.

For Catherine, and for the General Staff, it was enough.

A corner of the room.

Seeing that Ryan had formally given his opinion, Catherine also fell into deep thought.

She could understand the surface meaning of Raine's words, such as that the Empire should choose a conservative approach to the war at present, that the situation in Farlan was still unclear, that the deployment of troops should not be changed without authorization, and that an attack should not be launched without authorization, so as not to expose the information of our defense.

But she couldn't grasp the deeper meaning.

Where do we come from, in the sense of time and space?

As the invaded party in the war, the empire had long since run out of time, and as an empire surrounded by the three enclaves of France, the United Kingdom, and Tsarist Russia, it had long since run out of space.

Where can an empire that has neither time nor space find that precious opportunity?
Furthermore, the so-called opportunity that Ryan mentioned is one that could completely break the current stalemate.

Catherine's expression turned cold.

Several months later, she began to find it hard to understand this young man, who was only in his early twenties and almost the same age as her goddaughter.

And throughout the entire empire, only a handful of people who are equally adept in both politics and the military can achieve this.

(End of this chapter)