"It is a pleasure to sign such a significant treaty with your country!"

After signing the German-Japanese Polynesian Treaty on behalf of the Japanese Government, Japanese representative Kazufumi Matsuda extended his right hand to German Foreign Minister Bilo with a smile on his face, while Japanese envoy Hirota Hiroki laughed respectfully on the sidelines.

"It should be said that our two countries have made a good deal, and your government's strategic vision and negotiating ability are truly enviable!" Holding the other party's small hands, Bilo always had an awkward feeling, he didn't like to stand up and bow his head to talk to the Japanese, but the Japanese representative seemed to like to use his height "advantage" to make the Germans "bow their heads" in front of him again and again.

"Your Excellency, please convey to your honorable Emperor that we, the Emperor and the Government, are pleased to stand with the mighty Germany. In accordance with our agreement, our main fleet, which is cruising in the central Pacific Ocean, will be stationed in the Polynesian islands before Christmas, and a detachment will be dispatched to Clipperton Island as soon as possible. "After reaping enough benefits at the negotiating table, the Japanese finally got their hands on it.

Bilow just smiled slightly, for Germany, which had just swallowed half of France and all its colonies, those French islands were just the tip of the iceberg, and when Britain was defeated, there would be more colonies waiting for Germany to receive and digest, plus France's reparations and Britain's wealth, Germany's future was feared by everyone.

Although the agreement between Germany and Japan was only a secret agreement, the U.S. government received this worrying information shortly after the agreement was signed.

Norfolk Military Port, USA.

"Hey, I'm Major Sridton, the officer on duty! Are you ...... Oh, Admiral! Hello! Yes, yes, they set sail at 10 a.m., and by now there have been ...... It's been over 6 hours! We confirmed with Vice Admiral Conway, and he said that the fleet had been cleared to leave port! Be...... Be! ”

When he finished answering the phone, Major Sridton, the officer on duty at the Atlantic Fleet, was already in a cold sweat, and he quickly dialed the phone of Vice Admiral Conway, the deputy commander of the fleet, but no one answered there. When Sridon hurriedly opened the door of the duty room, a cold wind blew in, making the strong American man in a military coat shiver.

Sritton was running up and down the corridors like a lost hound, the clouds of war far from looming over the United States, and as Christmas approached, most of the Navy's officers were allowed to go home with their families. After the fleet handover ceremony two weeks ago, the Americans paid much less attention to the fleet that now belonged to Britain. Even for such an important event as the British fleet setting sail for Britain, only a few American admirals came to see it off, and before the fleet left the harbor, these people were busy with their own affairs again, and as a result, there were not even a few people in the command headquarters of the huge Atlantic Fleet.

"Lieutenant Commander, have the patrol ships that escorted the British fleet out of port returned?"

Sriten finally ran into a lieutenant colonel in charge of port defense, and he asked impatiently as he saluted.

"Major Shriton, what's going on? Isn't there an Englishman who still owes you money and hasn't paid it back? The lieutenant colonel had a completely relaxed expression on his face, knowing that the officers and men of the Atlantic Fleet could enjoy a long period of leisure before the new ships were launched, and they would receive their salaries. Many people are considering whether to join the military observer group to watch the war in England, or to work as instructors in backward countries for a period of time to make extra money.

Shreton was not in the mood to joke at all, he gasped and said, "No, just now the commander of the Navy personally called and asked us to stop the British fleet, and no matter what means we use, we will let those warships stay in the United States for the time being!" ”

"Open...... Are you kidding! That British fleet is now out of American territorial waters! The patrol ship we escorted them out of port had already returned two hours earlier! What the hell is going on, to leave that fleet in the harbor in a hurry? "The lieutenant colonel was completely confused, although those battleships had not yet been partially converted in full accordance with the requirements of the British, but it was the British themselves who asked to return the fleet to the British mainland in advance, and if there were any quality problems with the battleships, the British themselves would be responsible for it in the future.

"I don't know the specifics, but the admiral's tone is very serious and anxious, and it doesn't look like he's joking at all!" Poor Shridon was just an ordinary officer on duty, and what he had to do was to convey the orders of his superiors to the entire fleet, and not ask why.

"That's terrible! Even if we set off now, we won't be able to catch up with the British until at least after dark! But with these warships in our hands......" The lieutenant commander looked out the window at the harbor, where only twenty or so petite warships were still anchored in the cold windy harbor, and the entire Norfolk military harbor became much deserted after the departure of the British fleet. If the British insisted on moving on, these warships would not be able to stop the huge fleet.

"Either way, we're going to try! Lieutenant Colonel, can you get all the fast warships ready to sail first, and I will find the lieutenant general and other generals as soon as possible!" Sriton looked expectantly at the Lieutenant Colonel, who was thinking.

