Seven Seas Beacon Fire

"Of course they dare to divide their forces, because of the main warships that participated in the Battle of the Bashi Channel, only 7 are currently capable of combat missions, and most of the super-dreadnoughts are damaged. The 7 ships that can be deployed at any time are mostly dreadnoughts."

At this point, Li Che simply leaned back in his chair: "The Federation divided its fleet into two parts, which was obviously calculated. The ships we have at our disposal now, even if we combine them, can't take down the five battleships in one of the Federation's escort teams."

"It felt just like being a Japanese soldier..."

"Like Japanese soldiers?"

"Oh, I used to browse that group you joined before. They discussed why a Japanese battalion could run rampant during the War of Resistance Against Japan. It was because at the beginning we wanted to take down an entire battalion of them, but we failed in the end. So the enemy knew that a battalion was enough to do whatever they wanted. As long as they sent out a battalion, we couldn't do anything to them on the enemy's rear."

Li Che nodded upon hearing this: "The Federation is probably testing us. We can't let them find out this... We have to find a way to get through this half-cooked meal, otherwise the Federation's retreat operation will really be in trouble. That won't do. We have to let them know that whether you can withdraw your people depends on our approval."

"Don't we have a large ship under construction now? It's been under construction for so long, isn't it ready yet?"

Li Che knew that Zhu Miaoyun was referring to the Longyuan-class battleships. Back at the beginning of the year, when his family had struggled to achieve their goal, the construction progress of the two Longyuan-class battleships was already quite high. Later, the construction progress of these two ships was even more advanced, with workers working overtime in three shifts.

How fast can a warship be built? It largely depends on how much importance is attached to the project. Shipbuilding is a typical labor-intensive industry. If you are willing to allocate enough industrial workers, you can indeed achieve some remarkable results in terms of construction progress. A typical example is when the British built the Dreadnought battleship, they spared no expense in investing resources in its construction.

On October 2, 1905, the keel of the Dreadnought was laid at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. It was launched on February 10, 1906, and began sea trials on October 1 of the same year. The construction progress was unexpectedly fast, successfully entering service before the South Carolina-class battleships, which the Union had started construction on earlier but were slower.

If I remember correctly, the two Ryuen-class destroyers with the highest construction progress in the navy have both reached over 95% completion, and the second ship, which is progressing even faster, is even scheduled to undergo sea trials this month. (In this world, a classic question will likely arise for future ship girl game players—who is the older sister?)

In some ways, the current state of the Longyuan-class battleships is not much different from that of the HMS Prince of Wales in the Battle of the Denmark Strait. However, before this, no one had considered including these two ships in the navy's combat order.

Because a warship isn't something that becomes combat-ready just because you've built it, especially a brand-new one. Even if you take personnel from other ships, experienced veterans still need enough time to get the ship integrated before it can become combat-ready. Without all sorts of testing, who knows what kind of trouble might arise in battle with a whole ship full of new equipment?

The battleship HMS Prince of Wales' condition during the Battle of the Denmark Strait has been described by many military enthusiasts as "going to war with a pacifier on board," because there were even shipyard technicians and construction workers on board at the time.

Bringing a postpartum nanny to the battlefield is one of them.

The final outcome of the battle was not surprising. The performance of the HMS Prince of Wales in the Battle of the Denmark Strait was disappointing. Its main gun turrets suffered multiple malfunctions during firing, and it was eventually forced to abandon the pursuit and disengage.

The older brother, who went to war with a pacifier in his mouth, was at least based on the fact that the battleship HMS King George V had already entered service and achieved combat capability. No matter what the failure rate of the new 14-inch naval gun system was, at least this thing had a complete gun table, right?

The current 420mm gun's gun table was written during ground testing. After it's mounted on a ship, won't it undergo further testing?

Aside from artillery, shouldn't many other aspects also be tested?

If this were a ship of the same type as the Dingyuan-class battleship, it might be barely acceptable, since the gun tables for the 330mm guns were readily available. However, the most important aspect of the Longyuan-class battleship was its brand-new 420mm gun system and its brand-new warship fire control system.

Even if these two ships complete their sea trials, it would take at least three to five months before anyone would dare say that they have achieved combat readiness.

In other words, if the normal procedures are followed, these two ships will not be able to have full combat capability on the battlefield until next summer. Therefore, Li Che had not considered these two ships before.

