Seven Seas Beacon Fire

Chapter 55 From the grassroots to the real battle (3)

The long talk with Xu Yueming lasted for almost an hour. The more Li Che talked, the more he felt like he should "drink a big toast". If the conversations with the selected people during the interviews were more about testing whether the selected people were really capable, then with Xu Yueming, he felt more like he had finally found a kindred spirit.

In fact, the more they talked, the deeper their feelings for each other became.

For Li Che, he could be considered a semi-time traveler, or rather, a 21st-century international student from another time and space. Therefore, his experience in many battles and his vision on many technological development issues were ahead of their time and unique.

In the process of developing weapons and equipment, there will be many technological innovations and many technological choices to be made. Among these many technological choices, there may only be one path that leads to the right path.

For example, a simple question like whether the future belongs to battleships or aircraft carriers will actually require countless people to dedicate the next 20 years to building a batch of steel behemoths, and then sacrifice human lives in a fierce war before a definitive answer can be finally obtained.

More detailed technical issues will require further verification through real-world application in the future.

Is an aircraft carrier meant to be a defensive carrier or an armored carrier?

Do airplanes use air-cooled or liquid-cooled engines?

Should tanks use gasoline engines or diesel engines?

Is it a multi-turret land cruiser or a single-turret design?

Even the same question can have different answers in different fields—the correct answer to riveting or welding is completely different for the Army and the Air Force.

Often, relying solely on theoretical deductions will never lead to the true truth. For example, the theory that tanks are useless has been proposed continuously since the invention of tanks, but no weapon has ever been able to replace the role of tanks on the ground battlefield.

Li Che knew that his greatest advantage was that he was the one who knew the right answer. In many cases, he could find the right answer without trial and error or taking detours. He didn't need to understand the specific technology; he only needed to know which path was feasible.

That's why his suggestions, which he sometimes made indirectly, seemed far-fetched to others. If it weren't for his status as the grandson of the Prince of Jin, and if it weren't for his grandfather's open-minded attitude and the fact that he sometimes tried them out on a small scale to please his grandson and then promoted them, many of his suggestions would never have been adopted.

This often left Li Che feeling a kind of inexplicable frustration.

Until he met Xu Yueming today.

This guy not only understands the good intentions behind his painstaking efforts to collect these 40mm autocannons from warehouses all over the world and send them over, but he also has a knowledge and understanding of some cutting-edge technologies that are ahead of his time.

During their conversation, Li Che almost began to suspect that this guy might be a time traveler, just as he now harbored some doubts about Princess Changning. However, given Princess Changning's status, it wasn't convenient for Li Che to directly probe her; he had to proceed cautiously.

Xu Yueming was different. He carefully considered that Xu Yueming might have traveled from a different era, so he tested him several times. However, Xu Yueming did not react to any of his tests as a time traveler should. Unless this guy's acting skills could win an Oscar, Li Che believed that this guy was indeed not a time traveler.

For Xu Yueming, his time in the military had been quite painful. He did not aspire to be a soldier. He chose the Naval Academy because he had many siblings, all of whom were academically excellent. His parents could no longer afford to send him to a university he wanted, so he opted for the tuition-free Naval Academy. His reason for choosing the Naval Academy was simply because he had previously wanted to become a pilot or an engineer, and the Naval Academy had the only aviation major among military academies at the time.

Although airplanes have only been around for a few years, the navy started using airships in the late 9th century and hot air balloons in the mid-9th century.

As a science and engineering student, Xu Yueming values ​​concrete numbers. However, contrary to what many people imagine, for a long time in the present era, the training of naval officers was more inclined towards the humanities than the sciences.

Although military academies teach subjects like mathematics, navigation, and surveying, the training of officers these days places more emphasis on studying past naval battles and military history archives due to the limitations of the times.

Just as the British wanted to train future officers to be the next Nelson after General Nelson, the Ming Dynasty also wanted to train naval officers to be the next Yang Wenli.

This Ming Dynasty Royal Navy commander in the first half of the 9th century defeated the Royal Victoria Navy's Balat Fleet in the Battle of the Strait of Malacca. Although it was not a super battle comparable in scale to the Battle of Trafalgar, Yang Wenli was able to win a victory against the Royal Victoria Navy. In the eyes of the East, he was Nelson.

Even the British could only express their dissatisfaction, saying that if General Nelson had not died in the Battle of Trafalgar, they would have been able to deal with that "sea magician." This was tantamount to the British acknowledging that after General Nelson's death, Yang Wenli was the best naval commander in the world.

