Seven Seas Beacon Fire

After the triumphant ceremony, Li Che and his entourage immediately packed their bags and prepared to head south. Now was not the time to rest on their laurels and sleep. On the contrary, the complete success of the military operation in Wonsan did not mean the end. On the contrary, the torpedo night in Wonsan meant that Operation Mirage could soon begin.

In multi-player competitive sports, whether it's football or basketball, using movement to stretch the enemy's defense and find weaknesses to launch an attack is a common tactic. However, the art lies in how to stretch the enemy, how to maneuver the enemy, and how to find the enemy's weaknesses.

The United States of Colombia still holds absolute naval superiority in the entire Western Pacific. This naval superiority cannot be reversed by simply destroying a few large ships of the United States of Colombia's second-line fleet with torpedoes and killing thousands of officers and soldiers of the United States of Colombia's navy, nor can it be erased by a few commerce raiding fleets or a few high-speed capital ships that have recovered their combat capabilities.

(Whether it's high-speed or not is relative. 23 knots is certainly not high-speed compared to the Royal Victoria Navy, but compared to the Federation's ironclad navy, calling it high-speed is not a big deal, right?)

Of course, before heading south, Li Che still found Zhu Miaoyun. The princess had come to Vladivostok mainly because, under the circumstances, he wanted to ensure her safety and also follow her wishes to contribute to the war. So he brought her to the north to let her act as an "atmosphere group" in the war, allowing this princess, who had been pampered in the past, to experience the brutality of the war.

(Zhu Miaoyun: Pampered life my ass!)

Although the princess's performance was indeed quite unexpected, with the war temporarily over, Li Che planned to send this princess, whose identity was sensitive, back to Yingtian Prefecture.

However, Zhu Miaoyun strongly opposed this.

She shoved a copy of the latest newspaper in front of Li Che: "I'm going with you! I don't want to go to Yingtian Prefecture alone right now!"

Li Che glanced down at the newspaper. The front page headline read in large characters: "Rebellion for the People, Prince Jin, the Upright Official."

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Chapter 86 Riding the Momentum of a Great Victory (2)

"To seek justice for all people, to bring peace to the nation, and to uphold righteousness for the world, and to oppose those who eat meat in all things, is to rebel."

Li Che silently recited these words and put down the newspaper in his hand.

"You're quite the writer." That was Li Che's assessment after reading the article.

The newspaper is called "Zhihu Zheye," and it is one of the newspapers with the largest circulation in China. In terms of its nature, it is somewhere between an official publication and a civilian publication. To give an analogy, it is like Weibo in the 21st century. As a company, Weibo is definitely a private enterprise, but much of the content published on it certainly represents the will of the state.

The same goes for the newspaper "Zhihu Zheye". Although in most cases this newspaper does not put political articles on the front page, if such an article appears on the front page one day, it must mean that something really big has happened.

Damn, what is TV Tokyo?

As for the article published today... Li Che was unsure whether it was a piece commissioned by the Zhihu newspaper itself, or whether it was written by one of his grandfather's writers and then published under a pseudonym to promote his cause.

The title of this article is actually quite sensationalist: "Your grandfather has 'rebelled'?" Anyone seeing this title will likely have several different questions: "Who dares to publicly criticize Prince Jin in the newspaper?" or "Didn't Prince Jin already raise an army to quell the rebellion? How can he be rebelling again? Who is he rebelling against now?"

The article does describe how Li Zongdi "rebelled," but it doesn't refer to the Jingnan Campaign. It reports on Li Zongdi's actions over the past two days.

Li Che understood why Zhu Miaoyun was unwilling to go to Yingtian Prefecture.

It wasn't because Her Highness the Princess suddenly threw a tantrum; it was simply because Yingtian Prefecture was somewhat intimidating, and Zhu Miaoyun really didn't dare to get involved in that mess.

Because just three days after news of the victory at Yuanshan arrived, the purge in Yingtianfu had already begun.

If one could say that his grandfather's uprising to quell the rebellion was nominally in accordance with the law—this certainly doesn't refer to Zhu Di's uprising following the edict of the Hongwu Emperor—his grandfather's uprising was in fact implementing the "hidden clause" of "Three Kings Proclaiming the Emperor" (a homophone to avoid censorship). Back then, the Longwu Emperor truly granted three kings of different surnames the great power to discuss state affairs and gave them the power to "uphold the order of the court" when necessary.

