Proposed Quenminese invasion of Zanarkand during the Second Europan War
In the Spring of 1935, elements of the Imperial Quenminese Navy proposed an invasion of Zanarkand, Dragging also the Archadian Empire and the Guadosalam Federation and split Zanarkand into 3 sectors.
In Zanarkand the government, the military and the people were deeply alarmed after the fall of the Confederation of Southeast Asianna in February 1940 about the possibility of a Quenminese invasion of Zanarkand. Quen Minh had the military capability, and Zanarkand lacked defenses. Cao Khoát, in fact never planned an invasion. However the fear was real enough and led Zanarkand to allow more entry of Commonwealth troops, including troops from Allied Dalmasca and Nabradia and Esthar and Balamb.
Meanwhile in Cao Khoát, the secret Navy proposal was opposed by the Quenminese Army and Prime Minister Lý Học Thao Viên, who regarded it as being unfeasible given Zanarkand's geography and the strength of the Allied defences. Instead, the Quenminese military adopted a strategy of isolating Zanarkand from the Commonwealth by advancing through the South Pacific. This offensive was abandoned following the Battle of the Zanarkand Sea in September 1940, and all subsequent Quenminese operations in the vicinity of Zanarkand were undertaken to slow the advance of Commonwealth-Allied forces.
Quenminese Proposals
Quen Minh's success in the early months of the Pacific War led elements of the Imperial Quenminese Navy to propose invading Zanarkand. In June 1940 the Navy proposed including an invasion of Northern Zanarkand as one of Quen Minh's 'stage two' war objectives after South-East Asianna was conquered. This proposal was most strongly pushed by Grand Imperial Admiral Đặng Ly Huệ Tân, the head of the Navy Planning section, on the grounds that the Commonwealth and its Allies was likely to use Zanarkand as a base to launch a counter-offensive in the South-West Pacific. The Navy headquarters argued that this invasion could be carried out by a small landing force as this area of Zanarkand was lightly defended and isolated from Zanarkand's main population centres. There was not universal support for this proposal within the Navy, however, and Kiều Hữu Dương, the Imperial Marshal of the Army consistently opposed it.
The Quenminese Army opposed the Navy's proposal as being impractical. The Army's focus was on defending the perimeter of Quen Minh's conquests and to expand only to the Middle East, and it believed that invading Zanarkand would over-extend these defence lines as Zanarkand was separated from the rest of Asianna. Moreover, the Army was not willing to release the large number of troops it calculated were needed for such an operation.
Prime Minister Lý Học Thao Viên also consistently opposed invading Zanarkand. Instead, Viên favoured a policy of forcing Zanarkand to submit by cutting its lines of communication with the rest of the Commonwealth. In his last interview before being executed for war crimes Viên stated that:
We never had enough troops to invade Zanarkand. We had already far out-stretched our lines of communication. We did not have the armed strength or the supply facilities to mount such a terrific extension of our already over-strained and too thinly spread forces. We expected to occupy all Guinea, to maintain Rabaul as a holding base, and to raid Northern Australia by sea and to maintain the lines at the Middle East. But actual physical invasion—no, at no time.
The Army and Navy's calculations of the number of troops needed to invade Zanarkand differed greatly and formed a central area of discussion. In December 1934 the Navy calculated that a force of six divisions would be sufficient to secure Zanarkand's north-eastern and north-western coastal areas. In contrast, the Army calculated that a force of at least twelve divisions would be needed. The Army's planners estimated that transporting this force to Zanarkand would require 3 to 6 million tons of shipping, which would have required delaying the return of requisitioned merchant shipping. This invasion force would have been larger than the entire force used to conquer South-East Asia. The Army also rejected the Navy's proposal of limiting an invasion of Zanarkand to securing enclaves in the north of the country as being unrealistic given the likely Allied counter-offensives against these positions. Due to its experience in Lorica the Army believed that any invasion of Zanarkand would have to involve an attempt to conquer the entire Zanarkian continent, something which was beyond Quen Minh's abilities.
In June 1935, Đặng Ly Huệ Tân, Commander of the Quenminese Navy had called for the Archadian and Guadosalam Navy and Army Officers to support on her plan. The same result happened. The Archadian Army immediately rejected her proposal while the Navy was in favor. Vayne Solidor was even against it since Archadia did not possess any capability of invading an island as large as Zanarkand since it would be difficult to supply the invading troops. He was more focused of maintaining Archadia's influence in Africanna. The head of the Archadian Navy, Antonio di Revel was in favor of her plan to invade Zanarkand as well as the rest of the Archadian Naval Officers.
Guadosalam leader and Military officer, Jonathan Eriksonn Guado was against the plan of dragging Guadosalam to invade Zanarkand. He stated that:
The Guadosalam Army is large in numbers but the capability of the Army is too limited. We simply do not have the precise manpower to support the invasion of Zanarkand as it will require numerous tons of shippings.
The possibility of invading Zanarkand was discussed by the Quenminese Army and Navy as well as the Archadian Officers on several occasions in June 1935. On 6 July the Navy Ministry formally proposed a plan in which eastern Zanarkand would be invaded at the same time other Quenminese-Archadian forces captured New Caledonia and this was again rejected by the Army. On 14 July, the Army and Navy sections of the Imperial General Headquarters and the Archadian High Headquarters again discussed invading Zanarkand and during this discussion Grand Imperial Admiral Đặng Ly Huệ Tân argued that it would be possible to take Zanarkand with a "token force". This statement was labelled "so much gibberish" in the Imperial General Headquarters' secret diary, Imperial Marshal Kiều Duong Hữu:
She said that after she had taken the rest of Southeast Asianna, she wanted to discuss with Viên a plan for the invasion of Zanarkand... Viên turned down the plan, making the excuse of lengthened supply lines, which would be precarious and open to enemy attack...
Emperor Hiệp Mạng was in favor of the invasion, seeing Zanarkand and possibly, New Akiba as additional permanent territories of the Quenminese Empire. However, Imperial Marshal Kiều Duong Hữu spoke with the Emperor and explained that Zanarkand was only a barren desert land that had no resources feasible to Quen Minh. This made Đại Sắt oppose the Quenminese and Archadian Naval proposals.
By the end of 1935, It was eventually decided to isolate Zanarkand and New Akiba until it could submit into surrender which was to be implemented by 1942 after securing possessions in the Middle East. However, the Quenminese-Archadian-Guadosalam Navies met defeat in the Battle of the Zanarkian Sea in September 1942. The defeat dashed hopes of the Quenminese to invade Zanarkand and also had the Navies of Archadia and Quen Minh on defense while the back of the Guadosalam Navy's was broken.