Since the goal is to cultivate a second Nelson/Yang Wenli, the military academy naturally requires its cadets to learn everything from these outstanding role models. The cadets often study the works left by these role models and all the documents related to them as carefully as scholars of "Dream of the Red Chamber".

Therefore, until the outbreak of this world war, no, even now, in both the Royal Navy of Victoria and the Royal Navy of the Ming Dynasty, the voice and importance of traditional naval officers far exceeded that of technical officers.

Technical officers emerged as naval weaponry and equipment became increasingly advanced and complex over the decades. However, traditional officers viewed them as mere tools, much like the cheap bag-carrying guy in Red Alert.

Therefore, you can see that even a famous general like David Bailey, when pursuing the Leitanians aboard the battlecruiser HMS Lion, would issue orders such as "accelerate to 30 knots".

Is there anything wrong with this command?

The problem was that the Lion-class battlecruisers could only reach a maximum speed of 27 knots, which eventually exhausted the boiler crews—they couldn't keep up with shoveling coal.

(Therefore, to some extent, the speed of coal-fired warships still depends on human power.)

Xu Yueming was a technical officer with a technical background, which was the root cause of his wasted time in military school. What he valued was worthless in the eyes of his teachers and instructors. Even his ideals were considered "unambitious." Everyone else wanted to become the second Yang Wenli, but he only wanted to be a pilot.

So eventually he just lay down. You all think I'm not ambitious anymore, so can't I just leave?

However, he never expected that after years of slacking off in the army, he would encounter such an unexpected grandson. This noble figure had a comprehensive understanding of many technical issues. Although he did not delve into the details of each technical issue, in Xu Yueming's eyes, this was more in line with the interests of a superior.

In his eyes, a leader who understands and respects technology is a blessing from God, just like Peter the Great of Russia, who personally learned how to build warships and then brought the technology back to Russia.

He hadn't talked to another person for such a long time in a long time. Usually, even with people he was relatively close to, people he could call friends, he wouldn't be able to exchange more than 10 words of casual conversation outside of work in a day.

Although neither of them had been drinking, the atmosphere was already quite lively, and they naturally started to share their heartfelt thoughts.

"Your Highness, all my insights actually stem from the practical experience of the officers and soldiers at the grassroots level. If you want the navy to continue to win battles in the future, then you must rely on those officers and soldiers who directly operate weapons and equipment on the front lines, those officers and soldiers who shovel coal in coal piles and carry propellant packs and shells in ammunition depots. The reason why our navy suffered a defeat in the Java Sea naval battle is that too many people in our navy want to learn from Marshal Yang Wenli, but they have not learned the essence of the marshal. No matter how well the staff work on the drawing table in the headquarters is done, it is still the officers and soldiers on the front lines who implement it that can achieve victory."

“I can sense that. The ideas you came up with are quite direct and seem quite simple, but those staff officers sitting in their offices would rack their brains and still not come up with them.” Li Che praised, “To be able to come up with so many things from the position of an ordinary coastal artillery position, people say you’re just slacking off, but I think your slacking off is really valuable.”

"They weren't wrong. Most of the time I didn't do what a coastal artillery position commander should do. But I didn't neglect my duties. I just did the work that would take them a day to complete in a few hours."

Li Che laughed and pointed at Xu Yueming, saying, "You're being a bit arrogant. How come you were ranked last in the military academy?"

“Your Highness, I did it on purpose to get the lowest score, but you were generally quite satisfied with the people you tested earlier today, right? But these people only get average scores in military academy exams, which shows that there is a problem with our military academy’s officer training system. What use is it to memorize the tactics and battle examples of the age of sail in the present era?”

Chapter Fifty-Six: A Destroyer Undergoes a Complete Transformation

Looking at the typewriter and thick stack of files in front of her, Princess Zhu Miaoyun's face turned pale. This reminded her of her 996 workaholic days in her previous life.

“Your Highness has come to Vladivostok to do something meaningful, not just to put on a show, right?” Li Che said with a warm smile. After finishing the selection of all the people on the list, he took the compiled information on the commanders of the lightning strike team and went directly to Zhu Miaoyun: “Then I would like to trouble Your Highness to stay up a little later tonight and work hard to compile these documents.”

"Of course I'm not here to put on a show... But are all these tasks to be done by me alone? I mean... maybe I'm not very skilled at this yet, so perhaps we could have two experienced clerks help me with this job and give me some pointers..."

“Everyone in Vladivostok is very busy right now, everyone has things to do. I think Your Highness should be able to handle these tasks without any problem.” Li Che pushed the documents in front of Zhu Miaoyun: “As a clerical staff member in the headquarters, you only need to print out these paper documents. But we other staff members in the headquarters have a lot more to consider and be busy with.”

