Seven Seas Beacon Fire

Of course, the seriously wounded were not excluded from evacuation; what was prepared for them were the smaller S-series fleets docked at temporary piers.

However, since an unknown flu began to spread among the Colombian expeditionary force a while ago, in order to deal with the increasing number of fever patients, the Colombian army chose to transfer these fever patients to Luzon Island first.

For this reason, the Colombian army also built a large field hospital on Luzon Island. The seriously wounded were initially treated in the field hospital on the front line in Borneo. Later, some of the cases were indeed more serious and could not be cured in a short time, so they were sent to Luzon Island along with these infected patients.

Although they were supposed to be sent to places with "better medical conditions," no one was stupid. When the soldiers found the wounded lying on stretchers haphazardly crammed together in the cabin like salted fish, they understood the fate of these seriously wounded soldiers.

Although the expeditionary force high command initially intended to keep this matter secret, the officers and soldiers of the troops who were on guard duty and under martial law also had their own friends or brothers in other units. In order to avoid their relatives and friends becoming actual expendable pawns, they informed their friends or brothers about the situation on Luzon Island.

Soon enough, the news could no longer be kept secret.

More and more seriously wounded people are choosing to stay in frontline hospitals with limited medical resources rather than be transferred to medical centers on the so-called Luzon Island.

That is why the officers and soldiers waiting to board the ship reacted so violently when they saw stretchers being carried directly onto the naval warship and witnessed this unfair privilege, even going so far as to mock a general without any politeness.

Major General McNair was well aware of this, and he himself felt inexplicably ashamed. Even though his injuries were indeed sustained while fighting on the front lines, he knew very well that his injuries were not serious enough to warrant lying on a stretcher.

His injury was both serious and not serious. It was not serious because it was an infection and inflammation in one part of his body, and the situation was quite serious. However, usually, for military doctors, if all else fails, they will cut that part off, which can at least save his life.

The problem is that this place is the most important place for a man. In the previous battle, it was lightly grazed by a piece of shrapnel. Although he did not become a eunuch as a result, the wound there was indeed the most painful for a man. What was worse was that in this hot and humid environment, it quickly became inflamed and oozed pus. The military doctor said that if he was not sent to the rear for treatment, he might lose his good brother forever.

As General Pershing's old subordinate, Pershing had him put on a naval warship and evacuated with the navy for such a serious injury, which is indeed very important to a man. Such an experience is hard to describe, and it is no wonder that Rear Admiral McNair, who has always had a bad temper, remained silent when faced with the sarcastic remarks of those soldiers.

He was almost the last to board the B-3 convoy, and as the highest-ranking Army officer among the evacuees, he was aboard Lieutenant General Zangwell's flagship, the USS Oklahoma.

After boarding the warship and entering the cabin, he stood up from the stretcher with the help of soldiers. Just as he was about to take crab-like steps to walk inside, he ran into Vice Admiral Zangwell, who was inspecting the condition of the warship.

Lieutenant General Zangwell knew that an Army major general would be traveling on this ship today, but he never expected to see the Army general appear before him in such a comical way under these circumstances. Major General McNair's expression was one of barely concealed embarrassment. After the two shook hands and saluted each other, Lieutenant General Zangwell asked if the other needed to find a cabin to rest in. Although Lieutenant General McNair was indeed feeling unwell, he still asked if he could go to the bridge of the warship.

On the one hand, Major General McNair is in so much pain that he can't sleep. The only difference is that he is in more pain when he walks, and lying down is actually more comfortable than standing with his legs spread apart.

On the other hand, Rear Admiral McNar was genuinely curious. This was his first time boarding a large naval capital ship. Any man who boards such a warship would naturally want to look around, but his current condition was not suitable for sightseeing, so he thought he would visit the bridge instead.

Lieutenant General Zangwell nodded in agreement to Rear Admiral McNair's request without any hesitation. Although the bridge of the Nevada-class battleship could not compare with the cutting-edge battleships of World War II in another world, it was still much larger than the previous pre-dreadnoughts and some dreadnoughts, and there was enough space for a few more people to stand on the bridge.

Of course, another reason is that Lieutenant General Zangwell was in a good mood. After leading the fleet into port this time, he also felt that he might have been too nervous. He did not expect that the Tang army did not seem to be prepared to launch an attack on them in such less-than-ideal weather conditions. Of course, it is also possible that the escort force sent by the Colombian army has effectively deterred the Tang army. Their surface commerce raiding ships are not enough to threaten the Colombian transport convoy with such a strong escort force.

Perhaps the enemy is now considering how to attack our transport ships using other means?

With this in mind, Lieutenant General Zangwell has felt much less stressed in the days since entering the port. After all, the most vulnerable and likely time to attack has passed – the convoy was most vulnerable and likely to be attacked when it was heavily loaded with cargo.

After all, if he were the commander of the Tang army, the most effective thing would be to destroy the transport ships and supplies on their way here. This would not only reduce the pressure on the ground battlefield, but also effectively strike the Federation Navy's transportation lines.

Since the enemy has temporarily abandoned using surface ships to attack in this section, the possibility of launching another attack on the transport convoy on the return journey has been greatly reduced.

For Rear Admiral McNair, the best news was probably that the bridge of the Nevada-class battleships had elevators. Yes, these days, it's worth mentioning that battleships have elevators on their bridges.

For example, in another timeline, the battleship Yingzhou, which was designed in the same era, did not have an elevator on its bridge because the bridge was not very tall at the beginning. However, with each modernization, the Japanese raised the bridge of the Yingzhou layer by layer to the height of a dangerous building, and the lack of an elevator on this thing became a bit of a problem - a bridge that is 60 meters high, equivalent to 15 stories high, climbing up and down every day would be exhausting.

Fortunately, Rear Admiral McNair didn't have to suffer this hardship. He took the elevator to the navigation bridge of the USS Oklahoma, which was already preparing to leave Sandakan Harbor.

Most of the transport ships in the harbor had already left the port under the escort of destroyers and cruisers. The five battleships that served as the anchor of the entire fleet were now also heading out in succession. The battleship USS Oklahoma was sailing in the middle of the formation. In front of the USS Oklahoma was its sister ship USS Nevada, and at the very front was the USS New York. Following behind were the third and fourth ships of the Wyoming-class battleships, the USS Illinois and the USS Kentucky.

虽然这三级不同的军舰看起来外观上区别很大——纽约号是5座双联装14英寸舰炮，内华达级战列舰是4座主炮塔一共也是10门14英寸舰炮，分别安置在两个三联装和两个双联装炮塔内，怀俄明级战列舰更是在中轴线上排布了6座12英寸炮塔。

However, if we consider it from the perspective of tonnage calculation, the tonnage difference between these five battleships is not actually that large. The Wyoming-class battleships and the New York-class battleships have almost identical hulls. The former has a normal displacement of over 26,000 tons, while the latter has a normal displacement of over 27,000 tons. The Nevada-class battleships also have a normal displacement of no more than 28,000 tons. The tonnage changes of these three generations of capital ships of the Federal Navy are not significant.

However, compared horizontally with the capital ships of the British at the same time, they were much more robust. The British super-dreadnought battleships equipped with 13.5-inch guns were not even as large as the Wyoming-class battleships of the Federation.

At this moment, Rear Admiral McNair, standing on the bridge of the USS Oklahoma, was somewhat dazed. This was the first time he had come into such close proximity to a large naval capital ship, and the imposing 14-inch guns of the USS Oklahoma gave him a tremendous visual impact.

The captain of the battleship USS Oklahoma noticed the ridiculous expression on the army bumpkin's face, so he smiled and brought a cup of coffee to Rear Admiral McNair's side, handing the coffee to the army major general who was standing with his legs spread apart by the porthole: "How does it feel, Your Excellency?"

"Is this our navy's best battleship?"

"This is one of the best battleships in our navy."

The captain of the USS Oklahoma was well aware that, as the earliest standard battleships, the Nevada-class battleships were certainly inferior in performance to their successors. However, to be honest, he believed that the later battleships, whether the Pennsylvania-class, the Tennessee-class, or even the Colorado-class battleships equipped with 15-inch British guns, did not offer the same level of performance improvement as the Nevada-class.

In his view, the Nevada-class battleships were masterpieces in the history of battleship design. It was the success of the Nevada-class battleships that led the Federal Navy to develop a series of similar capital ships based on the Nevada as a blueprint. Where did the name "standard battleship" come from? The standard, of course, came from the Nevada-class battleships.

