Seven Seas Beacon Fire

After all, when Hiraga Yuzuru was studying in the Victoria Empire, he actually participated in the drawing of blueprints for admiral-class battlecruisers!

Yingzhou is a small country, a small country with scarce resources. The resources that this country lacks are not only tangible resources such as mineral resources, land and forest resources, but also human resources, which are even more urgent.

Hiraga Yuzuru doesn't believe anyone can replace him; at least not in the next ten years.

Therefore, he was naturally not prepared to make any concessions. Given his personality and the devastating naval battles and losses he witnessed during his studies in the Victorian Empire, he had his own bottom-line standards when designing warships.

Director Hiraga is consistent on this point, both in this world and in another. For example, in another world, the Amagi-class battlecruisers and Kaga-class battleships he designed, while excellent in terms of warship protection performance, are far inferior to the monsters of the three systems in Niu Niu's hands.

However, for more in-depth naval enthusiasts, simply comparing the height of the main armor belts of those three-line battleships with the designs of Akagi and Kaga, especially the coverage area of ​​the underwater extension, reveals that if Hiraga were willing to reduce the height of the main armor belts of these ships to a level comparable to that of the three-line battleships, then the paper protection ratings of these warships would not be far from those of the three-line battleships.

After all, a 100mm armor piece that is 5 meters high and a 200mm armor piece that is 2.5 meters high weigh exactly the same.

In a corner unnoticed by the peace, a slightly overweight middle-aged man was writing furiously at a drawing table. He sported the currently popular stylist's hat, and his obesity did not affect the pencil in his hand.

By all accounts, this is a model of someone who is fully dedicated to their work.

"Major Fujimoto." Someone came up to him and patted him on the shoulder: "What are you doing... still perfecting your torpedo cruiser? You should abandon this flashy but impractical plan as soon as possible."

"This is a port-side combat ship heavily armed with torpedoes! It's not some flashy but impractical thing!"

Chapter 332 Shipbuilding Genius

"How can it not be flashy but impractical? Your port-side combat ship has already been criticized before, and your current ship is not even as good as the previous port-side combat ship!"

"That's because you simply don't understand my plan!"

"Mr. Hiraga commented before that the ideal situation of hoping to engage the enemy at long distances with the strong side on the left only exists on paper. In encounters or cover missions, there will always be situations where you are forced to engage the starboard side. Adding torpedoes now will not help."

Your port-side combat ship is essentially a specialized optimization for long-range gunnery, but in mid-range engagements, the risk of encountering the enemy on the weak side is too great. While torpedoes can certainly enhance engagement power, no amount of optimization will help a ship unsuitable for mid-range combat.

“That's because you know absolutely nothing about this kind of future torpedo!” Fujimoto shook his head: “The new torpedo I’m planning uses the latest technology from the Kingdom of Gaul. It will be a weapon that changes the balance of naval warfare!”

"No matter how new the technology is, it's still just a torpedo!"

The two began a heated argument over the warship drawn on the sketch.

"Fujimoto! You're up to your old tricks again! Your ship is practically putting the lives of the officers and men guarding the fleet at risk!"

Hiraga Yuzuru, who had overheard the argument between the two, walked over and glanced at the sketch on the drawing table. The warship drawn on the drawing was a rather strange-looking ship, even ugly.

The ship features a long forecastle and two sizable funnels, indicating that it has high power requirements. In addition, there are two main gun turrets located at the stern and medium-caliber secondary gun turrets located at the bow. There are also four quadruple torpedo tubes on each side of the ship.

After quickly glancing over the ship's sketch, Hiraga, without even giving the adjacent armor distribution diagram a second glance, flew into a rage, ripped the sketch to shreds, crumpled it into a ball in his hand, and slammed it heavily to the ground.

"War is not child's play. The ideal combat scenarios you envision in these plans will forever remain in your mind! By designing such ships, do you intend to enable the garrison fleet to win battles, or to make it a laughing stock in future wars with other countries? Do you want to become the ruler by designing such warships?"

Hiraga once again reprimanded this arrogant junior as before. In the design department of the Yingzhou Navy, Hiraga disliked this guy named Fujimoto the most. In his opinion, many of Fujimoto's design proposals were meaningless showing off skills and were purely to cater to the unrealistic performance requirements of some high-ranking naval officers.

