"If we start a war now, I truly don't have the confidence to win!"
As Mi Jian spoke, Kai Ya Dun's expression turned extremely grim.
"Mi Jian, what do you mean by that? How dare you openly question His Majesty the King?"
A attendant standing beside Kai Ya Dun, sensing his anger, immediately reprimanded Mi Jian.
Mi Jian remained indifferent to the attendant's scolding.
In short, Mi Jian simply disagreed with going to war with Liu Kai Xuan.
Kai Ya Dun knew that a mere servant could not possibly control someone like Mi Jian.
He had to step in himself and say, "Mi Jian, you should know that a soldier's duty is to obey orders!"
"If you are unwilling to fight for the empire, then you should relinquish your position as Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Army!"
Mi Jian responded, "I am loyal to His Majesty, but I remain pessimistic about this war!"
"If Your Majesty could consider for a while longer, I can provide you with more detailed military intelligence!"
"This intelligence was gathered by our military!"
"Please, Your Majesty, carefully analyze the intelligence before making a final decision!"
"I..."
"Fine!"
Kai Ya Dun braced himself and replied, "Then I will look at your intelligence!"
Mi Jian's firm refusal to Kai Ya Dun's military action meant that the meeting, as expected, ended unhappily.
After Mi Jian and his entourage departed, the attendant continued,
"Your Majesty, Mi Jian has openly defied your decree, which is a capital offense!"
"Your Majesty should punish him severely, as only then can the empire's authority be upheld!"
"Enough, you don't need to teach me how to do things!"
Kai Ya Dun flung his hand and slapped the attendant hard across the face.
This attendant was named Duo Man, a typical sycophant.
In the past, Kai Ya Dun had favored Duo Man greatly, but things were different now.
In the previous military operation, Kai Ya Dun had a decisive advantage in weaponry, yet it took over a year to achieve a hard-won victory.
Furthermore, the biggest contributor to Kai Ya Dun's victory was General Mi Jian.
General Mi Jian had climbed to his current position step by step through his military achievements.
The previous Commander-in-Chief, Zhuo Pan, was a sycophant!
He was always showering praises, but on the battlefield, he was cowardly and gave chaotic orders.
He possessed no talent whatsoever and was purely useless.
Therefore, Kai Ya Dun now detested sycophants.
And this sycophant, Duo Man, was actually urging Kai Ya Dun to severely punish Mi Jian?
If capable military leaders like Mi Jian were suppressed, how could the Imperial Army fight?
If all the commanders in the army were replaced by sycophants like Duo Man, would the Imperial Army have any fighting capacity left?
Warfare is, in reality, a highly professional endeavor.
Especially modern warfare, which is an extremely profound field of study.
A general like Mi Jian, who had been tested in real combat, was an invaluable talent.
Ten of Duo Man's kind, stacked together, might not even be a match for one Mi Jian.
Moreover, the opponent Kai Ya Dun was about to face was Liu Kai Xuan,
This was an extremely formidable adversary. To contend with Liu Kai Xuan, elite troops and strong generals had to be dispatched.
Therefore, Kai Ya Dun not only could not punish Mi Jian now.
On the contrary, what he needed to do was to patiently persuade Mi Jian to agree to his military operation.
...
The next morning, Mi Jian sent his adjutant to deliver a large stack of intelligence materials to Kai Ya Dun.
Fearing that Kai Ya Dun might not understand, Mi Jian personally compiled an intelligence summary manual.
In this manual, Mi Jian focused on a comparative summary of the military strengths of both sides.
The current military strength that the Imperial Army could mobilize amounted to eight brigades of ground forces.
In addition, there were two fleets of the navy and two air wings of the air force!
The naval fleets and air wings, when converted to ground force equivalents, were also considered one brigade each.
In total, Kai Ya Dun could mobilize twelve brigades of military strength to declare war on Kai Xuan City.
Kai Xuan City did not have a regular army; all armed forces existed in the form of guard units.
Intelligence indicated that Liu Kai Xuan possessed two brigades of ground forces, four air wings, and four surface fleets!
Although air wings had a higher organizational structure, their personnel numbers were not particularly large.
However, the navy represented substantial manpower.
Liu Kai Xuan's development of the oceanic shipping industry required a powerful navy to prevent merchant ships from being harassed by external forces!
When calculated, the Kai Ya Kingdom held an absolute advantage in ground forces.
However, in terms of air force and navy, it was at a significant disadvantage.
In modern warfare, the importance of air superiority was self-evident.
Without air and sea control, even a larger ground force would merely be a target.
Without air cover, ground troops could not even be safely transported.
Under such circumstances, if a full-scale war were to break out, Kai Ya Dun's probability of victory would not exceed forty percent.
There was also another situation that Kai Ya Dun needed to be wary of: intervention by external powers.
Liu Kai Xuan and Sen Kai had always maintained a very close relationship, with Sen Kai even bestowing upon Liu Kai Xuan the honorary title of Prince!
Even if Liu Kai Xuan's ground forces suffered a devastating blow, the remaining troops could retreat into the Kai Ya Kingdom for refuge.
Once Liu Kai Xuan retreated into the Sen Luo Kingdom, if the Kai Ya Kingdom continued its attack, it would become an international dispute.
Moreover, given the close relationship between Liu Kai Xuan and Sen Kai, who could guarantee that Sen Kai would not directly send troops to support Liu Kai Xuan?
Originally, Kai Ya Dun's probability of defeating Liu Kai Xuan was already less than fifty percent. If Liu Kai Xuan and Sen Kai were to join forces.
Then, Kai Ya Dun's probability of victory would be less than ten percent.
The last dangerous scenario was that the Kai Ya Kingdom was not entirely stable at present.
Although the Imperial Army had defeated the coalition of noble forces, the noble forces had not been completely annihilated.
A powerful remnant force of the noble coalition still existed.
If the Imperial Army and Kai Xuan City were to suffer heavy losses in their war, and those noble warlords were to strike from behind.
The Kai Ya Kingdom might face an existential crisis in an instant.
This was not Mi Jian deliberately exaggerating.
The large-scale purchase of weapons and equipment from Liu Kai Xuan by those noble warlords had already exposed their ambitions.