The Twilight of Empire: Starting from Dunkirk

Chapter 159 The Ultimate Map of the Sun Never Sets

Churchill paused for a moment, his fingers holding the cigar.

"America's fears?"

"Yes," Arthur nodded. "Roosevelt's current tough demands are based on a false psychological premise: he believes the British Empire is on the verge of complete collapse, and that you are desperately begging Washington for the right to survive."

Arthur's gaze was less that of looking at an ally and more that of scrutinizing someone about to be liquidated. "In the underlying logic of capital operations, the seller's panic is the most powerful weapon for the buyer to acquire at a bargain price. Once you show extreme dependence on these fifty destroyers, the Americans will not stop at overseas bases. In subsequent negotiations, they will demand that you transfer the British Empire's remaining gold reserves, demand that you sell our railway shares in South America, our meat processing plant in Argentina, and ultimately completely drain the liquid assets accumulated by the British Empire over centuries."

Arthur picked up the cup of black tea, which had long since gone cold, took a small sip, and then stared into Churchill's eyes with a warning look in them.

"These speculators from the New World always seem to have an unrealistic greed and forgetfulness. Your Excellency, if you take a brief look back at the history of the development of the naval industry over the past fifty years, you will find that American arrogance is entirely based on the theft and exploitation of the British Empire's blood."

Arthur placed the teacup back in its place, his voice sharp and piercing in the stifling basement air, filled with hatred for these Americans: "Where was the American navy during the last World War, when the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet were engaged in that extreme arms race in the North Sea, with collisions involving millions of tons of steel?"

At this point, Arthur even crossed his legs, his eyes filled with disdain for those nouveau riche. That was the true peak of the Royal Navy in two hundred years, even though the Royal Navy had been the world's number one for the past two hundred years.

In the Battle of Mudland, a decisive battle that shaped the course of human civilization, when Admiral Jellicoe led thirty-eight dreadnought-class battleships and nine battlecruisers into the North Sea, and Admiral Scheer of the Second German Empire rammed into them head-on with sixteen dreadnoughts and five battlecruisers, nearly sixty super steel behemoths representing the pinnacle of human heavy industry at the time were engaged in a merciless slaughter. A single broadside salvo fired by the entire fleet within the same second could send hundreds of tons of armor-piercing shells crashing down on the enemy ships.

"What was the US Navy doing back then?" Arthur made no attempt to hide his contempt, ruthlessly peeling back the veil of history. "Their so-called capital ships, consisting of only a mere dozen or so newly launched vessels that had never even participated in a single large-scale fleet exercise," were holed up in a safe harbor in the Western Hemisphere.

"They couldn't even build a single battlecruiser that could keep up with the pace of European naval warfare."

In the North Sea, filled with the roar of large-caliber naval guns, whether it was Admiral Jellicoe's battle line or Admiral Scheer's dreadnought group, the sheer firepower of either side could easily wipe the US Navy, along with their Stars and Stripes, from the ocean.

"Back then, the Americans didn't even have the qualifications or the guts to participate in this industrial meat grinder. They only dared to hide in their safe harbors across the Atlantic, peddling inferior smokeless powder, crude canned goods, and usury to both sides of the conflict." Arthur's eyes grew increasingly cold. "But what about after the war? While the British Empire, in order to maintain its maritime hegemony, sacrificed an entire generation of young lives in the mudflats of the Somme and the icy waters of the North Sea, and exhausted its gold reserves, those Americans who had been sucking the blood of the war brazenly demanded at the Washington Conference in 1922 that they maintain absolute naval parity with the Royal Navy—"

Churchill was momentarily speechless at Arthur's words and could only sigh in the end.

"If we hadn't shed our blood in the last war, if we hadn't borne the most devastating blow for the entire Western world, with the British Empire's shipbuilding capacity at the time, those Americans sitting on Capitol Hill, with their shipyards roaring day and night on the River Clyde and their steel furnaces running non-stop in Birmingham, would still be peasants on the American continent. They wouldn't even be qualified to touch the waterline of British ships, let alone stand on equal footing with us."

Churchill took a deep drag on his cigar; that humiliating diplomatic history was also a thorn in his side.

He was also the First Minister of the Navy back then, and he witnessed firsthand how the Empire was forced to dismantle those dreadnoughts that symbolized its hegemony.

He nodded heavily: "And now, they want to try the same old tricks again."

"No, it's not just repeating the same old tricks, but a far more shameless and escalating form of hedging their bets." Arthur tore away the veneer of American neutrality, laying bare the bloody trade chains of the industrial age before the Prime Minister. "Your Excellency, do you really think the Americans are simply afraid of being dragged into war?"

"No, they are trying to control the course and intensity of the war. Right now, those bastards on Wall Street are sending precision machine tools, ball bearings, and synthetic rubber technology to Germany's Ruhr industrial region through a complex network of offshore companies; at the same time, they are exporting tens of thousands of tons of scrap steel and high-octane aviation fuel to that ambitious island nation in the Pacific on an enormous scale."

"On the one hand, they were supplying the fascist war machine with blood, keeping German tanks and Japanese bombers running; on the other hand, they were trying to bargain with us in the Atlantic. They wanted to squeeze the last drop of industrial blood out of all the belligerent nations without suffering any real casualties, and to reap the greatest geopolitical profits from both ends."

Arthur sneered, his tone even carrying a hint of murderous intent: "There's no such thing as a free lunch. No country can forever hide behind the lines of fire, counting money over the corpses of its allies."

"Therefore," Arthur looked at Churchill, "we must completely re-examine our relationship with the Americans. We cannot be trapped in the narrow framework of 'escorts in exchange for bases' set by the Americans. We must shatter their sense of security from a higher global geostrategic perspective, making them see clearly which side of the precipice they are on."

Arthur turned and walked toward the wall with the world map hanging there. His finger started from the British Isles, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and stopped at the east coast of North America.

"Your Excellency, please allow me to conduct a simulation for you. Suppose that the British Empire, due to the lack of these fifty destroyers, has had its Atlantic shipping routes completely severed. Its domestic food and industrial raw materials have been completely exhausted. Faced with extreme hunger, the imperial defenses collapse. In order to preserve the lives of tens of millions of its inhabitants, London is forced to propose an armistice to Berlin."

Arthur looked at Churchill: "Your Excellency, based on your character profile of Little Mustache and Nazi Germany's strategic needs, what do you believe would be the only core condition for Germany to accept an armistice?"

Churchill's eyes instantly sharpened, and he practically spat out four words through gritted teeth: "Royal Navy."

"The exact answer." Arthur nodded.

"Once the British Empire is forced to surrender, the Royal Navy's existing battleships, aircraft carriers, and massive cruiser fleet will be transferred in their entirety to the Third Reich as war reparations. At the same time, don't forget that we have just taken over the French fleet, and even after our attack, Italy still possesses a sizable surface force in the Mediterranean."

Once London falls, Mussolini and Vichy France will not hesitate to incorporate their fleets into the German navy's operational order of battle.

Arthur drew a huge circle on the map with his finger, encompassing the entire territory of Europe and the North Atlantic.

"At that time, the entire naval industrial capacity and active ship tonnage of the European continent will be substantially merged under the command of Nazi Germany. We will witness the birth of the largest joint surface fleet in human history."

"It will possess more than twenty of the most advanced capital battleships, including the Bismarck-class, Richelieu-class, Vittorio Veneto-class, and our own King George V-class; more than ten regular aircraft carriers; and hundreds of cruisers and destroyers."

Arthur's finger moved westward along the Atlantic Ocean, crossing the blue sea that Americans once regarded as an absolute barrier, and finally came to a heavy stop at the location of New York and Washington.

"When this combined fleet, possessing absolute destructive power, crosses the Atlantic and reaches the east coast of North America, what will the United States of America use to defend itself?"

Arthur, in a declarative tone, laid bare the fragility of the U.S. defense system: "The main force of the U.S. Pacific Fleet is currently stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, strategically constrained by the Japanese Combined Fleet in the Pacific. Under the deadly threat of fighting in both oceans, they absolutely dare not move their main aircraft carriers and battleships to the Atlantic. The U.S. Atlantic Fleet currently has only a few old battleships left over from World War I and a small number of cruisers. Their coastal artillery positions are not even capable of suppressing modern 15-inch and 16-inch naval guns in terms of range."

"Faced with the terrifying firepower of the European combined fleet, the industrial and financial centers of the United States' East Coast will be utterly defenseless within the direct range of naval guns. Brooklyn Shipyard, Newport News Shipbuilding, the Stock Exchange on Wall Street. Boston, New York, Washington, will be completely destroyed in a very short time. America's shipbuilding capacity will be reduced to ashes in the flames."

Arthur withdrew his hand, turned around and stared directly at Churchill, his gaze sending chills down one's spine.

"This is the fundamental reason why Roosevelt, and those real capitalists on Wall Street, couldn't sleep every night. Isolationists on Capitol Hill could shout into the microphone, 'The war in Europe has nothing to do with America.'"

"But those who hold the fate of the nation in their hands know very well that the British Empire is not begging the United States for warships. The British Empire, relying on the flesh and blood of its millions of soldiers, the desperate defense of its homeland's air defense network, and the sinking of millions of tons of merchant ships, has single-handedly served as the last piece of physical bulletproof armor for the United States in the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean, resisting the steel torrent of European fascism."

The basement fell into absolute silence for thirty seconds.

Churchill's cigar was still burning. His heart, which had been tormented by the data on losses in the Atlantic, miraculously resumed a steady and powerful beating under Arthur's extremely grand geopolitical analysis.

He found that Arthur's logical deductions were almost flawless.

The United States' current national security architecture largely depends on the survival of the British Empire's homeland defenses. If Britain were to lose its interception capabilities, it would only be a matter of time and distance before war reached the Americas; no ocean could stop the steel torrent of Europe.

The British Isles are not lambs to the slaughter, but the sole supplier that monopolizes the "privilege of survival" on the east coast of the United States.

"It's not just the fear of the Americans, Your Excellency the Prime Minister." Arthur didn't let Churchill's thoughts pause. His pointer suddenly turned eastward, crossing over Germany, which was amassing a large army, and struck heavily on the vast area of ​​the East European Plain and the Caucasus Mountains.

"Our own strategic anxieties also need to be recalibrated. The British Empire is indeed currently isolated on the European continent, but this absolute sense of oppression will not last long. Because the war machine of the Beard has fatal inherent flaws."

Churchill abruptly looked up, staring intently at the red area on the map, that vast and suffocating red empire: "The Soviet Union?"

"Yes, the Soviet Union." Arthur's voice was objective, devoid of any ideological bias, only presenting facts. "Germany's synthetic ammonia industry and coal liquefaction technology were indeed world-class, and their chemical plants were refining synthetic gasoline day and night. But this was insufficient to support a full-scale war spanning several continents. Germany's armored formations, tens of thousands of tanks and half-tracks, required massive amounts of natural oil to keep their tracks turning; Germany's tens of millions of citizens and millions of frontline soldiers needed high-quality wheat to fill their stomachs."

"These enormous physical resources are beyond the reach of impoverished Western Europe. Only the fertile black soil of Ukraine, and the natural oil fields of Baku and the Caucasus region that gush forth black gold, can satisfy the terrifying appetite of the Third Reich's war machine."

"I am certain that the Germans and the Soviets will inevitably go to war sooner or later, and that day is not far off. When the armored spearheads of millions of German Wehrmacht soldiers clash with the steel torrent of the Soviet Red Army on the plains of East Europe, when their supply lines are stretched to thousands of kilometers, that will be a true industrial meat grinder. The German logistics system will be completely worn down."

Arthur looked at Churchill: "So, Your Excellency, the only thing we need to do now is to ensure that the fortress of the British Isles does not sink. As long as we can withstand the bombing of the German Luftwaffe, survive the strangulation battle in the Atlantic with our blood, and drag out the war, the moment when the Germans commit millions of troops to the vast Eastern front in order to seize oil and food will be the starting point for us to completely reverse the situation."

“But Arthur,” Churchill frowned, a veteran who had experienced the height of the British Empire, and raised a crucial question, “simply holding out and waiting will not win a war. If we rely solely on sea lanes, how will we project our troops and industrial capacity if the Mediterranean routes are threatened by the Axis navies and air forces? How will we maintain strategic connections across the Empire’s vast overseas territories? The Red Sea and the Suez Canal are not absolutely secure now.”

"This is the second grand imperial strategy I want to present to you."

Arthur's whip moved from the British Isles, across the Gibraltar fortress, and landed in the North African desert. Then, like an extremely strong steel ribbon, the whip traveled along the Red Sea, through the oil fields of the Middle East, all the way to the subcontinent, finally stopping in the damp jungles of Myanmar.

"Simply relying on maritime transport routes that are easily cut off by submarines and surface commerce raiders has too low a margin for error at the strategic level. Although the British Empire's maritime routes were unparalleled in the world, we still need to build an absolutely safe physical land bridge that is not subject to the laws of the sea under the current circumstances. In this respect, we can learn from the Soviets."

A wildly ambitious yet highly feasible industrial vision burned in Arthur's eyes—a hegemonic idea built entirely on steel, coal, and the internal combustion engine.

"On the one hand, we need to strengthen our domestic heavy industrial capacity and cannot rely entirely on overseas colonies; but on the other hand, we must make use of our existing colonies in the Middle East and North Africa to open up a land artery from North Africa directly to India and Myanmar."

"We will establish a massive distribution center in Alexandria, Egypt, to unload aid from both the mainland and the United States."

Then, by expanding the existing Suez Canal railway network, carrying out large-scale gauge standardization and line reinforcement, it was extended eastward.

"We will lay steel tracks across the Palestinian Gobi and the Iraqi desert, firmly controlling every oil well in the Middle East to ensure the Empire's mechanized forces have an endless supply of fuel; railways and heavy highways must cross the Persian plateau and connect directly to the vast and well-established railway network of British India; ultimately, this industrial corridor will extend all the way to Burma, completely connecting our largest pool of human resources, tin mines, and rubber production areas in the Far East."

Arthur's voice rose, carrying the overwhelming power of heavy industry, echoing in the stifling basement: "Your Excellency, please imagine this scene. This will not be a fragile merchant fleet with a speed of only ten knots, constantly on guard against U-boat torpedoes, and subject to the harsh weather of the Atlantic. This will be the backbone of the empire, entirely built on solid land, paved with tens of thousands of kilometers of standard gauge railways and heavy-duty highways. Tens of thousands of diesel locomotives and heavy-duty trucks will be running day and night on this great artery."

"One day, when the British Empire's armored trains will be able to transport fully armed mechanized infantry divisions, thousands of tons of high-explosive shells, and logistical supplies directly and unhindered from the North African desert to the jungles of the Far East; when millions of soldiers from the Indian subcontinent will be able to be continuously deployed along this railway to the battlefields of the Middle East and North Africa to crush the Italian defenses. At that time, the Royal Navy will be completely free from any worries about its rear, and can freely engage in the purest battles with any enemy on any ocean, without having to escort slow-moving troop transport ships like a nanny."

"By then, the British Empire will no longer be a collection of isolated islands and fortresses scattered across the four oceans. We will fundamentally forge this empire into an indestructible whole connected by steel and rails. It will truly stretch continuously from the far east to the far west of the world, its territory larger than the Soviet Union's European steamroller. Even if the Atlantic is briefly blockaded by German submarines, even if the Pacific faces threats from other powers, this imperial war machine spanning Asia and Africa will still be able to unleash an absolute power to crush all enemies, relying on its internal industrial cycle and extremely powerful resource allocation capabilities!"

The air in the basement seemed to have been completely ignited by some kind of high-energy substance.

Churchill's fingers, holding the cigar, trembled slightly, and his aged but spirited eyes shone with an unprecedented light.

After hearing Arthur's words, he felt as if he had become thirty years younger.

Arthur's grand industrial and geopolitical blueprint precisely struck at the wildest imperial romanticism deep within him as a defender of the British Empire, while also perfectly aligning with the operational logic of the highest levels of warfare.

Naval defense, opening up land power, the internal circulation of industrial capacity, and precise strategic calculations against the United States and the Soviet Union.

This is a tightly integrated, even flawless, grand strategic framework.

Churchill took a deep drag on his cigar, the thick smoke unable to conceal the sudden glint of wariness in his eyes.

Although Arthur didn't say it explicitly, he seemed to have noticed it as well.

He shifted his gaze from the North African desert and, following the path Arthur had just traced, stared intently at the long, narrow island at the easternmost edge of the map, and the prosperous Southeast Asia to its south.

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