As night fell, the Russian ocean-going freighter Red Whale 9 slowed down 40 nautical miles from the northern Spanish port city of Avilés, and not far beyond Spanish territorial waters. At this time, the German cruiser, which had been following behind, not only did not mean to leave, but instead attracted a Spanish gunboat, and the two ships watched the every move of the Soviet and Russian freighter not far away like two sharks with bad intentions.

After overcoming many difficulties and achieving reunification, the Soviet Russian government is still facing a very grim international situation -- most countries in the world are hostile to this nascent regime, and this hostility is manifested not only in the existing economic blockade and material embargo, but also in the deployment of various affairs and the organization of the so-called international security alliance. Against this background, although the Russian government has a good military strength, it still has to handle all kinds of international affairs carefully, and they know very well that violating the provisions of international law on national sovereignty and military contraband will only attract criticism from European countries, and certain countries are very likely to take this opportunity to take further harsh measures against Soviet Russia.

But from another point of view, the Russian government is very keen to find an ideal ally and supporter on the planet, so as to get out of the current predicament of being surrounded by enemies on all sides, and then carry out mutually beneficial economic and military cooperation (which is not difficult to understand why the Soviet Union cooperated with Germany in many ways in the 30s). Although today's Spain is not strong enough, it has many excellent ports and more prominent geographical locations, and for Soviet Russia, the most important point is that the current Spanish ** armed forces have the same faith as them, which is the main reason why European countries have supported Alfonso XIII.

In order to ensure that the 18.5-ton "Great Dolphin" in the cargo hold was safely sent into the water, the Soviet and Russian ship technical experts painstakingly designed a retractable bow and a special slide rail on the freighter. As soon as the bow of the freighter is opened, the pocket submarine in the cabin can slide down the slide into the sea, and then sail to the coast of Spain and the armed joints there under its own power. After unloading the cargo on the boat, the pocket submarine can also return to the vicinity of the mother ship to load the next batch of supplies and replenish the fuel through the gondola on the mother ship, and so on until all the supplies on board are finally unloaded. The only drawback of this method is that the pocket submarine will not be able to return to Soviet Russia with the mother ship, so the Russian government is prepared to leave it in Spain to directly help the ** armed forces fight against the Spanish government army.

While the Russians were sending the Dolphin 1 into the sea as planned, the German cruiser Saxon Knight, a few nautical miles away, was completely unaware of this, and instead focused their attention on the foreign communications of the Russian freighter.

"Captain, we just sent an encrypted telegram from that Russian freighter. They should have passed it back to China! ”

The young officer in charge of the radio interception immediately reported to the ship's captain, German Naval Colonel Mathiessen Tirpitz. Until the end of the 19th century, Tirpitz was an obscure surname in Germany, but Count Alfred von Tirpitz was remembered as the founder of the German Navy, and this Mattheeson Tirpitz was the grandson of the cousin of Count Alfred von Tirpitz, but since the Tirpitz family was not the original hereditary nobility, in addition to Alfred and his children, Others can only be knighted by virtue of their own merits, thus changing their civilian origins.

At forty-three years old, Mathieson Tirpitz is not very old, but he did not get to where he is today thanks to his illustrious cousin. As early as the Anglo-German Battle of the North Sea, he was already serving as a warrant officer communications officer on a cruiser. In the wars that followed. He continued to rise through the ranks with his bravery, wisdom and motivation. He served successively as a fleet staff officer, first officer of a destroyer, captain of a minesweeper, and captain of a destroyer, and at the beginning of the German-Japanese war, he was already the captain of a light escort cruiser. Although their ships were only tasked with escorting troop carriers between Europe and Oceania, Mattheeson did his duty and was transferred to the post of captain of the new cruiser later in the war because of his long and outstanding performance.

"Can it be deciphered immediately?"

"It's a simple encrypted telegram that takes a little time, but it won't be too hard!"

The officer confidently replied that the "Saxon Knight" was not an ordinary naval cruiser, it had a displacement of 12,000 tons, belonged to the category of medium cruisers, and was equipped with twin 203-mm naval guns, two triple-mounted 304-mm torpedoes, and a number of high-level dual-purpose guns and machine guns, and its firepower was not outstanding among cruisers of the same class. But it is equipped with Germany's most advanced "Hawkeye 4" shipborne radar and a series of advanced electronic equipment, plus all-diesel engine power and a new steam turbine, its service has raised the German Navy's modern standards to a new level.

With a top speed of 33 knots, a cruising range of 11,000 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 16 knots, and a Junkers J-twin water reconnaissance/bomber equipped with a simple radar or two single-engine Heinkel-77 water reconnaissance aircraft, it can be said that almost no ship in the world can escape the pursuit of the "Saxon Knight" without an exchange of fire.

Of course, such a cruiser, which can play the role of a generalist in the Navy, is also much more expensive than other warships of the same class. Regardless of staffing, the German Navy is currently spending as much money on a Saxon Knight as it is on a 21,000-ton Scharnhorst-class. Nevertheless, by 1932 the German Navy had six of these multipurpose cruisers in service, three of which were deployed in the Far East, one in North America, one in the Mediterranean, and one of the Saxon Knights, which operated exclusively in the Atlantic.

"Decipher it as soon as possible!"

Although the Soviet and Russian freighter has not made any unusual moves so far, Mattheison has a faint feeling in his heart: this freighter is not simple!

Ten minutes later, the officer in charge of radio monitoring came to the command room again, this time, holding a piece of paper in his hand, and reported with joy:

"Captain, the other party's telegram has been deciphered!"

