Seven Seas Beacon Fire

Thank you all again.

Chapter 41 The Interrupted Battle at the Entrance

Admiral Benson returned to his temporary residence in Tokyo with a somber expression—a house gifted to him by the local Chinese community in Japan, and Benson greatly admired its traditional Japanese architecture.

People like them from the New World have a strong interest in anything "traditional." Just as luxury cars from the Federation are popular in the Ming Dynasty, many handicrafts from the East are also highly sought after in the Federation.

However, the recent pressures on the battlefield have left him in no mood to enjoy his beloved traditional Yingzhou-style house as he used to.

In the past half month, the Royal Navy of the Ming Dynasty, which had been quiet for quite some time, dispatched several cruiser squadrons to carry out commerce raiding missions. Most of these squadrons consisted of last-generation armored cruisers or first-class light cruisers leading several second-class cruisers. Moreover, apart from the last-generation armored cruisers, most of the other cruisers were newcomers that had only entered service before the outbreak of war or after the start of the war.

These cruisers were fast, had long range, and possessed excellent firepower.

The Federal Navy currently possesses a large number of powerful capital ships, but it is completely unable to catch these erratic cheetahs at sea. As the number of transport ships attacked in the Pacific continues to increase, although Congress and the President have not yet questioned him from behind the scenes, Benson knows very well that he needs to resolve the problems facing the Federal Navy as soon as possible.

Anti-cruiser warfare is quite tedious and often leaves the superior navy feeling frustrated and unable to utilize its strengths.

As soon as he pushed open the door, Benson was surprised to see someone he knew very well.

"Darling, what are you doing here?"

Appearing before Benson was a blonde woman dressed in a Japanese-style kimono. She was naturally General Benson's wife. Due to the 20-year age difference between General Benson and his wife, this situation of an older man and a younger woman made General Benson dote on his wife.

However, no matter how much he doted on his wife, he would not let her come to the front line—although Yingzhou was not exactly the front line at the moment, as a general, Benson knew very well what he should do at what time. If generals brought their wives with them, it would inevitably affect the cohesion of the troops.

"Surprised? Darling, our wedding anniversary is just around the corner. I just prepared a little surprise for you. Tonight, would you like to have dinner first, take a shower first, or...?"

"Wait a minute, darling." Benson's expression didn't brighten despite his wife's sudden appearance. "How did you end up in Yingzhou?"

"After His Excellency the President learned that I wanted to spend our 20th wedding anniversary with you, he sent me aboard the cruiser to surprise you. Aren't you happy?"

“I’m not upset.” Benson shook his head. He never expected that President Wilson would agree to his wife’s capricious request. It seemed that His Excellency the President thought that the naval battle had entered a garbage time.

I had previously thought that the reason I hadn't been questioned by the president and Congress was because President Wilson and Congress were patient with me, but now it seems that the situation might be different from what I thought.

Could it be that the president was completely unaware of the situation on the front lines? After all, based on David Benson's understanding of President Wilson, if President Wilson knew how dangerous the shipping routes in the Pacific were, then His Excellency would not have sent his wife to deliver such a surprise.

Just as General Benson frowned, his wife rushed forward and gave him a passionate kiss after a long separation. General Benson helplessly closed the door behind him. In any case, now that his wife was here, the two of them, who hadn't seen each other for a long time, really needed to strengthen their marital bond.

Just as General Benson had his arms around his wife's waist, the phone in his study suddenly rang, interrupting the impending battle in the entryway.

Benson apologetically pushed his wife aside for a moment: "The phone in the study is a private line, and I have to go answer it now."

General Benson's wife gently kissed him on the cheek: "I'll go prepare dinner for you. We'll start after we eat." After saying that, she quickly left in her kimono. However, it was clear that the general's wife was not quite used to the kimono. The kimono made it difficult for her to take large steps, so when she walked quickly, her posture was a little comical.

Benson watched his wife leave with a smile, then quickly went to his study and picked up the phone on the table: "Hello?"

The chief of staff's voice came from the other end of the phone: "I have good news and bad news. I don't know which one you want to hear, David."

