Seven Seas Beacon Fire

According to the director's assessment, within just 5 minutes, the two Red Team cruisers had essentially lost their combat capability and were subsequently destroyed by torpedoes from the Blue Team. Three of the six destroyers were also lost on paper. Of the remaining three, one was caught up and killed by a Blue Team destroyer during the retreat, while the other two successfully escaped and delivered the news to the Red Team's command.

Having lost half of their cruisers at once, the Red Team quickly realized they couldn't control the area at night. Watching the Blue Team's four cruisers, leading a group of destroyers, wreaking havoc like dump trucks, the Red Team commander gritted his teeth and stamped his foot—to send in the battleships!

There's no need to describe the rest of the plot in detail. In Li Che's view, it was nothing more than a reenactment of the torpedo night in the Battle of Tsushima Strait in another world. In the end, three of the four battleships were hit by torpedoes at night, and the director's department judged that one was sunk and two were severely damaged.

Although these battleships initially demonstrated terrifying dominance over the cruisers in the night battle, with all four of the Blue Army's cruisers being sunk, the battleships quickly succumbed to the onslaught of the smaller destroyers after being besieged by a large number of 700-ton destroyers.

These 700-ton small destroyers effectively proved the adage "no point if you can't hit them" in night battles. Although these small destroyers would almost certainly be lost if hit, hitting these agile boats at night was not so easy. In terms of the threat to capital ships, these small destroyers carrying the same torpedoes as regular destroyers were by no means a small threat.

So the Red Team was judged to have lost by the production team, but the Red Team was not convinced at all - where did these 700-ton destroyers that appeared at the end come from?

These small boats don't have much range, do they? How could your Blue Team break the rules and randomly spawn troops during combat?!

In response to the Red Team's protest, the production team stated bluntly that these 700-ton boats were not created out of thin air, but were originally hidden in concealed locations along the coastline of the Blue Team-controlled area on the target island.

Because of their very shallow draft, these small boats were actually positioned at the edge of the woods along the shore. After careful camouflage, they went unnoticed during the day. And when the tide came in at night... these little destroyers didn't need to be pushed into the water; they simply waited quietly for the tide to rise before delivering their fatal blow.

Chapter 369: All-in Poker is a form of "wisdom"

"Who is the commander of the Red Force? Why is he so recklessly deploying capital ships under nighttime conditions? How did we defeat the Colombians at Yuanshan? Is he completely unaware of this, or does he simply not care?"

Cheng Biguang felt that he could hear the dissatisfaction in the Crown Prince's tone. It made sense. Although the battle of Yuanshan was a great victory for a small force, it involved huge risks and losses. However, war is always about results. If you win, you win. Moreover, the battle of Yuanshan was almost a shot in the arm for the declining Green Water Naval School.

This naval battle proved that the Green Water Naval School's theories had merit. In specific environments like night battles, light ships can often play a surprising role, and more importantly... compared to capital ships, light ships are the force that can "afford to die".

It can be said that any naval scholar who has studied the Battle of Wonsan would agree on this ironclad rule: never allow capital ships to be easily drawn into night battles.

In this military exercise, the Red Force clearly not only put its capital ships at risk of night combat, but this risk was also a result of their own choice. The Red Force commander gritted his teeth and committed the battleships at his disposal.

"The commander on the Red Team's side is named... Ling Xiao." Cheng Biguang secretly glanced at the Crown Prince's expression, and sure enough, the Crown Prince's brows furrowed deeply: "Is it Zhuang Hua?"

Cheng Biguang nodded. Ling Xiao could be considered one of the first members of the "Zangpo Society" organized by the Crown Prince. Although the "Zangpo Society" is still just an officer's club in the navy, this unofficial organization is increasingly able to influence many things in the navy.

Just as the fighter jet mafia created by John Boyd in another world had a significant impact on the birth of fighter jets like the F-15 and F-16, as members of the "Zangpo Society" rose in rank and held increasingly important positions within the Navy, this club-like organization became increasingly able to interfere with the research and development of many of the Navy's technological equipment and even influence the Navy's strategic decisions.