From an imperial perspective, Emperor Longwu's actions seemed akin to cutting off his own throne, and were not entirely reasonable. However, considering that Emperor Longwu himself possessed a chivalrous spirit similar to Liu Bang or Liu Bei, it is not surprising that he made such a somewhat willful decision. It's just that this power had not been used for hundreds of years, as everyone knew what the consequences of using such power would be.

Or rather, unless one has already made plans to take over, using such power would leave no way out for oneself or one's family. Even if one could die peacefully like Huo Guang, one would inevitably face the same fate as the Huo family afterward.

Therefore, the Fengtian Campaign cannot be considered a rebellion. Even though many people think that Li Zongdi is the modern-day Cao Cao, in public and in terms of righteousness, no one can accuse him of rebellion.

But the events of the past two days were different. Prince Jin directly sent people to arrest thousands of officials, nobles, and even several members of the imperial clan, and all of them were imprisoned.

When Prince Jin led his army into the city, he had already taken control of some people. However, at that time, Li Zongdi mainly controlled a group of high-ranking officials, including the former Left Censor-in-Chief. He also claimed that these people were in poor health and forcibly sent them for "treatment," thus placing them under house arrest.

Now, they're not even pretending anymore; they're openly arresting people and throwing them all in jail. The arrest list is terrifyingly long. Five arrest lists were released in just two days, and the Imperial Guards receive new lists from above every now and then.

Moreover, this "political typhoon" doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon. Li Zongdi appears to be preparing to further expand the list, from officials, nobles, and members of the imperial family to some businessmen, certain people in the military, and even some university professors and lecturers.

This seems like a radical step backward. If one doesn't have a deep understanding of the events, the first impression would probably be—is the Prince of Jin finally going to pave the way for his ascension to the throne? Is he going to physically eliminate all those who oppose him?

However, this article, especially from the latter half onwards, clearly tells you that this is not the case.

In fact, most of those arrested supported Li Zongdi's desire to ascend the throne as soon as possible and replace the Ming Dynasty. It didn't matter whether the new dynasty was called the Great Jin or the Great Tang, or even if the Li family wanted to restore their ancestral Great Xi. None of that mattered.

But no one expected that all of these people would be arrested.

As for the reason these people were arrested... to sum it up in one sentence: if these scoundrels continue to appear in the court, it will be impossible to govern the country well!

If we had to use another analogy, it would be that in order to restore the glory of the beacon of democracy and make it strong again, Trump launched a series of heavy blows against Wall Street and the military-industrial complex after taking office. He sent the National Guard to Wall Street to seal all the books and conduct a thorough investigation of the financial industry. He also sent the Marines to take control of several major military-industrial complex companies and the Pentagon to find out why a coffee machine for freedom and democracy costs $5 and an ashtray costs $8000!

This article uses a similar metaphor to explain why the Prince of Jin "rebelled" and why he still needed to rebel even after he had already come to this point.

Because compared to the things he opposes, this is indeed a rebellion that requires immense courage.

The Ming Dynasty's current status is undoubtedly inseparable from its "Jinling Street" and its own military-industrial complex.

The living standards of the people have declined year by year since the outbreak of the war, and the soldiers on the front lines are in short supply. However, many enterprises in the Ming Dynasty, especially the large and giant leading enterprises, have grown and expanded by taking advantage of the war profits, and they are living a comfortable life.

Here we must mention the armored forces of the Ming Dynasty army. Ever since the tank shone brightly on the Somme River, other countries have begun to develop their own land armored weapons. After all, in this era, how to break through trenches has become the top priority for the armies of all countries.

On the Ming Dynasty's side, the garrison troops in the northwest adopted assault tactics, but this did not mean that the Ming Dynasty had given up exploring other technological routes. In particular, the garrison troops, which had the highest proportion of technical officers in the army, would not reject tanks. However, in the past, due to the wrangling between the major manufacturers and the long-standing unresolved selection process, the prototypes of several tanks had basically stopped at the trial production stage.

After Li Zongdi took control of Yingtianfu, he thought of these tanks. Although the mountainous terrain of the Silla Peninsula is not a very suitable application scenario for armored troops from today's perspective, it is not a problem at all in this era. This is because no tank in this era has the ability to break through long distances. Essentially, they are used to dig through the trenches. Since they can't go far, they are basically transported by train. After being unloaded as close to the front line as possible, they drive to the assembly point on their own and then launch an assault on the enemy's position after the attack is launched.

