Seven Seas Beacon Fire

Xu Yueming shook his head with some sympathy: "Your Highness, please don't have such thoughts. I know that Your Highness is still somewhat dissatisfied with the battle plan formulated by the Crown Prince, but we are indeed not qualified to confront the Colombian Navy head-on. Your Highness is also aware of the current state of the Navy."

After a moment of silence, Zheng Guanyin spoke: "The fleet has already been deployed. I know that saying anything now is pointless. Did you come to me just to say this?"

“Of course not, Your Highness.” Xu Yueming gently shook his head. “I have come to see Your Highness on the orders of the Crown Prince. Would Your Highness be willing to make a deal?”

Chapter 108 Excessive Caution

With the battleship Dingyuan as its flagship, the commander of this "empty city fleet" was none other than Liu Duncheng.

Although the weather in the Bashi Channel area was not greatly affected by the typhoon, the waves in this area are usually quite large even without typhoons. Even a giant ship like the Dingyuan, which weighs more than 30,000 tons, was rocking its hull rhythmically on the sea.

On the bridge of the battleship Dingyuan, although he had a prosthetic leg, it did not prevent Liu Duncheng from standing straight.

His gaze, like that of a hawk, swept across the dark sea before him. Dark clouds hung overhead, and the ocean stretched out before him. Benson was not the only one on this sea yearning for revenge.

Since he was seriously injured by the explosion of his flagship before the Battle of the Java Sea, which forced the entire First Battleship Squadron to temporarily return to port and delay their departure, causing them to miss the Battle of the Java Sea, Liu Duncheng took the responsibility for the failure of the Battle of the Java Sea on his own shoulders.

He could not forgive himself for missing this crucial naval battle that would determine the fate and future of the nation because of such a ridiculous reason as dying before achieving his goal. He could not accept that while his closest friend had sacrificed himself on the battlefield, he was lying in a hospital bed.

Unlike Western warships, which often reserve a seat for the commander on the bridge when conditions permit, Eastern warships do not have this custom. Eastern commanders generally stand and direct operations from the bridge. If a naval battle lasts for several or even more than ten hours, the commander will stand on the bridge for that long.

It's not that no one has criticized this arrangement, as it's rather strenuous. Such prolonged combat requires considerable physical exertion, and if it affects command and operations, then it would be a net loss. Even the world's most powerful Royal Navy doesn't mind leaving a chair for the commander on the bridge. From the perspective of learning from the advanced naval experience of the world, the Royal Navy of the Ming Dynasty should also add a chair to the bridge of its ships.

However, within the navy, almost all ships still lack that chair on the bridge. According to the navy, if a commander finds it tiring to stand on the bridge for half a day, how can we expect the boiler operators in the engine room to work in sauna-like temperatures? Compared to maintaining physical strength, keeping the commander's mind clear while standing is more important.

Don't doze off at the most crucial moment!

This is certainly a long-standing tradition of the navy, but when Liu Duncheng was appointed as the commander of this operation, considering that Liu Duncheng had lost a leg in the explosion of his flagship last time, a commander's seat was originally added to the bridge of the Dingyuan, but Liu Duncheng had this seat removed as soon as he boarded the warship.

This guy's temper has never changed.

It was already 4 p.m. when the fleet passed through the Bashi Channel. After easily dispersing the federal warships operating in the Bashi Channel, the sun was about to clock out, and night was about to envelop the area. Liu Duncheng knew very well that the coming night was crucial for them.

Their location wasn't too far from the port where the Federation Navy's 38th Fleet was stationed. During the day, they had been baring their teeth and threatening the Federation's cruiser fleet in the Bashi Channel. Liu Duncheng believed that even if Benson wouldn't easily seek battle now without superior forces, he certainly wouldn't sit idly by.

The enemy's 38th Fleet will definitely be dispatched and will likely seek to locate me, then maintain a suitable distance once it has located me.

