Seven Seas Beacon Fire

-------------------------------------

As dusk fell and the last transport ship sailed out of the port, the fleets facing each other off the northern coast of Borneo began to turn around as if clocking out, each heading towards its own home port.

After sunrise tomorrow morning, all parties will once again dispatch their main warships to maintain the relatively restrained yet tense surveillance in this area, repeating this process until all evacuation operations are completed.

For the United States of Colombia, the USS Washington's mission today is not merely one of confrontation and surveillance. This most powerful battleship in the United States Navy is also undertaking another special task: to bring back Admiral Pershing's remains.

Beneath the No. 3 turret of the USS Washington, twelve naval sailors in white gloves slowly pushed a steel coffin draped with the Stars and Stripes into a private compartment. Rust-red seawater streamed down their gleaming shoes through the portholes. The instant the band's music stopped, the naval ensign atop the mainmast was suddenly stretched taut by the sea breeze, and the shadow of the rotating 15-inch main gun turret swept across the general's star insignia on the coffin's surface.

This shadow is just like the responsibility and shame that the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Expeditionary Force, who is now lying in his coffin, will bear after his death. When the news of his death spread, everyone in the Tang Dynasty applauded. They all said that it was good that this warmonger, invader and executioner died. It would have been even better if he had been killed by our own troops.

Meanwhile, in the United States, people were equally indifferent to Pershing's death, as most of the blame was placed on him. Many people in the United States of Colombia, influenced by their government's propaganda, attributed most of the responsibility for the expedition's failure to him.

I wonder how Pershing would view this scene if he knew what was happening.

Anyway, on the USS Washington, McGiffin genuinely felt that although his confidant in the Army was somewhat rough in tactics, all his actions were worthy of the interests of the United States of Colombia.

But... there's nothing we can do. Sometimes the dead are more useful than the living, and this general's death just happened at the perfect time.

Forcibly pulling his thoughts away from the funeral being held at sea, another troubling problem began to surface in his mind as the distant Longyuan battleship once again came into view.

Those are the South Dakota-class battleships and Lexington-class battlecruisers that are currently under construction and being built in the United States of Colombia.

These two capital ships can be considered the cream of the crop of the United States Navy, but the recent outbreak of war and news of naval arms control treaty negotiations may very well lead to the loss of some of these warships.

Although McGiffin's command style tended to be conservative, his favorite warships were battlecruisers. As Fisher said, a battlecruiser was a perfect cat.

Logically speaking, the United States Navy's battlecruiser force suffered the most severe losses in the war. The United States Navy, which once possessed several battlecruisers, lost all of its high-speed capital ships in the war. In McGiffin's view, since the losses were so great, the priority should naturally be to replenish the Navy's most urgent need for fast capital ships.

The problem is that the gentlemen on Capitol Hill don't think that way. For some reason, or perhaps these members of Congress think differently from ordinary people, from the perspective of the congressmen, since the losses of battlecruisers are so great, why not just stop building them and spend the same amount of money to build battleships?

For this reason, in order to preserve a few valuable seeds of high-speed ships for the United States Navy, McGiffin will also return to the homeland with the battleship USS Washington. He himself needs to start preparing now on how to get past those congressmen on Capitol Hill who don't understand the navy but insist on finding fault.

If he couldn't convince Congress... McGiffin couldn't help but turn his gaze north to the Yingzhou Islands. A few days ago, a young officer in the Navy made a suggestion that sounded somewhat far-fetched, but was actually very practical.

That is Armed Yingzhou.

After expelling the Tokugawa Shogunate, the current Yingzhou authorities now call themselves the Kii Kingdom. This small country has almost half the population of the United States. Although Yingzhou did not establish a particularly strong heavy industry and military industry during the Ming Dynasty's East Asian order, its navy only has one old armored cruiser that entered service in the mid-90s and a few light cruisers that were built by itself before the outbreak of this war.

This is a country capable of building its own cruisers. Although it had to purchase these components, including power and artillery, from the Ming Dynasty at the time, such capability would be enough to make it stand out among all other countries in the world today, except for the great powers.

Therefore, the United States Navy was prepared to sell the reparations ship it had acquired from Germany to Yingzhou for $1.

