Jingshi, Xinhua Palace Chengxian Hall, base camp royal front conference room.

"What I want is not to apologize, but to reflect."

On the throne, facing the leaders of the base camp who were bowing at 90 degrees to express their apologies, facing the leaders of the base camp who were lined up on both sides of the conference table, Empress Liu Qianhua spoke half comfortingly and half warningly.

During the Battle of the Solomon Sea two days ago, the Navy's Solomon Raiders fleet was attacked by the enemy's superior air forces, the navy's newest and largest aircraft carrier "Jinpeng" was sunk, another smaller old aircraft carrier, the "Saker," was hit by a bullet on the flight deck, and 125 of the 178 carrier-based planes carried on the two aircraft carriers failed to return home, and the fleet lost most of its aviation combat strength. In addition, the DPRK Navy's 350-mm main gun battleship "Yi Sunsin" was also damaged by a mine and urgently needed to be docked for repairs, reducing the number of capital ships available to the fleet from six to five.

In view of the above losses, and the unknown situation of the enemy, the base camp urgently ordered the suspension of the landing operation on Kuah Island, and the escort group carrying the landing force turned back to the Shortland anchorage at the southern tip of Bougainville Island, and at the same time ordered the raider fleet to retreat to the Truk anchorage in the central Caroline Islands.

"Sit back, what will happen to this battle like this, you should know better than me, I only want to know your countermeasures now, as for accountability and the like, I don't care, let alone listen."

The generals looked at each other for a few seconds, and finally under the urging of Liu Qianhua's sharp eyes, they straightened up and sat down.

"Chief of Staff Yan, does the Navy have a plan?"

Hearing the empress's call and inquiry, in an instant, Admiral Yan Fu, the chief of staff of the Navy, whose butt had just been stained on the chair, jumped up like a spring board, and cold sweat was slightly dripping on his forehead.

"Yes, the Navy has drawn up three basic plans......

"Sit down and talk." Liu Qianhua's expressionless face does not mean that she has no emotions about this bad battle.

Yan Fu slowly sat down with a little trepidation, and began to report on the edge of the table with his hands.

"The first is to completely cancel the Aden Offensive operation originally scheduled to be launched in early July, move the main force of the Combined Fleet to the east, gather most of its forces and launch an all-out offensive, in an effort to lure out and annihilate the main force of the enemy navy on the Australian side, take advantage of the situation to capture Port Moresby, the southern part of the Solomon Islands, and the Tuvalu Islands, and comprehensively advance the southeastern front to the south of the 10th parallel of the south latitude. After that, he waited for the opportunity to launch a strategic operation in the Fiji Islands, cutting off the South Pacific communication line that the Allies relied on to assist Australia in one fell swoop. ”

"The second is to postpone the timetable of the Aden raider by 2 to 3 months, temporarily transfer part of the strength of the Aden raider fleet to strengthen the Solomon raider fleet, and launch a limited offensive with the goal of Kuah Island again one month later, and return this part of the force to the Aden raider fleet immediately after the successful operation."

"The third is to carry out the Aden strategic operation as scheduled. The Southeastern Theater maintained the front with existing forces and did not launch any large-scale offensive until the main forces of the Combined Fleet had time to look eastward. ”

Liu Qianhua listened patiently, and his majestic gaze swept over Marshal Liu Buyun, Minister of the Navy of the National Defense Headquarters, beside Yan Fu.

"Minister Liu, among them, which one is the most favorite of the navy, you must know it in your heart, right?"

Liu Buyun said to him: "Chief of Staff Yan just put forward an alternative plan, and the decision lies with the base camp, and the old minister does not dare to speculate, let alone represent the navy ...... under His Majesty."

Liu Qianhua suddenly opened his eyes and drank: "You also know that Lu Dao is my navy"

The emperor's power is unpredictable, Liu Buyun bowed his head and was silent.

The effect has been achieved, and Qianhua's tone slowed down slightly, but it was more restrained.

"It is undeniable that since the beginning of the war, in the face of the unfavorable situation of the two oceans against the enemy, the navy has repeatedly performed miraculous feats, greatly displayed the might of the empire, and greatly boosted the morale of the army and the people.

As soon as the words turned, his eyes were like thorns.

"Some people, who regard our navy as their private property and the merits of all its officers and soldiers as their personal political capital, are arrogant and insensitive, and not only regard new ideas and new techniques as a threat to shake their own position, but also despise the efficiency of the enemy in accepting and applying new ideas and techniques. Under the circumstance that we do not have a complete grasp of the enemy's situation, we arbitrarily divide our forces and launch a planless battle with a limited number of troops with even more limited objectives, which finally leads to bitter results -- Chief of General Staff Gu, tell me, is this the case? ”

Gu Yingyang lowered his head in embarrassment, and held back for a while before he spit out half a sentence: "The emperor's heart is like a mirror, and the old minister ......"

Qianhua didn't wait for him to hold back the second half of the sentence, and put on a mask of openness and generosity: "I just said that I have no intention of holding me accountable, but only persuade those 'some people' to behave for themselves, and not to disappoint me and the hundreds of millions of people of the empire." ”

With a roll of his eyes, after admiring the expressions of the two navy officers, Liu Qianhua quickly turned to Gu Yingyang, who was just about to be injured by mistake.

"Chief of General Staff Gu, has the base camp reached a conclusion on these plans proposed by the Navy?"

Gu Yingyang obviously received the hint and looked slightly relieved, and at the same time took over the conversation quite cleverly.

