Seven Seas Beacon Fire

These countries no longer have such a strong desire to expand their navies. On the other hand, if they really have such a need, there will certainly be a lot of second-hand capital ships on the international market in the foreseeable future, so there is no need to buy these old relics.

Therefore, after discussions among the various countries, it was ultimately decided to return the four ships to the Leitanian Navy.

Even the Gauls, who were quite critical of Letania, did not object to this. On the one hand, these four ships were already quite old, almost 15 years old since construction began. For the capital ships of various countries, this was essentially the time when they needed to be replaced.

Before the era of naval treaties, the main warships of various navies typically did not serve for such a long period of time. This was because the advancement of naval technology from the late 9th century to the early 20th century was extremely rapid. It was not uncommon for a warship to become obsolete after only a few years of service. A dozen years was enough for a battleship to fall behind the latest technological developments in the world. The Eight-Eight Fleet, established by the Combined Fleet in another world, was based on an eight-year replacement cycle. Ideally, a main warship would serve in the front line for eight years, and then in the second line for another 18 years before it was time to build a replacement ship.

These four ships pose virtually no real threat to the surrounding countries for the Leitanian Navy, and there is an even more convincing reason: the other naval force in the Baltic Sea is the Ursus Federation Navy, which inherited the Ursus Empire Navy.

The Gangut-class battleships of the Ursus Navy were among the most powerful battleships in the world before 1916. Compared to the Red Navy in another world, the Ursus Federation Navy did not have such a fierce Red and White Song Festival, and therefore inherited the former Ursus Imperial Navy more completely.

Although the Black Sea Fleet's three Queen Mary-class battleships were scuttled in port when Ursus surrendered, the Baltic Fleet was remarkably well-preserved, with all four Gangut-class battleships still fully combat-ready. Furthermore, the Ursus Federation government appears to be attempting to resume the construction of Izmail-class battlecruisers.

Under such circumstances, allowing the Letanian Navy to regain some combat capability and become a bridgehead for the "free world" to counter the new school of thought of the Ursus Federation naturally gained the unanimous approval of various countries.

Thus, after the Leitanian High Seas Fleet was almost completely divided up, four aging Nassau-class battleships, representing the last remaining skeleton of this naval force, staggered back to Kiel.

When the four battleships entered the port, the officers and soldiers of the Leitanian Navy who were welcoming them on the dock, as well as the surrounding people, couldn't help but shed tears or even cry out loud.

They once saw off the powerful high seas fleet here, singing military songs as it set sail for the North Sea. They also welcomed the high seas fleet's triumphant return here. Those giant ships that once filled the entire Kiel harbor are now reduced to just the four oldest veterans among them.

The struggles of the Leitanian navy from the late 9th century to the present have almost completely failed.

Even Hindenburg, who was welcoming these battleships in the port, had no idea how Leitania would maintain them in the future. With soaring prices, factory shutdowns, and economic depression across the country, Kiel Port couldn't even produce enough anthracite to fill the coal bunkers of these four ships.

During the harsh winter last year, the coal that the Leitanian Navy had stored in the port had long been sold or hauled home by the naval officers and soldiers for heating during the winter.

The German nation's dream of the seas seemed to have been shattered.

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"After acquiring these Leitanian warships, will the Navy be able to regain control of the sea?" President Wilson asked Secretary of the Navy Sims with great anticipation, looking at the list of spoils he had obtained from the Leitanians.

After all, seven capital ships, three cruisers, 15 destroyers, 30 torpedo boats, and 12 ocean-going submarines—these spoils of war could form a formidable squadron.

If these ships were added to the Seventh Fleet, they could effectively replenish the losses suffered by the Federal Navy in the Western Pacific, and the fleet size could even be increased to a level before the Battle of the Bashi Channel.

However, faced with the president's expectant question, Minister Sims could only helplessly say, "If the British had handed over these ships to us three months earlier, we might have devised a more aggressive offensive operation, and a large-scale naval battle would have broken out in the South China Sea instead of the Bashi Channel."