However, upon hearing Zhu Miaoyun mention these two ships, a question suddenly flashed into his mind.

Do I need these two ships to have full combat capabilities now?

In the great Romance of the Three Kingdoms, even the dead Zhuge Liang could scare away Sima Yi. If I, Long Yuan, who is still sucking on a pacifier, were to really expect them to engage in a naval artillery battle, they would definitely not be able to do it well. But the script from Beizhai... it seems that it's not impossible to let them participate directly?

Having figured everything out, Li Che suddenly stood up, his movements so swift they startled Zhu Miaoyun. Then, Zhu Miaoyun felt herself being pulled into the arms of this stinky man, who then planted a hard kiss on her cheek: "Haha! Darling, you've woken me up from my dream!"

Then Li Che took his coat off the rack, put it on as he walked out, yelling at his guards, "Prepare the carriage immediately! To the Privy Council! Now!"

Chapter 181 The Tiger Pretends to Be the Dragon (1)

As Li Che's 47th favorite ship wife in another world, the Tirpitz battleship, also known as the "Northern Dweller," was naturally quite familiar to him. It was really a bit of a mistake that he hadn't thought of it before and hadn't been inspired by it.

As a prime example of the ever-popular battleship topic during World War II, the Bismarck-class battleship, the second ship of which is often excessively praised and vilified online, was not a waste of tonnage in terms of warship design alone. Of course, it also did not have any outstanding performance features. It was a relatively mediocre new battleship.

The greatest value of the Tirpitz battleship lies not in any actual combat achievements it made, but in how it demonstrated the potential strategic value of a high-speed capital ship.

This value doesn't even require the ship to be on the battlefield.

On June 27, 1942, convoy PQ-17 set sail from Iceland. Upon learning of the Tirpitz's sortie, the Admiralty ordered the merchant fleet to immediately disband to avoid the Tirpitz's concentrated attack on the convoy—in fact, North Carolina had not yet been deployed at this time.

Following this, Leitania's U-boats and air force attacked the scattered and unprotected merchant convoys one by one, causing these merchant ships to suffer unprecedented and devastating losses.

On July 5th, the Leitanian Navy learned that the escort convoy had departed and ordered the Tirpitz to attack the merchant convoy. However, due to attacks from U-boats and the Leitanian Air Force, the merchant convoy was severely damaged and scattered. The Tirpitz, having lost its purpose, abandoned its attack and returned to port.

最后，有34艘商船的PQ-17只有10艘到了苏联的摩尔曼斯克，这就是著名的PQ-17悲剧。PQ-17的覆灭使得英美北极航线中止了3个月，导致苏联战场更加恶化。

The battleship Tirpitz did not sink a single ship on its own during the entire mission, but it can be said that the PQ-17 disaster was inextricably linked to North Carolina.

When Li Che drove to the Privy Council, it was already dark. After autumn, the sun sets earlier and earlier. It was almost completely dark just after 6 o'clock. Most of the people on duty at the Privy Council had just ordered takeout. Many of them had just opened the oil paper package and taken a couple of bites of the duck oil sesame cake. When they heard that the Crown Prince had driven over at this time, they didn't bother to take out some porridge from the food box. They stuffed the duck oil sesame cake into their mouths and wolfed it down before rushing to greet him.

"Does Your Highness have come to the Privy Council at this time because of something important?"

"I need to contact the Navy Department," Li Che said directly. "And the Ordnance Bureau, the Naval Ordnance Bureau."

"Understood, Your Highness. Would you like a telephone or a telegram?"

“Telephone, secure line, just call a conference call.” When Li Che said this, it was as if he were in another world, experiencing the life of a beast of burden with Zhu Miaoyun. What Zhu Miaoyun hated most was that her mentor wanted to call a conference call anytime, anywhere, and she often complained to him that the progress of technology was turning people into beasts of burden.

At that time, he also felt that it was a bit excessive for Zhu Miaoyun to hold conference calls like this so often, but now that he has become the "government official," he said that although there are no smartphones in this world, conference calls are still necessary when needed.

