The Strait of Malacca is located between the Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra, with a slender waterway running southeast-northwest. Its northwest end is connected to the Andaman Sea, and its southeast end is connected to the South China Sea...... This is the Strait of Malacca. The Strait of Malacca is the choke point connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, with a total length of about l080 kilometers, the widest part of the northwest is 370 kilometers, and the narrowest point in the southeast is only 37 kilometers. The Strait of Malacca, named after the ancient city of Malacca along the coast.

Sea fog, for the vast majority of seafarers, is not a good sign, in the Age of Discovery, countless ships lost in the sea fog known as the "sea god's breather", and the Strait of Malacca is famous for its year-round sea fog, the fog that permeates the strait is a typical warm and moist air from the sea to the island, forced to lift on the windward side, thus producing adiabatic cooling effect, so that the air reaches saturation and the island fog is generated.

In the Strait of Malacca, many hills in Malaysia and Sumatra are often seen with fog on the windward slopes, making it difficult for ships to find landmarks, especially at night.

At night, the entire Strait of Malacca is completely covered with sea fog that rises from the sea, and almost everything on the sea surface is shrouded in sea fog, except for the roar of the ship's engines.

Today, the ships in the fog seem to be a little different from the past, only the roar of the turbines can be heard from the fog, but there is no light and water signal, and the two ships "Zhenhai" and "Dinghai" are moving in the strait one after the other.

At this time, all the crew of the boat, except for the engineer crew, stood on the side of the boat, nervously peering into the dark night covered with sea fog. In this voyage, even this night was against them. There was no moon in the sky, no stars, no light that the eye could see.

The British sailors standing on the side of the board struggled to keep their eyes open, and they could barely distinguish what was within fifteen to twenty meters of the outboard; In the distance, there was a white and dark night sky.

As employees, it is difficult for them to understand why these Chinese made the decision to "secretly navigate", is it just to let the officers who receive the ship master some sailing skills? The Chinese were willing to risk a million-pound battleship, but these sailors did not want to risk their lives, and at this time they could only keep their eyes open, staring at the sea, staring at the signals sent by other merchant ships.

Sailing in the Strait of Malacca, because it is far away from the central route, the two warships one after the other need to change their course from time to time, constantly changing their speed, sometimes high and sometimes bottom, and Cheng Biguang, as the commander of the receiving ship, is sweating in his palms, for fear of misorienting himself and hitting the island or colliding with other ships, but how to calculate it. As we went deeper and deeper into the strait, the width of the strait became narrower and narrower, and the fog became thicker and thicker.

The white sea fog burrowed into the conning tower like a sea serpent, and after a while, the helmsman and the chief officer, chief navigator and other officers standing next to Cheng Biguang also became blurred, and there were only these Chinese naval officers in the conning tower, unlike in the past, all of them were wearing weapons, which was prepared to prevent foreign sailors from seizing ships.

"Fifth Left ......"

"Fifth Left ......"

The order shouted from Cheng Biguang's mouth, until a flickering red dot left, Cheng Biguang let go, this is the first merchant ship to avoid after entering the strait? Every time I sweat in my heart, during the day, I am afraid that they will find out my traces, but at night I am worried that they will bump into them.

"Sir, Admiralty telegram!"

took the telegram and looked at it a few times, and Cheng Biguang, who had not had a smile for a few days, could be regarded as unfolding.

"You're in charge, I'll report to Madame!"

Saying that, Cheng Biguang got off the conning tower and went down to the deck cabin, his steps seemed very relaxed, which was perhaps the best good news he had received in the past few days.

The sound of the piano echoed in the officer's canteen, and the twenty-six British and German naval officers standing in the cafeteria held wine glasses, the champagne in the glasses was still bubbling, and the officers looked at the duchess who was playing the piano with a smile on their faces.

After the song "Canon" was played, applause erupted in the cafeteria, and when Ji Li stood up, she nodded politely to the officers.

