Seven Seas Beacon Fire

The officers and men on the two cruisers discussed the matter and each side sent a few people. The Royal Victoria Navy, which was more familiar with the internal structure and situation of the warship, led the way, and the sailors of the Yingzhou Navy followed closely behind. The two sides organized two teams of people, who entered the burning battleship HMS Agni from the front and rear of the ship respectively.

The two suicide squads, composed of officers and soldiers from both ships, really took a huge risk to reach the ammunition magazine at the bottom. By opening the sea valve to flood the ammunition magazine, they temporarily sank this sacred relic of the multi-turreted cult in the harbor. Although the fire that had reached the surface of the aft bridge and hull would take some time to extinguish, at least the main structure of the battleship was preserved, and the ammunition magazine was prevented from being ignited in the flames.

When the sun rose again the next day, the port, which had been in chaos all night, finally returned to some order. The navies of various countries looked on with some dismay as the battleship Agni, which was at least imposing in appearance regardless of its actual combat power, now sat slumped in its berth like a dead dog, with the seawater only about 30 centimeters from the mainboard.

The entire aft bridge was completely burned and blackened. Most of the officers and soldiers on the warship had already evacuated, but knocking sounds could still be heard inside the ship. Clearly, some people had not been able to evacuate and were now trapped underwater.

This can no longer be considered a premature end to an expedition. With such an accident occurring the day before the National Day naval review, the Bharat Navy has certainly made a splash in front of its colleagues around the world in a way that is unprecedented and may never be repeated.

Although the final naval review was not cancelled, the original position of the battleship Agni in the formation was forced to be replaced by a cruiser, which was a real embarrassment for the Bharat Federation government.

While inspecting the naval vessels of various countries from the review ship, President Singh of the Bharat Federation felt as if the officers and soldiers on the warships of all the countries being reviewed were mocking them. Even the Gallic Navy, which had been resentful about the two Bavarian-class battleships, was completely at ease with the situation. "These Bharat people are like this, why should I bother with them?"

What good would it do to give them Bavaria? They would still only be able to unleash fighting power that is even less than that of a king.

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PS: We discussed the future fate of this sacred object in the group, and everyone offered a lot of useful suggestions. I can only say that everyone in the group is still incredibly carefree, treating this sacred object like a trivial matter.

Chapter 345 Princess Collection (1)

The scandal that the Barat Navy caused the night before the naval review quickly made headlines in newspapers around the world, especially in the newspapers of the Kingdom of Gaul, which contributed many front-page headlines to the news and follow-up reports in the following days.

This is probably because the Bharat Federation is still a member of the Commonwealth, and the Bharat Navy's current size and two Bavarian-class battleships, which are still quite good even by today's standards, are all part of the Victorian Empire's "indirect strategy" to enhance its naval strength. Originally, the Gallic Kingdom was somewhat envious and jealous that the two Bavarian-class battleships had fallen into the hands of the Bharat Federation. Now, seeing that the "vassal army" supported by the Victorian Empire had such poor quality and wasted a ship, the Gauls were happy.

Whatever displeased the Victorian Empire, the Gauls were generally pleased.

Newspapers from various countries generally believe that the quality of officers and soldiers in the Bharat Federation Navy is rather worrying. After all, the battleship HMS Agincourt, which was transferred from the former Royal Victoria Navy, was indeed a bit peculiar, but it was still a hot ship that had only been in service for 6 years. It had only been transferred to the Bharat Navy for a year, and it did not even need mid-term maintenance. The ship was currently in a pretty perfect condition.

Then this ship inexplicably burned down.

If the fire could be caused by an accident such as an internal short circuit, then the subsequent firefighting process can only be described as a disaster.

It can be said that without the suggestion from the Tang Dynasty Navy, and without the damage control team composed of officers and soldiers from the Royal Victoria Navy and the Yingzhou Navy daring to enter the already burning Agni and open the sea valve, the ship would very likely have suffered a massive explosion in its ammunition magazine due to the fire, which would have affected other ships moored nearby.

Many ships from other countries' navies, which were moored next to this battleship in the port, felt a sense of lingering fear.

Some newspapers in the Tang Dynasty jokingly said that "the newly purchased 'Vulcan' ship has burned down." The Agni, bearing the name of the fire god of the Bharat religion, "died" in a fire. No matter how you look at it, it is indeed quite ironic.

