afterglow

Chapter 410 Chapter [-] Imperial Meeting; Two Great News

No, are you here to deliberately cause trouble?
There was never such a tough discussion in the past. Now the Imperial Council is deliberately messing around in front of the emperor, right?

Song Zhongkai made it difficult for everyone to get off the stage. Although the cabinet tried hard to maintain restraint, they didn't know how to respond for a while.

At this moment, Zhu Lingjing sneered helplessly in her heart, and then said: "There is no need to issue a military order. This Wenhua Palace is not a battlefield. How can we use our emotions to discuss strategies?"

The spacious hall was silent for a moment. Song Zhongkai stood up and cupped his hands and said, "What your Majesty said is absolutely true. I was impulsive just now."

Lin Xi also said calmly: "It is impossible to make such a decision on such a military and national matter, even if you swear a poisonous oath, you can only judge right and wrong based on reason."

"Anyway, the truth is here, who is unreasonable?" Song Zhongkai clicked on the memo in front of him, "The United States is very likely to approve aid to the British. Forty or fifty destroyers are enough to meet the urgent needs. After this, the British will I can easily deal with the Germans for a year and a half."

"Then let's wait until these ships are actually in place. The high probability is not 100%. Everything is possible before the suspicion between Britain and the United States is broken." Li Guangyuan said.

As a minister of finance, he has always opposed the Ming Dynasty to launch a full-scale conflict with the United States without taking the initiative. Economy is an important criterion for measuring national strength. As a person who traveled around European and American powers in his youth and middle age, Li Guangyuan knew very well Ming's disadvantages.

Only under the right circumstances can Ming's advantage in population size offset the advantage of the United States.

At this time, Wu Weihuan stroked his beard and said with a smile: "Mingyin, according to your words, if the United States hands over escort ships for assistance, do you agree with what Xia Jinbo said before?"

"That's not necessarily the case. I can't say for sure about military matters. Training of personnel, formation of fleets, etc. also take time. Why don't Duke Wei discuss this with He Zhong?" Li Guangyuan did a Tai Chi casually and threw the ball to Lin Xi beside him.

The old fox is so slippery!I still have to be the co-author.

The latter curled his lips covertly and quickly, and then said seriously: "Let me clarify our views first. Since the Americans have no clear intention to devote themselves to Europe, it is difficult to guarantee that they will not follow the strategy of the European War again. Our country will completely We can sit back on the Diaoyutai leisurely and concentrate on developing and stabilizing Nanyang."

"This is inappropriate." Wu Weihuan said calmly: "The delay of time means that a large number of warships started by the United States in the two Vincennes Acts will be completed and put into service. In particular, the fortresses in Hawaii will be more complete. This will be discussed later. The edict is very clear.”

Aha?Why did you kick the ball to me now?
Seeing that Zhu Lingjing remained calm, Zhou Changfeng spoke loudly: "In view of our army's rapid offensive in the Nanyang Campaign, the United States is further investing in strengthening the defense of Hawaii. According to known intelligence, there are at least twenty forts on Oahu at the same time. Once construction begins, they should be completed and put into use within six to nine months, which will obviously make it much more difficult for our army to capture Hawaii."

"Half a year's time is still enough, and I can handle it with ease." Li Guangyuan said casually.

Yu Shenhua, who was thoughtful, asked: "By the way, what are the military's plans for a strategy of forcing the United States to make peace without an expedition to Hawaii?"

"Responsibly speaking, those strategies are not the best choice. There are great uncertainties. Only one battle is the safest to win Hawaii." Song Zhongkai changed his previous attitude and said solemnly: "Your Majesty is here and he is absolutely telling the truth."

"So you insist that an early war is the most beneficial?" Gao Qingkui asked with sharp eyes: "Have you ever considered that the United States should abandon its European strategy and concentrate on confronting the Ming Dynasty?"

"It is possible." Wu Weihuan muttered: "However, the upper echelons of the United States are not stupid. Instead of fighting our country, they might as well devote the same energy to Europe. All cabinet ministers should be very clear about this."

The two sides exchanged opinions back and forth like this, and the atmosphere in the meeting hall was always filled with a faint smell of gunpowder.

It seems that the civil and military parties are naturally not suitable for getting together?It seemed as if there might be a dispute over a small spark at any time.

Compared with the last imperial meeting, this one was actually much better. At least it didn't take long for both sides to reach a consensus on whether to fight or not.

beat!Faced with Australia's abundant mineral resources, how can we turn a blind eye and just hand them over to others?
For some reason, Zhou Changfengqing couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief.

Suddenly, Zhu Lingjing, who was standing beside him, finally stopped watching and asked directly: "As far as I know, it is okay for the country to transport troops to Australia across thousands of miles from north to south, but if we want to expedition to Hawaii at the same time, it will be too tight. Isn’t there a strategy to get the best of both worlds?”

The emperor's question aroused everyone in the military headquarters to chuckle, and Cheng Han, a colleague in the staff office, immediately responded.

"Your Majesty, that was the previous estimate. We are currently considering recruiting private merchant ships in multiple batches and optimizing the voyage arrangements. The transportation capacity is sufficient."

"The Governor's Staff Office envisages using two sections of relay transportation to increase efficiency. One section is between my country and Makassar, and the second section is between Makassar and Australia."

"As for the expedition to Hawaii, it is irrelevant. Because the voyage is long and it has to accompany the fleet, it will be handled by high-speed troop carriers and landing ships."

Zhou Changfeng remembered that the staff office's recent discussions only envisaged delivering one marine brigade and one infantry division, with a total standard shipping volume of 36 tons, but these forces seemed to be somewhat unsafe.

"Tongzhi, my impression is that even if the thirteen Pingyang-class destroyers removed from active service are converted into troop carriers, the final total transport capacity will only be close to 40 tons. If you still want to bring some troops as a reserve force, there is no way. ”

Cheng Han asked in surprise: "Does Zhou Taizhao have a new view?"

With a calm expression, Zhou Changfeng glanced around, "Everyone should know the latest news. The Americans are forming two new division-level troops in Canada and Alberta. It is unlikely that both will be sent to Australia. If Hawaii has an extra Division, the gap in strength between the enemy and ours is too great, so we have to treat it with caution."

"It will be difficult to increase the number of troops unless we add a few more super cruise ships." Cheng Han said helplessly: "There is no way to hide anymore."

Super cruise ships such as the Shengping and the Suzaku were potential large-scale high-speed troop carriers and attracted much attention, with countless eyes staring at them.

What's more, the cruise ship cannot be used directly as a troop carrier. Before that, it must be sent to a shipyard for modification.

The Ming Navy has not yet reached a conclusion on specific strategies. An honest expedition and a sneaky surprise attack each have their own benefits.

Different from the historical sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the so-called surprise attack by the Ming Dynasty actually refers to declaring war after approaching Hawaii, leaving only six to twelve hours for the United States to respond at most.

Tiger tiger tiger?wrong!
Dragon dragon dragon!
But the problem is that it is difficult to ensure concealment in such a large-scale operation, because the Ming Navy's expeditionary fleet also needs to carry a large number of landing troops and ammunition supplies.

If it had been noticed in advance, it would have been better to attack Hawaii openly from the beginning, forcing the U.S. Pacific Fleet to be in a dilemma.Zhou Changfeng's doubts confused several military bosses in the meeting hall - was this what the emperor meant?
When everyone was silent, Zhu Lingjing said calmly: "If the garrison on Oahu remains unchanged, we can give it a try, but since the United States will increase its troops, we cannot be too hasty, otherwise it will be a gambler's behavior."

The Ming army's landing force in the initial plan was about 4000 to 5000 people. It was quite possible to win against the existing more than [-] US troops.

But if there is an additional infantry division of more than 1 people later, it will be difficult to say. After all, the Americans are not an army made of sand, and they also rely on solid permanent fortifications.

If you are [-]% or [-]% sure, you are brave enough to try, but if you are only [-]% or [-]% sure, you will become an arrogant gambler.

According to the repeated deductions and studies conducted by the Governor's Staff Office in the past half month, even if only calculated based on the current strength of Oahu Island, the probability of failure of the attack is still not less than [-]%.

When rolling dice to determine the random situation, as the Ming army is the attacker in the cross-sea landing, some disadvantages will be magnified many times; while the US military is the defender relying on the fortress, the disadvantages have little impact on it, but the advantages can significantly strengthen it. Combat efficiency.

And even if the deduction was successful, many of them were not optimistic - in the end, the Ming army's front-line units were basically exhausted and almost lost their combat effectiveness.

A group of senior staff members in the Governor's Staff Office could only lament that, in addition to objective factors, the capture of Hawaii was indispensable to luck. I am afraid that it really requires national luck to achieve a satisfactory ending.

In this way, the imperial meeting continued until the evening. After reaching an initial consensus, the Ming emperors and ministers carefully discussed a series of changes and possibilities, as well as the pros and cons of different strategies.

Compared with the last imperial meeting that ended in vain, this time it will be much more successful.

First, the attack on Australia should be finalized in one and a half months - depending on whether the United States provides British assistance to help stabilize the situation.

Second, we should begin to form forces to deal with the Philippines. For the time being, we will continue to use the plan that has been drawn up, including four infantry divisions, two field heavy artillery brigades, a siege heavy artillery brigade, an engineering brigade, and three air force detachments.

Third, preliminary preparations for the expeditionary force should begin, including two tank brigades, two motorized infantry brigades, nine infantry divisions, four field heavy artillery brigades, two engineering brigades, as well as two deportation detachments and a dive bombing detachment. , a light bombing detachment.

Fourth, the plan to capture Hawaii is temporarily shelved, but the naval fleet must be fully prepared.

Fifth, start preparations for the reconstruction of several major cruise ships. The reconstruction must be completed within two months; the reconstruction of the amphibious command ship should be completed within two and a half months.

After this meeting, except for the capture of Hawaii, which has not yet been finalized and remains to be discussed, the rest of the strategic issues in the Asia-Pacific region have been confirmed by the Ming emperors and ministers.

What is also more important is that the construction of the Handan Arsenal has been initially completed.

In less than half a year, dozens of large and small factory buildings, several water towers, and a vast weapons testing site have been erected within the factory area. A narrow-gauge railway has also been laid that surrounds and runs through the factory area. complete.

According to the previous plan, after the completion inspection of the factory building is completed, a large number of machines prepared for it will be moved into the factory one after another.

Most of the brand-new machine tools ordered from many domestic machine tool factories have been manufactured, and the machinery and equipment ordered from France, Germany, and Slovakia are also arriving one after another.

The Cheng'an incident caused the relationship between Ming Dynasty and France to turn cold. The French detained most of the machinery and equipment at the customs. Ming people had given up hope on it, but just last month, this batch of machinery and equipment was actually released from detention. The shipment has been shipped and has now passed through the Suez Canal.

However, the efficiency of the French is as low as ever. Mingren originally ordered thousands of machines and more than [-] tons of machinery and equipment from the two companies, and half of them have not yet been manufactured.

Now that the Germans have called, this order will probably be dropped, right?
The whiny French!Get your money back!
After leaving the Wenhua Palace, the emperor and his entourage returned to the Inner Dynasty by car.

"Although all the words are conclusive, who can predict how it will end once the war begins?" Zhu Lingjing still felt that the people in the military department deliberately made their words much more optimistic in order to persuade everyone.

"Well... there are not as many variables as your Majesty thinks. The speed of technological development is traceable. It is still far from being able to ignore strategically important places. If we capture Hawaii, everything will suddenly become clearer. The initiative lies with us. On our side." Zhou Changfeng comforted him.

"I used to be very ambitious. I thought it would be easy to send troops across Southeast Asia and command Australia. But now...hey."

"Ahem, as the monarch of the Ming Dynasty and the head of state, your Majesty must first be confident."

Look, isn’t this conservative temperament revealed?Zhu Lingjing, whom Zhou Changfeng knew in the past, was quite pioneering, but now she has gradually lost her original courage and boldness after easily acquiring the Dutch East Indus.

Zhou Changfeng, who was quite helpless, then left the Forbidden City and went home for dinner.

There has been a lot of good news recently, which has doubled his confidence, but it is a pity that the monarchs and ministers of the Ming Dynasty have difficulty understanding it.

E909 Unit (E[-]) recently submitted a secret report summarizing their clinical trials on penicillin in the past two months.

Compared with Seremban University's steadily advancing research, Unit E909 is much more "efficient and bold". It has been proven that penicillin has excellent killing effect on all Gram-positive bacteria, not to mention scarlet fever, pneumonia, gonorrhea, and diphtheria. Down.

At the same time, they also verified that the overall incidence rate of allergic reactions is about 10%, which are divided into grades A, B, and C according to severity. The most serious grade A will cause anaphylactic shock, sudden drop in blood pressure, and respiratory depression.

Because the sample data is not enough to determine the generalizability, it is impossible to determine the incidence of anaphylactic shock. It can only be roughly estimated that the probability is very low. Once it occurs, epinephrine and an oxygen mask should be given immediately, and tracheal intubation should be implemented if necessary.

Unit E909 concluded that it was recommended that every effort should be made to mass-produce penicillin and to perform skin testing on each patient before use.

This secret report made Mr. Zhou beam with joy. Daming was at the forefront in this regard, seizing the time to overcome the problem of mass production, and making a lot of money before mass production in the United States!
The second good news is even more heavyweight, that is, the basic theoretical demonstration work of the atomic bomb has been completed.

The research team clarified the prospects and believed that it is necessary to carry out substantial research and development projects with the strong support of the imperial court. They will also start to establish a physical system model.

(End of this chapter)