Seven Seas Beacon Fire

"No, who the hell could it be?"

........

"It can't be the YF-23, 1.44, and Su-47, can it?"

........

"Perhaps it's a matter of mind?"

........

"Pzl230? What the hell is that?"

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or:

"Isn't Montana the Hong Kong region's annual mega-battleship?"

"Although the purple and white cabbages of the deep sea belong to different camps, we really can't have camp bias in this kind of selection."

"1938 is, in a way, well deserving of the title, isn't it?"

“Alabama isn’t out of the question either…”

"What? You mean Hood? No, no, no, I didn't mean Hood is a battlecruiser. Battlecruisers are also battleships... and now bio-equipment?"

........

"Wait, why choose a destroyer? How much money did Veneto give her?"

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as well as--

The strongest battlecruiser must be Hood.

The significant change in reputation is well-deserved.

Even King Kong is somewhat believable.

"Holy crap, who is this rage?"

........

The strongest light cruiser must be Worcester.

68bis truly deserves its reputation.

Mogami is also strong and powerful.

"Damn it, it's you again in a fit of rage!"

........

The most powerful 18-inch warship design must be the Yamato.

"1938: Slow but Well-Deserved"

N3 is barely acceptable.

Why the hell am I still so furious?

........

The most powerful aircraft carrier is definitely the Midway.

"The Complete Shinano" truly deserves its reputation.

Outstanding Corporate Achievements

Who let the rage in?

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I'm having so much fun today! Feel free to post all sorts of jokes in the book review section. The one with the most likes can contact me to claim a tank model.

Chapter 185 The Invisible Grim Reaper

Private Allen was awakened from his sleep by the sound of artillery fire.

He woke up not because the sudden shelling shattered his dream, but quite the opposite, because he suddenly felt that his surroundings had become quiet, which startled him awake.

Since the outbreak of the Eastern Capital Campaign, for these soldiers who have been fighting on the front lines, being able to fall asleep to the gentle sound of artillery fire has become an essential skill. If the gunfire stops, they can't sleep. Although in most cases this does mean that the battlefield has fallen into a brief period of calm, it is also possible that those damned commando tactics of the Easterners are being used by those ghostly commandos who are trying to attack them.

Veterans who survived the battlefield know very well that the overwhelming heavy artillery was far more effective at killing them than assault teams, whose basic tactical units were five-man combat squads, when they managed to get close and fight them.

After all, on the battlefields of Borneo, the artillery units on both sides were not on the same level as those in Europe, and the enemy preferred to use them in rotation. They would take turns firing artillery deployed in different positions, using sniper fire to wear down the enemy's fighting spirit and lives without launching a large-scale offensive.

Therefore, assault teams are more dangerous than artillery, because once the latter break into the trenches, they can wipe out everyone in the trenches in less than 10 minutes.

More than half of these assault teams were equipped with submachine guns, and even the riflemen in the assault teams often used semi-automatic rifles. Moreover, judging from the clothing and equipment of the enemy assault team soldiers killed, each of them often carried at least six offensive wooden-handled grenades.

This explains why these assault teams often unleash a barrage of grenades during their attacks.

When Allen first went to the battlefield, he had heard that the Ming Empire's army, under the command of Prince Li, had defeated the Ursus army in several battles in both Siberia and Central Asia, despite having fewer troops.

At that time, some military observers noticed the relatively primitive assault tactics employed by the garrison troops.

However, the Colombian army never took this infantry tactic seriously. On the one hand, Colombian officers had great confidence in the quality of their soldiers—at least in terms of marksmanship alone, these North American soldiers were indeed excellent riflemen.

However, they will only learn how to become excellent infantrymen on the battlefield later.

On the other hand, until later, before the Levante army used the Storm Assault tactics on a large scale, the clashes between the artillery groups of both sides on the Western Front of Europe seemed to better demonstrate the future direction of the army than the inconspicuous infantry.

The Colombian Army entered the battlefield under such circumstances. For the Colombian army in the Asian theater, the troops they encountered in the early stages of the Yingzhou Campaign, the Luzon Campaign, and the Silla Campaign were either regular second-line garrison troops of the Ming army or troops from vassal states such as Yingzhou and Silla. The encounters with these troops gave the Colombian army a feeling that "their reputation was not living up to its name".