From the perspective of the Federation forces, their current fleet is a "powerful fleet" with eight super-dreadnoughts and four dreadnoughts. Although the Colombian Navy's Third Fleet's 38th and 39th Fleets combined can undoubtedly completely suppress them, if either one of them were to encounter them individually, their side would still have a relatively greater "advantage".

Under normal circumstances, he should be the one more anxious, because he should take advantage of his superior ship quality to try to defeat one of the Federation fleets before they converge.

Just like Guanqiu Jian in the Three Kingdoms period after he raised an army, if he could not quickly gain an advantage, he would only be the one to fail.

However, Liu Duncheng currently only possesses four battleships, two of which are likely to compete with the Gallic Navy's Danton-class dreadnoughts for the title of the world's weakest dreadnoughts. (The Gallic Navy's Danton also replaced its 240mm secondary main guns with single-mounted 305mm guns.)

Therefore, as soon as a battle breaks out, the truth will be revealed. Although in the end, the truth will eventually come out, he must tie down the majority of the Federation army's attention and forces here before the truth can be exposed.

In any case, the secret can only be revealed when the Surabaya Fleet reaches at least the deep waters of the South China Sea—as long as the Surabaya Fleet can successfully reach the depths of the South China Sea, the Federation forces will not have time to intercept it even if they realize what's happening.

Therefore, the burden on Liu Duncheng's shoulders was very heavy. He wanted to attract the attention of the Federation forces in the sea area south of Ryukyu and north of Luzon without being exposed, and at the same time, he wanted to avoid arousing their suspicion. This was no less difficult than a certain dance student surnamed Yan dancing on three eggs.

Therefore, Liu Duncheng would always feel a little more relaxed whenever he saw the sun set, since the darkness was his best cover. In those days, it was almost impossible for people to engage in large-scale battles at night, and in order to avoid being attacked by submarines, they would also implement blackouts at night.

At night, everyone at sea is blind to each other. It's quite normal for two fleets to pass each other by a distance of only 20 nautical miles without noticing each other.

Liu Duncheng's initial goal was to hold off the Federal Army here for three days. The best part of those 72 hours was the few dozen hours after sunset. Today they crossed the Bashi Channel very smoothly. After tonight, the Federal Army would definitely use all its reconnaissance resources to search for their whereabouts tomorrow.

"Is the general thinking about what we should do tomorrow during the day?" The captain of the Dingyuan battleship came to Liu Duncheng's side, holding a cup of strong tea in his hand: "Since you don't want to rest, sir, then have a cup of tea to refresh yourself."

Liu Duncheng didn't stand on ceremony. He muttered, "Does not rest necessarily mean I have to drink tea?" Then, after taking the teacup and sipping two mouthfuls of hot tea, Liu Duncheng unconsciously let out a satisfied sigh: "The Federation devils have more cruisers and destroyers than we do. Where do you think we should go tonight? Should we continue eastward into the deep ocean, maneuvering as far as possible to keep their search arm out of our reach, or...?"

"General, people usually speak in this tone to get others to agree with the suggestion that follows." The captain of the battleship Dingyuan shrugged indifferently. "If you don't want to go too far, why use this roundabout method to test our bottom line?"

Liu Duncheng was silent for a moment: "In this war, too many of our comrades have lost their lives. We are also taking huge risks in this mission. Any decision I make could very well lead to our deaths at sea. So I think... I should listen to your feelings more."

"General, we don't like what you're saying. Cowards don't board this ship willingly. All of our officers and soldiers know very well what we're doing!"

Before the captain of the battleship Dingyuan could speak, an ordinary sailor next to him couldn't help but speak out. However, after the somewhat impetuous sailor finished speaking, he realized that the two officers' eyes were fixed on him.

"I...I'm sorry, sir, I just..."

"Although what you said was very good, subordinates are not allowed to interrupt their superiors when they are speaking. If this happens again, I will send you to clean the toilets." The captain pointed at the corporal: "Now go do what you are supposed to do."

So the corporal ran off in a flash, and the two men watched his figure disappear at the top of the bridge stairs before they both burst into laughter.

