Seven Seas Beacon Fire

Correspondingly, light cruisers are the ones that best test the quality of officers and soldiers. As the true backbone and all-rounders of the fleet, the Tang army's cruiser force undoubtedly has better quality. At such close range, what is fired at the first moment is not just cannonballs!

One of the Tang Dynasty light cruisers, while firing its cannons, also launched torpedoes from its two twin 500mm torpedo tubes toward the Susanoo. The captain of the Susanoo, seeing the four white trails that suddenly appeared on the sea, was so frightened that he cried out for Amaterasu and rushed to take the helm to change course. At this point, the captain of the Susanoo realized that with the performance of their two battleships and the fact that they had been outmaneuvered that day, there was no way they could escape unscathed.

After narrowly escaping three torpedoes, the fourth torpedo struck the Susa battleship on its port side as it turned to evade. The torpedo not only severely damaged the TDS on the hull and caused massive flooding, but also shattered a propeller and destroyed two of the three rudders at the stern. It's fair to say that with just a little more luck, this ship could have ended up like Bismarck.

The captain of the Susa knew that if things continued like this, neither battleship could be saved. Although, judging from the damage, enemy shells at this distance would not penetrate the waterline core because they had almost no drop, the hit rate of enemy battleship shells at this distance was simply too high. The armor that the King-class battleships had once been proud of was completely useless at this distance.

Each of the large-caliber armor-piercing shells that were blasting in was like a metal storm on the warship after it exploded. The shrapnel from these shells could often penetrate several layers of bulkheads. Although these shells would not quickly destroy the watertightness of the entire warship, if the bombardment continued for a while, not only would the entire part of the warship above the waterline be completely destroyed, but these officers and soldiers, who had been trained with great difficulty, were the seeds of the future Yingzhou Navy. If this continued, all these seeds would be wiped out.

"Beach! Beach! Abandon the ship immediately!"

The captain of the Susa made the best possible decision in the shortest amount of time. Fortunately, they had been sailing south along the coastline, so they were not far from the coastline. This was a stroke of luck amidst today's misfortune.

As the Suza turned, it kept sending signals to the battleship Amaterasu. The only way to save the two battleships was to run them aground, so that they could be salvaged and repaired in the future.

When the Susa sent the signal, it was uncertain whether the battleship Amaterasu would receive it. After all, they had witnessed the Amaterasu's bridge being directly hit by a 420mm gun, so they did not expect that there would be anyone left on the forward bridge.

Fortunately, the aft bridge of the battleship Amaterasu was only penetrated by a shell, so the surviving personnel on the aft bridge saw the signal sent by the Susa. With the fate of almost all the senior officers on their own warship unknown, these officers on the spare navigation bridge discussed it briefly and decided to follow the Susa to turn and run aground.

From firing the first shot to the two battered Yingzhou naval battleships turning around and hastily beaching themselves, all of this could happen in just seven minutes.

On the bridge of the battleship Atago, which had already run some distance ahead, Hachiro Sakamoto stared in disbelief as the two King-class battleships, the most powerful and heavily armored in the rear garrison fleet and the best in fundamentalist artillery warfare in Japan, were reduced to a pathetic state within minutes, like stray dogs with broken spines, desperately trying to save the two ships in a rather humiliating manner.

Do we want to be enemies with such opponents in the future?

At this moment, Sakamoto Hachiro realized something: the reformers in Japan believed they could use the power of Western powers to achieve independence, and after independence, they believed they could lead the country to strengthen itself by using flexible diplomatic means to leverage the power and influence of external powers.

But these guys seem to have forgotten one thing: when a fight breaks out between a lion and a tiger, the best thing a mere hyena should do is keep its distance, not get involved!

Chapter 276 If we're going to fight, why do we need to pick a day? 1

When the two King-class battleships, trailing raging flames and battered hulls, crashed onto the beachhead, it was not the end of the nightmare for the Yingzhou Navy; it was merely the beginning.

The Amaterasu, one of the two King-class battleships that stormed the beach, listed to starboard due to the soft mudflats. This meant that the battleship's last two turrets and the secondary guns on its sides could not be depressed, thus almost completely losing its ability to retaliate against targets at sea.

The battleship Susa was in better condition, remaining relatively stable after beaching. Although the captain of Susa had given the order to abandon ship, the order was not fully carried out. The officers, who were being groomed by the Yingzhou Navy, were quite commendable. A considerable number of the gunners refused to abandon the ship and chose to continue using the 330mm naval guns to return fire at targets at sea.