Even when the Ming court later dispatched a batch of top-tier troops from its regular army, these Ming soldiers did not gain any advantage against the Colombian army, which had already gained momentum from the previous inferior troops and was no longer inexperienced.

Allen was promoted from corporal to sergeant in this way, but the story that followed... When the Colombian army actually began to interact with the garrison troops of the Prince of Jin's mansion on the battlefield, the front-line commanders of the Colombian army realized that these Ming troops were not the same army as the previous Ming troops at all. Their equipment and morale were completely incomparable.

Even among the troops who eventually managed to retreat to their homeland of Yeongju from the south on the Silla battlefield, some Colombian veterans who had fought against the Lebanese army on the European battlefield felt as if they had run into the Lebanese army again.

I was wiped out by commandos in Europe, and now I'm being wiped out by commandos again in Asia?

Aaron's brother was in Silla, but he was unlucky. He was part of the troops besieged in Wonsan. Aaron had been fighting on the southern front, and until this summer, he had not encountered the legendary demon-like assault teams. His opponents were either local Song troops or Ming troops who had been stationed there to help defend the area.

Although the guerrillas operating behind their lines were annoying, although the damned local climate made them very uncomfortable, and although their two previous probing attacks on Dongdu had yielded no effective results, Aaron had always believed they were on the road to victory.

However, as the great power to the east transformed from the Ming Dynasty into the Tang Dynasty, not only did the end of the war seem increasingly distant, but their situation also deteriorated further.

He was promoted to sergeant a while ago, but he was not happy about it at all, because he was promoted because of his outstanding performance during the great retreat after the Battle of the Bashi Channel, when the Colombian army's third attack on the East City was completely defeated.

His feeling was like opening War Thunder to relax after get off work by playing a 2D match, only to find himself facing a German 5.7 squad for several rounds in a row, struggling against the Soviet Union and the Federal Army Air Force, finishing first in every match but losing every single one, and being annoyed by both the enemy and his incompetent teammates. This kind of game is not going to bring him any joy.

Aaron's greatest hope now is to leave this damned place. However, the Federal Expeditionary Force seems to be caught in a strange bug. The troops that are given priority to retreat are actually those that have been completely defeated and are the fastest to run. These are mainly new troops that were sent here after being built up in China last year.

Although many of the defeated soldiers were reorganized or added to the front-line troops, the worst-performing units were still the ones most likely to be evacuated by boat.

After all, the pressure on the front line is extremely high right now. The higher-ups probably wouldn't dare to easily replace the truly capable and courageous troops, and they don't want the incompetent ones wasting military supplies on the island. Since they're going to have to withdraw anyway, they might as well withdraw these people first.

This situation naturally caused a serious psychological imbalance among many officers and soldiers. After all, for many veteran units, they should have been rotated back to Yingzhou for rest and recuperation by now. They should have been playing with those Japanese girls on the Yingzhou Islands.

If such a situation occurred on the European battlefield, some Colombian officers and soldiers in these units might simply surrender to Letania, and in some units, there might even be a mutiny.

But here, these federal troops have shown remarkable patience.

This is certainly not because the Colombian troops on the Borneo battlefield were more hardworking or more resilient than other federal troops.

Aaron knew very well that there was only one reason they were doing this.

dare not.

The Colombian troops on the Borneo battlefield, from top to bottom, were well aware of what they had been doing during this period of time. It was like World War II in another world. The Leh troops on the western front were more willing to surrender to the Allies, while the Leh troops on the eastern front would usually not surrender to the Soviet army as long as they could run back.

The beasts are well aware of what they've done, and what it would mean if even 1/10 of it were to be inflicted on them in return. Just like in the Fifth Communist Party, after the "shooing away the sun" campaign, Minister Kim's performance in the West Ice House, which he built himself, wasn't much better than those of his political enemies who had been imprisoned before. Minister Kim probably regretted most at that time that he hadn't shot himself.