"Sir, do whatever you want. The Federation has the advantage in manpower, but we also have our own advantages, don't we?"

“You’re right.” Liu Duncheng nodded. “Have you made contact with the ‘Yongchang’ fleet?”

"We have not only made contact with the 'Yongchang' fleet, but also with the 'Changjiang' fleet."

“Very well, let’s go and reserve a spot to meet them.”

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

"Your operational plan is not comprehensive enough." Admiral Benson looked at the plan prepared by the 38th Fleet's staff, and after reviewing it, shook his head with some dissatisfaction: "I see that in your assumptions, the combat scenario is set as a battle between our side and two enemy capital ship formations without high-speed ships?"

When faced with the question raised by Admiral Benson, the chief of staff of the 38th Fleet, who was in charge of formulating the operational plan, showed a somewhat bewildered expression, which naturally made Admiral Benson shake his head helplessly.

The United States Navy suffered considerable losses in this war, but also gained a great deal. For example, the quality of gunners on the ships of the United States Navy is now much better than before the war. Previously, the main reason why the gunners of the United States Navy could not hit the target was that their gunnery skills were poor. Now, the situation of the gunners of the United States Navy is different. Now, the reason why the cannons cannot hit the target is that the dispersion of the cannons is too large.

Standard battleships are great in every way, except for this dispersion..........

Compared to the officers and soldiers who directly operate artillery, boilers, and various equipment on the front lines of the fleet, the United States Navy's staff officers saw the least improvement in their skills.

These staff officers were not without experience during the war. In fact, their drafting and writing skills had improved considerably. However, when it came to these staff officers, or more precisely, the chiefs of staff, formulating large-scale operational plans and coordinating overall operations, the shortcomings of these United States staff officers, who were accustomed to operating alongside and benefiting from the Royal Navy during previous world wars, became quite apparent.

For example, like now, the consideration of the battle situation is too one-sided.

"The two sides are not facing off against each other in a traditional slow formation; our enemy likely has a vanguard fleet," Admiral Benson said.

"But all of the enemy's battlecruisers are currently trapped in Surabaya Harbor. According to our intelligence, our enemy does not have any extra battleships to deploy in this operation."

"Since when have vanguard fleets and battlecruisers become synonymous?" Admiral Benson looked at his chief of staff with a hint of disappointment. "Our enemy still has a few last-dated first-class armored cruisers and some new first-class light cruisers. The former have 240mm guns and a maximum speed of 25 knots. Although they can't defeat any of our battleships, they have the same suppressive power as capital ships over all the cruisers we currently have!"

While the latter's firepower isn't as strong, it's still superior to any of our light cruisers, and its speed can even reach 30 knots! These warships are currently conducting commerce raiding operations throughout the Western Pacific. Why do you assume that these enemy commerce raiding squadrons won't assist their main battle group? Why won't they act as the vanguard of their main battle group?

Benson's words jolted the 38th Fleet's chief of staff awake. He snapped to attention and saluted, "I'll go back immediately and revise the operational plan! I'm sorry, General, this is a dereliction of duty..."

That's a good attitude in admitting your mistakes, but unfortunately, in the military, a good attitude in admitting mistakes is of little use.

General Benson waved his hand helplessly, indicating that the guy could get lost now.

The 38th Fleet's warships are now ready to launch an attack, but considering that going out under the cover of night would be pointless, the fleet remains in port until dawn tomorrow, after which it will begin a thorough search of the entire ocean.

After the last battle at Yuanshan, Benson had seriously reflected on his actions, and therefore he would now be suspicious of any situation that was unfavorable to his side.

Benson believed that excessive caution was better than reckless rashness.

Chapter 109 Bombardment of Guam

In the days before GPS and satellite communication, it was never easy for two fleets located in different places to meet up at night in a certain sea area.

After all, on this vast ocean, determining one's location, whether by using a sextant, a lunar distance meter, or a marine chronometer, requires a considerable amount of time (sometimes taking hours). Furthermore, the unavoidable errors in measurement, while perhaps acceptable between two fleets during the daytime, are significant.

