After the meeting, Yang Yonglin returned to his cabin, looked at a large-scale map and the composition of the two fleets, and sighed. Only now did he realize how terrible it was to be in a truly powerful industrial country. Although it was not possible to replenish battleships and armored cruisers in a short time. However, the United States, with its complete industrial system, can quickly repair damaged warships and replenish a large number of auxiliary warships according to the needs of the situation. And if there are more ants, they can bite the elephant to death, and the slight advantage they have gained by desperately fighting will probably be wasted again because of the auxiliary cruisers of the Americans.

Therefore, in view of this situation, all the plans must be changed, and the original plan is to continue to fight a mobile war with the US Navy after being revised until the opponent of the war submits or the idea of a decisive battle after being weakened to a certain extent needs to be revised. It is clear that it is no longer feasible to get the United States to abandon its plan to occupy Cuba by simply delaying time and attrition. Over time, the U.S. Navy can transform more and stronger auxiliary cruisers, and in the event of an engagement, the Americans can use these modifications to consume the elite of the Spanish Navy until all these few elites are consumed!

Now Yang Yonglin must take stock of the strength in his hands, in addition to the loss of a dome cruiser, the Spanish fleet also has 9 warships, of which the 4 battleships in the hands of Sevela are basically no big problem, and regular maintenance and guaranteed supplies can restore combat effectiveness. Except for the two battleships in his hands, the other three battleships could not completely restore their combat effectiveness in a short period of time. The damage and casualties of the battleships allowed these three warships to recover to about 70% of their combat strength at most.

In addition to these battleships, the Spanish fleet had 15 torpedo boats. These redesigned, armed with new torpedoes, would be the Spanish Navy's most threatening weapons for American battleships. The new torpedo is equipped with gyroscopes, and the compressed air engine of the past has been replaced, and the engine with new kerosene as fuel has been used, and the effective range can already reach about 1KM. And these mine-striking ships can fire a salvo of 60 torpedoes at a time. And the speed is up to 25 knots. If the other side does not have enough escort warships, in the event of serious losses in the sidestring artillery, then these Sturgeon-class torpedo boats will pose a great threat to it! In addition, the speed of American battleships was already slow. The sea trials are not very good, which increases the possibility of mines.

Of course, there are still great restrictions when using these sharp daggers. First of all, the first major problem is the issue of sea trials and range. These ships are not suitable for ocean-going operations, so it is better to play a role in the near sea, on the one hand, the problems of range and sea trials are solved. Second, when attacking, you can use the cover of the coast, and the concealment is better. In addition, it is necessary to solve the problem of the opponent's escort battleships, not to mention the guns above 6 inches, even the 4-inch guns or even the 3-pounder guns of the Americans will pose a great threat to these vulnerable battleships, and not only the firepower of the battleships themselves, but the guns on the opponent's cruisers and even auxiliary cruisers can easily destroy these assassins! Even if the torpedo boats knocked out these low-value targets, it would be an absolute loss for the Spanish fleet, and the same tactics would be best only when used for the first time. What's more, after this big war, it is difficult to say how many torpedo boats will be left!

To put it bluntly, even those torpedo boats are one-time consumables, and even the chances of the Spanish fleet to sink American battleships are estimated to be this one! If the calculation fails, then the battle situation will be really difficult! So. At the right time, in the right place, luring the American fleet into battle will be the key to this battle!

The most suitable location is, naturally, as close as possible to the port of Santiago, where your own torpedo boat formation can be hidden and do not have to worry about range and sea conditions. But only if the US Navy comes back to attack itself! From the current point of view, even with these auxiliary cruisers, the US Navy will not attack easily. San Diego has battery protection. There were mine arrays, there was the Spanish fleet. And it's far from the continental United States. These many disadvantages make it difficult for Americans to come to their doors, even if they have an advantage. Not to mention that the Americans have other options. …,

The U.S. government is more desperate for its life, but if it really makes a forced landing at all costs, the Spanish fleet will face a tragic naval battle in the face of a large number of various warships composed of the American fleet, even if it can destroy some of the transport ships, maybe the entire fleet will be fatally hit, and then what? The U.S. capital ships go back to repair and continue to fight, what will happen to the Spanish fleet?

Did you really let the Spanish fleet with 15 torpedo boats swoop into the American fleet and pass through the layers of artillery blockade and lightning strikes? This method of warfare is not conducive to finding death. The opposing high-speed cruiser was able to break up the torpedo boat formation in a few strokes. A large number of rapid-fire artillery guns can make these torpedo boats know what moth fire! Therefore, this method with a very low success rate is obviously not possible.

