Seven Seas Beacon Fire

“Even so, are they really going to launch an interrogation of His Excellency Wilson right away?” Hoffman felt a sense of absurdity: “Do they want the Republicans to put another trust bomber in the future? Do they think that after Roosevelt, no one will dare to lay a hand on them?”

A silence fell over the Oval Office, and even Hoffman himself fell silent after saying those words.

Yes, that was Theodore Roosevelt. How many presidents of such a strong leadership have there been since the founding of the Colombian Federation?

President Wilson coughed twice, a wry smile on his face. "A few years ago, I wouldn't have cared about these people questioning me, nor what those conglomerates and oligarchs behind the scenes were thinking. What Theodore Roosevelt could do, I could do too..."

This is President Wilson's most honest view of the domestic tycoons. Although in many urban legends these capitalist tycoons are portrayed as omnipotent, such as the legendary Wall Street, in reality, in the face of real power, those so-called "shadow empires" have always been weak and powerless.

Even in South Korea, a country typically considered to be controlled by conglomerates, as long as the president isn't an incompetent person, whether it's Kaka or a young leader, they can easily manipulate the domestic conglomerates.

Even the Melancholy sect, which is associated with the most conspiracy theories, resorting to such methods to resolve the issue demonstrates that these people have no other means of resistance besides physical elimination.

But in reality, the greatest strength of these conglomerates is not their ability to secretly manipulate a country, but rather their inherent nature, like Cthulhu, which cannot be clearly described, has no clear enemy, and can infiltrate and corrupt you from any angle at any time.

When you finally become completely "in harmony with the world," you lose the power to fight them, because you have become one of them.

President Wilson is now feeling the effects of this "body" being eroded. Since Colombia is to be armed with these people during the war, he must accept their infiltration of the country's top leadership.

For an ordinary person, they could simply let things take their course. Wilson is already in his second term as president, and unless the war is still ongoing when his term ends, according to the unwritten rules of the United States, his era is about to end.

But Wilson was not satisfied with this, because he was a truly ambitious and aspiring federal president who wanted to establish a world order led by the federal government, or at least one of the most important leaders of that world order.

Therefore, under such circumstances, he needs to seize the opportunity in his last few years to handle the end of this world war and lay a good foundation for the Colombian Federation's new order system in the future.

Therefore, under such circumstances, he cannot accept focusing his main energy on dealing with these people at home. He cannot allow Congress to become a hindrance to him. So, he must properly handle the setbacks he is currently encountering on the front lines, prioritizing the most important issues and letting go of the less important ones.

These can at most be considered "setbacks" rather than "failures".

Despite the many troubles ahead, Wilson still believes he can handle everything:

"We have gained crucial fringe areas of the World Island in this war. We have been a bit greedy in the past year. Temporary setbacks have helped us recognize the limits of the United States' power. What we need to do now is to ensure that the island is in our hands and that our lads on Borneo can be evacuated."

Retreat is not a disgrace. President Washington, when leading the Continental Army against the Britons, successfully broke out of their encirclements more than once… But ultimately we will surely win, only this victory will not be now, but in the future.”

President Wilson slowly rose from behind his desk in the Oval Office, supporting himself with his hands, much like Kevin Spacey's iconic pose in "House of Cards." He now understood what he needed to do and what he had to do.

"From now on, all letters sent from the front lines to the rear will be reviewed by the military before being mailed to their families. All officers and soldiers who have retreated to Yingzhou will rest and recuperate there. All underground radio stations within our control of the entire Western Pacific must be shut down and controlled. All news related to the front lines must be released with our permission, and all news reports must be reviewed by us!"

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Huaiqing Province, Luzon (Manila)

As the capital of Luzon, the true "fiefdom" of the Royal Palace of Luzon is also the de facto frontline home port of the Federal Navy for the past year or so. Although the port is still crowded, there are no longer any large surface ships that look like mountains. Instead, there are mostly destroyers of a thousand tons and cruisers of a few thousand tons at most.

