The poet said that the farthest road is not the way home, but the road of the heart. However, in Weiss's view, the road from rescuing the target to returning to the Federation is the farthest road in the world. Along the way, they encountered all kinds of accidents, all kinds of twists and turns, were surrounded and intercepted by the enemy, and had to fly in a juggling style, shuttling through the mountains, river valleys and forests with difficulty, such a difficulty could not be accomplished by ordinary commanders.

On this night when the clouds were thick, the field of vision was pitch black, and Weiss did not look at the night scene outside with great interest as when they came, no matter how rich the enemy's land was, no matter how steep the enemy's mountains were, they were all the enemy's resources and wealth. Following Weiss's strategy, the transports flew at low altitudes close to the ground, skimming through the woods, avoiding illuminated towns and villages as much as possible. They are like fish at the bottom of the chain of marine life, swimming as quietly as possible, but how can a fat prey escape the keen sense of smell of a predator? As they walked through the barren lands, they didn't know that there were eyes on them, and in the Norman Empire, intelligence systems were far more sophisticated than the Federation, and in addition to monitoring the words and actions of the people, these systems could be quickly transferred to military use if necessary. These people were indecently called "Secret Guards" and "Night Demons" in the mouths of the Normans, and to put it bluntly, these people with special duties roamed around the towns and even some large villages like ghosts, vigilant for all possible resistance.

When the order was delivered, on this night, they gave up rest, watching for any movement in the night sky with their focused eyes and sensitive ears. If Weiss and their transports were shuttling through the clouds, then these people might not be able to spy on the high-altitude flying objects, but they chose to fly low-altitude, and before midnight, their whereabouts had already been discovered by these keen guys, and the information was reported to their intelligence department.

It was close to midnight, and there was only one last bit left of the mountains on the border between the two countries, and perhaps in half an hour, they would be able to cross the border, and everyone was looking forward to the end of this arduous journey. But what he didn't expect was that the night sky was suddenly illuminated by bright searchlights, which were searchlights, some from the ground and some from the air. There are so many of them that it's like a big festival. Weiss was a little confused, out of instinct, he looked up at the sky for the first time, but it was very unfortunate that in the area near the border, the night sky was bright, and the thin clouds did not provide them with emergency shelter. The tired fish finally came to face the net for the last time.

"The enemy is signaling us, it's an international code, what do they want to say?" The Major said as he stood in front of the porthole and observed. Weiss didn't answer, but waited quietly, he couldn't read the light code used in aviation, but many professional soldiers in the command room should not misread the light signal or miss any important details.

After a moment, the major looked at Weiss with a depressed expression: "The Normans demanded that we surrender, they guaranteed the safety of all of us here, and they warned us that this place was under their absolute control. No matter which way we flee, how high and how far we fly, we will be shot down by them, and the only way out is to surrender to them. ”

Weiss was not surprised by the enemy's request, but at this time he couldn't help but feel a little annoyed and blamed himself, if he hadn't thought about the last part of the journey so simply, he should have tied himself to the highest part of the mast. Observing with his special vision every few minutes, even if he couldn't get out of this terrible encirclement, he could give early warning, but he didn't do this, but just hoped that everything would go well.

"I was negligent." He said to the major: "I should have done better. ”

"No, it's not your responsibility, it's the enemy that's more difficult to deal with than we think." The major took on the responsibility of a commander.

