Chapter 486: Robbing Gold Again

"Oh my God, that's a battleship!" The pipe from the mouth of Henry, the first mate on the Revenge, rolled straight down to the deck at that moment.

The surprise of the sailor next to him also made him just point to the front with his finger, ahhh

The surrounding fog was almost like entering the territory of the Siren, and when the fleet was cautiously navigating, a behemoth suddenly sprang out of the thick fog.

Admiral Archer, who heard the news, was holding the telescope with a little trembling at this time.

"Oh my God! It's Queen Mary! He suddenly recognized that the huge figure emerging from the fog was a Queen Maria-class battleship. The battleship, which had been silent for a long time after the First World War, suddenly appeared in front of his eyes, billowing black smoke like a nightmare that had just crawled out of the cracks of memory.

The Russians built three Empress Maria-class battleships, but they have long since disappeared.

Among them, the Empress Maria was sunk during the First World War in 16, but it was salvaged after the war and is said to have been demolished. Catherine the Great was ordered to sink herself in 18 years when Germany and Turkey issued an ultimatum to their Black Sea Fleet after the Red Russian Revolution. Alexander III was given to the leader of the White Russian rebels by Britain and France, and Archer was personally involved in this matter. After the defeat of Belarus, the battleship retreated to the great port of competition in Tunisia, where it was moored in the wind and sun for more than ten years. It is said that the French demolished it in 36.

It stands to reason that all three ships should have disappeared, but which one is this in front of you?

The battleship in front of him was a little different, but it was definitely a shadow of the Queen Maria-class battleship. Archer, who thinks he is not old and has thick eyes, feels like his heart is being grabbed by a demon, and there are too many legends in this sea.

Since their departure, they have faced a lot of difficulties. Halfway through the road, I encountered a heavy fog. The Bartole had to slow down because of engine failure. In order not to be surprised, Archer left the Bonnaventure cruiser to take care of it, and formed a separate team with it.

Not long after they separated, their team encountered the shadow of the Queen Maria-class battleship.

The fog still didn't lift, but no amount of weapons could stop the cannonballs. The target was not the Revenge, but the three destroyers. Such an old-fashioned battleship shot so accurately that after a salvo, a destroyer was sunk.

"Watch out underwater!" When the sound of artillery pierced the eerie fog, Admiral Archer quickly came to his senses. As long as it's not a ghost ship, that unknown opponent must have a backmove. There was no other figure behind the fog, but there was certainly a murderous motive underwater.

But it was too late for him to speak, and a dozen water marks were already looming, attacking the destroyer and the battleship Revenge.

Frontal battleships only attracted, and torpedo attacks were the main thing.

"There are submarines!" The boat was rushing. Even in the thick fog, the black shadow of the submarine can be seen like the back of a shark.

The battleship Revenge tried its best to dodge, but the slow speed due to the fog could not avoid so many torpedo attacks, and these torpedoes were not ordinary World War II torpedoes, and the performance of the post-World War II exchange for Meng Xiang's high price was even better. The Vengeance was the first to be hit, with two shots in the body, and a shocking bang. A destroyer not far away was also hit by a torpedo and immediately disintegrated and sank.

Although the Revenge was a battleship of World War I, the sealed capsule was still reliable, and the two torpedoes that did not hit the vital point had not yet allowed it to sink directly.

"Cover the evacuation of the Bermuda Monarch and the Sobesky together!" Admiral Archer immediately ordered. At this time, the strength of the enemy and the enemy was obvious, and a battleship and a dozen submarines were not something that one battleship and one destroyer could resist. The Bermuda Monarch and the Sobesky, two steamers that were only liners, could only play soy sauce, and besides, the potential opponent in the shadows was just a battleship, without a cruiser and destroyer escort, so appeared?

He had no choice but to evacuate. The speed of the submarine is also a little slow compared to the cargo ship, as if the speed of the Queen Maria-class battleship is only 21 knots, which is not very fast. Even the Revenge is only the fastest speed, but as long as it gets rid of those submarines, it is possible to block the opponent and escape.

But with a loud bang, the Vengeance slowed down somewhat.

"Let's go see what's going on?" Archer asked, glaring, and years of experience had told him that the Vengeance had not only slowed down, but that something must have gone terribly. Sure enough, it didn't take long for a piece of news to come from below, like a thunderbolt from the blue, destroying all his hopes.