For just one dollar, you could buy two Dufflinger-class and two King König-class cruisers and battleships—classes that would still be considered excellent strategic cruisers and battleships even by today's standards. It sounds like an incredible bargain!

The benefits of this move are multifaceted. First and foremost, it removes these battleships built to metric standards from the United States Navy's operational order of battle, which is entirely based on British standards. Although it wouldn't be difficult for the United States to set up its own 330mm shell production line, the United States Navy of Colombia is not short of ships. Furthermore, if a naval treaty is indeed signed in the future, these spoils of war acquired from Germany will take up valuable tonnage.

Moreover, once Yingzhou acquires these ships, it will undoubtedly use them to deal with the Tang Dynasty's Royal Navy. For a country like Fusang, which betrayed its former suzerain state, its current leadership has no way out, so they must cling tightly to Columbia's war machine.

In fact, during his private meeting with General Thomas a few days earlier, McGiffin had subtly probed the Victorian Empire's attitude—McGiffin wanted to bring the Kingdom of Gii into the negotiation treaty as well.

Such a plan naturally did not receive a friendly response from General Thomas immediately. Although McGiffin himself could swear to God that what he did was really only aimed at one country, in General Thomas's view, the United States of Colombia, a colony that split off from our British Empire, is now making such unreasonable demands.

You say you're only targeting a certain major power, but it seems to me that you're targeting me too. Everyone knows that the Kingdom of Kii is a puppet controlled by your United States of Colombia. The tonnage that this country acquires, after rounding up, doesn't it all end up in your pockets?

However, Thomas did not directly express his opposition. On the one hand, he was not Downing Street, and on the other hand... the Victorian Empire was also preparing to hand over two Bavaria-class battleships to Barat as a way to "congratulate" Barat on its independence!

Chapter 247 The Future of the Navy

Lin Zhiyuan's feelings were complicated. Watching the invaders leave the land they had invaded in a disheveled manner should have been a joyful thing, but on the faces of the officers and soldiers on the Longyuan battleship, very few people showed any joy.

Many more people's expressions were filled with heartfelt resentment and bitterness. After all, for the soldiers on the front lines, when they finally obtained the most powerful battleship in the world, strategically, they no longer had many opportunities to use such a powerful battleship to strike the enemy hard.

It's like a master swordsman finally obtaining the world's finest sword, capable of cutting through iron like mud, yet unable to slay his enemy. Then you hold the sharpest sword in the world, watching your enemy leave your homeland.

However, everyone understands that the root cause of the current situation is that the enemy's strength is far greater than that of their own country. This is not a simple war between the Tang Empire and the United States of Colombia. Other allied powers, including the Victorian Empire and the Kingdom of Gaul, have stood by for more than a year, but this does not mean that if the war continues for another year or two or even longer, these countries will stand by after they have recovered some strength.

With all its other allies fallen, the Tang Dynasty did not have the capacity to confront all the other great powers in the world.

Is it true that a gentleman's revenge is never too late, even after ten years?

To put it bluntly, if they weren't incapable, who the hell would be willing to wait ten years?

The buzzing engine noise overhead interrupted Lin Zhiyuan's thoughts. He went to the airbridge outside the ship's bridge and looked up at the sky from the open airbridge. A silver-white biplane flew overhead. The sun was already halfway down below the sea, and the orange-red sunset tinged the silver plane with a reddish hue. From the red dragon emblem under the wings, it could be seen that this was a plane belonging to the Tang Dynasty.

However... Lin Zhiyuan didn't quite understand why he would see such a plane here, because he didn't see any buoys landing on the sea below it. They were now in the middle of the Bashi Channel, quite a distance from both Taiwan to the north and the Tang-controlled areas on Borneo to the south. This place was usually only accessible to airships and large aircraft with twin, three, or even four engines.

During the first Battle of the Bashi Channel, large aircraft that took off from the southern part of Taiwan played a role in reconnaissance of the sea.

However, for a single-engine small plane, this is not a distance they can reach. If they force their way here, they basically can't consider returning, because their fuel is almost gone. As the newest and most advanced warship in the naval order of battle, the Longyuan battleship was also among the first batch of ships to be equipped with seaplanes from the moment it was built. Lin Zhiyuan had a very clear understanding of the range of the seaplanes carried on his warship.