It took several seconds before the lieutenant colonel gritted his teeth, "That...... All right! I went to inform the 1st and 2nd Patrol Fleets and the 1st Destroyer Fleet to set fire and anchor, but they could not leave the harbor without a direct order from their superiors! Good luck, Major, I'll be waiting for your news in the dock watch room! ”

"Lieutenant Colonel, thank you!" Schridden was a little relieved, but it wasn't easy to find the generals, and he felt that he had to inform Lieutenant General Conway first anyway.

The Americans were anxious about the search for people, while the Germans were searching for objects with all their might, looking for explosives with a certain power.

"This must be the arsenal that the British prisoner spoke of before!"

Halim stood in front of a warehouse that was neither tall nor large, and it seemed that the arsenal of the defenders of the vault was small. He took a rifle from one of the commandos and slammed the lock on the door with the butt, and the rusty lock fell to the ground with a clatter. Thanks to the efforts of the two commandos, the door of the arsenal creaked open.

"Ahem......" As soon as Helim walked into the warehouse, he was choked by the dust he brought up, and there was only a pile of things covered with canvas, and a thick layer of dust had accumulated on the canvas, it seemed that the defenders here had been out of battle for a long time, and it was reasonable to be killed by the commandos in one go.

After the dust had settled again, Halim took a deep breath, a man like him who had been in the army for ten years was all too familiar with the smell of guns and ammunition.

"Looks like there's what we're looking for!" Halim said and gesturing to the pile, "Lift the canvas off this!" ”

The commandos held their breath and lifted the canvas from back to front, revealing a dozen neatly arranged wooden boxes with the words "British Army, handle with care." Halim took a bayonet and pried open the outermost box, revealing small square, yellowish boxes.

"Bullets?"

Halim, who didn't see the ZHA medicine, was not too disappointed, because the commandos were just about to replenish their ammunition.

"Corporal, carry this box of bullets to the car, and let everyone use it later!"

The second box was still rifle bullets, and Halim frowned and asked the commandos to move it away.

The third box was machine gun ammunition, which Halim had to carry back to the convoy to replenish the machine guns in the commando.

Somewhat frustrated, Halim pried open a box in the back, only to find something meaningful, which was a box of mines filled with ZHA medicine.

"God! It seems that the British have deployed minefields on three other sides except for the front of the vault, and it is really an incomparably wise choice to attack from the front! Helim lamented that although the other three sides of the vault were surrounded by barbed wire, they had not noticed the signs of a minefield when they had observed before.

After priing all the boxes open, the commandos still didn't see any sign of the Zha medicine, but 8 boxes of mines were a good replacement, and the rest of the boxes were filled with rifle and machine gun bullets, as well as a box of parts for repairing the various gates of the vault.

When Halim and the others returned to the vault with these mines, Cullen and the others had finished their task of carrying the gold, and he asked the commandos to place the remaining four boxes of ZHA medicine at the door of the vault, but it was still a little reluctant to blow up the vault with ZHA medicine.

"Captain! Add that to that, you shouldn't have a problem! With a smile on his face, Halim placed the mine next to the zha medicine, and then glanced at the pile of gold nuggets left in the vault, he didn't know if he would ever see so much gold in the future.

"Whether or not you can successfully blow up this place, everyone is ready to retreat!"

Listening to the dense gunfire in the distance mixed with the sound of shells exploding, Cullen knew that the pressure was mounting on the side of the blocking force. As long as the naval blockade of the British Isles continued, the British would not want to transport the gold here.

On the blocking position north of the vault, the battle was still raging.

"Second Lieutenant, there's another British infantry coming from behind!" Siggett lay on his stomach in the single bunker and shouted loudly to Ensign Tobias, who was half a meter away from him.

"Do they have cannons?"

After a round of bullets, Tobias retreated back into his own bunker to reload.

Siggett held up the binoculars and looked at it for a long time, "No! Just a horde of panting infantry! ”

Before Tobias could say anything more, a shell exploded near them interrupted their conversation. So far, the British in front of them had only two small-caliber guns, which were cavalry guns brought by the third group of cavalry units, with large wheels but little power, but they still caused a lot of trouble for the soldiers of Tobias, and the German snipers could not do much at that distance.

Since the arrival of the first British cavalry, Tobias's blocking battle has been fought for nearly half an hour, in this half hour, three British cavalry units and two army units have arrived, and at this time more than 2,000 British soldiers have gathered in front of the assault team, and the reinforcements behind are still coming.

The road hundreds of meters in front of the assault position was covered with the corpses of cavalry and war horses, and at least 400 British infantry cavalry were killed, but the assault team itself suffered more than 1/3 of the soldiers, and what was worse was that the German soldiers were running out of ammunition.

