Anti-Japanese War: When I get promoted, the system will explode with soldiers

Qingdao Garrison Command

"Marshal, you can't be so partial. Southeast Asia has heavy cruisers, Pujiang also has heavy cruisers. Qingdao is our naval headquarters, this is our own territory. How can we not have heavy cruisers? This is unacceptable!"

As soon as Li Shaoyi arrived at work in the morning, Deng Jiugong and Ma Leizi were already waiting here. One was from the navy and the other from the army, so they took turns to fight. They had only one goal: we also want heavy cruisers, the same as Pujiang and Batavia.

"Brother, Old Deng is right. Although we have taken Batavia, the area surrounding it is full of thieves' dens. It may be ours today, but it may not be ours tomorrow. Those Westerners are full of wicked ambitions. If they really want to unite, we will be out of reach. If you put the heavy cruiser there and can't hold it, wouldn't that be like giving a gift to the foreign devils?"

Ma Leizi hadn't heard of it before, but now that he heard of it, he couldn't sit still. As the commander of Qingdao's city defense, he wanted to increase Qingdao's defense to the maximum. He had also heard some staff analysis in the military academy. Qingdao was like a thorn in the eyes of the Japanese at this moment. Not only had they had their eyes on this place for a long time, but the most important thing was that the navy had suffered heavy losses here, and even an aircraft carrier had sunk.

If an attack is to take place, Qingdao will definitely be the first target of the Japanese Navy. Only by taking it can they suffer a bloody shame. Therefore, we don’t have two heavy cruisers, but we don’t have even one now.

"What Old Lei said is correct. And as for that incident in Pujiang where they stabbed us in the back, have you forgotten? You forgot that when you were about to go south, those bastards stabbed us in the back in North China. They saw that all our preparations were complete, and the arrow was on the string, ready to be fired. If they had made demands at that time, we would have either reneged on our promise to the Chinese and overseas Chinese, or we would have given up our interests in North China. And you sent two heavy cruisers to Pujiang to give them a good fight. Isn't that ridiculous?"

After Deng Jiugong finished speaking, he took a big gulp of water. His throat was almost sore from getting up this morning. Apart from asking his secretary to pour water for the two of them, Li Shaoyi had not made any statement yet.

This has never happened before. You should know that Li Shaoyi listens very much to the professional opinions of his officers. Even if Ma Leizi's professional opinions are not enough to influence Li Shaoyi, Deng Jiugong is a capable man in the navy. Whether it is going south to Southeast Asia or marching into Pujiang, Deng Jiugong is the biggest think tank.

"Brother, please say something! My throat is about to smoke. It's not easy for Old Deng. He's finally managing such a large navy. You have to give him a word. Come over and see, those navy ships outside are about to come over for a parade. Our Qingdao base is not raised by a stepmother. The sign is still hanging there. The Fifth Fleet Command is only equipped with two 10,000-ton treaty cruisers?"

Hearing Ma Leizi talking about the treaty-class cruiser, Li Shaoyi also became interested. This guy used to be a heavy-duty worker and couldn't even tell the models of warships apart. Unexpectedly, in just a few months, he had learned so much and could even say such terms. Li Shaoyi didn't find it strange to hear it coming from Deng Jiugong's mouth. It was really awesome to hear it coming from this guy's mouth.

"You two know now that I should speak. Think carefully, have you given me a chance to speak since you two walked in? You've been mumbling the whole time. Have you stopped?"

Li Shaoyi said unhappily. The two of them had anxious expressions on their faces, but after hearing what Li Shaoyi said, they looked at each other embarrassedly. It was indeed as Li Shaoyi said. After the two of them entered the room, they kept talking to each other and did not give Li Shaoyi any chance at all.

"Hey, Marshal, you say."

Deng Jiugong patted Ma Leizi's shoulder, and the two of them straightened their clothes. They were so red-faced and angry about what they had said that they even unbuttoned their collars. Fortunately, there was no one else here, otherwise they would look like watermelon sellers on the street.

"Brother, have some tea."

Ma Leizi poured himself a cup of new tea and drank up the cup of tea that Li Shaoyi had just poured.

"We've already lost quite a few people at our naval base. Let me put this on the table. Even if I immediately provided you with a heavy cruiser, would you have enough crew members?"

Li Shaoyi was knocking on the table while talking. Deng Jiugong had not thought of this. He was only thinking about asking Li Shaoyi for a warship. Now he was surprised. If a heavy cruiser really appeared, it would be difficult to gather enough crew members.

"We can follow the old method: patrol boats can be dispatched to destroyers, destroyers can be dispatched to light cruisers, and light cruisers can be dispatched to heavy cruisers. Wouldn't that fill up the fleet?"

It's obvious that Ma Leizi's words sound like those of an amateur. Although they are all navy, the warships are different from each other. Similar forms have been adopted in the past, but they also suffered losses and failed to form combat effectiveness, and the combat effectiveness that was formed was relatively low.

Deng Jiugong patted Ma Leizi's shoulder and shook his head slightly. It's not that this method is not feasible, but it is too inefficient and prone to malfunction. If it is on a patrol boat, we are not afraid of any malfunction, but if it is a 17,000-ton heavy cruiser, if there is a malfunction, it will be a big deal.

"You can't put it together, right? Then let me tell you another thing. If the Japanese fleet really comes, it will be different from last time. It may be the main force of their Combined Fleet. Even if you are given these two cruisers, can you defeat them? Our main force is still those planes."

Li Shaoyi pointed to the airport in the distance and said that the two heavy cruisers were indeed very powerful for our navy, but for the Japanese navy, they were really not very impressive. After all, they had been developing for so many years and even had battleships.

If our two heavy cruisers were really in Qingdao, they would become targets for bombing when the Japanese arrived. Otherwise, without aircraft carriers, we would not be able to fight in the open sea, so it would be better not to have these two targets.

According to Li Shaoyi's idea, Pujiang's two heavy cruisers were not needed. The positioning of Pujiang and Qingdao was basically the same. We should use the Air Force to attack the Japanese Navy instead of using our navy to confront the Japanese Navy head-on. No matter how fast our navy developed, the gap between it and the Japanese Navy was still like a chasm. Li Shaoyi understood this.