If the British had delivered these ships to us two months earlier, we could have at least restored three German-made battlecruisers to combat readiness. Considering that the Derfflinger-class battlecruisers had superior overall combat capabilities compared to the Haiqi-class—with almost identical firepower on both sides and the Derfflinger-class having significantly better armor protection—acquiring and restoring these battlecruisers to combat readiness might have entirely altered the outcome of the Battle of the Bashi Channel.

Even if these ships were handed over to us less than a month in advance, and even if we didn't have time to fully restore their combat effectiveness, as long as these ships appeared on the Western Pacific, even if it was just for show, the Tang army would definitely abandon its original battle plan and avoid a decisive battle with our army.

Unfortunately, it's far too late for our navy to acquire these ships now.

"Why is it too late? Weren't our fleet's losses not that great?"

"However, other warships that had experienced the naval battle suffered varying degrees of damage, and some still needed to be brought back to port for repairs."

"Don't enemy ships need repairs?"

"They need it too, but Your Excellency, please don't forget that we are fighting them on their doorstep. Their warships can be repaired in their own ports, while our warships need to return to Pearl Harbor for thorough repairs. We only have one large dry dock at Pearl Harbor, so many more warships will have to return to the West Coast or even the East Coast. For us, a draw is a loss."

Now that things have come to this point, how could President Wilson not understand? Even if they acquire these Leitanian warships, it would probably take half a year, or even more than half a year, for the Federation to repair all the ships they have and reorganize the entire fleet.

What will happen to those more than one million Colombian young men on Borneo six months from now?

He didn't even dare to think about this problem in detail.

Chapter 177 Advanced Experiences of Major South Asian Powers

President Wilson tapped his head lightly with his knuckles. Lately, he, who had always been in good health, felt like his body was an aging machine, constantly giving warnings. His heart rate and blood pressure would occasionally have some problems. For example, right now, he felt as if the blood vessels around his temples were swollen and painful, as if he had swallowed an egg whole.

"Gentlemen, I am very grateful for your hard work over this period of time. I know you have all done a lot. We have provided transport ships for the lads on the front lines, we have tried our best to provide them with supplies, we have mobilized all the destroyers and cruisers that we can use for escort, and even in our shipyards, some civilian ships are being urgently fitted with cannons to be converted into auxiliary cruisers. None of us have ever been as dedicated to our common goal as we are now."

President Wilson once again turned his gaze to the senior officials who belonged to the core decision-making level of the Colombian Federation. He had been looking at them like this for some time now, and these men had indeed always responded to him and offered him advice. Unfortunately... so far, none of them had been able to fundamentally help him solve the problems he was facing.

"But what we are doing now is not enough for our lads on the front lines. They are in an unprecedentedly difficult situation, so we must do more now. I hope everyone thinks about what else we can do for these lads on the front lines."

After a moment of awkward silence among the people in the Oval Office, Navy Secretary Sims, who had just poured cold water on the President's enthusiasm, stepped forward again:

"Your Excellency, our main difficulty now stems from maritime transport capacity, which is limited by two factors: the throughput of ports in northern Borneo and the losses on the route from southern Borneo to Borneo."

Both of these issues are unlikely to be effectively alleviated in the short term, because in northern Borneo, the only large port we control is Sandakan, in addition to some temporary docks set up on the beach.

From a freight perspective, the main reason for the inefficiency of these temporary docks is the lack of corresponding loading and unloading facilities such as cranes found in large ports. For the same unloading task, smaller transport ships actually take longer and are less efficient than standard ocean-going vessels of 10,000 tons…

"I don't need to hear about the difficulties we're facing right now. I've heard that too much these past few days. What I want to hear is how we're going to solve the problems we're facing!" President Wilson interrupted Sims's speech. This once gentle and scholarly president had become increasingly impatient lately.

“Okay, what I mean is, if our small transport ships under 5000 tons aren’t used for cargo, then the efficiency of transporting people at the temporary docks we’ve already set up will increase significantly.” Sims’s expression became slightly hesitant as he said this, and he gestured awkwardly with his hands. “Soldiers can walk along the pontoon bridges to the temporary docks built on the beach using abandoned ships, and then board the docked cargo ships themselves. No large equipment or special dock facilities are needed. The efficiency of evacuating soldiers can be significantly improved compared to now.”

