Seven Seas Beacon Fire

"What does this have to do with our family?"

"Who made the Ming Dynasty recreate China twice, especially with the Song Dynasty preceding it? So during the Ming Dynasty, there was absolutely no option to marry princesses out of the country in terms of political marriages. The only option was to have foreign princesses marry into the country. Wasn't Emperor Longwu also ridiculed in unofficial histories for being able to gain half the credit for conquering the country attributable to his concubines?"

Li Che spread his hands: "If your Zhu family hadn't gone to such extremes back then, making the whole society absolutely unwilling to accept marriage alliances, then now if it's a political marriage, maybe my two uncles' daughters could marry into that family. But now I can only suffer a little bit. Ouch, ouch, ouch, don't pinch my waist! I was just kidding!"

After a bit of fooling around, the somewhat tense atmosphere was temporarily dispelled. After having lunch in the private dining car, Li Che returned to his own carriage and began to write by hand. Zhu Miaoyun watched with some curiosity as Li Che picked up the brush and wrote furiously.

"Why don't you use a fountain pen?" This was the first time Zhu Miaoyun had seen Li Che write calligraphy. In the other world, Li Che had never shown this skill to her.

Although Li Che's calligraphy was beautiful, Zhu Miaoyun was a little confused. There was a fountain pen in the pen holder on the table, so why was he suddenly writing with a brush?

“This is a memorial to the emperor.” Li Che glanced at her helplessly. “Normally, official documents are now mostly written with pens, but memorials to the emperor are still written with brushes. In a way, this can be considered a tradition.”

"Writing with a brush pen, isn't that both time-consuming and wasteful of paper?" Zhu Miaoyun asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Leaving aside tradition, what you said is indeed the case, but this is actually a deliberate practice in memorials. Because writing is time-consuming and wasteful of paper, using a brush allows memorials to focus on the key points and avoid empty talk and clichés. If a long treatise must be submitted, then it should be submitted as an attachment along with the memorial. You can think of the memorial as the preface and table of contents of a paper, so that the emperor can see the key points from it."

"So what are you writing now?"

Li Che stopped writing and stepped aside. Zhu Miaoyun leaned closer, examined the words she had written, and then said with some surprise, "You actually suggested letting some of the Federation troops leave? Let them withdraw smoothly?"

“Yes.” Li Che continued writing furiously with a smile: “This is a wicked plan that I just came up with last night.”

"A poisonous scheme? You call this a poisonous scheme?" Zhu Miaoyun deliberately made a face as if she was laughing heartily: "You let the enemy go, you're practically their living bodhisattva, I really don't see where the poison is."

"Guess?"

Zhu Miaoyun's smile faltered in the face of Li Che's stern expression, and the girl began to wonder if there was something she had overlooked.

Could it be that there's something wrong with the people who were released?

"You didn't obtain some strange virus from deep in the mountains and forests, and then infect these soldiers with it to bring it to the Federation's mainland? To force the Federation to withdraw from the war as soon as possible?" Zhu Miaoyun chose to let her imagination run wild.

However, the girl's answer made Li Che unable to hold back any longer.

Grandma, do you want to hear what you're saying? I'm talking about a proper method, not your kind that allows you to sit at the same table as Jia Xu.

"If you're wrong, please don't spout nonsense." Li Che pointed to the memorial he was still writing with his other hand: "I'm going to use a psychological tactic to accomplish the most with the least amount of money."

"Psychological warfare?"

"The Federation currently has 100 million troops waiting to be evacuated in Borneo. Of these 100 million troops, some will certainly not be able to be evacuated. One of the things that is human nature is to worry about inequality rather than scarcity."

Now, put yourself in their shoes. If you were a friend or relative of one of the officers in these million federal troops, you would certainly be worried if your friend or relative were in such a dangerous situation. You might even choose to go to the White House or Congress to put pressure on the federal government. Am I right?

