"That's the whole process?"

Putting down the report, Brunhill looked incredulous.

The "naval battle" in the Arctic Sea, small enough to fit in your pocket, is so dramatic that the process is full of accidents and looks more like a chaotic street fight. For the Defence Forces, which emphasize pre-investigation, detailed statistics, careful assessment, careful planning, and thorough execution, this drama really feels very incompatible with them.

She put down her gold-rimmed glasses, pressed the bridge of her nose, and when the sourness in her eyes faded, she asked:

"I still don't understand. ”

"The York, huh?"

Taking a sip of black tea, Li Lin replied.

It is well understood that without the capsizing of the York, the situation would not have deteriorated into a night battle, and the current situation would not have become a dangerous situation.

Why does a thousand-ton ship sink with a slight collision with a small ship? This question has plagued many people, including Brunhill.

"As to the question of responsibility for the sinking of the York, apart from the small part which Colonel Kolchak had to bear, a large part is due to the Royal Albion Navy itself. ”

"The Albians themselves?"

"Three factors. ”

Li Lin opened the drawer, took out a few copies and put them on the table.

"Wrong requirements in the design phase, mishandling by captains and rookies, and disregard for safe operations. ”

The launch of the York was completed a month earlier, less than a month into its construction, and only this one was built by this type of cruiser. From the point of view of weapon configuration and ship design, it has a strong real nature.

Sharp bottom. Extended shear bows, dense gun emplacements, concealed upper deck guns, enlarged flying beast corrals – the entire Albion-class version of a Ligon-class air cruiser was designed with the same original intention, all designed to exploit the loopholes of the arms limitation treaty, maximize combat effectiveness in limited tonnage, and at the same time carry out technical experimentation and reserves.

This one-sided pursuit of combat effectiveness and excessively harsh design requirements will inevitably lead to a decline in the habitability of warships and a lack of safety redundancy. In the case of the York, for example, the speed was increased in order to reduce underwater resistance. The length to width ratio of the hull was elongated. The wide bottom of the boat is designed to be sharper in order to reduce the underwater resistance. At the same time, the superstructure was enlarged to accommodate the enlarged flying beast corrals and upper deck guns. Coming and going, the center of gravity of the ship became quite high. Whenever a sharp turn maneuver is performed. The sides will be almost attached to the water.

"So when the Forgetfulness crashed in. The York's correct response should be to fine-tune its course, and even if there is a scratch, the more damaged will be the Forgetfulness?"

Brunhill suddenly realized. Li Lin shook the teacup and a wry smile appeared.

"Veteran captains do that, but the Yorks and Culens are rookies, and they're still in the run-in stage with the battleships, so it's still a bit difficult for them to make the right decisions. ”

It was for this reason that after the sinking of the York, the Cullen made another mistake - firing on the Forgetfulness.

Speaking of which, it can't all be thanks to the captain of the Cullen, first of all, there is no so-called mutual trust between humans and orcs, and once a gun goes wrong, the first thought in his mind must be to kill the other party. Secondly, the Albians, accustomed to the sea, could not accept the fact that they had been abused by the woolly bears, and they had to take revenge anyway. So, they gave up the last chance to communicate and used cannons instead of mouth cannons to speak.

By this point, the two cruisers had made a lot of mistakes, but they weren't too bad, and if they sank the forgetfulness like this, the matter would still end there. But the stupid move of the Admiralty of Albion broke out at this time in an unexpected form.

Firepower reigns.

This is the consistent belief of the Albiang Navy. In order to maintain the highest firing rate while still maintaining a long enough combat time, the Albians increased the amount of ammunition carried by the warships, increasing the ammunition reserve by fifty percent per gun, and these extra shells and powder kegs were piled up on both sides of the passage and on the upper deck, and even a barrel of gunpowder was stuffed under the table in the captain's cabin, all of which was not protected for ease of use.

It is conceivable that with just one Mars, the whole ship will soon turn into a big firecracker.

In fact, if it weren't for the crew's desperate efforts to clear the propellants and shells on the upper deck in the shortest possible time, the Cullen would not have been sunk by mines, but died from ammunition detonation. Conversely, without these dangerous moves, the entire upper deck would have been in disarray, and the flying beasts would have fled in frenzy. With the carrier's Manticol alone, the Cullen could have captured the Forgetself alive instead of following up the minefields all the way.

"It's unbelievable. ”

"It is not difficult to understand that even if the Albians had anticipated such a risk, they would not have taken precautions against ammunition, and a fleet that had no rivals at sea would have been so arrogant and arrogant. If I'm guessing correctly, even if they later find out about this fatal flaw, they will continue to ignore it, or cover it up with other reasons. ”

This kind of thing is not difficult to understand at all. If the violation of safety by the Royal Navy is admitted, the officers, especially the fleet commanders and captains who encourage such behavior, will be condemned by the public, and the Royal Navy will fear a blow to the morale of the fleet, followed by a decrease in the will to fight, and a cherished tradition of the fearless Royal Navy, and the loss of the will to attack without regard for the slightest thing.

