Anyone who comes to Ma'anshan is probably most surprised by the fact that the houses on both sides of the street are pure red-walled and blue-roofed, well-constructed workers' quarters, and the small buildings of two houses are closely connected, and there are no customary vegetable patches in front of and behind the small buildings, only flat grass.

The buildings on either side of the black asphalt road resemble a row of serious soldiers. Every time he walks through this street in a horse-drawn carriage and looks at the buildings, all Liu Guanxiong can feel is order.

"With a one-dollar salary, you have to abide by the one-dollar rule!"

"If you live in a new-style western-style building, you have to abide by the rules of the new!"

In the past few days since he came to Ma'anshan, Liu Guanxiong has heard a lot about the rules here, those rules that can be called unsatisfactory, and they are well guarded here, perhaps because most of them are employees of the company, after all, they are not willing to joke about their jobs of more than 20 yuan to 30 or 40 yuan a month.

As Liu Guanxiong's carriage pulled into the shipyard, it was greeted by groups of workers coming out of the gate, a crooked and tired flow of people, and like any industrial enterprise, the Yangtze River shipyard also implemented strict three-shift shifts.

As the car approached the dock, the sound of pneumatic riveting guns and the harsh sound of metal drilling and cutting could be faintly heard in the dock, and in Dock 4, a cruiser with its guns dismantled was parked, and hundreds of workers were desperately repairing around the hull and on the deck.

Looking at the "Haitian" that is being repaired, Liu Guanxiong's mood has changed slightly. Several bench drilling rigs in the dock are constantly drilling rivets in order to break down the cracked steel plates, and the sound of steel plate drilling is extremely harsh in the dock. Over the dock, a crane is hoisting a ship gun that has been dismantled during salvage.

While Liu Guanxiong was inspecting the damaged warship in the dock, the shipyard engineer kept reporting at length on the work that had been carried out, but Liu Guanxiong interrupted him and asked him a question that he was most concerned about.

"When will the warship be repaired?"

"Although the keel was not damaged and the boiler was not flooded, it would take at least a month to replace as many as thirty-two steel plates, and to remove the rust inside and outside the ship!"

The engineer truthfully reported that the company had specially explained the progress of the ship's repairs, and did not need to pay attention to the inspectors sent by the navy, but only to Liu Guanxiong, who had been hired as a consultant to the shipyard, that is, he had sunk the Chinese first-class cruiser.

"I can't wait that long!"

Spit out a sentence without thinking, Liu Guanxiong glanced at the "Haitian" again.

"By the fifteenth of next month at the latest, the Haitian must be repaired, and your task is to use all means to ensure that this warship is repaired on schedule!"

This warship will be his only warship, gritted his teeth on this "thief ship", he proposed to use the old merchant ships of Huaxing Company, in order to transform them into warships against the gunboats of the Yangtze River Naval Division, and Huaxing took out 18 merchant ships from 2500 tons to 3800 tons to transform warships, but after all, it is a merchant ship, and this "Haitian" is the only warship of the Guangfu Army.

Although he still has the dragon flag hanging now, when it is repaired, I am afraid that the sky has already changed. When I looked up again, I saw the sunset like blood, reflecting the western sky.

At night, at the foot of Ma'anshan Magnetic Mountain, there are more than 30 large wooden houses on both sides of an open well-manicured grassland, and near this wooden house, there is a wooden tower more than ten meters high.

This is the airport of the industrial company's air show team, which has 46 aircraft, and in the past few months, they have carried out many commercial flights in French Central and South China, Taiwan, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, and each time can earn thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan.

On the blade of grass, a drop of dew trembled slightly, and the reflection of the whole brilliant starry sky on this crystal convex surface began to tremble with it, reflecting a lovely luster. The dew slowly slid down the concave surface of the blade of grass, faster and faster, and finally flew down along the tip of the leaf, landed on the grass below, and fell into countless tiny dewdrops scattered in all directions, each of which reflected a starry sky, so that there were thousands of starry skies.