"Your Excellency Sims, I must remind you that those temporary docks are also an important supplement to our current transport capacity. We have more than 100 million people on the island who have just experienced an unplanned evacuation, losing a large amount of weapons and equipment, especially heavy equipment such as heavy artillery. The loss of stockpiled ammunition, medicine and food is also quite huge. In order to buy time for the next evacuation, we need to rebuild more than one line of defense and resist in batches on each line. Therefore, all our ships heading to Borneo need to be fully loaded with weapons, ammunition, food and medicine, building materials and other things needed by the front line."

If I heard you correctly, you just said to send those small boats empty to those temporary docks? Do you know how much of the supplies those small transport boats docked at the temporary docks provided to our front lines? More than 30%!

Following your suggestion, this might indeed speed up our evacuation from now on, but our frontline troops, those lads who are holding the rear and fighting hard against the Chinese attacks, will likely suffer another defeat due to lack of food and ammunition!

"And if our frontline defenses collapse again, the extra men we evacuate now will be utterly meaningless compared to our future losses! How many men we can evacuate from the island depends on our transport capacity while we maintain the front line. Your Excellency, I believe the Secretary of the Navy has no idea what the situation is like for our army on the front lines!"

As usual, Deputy Secretary of the Army Hoffman clashed with the Navy, but this time, Sims was more patient. He said in a tone as neutral as possible, "I know how much pressure the Army and Marine Corps are under on the ground, so I don't think we should cut 30% of our supply transport and use that capacity to speed up personnel evacuation. What I mean is that we can make our supply operations more efficient."

"More efficient?"

The term Sims used today struck President Wilson as somewhat novel. The current supply operations at the front are the most efficient arrangements that could be devised through the combined efforts of many staff officers from the Army and Navy.

But Sims said it could be even more efficient?

“Your Excellency, please allow me to give an example.” Sims said, pulling several sheets of paper from a folder in his pocket and distributing them to everyone present. Clearly, he had come prepared today.

"What you see is our current food supply plan for the more than one million troops on the front lines. Due to the current difficult situation, all the military rations sent to the front lines are the lowest grade C-type field rations. However, we still have a lot of room for improvement in terms of food alone."

"There's still a lot of room for improvement?" President Wilson's gaze swept across the page from top to bottom, and when his eyes reached the very top of the page, his pupils widened slightly.

And Sims' voice came again at that very moment.

"As you can see, whether it's our highest-standard Category A military rations or the currently provided Category C military rations, their primary purpose is to provide our soldiers on the front lines with sufficient calories and necessary nutrition. However, if we only consider filling their stomachs, some of us have proposed a completely new Type D military ration. This type of ration will not be distributed to every individual, but rather..."

"You call this military rations?!" Hoffman was furious after reading the paper. This naval bastard was actually planning to feed this stuff to the army lads!

This is a fucking piece of crap, it's practically animal feed!

Including flour, grains, oils, and other ingredients, which are mixed into a paste in a mixer, then compressed and dried, this enhanced version of compressed biscuits will be the only food sent to the front lines. Unlike ordinary compressed biscuits, this stuff is almost impossible to eat directly due to the extreme compression space. So the method of consumption is to set up a pot on the front lines, put it in, and cook it into a paste.

Putting aside the taste, the fact that the rations allocated to each soldier, even compressed like this, would hardly provide enough calories and nutrition under normal circumstances, so what solution did those bastards in the Navy come up with?

The answer is to add white sugar and vitamin powder directly!

What else could this be but animal feed?!

Of course, if there were a logistics officer from a major South Asian country in the 21st century in the office at this time, he would definitely say that this is not animal feed. This is the advanced experience from a newly emerging major power in the 21st century. Some of our officers directly buy pig feed for the soldiers to eat. Not only do they and Commissioner Singh get a share of the money, but the soldiers have no health problems after eating it for half a year.

This is specially made feed, much better than the pig feed we use.

