Seven Seas Beacon Fire

"How's the situation at the front?"

Upon arriving at the command hall of the headquarters, located in the granary inside the fortress, Pershing couldn't wait to inquire about the situation at the front. He had felt extremely tired the previous day, so he had gone back to his quarters and slept all night. This was unusual for Pershing, who was very strict with himself, because for some time now, even at night, he had mostly just found a room in the headquarters to rest for a few hours.

It seems that he was feeling unwell yesterday. After being "off duty" for more than half a day, Pan Xing is now eager to find out the latest situation of the matchmaking.

"The situation is a mix of good and bad." The chief of staff looked like he'd been up all night again; his eyes were red and swollen, making him look like Dracula.

"The positions defended by the 2nd Infantry Division have been under heavy attack by the enemy since early this morning. The enemy has deployed at least one regiment of 6-inch heavy artillery. We do not yet know whether these heavy artillery pieces were collected and concentrated by the enemy from the Eastern Capital battlefield or were recently delivered by reinforcements from the mainland."

What's your opinion?

“I am more inclined to believe the latter, because based on observation, these cannons were firing at them from a position 20 kilometers away. With such a range, they are most likely the Ming Type 16 150mm cannons in the hands of the Tang army. They are heavy cannons that can be compared with the Lai army’s K16. The heavy cannons of their level that we have encountered before did not have such a long range.”

"If I remember correctly, this kind of artillery should weigh around 10 tons, right?" Pan Xing shook his head: "It must have been hard for them to bring so many big guys to the front line."

"The 2nd Infantry Division is under a lot of pressure right now because the maximum range of their artillery is only 12,000 meters—all of them are French Type 75s. Faced with these heavy artillery pieces firing from a distance of about 2 meters, these Type 75s have no way to counter them. They are basically being attacked one-sidedly."

"Are they trying to ask me for support?"

"Yes, they hope to receive support from army group-level Galluschneider 155mm cannons."

“I don’t have a single 155mm cannon right now. Tell them to dig deeper trenches. Cannons aren’t that scary. When we attacked Dongdu several times before, our enemy held firm against our superior firepower. If our enemy could do it, then our lads should be able to do it too.”

Pershing's move was actually out of necessity. If possible, he knew that such long-range artillery would require countermeasures from artillery of the same or even higher level, but he really didn't have many large-caliber heavy artillery pieces on hand. Most of the artillery pieces that were able to be withdrawn with the troops during the previous retreat were no more than the 75mm caliber.

The heaviest artillery pieces simply couldn't be removed in time. Some were destroyed on the spot, while many others weren't even destroyed on the spot. The few 155mm heavy artillery pieces we have now are basically all "owned".

"I had already suggested this to them before. At least our enemy has brought up heavy artillery, but their logistics can't supply enough shells for the time being. Digging deeper trenches will always be useful."

After thinking for a moment, Pan Xing said, "Get me the 2nd Infantry Division. I'll say a few words to their division commander."

This is where we need to appeal to their emotions and reason with them. If the 2nd Infantry Division needed manpower, then Pershing had plenty of troops to replenish them. But now that they need heavy artillery, we can only provide all the support we can offer.

But an unexpected situation arose. The telephone rang repeatedly, but the call to the 2nd Infantry Division remained unanswered. Pershing and the Chief of Staff exchanged a glance, both sensing unease in each other's eyes. If the 2nd Infantry Division's defenses were breached...

"It should have been blown apart by artillery fire." After calming down a bit, Pershing made a decision based on his experience. If the 2nd Infantry Division's position had really been breached, even if they couldn't get through by phone, they should at least know to send a telegram, right? And the neighboring friendly units certainly wouldn't be unaware of it; they would surely report to headquarters. The best-case scenario is that nothing is happening.

Indeed, just as Pershing had predicted, the positions defended by the 2nd Infantry Division were not breached; only the telephone lines had been blown up beforehand.

The 2nd Infantry Division also selected several bunkers as strongpoints for their defensive line, and deployed all their Type 75 artillery pieces inside them. The elevation angle of the Type 75 artillery was limited by the gun mount, so these bunkers had many pits dug specifically to increase the elevation angle of these Type 75 artillery pieces.

Prior to this, these Miss 75s had successfully countered the enemy's repeated attacks on the artillery positions. Although the power of the Miss 75s' shells had always been a problem, unless they hit directly, the fragments produced by those shells were simply not enough to completely destroy the artillery.

But today, these once-valiant Miss 75s have suffered a devastating blow.

During the shelling that began in the early hours of this morning, these forts were heavily targeted by the Tang army's offensive firepower. A large number of shells fired by the enemy's 75mm field guns, along with occasional shells from 150mm heavy artillery, filled the forts with smoke during the intense bombardment.

Meanwhile, the commander of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, who was also hiding in a bunker, was finding amusement in his predicament with his chief of staff.

As the division commander felt the loose soil falling from above, he jokingly told the other officers in the bunker that he had already figured out a way to deal with the enemy.

Then, amidst surprised and expectant gazes, he suggested that he could organize the sick soldiers in the rear and have them surrender directly to the enemy forces in front of them, so that the damned flu would take care of the enemy for them.

After such a "good idea" was mentioned, everyone couldn't help but laugh. In such an environment, this was the only way to find joy in hardship. However, it was ineffective for one of the operations staff officers of the 2nd Infantry Division. Later that day, after communications between the 2nd Infantry Division and the Army Group Headquarters were restored, this operations staff officer was assigned to report the day's combat situation to the Army Group Headquarters. He also took the opportunity to report the joke the division commander had made.

After seeing the 2nd Infantry Division Commander's remarks, Pershing, as the Commander of the Expeditionary Force, actually began to seriously consider this possibility.

Although the words were said in jest, for Pershing now, they were no longer a simple joke.

Let these sick troops surrender to the enemy as a whole...

Should we really give it a try?

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Chapter 187 "View of Beijing on the Sea"

"Give me the other Nevada-class battleship, General."

Lieutenant General Zangwell blocked him at the door of McGiffin's office. He deliberately waited there for a long time when no one was around before he finally managed to catch him.

Facing this subordinate who was giving him a headache, McGiffin said helplessly, "Colin, your fleet already has three super-dreadnoughts. We are now in a relatively good situation with only five super-dreadnoughts left. If you want to use dreadnoughts to exchange for the Oklahoma in the Bertha fleet, that would be too much of a weakening for the Bertha fleet. Besides, the Oklahoma is my current temporary flagship."

“Our fleet is sailing further west, General.” Lieutenant General Zangwell’s tone carried a hint of pleading: “Our enemies certainly won’t let us get our transport fleet to the island so easily. For some time now, both our escort forces and the enemy’s commerce raiding forces have been on a spiral upward trajectory.”

Since we divided our capital ships into two escort fleets, both fleets have indeed arrived safely and successfully repelled the enemy's commerce raiding fleets composed of last-generation armored cruisers and battlecruisers en route. However, given the enemy's style, they certainly won't allow us to continue resupplying and retreating so smoothly.

"According to the intelligence we have now, even if all the main warships of the Tang Empire's navy were to be deployed, they still wouldn't be able to take down your fleet. We have an advantage in the number of destroyers and cruisers, and you don't need to defeat them. You just need to force them to retreat with the help of your destroyers."

After the Battle of the Bashi Channel, McGiffin seemed to become less ambitious. In fact, his subordinates thought he became somewhat eccentric after the battle, going to church more often than to headquarters.

Although he hadn't worked with McGiffin for long, Lieutenant General Zangwell could understand why the parachuted commander was behaving this way.

Because McGiffin's view from the beginning was that the Federal Navy should not continue to seek war with the major Eastern power. I don't even want to fight, yet you insist on forcing me into it.

Of course, this is not because McGiffin has any special feelings for the great Eastern power. McGiffin is undoubtedly a patriot, and his starting point is entirely based on the interests of the Colombian Federation. The second wave of shipbuilding in the federal navy has not yet arrived. With the current forces at hand, it is unrealistic to talk about defeating the great Eastern power that is determined to fight to the death in the short term.

After all, you can't assume that just because the Kingdom of Letania collapsed so quickly, this great power in the East will also disintegrate from within—although the Ming Empire almost allowed the United States to achieve its goal.

However, after that prince came to power, and the country changed its flag and became the Eastern Great of the Tang Empire, and after discarding Emperor Yongning's unrealistic war fantasies and unstable mentality of going from quick victory to quick defeat, it would take the United States a long time and huge investment to defeat such a country.

Such an investment is unrealistic or even unprofitable for the United States. Even if they manage to defeat the Tang Empire at a great cost, what then? Can the Colombian Federation really rule over a land with 500 million people?

