Yes, Prime Minister of Japan

"But the president of South Korea is the dictator Cho Gu-hwan, who is Lee Sung-ha's brother-in-law. They are in cahoots."

In short, Mr. President, you shouldn't offer any more advice. I suggest you go home, take your medication, and get some sleep. Don't cause any more trouble.

The Philippine fortress project hasn't even started yet.

Amidst hesitation and pain, Vance suddenly realized:

“Li Xinghe is right, he’s right.”

The Joint Chiefs of Staff remains in a state of great panic:

"About what?"

Has the president lost his mind because of Li Xinghe?

If it really breaks, that would be a great thing.

Vance clenched his fist in utter agony:

“I remember when we first met in 2027, he told me that, broadly speaking, all the various ethnic groups in East Asia are basically Chinese. I used to think he was discriminating against others, but it turns out he was trying to tell me that he and Cho Gu-hwan are indeed Chinese.”

Everyone was stunned for a moment. Was this also a call back?

Then, Vance silently led his team away.

America is silent.

The media dared not go out to interview officials casually; everyone was trying to tacitly change the timeline and forget yesterday's great battle.

But back in the White House, President Vance, who was vengeful, insecure, and filled with boundless hatred, suddenly changed his mind.

He decided to do it himself.

He instructed his subordinates:

"No, I still want to build battleships. I'll call the South Korean president, I can acknowledge the outcome of his military coup, promise he's a 'democratic president,' and he has to build me three battleships within a year. To use them to deter Tokyo!"

Chapter 754: South Korea builds ships for the US military, Vance sends the Starship aircraft carrier (4700 words)

"Yes, I want to commission South Korea to build battleships for the United States!"

When the White House called the Blue House, Cho Koo-hwan, who spent his days battling wits with technocrats, suddenly felt a sudden flash of inspiration, his mind clear, as if his IQ had been reset to zero.

Battleship?

In 2029?

As an incompetent officer, Zhao Juhuan knew that battleships were a thing of the past, and any professional who paid attention to this matter would scoff at them.

He gave Vance a few perfunctory replies and hurriedly called Li Xinghe:

"This guy's military knowledge is extremely lacking, probably at the level of a third-rate enthusiast. He doesn't even know that what he's trying to say isn't actually a battleship, but a coastal firepower delivery ship."

After hearing this, Li Xinghe felt that his imagination was still too limited.

"A battleship? Could this guy be a hidden master of big-ship, big-gun tactics?"

There has always been a cult of giant battleships within the US military. The Zumwalt-class destroyer is a prime example of their design, a disastrous creation born from a desire to fulfill their fantasies and create an idealized battle environment in the fictional world. In the American public, influenced by World War II, there is an almost subconscious, almost divine, reverence for battleships.

Zhao Juhuan was very undecided:

So, are we going to build it or not?

Li Xinghe replied directly to him:

"Go ahead and build it. He's paying for it, so just build as much as you can. Be careful to save money. Don't add anything expensive. Just a hull, an engine, a gun turret, and a few vertical launch tubes will do. Once it's finished, we'll keep it for ourselves."

Once it's built, just hand it over to Li Xinghe; there's no need to give it to the United States.

After all, such a large near-shore firepower delivery ship is just the right choice for the Taiwan Strait crisis a year from now. Whether it is to deliver firepower close to Taiwan or to fire wildly at the Philippines, it is an excellent choice for crushing weaker opponents.

The funniest part is here.

In Vance's fantasy, the firepower projection battleship is perfect for dominating weaker opponents. However, the US lacks such an environment, while its allies, like Taiwan and the Philippines, are ideal candidates for this type of firepower projection ship.

Zhao Guhuan convened his leadership team, along with professionals from major shipbuilding companies such as Samsung and Hyundai, to conduct research.

A group of people huddled together, deep in thought.

Building that dilapidated hull wasn't actually that expensive. Neither Li Xinghe nor Zhao Juhuan felt the ship needed to incorporate any advanced technology; simply thickening the hull and frame to withstand a typical subsonic cruise missile was sufficient. The cost was relatively low—around $5 million—to create a massive iron shell.