The main force of the Federal Navy's Pacific Fleet has now moved to Kagoshima. Although the Federal Navy did not suffer fatal losses in the last Battle of the Bashi Channel, more than one-third of the warships that survived the war had to undergo large-scale repairs in port.

This includes replacing destroyed turrets, repairing structural damage to the superstructure, and even entering dry dock to repair severely damaged parts such as the waterline or bow and stern. Some ships even need to replace boilers or steam turbines due to flooding in the engine room.

Although the Tang Dynasty navy, which was fighting them, was not in much better condition, and some of its ships were even in worse condition, as Colombian Navy Secretary Sims had previously told President Wilson, for the Federal Navy, a draw in transoceanic operations was tantamount to a loss.

Therefore, the main task of the large surface ships of the Federal Navy that still have combat capabilities is now only one: to provide escort missions for large transport ships in batches.

The few last-generation armored cruisers and first-class cruisers in Tang Jun's hands did not directly participate in the Battle of the Bashi Channel. Without a strong surface combat fleet to provide escort, if these surface ships, which were undertaking large-scale commerce raiding missions, had captured the Federal Army's transport convoy, the result would have been no different from eating at a buffet.

The Federation realized that the throughput provided by Sandakan and the temporary docks built on the beach could not provide sufficient transport capacity under the current circumstances. Therefore, Huaiqing Port also began to operate as a transit port. After being abandoned as a fulcrum for the front-line fleet, the Federation Navy began to develop it into a center for the transfer of supplies.

Starting at the end of last month, they began to try to use small boats of a thousand tons or even a few hundred tons to undertake some transportation tasks. These boats were originally fishing boats or coastal transport boats collected by the Federation from the Asia-Pacific region. Although their carrying capacity was not large, their draft was very shallow, and some could even be moored directly on the beach, allowing people to wade through the seawater to board the boats.

These small boats, described as being like little mice, could transport people day and night to Huaiqing Prefecture, from where they would board larger ships to Yingzhou.

At the same time, this is also the most important field medical center for the Federal Army on the front line. Because Sandakan had been bombarded by Ming Dynasty cruisers multiple times at night, the Federal Army's largest field hospital on the front line began to be gradually transferred from Sandakan to Huaiqing Prefecture, or more precisely, a new branch hospital was added in Huaiqing Prefecture.

November 1st marked the opening of this facility, known as the New Nightingale Hospital. While touted as a large medical center in Qian County, it is essentially just a series of tents erected on a large plot of land. From the outside, it looks more like a camp for homeless people than a hospital.

Dr. Frank, who had just arrived from the federal country to serve as the hospital's director, looked with some confusion at the patients being carried off the transport ship and then at the forms handed to him by the masked officer.

"Why are you sending only internal medicine patients? Isn't this a field hospital? Most of the patients I brought are surgeons."

Chapter 179 A Stress Test for Our Federation Friends (1)

"It's already winter, so why are we still suffering so many non-combat casualties? It even seems like we're losing more than we were in the same period last month?"

In the simple command post, Pan Xing looked at the latest statistics presented to him, and his brows furrowed even more deeply—to be precise, his brows hadn't relaxed at all for some time, and they almost always twisted into two knots when he slept.

One bad news after another, with almost no good news, it's impossible for anyone to smile under such high pressure.

"Who told this place to still be almost 30 degrees Celsius?" Arthur, the chief of staff of the Federal Expeditionary Force, added from the side. "There were already quite a few cases like this in the summer, whether it was malaria or various flu. Our non-combat casualties in the summer were almost as many as our combat casualties. Compared to these Easterners, our soldiers are clearly less adapted to the climate here. We have tried everything we can, but this problem has never been solved."

"Damn it." Pershing slammed the report on the table. "I'm starting to think we're a bunch of idiots. After taking over Yingzhou, we're already thinking about getting into Nanyang. I really don't understand how these Easterners have survived on this land."