Although they had not been in contact with the King-class battleships for long and their gunnery skills were not particularly good, the engagement distance of several thousand meters greatly reduced the difficulty of their aiming and they successfully hit their targets.

However, when the shells fired by the 330mm naval guns, on which high hopes were placed, hit the hull of the Ryugang battleship, the situation was quite different from what the Yingzhou naval officers and soldiers had imagined. They were hit on the front of the Ryugang battleship's No. 3 turret and the main armor belt of the engine room section. These two shells can indeed be said to have hit very critical positions under the protection of Amaterasu.

To their disappointment, the shells that hit the front of the enemy turret failed to penetrate. Even if the 330mm naval guns weren't top-of-the-line among super-dreadnoughts, how far away were they? Were they even 5 kilometers away?

Are the turrets of the Longyuan-class battleships solid?

As for the shell that hit the engine room, it was highly anticipated. If it could damage the engine room of the Dragon Gang battleship, then at least the two Lion-class battlecruisers would be safer.

The shell clearly penetrated the enemy's main armor belt, but after it hit, it seemed to be swallowed by a black hole. Judging from the movement on the surface of the deck, the shell should have exploded, but the Longgang battleship remained unaffected and its speed did not decrease.

The reason why the gunners of the Yingzhou Navy were so puzzled was actually quite simple. In their understanding, a capital ship with excellent protection was like the King, which they were controlling. The King's side armor was 350 mm vertical, and the turret and gun mount front armor was 300 mm. However, the Longyuan, which was currently a numerical anomaly, had a turret armor front armor thickness of 450 mm, a gun mount armor thickness of 410 mm, and a slightly thinner side armor of only 305 mm, but it had a 15-degree slope. The first two Longyuan had a 110 mm sloped dome armor behind the 350 mm main armor belt, and the later Longyuan further increased this dome armor to 130 mm.

305毫米的倾斜装甲在5千米的距离上确实扛不住330mm的穿甲弹，但330毫米炮弹无论是动能还是这个时代，软被帽穿甲弹的结构强度，在穿透了305毫米装甲之后都已经无法挑战110毫米的大角度倾斜穹甲了。

The shell exploded inside the ship, but both the shockwave and shrapnel were blocked outside the core area of ​​the engine room. Although it caused some damage to the upper compartments and some casualties, the shell was not even a minor damage to the Longgang battleship.

Faced with two battleships that had run aground, although these two ships were now in a state of "you can't sink a ship that's already sunk," the battleships after running aground were like big cats exposing their soft bellies. The area that the side armor of the battleships could protect was very limited relative to the entire side of the hull. At this moment, facing these two battleships that had almost no ability to fight back, what awaited them was the 420mm semi-armor-piercing shells switched by the two Longyuan-class battleships.

The fragile underwater mine protection armor was designed only to withstand the blast of mines and torpedoes. The soft steel material was completely unable to stop the 420mm semi-armor-piercing shells in terms of both ballistic performance and thickness. The semi-armor-piercing shells with more explosive charges penetrated the soft hull of these two battleships without any hindrance, and easily blasted the boilers and steam turbines on these two battleships to pieces.

The officers and men aboard the two Lion-class battleships, like stray dogs, had no courage to lend a helping hand to their comrades. If it weren't for fuel constraints, the two battlecruisers would have preferred to accelerate to their maximum speed and get away from the area immediately.

After confirming that the two King-class battleships had virtually no chance of being revived, Lin Zhiyuan ordered the fleet to continue its pursuit southward. Although it did not take long to render the two battleships essentially combat ineffective, the Yingzhou naval cruisers and destroyers accompanying them faced considerable trouble.

Even with the secondary gun support of the two battleships, the cruisers and destroyers accompanying the Tang army still had a lot of trouble sinking and dispersing some ships. After all, once such small ships start to twist and turn at sea, you can only rely on "you twist well, I'll spread out" to overwhelm these ships with projectiles.

As a result, it took about 50 minutes for the two battleships to resume their pursuit southward.

"Sir, we've still wasted a lot of time. Even if we accelerate to 27 knots now, we might not be able to catch up with those two battlecruisers before they enter Edo Bay."

