Seven Seas Beacon Fire

The black tea is really delicious. Even Abhinandan, the black tea guy, knows how to launch an attack on the Indians while driving a MiG-21.

However, those in the know are already frowning at the results of this military exercise.

Was the focus of this military exercise that the Blue Force fleet ultimately abandoned the first combat mission in the Panama Canal and failed to complete the combat objectives given by the directorate?

Of course not. The key point is why the Blue Fleet chose to abandon the battle while its capital ships were still intact.

In fact, the Blue Team commander was not criticized or punished for his last-minute order to retreat; on the contrary, he was highly regarded because he had grasped the root of the problem.

Why should we protect the Panama Canal?

Ultimately, it's all about winning the war.

If Colombia can control the Panama Canal, it will be able to more easily allocate resources and troops between the two oceans, which is crucial for Colombia to win the war.

But what if we lose our entire fleet to protect the Panama Canal?

What is the significance of protecting the Panama Canal?

If the fleet is completely destroyed, even if we manage to repel the enemy this time, what will happen when the enemy spends half a year repairing their ships and comes to the Panama Canal again? Will the Colombian Navy have to send out its sailing escort ships to fight?

The biggest problem exposed in this military exercise is that, in the current naval combat situation, the side that loses in the vanguard battle faces a huge disadvantage, including in terms of battlefield situational awareness and in terms of the lack of flank protection for its own fleet in the decisive fleet battle.

It can be said that after the vanguard fleet is defeated, unless the main fleet has a huge advantage in manpower and quality, the probability of being defeated in a forced fleet battle is too high.

This would lead a fleet commander to choose to engage in a vanguard battle. After a defeat, they would proactively retreat to avoid the subsequent fleet decisive battle. Rather than fighting now, they would rather accumulate strength and wait until they have reorganized their vanguard fleet, win a vanguard battle, and then seek a decisive battle.

However, assuming there is a real chance to turn the tide like this, it is conceivable that the other side would also choose to preserve its main fleet after the defeat in the vanguard battle. The final result would likely be that both sides' massive main fleets would lose most of the opportunities for a decisive fleet battle in this game of preserving their strength.

The ideal fleet showdown may be postponed indefinitely as a result.

The Colombian Navy Ministry referred to this situation as "decisive postponement" after the military exercises concluded.

However, it was soon pointed out that the other side of the "decisive battle after the fact" is the "decisive battle before the fact," which means that the battle between the vanguard fleets is the decisive battle between the two fleets. After all, when your main fleets can't even meet each other, the largest naval battle you can fight is the confrontation between the vanguard fleets of both sides.

Therefore, it is not wrong to call the battle between the vanguard fleets a decisive battle. One could even argue that winning the vanguard battle means winning the naval battle, and the vanguard battle is essentially a fleet decisive battle.

If this situation occurred before or during a world war, the most sensible choice would seem to be to allocate the vast majority of available resources to strengthening the vanguard fleet. The most extreme, but perhaps most correct, approach would be a "full vanguard fleet," where all capital ships are high-speed vessels capable of serving as vanguards. My vanguard fleet would be unprecedentedly powerful, and the initiative in the battle would be in my hands…

Well, perhaps in other times and worlds, the navy of some country discovered this and put it into practice.

However, in the present context, the vanguard battle itself has begun to become less pure.

The variable here is the aircraft carrier.

The performance of aircraft carriers in this war can be described as mixed.

The criticism of aircraft carriers is that even with 10-inch guns, they have proven that they are absolutely incapable of confronting even the world's least protected battlecruiser (Lexington: profanity). While an aircraft carrier may seem like a capital ship with powerful air operations capabilities, from a gunnery perspective, it is still a secondary capital ship. Even if it can suppress all cruisers, it is still a secondary capital ship.

However, many people also saw the powerful reconnaissance capabilities demonstrated by the aircraft carrier in this military exercise, which is a very typical "asymmetric force" for modern navies.

Carrier-based aircraft give aircraft carriers unparalleled reconnaissance capabilities compared to other surface ships. Why were battlecruisers the core of naval reconnaissance forces in the past? Because battlecruisers possessed the fastest speed and strongest firepower in the navy, while the towering mainmasts of capital ships provided lookouts on battlecruisers with excellent visibility.

For some light vessels, the horizon might be 20 or 30 kilometers away, but for lookouts standing atop the mainmast of a warship, which is tens of meters high, they can spot targets as far as 40 kilometers away.

