What the hell is a private enterprise?

Chapter 637 A Huge Trouble (1600 Monthly Tickets in August)

Prism Building
The atmosphere in the Joint Chiefs of Staff was unusually heavy, and Rams sat in his chair without saying a word.

Until Kazimirz pushed open the door and spoke without hesitation:
"Our strategy in Southeast Asia for half a century has completely failed."

He took the seat of honor without ceremony, drank a cup of now-cold coffee, took a breath, and then repeated:
"The situation in Southeast Asia has completely changed. No matter what we do or how we try to make amends, we can never go back to the way things were before."

"Because of Natuna?"

someone asked.

"No, that's not important at all. It won't matter in ten or twenty years... Its impact is none of Prism's concern; that's the President's business."

Kazimirz initially denied it, then slammed his fist on the table and said, almost word by word:

"The signing of the Treaty of Jakarta means that when the Chinese in Southeast Asia were threatened, a force capable of completely suppressing the entire region decisively took action and achieved its goal without any hindrance, forcing the authorities to compromise."

From this day forward, the entire Southeast Asia will know of the existence of this new force, and that this powerful force will decisively intervene should similar events occur in the future.

"..."

A dead silence.

After a long while, Rams finally spoke:

"This situation wouldn't have happened if we still had bases deployed."

Kazimirz: "Even if we restore our bases in the South Pacific, it won't help. This influence cannot be easily eliminated. The deterrent effect of the Maritime Joint Defence Force will continue until the next similar incident occurs."

Rams: "What if the maritime defense force disappears? Should we make them disband it voluntarily?"

Kazimirz: "If I were Don, I couldn't think of a reason to do that."

"Threatening him to relinquish his FCC and MDA positions."

Rams regretted his words as soon as he finished speaking, and the others couldn't help but laugh. The FCC position was given to him by the President himself. Even if Tang Wen was removed... what impact would it have?

Using the dismissal of the leader as a threat? That's a joke.

He realized this too, and then asked:
"Wait for the maritime defense force to disband itself? Maintaining a fleet is extremely expensive."

"That's also very unlikely."

Johnson spoke up:

"Maintaining the maritime joint defense force is inexpensive, and these ships are new and will be quite active for at least the next 15 to 20 years."

Previously, we thought that these warships only accounted for about 20% of the total fleet, which was far from sufficient. However, they did meet the minimum requirements for operation and deterrence, and the cost was not too high.

Moreover, it turned out that the naval joint defense force utilized less than 10% of the combat effectiveness of these warships. Even with that 10%, the entire Nanyang fleet combined might not be able to match them; they were simply… simply too incompetent. Take, for example, the four battleships: Kongo, Fusang, New York, and New Moscow. The qualitative leap brought by battleships cannot be compensated for by quantity alone, unless the Nanyang fleet also possesses battleships.”

"This is impossible."

Kazimirz shook his head:

"Given their level of maintenance and terrible logistics... even if you gave them a brand new battleship, it would probably rust into a pile of scrap metal in less than two years."

Everyone immediately recalled Bert and Smith's report that many of the warships in the Wawa had even had their turrets rusted shut, and even the Imperial Navy didn't know how to fix it.

Therefore, it is not feasible to expect the maritime joint defense force to disband or disappear on its own, and it is even less feasible to give it to the Nanyang battleships.

Even if we gave it, what could we give? Missouri?
Kazimirz looked at Johnson:
Can the Imperial Navy deploy forces in the area?

Johnson decisively shook his head:
"This is an absolute waste. The Imperial Navy already has fewer and fewer warships, and we can't waste them on something like this. Do you want to use an aircraft carrier to fight against a battleship?"

This is absolutely impossible unless Congress approves additional funding to build and maintain a battleship fleet.

The conversation died.

Leaving aside the topic of counterbalancing the maritime defense force, Kazimirz raised an even more dire consequence:

"If even a naval joint defense force that can hardly be called a regular fleet can roam freely in the South China Sea, will the expanding Dongda Navy follow suit?"

"No, this—"

Rams hesitated. Now, the University of Tokyo possessed an aircraft carrier and two super battleships, which was several levels higher in terms of deterrence than the Maritime Joint Defense Force.

Add to that the lingering influence accumulated over the past thousand years...

No, no, this is too terrible, I can't even imagine it.

Kazimirz's judgment was entirely correct. From now on, Southeast Asia will never be the same again. The mindset of the entire region has been completely changed, which truly means that a brand new and powerful force will be shrouding the skies of Southeast Asia.

