The September autumn breeze blew on the Travi River, and the ripples crashed against the Nautilus minelayer, turning into a little spray and disappearing into the extremely wide river. Standing in the captain's room, Christian could see the wasteland on the banks of the river and the forest at the end of the wasteland, there was no town at all, if he didn't know that it was on the Telavi River at this time, and the port of Lübeck in front of him was in northern Germany, he thought that the German major next to him would take himself to a place where no one was and do it, and then embezzle the food of the fleet behind him.

"Your Excellency, there's a harbor ahead." The Navy Lieutenant next to him prompted. "Although the other ports are ......," the Major did not know how to describe what had happened in Wilhelmshaven and Kiel, so he skimmed over it and said flatteringly, "Your Excellency, it is very safe here, and you and your fleet will receive the most enthusiastic cheers from the citizens." ”

"Of course!" Christian. The Count of Brück nodded proudly, and then he glanced at the Soviet fleet following behind him, omitting the nasty name of the ship, the two square words "CIMC" on the twenty-ton containers piled up on the cargo ship glittered in the autumn sun, and six 4,000-ton Red Russian merchant ships loaded with more than 20,000 tons of flour, cured meat, and fat. They traveled from China, across Russia, and then to the sea in Petersburg, where they arrived. Although the journey of more than 10,000 kilometers is far away, it has finally arrived.

"Major, do you have anyone familiar with you in the harbor? In the course of your service to me, you perfectly embodied the excellent qualities of dedication, rigor and resourcefulness of a German officer, and I like you very much. Christian looked at the German officer, who had been bribed by conscience and beef, with an indescribable smile in his eyes.

"Your Excellency, my sailors and I will be happy to serve you." The Major was as excited as if he had received an Iron Cross. The blushing face and serious expression look extremely cute.

"But—" The Count's fat face looked a little surprised. The German Navy minelayer was met near the German coast, and the sailors who wanted to rob were persuaded by their own arguments that in the name of God and the subsequent supply of food would be brought in. Driven by their conscience and reward, they volunteered to escort the fleet. The Count thought that this was only at sea, and that he did not want to go ashore, and these people were still willing to serve him. "Mr. Major. It's rare for you not to serve the country? ”

"Your Excellency, the war is over." The Major was a little discouraged at the mention of this, and his eyes were extremely gloomy, but it was only for a moment, and then he picked himself up again and said loudly: "It seems to me and my sailors that to protect you is to serve Germany."

"Good!" The Earl, who was worried about the lack of horses, nodded reservedly, "I need a reliable person and a reliable team, and I very much recognize the patriotism of you and your subordinates." So. Then there is the question, how many sailors are on board? ”

"Your Excellency: There are ten officers and one hundred and ninety-one sailors on board." The major replied almost immediately, and then added: "Unfortunately, we are not fully armed. ”

"No, that's not a problem." The Earl shook his head and recited aloud a word that the major did not understand: "Zhang ......", like a spell, a yellow man who did not know where to hide appeared; "Gun ......". Another spell, and then the Russian ship lowered a dinghy, piled up wooden crates on it, and hoisted it up. The Major found the box full of guns.

"Oh, Lübeck......" shouted the Earl. The major was checking which semi-automatic rifles he turned across the bend. A seaport city stands out in front of everyone: Lübeck.

In the past. Lübeck was the most important port on the Baltic coast of Germany, and trade with Sweden, Russia, and Denmark made it extremely prosperous. But now a series of cargo ships and masts obscure the entire dock, and there are no busy cranes or chimneys in sight, only a few hungry seagulls hovering over the harbor. Just as the Count shook his head at the decay of the docks, the minelayers, sailing past a mast, saw the crowd welcoming him on the docks, a crowd of men who appeared to be clergy, and countless policemen waiting on the docks, which they had been notified in advance, that the Nautilus had radioed the harbor yesterday.

The dock had long been cleared, and in the pious prayers of the clergy, the Nautilus slowly docked, and the acting mayor Wolf led people to immediately greet him, and the improvised welcome band played the welcome song a little out of tune, and several young girls with flowers were waiting on the side, all waiting for the respected, conscience as precious as a diamond. The Count of Brück appeared - and even last month, the news of the Count's visit with bread and cured meats spread throughout Lübeck.

The big guys are always going to be late. Halfway through the welcome song, the people on the docks saw a fat man in a sparkling gown appear on the deck of the warship under the guidance of a naval officer, and holding his arm was an oriental woman in a long emerald green dress, which seemed to echo the earl's costume, and the woman was also dressed in great sumplenty, with the royal jewels hanging from her chest and dazzling to dazzle people's eyes.