Not to mention that battlecruisers can intercept enemy reconnaissance forces, creating a fog of war at sea against the enemy.

But all of this is meaningless in the face of the aircraft flying above the aircraft carrier. The battlecruiser seems to have become a henchman assigned by the aircraft carrier. Under such circumstances, some officers of the Colombian Navy have begun to think: are those 10-inch guns on the two Constellation-class aircraft carriers really that meaningful?

In fact, some young aviation-minded officers in the Colombian Navy have been clamoring that if the two Constellation-class aircraft carriers are fully equipped and effectively trained, dozens of aircraft carrying hundreds of kilograms of bombs and torpedoes could easily launch harmless attacks on battleships from beyond the range of their guns.

An aircraft carrier can destroy any target at sea using only its aircraft.

Such views are mostly regarded as heretical nonsense by the current high-ranking officials of the Colombian Navy. The high-ranking officials of the Navy are not unaware of the flight performance of those flying wooden frames. The Navy's current reconnaissance bombers can carry bombs weighing more than 100 kilograms, but are bombs weighing one or two hundred kilograms very powerful for large surface ships?

This doesn't even address the issue of bomber accuracy in this era. At that point, even if all the bombers on an aircraft carrier were together, they might only be able to drop a handful of bombs onto the enemy's deck. What good would that do?

As for torpedo bombers capable of carrying 14-inch aerial torpedoes, torpedoes seemed to pose a huge threat to battleships. However, the problem was that the aerial torpedoes carried by carrier-based aircraft of that era were simply too small in both size and warhead weight.

Perhaps attacking some warships in the early stages of the war, such as the Daring which sank with a single torpedo and the Paris which ran aground and died, might have some effect. However, apart from the super battleships of the two countries that were designed with higher requirements for torpedo protection TDS from the very beginning, even the mainstays of the naval forces of various countries that entered service in the middle of the last World War had already made significant improvements in torpedo protection armor.

More than one country's navy has begun planning to upgrade its aging battleships with new torpedo protection bulges.

Although these anti-torpedo bulges make ships bulkier and the underwater portion less aesthetically pleasing, they are far inferior in terms of destructive power to the weak and primitive aerial torpedoes of that era, even disregarding the survivability of torpedo bombers when launching torpedoes.

In this era, the general perception is that aircraft carrier-based aircraft are simply not capable of sinking a battleship in naval warfare, and this was indeed almost a truth for a considerable period of time in the future.

Through this military exercise targeting specific issues, the Colombian Navy has realized that they are in a period of major transformation in naval operational theory. However, caught in the tide of the times, the Colombian Navy is now unprecedentedly confused, and they are even somewhat unsure how to build their own fleet.

Although the military exercise exposed many problems, it does not mean that the Colombian Navy will be able to quickly find solutions to these problems.

Fortunately, it is currently a naval holiday, giving the Colombian Navy ample time to explore and identify the direction and path for its future development.

However, whenever faced with such a situation, the Colombian Navy can't help but want to find out how the Royal Navy of China and the Royal Navy of Victoria responded.

Leaving aside Victoria, Columbia received some new information from the East that was somewhat related to the navy.

That is, Li Che, the current crown prince of the Tang Dynasty, plans to make a state visit to several European countries at the beginning of next year.

This was seen by outsiders as a move by the Tang Empire to reorganize its diplomatic relations with European countries and to further inherit the diplomatic capital of the Ming Empire in Europe.

This move by the Tang Empire naturally drew sharp criticism from many political commentators. Unsurprisingly, the Colombian people, who are generally quite aware of potential crises, were widely worried that this was a sign that the Tang Empire wanted to revive the Alliance, especially if the Tang Empire and Letania were to unite...

Although it seems outrageous, people who frequently buy newspapers and magazines are quite familiar with what kind of country Letania has become. In the past year, Letania has often managed to grab one-third of the headlines in Colombian political newspapers—although almost none of those headlines are good news.

However, Letania, a country that seemed destined to become a European backwater, displayed remarkable energy during the last World War, leading many to believe it still possesses limitless potential, especially militarily. If the relationship between the Tang Dynasty and Letania could be rekindled…

Among these political commentators, one person discovered a point that differed from the others' perspectives.

Why was the Tang Empire's imperial grandson chosen to represent them on their overseas mission?

"Where are the Emperor and Crown Prince of the Tang Empire?"

