This is where Kagesa is so clever, who, like Makino, is now almost certain of the existence of the Chinese Traveler, but not yet to convince the rest. So he decided to close the net slowly, and he must not rush it. He analyzed his opponent, since he was able to hide calmly in the water and not show his face, it can be seen how cunning this group of people is, they are not ordinary people, so any hasty temptation may expose their intentions and fall short.

He doesn't know where the enemy is and what their plans are, but he knows what they want, and that's his advantage, so just spill some bait every now and then wait slowly. He had already planned to close the net in North China, and the reason why he placed it in North China was because the intelligence agencies there had a better foundation, while the secret services in Shanghai had bought too many military commanders and had too many double agents, just as Asano said, the intelligence agencies under Wang Jingwei were unreliable and could leak information to Chongqing at any time.

Since a highly suspicious person like Chu Tingchang can defect to Chongqing, the possibility that the other party has already hooked up with Chongqing cannot be ruled out. In addition, he was eager to release all the information to the base camp, so that he could use the knowledge of the traverser more effectively and mobilize the entire war machine, but Makino was too cautious and always felt that the time had not come, and he still needed decisive evidence. Makino reassessed the overall sinking condition of Kasugamaru and made a new salvage plan. Just wait for the weather to be good, and let the Agano carry out the salvage.

After 8 months of hibernation. Under the personal intervention of Onishi Takijiro, the Navy has trained up to 30 divers in preparation for salvage. Most of these people have undergone step-by-step training in the simulated environment of booster pump manufacturing, and most of them have been able to adapt to the simulated 80-meter water depth environment and can persist for several hours, but there is no time for further pressurization training. It can be expected that under the current decompression conditions, sending these people down will inevitably cause a fairly high proportion of disabilities, and some people may die on the bottom of the sea, but the Navy's thinking is nothing more than to prepare more people to adapt to the attrition.

As 419 was rapidly advancing towards the East China Sea, one after another Sakurajima's communications were monitored, some of which required financial support, such as transportation boats and seaplanes, and the other part was manpower, requiring the outstanding students of the Department of Mathematics to be on standby. Of course, this caused Lin Xiuxuan to worry. If the enemy has any theoretical calculations in engineering, he should go to the professor, not the student. In fact, he has never been able to understand how Makino planned the process of guided weapons, because the core part of it is the assembly, and as far as he knows, Makino has not mastered the method of microcontroller formation. There should be a supporting assembly on the Kasuga Maru, but there should be no talent. Could it be that his plan has already reached this progress? Makino's plans became clearer and clearer.

In the East China Sea, the wind and waves have finally calmed down, and the Agano has reached the designated position, and it is not difficult for them to find the head of Kasugamaru because of the floating signal ball marking the position. The original displacement of this light cruiser was 6,500 tons, after modification, it was increased to 8,000 tons, although the main and secondary guns were removed, but in the end two cranes and auxiliary equipment were added in the front and rear main gun positions, and the number of seaplanes and launchers were increased, and the weight was still greatly increased.

Now this semi-professional salvage vessel can be salvaged in an alternating manner, avoiding a lot of wasted time due to decompression. Makino estimates that if the sea conditions and weather are good, an average of eight divers can go down in four groups each day and salvage about 500 kilograms of goods. At half a month, you can catch about 8 tons of goods. His focus on training divers is to identify important supplies, and he hopes that this time he will not go down like a headless fly like last time and pick up a lot of useless things.

At the same time, the Japanese Navy has made complete preparations to deploy up to four old destroyers in the vicinity of this salvage ship, which are arriving one after another. According to Makino's assumption, once the enemy attacks, these old ships cannot be expected to threaten the enemy's submarines, but at least they can witness the enemy's attack and save people at the first time. And the refit of the second salvage ship is already well underway, and he expects that the enemy will definitely make a move, unless...... I guessed wrong, this submarine really does not exist.

After a few days of waiting, the weather improved. The first salvage of Kasuga Maru in 1942 year officially began.

A diving bell is released by a crane and slowly lowered underwater, not only is it larger, but it is already equipped with a telephone to communicate with the above, divers are also equipped with diving suits that keep warm underwater, and a small submarine thruster. This is a miniature submarine imported from Italy, which theoretically allows divers to use mechanical power to travel back and forth to Kasuga Maru many times without exerting too much physical strength.

The first divers to enter the water were the only two of the eight divers who survived last year, and the rest either died or were left disabled. They went down to the bottom of the sea and took a while to get used to the water pressure. Then get out of the diving bell and walk in the direction of Kasugamaru. As far as memory can remember, the ship has a large opening in the amidships to get into. Instead of using the sleek propeller, they still entered on foot, as they were the first to come down and make the front stop. However, one of them carried a water camera and special lighting equipment to photograph the interior.