These days, single-engine small planes have such short ranges. For example, the Fokker D.VII fighter of the Leitanian Empire in Europe had a combat range of less than 400 kilometers, while the SPAD S.XIII and Sopwiss "Camel" introduced by the Allied Powers in the later stages of the war had combat ranges of only 350 kilometers and 300 kilometers, respectively.

However, the aircraft overhead did not seem to be worried about the range. Instead, it circled the fleet several times, especially around the Longyuan battleship, and deliberately lowered its flight altitude to observe this new weapon in the hands of the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy in an almost spectator-like manner.

Lin Zhiyuan could almost see the pilot's face inside the cockpit of the plane.

Where did this plane come from?

Lin Zhiyuan turned to ask one of the staff officers who had come out with him. After staring at the plane through binoculars for a while, the staff officer replied, "It should have taken off from a warship."

"On a warship?" Lin Zhiyuan was not a technical officer. As a relatively traditional naval officer, in his mind, if an airplane was to take off from a ship, it would have to be accompanied by a float.

Otherwise, how can the plane land after it takes off?

“Yes, sir, because I saw the hull number of the warship it belongs to on the plane.” The staff officer answered honestly, “So this must be a plane that took off from a warship.”

Lin Zhiyuan was slightly taken aback. Aircraft taking off from a warship? He seemed to remember that during the previous naval commerce raiding campaign, one or two cruisers had taken a different approach and laid a very short flight deck on their bows. This wooden flight deck, only a few dozen meters long, was sufficient for warships to launch aircraft while sailing at full speed in this era. Aircraft of this era had no other advantages but their short takeoff capability was incredibly powerful.

After all, many biplane reconnaissance aircraft that don't prioritize speed have a maximum flight speed of just over 100 kilometers per hour. They might not be faster than a green train from another world, while a cruiser can easily reach speeds of 50 kilometers per hour at full speed. An aircraft only needs a short distance to reach takeoff speed.

After takeoff, these aircraft can search for enemy targets at higher altitudes, providing directional guidance for commerce raiding ships. When the aircraft runs out of fuel... the pilot will choose to bail out, and the cruiser releasing the aircraft will send a small boat to retrieve the pilot. As for the aircraft...

These days, airplanes are literally just flying wooden frames. Apart from the engine, there's nothing of value in them. As consumables, they're even cheaper than heavy torpedoes used on ships.

Therefore, it is not unacceptable to use aircraft as disposable consumables for reconnaissance. However, this special wartime method is obviously not appropriate at present. Just as Lin Zhiyuan was feeling confused, the lookout reported that a warship had appeared on the sea in the distance.

The lookout, unusually, did not report the type of warship. Upon spotting it on the sea, even he himself was unsure how to categorize it. The ship clearly did not possess the characteristics of most warships of that era; its decks were empty, lacking even a funnel. The exhaust appeared to emanate directly from the side of the hull, the only protrusion on the entire surface being a single mast on the broadside.

The plane in the sky seemed like a baby animal seeing its mother; it shook its wings in the air as if to say goodbye, and then flew towards the warship in the distance.

Lin Zhiyuan stared at the warship he had never seen before that appeared in the distance, his mind filled with questions. However, before he could ask his staff officer, a staff officer who was a technical officer stepped forward and answered first: "Reporting, sir, that should be our latest aircraft carrier. His Highness the Crown Prince seems to call this warship an aircraft carrier."

"An aircraft carrier?" Lin Zhiyuan went directly to the observation telescope set up on the flybridge and carefully examined the so-called aircraft carrier that was actively approaching them through the 32x telescope.

Through the binoculars, Lin Zhiyuan felt that the hull of this thing looked somewhat familiar. After careful examination... wasn't this the hull of the Yangtze River-class cruiser?

It's not fair to blame Lin Zhiyuan for being out of touch with the news. The Navy initially converted the hulls of the Yangtze River-class cruisers into two aviation cruisers, but these two aviation cruisers did not have full-length flight decks. The bridge and funnel were still located in the middle of the hull, so the aircraft could basically only take off but had difficulty landing.