After personally inspecting the battle situation of Quanjian, the captain of the Longyuan battleship was filled with regret. Although taking down two battleships in 50 minutes and also dealing with a number of cruisers and destroyers was not slow, after this delay, the two Longyuan battleships probably really couldn't catch up with the two ships in front.

"We have good news and bad news," Lin Zhiyuan said, holding a new telegram he had received. "Which one would you like to hear first?"

"Let's hear the good news first."

"The good news is that the Jingyuan fleet is not far from Edo Bay. They are currently accelerating and there is still hope of intercepting those two ships at the mouth of Edo Bay."

Lin Zhiyuan's good news surprised the captain of the Longyuan: "They haven't arrived yet? Didn't they already... when they reported their position to us earlier?"

"They spent some time refueling in the waters around Ryukyu. They were probably planning to make the most of their time and then speed off after refueling, but it seems that refueling at sea is more difficult than we imagined." Lin Zhiyuan sighed, "Hopefully they'll make it in time?"

"Even if refueling takes up time, if they can maintain their maximum speed of 27 knots..." The captain gestured with a ruler on the nautical chart, "they should still make it in time."

"This is another piece of bad news we've received," Lin Zhiyuan said. "The Colombian Navy's main warships at the dock in Jianghu Bay have already started fires. If nothing unexpected happens, they will be heading to meet those two battlecruisers from Yingzhou. Jingyuan will not only have to race against those two battlecruisers, but also against the Colombians."

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"Did you take pictures of everything?"

Editor-in-Chief Lando watched as Thomson took the videotape from the camera mounted on the foreboard of the yacht and carefully placed the entire tape into the storage box next to him. Although he knew that Thomson was usually very reliable at work, he still asked with excitement, "Did you film everything that needed to be filmed?"

Thomson's hands were still trembling slightly as he locked the box, but his tone was full of certainty: "I didn't waste a single second of the footage, and I used every inch of film where it was most needed to be shot... Damn, we really escaped with our lives this time."

When the bridge of that King-class battleship was blown into the air, Thomson felt a deep sense of fear creeping into his mind. If they hadn't received a warning from home, if they had also boarded that ship... God, my beautiful wife and I had only been married for three years, and our child was due this summer. He almost didn't get to see his child.

"I never expected these Easterners to actually open fire without warning. When the first shot was fired, I thought it would be a battle between a lion and a tiger, or at least a battle between a leopard and a tiger. But now it looks like it was just a wolf whose spine was broken by a tiger's slap."

Editor-in-Chief Lando carefully cradled the box containing the videotapes in his arms, as if it were his own child: "We need to go back immediately. We need to show the world what's inside. This will definitely be a world-shaking news story!"

"Editor-in-chief, you said..." Thomson's gaze remained fixed on the two Longyuan-class battleships, lingering for a long time: "Does our navy have any battleships that can rival these two ships?"

"I'm not a naval technician, how would I know? But those two monsters seem to have destroyed two of our Nevada-class battleships during the final stages of World War II."

"Can the super battleships our navy is building defeat this dragon?"

"I don't know!" Editor-in-Chief Lando said somewhat irritably. "I'll say it again, I'm not a professional technician. Why are you staring at those two ships? You don't understand the technology either."

“I don’t really understand the technology of warships, but editor-in-chief, these two ships are really beautiful.” Thomson turned to his editor-in-chief: “Don’t you think these two ships look particularly sexy? I swear these two battleships are more beautiful than any battleship I’ve ever seen before. I once heard an officer say that good-looking ships are generally very powerful, and the more beautiful the ship, the more powerful it is.”

"Those two ships must be top-tier," the editor muttered, then impatiently shouted, "Stop dawdling! Just because they're not bothering us now doesn't mean we have to stay on this battlefield forever. We've taken all the risks we could, and the film is all shot. Now we need to get the news back immediately!"

After tracing an arc across the sea, the small yacht headed towards Edo Bay at its fastest speed ever. Although the rental fee for this internal combustion engine-powered yacht was very high, it was definitely worth the money. At least in terms of speed, it was one of the few civilian vessels of this era that could rival military ships, as the small yacht could reach speeds of over 28 knots.

The two, who thought everything was over, took out chilled beer from the boat's refrigerator and drank heartily as they sailed the small yacht. They had not only really escaped death today, but also brought back so many valuable first-hand pictures and even video information.

However, just as they arrived around the Boso Peninsula, the two unexpectedly heard the familiar roar of cannons. What they saw next made them regret that they hadn't brought enough film with them.

