Located on the northeast side of the Red River Delta in the Beibu Gulf, Hekou Port is the largest seaport in the north of Annam, and has been built as the most important commercial port to southwest China since Germany and Austria took over the colony of Annam from the French. From here, the railway leads to Hanoi, and then to the inland cities of Kunming and Guilin via the Yunnan-Vietnam and Gui-Yue railways, respectively.

Six o'clock in the afternoon, Heinrich? Muller sat in the dining room of the Navy Club near the port of Hekou, listening to the news broadcasts of the Hanoi colonial authorities, while talking to Marthas? Captain Hogan and Mark? Lieutenant Colonel Pranic was chatting idly. Originally, he judged that this was still a local war, and the intention of the Japanese was obvious, that is, to try to annex Manchuria and Mongolia under the banner of the so-called "Manchukuo."

Originally, everyone thought that the war in Shanghai would be like the "Northeast Incident", and the two sides would fight for a while, and finally they would negotiate a settlement. Now, however, the Japanese seem to have plans to attack inland along the Yangtze River valley.

"Mark, you just came back from China, does it look bad?" Brigadier General Hogan heard the comments on the radio, which seemed to say that the Chinese would probably have to abandon Shanghai, so he turned to Pranic.

"It's really getting stricter and stricter, the Japanese have the advantage at sea, and their land forces, under the cover of warships, have caused a lot of damage to the Chinese troops." "The Chinese navy suffered a heavy setback at the beginning of the war, the Japanese attacked the Chinese Wei naval port in the north, the Chinese Northern Fleet lost five warships unprepared, and their two battleships were also heavily damaged, stumbling and fleeing to Qingdao, where they hid under the protection of the Germans," Pranic said. The Southern Fleet intended to go to Shanghai from Fuzhou for reinforcements, but was attacked by Japanese bombers. Fortunately, the Japanese were only horizontal bombers on sortie, and their two battleships were only heavily damaged, but they were not sunk. Their southern fleet withdrew to Canton at night, and only a small river fleet remained on the Yangtze River. ”

"Now it's the world of planes, and it's good that the Chinese have dispatched a fleet without air protection, and they haven't been sunk." Brigadier General Hogan said.

"The Chinese are building two aviation warships in Fuzhou. It has about the same displacement as our 'Hun King', about 23,000 tons. However, due to the lack of experience and raw materials, due to the impact of the war, the two battle aircraft carriers had just been launched before the war, and the war broke out before they could complete the outfitting in a hurry. Now the two battleships have barely sailed to Qinzhou, but since their shipyard has not yet been built, it seems that the Chinese want to hand over the two aircraft carriers to us for outfitting, and it is said that the emperor has agreed. Mueller said.

"Oh my God. The emperor is iron-hearted to help the Chinese, which may involve us in the war. Pranic exclaimed, "Now the Japanese have protested to us many times." ”

"The Reich is not afraid of the Japanese, but in the Far East we and the Germans together cannot compare with the Japanese." "It's just that we can rely on the power of the Chinese." ”

"But the Germans had not yet realized the importance of air power, and they deployed only one air wing in Qingdao. There is also only one air wing in Annam, and all of them add up to less than 500 combat aircraft. Mueller said with some concern. If the Japanese attack, we won't be able to withstand it. ”

"The Japanese don't have the guts to challenge the two most powerful powers in the world, and that's no different from suicide. So, we just continue to sell weapons and all kinds of equipment to the Chinese, and it is said that the empire's industrial exports to China will reach 3.5 billion crowns this year. This is equivalent to almost one-twentieth of the Empire's gross domestic product. It's no wonder that domestic businessmen are in high spirits, flocking to China and selling their products. "The capitalists are always like flies, and there's blood." will appear there. Did you know? Yesterday, Mr. Arbroath, chairman of the board of directors of the IG Farben Foundation, was also present at the Governor-General's Palace of the German colony in Hanoi. ”

"Does the Farben Consortium have a lot of projects in China?" Hogan asked.

"Of course, they have built a lot of chemical and pharmaceutical factories in China, and I heard that they helped the general in Shanxi build two large hydrogenation plants for the production of synthetic petroleum products. China lacks oil, but it has enough coal, much like the Germans. "I heard that the Farben consortium has taken over more than 100 million marks worth of big business in China to help the Chinese build hydrogenation plants and gunpowder and pharmaceutical factories." ”

"No wonder the Germans were able to make more than 30 million marks from this business." "The Farben consortium is a monster in the chemical industry, and even the Americans can't do anything about it." ”

"Will we intervene militarily in the war in the Far East?" Pranic said.

"Not at the moment, but the domestic press, which is controlled by arms dealers, is playing up the aggression of the Russians and the Japanese, advocating increased domestic armaments and more aid to the Chinese." In fact, they want to sell more planes, artillery and tanks to China, so that each plane or tank or artillery will increase their income by 70,000 or 80,000 crowns, and the same is true in Germany. Hogan shook his head and said, "However, the arms dealers have already kidnapped us to the Chinese chariot, and if China is facing defeat or collapse, they will certainly not sit idly by and will try to push us into battle." ”

They ate ham, grilled steaks, drank Dalmatian red wine made in Hungary from China, and talked about the war that was currently going on in China. Next to it is a large picture window with a view of the white sand beach and some merchant ships entering and leaving the port.

At this moment, a young captain officer came up and said to Müller and Pranic: "Colonel, and Lieutenant Colonel Pranic, it just so happens that you are all here, General Yankel is looking for you, please report to the fleet headquarters now." ”

"What's the matter?" Mueller asked.

"I don't know, but a Chinese naval delegation has just arrived, and the general has been sent out to look for you." The captain said.

"Oh, you're in trouble." General Hogan laughed, "I heard that the Chinese are looking for someone to help them. ”

"Well, that's better than staying here and doing nothing." "I like to deal with Chinese, but they're so good at drinking," Pranic said. ”

The two of them took a car and soon arrived at the base, where the headquarters of the Austro-Hungarian Far East Fleet was located in the naval base near the port. The headquarters was a three-story white building with fancy Imperial flags and the Navy's Double Eagle flag hanging above the front of the gate, and dozens of warships of the Imperial Far East Task Force were stationed in anchorages in the harbor.

At this moment, in the Empire's important military port in the Far East, a number of temporarily converted colonial tugboats and cargo ships were being repositioned and held to their designated positions with cables under the tow of barges. The ships were armed with several anti-aircraft guns, some twin or quadruple 40 mm Islaya short-range anti-aircraft guns, and some with very slender 90 mm Škoda heavy anti-aircraft guns. In order to ensure the safety of the port, the Imperial Navy also began to increase the anti-aircraft fire here.

With some doubts, the two entered the building of the Admiralty. (To be continued......)