Benson shook his head somewhat helplessly: "Then let me tell you some good news first."

“We intercepted a telegram from the enemy. The telegram said that the freshwater production machine in Penglai had broken down and there was a shortage of freshwater. A new freshwater production machine was urgently needed.”

"Penglai?" Benson searched his mind for the term. "I've never heard of this place before."

"Penglai is an island in Eastern mythology where immortals live. It does not exist in reality. Penglai in the telegram is a code name. Based on the information we have obtained through other channels, although we cannot determine the exact location, Penglai should refer to an island in the East China Sea or the South China Sea. It should be a place where the enemy uses it as a supply transit point for submarines."

"The submarine resupply transit station is short of fresh water? And they're in such a hurry to replace the freshwater generator?" Although Benson wasn't a submarine officer, his professional skills were quite excellent, and he immediately noticed the oddity: "Submarines themselves have the ability to produce fresh water. If only a small number of submarines need to resupply there, there shouldn't be such a rush if the freshwater generator is broken, right?"

"The General Staff agrees. We all agree that unless the enemy has a significantly larger number of submarines than originally planned to be stationed there and needs to resupply, only in such a situation would the freshwater production line break down so urgently," the Chief of Staff said. "We believe the enemy should be sending a large number of submarines south. Their cruisers are currently roaming all over the Pacific, and it seems they are preparing to use their submarine force to cause trouble for us within the island chain. We are prepared to deploy more destroyers to meet the challenge."

The island chain mentioned by the chief of staff was a concept proposed in the early days of the Ming Dynasty's Royal Navy. In fact, it refers to a maritime national security line composed of a series of islands east of the mainland.

This concept was later adopted by the Federal Navy. The island chain specifically refers to the sea area west of this island chain, which is the coastal waters of the Ming Dynasty formed by the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea and the South China Sea.

"Where else can we draw destroyers? In order to capture those enemy commerce raiding cruisers in the Pacific, even with all our Omaha-class cruisers and all the light cruisers that started construction after 910 in the Pacific Fleet, we still don't have enough. We've started to use a large number of ocean-going destroyers to make up for the shortage. Where else can we draw destroyers?"

"We can spare some more destroyers from the thorough operation at Yuanshan Port, and borrow some more from the Atlantic Fleet, so we should be able to make up for the shortfall in terms of numbers."

"Bullshit, is this supposed to be good news?" Benson smacked his head. "What about the operation at Yuanshan Port? The evacuation is about to begin, are you telling me to weaken the escort fleet?"

"The General Staff has come up with a solution: free up the destroyers originally used for near-shore fire support to perform their original surveillance missions, while the fire support for the army can be handed over to another group of warships."

“Another batch of warships?” Benson pondered for a moment. “You’re not talking about those ships we rented from the British, are you?”

"Those ships we rented from the British. The landing operations on the two southern islands are over. Now we are engaged in a tug-of-war with the enemy on the islands. The battle line has gone beyond the range of the naval guns. Those shallow-draft heavy gunboats rented from the British have not had much of a chance to play a role. Sending those ships to the north to replace the destroyers that were originally supposed to provide fire support near the shore will free up the original destroyers to perform guard and escort duties."

“But this reduces the flexibility of our fleet’s missions. Our destroyers, which were originally tasked with fire support, could now supplement our escort forces when necessary. Now, our escort forces are essentially without reserves.” Benson shook his head. “Besides, wouldn’t it be a bit excessive to use the firepower of those ugly Briton girls on Yuanshan?”

Benson knew the ships the Chief of Staff was talking about. Those shallow-draft heavy gunboats that the Commonwealth Navy leased from the British were called littoral combat ships by the Commonwealth. These ships had a shallow draft and small tonnage, but their guns were extremely heavy.

The Federation leased two types of ships in total. One of them was the smaller M15 shallow-draft heavy gunboat, which had a displacement of only 540 tons but was equipped with a 9.2-inch large-caliber naval gun. The Federation leased all of them at once, from the M15 to the M25.

