Shinichi Saito connected to more than a dozen phone calls, all of which reported the loss of merchant ships.

Since the Third Naval Force sank the merchant ships of the Chinese people, the Chinese began a frenzied revenge, and the merchant ships of the Great Empire were attacked by submarines in the Gulf of Tonkin, Malacca, and the Taiwan Strait.

What shook the Navy even more was that the 1st Naval Squadron was almost completely wiped out in the Nagasaki Military Port.

This is the most elite naval force in the Great Empire, and of course, if you count the Fuso-class battleships and Kongo-class cruisers that are being built, those warships are indeed a little outdated.

However, the Navy, which lost the first battle team, lost nearly a third of the main battle warships.

Such a huge loss made the navy wail and almost unbearable.

"Damn the Shina people, it's so despicable that they actually attacked us."

"We say that the Empire should wage a holy war to punish the deeds of the Shina people."

The admirals in the navy gritted their teeth one by one, and Katsura Taro, who was present, stretched out his hand to stop their complaints, and said: "In the past two days, we have attacked more than ten merchant ships, and there are some that we don't know about the situation, and they are blocked in Malacca, the Taiwan Strait and the Tokyo Bay area, among which Malacca is the most serious. The lifeblood of our economy depends entirely on sea communication, and if the navy cannot stop the submarines of the Chinese people, then the empire will face a serious crisis. ”

As he spoke, Katsura Taro looked at the admirals and asked, "Does the navy have any means of dealing with it?" ”

"We are already vigorously researching anti-submarine means, and we have achieved some results, but we will not be able to popularize them in the short term." Minoru Saito replied, "The Navy has no way to stop it for the time being. ”

Katsura Taro was disappointed by this and said, "Do you want our army to come forward?" ”

"Your Excellency, I think you have forgotten that if you want to send troops to China, you have to go by sea. Maybe your army will be sunk before it reaches the shore. And the whole incident was triggered because you asked our Navy to come forward and coerce the Chinese people, and our Navy does not assume any responsibility for this. ”

"Okay, now is not the time to argue about this, you should unite as one, and it is important to resolve the current crisis first." As one of the four elders of the contemporary world, Xiyuan Temple played the role of a peacemaker in this meeting.

"The navy is currently suffering serious losses, and it must wait for the new warships to be built before it can form sufficient combat effectiveness, and as long as the new warships of our navy are built, there will be no problem in stopping the submarines of the china people." Minoru Saito said at this time.

The plan of the 88th Fleet had already been implemented a few years earlier, but it was not completely implemented because the finances of the company had always been sluggish.

Masayoshi Matsukata, one of the four elders of the Ministry of Finance, in order to reverse the trend of inflation and the outflow of silver, caused deflation in the current capital, which is also one of the reasons for the economic downturn, but the overissuance of banknotes for the war was the main reason.

"Since the navy has no way to stop the submarine of the China, the most important thing for us at the moment is to calm the incident and get the to stop attacking our merchant ships." Xiyuan Temple Gongwang said.

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, I don't think you should have pushed the people too hard before, but now they are jumping over the wall, but they have made us extremely passive, and our navy has suffered huge losses, I think next year our navy's military spending must be expanded." Someone in the Navy complained again. Katsura Taro frowned angrily and glared at the admiral who had spoken.

"The navy's military spending will be expanded for you next year." Katsura Taro said half-loudly.

"Let's get back to business!" Xiyuan Temple Gongwang shook his head a little helplessly, when Katsura Taro made the move to coerce the East China Autonomous Axe, he had already expected this situation a little, but he didn't expect this situation to be so bad and passive.

"The people of the current China will not give up easily, and we must ask Britain to mediate and stabilize the situation before anything else."

"Hello!"

…… In Hangzhou, Xia Jun was holding his second child, Tana gave birth to a daughter for him, Xia Jun thought about it for a long time, and named her daughter Xia Xiaoting.

As soon as Tana gave birth, she decided to go back to the United States, although Xia Jun kept her, Tana said: "I have to go back to the United States as soon as possible, otherwise there will be no money to make when the war comes." ”

In this regard, Xia Jun could only follow her, of course, he still sent two female soldiers to protect her safety.