As Aaron crawled out of the cat-ear hole, he looked at a soldier observing the situation next to the periscope. Just as Aaron was looking at the soldier with a slightly puzzled expression, the soldier turned around and said, "No enemy attack, Sergeant."

"You'd better keep your eyes open. Those ghosts love to crawl on the ground, almost blending into the mud, and then slowly make their way to a distance where they can hear us."

“I swear this won’t happen under my nose…cough cough cough!” The soldier’s words were interrupted by violent coughing. He covered his mouth with his hand as he climbed down from the periscope observation post and curled up in a corner of the trench. There, he used an entrenching tool to dig a hole in the side wall of the trench. Inside was a small stove made from a tin can, filled with kerosene and tarpaulin—basically a large kerosene lamp.

He poured half a can of water from the kettle into another can, then placed the can on his homemade stove, and then took a box of matches from his coat pocket.

Although winter has arrived, the temperature in Borneo is far from cold, so the soldiers don't need to find ways to make fires for warmth like the troops in the Battle of Stalingrad. However, there are more and more small stoves like these in the trenches now, because they need to use these stoves to heat their drinking water.

I tried several matches, but none of them lit. This damn weather makes everything damp, and this box of matches looks like it's ruined. Unless the weather turns nice and dries the matches, but this damn weather doesn't look like it'll be sunny anytime soon.

"You should prepare one of these."

Aaron used his lighter to help the young soldier light the fire. He looked at the recruit, who wasn't much younger than him—well, now he could be considered a veteran—and saw him staring intently at the small stove. Aaron simply tossed him his lighter; after all, he'd taken it from Grumman, and he could always try to get another one from him later.

After the soldier thanked him, Aaron stared at the soldier's flushed face from coughing: "Didn't you go to the medic to get some medicine?"

"Besides MF, cough cough cough...do we have any other medicines?" The soldier looked bitter: "Even if we did, those medicines would definitely be given to people with more serious conditions. I just have a cough. I haven't had a fever or diarrhea lately. When my throat hurts from coughing, I just drink some hot water. Hot water seems to have a magical power in the East. Easterners always drink hot water when they feel unwell."

Aaron didn't speak. He patted himself down and pulled out half a bag of coffee powder from his shirt pocket. It was coffee he had ground himself from coffee beans. Under the soldiers' delighted gazes, he poured all the coffee powder into the bag. Although coffee shouldn't be brewed like this normally, nobody cared anymore.

"How many people have died since yesterday?"

Are you asking about those who died in battle or from illness?

"How many of them died?"

"The good news is that no one has died in battle from yesterday until now. The enemy has not launched a large-scale attack from our side in the past few days. Yesterday, only a few unlucky guys were taken down by shrapnel. Although one man lost his brothers, at least everyone is alive."

"Have the wounded been taken to the rear?"

"Apart from the one who lost his brother below, the other wounded refused to be evacuated."

For a moment, both of them were silent. Everyone knew that the reason why the wounded were unwilling to be sent back was not because these wounded had a strong fighting will, and even if they were only slightly injured, they were unwilling to leave the front line. In fact, the condition of two of those wounded was not very optimistic.

Although the shrapnel didn't hit any vital areas, the incompetent quack doctor almost completely ripped open their buttocks during the surgery to remove it. The two men can now only lie on the ground; they can't stand, lie down, or run.

Even so, they were unwilling to recuperate in hospitals in the rear, since the wounded were no more likely to board the evacuation ships than others because the wounded took up more space. In order to evacuate more people as quickly as possible, most of the wounded remained in Borneo.

However, even with such a tight transport capacity, the Navy still specially allocated a batch of transport ships to transport patients some time ago.

Yes, patients and wounded are not the same thing.

"How many people died of illness yesterday?"

"Three people with temperatures exceeding 102 degrees Celsius were sent to the hospital. I don't know if they are alive or dead, but I think they should still be alive... cough cough, at least they are still alive."

Chapter 186 Using a Sick Patient to Launch a Counterattack?

The Colombian army's front line is basically maintained at the line from Bangkawang to Tawau. For the whole of Borneo, this area in the northeast corner is geographically more like a peninsula, and the line from Bangkawang to Tawau is also the shortest.