Currently, domestically, let alone continuing this war indefinitely, the determination to fight for another three or five years has not been made. Since ancient times, it has never been heard of soldiers fighting bravely when their superiors are indecisive.

Moreover, McGiffin's disagreements with the higher-ups were not only evident in the decision-making process before the Battle of the Bashi Channel, but also in the current escort mission, where McGiffin holds a different attitude from the domestic authorities.

Both McGiffin and the Chinese were aware of the potential threat to the transport lines from the Ming Dynasty's main warships, given that the Ming still possessed several usable battlecruisers, against which the Colombians were truly helpless.

However, the two sides had significant differences on how to protect the transport lines. They agreed on the point of sending their main warships to escort the convoy, but the main disagreement lay in the number of escorting troops.

The Colombian Navy's current strategy of dividing all its capital ships into two parts, each escorting a transport convoy with a separate fleet of five battleships, is the most efficient solution proposed by a think tank in Washington.

In this scheme, two fleets can operate on the route simultaneously. After the first fleet arrives at Sandakan Port, the second fleet departs. While the second fleet is en route, the first fleet completes loading and unloading in the port and then returns from Borneo with its crew. When the first fleet returns to Borneo, the second fleet has basically completed loading and unloading. This process repeats, ensuring maximum utilization of transport capacity.

However, McGiffin offered a contrary opinion, because the premise of the previous plan was based on the fact that the Tang army could currently deploy 5 to 7 main warships, and domestic think tanks speculated that they would not have more than 7 main warships available for deployment.

Moreover, among these seven ships was a Pingyuan-class dreadnought—the one that was originally converted from a pre-dreadnought. This ship was slower, and its firepower was somewhat outdated for this era.

So normally, even in the worst-case scenario, it would be 6 against 5. With the higher quality of each ship, Washington and his staff believed that the two squadrons were sufficient to handle the worst-case situation.

Magifin did not deny that splitting up any of these units would make it difficult for the Tang army to take them down easily, but the fundamental reason for his opposition was that the intelligence department could not be sure that the information they had obtained was not false.

Therefore, McGiffin believed that, for the sake of prudence, if it was necessary to deploy the main warships for escort, then the whole family should go together. If they encountered a situation, then they should treat it as a strategic decisive battle. With the 10 ships at hand working together, even if the intelligence department failed again this time, this margin of error would be enough for the Federal Navy to properly deal with various emergencies.

However, Washington immediately rejected this escort plan. The reason was simple: compared to Plan 1, it would be clear that this method would mean that after the first convoy departed under warship escort, the second convoy would only be able to depart after the first convoy had completed its journey and returned to Kagoshima.

In other words, maritime transport capacity will have to be reduced by half.

For the army and marines on the island who were starving for supplies, resupply was absolutely essential. Therefore, McGiffin had no choice but to reluctantly adopt this method of retreat under the remote command of Washington.

Did McGiffin not know that the second method would reduce transport capacity by half? Of course he did, but McGiffin firmly believed that preserving the navy's strength as much as possible was the most important thing for the United States at this stage. As for the army's retreat, the navy could do its best, and as for how many could be withdrawn in the end, that was up to God.

Zangwell came to see him today, clearly because Zangwell felt that today's escort mission was likely to involve bloodshed, and under these circumstances, he hoped to give him both of the standard battleships he currently had.

However, this would mean significantly weakening another fleet.

“What if a war breaks out? After the Battle of the Bashi Channel, I don’t feel safe on any of the United States’ battleships except our standard battleships,” Zangwell said. “Two of the New York-class battleships have already been lost.”

"The protection of the New York-class ships is at least quite reliable against Dreadnoughts, and the vast majority of the warships that our enemies can currently deploy use 280mm naval guns."

“General, you initially hoped to concentrate all the capital ships together for escort, which is the safest method. However, Washington rejected this suggestion. There is an old saying in the East: borrow another hen to lay eggs. If the enemy only has some dreadnoughts that are still usable, and the number is indeed as the so-called think tank predicted, then even if the Bertha escort fleet is all dreadnoughts, it will be safe enough to return.”

If the enemy has deceived our intelligence again, and if they have more troops at their disposal, then doing this will at least greatly enhance the strength of the Alpha Group. Even if we encounter an enemy stronger than the intelligence suggests, I am more confident that I can bring the troops back intact with these two Nevada-class battleships.

"Sir, if I do this, at least in the worst-case scenario, we can at least save one of our members, right?"

McGiffin stood silently outside his office door for a long time; clearly, Zangwell's words had swayed him to some extent.

As Zangwell said, even if the worst happens, at least half of them can be saved.

In the end, McGiffin agreed to his request. Zangwell's personality was completely different from that of Rear Admiral Daniel. He was indeed not as driven as Rear Admiral Daniel, but among the current senior officers of the Federation Navy, Zangwell's personality was probably the most stable. His personality was indeed suitable for carrying out the current combat mission.

The fact that he repeatedly begged himself like this indicates that, from his perspective, it was necessary.

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"This is the latest news from Yingzhou. The Columbian capital ships are refueling." Li Che presented the latest intelligence on the Yingzhou Islands provided by Tokugawa Akiko to several senior naval officers with a somewhat boastful attitude.

Li Che now somewhat understands why the warlords in Romance of the Three Kingdoms laughed so exaggeratedly when their strategists or advisors came up with a brilliant idea in front of everyone. It felt even more exaggerated than the guys in the novel who just chuckled.

Now he understands that when subordinates do things well, it's a source of pride for the leader, so how could he not be happy?

"A message from the Kingdom of Kii?"

The people in the Navy Ministry, seeing this intelligence report with photographs that clearly wasn't provided by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, began to look at Tokugawa Akiko and the Tokugawa Shogunate behind her with newfound respect.

After all, when the Tokugawa shogunate successfully retreated to the mainland, many people felt that they should stay and continue to resist seriously. Now it seems that even the wrecked ships have a few men!

If there's anything to regret, it's the few photos taken inside the harbor—these photos clearly didn't have the professional level of the photographer from the other world. Not only were the photos slightly blurry, but due to the limitations of the photographer's position and angle, the only main battleships visible in the pictures were the two Nevada-class battleships moored on the outermost side of the dock.

"I think we should release the boat now."

Li Che said, "This photo was taken a few days ago. In terms of timeliness, our intelligence personnel have done their best to deliver the film to us in the shortest possible time."

Considering the time frame, I think the Colombian fleet should have already set sail. We need to hurry; ideally, we should intercept the Federal Navy's transport fleet before they arrive in Borneo…”

"Your Highness, wouldn't it be more advantageous for us to intercept their return journey?"

A voice reached Li Che's ears. He looked up and saw Ling Xiao, who had just asked the question.

"Intercept the return journey? You mean send all those Federation soldiers who boarded the ships to evacuate into the sea?"

Ling Xiao nodded: "Yes, His Majesty said before that our current goal is to promote cooperation through fighting. I think there is nothing that can teach our Federation friends a lesson better than causing a large number of casualties."

We live in a civilized society now. Our troops can't really do what they did in ancient times—build a mound of skulls for the Colombians to teach them a lesson. I think that's more effective than any propaganda or publicity campaign.

These words made perfect sense, and Li Che even wanted to send out a meme that said "Give them a good beating.jpg".

Sending these supplies to the Colombian army is only a temporary solution. However, if the merchant ships full of soldiers on their way to retreat are sunk, that would truly be a fundamental problem!

Chapter 188 Intrigue and Overt Schemes (1)

After Li Che discovered that Ling Xiao had made a statement that resembled the Land of Light's "turning Seoul into a sea of ​​fire"—"turning the ocean into a sea of ​​kings"—the other officers around him visibly became excited.

No?

Why did you suddenly become so excited?

Li Che looked around at the people around him with some doubt. From today onwards, he felt as if he was getting to know these people all over again.

Over the past year, in his interactions with these naval officers, they have, in the vast majority of cases, displayed the demeanor and etiquette expected of officers of a globally recognized aristocratic military branch. In short, they gave the impression that even if the warship had turned into a headless senior sister, the captain could still calmly tell you, "We're just encountering a minor problem right now."

However, Li Che now felt a familiar style from these naval officers, a style he had experienced in his grandfather's subordinates and his two uncles—an undisguised pursuit of violence.

As part of the war machine, it is normal for soldiers to behave this way. Li Che realized that he had a stereotype about the navy before. In essence, there is no difference between soldiers.

But why are they so excited today?

Is it simply because of the traditional Han Chinese hobbies that Ling Xiao mentioned?

