Ye Feng, a former general of the Ming Army, is the security director of the North African Oil Company, and is also the commander of the escort team, with about a brigade of soldiers composed of almost all mercenaries, equipped with a large number of heavy weapons, including ground attack aircraft and helicopter gunships, and is responsible for the security of all the assets of North African Oil in Algeria and Libya, and is the main helper of Gaul's suppression of the guerrillas in Algeria.

He was also a close friend of Algerian Governor Leclerc.

Yang Feng must have to take certain measures, I believe that Leclerc must be full of grief and anger at this time, he fought for Gaul there for almost ten years, but now de Gaulle has reneged on the promise he made to him, it would be strange if this guy didn't have some emotions. If it really doesn't work, he will encourage him to engage in a mutiny, this guy has not done it before, De Gaulle came to power because he used a mutiny to push him up, and the Gallic army in Algeria in history did because of De Gaulle's abandonment of the Algerian mutiny, and even thought about assassinating de Gaulle, since this gives him some confidence.

Anyway, there is no need to invest anything, Leclerc has the ability to force de Gaulle to continue the war, but even if he fails, it will have no effect on Daming, as for the fate of North African oil, it is not Yang Feng's turn to worry about it, scallops, British Petroleum, and Aquitain are not good at any of them, and they can't let one of their most important assets go wrong.

After dealing with this small problem, the Führer went out to cheer for the success of Daming's first manned space launch, and at this time, 2,000 kilometers away from him, in the Beibu Gulf, the Sumner-class destroyer of the US Navy, the Maddox, was cruising.

The fighting in Annam intensified, and the only major cities that the Annam government could really control were a few major coastal cities, and after leaving these cities, they completely became chaotic guerrilla zones, and in the damp and stuffy Annam countryside, the Viet Minh guerrillas and the North Vietnamese troops who had infiltrated after changing their vests were almost everywhere, and the fighting continued every day, although three full divisions of American troops, including the 1st Marine Division, had joined the battlefield, the situation of the war had not changed at all, on the contrary, the number of guerrillas was increasing.

And the root of all this is North Vietnam.

The constant influx of weapons and reinforcements from North Vietnam through various secret channels allowed the Vietminh guerrillas to survive like cockroaches, stubbornly under the fire of American artillery, bombs, and napalm bombs, destroying the most important country in Southeast Asia like poisonous weeds, using them to show their own gardens, and like termites to eat away at their fortress against the expansion of Yang Phong and the red wave in the north.

The government of the United States has long been unable to bear all this, but after all, North Vietnam is an internationally recognized sovereign state, and the representative of the United States at the Geneva Conference has also signed it, and if it directly attacks North Vietnam, it will be an act of aggression, and this will not be good for the image of the United States, at least without a suitable excuse.

The Maddox mission, under the banner of hydrological surveys, was simple.

Monitoring the skies of the North Vietnamese with shipborne radars at close range, and listening to their communications with radio listening equipment, was all they could do if they could not directly attack the North Vietnamese.

Although it doesn't really work.

"What we need is artillery and B52 bombers, not this thing!"

Captain Ogier pointed to the radar that turned at the top of the mast and said disdainfully to an officer next to him, a major from the intelligence department of the Seventh Fleet, who had followed the destroyer.

"It's hard for Congress to agree to war against North Vietnam, the anti-war voices in the country are too loud, and we don't have a reason to go to war, at least not to get it to the surface, after all, at the Geneva conference, our representatives also signed."

The Major said, looking at the sea at night.

The sky was pitch black, and there was no starlight in sight, and the waves pushed the battleship to sway sharply, and to their right a dark shadow gradually moved backwards, and soon disappeared into darkness.

This is Ha Long Bay, less than 20 kilometers away from Haiphong, less than 100 kilometers to the north is Xinhua, North Vietnam's main dependence, the two countries border non-stop shuttle trucks day and night, supplying everything Nguyen Ai Ai Guo needs, from arms to food to clothing, what to give, how much to give, this is the foundation of Nguyen Ai Ai Nguyen's foothold. If you come here as a tourist, of course, you will be enchanted by the picturesque scenery, but if you are on an illegal intruding warship, it becomes extremely dangerous, in addition to the islands dotted around, and the North Vietnamese torpedo boats that can burst out of the darkness at any time, and the small South Vietnamese warships have fought against them many times before.

Of course, they will not dare to attack the US military.

"Why don't we have a leader like the Führer in the South?"

Captain Ogier said hatefully.

"Well, then we need to shoot all the senators in Congress first."

The major said with a smile.

"Port torpedo attack!"

A heart-rending scream suddenly sounded behind him, followed by the sound of battle sirens resounding across the sea.