This front is 200 kilometers long. For the Colombian army, maintaining such a 200-kilometer front is no longer the main pressure, given that the total number of troops on the island, including front-line and logistical units, is about one million.

After all, Colombian infantry divisions have always been very large in scale compared to other parts of the world. A conventional infantry division has a frontal width of about 20 kilometers, while Colombian infantry can cover at least 30 kilometers. Although this large-scale organization does not provide much tactical flexibility, it is just right for the current situation. The Colombians only need 8 to 9 divisions to cover the entire front line—which is how it should be.

However, behind this front, the poor condition of the troops was no secret to any Colombian mid- to high-ranking officer at the regimental level or above.

Although the army has been plagued by acclimatization problems, influenza, and dysentery since they arrived on this land, at least in the first half of this year, these conditions were only a minority within the troops. Yes, compared to now, they were truly a minority.

In the past two weeks, the flu has spread rapidly throughout the military, and the speed of its spread has reached alarming levels. In some units, more than half of the soldiers have been infected, and more and more units are losing their combat capability due to the large number of infected soldiers.

Originally, many of these troops could have served as reserves on the defensive line. However, now, the number of troops maintaining combat capability is decreasing day by day. After all, if one-third of the people in a unit are sick, you can't expect that unit to undertake any combat missions, because they even have difficulty leaving their garrison.

On the other hand, is it feasible to send troops with fewer infections, or to separately select those who have not yet been infected to support the front lines? It's hard to say, because no one knows how many of those who appear to be uninfected are truly uninfected, or how many are just currently in good condition but are already carrying the flu virus.

The combat troops currently on the front lines are in relatively good condition because they are relatively isolated from units in the rear. However, if more people are sent up there, this unprecedentedly highly contagious flu could spread along the front lines...

When Pershing woke up on the morning of November 1, he found that his throat was as painful as if he had swallowed a razor blade.

He knew it was his turn now.

Although the headquarters had taken as many preventative measures as possible against the flu beforehand, including but not limited to all personnel wearing masks, spreading large amounts of lime around the headquarters for disinfection, and strictly limiting the number of people entering the headquarters, it was clear that these preventative measures were not absolutely effective. In particular, Pershing himself sometimes could not avoid contact with the grassroots troops, whether for the purpose of boosting morale or for conducting on-site inspections of the troops' conditions.

Pershing did not publicize his illness. Many people in the Federation Expeditionary Force were already falling ill, but if he were to fall now, the collapse of the expeditionary force would not be far off.

Silently, he poured himself a cup of hot water from the thermos, swallowed the scalding cup of water while enduring the discomfort, and then, forcing himself to stay awake, Pan Xing touched his forehead. He felt that he didn't have a fever, but he wasn't quite sure about his condition, so he put on another mask and headed to the headquarters.

The distance from his residence to his headquarters was not far, as his headquarters was now located in a Song army fortress that had been captured by the Colombian army. It was a somewhat outdated loggerhead fortress, of which there were actually quite a few in northern Borneo.

The main reason the headquarters chose this fortress is because it has existing buildings. More than 100 years ago, such a fortress only needed a few hundred people to guard it, and the supplies stored inside were enough to withstand long-term attacks and sieges from enemies several times or even ten times larger.

Inside this fortress, you can find not only the headquarters and personnel of the Federal Expeditionary Force, but also a horse pen and a cattle pen. The horses in the pen are easy to understand; they are excellent helpers for messengers to deliver orders or commute.

As for the cow pen, there were originally several dairy cows there. Their task was to provide fresh milk to the headquarters. Now, given the current situation of the Federation Expeditionary Force, even for Commander Pershing, getting milk every day would not be an easy task. These dairy cows were specially raised by the cooks at headquarters when the war was going well. During the retreat, these dairy cows were actually brought here by the cooks. It has to be said that this is a miracle.

Although such fortresses are not as impregnable as they were in the last century, they can still serve as strong defensive strongholds if used properly. Pershing chose this place as his command post because he declared to his soldiers that he would fight with them to the last moment. If the Ming army broke through the last line of defense set up by the Colombian army, he would fight here until his last bullet.