USA, Washington, white house.
The "crisis of peace" in President Jackson's cabinet has passed. Those cabinet ministers who went on strike because of the scandal caused by the affair between the Secretary of War and a married woman naturally can no longer be angry with the president when the enemy is facing them. So Secretary of State Martin Van Buren came forward to hold a cocktail party and reconciled the mud.
At this time, the U.S. government ministers finally gathered in the conference room of the White House and began to seriously discuss the issue of the Yellow Peril. The British Embassy called again early this morning, saying that they were in Malvina. The airship station in the Sri Lanka Islands reported that Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force fleet has now passed the Drake Strait and entered the Atlantic Ocean.
The situation is quite serious!
According to British airship reconnaissance, this fleet has at least 30 ships, including seven large ships of more than 10,000 tons, two of which have sails, and the other five have no sails. The remaining ships are all small and medium-sized ships of three to four thousand tons. In fact, they are not small. They are almost second-class and third-class cruisers.
And those five big ships without sails might all be Hero-class or Emperor-class battleships!
This is a bit worrying!
The current main force of the U.S. Navy is the "Six-Six Fleet"-the main force of the fleet composed of six United States-class battleships and six Pennsylvania-class armored cruisers.
Among them, the United States class is a weakened version of the Victory class. Its firepower and armor are the same as those of the Victory class. However, because it purchased boilers and steam engines produced in the United States, the quality does not seem to be up to standard. Although the nominal indicated horsepower is 23,000 horses, in In actual use, it can only produce less than 20,000 horsepower without turning on forced ventilation, and I don’t know where the other 3,000 horsepower went? Therefore, their speed is 3 knots slower than the Victory class, only 18 knots.
The Pennsylvania-class armored cruiser is an armored cruiser designed and built by American engineers. The ship has a standard displacement of more than 13,000 tons, two twin 8-inch main guns, 14 6-inch secondary guns and quite strong armor. .
In addition, it also has boilers and steam engines of the same type as those in the United States. However, the main supplier of the six Pennsylvania-class cruisers and the main supplier of the six United States-class battleships are not the same. The craftsmanship of the former is obviously better, so the main engine power of the Pennsylvania-class is actually greater than that of the United States-class, reaching 22,000 horsepower, and the speed is as high as 22 knots, which is only 1 knot slower than the Hero-class.
Although the performance of the United States-class and Pennsylvania-class is not ideal, because the number is twice as much as that of Mexico's "Heroes", and because they can make it themselves, they are willing to fight for it (this is where making is better than buying), they are enough Suppress those Caribbean fleets of the Mexican Empire.
But what is coming now is the Japanese, the agents supported by the Ming Dynasty, and may even be the Ming Navy that wears the Japanese sign. The situation becomes serious immediately. The Ming Dynasty not only has many and powerful battleships, equipment and patrols, but also What other aircraft-carrying battleships are there!
Planes can actually take off and land on the battleship, but I don’t know how? Anyway, relying on this unique skill, the Ming Dynasty Navy beat America's "British Father" in the Straits of Malacca and Great Strait in the past few months, and later sent planes to blow up "British's eldest son" and America's "Indian brother".
Seeing that "Dad Ying" and "Brother Yin" were beaten very badly, the U.S. Department of War and the Department of the Navy became nervous during this period and began to hurriedly formulate a battle plan for tomorrow.
"John, is the Navy Department's battle plan ready? How does the U.S. Navy prepare to defeat the invading Ming Dynasty and Japanese Navy?"
U.S. President Andrew Jackson is an Army veteran, and he is quite confident about the combat effectiveness of the U.S. Army—the white population of the United States is 20 million. If there is a general mobilization, there will be at least 1 million soldiers! Ming Dynasty and Japan are separated by the Pacific Ocean. How many troops can be sent over?
Moreover, if soldiers sent by the Ming Dynasty and Japan landed on the west coast, they would have to cross the Rocky Mountains to fight eastward. There are no roads or railways in the Rocky Mountains. Even if the troops can cross, supplies and heavy equipment cannot.
If the Ming and Japanese armies disembarked at the Port of Acapulco in south-central Mexico, then reached the Gulf Coast via the Mexican railway line, and then marched toward Texas, the logistics would have to rely on the Ming-Mexican navy in the Caribbean.
So what President Andrew Jackson is really worried about is that the U.S. Navy will lose sea control in the Caribbean!
In order to ensure that control of the sea was not lost, after President Jackson was elected, he ordered the Department of War and the Department of the Navy to start formulating an operational plan to invade Mexico, separate Texas from Mexico, and force Mexico to stop the Nicaragua Canal project.
But I didn't expect that before the United States could take action against Mexico, Ming Dynasty took the lead. First, it built a Texas warrior city in Texas, and now it sent a fleet to transport troops to Texas all the way. Seeing this, it means that it is determined to "invade" "Texas!"
Therefore, Andrew Jackson could only ask the Navy Department to prepare an emergency battle plan.
"Mr. President," Secretary of the Navy John Branch answered the president's question, "the Department of the Navy has formulated two plans to deal with short-term and long-term threats.
Among them, the plan used to deal with short-term threats is to intercept in stages, gradually weaken tomorrow's (Japan's) naval expedition formation, and finally launch a decisive battle of the main fleet near the Texas Gulf in order to annihilate the enemy in one fell swoop! "
Andrew Jackson asked: "Why does the Navy want to intercept in sections? Can't it concentrate its main force to defeat the enemy's fleet at once?"
"Mr. President, the people on the Naval Staff believe that our capital ship does not have enough anti-aircraft firepower and its speed is too slow. It can easily be discovered and damaged by enemy carrier-based aircraft before the decisive battle. If the main ship is destroyed before the decisive battle, It would be extremely disadvantageous to be bombed several times by heavy bombs! In the Battle of Great Strait, the British Royal Navy's battleship was first damaged by aircraft, and then besieged and sunk by enemy battleships and destroyers. "
Andrew Jackson frowned, "Then the navy's segmented interception can avoid being bombed by the enemy?"
"The Navy plans to take advantage of the high speed of the Pennsylvania class and our home field advantage in the Caribbean, and use the islands in the Caribbean as cover to carry out multiple rounds of night attacks, striving to damage or sink the enemy's aircraft-carrying warship fleet. The fleet will launch attacks at night. Retreat and hide during the day to avoid being damaged by enemy planes. After fully weakening the enemy, the Navy concentrated on the Pennsylvania class and some fast ships in good condition, pretending to engage in a decisive night battle with the enemy in the Yucatan Strait, and pretended to be defeated to lure the enemy. Go to the outskirts of Dezhou Bay, which is blocked by mines, and use the minefields to weaken the enemy again. Finally, dispatch the main fleet and strive to annihilate the invading enemy fleet in one fell swoop!"
After hearing this plan, Andrew Jackson suddenly relaxed his brows, and then asked: "What about the long-term plan of the Navy Department?"
"Mr. President, the Navy Department's long-term plan to deal with the threat of the Yellow Peril is to increase the size of naval battleships, armored cruisers, and aircraft-carrying cruisers to more than 30% of the corresponding capital ship size of the Ming Dynasty Navy."
(End of chapter)
