"You actually said that my fleet was completely wiped out!? You want to tell me that my 70 battleships... level 1 battleships! All sunk!?" The king of the Talon Kingdom sat on his throne and raised his hand
The glass inside fell to the ground.
This palace is not very splendid, and the Talon kings of the past dynasties were not very arrogant. They rarely renovated their palaces because they invested a large amount of their income in raising fleets.
Therefore, the Talon Kingdom has a very large number of warships. In addition to first-class warships, there are also hundreds of second-class warships and armed merchant ships to ensure the safety of its routes.
The king who had just asked the question stood up angrily, walked to his prime minister, and asked angrily: "Those are 70 warships! Those are 70 warships! Those warships are enough to destroy a country! But you told me,
None of them are gone...all sunk! Are you crazy or stupid? Huh?"
"Your Majesty! This is very likely to be the case! Our defeated troops brought back some prisoners sent back by the enemy, and it has been confirmed that these prisoners indeed belong to our fleet." The prime minister's face was also ugly, but he could only bite the bullet and said.
.
Although he was unwilling to accept the reality, he understood that if he did not quickly think of countermeasures now, this kingdom established on the sea would almost be doomed.
As a prime minister, he certainly does not want the king he assists to become a prisoner, nor does he want the kingdom he governs to be destroyed, so he must do his best to help the madman in front of him tide over the difficulties.
"Your Majesty! The matter has come to this. We must come up with a way to deal with the crisis before us." At this time, a naval general had no choice but to persuade.
The surrounding ministers were talking a lot. After all, they had just heard the news that all their warships at sea had been sunk.
That's 70 warships! It's almost the entire Tarun Kingdom's wealth. This kind of loss is not something that can be easily endured.
The king's face was still ugly. He looked at the admiral who spoke and asked loudly: "What can you do? What can you do? Huh?"
"We, we need, need, need to replenish, replenish battleships! More battleships!" the naval commander replied nervously.
His answer was not satisfactory, because those battleships had been sunk, and now a few new ships hadtily launched, which would not change anything at all.
The balance of power between the two sides is too disparate, and the other side's qualitative advantage cannot be compensated by its quantitative advantage. This is the most fatal problem.
Obviously, the Datang Group has a very powerful new warship. This is also a definite message obtained from the prisoners who were sent back.
These prisoners had all experienced that naval battle, and they still remembered the terror of the enemy. They brought back very important news, about the ironclad battleships.
It is no secret that the Datang Group owns warships made of steel. After all, these captured sailors have all seen those powerful warships.
They were interrogated separately, but they gave almost the same information: the enemy's steel warships can fire calmly from a distance of 1,000 meters and sink the sail warships.
This news was also confirmed by the Army from the side: when attacking Rewind Port, they encountered unprecedented artillery fire. The artillery shells used by the opponent were very powerful, even more powerful than the artillery shells provided by Cyric.
It is obvious that ordinary sailing ships cannot withstand such artillery shells mounted on battleships, so it is easy to understand why those sailing battleships were sunk.
Thinking of cannonballs, this seems to be another unsolvable problem: traditional wooden warships can no longer withstand the attack of such cannonballs.
The defense is too fragile, which makes the expensive sail battleship lose the meaning of existence. The only way to strengthen the defense is to find ways to thicken the hull to resist the attack of artillery shells.
But this raises another problem: thickening the hull and covering it with steel will further increase the weight of the ship and slow down the already very slow speed of the warship.
Losing speed will make these turtle shells more difficult to control, which also means it will be more difficult to mobilize, and fleet coordination will become even worse - this is completely another way of adding insult to injury.
"The information brought back by the deported prisoners was really shocking. I even felt that this was a bluff by the other party..." At this time, a minister pretended to be profound and said what he said. idea.
"Bluffing? Are you saying they didn't wipe out Wallen's fleet? Or that our defeat on land was fake?" Another minister next to him sneered and said sarcastically.
The two of them usually had different political views, so it was not surprising that they started to argue at this time.