"How much transportation capacity can this save?" President Wilson asked calmly.

"Because the food is no longer distributed to individuals, but is instead provided to company and platoon-level units for unified meals during the fighting, the food itself, plus the packaging, allows us to save 20% of the transport capacity that was originally used for transporting food. The original 80% is enough to feed the troops on the front lines."

"Then do it." President Wilson clearly didn't care whether the soldiers at the front liked this pig feed; he was concerned with more fundamental issues—

Will it be enough to fill the soldiers' stomachs?

At least we won't go hungry.

Is it able to provide enough energy?

If it's not enough, add some more cane sugar.

Does it provide enough nutrition?

Colombia can still afford vitamin powder.

Since the soldiers are barely not starving and can still get basic calories and nutrition, then there's no problem.

As for whether soldiers will suffer from an unavoidable, hot rock-and-roll weight loss program on the front lines, if an army officer from a major East Asian country in the 21st century were here, he would surely say, "If you starve the soldiers a little, wouldn't you save some space when loading them onto ships to transport them back?"

This is such a brilliant two-birds-with-one-stone solution!

Under Secretary of War Hoffman could only open his mouth helplessly, but ultimately swallowed his words of objection. After all, the most important thing for them was how to get the troops back from the front. What did it matter to them what the soldiers on the front or even their General Pershing, who was not in Washington, ate?

This doesn't stop them from enjoying red wine and steak in Washington.

As a result, Sims' suggestion seemed to open up a whole new world of ideas, and soon more people offered similar suggestions.

For example, some people suggested that all military uniforms could be confiscated from the supplies being transported to the front lines, so that there would be no need to send military uniforms to the front lines anymore—although these are actually consumables, Borneo is located in the tropics, and the winter temperature is still quite pleasant—it can be maintained between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius, so as long as you don't climb the Central Mountain Range, you won't get cold.

Therefore, retreating soldiers could take off their uniforms and backpacks at the dock and board the ship wearing only their underwear. This would improve the efficiency of the return journey, allowing the soldiers to be transported using a method similar to the triangular trade on the Atlantic Ocean. At the same time, their discarded uniforms and backpacks, after being cleaned, could be used to replenish the troops at the front who had not yet had time to retreat.

It's killing two birds with one stone, what a wonderful thing!

Although some additional transport capacity could be squeezed out from areas such as food and clothing, no one knew whether such optimization would be enough to overcome the current difficulties. Just as President Wilson was considering what other aspects of Sims' "advanced experience" could be applied, Secretary of State Robert Lansing offered crucial advice on another level.

"Your Excellency, I think what we should do most right now is to suppress the news."

"Block the news?" President Wilson asked, puzzled. "Isn't it a bit too late to talk about blocking the news now? Besides, it's probably difficult to block the defeats we suffered in the Battle of the Bashi Channel and the months-long Eastern Capital Campaign. Can we really shut up all the media in the Federation?"

“I’m not referring to that when I say information blackout, Your Excellency,” the Secretary of State said, adjusting his glasses. “I’m referring to Congress.”

"Congress?"

"Your Excellency, I served as the Ambassador to China for five years. Back in Nanjing, I learned an Eastern term—'the art of subtle expression' (春秋笔法)." The last four characters, Lansing, were spoken in Chinese:

“The ancient countries of the East have a very long history and rich wisdom. The word I just mentioned means that when recording facts, selective or evasive statements can create a completely different impression on people.”

Your Excellency, it is impossible to completely cover up the failures we are currently experiencing, but we can work on other things. Right now, the most important thing for us is to avoid you being questioned by Congress or even impeached.

Therefore, it becomes crucial to show our members of Congress a clear picture of the front lines.

Take a day off

I'm a bit tired, and I'm definitely experiencing writer's block. Plus, I've had some upsetting things happen recently, so I'm taking the day off.

As you can see, the World War I part of the story is basically coming to an end. I have a few great ideas for the part about the Americans in Borneo, and I hope to present this part of the story to everyone as well as possible. Sometimes the chapters I squeezed out at night to update were really not good.

