Holy Roman Empire

"Fire!"

"Shifting formations!"

......

A world-renowned sea battle was waged in the Philippine Sea. The rising smoke could be seen from dozens of miles away.

"Boom" a loud bang, rushed to the front of the "wave speed" unfortunately became the first victim, the sound of water from the stern of the ship began to sound, opened the prelude to the sinking.

An officer cried: "Captain, the warship is seriously damaged, can not be rescued, the ship is sinking!"

Just on the battlefield on the enemy's battleship main gun hit, the god of bad luck possessed by the "Naniwa" is naturally to be cooler. As a thin-skinned cruiser, "wave speed" is obviously should not bear the burden of their own.

As the captain Heihachiro Togo at the moment is also tearless, who knows that the Spaniards put the battleship opposite not to fight, come to bully them this "little bean" ah!

"Shut up and order the troops to keep firing, the shelling won't stop as long as the ship isn't sinking!"

A heavily hit warship couldn't afford to be tossed around, and the more you had to keep firing, the faster the warship would sink.

Such a simple truth Togo Heihachiro naturally knew. But there was no way, this was the battlefield where the Naniwa was located, even if they wanted to withdraw from the battlefield, it was too late.

Anyway, the "Naniwa" can't be saved, so it is better to take advantage of the opportunity to fire a few cannon, may be able to take an enemy warship to accompany the funeral.

As for the timely stop-loss, abandoned warships to jump into the sea to escape, this kind of thing is very common in European countries, but in Japan this is not feasible.

Military glory decided that they could not do so, abandon ship at this time to escape, the rest of their lives they will not be able to raise their heads as people.

The officers and men of the "Naniwa" chose to die to the end, as the commander of the General Fleet, Admiral Ito Yuuhiro could not sit idly by, the Navy is not the army horse manure, as much as they want to have, to train a qualified naval soldier is very expensive.

The "wave speed" has been doomed to failure, the warship hundreds of officers and men, but can not just give up.

Now but in a duel with the Spaniards, the back still do not know how many warships will sink, if all followed and warships co-exist, after this war the Japanese Navy can be left how much is an unknown.

"Pass the order down, all officers and men must abandon ship to escape any warship that is seriously damaged and cannot be rescued. Order Heihachiro Togo to carry out the order immediately."

The episode did not affect the decisive battle, the key to deciding the outcome of this war was still the main ship duel, the thin skinned cruisers get together, is to contribute to the enemy's performance.

The sinking of the "Naniwa" is not the end, but a beginning. Then the "Fuso" and followed in the footsteps of the sinking of the prelude.

As he watched this happen, Yukihiro Ito was powerless to do anything about it. If it were possible, he would not want to do so. But the reality was harsh, the Japanese had only two former dreadnoughts, while the enemy had three former dreadnoughts.

There was no choice but for the Japanese government to buy the British Far Eastern Fleet in order to hurry. This fleet was invincible in the Far East, but was essentially second rate.

The most advanced warships were occupied by the local fleet, the turn of the Far Eastern Fleet are older warships, even the "former dreadnought" is only two.

More than a decade old British warships against the new French warships just served for three or four years, the warship performance gap clearly exists. Plus, the Japanese just got a few days, they were forced into the battlefield, the operation is not skilled enough to play up a disadvantage.

The Japanese navy's advantage was now concentrated in numbers, and the original warships + the purchased British Far Eastern Fleet, whether it was the number of warships, or the total tonnage, were far superior to the Spanish expeditionary fleet.

"Quality is not enough, quantity comes in handy."

The principle of an ant bites an elephant applies to the Navy as well, but at a bit of a price.

This was now proved, and the ordinary warships sent to entangle the main Spanish ships were now playing out a most tragic scene.

The roar of cannon fire continued, and no matter how brutal the battlefield was, not a single Japanese warship chose to retreat, instead several Spanish warships withdrew from the battlefield after being damaged.