At this moment, there was a rumbling vibration in the distance, and the slightly trembling blades of grass bounced up with dewdrops.

On the grass, the narrow wheels of the bicycle ran over. A group of young men practice formation riding on the lawn of the flight runway, which is part of the junior cadet training, the early purpose is to maintain physical balance, and the middle stage is used to train the formation coordination surname, and the performance of an airplane is not attractive, so they must keep the formation flying in the air.

The six bikes line up in a wedge. Deng Shaoling was on the far left, and he tensed his muscles all over his body while maintaining his speed to maintain the "flying formation".

Yue Shiqi, who was at the forefront of the "formation" "flying" on the airport, had already seen another "formation" riding oncoming by the moonlight.

"Stay in formation, pay attention to your spacing, and be prepared to stagger yourself."

At the same time as he gave the order, he leaned to the side, which was a gesture to indicate that he was going to dive. In the air, they use side-to-side and backward swings to maintain the most basic double fleet, and regular flight training makes them have a strong tacit understanding between them.

"Understood!"

The people answered. As he spoke, the "formation" on the opposite side had already arrived in front of him. Yue Shiqi tried his best to aim at the corresponding air, but the two pilots on the opposite side "flew" so swaying that it was difficult to aim. At the moment of staggering, Yue Qi saw that he was about to hit the one on the right, he hurriedly twisted to the left, just let go, and succeeded! Just as he was about to cheer, he only heard a clanging sound behind him, and when he looked back, he saw a group of people turning on their backs. It turned out that the pilot he had avoided lost his balance in the panic of rushing to dodge and slammed into the people behind him, causing everyone to fall.

"Are you alright?"

Stopping the car and looking back to see that the brothers were sleeping there, Yue Shiqi couldn't help laughing.

Deng Shaoling was still pressed under the bicycle, so he complained.

"Richie, Richie, you're really strange! How do you always stall! ”

Li Qi got up from the ground, and when he heard this, he was angry. He slapped the mud on his ass and shouted in that unconvinced voice.

"He wanted to swoop down and accelerate......"

"When you are inserting in formation, you have to speed up and use thrilling action to attract the audience, don't you understand?"

Yue Shi is unreasonable.

"It's inevitable to touch it!" Someone is starting to stir things up.

"If you touch it again, it will be over!"

"Hey, don't practice, don't practice! I'm going to have cramps in my feet...... Take a break! ”

Interrupting Yue Shiqi's words, Deng Shaoling pushed away the bicycle pressed on his body, put his hands on the back of his head, lay flat on the ground, and let out a long breath.

"It's so comfortable......"

Most of the young men who had been riding their bikes for an hour were tired, so they threw away their automobiles and lay down on the well-groomed grass.

The river breeze blows lightly, sending the fragrance of grass. When the starry sky fills the entire field of vision, people can feel its grandeur and remoteness. And against this background, each star is so small, so delicately small, so small that one wants to see its outline but can't see it, whether it's bright or dark. But billions of stars have completely changed the face of the night sky, driving away the desolation and turning it into a starry sky.

"Hey, what do you want, Shaoqin? The scarves are scattered! ”

Yue Shiqi interrupted Deng Shaoling's thoughts and pointed to the scarf around his neck.

Deng Shaoling looked down and smiled.

"Oh, my sister-in-law knitted it for me."

This woolen scarf that slightly exudes the smell of sweat and engine oil is personally woven by his sister-in-law before learning that he was admitted to the "Tianqing Flying Team", his mother died early, and he relied on his brother and sister-in-law to take care of him, so he was able to go to the foreign school, and was admitted to the flight team, and the sister-in-law saw from the newspaper that those pilots were wearing scarves, so she didn't sleep all night to weave a scarf for Deng Shaoling.

This scarf is very beautiful, woven with fine yellow wool threads, and when flying in the sky with the plane, it is very gentle around the neck, and occasionally when the engine oil flies out and splashes on the face, you can also wipe it, which is the real reason for the pilot's scarf, not for the sake of good looks.