The Privy Council, the Navy Department, and the Ordnance Bureau all had secure telephone lines. These dedicated lines not only served as hotlines for specific departments in critical situations, but more importantly, they were equipped with anti-eavesdropping devices along the entire length of the lines. These devices typically included voltage detectors at intervals. If a voltage problem or fluctuation was detected in a particular section of the line, it indicated that someone had connected to that section for eavesdropping. In such cases, it was time for the Imperial Guards to intervene.

The operator quickly connected the Navy Department and the Ordnance Bureau. Li Che didn't mince words or pleasantries; he went straight to the point and asked about the status of the Longyuan-class battleships Line 1 and Line 2, which had now completed most of their work.

"Your Highness, both ships have completed their main engine tests, but have not yet undergone any sea trials. The main guns underwent full-state testing on shore before delivery, but after being disassembled and reassembled on the ship, they have also not been tested."

As a veteran BB (Battleship) enthusiast from another world, Li Che basically understood the current state of the two warships after hearing these words. The most critical power systems and fire control systems were essentially in a state where they were theoretically completed, but had not yet had time to be tested.

Needless to say, the main engine test run involves lighting the boiler at the dock and checking the basic condition of the entire power system. You can basically think of it as warming up your own car in the garage in neutral.

The 420mm naval gun only completed the full-state land test, which requires a little more explanation. In a naval warfare game in another world, there is a classic erroneous scene: during the construction of the Yahua-class battleship, the entire part above the medicine room of the Mark 7 turret was lifted up by a gantry crane of unknown zenithal scale and then hoisted onto the No. 2 gun mount.

In fact, the turrets of all battleships were built like prefabricated houses, like assembling giant building blocks, with the gun's elevation and depression mechanisms, gun barrels, recoil mechanisms, slewing mechanisms, internal turret partitions, and external armor plates being reassembled bit by bit.

Therefore, if you look at many photos of warships under construction, you can often find open-top turrets in the construction process. This is because the turrets were still being built at that time. Even during World War II, no shipyard in the world had a gantry crane that could lift the entire main turret of a battleship.

After all, the Mark VII turret of the Iowa battleship weighed over 1700 tons, while the standard displacement of the Fubuki-class special-type destroyer, which pioneered the trend of large destroyers in the old Japanese navy, was only 1600 tons. In other words, a single turret of a battleship might be heavier than an entire destroyer.

During World War II, there were no gantry cranes this powerful in the world. If you really want to lift the entire turret of a battleship, it is recommended to source them from Seres in the 21st century.

Of course, before the entire turret assembly is completed on the warship, these turrets are often assembled on a temporary gun platform next to the hull while the hull is still under construction. The turrets are then assembled on the ground and tested to ensure that the entire turret system is working properly before being disassembled. Once the hull of the warship is completed, the turrets are disassembled into parts and sent to the ship for final assembly.

The heaviest things that shipyard gantry cranes actually need to lift are the gun barrels of battleships or the armor of the main gun turrets.

The main gun of Longyuan has completed full-state testing on land, but no one can guarantee that there will be no problems after it is installed on the ship. After all, on land, the entire artillery system does not have to face raging waves, be tossed about in the wind and waves, or complete loading and rotation while tilted.

During the conference call, Li Che did not reveal his plans. He intended to make decisions based on the completion status of the Longyuan-class battleships, since there would be no point in revealing them if the completion status did not meet the requirements.

However, he soon realized he had been too naive. Judging whether these two ships could execute such a seemingly impossible naval bluff couldn't be done in a few words with just two telephone lines and a rudimentary conference call.

Without any hesitation, he told officials from the Navy Department and the Naval Ordnance Bureau in a conference call that he would set off for the Jiangnan Shipyard the next day to inspect the construction progress of the two battleships. Before leaving, he also wrote two memorials overnight, one for his father and the other for his grandfather.

Both memorials mentioned the same thing: he now planned to use two Longyuan-class battleships "to bolster military prestige".

These two battleships do not need to engage the enemy. As long as their majestic figures appear on the horizon, and as long as the Colombian military observes that they have encountered two unprecedented large surface warships, they will immediately understand what kind of ships they have encountered.

This was once the pinnacle of the Ming Dynasty's royal naval shipbuilding industry. It was equipped with the largest caliber naval guns currently in service in the world (if we don't limit ourselves to current service, the Syracuse navy had seen battleships equipped with 17-inch guns in the late 9th century, and if we don't consider the battleship limitation, the British currently have a large light cruiser equipped with 18-inch guns). It embodies the hard work and dreams of countless people in the Ming Dynasty's shipbuilding industry.