Later, these two aviation cruisers proved to be rather impractical in actual use. One was reverted to a gun cruiser, while the other underwent further modifications. Using numerous support columns, a higher flight deck was installed atop the original bridge, and this cruiser was fitted with three funnels. It was also slightly bent to the side, creating a full-length flight deck.

Li Che referred to this modified aviation cruiser as an aircraft carrier, but in fact, although the ship currently has a naval designation and number, it is not in the navy's operational order of battle because the ship actually belongs to the Jiangnan Design Bureau.

In fact, if you compare this ship to a real aircraft carrier, you will find that this ship is essentially an experimental emergency conversion ship similar to the Langley. It's just that compared to the Langley, which was converted from a coal carrier, this aircraft carrier, numbered 707, which was converted from a cruiser, is faster.

This ship also does not have a hangar in the strict sense. Although it is equipped with two elevators, after the aircraft are lowered from the flight deck, they can only be parked on the cruiser's deck. The ship's main task at this stage is simply to test the aircraft's operation and handling capabilities on the warship.

In fact, the relevant departments have a more comprehensive modification plan for this cruiser. After all, it is a 1-ton ship. In World War II, a 1-ton ship would at most be converted into an independent light aircraft carrier. However, in the current era, a 1-ton ship is quite a luxury.

However, Li Che, who had always provided strong support for naval projects, opposed such modifications. He even demanded that the ship be restored to its cruiser status before the signing of the naval treaty.

The reason is simple—the valuable tonnage of aircraft carriers available during the treaty period cannot be wasted on these experimental vessels.

As the plane landed gracefully on the aircraft carrier's deck, Lin Zhiyuan's gaze was not one of satisfaction, but rather one of deep regret as he looked at the hull of the Yangtze River-class cruiser.

As a cruiser with a hull of over 9000 tons, the Yangtze-class cruiser is definitely one of the highest-spec surface warships besides the main warships of the navy. With eight 180mm naval guns and a 130mm armor belt, this cruiser has a strong suppressive force when facing other light cruisers at sea, and can almost be called a small battlecruiser.

What a fine cruiser! How did it end up being used to transport a bunch of broken wooden frames?

-------------------------------------

What a fine battleship! How did it end up in the hands of people who swore at animals?

Betty, who had just taken office as First Minister of the Sea in November of last year, looked at the smiling Bharat Indian shaking his hand and felt a physical discomfort from the bottom of his heart. When he shook hands, he felt as if his hand had touched something sticky. It was hard to imagine that even the nobles of the Bharat princely state could be so unhygienic.

The man in front of me is the soon-to-be-established Commander-in-Chief of the Bharat Navy. He is the first Commander-in-Chief of the Navy to have no experience serving on any warships. In fact, he previously owned the largest shipping company in Bharat, with dozens of ocean-going merchant ships under his command. Now, he has suddenly become the commander of warships.

This may sound absurd, but in the eyes of the newly formed Bharat Federation, it is in fact their best option.

Before the outbreak of this world war, the British Victorian Empire had no intention of allowing the Barathas to become independent. Therefore, although the British Victorian Empire had many Barathas troops, very few Barathas were able to rise to the rank of officer. Even in the army, officers from the company and platoon levels down were almost all white, not to mention the navy.

When the nation of Bharat finally began preparations for its establishment, and the Victorian Empire cooperated to the fullest extent, scouring its navy to find several officers and soldiers of Bharat descent, the Victorian Empire discovered these Bharat.

The highest-ranking officer in the navy was a lieutenant, and the warship he had previously served on was a battleship, but unfortunately, that battleship was named Sovereign... Yes, the "first Dreadnought" that entered service in the early 90s.

Even aboard the battleship Sovereign, this Bharat officer was merely a nobody. In contrast, Spanga, a nobleman from a local state with "experience in managing large teams," was transformed into the Commander-in-Chief of the Bharat Navy.

Now, he is leading more than 2000 carefully selected officers and soldiers of the Bharat Navy to the Victorian British Empire to receive their two battleships and undergo three months of training in the Victorian Empire.

Chapter 248 Torturing the Enemy is Torturing Yourself Even More (1)

To put it in a high-EQ way, the Victorian British Empire had a wealth of experience in geopolitical struggles;

To put it bluntly, BYD is a master at stirring up trouble.