However, the local newspapers in Bharat presented a completely different picture. Given the unique ethnic characteristics of the Bharat people, they did not portray the incident as a serious safety incident from which lessons needed to be learned.

On the contrary, in its official rhetoric, the Bharat Federation fully demonstrated to the world what it means to turn a tragedy into a celebration, directing public opinion toward the "brave sailors saving national property from the flames."

According to reports from the Bharat Federation, the sailors of Yingzhou and Victoria were completely hidden from the world, and all the heroic damage control work, including the final risk of going down to open the sea valve, was done by the officers and soldiers of the Bharat Navy.

In some articles, even the media in Bharat made malicious speculations. They claimed that the fire on the ship wasn't actually that serious, and that the valiant Bharat sailors could have easily controlled it. They argued that the powerful northern nation, wary of the rapid development of the Bharat navy (Tang Dynasty: ?), deliberately misled the honest Bharat sailors into destroying their warship in this manner.

However, their wishful thinking was completely wrong. The main structure of the battleship was in very good condition and it would be salvaged and undergo a large-scale upgrade in the shipyard.

In response to such claims by the Barat people, Da Tang's reaction was "Donnie Yen smiling and pointing.jpg".

The authorities didn't bother to respond, while newspapers began publishing numerous jokes about Barat.

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"Did you write all these jokes? This humorous and satirical style...you really are the female George Bernard Shaw of the East!"

Anastasia looked at the newspaper in her hand. The little princess had already learned some Chinese, and in the past month or so, she had made rapid progress in her Chinese—at least to the level of a primary school student, and was able to read some newspapers with the help of others.

To some extent, the princess's language skills were quite impressive. She was sitting in the car, reading the latest newspaper, and looking at Zhu Miaoyun with great admiration.

At this moment, they were in a special car traveling on a winding mountain road. After Alexei and his party arrived in Yingtian, apart from Alexei, who suffers from hemophilia and still needs to be monitored and treated in the hospital, the two former Ursus princesses, after receiving condolences from the Crown Prince and the Prime Minister, were invited by Zhu Miaoyun in a somewhat uneasy new environment to play tennis at her residence.

The first meeting between the two former princesses of Ursus and the former princess of Ming was on a tennis court. In this private court, which was not open to the public, the two Ursus princesses, who had dressed in elegant long dresses in preparation for this sporting social event, were surprised to see Zhu Miaoyun wearing a women's tennis outfit made almost exactly according to the style of later generations.

Although the fabric at that time could not possibly be as form-fitting as later tennis outfits, the fact that the ultra-short skirts were so outrageous for the time and that the pair of long, white legs that could dazzle any man was enough to shock these two Ursus princesses.

Was the Tang Dynasty really that open-minded?

This shock effectively dispelled the fear in the hearts of the two Ursus princesses, although Zhu Miaoyun, in fact, did not usually behave with much aristocratic bearing, especially when not deliberately so, often lacking the various etiquettes possessed by Ming princesses. However, the two Ursus princesses simply attributed this to the personality of an Eastern princess.

The girls quickly became good friends. Later, when the two Ursus princesses learned that the "princess" in front of them was not a princess of the Tang Dynasty, but actually a princess of the Ming Dynasty, Maria and Anastasia's shock was beyond words.

Both were princesses of fallen kingdoms, yet the difference between them was truly astounding. One became a princess of a fallen kingdom, only to fall in love with the crown prince of the new empire and eventually become the mistress of this new empire, another emperor.

After learning Zhu Miaoyun's identity, the two Ursus princesses looked at Li Che with different expressions. This grandson of the emperor, who had previously intimidated them slightly in the hospital room, always showed a different kind of gentleness in front of Princess Yongning. The deep affection between the two as husband and wife even captivated Princess Maria.

If this were in later times, Princess Maria would have the potential to become a leading figure in the shipping (couple) scene. However, unlike ordinary shippers, Princess Maria not only shipped couples but also desperately wanted to join one of them.

As for this, her younger sister Anastasia was naturally well aware of it. Her older sister was a sucker for good looks and an absolute fan of uniforms, which was no secret within the Ursus royal family. Li Che was in almost every aspect of Princess Maria's favor.

As for Slavic women's love life... well, you know how it is. If it weren't for the fact that she, her sister, and her brother were indeed living under someone else's roof in the East, Princess Maria would probably have already taken the initiative to say, "I'm not here to ruin your relationship; I'm here to join it."