Mattheeson took the paper and whispered it:

"Our ship has arrived in the waters of northern Spain, but it still can't get rid of the German ** ship that is trailing. There is also a small Spanish warship nearby, please indicate whether to continue or return! ”

The officer stood silently and did not say anything about it.

Mattheeson read the words on the paper softly again, then walked to the bulletproof window in front of the command room with his hands behind his back, and everything was so calm in the night, only the sailing lights of the Russian freighter were constantly flashing. It's all so weird.

After thinking for a long time, Mattheeson spoke:

"Send the contents of the message we deciphered to the Home Fleet Command in Kiel! Also, keep a distance of more than 1,200 yards when approaching the Russian freighter, and keep an eye on the Russian freighter and the sea situation at each lookout post! ”

After driving at a cruising speed for a long time, the cruiser seemed to have the same sense of aggrieved as the officers and men on board that the birds could not fly and the horses could not gallop, so when the order to speed up was given, it immediately sailed briskly towards the Soviet and Russian freighter in front of it in a manner that rode the wind and waves, and after a few minutes it narrowed the distance between the two engines to the point where the lights and figures in the wheelhouse of the other side could be seen clearly with the naked eye. However, the Germans did not notice anything unusual. It was as if everyone except for a few Russian crew members at the helm in the wheelhouse had gone to sleep in the cabin. The whole ship was a mess.

If you change to someone else, you may be ordered to distance yourself from the other person again, or continue to keep this distance from the other person. But Mattheeson made a somewhat surprising decision: "Turn off all engines, steam turbines!" ”

Although they were very confused and a little worried that the other party would get rid of their tracking, the officers on the ship still carried out the order, and just when the main source of noise on the ship quieted down, the sonar soldiers did find an anomaly on the bottom of the sea.

"Although the sound was very faint, we can be sure that it was the noise of a machine from outside the Russian freighter!" The officer in charge of the sonar reported: "If nothing else, it should be a submarine, but our submarines don't usually operate in this area!" ”

"I knew there must be some conspiracy of the Russians!" Hearing this, Mattieson slapped excitedly, "Determine the other party's position." Get ready for a depth charge attack! Also, send the news back to the fleet command in Kiel in an encrypted manner, asking them to immediately find out if there is any activity of our submarines in this area; If not, ask them for permission to drop depth charges to force that unidentified submarine to surface! ”

After giving the order, Matthieson added to the officers beside him: "I think it must be a Russian submarine, otherwise this freighter would not have continued to sail to the Spanish coast without realizing that it could not get rid of us!" ”

After the "Saxon Knight" stopped, the Russian freighter hesitated for a moment, and then headed west at full speed, but Mattheeson was not moved by this tactic of his opponent. He ordered: "Send a signal to the Spanish gunboats and let them follow!" ”

Although the Spanish gunboat that followed it was only a small offshore gunboat built by his own Santander shipyard, Mattheison knew very well that it could still compete with the Soviet Russian steamer at cruising range, not to mention that it also had a 77mm naval gun and several machine guns on it, which was more than enough to deal with a basically unarmed steamer. Now, Mattheeson focused his attention on the submarine that had just been discovered, which he judged to be the key to the Russians' trip, and if he succeeded in forcing the other side to the surface and capturing the other side, the naval blockade would be more than half successful, and this success would undoubtedly win him the coveted honor.

Soon, the sailors used sonar to determine the general location of the submarine, and Mattheeson and his extremely advanced cruiser set sail again. For the officers and men of the German Navy, anti-submarine is a very traditional activity and has a lot of honorable achievements, and in this world, perhaps only Germany's own submarines can compete with these very professional sea hunters. However, in this case, Mattheeson kept his sailors on high alert, and at the same time, in order to capture the faint and even faint sound of the target, the German sonar soldiers used their own housekeeping skills - ordinary sonar soldiers are often confused by the currents, the noise of the ship itself, and the sound waves reflected by the fish, and only experienced sonar soldiers can recognize these meaningless signals and find the real target.

A quarter of an hour later, a telegram from Kiel Command confirming that there were no submarines in the vicinity of the country, by which time Mathiessen's two sonar crews had narrowed the position of the submarine to a small area.

Although the Saxon Knight is not a dedicated anti-submarine warfare ship, Mattheeson believes that his sailors will be able to perform at the level of their usual drills, using the ship's two Lim 2 rocket depth charge launchers to blast them out of the water or sink them directly to the bottom, and now all he needs is an order from the fleet command to allow him to attack.

However, to his great frustration, this very simple order was not issued for a long time.

The sonar soldiers on the ship have been firmly tracking the slippery target like a loach through the four sonar systems on the ship - one set of active and passive sonar systems on the left and right, and the sailors have already made all the preparations before the launch of depth charges, Mattheeson gradually changed from helpless to anxious, from anxious to a little annoyed, time passed minute by minute, compared to the "Saxon Knight", the submarine diving under the water is slower than a snail, At the lowest speed, he still needs to turn around again and again to keep a distance from the other party, and what makes people even more annoyed is that the submarine does not seem to have any intention of evading at all, and has been slowly moving towards the coast, sometimes even stopping in place for half an hour......

Just as Mattheeson was on the verge of madness, the communications officer ran all the way to the command room.

"Telegram! Telegram from Berlin! ”

It was not up to the Home Fleet Command in Kiel to decide whether or not to attack in such a situation, and although Mattheeson had thought of this, he did not think much about it at this time, and he snatched the telegram from the communications officer's hand.

Matthissen read the contents of the telegram four or five times, and then stood there with a confused expression.

The telegram read:

"Keep your distance! Act wisely! ”