"On 19 May, the Severa fleet entered the port of Santiago and was warmly welcomed by the local Spanish population......"

Qin Lang was reading a lengthy telegram of almost 8,000 words—a monthly update on the war situation sent to Dewey by the Admiralty and the Army and Navy Commission, and of course, a copy of the naval telegraph scribe at Canton Bay had also copied him—government expenditures, which were spent on taxpayers' money anyway. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Although, in reality, he did not need such a briefing.

Qin Lang has his own information network, a radio system, and a few well-informed friends. Moreover, it is safe to say that he knows better than anyone about the situation and developments in the Caribbean theater of operations. Although it is all "history", the reality is no different from those he knows, and it is as funny as ever.

On 19 May, Severa entered Santiago and never left, while the United States Navy continued to scurry around Cuba like a headless fly. Of course, because Sampson's fleet is being refueled and revised in Key West, it was Schleigh who went out this time.

While the Spanish fleet was completing its adventure, the Commodore was directing his fleet to the Cuban port of Cienfuegos, west of Santiago, with a distance of three hundred and fifteen nautical miles. Schleigh was convinced that Severa was there, and even though his fleet had arrived and had not found the total of the Spanish fleet, he thought so, and let the fleet cruise around the port of Cienfuegos. It wasn't until 24 May, when the local Cuban rebels got in touch with the Commodore Admiral, that he learned that Severa had gone to Santiago, and then hurried there.

Of course, "hurry" was only a telegram statement, but the reality was that the short voyage of three hundred and fifteen nautical miles took Schleih nearly two days to complete, and for a time the fleet was only a pitiful six knots. Although the Commodore argued that the bad sea conditions had affected the speed of the battleship, everyone knew that if he had left the gunboats that were in the way and of little use, he would have been able to reach his destination sooner.

However, this was not Schley's biggest joke, the real big joke was after his arrival in San Diego: on May 26, Schley's fleet arrived twenty nautical miles from the harbor and joined up with three reconnaissance cruisers that had arrived early, but the cruisers reported that the Spanish fleet had not been found, so the Commodore ordered the fleet to return to Key West to refuel, again citing "bad sea conditions."

This stupid and ridiculous order undoubtedly frightened some in Washington, for now everyone was sure that Severa and his fleet were in San Diego, and that if Schleigh had left without permission, the Spaniards would most likely have taken advantage of the opportunity to slip away, and the Admiralty would have been razed to the ground by angry congressmen, financiers, businessmen, and civilians, and then turned into a second-rate institution without cabinet members by the angry President Excellency.

That situation is more than just a threat. In the history of the United States, Thomas. Jefferson had removed the post of Secretary of the Navy, and McKinley could have done it again.

The situation was urgent, and Takashi immediately sent a sternly worded telegram to Schleigh: "The Admiralty has received information that the Spanish fleet is still in the port of Santiago. The Admiralty orders you to confirm this judgment in person, and if the enemy is indeed here, you will never be allowed to leave without taking decisive action. ”

However, Schleigh did not understand the Admiralty's concerns, and he actually replied: "It is a pity that I cannot obey the orders of the Admiralty and must return to the port of Key West through the Yucatan Strait to refuel; It was not possible to confirm anything about the enemy. ”

Qin Lang guessed that the moment he received this telegram, Long must have wanted to seal Schleigh with cement and throw it into the Atlantic Ocean as a permanent memorial.

Fortunately, the sea was soon calm, and the Commodore Admiral, who had no other reason to use and could already be supplied by coal ships, had to order the fleet to turn around and arrive in Santiago on the morning of the 28th. On this day, however, Schleier did not see the Spanish fleet - however, "Cristobal . . . The armored cruiser "Cologne" was actually at the entrance to the port and had been anchored there for four days.

It was not until the next day, in the early morning of May 29, that the American fleet, almost blind, discovered the Spanish battleship, which in fact had no trace of it at all, and then everything went into normal.

“…… On 1 June, Rear Admiral Sampson led the fleet off the coast of San Diego and took command, and on the same day the battleship Oregon arrived to join the blockade fleet. ”

Qin Lang put the telegram aside - he had laughed enough, but if he continued to read, he would see the comical performance of the famous ammunition-throwing cruiser "Vesuvius" in the blockade of the port of San Diego. This ridiculous battleship was the product of the brains of the engineers of the Navy's shipbuilding department, she had no turret and gun swivel mechanism, three fifteen-inch guns fixed directly to the hull, but instead of gunpowder, she used compressed air to fire nitroglycerin shells weighing 1,500 pounds, so that the range was ridiculously close - if you add to this the slow transfer of fire and the low hit rate, this naval assault gun-like battleship is in fact synonymous with "waste", except that the fireworks are "spectacular" There is no use outside of fireworks.