I can't reveal too much here, and I hope you can understand. I will try my best to bring you more interesting content. To some extent, I have incorporated some elements of a major South Asian country into this part of the book about America.

Of course, this is not my intention to smear the United States. Although the United States at this time in history had a group of highly qualified elite politicians, the country actually behaved in many ways very much like a major South Asian power.

Chapter 178 Closed Information

If President Wilson had been well-versed in a famous, universally used military treatise from East Asia, he would certainly have understood its profound meaning before the Secretary of State even reminded him.

In this era, there was no internet, no Twitter, no TikTok. So, the members of Congress in Washington relied on reports from the military itself and news media reports to understand the situation on the front lines, including pictures published in newspapers and articles sent back by frontline reporters.

There's so much that can be done here.

Just like in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, our A Dou Emperor can honestly say that back then, Uncle Zhao and I charged in and out of Cao Cao's army seven times. We fought side by side on the battlefield, killing everything in sight!

Can you say that Emperor Liu Shan (Liu Shan) lied? In a way, it was indeed the truth.

Similarly, for members of Congress, the unfavorable situation on the front lines is a fact that cannot be concealed, but to what extent it is truly jeopardized is a matter that can be obscured by euphemisms.

"Your Excellency, when you led the United States into the World War, there were many dissenting voices within the country, but you suppressed them all at the time."

Ultimately, it was because the United States' involvement in the war was undoubtedly an extreme boon for the domestic trusts. From steel mills and cement plants to various military factories, and even inconspicuous food and clothing factories, all were able to reap huge profits from the war.

However, along with these minor setbacks we have encountered on the battlefield, you have faced more criticism this year than in the past few years combined. The dissenting voices that you once completely suppressed have now become even more jarring. These voices are undoubtedly waiting for an opportunity, an opportunity to completely defeat you.

You absolutely cannot give them that opportunity!

The Secretary of State's words were full of concern and worry for President Wilson. After all, the relationship between the Secretary of State and the President has always been the closest, and to some extent, they share the same fate.

"Are you asking me to lie in front of the members of Congress?"

“This cannot be called lying, Your Excellency.” The Secretary of State stepped forward with a slight hint of anxiety. “Everything we are doing now is so that the lads on the front lines can go home, isn’t it? So we must ensure that those trusts do not lose faith in the prospects of the war. We only need to tell them a portion of the truth selectively.”

"What does the safety of the lads on the front lines have to do with those trusts back home?" Deputy Secretary of War Hoffman felt a tickle in his head; maybe his brain was about to grow.

"As I mentioned earlier, many people have made huge profits in this war, but such profits cannot continue indefinitely. From an economic perspective, in just a few years since the outbreak of this war, our economic growth rate has exceeded that of the ten years before the war. A large amount of money has begun to flow into the industries that are most profitable in the war."

If these trusts knew the true situation on the front lines, what do you think they would do? Mr. Hoffman, haven't any companies invited you to join their companies as a manager or consultant after you leave office?

Upon hearing this, Hoffman finally realized: "I don't need a revolving door."

"Yes, the reason you don't need a revolving door is because your wife is a wealthy British countess, and your family is quite well-off. However, most members of Congress cannot find a wife like yours, and the revolving doors provided by those corporations are a shortcut to wealth and luxury for them. Therefore, they will also act as mouthpieces for those corporations on Capitol Hill to question His Excellency the President for the sake of wealth."

The Secretary of State then addressed everyone in the office except President Wilson: “The federal government and those corporations were allies in the war. The United States relied on those corporations and their factories to arm our army, and the war itself brought those corporations orders and profits.”

A year ago, we needed various supplies to conquer Southeast Asia. Now, how many industries in our country are producing more than their normal peacetime needs? Our domestic economy is already in a state of near overload in order to conquer Borneo.

If any news emerges at this time that could cause a sudden economic slowdown, what do you think will happen to the stock market? What do you think will happen to the economy?

Especially, everyone, don't forget that we made a deal with those Jews. They wanted land on that big island and invested in our war effort. Now that that investment has failed, do you really think those vampires will maintain their gentlemanly conduct?