Shipgirls and Salted Fish Commander, Port Survival Guide

According to the established rules within the port area, each faction can only possess Jing Su for a fixed period of time, at most two months. Two months! I don't even know if we can find the host in that time.

In other words, the White Eagle camp may not be able to spend much time with Jing Su this time, and will only be able to fight the Sirens.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Seeing Saratoga's expression, Jing Su thought this battle would be difficult and felt a little uneasy, so he quickly asked.

Jing Su came to the front lines to see if she could make a difference in the quarterly offensive. Although Warspite and the others repeatedly said that she only needed to stand in the safe zone and watch them perform, Jing Su felt bad about not doing anything once she arrived.

"Actually, it's nothing... Hmm? Wait, it seems there really is something!" Saratoga originally wanted to stick to the agreed-upon explanation and tell Jing Su not to get involved. The White Eagle camp already didn't have much time, and if Jing Su got involved in the battle, wouldn't there be even less time? But as soon as she said it, Saratoga seemed to have thought of something and stopped herself.

"?"

"Um, cough cough, Commander, could you please arrange the personnel for this operation?" Saratoga said with a grin after quickly organizing his thoughts.

"Huh?" Jing Su was a little confused. What kind of support is this?

“Hey, Commander, you don’t know this, do you?” Saratoga brought over a chair, jumped onto it with a little effort, and explained with a smile, “Don’t be fooled by the fact that the other factions are now on the Eagle Union’s territory. Actually, all along, each faction has been fighting its own battles. Basically, you only see the ship girls from other factions when it’s time to fight the main battle.”

Commander, if everyone fights alone, look how slow that is! If everyone cooperates and takes turns fighting, wouldn't the efficiency be much higher?

However, since the different factions are independent of each other, even though I am the overall commander in this battle, I cannot specifically assign combat tasks to the other factions. I can only follow convention by giving each faction a defensive zone and letting them handle the combat matters along their own lines. As for progress, there's no way to rush it; it all depends on the other factions' mood.

“In that case, it is indeed not very appropriate, but what does it have to do with me?” Saratoga spoke like a machine gun, so fast that Jing Su almost couldn’t keep up, but she still managed to catch some details.

To put it bluntly, it's a case of different factions fighting their own battles. As the overall commander, Eagle Union can't interfere with the battle progress of other factions. They can only passively wait for other ship girls to report on the combat progress of their respective defense zones, and then formulate the next plan based on this progress. This is not only very inefficient, but the other factions may not even listen to the newly drafted plan. If the other factions feel that Eagle Union is sabotaging them and refuse to obey, Saratoga doesn't have a good solution.

To put it bluntly, the problem is that the command system lacks sufficient authority.

However, Jing Su was very puzzled. The other factions didn't listen to the plans drafted by the command center, so would my words be effective? After all, all the ship girls in the entire port area knew that he had actually lost his past memories. In other words, all the ship girls knew that their commander was actually unable to command battles now.

In Jing Su's view, if the ship girls would refuse to obey the orders issued by the professional departments, wouldn't it be even less likely that no one would listen to the opinions given by someone who is not a professional?

"Hehe, Commander, don't underestimate your influence~" Saratoga saw Jing Su's expression and knew what Jing Su was wondering about. She was one of the top pranksters in the port. A prankster is someone who can have fun without making the person being pranked angry. That's the important thing. If you just tease others, that's building your happiness on other people's pain. In the long run, you won't have any friends.

In fact, Saratoga's daily pranks not only didn't damage his interpersonal relationships, but he was even able to maintain his position as the frontline internal affairs manager of the White Eagle camp. This requires a considerable talent for judging people. At the very least, Saratoga needs to know what kind of pranks the other party can accept and what kind will really anger them.

Therefore, judging what others are thinking by reading their facial expressions is almost an instinct for Saratoga.

"Uh, cough cough, well, I really don't know much about that." Jing Su coughed twice, indicating that she didn't really have any influence. She was already very touched that people liked her and didn't dislike her, so she dared not talk about any influence.

In fact, it is precisely because of this mentality that Jing Su has rarely, or rather almost never, given orders since transmigrating to this world. The few things she has done that can be considered giving orders are calling on the ship girls to hold some banquets and other activities.

Jing Su didn't think the ship girls would deny this instruction, since they themselves quite liked to hold banquets. The Royal Navy would hold one every now and then. Even when she first arrived at the Royal Navy's base, Queen Elizabeth herself planned to hold a banquet, but she was blocked by the crowd, so at her suggestion, it was changed to a barbecue banquet.

"Hey, Commander, has no one ever told you about your status?" Saratoga was genuinely confused, her bright eyes blinking rapidly.

"what?"

"Hmm, I think I understand now, no wonder~" Saratoga slapped her forehead, somewhat amused and exasperated. No wonder Jing Su had been back for so long, and the ship girls hadn't received any specific instructions from him. If you had to put it in perspective, at the very beginning, Jing Su told the ship girls to continue doing what they were doing before, and to wait for him to come and find them.

This was the only specific order Jing Su issued. It was because of this order that even Ron and Akagi, who had rather extreme personalities, suppressed their inner turmoil and chose to stay in their original areas. Akagi continued to enjoy the flowers and the moon, while Ron continued to perform his hand-tearing-to-tear-the-Siren warships.

The remaining ship girls also returned to their previous roles and resumed their original duties.

As for what happened later, such as the commander gathering the ship girls for a banquet at such and such a place, and what would happen to the winner, upon closer examination, it turns out that these orders did not seem to be Jing Su's own wishes at the beginning. He could be said to have passively accepted the result, and it was all a matter of chance at the beginning.

Take yesterday's swimsuit party for example. It started as a fish banquet, but then it became a swimsuit party. And then, as is customary, the ship girls added the ending that the winner gets to get close to Jing Su.

In the end, it turned out to be just a misunderstanding.

“Commander, although I can probably guess why the ship girls from other factions aren’t telling you, it’s come to this point, and I think there are some things I still need to explain to you.” After a moment of contemplation, Saratoga seemed to have made a decision, jumped off her chair, and said to Jing Su in a serious tone.

"Ah."

"Commander, you may have lost your memories of the past when you were with us, but you will always be our commander. I'm sure many ship girls have said this to you."

"Hmm." Jing Su nodded. Indeed, many ship girls had said this to her, either openly or secretly.

"That's fine then. You'll always be our commander, so, Commander, we'll definitely carry out your orders 100%, even if it costs us our lives, even if we're shattered to pieces!"

When Saratoga finished speaking, his expression was firm, his tone sincere, his posture upright, and his entire demeanor was different.

"This..." Jing Su was a little stunned when she saw this scene. She wanted to say something, but then she thought about it and realized that it was true. Putting aside the jokes she made on ordinary days, the ship girls always completed any orders she made in the shortest possible time.

At that time, Jing Su was quite touched; the ship girls were so kind to her!

Now it seems that it was because I gave the order?

"So, Commander, why do you suspect that we might deny your orders?" After saying this, Saratoga's imposing manner dissipated; maintaining that serious demeanor was exhausting.

"Um, well, how should I put it, it's probably the current state of the port area~" Jing Su scratched his head, a little embarrassed to answer.

"What is the current situation in the port area?"

"Hmm, isn't the port area currently in a state of division? On my way to the front lines, I actually kept asking Warspite and the others how the port area resolved issues related to its development direction after the division."

The war-weary theory suggests that each faction should first propose a plan, which would then be submitted to the secretary ship for discussion. However, due to differing interests among the representatives of different factions, endless arguments would ensue. Even if a solution was reached, it would be difficult to implement. If it did not align with their own interests, the faction would not carry it out.

At that time, I was thinking, if you don't take the results of the secretariat's discussion seriously, do you think you'll listen to what I, the commander who has been missing for three years, have to say? So, well…” By the end, Jing Su's face was burning red.

"So... Commander, you're a complete idiot!!!"

Chapter 272 Perform Well

Although the process was somewhat bizarre, Jing Su gained a preliminary understanding of her authority in the Hong Kong area. So, her words still carried weight?

Of course, it's quite normal for Jing Su to have this idea. He was simply drawing parallels between the port area and the situation he had witnessed in his previous life. There's an old saying in Donghuang: "When you're in office for three days, people ask me questions; when you're out of office for three days, I ask people questions."

This statement applies to any situation involving organizations and hierarchical systems.

As for the port area, he had been missing for three whole years. If someone is not at their post for three days, no one will care about them, let alone three years. What made Jing Su even more uneasy was that he knew nothing about management. If he were to organize port area management activities, he really wouldn't know how.

Otherwise, why would he have sought out Yixian on his way to the Donghuang camp to ask for some insignificant documents to give himself some experience?

However, as it turns out, the rules between different things do not necessarily apply. The port area is a rather special existence, and ship girls cannot be imagined with human thinking. From beginning to end, Jing Su was just scaring herself.

Because he was unsure of what the ship girls were thinking, Jing Su never mentioned it to them, and the ship girls, in turn, didn't reveal these things to him.

For ship girls, is the commander's leadership even something to consider? Unless it's something related to physical intimacy, they'll definitely listen to the commander 100%!

As for some more private matters, well... hehe~

"Saratoga, is this enough?" At Saratoga's prompting, Jing Su quickly compiled a strike list and handed it to Saratoga for review.

"Hmm, as expected of the commander, you compiled a list in such a short time. Let me see~" Saratoga skipped over, took Jing Su's appointment letter, and was stunned.

"Hmm, is there a problem? Cough cough, even if there is, you're not allowed to laugh at me. After all, you know my situation!" Seeing Saratoga's strange gaze, Jing Su blushed and quickly defended himself.

At first, he thought, "Well, it turns out that forming a team according to the game's strategy guide is not going to work." After learning that Saratoga asked him to compile the sortie list, Jing Su decided to form the Ironblood Artillery Team, the White Eagle Carrier Team, and the White Eagle Artillery Team based on his experience in the game.

If it weren't for the fact that there was only one Helena and one Plymouth, making them fight the entire time would be a bit insane. Jing Su even wanted to form a Sakura Empire carrier fleet. According to Akagi, Hakuryu and the Sleeping Fox were already on their way to the front line. If the commander needed them, Nagato would personally bring Musashi to provide support.

Jing Su's thinking was this: since the goal was to fight the Sirens, it was necessary to prepare several different combat strength levels. Other things were not considered for the time being; the main force should be brought out first.

Jing Su glanced at the frontline ship girl reserves and found that each faction could probably field a main force. While a full-color fleet might be a bit difficult, a gold fleet was definitely achievable.

For example, in the Donghuang faction, the front row consists of Yixian with Ningping Shuanghai, and the back row consists of two guides and Zhenhai. If you want to maximize combat power, you can replace Zhenhai with Binjiang. After all, in this world, there is no absolute distinction between front and back rows.

If the ship girls are happy, deploying six front-line vanguards is no problem.

"Well, how should I put it? There aren't any major problems with the team composition, but Commander, are you sending these people to fight in another world?" Saratoga looked at the list on the document with a strange gaze, then looked at Jing Su, and after confirming that she hadn't misread it, she continued, "Commander, if you want to fight there, that's fine, but we need to prepare. If so many colorful ships are deployed at the same time, resource supply may be a problem, and we need to improve the supply system."

"Huh, huh?" Jing Su was stunned. He originally thought that the team he had put together was not good, but Saratoga meant that he had gone too far.

"Commander, are you sure you want to arrange the teams according to this list? If you are, I will distribute them now." Just like before, the ship girls will resolutely carry out Jing Su's orders as long as it doesn't involve 'sticking together'. Now that Jing Su wants the all-color team to attack, then let the all-color team attack. It's not like we can't afford to fight.