At this moment, he noticed that among the excitedly discussing soldiers, there were a few who were unusually silent and calm. Although the uniforms of the navies of the world's major countries are now very similar, the uniforms of these few were still quite different from those of the others around them.

The uniforms worn by the officers and soldiers of the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy are still the Ming Dynasty Yongning 15th year style uniforms. The characteristic of this uniform is that there are no shoulder boards. The rank is identified by the sleeve insignia on the cuffs. This is a tradition left over from the age of sail. In the age of sail, the commander directed the ship from the bridge. Except for a few people on the mast, the people on the bridge were the highest people on the ship. Others could not see the shoulder boards on their shoulders. Therefore, the naval rank was placed on the cuffs.

While the uniforms worn by these men were similar in style to those of the Tang army, they had shoulder insignia. Li Che knew that this was a characteristic of the Yanping Navy uniforms. After all, Yanping did not have a navy before the end of the last century. Their own independent naval force was only established in the era of steam-powered ironclad warships, making it a relatively young naval force. Therefore, they naturally did not retain many of the past traditions.

These soldiers from Yanping were actually the last remaining fighting force of the Yanping Navy since the start of the war. They only had a few cruisers and destroyers. It was only after Li Zongdi took control of Yingtianfu that the Yanping Navy received aid from the mainland again, more than a year later.

The University of Tokyo transferred to them free of charge a batch of cruisers built before 907 and a batch of destroyers built before 910. These cruisers and destroyers were not considered cutting-edge, but their performance was not outdated by today's standards.

After acquiring these warships, the Yanping Navy has primarily focused on securing maritime routes between Dongda and Yanping Island. While Dongda has been launching offensives against the Federation to disrupt diplomatic relations, the Colombian military has also dispatched cruisers and destroyers to attack supply lines in the South China Sea. However, the South China Sea is relatively closed off, so Dongda faces significantly less pressure in terms of escort duties compared to the Federation.

The Yanping Navy has always performed monotonous escort and anti-submarine missions in the South China Sea. Therefore, compared to the Tang Navy destroyers, which are now keen to add 40mm ping-pong guns for close combat and to suppress enemy ships on the surface, their destroyers have opted to add depth charge launchers, and even removed some torpedo tubes for this purpose.

Their presence here is also due to the fact that the Tang army has felt the strain on its light and medium-sized naval forces after the high-intensity use of destroyers and cruisers. The commerce raiding operation is a drain on the Colombian army, and the Tang army also has to bear losses and pressure. The two sides are like the commerce raiding war between Britain and Germany in the Atlantic, which is essentially a contest of who can't withstand the pressure first.

This operation also saw the first combat deployment of two invaluable, newly completed, 99% new Longyuan-class battleships. To ensure the smooth operation, the Navy deployed an exceptionally large number of destroyers and cruisers for escort – in terms of numbers, this operation involved fewer than 10 capital ships. The number of destroyers and cruisers carried was not much less than the number carried by the Navy in its previous all-out deployment.

The ships damaged in the last Battle of the Bashi Channel in Yanping Navy have not yet been repaired. With no further ships available for escort and commerce raiding in other directions, they naturally became an important supplementary force.

This marks the first time since the start of the war that the Yanping Navy has directly confronted the Federal Navy.

However, the current behavior of their officers and soldiers is a bit too calm. Seemingly noticing Li Che's gaze, the leading Rear Admiral Yanping exchanged a glance with Li Che, and then forced a somewhat stiff smile on his face.

At that moment, Li Che heard Sa Dingming whisper in his ear: "That's Major General Zhang Ge of the Yanping Navy. His hometown is Tanzhuang."

Li Che was slightly taken aback: "Is it Tan Zhuang, the one who wrote letters to our officers and soldiers before?"

Sa Dingming nodded silently. Li Che cast a somewhat complicated glance at the major general. Now he could probably understand why these officers and soldiers of the Yanping Navy were so silent and calm.

"Given this situation... are they suitable for this mission?" Li Che asked with slight concern. "I'm not worried about anything else, but mainly about them being too proactive in engaging in combat and suffering unnecessary casualties..."

"That's why we had them carry out anti-submarine and escort operations before. But now that the war has progressed this far, the biggest losses to the navy this year are not the main ships from the Battle of the Bashi Channel. We and the Colombian navy have had hundreds of challenges between various small and medium-sized ships this year. The accumulated losses are like foam on the beach. We have caused considerable losses to the Colombians, but our losses are not light either."