"Originally, none of everyone's sons were coming back, but one day you opened the door and suddenly found that your neighbor's brat who had joined the army with your own child had actually returned. Then you learned that some of the soldiers had actually successfully withdrawn from that hellish battlefield in Borneo."

Li Che's face began to light up with a gloating smile as he said this: "The Federation's news control during the war was still very strict, so we sent 20 mouths back to them." A satisfied look appeared on Li Che's face at this moment: "In this way, those Federation people who did not wait for their children or husbands will do many crazy things in order to bring their children and husbands home. I believe that under such pressure, Wilson will be able to make the right choice."

Chapter 174 The Shattered German Dream (1)

The federal media is very powerful; in some respects, it is the most powerful media in the world.

Firstly, it's because the federal media is highly professional and proactive. They are truly willing to go to great lengths for breaking news and current events, even though from the perspective of many parties involved, these media outlets may seem like cockroaches, but they do consistently deliver crucial information.

Secondly, the federal media truly stands in the interests of the Colombian Federation. Although, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the media personnel emerging from the gates wore smiles disguised as they were moving south, like scavengers on the African savanna, in such matters, actions speak louder than words. The federal media's actual actions have largely been aimed at safeguarding the national interests of the Federation.

In this respect, they are far superior to some media outlets, because they are genuinely defending federal values.

Therefore, if Washington wants to block news from the front lines, these federal media outlets will do their utmost to help, since they are, in some ways, more loyal than the federal army.

In this era without the internet and TikTok, relying on domestic media is useless if you want to gain influence in the information war and propaganda war on the other side of the world, North America. Li Che's strategy aims to put pressure on Washington outside the battlefield.

After all, with the war at this point, it makes no real difference whether we leave 1 million federal troops or 600,000 or 700,000 federal troops on Borneo. This defeat is destined to bring a huge shock to the Federation, so it's better to make that shock even more intense.

This memorial was first sent to the Crown Prince after Li Che arrived in Yingtian Prefecture. This was because our Emperor had not yet returned to Yingtian Prefecture, and the current regent was our Crown Prince Li Renchi of the Great Tang Dynasty.

Seeing his son's "good idea," Li Renchi felt very gratified. He even felt that his son was more mature in this regard than his two uncles, who were more knowledgeable about current international trends, especially the countermeasures proposed by the Federation...

The third brother felt that they should take all necessary measures to strike at the Federation, and use all the special gases that hadn't been used on the battlefield against Russia.

The second brother felt that we shouldn't be so extreme, and we should refer to successful historical examples, such as how the General Who Conquered the West treated the Dzungars.

As the eldest brother in the family, Li Renzhi felt that his two younger brothers' suggestions were very good and hoped that they would not give any more unsolicited advice in the future.

It sounds inspiring, but the country is newly established and simply doesn't have the capability to do these things. Making tough statements without the strength to back it up is just a joke.

On this point, Li Che and his son are completely aligned in their values. Li Che, in particular, had seen a certain humorous West Asian superpower raise a black flag in another world, but when it came to actually doing something big, he was cautious about his own safety, yet he was willing to risk his life for small gains. He was truly a clown.

As the de facto "Executive Vice Emperor" of the Tang Dynasty, Li Renzhi quickly summoned his advisors and several cabinet ministers to discuss how to wage a "public opinion war" for the first time since the founding of the Tang Dynasty. Meanwhile, Li Che was leisurely reading today's newspaper, which had just been baked, in his own camp.

These days, newspapers are much more interesting than many novels. After all, the style of most novels these days doesn't really interest Li Che. In comparison, the various domestic and international news reported in newspapers are much more interesting.

However, in the past few days, most sections of the newspapers have been flooded with news of the "Great Victory in the Battle of the Bashi Channel" and related reports, which has squeezed out many news sections that Li Che was originally interested in.

Of course, this is unavoidable. After all, chasing hot topics is the same for media in any era. The navy has won another victory, and the people like to see this now. So, under Hayek's guidance, the content of newspapers on the market is basically inseparable from the navy and the Battle of the Bashi Channel. Suddenly, so many naval experts have appeared all over the country.

