The Yellow Dragon Flag fluttered in the sea and air, and in addition to a tiger-headed naval flag, it was accompanied by seagulls flying high around the warship. Under the military flag, on the bridge resembling a Japanese-style pagoda, stood several lookouts in white naval uniforms, and in the sunlight, the binoculars in their hands flashed a little reflection, as if they were looking in their own direction - this was the outermost Song-class destroyer of the aircraft carrier formation, and the standard displacement of 2,000 metric tons seemed to be one size larger than the Clemson-class.

After looking over this destroyer, he could only see a Hongyuan-class heavy cruiser, as for the aircraft carrier, he didn't even see a shadow, there was only an endless white wake on the azure jewel-like sea, and the shadow of the aircraft carrier could not be found at all; In the air, the Curtiss SOC-1 Seagull biplane seaplane, which was just equipped last year, was being intercepted and teased by a new monoplane of the Chinese Navy. It's a frustrating situation, especially in the hot and humid climate of the South Pacific, where the newly equipped planes are behind their opponents, and the bureaucrats at the Naval Ordnance Bureau should all be dragged out and shot.

"Damn, they're going back." On the bridge of the cruiser, Second Lieutenant Edwards, who had cursed the bureaucracy in his heart, said loudly. Although this large area of the Navy is the sphere of influence of the Japanese Navy, according to international law and some potential practice, the U.S. Navy will always send ships to follow the Sino-Japanese fleet exercises from afar, and of course the Japanese will do the same, as long as the exercise is west of Midway.

"What are the Chinese doing? Are they going back? "Rear Admiral Bloch on the heavy cruiser also lowered his binoculars. Since the arrival of the Chinese Navy in the Trik Islands, the U.S. Navy across the western Pacific has been on alert, and while the Chinese government has previously claimed that it was a routine exercise, no one knows exactly what the yellow-skinned monkeys are up to. That's why the second ship of the Asian Fleet was sent here.

"Yes. Checkmate. "Captain Brooks, the captain of the USS Houston, he was so sweaty that his uniform was wet and sticking to his body." Judging by the direction, they should be going back. After he finished speaking, he looked back at the same decadent sailors on the ship, and said, "General, if there are no other ships." I think we're going to lose them - our destroyers are going to run out of gas. ”

Colonel Brooks reported the news that made the major general unhappy, although the Clemson-class destroyer had 35 percent more fuel than the Vickers-class, it was after all a destroyer built at the end of the war in Europe, and it was more than a thousand nautical miles from the Philippines.

"Nope! We can let the destroyer return first. "Rear Admiral Bloch is a Jew, and he knows very well the minds of the colonels and sailors, and monitoring the Chinese aircraft carrier formation is indeed a chore, and the climate in the South Pacific at this time is very uncomfortable. Especially in the drenching spring weather, the interior of the ship was extremely wet, the steel plates of the mine protection shell were covered with salt grains, and the distilled water formed by the heat was everywhere, and the six-hundred-foot-long warship had been turned into a hammam.

"The Houston will continue westward, and I will report back to General Merfin at once to get the supply ships in order." Major General added.

Rear Admiral Bloch was honest at the mention of Vice Admiral Orin Gul Murfen, commander of the Asian Fleet, Colonel Brooks, and other staff officers who listened to his answer, as we all know. The lieutenant general was not very good-tempered, but he was unusually enthusiastic about this follow-up. If it weren't for his inconvenience, it would not be the Houston that would be being monitored here, but the Augusta, the flagship of the Asian fleet.

"Children, go west, follow the Chinese!" Major General Bloch went down to deliver the order, and he swore to follow him to the end this time.

The movements of the U.S. fleet were soon reported to the Changning aircraft carrier, the flagship of the Chinese Navy's aircraft carrier formation. Although this armored aircraft carrier built by a long-term Japanese shipyard in the sixth year of Jimmu has been in service for nearly twenty years, she is still light and strong, except that the main engine flutters a little heavier than in earlier years.

However, this kind of telepathy-like thing can only be discovered by the commander of the fleet, Admiral Zhu Tiansen, and Baron Suzuki Kantaro and Vice Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, who were specially invited for this exercise, do not know about it. In their eyes. The fact that this nearly 20-year-old aircraft carrier has been able to maintain its current condition has surpassed the level of the Japanese Navy.