After all, the visual detection distance between two parties at sea, calculated based on the observation of each other's masts, can reach 30 to 40 kilometers. However, if it is nighttime and blackouts are in effect, it would be difficult to detect each other despite such a margin of error.

Therefore, the best meeting point for both parties is a place clearly marked on the nautical chart, with a clear visual reference point, such as a shipwreck abandoned on the beach, or an island or reef that will be exposed at low tide.

These places, which would never be marked on a regular map, would be clearly marked on any nautical chart in the possession of an experienced navy, just as an army's military map would clearly mark dead trees or rocks that could be used as references for machine gun or artillery firing distances.

This accumulated heritage can be considered one of the few things that truly deserves to be called heritage after the industrial age, when the concept of a "century-old navy" was rapidly devalued in the wave of industrialization.

However, even this foundation is facing increasing challenges. The vast array of nautical charts accumulated by traditional maritime powers like Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, and France over the past hundred or even several centuries are being gradually eroded by the new generation of industrialized nations, who are constantly enriching and improving their professional survey vessels and large merchant and fishing fleets.

The location that Liu Duncheng chose to meet was a famous place in another time and space.

Leyte Gulf.

Meeting up in the vicinity of Luzon doesn't seem like a good option, given that federal troops have already landed in several locations on Luzon and have taken control of some of the island's most important cities.

However, Luzon is ultimately different from Borneo to the south. Since the 9th century, Chinese immigrants from the mainland have mainly developed Borneo. Due to the well-known siphon effect that inevitably occurs in regional development, the development level of the Luzon Islands is relatively low compared to Borneo. A more sensible way to put it is that Luzon has done a good job in environmental protection. A less sensible way to put it is that, apart from a few cities, many other places have not been developed at all and are still considered wild lands.

Therefore, it is true that the federal army controls the vast majority of cities in the Luzon Islands, but the extent to which the federal army controls the Luzon Islands is not even comparable to the extent to which the multinational coalition controlled Iraq after the Iraq War—the latter could only effectively control a small area from Baghdad, the coastal ports, and the highway in between.

The major cities on the Luzon Islands are mostly located on the western coast, while Leyte Gulf on the eastern side is generally not worth paying attention to. In fact, in another timeline, if it weren't for the outbreak of the largest naval battle in human history, more than 99% of people would never know that there is a place called Leyte Gulf on Earth.

Of course, while Leyte Gulf is indeed a remote place, the Federation forces have deployed a large number of ships in the Western Pacific, so to be on the safe side, we should find a way to keep these Federation forces occupied and ensure the smooth rendezvous and subsequent operations.

As for the fleet that is on its way to rendezvous, it will also take them some time to get here, since some of these fleets that were carrying out the commerce raiding mission have already almost reached the depths of the ocean.

Therefore, on their way back, the "Yongchang" and "Yongtai" ship formation planned to set a small fire in the Federal Army's backyard, so they randomly chose a spot on the nautical chart.

This is an inconspicuous little island in the Pacific Ocean, which most people in this time and space who are not familiar with the ocean have never heard of in their lives.

This is a famous island, and in another timeline, it is the most crucial node in the chain that the world's overlord tried to use to restrain the challenger.

The most elite and powerful "Ghost" and "Raptor" are stationed here, "THAAD" guards here, the combat radius of "Black Panther" airlifted by "Kunpeng" and the maximum combat radius of "Mighty Dragon" with auxiliary fuel tanks cover this area, and even the "palm technique descending from the sky" deep in the continent is always aimed at this area.

The name of this place is Guam.

At present, this is still just an unknown island. Before the outbreak of the war, there were no military facilities on the island. After the outbreak of the war, the Ming army built a small coaling station on it. After the federal army captured the island, it only slightly expanded the coaling station and added a few oil depots to refuel the cruisers and destroyers operating in the surrounding area.