However, Li Che saw something different in today's newspaper. After flipping through an interview with a member of the main gun crew of a certain naval flagship, he didn't see the familiar political commentary. On the contrary, he saw political news from Europe.

In short—the Allied Powers held a ceremony in Britain to divide up the Leitanian high seas fleet.

Although Li Che, as a military enthusiast in another world, was not a German fanatic, at this moment, seeing the Leitanian High Seas Fleet being dismantled and torn apart by various countries in the reports, he could completely empathize with it.

He almost ended up like Letania, a defeated nation abandoning all its former glory, kneeling at the feet of the victors, and handing over its naval girls to the enemy like the two saints.

Fortunately, they pulled through.

Both the Leitanian High Seas Fleet and the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy once claimed to be the second largest navy in the world. Now, it is meaningless to argue about which country has the second largest navy in the world, because one of them is still alive, while the other is dead.

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The Leitanians had spent decades building their high seas fleet, but all that effort, sweat, and glory was now insignificant.

After nearly a year of quiet waiting in Scapaven, the Leitanian High Seas Fleet finally found its home today. Under the media's cameras, Admiral Ruth, the last commander of the Leitanian High Seas Fleet, shed bitter tears on this humiliating occasion for the Leitanians.

The Allied powers gathered here at this moment were all looking at the behemoths that once belonged to the Second Empire in the port with their own different feelings. The subtle expressions on the faces of the ambassadors could reflect the attitudes of their respective countries to some extent.

The Federal Ambassador looked anxious, the Gaulish Ambassador looked dissatisfied, the Dutch and Iberian Ambassadors looked expectant, and the Syracuse Ambassador was counting on his fingers, seemingly already considering how much he could sell it for.

The various countries argued and bickered for almost a year about how to allocate these Leitanian naval warships, with the core issue being the huge differences between them regarding the allocation plan.

The Leitanian High Seas Fleet remains quite attractive, for example, it possesses four Bavarian-class battleships equipped with 380mm guns. These four battleships are almost worthy of being called the most powerful capital ships in this world war, possessing top-notch protection and massive 380mm guns of the time.

The Gauls had long coveted these four ships; they were the most eager of all the nations to acquire them, or even if they couldn't get all four, getting two would be fine too.

Although the Gallic navy in this world is more powerful than the Gallic navy during World War I in the other world—at least they actually built the Normandy-class battleships.

The Gallic Navy currently has two classes of dreadnoughts and two classes of super-dreadnoughts. The two types of dreadnoughts are the last two Danton-class ships, which replaced the twin 240mm secondary main guns with single-mounted 305mm guns, and the four Courbet-class dreadnoughts that everyone is more familiar with.

In the realm of super-dreadnoughts, Gaul now possesses not only four Brittany-class battleships, but also two Normandy-class battleships that were never completed in history.

Therefore, in this world, the Gallic Navy could muster 12 dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts, which looked quite imposing, especially the Normandy-class battleships, whose powerful quadruple 340mm main guns were currently unique in the world.

However, even the most powerful Normandy-class battleships in the hands of the Gauls could not compare with the Bavarian-class battleships of the Leitanians. The Bavarians were far superior to the Normandy-class battleships in terms of firepower, protection, and tonnage.

During this world war, the Gauls paid a heavy price, and their navy no longer had the funds or energy to develop new 380mm naval guns. This can be seen from the Normandy-class battleships and their successors, the Lyon-class battleships. One of these battleships used three quadruple turrets, and the other used four quadruple turrets. If the Agincourt was a holy relic of the multi-turret cult, then the Gauls' battleships were holy relic of the multi-barrel cult.

The reason the Gauls adopted this method was simply because, without planning for larger caliber naval guns, they wanted to increase firepower by increasing firepower density.

But for the British, giving the Bavarian-class battleships to the Gauls? Am I out of my mind, or is your brain slammed in a door?

Why did my Victorian Empire participate in the World War? Was it to make Gaul even greater?