"The East has a large population. As early as 200 years ago, the Ming Empire, due to the rapid growth of its domestic population, began to systematically migrate to Southeast Asia in order to alleviate domestic pressure. This area has long been a 'pressure relief zone' for the Eastern Empire. Putting aside the mineral and rubber resources here, if it were really a good place, given the style of that Eastern Empire, how could it not have incorporated it into the empire's territory?"

After listening to the chief of staff's words, Pershing looked him up and down with a newfound appreciation: "I don't remember when you became a geography expert."

“I just didn’t get a chance to prove myself before. Have you forgotten that my wife’s father is a geography professor? I did a lot of intensive study to make a good impression on him.” The chief of staff had a “who do you think I am” look on his face. Under Pershing’s surprised gaze, he opened up and talked at length: “On the islands of Southeast Asia, Borneo was the center of maritime trade in Southeast Asia, so it became the earliest origin of industry in the East.”

“But even today, Borneo’s industrial scale doesn’t seem particularly large relative to its population?” Pershing raised his doubts. “If there were a super industrial zone on this island like the Tangshan Industrial Zone, we probably wouldn’t have had the idea of ​​landing and operating here in the first place.”

"This is not surprising. Although industrial development started earliest here, it was limited by the high temperatures. After industrialization began here, it gradually moved northward. In Borneo, until the late 20th century, the industry on the island was not fundamentally different from that in the early 20th century."

However, things began to change after the advent of equipment such as refrigeration units and water-cooled air conditioners. This place caught the tail end of the Second Industrial Revolution; most of the tough reinforced concrete buildings in Dongdu that we struggled with were built in the last 20 years, and their development was rapid…”

"In comparison, Luzon Island seems to be more pristine?"

"That's because Luzon is the true 'fiefdom' of the Song royal family. It was never affected by industry from the beginning, and even now, apart from Manila Port, there are hardly any major cities there," the chief of staff said. "So we designated it as a transit point for our non-combat casualties, believing that they can recover better there."

Pan Xing glanced at it, but the chief of staff didn't say anything. He knew that the chief of staff had been very busy lately and was really overwhelmed with dealing with these matters. He probably didn't even care about the fate of these non-combat casualties anymore.

But as I mentioned earlier, if Luzon is more pristine, then the mosquitoes on that island also need to be more pristine, since the urbanization rate there is much lower than on Borneo. I can only hope that the soldiers have good luck.

Before the two finished their conversation, the sound of artillery fire rang out again. The enemy facing the Federal Army was now able to organize increasingly fierce artillery bombardments.

On the one hand, this was because the Tang army's fleet had recaptured the positions and facilities around Yan Dongdu. The Federation had prepared a lot of cannons and ammunition for the attack, but now these cannons and shells had obviously been redirected by the Easterners on the other side, who were using the cannons and shells abandoned by the Federation to bombard the Federation's current positions.

The firepower the Federation forces are currently facing is truly heartbreaking. Pershing's original plan was for the infantry to retreat in batches, with the participating troops withdrawing in shifts with their complete formations and heavy equipment. However, the massive collapse of the front lines caused by the enemy's attack across the Central Mountains has resulted in significant losses. While personnel casualties are secondary, the loss of heavy equipment is the most worrying issue.

The Federation of Colombia has the world's largest arms factory, but the cannons produced in the factory also need to be transported over.

While the rear could at least replenish their missing artillery, the Federation's artillery ammunition became increasingly scarce after the months-long stockpile of shells was lost. Therefore, during the day, when the enemy's artillery was firing at them, the Federation's artillery rarely retaliated.

To save ammunition.

The shells being transported now are basically squeezed out from other supplies needed by the soldiers. Pershing never imagined that the Colombian federal troops he commanded would one day be so concerned about the quantity of shells.

“FxxK…They’ve started attacking again…” the chief of staff blurted out a word starting with “F,” while Pershing remained silent.