Zhu Miaoyun felt that these words sounded somewhat familiar, but before she transmigrated, she didn't like playing those kinds of games. In this respect, she was even more "primitive" than the pig that always invaded her mind and life. Therefore, although Zhu Miaoyun felt that these words sounded a bit strange, she didn't think about it any further.

"There's no need to rush to have it tomorrow, is there?"

"General Cheng Hengqi is not in port today. He went out in a cruiser to scout the seas off Yingzhou Island. He is expected to return to port tomorrow. When he comes back, we must give him all this information as soon as possible and finalize these matters." After saying this, Li Che magically produced a cup of coffee from behind him: "Good luck tonight! Here's a cup of coffee to perk you up."

Zhu Miaoyun kept reminding herself that she was now a princess of the Ming Dynasty, and she had to be a lady and dignified. She absolutely could not raise a middle finger at this moment. After silently raising countless middle fingers in her mind to the annoying guy in front of her and watching him leave, Zhu Miaoyun helplessly turned her gaze to the typewriter in front of her and the stack of papers next to her.

Having grown accustomed to traditional computer keyboards, Zhu Miaoyun was quite bewildered by this Chinese typewriter, which resembled Lin Yutang's Mingkuai typewriter. Fortunately, she had learned about the typing principles of this typewriter from other clerks on the train, and since she already knew the Wubi input method, she was able to make some progress by analogy.

It didn't take Zhu Miaoyun too long to figure it out and get the hang of it, which showed that the princess's brain was quite useful. Zhu Miaoyun was grateful to the princess for leaving her with such excellent "hardware". However, after only a few minutes of typing on the typewriter keyboard, Zhu Miaoyun's face wrinkled up like a bitter gourd.

This thing is even harder to use than a black switch keyboard!

After handing the documents to Zhu Miaoyun, Li Che walked with light steps to the entrance of the headquarters. Xu Yueming was still at the door. Seeing Li Che come out, he asked curiously, "Your Highness, what about those documents from earlier...?"

"Princess Changning insisted on contributing to the war effort, so Her Highness insisted on taking the documents from me to organize them. This way, we would have time to go to the dock and see how the destroyers and torpedo boats were being modified."

Li Che seemed very excited, but Xu Yueming felt that something was off about what he was saying.

It seems that when I was in high school, I worked as a temporary worker in some small factories in my spare time, and the bosses also used the same tactics to deceive their workers.

However, seeing that Li Che had already headed towards the car parked at the entrance of the headquarters, Xu Yueming could only hurry to follow. As he got into the car, he glanced back at the few windows of the headquarters building that were still lit up, wondering which of those windows the princess was working so hard in.

After getting into the car, Li Che had the driver head directly to the dock, while Xu Yueming explained the refitting of the warships in the port to Li Che.

"Your Highness, apart from a few old-fashioned pre-dreadnought battleships and armored cruisers, the relatively modern warships that joined the combat fleet after 905 are only two cruiser squadrons and two destroyer squadrons, totaling 7 cruisers and 10 destroyers."

两个巡洋舰分队分别是15分队和17分队，15分队的巡洋舰是两型一共3条5000吨级的轻巡洋舰，分别是嫩江级的‘嫩江’、‘大凌河’以及‘乌江’级的‘辽河’号。

However, these three ships are similar in tonnage, firepower, armor and other performance aspects. Your Highness can regard these three cruisers as similar warships of the same type. Each cruiser is equipped with eight single-mounted 150mm main guns.

The only difference is that two of them have four main guns on the centerline and four on the sides, while the other has two on the centerline and six on the sides. All three light cruisers were commissioned before 910 and have a maximum speed of 29 knots. They are the best light cruisers we currently have.

The four light cruisers of the 17th detachment are 2700-ton light cruisers, which are also the smallest light cruisers in our army's equipment. Their maximum speed is also 29 knots. In terms of firepower, they have eight 120mm guns, with two twin-mounted main guns arranged at the bow and stern, and four single-mounted 120mm guns distributed on both sides.

These seven cruisers will be the seven large ships that can serve as our command center at sea during our upcoming operations.

Xu Yueming was extremely knowledgeable about the fleet situation in Vladivostok harbor, clearly having put in a great deal of effort in this area. After introducing the cruisers, he then proceeded to describe the destroyers:

"The 10 destroyers come from three different classes, but mainly from different shipyards. There is not much difference in their models and performance. They are generally in the 1,000-ton range and equipped with 3 to 4 105mm guns. Half of these destroyers are equipped with 500mm torpedoes, and the other half are equipped with 450mm torpedoes. The former has two twin torpedo launchers, and the latter has two triple torpedo launchers."