If possible, the Tang Dynasty Navy, which inherited the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy, also hoped that these two main warships, representing the navy's heritage, could serve in perfect condition, meet the enemy at sea in a fair and square manner, and then defeat their maritime opponents with their overwhelming performance, which they had acquired at any cost.

The situation is tense right now, and if possible, these two battleships, still sucking on pacifiers, will be deployed as soon as possible.

In the Federal Navy's plans, the countermeasure against this capital ship was the design of the old South Dakota-class battleship, which was quite famous in another timeline. The Colombians intended to cram a total of 12 16-inch naval guns onto a single battleship.

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When Li Che stood in front of the Longyuan battleship once again, he felt a sense of déjà vu whenever he recalled the ship being under construction.

And perhaps because he was currently in the office area of ​​the Jiangnan Shipyard, looking out the window at the two battleships docked on the pier—which were clearly the world's largest battleships by tonnage—he felt that, due to the influence of the reference point, the two ships didn't appear large enough.

"What are the dimensions and tonnage of the Longyuan-class battleships now?" Li Che asked the staff member beside him.

He quickly obtained the accurate figures—225 meters long, 32 meters wide, with a standard displacement of 39,000 tons.

How much does a warship weigh? This largely depends on the condition of the warship. The so-called standard displacement, strictly speaking, was actually proposed during the Washington Naval Treaty period. It includes the hull, machinery, weapons and equipment, personnel, ammunition, supplies, and fresh water, but excludes fuel oil, lubricating oil, and spare boiler water.

In contrast, the most commonly used displacement before and in this era is the normal displacement, which is the standard displacement plus half the amount of fuel oil, lubricating oil, and reserve boiler water, basically the state during factory sea trials.

However, thanks to Li Che's existence, after he proposed the concept of standard displacement, the Navy has increasingly started to use standard displacement as the most direct way to judge the condition of a warship in the past six months.

Today was actually the first time Li Che had learned the true displacement data of the Longyuan battleship, and to be honest, he was slightly taken aback by the number.

39,000 tons! What does that number mean?

In another world, also a member of the Big Seven, the Nagato-class battleships of the Yingzhou Navy are 215.8 meters long, 28.96 meters wide, and have a draft of 9.1 meters.

After the refit, the ship's length increased to 224.9 meters, its width expanded to 34.6 meters, and its draft also increased to 9.45 meters.

It can be said that the difference in size between the two ships is not that great. However, when the Nagato-class battleships were first built, their standard displacement was only 32,700 tons. In terms of tonnage, they were only on par with the Dingyuan-class battleships.

In further comparison, the Nagato-class battleships underwent a large-scale modernization in the mid-term, especially in armor protection. After the large-scale renovation, the standard displacement of the Nagato-class battleships reached 3.9 tons.

The extra weight was almost entirely allocated to armor. As everyone knows, Nagato was initially the weakest of the Big Seven, with the worst protection and firepower. After a massive overhaul, Nagato possessed ammunition depot protection comparable to the Yamato during World War II, largely thanks to the thousands of tons of armor added during the modernization process!

Chapter 182 The Tiger Pretends to Be the Dragon (2)

Sa Dingming never expected that the Crown Prince would set his sights on two unfinished capital ships.

Such behavior is indeed somewhat unwise. After all, these two powerful battleships will be able to form full combat capability in just six months. Although even at that time, it is impossible to say how well the officers and soldiers and the ships will coordinate. They may be like the Royal Navy's Tiger battlecruiser, whose gunnery performance in actual combat may be slightly unsatisfactory. But at that time, they will definitely be a reliable and combat-ready capital ship.

As for the issue of the officers and soldiers getting used to each other and the ships... If you can't hit accurately beyond 15,000 meters, how can you not hit accurately at 1 meters?

For this reason, when Sa Dingming met Li Che again, he immediately tried to persuade the Crown Prince to give up such an idea.

"Your Highness, we only need to wait another six months, no! Just four more months, and these two giant ships will become our weapons. Even if the officers and soldiers are slightly less skilled in gunnery because they are not yet fully proficient in operating the new ships, we will still be able to gain an absolute advantage over any capital ship of the Federation Navy in medium-range gun battles!"

