The equatorial warm current of the Indian Ocean, which passes through the deep sea off Robben Island, and Table Mountain, which looks like a huge rectangular table in the distance, bears witness to the glory of the European Age of Discovery, but also sees the turmoil of colonial Africa. On the sea, a fleet flying the Chinese flag aroused the curiosity of passing ships, and sailors stepped onto the deck and raised their cameras, all of them marveling at the immense size of the fleet.

"I saw the dragon fleet, and I was fascinated by its majesty. It sailed towards me, like a mountain of steel, oppressive, and nerve-wracking. Now I really want to understand one thing, how did they complete the path that took France a hundred years to go in just thirty years? I want to understand it, like the country behind it, full of mysterious temptations. I swear to God that this is a mighty warship that you have never seen before, a terrible dragon, and we should be on guard against it. After the battleship Shanxi sounded its entry flute, led by the pilot boat, and slowly approached the pier reserved for it, the AFP correspondent in Cape Town wrote the above passage in his notebook. Although his bard-like style was not appreciated by the editor-in-chief and was assigned to this place where he could only write black ** every day, this text truly expresses the complex and even bitter heart of European jealousy.

After a 25-day trek, Yang Qiu and the visiting fleet finally arrived at the port of Cape Town. Because the harbor could not accommodate so many ships, several warships, including the aircraft carrier Jiangxi, had turned back to the Chagos Archipelago, China's only overseas unformed territory in the Indian Ocean, which had been exchanged for a large number of aircraft and frigates from the British. (Addu Atoll is a lease, not a territory)

Cape Town was originally a Dutch colony, but the Dutch colonists gradually lost control of the city due to their involvement in the Anglo-French War. By 1814, the eventual victorious British had bought it in perpetuity, and used it as a starting point to gradually set the whole of South Africa into the crown of Buckingham Palace. But it also became the Waterloo of the decline of the empire on which the sun never set, and the Boer War made the world powers see through the weakness of the British Empire, which led to the challenge of Germany.

It is said that where there are people, there are Chinese, and this sentence is very apt. On the pier where the warship docked, thousands of Chinese waved national flags and slogans, shedding tears of joy. During the Manchu Dynasty, a large number of Chinese laborers were trafficked here by the colonizers, and under the shadow of exploitation, discrimination and even death, they burrowed into the dirty and dark mines, ate moldy bread, and survived tenaciously, gradually taking root and slowly sprouting. Although many of them could not afford to buy a ticket back home, they still followed their homeland from local newspapers and white mouths. The turbulent 1911**, the hope of 1913 unification, the confused 1915 European War, the foundation of the 1916 Land Act, the revival of the 1919 Shanghai Communiqué, the painful 1929 financial tsunami, the confrontation of 1931 going abroad (the Saudi founding event), the war of 1939 More and more Chinese fleets sailed into the deep blue, passing by the students studying abroad, bringing them one by one or shocking, or worried, or joyful news. But news is news, even if in the past two years, the sons and daughters of the motherland have won successive battles, and they have avenged the First Sino-Japanese War, and only a few broken ships have been left in the Japanese navy, which Britain and the United States are afraid of, they cannot see or touch it, and can only send their lovesickness through the window in the east.

But today! They saw it. The Motherland's Navy is the strongest, no! One of the most powerful battleships in the world has finally arrived, and it is docked in front of its eyes, still flying the Chinese flag! It belongs to the Chinese and carries the dream of the Chinese all over the world to break free from suffering! So when Yang Qiu, who was already world-renowned and even picky and discriminatory in Europe and the United States, openly called him the Napoleon of the East, stepped down the gangway, everyone suddenly erupted in deafening cheers. This is a voice from the heart, a refreshing dripping experience of suffering and grievance. A gray-haired old man, regardless of the obstruction, knelt on the ground, kowtowed to Yang Qiu three times, and then didn't get up, just sat like this, howling and crying. His name is Huang Shuisheng, his ancestral home is Fujian, and he is 67 years old this year. When he was young, he was abducted and trafficked to South Africa to mine because of his gullibility for foreigners, and he has been here for 50 years. Long-term lead and mercury poisoning has caused him to lose one eye and even his spine is severely bent. Of the more than 300 fellow villagers who were on the same boat back then, he is now left alone.

Fifty years of waiting finally came true today, he was finally able to puff up his chest, sit at the same table with the white devils, and tell them!

"Lao Tzu's warship, one against the two of you!"

"Hurry up, old man." The touching scene made Yang Qiu also a little emotional, walked out of the protective circle, and personally stepped forward to help him up. "No regrets, no regrets, no regrets in death!" Huang Shuisheng was sincerely frightened, and hurriedly wiped his tears and stood up. But he didn't hang his head, on the contrary, he stared at Yang Qiu with cloudy eyes, as if he wanted to keep in mind the leader who was called "my president" by Chinese all over the world. "No, there is a small regret, but it will be realized soon." Yang Qiu understood the mood of these overseas wanderers, turned his head to look at the Shanxi battleship with a smile, and opened his hand to the welcoming crowd: "Old man, go up." This is our own Chinese construction, so it is also your warship. Let's go, everyone can go up to the deck to have a look, and as long as I'm still gone, any Chinese can visit. ”

"I-I-can we really go up and have a look?" Huang Shuisheng's lips were trembling, and the people around him were surprised. "I'm not going to lie, I've already told the captain that he'll open the deck for everyone to see in the next few days. Of course, there are some things that we still have to keep secrets, so don't get into them. ”

"No, no! Let's go, I'll go first. Don't do it, I can walk up on my own. Huang Shuisheng was the first to take a step, and refused the support of the sailors, and walked to the gangway with difficulty trembling. His crooked spine seemed to stand tall under the glow of shining steel.