However, Princess Maria soon discovered that the social activities Zhu Miaoyun had arranged for them had led them to meet the young princess of the Tokugawa Shogunate within a month. This princess seemed to be the concubine of the Crown Prince. There were also princesses from Silla and Ryukyu. These two princesses seemed to have been sent to Jinling University, but everyone could see that the ultimate purpose of sending these two princesses was to snag the Crown Prince.

A few days ago, there was also a princess named Zheng Guanyin from the Song Prince's Mansion. Just when Princess Maria thought that she was also there to seduce Li Che, Tokugawa Akiko, who was present at the time, said that you don't need to worry about her, because Zheng Guanyin is a true "loyal and virtuous person of the Ming Dynasty". She is not there to climb the social ladder, but to attach herself to the phoenix.

After Princess Maria understood the translation, besides marveling at the sophistication of the Eastern ways, she was even more amazed that Li Che had so many princesses from different countries by his side.

The weather was nice today, and Zhu Miaoyun pestered Li Che to drive her and her "girlfriends group," which consisted of the princesses currently in Yingtian Prefecture, on an outing. At that moment, the car was driving along the road to the top of Zijin Mountain.

There wasn't anything important going on with the navy these past few days, so Li Che couldn't find an excuse to hide. He could only grit his teeth and keep driving. Looking at the people in the car through the rearview mirror, Li Che swore that if he had a phone with internet access right now, he would definitely ask a question—

What should I do if I'm driving with my wife, my mistress, my blind date, and the person who has a crush on me at the same time?

Inside the car, Li Che was driving and listening to thousands of ducks quacking behind him. It's said that one woman is equal to 500 ducks. Although some of them didn't say much, he still felt that there were at least 2000 ducks around today.

The conversation that followed was quite disjointed. Originally, Zhu Miaoyun was introducing the cultural relics of Jinling to these foreign princesses. Later, someone found some articles in the newspaper that were written in a very humorous way, and then learned that these articles were actually written by Zhu Miaoyun. Suddenly, our Princess Yongning had established herself as a talented woman in front of these foreign princesses.

Especially for someone like Anastasia, who has a somewhat literary and girlish style, she is even less able to resist this. If Zhu Miaoyun were a girl, it wouldn't be difficult for her to seduce a few foreign princesses.

"I'm nowhere near as good as George Bernard Shaw. I just write whatever I find interesting." Zhu Miaoyun wasn't being modest. Although the pen names she used were already somewhat well-known in the literary world, this was partly due to her occasional plagiarism. What our Princess Yongning has done in the past period of time is enough to fill a novel about transmigrating to another world.

On the other hand, Princess Yongning was fortunate to have caught a good time. Although there had been a vernacular reform during the Ming Dynasty, it was mainly based on spoken language. Written descriptions were either in classical Chinese or in a semi-classical style. With this war, the Tang Dynasty also launched a vigorous vernacular movement under the promotion of the Datong faction.

In today's literary world, many famous writers from the past are beginning to try to transition to vernacular Chinese. However, for these literary giants who are used to using classical Chinese to construct sentences, it is not so easy to immediately change their writing and language habits from childhood.

But Zhu Miaoyun doesn't need to change anything at all. In this special period of time, as long as you can write a novel that follows the language logic of vernacular Chinese completely, you already have the potential to be remembered for eternity.

There was once a question on Zhihu (a Chinese Q&A website) asking what would happen if you traveled back 100 years and wrote the novel Infinite Terror. One highly-rated answer was: You have no idea what kind of uproar a novel of several million words written entirely in vernacular Chinese would cause in that era.

Feeling the flattery from those around her, Zhu Miaoyun roughly understood why many novels feature plagiarists. This feeling of elation was something that money and material possessions could hardly provide, except for engaging in some intimate activities with Li Che.

Of course, the main reason why Princess Yongning chose to follow the path of "plagiarist" was that she wanted to do more for Li Che.

Zhu Miaoyun then considered her own abilities. She vaguely remembered that Li Che had used her body to read a third-rate online novel called "The Great Ming Sea Power". In that book, there were two female protagonists. One was the Empress, who was in charge of the intelligence agency of the Great Ming Empire, and the other was Angel, who controlled the finances of the royal conglomerate.

Zhu Miaoyun compared herself to the two female protagonists in the book. She clearly realized that she didn't have the skills or ability to be a spy chief. As for running a conglomerate? Zhu Miaoyun had tried it a while ago, but having only managed less than 20 yuan in savings in her previous life, she really didn't think she was capable of managing an entire royal conglomerate.

