afterglow

Chapter 688 Final Strategy; Panic
"Your Majesty has arrived."

Zhu Lingjing walked into the meeting hall of Wenhua Hall, and the court officials on both sides of the rectangular conference table stood up and bowed.

Today's Imperial Conference is mainly to summarize the evaluation of the actual combat effectiveness of the atomic bomb, a subversive weapon, as well as the overall strategy for the future.

"The collected data has been analyzed. The actual power is about 20,000 tons (TNT). The accuracy of the airdropped sensor equipment is lower, but it is roughly the same. Ladies and gentlemen, the aerial photos show that the entire area within a radius of 1,000 meters around the explosion center has been razed to the ground. Most of the houses have collapsed. Only a few sturdy buildings on the outside have not collapsed..."

Fa Cailiang has been promoted to major general. His promotion was almost rejected by the Advisory Council a few days ago because the Golden Crow Project was still highly confidential at the time, so there was no way of knowing what his achievements were.

Fortunately, his promotion was guaranteed by Zhu Lingjing's oral order, and the Advisory Council did not take it too seriously and finally approved it.

"It's surprisingly good, and it's perfect for recklessly bombing cities." Army Commander-in-Chief Liu Kehuai praised.

Lin Xi stared at the file in his hand and said calmly: "Canberra is just a small city with few people. If it were a large city with dense population, such a bomb would be enough to kill 100,000 or 200,000 people."

Zhou Changfeng on the side thought: Fortunately, the Australians chose to build a new city as their capital as a second choice, otherwise the atomic bomb would have definitely fallen on Sydney or Melbourne.

"Australia has established an emergency committee to temporarily exercise government functions. Our intelligence agencies have also been effective in winning over some key enemy figures. Victorian state councillors and Adelaide city officials are all aware of the general situation," Cabinet Minister for Foreign Affairs Yu Shenhua introduced to everyone.

This shows that the army's attack on Canberra was extremely tricky and almost wiped out the Australian upper class. Now the possibility of the temporary emergency committee maintaining its firm belief and continuing to resist is very small.

However, the United States may intervene because legally, allies are not allowed to make peace with the enemy privately during war.

Zhou Changfeng said, "The U.S. military has limited troops in Australia, only about 70,000 to 80,000 people, and all the main routes have been cut off. Only the South Pacific route can be used. In fact, the influence will not be that great, but in order to obtain better surrender conditions, they will definitely seek support from the United States."

"Negotiate terms?" Liu Kehuai sneered disdainfully, "When the war started, you could have considered surrendering, but you still want to negotiate terms now?"

Lin Xi glanced at the map and said, "Well... the intelligence department reported that the officials and parliamentarians who contacted our agents had different ideas. Some wanted Western Australia to be independent, while others wanted to reorganize the government and completely obey our government."

The court officials are too lazy to pay any attention to it. Australia is now just a piece of fish on the chopping board.

No one even cares whether all Australians will join the army and fight to the end. If that happens, the Ministry of War estimates that it will have to pay an additional 300,000 casualties. The upside is that it can justifiably carry out a "big cleanup" once and for all, which is not unacceptable.

Zhou Changfeng knew that the Ming Dynasty's rulers and ministers were only willing to pursue the best value for money, not that they were reluctant to give it up.

The option that currently has the most support and the least opposition is to remove the majority of people and keep the majority of the land.

One, forcibly relocate most Australians to Tasmania and establish a regulatory protectorate there.

Second, select a group of young men and allow them to be accepted by the French society as refugees to enrich the young and middle-aged population.

Third, select a group of young women to stay in Australia to attract local immigrants from the Ming Dynasty.

Fourth, the above should be completed within five years. During this period, if other countries are willing to accept Australian citizens, it is not prohibited in principle.

【Picture】

Tasmania is an island south of the Australian continent, and there are hundreds of small islands. It is an isolated and primitive place, and the level of species evolution is even more backward than that of Australia. You should know that Australia is actually more backward than the Old World.

About 16,000 years ago, as the sea level rose, Tasmania was isolated from the outside world. The stranded primitive people continued to degenerate. When they were discovered by British colonists in modern times, they had no animal skin clothes and could not even fish. One can imagine how primitive this island was.

Later, the colonists drove the remaining Aboriginal people from Tasmania to a small deserted island, leaving them to fend for themselves in the swamps until they eventually became extinct.

In later generations, the professional term "island effect" was used to describe this situation, also known as the Tasmanian effect.

In addition to many objective factors, there is a reason to suspect that the Ming people also had a malicious desire for revenge in driving the Australians there.

Annihilate eight million Ming troops and advance victoriously into Tasmania!
"...Then let's end this matter and move on to discussing negotiations with the United States." Zhu Lingjing no longer had any interest in Australia's approach.

