Friday, July 2, 1937, east of the International Date Line, 10:13 a.m.

"Call KHAQQ! Calling Emilia Earhart! Call KHAQQ! Call Emilia Earhart...... "On the USS Itasca, a U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat on the southeast side of Howland Island, the operator kept calling a call sign, and that was Emilia who had departed from Lae yesterday morning.

For an hour and a half after Emilia's last signal at 8:43 a.m., Sergeant Belaz, the operator, had not heard anything on the radio, and Frank, the second class operator, had been calling Emilia on frequencies of 500 kHz, 3105 kHz, and 7500 kHz, but there was no response. What's worse is that the batteries of the three high-frequency radio direction finders prepared for this navigation were all used up overnight, and no one could accurately determine where the Electric twin-engine plane piloted by the Queen of Flight was, and at 7:42 Emilia had reported that the plane had only 1.5 hours of fuel left and no landing.

"Gentlemen, I wonder how bad the situation is?" In the captain's room of the Itasca, the captain, Lieutenant Commander Thompson, made an urgent appointment with Major Heikener and Executive Major Baker.

"Sir, she should be nearby, somewhere within two hundred miles." CEO Baker said. Everyone was busy looking for Emilia, and Baker had time to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

"Sir, we should search and inform Hawaii right away." Major Kenna suggested. "Miss Emilia last reported that she was on the 157 to 337 degree position line, and we were to the southeast. So she is most likely located in the northwest direction. ”

"But the weather forecast says cumulus clouds in the northwest." Putting down the pen in his hand, Captain Thompson pondered. Emilia is a big shot in the United States. is the darling of the fashion industry and public opinion, and the leader of the feminist movement, and it is really unlucky to lose her.

"Sir. We can ask Hawaii to send a seaplane. There is fuel for Miss Emilia on Howland Island. Baker suggested. We have to search right away. That is afraid...... Even if she landed with the Japanese. ”

The Japanese had the Marshall Islands, about six or seven hundred nautical miles northwest of Howland Island. Captain Thomson said with some disagreement: "Is it possible?" The Japanese are more than 600 miles away from us......"

"Sir, there is a possibility. Don't forget that the northwest direction is covered with cumulus clouds, and Miss Emilia is likely to vew in the northwest direction without knowing her location. And her navigator, Mr. Noonan, should know that if she can't find Howland Island, you'll have to try your luck in the northwest, where there are many islands. If you fly over there, you can count it as two hundred nautical miles and an hour and a half of fuel and headwinds. If they had yawed before, an hour and a half of fuel and gliding would have been enough for them to fly to the Marshall Islands. Major Kenna made the same judgment, but with a lot of brains.

After a deep look at his subordinates, and then at Major Kenner, who was pretending to be serious, Lieutenant Colonel Thompson said, "Okay, I'll order a search right away, and at the same time send a report to the Hawaii headquarters to send Carolina a seaplane." With that, he glanced at his subordinate and swallowed a cigarette a little stiffly. Finally, he added: "I will add the information that Miss Emilia may land in the Marshall Islands." ”

'6002 - Emilia reported at 07:42 that there was only 1.5 hours of fuel left and no land landing - location unknown - at 06:40 reported being 100 miles away from Itasca, but no relative positioning signal - at 08:43 reporting a position line of 157 degrees ~337 degrees but no reference point relative to Howland Island - Expected to fly by 12 o'clock sharpest - If not by then, a search will be launched for the most likely area northwest of Howland Island - The sea is calm and the vertical visibility is strong at level 9 - She is expected to glide until 10:15 - Landing in the Marshall Islands ......

At 10:18 a.m. ship time, the Coast Guard patrol boat Itasca sent a telegram to the Hawaiian Division Headquarters in Honolulu. In addition to reporting the general situation and requesting the Admiralty to send a seaplane to assist in the search and rescue, the captain also added the judgment of Major Kenner and Executive Major Baker at the end that Miss Emilia might be lost and landed in the Marshall Islands, and asked the relevant departments to contact the Japanese government to assist in the search and rescue.

The telegram from the Itasca patrol boat soon arrived in Hawaii. Half an hour later, the telegram arrived at the 14th Military Region of the U.S. Navy. In the hands of Admiral G. Morfin.

The "Japanese ......" admiral took the telegram and immediately frowned when he saw the last few sentences.

"Yes, sir. There is such a possibility, and we should report Washington's request for the Japanese Navy to cooperate in the search and rescue. "Adjutant Major Whiting has already read the telegram. He also agreed with Itasca's judgment.