In this world war, although the Victorian Empire defeated the Second Leitanian Empire, which challenged it at the beginning of the century, it seems that the Victorian Empire gained nothing other than the victory in the war.

Before the war, the Second Leitanian Empire's high seas fleet was almost a threat to the Victorian Empire's naval power. Which of the United States of Colombia and the Tang Dynasty today is not more powerful than the Second Leitanian Empire's high seas fleet back then?

The European situation was almost out of balance before the outbreak of war? Now the Second Leitanian Empire has collapsed, the Habsburg Kingdom has been shattered into the largest successor, the Southern Leitanian Confederation, which can only barely survive, the Ursus Empire has transformed into the Ursus Federation, and a group of new schools of thought has made the gentry of London uneasy. In this "vibrant and thriving" Europe, the Gallic Kingdom, which had previously acted as a shield, suddenly finds that the wish that Emperor Bonaparte could not fulfill is now within reach. There is no country in Western and Central Europe that can counterbalance Gaul.

Even with its former global colonies, the Victorian Empire now had to reluctantly agree to Bharat's independence.

What was the point of this world war?

However, the rulers of the Victorian Empire were, after all, among the world's top troublemakers. Even in such a terrible situation, these Cambridge or Oxford graduates still came up with a brilliant idea.

That is to support and arm Bharat.

Since Barat's independence is unstoppable, we should carefully cherish the precious suzerainty relationship that the Victorian Empire has with Barat. The Victorian Empire's colonization is certainly not a pleasant experience, but compared with some other empires that readily cut off people's hands and feet, arbitrarily execute people, and slaughter people at the drop of a hat, the Victorian Empire can be considered humane in this respect, especially compared to its peers!

In addition, the Victorian Empire brought modernization and a certain industrial base to Barat. Furthermore, over the past century, a large number of high-ranking nobles from Barat have studied in Victoria and have long since become people with brown skin and white hearts. Many of these nobles from Barat have a good impression of Victoria. Properly utilizing these resources can effectively maintain the relationship between the Victorian Empire and the Barat Federation in the future.

To use a single sentence as an analogy.

If I can't be your father, then let's be brothers.

The Victorian Empire was well aware that the Bharat Federation would be in a very difficult position for the Tang Dynasty in the future. All sea routes between the East and the West had to pass through the Indian Ocean. The future naval power of the Bharat Federation was enough to play a significant role, both by providing support to the Strait of Malacca, which was controlled by the Victorian Empire, and by deterring the Tang Empire's sea lanes in peacetime.

It can be said that for every capital ship the Barat Federation possesses in the future, the Tang Empire will need to deploy at least twice the military force to eliminate the impact of that capital ship.

From a cost-benefit perspective, this was practically a sure-fire way to make money. That's why the Victorian Empire was able to pass the decision to aid the Bharat Navy with unprecedented speed, within just over six months, and then quickly put it into action. This resulted in the remarkable sight of over 2000 sailors arriving in the Victorian Empire before the Bharat Federation's founding ceremony had even officially taken place.

After shaking hands with David Beatty, the First Sea Lord of the Royal Navy of Victoria, Admiral Spanga was eager to board the battleship Sachsen, which was docked at the pier and still bore the paint scheme of the Second Leitanian Empire's High Seas Fleet.

However, he was stopped, of course, because there was a special ceremony to be held at the dock that day.

The Second Leitanian Empire started construction on a total of six Bavaria-class battleships. Four of these six Bavaria-class battleships were completed before the Second Leitanian Empire surrendered. Of the four Bavaria-class battleships that were completed, Whitehall chose to transfer the third and fourth ships to Barrath, which were originally the Sachsen and Württemberg.

Today, at Pier 1 in Scapa Flow, a handover ceremony was held to nominally transfer the warships, including the Sachsen and Fodenburg, to the Bharat Federation.

Today, the battleships docked at Pier 1 are not just these two Bavarian-class battleships. Behind the two Bavarian-class battleships, which are 180.3 meters long, 30 meters wide, and have a normal displacement of over 2.8 tons, there is another battleship that appears to be even larger and more majestic.

