Seven Seas Beacon Fire

"Destiny?"

“Yes, Commander Long, I am 18 years old this year and have not received any professional naval education. However, I can propose an operational plan that most of the naval staff agree with. Although I am not an expert in every field of naval expertise, I am still quite knowledgeable. How do you think I acquired this knowledge and ability?” Li Che said calmly, “This is my destiny. I have always been right, whether it is playing chess or anything else.”

That's what Li Che said, and that's exactly what he thought in his heart.

Born in this world and this era, he had the opportunity from a young age to absorb the knowledge of another world and gain abilities that he could not obtain in this world. If the world he is in now is the real world, then the world Yunyun is in is Baiyujing.

He doesn't believe his experiences in another world were all a dream, but he sees them as inspiration and warnings.

The history of the country he "lived" in that world was not entirely the same as that of the Ming Dynasty in this world. It was like a mirror, a mirror reflecting how deep an Eastern empire would fall and how it could rise again. In the history of the world in that mirror, he witnessed a bloody history through books and video materials. That history was the past.

But some history happens in the present, like Gaza, where Yunyun eventually went. All history is contemporary history, and all contemporary history is a repetition of past history.

He cannot accept or imagine that the country he is in now has experienced similar hardships.

Just like the 3-3 point in Go, he doesn't know why this move has a high winning rate, but not knowing or understanding it doesn't matter; he just needs to know that it's the right move.

He doesn't need to go on a killing spree. Just like in Go, winning by ten points is a win, and winning by one point is also a win.

Long Keduo looked at the young man in front of him. If this were anyone else, he would have already started to reprimand the young man for his arrogance. However, he had no reason to criticize the young man for the time being, neither for his identity nor for what he was doing.

Long Keduo disliked Li Che. From the moment he learned that Li Che had planned this large-scale torpedo attack, he felt that Li Che was simply indulging in wishful thinking. In the eyes of others, he was just a young master in a high position who, with the help of his powerful family, was able to call the Navy Department directly and arbitrarily interfere with the Navy's operational plans.

Yes, Long Keduo believed that the Navy agreed to the plan purely to repair relations and mend feelings with Prince Jin, even at the cost of sending countless fine young men to a battlefield of carnage.

Those young naval men would be piloting torpedo boats, facing near-death experiences in the face of enemy fire, while these playboys would be enjoying fame and fortune in the rear. This was the main reason why Long Keduo had always had some personal opinions about Li Che.

But yesterday, he never expected that this grandson, whom he thought was paving his way with the blood of other naval officers and soldiers, would actually take the initiative to request to go on the expedition with the ship under such circumstances. Although Cheng Hengqi naturally rejected such a request in the end, Long Keduo could tell that Li Che was not joking at the time.

From that moment on, he realized that he couldn't quite understand this young man, so today he took the initiative to find Li Che and suggested that he play a game of chess with him.

Long Keduo had his own view that chess skills reflect a person's character. He believed that by playing a game of chess with someone, one could discern their temperament. He had used this method to test many people in the past, and he had almost never been wrong about them.

But today he felt that he couldn't see things clearly anymore.

Is this really a young, ambitious person?

Or is he an even more reckless brute than Cheng Hengqi?

He seemed genuinely convinced that his battle plan would lead to victory.

He had no way of judging any of these things.

Because this person is cold on the chessboard, like a machine. Can you judge the temperament of a machine?

Just as Long Keduo was wondering what to say, he heard the sound of a car in the distance. Li Che noticed it too, and the two of them looked in the direction from which the sound came. They saw a Dream Car belonging to the headquarters speeding towards them from a distance and suddenly stopping in front of the dock where they were. The tires left two long skid marks on the ground.

Before the carriage had even come to a complete stop, Zhu Miaoyun jumped off. The princess's behavior at this moment was truly astonishing; it seemed that the Ming Dynasty had never produced a princess like this in all these years.

Zhu Miaoyun completely disregarded the decorum expected of a princess. Her face flushed slightly, and she ran breathlessly to the chessboard where the two were playing chess, holding a telegram in her hand. After hesitating for a moment, she handed the telegram to Li Che.

"Urgent... Urgent telegram! From General Cheng Hengqi!"

Perhaps she ran too fast when she came over, because Zhu Miaoyun was a little out of breath when she spoke.

Li Che calmly accepted the telegram, but his unconsciously pursed lips revealed his considerable anxiety and tension upon hearing that the message came from the front lines.

Sitting across from him, Long Keduo was naturally more interested in the contents of the telegram than he was. However, with the grandson of the emperor sitting in front of him and the princess beside him, he couldn't just lean over and eagerly look at what the telegram said. So he picked up his teacup and brought it to his lips. After taking a couple of sips of air, he realized that he had already finished the tea in his cup and hadn't had time to refill it.

Seeing that no one noticed his awkward behavior, he pretended to finish his tea and put down his teacup. Looking at Li Che's expression, which remained completely unchanged, he was getting anxious. It was one thing for you to be like a machine when playing chess without any emotion, but now you don't even react to the telegrams from the front lines?

Is it good news or bad news? Just say something!

"How is the situation at the front?" In the end, he couldn't hold back his inner turmoil and tried his best to ask the question he was most concerned about in a calm tone.

Li Che casually handed the telegram over. When Long Keduo saw the telegram being handed over suddenly, he was caught off guard and hurriedly tried to take it. As a result, the telegram seemed to slip in his hand and he couldn't open it.

At this moment, Li Che's voice came from the other side: "Nothing much at the front, just some good men who have utterly defeated the enemy!"

After Li Che finished speaking, Long Keduo finally opened the telegram. What came into view was a telegram sent back by Cheng Hengqi. This reckless man's telegram contained only one sentence:

"Victory! Yingzhou Sea is now ours!"

Long Keduo felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from his heart. Although the telegram sent by that brute was somewhat nonsensical, there was no doubt that they had won a battle, and a great one at that!

According to previous intelligence, the United States has deployed its entire Seventh Fleet in the Sea of ​​England, consisting of nearly double-digit numbers of shallow-draft gunboats, six dreadnoughts, six of the last pre-dreadnoughts such as the Connecticut and Virginia classes, as well as a dozen cruisers and more than 20 destroyers.

A fleet of this size and strength would be invincible to the Ming First Fleet in Vladivostok, since the First Fleet currently has no dreadnoughts. Now that General Cheng Hengqi has been able to send back such a telegram, can it be interpreted that the Colombians have lost all the dreadnoughts they sent to Yingzhou Sea?

Upon realizing this, Long Keduo couldn't hide his excitement. As a grown man, he even felt a lump in his throat. Damn it, couldn't Cheng Hengqi, that reckless brute, have sent a more detailed telegram? How many victories were achieved? How many ships and personnel were lost? Couldn't he have reported in more detail?

Do you know how upset I am even now that I know we've won the battle but don't know this news?

Of course, Commander Long also knew that at least the Chief of Staff would send a message back, and sending a detailed battle report by telegram would take even longer. He felt that he couldn't wait any longer. He could no longer kill time at the dock. He had to go back to the telegraph machine at headquarters and guard it!

So Long Keduo disregarded all other formalities, gave a slight bow, and hurriedly left the dock, preparing to immediately take a car back to the headquarters. Zhu Miaoyun had come by car, and seeing that Commander Long was now going back by car, she quickly followed and rode back in the same car. The headquarters was about three or four miles from this dock, and Zhu Miaoyun did not want to walk back by herself.

After walking a few steps, Zhu Miaoyun remembered that she should ask Li Che if he wanted to ride back together. So she turned around and was about to ask when she saw Li Che, who had been sitting calmly by the chessboard, unmoved by the news of victory at the front, now clenching his fists and punching the sea frantically, muttering, "We won! We won! We won!"

Chapter Sixty-Eight: Naval Showdown (1)

September 19, 4

Early morning

Dongxinluowan Outskirts

light cruiser "Dalinghe"

As the flagship of this operation, the "Dalinghe" took over the role of the "Nenjiang" sister ship, which had been injured while accompanying Commander Cheng on his adventures. The "Nenjiang" ship was not actually seriously damaged. Although it looked like its rear end was on fire when it entered the port, what was burning was actually just a pile of miscellaneous items such as transport boats. Only one main gun at the stern was damaged.

After entering port, the damaged 150mm guns were replaced within 12 hours. Apart from the deck that was burned on the stern not being replaced and the blackened hull not being repainted, the ship's combat capability was basically unaffected.

However, just to be on the safe side, the flagship was replaced with the "Dalinghe" which is in better condition.