After all, let alone destroyers of this era, even those destroyers of 2000 tons decades from now, will still face difficulties in refueling and resupplying when operating in the Western Ocean. This ocean is simply too vast. Therefore, these coaling and refueling stations are of great help in maintaining the operational range and patrol frequency of these destroyers.

The Union Army has set up many gas stations in the Western Pacific, but Guam just happens to be located on the return route of the "Yongchang" and "Yongtai" fleets, making it the most convenient one for them.

After receiving the secret telegram to rendezvous, these two Ming Dynasty armored cruisers, possibly the two strongest armored cruisers in the world, along with two light cruisers, began to accelerate to 20 knots. Before this, these two armored cruisers had only used the middle one of their three main shafts when sailing. As two large surface ships equipped with a combination of reciprocating triple-expansion steam engines and steam turbines, the two Yong-class armored cruisers would only start the middle main shaft to save fuel when cruising, and would only start the two steam turbine-driven shafts on both sides when high-speed sailing was required.

They maintained this speed and arrived near Guam three hours later—they were not far from Guam to begin with. Upon arrival, the two armored cruisers did not even conduct firing corrections. After a simple range finding, they fired 15 rounds at their maximum firing range and at a rate of fire that they would normally never reach when firing. The two armored cruisers fired a total of 180 240mm high-explosive shells.

The sudden shelling shattered the nightlife of the people on Guam. On this island, which is not very important now, there are only some second-line military personnel and some non-combatants. For these people, they simply cannot distinguish whether the shells that fell on the island were 240mm or 330mm shells. The only thing they can tell is that the shells that fell tonight are definitely not the five-inch or six-inch shells they have seen before.

These personnel, who were not highly trained, inevitably exaggerated their experiences that night, and so a report of "Ming warships bombarding Guam" was quickly delivered to Admiral Benson.

Of course, based on the time the telegram was sent, Admiral Benson could tell that the ships that bombarded Guam were definitely not Ming Dynasty battleships—their battleships had only just passed through the Bashi Channel during the day, and it would take them more than two days to get to Guam. How could they have opened fire on Guam so quickly?

Considering which of the Ming Dynasty's several commerce raiding fleets operating in the ocean had previously been active in the vicinity, the culprit was quickly deduced.

However, the shelling of Guam naturally made him think more deeply—did this mean that the Ming army intended to eliminate the federal army's supply and communication nodes in the Mariana Islands? If so, then perhaps the Ming army's plan was to "cut off the supply lines."

Of course, in the current era of maritime confrontation, cutting off supply lines does not mean that the enemy forces at the front lines will collapse in the same way as in ancient wars. The main supplies for the Federation's southward troops are sent from the mainland to Yingzhou and then transferred from Yingzhou. However, if the Ming army wantonly destroys the Federation's supply lines in the Mariana Islands, then the Federation's activities in the Luzon Sea will be greatly affected.

Benson thought it was increasingly likely. He felt that the enemy probably wanted to take advantage of his preoccupation with protecting the landing zone, and therefore recklessly skipped the battles in Luzon and Borneo, directly targeting the Mariana Islands area behind the Federal Army's lines.

Do we need to divide our forces?

Benson dismissed the idea as soon as it arose. He knew that the battlefield required prioritizing certain forces. After suffering losses in previous battles, the Federation forces, while having an advantage in the overall situation, had absolutely no capacity to further divide their forces.

If we want to engage in such a large-scale battle, we'll probably have to wait until those behemoths on the shipbuilding platform have developed their fighting capabilities.

Regarding the situation reported from Guam, many staff officers believed that it was unnecessary to concern themselves with it. They thought that if their activities in the Luzon Sea were affected, so be it, since that wasn't their main focus. Even if the Ming army wanted to take action against the Mariana Islands, even if they didn't occupy them but only caused damage, the distance of over 3000 kilometers was already beyond the normal range of most naval combat capabilities.

These advisors' views are somewhat similar to the strategy of ancient agricultural societies when faced with raids by nomadic tribes—just let them plunder.

