Twenty Seven Years

  Chapter 358 Recognition

night

  Laizein, Equality Association Main Station, Conference Room

The conference room was filled with smoke. Morais, who was in charge of tonight's meeting, considered that there were women present, and planned to ask the smoking **** men to put down their cigarettes. I had to give up this extra thought.

"Ahem..." Morais, who smokes one or two packs of cigarettes every day, feels that the room is a little too choked up, but everyone is really tired in the past few days, and smoking is already the cheapest way to refresh himself. Open the window."

   "How is the president?" Piaf couldn't help asking seeing that Boyne didn't participate in tonight's meeting.

  Byne never misses meetings at ordinary times, and his absence tonight is undoubtedly due to his physical problems that outweigh his determination. After Piaf spoke, other comrades attending the meeting also looked at Morais.

"Don't worry, his condition is still stable. I didn't let him come because he had to ensure adequate rest." Morais calmed everyone down, and then went straight to the point, "Elton, make a record, Let's have a meeting."

   "Yes." A comrade with an immature face held a pen and quickly wrote the date, personnel, and theme of the meeting in the notebook.

   "Wow."

Morais got up and pulled down a map that was almost as big as a wall on the side of the conference room: "There was a lot of commotion outside today. The fleet of Welland and Bresey was officially dispatched, and Sdr and Castelia were in Malaise. The western region is also at war. In addition, Brecy sent a mission to Shennai, the civil war in Dunman continued in a few areas, the regime of the Kingdom of Montrego changed again, and the Federation of Riches appealed to Sidr, Castelia Peaceful solution to the problem..."

  A cadre of the Operations Department said: "Bash is very quiet. Today, I only found out that they are building a large number of coastal defense artillery."

"It's normal. Their navy won't get any benefit from fighting against Bresci's navy head-on, let alone facing the coalition forces of Welland and Bresci this time. Since anti-blockade is impossible, then The only way to protect important ports is to build coastal defense guns. It’s just...the maritime trade is blocked, and it doesn’t make much sense for them to protect the port...” Another cadre had expected that Bash would do this.

"I have a question." Piaf waited for the two cadres of the War Department to express their opinions, and talked about her own opinion, "I think this matter is a bit strange, since war is inevitable, and since the strength of the navy is far less than Will's Lan, why did Bash start building coastal defense guns only now?"

   "It should have been repaired all the time, but it was investigated by us today." The cadres of the war department thought instinctively.

   "It wasn't repaired before, it just started today." The cadres of the Ministry of Intelligence confirmed Piaf's words.

   Morais looked at Bash on the map and fell into deep thought.

   What Piaf said makes sense. Bash has such a long coastline, and there are countless coastal cities and seaports. It is too late to start building coastal defense artillery on the third day after the declaration of war.

   You must know that the combined fleet of Wellland and Bresey will be able to launch an attack on Bash the day after tomorrow at the latest. It is obviously impossible for Bash to build the coastal defense artillery before that.

"It's really strange... In the past few days, Welland, Brecy, Castelia and other countries have imposed economic sanctions on Bash. Bash's response measures are very timely and comprehensive. It doesn't look like they will miss the construction of the shore. Anti-gun." Morais stroked the beard on his chin that he didn't have time to repair, trying to think from Bash's point of view.

   "Maybe the money hasn't been approved yet? Repairing coastal defense guns is no small matter, especially since there are so many places they need to protect..." Comrades from the Ministry of Finance thought of the money issue.

"Bash's financial difficulties are for sure, but in the case of insufficient naval strength, only coastal defense artillery can effectively protect their important coastal cities and ports. Even if they have no money, they should list this matter in the list. Before the implementation of the matter, right?" Piaf raised objections based on the words of the Ministry of Finance cadres.

"Who can say for sure. Every country has a lot of troubles. Sometimes we think it is unreasonable and the reasons are complicated, but in fact, for the people inside, it is simply lack of money. So many coastal defense artillery , and all kinds of supporting facilities, this is quite a large sum of money..." Comrades from the Ministry of Finance insisted on their own ideas.

Piaf shook her head slightly: "But this amount of money is absolutely nothing compared to the safety of these cities and ports. If Bash fails to reach a consensus on this matter and let the coastal areas without resistance be exposed Within the range of Welland's attack, there is no need to say more about the outcome of this war."

   "Comrade Piaf is right. It is not because of money that Bash delayed the construction of the coastal defense artillery until now." The cadres of the War Department agree with Piaf's analysis.

"The point is, it's too late to build now, so could it be that Bash didn't even think about deploying coastal defense artillery to guard against Welland?" Morais, who studied the map silently and listened to other people's discussions for a long time, finally said his own. an idea.

   "Bash didn't want to build coastal defense artillery? But since they are clearly building it with great fanfare now? It doesn't make sense."

  "The most important thing is that if the coastal defense artillery is not repaired, not only will the maritime trade of Bash be interrupted, but the coastal areas will also be under great threat at all times. Will they let it go?"

   "Yes, in this way, Bash almost has no trump card against Welland, so wouldn't this war be lost? Could it be that they want to admit defeat? Why are they building coastal defense artillery now? This..."

  No one here can keep up with Morais' thinking. No matter how they think about it, they can't figure out why Morais came to such a conclusion.

   And Morais didn't seem to have fully figured it out. After proposing a possibility, he stared at the map again with all his attention.

   "What do you mean... Is this Bash acting?" Dozens of seconds later, a cadre of the combat department understood what Morais meant.

   "Acting? What do you mean?" Others looked at the cadre one after another.

"Bash should have other ways to deal with the Welland Navy, so they didn't plan to spend a lot of manpower, money and time to build coastal defense guns. Lan saw it, trying to make Willan think that Bash had nothing to do with them and the navy, and could only defend passively." The cadre said.

   Morais turned around and looked at the cadre.

  The cadre is called Barlow, an intellectual who just joined the Equality Association some time ago and worked under him.

   "Then what do you think, without relying on coastal defense guns, how can Bash fight against the combined fleet of Welland and Brecy?" Morais's eyes were full of appreciation.

   "Only the navy." Bash's navy was obviously unable to compete with Welland, but Barlow couldn't think of a second possibility.

"Bash's navy has been developing vigorously during this period, but the gap with Welland cannot be bridged so easily." Morais glanced at the others, "Do you think there is any other way? "

  Baro and Morais looked at each other.

  Looking into Morais' eyes, Barlow seemed to have an answer.

  Seeing the subtle changes in Barlow's gaze and expression, Morais pointed to the Republic of Brescia on the map: "Since Wellland has allies, who says Bash doesn't have any?"

   "Pluman." Barlow said.

   "Pluman?"

   "You mean Pluman is an ally of Bash?"

"I didn't see it at all. I feel that Pruman and Bash have nothing to do with each other. If we really talk about allies, it is more likely to be the Polk Kingdom? Polk has always relied on Bash, and the two have long been tied together. , but Polk's naval power is not worth mentioning, even if it supports Bash, it will not play any role..."

"Since we are fighting against the two strongest countries in the world, Wellland and Bresey, those who are willing to be Bash's allies must not be weak, and they must have sufficient reasons to do so." Barlow emerged from his mind After leaving Pluman, he became more and more determined in his guess.

Morais sorted out the situation a few minutes ago, but he saw that Barlow was a good candidate, so he didn't say it directly, but guided him to answer: "Then besides Pullman, you think there are other Appropriate choice?"

"No. Polk is too weak, Nero stays out of it when he has an accident, Shennai and Bresci have a close relationship, Sdell is busy competing for territory with Castelia, Montrego doesn't even have a decent government, Dunman Still dealing with internal conflicts, Riches is a permanent neutral country, and Lombard's navy still uses a large number of wooden sailboats... It seems that there is only Pruman." Barlow recounted the status quo of the country on the map.