"Now that the battleship is passing through the Strait of Malacca, the battleship will arrive in China, thank you for your loyal service......"

After getting up, Ji Li, who was smiling on her face, comforted these naval officers with words as in the past few days, in the past five days, any soldier would be suspicious of the fleet's abnormal performance, and Ji Li used her own music to appease these officers, and the same Cheng Biguang also gave various explanations.

Fortunately, China is a neutral country! Therefore, although these foreign employees have some doubts in their hearts, they cannot say why, and they can only fulfill their tasks dutifully as they did in the past, and the Chinese Navy sails back to China.

"Madame!"

Cheng Biguang, who walked into the restaurant, glanced at his wife, and Ji Li apologized when she saw it, and left the restaurant.

As soon as Ji Li, Cheng Biguang and the others left, the British and German naval officers who were originally standing there listening to the music gathered together.

"Mott, I bet to you, I don't know what's going on!"

Scott turned to Mott and said that in the past five days, these Chinese have been very abnormal, not only have they changed their course, but they have also avoided merchant ships from various countries, just like at this time in the Strait of Malacca, they even chose to sail at night without a signal, which is extremely risky.

He once asked the lieutenant general Cheng, but the answer he got was "training needs", training needs? Does training need to be like a place to turn the sea into hide-and-seek?

"Scott, what do you think will happen?"

"I'm afraid only God knows, I dare to bet two hundred marks with you, China definitely doesn't know what has changed, otherwise they will never hide in the sea!"

Scott has good reason to believe his speculation.

"Maybe some country wants to intercept them or capture them!"

"I'll bet you forty pounds, it's just training!"

A smile broke out of Mott's face, and it seemed to him that Scott's concern was simply ...... Well! There is no reason to worry that China is not involved in the war at all, how can it be intercepted or captured, and even if they are involved in the Russo-Russian War, will the Russians have the ability to intercept them? And he could never be their enemy, after all, he was Asian.

"Madam, the Admiralty has sent a secret telegram instructing us to speed up as much as possible, and we don't need to consider interception in the area of the Strait of Malacca! We expect to be home in seven days! ”

"Huh?"

Ji Li looked at Cheng Biguang in surprise, this news was too sudden.

"We made a deal with them?"

"Madame,"

Cheng Biguang's face squeezed out a smile, after receiving this telegram, he knew that his wife had won the bet.

"Congratulations! We won! ”

The Admiralty building was quiet, but the lights were bright, and the departments were quietly engaged in mysterious work. Admiral Ye Zugui gently walked to the window and looked at the night sky in the distance, a few morning stars were twinkling, and a faint cloud was floating in the clear sky, and the eastern sky was about to release brilliance.

A cool breeze blew, which made Ye Zugui shiver, only to find that the cigarette on his mouth was not lit, so he took out a lighter from his pocket and lit the cigarette, and wisps of smoke erupted from his mouth. Intelligence from the Foreign Office shows that the British are not willing to fight, and that the sudden return of the American Asian Fleet this afternoon is obviously not unrelated to a separate meeting between China and the United States in Peiping, which shows that the various strategies adopted by the ruling axe to break through have been successful.

The ruling gamble wins!

But as the Minister of the Navy, Ye Zugui knew how lucky it was to win this gamble, and why did the British give up on intercepting and calming the two ships, just because of the posture of the ruling government to prepare for war? Not exactly! Is it because London doesn't want to see a newly canonized duchess sink with her ship? Not quite!

No matter what, it's always a win! Although it is full of luck!

"Hopefully this fluke is the last time!"

Five minutes after six o'clock, the Admiralty's conference room was filled with chiefs from the Admiralty's Naval Intelligence Division, Submarine Division, Naval Aviation Division, Surface Ship Division, Marine Operations Division, and Harbour Master's Division.

When Ye Zugui entered the conference room, it was exactly six o'clock, he glanced at everyone present with a solemn expression, and said a word.