Therefore, it is perfectly normal to expect tanks to help infantry open up a few breakthroughs on the Silla Peninsula in this day and age.

Li Zongdi planned to quickly equip the prototypes and semi-finished products that had already been produced to a combat-ready level before sending them to the front lines.

However, unexpectedly, these tanks could still cause problems under the current circumstances. When the preparations for the operation were almost at the deadline, Li Zongdi remembered the tanks that he had personally overseen recently, so he asked Li Renzhi to send someone to check on how the modifications were going.

Upon arrival, they discovered that the workshop, which was supposed to be bustling with activity as tank modifications were nearly empty. The tanks that had been sent over to be armed as quickly as possible not only lacked the machine guns and short-barreled cannons that were supposed to be installed, but even more absurdly, the engines that had already been installed in some of the vehicles had vanished!

As for the unscrupulous merchants in the rear providing substandard medicine and gauze to the soldiers at the front, the fact that some people are openly speculating on grain prices and hoarding goods under the current circumstances, and the inexplicable disappearance of pensions and subsidies for martyrs and surviving wounded veterans in an entire county, with several departments passing the buck and no one being held accountable...

There are far too many cases like this: officials and businessmen colluding and conspiring together, appearing righteous and noble on the surface, but secretly committing all sorts of evil deeds!

Faced with this situation, even if you try to reason with them about the law, it's useless, because they know the law better than you. They are truly capable of doing these things within the legal framework permitted by the laws of the Ming Dynasty! They've gone to extremes!

So what can be done in this situation?

Even if most of these people were willing to support Li Zongdi's ascension to the throne, they effectively constituted one leg of the dragon throne... or even several legs.

There's no "good" way, but there's always a way.

For example, like now.

Look, the list that came out today is both numerous and long.

Chapter Eighty-Seven: Heading South!

It's no wonder that even someone like my grandfather needed the prestige of a great victory to start "pest control" in Yingtian Prefecture. What he's doing now is something that even the former Emperor Yongning wouldn't have dared to do.

No, it wasn't just Emperor Yongning; even Emperor Jingyun, who was "accomplished in both literature and martial arts and considered himself the greatest emperor of the three generations," wouldn't dare to do it.

After all, how many people in the world would be willing to cut off the chair leg under their buttocks with a knife?

However, Li Che was indeed somewhat worried about the consequences of his grandfather's actions. The interest class that the country had gradually built up over the years since the Industrial Revolution, which was different from the traditional gentry class of the past, had developed to the point that it was considered "too big to fail" in many aspects.

The war is not over yet. Will taking action against the military-industrial complex now affect the supply of weapons and equipment in the upcoming war? Will it affect the production of ammunition?

Will taking action against Jinling Street further exacerbate the already dire economic situation? Will it further damage and harm the domestic commodity economy?

These are not trivial matters that can be ignored. Real society is not a world of steel, where you can clearly see the buffs and debuffs when you point to a national policy. Li Che believes that his grandfather did this because he probably considered that if he did not take advantage of the current situation and the opportunity, it would be even more difficult to completely eliminate these pests if it were delayed until after the war.

Or perhaps... he simply didn't have the resolve to do it by then.

As a grandson, there's actually very little he can do for his grandfather right now, but Li Che understands that no matter how the situation develops, one thing remains unchanged—victory cannot solve all problems, but it can cover up most of them.

From the northernmost point to the southernmost point, the express train of this era took three whole days to run. For Li Che, who had experienced high-speed rail and commercial airliners in another world, this speed was certainly not fast. However, Li Che, who understood the speed of trains in this era, knew very well that this was already the result of the railway department doing its best.

A notable train of the time was the Orient Express, the European train on which the armistice of World War I was signed in carriage 2419. (At the end of the war, at the request of the Gallic government, carriage 2419 was converted into the office of General Foch (who later became a marshal).) On November 11, 1818, the famous armistice of World War I was signed in this carriage.

This famous train only traveled at a speed of about 50 kilometers per hour. Although this is not enough to represent the highest speed of trains in that era, it gives a general idea of ​​the speed of passenger trains in that era. The Orient Express took about 2.5 days to travel from Paris to Istanbul.

By the way, Thomas the Tank Engine, which is very popular with children—yes, the one that often appears as a mod in horror games—is officially set to a speed of 65 kilometers per hour, even though it is fictional. This is faster than many commercially operated trains in the present day.