Captain Ogier, who had just lit a cigar, screamed, threw away the cigar and threw himself into the cabin, and the major followed closely behind in the same panic, and at this time the battleship under their feet was rapidly turning to dodge the torpedo, and just as they rushed into the command room, four very eye-catching light spots appeared on the radar screen, approaching them at high speed.

"Bastards, it's the North Vietnamese torpedo boats, they actually dare to attack us, return fire, immediately return fire!"

Captain Ogier yelled as he smashed his fist against the console.

"Do their torpedoes have such a long range?"

The major said suspiciously.

But at this time, no one cared what he said, the two twin 127 mm turrets in the bow of the Maddox were turning, and then the muzzle flames erupted, and dozens of shells per minute went straight to the target according to the radar determination of the bearing, and soon a ball of fire exploded on the dark sea in the distance, and it was obvious that they had hit the target.

"Torpedoes, and torpedoes on the port side!"

Just as the sonar officer shouted again.

"The other side is calling over the radio and asking why we are invading and attacking them?"

An officer standing in front of the radio shouted.

"Uh, these despicable scumbags, leave them alone with their tricks and keep firing!"

Captain Ogier said disdainfully, it was obvious that the other party wanted to deceive him, to buy time to continue to close the distance and fire torpedoes more accurately, and of course he would not be deceived by such childish tricks, under his orders, the Maddox continued to attack the enemy with ferocious fire, and soon another North Vietnamese torpedo boat was hit, and in the light of the explosion, the remaining two could be seen charging at full speed, and two torpedoes in the torpedo tubes of one of them were being fired one after another.

At the same time, the Maddox's high-powered searchlights locked onto them.

"Keep firing, sink, sink all, send a report to Saigon, we are under attack by North Vietnamese torpedo boats, are returning fire, ask for reinforcements!"

Captain Ogier said.

"Captain, the enemy still has reinforcements!"

As soon as he finished saying this, the radar officer shouted in some panic, and Captain Ogier turned his head to look at the four extra light spots that suddenly appeared on the radar screen, and said with some horror: "Send a report, we have been ambushed by North Vietnam, the situation is dangerous, please ask for rapid support!" ”

Saigon.

Commander of the Seventh Fleet, Thomas. Lieutenant General Mueller casually took the telegram handed by the chief of staff, glanced at it, and then returned it to the latter casually, saying: "Send a telegram to the Pentagon, Your Excellency the President has probably been waiting for this news for a long time. ”

"And where is the Maddox?"

The chief of staff asked.

"Fight, fight harder, those guys in Washington will like it."

Mueller said.

Well, the ensuing battle was indeed fierce, after receiving the Maddox's call for help, the nearby Essex-class Ticonderoga aircraft carrier, immediately took off two Crusaders, with the help of airborne radar to strafe the North Vietnamese torpedo boats on the sea, the latter also returned fire with anti-aircraft fire, and desperately fired torpedoes at the Maddox, but unfortunately their technical level was too poor, it is said that more than 20 torpedoes were fired before and after, but they missed......

Well, there were a total of eight torpedo boats with two torpedoes, and there is no need to delve into why more than 20 torpedoes were finally fired, just like why the torpedo boats were still out of torpedo range when they first attacked, and they were able to attack the Maddox with torpedoes, which is just a trivial matter that does not need to be studied too deeply.

Instead, three North Vietnamese torpedo boats were sunk, one of which was sunk by Crusaders with aerial guns.

As for the cause of this battle, there are different theories, and North Vietnam strongly condemned the invasion of North Vietnamese territorial waters by the Maddox and the brazen attack on North Vietnamese torpedo boats, deliberately provoking war, fully exposing the brutal and greedy nature of the empire. The United States claimed that it was the North Vietnamese torpedo boat that fired the torpedo at the Maddox first, and that the Maddox fired back in self-defense.

As for the question of whether it is the territorial waters of North Vietnam......

Of course not, the US military is a civilized division, how can it do such a thing? The high seas, the absolute high seas, even if they are eight nautical miles from the coast of North Vietnam, it is definitely the high seas!

But no matter who fired first, in short, North Vietnam and the United States officially exchanged fire, and then the Pentagon, which had been looking forward to such news for a long time, personally presided over a press conference by McNamara, the main content of which was that the US warships were conducting routine patrols on the high seas, and the North Vietnamese Navy brazenly attacked without issuing any warning, which was clearly a long-planned and undisguised aggression, and the US military will carry out retaliatory air strikes codenamed Assault Arrows, and this operation is aimed at stopping North Vietnam from committing another offense, and we will still try not to expand the war.

Of course, this is pure nonsense, and immediately after the carrier-based aircraft that took off from the Ticonderoga, the Saratoga began a massive bombing of coastal defense.

The Vietnam War in the true sense of the word officially began. (To be continued.) )