Chapter 269 Eating Barbecue

Bang.

In the office of the Navy Department of Tokyo Base Camp, Xixiang Congdao stood in front of his desk with a pale face, and the other end of the phone that fell beside him was still shouting in horror, as if urging the Japanese Minister of the Navy.

The shouts on the phone trembled in panic, as if the most terrible thing had happened.

Xixiang Congdao has no intention to listen to it anymore. Those bombs falling from the sky and the fires that will not be extinguished are no longer important, because the Pacific Fleet has passed through the Puga Waterway, which is full of mines, and inserted the knife directly into the heart of Japan two hours ago!

No one knows how they broke the mine blockade, and how they found a narrow channel and blew up the guard fort and drilled into the heart of Japan. Few people knew about the mine deployment map and detailed waterway information, and the captains had to lead the ship to walk through it.

The remaining three capital ships and two second-class armored cruisers have all sunk, and the whole port of Yokosuka has been destroyed. So far, he can't think of how they quickly sank five warships. You know, there are still two powerful battleships there! With a huge body of more than 13,000 tons and steel armor up to 320 mm thick, even if it is not there, it will take at least dozens of minutes.

But according to the report of the tugboats that fled to Yokohama, the three capital ships exploded violently almost instantly. On average, each of them sank after less than five minutes, and there was no reaction at all!

"What kind of means is this? Did they buy through the base camp officers, get the channel map, and go directly into the ammunition depot of the warship to ignite the explosives? The more Xixiang thought about it, the more uncomfortable he felt, as if a cold current suddenly drilled in from his forehead, crawling all over his body along the blood, and his whole body became stiff and cold.

More importantly, after the Pacific Fleet arrived in Yokosuka, it sent commandos for a moment to forcibly drive off the four newest and strongest battleships that had just struggled to return to the country, dragged them to the center of Tokyo Bay and were protected by two battleships.

No matter how they cross the waterway, how quickly they sink the garrison fleet, and send flying eggs to drop bombs, etc. Obviously, this is carefully premeditated. The goal is to completely destroy the only remaining power in the Japanese navy!

"Mr. Minister, Prince Shirakawa Nohisa asked you to go to the base camp for a meeting immediately, and he has ordered the army to resist to the death, and said that he asked you to order Yokohama immediately..." The news brought by the adjutant made the Taoist priest sigh, and he didn't even want to listen to the following words. What does it mean to resist to the death?!

It's ridiculous!

Without the navy, I lost control of the sea, which is a real island! Even food is difficult to be self-sufficient. How can the soldiers be required to defend it? Go to work hard?

Li Mo doesn't even need to send the army. As long as he sends all the warships over, shells the coast, and implements a stricter blockade, he will never turn over!

Perhaps to confirm his idea, a series of explosions suddenly sounded outside the window, followed by the roar of countless shells breaking through the air. Xixiang walked quickly from the road to the window, but the dark Tokyo city not far away seemed to be a pot, and the fire of the explosions came one after another, like rising fireworks. .

When his eyes stopped in the direction of shelling, his face changed again, and a drop of cold sweat oozed from his forehead.

Senso-ji Temple!

He finally knew why the enemy did not bombard the base camp first, because the young master of Hawaii was going to completely break the backbone of Japan!

You should know where there are the last 50 tons of gold reserves in Japan. Although this batch of gold has actually been exchanged for a U.S. loan as a temporary mortgage, the base camp is unwilling to take away the gold, and it is also afraid that the United States will repudiate the debt at that time. Therefore, after consultation with the United States, this batch of gold will remain in the mainland and jointly supervise it. He stayed and was jointly guarded by the soldiers of the United States.

For the safety of this batch of gold, the base camp tried everything and finally decided to hide them quietly in the famous Senso-ji Temple, but now it is still exposed, which shows that the interior of the base camp has been infiltrated by the enemy. More importantly, once the Pacific Fleet steals gold, in addition to facing the forced debt of the United States, all the domestic banknotes will be turned into white paper, and the whole country will be paralyzed!