From then on, whatever the authorities here wanted to do, they had to, subconsciously and unavoidably, take "his" opinion into account!

Kazimirz glanced at his watch, stood up, and said:

"How to proceed is a matter for Prism Building. I need to discuss the rest with the President... Goodbye, everyone. I hope the Joint Chiefs of Staff has some good ideas."

After saying that, Kazimirz hurriedly left, leaving the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a daze.

Once the Treaty of Jataka was signed, sending the Seventh Fleet to the area would have been pointless.

As for how the kangaroo would cause trouble? Everyone was too preoccupied and too lazy to think about it for the time being.

However, less than five minutes later, the door was slammed open again, and Kazimirz barged in, dragging an intelligence room attendant with him. His words made everyone jump as if their backsides were on fire:
"Intense radiation was detected in Kampath Bay, Chitirat, India. Analysis revealed it to be a high concentration of radioactive compounds, suspected to be the raw material for mushroom eggs!"
The USS Stanson discovered what appeared to be a damaged submarine, presumably a fast U-boat. However, they were only present for less than an hour; the submarine disappeared when the Stanson attempted to salvage it. But they did discover a highly radioactive source left on the seabed that they hadn't taken with them.

The fast U-boats are codenames for U2501 and U4501. These two types of U-boats are very fast and have a voiceprint similar to the XXI type. They are sometimes also called fast U-boats to distinguish them.

Fast U-boat, Indians, mushrooms—the keywords are all there.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff was completely stunned by the news, and Rams even collapsed into his chair with his eyes closed:
They definitely don't have time to deal with Southeast Asia.

……

Tangning Street

从4月4日下午16时到4月5日下午18时，从海上联防队宣布介入到一切尘埃落定只用了短短的26个小时。    26个小时以内，盖金将过去20天的不利局面瞬间扭转，原本人们以为无计可施的盖金以完全意想不到的方式让南洋最强大的抓哇低头认输。

Knowing that the root cause was his own instigation, Dai Ying completely lacked the rapid response capabilities of the Prism Tower. Every step he took was at least three or four hours behind the news. While that amazing replica of the famous scene was flying around, the Royal Navy was still studying the movements of the Second Squadron.

Blair hastily convened his cabinet and several generals to discuss his views on the matter.

Dai Ying was completely unprepared for this sudden event, and before they could even discuss a response, everything was over. It was as if they could only watch from beginning to end.

Dai Ying, who had originally planned to return to Southeast Asia after giving India a warning, was completely caught off guard, and the latter part of his strategy was thrown into complete chaos.

"The Hood is no longer of any use."

Band spoke first:
"The Maritime Joint Defense Force has a total of four battleships and one aircraft carrier. Although they are just for show, the HMS Hood is also just for show. It will be very disadvantageous if we encounter it."

"Why didn't we think of this before? The maritime joint defense team has been around for quite some time now."

Blair asked, clearly dissatisfied, but received the same answer in return:

No one expected that the maritime joint defense team could actually enter the open sea, let alone believe that Tang Wen really had the courage to issue the order to head south.

It's important to understand that Gekin is just a company, and not even a very large one on the international stage. The fact that they dared to make the bold decision to go all in and gamble everything is something even Band himself found extremely difficult to do.

Now all the revenge plans against Tang Wen have failed, and Ge Jin has even gained more influence in Southeast Asia because of this incident. Dai Ying must consider what to do if the HMS Hood enters Southeast Asia and encounters the joint defense force.

Bullshit!

At this point, Blair's secretary, Robin, inappropriately brought up past events:
"Why did the enemy compromise as soon as Gaikin's battleships were placed in Jadaga, while more than ten years ago, when Agenting faced the much stronger Royal Navy, they resisted to the end?"

Is it because of battleships? Are battleships more effective than aircraft carriers in low-intensity conflicts and peacetime?

"No, no, that's definitely not it."

Bender immediately denied it, but Blair, whose wound had been reopened, stopped them from going off-topic and instead said:
"Forget it, the British forces can no longer support investing too much energy in Southeast Asia. The Prism Building is even more anxious than we are... Let's talk about India instead. We're going to start a joint exercise tomorrow, right?"

Band: "That's right, and the pressure is much less since the Benfold was reassigned... Wilson?"

The newcomer interrupted him, and Wilson, panting heavily, shouted:
"Breaking news! Breaking news! A submarine belonging to the Lost Empire has apparently run aground and sunk off the coast of India. It appears to have been carrying a mushroom-shaped explosive device, and it seems to be leaking!"

"what happened?"

Everyone present stared wide-eyed. This was truly explosive news; the Lost Empire was clearly a much higher priority than Gaekin.

Wilson quickly explained the reason:

"Because our joint exercise involved submarines, the USS Stanson, along with its frigate, was conducting anti-submarine drills nearby. Shortly afterward, a radiation warning was issued, requiring the surrounding area to be designated as a no-navigation zone. As a member of the convention system, we received the message."

We managed to get information about the submarine and the nuclear missile through our own efforts, but we also sent a helicopter to collect radiation data. Experts just analyzed that only potentially weapon-grade, ultra-high-purity raw materials could emit radiation levels far exceeding those of a nuclear submarine!

"Then why is it said to be a submarine belonging to a lost empire? Is it possible that it was a nuclear submarine from another country that sank?"

Band continued to ask.

"We contacted the captain of the USS Stanson, who revealed that the submarine's acoustic signature is very similar to that of the Type XXI U-boat and its displacement is no more than 1000 tons, making it almost impossible to mistake. No one except the Lost Empire uses such a submarine, and even if they did, they wouldn't carry mushroom-shaped missiles."

And they were very certain about it, but they wouldn't tell me why.

The Empire did not share the secret of the suspected wormhole and teleportation, and those below were unaware of it. It was only after the Stanson discovered something amiss and reported it in panic that Prism Building offered a brief explanation before immediately covering up the matter and strictly prohibiting other warships from approaching.

However, the Hood also noticed something unusual, but it was unclear what it was and it was busy getting closer, but it was being desperately stopped by the Stanson and was being pulled apart.

"..."

The group exchanged glances. Dai Ying's intelligence was accurate; they knew that it would be at least 10 to 15 days before the third brother could assemble the first mushroom egg. Even if it was assembled ahead of schedule, it would be impossible to get it into the sea.

If it's not the submarine of the great philanthropists, the only possibility is truly the Lost Empire; their demonstrated capabilities make it entirely believable that they possess mushroom eggs.

However... Teren was the first to enter the analysis mode:
"Mushroom eggs always have to conduct nuclear tests. Even the seismic waves produced by deep underground experiments are completely different from seismic waves and cannot go unnoticed unless they were done before the 50s. But the Lost Empire at that time should not have had this capability unless they directly manufactured bombs without conducting experiments."

If they belonged to a lost empire, would they believe that an untested mushroom-shaped bomb could explode successfully?

"It doesn't necessarily require an experiment."

Wilson made a conjecture:
"Fission bombs are not fusion bombs. The process of fission bombs can be successfully simulated in computers with very little error compared to reality."

Teren immediately retorted, "But that's a technology that only emerged in recent years and relies on a lot of accumulated experience from before!"

Why did everyone sign an agreement in 96 not to conduct experiments? The truth is, of course, not that everyone decided to protect the environment and stop growing mushrooms, but that after entering the 90s, supercomputers were already capable of completely simulating nuclear explosion equations.

With prior experience and data on explosions, even with a newly designed supercomputer, simulations can be performed very accurately, and there are few problems even without conducting actual explosions.

The Galaxy series, which China had been developing with great effort, was ultimately intended for this purpose.

However, this relies on past experience; computer simulations alone are certainly not enough. Even if the Lost Empire resurrected Einstein, it could not completely trust theoretical data.

"Wait, let's not think about it from a technical perspective yet."

Blair interrupted them:

"Putting technology aside, if the Lost Empire had had the Mushroom Egg a long time ago, would they have refrained from using it? There have been numerous opportunities over the past few decades, and it could have been used in many key events, potentially even changing the course of the world."

Clearly, I tend to believe that the Lost Empire also recently acquired the mushroom egg, and there are two possibilities for why it appeared near India:
First, they bought mushroom eggs from the third brother;
Second, the Lost Empire passed by harmlessly;
third--"

Blairton paused before continuing:

"The Third Brother and the Lost Empire are collaborating on the development. The latter provides technical and theoretical support or raw materials, while the former is responsible for manufacturing and detonation."

"That's pretty, pretty, pretty bad news."

Terren repeated the word several times, and his eyes became strange.

If Blair's guess is true, then India is really in big trouble—no, as long as it is confirmed that the wrecked submarine belongs to the Lost Empire, big trouble is definitely coming their way.

(End of this chapter)