Chapter 727: Changes in Naval Battles
The three of them hugged each other happily when they met.
In fact, Charles' personal relationship with Wells and Vice Admiral Geprat was not that close, but the common interest of the shipyard brought them closer together, making them like comrades in the same camp.
Charles was a little surprised when he saw Wells: "You don't seem to be here, Mr. Wells, otherwise those congressmen will make a fuss about this issue again."
Wells smiled noncommittally: "You seem to have forgotten, General, that you are now the investor of the Brest Shipyard. It seems that there is no problem for me to discuss the shipbuilding plan with the investor?"
Several people laughed.
In fact, with Charles' current status and prestige, he basically doesn't need to worry about gossip in this regard.
He has reached a new height. He has not only gained the recognition and trust of the vast majority of citizens, but has also established his own military theory and established his position.
At this level, Charles cannot be defeated by just a few words of "military-business collusion".
If any member of parliament questions in parliament:
"Charles supported the Brest shipyard because he was working behind the scenes with Wells."
"Yes, this is related to Ciel's own interests."
"We have reason to believe that Charles owns a stake in the Brest shipyard, or that he has accepted bribes from Wells, with whom he is known to have a private relationship."
…
This voice will soon be drowned out by a chorus of rebuttals:
"God, don't you know that these warships were donated by the Charles?"
"What benefit could be higher than the cost of building a ship? That's tens of millions of dollars!"
"So what if there's profit? Charles spent money to donate warships to the navy, so can't they be built in a 'friendly' factory?"
…
The citizens of France had been largely conquered by the Charles, and no matter what rumors there were, they first questioned the Parliament rather than the Charles.
Therefore, even the congressmen knew that this approach would not work against Charles. It could not defeat Charles or even cause any waves, so they simply did not mention it.
After a brief exchange of greetings, Lieutenant General Geprat sat on a chair in the conference room. When he took the coffee handed to him by the orderly, he could not wait to complain:
"You must not know what the parliament is discussing."
"Many members of parliament are questioning your decision-making and the command of the Battle of the Meuse."
Charles looked confused: "Command of the Meuse River?"
He didn't think there was anything wrong with the Meuse River. At least it was a great victory and it was in its final stages.
"Yes." Lieutenant General Geprat nodded, with disdain on his face: "They said your command was too conservative. The First Armored Army should have crossed the Meuse River and taken back all the French territory in one fell swoop while the Germans were left with little manpower in the rear."
Charles, who was drinking coffee, almost choked on this: "Did they really say that?"
Wells raised his eyebrows: "I can testify, but this is normal. They are parliamentarians, not generals, and certainly not the Charles."
Wells and Geplatt laughed again.
The parliamentarians do not understand military affairs, but it is precisely this group of people who understand military affairs who can decide the strategic direction, interfere with military command, and even appoint and dismiss commanders.
Wells then brought the topic back on track: "How's the warship issue going? I heard you just finished talking to the Japanese military attaché?"
"Yes." Charles replied, taking out the newly signed contract from the drawer and handing it to Wells: "Everything is going well."
Wells and Lieutenant General Geprat came closer to take a look, and both had strange expressions on their faces.
Wells looked at Charles hesitantly: "This is unlikely, $1.6 million, and a displacement of more than 3,000 tons."
"Why?" asked Charles. "You are not satisfied with it?"
"No, no." Wells hastened to explain, "I mean, this price...it makes our cost look inflated, and it's inflated by a lot."
"Don't worry, Mr. Wells." Charles laughed. "I know what's going on. This is just Neon's concession. They are willing to make a loss in order to facilitate this deal."
Wells breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this, and then a relieved smile appeared on his face.
Neon can produce this light cruiser of more than 3,000 tons. In the future, the Brest Shipyard will only need to make some modifications to produce another model, which will save a lot of design and verification time and cost.
In other words, the Brest Shipyard has almost all the follow-up ships ready, so there is no need to worry about the shipyard being closed down.
Vice Admiral Geprat stared at the warship structure diagram in the contract for a while and said:
"I have always had a question, Lieutenant General, how should we carry out training?"
"I mean, our new warship and the one produced by Neon."
"They should be mainly anti-aircraft, and anti-submarine, right?"
Vice Admiral Geprat has been studying the Battle of the North Sea during this period. He has realized the importance of air supremacy in naval battles and has also heard that Britain is building an aircraft carrier.
Charles told Tijani about the aircraft carrier, and Tijani told Geprat.
At first, Vice Admiral Geprat did not believe it, but when he thought of the British "Ark Royal" seaplane carrier that was already in service, he felt that it was very likely.
He could only sigh: the world was changing too fast, and the mode of naval warfare was likely to undergo earth-shaking changes as a result, and it was only in the process now.
Charles replied: "You can say that, at least for us. But we still have to take the anti-ship into consideration."
This was due to the backwardness of reconnaissance methods during this period. In the absence of radar and aircraft carriers, warships were unable to fight "beyond visual range" or "outside the range of ship guns."
Lieutenant General Geprat nodded in agreement.
"But we need to change our thinking about ship-to-ship combat." Charles added: "When there is no fighter cover, our naval guns should target enemy destroyers, and enemy battleships should be dealt with by torpedoes."
This is the concept of Japan's "Mine Warfare Team", but Japan's "Mine Warfare Team" has not yet been formed due to the lack of a command ship.
Geprat hummed thoughtfully. After confirming these, he roughly knew the direction of the navy's training and practiced it in his mind.
However, Charles added: "The way of bombardment and communication should also change, or more precisely, the way of coordination."
"What?" Geplat looked confused.
What he had just rehearsed in his mind was all based on traditional artillery and coordination methods. If even these had to be changed, it meant that what he was thinking was still wrong, and very wrong.
Charles raised his chin towards the contract on the table. "My coordination method is more inclined to pair a 3,000-ton light cruiser with a destroyer."
Gaplat was stunned, and he and Wells looked at each other, and both saw surprise in each other's eyes.
They thought that Charles would use the light cruiser produced by Japan as the flagship and bring a large number of new and old destroyers to form a huge fleet.
I didn't expect that they would bring one ship with them.
(End of this chapter)
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