The prime minister looked at the two people arguing, sighed, and admonished the king who was standing in front of him: "Your Majesty! It is very certain that the other party has a powerful navy. We must think about it carefully now. , if the other side’s warships go south, how will we respond?”
When the prime minister asked how to deal with it, the naval commander who just spoke said worriedly: "If the other side blocks us... it will be dangerous."
Beside him, a minister in charge of food was taken aback and immediately said loudly: "All the food we have here must be transported by sea..."
"Food is expected to last for a while, but what I'm worried about is that trade will collapse." The minister in charge of commerce was even more pale and lamented with a tearful voice.
There is no way, if the Talon Kingdom, which relies heavily on shipping and trade, is really cut off from transportation and blocks the port, then their losses will definitely be unimaginable.
So he was desperate, and with a mask of pain, he explained miserably to everyone: "In seven or eight days at most, we will collapse if we lose our trade route."
The king was also very worried that this would really happen. If his trade was destroyed, what would he do to revive the naval fleet and restore the collapsed army?
When money and food were needed everywhere, all these things were gone. This really made the king of Talon Kingdom instantly lose his defense.
The minister in charge of food standing on the other side of him did not forget to stab His Majesty the King's wound again at this time: "Is the food really enough? Without supplementary shipping... it is also very dangerous."
"By the way, if they have such a powerful fleet, why didn't they go south and attack us before..." At this time, someone finally thought of another question: Since the Datang Group's fleet is so powerful, why didn't they just attack us?
The naval commander thought for a long time and only thought of an uncertain possibility: "The other party may be afraid that we will attack Rewind Port..."
In fact, he guessed correctly. Tang Mo was worried about problems in Rewind Port, so he had the fleet stationed there on standby.
But the senior officials of the Talon Kingdom didn't know about this. They immediately imagined that the opponent's fleet docked at Rewind Port and made it a secret for the opponent's commander.
Thinking about this, it becomes even more difficult for the decision-makers of the Talon Kingdom to understand the speed of information dissemination of the Datang Group.
"Hiss...the other party knows that we are going to Rewind Port?" A minister looked at his colleagues beside him in disbelief.
The colleague over there spread his hands and shook his head: "I guess the information was leaked! Such a large-scale operation certainly cannot be kept completely confidential."
Mobilizing troops and assembling a fleet, if the other party really has an eye on Talen, they will definitely send intelligence messages in advance... The question is, how did they deliver the intelligence so quickly.
"But the other party is too well prepared, isn't it?" The official who asked the question asked again reluctantly.
"It is very likely that Cyric launched an attack from another direction first, arousing the other party's vigilance!" Another minister explained.
"But the other party can actually stop its own fleet at any time?" This time it was the navy commander's turn to be in disbelief.
The prime minister had a sullen face, scolded, and brought the discussion back to the main topic: "What's the use of talking about this now?"
The king was also restless. He looked at his ministers and repeated the prime minister's words: "Yes, what's the use of talking about this now? Is there any way! Tell me a way!"
"Gather, assemble the rest of the fleet?" a minister suggested.
The naval commander shook his head and said: "With all the warships we have assembled now, we may not even be able to gather 150."
"There are still so many battleships, we should be able to barely fight, right?" After hearing this number, the minister obviously felt relieved.
The naval admiral looked at the minister as if he were an idiot, and then said sarcastically: "Are you kidding me? Do you know how many islands we have to defend and how many ports we have to protect?"
"Then tell me! Excluding those that cannot be mobilized, how many remaining warships can be assembled?" The minister retorted not to be outdone.
The navy commander thought for a few seconds and finally gave a desperate answer: "We may not even have 30 remaining warships that we can assemble."
The officer then complained: "The fleet that General Warren took away is almost our entire mobile force."
"That damn bastard Wallen, can't he run away if he can't win?" For a while, some ministers who didn't understand naval warfare began to criticize the dead naval admiral Wallen again.
Who knows that dead people can't talk back? Whatever they say now may be refuted by others, but scolding this damn Warren will not be criticized by everyone.
Of course they have forgotten that General Wallen was once a famous maritime general. They also forgot that Wallen led the fleet to win a small-scale naval battle and snatched an island from another kingdom.