Saratoga asked a few questions earlier because after Jing Su disappeared, there was no force in the port area that could simultaneously assemble six colorful ships into a fleet.

As the main force of the port area, the decorated ships have their own pride. Normally, they lead a fleet independently, divide up a region, and fight on their own. In other words, the decorated ships are usually the command of the fleet. If they are organized into the same team, no one can command them and they will not be able to win the respect of the troops.

To put it bluntly, it's about who should be the flagship among the six tiers of ships. The ship that usually commands the fleet suddenly has to become a subordinate to other ship girls. If it's a ship from the same faction, it's barely acceptable if they agree beforehand, since they'll see each other all the time and can get along peacefully. But if it's a ship from a different faction, then there's a lot to discuss.

Because of this, the front line has not actually developed a resource supply system to support the simultaneous attacks of the six colors, since no one thinks that there will be a situation where the six colors attack at the same time.

However, it doesn't matter now that it has appeared. We can design one on the spot. It's not too difficult. All the main forces in the entire Hong Kong region are concentrated on the front line. And the main force here doesn't just refer to combat power. Almost all the scientific research personnel are here.

"Is this configuration... very powerful?" Jing Su asked instinctively, a little confused.

"Uh, Commander, we're going to be heartbroken if you say that! How can anyone question the combat strength of their own ship girls!" Saratoga pretended to fall down, then stood up and complained.

Then he explained to Jing Su that any one of the teams he had assembled could easily clear this quarterly offensive. With the current combat strength of the port, a single main force could repel the Siren host at the Proxy level. Of course, pursuing and even completely eliminating them might be a little more difficult.

After all, the Sirens are beings that cannot be completely eliminated without destroying all the mainframes. However, the Sirens occupy most of the world, and who knows how many mainframes they have stockpiled? It can be said that eliminating the Sirens is almost an impossible task.

Of course, the port area has already developed a method to isolate the signals between the Sirens hosts, which may become a breakthrough. The specific operation method is to trap one Siren host, then decipher its identification signal and continuously emit this signal. As long as the backup host does not detect that the active host has been destroyed, it will not be activated. At least before the signal transmitter fails, the Sirens are essentially destroyed.

The idea is great, but it's difficult to test it in a short time. The biggest challenge of this plan is how to trap a host machine. Once a host machine detects something is wrong, it will immediately self-destruct without hesitation.

'The Agent?' Upon hearing this codename, the Siren host fell into deep thought. The title seemed familiar, then he clapped his hands in realization, saying, 'Isn't that the BOSS of the Monthly Great World?'

To be precise, the following agents are bosses in large-scale battles: Agent VIII "Determination", Agent IX "Concealment", Agent IX "Exploration", Agent XIV "Equilibrium", and Agent XIV "Harmony". The remaining agents are mostly seen in event storylines and are subordinates of the aforementioned ones.

'Are the combat power of the port's ship girls really that terrifying?' Jing Su was somewhat surprised, as this was different from the strength he remembered. But then he thought about it again, 'That makes sense. Every time we fight in the Great World, it only takes four teams to defeat them. No, no, there's still a problem. Even if the main force goes to the Great World, they still need to train their adaptability first. Don't they need to do that here?'

Or is it...?

In the end, Jing Su wondered if the Sirens were acting out a story, trying to find a way to save the world, just like in the plot. But she quickly dismissed the idea, because acting wasn't just about getting beaten up. According to Hutten, the iron-blooded Frederick the Great had led his high seas fleet to other worlds.

If this is really acting, then it's far too exaggerated. It's not just about being lenient; it's like releasing the entire Pacific Ocean.

"Wait, Saratoga, in your opinion, what kind of deployment would be best for this Sirens attack?" Jing Su called out to Saratoga, who was writing a document, and asked.

"Well, according to the current detection data, although there are many Siren warships on the sea, there are no Siren mainframes present. We can treat this as a normal invasion. If I had to recommend something, Commander, you could send out a few gold-tier teams."

"As for the main force, they can stay in the rear and only attack when the main force appears," Saratoga suggested, biting the pen in her hand.