“They’re riding high right now, and our lads’ morale is pretty low,” Pershing asked another staff officer beside him. “Is the navy really unable to complete its escort mission for the transport convoys?”

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If the Federal Navy could hear the questions General Pershing is asking now, they would surely feel incredibly wronged.

Following the Battle of the Bashi Channel, Federal Navy warships began lining up for the opportunity to enter dry dock for repairs, as these ships had suffered severe damage in the decisive naval battle.

It should be noted that even the most powerful standard battleships in the Federation Navy, especially the Colorado-class battleships, were heavily targeted by enemy 280mm naval guns during the Battle of the Bashi Channel.

During the engagement, these ships continuously used semi-armor-piercing shells to attack. Although the armor boxes were mostly intact, the unprotected areas were riddled with holes. In particular, the flooding of the bow almost caused the Federal Navy to experience a repeat of the experience of the Lützow battlecruiser, one of its standard battleships.

The Federal Navy now has only 10 main warships in relatively good condition left. Of course, the number of main warships that the Tang Dynasty Royal Navy can deploy at any time is also about the same. After the recent Battle of the Bashi Channel, both sides have significantly reduced the number of main warships that can be immediately deployed for missions.

Normally, after a great war, both sides should enter a period of rest and recuperation. The British and Leitanians were quiet for quite a while after the Battle of Jutland. However, the situation was not the same for the Commonwealth and the Tang Dynasty.

After all, one side wanted to blockade and the other wanted to escort, and with them locked in a fierce battle, the conflict had reached its climax and there was no way to stop.

At the beginning, the Tang army's attack ships were mainly the light cruisers that were originally carrying out commerce raiding missions, plus some destroyers and submarines. The Federation, in addition to sending in more destroyers and light cruisers, also started to turn merchant ships into fleets and set sail based on their experience in the Atlantic, and then dispatched surface ships to escort them.

At the beginning, when the Tang army's light cruisers and destroyers encountered the Federation's escort fleet at sea, they tried to launch an immediate attack. However, although the Omaha-class light cruisers, with a displacement of 8000 tons, were not particularly satisfactory to the Federation in terms of design, especially in terms of their own gun layout, the Omaha-class light cruisers, which were tasked with escorting the fleet, were always able to defeat the Tang army's light cruisers and chase them around because of their size and the abundance of six-inch guns.

Upon realizing that the Federation had launched a targeted escort operation, the Tang army immediately dispatched the first-class cruisers and last-generation armored cruisers that had been used in the previous phase of the commerce raiding mission. These ships had also returned to port for maintenance after the Battle of the Bashi Channel, and now it was a good opportunity for them to provoke Omaha.

Let's give our dear Federation friends a little more intensity!

So at the end of October, a Federation fleet suffered a devastating blow. The two Omaha-class light cruisers and several second-class cruisers that were escorting the fleet were completely helpless against the last-generation armored cruisers in the hands of the Tang army. The first-class cruisers, equipped with 180mm and 210mm guns, were at least not as good in terms of armor protection, and they could still fight back. However, when faced with the last-generation armored cruisers that practically had "specialized in six-inch guns" written on their armor protection, the Federation escort fleet could only be chased around. Then the entire fleet was hunted by both destroyers and submarines.

This directly led to a situation where a dozen or so merchant ships in the fleet tried to escape when things went wrong, and they were immediately made an example of. The remaining merchant ships naturally became prisoners of the Tang Dynasty. The cargoes on these ships varied, and some were taken back after inspection, while others were simply scuttled at sea.

After this incident, the Federal Navy learned a painful lesson – because its own last armored cruisers were almost wiped out by the Ming army in the Battle of Sulu. The Federal Navy does have armored cruisers still in service, but those ships are all from the 90s.

Don't underestimate the technological advancements from the 1890s to the first decade of the 20th century. Even the Garibaldi-class armored cruisers, considered exemplary models of armored cruisers, would have been utterly outmatched if they had encountered later, less advanced armored cruisers or the newly built first-class cruisers of this world war. Their guns could effectively engage at a range of 10,000 meters; could yours?