With those gold, you can at least breathe, but now...!

Xixiang clenched his fist and looked at the more and more gorgeous fire. Suddenly, he walked to his desk, hesitated for a moment to open the drawer, stuffed a pistol and a thick pile of documents into his leather bag, and quickly walked out of the office.

Ten minutes later, accompanied by several naval officers, Xixiang Congdao left the Admiralty, but did not go to the base camp to open fire. Instead, he boarded a steamboat and headed for the middle of the bay--

"Report, the commandos are back, but they say there are only 50 tons of gold."

Le Fei turned the telescope and soon saw three speedboats drilling out of the narrow waterway. The Maxim machine gun and the 37mm rapid-fire gun on it were still spitting fire. This scene finally relieved him.

"Fifty tons?" Le Fei frowned. Didn't the Intelligence Department say there were 100 tons? However, it was not his turn to think about it, so he immediately walked into the bridge and gave a new order calmly.

"Change the incendiary bomb, free shelling, ammunition..., all of them!"

A few minutes later, a tragedy finally broke out with the three speedboats of the commando on the four ships of Jinghai. With a range of 18,000 kilometers, the four ships of Jinghai could easily cover half of Tokyo City. Countless fires rose from the city at the same time with the shells. The wooden buildings grew fire, and the whole sky seemed to It's red!

In the telescope, countless Japanese people who were awakened by the sound of gunfire ran away. They may not have dreamed that during the day, they were still looking forward to the beautiful scenery after the fleet defeated the evil Pacific Fleet after returning home, and shells would fall overhead at night!

They are not fools. Although they don't understand what the shells are and why they will cause flames every time they fall, they are very clear that Tokyo can drop shells, which shows that the long-awaited imperial fleet has...

When the fish white appeared on the eastern horizon, the whole Tokyo city was shrouded in a sea of fire, and thick smoke rose from every tile, covering the whole city.

No one knows that the exact death number of this shell hit, although each Jinghai-class light patrol carried only 3,000 incendiary bombs, and it had consumed a lot before, these terrible shells still caused a terrible effect.

Afterwards, according to the calculations of the Intelligence Department, the three-hour shelling caused at least 50,000 people to be directly burned to death, which could cause such a large number of casualties. In addition to the wooden structure of the Japanese building, it is also related to the inability to escape after the fainting caused by poisonous smoke-

"The general trend has been set!"

Master Li stood in the garden, quickly turned over the iron in his hand, grabbed a handful of pepper and sprinkled it on the steak before grabbing the small fan and fan it hard.

The breeze blew, and the charcoal at the bottom of the stove became more gorgeous. In less than a moment, the steak made a sizzling sound, and a strong fragrance drifted around the garden.

"It smells so good."

A few brisk footsteps sounded from behind him. Before Li Mo turned his head, he heard Chen Ping's nose sucking, and a few black lines suddenly fell on his forehead. Why did he, the chief of staff always rush to eat?

It seems that we still need to solve his personal problems as soon as possible, so as to save him from eating all day long!

Turning his head, Chen Ping and Li Enfu, with a spring breeze, had come to him. The former couldn't wait to taste the oven, looking at the sizzling steak on the iron braise and drooling.

"Osle, young master, are you here?"

"Have you ever eaten barbecue?"

Li Enfu's mind is full of black lines. His bad taste for Master Li is really indescribable. He has just burned tens of thousands of days over there. At noon here, there is still a spicy sun on his head, and he actually ran to the garden to eat barbecue!

Are you ready to do it yourself because you can't smell the burning smell over Tokyo? It's really...!

But the meat smells really good.

"Give me two pieces, too!" Lord Li and Chief of Staff Chen were not polite. They rolled up their sleeves and prepared to eat a big meal.

Master Li stared at the two roasted steaks that had been forked into the plate by his right arm, and it had directly hit the machine.

Despise!

