"Send them some hot soup, it's not good to freeze them!"

After lifting the corner of the curtain and looking out for a while, Wilson said wistfully to his deputy. Despite the cold weather, a large crowd of people has gathered in front of the White House to protest since the morning, but fortunately these people are not particularly emotional, and many police officers in front of the White House are just standing a short distance and silently watching them.

About 300 to 400 people came to the White House to demonstrate today, and they were roughly divided into two groups: one group held slogans such as "punish the murderers," "sever diplomatic relations with Britain," and "stay away from war in Europe," demanding that the government take necessary measures to give justice to the American citizens killed on the "Hill"; The opinions of another group of people were also written on the placards in their hands: "Let the Japanese go home," "I can't stand it—the dignity of the United States is insulted by Japan," and "Bombard the Japanese mainland." They were very dissatisfied with the stationing of the main Japanese fleet in the Polynesian Islands and Clipperton Island, which in essence threatened the security of the American mainland.

Based on the fact that the French built a dual-use military port that could accommodate many warships and a strong naval fortress in the Polynesian Islands, and the Japanese fleet could have used it as a forward naval base, many discerning Americans realized that once the Japanese government did something wrong, the American mainland was no longer a paradise, and most Americans still remember March 8, 1854, within the range of American warship guns, under the gaze of 500 American sailors, with the roar of 17 salutes. The commander of the U.S. fleet and representatives of the Tokugawa shogunate began trade negotiations with the signing of the Japan-U.S. Treaty of Amity, which collapsed after 200 years of seclusion.

The United States once bombarded Japan's door with artillery, but now Japan, which is inferior to the United States in national strength, has bullied the arrogant Americans, and this is a fact that many American people cannot accept.

"Admiral, will the Japanese really skip the Philippines and the Hawaiian Islands and attack our mainland directly?" Wilson finally turned from the window, and standing in front of his desk was Admiral Simms, the commander of the U.S. Navy.

"Your Excellency, judging from the current situation, I don't think the Japanese will really go to war with us, although they also retain a certain naval strength on their homeland, but the warships of our Pacific Fleet stationed in the Philippines and Hawaii can still retaliate against Japan's home ports and even Tokyo as quickly as possible." Sims comforted President Wilson a little with his speculation.

"That's good! Damn the Japanese, I actually left them out in the first place! Without them, our previous two deals would have been a huge profit, and now we recall most of the ships that have been sold to the British government, which is very unhappy with this, and the transfer of the British colonies in the transaction has been temporarily postponed. The German government was so happy that it was said that they launched an attack on the British mainland after Christmas. Oh my God, what a terrible thing for us to have a united Europe! Wilson said with both chagrin and regret that for the first time in his life he found himself so hated the Japanese government. The Japanese are like children who live across the street from their homes and come to make trouble while they are not at home.

"But ......," Sims reminded Wilson in a more tactful tone, "the Japanese could have sailed their main fleet to the vicinity of our west coast, which would cause great panic among the inhabitants of our west coast, and inflict immeasurable damage on our social stability and economy." In comparison, this deterrent is much greater than that of our fleet sailing to the vicinity of Japan to bring to the Japanese, and the government will probably be under even greater pressure at that time! ”

Wilson was a little puzzled by this, "Aren't the Japanese afraid that we will bombard them?" ”

"It's not that they are not afraid, but the Japanese people are far less afraid of war than the American people, and in the past 20 years, their navy has fought against the Chinese navy and the Russian navy, which are stronger than themselves. With their own navy at a disadvantage, the Japanese people will have to face the defeat of their own navy and the threat to their homeland at any time. And we, the people of the United States, have not experienced war for many years, and for them war seems to be a matter of another world! Sims still has one thing that he has not said, that is, after the Sino-Japanese and Russian-Japanese naval battles, the Japanese people's confidence and desire for war have greatly increased, and in their opinion, war has always brought them great victories and unlimited benefits.

Wilson looked very disappointed, "So the Japanese fleet could sail from the Polynesian Islands and near Clipperton Island to our west coast at any time?" So are we going to bring the main forces of the Pacific Fleet back from the Philippines and Hawaii to defend our homeland? ”

"Your Excellency President, my suggestion is to transfer the Atlantic Fleet back to protect the west coast of the homeland, the Japanese fleet now has no way to threaten our east coast through the Panama Canal (at this time, the Panama Canal is under the control of the United States, and it is also a special channel for the US Atlantic Fleet and the Pacific Fleet), as for the main force of the Pacific Fleet, it is better to stay in the Philippines and Hawaii to threaten the Japanese mainland than to transfer back to the US mainland, at least the Japanese main fleet will have some scruples! Under such circumstances, the Japanese will never act rashly! Despite the complexity of the current situation, Sims believes that the entire U.S. Navy will not be inferior to the Japanese Navy, at least in terms of momentum.

