Seven Seas Beacon Fire

After this incident, Benson's already poor complexion worsened, and Pershing was equally worried. This incident occurred at a crucial moment in the preparation of the evacuation plan from Yuanshan Port, which inevitably made people doubt whether the Federal Navy's control of the sea in the Pacific was as reliable as they had previously claimed.

Pershing even looked at Benson with a hint of doubt, like when you're in a hospital and find out your doctor is your old classmate who used to sit in the last row with you in school. How can you expect me to believe you're capable? This is really difficult.

After understanding the situation, Benson immediately began frantically calling for reinforcements from the Gulf of Tonkin across the entire Western Pacific via radio. Currently, all of the Federation Navy's battleships and 80% of its cruisers are concentrated in the Pacific. Some are deployed in Southeast Asia, tasked with monitoring the main force of the Ming Royal Navy in Jinlan Bay and maintaining a blockade of Surabaya Port; others are deployed in Yingzhou, tasked with supporting the United States Army's operations in Yingzhou and Silla.

The former is similar to the Third/Fifth Fleet of the Federation during World War II, such as the TF38/58 Golden Annihilation Battalion, whose main task was to conduct fleet battles. The latter is similar to the Seventh Fleet during World War II, which is the "navy of the army" that cooperates with the army in operations.

Coincidentally, the designations of these two fleets are identical to those of World War II in another timeline: the Third Fleet and the Seventh Fleet.

Therefore, in comparison, the Federation Navy's warships in Edo were relatively smaller in scale and older in model. For example, among the main battleships responsible for providing fire support to the shore, there were not only the earliest South Carolina-class ships with a speed of only 16 knots, but also the last pre-dreadnought ships like the Connecticut-class.

However, compared to the strength of the Ming navy in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea, even the current Seventh Fleet is far superior. When they learned that several Ming cruisers had dared to venture deep into Tokyo Bay to humiliate the Federation and the Yingzhou people, more than 20 cruisers immediately responded to Benson's radio call and began to converge on Tokyo Bay, preparing to hunt down the audacious Ming navy.

That same evening, a Federal cruiser located the culprit. Unfortunately, like a female police officer or investigator infiltrating a gang in some Taiwanese art films, this cruiser was utterly helpless against a formation of five Ming Dynasty cruisers. (The largest armored cruiser did not enter Edo Bay.)

You can't beat them, and you can't outrun them!

Even the lead armored cruiser "Yongchang" didn't have a chance to hit it. Several 5000-ton light cruisers rushed up and easily sent the unfortunate Federation cruiser to the bottom of the sea with their 150mm guns.

However, the telegram sent by the cruiser before it sank still pointed the way for other warships—the enemy was heading east.

But this precious telegram contained no other information. Heading east? If they went east after leaving Edo Bay, that would be the world's most vast ocean. They had slipped into the depths of the Pacific Ocean, and catching them would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

The Ming navy, which had been like a vegetable, suddenly started to move, and it was a big commotion right from the start. Benson, while furious, naturally had to force himself to calm down and analyze the other side's thoughts.

Benson first determined that the enemy's simultaneous actions in the north and south were definitely not simply a matter of sending battleships out for a stroll, or simply coming to Tokyo Bay to embarrass him.

Both of these are clearly trying to contain them. This is probably just the first step in the enemy's operation. As the current commander of the Federal Navy's Pacific Fleet, Benson could naturally see through such an obvious scheme at a glance, and... he plunged headlong into it.

There was no way around it; this wasn't a conspiracy at all. For the enemy to directly bombard Edo Bay would be too much of a slap in the face, and both the federal government and the federal navy would definitely want to get revenge.

Moreover, Benson is now playing a game with unprecedented wealth; he has plenty of cards to play. Regardless of their next moves, Benson believes that the safest approach is to take every card the opponent plays.

The day after the bombardment of Tokyo Bay, a telegram arrived from within the Federation. However, when Benson thought the telegram was a criticism from the president, it was later deciphered that it was not a punishment for the navy, but rather an "instruction" from within the country regarding the war situation—to abandon Silla and concentrate forces to attack Yeonpyeong and Luzon.

After looking at the telegram, Benson and Pershing were silent for a moment. After a while, Pershing spoke first: "The President must be afraid."

"Fear?"

"Yes, our previous defeat on the Silla battlefield caused the president to lose confidence in our ability to defeat the enemy in Silla. He probably felt that instead of further committing troops to Silla, it would be better to use those troops in other areas. After all, we were likely facing the world's best large-scale military commanders in Silla, and a population of more than 500 million people in the rear."