How are the performance of our torpedoes?

"Neither good nor bad. If we only consider the range and power of our torpedoes, they are indeed quite mediocre. The effective range is about 6 kilometers. In Europe, new destroyers are now being equipped with 21-inch torpedoes, which have a longer range and greater power than the torpedoes we have."

However, our torpedoes weren't like the Federation torpedoes, which were practically useless in the early stages of the war. One of our cruisers was hit by four Federation torpedoes in succession, but none of them exploded.

"Only 7 cruisers and 10 destroyers?" Li Che still felt that the number was too small. In fact, these cruisers and destroyers were the key to whether the unprecedentedly large torpedo boat group they had assembled could launch a successful attack.

"As for cruisers, there are still a few second-class protected cruisers left, but those things used to only go a maximum of 23 knots, and now their speed has dropped to less than 20 knots," Xu Yueming said.

“That speed is too slow, forget about it. How’s the situation with the destroyers? I remember the older destroyers are still reasonably fast, right?” Li Che recalled the telegram sent from Vladivostok to the Navy Department and asked, “I remember you should still have a batch of destroyers under 1,000 tons.”

Xu Yueming nodded, then raised one hand, opened his palm, and flipped it over: "For destroyers under 800 tons, we've formed a full 10 squadrons."

"You have so many destroyers under 800 tons?" Li Che asked in surprise. "In terms of organization, you don't have that many destroyers."

"The North Sea Fleet in the navy has always been a retirement home. In our Vladivostok naval port, there are a number of old destroyers stored. Although these destroyers are of some old models, they were at least in service in this century."

Xu Yueming said with some admiration: "This was ordered to be unsealed after General Cheng Hengqi came here. Although these destroyers are only 500 to 600 tons, they can all run at 30 knots. General Cheng then organized these destroyers into groups, mixing these small destroyers with large torpedo boats. Each squadron consists of two destroyers and two large torpedo boats."

Although these destroyers are old ships, General Cheng's determination to unfreeze them is still crucial for us. Even though some of these destroyers only have two torpedo tubes, without General Cheng's order to unfreeze them upon arrival in Vladivostok and to restore their combat capability in the shortest possible time, even if Your Highness's machine guns were transported here, we wouldn't have been able to assemble so many ships for modification.”

Li Che nodded in deep agreement. The 300 torpedo boats transported by rail already determined the upper limit of their size. After carrying two torpedoes, these torpedo boats could at most add some 13mm large-caliber machine guns to the top of the conning tower, the bow, and the stern.

A 40mm autocannon is really too big for these small creatures that weigh only a few dozen tons.

In Li Che's battle plan, the attack phase involved using small ships equipped with numerous rapid-fire cannons to rush to a distance where they could engage in hand-to-hand combat at sea, and using a large number of machine guns to suppress the enemy's exposed deck facilities and personnel. This was no less important than the main characters who dropped torpedoes on the enemy's large warships and transport ships.

"How's the refit going? How are you using these machine guns to refit the warship?"

"The modification work is basically nearing completion. All the modifications will be completed in the next few days. After all, these cannons can be replaced at the dock, or even disassembled and carried up by soldiers by hand, without the need for heavy engineering machinery." Xu Yueming said, "As for how to modify them... we basically replace the 57mm or 47mm rapid-fire cannons on the original warships on a 1:1 basis according to the number of machine guns allocated."

In general, large torpedo boats are usually equipped with two machine guns. Older destroyers of 600 to 800 tons are usually equipped with four 40mm machine guns, and they are installed in other locations that are as high as possible, rather than in the original 57mm gun positions. Destroyers of 4 tons or more are equipped with 6 to 8 machine guns, depending on the situation.

During the refit, the main guns of both the old and new destroyers were retained. Initially, we considered replacing the 88mm guns on the older destroyers with 105mm guns, but we later discovered this would cause the ships to be overweight, so that plan was abandoned. Of course, during the refit, we basically used whatever 40mm and 40mm guns we had available.

"Unfortunately, due to time constraints, these are the only 40mm autocannons we could gather from warehouses across the country. Otherwise, we could have looked forward to replacing all our 57mm and 47mm rapid-fire cannons with these 40mm autocannons..."

The two were still talking when the car stopped. Li Che looked out the window and saw that they had arrived at the dock. The dock was now densely packed with warships, including destroyers and torpedo boats. Some torpedo boats were brought in by train from other places, while others were large torpedo boats and small torpedo boats that were already in Vladivostok.