On the battleship "King George V" of the Royal Navy next to it, the British naval officers and men were both envious and full of helplessness. This was originally their territory, a forbidden area for the British Empire, and they once prided themselves on protecting it, but now they had to watch as the American battleship "Washington" and the Chinese Navy's battleship "Shanxi" were forced into it with thicker barrels and bodies.

This is the cruelty of decay and decline.

But what worries them and the whole of Britain more than the decline is the festering of the mainland and the Mediterranean. Although Hitler's attention turned to the Iberian Peninsula and Africa, Goering's bombers continued to visit England's airspace from time to time. Newcastle, Leeds, Birmingham, and London, once world empires, proudly the hegemons of the Seven Seas, have been blown to the ground, industrial production is on the verge of collapse, and must rely on the import of goods from China and the United States to continue the war. Thankfully, the mighty Germans were unable to allow the "bathtub" to fly over the treacherous straits, and with the continuous presence of American troops, the threat to the homeland was temporarily eased. But the retreat of the Iberian Peninsula, the loss of Greece, the growing number of wolves in the Atlantic, and the German-Italian North African Corps approaching the Nile still saw no light on their reversal.

In the small conference room on the third floor, after Roosevelt pushed his wheelchair into the door, he found that Kimmel was still looking at the majestic posture of the "Shanxi" from the window, and he couldn't help but sigh: "It's an amazing battleship, just like him, it always surprises us." Kimmel withdrew his gaze and nodded. To be honest, the appearance of the "Shanxi" made him very uncomfortable. In stark contrast to the thriving Chinese Navy, with the main Japanese naval force largely destroyed, the U.S. Congress began to frantically limit naval spending. The Montana plan, which is comparable to the Shandong-class, was canceled, after the first batch of 7 Essex-class aircraft carriers, the remaining orders were canceled, the Baltimore-class heavy cruiser passed the budget of 6, the Oregon-class heavy cruiser was canceled, the Alaska-class large cruiser was canceled, the design of the Des Moines-class heavy cruiser was also canceled, the Cleveland-class light cruiser budget was only 10 ships, the Oakland-class light cruiser was canceled after 3, the Fargo-class light cruiser design was canceled, and even the last two Iowa-class battleships were almost vetoed. A series of budget and plan ships were vetoed by Congress, which hurt the US Navy to the bone, but Kimmel was helpless, and even Roosevelt could not do anything about it. Because Congress is not wrong this time, the main enemies of the United States are now in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean, and the weak German and Italian navies and the British Royal Navy, which is still strong, make the United States no longer need to build so many capital ships, but should instead strengthen the construction of escort destroyers and escort aircraft carriers. As for the savings in manufacturing capacity, it will be used for more merchant marine, army and aircraft manufacturing.

Moreover, Congress is paranoid that even if so many capital ships are abolished, as long as all the current budget ships are built, the US Navy will not be worse than China in terms of total tonnage or quality. But in fact, those "old-fashioned men" ignore the impact of geography on the navy. To maintain a world navy, it is not only necessary to build warships, but also to have corresponding overseas bases. The problem is that the core interests of the Pacific Ocean are in the southwest, and except for the pro-American Australia, which can allow US troops to be stationed, the rest of the strategic points in the southwest are either controlled by the Chinese navy, or they are still entrenched in the Japanese army and are extremely difficult to attack, and even if they want to send troops to the Philippines, they cannot find any forward bases. Without overseas bases, even the most powerful fleet can only hide in the sun at Pearl Harbor or go to San Diego to intimidate Mexicans.

In order to find a way into the Philippines, Spruance originally wanted to find a breakthrough on Coral Island and attack the Solomon Islands, but after the Torch landing lost several warships, the plan had to be delayed indefinitely. After finally stabilizing the Atlantic, the Chinese navy immediately sent thousands of army soldiers to Vanuatu and the Santa Cruz Islands after the Battle of Kerama, and also began to build airfields to strengthen activities in the region. Although Spruance can also depart from Noumea, the Marines and Army need to take care of Europe first, and the increasing German submarine activity in the Atlantic can only be delayed again, so the biggest purpose of his visit this time is to hope that the Chinese Navy will open the bases in the Mariana or Ryukyu as a springboard for the United States to return to the Philippines.

However, this hope is really slim now.

Like him, Roosevelt faced the same troubles. Although he finally survived the first year, and the troops mobilized after the start of the war were able to be sent to Europe and North Africa, the American forces had not been able to contain the momentum of the German offensive so far. He doesn't understand this, because the revitalized U.S. economy and manufacturing have shown great inflatability over the past year. Aircraft production has increased from 600 per month before the war to more than 6,000 per month at present, and steel production has not only recovered after being overtaken by China in 1937 due to the second economic crisis, but also 66 million tons, much more than China and Britain combined. Oil production has exceeded 250 million tons, automobile production has tripled in a year, and shipbuilding tonnage has increased fivefold! The arms industry has increased fifty times!

But it is such an incomparably powerful United States in any data, but it gives him a deep sense of powerlessness that he has nowhere to go. So he hoped that the answer would be found in this meeting.

A meeting of the old and new power batons, a meeting to depict a new world order, and a "table" contest of cooperation and contradiction officially began the day after Yang Qiu arrived in Cape Town. At the same time, Hitler, who learned of the Cape Town Conference through the Ministry of Intelligence, had also sharpened his butcher's knife and swung it again.

On September 3, 1941, Kurt Student arrived in Greece and announced the beginning of the "Water Bank Movement".