As they spoke, the first commander of the operation, who was already a mentor and friend's partner and partner, Colonel Oktawil Grumman of the Special Forces, had been keeping a strained face and not speaking, as if thinking about something. When the two of them were finished, she gave them new hope in a calm tone: "This is very close to the border, our patrol force is on the other side of the mountain, if they can come in time to relieve the siege for us, we can still break through the encirclement." ”

Weiss observed that the searchlight array created by the enemy was very large, giving the impression that it was indeed an ironclad cage, but in fact the enemy invested mainly ground troops. In the air, they deployed four flying hulls, three of which were lightweight cruisers and one of which was a transport ship, which meant that there were no capital ships here, and one of the enemies who still came to make up the numbers was bluffing, trying to make them give up on their own. As Octavier said, as long as you can find a way to contact the police patrol force on the other side of the border, even if there are only two or three flying ships, you will have a chance to break the siege on your own. Since she said so, there should be some way. Weiss didn't ask, but the major himself said, "The method you said is indeed a solution, but how can we hold out for a while surrounded by the enemy and hold our patrol to rush over?" ”

"The situation is not as bad as it seems, and at night the enemy's firing accuracy is far worse than during the day, and it should not be difficult for us to get to the patrol as long as we go around with them here and carefully avoid their anti-aircraft fire on the ground. Tonight they know that we are most likely going to return, so the whole line has been deployed on alert, and the flying ships that can be dispatched have been deployed to the patrol line and warning points, right? Octavier's last question was a near-affirmative one, and Weiss set his eyes on the Major.

The major did not deny it, but turned to the communications officer and said, "Send a coded telegram to report our coordinates and directions, and request urgent support." With that, he turned his head to the other side and said to the first mate, "All boilers." At full capacity, with full horsepower, we have to engage in a fierce chase with the enemy. ”

After two orders in quick succession, the Major paused for a moment and said to Octavier, "Now I'm here to tell everyone to get ready. ”

Otwell nodded in agreement.

The major asked the lieutenant to turn on the radio microphone, which was the same sound that Weiss had heard in the cabin before, using the cable system used inside the battleship. The major cleared his throat: "All attention, I am your captain. Now we are only one step away from the Union border, and the enemy is trying to stop us, but I believe that there is no force that can stop us from running towards freedom. Our fleet is coming. In the coming period, we will have to do our best to deal with the enemy, and there will be bumps, vibrations, and some dangers in the flight. Please stay calm and try to find a fixed object to maintain a good balance and avoid collisions. Finally, good luck to all of us! ”

After saying that, the major decisively turned off the broadcast system and punched his forehead with his fist. Just then, another officer reminded: "The enemy gives us five minutes to think about it, and after five minutes, if we don't surrender, they open fire." ”

Weiss had to speak out at the critical moment, saying: "The enemy is bluffing, they only have three cruisers and one transport, although they block our direction, we have enough space to go around in circles with them." The real threat is indeed the air defense forces on the ground, and if we pass through the border strip, we will definitely come under very heavy anti-aircraft gunners. The weather here is not as good as we imagined, and even if our fleet arrives, the last step will be bravely taken by ourselves. ”

Hearing Weiss say this, the major looked at him with a strange look, as if to say, are you sure? Why are you so sure? How exactly did you do that? But he was convinced by his remarkable observation skills in the past, including some of the coordinated training sessions before the operation began.

"We have five minutes to prepare." The major loudly mobilized all the officers and men, and then, he reminded every post in every detail, from the stoker to the chief engineer, from the first mate to the communications officer, everyone was like the gears of a precision machine, running at full speed under his drive.

Five minutes passed in a flash, and under normal circumstances, it is impossible for a transport ship to go from start to full speed without a quarter of an hour. Five minutes was a bit of a short time, and the major did his best to dispatch it. By the end of the time limit given by the enemy, the transport ship had increased its speed and turned around in front of the enemy. In the course of the flight, they increased their altitude, and the enemy was clearly not the slightest bit caught off guard. They had been preparing for a long time, so when the time limit ended, artillery fire rang out from all directions, both from the air and from the ground.

The cannon rumbled and resounded through the sky. If you are not a battle-hardened soldier, you will feel very nervous and frightened when you hear this sound, but for Weiss, who is accustomed to life and death on the battlefield, the sound of cannons does not mean death, on the contrary, they must find the enemy's position from the sound of cannons, judge the current form, so as to find the way to victory in the battle.