As for the conflict between China and China, Xia Jun was not too worried, but just made a phone call to the naval headquarters to inquire about the situation, and Xie Baozhang reported: "Everything is going well, we have sunk twelve merchant ships and are secretly attacking the Nagasaki military port. ”

Just about half a day later, Xia Jun's points suddenly skyrocketed by 26 million points, and he actually sank more than 60,000 tons of warships, which was a big loss.

Sure enough, after a while, Xie Baozhang reported that ten submarines had attacked the Nagasaki military port and sunk four battleships, as well as six destroyers and other ships of the Navy.

However, judging from the tonnage, these warships are very likely to be the main warships of Yueben.

On the evening of the 28th, Xie Baozhang reported that the Navy's submarine force had sunk 26 merchant ships, and Xie Baozhang excitedly said to Xia Jun: "Chairman of the National Committee, as long as we block the sea lanes of Yueben for a month or two, then there will be a huge economic crisis in Yueben. ”

"Hmm!" Xia Jun nodded, and then said to Xie Baozhang: "But it is our whetstone, so the navy should be more leisurely!" ”

"Whetstone?" Xie Baozhang didn't understand very well when he heard it.

"If our navy wants to really rise, it needs to have an opponent who can provide us with real combat opportunities, and it is said that it is a good target." Xia Jun said vaguely, in fact, he wanted to squeeze Yueben as a cow, if he didn't have money to fight, then Xia Jun wouldn't be able to earn points.

…… On the 29th, he urgently sent a note to Britain and the United States, asking them to intervene in the Sino-Chinese dispute.

At this time, the conflict between China and the two countries had already attracted the attention of European and American countries, and the situation soon exceeded their imagination.

What the Navy can do at this time is to gather the main force of the Navy and prevent the Navy from being attacked by the submarines of the East China Navy in this way.

However, the navy lacked anti-submarine means and obviously had no way to protect their merchant ships.

Britain and the United States agreed to mediate, and the two countries then sent a note to the East China Autonomous Axe, demanding that the East China Autonomous Government Axe make a truce with the East China Autonomous Government and return to the negotiating table to resolve the issue.

He immediately expressed his willingness to make a truce, and he was eager to stop the conflict.

The East China Autonomous Axe did not respond immediately, but the British then used harsher language, demanding that the East China Autonomous Axe immediately stop attacking the merchant ships.

In such a situation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the East China Autonomous Government issued a statement.

"The East China Autonomous Government is willing to use negotiations to solve the problem, but we will not stop attacking the merchant ship until it apologizes to China and compensates for the damage caused by the sunken merchant ship." Lin Xiyu said in a statement on the same day, "Since we are going to provoke conflicts, we are willing to accompany them." ”

The East China Autonomous Axe is not at all inferior to the mediation of Britain and the United States, and at this time the East China Autonomous Axe has the upper hand, and it also has a moral advantage.

A French newspaper suddenly revealed that the navy, which claims to be the strongest in Asia, was attacked by a submarine of the East China Navy, and suffered heavy losses as a result.

At the same time, a British newspaper also published more than a dozen photos of a merchant ship being sunk by a submarine off the coast of Malacca.

The newspaper said that the incident took place 20 nautical miles from the exit of Malacca, and that a freighter was attacked by a submarine while on its way.

A British passenger ship passed through the area, and a British journalist on board filmed the naval battle.

As can be seen from the photo, after the freighter was torpedoed, a submarine slowly surfaced to admire the sinking prey.

Then the merchant ship sank, and the British reporter then photographed a supply ship of the East China Navy, which was refueling a submarine.

For the second time, countries around the world realized the role of submarines, and Britain, France, Germany, and other countries soon increased the cost of developing submarines, especially Germany, which found that submarines are very fatal to island countries, and as long as submarines are used to cut off the transportation lines of island countries, then island countries will face a serious crisis.

Britain was an island nation, a hostile camp of the Germans.