Chapter 372 I'm Going to Pay Back the Money

Li Che wasn't really keen on visiting Europe. After all, his wife had just given birth, and as a new father, he stopped spouting nonsense like "I need to focus my energy on military affairs."

He now prefers to focus his energy on his son and daughter. He didn't realize it before he became a father, but now that he is, he thinks human babies are cuter than cat and dog puppies.

However, this mission to visit Europe was none other than his. First of all, the emperors of the East (the words "emperor" and "heavenly emperor" seem to be censored now. Originally, since it was the Tang Dynasty, I thought of using the word "sage," but as a fan of the Song Dynasty... sigh) usually do not visit foreign countries.

"That old man is really something. If he really wanted to visit Europe, couldn't he have waited a few more months? It's only just after the Spring Festival, not even the Awakening of Insects has arrived yet, and he's already setting sail across the ocean to the west... How long do you think we'll be away from the children...?"

As Zhu Miaoyun straightened her clothes, she kept muttering complaints to Li Che. The young couple on the Crown Prince's side didn't like having someone serving them all the time. After all, the two transmigrators often talked about some "topics that couldn't be touched," so even in what might be the most frugal royal family in the history of the East, the young couple had the lowest requirements for the material quality of life.

"Isn't it unnecessary to bring so many clothes?" Li Che looked at the clothes Zhu Miaoyun took out of the closet one by one. "Although we'll be staying for quite a while this time, your clothes... it feels like you're changing them every day?"

"You don't need to bring all these clothes. Do you know how much weight I gained after giving birth?" Zhu Miaoyun raised her head with a hint of anger and looked at Li Che, then held up two fingers and shook them: "I weigh over 120 pounds now! I never thought I would get this fat!"

"Where have you gotten fat?" Li Che looked completely bewildered. His gaze swept over Zhu Miaoyun. Although she was definitely rounder than before she had given birth, Li Che was certain that 90% of the weight she had gained was in the right places.

"My thighs are thicker than before!"

"These amazing legs are just too perfect. Please give up the idea of ​​dieting."

Li Che said very seriously.

After giving birth, Zhu Miaoyun's breasts became larger, her hips became bigger, and her thighs became rounder, but it had absolutely nothing to do with being thick. In another world, Li Che's most intolerable thing on the Internet was those so-called beauties who were as thin as bamboo poles.

Some female celebrities are so thin they've lost all their breasts. I really don't know what's so beautiful about them. And then there's the internet in another world, like in some of the groups he's joined. Some of those idiotic netizens who are obviously male fans seem to only mention 90 pounds when it comes to girls, and they even claim to be big-breasted fetishists who usually play Azur Lane. These kinds of people should be dragged out and shot by the military police, because you're definitely an undercover agent from Azur Lane!

After venting her frustrations on Li Che, Zhu Miaoyun finally calmed down. Our princess wasn't really trying to lose weight. Zhu Miaoyun could sense that Li Che seemed even more infatuated with her after she gave birth. She was simply dissatisfied with this overseas trip and had nowhere to vent her frustrations. At least as a mother, Zhu Miaoyun found it somewhat unacceptable to have to say goodbye to her two children for more than two months only six months after giving birth.

However, she couldn't really blame the old man for being cold and heartless, for not taking care of his grandson and granddaughter-in-law, because the Crown Prince, who was originally scheduled to go on the trip, had been in poor health lately.

Li Renchi was already somewhat weak. Although the Li family had good genes, he had suffered a serious illness when he was young. Although he survived, it seemed that the illness had drained his body. This condition became more pronounced in middle age. Coupled with the previous major flu outbreak, there were rumors circulating in the court and among the people. Everyone acknowledged that the current Tang Dynasty had a very outstanding crown prince, but everyone was also worried that this crown prince would die young like Zhu Biao did back then.

After all, His Majesty's health seemed very robust, and to outsiders it was hard to say who would walk ahead of whom between the father and son.

In those days, there were no comfortable passenger planes, and even the most luxurious cruise ships or large naval warships were a torment to cross the ocean. Therefore, the heavy responsibility of visiting Europe fell on the shoulders of the Crown Prince.

"You can rest assured that the two children will be taken care of by their mother. When we return from the visit, I will ask the old man for a vacation so that we can take you and the children on a trip and enjoy some sightseeing."

Zhu Miaoyun's expression softened slightly after hearing this: "Then can't we bring the child along?"