"Second Lieutenant, prepare to retreat! When the British cavalry rushes up, we won't have a chance to get out of the battle! ”

Seeing the British troops in the distance regrouping and preparing to launch a joint charge of cavalry and infantry, Siggett said worriedly. As a good spy, he felt that he had more important tasks to carry out in the future, and the commandos here were all good soldiers who should survive.

"Hold on for a few more minutes! We'll hold out until Captain Cullen and them evacuate the vault! Tobias replied categorically, "That's good, you take the wounded soldiers here and withdraw first, and I and the others will be behind, so that it will be good for everyone!" ”

Siggett thought about it, the state and the organization spent far more energy to train themselves than ordinary soldiers, and it was reasonable to say that his duty was not to fight the enemy on this face-to-face battlefield with ordinary soldiers, so he agreed to Tobias's suggestion. The commandos chose a blocking position between two woods, a dozen kilometers to the east is the mouth of the Thames River, and to the west is the inland area.

"Then we're retreating west!" Siggett said as he motioned to the dozen or so lightly wounded men on the left side of the road to retreat into the woods to the west, and he saluted Tobias before quickly disappearing into the woods. It was winter, and most of the leaves had fallen before the leaves, except for a few evergreens, which were a mix of yellow-brown and green, and the commandos were covered by their yellow British uniforms.

"Good luck!" Tobias glanced at their retreating figures, and then turned his gaze to the advancing British soldiers in front of them.

Not long after Siggert and the others retreated into the woods, a loud noise came from the south, and soon a red signal flare also rose in the southern sky.

"Great! The operation was a success! Siggett glanced at the blocking position where the guns were blaring, and moved forward as fast as he could with the other wounded soldiers, but with a few seriously wounded, the commando team that retreated first was not fast.

"Wow! It works well! Halim waved his palm to fan away the smoke and dust in front of him, because there was not much medicine, the main building above the vault had not completely collapsed, but the road leading to the underground vault had been blown up, and it seemed that it would take some time for the British to dig through the vault.

After a puff of smoke and a dozen lumps of cow and horse droppings, the convoy carrying more than two tons of gold left the Royal Treasury No. 11 and headed north, and soon turned off the country road on one side of the road. Then dozens of commandos jumped out of the car and used sapper shovels and other tools to hastily bury the wheel marks left by the convoy as it passed, although this could not completely cover up the traces of the convoy, but at least it allowed the British troops behind to spend more time looking for the convoy to go up.

"Ensign ......"

One of the commandos stumbled to Tobias, and the British cavalry and infantry in front of them were struggling to rush this way, which was the largest British attack on the commando blocking position so far. Despite the fact that the cavalry continued to fall from their horses and the infantry fell to the ground, the resistance of the assault team was clearly inadequate.

Tobias looked at his watch, and it had been 5 minutes since the troops occupying the vault gave the signal to retreat, "Okay, let's start retreating!" According to the pre-planned plan, the people on the left side of the road retreated to the west, and the people on the right side of the road went to the east to convoy, and each went to the predetermined junction place! Ditch heavy machine guns, ammunition boxes, and other clutter, and everyone evacuate lightly! ”

It was not only these German commandos who were evacuated as planned, but the British special fleet under Churchill's personal command was also advancing as fast as possible towards the British mainland, with the fastest cruisers clearing the way in front of the fleet, followed by the backbone of dreadnought battleships and armored battleships, and destroyers scattered around battleships and transports to guard and tow submarines. The formation of this fleet looked without obvious flaws, but the speed of 10 knots gave Churchill a headache. But only at this speed. These sailors, who were still very new to their own warships, had enough time to correct their operational mistakes, and the transport ships in the fleet were full of cargo, and they could not get up as fast as they could.

"Report, the cruiser 'Knight' has signaled that it has spotted a German-flagged freighter in front of the fleet, and Major Mick has asked for the next move!"

After the report of the communications officer, Churchill smoked his cigar with a blank face, the brain of the former Admiralty was running busily at the moment, in the first month or so of the war, the German merchant ships were completely extinct from the Atlantic, and even the number of German freighters to Norway and Sweden was greatly reduced, but now the situation is reversed, most of the British merchant ships are now lying quietly on the cold seabed, and the captains of German submarines are all silently waiting for the British shipyards to build the next freighter as soon as possible.

After exhaling a large smoke ring, Churchill said coldly, "No need to warn, just sink it!" ”

"Yes!" In the eyes of this ordinary communications officer, it was naturally the German steamers that flew the German flag, and the German steamers were naturally Germans, and whether Churchill thought so or not, they all made a big mistake.