Ambush

Meanwhile, in North America, under the cover of the French Navy —more precisely, France cruiser carrying the United States electric submarine (about the size of a lifeboat)—the British Army fleet anchored near Monmouth and evacuated a contingent of Britain troops to promote Anglo-American amity. At the same time, the France cruiser, which had been accompanying the Britain fleet, also anchored. And right under the Britain noses, it lowered a small boat. On the boat were several France soldiers and a few France- made bicycles.

The Britain knew these were France observers. They would follow the Britain army's movements and record Britain actions. And their bicycles were indeed a good thing, allowing them to even keep up with the cavalry's pace.

Of course, having such a group of men following along was very inconvenient for the British Army. Aside from the possibility that these guys might try to tip off the French in advance, like those two France cruisers that impersonated Britain in front of the Britain, the British Army always left a few men behind to persuade the France not to follow, using methods other than weapons. The France, however, were oblivious and always insisted on coming. Now it's almost become a habit: as soon as the France land, everyone immediately gets a boxing match.

Yes, what the Britain called "persuasion and dissuasion" was actually sending the same number of men as the France and then using physical force to stop the France from following.

The reason for fighting hand-to-hand was that it was easier to control the situation and prevent it from escalating into a war due to mutual shooting. As for why the same number of people were used, it wasn't because of Britain pride or sportsmanship, but rather to make it less likely for the France to complain in the media after a defeat.

After this happened several times, it even became an indispensable little embellishment in the soldiers' boring lives, and the soldiers from both sides would even bet on the score at this time.

Sure enough, just like before, the Britain left some men behind, and then everyone played a friendly one-on-one match. The match ended in a 5-5 draw. Although the match didn't produce a winner, the France were all injured to some extent and unable to continue tracking the Britain army—who knows what these Britain soldiers who landed at dusk were planning to do under the cover of darkness.

The soldiers on the Britain warship cheered – although the score was tied, they had effectively won.

However, just as the Britain were cheering, on the side facing away from the Britain fleet, a small wooden submarine was lowered into the water from where the lifeboats had been launched. Because of the obstruction of the France warships, the Britain could not see what was happening on this side.

The submarine, shaped like a large, vertical goose egg, was lowered into the water. Two real United States descended down a rope ladder from the France warship to the goose egg, opened its door, and climbed inside.

As the door closed, the goose egg began to slowly sink, and soon disappeared into the seawater.

This wooden submarine's diving depth is actually quite limited. Calculations show it can only reach a maximum of eight meters; any deeper and its wooden hull wouldn't withstand the water pressure. For safety reasons, its diving depth is generally limited to around four or five meters. Considering the transparency of seawater, in good visibility during the day, from a suitable angle, such as from a lookout post, it's quite possible to see the submarine with the naked eye at relatively shallow depths. Therefore, it's almost impossible to use this thing in the bright sunlight of midday.

However, submarines rely solely on periscopes to observe targets, and at that time, there was no low-light night vision technology. Not to mention such advanced technology, even the coating technology used to increase the light intake of periscopes was not feasible for that era. Therefore, if it really came to night, this submarine would encounter a new problem: if they did not surface, they would not be able to see where the enemy was at all.

Therefore, the submarine chose to attack the Britain fleet at dusk when the light was relatively dim, but not so dim that the periscope could not see anything.

This submarine carried a time bomb with a charge of 40 kilograms—the largest bomb this submarine could carry, as the magnets securing the bomb took up too much weight.

The submarine quickly submerged to the designated depth, then quietly raised its periscope, surveyed the surrounding area, and headed towards the Britain fleet.

The submarine was slowly approaching the Britain fleet's anchorage at a speed of just over two knots. Due to the poor lighting, the Britain lookouts failed to detect the approaching submarine.

The submarine slowly approached the Britain warships. In later times, if a submarine got this close, the rest would be simple—just launch torpedoes at stationary targets. As long as the torpedoes weren't the United States MK-14 developed in the 1930s, the Britain would be doomed.

But at that time, let alone torpedoes, even the pole-vaulted torpedo hadn't appeared yet. So the United States submarines couldn't launch an attack. They had to continue getting closer.

However, at this point, identifying the British Army warships was more important. The submarine only had one bomb, and the United States naturally hoped that the bomb would hit the largest possible target. So initially, the United States' target was the battleship Queen Elizabeth.

The target was relatively easy to find. The Queen Elizabeth was significantly larger than the other warships, so the United States spotted her quickly. However, she was surrounded by several Britain warships, so the United States submarine had to circle around for a while before it could get close.

It took another half hour or so for the "Turtle No. 2" submarine to finally emerge into the shadow of the "Queen Elizabeth".

At that moment, the sun was withdrawing its last rays of light. Then the entire sea surface fell into darkness.

The "Turtle No. 2" slowly surfaced near the "Queen Elizabeth". A man emerged from the open hatch, poked half his body out, and tore off a cover from a box-like object covering the submarine, exposing the magnets on the bombs. The man then made a final check of some targets, and the "Turtle No. 2" sank again.

Another hour later, the "Turtle No. 2" returned to the side of the France cruiser. By then, it was already dark. However, finding the France cruiser was much easier than finding the "Queen Elizabeth." Unlike the Britain, who enforced blackouts, the France warships would turn on all their identification lights at night. This seemed to be to avoid misunderstandings, but the Britain felt that the France were doing this to let others know that the Britain fleet was in the area.

On the side facing away from the Britain fleet, the Turtle No. 2 turned on its identification lights. The France cruiser lowered a hook. Two United States hooked the Turtle No. 2, and the wooden submarine was then retrieved back into the cruiser.

"Tony, how did it go?" a France officer asked a United States who was watching the other sailors stow away the submarine.

"Things went fairly smoothly. The time is set at 1 a. m., when everyone is sound asleep. Hopefully, our bombs will teach the Britain a lesson!" Tony replied through gritted teeth, gazing in the direction of the Britain fleet.

Time seemed to pass slowly. On the France cruiser, both United States and France stared wide-eyed at the Britain fleet.

"Damn it, it's only ten o'clock, but it feels like an eternity."

"Steve, don't worry, it's still early. If you can't wait, you can go take a nap first, and I'll wake you up later," Tony said with a smile to the other United States.

"I'm not sleepy, I can't sleep," Steve replied, staring wide-eyed at the Britain's direction, though it was pitch black there and nothing could be seen. Only the sound of the waves carried by the sea breeze reached the Daoists' ears.

"How much longer, Tony?" After what seemed like an eternity, Steve finally couldn't help but ask again.

"It's still early, hmm, it's 10:30 PM now. We've set our time until 1 AM. Hmm, how about we play a game of chess?"

The two men then set up a chessboard under the lamplight and began to play chess. Several France officers gathered around to offer advice.

However, Steve was distracted and made chaotic moves, so he was quickly checkmated.

"Damn it, today is not a good day for playing chess. How could I lose to you!"

"Not satisfied? Then let's have another round!"

"I'm not coming. My heart is pounding like a kitten. What am I supposed to do next? Um, Tony, what time is it?"

"What's the rush? It's only 10:40. You've only put up a few moves and you're already checkmated."

Just as the two were talking, an explosion suddenly came from afar. Then they saw all sorts of lights coming on from the Britain fleet, and searchlights shining wildly in all directions.

"What happened? How did it explode at this moment?" Tony was taken aback.

Steve immediately stood up and rushed to the ship's side, knocking over the chessboard and scattering the pieces all over the ground.

"How could this be? How could it explode now?"

"That's normal," a France officer nearby guessed. "Because the bomb had such a large magnet on it, that thing would affect the clock. There's a lot of steel inside the clock. Maybe that's why."

As they talked, everyone stared wide-eyed at the Britain. But it was nighttime, and even though the Britain had turned on all their lights, they couldn't clearly see the extent of Britain damage.

"I wonder how that old spinster is doing. If..."

The next morning, after sunrise, the situation disappointed both the France and the United States. The old maid, the Queen Elizabeth, remained afloat. However, upon closer inspection, they noticed that the Queen Elizabeth appeared to be listing slightly. The angle was small, probably no more than ten degrees.

After recalling the army troops that had landed the day before, the British Navy continued its northward journey, but at a noticeably slower pace, with the entire fleet slowing to around 4 knots. It seems that last night's explosions, while failing to sink the Virgin, still inflicted considerable damage.

The Britain fleet then made no further visits to any United States cities along the coast, instead heading directly to Halifax, Canada, where it remained for a considerable period. The France speculated that they were there attempting further repairs to the Queen Elizabeth.

"Halifax simply doesn't have the capacity to fully repair a warship like the Queen Elizabeth," Governor Marcel told Louis in New Orleans. "The Britain can at best reinforce the damaged parts and then rush it back to Britain. This means the pressure on the United States from the Britain fleet will soon be relieved. Naval supremacy will soon be back in United States hands."

"So, does that mean we don't necessarily need to prepare death row inmates?" Louis asked.

"If we want to inflict a heavy blow on Britain, then we need to. If we want Britain and the United States to continue to wear each other down, then we don't need to for now," said Governor Marcel. "However, I am worried that the United States might negotiate with the Britain."

This is indeed a danger. Although the United States have suffered losses and gained nothing, if the war continues, their losses could be even greater, potentially leading to total ruin. Therefore, if they are rational enough, they will indeed cut their losses and mitigate their losses.

Moreover, if the United States were smart enough, they should understand that the France interests in North America were not aligned with their United States. In the long run, the France might even be more dangerous than the Britain. Unless the United States were willing to abandon their ambitions for the so-called "City on the Hill" and obediently become appendages to France, the France and United States were not true allies. In such a situation, let alone cutting their losses, it was entirely possible that the United States would even align themselves with the Britain once they discovered the France were too powerful. It would be like Sun Shiwan, who had fought alongside Liu Bei against Cao Cao, suddenly stabbing Liu Bei in the back and becoming the King of Wu of Wei.

"Therefore, we absolutely cannot allow the United States to withdraw from the war at this time, much less allow them to collude with the Britain," Louis said. "Damn it, if Lucien were here, he would be the perfect person to do this. But since he's not here, we must take action ourselves. Hmm, Governor, we need to arrange for people to spread all sorts of rumors. Say that within the Federal Government, someone has taken money from the Britain and is preparing to betray the fallen heroes, make peace with the Britain, and sell out United States to Britain!"