Another type, with a tonnage of over 6000 tons, was the Abercrombie-class shallow-draft gunboat. This type of warship was a product of the flexible use of the four Columbia 14-inch gun turrets of the Salamis-class battleships ordered by the Onfaros Navy from Leitania. Since the battleships ordered by Onfaros had their hulls built in Leitania and the turrets purchased from the Federation, the turrets could not be delivered after the start of the war. Therefore, these turrets were purchased by the British Navy for the construction of four shallow-draft gunboats.

These four shallow-water heavy gunboats were leased to the Federal Navy before it launched amphibious landing operations in Luzon and other areas. After all, even the artillery shells were compatible with the Federal Navy's ammunition, making replenishment very convenient, unlike the M15 which required purchasing a separate batch of ammunition.

Both of these submarine-launched heavy gunboats were ordered by the Federation in order to take over a series of coastal defense fortresses in places like Luzon. Sending valuable battleships to engage in a direct confrontation with the coastal defense guns of the fortresses would be too risky, so it was better to use these cheaper options, since they were just as powerful.

However, these shallow-water heavy gunboats built for fortresses, while having large caliber cannons, have relatively low firepower density. The port of Yuanshan is currently under the control of the Federation Army, so such large-caliber firepower is not particularly needed.

This replacement is not necessarily a good fit and also affects the flexibility of the fleet's Benson ships' missions. After all, these shallow-water heavy gunboats are absolutely not capable of carrying out escort and surveillance missions at sea, except for shore support.

"This is the only way to free up more destroyers right now." The chief of staff's voice was also full of helplessness: "Perhaps the support efficiency of these large-caliber heavy guns is not as ideal as the medium-caliber rapid-fire guns on the destroyers, but I think perhaps our army troops surrounded in Wonsan need this kind of artillery to boost morale more?"

“You’re right.” Benson nodded. “What the army lads need most right now is morale. A more spectacular artillery barrage might indeed be better. So, since you’ve said that’s the ‘good news,’ then, dear Taylor, what’s the bad news?”

“One of our communication lines on the mainland has recently been cut off. Important goods have now fallen into the hands of that prince and can no longer be delivered to the destination as planned. I'm afraid that Prince Song will not immediately have an irreconcilable conflict with Prince Jin, who has just taken over Shuntian Prefecture and seized power in the country.”

Upon hearing this, General Benson's expression turned even uglier.

Well, compared to this news, the previous news is indeed good news. At least, although there were problems, a solution could be found, which is better than the plan to go completely bankrupt.

"How did it fail? Wasn't it all done very discreetly before?"

"We can't get any more intelligence right now, but this was our attempt to take a shortcut anyway. It's a pity that it failed, but there's nothing to say about it. The important thing is that we must get the 10 people who are surrounded out of the city."

Benson strongly agreed with the chief of staff's words: "You're right, old man. President Wilson hinted quite subtly during our last phone call that even if we suffer another million casualties on the battlefield, we can still fight our way to the core of the Ming Empire's island chain."

However, if we have 100,000 prisoners, we might face more than a million family members demanding the return of their children and husbands from our president, and public support for the war would drop significantly.

"Yes, if those 10 people had all died in Pyongyang and hadn't retreated to Wonsan, we wouldn't be facing so many troubles now. With our medium and light ships stretched thin, we still have to spare a considerable number to escort their evacuation."

"Alright," Benson said, "Don't say things that are detrimental to unity."

"I wouldn't say that in front of General Pershing... Um, General Pershing, when did you arrive?"

Hearing the chief of staff hang up the phone hastily in an awkward tone, Benson could only shake his head: "I already said, don't say things that could cause disunity."

Chapter Forty-Two: Selecting the Best from the Worthiest

Li Che had heard jokes about the Federal Army when the Federation entered the war—before 910, the Federation Army was not only small in size, but its troops were basically composed of battalion-level units.