At this moment, at the southern tip of the Boso Peninsula, at the entrance to Edo Bay, the sea was in complete chaos. Several slow-moving Columbian standard battleships were struggling to move their bulky bodies, trying to separate the warships of the Yingzhou Navy and the Tang Navy. Two battlecruisers of the Tang Royal Navy, flying the dragon flag, were attempting to attack two battlecruisers that were fleeing at sea with their heads in their hands—the Lion-class battlecruisers that had just shaken off the pursuit of two Longyuan-class battleships.

Those in the know understand that this is the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy trying to prevent Yingzhou from acquiring these two warships and to teach them a lesson by force. Those who don't know might think it's the navies of three countries playing tag.

Edo Bay is a very busy waterway. Whether it's Yingzhou's own ocean-going fishing boats and merchant ships, or merchant ships from other countries coming to Yingzhou, they all act as spectators here. Even though there are already cannonballs flying everywhere, there are still civilian ships that, like passersby watching a battle between strong magnetic field experts, insist on coming over to watch.

After all, such a scene is rare, so even if you die, it's worth the price of admission!

Chapter 277 If we're going to fight, why do we need to pick a day? 2

At the foot of Jiming Temple Mountain in Nanjing, the four-story granite building of the Naval Headquarters gleamed with an iron-gray luster under the morning sun. Lieutenant Colonel Lin Mobai, the director of the communications room, walked into the strategic conference hall of the Privy Council, clutching a newly deciphered coded telegram.

As soon as he pushed open the door, the pungent smell of smoke inside made him cough lightly. Most of the old navy men were heavy smokers and drinkers. When there were combat missions or combat readiness duty, alcohol was naturally strictly controlled. So when the pressure was high, the generals in the room could quickly turn the room into a paradise.

As the crowd inside, smoking and enjoying their cigarettes, saw Lin Mobai enter, carrying two telegrams, those who had been gathered around the chart table almost instinctively wanted to grab the telegrams and read them immediately. However, they then seemed to remember something and unanimously turned their gaze to His Highness the Crown Prince, who was also sitting around the chart table with a somewhat solemn expression.

Li Che's current expression wasn't entirely due to worry about the current situation at sea. To a certain extent, half of his expression was due to the smoke from those old smokers. As for the operation itself, he was still quite confident. Even if the interception failed, the ships he had sent out were all high-speed capital ships. Even if the Colombian Navy wanted to react excessively, those iron turtles couldn't do anything to these ships.

"Your Highness." Lin Mobai went straight to Li Che, looked at Li Che and then at Sa Dingming, before handing the telegram to Li Che: "This is a protest telegram from the Colombian Navy's 7th Fleet Command. They are protesting our 'unprofessional behavior' in the waters around Yingzhou and stating that we need to bear primary responsibility for undermining regional peace and stability."

"Unprofessional behavior? And we're supposed to bear the main responsibility?" Li Che took the telegram and glanced at it. "When did these Colombians become as reserved as the people of Yingzhou? We treated them like a real tiger, or at the very least a jaguar, but it turns out they're just a paper tiger."

He then slammed the telegram onto the chart table, where two completely different telegrams were already lying on either side: on the left was a battle report from the Ryuen showing damage to an enemy ship, and on the right was a protest note from the Yingzhou Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Sa Zhenbin first pointed to the battle report sent by the Longyuan, and then to the protest letter from the Yingzhou Ministry of Foreign Affairs: "Your Highness, the protest letter from the Yingzhou Ministry of Foreign Affairs was sent even earlier than the battle report from the Longyuan. Although we all know that the Longyuan sent its battle report after the battle was basically over, the fact that the Yingzhou government was able to send its protest letter within the 50 minutes between the start of the battle and the destruction of the two battleships can only mean that they were indeed prepared to be attacked from the very beginning, at least at the government level."

Sa Dingming's words made the officers present chuckle, and the atmosphere in the hall relaxed considerably. This action could be seen as a fierce response from the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy to a series of salami-slicing actions by the West. This deliberate and fierce response was intended to demonstrate the Tang Dynasty's unquestionable attitude. If we followed the normal diplomatic process of political protest, we were afraid that our Western friends would not understand it clearly, so we simply responded with cannon fire. We believed that the cannons would convey the message very accurately.

The biggest concern with this salami-slicing countermeasure is that the other side might also overreact and react violently, ultimately causing the situation to spiral out of control. It seems that the United States of Colombia still has a lot of strategic composure.

