The door opened, and someone walked in. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Stand upright, lean on the legs, and, of course, bow.

Kuroshima didn't turn around, still looking down at the map of Northeast China hanging on the wall, but he knew who was coming in.

"What's new, Tachibana-kun." He asked.

"Your Excellency," replied the man who walked in, "the spies lurking in the United States have reported that the nine American warships purchased by the Lucia Imperial Navy have left San Diego early yesterday morning—"

"They're clumsy, and they're stupid!" Kuroshima turned abruptly and glared at his men, even though he didn't die for those who disobeyed his orders. "I've ordered them to go into hiding, not to do any activity, to avoid attracting someone's attention. Their violation of this order will only lead to the failure of my plan! ”

"Your Excellency, they have violated your orders only out of love for the Empire and the Emperor. After all, only they have the opportunity to know when the warships purchased by the Lucia Navy will leave the ports of the United States......"

"Those warships are not worth caring about at all." Hitoshi Kuroshima interrupted, gasping for air.

"Your Excellency......"

Before it really began, the defense was again interrupted by Ren Kuroshima in a rough way. "Do you think the warships purchased by the Lucia Navy are worth wasting our time and energy, Tachibana-kun?"

"Of course not, Your Excellency." Very quickly, and very hard, Tachibana shook her head - as a high-ranking spy with free access to the Director's Office, he had to go along with Hitoshi Kuroshima's point of view, even if it wasn't entirely correct, just to maintain this privilege.

That's all he can say. "Not entirely correct", but deep down in his mind there was another conclusion: Hitoshi Kuroshima had made a serious mistake.

The warships purchased by the Lucia Navy were by no means something to be taken lightly, because they included four powerful first-class warships[Note]: "Retvizan" [Note 2], a new type of warship ordered by the Lucia Navy from the United States Shipyard in 1898, with a displacement of nearly 13,000 tons, equipped with four new 40-caliber 30-centimeter main guns and 12 45-caliber 15-centimeter rapid-fire guns; The three "Indiana"-class warships, the "Indiana", "Massachusetts" and the "Oregon", which originally belonged to the US Navy, have a displacement of more than 10,000 tons, four 33-centimeter main guns and eight 20-centimeter secondary main guns.

These warships all possessed great firepower and solid armor, and in front of them, the "Kimigen" class battleships purchased by the Japanese Navy had no obvious advantage except for numbers; Moreover, the Lucian Navy has already obtained these warships, and in another month it will reach the Far East, but it will take four months for all five "Sovereign" class warships to arrive.

Not a question of crossing, just because of the attitude of the British. When the British government demanded payment from the Japanese government, they said that it was a "one-hand payment, one-handed delivery" transaction, as if it could be completed in the blink of an eye; However, when the Japanese government made the full payment as agreed, they began to look for various reasons to delay the delivery.

The "Sovereign" was on patrol, the turret of the "Hood" was out of order, and the boilers of the "Emperor of India" needed to be repaired...... And so on, these seemed normal reasons, but the end result was that of the five "Monarchy" class battleships purchased by Japan, three of them ran into minor troubles and therefore could not be delivered immediately, and only the "Revenge" and "Ramilis" began a long voyage to the Far East.

According to Tachibana's own opinion, which cannot be discussed publicly, the aim of the British was clearly to maintain a military balance in the Far East that would be under their control to the greatest extent possible, and that neither Japan nor Lucia would have a clear advantage, so that the war between the two countries would be deadlocked, neither would be victorious, and in the end Britain would have to intervene, and Britain would be able to defend and expand its interests in the Far East.

This is not the attitude that an ally should have, just as the United States should not sell its warships to Lucia and use them to attack its loan partners - although there is also a saying that from the UMBRELLA company, "only arms dealers who sell weapons to attack their own country are real international arms dealers", but the United States Navy is at least a national army, and there is a little sense of honor and responsibility, and it cannot be as blatant as the arms dealers - but all these things that should not have happened have happened.

They made things difficult for the Japanese Navy. Maybe the British and the people of the United States did not see this problem, nor did the generals and politicians in Tokyo, nor did even Hitoshi Kuroshima and other spies of the Kuroshima Agency, but Tachibana did have such a point of view.

If the naval forces of Japan and Lucia were to maintain a delicate balance, the Japanese navy would have to pay a great price to have a chance to defeat its opponents, with the possibility of losing as many ships, or even more; However, this balance will not be maintained forever, as Lucia's Pacific Fleet can be reinforced by the Baltic Fleet.

If Japan could not defeat Lucia quickly, at least at sea, the scales would have tipped in favor of the Lucian Empire.

Moreover, naval officers always say that what can really determine the outcome of a naval battle is actually a variety of unforeseen and accidental factors, and whether and when these factors will appear is related to only one thing: luck. If a captain is lucky, his ship may survive the most intense naval battles and is besieged by multiple enemy ships, but if his luck is bad, the first or second round of shells fired by the enemy ship will hit his ship's ammunition depot with surprising accuracy.

