What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 592 Unity and Solidarity
Blair is willing but not daring to take it all for himself; after all, even if he can fool the other allies, Prism Building is not so easy to deal with.

The Federal Reserve has probably only just received news of the gold freighter sinking, and if it provokes the Empire now, it will surely provoke them.

Blair wanted to talk to Band, but learned that Band had already boarded a plane to receive the new ship, so he had no choice but to make a phone call via the military hotline.

Band clearly knew Blair's concerns and directly raised the issue:
"The Malta is a modern aircraft carrier designed by the British. It is born with catapults and outboard elevators. With a little modification, it will definitely be no less powerful than the heavily modified Midway. Moreover, the ship is relatively new and can be used for at least thirty years."

The HMS Unbeatable's 508mm guns have great potential for launching rockets; the HMS Huashan and HMS Taishan from the East have already proven their promise. HMS Hood is a symbolic ship of the Royal Navy—should we hand it over too?

Blair: "What about G3? G3 doesn't really have anything to do with it, does it?"

"My Lord Prime Minister, Philg has just organized a team to roughly measure the dimensions of the G3. It is a giant ship of over 5 tons, and its gun barrels are 0.5 inches larger than those of the Iowa!"

Band really didn't want to let go of any of them, not only because these ships were all British warships, but more importantly, they were new!
Philger claimed that the ship looked as if it had just been launched, and the boiler room was brighter than the floor of Buckingham Palace; he would believe it if you told him it was brand new.

He was truly reluctant to part with it; how many years had it been since the Royal Navy had a ship of this size?
However, Blair was also quickly calculating in his mind that Hood absolutely could not be handed over, but G3 and the other two were impossible to keep.

After a fierce exchange, Band finally reluctantly agreed to hand over the St. Vincent, and, disregarding etiquette, shouted:
"Sir, if I really hand over more ships, you'll see my corpse tomorrow!"

This is not a threat, but a sense of helplessness.

Bandt was the head of the Royal Navy, and warships were the lifeblood of the navy. If he couldn't even protect the warships, his prestige would be ruined, and his subordinates would no longer have any respect for him.

If Band still wants any recognition, there's only one path he can take, regardless of whether it's voluntary or not.

The next First Lord of the Navy must also address this issue before taking office; otherwise, the Royal Navy may face serious trouble, which could even affect the Cabinet.

Blair was well aware of this as well; the British Prime Minister had always been a mere patch-up artist, never having the power to act arbitrarily.
So how come my British ships still managed to appear in the Third Fleet?!

Despite the cabinet's praise for his "brilliant and decisive" and support for his re-election, both the extortion of gold from the Federal Reserve and the private transaction of warships were extremely sensitive and explosive events. Who but Blair would dare to take the blame for these?
However, having at least managed to secure the Saint Vincent, Blair already had a plan in mind:
We definitely can't give them the chicken, and we can manage to keep the other underlings in check, but the main thing is to get Prism Building over there. I don't even know if a 50,000-ton behemoth will be enough to shut them up...

Blair had just finished his call with Band when hotlines from Prism and its allies immediately came through.

This is destined to be an eventful night.

……

Varee Island

At 12:00 AM on the 26th, Lunar New Year time, 7:00 PM in the Far East.

As the last rays of the setting sun shone through the window onto his face, Tang Wencai yawned and opened his eyes. The ship girl lying on top of him immediately said:
"Commander, you've slept for 9 hours and 11 minutes. Would you like something to eat and continue resting?"

"That's strange, I didn't eat much before going to bed, so why don't I feel hungry?"

"Because your body is still very tired and your digestive function has not yet returned to normal."

As Jean Bart spoke, he got up barefoot to make dinner, leaving Tang Wen sitting on the bed holding his head.

At least Huai En has the Prism Building behind him, with thousands of people directly supporting him, while Tang Wen can only rely on himself.

Especially in this era of information asymmetry, making decisions is truly a brain-taxing task.

After the Third Fleet was destroyed, he immediately went to Varee Island, fell asleep without even checking the results, and now it was a good time to check his loot.

The Christmas campaign consists of three battles: sinking the Royal Ark, capturing Grindelwald, and capturing Loseymouth.

