Spy Wars: Return of the Red Luan

Chapter 239 The Beginning of the Patch Project

On the night of March 18, Chen Jiehua successfully boarded the flagship of the Red Phoenix Fleet brought by Zhou Yongsu.

"Qingxuan, how did you know I was in Taiwan delivering goods again? I asked the two of them before, but neither of them told you."

"That's why I'm in such a hurry to meet you. The Special Higher Police intercepted the telegram I sent to you in Tokyo. Ozaki received the information that the telegram was sent from Senso-ji Temple to the South Pacific Islands."

It turned out to be the case.

Chen Jiehua, Zhou Yongsu, Liu Junze, and Chen Lanfeng discussed and formulated a plan at sea outside Yilan.

"After the Washington Naval Treaty expired, the Japanese Navy launched the Maru-ichi Project, preparing to secretly build two large battleships. However, the London Naval Treaty came into effect, and under my impetus, the Japanese Navy planned to build an even larger battleship, the Yamato."

"Is it the battleship you mentioned in your earlier telegram, the one with a displacement of over 70,000 tons?"

"Yes. But I didn't expect that they would work day and night at the Takada Heavy Industries shipyard in Kagoshima Bay. The main construction is now complete, and all that's left are the details. It should be ready to be launched in six months at most."

"How is that possible? A 70,000-ton displacement would require an incredibly thick deck. My flagship only has a displacement of less than 30,000 tons."

"Nothing is impossible. My original intention was to trick them into building the biggest ones, the bigger the better. It takes a long time to build, wastes money, and makes them difficult to move after they are launched, making them easy targets in future naval battles."

"No wonder you kept having me guide Japanese spies to obtain information about the US Navy building battleships and shield them from information about aircraft carrier construction."

"Future naval battles will be dominated by aircraft carrier battle groups, and the era of battleships is coming to an end."

"Since the era of battleships is over, let's just launch it. What's the rush?"

"I always said that all Old Liu thinks about is cannons."

"The friction between the United States and Japan has not yet reached the point of life and death or superiority, so the US-Japan naval war that I am looking forward to will have to wait a few more years, and we can only wait for both sides to continue to expand."

"Although we can instigate this friction, for a limited time, the firepower of the Yamato can only be absorbed by China. But each shot is catastrophic, and China definitely cannot withstand it, do you understand?"

"Your goal is to delay its launch, but not to completely destroy it. You want to keep consuming their resources, making them repair and continue building, right?"

"That's pretty much the idea. Ideally, it should face a naval battle with the United States as soon as it hits the water."

"Then let's destroy it, blow it up."

"I called you here to discuss how to blow it up."

“Qingxuan, I understand your idea. There’s a trick to how we bomb it. We can’t get ourselves into trouble, and we can’t let the Japanese know that we bombed it. We have to frame other forces, preferably the United States, to deepen the hatred and friction between them.”

"Brother-in-law, you're so smart! You understood perfectly, haha!"

"Your flattery is so clumsy, haha!"

"Hahaha~~" "This really needs to be carefully considered. We need to set up a scheme, a sophisticated one, so that the Japanese can figure out on their own that it was American agents who made the move."

“It’s okay to go a little deeper into the scheme. Even if the Japanese don’t see it right away, I can guide them appropriately.”

"Then let's see what the U.S. Navy has that other countries don't."

"Marks, badges?"

"That's too obvious."

.........
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In late 1930, the Japanese Naval General Staff secretly launched the revised "Maruichi Plan".

This is a new round of shipbuilding plans formulated by the naval fleet to break through the arms restrictions following the signing of the London Naval Treaty.

Among them, the most important project was to build two unsinkable battleships, the "Yamato" and the "Musashi," according to the design and recommendation of Rear Admiral Aoki Seigen.

The design specifications of these two battleships were considered insane at the time. Their standard displacement was 7 tons, far exceeding the 3.5-ton limit stipulated by the Washington Naval Treaty; they had 12 460mm guns as their main guns, the largest in the world at the time; they had a speed of 27 knots, making them high-speed battleships; and their armor was 410mm thick, making them virtually impenetrable by any naval guns at the time.

Such a massive project, which also violated the newly signed London Naval Treaty, required an extremely high level of secrecy to keep it hidden from the treaty proponents in the Naval Ministry and spies from various countries.

Ultimately, the Naval General Staff at the time chose Kagoshima Bay at the southern tip of Kyushu Island as the construction site for the Yamato. This was the birthplace and headquarters of the navy, far from Tokyo, and the surrounding terrain was complex, making it easy to conceal.

The dock was managed by Takata Heavy Industries and was publicly described as a "large-scale merchant ship conversion project." However, all workers and their families were only allowed to live in the area surrounding the dock and were prohibited from leaving the restricted zone. Masao Shibayama led the Marine Corps to train nearby and also served as guards.

In early 1933, the impatient naval fleet sent its leaders to visit and conduct two experiments.

After the experiment, the bigwigs were very satisfied and left only one sentence: "It can be called a mobile fortress at sea. Build it, build it day and night. As for the money, we'll ask the cabinet for it."

The Japanese Navy Command Fleet faction regarded these two battleships as "decisive weapons for the final battle" and planned to use them as the core to conduct a decisive fleet battle with the US Navy in the Pacific Ocean when a future war broke out against the United States.

Chen Jiehua's "Patch Plan" was aimed at the shipyard in Kagoshima Bay. The first task was to destroy the shipyard, and the second task was to destroy the most valuable parts of the "Yamato".

But the opponents were all Marines. For all participants, regardless of whether the mission could be completed, the first priority was not to be captured alive. Even if they died, they had to blow up their own and their comrades' faces before they died.

This was a brutal plan. Chen Jiehua mobilized almost all the forces he could. Zhou Yongsu's Red Phoenix Fleet was the main force, while Liu Junze, Chen Lanfeng, Zhao Yiyue, Jin Zhenji, and Ozaki's team were all part of the plan.

Japan's secret naval expansion did not escape the eyes of the international community.

The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) had obtained intelligence about the "Maru-I Project" through Far East spies as early as 1932, but it was unable to disclose it to the international community due to a lack of direct evidence.

Upon receiving the information inadvertently leaked by Zhou Yongsu through Japanese expatriates, the U.S. Naval Intelligence Agency was overjoyed. They telegraphed the Far East Spy Group, instructing them to verify the information thoroughly and take as many complete photos as possible of the Yamato so that the Japanese Navy's shameless tricks could be exposed through the media back home.

Germany, across the ocean, also received relevant intelligence. Hitler wasn't particularly interested in battleships with a displacement of 70,000 tons, but he was very interested in decks that shells couldn't penetrate. German staff directly contacted staff at the Japanese embassy in Berlin, requesting that the Japanese Navy share the technology.

(End of this chapter)