"Your Excellency, the United States Navy is still following us......" Seeing that Admiral Zhu Tiansen did not react, Yamamoto Fifty-six, who could not be idle, smiled and began to chat. At the same time, he was called **** by the anti-treaty faction and radical people in the military because he expressed support for the continuation of the 10:6 ratio of capital ships in the Washington Naval Treaty at the naval disarmament preparatory meeting held in London last year.

"They used to be like that?" Admiral Zhu Tiansen has rarely dealt with the US Navy in such a way, and he has not come to this sea area much.

"Yes, this has become the practice of the navies of both sides." Since the Japanese Navy's air carrier unit was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Chinese Navy in the 19th year of Shenmu, only the combined fleet of battleships remained in the Philippine Sea. This was a major event that changed the Japanese Navy, and although there were many people in the military who opposed it, even the most fierce officers kept silent when it came to the eight million tons of oil.

"In the thirteenth year of Taisho...... Yamamoto fifty-six felt wrong as soon as the word 'Taisho' came out, and he changed his words: "Twelve years ago, my country exercised in the Mariana Islands, and the United States sent a large number of ships to monitor it. Your Excellency's fleet has been operating in the waters of the North Pacific, so it knows very little about the South Pacific. ”

Yamamoto's words seemed to have the flavor of exhortation, but Admiral Zhu Tiansen did not know about this, and it was a rule set by the prime minister that the aircraft carrier formation could only exercise in the waters around Japan in the North Pacific, in order to prevent the British and Americans from understanding the actual situation of fleet training.

"We'll be able to get rid of them at night." Admiral Zhu Tiansen said lightly. The other side is a Northampton-class treaty cruiser with a fuel capacity of 1,400 tons and a cruising range of 10,000 nautical miles. However, it and the destroyers had been carried around the South Pacific several times by themselves, and with the supply of tankers arranged in advance, it could not keep up far.

After talking about the annoying American cruiser, the admiral turned the subject back to the previous - just now they were discussing the renewal of the Washington Naval Treaty, whether it was him, Yamamoto Isoroku, or Suzuki Kantaro. All three were actively in favor of renewing the Washington Treaty with Britain and the United States, and were extremely uneasy about the atmosphere in the Japanese military.

"Your Excellency, please refrain from going to Japan after the exercise." Yamamoto Fifty-six said sincerely, and in Zhu Tiansen's doubts, he said again: "I believe that this exercise must be a victory for your side, and this victory will make those anti-treaty factions schizophrenic." They are likely to be angry with your country, like ...... Just like that incident six years ago. ”

Admiral Zhu Tiansen was still smiling. But as soon as he talked about the events of six years ago, his smile froze. Six years ago, the December 15th Anniversary Incident shocked the world. The junior officers of the navy, who had been dismissed for the implementation of the London Naval Disarmament Treaty, staged a coup d'état together with sailors, killing the prime minister, the minister of the Imperial Household, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of the Interior, President Mitsui, and more than a dozen other people, including Charlie Chaplin, a well-known American movie star.

Although these murderers were severely punished afterwards, the hostility between Japan and the United States, and even between China and the United States has increased greatly - in the second half of that year, the pound gave up the gold standard and put the yen in an extremely embarrassing situation.

Japanese killing Japanese is a family affair. But the murderer also killed the internationally renowned movie star Charlie Chaplin, which is an international case, which can't help but remind people of the Chinese boxing rebellion in 1900, Japan is very passive in international public opinion, and she began to be denounced as a barbaric country by the civilized world; At the same time, more than a dozen murderers denounced the chaebol bureaucracy for betraying the country at a public trial, believing that they were undermining the sacred China-Japan-DPRK Greater East Asia Alliance for their own selfish interests. Therefore, this matter has been distorted by some newspapers in the United States to say that 'there are Chinese forces' involved, and it is because Chinese and American newspapers have fought a war of words across the Pacific Ocean for more than half a year. Coupled with the increasingly vicious tariff war, the relationship between Japan and the United States and China and the United States has begun to take a turning point.