The United States Army has never, to this day, defeated a land power on its own on a continent outside its own territory.

Islands at sea allow the navy to cut off the enemy's logistics, but can warships really sail ashore on a peninsula like Silla?

"So, General, what do you think of the orders from home?" Benson probed subtly, wanting to know Pershing's opinion. His current worry was that Pershing wanted to "prove" himself.

“I support it.” Pan Xing said frankly: “It is not easy to fight in Silla, not only because there are too many mountains in Silla, which restricts us too much, but more importantly, the Ming army in Silla is different from other Ming armies.”

"The difference refers to..."

"The fighting spirit of some Ming troops is obviously different from that of most Ming troops. From their fighting spirit to their specific tactics, they have shown a level far superior to that of the average Ming army. I have fought against the Lai army in Europe, and their performance was in no way inferior to that of the Lai army."

Especially after I reviewed the Battle of Pyongyang, from a tactical perspective alone, I saw the shadow of the Storm Assault Team in this Ming army.”

"Did the enemy deploy their elite troops to Silla? Was it their royal guard or...?"

“It’s that prince’s troops,” Pershing said. “They seem to call them…the Youth Army in the Ming Dynasty.”

Are you also afraid of this army?

“I am not afraid of them, but I also agree that we do not need to devote so much energy to Silla, and the decision to withdraw the troops was the right one.”

"Alright." Benson nodded resignedly. "So, originally we only needed to organize an evacuation from Wonsan, but now we also need to consider operations in Busan? But I'm afraid I can't guarantee we'll have enough merchant ships deployed in both locations."

"You mean... some people have to be sacrificed?" Pershing didn't hesitate for even a second on this question: "Let's try to get MacArthur and the others back first. The encirclement of Yuanshan Port is full of white people."

Chapter Thirty-Two: Americans in the Fog of War (3)

The attack on Tokyo Bay was just the beginning. Starting in early April of 1919, the Ming army not only dispatched a fleet of cruisers to carry out unrestricted commerce raiding operations on the sea lanes of the entire Western Pacific region, but also sent more than a dozen ocean-going submarines to launch the first phase of "unrestricted submarine warfare".

Although only a cruiser squadron and fewer than 20 ocean-going submarines were dispatched, the entire western Pacific region was immediately thrown into a state of panic and paranoia. Especially in the coastal areas of Yingzhou, many fishermen encountered those submarines while fishing at sea and were then dealt with by the cannons on the Ming submarines.

Some of the lucky fishing boats encountered Ming submarines but happened to run into gunboats of the Yingzhou navy. However, to the despair of the Yingzhou fishermen, the gunboats turned tail and ran away after seeing the Ming submarines.

For the captain of the Yingzhou gunboat, making such a decision was perfectly normal. The small Karami gunboat, with a displacement of only 200 tons and a total of only one 76 mm gun, was going to engage in gun battle with Ming submarines with a displacement of more than 2000 tons and two 105 mm deck guns and two 88 mm guns.

If you want to fish with explosives, you should at least grab a few elementary school kids from the destroyer. Expecting kindergarten kids to fish with explosives is wishful thinking.

These actions by the Ming army naturally had a significant impact on the Federation's upcoming evacuation plan. There were 10 people waiting to be evacuated from Yuanshan Port, and the number of transport ships needed was not small. Although it was not difficult for the Federation to gather these ships, this disruption made it much harder to gather the ships on the original schedule.

After all, maintaining a large-scale offensive on Luzon and Yeonpyeong requires a massive number of transport ships. Providing supplies and resupply to the United States forces that retreated to southern Silla also requires transport ships. Due to the Ming army's commerce raiding operation, the schedules of many of the Federation's own supply teams have been disrupted. Currently, many merchant ships are stranded at Pearl Harbor, and some of these merchant ships were originally planned to be directly involved in the evacuation operation at Wonsan Port after arriving at Yingzhou.

The gap in maritime transport capacity that has now been identified needs to be filled.

However, for Benson, this problem was easy to solve.

Although the Colombian Federation proclaims equality for all, there are always those who want more equality.

That means taking a portion of the teams that supply the United States army in southern Silla and making them suffer for the sake of the overall war situation.

Who made the federal troops in southern Silla the most populous of black and colored people?

Today, the Union has mobilized more than 1 million ground combat troops throughout East Asia, accounting for about one-fifth of the total number of the United States Army. Since the start of the war, the United States Army has mobilized more than 5 million military personnel. Of course, this figure is the cumulative total—including the Navy, Army, National Guard and other armed forces.