To end the escalating tensions in escort forces between the two sides, the Federal Navy opted to deploy its most valuable assets—ten Federal battleships, not severely damaged in the Battle of the Bashi Channel but still combat-ready, were divided into two squadrons, which would take turns escorting the departing transport convoys.

Among the 10 Federation battleships that carried out escort missions, the leading one was the Federation Navy's Nevada-class battleship. As the pioneering work of the standard battleship, although it was uncertain whether the triple-gun turrets could meet the design requirements when the Nevada-class battleship was built, a mixed design scheme of triple and twin gun turrets, such as the 3223, was chosen.

This design style was not uncommon in early triple-mounted warships, including the Syracuse Navy's Count Cavour-class battleships.

Although it lacked two gun barrels, this did not significantly affect the combat effectiveness of the Nevada-class battleships. After all, setting aside firepower, the Nevada-class battleships had the same protection specifications as later standard battleships, with 13.5-inch side armor and 18-inch turret frontal armor. They were truly ironclad to the core.

Moreover, perhaps because half of the turrets were twin-mounted, the Nevada-class battleships were relatively small in number compared to standard battleships. With such powerful battleships leading the escort mission, the Tang army's commerce raiding team quickly found itself in a somewhat awkward situation.

I can't beat them, I really can't beat them. Although they definitely can't catch up with me, they obviously don't intend to use these ships to chase me.

They're here to provide protection.

Chapter 180 A Stress Test for Our Federation Friends (2)

"Didn't you say you were going to let some of the Federation troops go? Now they're escorting them with battleships, and you're not happy about it."

While playing with the pet in her palm, Zhu Miaoyun deliberately spoke sarcastically to Li Che, who was looking at the documents on the desk with great annoyance.

Yes, it's all sarcastic and sarcastic, and our Crown Prince doesn't even dare to respond directly to such sarcastic remarks.

"This isn't a question of whether I'm willing or not; it involves a power struggle between us and the Federal Army," Li Che said somewhat helplessly. "What we need to do now is to tighten the gates from the beginning, maximizing the difficulty and cost for them to evacuate, and then loosen a gap to let a batch of people out at the end. It's like..."

"Stop at an inch?"

"Could you use a more natural analogy? Like the first breath after drowning? Wouldn't that be more in line with your status, my princess?"

Li Che turned his head away with a hint of helplessness. Yunzi had been somewhat reserved when she was with him before, but ever since he hugged her and pressed her head against his chest that day, Yunzi had clearly hoped that the two of them would truly develop into a relationship where they knew each other inside and out.

In short, Yunzi is lusting after his body!

However, Li Che was temporarily unable to respond to Zhu Miaoyun. Of course, this does not mean that our male protagonist is without worldly desires. As a modern young man who believes that his physical attributes are no less than Lin Youde's, His Highness the Crown Prince is perfectly normal.

However, on the one hand, he is really busy right now. Although he doesn't need to directly command those large-scale battles, the many tasks he has to take care of are already exhausting him.

After all, he has become the most indispensable link between the navy, which still retains many characteristics of the previous dynasty, and the current court. In less than a year, through several large-scale military operations, Li Che has established a good camaraderie with his naval colleagues and recruited a considerable number of outstanding young officers as his "protégés".

These are things that both the navy and the imperial court promoted and welcomed. After all, everyone's starting point was the future and destiny of the country and the nation. Under such circumstances, if both sides could completely resolve their historical issues through this harmonious approach after one or two generations, it would be a blessing for the entire country and nation.

For the past two months, Li Che has averaged four and a half hours of sleep per day.

If he were to have his blood tested now, Li Che would be absolutely certain that his transaminase levels would be too high. Just being in charge of these overall planning and coordination tasks already made Li Che feel completely exhausted. Therefore, he now had even more sincere respect for those commanders who were truly leading large-scale operations on the front lines.

