Chapter 499 Where do you want?
@@@@@@@ "These bastards have done a good job!"
"Yes! You see, this Li Xiuyan first used a quick assault to kill the two reconnaissance cruisers in the way, and then crossed the strait, taking advantage of insufficient load and shallow water to take the shallow water reef area of Gersham Island and use the width to go around the side of the British!"
Long Guozhang excitedly grabbed Zhang Zuolin's pen, outlined a winding movement line on the wall chart, and continued to shout excitedly, "Look here again! After turning the disadvantage into an advantage, he took advantage of the shortcomings of the three British capital ships when they lined up, hid in a 15° angle, and abruptly making it that the British could not exert all their firepower in five minutes!"
"Look here again, Bai Qi was injured here. When he saw the bad situation, he got into the reef of Absam Island and deliberately waited for two British battleships to catch up before detouring. At this time, even if I was there, I dared not exceed 12 knots!"
"This boy, calculated this point, then turned around and accelerated the assault, dragged them to pursue with four torpedoes, and then killed all the way out of the Strait of Hormuz from the Qiangsheng!"
Looking at the track diagram of a horse rope in the Strait of Hormuz, Long Guozhang shouted, "Yes! It's hard to get it!"
"Haha."
Commander Long's laughter made everyone in the general meeting room bend their lips. This man seemed to know how to restrain, especially the army and air force, and he couldn't stand it. It was as if he had hit it, which was really contemptuous!
Only Duan Qirui, who was born in the army and did not know much about naval warfare, took this opportunity to supplement his naval knowledge and asked, "So, if they bring enough torpedoes, wouldn't they be able to achieve greater results?"
"You can't say that." Chen Ping smiled at the corners of his eyes and explained, "The weight of the Spear Type 1 torpedo is 1,800 kg. If it is calculated as ten launchers and ten standby bombs, the total important is 36 tons, so that their water intake may not be able to penetrate into the shallow water area of Geshm Island, and there is no way to talk about sneak attack."
"Front attack, the two Nelson-class battleships and the Johnson Cruiser in a row have more than 66 secondary guns and rapid-fire guns, so that even if they can rush into a distance of 4,000 meters to launch torpedoes, at least one or two will be lost."
"Unfortunately, if the third type of spear is developed, with the British array across the middle of the waterway, we can make another 50 pieces in a fan shape 10,000 meters away, give him a shield, and at least two of them can be killed!" Long Guozhang sniped his lips and seemed to be a little dissatisfied with the results of the battle, because according to local intelligence officers, he only saw the fire of the Qiangsheng stranded on the beach, and the rest of the cruisers suffered almost no losses. Even the careful horn that first caught fire returned to the harbor.
And 37 detachments are not without losses. Although the Baiqi temporarily recovered 25 knots and escaped into the Indian Ocean together, according to the latest telegram, the damage to the Baiqi boiler cabin was more serious than expected. The overloaded operation when escaping caused another loss of a boiler. At present, it can only float at 12 knots in the sea. Yes.
The remaining four were also injured, of which Tian Dan suffered the most. The No. 2 turret was penetrated by a 127mm shell and detonated several standby shells in the turret, and the whole turret was lifted.
The remaining three ships also have different degrees of damage. According to current statistics, a total of 47 sailors were killed and 37 were injured, 8 of whom were seriously injured and in urgent need of assistance.
Although the loss of the British fleet has not been obtained, it is initially estimated that at least 100 people have died. The Careful is estimated to be repaired and continued to be used, but the Johnson is basically abandoned. The British do not have such a large dock in the Indian Ocean that can repair 14,000 tons of warships, so it wants to be to be towed back to the nearest French maintenance station in Djibouti. It is also very difficult, and the Qiangsheng's too tall trunk and hull have shown weakness. According to the tradition and habits of the British, this first-class armored cruiser was either towed back to India and changed into an offshore defense gunboat, or simply gave up.
Li Mo looked at Li Xiufeng, whose eyes gradually calmed down, and smiled: "Go and tell Fubo that the support fleet has found them."
"Yes." His younger brother was fine. Li Xiufeng was relieved and eager to tell Fubo, who was still anxious, so he hurriedly left the general meeting room.
Although Li Xiufeng is the general manager of the royal family, he is not a senior official after all, so after he left, Li Mo immediately turned the topic of discussion on tactics to the most important aftermath and asked, "Has the second batch of support fleet set off?"
"It has set off, two Jilin-class and four Yangtze-class, and 12 destroyers!" Long Guozhang immediately said.