He detested the "green tea" types in the design department the most, because it was tantamount to using the future of the navy to curry favor with superiors.

Unexpectedly, Beng Zuan, who usually remained silent when criticized, suddenly stood up this time. The fat on his waist swayed violently with his movement, and his triangular eyes stared intently at Hiraga Yuzuru's somewhat thin body: "My design is of course to ensure the victory of the garrison fleet! Director, you don't need to call me a nationalist. In my eyes, aren't you a nationalist too?"

"Am I the nation's leader?" Hiraga Yuzuru almost laughed in anger: "When I started designing warships for the navy, you hadn't even graduated from university yet! Who gave you the right to criticize me?! Our country is just a small country with limited national strength and resources, and how much redundancy do the ships you designed actually have?"

Your port-side combat ship can indeed gain a significant gunnery advantage over cruisers of the same tonnage in the engagement environment you envision. However, if it engages the enemy on its weak side, it may even have its ammunition depot blown up by a destroyer's shells. Do you think our hypothetical enemy has very few destroyers?

A heavy cruiser with an Achilles' heel that could be fatally damaged by destroyer gunfire—do you think our nation's resources and the blood and sweat of our people can withstand such a waste?! Producing such a design, and you still say you're not a leader?! Or is the chief designer just an idiot, not a leader?!

"It is precisely because our resources are limited that we need to pursue the ultimate performance of our warships. Do you really think we can outlast our anticipated enemy in a protracted war?! If we cannot gain an advantage at the beginning of the war, then we will have no ability to force a draw with our opponent! Sending out one mediocre warship after another, like you, Director, is a waste of the Empire's national treasury, this is a waste of the nation's wealth!"

"How dare your country frame me like this!"

"I won't care about the accusations made against me by that deer!"

"The nation!"

"red deer!"

"The nation!"

"red deer!"

............

Everyone at the ship's headquarters stopped what they were doing. Normally, no one would dare to contradict Director Heiwa, but today someone actually dared to argue with Director Heiwa. No one had ever seen anything like this before.

"Shouldn't we go up and try to persuade them?"

One of the researchers asked the designer next to him in a low voice.

"What's there to advise?" The designer rested his chin on his hand, watching the wonderful "two-person stand-up comedy" over there, and said, "When the director was away a few days ago, the Crown Prince came to the ship headquarters and had a very pleasant chat with Fujimoto-kun."

"Could it be that...?"

"One is a potential favorite of the future crown prince, and the other is the design master of our Yingzhou warship. Which one do you want to persuade? Just stay here and watch."

"Found dead inside..."

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

“Your Highnesses, please remember your identities from now on. We are now a family. We are your father and mother, and you are our children. Just like we said when we went through the border security check, we are a family coming to the East to do business.”

Ivan and Raisa helped the two princesses and Prince Alexei change their clothes. From now on, the four of them were a family of five. After a long journey through Siberia, Ivan found a place to spend money to buy some new clothes. After all, if they were to enter the Tang Empire, they certainly couldn't just drive in through the border in a swaggering manner.

The journey through Siberia was an ordeal for all of them. It was only because it wasn't winter that they knew they might not have been able to make it through the journey.

Driving long distances in Siberia in winter is no less dangerous than driving and exploring Lop Nur. Even without the influence and interference of extreme cold weather, the car almost got completely stuck several times when passing through permafrost areas.

Fortunately, they eventually completed their journey and changed their identities before entering the border checkpoint of the Tang Dynasty.

After Ursus withdrew from the World War, and with the ceasefire between the two countries, trade naturally and rapidly resumed along the long border between them. For many merchants in Ursus, acting as a middleman through the Tang Dynasty had clearly become an important shortcut to wealth.

For many Ursus people, this kind of middleman business is something they do with their whole families, so Ivan and his group were almost flawless after their disguise, because there were just too many Ursus people like them making a living on the border.

After successfully infiltrating the territory of the Tang Dynasty, the group had some disagreements about their next steps. After a grueling journey through Siberia, Alexei, who had nearly lost his life, decided to simply confess his identity to the Tang government.

Although Crown Prince Alexei had previously been perceived by the world as a pampered prince by his mother and father, he had in fact received a complete and professional royal elite education. His request was not entirely a desperate act; he was well aware that their identities were what the Easterners called "rare commodities," and that the Tang Emperor of the Eastern Tang Empire was a brilliant and ambitious commander and politician who would certainly not hand them over to the Ursus Federation government.