The ship was still there, looking like a gray grave. The diver endured a huge muscle pain at 20 atmospheres and walked over with bubbles. They were very experienced in avoiding the sharp corners on the edge of the gap and entering the cabin. This time, they were much more purposeful, going straight to another section of the cabin that they hadn't been to last year. Kasugamaru distinguishes between materials of different importance, and the packaging is marked with different colors, with yellow being the most important and red being secondary. As his first reconnaissance operation at the end of the year, they didn't want to move back an oversized object, but instead looked for something smaller and packed.

Walking all the way, taking photos along the way, hoping that the traverser can recover some memories through these photos, so as to further guide and salvage.

419 stretched out its electronic mast during the day, and listened to the Agano constantly asking for weather information and the sound of cranes dragging chains, and seemed to have started this year's salvage work ahead of schedule. In addition, the communications of the surrounding Japanese submarines were also monitored, and it was determined that at least one old destroyer was cruising around it non-stop, and it was obvious that the enemy had a complete defense plan. How to destroy this henchman without revealing its whereabouts?

According to Lin's judgment, the Japanese traverser and a few people in the military department should have guessed the existence of 419, but they still couldn't convince others, so hiding the trail was still a top priority. He felt that the attack could not be solved by just one or two* unless it could be confirmed that the traverser was on board.

Judging from the investigation of the Guantong department, it seems that there are seven or eight US submarines operating in the waters east of the Taiwan Strait, of which four are of the Little Shark class and one is of the Porpoise-class submarine, and the rest cannot be identified. These ocean-going submarines may have come from Pearl Harbor or Australia, so it is difficult to stay long off the coast of China, and most of them are trying to ambush Japanese transports near the Bass Strait. In August 1942, the Battle of Midway had not broken out, and the U.S. Navy submarines did not dare to go too far into the vicinity of the Japanese mainland.

The strategy of fishing in troubled waters has been used more than once, and of course it will inevitably require the help of the Allies. Cheng Dayang carefully studied the routes of these friendly forces on electronic charts. Several of them have already gone to Manila, apparently to be ambushed outside the harbor, and only one Porpoise-class submarine with radio call sign SS172 is passing through the South China Sea, possibly heading for an ambush in the Taiwan Strait. If you go to Tainan, you are still too far away from the goal.

How do you attract it to the past? It is believed that once the submarine arrives and can be seen visually, it will definitely make up its mind to attack, because Agano is completely stopped in place and cannot move, which can already be determined by the sound of rumbling chains taking off and landing heard by sonar, and if it has not anchored and positioned, it will not be possible to carry out salvage operations.

At this time, 419 was still near the port of Bandar Seri Bega, far behind the American submarine. But the plan had to be made quickly.

"I think the Americans may just hang around Kaohsiung and go back to make a difference, whether they set off from Pearl Harbor or Australia, they have already driven a long distance, and I believe the consumption is relatively large." Cheng Dayang said.

"Yes, we can't count on them, they may be nested outside the port of Kaohsiung for three or four days and then go back." The commissar sided with the captain.

"As you mean, we're going to rush over and give the salvage ship one*?"

"When I was chasing the Wyvern, I was met with a * chase with an obvious active sonar," Cheng said, "I think we are close to being discovered by the enemy." There is also Chu Tingchang's completely unrestrained pretending to be a ghost in Myanmar, others can't understand it, and the traverser can't understand it? ”

"That's why it should be more hidden, at least not for the traverser to find evidence to convince others."

"The reality is that it is very difficult for us to mobilize American submarines to take up the post for you, if they are willing to go to the Japanese mainland, we don't need to move, they go all the way north along the strait, and it is easy to find the target. If they don't want to go, I can't fake orders from my superiors to get them to go. ”

Lin Xiuxuan was silent in thought, he felt that he had no choice but to forge orders from his superiors, but now judging from the communications of some American submarines, they only received and did not send, and it was obvious that an ambush zone had been set up when they set off, and unless the captain of the boat made a temporary move, it was unlikely that he would be deceived by telegram.

His gaze fell on the glittering markings on the main routes, which were recorded by 419 sonar as merchant ships transporting supplies to various war zones.

"What do you think about using these merchant ships of the enemy?"

"You want to hijack these ships to ram that cruiser of six or seven thousand tons? It's impossible, the speed of the voyage is too slow, and it was sunk before it arrived, and besides, our manpower is left in India, and the current manpower, the merchant ships that may be occupied, at most one or two thousand tons, even if they collide, will not have any effect. ”