Given that the journey was twice as long as the Orient Express in Europe, the time taken was only half a day longer, which Li Che was actually quite satisfied with. Although there were some experimental trains that could run very fast these days, everyone knew that experimental speed and commercial operating speed were completely different things.

It's like putting even the best train on the tracks of Detroit, the United States of Columbia in the 21st century...

In short, by preparing locomotives in advance to save time on coal and water supply, and by taking advantage of the special train's superior right-of-way, Li Che traveled from the north to the south as quickly as possible.

Leizhou Port, located next to Zhanjiang, is one of the most important naval ports in the entire south of the empire. The port's geographical conditions are extremely easy to defend and difficult to attack. Donghai Island and Nansan Island almost completely block the entire naval port. The fortified cannons set up on these two islands are enough to make any fleet that wants to launch a frontal assault on this naval port retreat.

When Li Che arrived at the naval port, it happened to be the day that the four main warships, led by the Dingyuan battleship which had previously stirred up trouble at sea, returned to port.

This was also the first time Li Che had personally witnessed a modern, large-scale warship of this era.

In fact, the old-fashioned pre-dreadnoughts and armored cruisers in Vladivostok Harbor were already quite impressive and visually striking. After all, although he was a person of this era, as someone who lived inland, he had rarely been to the seaside, and even if he did, he would not specifically go to see warships.

When he traveled to another world, he picked up some of the historical regrets of that world's China. Therefore, when he saw two battleships named "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" appear in front of him, the shock he felt was indeed difficult to describe in words.

As the second super-dreadnought developed by the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy, the Dingyuan-class battleship can definitely be considered a top-tier warship in the world, and can be regarded as the culmination of the Ming Dynasty's shipbuilding industry at a certain stage.

Zhu Miaoyun also expressed her amazement at the two giant ships. As a true time traveler, even though she was a girl, Zhu Miaoyun had a complex feeling about the warships named after these two names, which even made her tired from the long journey lessened.

It seems that in front of these two different warships with the same name, the two worlds before and after the time travel have partially overlapped, each reflecting the other's appearance.

"Does Your Highness think the names of these two warships sound nice?"

Suddenly, Li Che's question reached her ears. Zhu Miaoyun was taken aback for a moment, then concealed the complex emotions in her eyes: "A very majestic giant ship. Is this the most powerful capital ship of the Upper Kingdom's navy?"

"If we only consider active-duty warships, then this is indeed the most powerful."

The one who answered Zhu Miaoyun was Xu Yueming, who was behind Li Che. Most of the officers that Li Che had personally interviewed and selected in the Battle of Yuanshan had survived. Apart from two who were recuperating in the hospital, most of the others had already begun to return to their original units. In the future, these people would continue to perform their duties in different departments in different regions of the Navy, and at the same time, they would play an important role in the future as the foundation that Li Che had laid in the Navy.

Among these people, Li Che specifically brought Xu Yueming along. This young officer, who had left a very deep impression on him, was now effectively serving as his advisor.

Although Li Che has gained a lot of naval expertise from another world, it is clear that he needs more specialized personnel in this era to help him handle many more detailed issues.

"We have several more powerful capital ships on our shipyards than this, but they are not yet completed, so this is indeed our strongest capital ship at present,"

"Is our ship even bigger than a Colombian battleship?"

"It's slightly larger in terms of tonnage, but not by much. It's basically on par with the standard battleships of the United States of Colombia," Li Che casually explained. "The normal displacement can reach 3.2 tons. Look at these four main gun turrets; each one is equipped with three 330mm 50-caliber main guns. Although the caliber is smaller than the Colombian 14-inch main guns, the performance of these guns is excellent. If we don't consider the lifespan of the guns, as a 13-inch gun, its power can approach that of some of the best 14-inch naval guns."

"Why is our artillery, which is smaller, still larger in tonnage?"

"The size of a warship is not entirely determined by the number of guns it carries. Our warships have more power than the Colombian warships, and our armor protection materials are also more robust, so the tonnage naturally increases accordingly."

Zhu Miaoyun made a series of "hmm" sounds that seemed to understand, and then the princess noticed with her sharp eyes that there seemed to be traces of cannon fire on one of the battleships, and it looked like an unexploded armor-piercing shell.

Besides the shell already embedded in the armor, there were obvious signs of fire on the middle of one of the ships. This must have been because it was hit by a cannon loaded with picric acid during a surface artillery battle with the enemy ship, which caused the ship's surface to be set on fire.