The acting mayor was also stunned by the woman's appearance and valuable jewelry, and he did not hurry up to meet him until someone around him pulled him. When the Earl walked up the staircase, he bowed and said, "Dear Earl, I am the Acting Mayor of the city, Wolfe, and I welcome you on behalf of the citizens of the city......"

"Wolf...... Mayor," Christian looked at the mayor in front of him, his eyes barely visible as he smiled. "Very good. I think the purpose of my visit is already stated in the telegram......"

"Yes, Lord Count." "You are a great good man," the mayor bowed, "and you are a good man......" and he was about to introduce the bishop of the city when Bishop Visel himself greeted him, "God bless you, Your Excellency the Count." "Then bless Christian.

"Gentlemen, townsmen...... Christian, speaking to the welcoming crowd around him, at the request of the acting mayor and bishop, "the brutal war is over, and as a German I am most concerned not with the outcome of the war, nor with the result of negotiations, but with the survival of my fellow citizens." Although the Entente agreed to negotiate, the British still blockaded us and tried to starve us to death. And my goods, after spending dearly. They traveled from the Far East across Eurasia to arrive here. Every bag of flour, every kilogram of beef, travels more than 10,000 kilometers.

The journey is difficult and costly, but it is nothing compared to the life of every fellow German, the life of every German child, and the conscience that God has given us. I now declare that every one of Lübeck shall receive twenty-five kilograms of flour, two kilograms of beef and zero and a half kilograms of fat from the Venerable Bishop of Vesel free of charge......"

Like dominoes, hearing that twenty-five kilograms of flour could be received, the crowd cheered wildly from near and far, the third year of the war. They forgot the taste of beef, and in the fourth year there were potatoes and vines left on the table, and in the fifth year, many times the potatoes were missing, and there was nothing more appealing than flour and beef.

The Earl's speech was interrupted before he could finish his speech, and the acting mayor, Mr. Wolff, was so embarrassed that he waved his hand vigorously, and it took a few minutes for the excited crowd to fall silent. But Christian didn't mind that. When the Boer War was blockaded by the British, he would have been overjoyed if someone had given him twenty-five kilograms of flour and two kilograms of beef.

"In addition, each child will receive a beautiful gift from the Chinese royal family, with beautiful candies and delicious biscuits." The German emperor had just been driven out. The Chinese Emperor is here again, and Christian, fearing misunderstanding, explains: "Contrary to the Chinese government. From the beginning, the Chinese imperial family opposed a war with Germany, believing that it would damage the friendship of the Chinese people. This time before I go back to Germany. There was a kind Chinese prince who donated 65,000 tons of soybeans -- he had heard that there were 65 million people in Germany and wanted every German to have a kilogram of Chinese soybeans. ”

The simple dichotomy made the crowd applaud instantly. to show my heartfelt gratitude to the Chinese prince. Seeing this scene, Christian couldn't help frowning, this is what Yang Rui taught him - no matter how heinous the person is, no matter how heinous the country is, as long as he says: ** is also injured when he commits **, and he is also very painful when he climaxes, and there are many good people among the bad guy......s, then ** will eventually be pardoned by people, and the hatred for the invader will gradually dissipate.

"Gentlemen, in order to fulfill the wish of the good prince, I have decided to recruit a few hundred men in Lübeck to help distribute these soybeans, and at the same time I am ready to sell a large quantity of grain - my greatest regret is that my property is not enough to buy food for all the needs of the whole Germans, and then I will donate it to everyone free of charge, and I can only donate to the Church the twenty-three thousand eight hundred and thirteen tons of grain in exchange for all my property, which they will distribute on my behalf. At the same time, I will find a way to bring in more food to save my starving compatriots. Gentlemen, citizens of Germany, cheer up, God bless us! ”

After the bland but incomparably sweet speech, the people on the dock applauded vigorously and many wiped their tears, this is really a gift from God, it will soon be the winter when the vines eat up all the bark, and there is no better news than this. Soon, the largest cranes on the dock were in action, and the first to be unloaded from the cargo ship were a few giant hydraulic forklifts, followed by containers. Under the operation of a forklift driver from the other side of the mainland, the containers were quickly moved to the already empty yard.