Admiral Zhu Tiansen's stiff smile was seen by Kantaro Suzuki. He said: "Your Excellency, don't worry about this, all news of this exercise will be blocked from the people, and the combined fleet will be forbidden to go out after returning to the military port until everyone is calm." ”

Suzuki was the chief chamberlain of the Imperial Household Province, and the reason why he became the chief chamberlain. It was because his wife was the emperor's childhood nurse. Before becoming the chief attendant, he was a naval admiral, and the most commendable thing in his military career was that during the Sino-Japanese War, he led a torpedo boat to rush into the Weihaiwei anchorage, and the torpedo fired by the No. 9 boat hit Dingyuan, and finally forced Dingyuan to run aground in the shallows on the south coast of Liugong Island. This time, he was invited. Because he is equivalent to the personal representative of the emperor.

"Your Excellency, please don't bother so much, your soldiers are extremely friendly to us." Admiral Zhu Tiansen smiled again, he was not worried about his own safety, he was worried about the Japanese Navy, which was a very bad thing, and he was afraid that this disease would spread from the Japanese Navy to the Chinese Navy.

"If I'm worried, I'm really worried about the London Navy negotiations in the second half of the year." Admiral Zhu Tiansen had wanted to talk about this matter for a long time, and he hoped that Baron Suzuki Kantaro would fully express this to the emperor. "Neither of our two countries nor the DPRK is an opponent of the United States in terms of industry, but the war is fought against industry. Even if we can get a tactical lead over the United States for a while, this lead will soon be learned by our opponents, and it will be nothing more than a minor nuisance for them. If you give us another 10 years, a lot of things can ......."

The general was a die-hard believer in Yang Rui's concept of war, and China did not suffer major losses in the economic crisis a few years ago, and in the third year of the crisis, the national economy changed its downward trend and achieved economic growth of 5 percent. By the 21st year of Shenwu, the completion of the national transportation network and communication network had dissolved the originally separated local markets into a whole national market, and from an economic point of view, China at this time was a complete China, although the per capita GNP still did not exceed 100 yuan, but the strong demand of the market composed of a huge population made East Asia appear incredibly prosperous.

Even the most short-sighted foreign economists have to admit that in the next 30 years, China will replace the United States as the world's largest market. It is precisely because of the vigorous development of the economy that Admiral Zhu Tiansen will feel the importance of time. However, he did not participate in the preparatory meeting for naval disarmament held in London last year, and he may not know all about it.

"Your Excellency, this year's negotiations will be very difficult, and there is little chance of reaching a treaty." Vice Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku was a casual man, but when he mentioned the London naval disarmament talks, his eyebrows were twisted into an inverted figure. Secretary of State Hull believes that the premise of the negotiations is the end of the trilateral alliance between China, Japan and North Korea, without which the negotiations will be unnecessary. Roosevelt, the commander of the National People's Congress, was born in the Navy, and the Vincennes Act passed the year before last was already putting pressure on us, and this year's second Vincennes Act ......"

After the resignation of the 32nd President of the United States, the Republican Party, which had been in power for 12 years, completely retreated into the background, and the new president was Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Democratic president and former governor of New York. As soon as he took office, he implemented the New Deal, and under the package of the Industrial Recovery Act, the U.S. Navy, which had been with little funding for a long time, received $650 million in shipbuilding funds, which would be used for the remaining 60,000 tons of aircraft carrier tonnage, 120,000 tons of cruiser tonnage, and the construction of all destroyers and submarines in the treaty.

At the same time, US newspapers also published some contents of the Second Vincennes Naval Act, not to mention that eight aircraft carriers alone would be built in one go. This is obviously a political tactic: to pressure China and Japan to carry out the second London naval disarmament talks, and the most important thing is to achieve the premise of the negotiations - to dismantle the China-Japan-DPRK Triple Alliance.

"Perhaps......" Admiral Zhu Tiansen suppressed his bad thoughts and tried his best to make the atmosphere more relaxed, but before he could finish speaking, he heard a dull explosion and some noise. What's going on? He turned his head and asked the adjutant solemnly, estimating from his experience that it was possible that his own fighter plane had crashed into the sea in an accident.

"Commander of the newspaper, the US water reconnaissance plane has just been shot down by our fighters!" Unlike those who sat down, the adjutant kept staring out of the porthole, and the clumsy US Seagull water reconnaissance plane actually tried to force its way into the airspace over the fleet, and its own fighter plane immediately opened fire to warn it, so as to avoid the US plane's fuel tank being hit, and then the matter became tragic. (To be continued.) )