Ling Xiao is the oldest member of the Zangpo Society and also the highest-ranking member of the Zangpo Society in the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy. He is the number two person in the Zangpo Society after the Crown Prince Li Che.

This incident during the military exercise is seen by many as a slap in the face to the Crown Prince.

"So it was him... then it's not surprising." Li Che rubbed his head in frustration, but his words left Cheng Biguang somewhat bewildered.

What do you mean it's not surprising that it's him?

Could it be that the Crown Prince knew this man was all show and no substance? But if he knew he was all show and no substance, why would he allow him to have such a great influence within the Zangpo Society?

Perhaps noticing the doubt in Cheng Biguang's eyes, Li Che knew that there were some things he still needed to say to the Minister of the Navy: "It's like this, last year, in order to try out some new tactics, I organized a war game simulation within the Zangfu Association. The scenario was somewhat similar to this Rim of the Pacific Exercise, simulating two fleets fighting for an island called Guadalcanal in the South Pacific."

In that wargame simulation, Ling Xiao had deployed battleships in a crucial night battle, destroying the enemy fleet and thus gaining complete control of the waters surrounding the Guadalcanal Islands. Perhaps he was trying to replicate his actions in the simulation?

"This..." Cheng Biguang was at a loss for words. Although war game simulations conducted under reasonable war game rules can reflect a lot of things, if you actually move the tactics on the flag to the military exercise, it can only be said that this behavior is like gambling that you won't get caught cheating.

Open it, don't be afraid;

Seal it, don't call it that.

Most of what Li Che said was true, but some of it was mixed in with lies.

This wargaming simulation does exist, but it wasn't for training any new tactics at all. In fact, it was just one of the tests Li Che used to assess people's abilities.

Li Che believed that although he had some cleverness, he did not have the ability to recognize people like Liu Bang. Although he could discover some people he had heard of through his experience in another world and use them for his own purposes, were these people famous in the other world only because of their strong personal abilities?

Even assuming these people are more capable than most others, how would Li Che further select an even more outstanding group from among them?

Li Che's solution was to create test questions, using real battle examples and situations from another world as background. He would then personally observe the performance of the members of the Zangpo Society in the simulations and compare their performance with that of the famous generals he was more familiar with in the other world.

Well, although performance in wargaming simulations and performance in actual combat are certainly not comparable, this is probably the best method Li Che could think of to help him "judge people".

There are clear results, clear comparisons, and absolute fairness and transparency.

As for Ling Xiao... he was actually the losing side in that military exercise. In that war game simulation, Ling Xiao actually played the role of "Lian Kuo Kang Tai", while he played the role of USN.

The course of the battle was roughly the same as that of the Third Battle of the Solomon Islands, with the only difference being that... the main guns of the Hiei, commanded by Ling Xiao, were not loaded with the Type 3 shells intended for attacking airfields.

Therefore, in the encounter, the "short and stout 16-inch fast battleship" was hit by multiple armor-piercing shells at a distance of about 8 kilometers at night without encountering any power switch problems. Half of the engine room was destroyed, the rear main gun turret was jammed, and the front main rangefinder was destroyed.

Even though another battleship equipped with 16-inch guns arrived in time and quickly dealt with Hiei after distinguishing friend from foe, this battle ultimately resulted in a strategic victory. However, compared to the outcome of the Third Battle of the Solomon Islands in another world...

In retrospect, the military simulations conducted back then, with their specific backgrounds, were viewed from different perspectives by the participants. Li Che and Xu Yueming had also conducted a simulation in private, and Xu Yueming's most profound realization afterward was that the performance advantages of battleships would be largely negated in night battles.

If the battle were to take place during the day, even though Ling Xiao had a modernized old-fashioned battlecruiser, such a warship was still insufficient to match the advanced battleships of the future treaty. If they didn't run away during a daytime battle in good weather, they would lose 9 out of 10 times.