These battalion-level units are not the BTGs (battalion battle groups) that the Ursus people marched towards Lviv in the warp. These battalion-level units are just ordinary infantry battalions. When the Federation decided to prepare for the World War, they began to reorganize their army. The Federation's approach was to put a bunch of people together to form a division.

As for how the division commander and regimental commander are selected, the answer is that they are elected by all officers and soldiers of the division, fully embodying the democratic spirit of the federation.

While democracy is a good system, it is clear that it is not suitable for all fields, especially the military. Throughout history, there has never been a case where the commanding officers of a powerful army were arbitrarily elected. The Federalists can be said to have pioneered this approach.

As a result, the Federal Army performed quite poorly in the early stages of the war, and its combat effectiveness and the selection methods for its officers became a laughing stock among various countries.

Li Che had, of course, mocked the Federation people before, but now the boomerang was about to hit him.

The navy's torpedo boats have now been largely concentrated, forming an unprecedented torpedo boat force in Vladivostok. These forces originally came from different war zones and fleets of the Ming Dynasty's Royal Navy, and the officers and soldiers came from all over the country. Before this, the torpedo boat force was basically used as a shore-based garrison force or a port defense force in various places.

Even in areas where reinforcements are prioritized, usually only a few detachments are deployed. But now these torpedo boat units have been brought together, forming an unprecedented massive battle group of over 300 torpedo boats that requires a complete and appropriate command system.

Such a command system naturally requires a group of outstanding commanders to lead it. Li Che is now facing the same problem that the Federation encountered when it was forming its army division-level forces—that is, how to quickly select outstanding commanders within a limited time.

Li Che certainly didn't intend to select commanders through elections like the Federation did. Such a method might select the best officers for the soldiers, but it probably wouldn't be able to select the officers most capable of winning battles.

Just like Li Guang and Huo Qubing, if the soldiers at the grassroots level were to vote, the vast majority of them would definitely choose Li Guang, who shared their joys and sorrows, rather than Huo Qubing, who gave them special treatment.

However, in terms of military command ability, Huo Qubing was always victorious no matter what he fought. In terms of results, rather than pursuing sharing weal and woe with his soldiers, it was better to lead his soldiers to quickly defeat the strong enemy and allow all the soldiers who participated in the battle to return home safely.

Li Che now bears such a responsibility. Although he proposed the core idea of ​​the entire operation plan, it is clear that even if Li Che wanted to act recklessly, the Navy would never entrust the military command of this operation to Li Che, who has never had any actual command experience.

Of course, even if the navy wanted to curry favor with Prince Jin and was willing to give him command, Li Che himself knew his own limitations. At best, he was just a Zhao Kuo with some vision and experience ahead of his time in the navy. He could provide some ideas or assist in formulating battle plans, but when it came to actual command, he was not even as good as Ma Su.

After all, there's an old Chinese saying that goes, "Those who know the times should be content with their lot..." or rather, "People should have self-awareness."

Putting down yet another personnel file in his hand, Li Che gently shook his head. The officer in the file had excellent grades during his military academy years, and even quickly entered the fleet command after enlisting, and maintained a fairly good promotion rate thereafter.

From any perspective, this is an exceptionally talented individual.

However, Li Che placed this file on top of the stack of files he had just looked at, picked up the entire stack of files, pressed the side with his fingers, and quickly flipped through them. Then he put the file down and picked up a form from the side.

A quick comparison reveals a high degree of overlap between the names in this stack of files and those on this form.

The form in his hand was a sequence of hammock numbers from each graduating class of officers and soldiers at the Naval Academy.

The selection criteria for the lists that Sa Dingming gave him were indeed very fair—the hammock numbers were determined based on the officers' grades during their time at military academy; the earlier the hammock number, the better their grades during their time at academy.

In this respect, the style of the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy is quite similar to that of the old Yingzhou Navy in another time and space. You can't say that this style of making naval officers strictly hierarchical during their school years and orderly after graduation is wrong. It's like the imperial examination. For a considerable period of time in the past, this was the fairest system.

After staring at the papers in his hand for a moment, Li Che pulled over a dedicated telephone line on the table, dialed a short number, and soon the operator's voice came from the other end. Li Che said directly, "This is Li Che. Please connect me to Prince Jin's residence."

It didn't take long before the old man's familiar voice came from the other end of the phone: "What urgent matter is it that you need to call me in the middle of the night? An old man needs to rest."

Li Che then realized that it was already past midnight. He could only say apologetically, "I'm sorry to disturb your rest, Grandpa. I'm a bit pressed for time here, so I hope to get your authorization as soon as possible."

"What authorization do you need?" the voice on the other end of the phone asked, sounding slightly more serious.

Li Che: "I think it's better for me to personally appoint officers, rather than having the power to bypass the Naval Headquarters and select officers directly across the entire Navy."

After a brief silence on the other end of the phone, Li Zongdi asked, "Why would you bypass the Navy Command for something like this? Is there something wrong with the list of candidates they provided you?"

Li Che knew that Li Zongdi might have misunderstood something, so he explained: "There are indeed some problems with the list, but it doesn't mean that there is any favoritism or backdoor dealing in the list provided by the Navy. After all, in this battle, we will mainly use light ships to launch a strong attack on the Federation's landing site. None of the light ships participating in the battle have any armor on their entire bodies."

Whether it's the shockwave from exploding artillery shells or bullets from large-caliber machine guns, either could claim the lives of those involved in the combat. Even under the most optimistic scenario, casualties would be considerable. I doubt those in the navy who want to pull strings will send me their names on the list of their descendants.

"So, what do you mean by saying there's a problem with this list?"

"The Navy sent me a list of mid-level officers based on the hammock numbers they used when they graduated from the military academy. But Grandpa, the Naval Academy mainly trains personnel to be transferred from the main combat fleet to surface ships. Top-notch personnel go to the fleet, while second- or third-rate personnel go to other auxiliary ships or coastal defense forces. These top-notch personnel from the military academy and the fleet may not be suitable for our mission this time."

"Could you explain in more detail?" Li Zongdi asked after listening attentively on the other end of the phone. "Does that mean those who ranked lower in the rankings are actually more outstanding than those who ranked higher?"

"Grandpa, you should know about the North-South Examination Case during the Hongwu Emperor's reign, right?"

"I know, what? You mean this involves factional infighting within the Navy? Are Sa Dingming and his group still doing this at a time like this?"

“No, they ranked students strictly according to their scores, but most of the students with the higher hammock numbers were from Fujian.” Li Che explained, “Just like the scholars who took the imperial examinations in the North-South Archives back then, the scholars from the North could not outperform the scholars from the South in terms of scores. It is indeed strange that no scholars from the North were admitted in the Hongwu Emperor’s North-South List Case, but if it were absolutely fair, the vast majority of those admitted would still be from the South.”

Li Zongdi pondered for a moment: "However, at this time, capable people should step up. If the Fujian faction in the south really all has the ability..."

"That's the problem, Grandpa. The imperial examinations can select talented people, but they can't necessarily select all talented people. Grandpa, do you think that the abilities of people like Huang Chao, Xu Xiake, and Li Shizhen could be fully assessed by the imperial examinations at that time?" Li Che said bluntly, "The naval academy's hammock-like formations can select excellent fleet commanders. I believe they are capable of commanding giant ships and cannons to fight the enemy, but to command light combat ships on the surface... forgive me for being frank, but I find it hard to believe their abilities."

"You haven't even been to a naval officer's school, so that's a bit too arrogant of you," Li Zongdi said with a hint of mocking laughter on the other end of the phone.

“Grandpa, I have several talents here who were highly recommended by the Navy Headquarters. Their hammock numbers were among the top at the time. After joining the fleet, they quickly entered the Navy Fleet Headquarters. These people seriously lack sufficient service experience in the lowest-level fleets. An excellent staff officer is not necessarily an excellent commander.”

"Why don't you just say they are Ma Su?" Prince Jin smacked his lips on the other end of the phone.