"Then convene a meeting of the Admiralty as soon as possible to formulate a concrete response strategy so that our people can be reassured as soon as possible. In addition, I will ask the Secretary of the Navy to urge the shipyards to accelerate the construction of new warships, and we can use this as an opportunity to ask Congress to approve more warship construction plans! Hearing Sims's opinion, Wilson's heart finally settled down, and the long-term stability caused the U.S. Congress to reduce the shipbuilding plan proposed by the Admiralty several times in a row, which had a great impact on Wilson's own expansionist thinking, and this time Congress had to reconsider the threat of war to the United States.

After drinking the hot soup provided by the White House staff, the number of citizens demonstrating in front of the White House continued unabated, and these people did not disperse peacefully until it was almost dark. Wilson breathed a sigh of relief, the next day was Christmas Eve, and the atmosphere of Christmas could somewhat dilute the dissatisfaction in the hearts of these people.

Tahiti, the largest island in the east-central Pacific Ocean, was home to two-thirds of the Polynesian archipelago, and the French government built a large military and civilian port and two fortified forts. Everything here is now owned by Germany and managed by Japan. Just before Christmas, Japanese Admiral Heihachiro Togo led a combined fleet of 10 battleships, 5 battlecruisers, 12 cruisers, and 28 destroyers into this beautiful harbor, along with 20 freighters, carrying supplies for the fleet and Japanese merchants preparing to build and develop in the area. German and Japanese flags were unfurled throughout the port, but the German government sent only a special team to symbolically accept the transfer of ownership from the French authorities.

Standing on the bridge and watching the beautiful sunset, the 67-year-old veteran of the Japanese Navy was filled with emotion in his heart, because this was the farthest military operation of the Japanese Navy from the mainland except for a friendly visit, and Japan's tentacles also extended thousands of nautical miles to the depths of the Pacific Ocean with this operation. At the first sight of this harbor, Heihachiro Togo had a strong urge to truly integrate this place with a very good geographical location and environment into the Japanese map. The two forts in the harbor looked a little old on the surface, but Togo brought two ships full of construction workers and a lot of fort cannons, and it became the consensus of the Japanese government and the Admiralty to build this place into an important outpost. With this port, the Americans had to think twice about taking actions against Japan.

For the Japanese, the fly in the ointment is probably that Tahiti itself is relatively poor in resources, which has almost nothing but sunlight and trees, and most of the construction materials in the early stage have to be transported from Japan thousands of miles, but some other islands in the French Polynesian archipelago still have quite sufficient resources, and the French have not completed the construction, and the Japanese decided to complete it. With so much effort to build here, it seems that the Japanese government has no intention of returning it to Germany.

"Marshal, Rear Admiral Rokuro Yashiro led a telegram that his cruiser fleet will arrive on Clipperton Island in the early hours of tomorrow morning and is preparing to anchor outside the island, so far they have not found any American ships!" A naval lieutenant with a telegram disturbs Togo's beautiful plans for the future.

"Oh!" Togo took the telegram and glanced at it, Rear Admiral Yashiro's cruiser fleet consisted of 3 heavy cruisers, 3 light cruisers, and 2 fast supply ships, and the island they were heading to was the most likely place to encounter the American fleet, because the route from the Panama Canal to the west coast of the United States was very close to that island. Unfortunately, the island was not suitable for habitation, and the fleet could not stay there for long.

"Order Major General Yatsushiro to pay attention to the search of the nearby sea surface and report to me as soon as there is a situation. Unless it is a last resort, there must be no conflict with the American fleet! ”

"Hey!" Nakasa bowed, and then left Togo to continue enjoying the sea view.

At the docks in the port of Tahiti, Japanese sailors and merchants nervously and orderly unloaded their belongings from their ships, while a small boat carrying several German-flagged Europeans was heading towards the Mikasa, the flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet in Togo.

Togo straightened his collar and prepared to welcome the German guests.

In contrast to the pleasant, sunny eastern part of the Pacific Ocean, where snow is falling in both the Atlantic Ocean and England, it seems to be a never-ending snow.

"General, the Naval Intelligence Department has intercepted a clear telegram between the British Special Fleet and the British Admiralty, and the British Fleet will go to Iceland to replenish supplies first!" The telegram brought by the communications officer attracted the attention of the generals in the command room of the "Elector".

"Iceland?" Shepar took the telegram in amazement, and he knew what it meant without looking at the charts.

"In that case, the British fleet will bypass our ring of caution and sail from the north to the British mainland!" A commodore couldn't wait to express his opinion, "Are we going to adjust the deployment immediately?" ”

"Rest easy!" Sheppel put down the telegram and thought silently for a while, "If you are going from the mainland of the United States, does Churchill need to replenish supplies on the way?" Unless it's a consideration on the route, or a tactical deception! ”

"Tactical deception?"

