Portsmouth Naval Port.
Several luxury carriages slowly drove into the heavily guarded port area.
The officer guarding the gate of the port looked at the two groups of Gurkha riflemen guarding the carriage. He immediately thought of something and shouted: "Everyone... stand at attention!"
The originally listless guards suddenly cheered up. They all puffed up their chests and saluted the carriage with their guns. When the carriage entered the gate, the officer guarding the gate hurried back to his post, picked up the phone and informed his superiors of the arrival of Emperor William.
The convoy drove directly into the port area and stopped in front of a building filled with senior officials wearing Royal Navy uniforms. The car door opened, and Emperor William and the Duke of Wellington emerged from inside. The senior officers waiting on the pier stepped forward to pay military salutes to Emperor William. Emperor William, who also wore a navy uniform today, also raised his hands to return the salute to these officers. Then he and the Duke of Wellington walked toward the building near the building. Walking to a warship outfitting area.
This outfitting area located in Portsmouth Naval Port is shared by several major British shipyards such as Bath Dockyard, Armstrong Dockyard, and Royal Dockyard. There are 6 piers stretching out to the bay, each of which is paved with rails. These rails are directly connected to the dense spider web of England's railway network. Through this railway network, the shipyards in Portsmouth Naval Port can communicate with supporting factories all over England. connected together.
On these six outfitting docks, giant steel ships are being completed bit by bit by the industrious hands of English workers who are as busy as worker ants, revealing their ferocious appearance. Due to the emergency of the war, there were as many as a dozen warships outfitted in the outfitting area of Portsmouth Military Port, all of which were large surface ships with a standard displacement of over 10,000 tons. In order to rush the work, the outfitting area was buzzing 24 hours a day. All shipbuilders have turned on the "997 mode", working in two shifts, and even worshiping in the church in the military port, just casually worshiping God.
In today's England, there are so many factories that have started the "997 mode" like the outfitting area in Portsmouth Naval Port. There are tens of thousands of them at most - even if the UK's industrial strength is far behind. Ming Dynasty, but it is also an industrial country with complete categories and complete systems. It has the ability to independently build various types of large warships and all kinds of naval and army equipment and ammunition.
If it did not have such strength, how could Britain bring the two "silly sons" of the United States and India together to fight against the Great Ming Dynasty?
However, Emperor William was still very aware of this reality - although the industry of the British Empire was systematic and relatively complete, compared with the industrial system of the Ming Dynasty, the industrial system owned by Britain was not only smaller in scale, but also relatively backward in technology. .....This made it difficult for the British Empire to achieve final victory in a long-term attrition war with the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, the British Empire has been thinking of a quick victory since the beginning of this war. Specifically, they wanted to use their two advantages of preparing for war earlier and having a larger shipbuilding industry than Ming Dynasty to defeat Ming Dynasty in a short time and force the other side to sue for peace.
But as the war between the two sides entered its third year, Emperor William already knew that the British Empire had lost the possibility of a quick victory... The several battles that took place in the Strait of Malacca, the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean were already very serious. It is clearly shown that the Ming Empire is very well prepared for war, and their complete and powerful industrial system can better adapt to wartime conditions.
In addition, the fighting spirit of the Japanese cannon fodder brought by the Ming Empire is completely different from that of the Indian cannon fodder of the British Empire. The combat efficiency of the former is at least ten times that of the latter!
Fortunately, after winning the naval battle, the Ming Empire seemed to be in no rush to attack India. For more than a year after they seized the Strait of Malacca, they mainly broke engagements in the Indian Ocean.
Although they sank and captured hundreds of British and Indian civilian ships and escorting warships, and won several naval battles caused by escorting and breaking diplomatic relations, they did not enter India in pursuit of victory - through the During the peace talks in Vienna, the British also found out something about the Ming Dynasty. They had no intention of occupying India, but just wanted to dismember the country unified by the British into twenty or thirty countries...
This "silly son" was about to be dismembered and didn't know how to fight to the death. Emperor William was really speechless!
The other "silly son" of the British Empire, the United States, was much more powerful than India, and it was enough to crush Mexico, another helper of the Ming Dynasty. However, the Ming Dynasty had already taken the lead in the American battlefield by supporting Japanese immigrants in Texas and supporting Florida's independence. Even if President Jackson launched a general mobilization and organized an army of millions, it would inevitably end in a protracted situation.
Recently, U.S. troops on the North American battlefield suffered heavy losses in front of Mexican-Japanese trench defenses in the Florida swamps and Texas. It is said that the Mexicans and Japanese are equipped with a squad machine gun that can follow the infantry to move quickly, and have an overwhelming firepower advantage in infantry battles! Americans are now going crazy looking for individual firearms that can shoot continuously...
"Duke, what do you think of the current situation?" Emperor William suddenly turned his head, as if to listen to Duke Wellington's thoughts.
"Let's fight for peace!"
Looking at Emperor William, the Duke of Wellington frowned, calculating like a bookkeeper, "The Ming Dynasty's goal is obviously to weaken the United States, dismember India, and seize Australia...and Pearl Harbor is not only the home port of the Pacific Fleet , or their logistics transfer center supporting the North American battlefield. If we can destroy the facilities at Pearl Harbor and the large number of merchant ships parked there, it will have a great adverse impact on Ming Dynasty's operations in North America. By then we may be able to... ...Use this victory to reach some kind of compromise with the Ming Empire."
"Okay! But I want to leave the Indian Empire, a country with a population of 200 million, completely to Victoria..." Emperor William smiled slightly and stopped in front of several completed huge warships in the center of the outfitting area.
Emperor William's eyes suddenly shone at this time, and he no longer discussed with Wellington the conditions for peace talks with the Ming Dynasty, but turned his attention to those huge warships.
There were a total of 6 warships that appeared in front of Emperor William, 2 of which were battleships, and 4 were Stitch Monsters - half armored cruiser, half aircraft carrier!
Those two battleships were a pair of sister ships, exactly the same, namely the battleship "William IV" and the battleship "Queen Elizabeth", which Emperor William had high hopes for.
George Elliot, who was following Emperor William and the Duke of Wellington, immediately introduced: "Your Majesty the Emperor, the standard displacement of the William IV class has reached 29,000 tons, and the full load displacement has reached 35,000 tons! The thickness of its main armor belt It reaches 343-203 mm, with horizontal protection of 76 mm; the front of the turret is 457 mm; the front of the command tower is 406 mm!
It also has 10 14-inch 45-caliber main guns, 21 5-inch high-level and flat dual-purpose guns, 21 1-pound anti-aircraft guns and 21 anti-aircraft machine guns. It also has 12 kerosene mixed-fired boilers and 2 steam turbines with a total power of 31,500 horsepower, dual-shaft propulsion, and a maximum speed of 20.5 knots! "
Emperor William nodded and said to George Yilu: "Lieutenant General Yilu, I now hand over these two battleships and the other four aircraft-carrying armored cruisers to you and Admiral Baga... The British Empire looks forward to your victory!"
"Your Majesty the Emperor, our Australian fleet will definitely fulfill its duties!"