After racking his brains and thinking about it for an afternoon, Yang Yonglin still didn't come up with a way to crack it. After all, in his opinion, as long as the Americans do not make mistakes, then there will not be much chance on their side! Unless the other person makes a mistake, and the mistake is just for you to catch! But what mistakes can the U.S. Navy make at this time? Dispersing forces? Don't even think about it, the Americans have suffered such a big loss, and it is impossible to disperse again.

At least from the enemy's point of view, the Americans should not have made purely military mistakes, at least not simple mistakes. So politically or strategically, will the U.S. Navy make some mistakes driven by certain reasons? Yang Yonglin decided to look at the problem from a different standpoint. Analyze the war from the point of view of the Americans.

First of all, the U.S. government is actually quite dissatisfied with this situation, losing consecutive battles, the Newport News shipyard was knocked out, and it can also be used to prevaricate with negligence. (Of course, someone has to pay for the word negligence). However, after the main fleet was violently beaten, the US government and the people began to question the role and strength of the navy, which the US Navy absolutely does not want to see.

Second, the Americans must take into account the reactions of other powers in the world, as early as the beginning of the war, the countries in the world expressed great dissatisfaction with the actions of the United States, if the United States can successfully solve the problem of the opponent, if it cannot solve it quickly, then once other countries see the weakness of the United States, I am afraid they will take some other actions, right? And this is what the US government does not want to see, and the prolonged war has caused US shipping to be affected, which is not what the capitalists on Wall Street want to see, so the Americans should want to end the war as soon as possible.

Thirdly, what is the purpose of the American fleet? If Yang Yonglin commanded the U.S. fleet, then he wouldn't mind playing a supporting role, cooperating with the Army, helping the Army to transport a large number of personnel and equipment to the shore, and then using rifles and field artillery to solve the problem, but would the U.S. Navy think so? Is the U.S. Navy willing to serve as a green leaf to set off the red flower of the Army? Not necessarily! At least Roosevelt didn't want to! According to some intelligence, Roosevelt pushed the United States to war with Spain. The explosion of the Maine was actually big or small, and it was not impossible for Spain to make a big deal into a small one when Spain was willing to pay compensation, but under the impetus of Roosevelt, the United States finally declared war on Spain.

In the end, I worked hard for half a day to make a wedding dress for the army? Could Roosevelt be willing? So from this point of view, Roosevelt definitely wanted the navy to play the leading role, at least until the Spanish fleet was severely damaged, until the importance of the navy was proven, he would not easily send a large number of land forces to it! This is politics, and although all the methods and decisions under the banner of politics are not the most ideal and efficient, people must do it!

So what now? Yang Yonglin needed to look at the entire war from Roosevelt's point of view, and then formulate a corresponding operational plan. Americans are not stupid. They will definitely not divide their forces again, until the situation is clear. After adding a certain number of auxiliary cruisers to the American fleet, the remaining task was to find ways to lure the Spanish fleet to a decisive battle, and for this purpose, the Americans only had to grasp one core, that is, the enemy must be saved! So what was the place where the Spanish fleet must be saved? …,

The first, of course, was the port of Santiago, where the Spanish fleet after the Great War absolutely needed to be fully repaired and replenished. But for all reasons, attacking a well-guarded port in such a situation is to send it to death. As for the second? That was to cover a large number of land landings, and in the event of such a situation, the Spanish fleet would have to block it with all its might. If part of the transport ships were used as bait, the Spanish fleet would have to act anyway. Because if the U.S. Army is allowed to gain a firm foothold, then the U.S. government will be more determined to fight this battle. The Americans will not let the blood of the Army be shed in vain either. There's a saying that if the place you occupy is stained with blood, you'll defend it with more blood!

If this happens, the American fleet will have a decisive battle with the Spanish fleet in a battlefield of its own choosing! In this way, the problem of slow speed was completely solved, and the Spanish fleet had to break through the layers of blockade if it wanted to attack the US Navy transport ships. This meant that the opponent's firepower advantage could be fully exploited without worrying about the Spanish fleet running away. This calculation is very simple, Yang Yonglin can guess it, but you can't solve this problem!

And just when Yang Yonglin was racking his brains about how to solve this dead end, there was a knock on the door. Hipper's familiar voice sounded outside the door: "General Yang, we have a new plan, about the captured battleship called Taifeng. Do you have time? ”

Thank you for the monthly ticket support of the book friend Frozen Yelang.,In other words,Book friends yesterday's new chapter subscription was less than 260.,Can you give a little bit——! Book lovers who read pirated editions, let's give some support occasionally. It's not easy for the author to code words——! (Your support is my biggest motivation.) )