Since he can't be a spy chief and doesn't know how to manage money, how can he help Li Che in any way?

It seems like my biggest work experience in my past life was writing articles. What use is that kind of experience anyway...?

Hey?

Since I can't be the head of the female secret service and the richest woman in the Tang Dynasty, why can't I create our own BBC and CNN?

Chapter 346 Princess Collection (2)

At the summit of Zijin Mountain, Li Che was driving his own car, along with several others. The cars following behind, driven by security personnel, were parked at the end of the road. Traffic control was in effect on Zijin Mountain today; Imperial Security Bureau agents were firmly controlling all the major and minor roads leading to the summit. Today, not only the Crown Prince and his consort were present at the summit of Zijin Mountain, but also princesses from several other countries.

What appears to be an ordinary noble outing is in fact a special diplomatic event. The main characters today are not Li Che and Zhu Miaoyun, but the two former Ursus princesses. The other princesses are merely there to accompany them.

The main reason was that a few days ago, Zhu Miaoyun noticed that the two Ursus princesses were in a rather low mood. After all, being in a foreign country, they did have little personal freedom, which naturally put a lot of mental pressure on the two Ursus girls.

So today's outing is also to let these two princesses change their mood and relieve some pressure. After all, before the Tang Dynasty can make further use of these two princesses and Alexei, it is necessary to ensure the physical and mental health of these three rare princes and princesses. The weather has been nice these past few days, so you guys should go hiking together.

As for why it was necessary to have nobles accompany them... it wasn't because the Tang Dynasty believed that only nobles were worthy of accompanying the two princesses.

The main consideration is the two princesses' previous experiences in Ursus. If it were just a few people from the Security Bureau or Military Intelligence Bureau who came over and said, "Let's go out and play with the princesses today," do you think the two princesses would genuinely feel that they were going out for fun, or would they think that the Tang Dynasty was planning to find a place to kill them?

To put it bluntly, we still need to reassure these two Ursus princesses.

At first, the two princesses were indeed a little awkward, but as they started chatting in the car, and after getting off and joining the others to the octagonal pagoda atop Zijin Mountain, the two princesses felt their mood improve as much as their view of the surrounding scenery of Jinling unfolded before them.

"Doesn't Nanjing feel a bit different from St. Petersburg?" Zhu Miaoyun asked, leaning against the railing of the pagoda and looking at the two princesses on either side of her.

“There are differences, and there are similarities,” Anastasia said.

"There are actually similarities?"

“Both have a great river, but the Neva isn’t as big.” Maria pointed to the Yangtze River: “The Neva is the mother river of St. Petersburg. Is this your mother river?”

“Pretty much. China has two mother rivers, and this is one of them. This river not only supplies the agricultural and industrial needs on both banks, but in the past, it was also an important protective barrier for this city.” As Li Che spoke, he naturally started to take something out of his pocket. Just as he took out his cigarette case, he felt Zhu Miaoyun’s gaze.

He coughed, silently stuffed the cigarette pack back into his pocket, and continued, "In the East, there's a term almost synonymous with this city: 'Tiger Crouching, Dragon Coiling.'"

Li Che wasn't speaking Russian today, but Chinese. Although one of the two Ursus princesses is quite linguistically gifted and has made rapid progress in her Chinese lately, Anastasia clearly doesn't understand what the word means.

"You can understand this term as describing the city's extremely strategic terrain, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack."

The two princesses could easily understand the phrase "easy to defend, difficult to attack," but after looking around, Maria asked with some doubt, "But the terrain here doesn't seem that dangerous."

Although Maria had no military training, she had, after all, performed on the front lines during the World War.

While at the front lines, I saw the generals in the command post discussing how to defend against the Leitanian Empire's attack. They were the kind of people who, even if they hadn't eaten pork, had seen pigs run.

If you ask Maria to command troops or even comment on many military issues, then this princess certainly doesn't have that ability. However, if you ask Maria to intuitively feel whether a place is easy to defend, Maria can still sense it.

Anna looked at her somewhat carefree older sister with some nervousness, then turned her gaze to Li Che, afraid that her sister's casual remark might offend the Crown Prince.

However, Li Che's reaction reassured her quite a bit. The Crown Prince seemed somewhat unconcerned: "Do you see Xuanwu Lake over there?"

"I saw it."

Do you know Golden Horn Bay?

Easterners may not know about the Golden Horn, but Westerners, especially the princess of the Third Rome, have certainly read Western history books.

"Of course I know that, it's from Constantinople back then..."

"Xuanwu Lake used to be the Golden Horn Bay on the Yangtze River, which is directly connected to the Yangtze River and was used by naval forces."

The Ursus Empire has a history of less than 200 years, but Nanjing, even as the capital of the Ming Dynasty, has a history of more than 300 years. Time changes many things. Over a long period of time, the Yangtze River will continuously alluvialize and change the terrain. We cannot use current topographic maps to view ancient terrain, let alone apply the era of firearms to the era of cold weapons.

In the past, the mouth of the Yangtze River was not far downstream from Jinling. Many places around Songjiang Prefecture were still in the sea, and the river near Jinling was much wider than it is now. Jinling City was located directly on a peninsula jutting out from the Yangtze River.

The course of the Yangtze River in the Nanjing section has actually changed considerably in modern times. When Zhuge Liang described Shicheng as a crouching tiger and Zhongshan as a coiled dragon, the stone mountain he climbed was actually located by the river.

The Phoenix Terrace described by Li Bai was also located by the river. High mountains bordered the river, and the Ming city walls were actually built along the river and into the mountains. Nanjing truly was a city carved into the surrounding mountains; it was, in fact, a military Constantinople not situated in the sea.

At first, Li Che seemed to be answering the two princesses' questions, but as he continued, his answers became somewhat self-absorbed. The two Ursus princesses didn't understand anything about Zhuge Liang or Li Bai, but they did have a sense of awe and wonder at that moment.

They all knew that the history of the East was very, very long, and they could roughly guess that many of the things Li Che had just said were closely related to the history of the East.

Seeing the two princesses looking somewhat confused, Zhu Miaoyun couldn't help but nudge Li Che with her elbow: "Who understands what you're saying?"

Li Che grinned and teased Zhu Miaoyun, "A masked man once said the same thing to the protagonist."

"You've been watching too much Gundam, haven't you?" Zhu Miaoyun suppressed the urge to kick him twice: "Didn't you see how you confused both girls?"

Li Che simply smiled and remained silent. "Confused?" "That's good!"

These two princesses are destined to stay in the East for a long time in the future. I can't accompany them every day to provide psychological counseling like I do today. So it would be better to guide them to do something that interests them and takes up their time.

If we could get these two princesses interested in Eastern history, that would be ideal.

On the one hand, if the two princesses become interested in and delve into Eastern history in the future, they will definitely spend a lot of time on it, so as not to delay my work in the navy.

On the other hand, studying a country's history without critical analysis can often influence the values ​​of some immature individuals. After all, history is objective to a certain extent, while history books are always subjective. The mainstream history books that have been passed down inevitably represent the common values ​​of this country and this nation.

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There's still a long way to go in shaping the values ​​of the two princesses. However, after today's outing, Li Che endured the quacking of hundreds or even thousands of ducks all day. He originally planned to give 500 of them a good talking-to tonight, but when he came out after bathing and changing, he found Zhu Miaoyun engrossed in writing at her desk.

Li Che walked over speechlessly and snatched what Zhu Miaoyun was writing: "Yunyun, I've been a volunteer driver all day. Shouldn't you fulfill your duties as a wife tonight?"

Zhu Miaoyun jumped up in annoyance and tried to snatch the paper from Li Che's hand: "I'm in a hurry. Mingzi is right next door. If you want to relieve your anger, go find that Japanese woman first."

? ? ? ?

Li Che held the paper in his hand even higher. This woman was acting strangely today. Although Zhu Miaoyun had accepted Tokugawa Akiko's existence, if he were to become her confidante and actually sneak into Tokugawa Akiko's room, Zhu Miaoyun would definitely throw a tantrum at him.

Why would someone like tonight actively ask me to go see Akiko Tokugawa?

Even if the sun rose in the west, it wouldn't be like this, would it?

“Something’s not right with you. I need to see what’s written on this paper.” Li Che reached out and pressed down on Zhu Miaoyun’s head to stop her from jumping around, while turning over the paper in his hand. He then saw several lines of lyrics and melody that had been repeatedly scribbled and revised.

..........

The lyrics have clearly been rewritten, and the tune... well, any military enthusiast should be very familiar with it.

"The Hong Army is the strongest?" Li Che's eyes widened. "You changed this to 'The Tang Army is the strongest'? Why did you copy this song?"