"I always feel that this scarf will bring me good luck at some point, especially when I fly into the sky, remember to have ......"

Only halfway through the words, Deng Shaoling heard the sound of a car, the car with the headlights on drove to the airport, everyone looked at the cars that drove over, and by the light of the street lamp in front of the hangar, those cars were small trucks that were lengthened from the chassis of Mustang cars, and there were several flying teams.

In addition to flying airplanes, the more than 60 pilots of the flying team love to drive around the streets of Ma On Shan in their cars.

"It's the police, what are they doing here?"

The pilots were surprised to see the company police officers who jumped out of the car, and what surprised them even more was that the policemen were carrying long guns, and the company policemen's guns were not taken away.

What was even more amazing was that they even carried two big guys with tripods from the car, which ...... What's going on!

They were surprised to see that the captain was talking to one of the policemen who led the team, and the policeman took out a piece of paper from his bag, and when he left, he saw that the captain was looking at the paper in surprise, and the captain's expression was a little strange, a little excited, and a little nervous.

What's going on?

The 15 kilometers west of Ma'anshan sparkled on the river, and the silver hooks hanging obliquely in the distance were reflected down, as if silver had been sprinkled on the channel, and 12 merchant ships of several thousand tons and river ships of hundreds of tons slowly adjusted their direction in the Yangtze River.

"Left rudder, left rudder, steady."

The British captain's voice was very calm.

"Left rudder 25 degrees."

The chief engineer of Chinese descent calmly commanded.

"The navigator reports the distance."

"Three hundred meters away."

"Okay, prepare to break down, the engine is ready to stop, report the speed."

"Speed six knots."

"Pay attention to the air pressure, the speed drops to a quarter."

"Air pressure is maintained, and the speed is a quarter."

The British captain watched the channel markings from the bridge with his eyes wide open, a small orange dot in the distance in the telescope, and the visibility at night was okay, and although there was a layer of mist on the river, the channel lights could still be clearly recognized.

2,000 yuan, although the execution of this order was not to his liking, but for the reward of 2,000 yuan, he still accepted this order, although he did not know why the company was sinking in the Yangtze River, blocking the Yangtze River route.

"Prepare the traffic lights."

The British captain knew very well in his heart that this might be the last time he would make a light on this 5,600-ton freighter. The signalman flicked the flap up and down, and the lights flashed of different lengths, exchanging light signals with the barges on the edge of the channel in the distance.

"Captain, the barge is ready."

"Alright, all the crew assemble on deck."

The captain with the pipe in his mouth straightened the battered seaman's hat, and although it was the end of May, and the weather should have been very hot, the river was cold and gloomy, and it was not much effort to stand on the deck, and his clothes were shallowly wet by the rain and fog.

"The navigator checks the position of the channel."

"Correct location, captain, apply for anchoring."

"The engine is stopped, the pilot is ready, the first mate, the anchor."

The captain gave orders to the three chief officers in one breath, and after giving these three orders, he took another puff of cigarette with his pipe in his hand.

"Engine Stop, Engine Stop, ......"

The chief engineer of Fujian spoke for a long time, and slowly shouted into the communication tube.

At this time, the hull of the ship slowed down, the clanging sound of the fire door stopped, followed by the sound of anchor iron dragging the iron chain, and the merchant ship accurately stopped in the main channel of the Yangtze River. And the barge in the distance was also attached, and the soft ladder was taken from the merchant ship, and the time to leave the ship came.

"The crew is all assembled?" The captain asked the first mate beside him.

"Captain, you're all assembled!"

Removing the binoculars from his neck, the captain checked his attire and led the way off the bridge and down the gangway to the deck. Behind him were several other chief officers. At this time, the foredeck was already full of crews, and several teams of navigation, engine, and communications were standing there.

The English captain looked at the group of people under the moonlight, the people who were about to lose their ship like him.