Therefore, the British made it clear from the very beginning of the negotiations that the Bavarian-class battleships and Mackensen-class battlecruisers would not be included in the allocation process of Leitania's capital ships among the various countries.

To put it bluntly—I've already won the grand prize!

Chapter 175 The Shattered German Dream (2)

This statement from the British was, of course, met with opposition from many other countries from the outset. However, the British had their reasons for saying so—who was actually fighting against the Leitanian high seas fleet? I contributed 90% of the effort to dealing with the main force of the Leitanian navy, while all the other countries combined only contributed 10%.

As the primary force against the Leitanian High Seas Fleet, is there any problem with the Royal Navy of the Victorian Empire having priority in allocating resources? Without the Royal Navy, it wouldn't be everyone sharing Leitanian warships now; it would probably be the Leitanians taking your warships!

Victoria Empire: I fought this war to maintain my maritime hegemony. Although it seems that this hegemony has not been maintained very well, I absolutely cannot allow another Leitanian high seas fleet to emerge on my doorstep!

After all, the British Navy has clearly decided to retain only the capital ships equipped with 15-inch guns after the war – including four Renown-class battlecruisers, five Queen Elizabeth-class battleships, and five Revenge-class battleships. All dreadnoughts are planned to be decommissioned. As for the super-dreadnoughts equipped with 13.5-inch guns, whether to retain all of them or only a portion of them, the Royal Navy itself does not yet have a clear answer.

However, one thing is certain: if the naval strength of countries like Gaul is significantly enhanced, then the Royal Navy of Victoria will be forced to retain more warships, which would be an additional burden for postwar Britain.

Shortly after the Leitanian fleet arrived in Britain, the British Navy organized a comprehensive inspection of the Leitanian warships. The powerful performance of the Bavarian-class battleships also made the Royal Navy of Victoria seriously consider whether to include these warships in the Royal Navy's order of battle.

Unfortunately, the difference between the Bavaria-class battleships and the 15-inch guns equipped by the Royal Navy of Victoria was not just a matter of a millimeter difference in the caliber of the main guns.

The Leitanians' warships were based on the metric system, while the Britons' warships were based on the imperial system, and in some parts, even pounds were used for measurement (for example, armor; quite counterintuitively, the armor on British warships was not strictly measured in inches, but in pounds—quite amazing, isn't it?). This resulted in two completely different systems for the maintenance of the warships of the two countries.

The difference in the most basic units of measurement has the least impact on the shells. After all, whether it's slightly enlarging the barrel of a cannon or setting up a dedicated shell production line, it's not a big problem. Battleships don't consume many shells, so it's not a big issue to manufacture a batch of shells for stockpiling.

The problem lies in most of the other seemingly insignificant things on the warships. Many of the parts that need to be replaced regularly on the Leitania warships are non-standard parts that the Royal Navy of Victoria has never produced before. From small screws to large watertight doors and underwater hull lines, the differences between the two sides are too great. If these Leitania warships are kept in service with the Royal Navy of Victoria, then the maintenance costs of these ships will definitely be the highest.

Although it was later clarified that these ships would not enter the Royal Navy's order of battle, the British still wanted to keep them—whether the Victorian Empire obtained these ships was not important; what was important was preventing the Gauls and Commonwealth from obtaining them.

And what right do you Gauls have to look down on other Leitanian warships?

The earliest Leitanian Caesar-class super-dreadnoughts, although their gun caliber was slightly smaller than the Gauls' 340mm, the Leitanian 330mm naval guns were slightly better than the Gauls' 340mm naval guns in terms of both ballistic performance and shell quality.

Then, the earliest Leitanian super-dreadnoughts had 350mm of main armor. What is the thickness of the main armor belt of your Gallic battleships? If the Gallic people brought out all their super-dreadnoughts, could they guarantee that one could defeat Caesar?

If Caesar is like this, then the King-class battleships are even more so. The Gallic navy should be secretly laughing at being able to draw these ships. What more could you greedy Gallic people want?

Ultimately, it was for this reason that the Gauls chose to yield and accept the British proposal—aside from the 380 gunboats that the Royal Navy of Victoria had already taken, the other warships would be drawn by lot among the various countries.

For the Gauls, getting the Leitanian's Super Dreadnought is a win.

The sour look on the face of the Gallic ambassador present was partly due to the Gallic people's inherent dissatisfaction with Britain's domineering approach, and partly because... after the drawing of lots began, the Gallic people realized that it was absolutely impossible to avoid being drawn on British soil.

With no Bavarian ships left in the prize pool, the Gauls' biggest desire was naturally for the Leitanian battlecruisers. This was because the Gallic Navy, like the Federal Navy, was severely lacking in high-speed ships. The difference between the two was that the Federal Navy in this world at least had high-speed ships, while the Gauls were limited by the length of their domestic shipyards' dry docks. For high-speed ships that were often over 200 meters long, the Gauls' military dry docks simply couldn't accommodate them.

Therefore, if the Gallic Navy could be assigned a battlecruiser from the Leitanian Navy, especially the Dervringerki battlecruiser which had made a name for itself in Jutland, it would be a tremendous boost to the Gallic Navy.

However, when the Gallic ambassador saw that all four ships he had drawn were battleships, even a fool could tell that there was something wrong with the lottery.

Especially when the Federation next door suddenly drew two Derfrigate-class battleships and two King-class battleships, it was obviously the Britons' doing. After all, among the capital ships of the Leitanian High Seas Fleet, which were currently being drawn by various countries, the best battlecruiser and battleship were the Derfrigate and King, respectively.

In fact, in addition to these four ships, the Commonwealth also received the battlecruiser HMS Von der Tannen. The Britons had previously declined several times, refusing to provide the Commonwealth with any high-speed ships, but now they had given them three at once.

If the British had provided those three ships before the Battle of the Bashi Channel, the Federal Navy might have won the naval battle, and the situation on Borneo wouldn't have deteriorated so drastically.

Giving the Federation battlecruisers a battlecruiser now feels a lot like giving a eunuch Viagra.

Chapter 176 The Shattered German Dream (3)

The Commonwealth received a total of seven Leitanian battleships and battlecruisers, including all two surviving Dufflinger-class battlecruisers, two King-class battleships, and one Von der Tann-class battlecruiser from the Leitanian High Seas Fleet, as well as two older Heligoland-class battleships.

Judging from the Leitanian warships allocated to the Commonwealth, the Britons clearly manipulated the lottery process, ensuring that each nation received ships that were acceptable to everyone but not entirely satisfactory.

This precise control—being above your bottom line but below your expectations—perfectly reflects the centuries-old diplomatic prowess of the Victorian Empire.

The Gallic Navy was assigned two Caesar-class battleships, one König-class battleship, and two Heligoland-class battleships. Apart from the two oldest Heligoland-class battleships, which had little value to the Gallic Navy beyond scrapping, the other three German-made battleships were almost all stronger than the Gallic Navy's Brittany-class super-dreadnoughts. Even the Normandy-class battleships with 12 340mm guns could at most achieve combat power comparable to the König-class.

These three super-dreadnoughts significantly boosted the strength of the Gallic Navy, but this improvement was well within the tolerance range of the Royal Navy of Victoria. After all, even with these German-made battleships, the Gallic Navy was still no match for the Royal Navy of Victoria. Moreover, although the British gave the Gallic people three excellent Leitanian super-dreadnoughts, the two surviving Leitanian Moltke-class battlecruisers that the Gallic people really hoped to obtain were lost to them.

Under such circumstances, the Gallic navy, which could not produce a single high-speed capital ship, was obviously unable to pose any threat to the Royal Navy of Victoria in the Atlantic. The Gallic people were considered dubious allies when they were fighting against the Leitanians, let alone now that the Leitanians had fallen.