Don't even mention underwater bullets. Underwater bullets can threaten the underwater parts of a person, but where can't they be penetrated when someone shoots at you? However, in the night battle, Ling Xiao's old ship almost achieved a single kill, which is almost impossible in daytime battles, because it is almost impossible to bring the engagement distance to 8 kilometers during the day.

But perhaps in Ling Xiao's view, it made him feel that at crucial moments, one must dare to risk everything. Although they lost that simulation, everyone knew that the side Ling Xiao simulated was almost certainly doomed to lose due to the disparity in troop strength. However, through this night battle, which was as powerful as heaven and earth, he managed to buy himself more than half a month.

Perhaps this time they're trying to replicate the tactics used in military simulations?

It's not surprising that he had such thoughts. Ling Xiao is different from others. This guy, like a certain "big seven by eight," likes to gamble a bit, but in fact, he himself is not addicted to gambling.

Ling Xiao once said that this was just a method taught to him by an unorthodox teacher to train his mentality: to remain calm and composed at the gambling table with all his cards in hand, and to prevent external psychological factors from interfering with his judgment. That's how to train oneself properly.

This kind of all-in mentality, combined with the situation that day...

It seems that things didn't go as planned. Not only did they run into a group of exceptionally skilled "boy scouts," but they also didn't expect that those 700-ton small destroyers, which had never appeared in previous simulations, would have such enormous power.

Although the reports from the military exercise indicate that these 700-ton destroyers also suffered heavy losses, in terms of personnel casualties alone, they were not much better off than the battleships that had been heavily damaged.

"The military exercise can remain undisclosed for the time being, not because our battleship was 'capsized' by a 700-ton destroyer, but because what is worth keeping secret right now is the 700-ton destroyer itself."

Chapter 370 Let the older sister fight the older sister, and the younger sister fight the younger sister.

While the Colombian Navy was organizing its own fleet exercises, it was also closely monitoring the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) across the Pacific. At the Navy's request, the military attaché at the Colombian Embassy in Tangland did everything in his power to gather intelligence for the Colombian Navy—they subscribed to all political and military-related newspapers.

Yes, this is the current intelligence warfare tactic employed by the Colombian embassy. (Based on a true story)

What puzzled the Colombian embassy was that while there were numerous official reports and military commentators about the RIMPAC exercise last year, this year, although there were some bureaucratic reports, there was almost no coverage of the exercise's process. There were some articles praising the outstanding performance of certain naval officers and soldiers in the exercise, but these praises were mostly for the live-fire target practice in the early stages of the RIMPAC exercise. The reports on the simulated combat exercises that the Colombian Navy was more concerned about later were rather vague.

Incidentally, military exercises can involve live-fire target practice or live-fire combat, but there has never been a live-fire, live-fire combat exercise.

After all, the purpose of military exercises is to train soldiers, not to treat their lives as a joke. If someone is really idiotic and arranges live-fire combat exercises, then we should be wary of whether someone is making sacrifices or refining a "Ten Thousand Souls Banner".

The information gathered by the Colombian embassy has caused some dissatisfaction among the Colombian Navy. After all, although the Colombian Navy's fleet problem series of military exercises are said to be comparable to the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC), aren't they also a kind of trial and error approach to RIMPAC?

Especially during this first military exercise, the Colombian Navy experienced a major accident in which an entire destroyer squadron ran aground. The mortality target set for the exercise was immediately exceeded by more than double. Therefore, for the Colombian Navy, which was organizing such a confrontational naval exercise for the first time, whether to continue the exercise, and if so, how to adjust and arrange the subsequent procedures, were all areas that the Colombian Navy had never touched before.

So at this point, they subconsciously prepared to try to cross the river with the Tang Navy. In those days, the navies of various countries did not have a high awareness of the importance of keeping such open-source information confidential. Therefore, when the Colombian Navy subconsciously wanted to obtain some references through these channels, they suddenly found that this path was blocked, which inevitably made them feel frustrated and confused.

