What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 274 Whitewash
The impact of the Atlantic Fleet's Pyrrhic victory was far greater than Tang Wen had imagined.

After Prism released some of the "facts," the entire country was in an uproar.

The once mighty and invincible Imperial Navy suffered such a setback, with two thousand casualties and missing persons, and the loss of four warships.

Although the ships deployed were all old Iowa-class battleships, they were still modernized!

In just one hour, a 100,000-ton warship was lost, and Dalton was immediately subjected to a barrage of criticism, being called a shameless old Dalton who was occupying a position without doing any work.

On his way to the questioning session, Dalton was pelted with various objects by angry sailors' families as soon as he got out of the car, and appeared in front of the senators in a very disheveled state.

"Dalton, give me back my Big J and my whiskey!"

The situation started off badly, with an angry Virginia senator standing up and pointing his finger at him, followed by more people joining in the verbal battle. They thoroughly criticized Dalton before stopping and moving on to the questioning session.

"John Dalton, do you admit to being greedy for personal glory, recklessly dividing your forces and tightly arranging your fleet for personal honor, which led to a sudden attack by the Second Fleet and caused serious losses?"

"I admit."

"Several captains have jointly accused you of failing to strictly follow the fleet commander assignment procedures. Do you agree with this?"

"This is a fact."

Dalton silently endured everything, agreeing to everything without hesitation.

Therefore, from the initial deployment to the rescue, all the mistakes were attributed to Dalton's personal underestimation of the enemy and his flawed command.

Seeing that he offered no defense, the senators became even more furious and immediately declared that they would send him to prison and investigate whether he had engaged in any corruption in the past.

Dalton's hearing ended amidst a barrage of insults, and he was officially thrown into prison.

Subsequently, at the urging of the public, Parliament proposed a bill to increase the budget for a thorough investigation into the Second Fleet incident, which was quickly passed.

Meanwhile, several companies received invitations to bid and are preparing to provide cryogenic equipment needed for Antarctic exploration.

……

"This is incredible. This is incredible."

Tang Wen ran into Chen Yonggui and saw him constantly muttering to himself, so he couldn't help but ask:
"What's the big deal?"

"You don't know? The Battle of the Atlantic! So many people died and so many ships sank!"

"But what does this have to do with us?"

"It's a big deal!"

He slapped his thigh hard:
"The stocks have dropped! I just bought stocks in Hong Kong, and when Nasdaq fell, they fell here too. I've lost a lot of money!"

Tang Wen:......

"Uncle, don't play the stock market. You could easily earn that back with the time you put in."

Chen Yonggui became increasingly angry as he spoke, and then said:
"I've made up my mind. Foreign stocks are unreliable, Hong Kong stocks are unreliable, but our domestic stocks definitely won't be affected. I'm going to switch to the A-shares market!"

Tang Wen looked on with admiration and gave a thumbs up, saying, "This is true dedication."

However, the A-shares market continued to rise until the beginning of the new century, which was truly a bull market. Holding them for a longer period of time would definitely not result in a loss.

Chen Yonggui wanted to recruit Tang Wen to join him as a victim of exploitation, but Tang Wen quickly refused, so Chen Yonggui reluctantly gave up.

"Xiao Tang, is your dredger about to start working?"

"Construction has already begun."

Four dredgers had already arrived at Gongzhen Reef, arranged in a fan shape, each having found its own dredging site. It turned out that after the Second Fleet was deployed, the Empire's entire attention was focused on Antarctica, and they paid no further attention to the minor skirmishes here.

Meanwhile, Luzon is still busy spewing rhetoric in an attempt to extradite Marino and others, and has not sent anyone to harass them recently after losing support.

According to Tang Wen's prediction, the empire will be locked in a fierce battle to find its "home base" in Antarctica for at least the next three years.

The risk of exposure at Queen Maud Mountain Port is not high, but if it is discovered, the system allows for dismantling and recycling at half price.

Tang Wen could even deliberately leave behind a few Ar 196s or the wreckage of a few ships, enough to wear them down.

Not only are Luzon and the Pacific Fleet quiet, but China also cannot devote too much energy to the South China Sea for the time being.

Thanks to the navy's meager size and meager budget, after several intense patrols of the South China Sea, all of the South China Sea Fleet's few warships had to return to port for repairs and would have to cease operations for one or two months.

During this time, the port of Gongzhen Port will be built.

However, Chen Yonggui reminded Tang Wen that a basic fleet still needed to be properly replenished.

There are currently two heavy cruisers in the Greater Bay Area and five destroyers operating outside the area, all of which are warships whose manufacturing process and origins can be thoroughly investigated.

However, the missing aircraft carriers and battleships are a different story. If they suddenly appear at this crucial moment, it would be fatal if the US became suspicious of them.

If you want to use it publicly, you have to go through the proper procedures and have it built by a shipyard to "launder" it.

The Super Yorktown Fortress is in the shipyard. Which battleship should I choose?
It should be practical, not too sensitive, and not too abrupt; ideally, it should be even more reasonable.

After thinking for a long time, Tang Wen decided to simply bring Musashi over.
Since we already have Yamato, replicating another Musashi of the same level shouldn't be a big problem.

……

[Rational Analysis: Why Iowa couldn't defeat Bismarck and Scharnhorst]

[Wolf Walks the World: The Atlantic Fleet's losses were quite unexpected. As a military enthusiast, I believe the New Jersey Task Force had a far greater overall advantage than the Bismarck Task Force. Based on the available information, I will briefly analyze the situation and conclude that...]

A trending post on the military forum received over 3,000 replies in 24 hours.

The Atlantic Fleet's defeat shocked the world, because neither the three Iowa-class destroyers, before nor after the refit, should have suffered such severe losses.

Since Prism Building has not disclosed any further details, netizens can only speculate.

It must be said that netizens nowadays are of extremely high quality; more than half of the thousands of replies contain valuable analysis, making people very eager to continue reading.

Many of them are clearly professionals, perhaps advisors seeking inspiration, or even hand-drawing battle maps using the newly launched simple image editing features.

Tang Wen spent half an hour scrolling through the posts before finally marking them as "featured" with great enthusiasm, and then began editing and publishing a new post:
[Tang Family Young Master: Announcement! According to internal information from this forum, Gaijin Shipbuilding Company, which is cooperating with the Greater Bay Area's distinctive tourist area, is about to start construction on a new retro-style ship!]
A replica of the Algeria heavy cruiser has already been launched, and there are also reports that an original and unique aircraft carrier will be started, as well as a battleship project, which is expected to be unveiled in July!

On January 10th, the Grand Bay Tourist Area will open for a limited-time experience of the Algerian cruise ship, along with 14 new attractions, a new aircraft show, hundreds of snack options, and additional shuttle bus routes…

Online ticket booking will be available again on January 7th. Forum members are welcome to book tickets; online bookings will receive a 20% discount!

After launching a massive advertising campaign, Tang Wen shamelessly pinned it to the top of his chat list, and received a reply almost immediately:

[Qingyue Haoying: Is the forum administrator from a scenic area? This is the second time they've advertised here.]

[User 32795: The package ticket is too expensive, can you make it cheaper?]

[Autumn Wind and Fallen Leaves: I went there last time, and the accommodations were fully booked. Could you please offer some suggestions for improvement?]

[Wind Chime: What do "battleship" and "aircraft carrier" mean? Are they concrete ships or iron-clad ships?]

(End of this chapter)