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Washington, White House.

President of the United States of America, William Brown. McKinley was sighing wistfully at a report he had just gotten. Another piece of bad news. Since declaring war on Spain, he has received a series of bad news, from the mysterious disappearance of the fleet of Severa to the inexplicable panic on the east coast, and then the harsh accusations of the Admiralty from the coastal states and cities, accusing the navy of being so incompetent that the people need to arm themselves and protect themselves.

McGinn spent a lot of time and energy defending Tatsu and the Navy, assuring the financiers who had fled Boston that they would soon be able to return to the city, and in an interview with reporters, he claimed that the Navy would be able to destroy the enemy's fleet as quickly as possible. But now, Rear Admiral Sampson, who was in charge of the blockade of Cuba, has done another stupid thing.

Of course, like all the bad news that he has encountered lately, this matter is still related to the fleet of Severa. Commodore Mahan had judged that the mysteriously missing fleet would go to San Juan to refuel, and Sampson agreed, but instead of sending a reconnaissance ship to San Juan first, as Mahan had suggested, he left Key West for San Juan with almost all of his capital ships, including the battleships Iowa and Indiana, the armored cruiser New York, and two shallow heavy gunboats. But the speed of those shallow-water heavy gunboats was so slow that it took Sampson ten days to get there, and of course it turned out to be nothing.

There is no doubt that this move is rather stupid. Mahan accused Rear Admiral of abandoning the U.S. Navy's strategic center throughout the Caribbean to embark on an inexplicable and uncertain tactical adventure. But Sampson's folly doesn't stop there. In San Juan, to vent his anger, he ordered the fleet to shell the coast for an hour, but nothing was destroyed, only a large number of shells were wasted and eight sailors were killed and wounded.

Judging by these performances, the Rear Admiral's ability may be less than half that of Dewey.

And he turned one question into three: first, the whereabouts of the Severa fleet were still unknown, and it was likely that he had already obtained fuel supplies in San Juan, or had slipped into Havana while Sampson was leaving;

Secondly, because Sampson wasted a lot of ammunition and fuel, his fleet could only use at most half of its combat strength before returning to Key West to resupply, and time was wasted - ten days from Key West to San Juan, ten days on the return voyage, and ten days to resupply at the base, so long enough time for Severa to do a lot of things, such as destroying Key West;

Eventually, some in the Admiralty began to create pressure to remove Sampson from his post and reappoint a "more talented" fleet commander.

McKinley wasn't sure who those men wanted to take over the fleet, it could be Schleier, it could be Mahan, it could be Dewey, who was still in the Philippines, or someone else, but one thing was clear, things had gotten very troublesome.

He had a headache.

In fact, as the president of the United States and not the leader of the Navy, McKinley did not need to have a headache for this matter, and it was the Secretary of the Navy and the Deputy Secretary of the Navy who should have a headache...... Of course, the Deputy Secretary of the Navy has resigned and participated in the Leonard . General Wood's Volunteers; Major Roosevelt had completely cleared himself up, and in the present situation, only Long should have a headache for the stupidity of the Navy.

The Secretary of the Navy is the only one who needs to take leadership responsibility for all these troubles.

But McKinley had his own problem: he needed a victory to boast of to show the American public, and certainly more importantly, financiers and businessmen that declaring war on Spain was a sensible decision that served America's interests and would not interfere with everyday life, and to dispel the panic that had permeated the East Coast.

This must be done in order to protect his political life.

Unfortunately, the victories of Dewey and Qin Lang in the Philippines could not help him. Harriman and Bush have tried, but to no avail. Even if Dewey and Qin Lang wiped out 500,000 Spaniards, or even a million Spaniards, on that archipelago, the American people would not care, because the vast majority of them had no idea where the Philippines was, where it was, and who it was, and the threat of the Spanish fleet to their homeland was obvious.

McKinley needed the Navy to eliminate Severa as soon as possible, but Sampson was unable to complete the task, and things were simply terrible.

He simply couldn't stand the current situation.

"In recent times, I've been thinking a lot about whether it's worth it for us to invest so much dollars in building a navy." McKinley put down the report in his hand and sighed heavily, reluctantly.