"Okay." The Admiral nodded, knowing how much Washington valued Emilia — since last month. The Coast Guard is already working on this, and the president has built a runway on Howland Island, which is only 0.6 miles away. "Send the telegram to the Admiralty and the Interior, and the President should know about it."

"Yes, sir." With the order of the admiral, the telegram was again sent to Washington. At 7:00 p.m. EST (12:30 p.m. ship time) on July 2, the Admiralty was in session when the telegram was transferred to the Admiralty. At this time, the Chief of Naval Operations was no longer the self-righteous Admiral Shandley, but Admiral William Daniel Leahy (Lehi), much appreciated by the President.

As an old acquaintance for more than a decade (Roosevelt was an assistant secretary of the Admiralty), Admiral Leahy certainly knew the president's intentions, but naval battles more than 10,000 kilometers away were not so easy to organize, even if there were bases in Hawaii, Guam, and the Philippines. In addition, the opinion of the army and navy was again different - Marshal MacArthur, a Philippine federal adviser who drew trust and resources from the president and Congress, believed that the navy could prevent the Chinese army from landing in Manila, and that the rest could be left to the army, to be exact, the army aviation. He threatened that only 1,000 B-17 bombers would be needed to blow the Chinese to the ground, and that he would wait for the Chinese to surrender to him at the mouth of Dagu, Tianjin, as he had done 36 years ago.

Not to mention the Admiralty. Not many people even in the War Department like this arrogant megalomaniac, but in the Western Pacific. The Philippines is indeed an extremely important stronghold. MacArthur got the Filipinos to obey him and raised a Philippine army of about 800,000 men with $100 million a year allocated by Congress. It was indeed a great aid to the war. But the problem now is that without the participation of the navy, even if the Philippines has 1,000 B-17s or other better flying bombers, the army cannot guarantee that its ammunition and fuel imports will not be cut off by the Chinese and Japanese navies. And if the naval fleet is stationed in the Philippines, the Krabi Naval Base will not be able to build as large as Hawaii in a short period of time, enough to accommodate the entire fleet.

If that were the case, the fleet would still have to depart from Hawaii or take the Central Pacific, i.e., along the Marshall Islands-Mariana Islands-Philippines route; Or go to the South Pacific, i.e., Australia - New Guinea - Philippines. In a word. Although many of the Navy's ships have a range of more than 5,000 kilometers, they still need an axis of attack to advance.

With the assistance of the British, the best route would of course be the southern route. This could be done with the help of Australia's readily available resources, and the navy would simply send bundles of cash to Australia, but the problem was that Britain did not want to participate in the war because of its many interests in China - five minutes earlier, Admiral Leahy's subordinate Rear Admiral James Richardson had already presented the results of his negotiations with the British Navy - Britain did not want the US Navy to be stationed in the port of Singapore, and made it clear that it did not want to work with the United States to put pressure on China and Japan.

"Gentlemen, the Japanese are expanding their docks......" the staff officers finished speaking. Major General Theodore Van Wilkinson began to speak. "Although they didn't lay the keel, it was something to be wary of; And the Dalian shipyard in China, which we didn't know had multiple large docks. ”

"Then send someone to find out!" Admiral Leahy ordered. "We have to know everything about our opponent and find out where they are flawed. Current evidence suggests: They wanted to replace quantity with quality superiority, and Tianjin and Yamato class were the product of this idea. The eighteen-inch artillery and the displacement of more than 60,000 tons indicate that they hope to build many of these giant battleships. In the nature of the Japanese. Maybe not just four battleships were launched, but six or eight. ”

The Admiral has his own guess, but this guess is deeply moving. The staff officers whispered, and Major General Richardson said, "General." The Army had a suggestion: to sink the battleship before it was launched. ”

"How to sink?" Admiral Leahy asked interestingly.

"Sink it with a bomber." Rear Admiral Richardson said of the idea from the Philippines, "The battleship Tianjin was built at the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, and the Shanghai was built at the Nanjing Shipyard, and the B-17 bombers could barely be obtained if they were lightly loaded, but if there were 1,000 bombers, the bombing effect would be significant." General MacArthur thought they should be sunk in front of all Chinese on the day of launching, as well as the cruisers and destroyers built at the Guangzhou shipyard. ”

"So, Douglas wants to declare war on China on the day the Tianjin is launched?" Admiral Leahy narrowed his eyes, thinking of MacArthur, who loved to cause trouble, and pondered.

"Yes, sir." Major General Richardson replied. "One such battleship is already troublesome, six to eight are even more troublesome. And bombing only one and the second will strengthen the defenses, so it is better to bomb both at the same time and sink them all in the dock. If the Chinese lack super battleships, they will surrender after we destroy the Japanese Navy. ”

"Is Douglas trying to sneak attack?" Admiral Leahy suddenly laughed, he felt that this did not want Douglas's style.