At this time, people remembered the retired General McGiffin. This general, who was quite controversial within the Colombian Navy, unexpectedly became a key advisor to the Colombian Navy. The Colombian Navy Minister personally called McGiffin, and after receiving the veteran's advice, the Colombian Navy's first fleet exercises were quickly restarted.

McGiffin's words were actually very simple and down-to-earth: "Our navy has now become the largest navy in the world for the first time in history. Since we have repeatedly claimed to be the world's number one, the world's number one navy should have the awareness of being the world's number one navy. We must always be at the forefront and cannot always follow behind others."

Thus, the military exercise resumed after the addition of destroyers. With the defector cruiser and the stranded destroyer fleet out of the way, Fleet Problem I seemed to be gradually getting rid of the initial farce, and a fierce and grand naval opera was slowly unfolding.

Since the two fleets are of similar size, setting aside the "ingenious ideas" that both sides planned to try in the first phase, the offensive and defensive operations of the two fleets around Panama, under the guidance or hints of the directing team, appeared more dignified.

This is also the situation that the directing team most wants to see right now. In any case, let's make sure this first large-scale military exercise lands smoothly first. Let's not seek anything extraordinary, let's seek the right path first.

The Black Army, playing the role of the attackers, directly used battlecruisers and aircraft carriers as the vanguard fleet, bringing out all the capital ships at their disposal, and charging towards the mouth of the Panama Canal like a bull.

The Black Army's strategy this time was extremely brutal and direct—after winning the fleet battle, I can do whatever I want with the Panama Canal. I'm not going to resort to any sneak attacks; let's just see who's the real deal.

Although the performance specifications provided by the production team indicated that the Black Army's battleships and aircraft carriers were slower than those of the Blue Army, the Black Army did not believe that this speed disadvantage would matter. As the attacking side, as long as they kept an eye on the Panama Canal, which the Blue Army would never give up, they were not afraid that the Blue Army would not respond to the attack.

This tactic of attacking where the enemy must defend was indeed simple and direct, achieving its intended effect. The Blue Army could not allow the Black Army to advance so easily. Therefore, after learning that the Black Army fleet was heading towards the Panama Canal, the Blue Army fleet also quickly set out to search for it. The vanguard fleets of both sides, with their new destroyers, were about 30 nautical miles ahead of the main fleet. The battle seemed to have returned to the mode of interaction between the Royal Victoria Navy and the Leitania High Seas Fleet in the North Sea during the last World War.

After the directing team intervened, the military exercise on fleet issues seemed to lose its novelty.

However, the progress of the times will eventually endow the navy of the new era with capabilities that the navy of the old era did not have, and these capabilities will often change the mode of warfare to a great extent.

Just like tanks during the Cold War had to consider how to deal with the steel needles fired by enemy tank guns, and how to deal with HEAT munitions including anti-tank missiles and various rockets, frontal protection and yaw angle protection within a 30-degree fan-shaped area on the left and right sides of the front became the top priority in tank design for all countries.

However, with the widespread use of FPV in the third decade of the 21st century, the most important protection indicator for tanks has become all-aspect impact resistance. The Abrams tank, with only one layer of iron on top, is far from meeting the protection standards of the new era.

The Royal Victorian Navy and the Leitanian High Seas Fleet, which once confronted each other in the North Sea, did not possess aircraft carriers like the Constellation-class. Although neither side currently has aircraft carriers capable of launching actual carrier-based aircraft attacks, the improved search capabilities brought about by the dozen or so aircraft in the empty hangars are revolutionary for the course of naval warfare.

With both sides having aircraft carriers in their formations, the commanders quickly realized that the role of the vanguard fleet had become somewhat awkward. The vanguard fleet, which had once been the most crucial reconnaissance force of the entire fleet, seemed unable to create a one-way transparent battlefield in naval warfare as both sides greatly expanded their reconnaissance capabilities.

Yes, although the vanguard fleets of both sides were fairly evenly matched in this military exercise, the commanders of both sides quickly realized that even if one side had a few more battlecruisers and a clear advantage in manpower, the vanguard fleet of the side with the advantage could not prevent the vanguard fleet of the side with the disadvantage from spying on them.

After all, airplanes flying in the sky don't care about warships sailing at sea.

Therefore, it is highly unlikely that the Royal Victorian Navy will be able to gain a significant advantage over the Leitanian High Seas Fleet with a well-defined formation, as it did in the Battle of Scadraco.

In this way, it seems that traditional high-speed surface gunboats have lost half of their significance?

Even the commanders of the Blue and Black teams participating in this military exercise couldn't help but think further ahead—in today's exercise, the troop deployments of both sides were quite close, so after the air forces of both sides discovered each other, they were still carefully adjusting their formations and constantly approaching each other, both sides seeking to engage in combat.

So suppose that in a future war, the two fleets discover each other through aerial reconnaissance. If one side finds that the other side's forces are significantly stronger, and they immediately decide to abandon the battle and retreat, wouldn't the side with the advantage be unable to achieve a decisive battle?

Some Colombian naval officers have become aware of the current state of naval warfare. We are now at a critical juncture of significant change, but so far no one knows how to navigate this change. Fortunately, for now, they can temporarily suppress their confusion and continue to "communicate" with their adversaries in traditional ways during military exercises.

With both sides having determined each other's positions through aerial reconnaissance and before their fleets could even see each other, the commanders of both fleets realized that destroying the vanguard fleet containing the other's aircraft carrier was of utmost importance. Therefore, the vanguard fleets of both sides quickly began to approach each other. At this moment, for the vanguard fleets of both sides, this could be considered an internal war between two pairs of sister fleets.

How should we play in this situation?

Of course, it should be heroes investigating heroes, good men investigating good men... Pshaw, it should be older sisters dealing with older sisters, younger sisters dealing with younger sisters.

Both commanders, without prior agreement, ordered their battlecruisers to attack the enemy's aircraft carrier during the engagement. They both hoped that their strategic cruisers would first take down the enemy's carrier in the gun battle, and then they could turn their attention to defeating the remaining battlecruiser in a fair 2v1 situation.

Therefore, once the fast fleets of both sides came into contact at shell range, it quickly turned into a situation where older sisters fought older sisters and younger sisters fought younger sisters.

As the lead ship of the Lexington-class battlecruiser, the USS Lexington, as the elder sister ship, launched a fierce attack on the Constellation-class aircraft carrier, the lead ship of the Blue Team, from the very beginning. This can be described as the elder sister of the Lexington-class beating up the elder sister of the Constellation-class right off the bat. Seeing her sister beating up her teammate so fiercely, Saratoga, the younger sister ship, also vented her fire on her teammate's younger sister - the USS Columbia aircraft carrier, which soon came under Saratoga's fire.

Due to the intense exchange of fire, both sides' gunners fired at almost their maximum theoretical rate of fire, or even slightly exceeding it – after all, both sides' naval guns were firing empty propellant charges, and the loading process only simulated loading of the projectiles, with air actually being inserted. This made the loaders on these warships feel an unprecedented sense of ease.

If we're being really serious, this is definitely not realistic enough compared to actual combat, but for a military exercise, it's a minor flaw. The reason why the loaders on both sides can fire so fast is that the hit rate is determined by the director team based on dice rolls. As gamers know, besides the multiplier of critical hit and critical damage, attack speed is also a very important multiplier.

So soon the first unlucky one appeared... But somewhat surprisingly, this unlucky one was not either of the two aircraft carriers, but the battlecruiser USS Lexington, which was engaged in a fierce gun battle with the USS Constellation.

"Our engine room has been hit?"