"Gold-tier ships?" Jing Su raised an eyebrow. Full-color fleets are not easy to deploy now, but full-gold fleets are too easy to form. In fact, a single faction could send out a whole set of gold-tier sister ships.

For example, the Essex-class aircraft carriers, apart from Yorktown II and Hornet II which were temporarily added (in the game), the other four sisters are all gold-tier carriers. The front-line carriers, such as the Baltimore-class, are also all gold-tier from the start. Just these two ship types alone can form an all-gold fleet.

And there's no need to worry about command issues. It has nothing to do with whether it's your own command or not; you can just let the big sister be the flagship.

With this thought in mind, Jing Su made a decision.

"Jiajia, call Essex over and tell her I need to speak with her!"

"Commander, I've arrived!" Just as Jing Su finished speaking, a calm and light voice, yet devoid of emotion, rang out behind her.

"Huh? Who?" Jing Su was genuinely startled. Turning around, she saw a ship girl with purple hair, wearing a short skirt and black stockings, appear behind her at some point.

"Essex-class aircraft carrier—Essex, hull number CV-9, reporting for duty!" Upon hearing Jing Su's question, Essex answered in a serious manner, as if she hadn't seen Jing Su's reaction.

"Hey, Essex-chan, you're here~" Saratoga waved her hands and greeted the person happily after seeing who it was.

"Good morning, Saratoga-senpai. I'm here to deliver some documents, not to eavesdrop, but it seems the Commander mentioned me earlier. So, Commander, may I ask what it is? Is it time to launch an attack?"

"If I were to lead the attack, Commander, I would fight with all my might and bring you victory!"

Essex stopped, his eyes serious, and said in a solemn tone.

"Uh, yes, I did have that thought." Jing Su was a little unaccustomed to encountering such a serious ship girl for the first time in the port, but considering Essex's character, she felt relieved.

This girl is a typical model student, aspiring to be like her senior colleagues, and she's very serious and methodical in her dealings with people. It's extremely difficult to joke around with her.

But precisely because of this character, she is actually easy to get along with outside of Essex. After all, with this kind of person, as long as you find the right direction, you can even actively predict what she is going to say next.

Of course, there is one exception for Essex: never let her drink alcohol, because Essex in a drunk state is a completely different person from Essex in a normal state!

"Hmm, are we about to launch an attack? Leave this to me, Commander. Look forward to your performance!" As soon as Jing Su finished speaking, Essex's serious eyes flashed with a sharp light, and her entire demeanor changed.

"Ahem, let me finish what I have to say." Seeing that Essex was about to turn and leave, Jing Su quickly called out to her.

"Commander, if you have any further orders, please let me know!"

"That's right. According to the detector, this time the Sirens are different from the usual ones. They are much larger. Jiajia thinks that there may be a new Siren host intrusion."

Therefore, the main objective of this mission is to gather intelligence. The number of enemies eliminated is not important; gathering as much intelligence as possible is the most important thing.

If possible, I hope you can find out the reason for this unusual activity by the Sirens.

By the way, the squadron members have been sent to you. They're all your sisters. You'll be the flagship for this operation, so do your best!

"Yes, Commander! I will definitely complete the mission perfectly!" Essex saluted Jing Su, leaving Jing Su momentarily speechless and unsure of what to do. He could only return the salute in kind.

"Oh, right." Just as Essex was about to step out of the room, Jing Su suddenly remembered something and shouted, "The entire main force of the port will be coming to observe this operation. And Enterprise will be there too. Anyway, do your best!"

"???"

Upon hearing this, Essex paused. Just as Jing Su thought she had misremembered, Essex's cheeks and neck turned bright red in an instant, and she exclaimed, "Ahhh, is Senior coming too? I, I understand, I will do my best!"

"Senior colleagues, look forward to my performance! I won't lose!"

Chapter 273 The Attack!

On the way from Essex to the port, my phone beeped a few times; it was Jing Su issuing specific combat orders.