The Syracuse Navy, which already possessed high-speed capital ships, had previously acquired the naval assets of the Habsburg Empire. Originally, the Habsburg ships were to be shared with the Leitanian ships, but the Syracuse had already sold two Habsburg battlecruisers to the Federation for money. Therefore, Syracuse only received one Moltke-class battlecruiser and a few cruisers from the Leitanians, while the remaining two Union Force-class battleships of the Habsburg Navy went directly to Syracuse.

The Syracuse Navy did not think much of these two Habsburg dreadnoughts, which had poor underwater protection and inherent deficiencies in their turret systems. Therefore, during the lottery ceremony for the division of the Leitanian Navy, the Syracuse representatives mainly focused on contacting representatives from Iberia and Onfaros, countries that were not eligible to receive Leitanian capital ships. Thus, the Syracuse hoped to sell the two Habsburg dreadnoughts for £50 each.

It's a discounted promotion.

Unfortunately, even at a discounted price of £50 each, these two battleships, which had proven to have many problems during the war, were unlikely to attract the interest of these two countries. After all, it was obvious to everyone that the Royal Navy of Victoria would definitely retire a number of dreadnoughts in the future. If they were to buy from the British, they might be able to get one for £50 as well. However, the British ships were much better than these two Habsburg ships.

Moreover, there are those who drew Leitanian ships in this competition. Not all countries will include these Leitanian naval battleships in their combat fleet. Furthermore, it's obvious to anyone with eyes to see that countries like the Federation will definitely dispose of the Leitanian ships they have after the emergency.

Since the Federation Navy, like the British Navy, uses the imperial system, it would be a stretch to equip the Federation Navy with a few metric battleships. The Federation's greatest interest in the acquired Leitanian warships is probably testing their defensive capabilities with the 330mm guns. The war between the Federation and the Eastern Continent is not over yet, and the Federation Navy will definitely have to sell off these ships after it ends.

The King-class battleship is much better than yours, isn't it?

Therefore, after the Syracuses tried to sell the ships, they had no customers. Incidentally, feeling resentful afterward, the Syracuses secretly contacted the Ottomans and, for money, actually tried to sell the two ships to the Ottomans.

However, the Ottomans were also in financial straits after the war ended. Even though the Syracuses lowered the price to £45, they were still short of funds. When the two sides were negotiating, the British and Onfaros found out about this. Under strong protests from the British and Onfaros, the Syracuses had no choice but to terminate the deal.

In a subsequent media interview, an unnamed Syracuse naval official stated that, from the perspective of the Royal Navy's strategy and interests, the Ottomans acquiring a few dreadnoughts would not have had a significant impact. However, the Ottomans had caused the British to lose face greatly during the World War, and the British were simply trying to save face by preventing us from profiting from the Ottomans.

As for the Moltke-class battlecruisers of Letania, the Syracuses already have Caracciolos. Although this ship was leased to the Federation, it will be returned to Syracuses after the war ends. There are also several other unfinished Caracciolos on the Syracuses' shipyards. Since the Syracuses already have the capability in this area, it doesn't matter if they give them an older battlecruiser.

As Britain's loyal ally in the war, the Netherlands was "lucky" enough to draw a Moltke-class battlecruiser during the lottery.

With the partitioned naval forces now divided, the Leitanian Navy was left with only the four oldest Nassau-class battleships, both dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts. These oldest Leitanian dreadnoughts not only used short 280mm guns (the Leitanian standard was 45 times, while the British standard was only 42 times), but even their propulsion was still a reciprocating triple-expansion steam engine—the Leitanians had not yet mastered the technology to manufacture steam turbines when they began construction of this battleship.

Therefore, the ship's top speed is only 20 knots, and it even shakes a bit when it's at 20 knots. With your current ship condition, the speed is probably only around 17 or 18 knots. This thing is like the Type 96 main battle tank equipped by China in another world, with the fire protection and fire control of a third-generation vehicle but an engine of second-generation vehicle level.

These four ships are of little interest to any country. Even if you gave them to countries like Iberia and Onfaros, they wouldn't be interested.