McKinley's only audience, his staff, Harriman, the former Deputy Secretary of the Navy, looked at him without saying a word, calmly, and with a little sympathy. Harriman knew that McKinley's complaint was only out of his frustration, that continuing to expand the U.S. Navy was an established, irrevocable national strategy, and quite right, and that a small setback was nothing. As for the pressure on Mr. President, Harriman thinks it will soon pass.

As long as the navy succeeds in destroying the fleet of Severa - this is a matter of no doubt, it is only a matter of time, and Severa has a very clear destination; Alternatively, if the Spanish Navy felt it would be more realistic to go around the sea all the time, it could send ground forces to occupy Cuba.

The army has long been impatient, and both generals and soldiers are eager to go into battle immediately. In Washington, the Secretary of War constantly asked for the Army to be dispatched, sometimes twice a day, sometimes three times a day, even more urgently than Ron urged Sampson.

In fact, Algiers had been there thirty minutes earlier, and of course McKinley was meeting with representatives of the Boston financiers.

"The Minister of Algiers once again stated that William. Army units under the command of Major General R. Schaffert are ready for battle. As soon as McKinley regained his composure, Harriman immediately reported the news to him. Sixteen,000 Army soldiers under the command of Major General Shaffert were on standby in Tampa, General Wood's Volunteers Regiment was there, and the McAleese Infantry Regiment from the West Coast was on its way.

"The Umbrella mercenaries have five days to go." He went on to say, "But General Schaffert was convinced, and repeatedly emphasized, that he would be able to complete the task even without mercenaries." ”

"He just doesn't want the mercenaries to take the credit away from him." McKinley knew the generals' minds well. The U.S. Army's untrained and inexperienced soldiers were at best able to draw with the Spaniards, but Qin Lang's mercenaries were able to crush the Cuban enemy army like tearing down a dilapidated house. General Shafter was worried, and it was no surprise that he wanted to get rid of the mercenaries, as did General Wood.

But they still have to stay in Tampa. Without naval cover, it would have been impossible for the Army to land in Cuba, but the Navy was now prioritizing the fleet in Cevera, and did not have the time or energy to escort merchant ships transporting the Army and to provide fire support during the landing operation.

McKinley turned his gaze back to the report that was causing him headaches and frustration. Sampson had to find out where the Spanish fleet was to be found at once...... Now is the time!

But there is one thing McKinley may never realize: because of the problems with the transmission of information, and the inevitable procrastination of the bureaucracy, the reports he gets are behind the actual situation. So in fact, while he was angry at the sluggishness and incompetence of the navy, Sampson was actually eyeing Severa's fleet - it had already entered the Caribbean, and the French had rejected Severa's request to refuel in their controlled Martinique, so he refueled the Dutch-controlled island of Curaçao and was speeding up his journey to Cuba.

This is good news. So the rear admiral immediately abandoned the two slow-moving shallow-water heavy gunboats and returned to the base in Key West at full speed. The Schlei fleet, which was on standby in Norfolk, was also dispatched.

Sampson needs to race against time. Luckily, he didn't have to race against Severa, the Spanish ships were much slower than his, and if the sailors were overplayed, they might be able to run fourteen knots, or a little faster, but that wasn't likely to happen very often.

Moreover, even if Severa made it to Havana, the rear admiral would have plenty of time and certainty to block him in the harbor before he attacked again. In this way, the panic on the East Coast would be over, and the Admiralty would no longer have to send him a telegram every day asking him to move faster.

Sampson had had enough of the life-threatening telegrams. Ryu's wording is getting tougher and tougher every day, and perhaps finally, the Secretary of the Navy will ask aloud in a telegram that "the whole of America wants to know where your fleet is." For a military man with a lot of self-esteem, this is difficult to accept.

Thankfully, that never happened.

With a little rejoicing, the rear admiral led his fleet into Key West—it was now May 18th; It is also to be thanked God that Schleih's fleet was waiting for him in the harbor. Well, all that's left to do is one last thing: find Severa's fleet and take it out.

"The Americans must be desperate to send us into the sea to feed the fish." The Spanish admiral fully anticipated the fate that awaited him, and unfortunately, he had to face it. But Severa was not prepared to rush into the Americans' death pockets without doing anything.

Actually, he didn't plan to go in at all.

"Turn to Santiago." The admiral gave the order. "The coastal batteries there should be able to protect us."

The Spanish fleet began to move towards a new goal. (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.) )