Chapter 241: The Miserable John Bull! Time to Pay Protection Money!

Although this person, the Secretary of Defense, was certainly destined to take the fall.

However, having him bear the blame alone was definitely not enough.

When, after more than half an hour, John Bull's firefighters and military arrived at the naval base, everyone was shocked.

The ground structures of the entire Portsmouth Harbor base looked as if they had been completely flattened by a bulldozer.

As far as the eye could see, everything was laid bare.

In many places, raging flames were still burning even now,

consisting of aircraft wreckage and remnants of base buildings.

Besides that, the ground everywhere was pitted and uneven,

with some areas shaved down by several meters, leaving craters several meters in diameter.

Black smoke rose from the ground in many spots.

Originally standing trees were either blasted into wood chips or burned into pitch-black charcoal.

Of course, the most miserable were those naval soldiers.

Scorched limbs and severed arms littered the ground everywhere; firefighters could even smell the scent of roasted meat in the air.

As for the few soldiers whose bodies remained intact by luck, they had long turned into charcoal.

Yet the agonized, grotesque expression of death remained frozen on their faces.

Many firefighters and soldiers vomited upon witnessing this scene.

Looking out at the sea surface, essentially every vessel that could be sunk had sunk.

The few small ships remaining were merely the lucky ones.

It could be said that John Bull had suffered a catastrophic disaster this time.

This naval port had been permanently garrisoned by over 6,000 personnel.

However, statistics from this bombing raid revealed 3,421 dead, 896 missing, and 1,013 injured.

This base was essentially a place where everyone bore wounds.

Other losses included one aircraft carrier and 48 various types of naval vessels.

Investigations revealed that some of the missing were trapped inside sunken ships, unable to escape.

The rest were blown into fragmented pieces by heavy bombs, rendering identification impossible.

Following the investigation, the John Bull government issued an unprecedentedly harsh condemnation against the DWS Platform.

Furthermore, they declared they would definitely locate the mastermind behind the platform and bring them to justice.

Additionally, the John Bull government lodged its most severe protest against the Dragon Nation.

Although there was no evidence proving the DWS Platform was backed by the Dragon Nation.

At least based on current evidence, the other party definitely had connections to the Dragon Nation, thus imposing joint liability upon the Dragon Nation.

In response, the Dragon Nation's spokesperson expressed sympathy regarding the incident at the Portsmouth naval base.

They offered condolences for the deceased.

However, regarding the claim of joint liability, the Dragon Nation's spokesperson naturally refused to acknowledge it.

Besides John Bull, the Ugly Nation, whose embassy had been bombed, could be said to have lost all face.

Their own embassy had actually been razed to the ground by others.

Casualties exceeded thirty people.

It could be said that this death toll was equivalent to ten times that of the Dragon Nation's incident back then.

Moreover, the political significance of this matter was far from trivial.

People worldwide witnessed that even a power as mighty as the Ugly Nation found itself utterly helpless against the DWS Platform.

What drew even more criticism from the people of John Bull regarding this attack was.

The Ugly Nation's air force stationed in John Bull had not moved a single inch.

Many people of John Bull who later learned the situation immediately held protest marches.

They unanimously condemned such selfish behavior by the Ugly Nation.

However, the Ugly Nation had its own explanation, stating that the fighter jets at that air base were all old models.

They were fundamentally incapable of countering the latest stealth fighter models of the DWS Platform.

Even if dispatched reluctantly, it would have been a futile effort.

Yet many people of John Bull did not accept this explanation from the Ugly Nation.

After all, during the previous incident in Syria, the Ugly Nation had already set a precedent of abandoning John Bull without providing rescue.

The recurrence of such an event this time created a rift between the two nations.

However, surprisingly.

Including both the Ugly Nation and John Bull, apart from fierce protests after this incident.

Everything else was unusually quiet.

At the very least, the Ugly Nation had not for a long time rallied allies to conduct military exercises near the Dragon Nation's waters.

In reality, did the Ugly Nation not want to hold military exercises?

Of course not; the true reason they ceased exercises was their fear that the DWS Platform would appear during them.

By then, their surface vessels would suffer attacks.

Looking at the current miserable state of John Bull revealed just how apprehensive the Ugly Nation truly was.

Their level of concern regarding the DWS Platform far surpassed their fear of the Dragon Nation itself.

Because the Dragon Nation followed rules; generally, as long as they did not enter Dragon Nation waters, nothing happened.

But what about the DWS Platform? They truly dared to act; they were definitely not just bluffing.

If they happened to deem your military exercises an obstruction, they might directly dispatch numerous stealth fighters.

Relying solely on the current Ugly Nation navy, they would be unable to withstand such an assault.

Therefore, matters concerning Ugly military exercises had long since come to a halt.

Thus, the Dragon Nation had originally braced itself for a storm of repercussions due to this incident.

But as it turned out, apart from protests, neither the Ugly Nation nor John Bull took any actual action.

This struck many people in the Dragon Nation as astonishing.

In the past, it was always the Ugly Nation provoking and the Dragon Nation protesting.

Now, however, it had become the Ugly Nation protesting.

As for provocation, the Dragon Nation never felt it had engaged in any provocative behavior.

After all, they had done absolutely nothing.

However, in the eyes of nations worldwide, the situation appeared entirely different.

Regardless of whether the DWS Platform was backed by the Dragon Nation.

Even if it was not, the existence of such a pro-Dragon Nation entity with overwhelming military strength, capable of grinding both John Bull and the Ugly Nation into the dust.

An existence that even made the Ugly Nation dare not look eastward.

Most terrifying of all, this entity also possesses the ability to sell every kind of weapon in the world.

This filled the hearts of all nations with fear.

In contrast to Dragon Country, which reasons and takes responsibility,

the DWS Platform is the complete opposite; merely because of a single statement from the John Bull Defense Minister,

they dared to send the entire John Bull Navy straight to the bottom of the sea.

Who wouldn't fear such madmen?

After all, John Bull is one of the five great ruffians; although its strength has waned,

it still far exceeds that of many other nations.

Since the DWS Platform dared to brutally beat John Bull, it naturally dares to brutally beat them as well.

Therefore, immediately after this incident, some nations began their journeys to visit Dragon Country.

It was essentially like paying respects at the boss's doorstep.

Within a short time, the Imperial Capital received applications from over ten heads of state clustering together to visit Dragon Country.

One could say that apart from major international conferences, this would generally never happen.

And this confirms a certain saying:

Status in this world is fought for, not blown out of proportion by mere words.

It was precisely because of these tangible combat records that these nations began to trim their sails to the wind.

Thus, during this period, the Great Leader of Dragon Country was exceedingly busy,

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needing to constantly receive heads of state from various nations.

Among them, Old Sand Country prepared a procurement list worth five billion US dollars for Dragon Country.

Furthermore, its king, Old Salman, highly praised the traditional friendship between the two nations,

noting that a few missiles from Dragon Country back in the day had kept Old Salman secure for so many years.

Meanwhile, Prince Little Salman, who accompanied him, toured some welfare facilities in the Imperial Capital

and donated one hundred million US dollars to Dragon Country's charitable organizations.

He also donated a total of five hundred million US dollars to Tsinghua and Yan University, establishing the Dragon-Sand Special Award Fund.

One could say that Old Sand Country demonstrated more than enough sincerity this time.

Stimulated by such a massive military order, the military side was smiling so hard their mouths couldn't close.

Even the Great Leader was extremely happy upon hearing the news.

This might be the largest arms order Dragon Country has received since the emergence of the DWS Platform.

This ensures that this year's export figures for the military industrial units won't be too embarrassing.