"Good boy, you are going to single-handedly challenge the Indian fleet!" Zhao Long narrowed his eyes and smiled, "Aren't you afraid that Lu Song's old nest will be served to others? Singapore also has six battleships and a large number of cruisers.
"Hmm! I wish he would come. Long Guozhang picked up the baton and pointed to the map and said, "Two heavy patrols and four light patrols supported by the Third Fleet. Four destroyers have arrived in the Linga Islands. In addition, we have also deployed ten destroyers and 12 submarines in the area of the Natuna Islands. In addition, I also sent two Jinghai class into the Beibu Gulf for surveillance. The French fleet.
"The British Indian fleet has a total of six Nelson-class battleships, four Junquan-class and six first-class armored cruisers, but they are all old models. If he doesn't send more troops from the Mediterranean Sea, he may not be able to stabilize us!"
"He wants to fight, but I'm willing to!"
"Commander Dragon, you're going to be disappointed. You can't fight."
When Long Guozhang was looking forward to a big war with complacency, Foreign Minister Feng Qi had already pushed the door and came in, raised the telegram in her hand, and said with a smile, "Wu Tingfang called. The British Ministry of Foreign Affairs has officially proposed a strong resistance to the injury of the Qiangsheng and the careful of our Seventh Fleet, which led to the death of 121 sailors. We are required to negotiate the issue of compensation immediately!"
"In addition, Wu Yingke also sent a telegram that the Bulgarian army has approached Istanbul, and Osman can't stand it anymore. He has sent a special envoy to Germany and Britain to seek the possibility of reconciliation."
"The Seventh Fleet?" For this name, Li Mo blinked his eyes and couldn't help thinking of the famous fleet of the United States in later generations. He was surprised and said, "Do we have a seventh fleet?"
"I guess it was a mistake. I heard that the signal flag bearer on the Careful has died, so other sailors regarded the flag of the 37 fleets as the Seventh Fleet." Feng Qi smiled and handed the telegram to Li Mo.
"Ha ha, that's good. The British gave us a quota for a fleet." Chen Ping also smiled hoarsely and said, " By the way, the Ottoman Empire really can't stand it?"
"Yes, didn't we sell three battleships to them?" Tang Shaoyi also asked in surprise.
"It's useless. The army will eventually solve the problem in the war." Zhao Long narrowed his eyes, deliberately looked at the proud Long Guozhang, and said, "The naval guns are powerful and limited. What's more, the Ottoman navy has been controlled by Greece. Italy has also recently strengthened its patrols in the Mediterranean. It is estimated that it is to avenge the two battleships.
"The news that Germany has accelerated six Bavaria-class battleships has now driven Britain crazy, because they only have five Queen Elizabeth-class ships, which not only did not achieve the advantage of the same type of two-to-one, but was surpassed by Germany! So recently, the British Parliament is discussing another funding, and they are no longer able to transfer troops here!" Chen Ping cigaretteged and smiled with satisfaction.
"Then let's talk about it." Li Mo waved his hand and asked everyone to calm down before asking, "What do we want now?"
"Sarape!" Long Guozhang was the first to say, "I have not been good at that place for a long time. Let Britain get out of the Southern Ocean, so that we can completely unify Borneo!"
"No, Sarawak is a containment for Britain. As long as it is there in one day, the British Far East Fleet will not dare to leave, and it must maintain at least 30,000 garrisons!" Zhao Long disagreed with Long Guozhang's point of view and said, "Maintaining the status of Sarawak will make Britain have to distract between Singapore and Sarawak. If we want there, then Britain will shrink all its troops back to Singapore and India!"
"I think money is better!" Rong Kui smiled and said, "Americans are making a fortune in Europe. In the first half of this year alone, they have provided a billion US dollar loan to Britain and France. This money is really easy to make, so I think it's better to take the land and take the money directly. Let the United Kingdom also ask us for a loan, take the opportunity to pry open their capital market, and don't let the United States swallow the Allied countries too comfortably. The profit!"
"Loan to the UK? Didn't this help the Allied Countries in disguise? Xue Muhua, the commander of the air force, looked at Li Mo and said, "Isn't Germany's pressure a sudden increase?"
"That's not necessarily true. Unless we can build the Baghdad Railway, we can't really help Germany completely, so I think the speaker's plan is feasible. At present, a large amount of gold is being transferred to the United States through loans. If we can't get involved, we are bound to be far behind by the United States economically in the future." After becoming a foreign minister, Feng Qi's vision suddenly became distant.
In the conference room, everyone expressed their opinions and arguments came one after another. Li Mo kept silent. In fact, he had his own ideas in his heart for a long time, but he still didn't want to disturb everyone's thoughts. After all, what he thought was not necessarily right, so it's better to take this opportunity to listen to everyone's opinions first.
After seeing Li Mo's delay, Chen Ping and Tang Shaoyi, who knew his mind best, exchanged a look and said with a smile, "I think Kuwait should be needed!"
"What!"
Chen Ping's words widened everyone's eyes. Although Kuwait has a lot of oil, it is too far away after all, and across the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf, there is such a danger as the Strait of Hormuz, so the navy can play confrontation with Britain this time, but it's two different things to send strength!
"Let's go to Kuwait." Hearing Chen Ping's voice, Li Mo did not explain and handed the telegram to Tang Shaoyi: "Shaochuan, you can discuss the next thing with everyone, let Zhang Zuolin go to negotiate, and let him exercise."
"Your Majesty, don't worry."
After Tang Shaoyi finished speaking, Li Mo turned his head and looked at Chen Ping again: "Immediately bring Li Xiuyan and others back, and compile the tactics and strategies of this assault, and send them to each destroyer for research, so that everyone knows that if the destroyer is used well, it will not lose to the capital ship."
"In addition, this time we have exposed the ability of power, and European countries will certainly take some actions in this regard, so that the Ministry of Intelligence and the National Security Bureau will stare more and strengthen the protection of domestic technical departments, especially the power system!"
After Li Mo finished speaking, he stretched out and stood up with a smile: "I haven't slept all night. I'll go back to make up for a sleep first. You can continue to discuss."
"sleep."
Several members suddenly had a long black line on their foreheads, and the corners of their mouths bent down and smiled. It was not until Li Mo's back disappeared outside the door that Long Guozhang smiled and asked, "Yuanshou, have you discussed with the emperor? Kuwait, is it useful?"
Chen Ping did not answer immediately, but went to the map, grabbed the pen and drew a circle on Kuwait, and said, "Persia has always been very hostile to Osman, so it gave Britain a gap to take down this area and become a protected suzerain."
"Economically, we don't say that from the perspective of geography alone, we can not only support the Ottomans, but also block the strategic channels of communication between Europe and Asia, and even directly threaten India, Egypt and Russia's Baku!"
Looking at Chen Ping's three rays extending from Kuwait, Zhao Long cigarette puzzledly, shook his head and seemed to say that this could not be done at all. He said, "But Yuanshou, how can I see that Kuwait is important, and Britain can also see it? How could he give up easily?
"Ha ha, the British and Kuwaiti chiefs signed a secret agreement. Although Osman also knows it, he has never admitted it, and so far they also think that Kuwait is only a region in Basra Province!" Tang Shaoyi narrowed her eyes, and an expression like a annior appeared on her face. She said slowly, "Do you think it is necessary for us to get it from Britain?"
"Gunnie!" Long Guozhang immediately understood that Tang Shaoyi wanted to take the opportunity to threaten the security of the Xinhua Empire by Britain. As long as Britain acquiesced in Xinhua's interests in Kuwait and Persia, it could directly negotiate with the Ottomans to bypass Britain!
Why didn't I find this sly Tang Shaoyi before?!
Long Guozhang gave Tang Shaoyi a thumbs up, causing a sneer of laughter from everyone. After a few smiling, Chen Ping gradually became serious: "Zhao Long, order the 14th and 17th infantry divisions stationed in Guangxi to move to the border between Vietnam and Myanmar!"
"Order the 11th, 12th and 23rd Infantry Divisions stationed in Hunan and northern Zhejiang to reinforce them!"
"Order Luzon's fourth marine division and Kundian's second division to prepare for battle!"
"Order the 25th Mountain Division of Chengdu to be ready to march to Tibet at any time!"
"Order the 2nd and 3rd Cavalry Division to leave for Ili immediately!"
"From now on, the navy, army and air force have all entered the second-level combat readiness, and the soldiers on leave will immediately return to the camp to report." After Chen Ping gave a series of orders, he suddenly narrowed his eyes: "In addition, send someone to quietly spread the news of our transfer of troops to the southwest."
"Since it's time to negotiate, it's time for the army to move!"
Looking at the map full of arrows by Chen Ping in the blink of an eye, everyone was speechless, and Tang Shaoyi couldn't laugh or cry. This is not a threat. The general ginseng simply took out a certain deduction tactical map that had already been prepared!
He even believes that if Britain is unwilling to compromise this time, the staff is even ready to go to war directly!
"These soldiers are ruffian!" ......
(to be continued)