Looking at the anxious Sa Dingming, Li Che suddenly found it somewhat amusing. It seemed that this veteran, who had devoted himself to the navy, was indeed a bit too concerned. Previously, the veteran had been surprised by his understanding of many professional areas of the navy, but when he was about to directly intervene and disrupt the navy's original ship planning and personnel arrangements, the old general was naturally worried that this young man would act recklessly and end up sacrificing these two precious capital ships.

After all, when the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy started construction of the Dingyuan-class battleships, it originally planned to develop a design for the next generation of battleships that would be equipped with eight 380mm guns on the same hull as the Dingyuan-class as its main battleship. This was indeed a relatively pragmatic solution. If it had been built, it would have been comparable to a number of excellent 15-inch gunships of the time, such as the Bavarian, Queen Elizabeth, Revenge, and Colorado.

However, the ambitious Emperor Yongning seemed to be possessed by the spirit of the Barat people from another world. He felt that the 380mm guns could not widen the gap with other countries. The Celestial Empire wanted to build the best and strongest battleships in the world. As a result, the next generation of the navy's main warships were selected to be 420mm caliber. Moreover, the new hull and the new requirements for the power system caused the tonnage, cost and construction difficulty to rise.

Even without the defeat in the Java Sea and the subsequent abrupt abandonment of the navy by Emperor Yongning in a fit of pique, leading to near-paralysis within the navy and halted shipyard construction, the Longyuan-class naval vessels equipped with 420mm guns would not have entered service much earlier. After all, this ship had indeed taken a rather ambitious step and ended up with a disastrous outcome.

(Of course, Emperor Yongning's initial neglect of the navy, treating it like a collectible, was just a fit of pique. However, with the subsequent turmoil within the Ming court, naval affairs were completely ignored until the Prince of Jin launched his rebellion.)

As a result, after the Dingyuan-class battleships, the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy had not been able to replenish its capital ships from 18 to the end of 919.

If the Federal Navy hadn't also run into trouble with the development of its 16-inch naval guns, causing the planned "16-inch ship"—the later "South Dakota" class battleships—to also be delayed, and the Colorado-class battleships, which had the same hull as standard battleships, to have to purchase turrets and 15-inch guns from Britain, then the Federal Navy might already have a squadron of 16-inch gunboats. If that were the case, then the Battle of the Bashi Channel would have been completely impossible.

定远级战列舰虽然优秀，但是指望3.2万吨装备12门330毫米炮的战列舰别说去和排水量4.3万吨，装备12门16英寸（406毫米）舰炮的南达科他级战列舰对抗，就是面对上装备16寸舰炮的完全版科罗拉多也打不过啊。

Now that we've finally waited so long for our "daughter" to be of marriageable age, how can we just let our precious daughter be snatched away by a wild boar? Even if you were the Heavenly Marshal Tianpeng, you couldn't do that!

“I understand what Elder Sa means.” Li Che cupped his hands, gesturing for Sa Dingming to sit down and speak slowly. After the old general sat down, he personally poured a cup of tea and placed it in front of Sa Dingming: “Before the old general came, I had already seen the blueprints of Longyuan. This ship can indeed be called the pinnacle of our army’s main ship design to date. Even with 10 horsepower, it can still be equipped with 305 mm thick 15-degree sloped armor. Behind the main armor, there are also dome armor with different slope angles but all with a thickness of 110 mm. Considering the 450 mm turret front and 400 mm gun mount armor.”

It can be said that no battleship can currently threaten the ammunition magazine section protection of the Longyuan-class battleship. At present, except for the underwater main armor extension, which is not yet fully adequate, it has basically reached a perfect level. Of course, for the current armor-on-missile confrontation, the extension of the underwater main armor section of the first two battleships is sufficient.

But as the old general said, in another four months, these two behemoths will be able to tear apart any enemy in their path on the battle line. I absolutely believe they will be the most powerful capital ships in the world. But old general... we need them now.”

Sa Dingming was somewhat stunned. Before this, Li Che had only occasionally offered some brilliant but quite professional suggestions, but had never discussed naval ship technology issues with him in such detail as today.

In fact, as a veteran naval officer, Sa Zhengbin is not considered a technical officer. Although the naval requirements for officers' professional skills have been increasing in recent years, and he has also taught himself some ordnance-related professional knowledge, he is still far from being able to readily quote detailed data about warships in such theoretical debates, like naval enthusiasts on the internet in another world. This is the case for most officers in this era.