On the distant observation ship, Governor Chandler, who was personally at the front line, was looking out over the battlefield with binoculars, with a clerk by his side holding a pen and constantly recording on paper.

A similar situation was also happening not far away. Everything that happened on the battlefield was a valuable experience, vital to the Holy Roman Empire Navy, which lacked experience in naval warfare.

The naval-born Governor Chandler had long been clearly aware of this, and right now the Holy Roman Navy's observation ships had been distributed on all sides of the battlefield, and hundreds of officers were observing the battlefield from all directions, collecting data and information.

If one looked closely, one could also find dozens of airships in the sky, also looking down, flying at an altitude of only a few hundred meters even. If it wasn't for the sound of artillery fire, you might have been able to hear the click of the camera.

These actions of ignoring the warring parties naturally triggered the dissatisfaction of the Japanese and Western navies below, and then the two navies unanimously decided to ignore the existence of these nuisances.

"Your Excellency the Governor, it is time to dine."

The voice of the attendant woke up Chandler's Governor from his "hobby". There was no doubt that collecting data and information was not his job, and leaving the Governor's Mansion to come over here for the fun was clearly beyond the scope of work.

But the Austrian Southern Ocean is always calm, there is neither a serious threat, nor a place to expand, there is not much work for the Governor.

It would make sense to patrol the seas in one's spare time. As for whether the Philippine Sea counts as the Holy Roman Empire's sphere of influence, that's fine as long as Governor Chandler himself is in charge.

Find a small island, or a piece of reef, plant a flag, and run the ship enclosure is considered complete.

Whoever has an opinion, can go to the theory with the Shinra Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and can also have a friendly meeting with the Shinra Navy.

Looking at the watch on his hand, Chandler nodded, "It's indeed time, so let's eat! Let the lads take turns at meals, and every scene on the battlefield must be recorded."

This was how naval battle experience was accumulated, and although it wasn't as effective as going into battle in person, valuable experience could still be accumulated through observation.

Not far away, a bearded officer of about fifty or sixty years of age joked, "Our Grand Governor, is it possible that his memory has deteriorated with age and he has forgotten to rotate in groups?"

"That's enough, Ares. Don't forget that you're a day older than I am, and if you're really old and your memory is deteriorating, you were here first."

"Not a day older, but fifteen minutes! Even that can be mistaken, it really is a degradation of memory.

Come to think of it, I'm running around the world a lot, unlike you who stays in a tender place every day, surrounded by a bunch of flatterers, it's understandable that my memory is deteriorating fast."

"It's a day after midnight, so don't argue. And which eye did you see me stay in the tenderloin? Who doesn't know that I hate slippery people, and who sent you here."

"Idiot, of course it was myself. Has the Governor been in office so long that he can't even understand the division of authority within the Navy ......"

......

The two men's bickering was something that everyone had long seen. Both childhood friends and comrades in arms, and at the same time rise to a high position, in the Holy Roman Empire is a legend.

The only thing is that the two protagonists in the "legend" seem to be congenital conflicts, at home when fine, to pay attention to the noble etiquette did not have a conflict; to the overseas not so much scruples, the two will reveal their true form, almost meeting will pinch.

The two quarrels but does not affect the relationship between each other, whoever runs to persuade the fight, is guaranteed to be dislike the two together.

"Don't talk about what's useless, have you noticed that the Japanese Navy's performance is completely two extremes. One part of the warships are performing perfectly well, and one part of the warships are just completely messing around."

Governor Chandler smiled slightly, "You're just not understanding the situation. You know that half a year ago, the Japanese Navy's gross tonnage was just over 30,000 tons, and now it has suddenly swelled to nearly 100,000 tons.

The Japanese Navy's modernization process has been less than twenty years since it started, so where are they going to find so many qualified officers for a while?

In order to get this massive fleet up and running, the Japanese government not only recruited retired naval officers and soldiers, but also pulled up naval school teachers and students, and reportedly recruited some sailors from the private sector to make up the numbers.

