Asahi Sea, Watchman Strait.

From a purely geographical point of view, the median line of the strait, that is, the line with the shortest distance between Morido and Wangdao, is the dividing line between the Asahi Sea and the Guia Ocean. However, according to tradition and custom, the geographical dividing line between the Asahi Sea and the Guia Ocean was drawn to the east of the Watchman Strait.

As a result, the Watcher Strait belongs to Asahimi.

The 21st squadron, inside the lookout of the main mast of the flagship "Beihe".

He took two breaths on his hand, rubbed his face a few times, and quickly stomped his feet on the spot, feeling a little warmer on his body, Bai Zhizhan took out his pocket watch.

It was already 9:25.

"!"

Cursing in a low voice, Bai Zhizhan put away his pocket watch and put his gloves back on.

More than that, he regrets it now.

More than two hours ago, at about half past seven, when the 21st Squadron rushed into the labyrinthine channel, the assistant of the navigation staff went to the infirmary because he had eaten the wrong thing and was diagnosed with acute enteritis. Bai Zhizhan seized the opportunity to recommend himself and became a temporary assistant to the navigation staff.

As long as nothing happens, Bai Zhizhan's staff career will begin.

It's a pity that he was too eager to show himself.

When the 21st Squadron entered the Northern Passage through a safe waterway secretly opened by the frogmen, Rear Admiral He Yongxing, the commander of the detachment, convened the main staff officers to discuss the next combat operations, and Bai Zhizhan proposed in front of many senior staff officers that he would definitely encounter the 1st Battle Patrol Detachment, which had been observed before half past nine and had later disengaged from contact.

If it's just this one sentence, there's nothing yet.

Discussing tactics is originally a matter of expressing their own opinions, and staff officers have the right to speak.

The point is, he also said, can let the four battle cruisers raise the "Rising Sun and Shine Sea" flag and pretend to be the second battle patrol detachment of the combined fleet, so as to seize an advantageous position, such as occupying the T-shaped head, giving the first battle patrol detachment a head-on attack, and maybe even defeating the first battle patrol detachment.

At the end of the meeting, the nautical staff assigned Bai Zhizhan a new task: to prove what he had said in front of the commander.

In fact, it can't be blamed for stopping the war.

Young officers like Bai Zhizhan, who came from the civilian class and stayed up for several years at the Naval Academy before serving on a battleship, wanted to get the opportunity to show their talents.

What's more, Bai Zhizhan majored in aviation reconnaissance!

This is a major that has only been open for five years, and Bai Zhizhan is one of the first students of this major. It's a little related, and I won't major in this partial course. Among the dozens of majors in the Naval Academy, the most popular are gunnery, navigation and marine engineering, followed by communications and medical care. Not to mention anything else, the students from famous families that Bai Zhizhan knew were all majoring in gunnery and navigation.

I can't fight my father, I can only fight sweat.

In the past five years, Bai Zhizhan not only completed his major and obtained the assessment results of excellent A, but also passed the final examination of three minor majors, excellent A in artillery, excellent A in navigation, and excellent B in communications, and his comprehensive assessment results ranked in the top ten among more than 2,000 students in the same class.

It was precisely in this way that he took the principal's letter of recommendation to the home fleet and defected to Rear Admiral He Yongxing.

He Yongxing is the founding disciple of Admiral Zhu Shijian, the president of the Naval Academy, so speaking of which, he is the elder brother of Bai Zhizhan.

Unfortunately, it's useless.

From He Yongxing onwards, eighty percent of the officers of the 21st Squadron graduated from the Naval Academy, and the other two percent also went to the Naval Academy for further study.

If you want to have a relationship, all of them are He Yongxing's juniors.

The 21st Squadron is full of talents, and young officers like Bai Zhizhan are like carp crossing the river, and they are a lot of them when they are caught. Zhu Shijian's handwritten letter, coupled with four excellent assessment results, was just a stepping stone to enter the 21st Fleet Headquarters. If you want to achieve more, in addition to hard work, you also need a little luck, as well as the vision and courage to find and seize opportunities.

Bai Zhizhan found an opportunity and seized it, but unfortunately he was inexperienced and acted in a hurry.

Thinking of this, Bai Zhizhan couldn't help but sigh secretly.

Don't say anything young and frivolous, many times you really have to accept your fate.

Five years ago, when he entered the Imperial Naval Academy with great ambition, Bai Zhizhan had a clear goal in life, to become an undefeated god of war like Marshal Chen Bingxun, who commanded the fleet and swept the four seas. When I walked out of the Naval Academy, I found that the gap between the ideal and the reality was too great.

When he came to the 21st Fleet, the first lesson he learned was to face, accept, and adapt to reality.

At this time, it can be regarded as the final assessment of the first lesson.

"Second Lieutenant Bai, take a bite? Hot, warm. The lookout next to him pushed Bai Zhizhan and handed him a flannel-covered kettle.

Although it is the prefix "long", the lookout chief is a non-commissioned officer, and his status is below that of an officer.

Bai Zhizhan was not polite, standing dozens of meters above the sea, blown by the icy sea breeze for more than an hour, no one could refuse the temptation of hot tea.

Probably because his nose was frozen, and after drinking it in his mouth, Bai Zhizhan realized that the kettle was not filled with tea.

It turned out to be sake, and it was a high-count shochu!

"How's it going, is it warm?" Staring at Bai Zhizhan's face that began to distort, the lookout laughed, as if it was a very proud thing to tease the officer.

Of course, it was really warm.

Holding back the feeling of burning in his throat, Bai Zhizhan swallowed the wine. After a moment, feeling a little more comfortable, I took another sip.

"Swallow it for a while, it's not easy to get up."

Bai Zhizhan listened to the advice of the lookout, but did not take a third sip.

The Imperial Navy was not an army, and not only was it strictly forbidden to drink alcohol in wartime, but even in peacetime there was no habit of alcoholism, and even banquets were mainly served with low-alcohol wines such as champagne.

"Where did it come from?" Bai Zhizhan returned the kettle to the lookout.

"It's delicious, isn't it?"

Noticing the lookout's smiling expression, Bai Zhizhan didn't ask any more questions, after all, if this matter is to be investigated, someone will definitely be unlucky.

In fact, lack of military discipline was already a big problem for the Imperial Navy.

In the past two years or so, the home fleet has made dozens of sorties and fought dozens of battles, large and small, but has never seized the opportunity to turn the tide of the war. The officers were okay, but the officers and men at the grassroots level were already exhausted. If it weren't for the thought of revenge, there was a ruthlessness supported by the idea of revenge, and the morale would have collapsed long ago.

There is no hope of victory, and the usual supplies are barely enough, no matter how strict military discipline is, isn't it forcing the low-level officers and soldiers to make trouble?

The lookout chief was a man of understanding, put away the kettle, operated the high-magnification telescope set up on the circular slide, and looked seriously towards the sea antenna to the south.

Bai Zhizhan also put away his thoughts, picked up the telescope and searched for the sea antenna in the southeast direction.

It's a little blurry, and the lenses seem to be fogged.

Wrong!

It's not foggy!

It was a few very faint pillars of smoke that rose straight into the air, and the battleship emitting the smoke column was still under the sea antenna, certainly thirty kilometers away.

"Lao Li, southeast!" Bai Zhizhan immediately reminded the lookout chief, who only knew that the lookout's surname was Li.

It must have been black smoke coming from the battleship's chimney, but it was too far away to make any further judgment, and it wasn't even clear how many there were.

When the lookout turned the special 40x telescope, Bai Zhizhan had already grabbed the telephone microphone.