Therefore, the black cauldron can only be carried by the ship design department.

Public opinion does not condemn the design department, nor does it fear punishment, and as long as it is not involved in factional struggles, such as the famous dispute between Hiraga Jean and Kikuo Fujimoto of the former Imperial Japanese Navy's Ship Administration Headquarters, engineers can shift the blame to objective factors: the rigid provisions of arms limitation treaties, technical limitations, and the overstretched cost of shipbuilding...... As long as you want to find it, there is no shortage of reasons, and they are all reasonable.

In the end, it was only the Albion sailors who served on the warships who were unlucky, and of course, they themselves had to be held responsible.

"It's unfortunate. ”

Brunhill exhaled, his brow furrowed slightly.

After a brief moment of sympathy, she quickly erupted with irrepressible anger and disgust at the dead ghosts.

Too bad.

Because of these dead ghosts, the already reluctant war plan is already in jeopardy.

Due to the health problems of His Majesty the Tsar, the Duchy, which was in poor health like his old man, was gradually losing its ability to restrain the human camp, and Alfheim's long-term strategy was forced to be drastically revised. That time had already made them feel a strong sense of crisis. And this time, the whole General Staff wanted to fish up the corpses of those Albians and strangle them again.

"The armaments of the human camp are updated much faster than those of the principality, and the army adapts to new weapons faster than the principality army. ”

He took a page from the jiàn clip below and handed it to Li Lin, who repeated the complaint on it.

"The Principality's army units in the refitting sent one protest after another, accusing the company of selling weapons that were of poor quality and inconvenient to use. ”

By the time she said this, her face was already ugly.

According to the investigation of the after-sales support department, there is no problem with the quality of all weapons, and after simple maintenance, they can still be used normally. Every problem encountered by the soldiers of the duchy was of their own making, for because of their laziness and the disproportionately high rate of illiteracy in the army, the furry bears could neither nor bother to maintain their weapons, let alone repair them. As a result, a large number of weapons were damaged and scrapped.

The troubles created by the hairy bears themselves not only affect their own combat power improvement, but also indirectly affect the strategic planning of the elf camp, plus those groundless accusations...... Brunhill's mood was getting worse and worse.

"Looks like our stuffy friends need something simpler, more effective. ”

It wasn't a Mosin Nagant rifle, even if it was a "backward" bolt-action rifle, Li Lin was willing to have one in the hands of anyone outside the elven camp. What's more, once a war breaks out, with the depletion of the front-line viable forces, the principality is bound to recruit reservists from the rear. For those who have left the farm for the first time, have just put on their military uniforms, have replaced their dung forks with axes, maces or rifles, and are untrained recruits, it is questionable whether they can use Mosin Nagant smoothly. Maintenance, repair, they'll think it's something to eat.

It's not impossible to compensate for this situation, for example, the new recruit and the veteran are mixed, the veteran shoots in front, the recruit follows with bullets, and when the veteran is killed, the recruit picks up the gun and continues to charge until he is killed by the enemy or the Oklana Governor behind him......

But even so, the gray cattle could not be consumed indefinitely, and gradually their dissatisfaction with the Tsar and the Duchy system would accumulate and eventually turn into a plague called "Revolution", burying the Tsar and the entire Duchy - which Alfheim was also not happy to see.

However, Li Lin also did not plan to produce muskets in large quantities, and used far more than the actual equipment and reserve needs to satisfy the duchy soldiers who were accustomed to using dung forks, wasting time and money, and the effect may not be good.

Therefore, there must be a weapon that is simple and reliable, powerful enough, cheap, and abundant. Relying on this weapon, the woolly bears can make the humans retreat within the cost of toleration.

The Principality's navy already had such weapons, and they were very satisfied with the table of anchor mines, and they placed a large number of orders, and sent a delegation headed by Colonel Kolchak to station near the factory to speed up the quality inspection and delivery process of the mines. The Principality's Army also made a request for a "land version of the anchor mine", noting that "the more the merrier, the sooner the better".

"Contact the factory in Prokhorovka, and ask them to sort out all the anti-infantry mines and jumping mines stored in the warehouse, ready to ship to the Principality Army, and-"

Shaking the red tea juice in the cup, Li Lin's usual elegant smile appeared on his face.

"Inform the carpentry factories in Agen Toratong and prepare them to produce prostheses, crutches, stretchers, wheelchairs in large quantities. ”

Soon, there will be a lot of people who will need these things. (To be continued......)