"What? Three boilers exploded? Problems with both steam engines? Oh! My God! He didn't know that one of Meng Xiang's spies lurking in took advantage of the chaos to use sabotage methods, but he knew that he was completely hopeless.

The Revenge, which had slowed down, could no longer escape the pursuit of the wolves in the sea.

"The other side gave a signal to us to surrender!" Adjutant Paulie said cautiously, "They said that if we surrendered, they would treat us like a gentleman." They only want the goods. ”

For this group of people of unknown origin, it is difficult for Archer to believe that they are trustworthy. But when he hesitated, the last destroyer was hit by a second round of torpedo attacks, and several submarines were aimed at a small destroyer that was difficult to dodge. The sound of soldiers who had fallen into the water, still floating on the sea, shouting for help, finally made up his mind.

"Surrender!" His trembling lips struggled to spit out the two words.

To Archer's relief, the unknown robbers did not bother them, leaving them with the Bermuda Monarch liner and allowing them to rescue the soldiers who had fallen overboard.

They were also machine-gun and gun-pointed, and with the gold and securities on the Bermuda Monarch liner, they were transferred to the Queen Maria-class battleship.

The communicator on the Bermuda Monarch was cut off by her opponents, and the contact in the previous battle was interrupted for unknown reasons. They came across a British merchant ship a day later on the Bermuda Monarch, which had lost half of its power, and only contacted the anxious Englishmen who were waiting for them to inform them of the hijacking.

At the same time, it was also known that the other team of Bonaventure cruisers had also received the news of robbery. They encountered a sneak attack by a submarine, the destroyer that accompanied them was sunk, the cruiser Bonaventure resisted and was seriously damaged, and the gold and claims it carried on it were transferred and then torpedoed and sunk again. They just ended up floating at sea on the Bartole, which lost power.

The British cast a wide net to search for the missing ships. But there is no news of anything other than the passing merchant ships that have been seen in a sea area not far away.

"Did they sink the ship into the sea?" Archer, who was frustrated and waiting for news, had such a thought in his mind, compared to the looted $1.7 billion in wealth, neither the Vengeance nor the Queen Mary class were worth mentioning. Thinking of their submarines, this one could be getting bigger.

As he guessed, both battleships were sunk to the bottom of the sea by Meng Xiang. Although it is difficult to find ships in the vast sea, it is also a huge target, and the chance of being discovered by planes and passing ships is still relatively large, and he cannot predict all kinds of changes once exposed.

This robbery was planned by him for a long time, and in order to keep it secret, this operation was all clones, with a total of more than 4,000 people, and even more than 60 spies.

The submarine even dispatched the latest I submarine to ensure the success rate, and of course, there are several shadows of post-war Soviet and Russian submarines to confuse the public.

Even the Queen Maria-class battleship came to confuse the public, worried that the combat effectiveness of the submarine was insufficient, Meng Xiang began to arrange this battleship early. As soon as the sub-base in Greenland was established, the production of this battleship began, and after improving the production efficiency, it was produced in a hurry.

Soviet Russia has too many secrets and too little communication with the West, so it is a good object to carry the black pot. In addition, the French are also suspicious, and the color and language of the white people revealed from time to time will not make people think that it was the Chinese who did it. Anyway, the battleships of World War I were the price of cabbage, which was less than a fraction of the loot this time. This made Meng Xiang unceremonious when he sank the ship. It was only after dismantling several radars that were installed later, after eliminating part of the traces, that it sank directly into the deep sea.

The Revenge was captured, and Meng Xiang didn't take such a battleship in his eyes, and it sank early.

The cargo was transferred to the cows that followed, and sailed directly from the sea to Greenland.

"One of their submarines was sunk on the spot, several were damaged, there must be some clues, right?" Someone asked.

"The place where that submarine sank is at least four thousand feet deep, who can dive that deep to find those clues?" This decision was immediately overruled. If it was peacetime, it might be possible to try as best as you can, but this is not possible. And the destroyer that sank with a torpedo in its body was also unable to detect relevant traces because it sank into the deep sea.

When choosing the location, Meng Xiang was also worried about leaving clues and being salvaged and discovered, so he chose the deep sea. As for the ocean, many shipwrecks in later generations are difficult to salvage at a distance of several hundred meters, let alone now. Even if the time comes, the British can salvage, Meng Xiang can be sure to reach the bottom of the sea before them. Similarly, even if the gold sank to the bottom of the sea, Meng Xiang was sure that he would catch it up first in the future.

There were not many clues, and the British could only start from the existing clues to find them. The spearhead was pointed at Soviet Russia, but Soviet Russia resolutely denied it.

Just like the French came to the door that time, Stalin also felt depressed, who did good deeds without leaving a name, robbed the wealth of imperialism, did not help the poor, but let Soviet Russia bear the blame? No one believes in the explanations of the Russians, and some things between countries are not clear, not to mention that the ideology of Soviet Russia is still different.

The British were also suspicious of umbrella or copycat companies, and they may also have the strength to come up with twenty or thirty submarines in one go, and it is not uncommon to come up with battleships. However, there is no evidence, and it is difficult to determine directly, but it is just a side knock. Thankfully, the clones are all stylized poker faces, and they don't show any flaws.

And the operations along the way are handled by bases and clones, whether it is supplies and personnel, etc., there are no conspicuous loopholes, even the Queen Maria-class battleships use radar to sneak in the dark night, leaving few clues for outsiders.

The Germans and Americans were also suspected, and those who had these strengths were among the doubts of the British, but without evidence, in the end this matter could only be a headless case and sink in the fog of history.

The news of this robbery was spread, and the Germans learned of the British's plan to transfer their wealth, and they couldn't help but blush. Who wouldn't be jealous of grabbing a ship for hundreds of millions of dollars? In addition to the Germans, there were also other unknown ships that took advantage of the fire to find out the news, and for a while there were countless hungry wolves in the Atlantic, and they began to wander around.

At this time, Meng Xiang was silent and no longer moved. After several robberies in a row, there are already three billion dollars of wealth in hand. Excluding the bonds and jewels that are difficult to sell, more than $2 billion in gold has been snatched just three times. If these are issued as reserves, the currency can be multiplied several times.

"O gold!" After Meng Xiang heard these news, he didn't laugh wildly again, the last time he had already experienced the impact of thousands of tons of dazzling gold on his soul, although this time it was still a huge harvest, he hadn't seen the real thing, and it just made Meng Xiang excited.

Although I have a sense of fulfillment with thousands of tons of gold in my heart, there are still many problems that need to be solved. Gold is just an equivalent exchange, it is not food, it is not cannon, it is not a machine, it is not land, it is not loyalty, although gold can be exchanged for many things, there are also some things that cannot be exchanged directly. It is just a stepping stone to civilization.

The road to a strong country does not depend on the amount of gold and silver, otherwise Spain would not have declined back then, and China's gold and silver would not be less than that of Japan, but it was still repeatedly humiliated.

"There's a long way to go!" Meng Xiang stood up, looking at the smoke rising from the factory in the distance, and sighed deeply.

At this time, there was not much industry, and Meng Xiang could not emphasize the matter of air pollution. At this time, the smoke emitted by the whole country of China is not as much as the smoke emitted by a state in the United States. What needs to be done here is not governance, but construction.

Only when the steel skeleton of industry is erected everywhere will the atmosphere of a great country bloom on the top of the world.

After all, robbery is extraneous and cannot last, let alone put the cart before the horse, and put all your thoughts on it. After all, the value of industrial output is higher than the extra money of robbery. If nothing else, Meng Xiang's two major arms companies alone have more income than robbery. Even those light industries are a big income.

After the start of the European war, whether it was food or resources, the price was rising. Factories began to serve the army, and workers began to go to the front, which naturally increased the prices of some civilian products. The low price and good quality of Huaxia light industry are highlighted, especially the products from the vanguard army.

Since 38 years, the Vanguard has been purchasing German machinery and equipment to perfect light industry. After more than two years of development, a large number of skilled workers have been trained, and the output has increased dramatically. Although the market in the joint theater is not small, it is still much worse than the consumption in Europe. At that time, some people also advised Meng Xiang not to invest in so many factories, but when the European war broke out, Meng Xiang's "foresight" was revealed.

Orders from abroad immediately became the lubricant that kept the machines running at full speed, and it was not enough for the factories of heavy industry to satisfy themselves, but the huge output of the factories of light industry was extended to the continent along the huge waves of the ships, in exchange for a large amount of gold coins.

The tens of millions of armies in Europe are forming a consumption vortex all the time, involving the industrial products of human civilization, even if it is clothing, food, housing and transportation. The logistics of the army is also definitely not weapons and ammunition.

This huge consumption flow is not only the army, but also the destruction and impact of the war, and after the fighting on the sea, it has also made many of the people's daily consumption a luxury.

The most typical are the British, who have been in place since last year. At the beginning of this year, the British introduced a rationing system. But after German submarines cut off their lifeline, they faced an even tougher test than history.

Meng Xiang had already scavenged some of the grain in the market through shadow companies or spies before the war, and secretly hoarded it. Although the accumulated food is not a lot for the British, it also has a little impact.

Of course, these could not shake the fundamentals of the British, but they became the best bargaining chips for Meng to enjoy in exchange for other things. When some Brits queue up to buy bread and still can't get enough to eat, a piece of bread is worth more than anything else.

Although Meng Xiang didn't like to use this way to stifle the child's smiling face, he needed to use this way to exchange for those cultural relics in Huaxia.

In those years, Britain, France and other countries burned, killed and looted in China, and took away so many cultural relics. Later, he took advantage of the chaos and civil destruction of the Chinese country to forcibly seize more. These things may be just an ornament and a rare thing in the eyes of foreigners, but in the museums of China, it is a real history that can tell future generations that the glorious civilization created by the ancestors is a unique continuation of the Chinese civilization.

When the history books have been smeared with the blood of the victors, they have covered the vicissitudes of life that have been steamed in the purgatory of time and space, but those cultural relics always retain a brand of the times and tell future generations.

It's something from Huaxia, and we will always get it back, but it's definitely not a ransom to buy it back like a big wrong. Even if it is a price, it is a greater price for the other party.

In a time when life was stressful in the British, a few loaves of bread could be exchanged for an inconspicuous artifact. Their ancestors had been robbers, but they didn't have much insight into these artifacts. The British aristocracy also had times when the cultural relics were not what they needed, and survival was what they needed most. Far more rigorous than history, it has made many people taste the taste of hunger.

Moreover, Meng Xiang did not expect to replace it with grain, and many light industrial products in China were bestsellers.

"Tom, you see, a Chinese scripture can be exchanged for a new shirt." Mary smiled and raised one of the shirts in his hand, "How's it for you?" ”

"Where's Old William?" Tom said with a frown.

"Yes, he had everything there, and I even saw stockings! Tom, my stockings have two big holes. Mary's gray eyes blinked, and there was a hint of supplication in the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes.

"Socks?" Tom's brow furrowed even tighter. After the government announced on June 1 that the purchase of fabrics also required coupons, the consumption of fabrics was also somewhat difficult, each person can only get 66 pieces a year, and a shirt needs 7 pieces, a pair of socks needs 4 pieces, a pair of socks needs 8 pieces.

Several pairs of his socks were rotten and had a hole, and he kept trying to replace them.

"Old William's tea is also very cheap!" Mary blinked at him again and said, "There are still a lot of sweets and fruits, and we can surprise our precious son on his birthday." ”

Some of the supplies of the British were not so tight at this time, but in order to make overall arrangements, they still created some atmosphere of shortage. For example, the British government is announcing the activity of making airplanes in a stew pot at this time, encouraging people to donate their aluminum pots at home to make airplanes, but in fact, they are not short of aluminum at this time, which is just a way to unite people's hearts.

But there are some things that are lacking. For example, tea, sweets, butter and coffee were given priority to the army, so that the civilian supply gradually decreased. These could not be left in place for long, and the external sources were cut off, so that at some point in the future they would even be cut off.

But this did not affect Meng Xiang's transportation, the banner of the vanguard army would not be attacked by German submarines, and when carrying goods to the Germans, some were carried with them, plus the cows traveled thousands of miles, enough to open a black market.

And these black markets can also be exchanged for a lot of good things in the management of the British government turning a blind eye. In particular, the old William dressed as a spy still exists in the form of a pawnshop.

"I remember my grandfather seemed to have a pair of Chinese vases and an Egyptian metal statue there, try to see if you can get something!" Tom finally couldn't resist Mary's eyes, and said helplessly.

"Great!" Mary smiled and offered a fragrant kiss.