"Don't think that if the US [***] ship in Shanghai has withdrawn, and the German [***] ship has returned to Qingdao halfway, everything will be easy. I want to say only one sentence, that is, this time we have to be blessed by God, lucky bet on all the fraudulent cards, but can not be repeated, next time is not so lucky, then I don't know, this time for us, what we need to summarize is not how we cheat the cards, but to summarize, why, why the great powers can send warships to Shanghai without scruples, and can threaten us with gunboats! ”

If it was a mission, they might immediately answer that they would promise to complete the task, but for now, they just listened blankly to the commander's training, without the slightest expression of excitement. Each of them knew in their hearts that dealing with the great powers was not a joke, and the slightest carelessness would cost them far more than everyone imagined.

"Why, such a simple question, no one can answer?"

As he spoke, Ye Zugui glanced at his pocket watch.

"The answer is very simple, because we have no defense at sea, because China has been weak for a hundred years, so the great powers can unscrupulously use gunboat diplomacy against us, the answer is as simple as that!"

Ye Zugui's words were filled with grief and indignation, staring at his subordinates who were sitting there.

"This time, we can win the bet, it is the ruling that has staked the whole country, and the lady has even staked her own and her daughter's lives, so that it is a fluke, but it can be attributed to the root, if it is not for the entanglement of interests of the great powers, it is impossible for the countries to reach an agreement on the issue of interference, is there still this fluke? No! ”

With a cold snort, the muscles on Ye Zugui's face trembled slightly, and he stared at the people who were speechless.

"Our navy costs the country as much as five million dollars a month, but when the country is useful, it has to rely on the army to put on a desperate posture there, and rely on the flesh and blood of my wife to block shells for us there, I only ask what this is."

The more Ye Zugui's expression became, the more sad and indignant he became.

"It's a shame! Shame on the entire Navy! ”

The reprimand, which did not leave a trace of face, echoed in the conference room, and the guards outside the conference room could also hear the minister's anger, and there was also a hint of shame on his face.

"Check it out!"

Ye Zugui raised a few pieces of paper in his hand, this is the navy's plan for dealing with the war once the war starts.

"Look, the dignified Chinese Navy, what is the Navy going to do with double salary, not only can it not keep the enemy out of the country, but it can only escape with its tail between its legs, and flee to the high seas to break the engagement.

The reason why he is so angry is only because in Ye Zugui's opinion, in this deception, the ruling axe, the army, the people and even the wife on the Zhenhae, have all played their role, and what about the navy? The Navy is just watching! This time is definitely different from Gengzinian's selfish anger-style chaotic life, this time the whole country is unanimous just to fight for national power!

"You don't feel panicked, but as long as you think that our navy can only do this job, I feel that there is no luster on my face!"

"Ministry...... Minister, we ...... We don't have warships! ”

Finally, after Ye Zugui vented his dissatisfaction and embarrassment angrily, Shi Tiange of the Navy's Ship Administration Office answered for everyone, the navy is different from the army, and the army can use courage to make up for the gap in weapons, tactics and training, but the navy needs to use warships to speak, even if it has the ambition of Jing Ke, can Haitian and Haiqi sink the battleships of foreigners?

After being indignant, Ye Zugui looked at Shi Tiange, "If there is no warship, we will build it, and we will buy it, don't we still have tens of millions left in our money?" Buy what you can buy, and build what you can make yourself! ”

Then he looked at the crowd again, and finally just said a word.

"Remember this time, each of us has to remember, in short...... This will be the last time for the foreigner's warship to strike in front of our homes! The words of the sea and the defenseless must become history in our hands! ”

After Ye Zugui's voice fell, everyone's expressions became solemn, there was a sea defenseless, every moment was not tormenting each of them, seeing the foreigner's warship in front of the door, any navy soldier was full of grief and indignation, unwilling, but at least before they had enough strength, they had to knock out their teeth and swallow them in their stomachs, not only them, but for the whole of China, not only to swallow the knocked out teeth, but even to be beaten and to pay for the smile.

(To be continued)