Today's imperial meeting immediately jumped to the next topic - the overall strategy for the future.

She went on to say: "It is clear that the Americans are still playing Tai Chi, trying to delay the process by procrastinating."

Song Zhongkai looked at Fa Cailiang and asked, "Can we determine how long our country's monopoly on nuclear bombs can last?"

The latter shook his head to express his ignorance.

"If it's more, it's a year. If it's less, it's about three months." Zhou Changfeng said, "Some things are theoretically feasible, but it's very difficult to realize them in practice. The unknown is the biggest obstacle. Now it's different. The atomic bomb has been proven to be feasible."

"That makes sense. Being a pioneer is the hardest job." Lin Xi nodded in affirmation.

Yu Shenhua glanced at everyone and said seriously, "Take the median and look at it in half a year. We should use this advantage to force the Americans to agree within half a year. This is the best."

"That's right. The end of this year will be a watershed. From now on, the number of enemy aircraft carriers will far exceed that of our army." Song Zhongkai expressed his approval.

"There is no other way to go. It is meaningless to wait and see what happens. We can only use fighting to force talks." Zhou Changfeng glanced at Zhu Lingjing and said seriously: "Be prepared for heavy losses. Go to their doorstep and force the enemy to fight."

"Oh? How is this conceived?" Liu Kehuai became interested when he heard this.

"Intelligence shows that the enemy has split up their fleet and stationed them separately because they are afraid of being bombed by an atomic bomb." Zhou Changfeng explained: "Our army also occupies the Aleutian Dutch Port and uses it as a forward base. We will go north to threaten the US west coast and force them to fight. In short, we must think about taking the initiative in our own hands at all times."

After he finished speaking, the meeting room fell into silence for a long time.

Song Zhongkai was the first to speak. He pondered and said, "Since we still have a bomb as a trump card, it is not impossible to attack them like this." Lin Xi was very surprised and asked doubtfully, "Are they going to land on the US mainland?"

Uh... overthinking.

Zhou Changfeng said helplessly, "No, the enemy has 400,000 soldiers and 2,000 aircraft in the northwest, as well as a lot of strategic reserves. We can't land unless you, Elder Lin, prepare the first batch of 20 divisions and the second batch of 40 divisions."

The distance was too far, and it was impractical to deploy troops on such a scale. The Normandy Landing was only a little over 100 kilometers across the English Channel.

The limit of ocean-going delivery capability in this era was probably 10 to 12 divisions. The largest landing operation in the same period of history was the unimplemented Operation Little Crown, which attacked the Japanese mainland and involved 25 divisions.

However, the departure base of Operation Little Crown was the Ryukyu Islands, which was actually not far away and could not be considered an ocean landing.

"The foreign barbarians fear power but not virtue." Prime Minister Liao Zihe pondered, "Then let's do this. The army is approaching and a battle will decide the outcome. We can't delay. After the decisive battle, we will complete the negotiations as quickly as possible. Now that the bottom line of the United States has been roughly determined, we can relax it a little bit and go for something slightly above the bottom line."

"Does the navy have sufficient supplies stored in Dutch Harbor?" Zhu Lingjing asked.

"Your Majesty, the current size of the fleet is not enough, it's still a little short." The doctor of the Navy Department of the Ministry of War replied.

"As soon as possible, everything should be done as soon as possible." At this time, Zhu Lingjing thought of something and emphasized: "We must not forget to take precautions. The enemy will be able to create nuclear weapons one day. We must be prepared to respond and publicize it to the people. Look, the people of Britain, the United States and other countries are terrified right now."

After saying that, she looked at Zhou Changfeng.

The latter coughed dryly and said, "So, the deterrent effect is quite obvious. Then, everyone, I have written the draft of the (atomic bomb) prevention measures and handed it to the Ministry of War for proofreading, but some preliminary work can be done first, so there will be no delay."

Liu Kehuai praised: "Wow, you have not lost any theoretical knowledge after fighting for several years. You are worthy of being the top student of Yingtian martial arts back then."

谘政院在四〇年批准建造7艘北斗级装甲航母（2.7万吨）和12艘勾陈级航母（1.8万吨），充分占用了全部产能，现在已有4艘北斗级和8艘勾陈级完工交付。

Later, in the first year of the Jinghe period, the Advisory Council approved the construction of 10 enlarged versions of the Beidou class (4.2 tons) at one time, but their completion would not take until two years later at the earliest.

As for the US military, a total of 35 Essex-class and 9 Hawaii-class ships have been ordered to date. Currently, 14 Essex-class ships have been completed, of which 3, the Intrepid, Yorktown, and Bunker Hill, have been sunk one after another.