Of these 100 million people, 500 were Black soldiers. Keep in mind that the total Black population of the Union was less than 5 million at the time. Black people, who made up only 10% of the Union's total population, contributed 10% of the United States Army's strength in the Asian theater.

Just as the Victorians in this timeline made greater use of the Barat forces, the Commonwealth also employed Black troops more extensively than in another timeline during World War I.

After all, the Federation here entered the war almost a year and a half earlier than in history. Whether in Europe or the Asia-Pacific region, the brutal battlefield has changed the Federation's attitude towards black people serving in the military. It has changed from "Do you guys even deserve to fight?" to "The Federation of Colombia needs talents like you."

With the war in Europe over and most of the European Legion troops beginning to withdraw back home, and some even disbanding and laying off personnel, the Federation specifically sent ships to Asia to transport the Black troops from the European Legion. These Black consumables were something the generals genuinely wanted to please.

After all, who wouldn't like a consumable that can have its casualty figures changed at will, its compensation paid out as needed, eats little, does a lot, and has almost no drawbacks except for its relatively weak combat effectiveness?

However, it was impossible to provide the full escort force originally intended for the evacuation operation from Wonsan.

The two Dingyuan-class battleships stirred up the entire South China Sea. These two battleships were like the bandits in the late Ming Dynasty in the past—as long as I don’t take the initiative to fight your main force, what can you do to me?

The Federation's standard battleships were among the best in the entire First World War, but at 21 knots, they were so slow they couldn't even catch up. The two Dingyuan-class battleships weren't particularly fast either, but the Federation's damaged capital ships just couldn't keep up, which was infuriating for the Federation.

What's even more infuriating is that the three Victorian battlecruisers completely ignored the Commonwealth's request for assistance in the operation. These three battlecruisers were just sunbathing in the harbor of Singapore. Anyone who knew them would understand that they were there to fight, but anyone who didn't would think they were there for a vacation.

Faced with the Victorians' somewhat strange behavior of neither working nor contributing, the Commonwealth could only choose to use their fast auxiliary combat ships to assist in the battle, hoping to force the enemy to slow down by launching torpedo attacks from destroyers and cruisers.

Although the Federation's navy developed extremely rapidly during this world war, the Federation had too much of a deficit in cruisers. Before the war, the Federation had fewer cruisers than battleships. Now that they were going to try to win by sheer numbers with these small and medium-sized warships, they naturally had to draw some ships from other areas to make up for it.

However, although the escort force for the operation was weakened, Benson did not see it as a big problem. The escort force was originally increased excessively for the sake of stability, and its weakening did not mean that the United States Army planners had insufficient escort force. It simply meant that some of the reserve forces were removed.

From the Federation's perspective, all they could see was a thick fog, with the opposing war machine occasionally peeking out from within it. The Federation Navy, in particular, was completely baffled as to what their old adversary was planning.

If the initial operation of the two Dingyuan-class battleships in the South China Sea was intended to draw attention to a commerce raiding fleet composed of cruisers, then these two battleships should have returned to port quickly after achieving their objective.

However, these two ships are still frolicking in the South China Sea, and it seems that the captains of the two battleships are even inclined to operate them as commerce raiders.

Was this a spur-of-the-moment decision by the Ming army, who thought it would be good to use battleships for commerce raiding and planned to use these two ships to create chaos in shipping in the South China Sea? Or were these two ships still a smokescreen, intended to continue to attract the attention of the main force of the Colombian Pacific Fleet?

Benson decided to disregard everything else. Even if the two battleships were bait, they were still bait for the shoveling immortal. In any case, as long as there was a chance to capture these two battleships, even if the Ming army's commerce raiding fleet achieved some results in other directions, it would still be an undeniable great victory for him, Benson.

-------------------------------------

"The Federation has sent another destroyer squadron south, which is good news for us." Li Che put down the telegram in his hand, but there was no joy on his face. His cold gaze swept over the faces of the people in front of him, but no one dared to meet his eyes.

"But this is one of the few pieces of good news we've received in the past few days, and compared to the bad news we've created ourselves, it's really nothing..."

As Li Che spoke, he couldn't help but gently press his temples. He felt a throbbing sensation in his temples, as if he already had high blood pressure at such a young age. He was very familiar with this feeling—when playing Genshin Impact in another world. He often felt this way too.

"Have all the personnel been dealt with?"

Li Che's gaze swept over an older official in front of him. These officials were all managers in the state-owned shipyard, and this older one was the current acting director of the shipyard.

Li Che originally thought that the biggest obstacle in his work after joining the Navy was the damage to the machinery and equipment in the shipyard when it was shut down, the broken supply chain of the state-owned naval shipyards and ordnance production departments, and the inability to continue manufacturing things that could be manufactured before.