Waiting beside them were the priests who had already prepared and the townspeople who had lined up, and the smell of flour cheered as soon as the boxes were opened, and these lucky men would each receive twenty-five kilograms of flour, two cans of canned beef, and a bottle of vegetable oil; If there are children, there is also a box with sweets and biscuits, and as for soybeans, it is said that is still on the way.

Lübeck now has more than 80,000 citizens, and wine means that more than 2,000 tons of flour will be distributed, although more than 100 cabinets can be solved, but Lübeck is only sixty kilometers away from Hamburg, so the Hamburgers who heard the news came by train early the next morning; The port of Kiel was not far from here, and warships sailed into the port of Lübeck the next afternoon.

Looking at the representatives of the Kiel Workers' and Sailors Soviets, dressed in military uniforms with red cloth tied in their hands and no epaulettes, as well as several businessmen from Hamburg, Christian smiled and said: "Gentlemen, you are late. My food has now been donated to the Church, and they will take me to distribute it to every city in Germany. I'm just a merchant now, a grain merchant, and if you're willing to pay for gold or other hard goods, I might be able to sell a lot of grain. ”

With the efficiency of the Germans and the hungry, and thanks to the convenience of the containers, 80,000 people were able to receive their food by early this morning. Unlike the merchants of Hamburg. The deputies of the Kiel Workers' and Sailors Soviets, who thought they could take the grain, felt that they had been fooled, and they excitedly said: "We don't care what church. All we know is that this is the grain brought by the Russian proletariat. It was the Russian Soviets who supported us, and we had to take ......"

"Gentlemen, my goods are only transiting through Russia, and I have already paid the relevant fees that should be paid, and if you really need them, I can provide the documents issued by the Russian Bolsheviks for my transit. Lübeck now has no surplus food, only food for the immediate relief of the children of all Germany, do you want to take bread from the children? Through the glass windows of the mayor's office, Christian could clearly see the police patrolling the streets and the sailors and soldiers who had been hastily recruited yesterday. These people gave him enough courage to refute the representatives of the sailors in front of him.

"Gentlemen, I have an empty title now, but in fact I have become a pauper. All I can do now is to bring in enough food and sell it to the hungry Germans as low as possible, and if you think you can help with this, then please stay; If not, then please get out, I'm busy right now. ”

As soon as the Earl's words were finished, the policemen on one side called the Soviet deputies out. A few Hamburg merchants remained in place. A well-dressed middle-aged man said, "Dear Earl, I am Alfred. Oswald, who is the representative of the Hamburg Import Trade Association and the Hamburg Exporters Association, wants to buy large quantities of grain...... "Speaking of which, the Count only accepts gold and 'hard goods'. Oswald smiled and said, "Your Excellency, what do you mean by hard goods?" Is it the pound? ”

"Hard goods are very hard goods, including the pound. Other things are also included. Christian laughed, his eyes out of sight again. If you're really interested. We can talk about that. He looked at the other three and asked, "May I ask if these gentlemen are ......, are you together?" ”

"Yes. Excellency. They had come from Hamburg in an emergency, just like me, and this was Albert Hamburg Shipping. Mr. Bahrain, this is Max Brown of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Warburg, this is... Senate of the city of Hamburg von von. Mr. Mailer ......"

As Oswald introduced, the number of people standing in front of him grew bigger and bigger, and when he heard that the last one was the Senator of Hamburg, the cigar he was biting was put down by Christian, and he shook hands with these gentlemen cordially, and said with a smile: "I am honored to meet you here, are you here for food?" ”

"Yes, Your Excellency the Count, we need food." Headed by the Senate von. "Hamburg is under siege by Bolsheviks, and if there is not enough food, there will be unrest there. "Obviously, seeing Christian's answer to the Bolsheviks, these businessmen saw him as an angel." We're willing to pay for gold, pounds, and everything you need. Germany needed not only food to alleviate hunger, but also food to stabilize the situation - without food there would be an uprising, and Germany would become like Russia, which would be a misfortune for all. ”

"Your Excellency, the Hamburg Shipping Company is honored to serve you." Albert. Balin bowed slightly, and said that the Hamburg shipping company was full of restless shipping workers, and although it was very dangerous for merchant ships to go to Russia under the Bolsheviks, he would rather go to Russia than be escorted to England.

"Very good!" Christian laughed, "I need a merchant ship." However, gentlemen, I have received the unfortunate news that the navies of the British and Americans will soon sail into Hamburg, and possibly even into the Baltic Sea. I think my grain will soon be intercepted by them, is this the case? ”

The German army still retains a certain combat power, so the armistice treaty is not as harsh as in history, especially in the Baltic direction, the Entente agreed that Germany will retain a certain number of warships to resist the possible invasion of the Russian Bolsheviks, but with the surrender of the German fleet, the Baltic Sea will sooner or later be controlled by the Allied countries, so that the transportation of grain from Russia will also be blocked by the Allied countries.

"Yes, there are such rumors, but according to the armistice treaty, humanitarian supplies are not within this limit." Senator von von Hamburg. Mailer spoke, "Can Your Excellency the Count have any other humanitarian supplies?" ”

"Of course!" Christian was not worried about the Entente blockade of the coast, and the Intelligence Bureau had a road that even he did not know, although the volume of transportation on that road was extremely small, perhaps less than 10,000 tons per month, but this amount was enough for him. "I will do everything I can to bring in 'humanitarian' supplies. Gentlemen, what goods do you need can be booked in advance......"

The news of the transfer of Chinese grain from Russia to Germany reached the ears of Hoover, the director of the US Food Bureau, as soon as Christian's fleet arrived in Lübeck. The pressure on domestic grain sales is already great, but China has grain all over the world, and now he has actually reached out to Germany, which makes him how to sell grain.

"Is the message exact?" Looking at his assistant Strauss, Hoover's face was very ugly, and he was blackened with a layer of ink. "How much grain did he bring in?"

"The news says it's a Chinese count named Christian. Brück, he brought six cargo ships, each with about three thousand to four thousand tons of cargo, all SCB. Strauss said, like everyone else, called the container 'China Iron Box', or CSB for short: "As soon as he landed on the shore, he announced that all the grain would be donated to the church, and it was said that his fortune had been spent to buy it......

Herbert, I don't think he could have brought in more grain, he's not a merchant at all. If he were a businessman, he would not have donated all the food he had bought with his property to the church, but he should have sold it all. ”

"There is a loophole in the armistice treaty." Hoover was so serious that he recited the treaty, "'Not sold as commodities, but food and medicine for humanitarian relief are not covered by the embargo.'" This seems humane, but in reality there is no way to monitor whether the goods are sold or distributed by the Red Cross or the Church. Although the Entente was allowed to supervise this, no one dared to go to Germany, let alone go deep into the interior. ”

There was a shortage of food throughout Europe, but the large quantities of American wheat that arrived in Europe after the armistice were squeezed by Chinese sorghum, a crop that only the poor in China eat, and which was mostly used for winemaking, was very popular with Europeans. Originally, American wheat was sold for $95 a ton, but this kind of sorghum was only $30, and in Europe after the war, except for neutral countries -- even neutral countries that could afford to eat wheat and wealthy people from some belligerent countries -- they were willing to buy Chinese wheat for only $55 a ton, and the citizens of the belligerent countries were very poor, and they were willing to buy sorghum rice and eat sorghum bread.

Agricultural products, which have always enjoyed advantages, were actually suppressed by Chinese goods, which made Hoover angry and helpless. But last month, worse happened, when Chinese merchant ships brought grain into Austria, Bulgaria and Turkey, and sold it very cheaply in those countries.

China's grain sales throughout Europe would be a disaster for American agriculture. It's just that Austria-Hungary has collapsed, even Italy will not mind the grain sales of the Chinese, Ottoman Turkey has also been divided, everyone has long stopped taking her seriously, and tiny Bulgaria is not worth mentioning at all, and the Entente has not blockaded these three countries at all. If it were only Chinese merchant ships trading, the American fleet in the Mediterranean might be able to drive them away under some pretext, but now it is the Japanese Navy that is escorting these merchant fleets, and if they are asked to stop their ships for inspection, or if they are deliberately rammed and sunk, the Japanese Navy may open fire.

Hoover had the courage to provoke a diplomatic incident, and he would have to consider provoking a war, especially now that President Wilson was asking the British to accept the concept of 'freedom of navigation on the high seas', once the U.S. Navy clashed with the Japanese Navy and Chinese merchant ships in the Mediterranean, then the British who found an excuse to fight back would definitely reject President Wilson, who was the superior of the Food Bureau, because the unseemly behavior made Wilson angry, and Hoover did not dare at all.

Director Hoover thought about the current European grain trade, his face became more and more ugly, and Strauss hurriedly asked, "Herbert, what should we do?" ”

"We can't do anything!" Hoover looked very weak, "But I will report to Mr. President immediately, if I don't think of a way, the country will go crazy!" (To be continued......)