What remains are the expensive ship engines, transmission systems, electronic warfare kits, turrets, vertical launch systems, and so on. This is the truly exorbitant cost that cannot be increased further.

According to expert estimators in South Korea's shipbuilding industry, the only obstacle to building such a piece of junk is the size of the cannons required. If they could reuse the old 406mm naval guns and restart the old production line, it would only cost $20 billion.

However, there are still many problems.

"The hull...you need blueprints for that too, right?"

someone said:

“Japan still has a large number of blueprints for the reconstruction of the Yamato. We can simply modify the Japanese blueprints to create a modern hull with added steel plates. If we can get the blueprints, and with the highest-powered three-shift system, we can complete the hull construction in 12-18 months.”

Koreans are particularly fond of working overtime.

Some people also asked:

"What about the naval guns? Are they really using 406mm guns? We can't exactly dig up the naval guns from the museum, can we? Besides, they're not very useful."

At this moment, a wise person said:

"Order from China. They have larger, super-large horizontal CNC machine tools that can manufacture the world's most advanced large marine shafts. Just ask them to customize a few naval guns."

Everyone pondered again:

"The artillery is ready, but what about the shells? Shells are the real money-making opportunity."

Someone suggested:

"We can research it ourselves. Hanwha Group started out making gunpowder. Is it that difficult to make an artillery shell?"

After such deliberation and research, the proposed battleship design, a collaborative effort between the three East Asian countries, was thus born.

Of course, all of the above considerations are merely to satisfy Vance's personal desires.

The real problem is that South Korea's shipbuilding industry desperately needs orders from the United States.

Zhao Juhuan immediately called Vance back:

“If you can overcome the US Jones Act and Vance Act and allow South Korea to contract to build some of the warships the US military needs, such as destroyers, we believe each one would cost only $33 billion. We are willing to build three historic invincible battleships for you within a year with the highest priority.”

Give me $100 billion and a shipbuilding order, and I'll deliver three battleships a year from now!

The Jones Act, the U.S. version of the National Shipbuilding Act, stipulates the priority of domestic shipbuilding in the U.S. and prohibits the purchase of foreign warships (although the U.S. military often purchases foreign ships under the pretext of being cheap second-hand).

The Vance Act, also known as the Jones Act, was a new bill that President Vance helped Trump push forward when he was Vice President. It not only requires foreign ships to pay additional fees to enter U.S. ports, but also has many detailed regulations on the use of government ships, to the point that troops scattered in Okinawa could not be transported back home.

Because transporting the defeated troops was a government operation, government business had to be 100% handed over to American fleets, but the registered American fleets simply didn't have the time to make a special trip just for them.

The news reached the White House.

Vance was extremely excited, and despite everyone's objections, he insisted on flying to Seoul that very day to chat with his beloved Korean dog about the shipbuilding industry.

He has to win.

Having been in office for almost half a year, Vance has rarely had a winning moment.

He must provide sufficient emotional value to Maga supporters.

The Pentagon, utterly helpless in the face of such an eccentric president, could only urgently dispatch private mediators to negotiate shipbuilding orders with the South Koreans.

Coincidentally, the South Korean shipbuilding industry suffered a major defeat under the pressure from the Chinese shipbuilding industry and was on the verge of collective bankruptcy, so everyone desperately needed new orders.

Unfortunately, the United States cannot build ships, and despite spending money all over the world, it cannot build the warships it needs.

The two sides had already begun preliminary research on the joint construction of the new ship several years ago.

Now that Vance has opened the door to outsourcing shipbuilding abroad, the Pentagon might as well break through the restrictions of the Jones Act and let South Korea help it build missile destroyers.

Having only just agreed on the cooperation intentions, not even waiting a day, Vance, along with the accompanying Secretary of Defense and Pentagon officials, announced to the public:

"This is a landmark contract between the United States and South Korea!"

"I will sign a presidential decree granting South Korea special shipbuilding rights granted by the United States within five years, to produce three super-heavy firepower delivery ships (battleships), five Aegis destroyers (Burke-class I-2A), two amphibious assault ships, and a package of minesweepers, anti-ship vessels, and supply ships for the United States. The cost is $50 billion!"

Of course, they couldn't say they were replicating battleships in the 21st century, so the Pentagon came up with the idea of ​​a 'super-heavy firepower delivery ship,' making it sound more like an arsenal missile ship, which immediately made it seem more advanced.

At the same time, the U.S. military also needs to adjust its production strategy.

In the future, the US will only need to build and maintain its own super nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, leaving the construction of other supporting vessels to its allies—perfect! (The last two lines are a nonsensical string of characters and phrases, likely a result of OCR errors.)

American and South Korean media at the scene were extremely excited, taking photos to commemorate this great moment of US-South Korea cooperation.

Ultimately, when the overall effect was presented, it was surprisingly...pretty good?

Aside from those three incredibly stupid battleships that made American elites want to commit suicide, both commissioning South Korea to build destroyers and breaking through the limitations of the Jones Act to improve the U.S. military's cooperative production model were decisions that couldn't be more correct.

Even the American media and the Pentagon wondered if Vance was using the "three battleships" theory to dismantle a house and then break through the "Vance Shipbuilding Act" that he personally signed, so that South Korea could produce new warships for the US military?

On the issue of guarding against China, the Republican and Democratic parties are surprisingly in agreement.

Therefore, major newspapers have been advocating that South Korea outsources its shipbuilding.

The news headlines are getting more and more interesting:

"Vans's seemingly foolish wisdom?"

“Vance skillfully applied Lu Xun’s theory of ‘opening windows and dismantling houses’ to break the limitations he set for himself, while also restraining China.”

“While we don’t need three lumps of iron, we’d be willing to pay taxes on them if they could break the restrictions of the Jones Act. At least they would actually exist, rather than just being figures on Wall Street’s books.”

It's hard to say whether such a move is clever or foolish, or simply the result of a mix of clever and foolish people working together.

Regardless, the United States has won again.

South Korea is building new warships for the United States; this is its first victory.

Vance doesn't look so stupid; this is the second win.

Vance won South Korea back from Japan's grasp, which is the third win.

Vance has won three times, this is the fourth; Vance has won four times, which is...

In short, this is the United States, and I have ten wins!

……

Despite winning, Li Xinghe, who was holding his son, did not let Wan Si off the hook.

In Tokyo, Li Xinghe deliberately sabotaged them:

"I don't agree, unless Japanese shipyards also receive a portion of this blockbuster order!"

When this news reached Seoul, the entire American negotiating team was furious.

Damn it, you shot down all our planes, what more do you want?

How about I give you a nuclear bomb?

But the two captured American pilots are still in Li Xinghe's hands.

Pretending not to speak English, Zhao Juhuan and Li Xinghe put on a show at the banquet, convincing Vance to play a trick on him.

“He’s envious and afraid that our cooperation will jeopardize his position.”

"So you're afraid of him?"

Vance criticized Cho Gu-hwan with dissatisfaction.

But Zhao Juhuan had the translator tell Vance:

"No, no, no, if you don't give him some benefits, he might... replace me. You may not know, but he is like a father to the 50 South Korean soldiers, and he is the King of Korea in everyone's hearts."

Hong Zhuangyuan, who was in charge of diplomacy, also hurriedly tried to mislead:

"Did you know? He is the purest and noblest living member of the Korean imperial family. If he wanted, he could land in Busan immediately, overthrow our current government, and ascend the throne in Gyeongbokgung Palace."

South Korean diplomatic officials conspired to convince Vance that Lee Sung-ha had a strong ability to interfere in South Korea's affairs.

Therefore, he must share some of the profits.

The representative from Hyundai Shipbuilding also told Vance:

"And the original blueprints for the battleship you're so keen on... I mean, the 'super-heavy firepower delivery ship', are still with him."

After the war, Japan burned 30,000 blueprints for the Yamato, but the designers and builders were still alive. Japan used these as a basis for postwar research on the Yamato, reconstructing the blueprints and construction techniques to a great extent. Korean shipyards don't need a one-to-one replica; they only need the original data for reference.