“Who takes children on a trip abroad? Besides, the bumpy and tiring journey is also a risk for children. Don’t worry.” Li Che sat down next to Zhu Miaoyun and let her lean on his shoulder naturally. “In your world, it seems that Hirohito also went to Europe after the war. But we are different from that guy. He really went out to broaden his horizons. We will inevitably have to scheme and fight with those European devils.”

"Haven't the treaties already been signed? What's the point of all this backstabbing and infighting?"

"The naval treaty has been signed, but there are still some things to be discussed, and some consensus has not yet been reached. Just because it was put on hold before does not mean that the problem has been solved."

Zhu Miaoyun thought for a moment: "Those islands in the South Pacific?"

“Far more than that.” Li Che shook his head. “Many of the things we need to discuss are preparations for what’s to come. Although the Great Depression is still a few years away, we have a lot of preparatory work to do now so that we can be ready for that day.” Li Che gently hooked Zhu Miaoyun’s nose with his finger and teased, “I’ll be in charge of scheming against those foreigners, and my wife will give this generation of Europeans a shock of Eastern aesthetics. You just need to be the most beautiful among them.”

Zhu Miaoyun reached out and slapped away Li Che's mischievous hand: "Don't treat me like a pretty face. I'm the real time traveler. You're just an international student from our world."

"Madam, your world is truly wonderful. You even provided me, an international student, with such a beautiful study companion."

Zhu Miaoyun immediately pointed at her like a husky: "You're getting cocky now that I'm saying you're fat, aren't you?"

Li Che immediately gave a French military salute: "Very well, I was wrong. Please forgive me for treating the great Princess Yongning as a mere ornament. I am guilty and I repent."

"Hmph." Zhu Miaoyun raised her chin triumphantly: "Tell me first what you plan to do in each of the European countries you visit. I'm not so bad as to not give you some advice."

"It's nothing more than going to the Victorian Empire to discuss the Southeast Asian issue, then complaining about the Gauls with the Victorians, then going to Gaul to discuss some military cooperation issues, and then joining them in criticizing the Victorians. Most of the other European countries are just formalities. The important part is that at the end, we will visit Letania, which should now be called the Republic of Letania, right?"

"Leytania?" Zhu Miaoyun frowned upon hearing the name. "Has the country ended its internal strife?"

The reason Zhu Miaoyun asked this question was naturally because Letania, which once represented the industrial center of Europe and was one of the major powers in Europe, is now almost on par with Ukraine, which is in another world, in international news.

The situation in Letania seems to have never calmed down since the end of the war. Since the year the country withdrew from the war, several years have passed and the country has undergone several Z-shaped changes. Various forces and factions with different ideologies have come and gone. Today, Letania has a new school of thought influenced by Ursus, as well as royalists who are trying to restore the reign of Emperor Letania. In addition, there are the military and many other political factions.

Significant internal problems have led to frequent physical clashes within Letania over the past few years. While these conflicts haven't yet reached the level of a civil war in terms of scale and outcome, it's not impossible that a civil war could break out in Letania if this continues.

If it were just internal reasons, that would be one thing. But in this world, there are always situations where the rope breaks at its weakest point. Letania's current dire domestic financial situation has prevented the Republican government of Letania from paying the war reparations stipulated in the Treaty of Versailles last year, and has therefore defaulted on the payment.

Therefore, on January 11th of this year, the Gallic and Belgian armies occupied the Ruhr region, taking control of this most prosperous industrial city in all of Leitania, as well as the local mines and manufacturing companies.

Since the once mighty army of Letania, which had shaken the whole of Europe, has been disbanded, the Letanian government only has a group of poorly trained police officers. Therefore, the Letanian government can only mobilize the masses and encourage workers to fight back by striking.

The strike has continued to this day and is still ongoing, but unfortunately, based on the current situation, it may only lead to a further decline in the economy and higher prices for imported goods, further exacerbating Letania's already poor and fragile economic situation.

It's fair to say that Letania's current situation is exceptionally dire, and their republican government is in utter chaos. To visit Letania under such circumstances...

"Isn't Letania a bit dangerous right now? Last year, I saw news reports that some streets in Letania were as chaotic as the streets of Los Angeles before we time-traveled..."

"I know their situation isn't very stable right now, but I think our military intelligence agency and the Leitanian government have communicated and can guarantee their security. As for why I have to go, do you want to guess why I'm going?"

Zhu Miaoyun frowned and racked her brains for a moment. Then, she seemed to recall a news article about Letania that she had read in the newspaper: "You're not going to pay back the money, are you? I can already imagine how interesting the Letanians' expressions will be."

"Hahaha.........." Li Che couldn't help but laugh out loud. In today's world, anyone who reads the news even a little knows that the price of the Leytanian Mark is now as cheap as that of a street prostitute.

Before the war, the exchange rate between the mark and the dollar was roughly 4.2 marks to 1 dollar, but shortly after the war ended, the exchange rate had fallen to 1 million marks to 100 dollar!

Many people are probably impressed by the line from a movie where the man with the mustache asks the profound question, "Do you know how many marks a loaf of bread is worth now? 50 marks!" and are amazed when they first learn about this history.

But in fact, this is far from the limit of the mark's exchange rate. Just recently, the mark's exchange rate even fell to the bizarrely ridiculous level of 4.2 trillion marks to 1 US dollar!

This means that even the paper used to manufacture the Mark is now actually worth more than the Mark's book value. If you print a Mark's image on a piece of paper, that paper loses its value! If you want to buy a loaf of black bread, you'll need a trolley carrying 1 trillion Marks to get it.

The Tang Dynasty inherited all the assets of the Ming Dynasty and naturally assumed all of the Ming Dynasty's previous world debts. The Ming Dynasty and the Leitanian Empire had close relations and had close military and economic exchanges before the outbreak of the war. At that time, the Ming Dynasty and the Leitanian Empire provided each other with some low-interest loans to facilitate trade.

Although these loans were mainly used for trade settlement, they were indeed real debts. It was estimated that before the outbreak of the war, the Tang Dynasty owed the Leitania Empire a total of more than 2000 million US dollars. In theory, Li Che only needed to take out one US dollar to exchange for marks to pay off all the debts and still have some left over!

"You guessed right, I did go to pay back the money to the Leitania Emperor, but the amount I need to pay back is not just one dollar."

"Not one dollar? Then how much are you planning to pay back?"

“500 million Dragon Dollars!” Li Che stretched out a hand and waved it: “I believe our Letanian friends will be extremely grateful.”

Chapter 373 Departure on the Blue Space Ship

"You still want to pay back the current 500 million?"

"uh-huh."

Zhu Miaoyun was not a princess who was ignorant of prices and daily necessities. She knew how much 500 million dragon coins were worth now.

During the final stages of the war and the early post-war period, the Dragon Yuan currency issued by the Ming Dynasty also experienced a round of devaluation. Although the devaluation was not as dramatic as in Letania, it did have a significant impact on domestic production and the economic market.

Li Renzhi and Mr. Fifth may have been pushing for the current planned economy while also taking the opportunity to resolve this mess. Moreover, given that major heavy industries, energy companies, and transportation sectors in China are now completely dominated by the planned economy, the exchange rate of the Longyuan also has a paper exchange rate and an actual exchange rate.

Today, the actual exchange rate of the Dragon Yuan against the British pound and the US dollar is lower than the paper exchange rate. This low exchange rate is actually intentionally suppressed by the Tang Dynasty government in order to promote domestic economic recovery and expand exports after the war.

In other words, 500 million dragon coins, considering the purchasing power of the exchange rate, are worth more than 500 million domestically. However, even so, the value of 500 million dragon coins is far less than the loans that the Ming Dynasty previously owed to the Letania Empire.

If this had happened before the outbreak of the World War, and the proud Peacock Emperor of the Leitanian Empire had known that the Easterners were only prepared to pay off all the debts with 500 million, then the enraged Emperor William would probably have ordered the high seas fleet to go and demand payment. The Leitanian Empire had never suffered such humiliation!

But now, Zhu Miaoyun is 100% confident that when her husband arrives in Letania waving 500 million Dragon Dollars, he will become the most honored guest and best friend in all of Letania. The Letanians will never say that the Easterners have defaulted on their loan of tens of millions of Gold Marks. The Letanians will only give a thumbs up and say that the Easterners are honest and kind!

However, precisely because of this, Zhu Miaoyun still felt somewhat uncomfortable. In the eyes of our simple and honest princess, this was actually a bit unfair. But given the current situation, just like Uncle Benshan's skit says—he should thank us!

For this trip to Europe, Li Che and Zhu Miaoyun will be traveling on a special ocean liner. This liner was just completed last year and has been named "Blue Space" by our Crown Prince.