However, from this winter to next spring, a large number of five Essex-class ships will be completed, and the remaining 5 ships will be completed one after another; the Hawaii-class will also be completed two years later at the earliest.

Therefore, this summer is the period when the gap in the number of aircraft carriers between the United States and China will be the smallest. If we miss this period, the number of US aircraft carriers will increase.

The Americans were calm and even had the leisure to occupy the limited large slipways to build battleships. After the construction of two Iowa-class ships was cancelled, they placed an order for four Missouri-class ships at once, and later reduced the number by two.

The Missouri class was an unprecedented behemoth, originating from one of many drafts by the Navy Department in the 1930s.

Initially, the U.S. Navy hoped to build a first-class high-speed battleship with a standard displacement of 5.5 tons, three triple-mounted 3 mm main guns, and a speed of 457 knots, without requiring it to pass through the Panama Canal.

But they were still quite conflicted, and finally restored the requirements, and added the requirement of having an unshakable firepower advantage. As a result, the design team had to work overtime and start from scratch.

The plan was changed again and again. The design team decided to reduce the main armor belt on the side and strengthen the deck armor. The standard displacement of the Missouri-class ship that was finally started reached 6.8 tons. The power configuration was the same as that of the Iowa-class, and the maximum speed could reach 29.6 knots.

全舰长度975英尺（297m），采用4座双联装20英寸（508㎜）、45倍径主炮，主装甲带厚度15英寸（381㎜），甲板装甲厚度增强到了7英寸（177㎜）。

Perhaps deeply stimulated by the Yongle-class's tungsten alloy super-heavy shells, the Americans who value firepower chose to use the limits of the artillery factory's production capacity to arm the Missouri-class.

The Intelligence Department of the Grand Governor's Office naturally paid attention to all of this, but due to strict confidentiality, agents could only observe from a distance and roughly estimate the size of the target by comparing it with reference objects.

五百多毫米口径的巨炮还是太过于惊世骇俗了，大明海军最后认定美军在建的战列舰采用18英寸（457㎜）、50倍径主炮，殊不知实际上是20英寸、45倍径。

The Ming Navy also immediately launched the next level of battleships, and began construction in the world's largest 100,000-ton dry dock at the end of last year.

Because the Ming army's new battleships were not restricted by the Panama Canal like the US military, they were equipped with three triple-mounted 3-inch (480㎜) 50-caliber main guns, hoping to have a larger caliber than the enemy's new battleships. The standard displacement was 6.5 tons, the main armor belt was 400 inches (30㎜) thick, and the designed maximum speed was knots.

Considering that the construction period of a battleship is often three to four years, the last battleship scheduled to be named Wanli will definitely not be able to catch up with actual combat.

After the Ming emperor and his ministers decided to continue actively using fighting to promote talks, the Grand Marshal's Office began to work on formulating an action plan, and the Ministry of War also dispatched additional oil tankers to the Dutch Harbor.

Although there was no intention to land on the west coast of the United States, the Ming fleet still planned to carry a small landing force to capture Juneau in the narrow area of ​​the Alaska Corridor if necessary to exert further pressure.

Although Anchorage is the largest city in Alaska, Juneau, with a population of only over 10,000, is the capital of Alaska. There are several large gold mines in the area, and gold mining is in full swing.

The third atomic bomb, which had been strengthened and modified, was loaded onto the battleship Kaihuang and transported from Majuro Atoll to the Aleutian Dutch Port.

During the period, Kaihuang was accidentally ambushed by the returning American submarine Bluefish (SS-222), which fired the only two torpedoes left in the stern tube. One of the Mk18 electric torpedoes with a faint track hit the right side of Kaihuang's hull, but she still arrived at Dutch Harbor with injuries.

In fact, the R&D team doesn’t know how much the enhanced modification can increase the power, but Zhou Changfeng doesn’t care. Anyway, the power will not be weakened, and any improvement is good.

On June 6, one month had passed since the nuclear attack on Canberra. As the news spread in an exaggerated manner, it has now been rumored to be "all steel and soil within a 20-mile radius will be evaporated, and people will be poisoned to death within 10 miles."

Panic spread uncontrollably, and people in major cities on the west coast of the United States were in panic.

Someone claimed that iodine could deal with atomic bombs, and citizens rushed to buy everything containing iodine - first iodized salt, then iodine tincture, and after they were all sold out, even kelp and seaweed were not spared, so that Chinese restaurants could not buy them wholesale.

On June 6, in such an uneasy atmosphere, an even more frightening news suddenly spread - a Chinese fleet of at least 22 warships was approaching the west coast, and the Pacific Fleet was considering retreating to the Atlantic.

With the enemy at the gate, flee before fighting?
(End of this chapter)