The captain of the battlecruiser USS Lexington was getting anxious; he didn't want his warship to suffer serious damage in the first phase of the combat exercise, which would affect subsequent operations.

But things didn't go as planned. The production team clearly told him that the other side had hit the target with the dice... Pshaw, the other side had indeed hit you after a comprehensive analysis.

"Even if we hit them, it doesn't necessarily mean we'll lose a quarter of our boilers. At our current distance and angle, their 10-inch guns can't penetrate our armor."

The captain of the battleship Lexington wanted to continue arguing, after all, although everyone knew that Lexington's armor was very weak, you have to consider what you're comparing it to. It still had 7 inches of armor sloped at 12 degrees!

But the production team shut him down with one sentence: "Have you forgotten that the Constellation is designed to have 330mm naval guns on the other side?"

"what?"

From the clear eyes of the captain of the battlecruiser USS Lexington, one could tell that he had probably forgotten this most basic thing because of so many things that had happened recently.

The other side has two battlecruisers!

"That's wrong!"

The captain of the USS Lexington suddenly realized something, then pointed at the USS Constellation: "If that's the case, why were they able to launch aerial reconnaissance just now?"

"Because the aerial reconnaissance requested by the Black Army was designed to be carried out by seaplanes."

"Seaplane?"

Although the production team is suspected of being biased, it's too late to say anything now that both sides are close to artillery combat range. The Blue Team has made an unforgivable mistake, and a very basic one at that!

Just 30 minutes later, the command determined that the Blue Army's vanguard fleet had been completely annihilated.

Chapter 371 The Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty is going to visit Europe?

The Blue Team, playing the role of the Colombian Navy, failed in their first attempt to defend the Panama Canal.

It can be said that all the failures can be attributed to the fact that the Blue Army's vanguard fleet completely lost its way and forgot that the opponent was actually "two battlecruisers", not one battlecruiser and an aircraft carrier with 10-inch guns.

Although the first-generation aircraft carriers of the United Kingdom and the United States are now considered to be able to play the role of a "light battlecruiser", they are not true capital ships in the end. It was inevitable that the battlecruiser USS Lexington and the aircraft carrier USS Columbia would suffer losses in the gun battle phase.

Of course, the Blue Team could also say that this was shameless by the directing team. How could two battlecruisers carry more than a dozen seaplanes to carry out reconnaissance missions? This was simply the directing team intentionally increasing the difficulty during the military exercise, allowing the other side to enjoy the value of battlecruisers in artillery battles and the advantages of aircraft carriers in aerial reconnaissance, as if exploiting a bug.

Although the USS Constellation was modeled after a super-dreadnought battlecruiser that had been built before the outbreak of World War II, the balance of power was enough to steer the Vanguard War into a completely different phase. Lexington was unable to defeat its opponent in the expected short time, and its own powerhouse was also damaged.

If it were just a one-on-one situation, Lexington would most likely have won. However, Saratoga quickly defeated Columbia, a true aircraft carrier with only 10-inch guns. In the ensuing two-on-one battle, Lexington, having previously suffered power loss, was unable to fight back or escape. Within 30 minutes, the Blue Team's vanguard fleet was deemed incapable of fighting.

Upon learning of this outcome, the Blue Army's main fleet immediately abandoned its original plan to seek a decisive battle with the Black Army's main fleet. Without looking back, it withdrew its fleet back to port, decisively handing over the Panama Canal to the Black Army for attack, and completely entrusting the task of defending the Panama Canal to destroyers and torpedo boats.

However, destroyers and torpedo boats were clearly unable to protect the Panama Canal during the day. Under heavy artillery cover, the Black Fleet sent its marines ashore and blew up the locks of the Panama Canal. The directing team then declared the Black Fleet the final winner of the military exercise.

To the untrained eye, the outcome of this military exercise was rather anticlimactic. With the main fleet still intact, they abandoned the important objective of protecting the Panama Canal and withdrew with the fleet.

what is this?

Deserting in the face of battle?