The Atlantic Ocean was calm at night, and who would have thought that just a few hours earlier, there had been a storm here. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoStars in the sky twinkle in the sea at night. Starlight against the calm sea gives the illusion of being in a mythical wonderland.

On the sea, two submarines, which had been out of Hawaii for 43 days, formed a formation and marched slowly in columns. The submarine floating on the surface of the sea is like a blue whale on the sea, sailing slowly.

On the deck, the sailors were breathing, smoking cigarettes or sitting on the deck enjoying the cool sea breeze of the night, in short, all looking uncomfortable, but without exception - everyone had a tired look on their faces.

The forty-three days of sailing made every sailor feel extremely tired, and for them, every opportunity to "let off steam" was extremely precious, and for these soldiers on the voyage, this was perhaps the only pleasant thing to do on the voyage.

This long-range was undoubtedly a test for the submarine forces of the Northeast Navy, which sailed from Pearl Harbor in Hawaii to sail across the Pacific Ocean, across Cape Horn, into the Atlantic, all the way north, and finally arrived at their destination. Now the two submarines, which have been tested many times, are getting closer and closer to the target when they are about to run out of supplies after receiving a resupply in the Falkland Islands.

While the sailors were letting the wind on the deck, the submarine's cabin was lit up with dim orange lights. Submariners in fireproof leather suits work at their respective posts. The dim orange light means it's night. Although the crew changed shifts every 8 hours, the long long-distance voyages combined with the confined living conditions of the submarine's cabins. It's so easy to mess up their circadian clocks that they can't tell the difference between day and night.

In order to keep the biological clock of the sailors from being messy, and then affecting the combat effectiveness, when the submarine is sailing at night. The cabin lights are dimmed. It turns bright in the morning. In order to give the sailors a sense of day and night, there are also breakfast, lunch and dinner in the three meals. In order to give the sailors the illusion of being on land during the long and boring voyage as much as possible.

But in fact, this feeling of being on land has never been felt before, although the British Navy promised to assist "the reconnaissance ships sent by China to the Atlantic", the ocean-going submarine is a "killer feature" of the Northeast Navy. Just like in the Falkland Islands, the submarine only docked on an uninhabited island, and all the materials needed were transported by whaling ships from the Beiyang fishing industry anchored on Soledad Island.

The steel-hulled whaling ships that had been powered by sails and diesel engines in the past few years were, to some extent, the spearhead of the war, and almost at the same time that Russia made the decision to send the Second Pacific Fleet, the Navy called up dozens of ocean-going whaling ships to carry out reconnaissance missions in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. They also have other tasks, such as providing supplies for ocean-going submarines, and now, on an uninhabited island in Bermuda, there are also two whaling ships laden with fuel, food and other supplies waiting for the submarine to arrive.

"Captain! We are now five days ahead of schedule. At the current speed. Although we had enough food and fresh water to get to our destination, I was worried about the ...... equipment."

Lying on the chart, the time required was calculated again. Ma Guogong, who was tired, looked at Ding Futao in front of him and asked, aiming at an uninhabited island in British Bermuda, according to the agreement reached with the British side. They could enter the British territories for supplies or stay temporarily, all "unofficially", of course. This meant that they gained some foothold in the Atlantic, although they did not get the hull maintenance they needed.

Although for the submarine force of the Northeast Navy, the farthest voyage was the voyage from Dalian to Hawaii, but this voyage was only a thrill and no danger, and the test of integrity was not the voyage itself, but the test of diesel engines, electric motors, and other mechanical equipment on the voyage of tens of thousands of nautical miles. The biggest concern during this period was whether the turbine would last that long, and although there were failures along the way, there were no dangers, at least no catastrophic failures.

Although in order to carry as much fuel and mechanical spare parts as possible. Other non-essential supplies in the boat were reduced to the lowest standard, and even food and fresh water were compressed. All this is fatal for long-range navigation. But for the sake of more fuel and spare parts, it can only be done.

But even so, after dozens of days of long-distance sailing, the mechanical wear and tear of the submarine still exceeded their expectations, and the use of spare parts was far greater than expected.

Ma Guogong's words made Ding Futao stunned, he didn't expect that after going through all kinds of hardships and dangers to come to the Atlantic, when he was still a few days away from the target, he would have to face such a problem.

"Shao Lijie, you are a mechanic, tell me, can the equipment support a three-day voyage?"

Ding Futao asked the mechanic bluntly, he was more willing to believe the mechanic's words on such a question than the deputy captain's staff.

"Well, no problem......"

After pondering for a moment, Shao Lijie added.

"If it really doesn't work, there are some parts that are not too badly worn, and you can also use them, not to mention three days, even thirteen days can support ......"

"Are you sure? You know, the big guys are all pointing at you right now. ”

Looking at the mechanic in front of him suspiciously, Ding Futao asked a little nervously.

He wouldn't break the radio silence to summon supply ships until he was forced to do so, a risk he couldn't afford to break. There is a risk of the unknown, although he knows very well that the radio technology of the Russians is far inferior to that of the Northeast, but at this time, he prefers to believe that the radio technology of the Russians is not inferior to that of the Northeast.

Although Northeastern University was the inventor of radio, for the sake of safety, it was only so, and their task was very simple: to reach the Atlantic Ocean and track the Russian Second Pacific Fleet along the way.

The twilight is thick, and the mist on the Atlantic Ocean floats on the sea. The lookout on the submarine's conning tower was in high power binoculars. But the viewing distance is still not high. Suddenly. In the distance, a small black dot appeared on the edge of the sky and sea. Appearing and disappearing in the calm sea, the lookout hand immediately picked up the phone.