Li Mo smiled helplessly. After handing over the barbecue work to Du Dazhuang, he asked Sanniang, who came to accompany him to barbecue, to get a bottle of wine. Then he picked up the largest steak and sat at the round table.

Looking at Luo Sanniang's posture when she left, Chen Ping and Li Enfu looked at each other quietly, and the former wiped their mouths and looked serious: "Young master, Long Guozhang called. The commando has come back, but we guess it's wrong. They only found 50 tons of gold."

Fifty tons?

Li Mo frowned. It is actually very simple to calculate how much gold reserves a country has in the gold standard era. As long as they look at the total amount of banknotes they have issued, it can be roughly concluded. According to the previous analysis of the Ministry of Intelligence, the Japanese gold reserve should be about 200 tons, and 50 tons mortgaged to the United States when they removed their loans. There should be 150 tons left.

But now only 50 tons have been found, so there are only two explanations. One is that the Japanese government has dispersed the gold, and the other is that the Japanese political axe has overissued the currency! From the current reality, it is obvious that the latter inference is more likely. He did not expect that the political axe would over-issu paper money in the case of insufficient gold reserves in order to stabilize the domestic economy, which was obviously an act of exhausting.

"Find someone to print leaflets immediately, let Xue Muhua go to Tokyo and other cities when he has nothing to do, and release the news that the Japanese paper money has become white paper." Li thought for a moment and said.

Chen Ping nodded, looked at Li Enfu, and said again, "Young master, half an hour ago, Xixiang, the minister of the navy, got on the North Star and expressed his willingness to surrender."

Xixiang Congdao?

Li Mo soon remembered the guy who began to serve as the minister of the navy during the Jiawu period. Regardless of his national feelings, this guy is an extremely interesting figure. He was born in a famous family, and his predecessor was also the army. He knew nothing about the navy.

But this guy is obviously very self-aware. He knows what he should do, so he never asks about the general affairs of the navy. He just blindly solicits funds for the navy, expands soldiers, and strives for benefits. He even hesitates to turn against the army generals in the base camp. Finally, he went to see the emperor to ask for interference.

This style made him deeply appreciated and loved by the navy, so he also firmly held the Minister of the Navy for many years. From this, it can be seen that this guy knew that the navy had an important surname for the Japanese, so he blindly spoke for the navy.

"It's just that he surrendered on behalf of the navy? Or is it the representative of the Japanese version? Li Mo looked at Chen Ping, who brought the news, and the latter immediately said, "On behalf of the navy, he said that he could not convince the senior management of Japan, so he could only withdraw from the war on behalf of the navy."

"Examine the situation and have a sharp vision." Li Mo almost immediately outlined such an image in his mind. This guy obviously knows better than the people in the bullshit base camp. No matter how many troops there are, they can't save them!

"Promise him! Accept the surrender of the Japanese navy, but tell him clearly that I don't like people with reservations!" Li Mo's eyes were cold: "Otherwise, I would rather kill all his soldiers!"

"Yes."

Li Mo's words made Li Enfu quietly relieved. He was afraid that Li Mo would refuse because Xixiang Congdao did not represent the original political axe. You should know that for this war, the State Council had taken out almost all its wealth. If it hadn't been for Li Mo's sudden gold reserves before the war to form the Central Bank, I'm afraid that the State Council would have gone bankrupt. Several times!

Although Xixiang Congdao only represents the surrender of the navy, according to the intelligence, the contradiction between the navy and the navy is deep, and Xixiang Congdao has a great influence among young officers, so this is a good opportunity to split the navy!

After solving the problem of Xixiang Chengdao, Chen Ping was also relieved and asked, "Young master, if you print leaflets and release them out, won't you tell others that this batch of gold is in our hands? Those dead American soldiers..."

"I'm afraid it will cause a diplomatic dispute."

Before Li Mo could answer, Li Enfu laughed first. Fifty tons of gold and four battleships got the excuse of splitting Japan, which obviously made the chief of the government in a good mood and said with a smile, "I'm afraid that the Americans won't have time to come to us."