On the other hand, before the former Ming imperial family was officially defined, Li Che was very clear that he could not touch Zhu Miaoyun casually. Of course, this did not mean that if he did something to the former Ming imperial family, he would have to sever ties with Zhu Miaoyun. It was simply because if he developed a deep or superficial relationship with Zhu Miaoyun now, some people might use it to attack his father and grandfather.

After all, you can explain it as a consensual relationship between the two people, but some people with ulterior motives can exaggerate it into rumors like Sima Zhao raping a female version of Cao Mao in the street to attack you.

However, it is clear that our princess cannot listen to these grand principles, or more accurately, she does not want to listen.

As soon as Li Che turned his head, he saw the princess's slightly resentful gaze, and the pet being played with in her hands was being kneaded like dough... Wait a minute?

"What are you holding? Where did Gian go?"

Fat Tiger is the name of the orange cat from before. That fat cat is now the size of half a pet pig. Li Che can understand that Zhu Miaoyun also thinks that fat cat is a bit too heavy and doesn't want to hold it in her arms. But what are you holding in your hands now?

"A fancy rat? You've never seen anyone keep that kind of pet before, have you?"

"I've seen people keep hamsters as pets, and it's not that I can't accept keeping mice as pets, but I think if you're going to keep a fancy hamster, at least don't keep a hamster with its natural fur, okay?"

"I don't care what kind of skin it is. This one has the gentlest personality and listens to me the most." Zhu Miaoyun said meaningfully, "Fat Tiger has been a bit disobedient lately, so yesterday I just helped him to get rid of worldly desires forever. From now on, he can cultivate the Sunflower Manual without any desires."

Li Che decided not to delve any deeper into this matter. Hmph, woman, after the war is over, I will make you call me dad!

"Okay, I was just kidding."

Zhu Miaoyun summoned a lady-in-waiting from outside and handed the original-skinned fancy mouse to the little girl whose whole body was filled with resistance. She asked the little girl to put Jerry back in the cage. After wiping her hands with a hot towel and chasing the others out, Zhu Miaoyun came behind Li Che and began to silently massage his temples.

"What trouble have the Federalists given you this time? What's putting you in such a difficult position?"

"It's nothing much. The Federation has started using battleships to escort their transport convoys. They still have 10 battleships capable of combat missions, and that number will almost certainly rise to more than 15 in the coming months."

"Because of those Leitanian ships?" Zhu Miaoyun tilted her head. "Why are the Leitanians so spineless this time? If they had launched Operation Rainbow like they did in our original world, we would be under much less pressure now."

"That's not about lacking backbone. In the final battle, they didn't dare to attack and even sailed into the enemy's port to surrender. What kind of backbone do they have? Historically, the Leitanians launched Operation Rainbow because the Leitanian Navy had poor communication with the domestic and Allied powers. The officers and soldiers of the Leitanian Navy were worried that the Allied powers would launch another attack. In order to prevent these warships produced by their own country from attacking their homeland, the Leitanian Navy launched Operation Rainbow."

In this world, such communication breakdowns clearly didn't occur, so Operation Rainbow wouldn't have happened. The various countries divided up the Leitanian navy's warships, which meant Leitania would have to pay less war reparations, ultimately benefiting the Leitanians in the long run.

"Shouldn't the focus now be on whether this is a good thing for us?"

“The real problem doesn’t lie with those few Leitanian warships,” Li Che shook his head. “Our fleet’s recovery speed is faster than the Federation’s. By the time those Leitanian ships are back to combat readiness in the Federation’s hands, our first batch of warships undergoing repairs will also be able to regain their combat readiness. The problem now is that the Federation has divided its ten battleships that are still capable of performing missions into two fleets for escort duties…”

"Ten ships divided into two fleets?" Zhu Miaoyun asked in surprise, "Didn't they just lose a battle? How dare they split their forces like this?"