Chapter 198 The Queen’s Fleet

After agreeing to the invitation to co-write the textbook, Tang Lintian took out a ballpoint pen and a notebook from the inner pocket of his cotton-padded coat, wrote something on it, and then tore off the page:

"This is my pager number, as well as my home and office phone numbers. If you have anything you want to ask, you can contact me at any time."

Chang Haonan subconsciously wanted to give the other party his contact information.

Then I realized that I didn’t have it at all…

So I had no choice but to take the note, fold it and put it in my pocket:

"Okay, Dean Tang, I will contact you if I have any questions."

……

At the same time, Chang Haonan got the opportunity to write a book for the first time in his life.

Permanent Joint Headquarters, Northwood, Kent, UK.

A man in the uniform of a rear admiral knocked on the door of the office of First Sea Lord and Chief of the Royal Naval Staff Jock Slater.

"Sir Jock, are you looking for me?"

"Yes, Alan, sit down first."

Jock stood up, took out a bottle of wine from the cabinet next to him, and poured half a glass for himself and the visitor.

Although there is a big gap in official ranks between the two, they both come from naval families, and their families are familiar with each other, so there is not a strong sense of alienation.

"It's 1997 now."

This seemingly unreasonable sentence made Alan West, who had just received the wine glass, a little confused:

"Uh...actually, it's already the second month of 1997."

Obviously, he had no intention of getting to his superiors.

Jock, who was speechless, had to choose a more straightforward way of expression:

"If nothing else happens, the United Kingdom will lose another piece of land this year."

"You mean... Hong Kong Island?"

Now West understood, but not completely:

"But isn't that something that Mrs. Thatcher decided on more than ten years ago?"

"That's true, but things are changing after all."

Jock held the wine glass and sat back behind the desk gracefully.

Although the other party still didn’t guess the gist of the conversation, at least it got to the point:

"Prime Minister Major is asking us to do something before it becomes irreversible."

"This……"

The people in Wester were dumbfounded when they heard this sentence, and the wine glass that was brought to their lips stopped in mid-air:

"what can we do?"

"Such as sending a fleet."

West's hand shook and he almost spilled the wine in the glass.

For a moment he thought that at least one of himself, Sir Jock, and the Prime Minister had gone mad.

After about a few minutes, the rear admiral regained full language ability:

"This...this is crazy."

"With all due respect, Sir, we are all nuclear countries, and China is not Argentina. At least they have much more missiles."

After saying this, West added in his heart:

"And even without missiles, we can't survive just iron bombs."

In 1982, he was serving as captain of the frigate Enthusiasm.

In that war, the Zeal was hit by five 5-pound MK1000 unguided bombs by Afghan attack aircraft penetrating at low altitude.

If it weren't for the fuze setting problem that caused only two explosions, I'm afraid it would be another person sitting here today.

"Of course I know this, so I never said I would send a fleet to go to war."

Jock shook his head and drank the liquid in the cup:

"The Conservative Party is in a very bad situation now. If they don't do something to save their support, they may soon fail. So he hopes he can be tougher on this matter."

"Why don't you just find an excuse to delay it? Isn't it possible that the cabinet secretary can't even do this now?"

West said rather nonchalantly:

"Isn't that how they coldly treated our request for increased funding?"

"Actually, there's another reason."

After being shouted back, Jock also realized that the reason he gave was indeed not very convincing. After hesitating for a moment, he continued:

"Some members of the royal family also hope to use this to divert public attention. Britain needs a publicity victory to suppress the public opinion storm caused by the prince and princess."

In theory, the royal family under a constitutional monarchy should be nothing more than a mascot.

But this is obviously not the case.

"A publicity victory..."

After picking up the glass of wine again, West added an accent to the word "promotion", and then imitated the tone of a character in a certain TV series and said a famous line:

"It is to make people BELIEVE Britain is defended?"

Apparently, he's gradually getting up to speed.

"That's right, so we don't need to get close to the coastline. We just need to drive the fleet over, show force at a place beyond their reach, and then return."

While speaking, Jock gently fiddled with the globe on the table:

"You know, if the Chinese navy wants to go out to sea, it will take at least several months to prepare, so it is impossible to react."

"But if the distance is too far, wouldn't there be no threat at all? They don't have to deal with it at all."

West remains a little confused about the specific plans.

The admiral stood up again and came to a huge world map posted on the wall:

"Regarding this, the Pentagon will exert some influence and arrange for Annan's army to conduct joint exercises with us. The location will be... right here."

His finger pointed to a place not far from the coastline of Annan Kingdom:

"The ownership of this sea area is controversial. Annan has always hoped to develop the deep-sea oil and gas fields nearby, so it approached BP."

"So we're going to go over there and support them?"

West also came to the front of the map.

"Nothing to talk about, let's each take what we need."

Jock turned around and looked at West next to him:

"We kill two birds with one stone. We can not only help BP win this project, but also disgust the Chinese people and give an explanation to the royal family and the prime minister. With our support, Annan will be more confident."

"Anyway, the exercise area is nearly 900 miles away from their Qiongzhou. According to intelligence, the Chinese have no sea and air force worth mentioning in this direction. At most, they can dispatch some old-fashioned frigates or speedboats without any risk."

"So, you are going to let me lead this fleet?"

At this point, West could no longer guess the purpose of calling him here.

Faced with this question, Jock did not answer directly, but changed the subject:

"Alan, if I remember correctly, you have been serving as rear admiral for five years, right?"

West's eyes suddenly lit up.

This naked statement can no longer be regarded as a hint——

As long as you can complete this unchallenging task, promotion to a higher position is just around the corner.

"So, has the specific composition of the fleet been determined?"

Obviously, he had accepted this mission by default.

"Not yet, what do you think?"

On professional issues, Jock decided to seek the opinions of frontline commanders.

"Since we want to influence public opinion, the size of the fleet must be large, otherwise the impact will not be enough."

West immediately began to analyze:

"We must have an aircraft carrier. If we want to set off soon, the Excellence should be in a seaworthy condition. The Sea Harrier aircraft performed very well last time. Its performance is not inferior to Annan's MiG-21, so we can take the opportunity to promote it. "

"Type 42 destroyers have a mediocre reputation, but they show cowardice when worn. They can be replaced by Type 22 frigates, Beaver, Cornwall and Campbelltown. Although they are frigates, they have a displacement of 4900 tons, which is larger than all Chinese combat ships. You can completely suppress them.”

"Although we will not really do anything to Hong Kong Island, we still need to make a sufficient posture. We will incorporate the Dreadnought dock landing ship, along with a few medium-sized landing ships and marines, and follow the instructions for landing on the Falkland Islands. With scale preparation, the cost of using these ships is very low, and they can also increase the size of the fleet, which is very cost-effective."

"There are also supply ships. The newly commissioned Victoria Fort should be able to perform tasks..."

West's business level is really nothing to say. He almost arranged a fleet that considered all aspects carefully on the spot.

Since it is just a fleet cruise with no actual risks, it is natural to make the Royal Navy look more majestic.

It would be nice to clear the air from the 1982 loss.