"Yes, the British Navy, like our German Navy, attaches great importance to the secrecy of communications, which is why we have rarely been able to decipher the other side's telegrams and achieve strategic initiative and victory with this since the beginning of the war! This time, if it weren't for the extraordinary performance of our naval intelligence, it would have been the British who were deliberately leaking fake news! Sheppel quickly showed his calculating side, and he knew Churchill's personality well.

"So ......"

"For the sake of safety, I would like to ask the submarine formation to send two submarines to the route between Iceland and the United Kingdom to be on guard!"

Although Iceland has a small population, it is still very valuable to the British and there are rumors that the British government has quietly shipped a considerable part of the wealth out of the country, and Iceland and Canada are the two largest gold caches. If the British were going to establish a government in exile, both Iceland and Canada would be good options, and a large-scale landing attack on Iceland or Canada would be a very difficult task for the Germans.

After a while, the communications officer brought another piece of good news to everyone:

"General, the Admiralty has agreed to send two additional fast cruisers currently cruising in the North Sea with seaplanes to support us, and if they sail at full speed, they will be here tomorrow night!"

"It would be nice to have one or two more seaplane carriers or battleships!" Sheppel knew that this was not a realistic request, and the German Navy was currently preparing for a landing operation in full force, and the top brass did not have much hope for the ambush of the British special fleet, which alone could not save the fate of Britain.

"But if the snow doesn't stop, those two reconnaissance cruisers won't be able to play a role!" I don't know who said it, which made the generals in the command room look out of the porthole.

In the snow-covered English town, a middle-aged man who went out in the snow suddenly snapped and fell a big heel, and the guy in the store not far away glanced at this side, although it was normal to fall on a snowy day, but seeing the funny appearance of the middle-aged man on all sides, he still covered his mouth and couldn't stop laughing.

"Damn, who put the stone in this place!" The middle-aged man swore and crawled up, and before he could clean the snow off his body, he kicked the "stone". The "stone", which was covered with thick snow, moved, and the middle-aged man in large leather shoes did not feel that it was any different from ordinary stones.

As soon as he took two steps out, the middle-aged man stopped again, and he thought that it would be better to move the stone away, and it was inevitable that there would be other people who liked to walk along the root of the wall like him. But when he lifted the "stone", he was really startled, where is the stone, it is clearly a golden nugget!

So, the guy in the store not far away watched in amazement as the middle-aged man took the "stone" on the ground into his arms, and then disappeared around the corner with a cigarette as fast as he could.

"Strange! Pick up a stone and use it as a treasure! ”

However, when more and more people picked up the "stones", the news of "Santa Claus giving gold" spread almost at the speed of light throughout the town. The men and women of all towns, young and old, went out together, all braved the heavy snow and used shovels, brooms and other tools to "clear" the snow near the house, from time to time some people screamed, and some people looked nervous and hurriedly walked back with their clothes covered, and there were several fights on the street because of the simultaneous sighting of gold nuggets, until the police arrived and the chaos barely calmed down. When the number of gold nuggets found became less and less, some people who were usually not of good character began to think about those who had already picked up gold or "suspected of finding gold", and many people who were talked about about picking up "Christmas gifts" were robbed after nightfall. As a result, the nearby garrison came overnight to maintain law and order and collect the gold nuggets that originally belonged to the British government, and many people who insisted on the gold nuggets they had picked up belonged to themselves clashed with the British soldiers. Although the situation had subsided before dawn, the unease had already been planted in everyone's minds.

After daybreak, news of the discovery of gold nuggets in other towns and villages came, and men and women, young and old, once again joined forces in the vicinity, using all the means of transport at their disposal to rush to the places where the "Christmas presents" appeared, and the indifference of winter was gone. The agitation eventually spread to a large area of southern England, where gold nuggets were not found in many places, but many people were still very serious about "sweeping" the snow nearby, some people who behaved strangely were mistaken for gold nuggets, and some unscrupulous people took the opportunity to encourage other residents to break into their homes and loot their belongings, so the British garrison and police became the busiest people at Christmas.

With the frequent activity of the army, the task of capturing the German commandos disguised as British troops became even more difficult. Half a day before Christmas Eve, the British Royal Special Police Force found dozens of British soldiers who had frozen to death in a woods during the tracking, all of their coats had been stripped off, and a lot of dirty military uniforms were thrown nearby.

"Oops! It's harder to catch them now! The black-uniformed guy vented his anger on a pebble, the British soldiers who had frozen to death were unknown, but the German commandos had a new identity.

In the snow, Christmas Eve 1914 finally arrived. In a remote farmstead between London and Southampton, Cullen and his commandos celebrate a happy Christmas by opening a bottle, and the owner prepares plenty of delicious food for them. However, due to the unkind behavior of Karen and the others, the farmer's family was locked up in the basement for their miserable Christmas Eve.