Although it had two fewer main guns than the Pennsylvania and Tennessee classes, and its guns were an inch smaller in caliber than the Colorado class, the captain of the USS Oklahoma dared to lead his battleship into battle against any capital ship in the world. He believed that his warship was in no way inferior to those renowned and powerful warships.

Whether it's Queen Elizabeth of Britain or the King of Letania or the Bavarian Navy, or even the Chinese Navy's Dingyuan-class battleships, the USS Oklahoma will not fear any of these capital ships.

Rear Admiral McNair's question immediately opened up the conversation of the captain of the USS Oklahoma. For the next two hours, the captain talked about everything from the ship's birth to Colombia's entry into the war, how the USS Oklahoma had fought across the oceans, and he also detailed every military operation the ship had participated in.

In the captain's account of the USS Oklahoma, the battleship is likened to a spirited horse in a Western movie, especially in his description of the battleship's performance in the Battle of the Bashi Channel, giving the impression that if the ship had been a little luckier that day, the Union Navy would have won!

No, the Navy had already won, but if they had performed better, they could have won by a larger margin!

One of them was quite eloquent, while the other became a very competent listener in this environment. Lieutenant General Zangwell even chimed in for a couple of minutes. Later, even the lieutenant general felt that one of them was good at talking and the other was good at listening, so he didn't want to disrupt their conversation and let them chat like that for more than two hours.

Major General McNair talked about how his own penis no longer hurt.

Is this what the navy was like before? If it weren't for the weather, would the navy still be able to maintain absolute sea control over the entire Western Pacific region?

When Major General McNair realized what was happening, he turned around and found that the coastline had disappeared behind him. Although he could still see the Central Mountain Range of Borneo in the distance, the horizon behind him had now replaced the coastline, and they were gradually drifting away into the open ocean.

Some people do feel lonely, or even fearful, in such an environment.

Rear Admiral McNair was one of them. He hadn't felt it much when he was on a cruise ship in his cabin before, but this time, driven by his curiosity, he went to the bridge. In this place where he could directly observe the surrounding sea conditions, the feeling became much stronger.

"Will anyone come to attack us?" Major General McNair asked.

"Even if there are any, there's nothing to fear." The captain of the USS Oklahoma patted him hard on the shoulder. "Don't forget, you're on the strongest battleship in Asia right now!"

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Minna drew the Dragon Abyss from this book. It is the most detailed design since the beginning of naval power, with the most accurate data in all aspects and the most reasonable technical details of the main battleship.

If I have time later, I'll write a separate chapter to discuss this in detail.

Here's a picture. If you can't see it, please refresh the page.

Chapter 196 God! What is that? (2)

The description of "the most powerful battleship in Asia now" has more than one definite article. Although the captain of the USS Oklahoma was indeed trying to glorify his warship by saying this, after all, the Tang army still had a Dingyuan-class super-dreadnought in its hands that was capable of fighting. If the USS Oklahoma encountered a Dingyuan-class battleship, it would at most be a 50/50 matchup.

However, this did not prevent the captain of the USS Oklahoma from giving Rear Admiral McNair a great sense of security, a sense of security he had not been able to obtain on land since the defeat in the Battle of the Eastern Capital.

But Rear Admiral McNair wasn't a fool to be easily fooled. Although the description given by the captain of the USS Oklahoma gave the impression that the Navy had fought so many battles since the start of the war, and had all sorts of problems, blaming the environment, the weather, the British, and even subtly complaining about Washington, the Navy itself had never done anything wrong.

The problem is, if you really didn't do anything wrong, how did things turn out like this when things were going so well?

However, since they were on someone else's ship, Major General McNair certainly wouldn't bring up these issues. As the saying goes in the East, when you're under someone else's roof, you have to bow your head.

In any country, the navy's food is much better than the army's. After all, the navy, from top to bottom, is a technical branch compared to the army, and the situation is naturally the same for Colombians.

The difference in diet between the federal army and navy was probably the smallest among all the armies and navies in the world. After all, the standard of living in the Colombian Federation is what it is, and the food of the federal army is not bad. It is not like the Japanese army and navy during World War II in another world, where there was almost a difference between humans and animals.