After listening for a while, Weiss said to the major: "The threat of the enemy in the air is not great, it is all some small-caliber artillery, the enemy on the ground has heavy anti-aircraft guns, we must not get close to their air defense positions, not only the border area, I am afraid that in other places, the enemy still has hidden air defense positions with no searchlights turned on, and once they get close, it will be like being bitten by a wild beast, and the situation will be very dangerous." ”

"I know." "Now that I'm here to take over the situation," said the Major, "please use your keen insight to help us with some useful information, thank you very much." ”

The chase began, and after a while, there was exciting good news from the communications officer, who had received a telegram from the Federal Air Corps. The Union Air Patrol is approaching, and in about an hour they will be at their current coordinates. Although the strength of the patrol was not mentioned in the telegram, they had reason to believe that as long as they dared to come, their strength would certainly not be bad, and the enemy's deployment in this area was objectively weak, and it would take a long time for them to temporarily transfer warships from the far north.

For the past two years, Weiss has spent a year and a half fighting guerrilla warfare with the enemy in Lorraine, and he knows the essence of guerrilla warfare by heart. Now, he saw that the major commanded the main ship to evade the enemy's attack, as if he was also using the tactics of guerrilla warfare. Whichever side of the enemy is stronger, he will go in the opposite direction, and when the enemy is suppressed in a high place, he will drill into a low place, and when he has avoided the enemy's edge, he will climb in height again and accumulate potential energy. If the enemy comes from the side, he does not fight him, but climbs quickly and descends quickly. When the enemy focuses on his flight height, he sees an opportunity to turn quickly horizontally and pass through angles that are difficult for the enemy to consider. In this way, during the fierce chase, the transport ship always maintains a sufficient distance from the enemy.

In this way, the enemy's warships did not pose an effective threat despite the constant artillery fire, and the transports kept as close to the border as possible in the process of dodging left and right, and were not driven into the hinterland as the enemy wanted. There's Weiss's reminder ahead. The major commanded the transport ship to deliberately avoid areas where enemy ground air defense forces might be deployed, even if there were sporadic lights on the ground, he would avoid them far away.

On the southeastern frontier of the Norman Empire, jewel-like lakes were almost everywhere. At night when the clouds disperse, moonlight sprinkled the land. As the transport ship swept over these lakes quickly, its shadow formed a large black fish that traveled quickly in the calm ripples. The big black fish sometimes walks through the bottom of the lake, sometimes into the woods, and sometimes glides on the mountain beams. Due to the constant high speed, the flying ships dragged a long, thick trail of smoke, leaving intertwined lines in the clean night.

"The enemy's three cruisers have all been left behind us, and the one that stops in front of the right is the enemy's transport ship, don't be afraid of it, rush straight over!" Weiss hurriedly came down from the observatory and reported what he had observed to the Major as soon as possible, which was a rare opportunity and a fleeting opportunity. Without hesitation, the major aimed at the weakest point of the enemy's encirclement and rushed straight through.

Although the enemy's transport ships are not combat ships, they are also equipped with certain weapons for self-defense. As Weiss's transport flew by, the clumsy fish ran over as if mad and fired at the side with its modest weapons. Even though it was just a few machine guns and machine guns, at the closest distance, its fire was still heavily projected onto the Weiss transport. The outer walls of the transport ship can withstand the machine-gun bullets of ordinary aircraft, but it cannot block the fire of machine guns. If the power pipe or wiring is cut off, it is likely to affect the flight speed, and if the cabin where the target is located is also penetrated, then it will cause additional casualties, which Weiss and they never want to see, and everyone is worried about it. Fortunately, the time left for the enemy to fire heavily was very short. Under the calm command of the major, the transports rushed through the dangerous area, leaving the enemy's transports far behind, and the enemy's three frigates were busy chasing after them, but they did not have an advantage in absolute speed. As a result, the federal transport ship is like playing a beautiful 1V4 on the football field, and suddenly firmly grasps the favorable situation in its own hands!