[Battle Results (Sinking the Royal Ark): 88 Silver (800%), 114800 Experience (800%), Special Banner "Revenge", Christmas Supply Crate *3]

【（占领格林达维克）战斗结算：164万银币（800%+200%），272650经验（800%+200%）】

【(Occupy Lossiemouth) Battle results: 150.4 silver coins (800%), 274880 experience points (800%);
Bonus Rewards: 8 Super Supply Crates, 200 million Silver, British Tier IX Battleship "Crimson Thunder", British Special Commander "Anton Grant"

[(Christmas Settlement) You have taken a total of 975 million potential damage in battle, sunk 5 warships, and obtained 14 Christmas Supply Crates]

[Large-scale military sales mission subsidy: 360651516 silver coins, Christmas supply crates *3]

Your current total port cargo volume:

Silver coin: 669466482;

Gold coins: 19450;

Experience: 1836425
Super Supply Box: 24
Christmas Supply Box: 20

Tang Wen counted the number of silver coins several times and finally determined that he now had 6.7 million silver coins, equivalent to about 2 tons of silver, which was enough to build a dreadnought.

The system also considered the exchange of 350 tons of gold as an arms sale order, and with a 50% subsidy, that's a whopping 3.6 million silver coins!
Arms sales are indeed very profitable!
Besides the impressive number of silver coins, 183 million experience points also mean at least 3 tech trees. Combined with the 5 already unlocked, this equates to 8 lines, satisfying 80% of the upgrade requirements.

As for unlocking all the tech trees... Tang Wen carefully calculated that there are more than 50 tech trees in total, and there is only one way to achieve a grand slam:
First, crush the Empire, then relentlessly send them even more warships to continue the fight until the world is in chaos and order collapses, only then can you accumulate tens of millions of experience points.

What extra rewards? It's just empty promises from WG, isn't it?
Tang Wen wasn't a perfectionist; if he were to pursue immortality, he would definitely go straight for the Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin, consuming all sorts of elixirs like Qunbolong, Sitenbolong, and Metenolol, before even considering the throne.

After silently complaining for a moment, he prepared to open all the chests he obtained from this mission. However, he first noticed that the number of warships sunk in the last settlement notification did not match his memory. Upon checking the other two, he found that:
Submarine: Tireless (Y series)

[Submarine: USS Key West (M series)]

Tang Wen didn't recall sinking two submarines, but he didn't think too much about it and skipped it. After taking a deep breath, he raised his hand and pressed the "Open all supply boxes" button.

open!

A barrage of notifications and golden lights immediately appeared, indicating a high drop rate for the 44 supply boxes. However, before Tang Wen could even read through them, he was startled by a figure suddenly standing in front of the bed:
Where did this cosplayer come from? Is this still the 20th century?
But when he looked over, a line of information appeared:
【C-class Tier 10 Linked Captain "Zhenhai" Main body: In the 1920s, the Chinese Navy converted a seaplane carrier called "Zhenhai". Although it only had a displacement of 2700 tons, it is still considered to be the beginning of Chinese aircraft carriers.

Introduction: "Zhenhai" can act as a strategist to handle most of your tasks, but it's important to note that you shouldn't blindly place all your trust in him.

Zhenhai?

Looking at her black hair and equally tall figure, Tang Wen actually felt a sense of familiarity, after all, she was a rare C-class ship girl!

Especially if one can serve as a strategist, wouldn't that mean one's burden can be greatly reduced?

"Hmm, you seem to be in good spirits. I was hoping to see you dozing off again, what a pity."

Zhenhai crossed his legs and clasped his arms over his chest as he greeted his commander.

Tang Wen was about to say something when a sound suddenly came from the kitchen. Then he saw Jean Bart, dressed in red, appear at the door with a spatula in his hand, his eyes narrowed as he looked at Zhenhai.

Seeing Jean Bart switch to the classic Tang Wen skin gave Zhenhai a bad feeling, but Zhenhai wasn't about to back down either, turning halfway around to stare at her and saying:
"As the secretary ship, you're keeping the commander so busy; it seems you're not doing a very good job."

"The command records from the last major battle are in the log. Shall we check who finished processing all the battle plans?"

"Inefficient handling is worse than doing nothing."

"You don't understand modern naval warfare at all, Zhen-hai!"

"It seems you're better suited to be a private chef now, don't you think?"

Jeanbart's face was flushed, the spatula in his hand was already deformed from being squeezed, and the shadowy image of the 380mm quadruple turret behind him was faintly visible.

"Stop, stop!"

Tang Wen quickly got up and pushed one of the ship girls away with each hand. From their conversation, he already understood the reason:
This "strategist" is already eager to take over power and wants to replace Jean Bart!

The latter is now completely enraged. If the ship girls were to start fighting each other, it would be a disaster. The commotion would not be limited to just breaking pots and pans; they would definitely tear down the house.