However, this is the state of logistics for the Federation troops trapped on the island during this period. A while ago, they even started using a so-called new type of ration to supply the troops' consumption. Although Major General McNair, as a general, would not have to eat that new type of ration that soldiers call feed with ordinary soldiers, it is unrealistic to expect him to eat well under such circumstances, whether from the perspective of maintaining basic stability within the troops or from the perspective of realistic conditions.

The one million Colombian troops had already looted all the livestock they could find in the villages and towns they passed through. Those that could be eaten were already consumed. The remaining large animals were mostly used to pull artillery or wagons; they couldn't be slaughtered indiscriminately. Even the animals that died from daily wear and tear were mostly not properly bled, and horses made up the majority of the dead, and horse meat tasted...

In short, when Major General McNair was eating steak again, he was so moved that he almost cried. After wolfing down the whole steak, he even felt that his penis didn't hurt as much anymore.

Enjoying these delicious foods and savoring the flavors on his taste buds, he finally felt that he was truly moving away from that battlefield of carnage.

Major General McNair seemed to have already seen his wife and children at home. Although he and his colleagues had frequented the pleasure quarters of Yingzhou when he was in the Kingdom of Kii, and had countless intimate conversations with Yingzhou geishas, ​​this did not prevent him from recalling his deep affection for his wife at this moment.

Just as he closed his eyes, seemingly able to feel his wife sitting opposite him, enjoying the delicious food she had cooked, a piercing alarm suddenly blared inside the warship.

As an Army officer, Major General McNair naturally couldn't recognize that it was the Navy's red alert bell. When this alarm sounded, it meant that the fleet was about to enter a state of high alert, indicating that the enemy had been clearly detected in the vicinity.

However, from the piercing sound of the brass bells and the flashing red lights overhead, McNair could tell that something must have happened.

Could it be that we've been attacked by a submarine?

McNair had heard of previous transport ships carrying soldiers that were attacked by submarines en route, with the vast majority of the crew perishing. So his first thought was that the transport convoy had been attacked by enemy submarines.

The reason for this idea was largely because after witnessing the awe-inspiring armament on the battleship, McNair subconsciously felt that how could enemy commerce raiders dare to challenge such a steel behemoth?

As someone who knew almost nothing about the navy, McNair's understanding of commerce raiding was still at the stage of modern-day pirate ships. How dare pirate ships openly attack a fleet escorted by a powerful naval fleet in broad daylight?

Due to a misunderstanding of the commerce raiding of this era and a fear of demonizing submarine attacks, Rear Admiral McNair dared not go into the ship's cabin at this time. Even he knew that even the powerful battleship he was on could still be sunk by a submarine ambush, as torpedoes were by nature the most effective weapon against warships.

Fearing that the warship might sink at sea due to torpedoes, and that he would be unfamiliar with the ship's space and find it difficult to escape from inside, Rear Admiral McNair did not return to the cabin but went to the deck. On the way, he stopped several naval officers and men who passed by him, but these officers and men on the USS Oklahoma were not quite sure why the battle alarm had suddenly been sounded.

Only one of the more experienced senior sergeants said to Rear Admiral McNair, "We have definitely encountered enemy warships."

Enemy warships?

What warship?

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On the bridge of the USS Oklahoma, bad news kept coming in. The Colombian escort fleet reported encounters with Chinese surface ships, including destroyers and cruisers, from multiple directions. In some areas, the two sides had already begun close-quarters combat.

The good news for the Colombian military for now is that no large surface ships of the Tang army, weighing over 10,000 tons, have been found to be involved in the attack.

The bad news is that, to the south of B-3, the Colombian warships responsible for bringing up the rear have reported spotting the Tang army's "Yangtze River" class first-class cruisers.

These large ocean-going cruisers with a displacement of over 9500 tons can be considered the prototype of heavy cruisers. In the Tang army, they were undoubtedly second-class capital ships. In past naval raiding campaigns, these cruisers were basically used as the final force.

And now these cruisers are actually acting as the vanguard...

Just like that classic joke—I don't know who's in the car, but I saw Comrade Brezhnev driving it!

If such a first-class cruiser could be deployed for probing and reconnaissance work in the initial stages, then it is almost certain that there is a Tang army's main fleet around them.

The question is, where is this main fleet located now? From which direction will they launch their attack? Will they try to intercept them in their own path?

The Colombian military is now completely baffled by all these issues.

The reason is that the Federal Navy doesn't have a single high-speed ship yet.