He had expected to face one technical hurdle after another, but reality delivered a harsh blow—the Jiangnan Shipyard went on strike.

Why the strike?

Because the shipyard manager embezzled the money intended for the workers' wages, and although the bastard was apprehended at customs by investigators while preparing to disguise himself and sail away, his two children successfully escaped the country with the huge sum of money.

And such a thing is not surprising at all in the Ming Dynasty. Even the shipyard manager who is now in prison, after being tried in prison, was found to have committed all his crimes out of distrust of the war situation.

In his view, once the Ming Dynasty, a ship riddled with leaks, sank, whether it was the previous provisional government or the current new government, whether it was strong or weak, failure was only a matter of time. So he took advantage of the opportunity to make money and frantically amassed wealth.

There may not be many people as bold as him, but the total amount taken by those who are too timid to take so much is also quite astonishing.

Moreover, these problems are not something he can solve in a short time. These are the accumulated mess of the Ming Dynasty program over 600 years. Even if the Ming Dynasty is gone, this mess will still exist.

"The personnel situation has been resolved, and we have raised some funds to advance some of the workers' wages," said an official from the shipyard. "The workers have now dispersed, and we estimate that production will be able to resume tomorrow."

After waving the officials away with some annoyance, Li Che leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh.

In my early years, my consciousness would occasionally travel to another world, and I learned a lot from that world, both technically and theoretically.

Especially regarding some theoretical ideas he learned from the internet, Li Che's experiences in that other world gave him a sense of psychological superiority when facing many people in this world—he thought he was the one who was clear-headed and understood.

But now it seems that I failed to at least be realistic.

He felt he knew enough about the world and his country, but when he actually took over the country and started running the "Da Ming.exe" program, the entire system began to keep reporting errors.

He used to focus somewhat one-sidedly on the country's basic industrial output, such as how much steel production could reach in a year, how much electricity generation could reach in a year, and how much coal and oil could be produced in a year.

The numerical values ​​of these things gave him a feeling of playing the Iron Man game, but the real world is very complex and cannot be replicated simply by a series of numbers.

If high steel production and industrial output guaranteed victory, then the Syracuse wouldn't have been driven back by Onfaros. If higher steel production and industrial output meant more weapons and equipment could be produced, then Germany in World War II demonstrated how, despite controlling almost all of Western and Central Europe, it was ultimately defeated by the Soviets.

With only one week left before the launch of Operation "Three-Dimensional Assault," Li Che couldn't help but feel a little envious of his second and third uncles, knowing that the operation was about to begin but he was still entangled in these messy affairs.

These two are currently in Silla, probably living a very happy life.

Chapter Thirty-Three: The King of Jin's Achilles' Heel

"What happened, Wang Ma?"

When Zhu Miaoyun saw Wang Ma return to their temporary lodging with a worried look on her face, she guessed that there was probably a problem with their itinerary.

"It's nothing, Your Highness." Wang Ma took out some food that had been packed from a restaurant from the cloth bag she was carrying. "Let's eat something first. It's all that Jin traitor's fault. I'm afraid we can't leave for the time being."

Upon hearing that the original itinerary had been interrupted, Zhu Miaoyun automatically ignored the thought that "it's all that Jin traitor's fault." Although Wang Ma was loyal to her, she could always pin the blame on Li Zongdi no matter what happened along the way.

Seeing unemployed workers on the roadside, it's all that Jin thief's fault;

Seeing the military and police setting up checkpoints on the street, it's all that Jin traitor's fault;

Even when they see officials sent to the mainland organizing idle people to build roads and bridges, they will curse the Shanxi traitors for exploiting the people and wasting their strength.

Zhu Miaoyun could only shake her head helplessly. Given her personality on the internet before she transmigrated, she would probably have argued with Wang Ma. Even if the Jin traitor was utterly wicked, how long had he been in charge of the capital? Did he conjure up these unemployed workers in the past month?

While setting up roadblocks by the military and police at intersections in the current situation will inevitably lead to some corrupt officials taking advantage of the situation to extort money and goods, isn't this a way to maintain stability during this extraordinary time?

As for organizing the people to build roads and bridges... Which history textbook doesn't praise and encourage this kind of work-for-relief during economic crises? Perhaps this Prince Jin is indeed an ambitious man, as Wang Ma said, a Cao Cao of his time, but based on Zhu Miaoyun's observations of Prince Jin's subordinates and related officials over this period, putting aside his character, which she doesn't know well, in terms of ability alone, he is probably many times better than her current cheap father.