Looking to the right, one sees Barr looking both angry and pitiful, while on the left, Zhenhai is uncompromising, bluntly pointing out the command issues in the Christmas campaign.

Seeing this, Tang Wen had no choice but to compromise:
"The task is urgent, and the empire is in danger. We should all unite sincerely and prioritize the overall situation. Let's not damage our harmony!"

However, these words had no effect. The two power-hungry individuals clearly valued power highly and wouldn't settle down until they had a clear explanation.

Life in the port is tough, the commander sighed.

……

Overnight, media outlets across Europe were announcing the great victory of the allied forces:
In just 48 hours, Hans's plot was thwarted and the Third Fleet was completely annihilated. What a great achievement!
(True Hans: I have no objection)
News and navigation restrictions are being gradually lifted, but the authorities are still trying to suppress public opinion and maintain control over the interpretation of the battle with the Third Fleet.

There's no way around it. If I told the truth—that we almost lost the North and the landing was successful—wouldn't everyone have any shame?

In particular, many details are not convenient to disclose, so the information available to the outside world is only exaggerated talk of winning, but the specific process is still unclear.

The concealed information included the destruction of an air force base and several large airports, as well as the capture of four warships.

The latter was due to the British request to postpone the public disclosure, since it involved a whole fleet of British warships, and revealing it could easily put them in a passive position.

Many other things also happened within the coalition forces over the past night:

First, the Prism Building discovered that a Los Angeles-class submarine had lost contact. Then, an MR2 anti-submarine aircraft patrolling the battlefield spotted two submarines, tens of kilometers apart, surfacing in the near sea with large areas of oil spills. One of them even deployed its communication antenna.

MR2 attempted to contact the other party but received no response. Upon closer inspection, it discovered that one of the ships resembled its own, the Inexhaustible, and quickly dispatched a patrol boat to board and inspect it.

After the soldiers on the patrol boat boarded the submarine, they first discovered large and small cracks between the heat insulation tiles, and then they found that the submarine hatch was open. Once inside, they found... a body.

Later, in their report, they said that there were people lying down everywhere inside. It was hard to tell that they had struggled for a while, but it felt as if everyone had suffered from some kind of acute serious illness at the same time. They only had time to complete the emergency ascent before dying almost simultaneously.

The people on the patrol boat tested the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in the submarine. Based on the body, they did not believe it was due to oxygen deprivation or suffocation, but rather resembled extensive internal bleeding, with no obvious external bruising.

All of this was too strange, and since the Indulgence was a nuclear submarine, everyone was worried about radiation and quickly evacuated.

They then headed to the Los Angeles-class Key West. This time the situation was better; they could see the hatch wide open and a figure waving from afar.

Upon closer inspection, the man was identified as a crew member from the USS Key West. He was lying weakly on the hull, struggling to breathe. The patrol boat's medic examined him and concluded that his condition resembled chest damage caused by a shell shockwave. Although puzzled, the medic quickly took action to save at least one person alive.

They then went down to the submarine and found many crew members crammed into the conning tower, but most of them were in worse condition than the man above, and many of them had already stopped breathing.

This scene sent chills down the spines of everyone on the patrol boat. They finally located the chief engineer of the Key West, who weakly uttered a few broken words:
"Sound waves...infrasound..."

"Infrasound? Then why didn't you call for help?"

The chief engineer weakly moved his fingers, clearly indicating that their bodies were no longer capable of even this.

The patrol boat sailors continued searching the Key West and soon discovered the problem:
Like the Inexhaustible, the crew members in the sonar listening room died the fastest and most tragically, their faces contorted and bleeding from all seven orifices, a truly horrific sight.

They transferred the 37 surviving crew members from the submarine to a patrol boat and immediately sailed back to port. Only then did the coalition forces confirm that two nuclear submarines had been lost!
Both the Prism Tower and the Royal Navy were greatly alarmed:

The Imperial Navy has lost count of how many Los Angeles-class submarines it has lost this year, and the Royal Navy, which doesn't have many nuclear submarines to begin with, was also stunned to learn that all the crew members had been killed and the hull was cracked.

Johnson and Band, who were originally arguing about the allocation of ships on the Incomparable, couldn't sit still anymore. A nuclear submarine was more expensive than the four ships they were on together, and the training cost was also much higher.

And what kind of infrasound killed them? Doesn't that mean that all nuclear submarines will no longer be safe?
(End of this chapter)