At the same time, inside the Sakurajima shipyard. The round diving bell produced according to the drawings has been basically completed. Since it is only necessary to dive 200 meters, it is not particularly difficult. Machined from steel and copper, this round submersible can seat two divers in heavy wetsuits at the same time. Because there is no power, it relies on a surface crane to drive the hinge to float. The bell has a cylinder drain with a spare hose attached to the top to provide drain air pressure to the diver in the bell if necessary, and the bell also has the ability to heat.

These simple features allow this rough and primitive device to carry out extremely inefficient diving activities. Makino estimates that he can only carry out one or two salvages a day, for which he needs two diving groups.

The heavy wetsuit was also ready, and since the person could not use the trachea to obtain mixed air, he had to use oxygen cylinders, which doomed the time of each submarine operation out of the capsule to be too long. These wetsuts, which resemble medieval armor, do not actually counteract water pressure, and their main function is to warm and prevent bumps. The Japanese Navy's investment in deep diving under the sea has not kept up with the advanced level of its contemporaries, and the study of diving diseases and diving limits has stayed at the stage of copying Western theories.

Four divers had just arrived, and they had been secretly transferred by the Combined Fleet Command. A network of contacts across the military, intelligence, and politics and business has been secretly formed, and this network is not huge, but it has some resources at its disposal. Makino cherished this opportunity very much, he proposed a plan to Nobusuke Kishi, and then tried his best to use these resources to achieve his goal, his only purpose was to prevent the war, which was where his disagreement with Asano was, Asano seemed to have peddled an idea to Onishi, he thought that even if the war started, there would be a chance of victory, and this incident made Makino extra vigilant; Tanigawa, another geologist, seems to have wavered and has not expressed a clear position.

Under Makino's introduction, the divers began to familiarize themselves with this thick and strange round artifact, and they looked at this stupid thing that was going to send them 200 meters underwater. Makino interviewed several divers and found that their previous main work was to search for lost ones under the water of the test site* or to inspect the anti-submarine nets and other facilities in the military port, and the maximum depth they had experienced was less than 50 meters, which was not as deep as the ama who fished for abalone.

Sixteen cylinders from Imperial University had just arrived at the site, and the precious helium had been obtained by Shinichiro Asaga in the name of laboratory needs. Since the severance of trade between Japan and the United States, these scarce goods from North America have been cut off, and Japan at this time did not have the ability to collect helium from the air, and the United States was almost the only source of helium in the world.

Now everything is ready, just waiting for news from Sato's side. But I waited left and right, but I didn't receive the telegram from Sato's side for a long time. This doesn't seem to be a bad thing, but for security reasons (mainly for fear of the military department listening and discovering that they didn't go to Izumo's sinking), Sakae Sato made an agreement with Kagesa on some things, such as not sending a report unless there are special circumstances. In other words, there is no news, which is actually good news.

Taking advantage of this free time, Makino personally taught the divers the opportunity to explain to them a sketch of where the materials were stored in the wreck. He himself was in charge of the data collation before the collision, so he knew better than the other two where to look for things.

Kasugamaru is a 10,000-ton ship, loaded with a large number of advanced equipment and materials when it set sail, of course, according to the current conditions, it is impossible to salvage the whole thing, even if some machinery and equipment can be salvaged does not seem to be able to save the emergency, the best result is to catch some small items that can prove the identity of the crossing, or the information that records important documents.

In order to prevent accidents (Sato calculates a 50% damage rate), the text materials on the Kasuga Maru are all waterproof, and there are a lot of backups, there are all corners, Makino marked the location of several data rooms, and reminded divers how to open the safe once they enter the data room, and never take the gold bars inside, but to take the data.

"Once you enter the first floor of Class A, you can follow the ladder here to the second floor of Class A, or go up from here, but it is too complicated for the diving rope to get hooked," he continued as the divers nodded ignorantly, "From here you can see rooms 205 to 209, all of which are reference rooms. The first is geological data, and the second is historical documents, so don't worry about the future, that's later. ”

"Mr. Makino, I have a question."

Private First Class Cao Nagadokawa asked.

"As far as I know, the Kasuga spy ship has been parked in Yokosuka, why did it sink?"

"This is another Kasuga Maru. It's a civilian ship, so it's not time to go into details, but you'll understand later. ”

He had suffered and didn't want to explain too much, so he prevaricated.

Kadokawa didn't ask any more questions, but his face was confused, obviously unconvinced, according to Makino's description, this ship is more than 10,000 tons, and there are only a few merchant ships in Japan with more than 10,000 tons, how can he never have heard of it?

"After leaving the diving bell, your oxygen only lasts for 2 hours, so you have to go back quickly. The action time is set at 45 minutes, after which you will go back. ”

"How do I get in?"

"There's a hole in the middle of the ship, look for it, and maybe you can get in from here."

This plan is a bit suspenseful, but these divers can only do what they are told, and before leaving, Onishi lectures them, telling them that this mission is related to the national fortunes of the empire, and even if they lose their lives, they must not mess up.

"And where did the ship sink?"

Another Haecao asked.