Before entering Dongxinluo Bay, the entire fleet had already completed its first refueling operation at sea under the cover of night. Now, it is about to enter the combat zone. These torpedo boats will need to push their main engine output power to its peak, just like F1 cars on the Spa circuit, to speed across the sea at the fastest speed, get close to the enemy in the shortest time, and fire and release torpedoes at the closest possible distance.

In this situation, the fuel consumption of these torpedo boats is much higher than that at their current cruising speed of just over 20 knots. Only by filling these torpedo boats with fuel can they roam freely at sea in the following operations and seize the opportunity to deliver a fatal blow to the enemy.

Cheng Hengqi put down the sextant in his hand. He had just tried to use the sextant to help confirm the fleet's location, but his efforts failed. The sextant was used to determine their location by measuring the altitude of celestial bodies, but the night was too dark. It was impossible to see the horizon with the naked eye, and there was not even a glimmer of moonlight overhead. Under such circumstances, it was impossible to use the sextant to determine their location.

But this was definitely good news for the fleet. The darker the night, the lower the chances of the enemy spotting them, and the higher the probability of a successful attack.

Until human technology enables the mass production of reliable night vision devices, darkness will always be an advantage for the relatively weaker party in a war.

To be on the safe side, Cheng Hengqi did not allow the fleet to enter Dongxinluo Bay from the northeast, because as long as the commander on the United States side was not an idiot, he would definitely be wary of the Ming fleet in Vladivostok Port to the north.

From the perspective of the United States, the Ming fleet in Vladivostok was merely a detached force, consisting of only a few outdated battleships and a handful of cruisers and destroyers.

From the United States' perspective, these ships represented all the First Fleet warships in Vladivostok harbor that posed a potential threat to them.

As for torpedo boats... From the perspective of most naval professionals in the United States and even in this era, although these small things have the potential to achieve great things with little effort, they are essentially still equipment used for coastal defense. I have never heard of any navy using torpedo boats to travel hundreds of nautical miles to launch attacks.

虽然说在此之前，鱼雷快艇曾经取得过对于主力舰的战果——918年6月30日“圣·伊斯特万”号出航时被叙拉古海军鱼雷艇击沉。918年11月1日“联合力量”号在港口被叙拉古蛙人安放的炸弹炸沉。

However, despite the destruction of the two Combined Forces-class battleships of the Habsburg Empire by the Syracuse in this way, no navy in the world regarded this as a tactic that could be widely promoted. The Habsburg navy was a navy trapped in the bathtub of the Adriatic Sea, which is not very big.

The Syracuse navy could reach the Habsburgs' doorstep in the time it takes to warm up at home. Just because torpedo boats perform like this in the Adriatic Sea doesn't mean they can perform like this elsewhere.

Yingzhou Sea is much larger than the Adriatic Sea.

Therefore, the United States Navy was mainly wary of the Ming army's old battleships, a small number of cruisers and destroyers in Vladivostok harbor, which were waiting for an opportunity to launch a surprise attack. According to the information that Cheng Hengqi had personally investigated before, the United States Navy had indeed organized a patrol fleet in Xinluo Bay to cover the landing site, and had not provided early warning to the fleet and ships near Yuanshan.

The main patrol area of ​​this patrol fleet is the northeastern waters of Sinra Bay, as this is the shortest route that fleets from Vladivostok must take to enter Sinra Bay.

The enemy fleet patrolled this area most frequently and deployed the largest forces. Cheng Hengqi was certainly not prepared to confront the enemy head-on, so he led his fleet to continue sailing south. Only after the entire fleet had sailed to a position further south than Yuanshan did it turn around at sea and enter Xinluo Bay from southeast to northwest.

Although this increased the sea distance of the voyage, the effect was immediate. When the United States deployed a group of destroyers to the coastal areas to provide direct-fire support for its army operations, their long-range early warning line at sea was destined to be discontinuous.

In fact, this cannot be used to accuse the United States Navy of being complacent. After all, who would have thought that someone would transport nearly 300 torpedo boats to Vladivostok by land and then have these torpedo boats enter the waters that the United States considered to be unlikely to be threatened by torpedo boats, by having them circle around the cruisers and destroyers like milk.

In the darkness, Cheng Hengqi couldn't see the entire formation clearly at this moment. He was actually commanding in a rather muddled way, but this situation was expected. The chaos in the early hours of this morning was the same for both sides.

Although there is no way to determine the location using a sextant now, taking out a sextant is just a personal obsession of older veterans like Cheng Hengqi, much like some old accountants who, after checking their work with a calculator, will even take out an abacus.

Although the fleet cannot locate itself using a sextant, it can rely on radio direction finding with the shore. By using different radio communication base stations deployed on shore, Xu Yueming, standing next to Cheng Hengqi, has already clearly drawn the flagship's location on the nautical chart through radio communication with multiple base stations.

It wasn't that Xu Yueming didn't want to mark the position of the entire fleet, but in the darkness of night, they simply couldn't accurately determine the location of the other warships in the fleet. While the total tonnage of the entire formation tonight wasn't particularly large, the number of ships was considerable. Moreover, these fragile boats were prone to sinking in a collision, so the distance between the ships was relatively wide at night, resulting in a very scattered and disorganized formation.

Cheng Hengqi handed the sextant to the orderly beside him, then walked over to the chart table with his hands behind his back. He looked down at Xu Yueming's drawing work on the map, and after a careful examination, he looked at the young man who was specially cared for and valued by the grandson with some curiosity.

"Kid, were you really at the bottom of your class at the Naval Academy?"

"Yes." Xu Yueming calmly put away his pencil: "When I was in school, I didn't focus my main energy on the courses at the military academy, so my grades were not good. I hope you can forgive me, General."

Cheng Hengqi looked down at the beautifully drawn map. This was a position determined by radio direction finding. You're telling me that students like this are the worst?

"How can your drawing be ranked last when it's drawn like this?"

"Many of my classmates have better basic drawing skills than me."

"So they all know radio direction finding and positioning?"

“I taught myself this. Radio direction finding and positioning are not part of the daily or graduation assessments at the Naval Academy.” Xu Yueming said in a rather sarcastic tone, “So no matter how good I am at radio, it won’t add a single point to my score at the Naval Academy. As you can see, I am indeed an inferior student at the Naval Academy.”

After hearing this, Cheng Hengqi remained silent for a long time before saying, "When I graduated from military academy, what I was most proud of was that I was in the top 10 of my class. Graduates from the Naval Academy are assigned to different positions based on their grades. I have always been proud of my alma mater. However, if the current Naval Academy's training system and evaluation standards classify young people like you as inferior, then I can only say that our navy has problems with the most basic talent cultivation."

Cheng Hengqi's remarks caused many officers on the bridge to have somewhat subtle expressions. After all, 70% of the officers in the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy came from the Naval Academy. Hearing the general praise his alma mater in this way, officers of different ranks and ages naturally had different feelings at this moment.

The words Cheng Hengqi uttered were actually something he had been holding back for a long time. When he returned from reconnaissance and saw the torpedo boat squadron commanders selected by Li Che, he took the opportunity, either under the guise of inspecting the fleet or by directly summoning them to give them orders. In short, he randomly selected several people from the list. However, to his surprise, after actually getting to know each of them, he felt that they were all promising talents.

These people have demonstrated exceptional abilities, courage, or something else.

How did the Crown Prince manage to select so many promising talents from among the vast number of naval personnel? He's only been in contact with the navy for a little over a month, right? Many soldiers who have been in the navy for several years probably can't even say for sure which members of their own units are more capable.

This is like someone playing a pay-to-win mobile game and trying to pull from the gacha pool. They might not get a gold character every time, but they'll at least get a purple character every time.

What kind of monster is this?

Cheng Hengqi shook his head, deciding not to think about these things now. He looked at the location of his flagship on the nautical chart. Although the entire fleet formation was definitely spread out, in general, most of the warships should still be distributed within the area centered on his position, provided they hadn't fallen behind.

Now, some people need to step forward and test the waters for the entire attack group, acting as the vanguard in this surprise attack.

"Order P1 and L1 formations to accelerate to 30 knots and advance at high speed, heading straight for Wonsan to attack the first enemy force they encounter."

At this moment, Yuanshan was 30 nautical miles ahead of them. People on the bridge could even faintly hear the distant sound of cannons. However, many people could not distinguish whether what they were faintly hearing outside was the sound of cannons or the sound of their own heartbeats.

Cheng Hengqi did not give a specific mission objective, but rather casually ordered the two squadrons to attack the first wave of enemies they encountered during their advance.

The formations consisting of P-series and L-series ships mainly rely on artillery and torpedoes for combat, respectively. The artillery formation is mainly responsible for suppressing the surface fire of the enemy ships it encounters, while the torpedo formation is responsible for delivering a fatal blow with torpedoes. The P1 formation ordered by Cheng Hengqi consists of three 650-ton destroyers, while the L1 formation consists of eight torpedo boats.