"He didn't say that." Major General Richardson also laughed, "But he said, don't reason with those **** yellow-skinned monkeys." Beat them up and they'll be grateful to us. ”

Smiling, Admiral Leahy thought about the point in time MacArthur had spoken. The Tianjin and the Shanghai were laid last year, which means that the launch time of the two battleships will be very close, and it is even possible that the Shanghai will be earlier - the Nanjing Shipyard is a military shipyard after all, and it was built with the help of Hengbaili Iron and Steel Company more than 20 years ago. Of course, Jiangnan Shipyard is not bad, both of which are China's top shipyards, followed by Dalian Shipyard and Tianjin Shipyard. The keels of the two ships were laid in the second half of last year, which means that they will be launched at the end of next year or the beginning of the following year, that is, no later than June 1939.

It occurred to me that the other side had a main gun that was more than eighteen inches. and their own only 16-inch main gun; Then think of the legend that the other party used titanium alloy as armor, and the own side was only ordinary nickel steel armor; The most important thing is that I was already of retirement age at that time. With the current strength of the Navy. There was an eighty percent chance of victory in the decisive battle with the Japanese Navy, and the war ended once and for all after the decisive battle.

Thoughts are racing. Admiral Leahy finally nodded and said, "Then we'll set a plan according to this time." ”

The army and navy have always been full of contradictions, but this time the admiral unconditionally agreed to the army's request and took the time set by MacArthur as the time for the start of the war. Seeing that the bureau chiefs were all looking at him in surprise, Admiral Leahy smiled: "I just don't want to face four giant battleships at the same time, just like it is better to destroy planes at the airfield and battleships at the dock." Gentlemen, we could have set the exact time for the start of the war around Christmas 1938, because the Chinese warships would be launched at this time. ”

"Yes, General!" After Leahy finalizes the timeline. The subordinates began to have a sense of urgency, which meant that the war was only one year, five months and twenty-eight days away.

"General, a telegram from Hawaii......" After knocking on the door, the adjutant took the telegram from outside and handed it to Admiral Leahy.

"Marshall Islands." Admiral Leahy read it to the end and couldn't help but be moved. He then asked the Secretary of Intelligence, Major General Wilkinson, "Theodore, how much do we know about the Marshall Islands?" ”

"We don't know anything, General." Wilkinson shrugged regretfully, "The Japanese are the best at hiding themselves. No one has been there since they took over the Marshall Islands, and no one knows what they've done on it. Several times our seaplanes tried to sweep over the place, but the Japanese were very alert. They fired warning shots at approaching planes......"

"Now maybe there's an excuse for scouting." Admiral Leahy handed the telegram to Major General Wilkinson.

"Oh God." Seeing that it was actually Emilia missing, Major General Wilkinson, who thought of her great influence, whispered. He asked curiously. "Is it just scouting the Marshall Islands?"

"Do you want to occupy it?" Admiral Leahy asked with a smile, and things seemed to be getting more and more interesting.

"Why can't you occupy it. Sir? The war is about to begin! Richardson also holds the view of Major General Wilkinson. If the Marshall Islands were to be occupied by us, then the Pearl Harbor fleet would be able to support the Philippines more quickly – assuming Guam existed. We don't need to spend much time in the Marianas. ”

"But the war is likely to break out sooner." The admiral spoke of his concerns. "We're not fully prepared, at least not in the Philippines, where it will take at least a year to expand the base, and the Navy would do well to have a year to make all kinds of adjustments."

"Sir, the Chinese have no intention of declaring war. If China does not declare war, the Japanese will most likely not declare war either. Maj. Gen. Wilkinson said his judgment, again emphasizing: "The Marshall Islands is critical, it's like a bone stuck in our throat." ”

"Your opinion is ......" Admiral looked at Harold Stark, Colonel Royal Ingersoll and others, who had been digesting the information brought about by the start of the war on Christmas Day 1938, which meant that the entire battle plan had to be readjusted.

"It is appropriate to consider Japan and China separately." Colonel Ingersoll of the Battle Planning Bureau nodded, "I believe that the current Chinese government will not go to war, they are bent on peace talks, even if they have an alliance with the Japanese." It's more likely that they'll take this issue to the League of Nations, then ......, and then they'll protest a little more when the results come out until we bomb Chinese mainland. ”

After all, Ingersoll was a staff officer of the Planning Bureau who had studied the situation in China and Japan. He did, and everyone else in the room nodded. Seeing this, Admiral Leahy finally nodded and said, "I will report this to Mr. President." ”

At 19:40 EST (13:10 ship time), the secretary of the Admiralty in Washington, Claude Brown, was the secretary of the Admiralty. A. Swanson drafted a telegram that was sent to the commander of the 14th Military Region of the US Navy, and at the same time forwarded to the commander of the US fleet at the US naval air base Pearl Harbor, the commander of the US Coast Guard, the commander of the air base. The telegram reads as follows:

'0002 - Call up all naval equipment to search and rescue Miss Earhart in any possible sea area - 19:40'.

