"Colonel Magifin, how long will it take us to get ready?" Looking out the window at the busy military port, General Simpson said

"In one and a half months, we will complete all the preparations, we have two auxiliary cruisers missing, we need to find two new ships to fill this gap, we need the help of at least four 10,000-ton high-speed auxiliary cruisers to cooperate with the New York to contain or eliminate one of the opposing fleets." Majifen said calmly.

"You will be given another 15 days at most, no longer." General Simpson had a look of anxiety on his face.

"It's impossible, Your Excellency, it takes time to find a suitable new ship and equip it with weapons. At least 1 month! Magifin looked at General Simpson with some bewilderment.

"George, you go out and close, and by the way, close the door, and don't let anyone in without my orders." General Simpson said to the adjutant.

"What happened to the ground?" When there were only two people left in the room, Magiffen said with some unease.

"The Spaniards were in contact with the British, the Germans, and the Italians. On the one hand, they negotiated loans, and on the other hand, they sought to buy completed warships from these countries, and the British and Italian governments had already indicated that there were outfitted warships to sell! Therefore, we must resolve this war as soon as possible. General Simpson said with a grim face.

"The Spaniards still want to buy battleships? Will they be able to sustain their finances? Majifen felt a little incredible.

"There's nothing that can't be supported, that Admiral Xu in Beiyang is not in the case of government funding. Did 3 armored cruisers be procured? Now that Spain has the support of European countries, it is not difficult to raise more than a million pounds to buy two warships. If we add two more ships like the PISA-class or the King-class, I'm afraid we'll really lose this war. General Simpson took a deep breath and calmed himself and continued: "So we must end this war before the new Spanish ships are in place. ”

"Maybe you don't think it's possible, and I don't believe it either, but now we can't believe it! We can't bet that if we lose, we're going to be hitching a ride on the entire U.S. Navy. You get the idea? Mr. Magifin? After Simpson finished speaking, he looked at Magiffen with some complicated eyes.

"But Your Excellency, General, if you want to complete the rearmament within 15 days. We will not be able to add new warships now, we will only be able to repair the existing ones, and we will have 2 10,000-ton high-speed auxiliary cruisers and 5 7,000-ton auxiliary cruisers already in the harbor. And what's worse is that the latter is still a slow battleship, and the armor protection is better than nothing. Are you sure you want to go to war in this situation? "Majifen tried to keep fighting for something.

"Then do you think we will have a chance of victory when 2 or 3 armored cruisers ordered by the Spaniards from some country in Europe arrive? At that time, they will be able to forcibly knock out the last pillar of the US Navy, and the fleet of 4 battleships will not be able to resist the attack of the opponent's 2 battleships and 6 10,000-ton cruisers, and at that time, no amount of auxiliary warships will be able to change the fate of defeat, do you understand? And I would like to say that the US Navy is still too weak. Even if the British had given the Spaniards a little help, we could have been thrown into a situation from which we could never recover. So we can't give Britain this chance. Simpson was already a little anxious to get on the ship, and he added a sentence at the end: "Mr. Roosevelt thinks so too, so, Mr. Colonel." Execute the order. ”

"Actually, I think it's irresponsible to fight the Spanish fleet when you're not well prepared." Magiffen sneered. But now he has no choice but to prepare as much as possible. …,

After the supreme instructions from the Admiralty were issued, Majifen and the others had no choice but to work overtime as much as possible in order to complete the combat readiness within the stipulated time. And in addition to combat readiness on the part of the Navy. The U.S. government and the Army are also actively creating an atmosphere of decisive battle, and the Army's large number of transport ships and troops are frequently moved. All of a sudden, the major ports of the southern United States were crowded with troops and ships, and it was a busy scene, and they almost told the Spaniards that we were about to land in Cuba, and you should prepare to intercept it!

After the conversation between Simpson and Magifin, after 20 days of hard work, the U.S. Navy finally completed the rearmament of seven auxiliary cruisers, two 13,000-ton auxiliary cruisers equipped with four 8-inch guns (arranged in the four corners of the hull) and 10 6-inch guns, as well as a large number of 6-pounder and 3-pounder guns. And the core cabin has a certain amount of protection, but because of the construction period and labor constraints and other problems, there is no protection in the artillery position and other secondary important areas. It could reach speeds of more than 20 knots and was named auxiliary cruisers of the A1 and A2 types.

The remaining five 6,000 to 7,000-ton auxiliary cruisers, because of their old age and equipment inventory problems, were far less good than the two A1 and A2 high-speed auxiliary cruisers, and these five slow-speed auxiliary cruisers, numbered B1 to B5, were generally armed with 10 6-inch guns and 6 6-pounder guns. And basically there was no protection, just some horizontal armor was installed in the ammunition compartment position. Even the number of crew members is barely enough, after all, the U.S. Navy does not have so many people to replenish these warships with enough officers and men. As a last resort, only a few volunteers could be recruited.

And after these auxiliary warships are barely in place. The U.S. Navy's most rear-end tactical grouping has also been completed! The entire U.S. fleet was divided into 3 groups, 3 Indiana-class battleships (INS, MAS, and OREGON) and the USS Iowa, as well as two improved Columbia-class cruisers, formed the first squadron under the command of Admiral Simpson. Its task was to confront and pin down the Spanish battleship formations.

The USS New York, USS Newark, and USS Charleston formed a second squadron with all the auxiliary cruisers, which in turn was divided into two groups, three cruisers and two fast auxiliary cruisers A1 and A2, formed the first group, whose mission was to attack, pinnate, and hold back the Spanish cruiser formation. The second group is composed of a total of 5 slow-moving auxiliary cruisers from B1 to B5, and the task of this fleet is to cooperate with the first group to severely damage or even annihilate the Spanish cruiser formation. And the second team composed of these two groups was unified under the command of Majifen.

The third group included all the remaining regular protected cruisers in the United States, which were two Cincinnati-class cruisers (C7 and C8) with a displacement of 3,100 tons, a speed of 19 knots, one 6-inch gun, 10 5-inch guns, eight 6-pounder guns, and four 18-inch torpedo tubes. Three Montgomery-class cruisers (C9 to C11) had a displacement of 2,094 tons, a speed of 17 knots, and were armed with nine 5-inch guns, six 6-pounder guns, and three 18-inch torpedo tubes. These ships were unified under the command of General Shelly and were used to support the two fleets in battle!

After these preparations, the US Navy, which had been gathering momentum for a long time, was finally about to start the final decisive battle with the Spanish fleet!

The decisive battle is about to kick off, so let's support it~~ Anyway, do you still have extra monthly passes in your hands? If so, can you support that?? Thank you~~ (Welcome to your support, which is my biggest motivation.) )