Do you think Yohan Ito was foolish enough to bring such a fleet out for a duel?"

Ares shook his head, "On the contrary, I think Yohan Ito made a smart choice. In times of peace, you can naturally train your officers and soldiers and then consider a duel with the enemy.

The current situation is very obvious, the Spanish are already here and it is impossible to leave them time to train their troops.

Avoiding war at this time would not only put the island's army in a passive position, but also the Japanese navy's hard-earned military morale that had been built up in front of it would be destroyed in one fell swoop.

They had so many warships anyway that the Spanish couldn't eat them in one bite. Although the officers and men just recruited were unqualified, most of them were still from the navy, the biggest problem now was that they were unfamiliar with warships, and after one battle they adapted to it, which was more effective than even half a year of regular training.

Just look at the battlefield the Japanese had chosen, it was no more than forty nautical miles from Luzon Island, even if they lost the fight, they could still withdraw their main force.

The current situation was just fine, although the Japanese losses were a little bigger, the Spanish losses were not small either. Don't look at the number of ships they sank, but there were a lot of injuries.

After a battle, most of the Spanish ships will have to be repaired, and it will be difficult for them to regain their combat power for the next two months.

If it wasn't for us, even if we had won the war, the Spanish would have lost the war because they couldn't keep up with the maintenance.

Now, well, the final outcome is undetermined, but it mainly depends on what the country wants and how much support the British have for the Japanese government."

"You're right in your analysis, time is on the side of the Japanese as one side labors on an expedition and the other fights at home.

The Philippine Islands are richer than many people think. Since the sixteenth century, it has been a transit point for trade, tens of thousands of tons of silver, thousands of tons of gold, and several spices, tea, silk, and porcelain all flowed into Europe from here.

In addition, the Philippine archipelago itself is rich in resources. There is no shortage of agricultural resources, gold and silver minerals, and in terms of value, it is no less than the entire archipelago. In terms of value, it would not be much lower than the entire South Pacific Governorate.

Spain has been operating here for more than three hundred years, to be bureaucrats rooted here for more than three hundred years, except for a part of the flow back to Europe, the rest are left here.

The Japanese are making a lot of money this time, or they wouldn't have the money to buy warships from the British. The direct plundering of the property was skipped first, and the Japanese government couldn't figure that stuff out on its own.

A glance at the proceeds, after the occupation of the Philippine Islands, Japan's mainland food crisis solved, coal, copper and iron ore shortage problem also solved.

Just these things alone, Japan was able to save tens of millions of S.H.I.E.L.D. in foreign exchange expenditures every year. If managed well, the earnings from the Philippine Islands alone would be able to catch up to half of Japan's fiscal revenue.

In a sense, the Japanese were now at war with Spain with the Spanish money.

With that poor financial situation of the Spanish government and that rotten bureaucracy, if we continue to fight like this, I'm afraid that the first ones who won't be able to hold on are the Spaniards."

Talk see, Governor Chandler couldn't even stop drooling. There was no way around it, the Philippine Islands were just too rich, and apart from Java in the hands of the Dutch, there was no other place in the South Seas that could rival them.

As a qualified colonist, it was impossible not to be tempted when encountering such a rich place. As you can hear from the analysis, even the resources of the Philippine Islands were figured out, and it was obvious that they were prepared.

Previously in the hands of the Spaniards, forced by political influence Governor Chandler was unable to make a move, but now there was finally a ray of light.

As long as the Spaniards were defeated and gave up their ownership of the Philippine Islands, the South Pacific governorates would have the opportunity to get the islands. After all, there was no political pressure to rob the Japanese.

Not only was it Governor Chandler's idea, but the colonists throughout the South Pacific Viceroyalty were anxiously waiting for it to happen.

If the Vienna government hadn't ordered it, the Spaniards wouldn't have been able to even get logistical supplies, let alone repair them with the aid of the docks.