Washington's instructions were so, and Hawaii, of course, did not dare to slack off, and a large-scale search and rescue was launched as it had ever happened in history, and nearly 10,000 soldiers were busy with one woman. And Beijing in East Asia, also for a woman, after several days of fruitless negotiations, a grand memorial service is being held at Yenching University.

Countless wreaths were piled up in the auditorium, and Zhang Huizhen, who died four days ago, was smiling in a black and white photo frame. This is not a posthumous photo taken specifically, but a reverie of a young girl in the flower season for a better future. In the solemn mourning hall, her bright smile on the posthumous photo broke the hearts of everyone present.

After taking the train overnight, female classmates from Hangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai, Shanxi, and Tianjin couldn't help but cry bitterly after hearing Zhang Huizhen's mother's wail, and this beautiful woman who didn't know each other seemed to be their siblings. The female students were crying bitterly, and many of the male students were also crying silently, but more were gritting their teeth and enduring the anger that burned their hearts.

Parents, classmates, and teachers took the stage to speak one by one, recalling the details of Zhang Huizhen's daily life, and denouncing the authorities' brutal law enforcement and reckless disregard for human life. The gloom in the auditorium was even worse, and after Hu Shi finished speaking briefly, Lu Zhiwei, who presided over the memorial service, dragged his heavy steps and walked onto the rostrum step by step. He stood straight on the podium, his face gloomy, his head hanging deeply, and the muscles on his face twitching. There was silence in the auditorium for more than two minutes—silence that took the breath away from all the participants. Suddenly, Lu Zhiwei said in a hoarse and sad voice: "I...... I can't tell! Because I'm ...... here," he pounded his chest with his fists, "...... It was as if there was a big rock that weighed me down! However, I believe that not only me, but everyone here is feeling the same pressure! ”

Lu Zhiwei said this, which made Hu Shi, who had just finished speaking, unhappy. He asked the students to believe in the law, wait patiently for the authorities to deal with it, and wait patiently for the outcome of the marble trial, but Lu Zhiwei obviously didn't think so.

There was another suffocating silence, and the students could feel his grief as they looked at the headmaster standing on the podium.

"The deceased had a good heart. She pursues truth, goodness, and beauty, but she is destroyed by falsehood, ugliness, and evil! Lu Zhiwei's voice was congested and tears filled his eyes, once again making all the girls in the audience cry bitterly," she ...... She longs for a beautiful realm, for justice, friendship and happiness, but what she gets is darkness, injustice and cruelty.

The authorities explained to me that it was just an accident, but in this arbitrary world, such a tragedy is inevitable. Even death still gives us a depressing death, a dark death. We can't get justice! We have nowhere to redress! We can't get justice! We ......" Lu Zhiwei pointed with his hand, but trembled, and after a while, he squirmed his lips and said: "Because this is a depressing and imprisoned world, each of us is shrouded in darkness and tormented by fire. Today, we lose Zhang Huizhen, and tomorrow we will probably lose Wang Huazhi, Yao Ke'an, and ......."

Lu Zhiwei finally couldn't help but cry out loud in grief - Yanjing has survived in the cracks for more than ten years, every male student is his son, every female student is his daughter, and now that a daughter is dead, how can he not be heartbroken.

Lu Zhiwei cried on the stage, male and female students in the audience, Chinese and foreign teachers also cried in grief, and even the old principal Situ Leiden was in tears, he didn't think Lu Zhiwei was alarmist - Wang Huazhi, Yao Ke'an, Huang Zheng......, these seven students were prosecuted by the Beijing Normal Inspectorate for arson, intentional injury, and illegal possession of firearms for arson, intentional injury, and illegal possession of firearms. The leader Wang Hua and others are likely to be sentenced to more than 10 years in prison.

In the auditorium, where the mourning was all over the place, when everyone was choking, a student suddenly raised his arms and shouted: "Severely punish the murderer, patriotic deeds are not guilty!" ”

His voice was so small in the cry, but just two sentences penetrated everyone's hearts, and after a slight pause, more students shouted in a disorderly manner: 'Severely punish the murderer, patriotic deeds are not ......guilty', this voice became more and more neat and high, like rolling thunder in summer. (To be continued.) )