"David Weber - In the Navy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weber David)

"Not really. Oh, our electronics division was one of the second-tier contractors on the Arleigh
Burke-class destroyers' radar systems," Simpson acknowledged. He didn't seem to wonder how it was
that Mike had acquired that particular bit of information, and Mike was just as happy he didn't. The
breach between John Simpson and his son Tom was a deep and apparently permanent one, and Mike
had no intention of admitting that he'd discussed this offer with his brother-in-law at some length before
approaching Tom's father.
"But that whole division was really outside our core petro-chemical business," the elder Simpson
continued, "and we didn't have anything to do with the hull or the engineering plant. And I damned sure
wasn't handling any of the engineering myself! I don't want there to be any misunderstanding on that.
Translating thisтАФ" he tapped the sketch lightly "тАФinto anything remotely resembling a practical warship
would require skills I haven't used since before I ever left the Navy."
"There's been a lot of that going around lately," Mike replied without cracking a smile, and Simpson
acknowledged the point with a grunt of sour amusement. He looked down at the sketch for several more
moments, lips pursed, then returned his gaze to Mike's face.
"How much authority and support would I have?" he asked.
"As much as I can give you." Mike shrugged. "I'm going to have problems with my own people if I
decide to push this one. Quentin Underwood is going to have three kinds of fits the instant he hears about
it, and some of the others aren't going to be far behind. Especially not when they find out how many
railroad rails we're going to be asking for! But that's not really the worst of it. What's really going to stick
in their craws is the impact this kind of diversion of effort will have on all our other projects."
"They'd better get used to it," Simpson said, and his dark eyes sharpened as if to impale Mike.
"And so had you."
"What does that mean?" Mike demanded, not quite able to prevent himself from bristling.
"I may not have the library your young Mr. Cantrell does, 'Mr. President,' but I've been something
of a student of military history in my time, myself." Simpson's smile was cold. "Do you know what
ultimately brought about the downfall of the Swedish Empire?"
"Gustav Adolf was killed," Mike replied.
"Yes, he was. But that wasn't what prevented the Swedes from making their empire stand up. His
generals, and especially Torstensson, Baner, and Oxenstierna, had learned their trade well enough to
take over from him. What they didn't have was the economy or the manpower to take on the rest of
Europe head-on. That was what really devastated Germany during the Thirty Years War. The only way
to raise the manpower the Swedes needed, especially when the French turned against them, was to hire
what amounted to mercenaries. And then they had to find a way to pay for them."
He shook his head.
"Don't misunderstand me. Gustavus Adolfus and Sweden probably went further than anyone else in
the seventeenth century in rationalizing their manpower resources and creating a standing army out of
their own population. But the problem was that Sweden simply didn't have the population density to
sustain armies of the size it needed. Just as it didn't have the tax base to create the revenues armies that
sizeтАФwhether raised out of its own population or by hiring mercenariesтАФdemanded."
He shrugged.
"So, ultimately, the only real option Sweden saw was to attempt to make war pay for itself by
plundering its enemies and extracting the necessary money in 'contributions' from the populations of the
territory it occupied. Unfortunately, it turned out that there was only so much blood in the turnip . . . and
it wasn't enough. Some historians still argue that the Swedish Empire really collapsed only when Charles
XII finally lost to Peter the Great, but the fact is that it was ultimately unsustainable simply because it
lacked the financial and population bases to support it, especially against the inevitable coalitions of
nations with larger populations and deeper pockets. And whatever else we may have changed by arriving
here, we haven't changed Sweden's demographics."
"I'm aware of that."
In the wrong tone, that sentence could have been dismissive, or a challenge, but it didn't come out