As long as he doesn't get thrown back into the water, Crown Prince Alexei is now ready to accept whatever the outcome may be, whether it's being allowed to live like an ordinary person or being controlled as a puppet. He's tired, whatever.

However, Princess Maria and Princess Anastasia strongly objected, believing that their identities should not be revealed so quickly.

On one hand, those operating along the border are not only businessmen, but also possibly people from the Ursus Federation's Ministry of the Interior. If their identities are exposed, they may be assassinated.

On the other hand, the two princesses felt that the Tang Empire's attitude was not necessarily as secure as Alexei thought. After all, the Ursus Federation had already sent people to visit the Tang Empire and even purchased weapons and ammunition from the Tang Empire, as well as main guns for battleships. Who knew if the Tang Empire and the Ursus Federation had signed some secret agreements that had not been publicly announced?

Who can say for sure about such things?

Life is only given to you once!

Ivan and Zaisa both felt the princess's opinion was safer, so they decided to first disguise themselves and observe the situation and political climate within the Tang Dynasty. They would travel from the northern border of the Tang Empire inland, at least avoiding the Ministry of Internal Affairs personnel who might be active in the border region. Then, they would consider whether to reveal their identities to the Tang Empire, or simply sail to another, less turbulent country, further away from Ursus.

With this in mind, the group disguised themselves as a family of "Ursus traders" and finally arrived at Baiyun Obo. Putting aside the temporary railway built by the Ming Empire's army to the border regions during the war, if you wanted to take a train to the interior, this place could almost be considered the starting point of the railway journey.

With a touch of trepidation, they carried their forged identity documents. After enduring three scrutinizing glances from the police at the train station, they finally managed to obtain their tickets. The group of five booked a soft sleeper compartment that could accommodate six people. Once inside, they could lock the door from the inside, ensuring a relatively secluded environment for all five until the train reached its final destination.

With the roar of the train whistle, the train, which departed from Baiyun Obo, began its southward journey along the railway line. This railway line would continue southeast, passing through Ulanqab and Zhangjiakou before arriving at Shuntian Prefecture.

According to the plan, they would rest there temporarily before deciding whether to reveal their identities to the Tang Empire's officials, or to sail directly from Tianjin Port to Colombia or South America.

Maria sat on the lower bunk by the window, resting her head against the glass, her eyes gazing blankly out the window. Only now could they finally breathe a sigh of relief, but once they calmed down, the events of the past few days flooded their minds like a tidal wave.

In just over a month, they lost their father and mother, as well as their two older sisters. Their own safety is no longer guaranteed, and they have no choice but to flee overseas to survive.

They are not too far from Ursus yet, but once the train starts moving, they will be far from the land that gave them birth and nurtured them. For the people in the carriage at this moment, it is naturally full of bitterness.

Over there, Anastasia's eyes were already brimming with tears. Although Alexei's face showed no emotion, wasn't this numbness also a form of grief?

This train is a mixed passenger and freight train with a distinctive northern character. The first 10 carriages are passenger carriages, while the last 20 freight carriages are loaded with local minerals.

Because of the train's immense weight and the limited traction of steam locomotives at that time, even with two locomotives pushing and pulling to help it leave the station faster, the train's speed didn't pick up for a long time after it left the station.

Accompanied by the constant clanging of train wheels against the rails and the sounds of mechanical linkages moving from the locomotive, fatigue gradually replaced the sadness, and the few people in the sleeper car began to drift off to sleep.

"Oh!"

In the dead of night, before the people in the lobby could properly entertain these strange guests from Ursus, a sudden gunshot shattered their sweet dreams.

Chapter 333 The Railway Robbery

When Li Shuangying heard the sudden gunshot, he felt his scalp tingle. He suppressed the urge to stand up immediately and instead stared intently at the man sitting in front of him.

The man sitting opposite him was clearly startled when the gunshot rang out. He instinctively reached for his waist and quickly scanned his surroundings. However, the man opposite him then noticed that Li Shuangying was staring intently at him. When their eyes met, both of them froze instantly.

The next moment, the man sitting opposite him seemed to notice the strange look in his eyes. Then the man quickly reached for his waist, but Li Shuangying was even faster and almost reached for his waist as well.