"Report! Direction 312 is now unknown merchant ships! ”

The first mate on duty pushed open the captain's room. Reported to the chief in the room.

"Dive to periscope depth! Get into the combat attitude now! ”

Ding Futao gave the order without hesitation, and encountering merchant ships was a difficult opportunity for the submarine formation to practice. This voyage was accompanied by training, although their mission was to track. But who knows if this mission will suddenly turn into an attack, and maybe, they will also fire the "first shot" of this war.

With the red light in the boat, it turned on. The sailors who had been resting were aroused, and the sailors on the deck returned to the boat smoothly. The sailors hurried back to their posts, and the moment the watertight hatch closed, the submarine quickly dived below the surface......

Rio de Janeiro is one of the best natural harbors in South America. It was both the landing place of the Portuguese and the capital of Brazil. In the evening, a dark cloud appeared on the horizon of the port of Rio de Janeiro. Before dawn it was dark again. Then the wind and the rain fell all over the sky. I can't see the pier anymore. At the very least, there is no danger for merchant ships to be parked in the harbor. The forces of nature are irresistible. Until the rain stopped more than an hour later.

It was when the rain stopped and the wind cleared that a whaling ship flying the flag of the Northeast merchant sailed into the port of Rio de Janeiro, and it is not a strange thing for the people here that Chinese whaling ships appeared here, as early as three years ago, there were whaling ships from China deep into the South Atlantic. Entering the port of Rio de Janeiro, when the world's whaling industry fell into depression, China's whaling industry and distant-water fishing industry developed rapidly, and at the beginning of the new century, China built a 25,000-ton tonnage of ocean-going fishing motherships to support distant-water fisheries, just as the plan of the year, the sea has become China's pasture. Millions of tons of fish are caught every year, providing the Beiyang fishery with a lucrative fishery and a cheap source of meat for the Chinese.

on this. The world never seems to care, and for other countries, they don't seem to have the will to develop distant-water fisheries, but one of the more important reasons is the demand of the market, at least in the world there is no other region in the world where the government promotes the development of fisheries like the Northeast.

The ocean-going whaling ships and fishing boats all over the world are undoubtedly a symbol of the development of the fishing industry. Even war could not stop the fishing industry, and even after the "Dover incident", Russia blamed the incident on "China's developed fishing industry", making them mistakenly believe that the fishing boats were "Chinese reconnaissance boats". Well, that's just an excuse. But to a large extent, it is a fact that the whaling ship did not attract the attention of the outside world, and it was just a normal port call.

The port area of Rio de Janeiro is very crowded. It's like a marketplace. There was a noisy crowd everywhere. The coconut grove with no end in sight falls with the warm morning sun. The savage blacks, whites, and natives on both sides of the road were more clearly mixed-race people. Selling all sorts of goods to the sailors who had just disembarked - watermelons, coconuts, rabbits...... This fresh pulp is often the most popular with sailors, who simply can't eat it at sea.

Among the sailors, several Orientals were not very conspicuous in the crowd, their complexion was dark, and they were completely hidden among the natives, at least in the eyes of the Westerners, there was not much difference between these Orientals and the natives, and one of them, after arriving at the port, went directly to the telegraph office, and from the telegraph office took a telegram, which was very simple, only informing the whaling ship of its location, which was a routine announcement, and did not seem to be anything special, if it had to be said specially, I'm afraid it's the word whaling ship needs maintenance, so what's so special about that? Ocean-going ships will inevitably need to be maintained.

After the telegram was sent, the leading Orientals soon came to a small three-story building in the port area, and the three-story building was written in Grapetic with the words "Beiyang Trading Company" - in the past many years, with the help of the "free trade" advocated and fully supported by the British, the Northeast expanded its trade around the world, and naturally inevitably entered Brazil. Industrial consumer goods such as leather shoes will eventually replace American or British goods in the Brazilian market, but of course, this is only a matter of time, and all that is needed now is to tap into this market with great potential.

"You're here? How can you help? ”

Almost as soon as Li Mu entered the office, the company manager, who seemed a little tired, said in a loud voice.

"How? Are the other ships in place? ”

Li Mu asked quietly.

"From north to south, in every port now, there are our ships ......"

As the manager spoke, he unfolded a map with many ports marked on it, and if you pay attention, you can see that those ports are all large ports without exception.

"Now, here, here, and here, we have found German coal carriers, well, and here......"

Perhaps for others, there was nothing surprising about the German coal carriers, but for these intelligence officers, they were able to deduce the route of the target from the German coal carriers.

"So, it's pretty much the same as it was originally assumed?"

Li Mu drew a few lines on the map with a pencil, and then connected several lines to each other, and a complete route appeared.

"Well, I'm just a businessman......"

The manager said in a strange tone, indeed, Brazil belongs to the five categories of regions that cannot be ranked in the division of the intelligence bureau, and he only entrusts a trading company to "collect" relevant information, of course, he is not like Li Mu, who himself comes from the naval intelligence department, and can be said to be extremely familiar with the affairs of the navy.

"Indeed, but without your help, we would not have been able to do this!"

Li Mu nodded, put the map away, and then looked at the manager and said.

"What's the atmosphere like here now? Will the Brazilians later approve the entry of Russians into the port? ”

"The war is too far away for the people here, for whom they don't care about the war between us and the Russians, but it's ......"

The manager glanced out the window.

"I believe that in this place, everything is still about money, and if we can make some investments appropriately, I think, we can still make Brazilians reject Russia!" (To be continued.) )