"Oh? Did the United States officially declare war on Spain? Chen Ping immediately asked.

"I don't know whether to declare war or not, but the Spanish envoy has arrived in Lushun." Li Enfu hooked the corners of his mouth and was obviously very satisfied with the limelight of the council led by him during this period. He smiled and said, "He brought letters from the King of Spain and the Parliament, asking us to immediately release the soldiers imprisoned in Luzon, and promised that as long as we make a little compensation, we can give up Luzon and all the Pacific Ocean. Give us the colony.

"Compensation?" Chen Ping raised his eyebrows and said, "What did Spain pay attention to?"

"I guess the results of our naval battle in Micronesia have spread to Europe. Spain knows that it can't take back Luzon, so it is ready to deal with the United States with all its strength."

Li Mo nodded, and there was no other explanation. From the fact that they wanted compensation, it can be seen that this country, which used to rise overnight through the spring breeze of great navigation, has been called Bo Xishan, but after failure, it still licked its face to compensate, which shows that the pressure brought by the United States is too great.

Thinking of this, Li Mo suddenly asked, "Wen Shou, how's the determination number?"

Although he didn't understand why the young master suddenly cared about the determination, he immediately frowned and said, "I'm afraid it's difficult to serve. According to the engineers of the Guam shipyard, the bow of the determination ship was too serious, and it almost overturned when it entered the port before."

Li Mo didn't expect that the determination would be so serious this time, but it was not too unexpected. After all, the determination class was reluctant to be a heavy patrol. In addition, the weight was increased after this modification, resulting in a considerable reduction in airworthiness surnames and speed. If it hadn't been for the improvement of naval guns, it would not have been included in this time. The re-inspecue team participated in the decisive battle.

"Yuanshou, how long will it take if I immediately ask Long Guozhang to send back the remaining three determination ships, replace them with the original main gun, and dismantle the radio?"

Li Mo's question made Chen Ping a little silly. What is the young master going to do? Does it mean that if four battleships are captured, the determination class will be retired? There is no need to replace the original naval gun after retirement?

Li Enfu seemed to understand and narrowed his eyes: "Young master, do you want to compensate Spain for these three cruisers?"

"It's not three, it's four. Don't forget that there is another Wusuma that is different from our system." Master Li smiled and put a piece of beef into his mouth: "As for compensation, that won't work, but if they are willing to pay, it's okay to sell it to them."

These words immediately lit up their eyes. Spain is now very embarrassed. In addition, with the approach of the United States, the war between the United States and the West has become inevitable. At this time, no country in Europe will be willing to sell warships to this weak country and offend the United States, but you can!

The United States sold the Japanese warship and escorted it all the way, which made everyone very angry. Since there is a chance to disgust the United States, why not do it?

At this time, Spain is already an ant on the hot pot. It can get three cruisers that have been tested in actual combat and one captured ship that cannot enter the Pacific Fleet with different systems. It must be willing to buy it at a high price, and the determination class does not meet the requirements of the navy at this time. It is not good to take advantage of the last opportunity to earn a ticket. The wrong choice.

"I will immediately contact Long Guozhang and let the three determinations come back." Chen Ping immediately said, "There are still two empty docks in Ryukyu. I let them work hard and complete the change in ten days at most."

"Ten days, almost!" Li Enfu also patted his thigh: "William McKinley's inauguration ceremony is on June 5th, and there is still half a month left. After he takes office, he will definitely return to Spain immediately to declare war. As long as we deliver it before this time, it will not be counted as selling arms to the belligerent countries!"

The more Li Enfu said, the more excited he was, as if he saw the scene of the Spanish political axe gritting his teeth to write a check, but another thing made him stretch his eyebrows and frown again: "Young master, German ambassador Haijing has been in Lushun for five days, asking us to immediately implement the previous agreement. Do you think so?

"Agreement?" Master Li raised the corners of his eyes, touched his chin, and smiled evilly: "Naturally, it needs to be executed, but..."

(to be continued)