This steel behemoth has standard Victorian paint scheme, clearly indicating that it was a warship that previously served in the Royal Navy of the Victorian Empire. Compared to the somewhat short and stout Bavaria-class battleships, this ship is 204.7 meters long and 27.1 meters wide. While its tonnage is comparable to that of the Bavaria-class battleships, it appears much larger visually.

Most importantly, this battleship possesses seven extremely imposing twin-gun turrets, making its identity quite clear – the famous battleship Agincourt.

Compared to these three behemoths, each with a normal displacement of around 2.8 tons and a full-load displacement of over 3 tons, the battleship at the very back of Pier 1, measuring 163 meters long and 25.6 meters wide, seemed rather unremarkable, as it was merely a Vanguard battleship.

Of course, this is the vanguard of the St. Vincent-class battleship, not the vanguard that fire control cultists worship. If the Victorian Empire could produce that vanguard in this era, it must be because someone in the Time and Space Administration was dozing off at work.

As the second dreadnought of the Victorian Empire, the St. Vincent-class battleships were the first truly combat-ready dreadnoughts compared to the more experimental HMS Dreadnought. After all, the HMS Dreadnought was a bit too extreme in its concept of all-heavy guns. In addition to the 10 12-inch main guns, the largest gun was a 76mm anti-torpedo gun. In the past, on what class of warships would this 12-pounder gun typically serve as a secondary gun?

The 1570-ton Super Yong-class ram cruiser had two main guns and four 76mm 12-pounder guns as secondary guns.

This is why the St. Vincent-class battleships, with their secondary guns upgraded to four inches (102 mm), were the first dreadnoughts of the Victorian British Empire to be truly combat-ready.

By "giving away" four battleships in one go—two super-dreadnoughts and two dreadnoughts—the soon-to-be-formed Bharat Federation instantly rose to become the world's seventh-largest naval power, after the Victorian Empire, the United States of Colombia, the Tang Dynasty, the Kingdom of Gaul, the Kingdom of Syracuse, and the Ursus Federation. (Although this record will soon be broken by another new naval power.)

Admiral Spanga of the Bharat Navy, somewhat overly excited, was speaking in heavily accented English on the stage erected on the dock, talking at length about the friendship between the two countries and the future of the Bharat Federation. He was spouting the same kind of meaningless nonsense over and over again. Below the stage, a group of high-ranking officers of the Victorian Empire Navy, including Betty, could only mechanically applaud while privately discussing the Bharat Navy in front of them.

“I still don’t think arming these Barat people is a good idea. These Indians simply don’t have the qualities to operate a battleship.” David Betty’s expression of disdain hadn’t disappeared since he shook hands with Spanga.

"That's precisely why we need to train personnel for the Bharat Navy. In the next few years, the Bharat Navy will send a large number of personnel to our country to study. We will eventually need to train tens of thousands of professional naval officers and soldiers for them." Leonard, who had caused a series of troubles before and after the outbreak of this world war, had just become the new Minister of Colonial Affairs at the end of last year. However, this Minister of Colonial Affairs was obviously more interested in military matters than in dealing with actual colonial affairs.

"Mr. Leonard, is there any hidden pressure behind the Barak Navy's choice of the Agincourt?" Betty did not comment on Leonard's previous remarks. He only shook his head with a hint of frustration when Leonard mentioned training tens of thousands of professional officers and soldiers for the Barak Navy. Then he turned his gaze to the battleship Agincourt and changed the subject.

"Of course it wasn't me. I don't want to have any further connection with this ship."

Leonard looked at the battleship Agincourt, which was destined to be inextricably linked to him, and his expression was very complicated. This seven-turreted battleship was originally ordered by the Brazilian Navy. After the Brazilian Navy abandoned the order, it was resold to the Ottoman Empire. After the Ottoman Empire paid off the remaining payment for the ship and sent personnel to take delivery of it, Leonard forcibly requisitioned the ship for "war needs".

To put it bluntly, Leonard was afraid that the Ottoman Empire would side with Letania, but in the end, his decision led to the rapid integration of the Ottoman Empire with the Second Letania Empire, and even the establishment of the Ursus Federation is directly related to him.

From a politician's perspective, this battleship and the series of butterfly effects it has brought have become his original sin.