Spy Wars: Return of the Red Luan

On the night of April 8, 1933, Kagoshima Bay was shrouded in a thin fog.

Zhou Yongsu mingled among a group of workers and entered the eastern dock area of ​​Takata Heavy Industries. The engineer team's task this time was to inspect and repair the shipyard's mechanical equipment.

Zhou Yongsu's target was the lubrication system of the Yamato's engine room, which was the last place to work.

The defenses in the eastern part of the dock were much weaker than those in the core area, and Lao Zhou had already figured out the patrol patterns.

Marine Corps military police patrol every half hour, while workers have short periods of free time during lunch breaks and shift changes.

Taking advantage of the time between night shift changes, Zhou Yongsu quietly slipped into the auxiliary passage of the main engine room.

Although he already knew from Chen Jiehua how enormous the "Yamato" was, the engine room was even larger than he had imagined, with nine huge steam turbines standing like steel behemoths in the darkness.

The piping network of the lubrication system is intricate and complex. With the solid foundation he gained from his hands-on learning and continuous practice in America, Zhou Yongsu quickly found his target for this trip: the lubricating oil storage tank.

“If a timed combustion initiator is installed here, the flames can spread rapidly along the pipes, and the entire main engine room will be burned down within five minutes.”

After thinking it over, Zhou Yongsu used a disguised miniature camera he carried with him to photograph the structure and location of the storage tank.

Just as Zhou Yongsu finished filming and was about to leave, a series of rhythmic footsteps approached – military police!

Zhou Yongsu quickly hid in the shadows and held her breath.

Two Marine Corps military police walked by, one of them complaining, "It's only April, and this place is so hot. I wish we could rest for a while."

Zhou Yongsu calmed himself down, adjusted his breathing, and after confirming that the military police had gone far away, he quietly slipped out of the engine room and went to the dock to enjoy the sea breeze.

Engineers are allowed to go to the dock to enjoy the sea breeze during their break, as long as they don't do anything unusual.
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A drunken Masahiko Otoha excitedly ran around the dock, with Seigen Aoki chasing after him while cursing. In the empty dock, the sounds of their playful antics carried far.

"Section Chief, should we stop them? That's a restricted area; they've gone into it."

"Don't worry about it this time. The commander just informed us that one is Admiral Aoki of our navy, who designed the blueprints for the Yamato; the other is the second son of Prince Asaka, an Imperial Marquis."

"Okay, let them do whatever they want."

A drunken Aoki Seigen bumped into the skinny dock engineer Yamamoto Kenichi. Seeing that the person who bumped into him was a drunkard, Yamamoto, not wanting to mess with him, got up and left cursing.

A miniature camera and a note entered Chen Jiehua's space.

After Zhou Yongsu conducted multiple surveys and analyses, it was finally confirmed that the "Yamato" and the American battleships shared the same critical weakness: an outdated lubrication system in the engine room.

The Yamato used state-of-the-art steam turbines for power, but its lubrication system design was still limited by the times and had fatal flaws. If the lubricating oil storage tank was damaged, the entire main engine would be paralyzed in a short time, and repairs would take at least six months.

More importantly, it has just been confirmed that the current lubrication system is located in the eastern part of the dock, close to the sea and far from the core construction area, where security is relatively weak. This location is conducive to infiltration and evacuation.

On the scheduled day of the blast, as long as a timed combustion device is installed near the lubricating oil storage tank, a fire will be ignited and cannot be extinguished in a short time.

"As expected of Tian Shu, there are no wrong code names, only wrong names."
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Also on the night of April 8th, at the U.S. Naval Base in Subic Bay, Philippines, Russell Buckley, dressed in a U.S. military uniform and wearing sunglasses, disguised himself as a U.S. Navy mechanic.

Russell possesses natural naval camouflage; when dressed in naval uniform, he looks more like a navy officer than any active-duty navy officer.

Russell, holding a forged "equipment maintenance list," swaggered into the base's warehouse area, easily fooling the base's patrolmen, who didn't even glance at him.

"The M2 flamethrower should be here." Russell recalled the intelligence, quickly opened the door, and walked into the warehouse.

To prepare for potential battles at any time, the base's weapons depots are never locked.

The M2 flamethrower was a new weapon that the U.S. Army had just been equipped with in 1932. It had a long range and powerful firepower, but because it was too dangerous, opinions on it within the Army were mixed. So some of them were transferred to the Navy and taken to the South Pacific bases.

The conclusion reached during discussions aboard the flagship Hongluan was that if traces of this weapon could be left at the Kagoshima shipyard, the Japanese Navy would inevitably link the sabotage operation to American agents.

Russell found several dismantled M2 flamethrowers in a corner of the warehouse, with black burn marks still remaining on the steel pipes.

Russell quickly disassembled some parts, packed them into a briefcase, and deliberately left the Bethlehem Steel Company's mark on it.

This American company had supplied some steel to the Japanese Navy, but in 1932, a spy case occurred in which some of the company's confidential blueprints were stolen.

“Perfect!” Russell closed the box and quickly left the base.

In a corner of the harbor outside the base, an old American warship was waiting for Russell. After picking him up, it quietly started up and headed north.
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April 27, Kobe Port.

Chen Lanfeng, codenamed "Nanfeng" and using the alias "Sakuragi Taro," stood by the dock, holding a shipping manifest in his hand. He was impersonating the cargo owner who was originally delivering goods to Kagoshima.

Chen Lanfeng's task is to monitor the shipyard's material transportation and ensure that the key materials for the "Patch Plan" can be delivered smoothly.

After monitoring the supplies, Sakuragi Taro returned to the rest room. Chen Jiehua and Jin Zhenji, disguised, were waiting for him.

"Qingxuan, according to past lubricant transport records, this batch will arrive at the Kagoshima shipyard in the early morning of April 28th."

"But there is one problem: it seems that the Japanese Navy has increased its security, especially during the Tenchō-shō period."

Tencho-setsu is equivalent to Japan's National Day. April 29th is the second day of the festival celebrations. Shipyard workers will have a day off (only on the island), and Marines will also take leave in batches, so the military police patrols will be relatively relaxed.

Chen Jiehua pondered for a moment, then smiled. "We're going to take advantage of their laxity; the Longevity Festival is the key to our plan."

Chen Jiehua took out the dock layout map he and Lao Zhou had drawn together, and pointed to the ventilation ducts near the engine room, "Zhenji, if you go in from here, you'll have plenty of time to avoid the patrol routes."

"Remember to set the detonation time to 2 a.m., and you must arrive at the dock half an hour in advance, otherwise you might be overtaken. The Mogami cruiser has a speed of 35 knots."

"Brother-in-law, you are in charge of leading Alan Wilson and the others to create chaos in Kobe Port and attract the attention of the military police. Complete the mission and don't worry about the results. Go to the changing room immediately to change clothes and leave."

"On the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1932, Yoon Bong-gil pulled off a big heist in Shanghai. Now it's our turn. Don't let us down; Yoon Bong-moon is watching." (End of Chapter)