Although the war between the two camps has not yet broken out, there is definitely a war to be fought in the future, and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany is very excited about the arrival of this because he has found a magic weapon to win by surprise.

At this time, although the losses on the surface were very large, these warships of theirs were built as early as the First Sino-Japanese War, and they participated in the Russo-Japanese War later.

Since then, the navy has not been expanded much, mainly due to economic troubles.

These warships are a bit outdated, but the new main battle ships of the Fuso-class battleship and the Kongo-class cruiser have already been built.

The loss of the navy is not the key, the key is that the merchant ships of the strait are now stranded west of the Strait of Malacca, and they do not dare to take the Malacca channel at all, and some of them detour from other waterways, after all, there is more than one strait of Malacca in Southeast Asian waters that can be navigated.

Although the East China Autonomous Government did not stop the naval war as the British wanted, it agreed to go to the negotiating table to resolve the issue.

For the second time, Britain and the United States were responsible for mediation.

Unlike the last negotiation, this time the East China Autonomous Government not only did not recognize the compensation agreement signed last time, but instead demanded that the East China Autonomous Government apologize and compensate the East China Ocean Company for the losses of merchant ships and personnel.

If the political axe of East China can compete with the navy, then the interests of the United States in Asia can be guaranteed.

For this reason, in the negotiations, the United States supports the political axe of East China's autonomy. He also accused him of provoking a conflict at sea and destroying the trade environment.

After all, the rise of the East China Autonomous Political Axe was detrimental to the interests of the British Empire in China, but looking at the current situation, Britain has realized that it has made a wrong bet, and the strength of the East China Autonomous Political Axe is significantly stronger than Yuan Shikai's Central Political Axe.

However, on the surface, Yuan Shikai can still make the East China Autonomous Political Axe submit, which is the most optimistic side of the British at present, so it is still vainly trying to suppress the Eastern China Autonomous Political Axe.

In this negotiation, the political axe of East China's autonomy was not too serious, and it was obvious to the British side at the negotiating table.

The political axe is very anxious, because of the disturbance of the East China Navy, if the sea transportation continues like this, it will be paralyzed, and it is difficult for the island country to bear such a situation.

"Apologize, it's impossible, we say that this empire will not apologize." The negotiator was very tough, but then he changed his words: "We say that this political axe can compensate you for the loss of your merchant ships, and if you don't stop attacking the ships of our empire, I will send an army to level the three provinces of your East China Autonomous Region." ”

"If Ben wants to declare war on us, we will accompany us as well." Zhu Xiaocheng, who was in charge of the negotiation, slapped the table and said angrily.

"An apology is not possible."

…… It was obvious that he was unwilling to apologize, but they agreed to pay compensation because of the compulsion of the situation at this time.

The two sides were at a stalemate, and in the end Britain proposed that they should not apologize publicly, but compensate for the losses of the East China merchant ships doubled, and after calculation, the East China merchant ships sunk by Yue Ben were valued at 2 million yuan, and the goods on board were valued at 1.2 million yuan, and Zhu Xiaocheng said that a batch of valuable commodities imported from Europe were transported on it.

And took out a detailed list, and the British checked the list, and recently a merchant ship of the East China Ocean Company purchased this batch of goods in the United Kingdom.

These high-end goods are to be wanted by East China Department Store, East China Department Store is not all domestic products, many high-end goods can not be produced in China, that is naturally the need to import, but East China Department Store will mark the country of origin of the goods, this kind of goods in East China Department Store is not too much, compared to domestic goods are very few.

In fact, the sunken merchant ship was carrying iron ore from Australia for less than $10,000.

In addition, the 20 Chinese crew members who died on the merchant ship will be compensated 10,000 yuan each, which is 200,000 yuan.

The total price adds up to 3.4 million yuan.

If the compensation is doubled, it will be 6.8 million yuan.

As for this amount of compensation, he resolutely expressed his unacceptability.

However, time does not allow for any longer delay, and the national strength of this era is far from being so strong, and the number of merchant ships is not too much.

Soon, however, the British found themselves profitable in this maritime conflict.

This is because after the conflict between the East China Autonomous Government and the East China Maritime Axe, most of the merchant ships of the East China COSCO Company and the merchant ships of the East China COSCO Company were hoisted with the national flags of other countries, among which the merchant ships of the East China COSCO Company were hung with the American flag, and most of the merchant ships of the East China COSCO Company were hung with the British flag.

However, shipping on both sides has been affected, leading to growth in the UK's transport industry.

That's a good thing!

The British have become less active in mediation.

He said that because he had notified the merchant ships, the merchant ships were hoisted with the flags of other countries, so that the submarines of the East China Navy did not know which country's merchant ships they were, so they did not dare to attack them.

The negotiations became deadlocked, and the East China Navy did not dare to launch a torpedo because it lacked effective anti-submarine means, and because it could not distinguish the nationality of the merchant ships, even if it saw ships suspected of being merchant ships and saw them flying the British flag, they did not dare to launch torpedoes lightly.

...... "Chairman, we can't distinguish the merchant ship now, and I want to cheat, so I don't even mention the matter of compensation at the negotiation table." Zhu Xiaocheng reported to Xia Jun.

War is the last card of politicians, and when this card does not work, politicians are passive at the negotiating table.

"I said I would give in." Xia Jun said to Zhu Xiaocheng because he had already sent the Grim Reaper.

…… On January 2, the Reaper infiltrated Yokosuka, one of the four major military ports of the Morihon, and according to the information detected by the Military Intelligence Agency, it is very likely that the main force of the Morimoto Navy will be assembled here.

After the Reaper infiltrated the Yokosuka military port, it was found that there were not a few warships inside, and it was clear that the information provided by the military intelligence was wrong, and there were only a few torpedo boats in the Yokosuka military port.

But there's a big floating dock in the distance!

More than a dozen searchlights were shining back and forth in the harbor, and the Reaper quickly put away the periscope, and then began to exit the harbor and start laying mines at the exit of the harbor.

Twelve large mines were placed at the entrance to the Yokosuka Naval Port, and the Reaper continued its dive and returned to the port again.

The Grim Reaper quietly raised its periscope.

"The target is directly ahead, at a distance of 1,200 meters...... Torpedoes No. 1 to No. 6 were launched in a branch line...... "Zhou Xiulong, who once again drove this formidable submarine to sea, was extremely excited, this submarine could not be used at any time, and it could only be launched after the chairman's personal instructions.

Facing the stationary floating dock in the distance, there was really no challenge, Zhou Xiulong didn't even do calibration, and directly ordered the torpedo to be prepared.

However, at this moment, a searchlight shone on the periscope, and a patrol soldier suddenly shouted loudly, and a terrible siren sounded in the harbor.

Zhou Xiulong suddenly saw a strong light coming from the periscope, and immediately ordered, "Launch!" ”

At the sound of an order, six torpedoes were fired from the nose of the Reaper.

"Dive, dive, exit the port." After Zhou Xiulong finished the order, he didn't look at any results, he directly put away the periscope and urged the soldiers.

The Grim Reaper put away its periscope and immediately began to dive backwards.

Just as the Grim Reaper began to dive, a violent explosion was heard on the floating dock 1,200 meters away, and six torpedoes exploded one after another.

The nearly 20,000-ton floating dock was blown into a large fireball, and the shipbuilders on it were busy building ships screaming in the violent concussions and rising fires.

The warship, which was being built in the dockyard, was blown into several pieces in the explosion.

The cannons in the Yokosuka Naval Port began to fire indiscriminately into the water, but the Reaper had slipped out of the harbor.

The floating dock was suddenly attacked, and the whole harbor was shaken, and the fire brigade rushed to put out the fire, and the fire on the floating dock was finally extinguished after half an hour.

The artillery in the harbor also fired for nearly half an hour before stopping.

Soon another two hours passed, nine o'clock in the evening!

The Grim Reaper stayed outside the port for two and a half hours, and Zhou Xiulong once again commanded the Grim Reaper to quietly slip back into the port.

(To be continued)