Recalling the missions these two battleships had undertaken during their previous sorties, Li Che then asked the commander of Leizhou Port, who had come to greet him, "Did you encounter warships from the United States of Colombia? Which ship was attacked? Can you confirm this?"

Faced with the questions that the grandson had thrown out in one go, the commander of Leizhou Port was somewhat surprised, but not too astonished. After all, everyone now had the Vladivostok Fortress, and it was clear that the commander of Leizhou Port had obtained some information about Vladivostok Port from other channels.

"The first few days went smoothly, but on the return journey, we encountered a two-ship flotilla of the United States Navy, which consisted of two Nevada-class battleships."

"Nevada? The Nevada with 10 main guns, equipped with both twin and triple turrets?" Upon hearing the name, a familiar image immediately flashed through Li Che's mind.

The Dingyuan and Nevada were the second super-dreadnoughts designed and built by the navies of both countries. Neither the Ming Dynasty nor the United States of Colombia were very satisfied with their first super-dreadnoughts.

During the construction of the New York by the United States Navy of Colombia, everything went smoothly until it was discovered that due to the excessive reduction in length, the ammunition magazine located at the bottom of the No. 3 turret in the middle of the hull was constantly exposed to the heat of the boilers, which caused the propellant temperature to rise significantly. This resulted in the battleship firing rather absurdly stray shells.

The first super-dreadnought built by the Ming Dynasty, the "Kaiyuan", also suffered from the shortcomings brought about by a lack of experience. On paper, the Kaiyuan-class battleship used three triple 330mm main guns, which should have sounded like a very fashionable number. For a battleship enthusiast, the first thing that comes to mind when hearing about a nine-gun layout is the classic traditional layout of two guns forward and one gun aft.

However, the Kaiyuan's gun layout was actually arranged with one turret at the bow, one at the stern, and one at the midships. The problem with this layout was that after construction, it was found that the utilization efficiency of the ship's surface was relatively low, and the muzzle blast could easily cover most of the deck area.

After the relative failure of their first super-dreadnoughts, both the Ming Dynasty and the United States of Colombia seemed to have unlocked their full potential with their second super-dreadnoughts. Whether it was the Nevada, the pioneering work of the standard battleship, or the Dingyuan, which was now in front of them, both could be regarded as the epitome of battleships of this era.

"Your Highness is truly knowledgeable about foreign equipment."

Xu Yueming was just making a casual joke; these days, most military enthusiasts are limited to their own country's navy.

"Maybe it's because my memory is particularly good," Li Che chuckled, brushing the question off.

Although the specific details of the battle are unknown, it is clear that these battleships broke through the encirclement of the United States of Colombia's navy and successfully returned to their naval port.

According to the commander of Leizhou Harbor, these two Dingyuan-class battleships did indeed repel the two Nevadas of the United States Navy head-on—seemingly mainly because of these two Nevadas. During the artillery battle, the muzzle dispersion was quite large, and after a period of fighting, the two Colombian capital ships had been hit multiple times. Realizing they couldn't gain an advantage on their own, the two Colombian capital ships immediately opened fire.

"First of all, I must pay my respects and greetings to the brave officers and men on these two battleships. Secondly, I would like to know how many warships have been restored to combat readiness like these two Dingyuan-class battleships. I am referring to the ships in Jinlan Bay, which is very important for our next operation."

There was no need to wait for the commander's answer; just by looking at the distressed expression on his face, it was clear that the question was probably a bit beyond the scope of what a coastal defense commander like him should know.

"Let me rephrase the question. Including the two main battleships we have now, I hope to have at least four, and preferably six, main battleships that have been restored to combat capability by next month."

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Chapter 88 Attacking Where the Enemy Must Rescue (1)

Faced with the question raised by the grandson, Lin Dongsheng, the commander of the Leizhou Port coastal defense, was somewhat taken aback. In his opinion, the question raised by the grandson was a bit too difficult for them.

It should be noted that even these two Dingyuan-class battleships were among the only two carefully selected from all the surviving capital ships in the navy that were not trapped in Surabaya harbor. They were not seriously damaged in previous naval battles, were in good condition, and could be restored to a relatively good combat state after emergency maintenance in a short period of time.

The remaining battleships in the navy that were not besieged were not without combat capability, but due to the previous chaos and delays, they had not had the opportunity to return to the mainland for major repairs. As everyone knows, the delicious shellfish at the barbecue stand are the most annoying things for warships sailing at sea.