"At yesterday's special meeting, the General Participating Army agreed that the general strategy of advancing westward and defending eastward could not be abandoned, and that the Empire could not afford to maintain an all-out offensive on three vast fronts: Russia, the Indian Ocean, and Australia at the same time. Until Russia withdraws from the war and the Indian Ocean lines of communication are truly effective and secure, it is more advantageous for us to contain the counteroffensive of the US military in Australia. ”

"The navy, on the other hand, adheres to the consistent concept of 'striking at the enemy' and believes that since the enemy's mobile forces at sea have been discovered, it should gather all the combat strength of the combined fleet and solve the problem in one go through a decisive battle at sea."

"The Navy's idea is that since the Battle of the Bay of Bengal, although the main force of our East Asian Combined Fleet has been active in the Indian Ocean for a long time, it has never found any trace of the enemy's main fleet, and is in an embarrassing situation of being hit by a big stick.

Liu Qianhua leaned on the armrest with one elbow, supported her face with her fist, and the corners of her mouth frowned slightly: "The idea of the navy is not unreasonable, Su Mengxin, what do you think?" ”

Lieutenant General Su Mengxin, director of the Intelligence Division of the General Staff, was the personal guard captain of the former emperor Liu Yun, and Liu Qianhua used him heavily after succeeding to the throne, and he was already recognized as a close attendant of the two dynasties.

"The idea of the navy, I am afraid that it is in the hands of the other side, is to be led by the nose by the enemy. In my opinion, we should respond to all changes with the same attitude, and no matter how tricks the other side plays, we should unswervingly adhere to the established strategic principles, and this is the best countermeasure. ”

Qian Hua frowned slightly, obviously dissatisfied with this generalization: "What about the reason? ”

Su Mengxin seemed to have been prepared, and said bluntly: "Judging from the known intelligence, in this Battle of the Solomons, most of the strength of the Allied Australian Combined Fleet should come from the US Navy. In other words, the remnants of the combined forces of the Entente India, which consisted mainly of British and French naval forces and suffered only limited losses in the Battle of the Bay of Bengal, were still unknown at this time. ”

"There was intelligence that in the Battle of the Turkish Straits some British and French naval ships that were originally part of the combined fleet of Entente India participated in the raid operation, but after the fall of Istanbul and the opening of the strait, the whereabouts of these forces could not be confirmed again."

"It is true that the surface strength of the German Navy, after successively repairing most of the warships damaged in the air raid on the port of Kiel, and completing several new super dreadnoughts, has exceeded the level before the attack on the port of Kiel."

However, according to the report of the Military Attache in Germany, the German High Seas Fleet was demoralized, lacked both battle cruisers and effective air support, and almost lost the courage to go to sea to challenge the British Grand Fleet. The German Navy has recently completely suspended the construction of capital ships and turned to the construction of submarines, and it is expected that the threat to the main fleet of the Entente will only become smaller and smaller in the future. ”

"On the other hand, after the Allies take control of the Turkish Straits will make it possible for the Russian Black Sea Fleet, with its considerable strength, to send some of its ships to the Mediterranean Sea or even the North Sea to participate in the blockade of the Austro-Hungarian naval fleet or the German High Seas Fleet."

"This allows the Allies to deploy more heavy forces, including some of the new ships added in the last nine months, to the Indian Ocean to fight our forces."

"This time, we have already suffered a loss from the enemy in Solomon, and the previous intelligence gathering relied too much on interception and deciphering wireless telegraphy, ignoring the fact that the other side has a mature and complete global cable telegraph system...... In short, the mere fact that the enemy's main fleet has never been searched for before does not prove that the enemy's main fleet will not appear in the Indian Ocean in the future, nor does it mean that the Australian battlefield is more important and urgent than the Indian Ocean battlefield. ”

After listening to Su Mengxin's eloquent discussion, Liu Qianhua nodded with satisfaction, and her gaze swept over Yan Fu and Liu Buyun like a needle.

"Chief of Staff Yan, Minister Liu, if there is anything you can't figure out, you can say it now."

Liu Buyun was speechless, but Yan Fu still mustered up the courage to reply: "The ministers are also worried that if the main force of the combined fleet does not return to the Pacific Ocean as soon as possible, capture and annihilate the Entente Combined Fleet on the Australian side, and then cut off the communication line between Australia and the United States, the growing US military will use Australia as a base to attack our southeast theater with all its might, and then threaten our South China Sea resource zone and sea lines of communication." ”

"Su Sanling, you come to tell me, with the existing forces in the southeast theater, based on the worst-case scenario, how long can the current front be maintained?"

The new acting army chief of staff, Lieutenant General Su Sanling, was originally an old subordinate of General Xiao Liezhi, the current chief of military and political affairs in East Siberia, who had a close relationship with Liu Bailiang and his gang, but not long after the empire entered the war, he unexpectedly stepped into the ranks of the empress's henchmen when he was the chief of operations of the General Staff.

I saw Su Sanling sitting in a precarious position, and said confidently: "The worst-case scenario, that is, no more reinforcements will be given to the southeastern theater, as long as the current naval and land forces are not transferred, before the largest offensive that the enemy in front of you is likely to launch——"

"Front-line strongholds, such as New Georgia and Buna in the southeast of New Guinea, can hold out for at least one month; Second-tier strongholds, such as Bougainville Island and Lae in the eastern part of New Guinea Island, can hold out for at least three months; As for the rear base areas of the theater of operations - the Bismarck Islands and the northern part of the island of New Guinea, it is not a problem to hold on for more than half a year...... "V! ~！