But it was the Americans who set off the fireworks in the port of San Diego and paid for it, and it was the Spaniards who were jubilant and dancing.

Qin Lang's expression distorted. He knew that if he didn't regain his composure soon, the muscles in his face would ache from laughing too exaggeratedly.

In contrast to him, thousands of miles away in the city of Tampa, Army Major General William Brown. R. Schafft and General Leonard Wood, commander of the Volunteers, were in a much worse mood. On the one hand, no matter how reluctant they may be, Sean. The Umbrella mercenaries under the command of Colonel O'Connor arrived in Tampa anyway, and despite having only one regimental combat team, only God knows how much it would steal; On the other hand, there is information that the Navy has concentrated 650 Marines and is preparing to capture Guantanamo, Cuba, and turn it into a forward supply base for the Navy, but the more powerful Army is still watching from the sidelines.

Neither Shafter nor Wood liked the situation in front of them. But what made the rear admiral even more angry was that the last telegram sent to him by the War Department actually requested: "Go to the vicinity of Santiago de Cuba under the cover of the navy, land in the west or east as you see fit, and then deploy your troops on high ground or on a hill overlooking the port or inland, so that you can most effectively capture or destroy the local enemy forces." Support naval boats in demining and assist the Navy in capturing or destroying the Spanish fleet in the port of Santiago. ”

This order convinced Sharpert that his 16,000 Army soldiers were tasked with clearing the way for the navy, rather than completely annihilating the Spanish army in a decisive ground battle that would liberate Cuba and end the war between the United States and Spain.

Defeat the Spanish Army, that's what the valiant Army should do, not the drunken sailors who shout "Beat.Army" all day long.

Therefore, Shafter was not prepared to strictly carry out Algiers' orders. Thank God that the War Office gave him a great deal of autonomy to judge the situation and to choose when and where to wage war against the main forces of the Santiago and Spanish armies.

And the Navy had no way to dictate his actions other than the time it took to send his troops to Cuba - in fact, in the Caribbean theater, the biggest joke the American military made was not the actions of Sampson and Schleier or the damned munition-throwing cruiser, but the fact that there was no common superior other than the President of the United States, Sampson and Shuffer, despite the need for mutual support and joint operations.

And so far, no one has raised the question, either because they don't see it, or because they see it but don't want to point it out.

"I mean, this will continue until the end of the war." O'Connor snapped his fingers, "It's strange that Qin Lang didn't ask this question to his friends in Washington......"

"You can see that you didn't say anything." Desmond. Harrington reluctantly said, "It is troublesome to want to establish a joint command structure of the army and navy. There is always a top head in any department, but who will take the role, the Navy and the Army will fight for the head. Unless the department is a permanent institution, not the kind that was abolished at the end of the war. And the absence of a joint command structure is not a fatal problem. ”

"You're right, Desmond." "The biggest enemy that the U.S. military will face in this war is the U.S. food processing plants," O'Connor said. ”

"What do you mean?"

O'Connor did not answer immediately, but took out two cans of luncheon meat and opened them. "Look at how different they are."

Harrington was skeptical, but picked up the two cans anyway. From the outside, they didn't make any difference, they were all Spam brand luncheon meats, and the meat was exactly the same color, but when he lowered them to his nose, the difference was immediately apparent: one of them was completely normal, but the other had a faint sour smell.

For a moment, Harrington thought that the stinky can was just because it was expired, but looking at the production date, it was a month ago.

"What's going on?" He asked.

O'Connor shrugged. "The normal can was made at the San Diego plant, and the smelly one was from our partner in Chicago. They use pork that has gone completely bad, and although they use a lot of baking soda to remove the smell, they can still smell it when you smell it closely. ”

"God!"

"Don't get excited, Lieutenant Colonel." "Our own cans come from the San Diego plant, and this spoiled cans are the Army's supplies, and they're one of the best quality of them all," O'Connor said. I inspected the army's logistics warehouses, and every canned meat had a distinct stench, some were moldy, and half of the bacon was covered with maggots. I swear that the casualties caused by these cans will far exceed those of the Spaniards. ”

"I believe in you." Harrington frowned, "What do you think should be the case?" ”

"Rachel's opinion is that this is a great opportunity to market authentic Spam luncheon meat, as well as a massive overhaul of our partners." (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )