Sitting in this huge seaplane, waiting with trepidation for her to accelerate at the surface of the sea and take off, he suddenly had a very bad feeling that once the United States and Japan went to war, Boeing might overtake Britain and become the second enemy.

He had originally shirked this mission, because the call for war in the whole country had boiled, and he could not see any chance of reversing it; However, on his first day in office, Tojo personally called his house and clearly expressed his sincerity, and Tojo made the greatest compromise to the Americans' conciliatory opinions, including the immediate introduction of Vietnam and assurances to the United States that the Triple Alliance would not exist in name only; Japan will continue to garrison China in the name of defense against the Communists, but it is possible to negotiate a deadline for the withdrawal of troops.

These concessions were all forward-looking, and the guards who were afraid of the coup did not dare to carry them out. As the head of the Ministry of the Army, Tojo did have the prestige to subdue the irascible soldiers, and by the time he left, there was already a rumor that the junior officers were very dissatisfied with Tojo's resumption of negotiations, believing that Tojo had lost his position and had become a coward.

"The question now is, how will the United States deal with the Japanese government's compromises? After all, the Hull Memorandum made demands that deceived people too much, and even demanded the return of Manchuria, which is obviously unrealistic."

His mind was filled with expectations and fears, and as a career diplomat, he could also gain insight into the deep implications of America's layout. It stands to reason that the landing in French Vietnam, compared with the various lawless actions of Japan in East Asia in the past, I don't know how much more low-key, almost no bloodshed; However, the United States has gone against the norm by suddenly imposing sanctions and sending an air force to aid China.

What is the reason for all this? Few people in Japan can thoroughly analyze the recent actions of the United States, and most of them are only angry, as if the United States should know each other for appeasement, but he actually stabbed Japan in the back, and then the lion opened his mouth and even demanded that Japan spit out the benefits it had obtained before the Showa era. Laisu's biggest concern = what really made this happen was the German attack in June. The United States and Britain finally colluded, and their strategic goal was to completely destroy the Three Kingdoms axis. If this is the case, then no matter how much Japan backs down, it will not be possible to avoid an eventual showdown. Perhaps the upper echelons on both sides are already well aware of this situation, and only diplomats are still stupidly making a last-ditch effort?

On November 5, in Saeki Bay, the door to the officers' meeting room of the battleship Nagato was closed, and there were only two people inside.

Yamamoto Fifty-six stood in front of Nagano with a blank face, and he knew what Nagano had brought with him today.

Nagano opened a document and began to read it out.

"By order of His Majesty, the Military Command Department has issued Sea Order No. 1 to the Combined Fleet,"

It all happened naturally.

"In view of the present situation, the Empire has decided to go to war with the United States, Great Britain, and the Netherlands in early December. The commander of the Combined Fleet must aim at this period so that combat units can enter the designated area......"

Yamamoto paused for a moment before stepping up to take the order, and Nagano patted him on the shoulder expectantly.

"The big war is coming, or do you feel a little nervous? I think this was also the feeling of Yuhiro Ito and Commander Togo in the position of commander back then, but since there is the most loyal and warlike navy in the world, all difficulties will pass. ”

At about the same time, the army also received an order with similar content, which was the result of the second imperial meeting of the day, and it can be said that in addition to the diplomats who were pawns, and the junior officers who were angry, the upper echelons of the military department already knew that war was inevitable.

But there are still people who sit and make last-ditch efforts, sitting in vain to avoid the outbreak of war.

Northeast China.

Hasegawa walked around the derrick with his hands behind his back, looking unusually anxious and haggard, he was not worried about the lack of oil underneath, he was worried that this ancient equipment would encounter resistance in the rock layer and would not be able to pump oil out as scheduled. A few days ago, the drill bit was going down like a hot knife cutting butter, but after 500 meters, the situation suddenly reversed, perhaps because the drill bit was not torqueful enough or was worn out excessively, and in short, the downward speed began to slow down significantly. He had no choice but to continue adding lubricant underneath. He did not have complete geological information, and he did not know what kind of ingenuity the Chinese used to produce oil after a few years, and how much time it took to grind it out (it is impossible to record this in the book), and he could only pray that he would not touch the rocks one after another.

On the bright side, Professor Furuta didn't show up for two weeks to put pressure on him. The professor sometimes took a group of idlers to hunt in the nearby woods, and sometimes went to Qiqihar to hang out, as if waiting for the right moment.

In the distance, Hasegawa saw Furuta and his party, and suddenly appeared, and it seemed that they were finally going to say something today.

"I don't know what you're thinking," Furuta's chief attendant, Nakano, was the first to attack, "Have you ever thought about the consequences of conducting test mining without any arguments and using all of the most expensive equipment in Japan?" ”

"I ...... Of course, I thought that if I let these expensive equipment lie in the warehouse, it would be a real waste. ”

"What an excuse to shirk, let me ask you," Furuta, who was standing behind, walked up to him with a smile, "Except for the mud, what have you hit these days?" ”

"I ...... We are very close to the oil and gas layers. ”

"Very close? Very close? Just by your mouth? ”

The people around laughed.

"The average depth of wells in Texas is more than 1 kilometer."

"That's America. It is completely inconsistent with the geology here. ”

"No, as long as there are sedimentary conditions, there may be oil."

"Hasegawa, what do you probably mean, didn't you swear a few days ago that the oil is at your feet?"

"yes, I'm pretty sure, right at your feet."

"You ......" Nakano rushed over in a huff and was stopped by Furuta reaching out. Forget it, let him continue to toss, what did he say when he saw 1000 meters. ”

Furuta sneered and turned around, and the others followed suit. Hasegawa turned his head, and another casing was lowered in the working area on the derrick. This means that he is 12 meters closer to the oil.

"I want you to know that I'm right." He muttered quietly, but then became afraid, what if from now on, it was all hard rock.

419's loss of deep-diving equipment is not a serious matter in itself, but it has shaken Lin Xiuxuan's determination to continue to stay here, he must fully weigh the profits and losses of all aspects, and make a decision on the next move, just from the perspective of listening to intelligence, there is no advantage in staying here, in the last month before the war, 419 seems to have a lot of suspicious things to do. The only constraint was that Kagesa's salvage ship could return at any time, which made him undecided, and he finally decided to send a drone to conduct a reconnaissance of the port of Keelung, Taiwan.

The reconnaissance results were satisfactory, the old and tattered warship was still there, and there was basically nothing left on the rear deck, and it seemed that it had been cleaned up by the typhoon, and there was no sign of emergency repair. It seems that the people on board are also gone.

Lin Xiuxuan had an in-depth discussion with Cheng Dayang, and decided that at least until the war began, it was impossible for this disgusting salvage ship to come here, and now they must immediately go to the Sea of Japan to monitor the assembled Japanese fleet and eliminate any obstacles that would allow Japan to slide into this devastating war.

That night, 419 began to depart for Japan. Due to Japan's pre-war secrecy measures, a lot of key information was not transmitted by radio, which made the 419, which had super decipherment capabilities, useless, so they could only take the initiative to conduct close reconnaissance of the combined fleet anchored in the Seto Inland Sea. During the last operation, he saw the diving capabilities of his team members and began to plan the operation.

4 days later, 410 approached Oita Prefecture in southern Japan, and sonar detected a large number of fleets, passing through the Bungo waterway. Most of these ships use the same power system, and when the 419 is underwater, it is difficult to distinguish between the enemy's aircraft carrier and the battle cruiser by just turning the blade, but the enemy's non-stop bomb dropping and high-speed turning training clearly indicate that this is a mobile force that is about to go north, and they are conducting sneak attacks and anti-air raid training.

That night, 419 detected the state of the snorkel and headed west for five Japanese submarines. These were the first Japanese ships to sail to Hawaii, and due to their slower speed, they had to depart a month early. According to historical data, each I-type submarine will carry two pocket submarines on the front class, that is, a total of 10 pocket submarines, which will carry a battle with no return. To this extent, the so-called "special offensive" operations of the Japanese began from the very beginning of the war.

Subsequently, 419 received a brief longwave communication from a huge truss antenna over 100 meters from Bikai County, Aichi Prefecture. The content of the communication is meaningless, and may just be a general communication test.

The special attack submarines will open the seal on December 6 and launch the attack according to the established plan, but long-wave communications sent from the Japanese mainland still theoretically possible to recall the submarines.

419 passed near as many as 6 enemy aircraft carriers during exercises, aircraft carriers of mobile forces, not her concern. The real target was the battleship Nagato, who was docked in the port.

The ship, as the flagship of the Combined Fleet, has always maintained radio silence and, if there is any important intelligence, will communicate with it through communication cables deep underwater. This is part of the radio secrecy program implemented by the Japanese Navy from August.

The Japanese of this era believed that the use of cables by ships in ports was foolproof. However, they didn't know that there was a way to eavesdrop on the information in the cable without destroying it, and in fact, Lin Xiuxuan had already used this method in Shanghai.

Right under the noses of as many as 50 enemy ships, 419 flickered and slowly approached the battleship Nagato parked on the harborside. Although it is a deep-water bay, it is not suitable for nuclear submarine operations. It was not certain whether the submarine would be seen from the air by enemy aircraft when it approached the shallow water near the shore, so the operation had to be carried out at night.

Cheng Dayang quickly raised the periscope to take pictures of coastal targets, and then quickly determined the position of the Nagato.

After Xu Chong, who was carrying equipment, got out of the bow rescue cabin, he approached the port alone. Underwater, he could also see a row of brightly lit enemy ships on the coast, and the enemy did not shy away from using lights in order to let the spies on the shore find out that the main fleet had not left the mainland.