However, Benson always felt that there was definitely a conspiracy involved. After experiencing the Battle of Yuanshan and how the Ming army secretly transported so many torpedo boats to the north, Benson now tended to extrapolate all the Ming army's actions to various conspiracy theories.

"No matter what the Ming army's plans are now, we can't let them have their way." Benson gritted his teeth: "Our main fleet can't be divided, so let's send our destroyers! Since those little things caused us so much trouble in Xinluo Bay, let's send our little girls to cause them some trouble too!"

The staff officers at the Third Fleet Command did not object to the commander's decision to send a number of destroyers to the Mariana Islands after discussion. After all, the main force of the fleet was tied to the landing site north of Yanping, so the only available and sufficient mobile force was these destroyers.

While diverting some destroyers from the fleet's current capabilities will certainly impact its search and reconnaissance capabilities, the Federation forces are currently on the defensive, so having fewer reconnaissance and search forces doesn't seem to have a significant impact. As long as the landing zone is secured, what losses could they possibly incur?

After much deliberation, General Benson was convinced that he had made the most appropriate choice, unaware that his decision was still exactly what the Ming army wanted.

The root cause of all this lies in the fact that Admiral Benson was assuming he was fighting against an opponent with a dozen or so capital ships. He had arranged it as a fair and square surface gunboat duel between the two sides. He probably never imagined that two-thirds of these dozen or so real ships would actually be imposters.

However, considering that the two last-generation armored cruisers that the Ming army had at hand could indeed be used as two battlecruisers by taking advantage of their limited size, Admiral Benson then set his sights on the three battlecruisers that the British had in Singapore.

Although the British had been taking a wait-and-see approach to the ongoing war between the Ming Dynasty and Colombia for quite some time, Victoria and Colombia were still nominally allies, weren't they? So, the British would surely not refuse a reasonable request from their ally. Benson could accept that the British were only going through the motions; it didn't matter. As long as the British battlecruisers arrived in this area, Benson believed that his subsequent operations would proceed much more smoothly.

Thinking about it this way, even General Benson felt better.

However, Admiral Benson's good mood did not even last until noon the next day. Early in the morning, Admiral Benson received a reply telegram from the British Singapore Fleet, in which the British expressed their regret.

Although they were very willing to fight alongside their allies, unfortunately, two Invincible-class battlecruisers collided yesterday while setting sail. Although the damage was not serious, the two battlecruisers will first need to complete repairs before they can cooperate with their allies' military operations.

"These damn troublemakers! After stirring up trouble in Europe, they're stirring up trouble in Asia now! The war isn't even over yet, and these damn troublemakers are already thinking about the damn post-war balance!"

General Benson, in his command post, cursed at the Britons: "These bastards will regret their decision! These damned Britons are worse than the Ming people!"

Chapter 110 You come and I go

From the perspective of the Victorian Empire, the countries to the east of the Pacific were the biggest threat now, and the countries to the west of the Pacific were the biggest threat in the future. For the Britons, the most wonderful ending in the world would be a hundred-year war between these two biggest threats that would never end.

Yes, that's how it is in our Victorian Empire. We have this kind of path dependence. Because we've experienced what it's like to fight the Hundred Years' War with the Gauls, the British feel that every country in the world that they hate should experience this kind of blessing.

This kind of path dependence is particularly evident when a country makes choices that affect its future and destiny. Like the beacon of the 21st century in another world, they are not really clear about how they managed to disintegrate Russia in the 90s. However, in their view, since Russia disintegrated, it means that the methods they used back then were very effective. So when they later encountered new opponents, they took out this old set of methods and used them again.

Just like those people who pat the TV when the signal is weak, these people don't know how to fix the TV, but last time the signal was bad, patting it made the signal better, so this time when the signal is bad, they continue to pat the TV.

The Victorian Empire was still better than its federal cousin in this respect. At least the British did not expect to defeat their opponents by simply chanting their own scriptures. Although the British had path dependence, their forte was to actively guide the development of events onto the path they relied on.