“Your Highness,” Sa Dingming began to calculate on his fingers, “We have basically destroyed two King-class battleships. When the Longyuan fleet left, it was confirmed that there were no two King-class battleships left, and there was probably no value in salvaging them. As for the two Lion-class battlecruisers… it is a pity that the Jingyuan fleet did not keep those two ships. If the Colombian Navy’s Seventh Fleet stationed in Yingzhou had been even 10 minutes later, no… even 5 minutes later, we might have been able to keep at least one of them.”

The fighting outside Edo Bay was rather hasty and chaotic. Detailed battle reports have not yet been fully compiled, but according to the report sent back by the Jingyuan, the Lion-class battlecruiser that lagged behind was hit by at least seven 330mm armor-piercing shells, and its No. 4 turret was blown open and caught fire.

The Tang army continued to fire even as the Colombian Seventh Fleet rushed in and separated the two sides. The Jingyuan fleet only gave up the pursuit when the Colombian Seventh Fleet, under the cover of two battlecruisers, advanced into the depths of Edo Bay.

The destruction of two capital ships, the severe damage to one battlecruiser, and the moderate damage to another battlecruiser were indeed enough to prove that the navy's officers and soldiers, as well as the intelligence personnel on the intelligence front, had done their utmost. However, humans are inherently greedy, and it is human nature to take an inch and then a mile.

Therefore, everyone now has the idea that if they work a little harder, they might be able to keep all four ships.

"Don't worry about how many ships we sank. Ultimately, how strong the Yingzhou Navy will be in the future doesn't depend on how many ships they have left. The Victorian Empire and the United States of Colombia have plenty of old ships. If it weren't for our actions today, I don't doubt they would have made the Yingzhou Navy the fourth strongest in the world in one fell swoop."

As Li Che spoke, his thoughts involuntarily drifted to Russia in another world. In a way, when Yunyun transmigrated to this world, Russia, in terms of army size and weaponry, could indeed be considered "Europe's number one army," even without considering the Russians. After all, compared to the UK, with its many generals but fewer tanks; the US, whose elite intervention forces relied on foreign legions; and the Germans, whose soldiers were mostly overweight and obese, like the Leopard 2A8 tanks… Russia's troops, however jokingly called "fill-in-the-blank babies," were undeniably more like a fighting force.

However, such a powerful force was built almost entirely with the support and armament of these other countries. As the recipient of this armed force, having such a force is not a good thing for the country or even the nation as a whole. But such an armed force can indeed feed the Russians shit.

Yingzhou in this world is somewhat like a maritime warlord. If the Tang Dynasty does not react this time, the tonnage of Yingzhou's main warships may be piled up to more than 30 tons before the naval treaty is officially signed.

When it comes to shamelessness, the Western world is a true expert.

"Your Highness is quite right. However, should we now consult His Majesty and the Prime Minister on how to respond to Yingzhou and Colombia?"

"How should we respond?" Li Che raised an eyebrow. "What kind of response do we need to give Colombia? Their warships aren't even scratched. As for Yingzhou... what kind of response do they want? Do we need to pick a day to attack them?"

"So we really won't reply?" Sa Dingming asked uncertainly.

Li Che was silent for a moment, then waved his hand: "Let the Court of State Ceremonial decide how to reply. Just tell them to be careful with their wording. We are a great nation, and we should be magnanimous, understand?"

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"Have we made a mistake by trying to be clever?"

President Wilson, who was also looking at a report from the Seventh Fleet, glanced at McGiffin sitting opposite him. McGiffin looked completely relaxed. When the president looked at him, he spread his hands and said, "I'm about to leave the company. Your Excellency, you can't expect an employee who is about to leave to devote 100% of his energy to his work, can you?"

These words made President Wilson's forehead veins throb: "If what you're saying is true, then I'm also a president who's about to leave office, so does that mean I don't need to care about these things? If everyone acted like that, wouldn't the country be in chaos in the future?"

“It won’t fall apart. So what if we lost two kings?” McGiffin shook his head. “Compared to losing two capital ships, it’s more important to successfully probe the Tang Empire’s bottom line. At least now we know what level of military strength the Tang Empire can accept in Yingzhou when it’s armed, right? I think this will definitely be of great benefit to the upcoming negotiations on the naval arms control treaty.”