Professionalism—at least from the perspective of a naval officer like Sa Dingming, rather than a professional designer from the Ordnance Bureau, Li Che seems to be very professional.

In fact, Li Che is indeed very professional in some aspects. If you ask him to draw the design blueprints of warships, he certainly won't be able to do it well. However, if you ask him to point to the simplified diagrams and sketches of the warship's protective structure and engage in a verbal battle on the basic design concepts, Li Che is absolutely confident that he can win against any naval shipbuilding expert of this era in such a verbal battle.

This is no joke. On another world's internet, he saw a group member being criticized by others during a discussion (bickering) – "Do you really know more about warships than XXX did back then?"

The group member immediately replied, "I bought a whole bookcase full of professional books. I have read through the history of warship design of major naval nations from the late 9th century to the mid-20th century. I have seen the entire process of planning and designing countless warships from various eras. I know where they made mistakes and where they had brilliant ideas."

I've built upon the foundations laid by so many predecessors, learning from their materials and knowledge. If there hadn't been designers in the early 20th century who understood what kind of structural protection was more reasonable and how to design a structure without protective skylights, wouldn't all the knowledge we've gained in this highly information-driven era have been utterly useless?

Of course I know better than them!

It sounds absurd, but it makes perfect sense. Just like any resident today knows that building a tank only requires a turret and a cannon, and there's no need to build tanks like department stores, but that conclusion was reached in the 1920s and 30s. For tank designers, that was a conclusion reached after countless detours and the deaths of many people.

Theoretical knowledge can be a skill if applied correctly!

"General, it is precisely because our two giant ships have such outstanding protective capabilities that I dare to send them into battle in their current state, like unweaned children. The excellent protection and abundant power of these two warships greatly increase our margin for error in this operation."

Li Che sat down on the sofa opposite Sa Dingming and said in a deep voice: "We've all heard the story of the fox borrowing the tiger's might, but what we need now is the fox borrowing the dragon's might. We don't need these two giant ships. If we really engage in a gun battle with the Colombian escort fleet, I believe that as long as the two Longyuan ships lead our navy's existing ships to appear in front of the Colombians, the federal navy's escort fleet will inevitably collapse without a fight!"

The Colombians are now certain that our seven operational capital ships cannot defeat the five ships each from their two flotillas, which are of superior average quality. But let's put ourselves in their shoes: if the Colombian escort commander saw nine of our capital ships on the sea, including two giant vessels he had never seen before, what would he do? Would he assume those two ships weren't fully combat-ready and continue the engagement?

Sa Dingming fell silent. Putting himself in their shoes, if he were leading a fleet and encountered Colombian battleships at sea, and among them were two new types of warships he had never seen before, he would probably only think that the Colombians' new ships were really quick to become combat-ready, and then he would probably curse that he hadn't checked the almanac or prayed to Mazu before going out today. Then he would have to think about how to preserve the fleet as much as possible.

In any case, he certainly wouldn't consider whether the enemy's new ships would be combat-ready.

From a normal point of view, if the enemy dares to send ships up there, it must mean that they have formed a combat capability before they send them to the front line.

Although the navy had indeed deceived the Colombians with disguised merchant ships before, this time they sent out genuine battleships. After firing a couple of symbolic shots from a distance, the other side would know that this was the real thing. After all, your disguised ship could not actually carry 420mm guns!

"General, I only want to use the two Dragon Abysses to intimidate the Colombians. As long as the Colombians disband their formation and break out separately under the threat of the two Dragon Abysses, our destroyers and cruisers can freely hunt down those merchant ships. Our other seven battleships that are truly capable of fighting can also go and hunt down those enemy battleships that break out separately."

The Colombians are now using this method of escort, so we must let them know that such an escort force cannot bring safety to their transport convoy. Moreover, we must destroy most of their escort fleet's five battleships in the first battle. Even if one or two ships escape, their remaining capital ships, which are not seriously damaged and still combat-ready, will not be able to safely escort their transport convoy!

We must cut off the Colombians' vital maritime supply lines. Only by cornering their forces in Borneo can we force them to abandon their arrogance and sit down at the negotiating table to accept peace.