The reason why the order was issued so broadly and even somewhat hastily is that the two fleets that were sent out were like tentacles of a mollusk in the dark. After encountering the enemy, they would not receive any reinforcements from the fleet behind them. Whether they encountered a few transport ships, a few destroyers, or a few heavily armed cruisers, they would have to fight on their own.

Because the entire following fleet will adjust its course based on the enemy they encounter. If they encounter the enemy, the main fleet will change direction and then send out a second, third, and so on...

The fleet will then maintain this posture, getting as close as possible to the landing zone.

While this method is destined to sacrifice some lives, it does allow a relatively larger fleet to avoid the United States' patrol forces.

Although the large number of 40mm cannons installed on the entire fleet were intended for use in such situations, it is clear that avoiding battle is the wisest course of action in the current situation.

Even though this situation could lead to increasing chaos on the battlefield, and even both sides getting caught up in a chaotic battle, the "chaotic battle" naval tactic of the 9th century was now something the Ming army could only dream of. In such a chaotic situation, the abilities of the captains and the quality of the officers and men on board would be put to the test.

Chapter Sixty-Nine: Naval Showdown (2)

The three 650-ton destroyers in the P1 formation are Hussar-class destroyers built in 05. They are 71 meters long, 7.4 meters wide, and have a draft of 2.45 meters. Their standard displacement is 650 tons, normal displacement is 735 tons, and full load displacement is 910 tons.

这种上个时代的驱逐舰原本配备两门88毫米火炮和6门57毫米仿哈奇开斯速射炮，以及三具450毫米鱼雷发射管，速度也只能达到27.5节——这些老式驱逐舰甚至都没有采用蒸汽轮机。

However, these three hussars have now removed four of the old, imitation Hotchkiss 57mm rapid-fire guns and replaced them with four 40mm autocannons. These destroyers had already been withdrawn from front-line combat before the outbreak of war. There was no way around it; although they had not been in service for very long, these destroyers had run into a new round of military innovation. Their speed of less than 30 knots was obviously not up to the needs of combat in the new era, and their small size also limited their firepower and range.

If it weren't for this daring operation, these destroyers would probably have been towed to a shipyard one day and returned to their state as steel parts.

But now, these outdated old things can still fight on the sea, though a considerable number of them will probably be buried in this bay tonight. But for the warships, it is indeed a kind of luck.

All warships that sank at sea during battle were fortunate.

Among these three "Husky" class destroyers, one ship's paint scheme is clearly different from the other two. Compared to the dark gray paint scheme of the other two ships, this destroyer has a rather beautiful "treasure ship-like paint scheme," a type of paint scheme popular in the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy during the pre-Dreadnought era, just like the Victorian paint scheme popular in the Victorian Royal Navy during the same period.

The difference between the two is probably that the treasure ship has a black hull, a dark red deck, a white superstructure, and red and black smokestacks.

After entering the 10th century, navies around the world realized that warships did not need to be painted so fancy—at least not during wartime. So navies around the world painted their warships with more somber and battlefield-appropriate shades of gray. Some even developed some strange camouflage or interference camouflage. Ships that retain the original classic paint scheme are rare in the world.

And this destroyer was indeed not a warship of the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy.

This destroyer belonged to the Silla Navy. After the United States launched an attack on the Silla Peninsula, the Silla Navy did not put up any resistance and immediately fled to the Ming Dynasty. Most of the Silla Navy's warships fled to the East China Sea, but a small number of them fled to Vladivostok.

This "Weiwu" destroyer was one of the destroyers that the Silla Navy purchased from the Ming Dynasty. Since the Ming Dynasty had long taken care of Silla's national defense, the Silla Navy, which had no national defense pressure, had only a few cruisers in its forces. Destroyers, which were considered cannon fodder in the Ming Royal Navy, were already considered the backbone of the Silla Navy.

Of course, in most cases, the task of the Silla Navy's destroyers and cruisers is to make a good appearance in the parade and to play a supporting role in joint exercises.

However, now, these surviving warships of the Silla Navy also need to fight for the future of Silla.

On board the destroyer, Captain Li Tian rubbed his eyes. Even though he regularly took cod liver oil every day, it was still difficult to accurately identify targets at sea in the darkness.