"Friends, tonight is the last night of our "Hope", and later I will order the bilge flap to be opened, and the "Hope" will sink in the main channel of the Yangtze River. ”

The queue was silent, no one could understand this order from the company, they drove the ship all the way from Shanghai to here, it turned out that it was just to sink the ship and close the river.

"I don't know the reason for the shipwreck and the closure of the river, but I think that since the company is doing this, it should have his intentions! Alright, my friends, get off the boat! Wish...... Let's meet again aboard the Hope! ”

Ten minutes later, after the crew got on the barge, the bilge water filling door had been opened, and the river water poured in, if the calculation was correct, in another twenty minutes, the British merchant ship built ten years ago was about to sink into the Yangtze River, and there were several signal lights using lead-acid batteries on the merchant ship, and the signal lights were already on.

In just half an hour, in two places west of Dangtu and east of Zhenjiang, Huaxing and Yangzijiang sank as many as 45 freighters and merchant ships, and the Yangtze River, which is regarded as the bloodline of Nanzhong, was cut off at midnight.

At night, the Purple Mountain was shrouded in a thin mountain fog, in the fog, the Purple Mountain was silent, only in the fog from time to time the roar of car engines, on the top of the Purple Mountain, a well-groomed mountain edge flat ground, twenty-four wooden boxes were suddenly dismantled, the boxes were loaded with twenty-four field guns, the gunners with short guns and long guns on their backs, quickly opened the gun mounts, and behind them, the artillery officers were there with kerosene lamps to calculate the shooting data.

At this point, time flies slowly, but quickly. Tonight is destined to be no longer peaceful, when the gunners on the mountain mark the target, in a villa in the Purple Mountain, the echo of the telegraph dripping, the ringing of the telephone and the words of the officers, seem to be the only sound here, and Xiao Xinren is just pacing back and forth, his fingertips are a cigarette, and when he picks up the cigarette, he will look at the time of his watch with some anxiety.

Time seemed to pass too slowly, and the staff officers who graduated from Whampoa in the headquarters of the first division were constantly marking the location of the troops on the sand table, and more than a dozen blue, red, and yellow tricolor flags were planted in the Jiangning city wall on the sand table, and there were several outside the city.

"It's all over tonight!"

When Xiao Xinren was anxiously confronting the slow time in his villa in Purple Mountain, in Ma'anshan, dozens of kilometers away, Chen Moran also stood in front of the window, looking at the Ma'anshan Iron and Steel Factory, which seemed to reflect the night sky, waiting for the last moment to come.

"I hope they can be safe!"

Thinking about Ji Li and her mother who went to Singapore by boat this morning, Chen Moran, who was wearing a military uniform, had a little worry in her brows, she had already prepared for the worst and sent their mother and daughter to Singapore, the Governor of the Straits Settlements was a friend of Fisher, even if the uprising failed, she could protect their mother and daughter, and if necessary, Ji Li could take Yuntong to the United Kingdom, and ...... Thinking that Ji Li was already gentle again, Chen Moran's originally frowning brows were loosened, and a smile appeared on his face, I hope ...... At this moment, the door of the office was pushed open, and it was Niu Yongjian who walked in, at this time he also changed into a military uniform, his face was strongly suppressed with the excitement and nervousness of the last moment, and he slowly walked behind Chen Moran.

"Dashuai!"

Niu Yongjian's voice seemed a little excited, so that his voice trembled slightly.

"Five minutes to go!"

Chen Moran didn't look back, just looked at the red night sky outside the window, which was reflected by the blast furnace of the steel factory, and only after a while of silence did he say a word.

"Oh...... I know! You've done a great job! ”

The voice was not strange, but Chen Moran's frowning brows and the slight tremor in his face betrayed his nervousness at this time, and his lips opened slightly.

"Tomorrow...... Tomorrow, we'll catch the exam! ”

(Six provinces are recovered, will this be a bit ...... Well, anyway, the plot is set like this, there is almost no suspense in the battle of recovery, the problem is not in the recovery, but after the recovery! Ask for a commuter pass! ）

(To be continued)