Although it was already night, every dock was still brightly lit, and the scattered flashes of welding lights or sparks from chainsaws made it seem as if the stars in the sky had fallen into the harbor.

"It's so beautiful," Li Che couldn't help but say what he really thought.

“It is beautiful.” Xu Yueming stood a step behind Li Che. “But I think we will be able to make the night view of Yuanshan Port even more beautiful soon.”

Article 57 The Great Rascal

When Zhu Miaoyun placed a stack of documents in front of Li Che the next day, filled with resentment, Li Che felt as if he were about to be torn apart by her gaze.

He could see the princess's eyes were tired from staying up all night and had faint shadows.

Isn't this the age when one should be cultivating immortality? Surely it couldn't have been Princess fighting all night before she finished, could it?

Li Che couldn't help but have this question in mind, but he couldn't ask it directly because he felt that the princess was currently concerned about saving face, and even if he asked her, she probably wouldn't admit it.

In fact, he guessed correctly. Zhu Miaoyun had indeed been busy with these tasks all night. When Zhu Miaoyun initially expressed her desire to come to Vladivostok to contribute to the war effort, besides a moment of impulsive enthusiasm, the main reason was that Zhu Miaoyun considered that as a princess of the previous dynasty, she wanted to live peacefully in the new dynasty or the new republic. Therefore, it was important to gain a firm foothold on this major issue of principle of uniting against a common enemy, and it was even more important to accumulate some experience and energy.

However, Zhu Miaoyun knew very well that she was incapable of most tasks in war, as she was neither physically strong nor capable of heavy lifting. She was also completely ignorant of any relevant professional knowledge. In Zhu Miaoyun's opinion, her forte was probably writing—in her past life, whether in school, at work, or later as a volunteer, she had always dealt with computers, and her writing skills were comparable to some of the most unskilled internet writers.

So Zhu Miaoyun was confident that she could be a clerk. Isn't it all about typing on a keyboard? Before I transmigrated, I could type 150 words per minute. With a typewriter from this era, I could easily type 90 words per minute, right?

It turns out that our princess was overthinking things.

Zhu Miaoyun's confidence is probably equivalent to an ace pilot or ace tank driver in War Thunder thinking, "I'm already Cyber ​​Sachs and Cyber ​​Wittmann. If I were to actually handle a real plane or a real tank, even if I'm not an ace, I'd at least be a qualified pilot/tank driver, right?"

Then came the harsh reality check.

Not only did she not finish the work until the morning of the second day, but Zhu Miaoyun also felt that her hands were numb. Typing on a real mechanical keyboard in this era really hurts!

"Is there any other work to do?" Zhu Miaoyun herself probably didn't realize that the resentment in this question was almost tangible.

"No, that's all for now." Li Che didn't even dare to say, "Grandma, please go back and rest." He knew he needed to save face for the princess: "Until General Cheng Hengqi..."

Before Li Che could finish speaking, a piercing battle alarm sounded from the rooftop of the command building. Li Che and Zhu Miaoyun exchanged a glance, both realizing that something unexpected had happened, and guessing that the Federation fleet had come to visit Vladivostok again.

Li Che got up from his seat, went to the window, opened it, and saw the flames and smoke rising from the coastal artillery position in the distance. On the coastal artillery position he could see, the 240mm and 150mm cannons had already begun to roar.

Further afield, two 280mm turrets positioned on the shore were slowly turning around and gradually raising their cannons.

Although no Federation shells have landed in the harbor yet, it's almost certain that enemy warships have appeared outside. Li Che immediately shouted to the door, "Someone! Take the princess to the underground bunker!"

At this moment, everyone in the headquarters was spinning like a top. However, there were always guards responsible for security at the door of Li Che's office. After Li Che's identity was transferred to the Navy, Li Zongdi transferred a group of people who had been assigned to Li Che to be responsible for his safety to the Navy infantry. Among them was Liu Shiyi, Li Che's current bodyguard captain.

After this burly man barged in, he went straight to the princess without saying a word and tried to take Zhu Miaoyun to the basement.

However, Zhu Miaoyun had no desire to go to the basement. Rather, ever since she transmigrated to this world and realized her identity, she had developed an instinctive aversion to basement architecture, or perhaps it was a form of PTSD.

So Zhu Miaoyun adopted a princess-like demeanor: "I'm not going anywhere! I don't believe the Federation's shells can reach here!"

What Zhu Miaoyun really wanted to say was, "I'd rather be killed by the Federation's cannonballs here than go to that damned basement."