The two acted almost simultaneously, but Li Shuangying did not pull out the weapon from her waist. Instead, she reached into her pants pocket and pulled the trigger. The bullet accurately hit the man's right hand as he was drawing his gun. As the man's half-drawn pistol fell to the ground with a painful scream, Li Shuangying had already knocked the man unconscious with a knee and elbow strike.

The gunshot sounded like the signal to smash a cup at a banquet, followed by a cacophony of gunfire and muffled sounds of fighting inside the carriage. If this scene were made into a Call of Duty game, it would probably be used in the classic slow-motion shot of breaking down a door.

Ten seconds later, like a sudden storm, the screams of men and women in the carriage, who were a beat behind in reacting, finally escaped their throats. More than one person in the carriage was already lying on the ground covered in blood.

Only then did Li Shuangying pull the gun from his belt, raise it, and slowly stand up, cautiously surveying his surroundings.

The gun in his hand was a Jinling Plum Blossom pistol, a brand-new combat pistol developed by the Jinling Gun Factory during World War II. It looked like a slightly fatter Type 54 pistol and was widely welcomed by officers, soldiers and civilians alike due to its excellent performance.

Just like the 1911 for Colombia, the Type 12 pistol can be considered the national gun of the East. However, no matter how national gun it is, it cannot be taken to public transportation such as trains.

However, there seem to be a lot too many unusual people like this on this train today.

"Sizhi?! Are you alright?!"

Someone shouted at him, asking a question.

He wasn't the only one who stood up with a gun in the carriage; several other men also stood up abruptly from their seats, some dressed like businessmen, others like office workers, and still others like coal miners, but all of them were carrying chilling weapons.

Besides the Type 1 and Type 2 Jinling Plum Blossom pistols, there was even a person holding a "mirror box" that looked somewhat like a Mauser pistol and a Bergmann pistol in one hand. While looking around at the other passengers in the carriage, he took out the empty short magazine, replaced it with an extended long magazine, and then took out a wooden holster from his bag and reversed it onto the grip to use as a stock.

Li Shuangying did not respond to the man immediately. Instead, she took out an identification card from her pocket, showed it to the surrounding passengers, and said, "I am Li Shuangying, the Chief Justice of the Court of Judicial Review. The Court of Judicial Review is here today to solve a major case. Please do not panic!"

After calming the surrounding crowd, he turned to the man who had asked him and asked, "I'm fine. How are the brothers?"

"Dapeng is alright."

"The worm is fine."

"The monkey is fine."

"The roe deer only got a minor scrape, which is negligible, but a passenger was hit in the shoulder by a stray bullet."

These people were members of the action teams belonging to the local police departments. Although the concept of SWAT did not exist in this era, the police system naturally absorbed many excellent veterans in the face of a large wave of demobilization after the armistice. Some veterans with excellent skills and even field reconnaissance soldiers were gathered together to form action teams in various places. To some extent, this unintentionally led to the formation of many "prehistoric" special police.

However, compared to the well-trained and well-equipped special police of later generations, the action team members of these local police stations, although each of them was highly skilled and it was not difficult for them to kill people quickly and accurately, it was not so easy for them to ensure that civilians or hostages were not harmed during the operation.

Especially in terms of the weapons used, the current action team is not as comprehensive as many later special police and special forces. The ammunition used by both sides in the intense gunfight in the carriage just now was almost all the 7.5*25mm high-powered pistol bullets of the Ming Dynasty military standard. The performance of this pistol bullet is equivalent to the Tokarev 7.62mm pistol bullet.

Those familiar with the 54th Black Star know that this military pistol has excellent penetrating power and can easily penetrate a single layer of brick wall. To be honest, it is not a very suitable weapon for use in a scenario like inside a train carriage. In addition, given the behavior of these people, it is actually a blessing that only one passenger was injured. Compared to them, FUZE is relatively considerate of the hostages.

However, Li Shuangying was quite satisfied with the performance of these action team members. This time, as an official of the Dali Temple, he came here specifically to handle a railway robbery case. The railway from Baiyun Ebo to the interior had been robbed no less than 20 times in the past year. These bandits took advantage of the turmoil caused by the stagnation of the court's functions at the end of the Ming Dynasty to develop in the border areas of the empire. From the end of the Ming Dynasty to the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the court's main focus was on foreign affairs, which allowed these bandits to grow stronger and eventually attract the attention of the Dali Temple.

Just then, the Crown Prince and his entourage were heading to Baiyun Obo to inspect the mining area. Although these bandits certainly couldn't threaten the heavily protected Crown Prince and his party, neither the Dali Temple nor the Inner Mongolian authorities wanted to allow these bandits to cause any trouble during the Crown Prince's inspection.

Therefore, the Dali Temple dispatched a special commissioner, Di Zengtai, the Vice Minister of the Dali Temple, and Li Shuangying, the Director of the Dali Temple, as his deputy, to Baiyun Ebo to investigate the case.

In fact, the local police station in Inner Mongolia had been tracking and investigating this gang of bandits for a long time. After the special task force of Dali Temple arrived, it decided to quickly close in after several days of discussion. Although doing so might miss some who had not been monitored, in order not to cause trouble in front of the Crown Prince, everyone could not care about that.

Today's operation is to capture these bandits on the train. After previous investigations, they have basically identified these bandits, and this operation can be described as a one-on-one surveillance. Although Li Shuangying is a high-ranking official of the Dali Temple, he personally led the team to the front line to ensure the smooth progress of this operation.

However, the operation was unexpectedly disrupted. The original plan was to start the operation after the power supply to the train carriages was suddenly cut off. But the sudden gunshot before the operation began startled the bandits, so they had to act hastily. As a result, a passenger in the carriage was injured, which was actually quite fortunate.

Meanwhile, on the rest of the train, it's uncertain whether the other carriages will be as fortunate as this one. What if there are too many casualties...?

The thought immediately popped into Li Shuangying's mind. His gaze swept across the carriage again. Two bandits had been killed, and two others had been wounded and captured. However, he was not sure if there were any other bandits lurking in the carriage that they had not been able to detect during their previous reconnaissance.

He also couldn't be sure whether these vicious bandits would hide themselves and try to escape the pursuit, or suddenly seize the opportunity to pull out their guns and open fire on them. After the operation began, apart from the robbers who had been monitored before, the relationship between the two sides had completely changed to one where he was in the open and the robbers were in the dark.

However, he needed to find out the situation in the other carriages, so he waved and called over the roe deer. Unlike him, an official from the capital, the members of these action teams used code names when they were on missions. This seemed to be a habit left over from the army. It seems that it was first promoted in the various reconnaissance battalions of the army when His Majesty was still the Prince of Jin. It seems to have come from the suggestion of the Crown Prince.

The train braked quickly after the gunshot, and about 20 minutes later, all the details were tallied. While it was uncertain whether any had escaped, if a few had, it was clear the bond between these robbers wasn't as strong as their sworn brotherhood oath suggested. No hidden robbers launched a counterattack; after all, these men were essentially robbers for money, not like suicide squads in the military who were determined to die together.

The passenger casualties were also tallied. Sure enough, the carriage where Li Shuangying was located was the luckiest one. The casualties in the other carriages with hijackers were much greater than in this carriage. In one carriage, the hijackers even used a shotgun to knock down a large number of passengers.

Although the iron pellets fired by those earthen-made shotguns were not very lethal and no passengers died on the spot, it was still quite frightening to see more than a dozen injured passengers and even team members covered in blood and being bandaged up. Not to mention, there were also passengers in other carriages who suffered minor injuries.

Li Shuangying looked at the tallied list with a serious expression. The current situation was only slightly better than the worst-case scenario originally anticipated, but it was still quite bad. After all, dozens of people had been injured, and several of them were not sure how long they could last. This time, things had been half-ruined right under the Crown Prince's nose.

"Lord Sizhi, what should we do now?"

"What else can we do? We're not far from Baiyun Obo yet. Notify the train to reverse back to our starting station. These wounded soldiers on the train probably won't make it to the next station. Send a telegram to Lord Di to prepare enough medical personnel."

After saying that, he turned to the last page of the list he had compiled, and then his expression became more serious: "There are robbers in the sleeper carriages too?"

"Yes, the robber went to the soft sleeper compartment to get hot water. After the gunshots rang out, he exchanged fire with two of our team members who were tracking him. The bullets pierced the wooden boards of the soft sleeper compartment, and a foreign passenger from Ursus was shot in the buttocks."