"That's not entirely true. The hammock system at the Naval Academy was originally intended to select talent as fairly as possible. However, the navy originated in Fujian, and in its early years, almost all its personnel were from Fujian. Fujianese officers were primarily from the ocean-going fleets, and they dominated promotions within the navy. They also set the textbooks and exams for the military academy. Although the system itself was fair and just, it actually resulted in a situation where many of the navy's capable young officers had a single area of ​​specialization, leading to congested promotion channels within the military..."

Li Zongdi fell silent again on the other end of the phone. Li Che could hear Li Zongdi exhale a long breath, and then the old man's voice came through again: "Since you're not going to choose people from this list, where are you going to choose people from next?"

“Of course, we will select directly from the grassroots fleets,” Li Che said. “There are problems with the talent promotion channels and methods within the Navy. Most of the people recommended by the Navy Department lack sufficient grassroots fleet service experience. Since the Navy’s current talent selection methods are used to select people like this, there must be some talents who cannot get promoted quickly and are stuck at the grassroots level.”

"Do you currently have enough time to select talent from among the naval officers and soldiers at the grassroots level across the country?"

"No, but this time we have concentrated 300 torpedo boats in Vladivostok. The officers and soldiers who arrived with these torpedoes have also gathered here. I plan to go directly to Vladivostok and select from among those officers and soldiers who have arrived in Vladivostok to serve as the mid-level detachment commanders for this raid."

Chapter 43 Making the Princess a Secretary

As soon as Li Che hung up the phone, there was a knock on the door of his study. Li Che coughed to indicate that he could come in, and then two maids, one tall and one short, walked in one after the other. The taller one was carrying a plate of pastries and was putting them into her mouth with one hand while holding them in the other. The shorter one was only about 1.5 meters tall and was carrying a tea tray with a somewhat shaky gait as she carefully walked in.

He glanced at the two girls dressed as maids and couldn't help but sigh: "Mingzi, I don't need maids to serve me here. You don't need to serve me tea and water. And Your Highness, what are you doing dressed as a maid? If you're bored, you can take Mingzi to play cards for a while."

"There are only two of us, what kind of cards can we play?" Zhu Miaoyun couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Even if we wanted to get others to play cards with us, besides the guards, you only have the cook and the cleaning lady here. They either don't dare to play cards with us, or they simply don't know how to play cards."

As they were talking, Akiko Tokugawa placed the tea tray on Li Che's table, but a lot of the tea in the teacup had already spilled onto the tray. Zhu Miaoyun also put down the plate she was carrying, on which half of the late-night snacks that the cook had made for Li Che had been eaten.

Back when Li Che was in another world chatting in a group, some group members often joked that an elegant British lady could keep her tea from spilling at all while riding a high-speed British tank. Of course, other group members immediately refuted this, saying that the statement was quite inaccurate, because from the Centurion to the Chieftain to the Challenger, British tanks had little to do with high-speed driving.

Putting aside the inexplicable association with the British joke, it's clear that the Japanese girl doesn't seem to have the talent to keep the tea from spilling inside a tank. Tokugawa Akiko has only been with him for two days and has already broken three cups. Today, only a little tea spilled is already considered good.

Speaking of this young lady of the Tokugawa family, she was quite pitiful. After living a life of luxury for more than ten years, she was suddenly sent by her father to a stranger to be a slave. Since Li Che had "studied" on another earth, and since the outbreak of the war, he had not used any maids for many years. It was not for any other reason, but simply because his experience in the army made him feel that he could do things faster and more efficiently by himself.

Not to mention that this Japanese girl came to him with the ultimate goal of a political marriage. At Li Che's age, he wasn't interested in blind dates. Although Akiko was cuter than Junko from Invisible Guardian, Li Che simply didn't have the energy to focus on women right now. So he decided to send Akiko back untouched and told her that he wasn't really interested in political marriages. He said that if Akiko agreed, he would help her get rid of this political task.

But before Li Che could finish speaking, Mingzi burst into tears. This girl, who looked somewhat like a little girl in Li Che's eyes, knelt down with a thud, indicating that if Li Che sent her back, she would have no choice but to commit seppuku.