  After listening to him, everyone else looked at the map.

  The situation is just as Barlow said, the world is in chaos, most countries can't even handle their own affairs well, and very few can manage the outside world.

   Select Wellland, Bresey, and Bash out of them, and only Pluman is left who also has the ability to interfere in foreign affairs.

"After thinking of Pruman just now, I was shocked, and the hairs on my body stood on end." Morais said, "This country is too low-key. From time to time, we can hear the news that Montrego has changed the government again. But little is known about what happened to Pluman."

"This is abnormal. I suspect they are hiding their strengths and biding their time." Barlow stood up and pointed to the northwest region before the map. Half-enclosed, it has always been under the control of Welland's navy because it is the most powerful. Pluman's interests here have been taken away. I think they are also extremely hostile to Welland and want to defeat Wellland , among the great powers."

   "Does Pruman have this strength? I don't think they have made much international appearances."

   "Yes, as far as I know, Pruman's naval strength is not outstanding, not much different from Bash. The two parties have cooperated, and I am afraid that they are not the opponents of Wellland and Bressy?"

   "Could it be that Pluman wants to take advantage of Welland's expedition to Bash to attack its homeland?"

  The cadres have different opinions based on their long-term knowledge of Pluman.

"Who can ensure that what we see is real, that is all about Pruman?" Morais asked the crowd, "We haven't even fully understood Blessie, so how can Pruman's situation be as we understand it?" So easy."

   "I have some relatively new understanding of Pluman, and I think they are undoubtedly an underestimated country." Piaf supported Morais's idea.

   "Do you want to contact the Pruman sub-station?" A cadre suggested.

"No need, our substation in Pluman has now withdrawn from the city, trying new development routes in villages and towns, and they don't have much in-depth understanding of this matter. And if there are really special Lin En, the head of the Pluman sub-station, will report back early in the morning." Morais said.

"Then ask Chairman Boyne? Comrade Veraker, Comrade Keating? Or Comrade Winston? Either they have been to Pruman, or they are from Pruman. They should know a lot and can give us some advice on this matter." We provide more intelligence and direction."

   "I'll contact them later." Morais thought for a while, and decided to call and chat with them one by one after the meeting.

On the one hand, it was proposed by the cadres. They were either from Pruman, or they had been to Pruman. The things that lived and analyzed there were naturally more valuable than him, who had never been there. On the one hand, these few people Excellent in other respects.

  Boin needless to say, Keating is well-informed and omniscient, Verac is active and bold, and Winston has done in-depth research on Pluman.

  In addition to talking about Pruman's situation, they still have a lot of things to talk about, and there may be unexpected gains from chatting.

   "I have always felt in my heart that there are four countries that are most likely to challenge Welland's supremacy in the future." Barlow still stopped in front of the map.

   "Tell me?" Morais was slightly interested.

"The first Bressi. As a powerful country second only to Welland, Francois definitely hopes to replace Welland, and from the dispatch of a mission to Shennai this time, it can be seen that Francois is not simply The coalition forces also want to get a piece of the pie from Nero." Barlow said, "The second one is Bash, they dare not back down on Nero's interests, and they would rather go to war with Welland to show that Everything. The third is Dunman. Dunman has a unique geographical advantage, and its economy has improved rapidly before the civil war. After the civil war is over, it is bound to become an important economy at a faster rate. The fourth is Prussia Man."

  Balotti’s Morais wasn’t surprised, and he thought so too: “Tell me about Pruman?”

"Pluman's economy and society have developed rapidly in recent years, and its industrialization has even begun to walk ahead of Welland. If it wants to continue to develop, it must compete with Welland for maritime hegemony, control the international order, and grab benefits around the world. .”

   Morais thinks deeply: "So this time Bash took the initiative to detonate all this, there is no reason for Pruman not to participate...It is time for us to re-understand this country."

  (end of this chapter)