69novels Chapter 186: Stupid Neon Empire Army
Chapter 186: Stupid Neon Empire Army
The Neon Empire Navy's expedition ended in a disastrous defeat, which meant that the country's available naval power was reduced by nearly one-sixth.
Judging from the proportion alone, it seems that the losses suffered by the Neon Empire are not too severe.
But in fact, the key to the Neon Empire avoiding being annexed by the Northern Empire is that it has always been able to maintain more than a hundred warships patrolling and cruising near the long coastline of the Northern Empire.
However, in this battle, Liu Rengui on Zhang Wei's side not only managed to capture twenty-six warships, but also sank six;
In addition, six warships were damaged and scrapped in the battle of Zovia Harbor.
In the end, only twenty-two warships escaped back to the Neon Empire, and these surviving warships still faced heavy repair work and personnel rest issues.
As a result, the original naval combat plan, which was based on one-third of the ships carrying out combat missions, one-third on duty and guard, and one-third on rest and standby, suddenly had a huge gap of up to thirty-eight or even sixty warships.
Due to this tragic defeat, the Imperial Navy Minister who strongly supported the expedition was forced to step down, and the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of related affairs was also forced to resign.
At this point, the Imperial Army regained the upper hand, suppressed the Imperial Navy, and even made a ridiculous and unreasonable demand that they also need ship equipment.
After gaining power, the Neon Empire Army became more and more arrogant and conceited. They did not care about the real national conditions and current situation of the Neon Empire at all, and were only thinking about how to take the opportunity to expand their sphere of influence.
What the Neon Empire urgently needed at this time was to replenish the number of warships to ensure that there were always over a hundred warships cruising along the long coastline of the Northern Empire.
However, the Imperial Army forcibly occupied the already extremely scarce share of shipbuilding for various reasons, and blatantly used the ship quota that should have been allocated to the Imperial Navy for its own use.
Not only that, the Neon Empire Army also carefully planned a two-pronged conspiracy:
On the one hand, they planned to make drastic reforms to the existing warship construction plan, trying to emulate the special warship model used by Liu Rengui, and create a group of multi-purpose plundering warships that could participate in naval battles, transport troops, and even serve as merchant ships on weekdays.
Who would have thought that the ship type that Liu Rengui had to choose would become the valuable war experience and secret to victory for the Neon Empire Army.
In fact, the Neon Empire Army could have built ships specifically for transporting army troops to meet the demand, but they were obviously unwilling to do so, because their real purpose was always to suppress the Imperial Navy at all costs, rather than really acting in the interests of the Neon Empire.
At the same time, the Neon Empire Army carefully planned an ingenious farce - letting the people of the kingdom govern themselves.
They divided the areas into Chad City, Demar City, Buzau Castle, Imana Port and Bolante Port, selected a royal member from the Kingdom of Holy Light as a puppet commander, and established the so-called "Kingdom Restoration Army".
The instigator of this farce, the Neon Empire's Army Department, complacently believed that in this way, it could not only successfully extricate the Empire from being dragged into the quagmire of the Kingdom's civil war, but also absolutely protect the Empire's various interests within the Kingdom from being harmed in the slightest.
Because they clearly stipulated the specific tax amounts and material production requirements to this "Kingdom Restoration Army".
Even if faced with frequent looting by the fleet led by Liu Rengui, so what?
Even though they tried their best and suffered untold hardships, the Kingdom Restoration Army would never dare to pay tribute short of even a single dinar.
When Zhang Wei, Yuan Shao and Liu Rengui heard about the "Kingdom Restoration Army", a brilliant plan immediately emerged in their minds that could completely bring down the Neon Empire.
Immediately afterwards, Liu Rengui decided to change his strategy and no longer attack the merchant ships of the Neon Empire, but instead shift the focus of the attack to the puppet merchant ships of the Wang Guofu Army.
Because the Neon Empire Army absurdly handed over the defenses of Port Bolant and Port Imana to the Kingdom Restoration Army, this decision not only failed to enhance the economic strength of the Kingdom Restoration Army, but instead became an extremely heavy burden on their shoulders.
After all, to maintain the normal operation of these two ports, the taxes to be paid and the amount of material supplies to be provided are the largest.
This is like a skinny person who is malnourished and hungry, sometimes he has food to eat and sometimes he is hungry, but suddenly he turns into a fat person with a bloated body.
However, faced with this unprecedented indigestion symptom, he felt extremely painful, but he was at a loss as to how to alleviate the pain.
At the same time, a mosquito was growing bigger and bigger and kept harassing him, sucking a mouthful of blood from him from time to time.
And that mosquito was none other than the privateering fleet under Liu Rengui's command.
By now, the size of Liu Rengui's privateering fleet had expanded to twenty-four warships, one of which was led by him personally, and the other was commanded by his adjutant.
This time, Liu Rengui set his sights on Port Bolante, which he had not previously touched.
For Liu Rengui, the battle situation here was quite severe and challenging.
If we zoom in on the map, we can see that the Kingdom of Holy Light and the Neon Empire are like two peninsulas extending from the mainland, while Port Bolant is like a small peninsula protruding from the east side of the Kingdom of Holy Light and bending to the northeast.
Together with the archipelago in the west of the Neon Empire, it made the original strait even narrower.
This means that the scope of Liu Rengui's looting here was reduced by nearly half compared to his previous looting in Imana Port.
If the Neon Empire Army had not made a stupid mistake, according to Liu Rengui's original plan, at least thirty-six or even more privateer warships would have to be sent north to station at Port Bolant.
In this way, every time they plunder, they can ensure that they have superior military forces and are able to compete with the warships of the Neon Empire that come to encircle and suppress them.
However, at this moment, Liu Rengui does not need to worry too much.
Because they not only need to continue to squeeze the living space of the Kingdom Restoration Army, but also need to further create an illusion for the Neon Empire Army - that the current naval battles only require the use of ships such as privateers, and those expensive warships are already outdated.
The Kingdom Restoration Army, which the Neon Empire had high hopes for, was like a person suffering from gastroenteritis and indigestion, and now it was being strangled by someone, and began to have difficulty breathing. Less than three months after its establishment, this restoration army had to ask for help from the Neon Empire Army...