Lieutenant General Zangwell felt his right eyelid twitching violently. Having spent so much time in the East, he naturally knew some of the Eastern customs, but he couldn't quite remember which eyelid twitching meant good fortune and which meant bad luck was coming.

The enemy commerce raiding fleet, which they hadn't encountered along the way, finally arrived. When the shoe that had been waiting for finally dropped, Zangwell felt a little relieved despite being shot.

However, this was only "somewhat", because while he dispatched his cruiser squadrons to provide support in several directions, Vice Admiral Zangwell issued orders to the other four friendly capital ships from the bridge of the USS Oklahoma. Usually at this point, the five escorting battleships would have two options.

The first priority is to maintain the current situation where five battleships are positioned in different directions to support the entire transport convoy. This arrangement is best suited for dealing with commerce raiding convoys that have one or two large cruisers leading the way, such as the Yangtze-class cruisers currently following at the very back of the transport convoy.

This prehistoric heavy cruiser, with a displacement exceeding 9000 tons and equipped with two twin-mounted 180mm guns and four single-mounted 180mm guns, would easily overpower other Colombian cruisers at sea. Whether it was larger in tonnage or stronger in firepower, this first-class cruiser could easily deal with those second-class cruisers.

However, if such a warship encounters any major warship, it will be completely helpless. How can you use a 180mm water pipe to scrape the 12-inch armor of the other side?

What? You expect to drown the enemy with sheer numbers? Do you think you're playing World of Warships?

"If the Tang army were to deploy warships in this way, and if they were to send out those battlecruisers to disrupt trade, those battlecruisers might actually have an opportunity to severely damage their own capital ships."

Therefore, Lieutenant General Zangwell immediately issued the order to form a battle line. He believed that with the five capital ships reinforced and put together, the Tang army would have little chance of defeating them even if they sent out all their remaining capital ships.

However, just as the battle line was being formed, the cruiser and destroyer squadrons of the escort fleet, which had previously engaged in close combat with the Tang army's squadrons, also sent in further intelligence, mostly describing how many enemies they had encountered.

Among these telegrams, those from the cruisers that were escorting the convoy and bringing up the rear in the south sent entirely new telegrams with drastically different contents—

"Enemy battleship spotted!"

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When Lieutenant General Zangwell learned that enemy battleships were approaching from behind, he had already sensed something was amiss.

They are now clearly in the midst of a deliberate enemy ambush. Under such circumstances, considering that their formation is escorted by battleships, shouldn't the enemy have deployed a battle line along the entire convoy's path to block them?

But they caught up from behind, meaning the enemy's formation had already cut them off from Sandakan Port.

They haven't been gone long. If the enemy comes from the front, and the situation becomes extremely dire, these transport ships can quickly return to Sandakan port. But now...

Shaking his head to banish these chaotic thoughts from his mind, Vice Admiral Zangwell ordered five battleships to make a T-turn at sea. Since you're chasing us from the south, I'll just give you a straight T-turn.

As the Colombian navy's five main warships began to turn under his command, a majestic figure gradually emerged from beneath the distant horizon.

Initially, this did not attract much attention from the Colombian military. To them, it was just the bridge of a battleship in the Tang army fleet—at most, it was just a different color.

"My God, what is that?"

However, the experienced gunners quickly noticed something was wrong, because they first discovered that all the enemy battleships that were catching up from behind were now visible above the horizon. They soon discovered that the two battleships at the very front of the enemy formation were not using the triple 330mm guns of the Dingyuan-class battleships, but rather a huge twin-mounted turret that they had never seen before.

Four twin-mounted turrets are arranged along the central axis. Since the Ming Dynasty, there have been quite a few capital ships that have adopted the layout of four twin-mounted turrets. Among the warships participating in the war today, more than one capital ship has adopted this gun layout.

However, after entering the era of super-dreadnoughts, apart from the Haiqi-class battlecruisers, the Ming/Tang armies no longer had any battleships that adopted this layout.

Undoubtedly, they had encountered a new type of enemy battleship. The Columbians didn't have detailed data on the Longyuan-class battleships, but the basic information they could immediately glean was enough to make them feel the immense pressure of facing a prehistoric behemoth...

Great news! Great news! Great news!

Comrades!

Today is a memorable day, the 131st anniversary of the Chairman's birth, and the complete collapse of the air superiority of American imperialism!