Of course, both of these situations are too extreme, but a little worse or a little better than them is always happening - Sakurai Kiroyuki, who participated in the Battle of the Yellow Sea, often describes how he survived the crossfire of two ironclad ships and an armored cruiser of the Beiyang Fleet, and that time, his battleship was hit twice by 30-centimeter shells, the first was a blasting shell, but it was loaded with black powder, killing only nineteen officers and sailors, And the second is an armor-piercing projectile, which will never explode - so the people in the Navy are superstitious and believe in luck. However, luck is also unpredictable, and on a warship that enters the battle, the only thing one can do is pray.

The problem is that prayer doesn't always work.

If the prayers don't work, then even in a close battle, if another battleship breaks away from the formation and is caught between multiple Lucia battleships, like the "Hiei" ironclad under the command of Sakurai Noriyuki's Navy Shosa, it will be immediately finished and sink into the sea with a rumbling explosion, and there will be no comedy of the "Hiei" lucky to escape from that death trap again.

There is no doubt that this will be the case.

After all, only some of the 30-centimeter caliber shells fired by the Qing Kingdom were blasting shells, and they were filled with black powder, even if the target in the mission would not cause serious damage, but the American warships purchased by the Lucia Navy would obviously have a very sufficient blasting shell filled with yellow explosives.

They are the ones to watch.

Tachibana pondered. However, he was so focused that he forgot that he was still standing in front of Kuroshima - forgetting that his actions and expressions were under his gaze.

His thoughts did not escape the attention of Ren Kuroshima.

"You don't agree with my decision and think it's wrong, is that so, Kogoro?" He was a little annoyed. If it was just a few spies lurking in the United States who violated the order, then the problem was not serious, at least they were all not in front of him, and it would not really upset him; But a spy who was right next to him and could almost be seen as his deputy had this stupid idea, and that was unacceptable.

He will make him feel upset, he will have the wrong encouragement effect on all the members of the Black Island Agency, and then he will feel doubly upset.

He raised his voice, and his tone became stern. "You're just as stupid and self-righteous as everyone else. I thought you had better vision and judgment than theirs, but now it seems that this was my mistake. ”

"Your Excellency......"

"Shut up and give me a quiet listen." Kuroshima roared. He didn't want to listen to his arguments, they were all meaningless, based on short-sightedness and poor knowledge, just like everyone else. "If you pay attention to the news in the newspapers of the United States, you will find the news that '100 Lucia sailors have mysteriously disappeared in the United States'[Note 3]. If you read that article carefully, you will learn more that those missing Lucia sailors did not suffer misfortune, but were tempted by the prosperity of the United States, shamefully deserted and betrayed their homeland. He took a breath, "How can such a shameless rat with such an undetermined will be able to defeat the fearless warriors of my Great Japanese Empire?" ”

Tachibana was stunned for a moment before she woke up from the shock of his last words, but she still felt that she had nothing to say, except for a word. "Your Excellency......"

Kuroshima coughed lightly - the sentence embarrassed him himself. "I'm parodying St. Sentence from the Biography of General Nogi. ”

"No, Your Excellency," said Tachibana, "I mean, is that news credible?" As far as I know, the news in the newspapers of the United States is almost all nonsense. ”

"It has been confirmed through various channels that it is indeed true." Hitoshi Kuroshima replied. "Tokyo's view is that this was deliberately leaked by the chaebol of the United States so that the empire would not be angry at the sale of the main warship to the Lucia Navy by the United States Navy."

"I see."

"Lucia's Baltic Fleet doesn't need us to worry either." He went on to say, "The British government has hinted that if the Lucian Empire sends the Baltic Fleet warships to reinforce the Far East, its fleet will be under the surveillance of the British Royal Navy, and the British ports along the route will be strictly neutral, and the Lucian fleet will not be allowed to rest and replenish supplies." ”

The news made Tachibana feel relieved. From the European part of Lucia to the Far East, almost all the ports along the route were under British control - especially in the Indian and South Seas - and if Lucia's fleet could not rest and replenish its supplies at these ports, it would lose most of its combat capability and cease to be a threat.

That's what an ally should do.

He was feeling happy, but Ren Kuroshima spoke again. "However, the British government also stated that only if the Empire formally declared war on Lucia could it refuse Lucia's fleet requests for rest and supplies."

Tachibana was stunned for a moment. "In that case, time ......"

"So we can't waste our energy on things that don't matter." Kuroshima Ren turned around and dealt with the map, "It is necessary to find out the defensive deployment of Lushun as soon as possible, as well as the specific anchorage location of the Lucia battleship. There are only thirty days, which is the deadline that Tokyo has given me. ”

"And then?"

Kuroshima took another breath. "The Imperial Army will attack."

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

Note 1: The Japanese called battleships battleships

Note 2: The battleship was supposed to be completed in 1902, which was brought forward by 2 years

Note 3: This is what happened when the Russian Navy went to the United States to receive the cruiser "Varyag" (to be continued, if you want to know what happened next, please land on the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )