"Hou Chensheng and Fu Weimin are the kind of virtues, so don't take it to your heart."

"Although I don't know General Fu Weimin very well, I know the truth about Lao Hou." Bai Huawei smiled and turned to say, "After you left the imperial capital, Huamin went to Pasi from Nangu Continent. I only learned about this after she got there."

Ding Zhennan was very confused and did not understand what Bai Huawei meant.

"Go to meet with President Newland's special envoy."

"It's started?" Ding Zhennan secretly breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that his worries were self-indulgent.

Bai Huawei nodded and continued, "I received a telegram from Huamin before I left, saying that I would stay in Pasi for a while, maybe a few months. As for the specific circumstances of the negotiations, she did not say that the secret negotiations in Pasi involved the core interests of the empire."

"I see."

Seeing Ding Zhennan nodding, Bai Huawei didn't hint anymore.

In fact, in the first sentence, it contains the key information that Ding Zhennan needs to know, namely Bai Huamin's stay in Pasi Country.

If the secret negotiations were not rewarded, Bai Huamin would not have mentioned that he would stay for a few more months.

In addition, Bai Huamin must have gone to Pasi as the Chief Secretary, so matters related to the negotiations are reported directly to the Chief Secretary. During the war, negotiations involving the special envoy representing the Supreme Leader were already at the highest level, and major issues related to core interests were discussed.

"What does the above mean?"

Bai Huamin sighed first before saying, "Before coming here, the Prime Minister talked to me about the mission of this trip, but did not mention the matter on Parsi. He just repeatedly emphasized that the Southern Subcontinent is the top priority at present, and the battle in the next few months will determine how the war will end. The Prime Minister also mentioned that the Empire has gone through the most difficult period, so don't have any ideological burden, let us go."

"That's what the chief minister said?"

"It's not the original words of the prime minister, but it's basically what it means."

After hearing what Bai Huawei said, Ding Zhennan sighed and shook his head with a wry smile.

Obviously, the Prime Minister said this just because he hoped that the frontline commander would not be timid, not that he had really overcome the difficulties.

In a sense, the test has just arrived.

As mentioned earlier, the results of the offensive and defensive battle in the Hovayi Islands were completely opposite to what the imperial authorities expected, and it inevitably had an impact on the development of the battle situation. The most prominent impact was that the time for launching strategic counterattacks and strategic offensives was to advance the overall time of launching strategic counterattacks and strategic offensives by several months.

This is by no means a happy thing in the modern war supported by logistics support.

Take the battle situation in the East Ocean as an example.

After the end of the offensive and defensive battle of the Howai Islands, if the empire chooses a relatively conservative strategy, that is, it will stop when it is better and only starts to consolidate the defense deployment of the Howai Islands, and does not rely on the Howai Islands to carry out strategic strikes on the Republic of Newland. The only result that can be produced is to allow the Newland Air Force to take this opportunity to use strategic bombers deployed in the local west coast to attack the Howai Islands.

If so, the Newland Air Force has a high possibility of taking the initiative and at least controlling the rhythm of war.

The reason is simple. The Hovay Islands only have a few large islands suitable for deploying strategic aviation, and can build up to a few large air bases. Opposite the sea, the area of ​​the west coast of Newland is more than 2 million square kilometers, and there are dozens of large air bases available.

The key is that the Newland Air Force has only one strategic direction for the time being.

In other words, the Newland Air Force can use all bombers and essential cruise missiles to deal with the Hovay Islands.

Even if we have to send troops to the Western Continent next, the Newland Air Force has only two strategic directions.

In comparison, the Imperial Air Force has at least three strategic directions. If the situation in the Beixuan area is out of control and the sea routes in Nanxi Luoyang need to be blocked, the strategic direction will be added by 1 or 2. Therefore, the Imperial Air Force will definitely not be able to use all bombers for strategic bombing operations against Newland.

In addition, ammunition is also extremely critical.

Such bombing operations that raid thousands of kilometers, especially before destroying the enemy's air defense system, are cruise missiles.

Unfortunately, on the Empire, cruise missiles have always been in short supply, especially air-launched models.

Even by the beginning of next year, the supply of cruise missiles may not be able to meet combat needs.

If it develops into a war of attrition, the Imperial Air Force may not be able to laugh to the end.

Then, we must take the initiative in the war and destroy the enemy's counterattack ability through active offensive actions to avoid a war of attrition.

Although more troops are needed and more ammunition is consumed in the early stage of the attack, after taking the initiative in the battlefield and suppressing the enemy, the troops invested and ammunition consumed will be reduced, and the final consumption will definitely be much lower than passive defense.

It is precisely this that the Imperial Air Force had to increase troops to the front line after the outbreak and defense of the Hovay Islands and carry out strategic bombing on Newland's homeland.

The resulting impact is that the burden of logistics support is far greater than pre-war estimates.

Of course, the situation in other directions is similar.

It was originally possible that several months could be spent to strengthen logistics support and stockpile the materials needed to launch an offensive, and the combat troops could also prepare for combat in an orderly manner, but because the offensive operation began in advance, almost all pre-war preparations could not be completed in time.

Relatively speaking, the Northwest War Zone is the least affected.

After all, after the arrival of winter, the warring sides entered a state of "truce" and started fighting again, which would be next spring.

The situation before the empire is very simple.

In the next few months, before next spring, the results of the Imperial Army will determine the final outcome of the war.

There is no doubt that the key is the Southern Subcontinent.

After pondering for a while, Ding Zhennan sighed heavily again.

Bai Huawei could only sigh secretly. After all, if he wanted to pursue the matter, he would have to bear the main responsibility.

"If I'm not wrong, our combat operations will definitely have an impact on the negotiations."

"Is there any need to say?" Bai Huawei replied casually.

Ding Zhennan's eyes turned around, staring at Bai Huawei for a while, then he said: "The key is that the Newland authorities are also paying attention to the battle situation here."

"You mean..."

"The most critical point is that at the strategic level, the Republic of Newland has been defeated, and what we can fight for now is nothing more than losing less."

"Less loss means winning."

Ding Zhennan nodded and continued: "It is obvious that under the current situation, under the truce with us, the Newland Republic will lose completely."

"this……"

"Although I am not a diplomat and do not know much about diplomatic negotiations, in my understanding, in the initial stage, our asking price will definitely not be low. As the saying goes, asking for the price all over the place, paying the money. The offer price is not high enough, and there is no way to talk about it later." Ding Zhennan smiled and turned to say: "Since the Newland army's attack on the Howai Islands has been defeated, they will definitely talk about the Howai Islands, such as asking the Newland authorities to completely give up their sovereignty claims over the Howai Islands, and even admit that the Howai Islands belong to the empire."

Bai Huawei was stunned for a moment, and then looked at Ding Zhen Nantou with a shocked and unbelievable look.

Annexation of the Hovay Islands!?

Obviously, this is by no means a simple military issue, but a political issue involving the foundation of the empire and the law.

Shortly after the end of the Second Global War, that is, after Lian Xu was promoted to the first term of the Chief Secretary, the two houses of the Imperial House of Discussions took advantage of the opportunity of the civilian chief secretary to rule and passed the Imperial Sovereignty Law, aiming to limit external expansion, and made a clear definition of the empire's sovereignty and territory.

At that time, the purpose of this bill was actually to target defeated countries and backward areas that applied for and returned to the empire after the war.

Not to mention anything else, even the Nayi Empire passed a bill to be incorporated into the Empire as a special province the following year after the war ended, and it was officially submitted to the Empire's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After being rejected by the Empire, the Nayi Empire also launched a national petition, and tens of millions of civilians took to the streets to petition the imperial family in a march, begging for acceptance by the Empire and to be the subjects of the Empire forever.

This incident caused a lot of controversy and could not end at one point.

The key point is that at that time, millions of Nayi people had obtained permanent residence rights for the empire, and millions of Nayi people had settled in the occupied areas of the empire.

Finally, if the imperial authorities had not relaxed the standards for household registration access, granted part of the citizenship rights of Nayi residents, and vigorously encouraged Nayi people to move overseas and provide guarantees for their right to live and citizenship in occupied areas such as Austria, this matter would not have ended quickly.

If you want to say it, the problem of the narrow-minded imperial kingdom is not serious.

In the years after the war, many defeated countries and backward areas successively issued requests to the imperial authorities through voting and other means. In the east ocean, dozens of residents of the islands passed the vote, not to mention the many colonies on the Xuan Continent.

According to the situation at that time, if all these areas were accepted, the empire's territory would have been expanded by at least 50%, and the population would have increased by about 400 million.

But the problem is that the empire's territory is already large enough, and the increase of 400 million poor people who are unable to fill their stomachs is definitely not something to be happy about.

What's more, these regions are distributed all over the world.

The most important thing is actually public opinion.

The war had just ended, and the empire had paid a huge price. Millions of soldiers died in the battlefield. All the imperial subjects tightened their belts and lived a hard life for several years. Therefore, after the war ended, the only purpose of the empire was to return to normal as soon as possible.

For the subjects of the empire, what they want to get the most is to improve their lives.

Obviously, no one is willing to provide assistance to 400 million poor people who have nothing to do with them at this time.

Not to mention helping others, it involves the core interests of the country and the vital interests of every imperial subject, and there is no room for negotiation.

Strictly speaking, it was under this background that Lian Xusheng ended his first term and then passed the "Imperial Sovereignty Law" later.

Due to the restrictions of this bill, the empire has never made any effort to make a fuss about the sovereignty of the Hovay Islands.

As long as the Empire Sovereignty is not abolished, the Empire cannot expand its territory through annexation, even during wartime.

Even if the chief minister has wartime privileges, he can only send troops to occupy it and exercise jurisdiction through military occupation.

To be said, the Hovay Islands were occupied by the empire after the Second Global War and exercised jurisdiction in military-controlled areas.

In other words, if you want to annex the Hovayi Islands, you must first let the two houses of discussion abolish or amend the Imperial Sovereignty Law.

"Are you kidding?" Bai Huawei thought for a while, but still felt that this was unlikely. After all, repealing or amending the formal bill is a very troublesome thing.

"I'm just guessing, and using this as a stubborn thing is not the same as formal swallowing."

After hearing what Ding Zhennan said, Bai Huawei understood. "According to your opinion, even if such a request was made during the negotiations, it would only threaten the Newland authorities and force the Newland authorities to make a ceasefire decision before the scale is expanded, so that the war will end as soon as possible?"

"The key is that it takes a lot of effort to make the threat effective."

"this……"

"If it's just a sentence, it obviously doesn't make much sense. More importantly, if the threat cannot be fulfilled, or is proven to be mysterious, it will not only fail to achieve the desired effect, but will also have counterproductive effects, such as making the Newland authorities unscrupulous."

Bai Huawei had already tightened his brows and thought seriously about what Ding Zhennan said.

Ding Zhennan did not rush to continue and went to get two cups of coffee while Bai Huawei was thinking.
To be continued...