However, Zhu Miaoyun could not say any of these things. After transmigrating to this world, Zhu Miaoyun was very clear that she had to consider her position from the perspective of her own identity. She was a princess of the former dynasty, and now she was being secretly transferred away by a group of loyal royalists. These royalists were, in any case, her greatest support as the former princess.

Otherwise, Zhu Miaoyun really didn't know what she, a young girl with an IT and finance background, could do in this world. Would she build the world's first computer by hand decades later? Or would she compete with Hayek for the position of mentor of capitalist economics?

Let's try our best so that a hundred years from now, when netizens are discussing economic issues online, they can also say "Zhu Miaoyun's big hand"?

Regardless of what happens in the future, the most important thing is to leave the control of this Prince Jin with these loyal subordinates. After all, Zhu Miaoyun does not want to die mysteriously in the basement like the Romanov family. It is said that there are many royalists outside the mainland of the Ming Dynasty who are very willing to accept her. Even if she goes there as a mascot, she will still have enough to eat and wear.

However, it seems that she can't leave now. Zhu Miaoyun felt that she had to find out what had happened. It didn't take much effort. After a little questioning, Wang Ma told her the whole story. She said that a factory director of the Jiangnan Shipyard had tried to flee after the embezzlement case was exposed but was arrested. It seemed that the factory director had been promoted by Emperor Yongning when he went on an inspection tour. Naturally, Wang Ma also regarded this as "persecution" by Prince Jin.

"There's a war going on outside right now, where is this factory manager planning to run to?"

"Although the ocean shipping routes have been interrupted, the routes along the coastline to the north and south are still open. Outside the mainland, the Three Xuan and Six Wei states and overseas vassal states still regard the Ming Dynasty as the legitimate dynasty. It seems that the factory director chose the same route as our original plan, directly taking a ship south to Champa. Once there, there will be ways to go wherever you want. Who would have thought that he would be captured before he even left Songjiang Prefecture? Now the entire Songjiang Prefecture is under martial law, and we can't leave for the time being."

Zhu Miaoyun nodded. So what if she was going to be a homebody in Songjiang Prefecture for a while? In her previous life, when she was a migrant worker in Shanghai, she had also squeezed into a 20-square-meter rented room. Now, apart from not having internet or air conditioning, the conditions were much better than when she was staying at home in Shanghai before she transmigrated.

They rented an entire courtyard in Songjiang. After all, besides herself and Wang Ma, there were several plainclothes guards who accompanied her as ordinary attendants. She not only lived alone in the main house, but could also come to the courtyard to move around if she got bored.

After lunch, Wang Ma, always eager to be busy, went out again. On one hand, she was going to buy some groceries to cook for dinner, and on the other hand, she was going out to scout out the situation. She said that it was more suitable for her, an old woman, to scout out the situation than those guards who, although they were good at fighting, never smiled, and were less likely to attract attention.

After all, it's normal for middle-aged women to ask about gossip, isn't it?

However, perhaps because she had been cooped up in Yingtian Prefecture for too long, Zhu Miaoyun got bored after reading for a while in her room. She had been enjoying this fanfiction of *Dream of the Red Chamber* quite a bit—in the book, Lin Daiyu, guided by an immortal, switched to cultivating immortality, acquiring a set of Hunyuan Thunder Palm techniques capable of splitting mountains and shattering rocks, physically breaking through the entire Jia family mansion. Later, she even followed Qin Liangyu's example, secretly holding a military tally in her sleeves to join the army and fight against the Tartars. (Similar *Dream of the Red Chamber* fanfiction actually existed in the past.)

Unfortunately, the later parts of this fanfiction seem to still be serialized in the newspaper and not published separately, so Zhu Miaoyun can't read the later parts now. After reading the earlier parts a few times, the initial novelty wore off, and in terms of readability, it's not even as good as 21st-century online novels. With nothing to do for entertainment, Zhu Miaoyun went to the yard for some fresh air.

Upon entering the courtyard, Zhu Miaoyun overheard several guards chatting idly around a stone table and benches in the corner. After taking a few steps closer, she overheard their conversation—not surprisingly, it was about current national affairs.

Zhu Miaoyun sighed inwardly, "As expected, men are creatures who, no matter what world or era they live in, can always steer the conversation toward national affairs and the world order when they get together. They can talk about everything from the federal stock market to the yen exchange rate, from special military operations to the Jewish angel lottery. In fact, men can even talk about the current world order when they're with a beautiful girl instead of romance."

These guards, who previously seemed aloof and expressionless, were now chatting animatedly together, unsurprisingly about the ongoing battle.

This is the most discussed topic right now for any citizen.