"Still looking, maybe in 10 days."

Makino pretended to be calm and said, in fact, there was no bottom in his heart at all.

Tokyo, in the private residence of Fumihiro Konoe.

Nobusuke Kishi was sitting with the prime minister on the edge of a sunny courtyard, sipping tea.

Unlike a few days ago, this time there were just the two of them, and the atmosphere was a little more relaxed. It seems that the guards still value him very much, and specially invited him here, as if he had some orders. Kishi Nobusuke hesitated, but still did not dare to speak out about the existence of the traverser, as a calculating politician, he knew that challenging Konoe's rationality was not the best policy, and he might lose all his efforts; What must be done now is to convince Konoe not to resign in order to avoid the start of the war in December.

After some pleasantries, the conversation between the two got to the point.

"Your Excellency, I think that if the oil rumors are true, then it is natural to suppress the talk of war. So Konoe Gong, you can wait a little longer. ”

The guard waved his hand.

"That's a bad statement, even if we don't go to war, Roosevelt will come up with other ways to provoke."

"Oh?"

"They will continue to invest in China, using the British Yangman Railway in Burma to transport weapons; Today it is the fighter planes supporting the air force, tomorrow it may be the support bombers, and the day after tomorrow it will be back to use the bases in China to bomb our homeland. I heard the report of the General Staff that those planes all use the logo of the Chinese Air Force, is there anything more shameless in the world? ”

Nobusuke Kishi was a little surprised, and he suddenly realized that Konoe's position was not completely antithetical to Tojo. He didn't know when he came up with this wishful thinking, thinking that Konoe didn't want to go to war, and if he asked himself, before Makino went out and told the future history, how could he have thought that Japan would be defeated if he went to war? Although Konoe is afraid of the United States, he also has a lot of thoughts about luck.

"So what do you think?"

"I have figured it out that such a turbulent era is not suitable for a scribe like me, and perhaps Japan really needs a leader with a will as steel, but it can be respected by Britain and the United States."

Apparently Konoe wanted to avoid the muddy waters.

"That's ...... Isn't it ......?"

"I have made up my mind, and within this month, I will submit a request to Your Majesty to dissolve the cabinet and nominate Tojo. I can then make several requests to him, one of which is to nominate you as Minister of Commerce and Industry for the new Cabinet. Second, I would ask him to put down his body and send a special envoy to the United States for a final effort. This is also a strategy of retreating to advance, and I think Tojo will agree. ”

Nobusuke Kishi suddenly found that he had become a bargaining chip between Konoe and Tojo, and he hoped to fulfill Hideki Tojo, and then install a few of his own people in Tojo's new cabinet.

It seems that it is useless to say more, and the idea of continuing to maintain the stormy Konoe Cabinet is no longer realistic, and he came with the confidence that there was a way to persuade the prime minister to stay in office, but now it seems that history is still stubbornly moving forward according to the established line. What should I do? Tell him about the future of Japan's defeat now?

"Kishi, what are you hesitating about?"

"I ...... This...... It's nothing. ”

Nobusuke Kishi finally suppressed the urge to tell the truth, and before there was enough evidence, this was obviously an unconstrained mess, and there were still two and a half months before the start of the war, and there was still time.

Outside the Sakurajima shipyard, an old warship slowly sails towards the dock of the shipyard. Hearing the whistle, Kagesa Showa and Makino hurried to the docks, they were nervous, the ship that went to search had returned early, was this a good thing or a bad thing?

When the boat arrived, Makino saw a person at the bow of the boat waving desperately, and he gradually had a good premonition in his heart, and it was Sato who was standing at the bow of the boat, and he waved his hands excitedly, which meant that he had made a discovery.

As soon as the boat landed, Sato couldn't wait to get off the boat, so he stood on the side of the ship and shouted, "Makino-kun, it seems that we have to step up and pretend to be lifting equipment at the stern." ”

This sentence does not involve any secrets, but it is obvious that Kasugamaru has been discovered on this trip. At this time, Asano and Hasegawa also rushed to the dock, and when they heard Sato's words, the three of them hugged each other excitedly and cried bitterly. After more than two months of turmoil, I have endured all kinds of hardships and doubts, and finally reaped some results, and finally had the opportunity to let the people of this era see the ship that is tasked with the mission of saving Japan.

Kagesa stood aside and didn't say a word, but the corners of his eyes were already moist. He is such a cold-blooded intelligence leader, and it is inevitable that he will be a little emotional. As a suspicious person, it was only at this moment that he truly believed that what Makino said was true, and that these people, with patriotic fervor, had survived only three of them from about 75 years later; However, he reminded himself that things were far from over.

No. 419 continued to roam the waters off Shanghai, and they remained unaware of the latest situation due to the enemy's targeted enforcement of communications discipline (which was in fact intended to deal with the military headquarters). The safety of the co-captain has always been at stake in the submarine. The co-captain seems to have turned the corner, and has not been heard from since. If he wants to come back, he may be on his way at this time; Of course, Chu Aiyun was not stupid, he just made the headlines in the newspapers, and then returned to the enemy-occupied area.