"It's clearly us who suffered a loss, but why does it sound like we're the ones who benefited in your words?"

“Our Yingzhou friends suffered losses, but we did not,” McGiffin said. “The naval arms control treaty is like everyone sitting down to play cards, and now we at least know what kind of cards the other side of the sea wants to play. Our opponents in the naval treaty are not just the Tang Empire. Only by understanding what size navy the Tang Empire can tolerate Yingzhou having can we effectively restrict the Victoria Empire in the treaty.”

"The Victorian Empire is our ally."

“They weren’t when the naval arms control treaty negotiations began,” McGiffin said. “Your Excellency, it was the Victorians who first began arming Bharat. The existence of the Bharat navy can help the Victorian Empire free up their forces in the Indian Ocean. Do you think these freed-up forces will be deployed to the Mediterranean or the Atlantic in the future?”

President Wilson understood McGiffin's unspoken meaning: if the Victorian Empire strengthened its liberated forces in the Mediterranean, it meant that the Victorian navy would primarily keep an eye on the major powers in the Mediterranean, with the Gallic and Syracuse navies being the most prominent.

However, if the Victorian Navy were to strengthen the forces it has freed up in the Atlantic, which naval power in the Atlantic would still need the Victorian Empire to treat it differently?

Let's kick out that guy who mentioned Gaul first. Gaul does have a coastline in the Atlantic, but they generally wouldn't place their main battle fleet so close to the doorstep of the Victorian Empire. The Gauls themselves wouldn't feel comfortable doing that.

The Iberian Navy? Although the Kingdom of Iberia once had a glorious history and possessed a powerful and invincible armada, it is no longer the age of sail.

The Kingdom of Iberia only has three dreadnoughts purchased from the Victorian Empire. Even compared to the three major powers of South America (A, B, and C), their strength is probably weak. The Kingdom of Iberia's Iberia-class battleships have a displacement of only 1.5 tons, making them probably the smallest and least protected dreadnoughts in the world. This is a country that doesn't even qualify to participate in naval arms control treaties.

With the fall of the Letanian Empire and the Ursus Federation preoccupied with its internal problems, its only remaining naval force is holed up in the depths of the Baltic Sea. Apart from the Colombian Navy's Atlantic Fleet, there is no other naval force in the Atlantic capable of challenging the Victorian Empire.

"Your Excellency, all of the Victorian Empire's battlecruisers are currently deployed on its homeland."

These pointed remarks added further weight to the newly weighed position on President Wilson's side.

“Alright, I admit you have a point. The current international situation is more complex than ever before, and the relationship between friend and foe is unpredictable. Right now, obtaining more information is indeed more valuable than worrying about one or two ships. After all, we have plenty of ships like these.” President Wilson took a deep breath. “At least we know that the Tang Empire can tolerate Yingzhou possessing four capital ships…”

“Not four.” McGiffin waved his hand, then gestured the number six: “It’s six capital ships, Your Excellency.”

"Six ships?" President Wilson looked at McGiffin warily. "We tried to get Yingzhou to give us their fifth and sixth capital ships, and it provoked such a strong reaction from them. Are you going to send two more ships over? I'm afraid even if we were willing to give them to them, the Yingzhou people wouldn't dare to take them now, would they?"

McGiffin shook his head again: "Your Excellency, why should we give them more ships? Doesn't the Yingzhou Navy already have six capital ships?"

"Six capital ships already?" President Wilson was somewhat confused. "Weren't the two King-class battleships already..."

“Those two ships are still on the beach, aren’t they?” McGiffin spread his hands. “Your Excellency, you must have heard of the Ship of Theseus, right?”

President Wilson's eyes widened slightly: "You mean...?"

"The Tang Empire's current stance is that we cease exporting capital ships to Yingzhou, but they don't consider the capital ships that have already arrived that important..."

Chapter 278 Living in constant fear and receiving technical assistance

Saito Jujuro ran into Prime Minister Takahashi Daisuke, who had just come out of the Imperial Palace. Saito, who was originally going in to meet the Emperor, immediately took the initiative to greet him: "Takahashi-kun, how are His Majesty the Emperor and the Crown Prince?"

Daisuke Takahashi's face showed obvious helplessness: "His Majesty the Emperor is the same as always. His Majesty probably hasn't figured out what's going on yet. When I went in to see His Majesty, he was still folding paper airplanes."

"Has His Majesty fallen ill again?"