Spy Wars: Return of the Red Luan

4:29 am on February 1th.

The drinking party among the Navy's bigwigs was not over yet when Aoki Seigen was pulled into a drinking contest by Shibayama Masao and Otowa Masahiko.

Today, Otoha Masahiko is very happy because his master has truly become a master. Aoki Seigen used his silver tongue to persuade Prince Asaka Yasuhiko.

After finishing this drinking session, Otoha will go to report to Yamamoto Isoroku. Otoha Masahiko can't go to the Marine Corps, but he can try to become a carrier-based pilot.

"Ten minutes left." Chen Jiehua glanced at his pocket watch casually.

"Ten minutes left." At Kobe Port, opposite Kagoshima, Chen Lanfeng glanced at his pocket watch.

"Ten minutes left." Out at sea, Kim Jung-hee had lost count of how many times she had announced the time.

"There are still 3 minutes left."

"Main gun in position, shell loaded, range set again!"

At 2 o'clock sharp, "Boom!"

With a deafening explosion, the Takata Heavy Industries shipyard in Kagoshima Bay was engulfed in orange flames.

Then came three consecutive, violent explosions, flames shooting into the sky, illuminating the entire dock and the night sky, and thick smoke hundreds of meters high rising straight into the heavens.

From the outside, the turbines in the main engine room were severely damaged in the explosion, and most of the flying metal fragments fell into the sea.

"We did it!" Zhou Yongsu and Jin Zhenji clenched their fists and cheered softly.

"Old Liu, eject the shell!"

"All personnel, full speed ahead!"
-
At Kobe Harbor, Chen Lanfeng, along with a dozen or so American Navy veterans, heard a series of explosions and saw flames shooting into the sky opposite. They then began to dump gasoline according to plan, setting Kobe Harbor ablaze, and subsequently dropped a pile of smoke generators.

After completing their mission, the group quickly jumped into the sea and swam frantically eastward.

The sight of a dozen or so Westerners with high noses in Kobe, a port city predominantly populated by dwarfs, was as striking as an African pair appearing on the streets of Shanghai.

According to the plan, all of the dozen or so people, including Chen Lanfeng, had to swim to the open sea and then board the flagship Hongluan that was coming to pick them up. Once the flagship reached the outer edge of the searchlight and coastal defense gun range, it could not go any further. Considering the time factor, everyone had to swim desperately to have a chance of survival.

Zhao Yiyue's position was to prevent anyone from refusing to jump into the sea or being captured during the operation. If they didn't jump, they would only be shot, and if they were captured, they would be silenced immediately.

Chen Lanfeng grew up by the sea in Yilan, so swimming in the sea was no problem for him. The others were all veterans of the navy, so they wouldn't have any major problems under normal circumstances. Seeing everyone in the sea, Zhao Yiyue, who was in charge of the second task, breathed a sigh of relief.

The current situation is much better than expected. It's the Long Day holiday, most people are on vacation, and it's the early morning, so the military police's response time is very slow.

More than a dozen people had already gone into the sea and left for twenty minutes before a few military police officers, dressed in disheveled clothes, hurriedly arrived.

Now that he no longer had to struggle with a choice, Zhao Yiyue packed up his gun and disappeared into the darkness.

The next step is to monitor the coastline to see if anyone is exhausted, unconscious, or washed back by the waves.

Half an hour later, a message appeared: "Tian Shu calling for the east wind, Tian Shu calling for the east wind, all fish have been caught, please respond."

"East wind received. Have a safe journey."

The flagship Hongluan completed its mission, revved its engines, and sailed south, braving the wind and waves.
-
At 2:18, the Tokyo Naval Headquarters received a call from Kobe Port reporting that Kagoshima had been attacked and was engulfed in flames!
At this time, the telephone lines on Kagoshima Island were burned out, making it impossible to make calls. The soldiers and workers were all drunk and disoriented, the kind of people you couldn't wake up even with a couple of slaps. Firefighting? How?
The sake in Nara truly lives up to its reputation.

When the messenger found the bigwigs who were still playing rock-paper-scissors and informed them of the Kagoshima incident, they all only said one thing: "What?"

Yamamoto Isoroku was the first to recover from his shock. "Quickly! Notify the entire fleet in Tokyo Bay to leave port!"

"Firefighting should be arranged first! Baka! My Yamato!"

Chen Jiehua (Aoki Seigen) roared and rushed out of the prince's residence to find his fleet.
-
At 3 p.m., Mark Holt, the station chief of the U.S. Office of Naval Strategic Services Far East Station, was anxiously awaiting news inside the U.S. Consulate in Osaka.

Holt's face turned pale instantly when his subordinates delivered the intelligence from the Kobe special agents regarding the Kagoshima bombing.

“My God, they’ve really done it!” Holt cursed under his breath, then grabbed the phone. “Get me in Washington. I need to report to the Secretary of State immediately!”

Whether to report first or notify subordinates to evacuate first makes a world of difference to the outcome. Chen Jiehua never expected that this guy's assistance would be so helpful.
-
Five hours after the explosion, a joint investigation team composed of naval officers and Special Higher Police agents arrived at Kobe Port.

The team was led by Rear Admiral Minoru Maeda of the Naval Intelligence Department (Third Division).

Subsequently, Major General Aoki Seigen led the Manchukuo fleet to Kagoshima Bay.

"Search every inch of the place carefully!" Major General Minoru Maeda ordered sternly. "Question the port staff if any strangers have appeared recently, and especially look for any possible traces of outsiders."

Special Higher Police experts quickly discovered suspicious items at Kobe Port: several American-made pistol cartridge cases, tool fragments with English markings, and an American naval nautical map that was half burned.

Then another group of investigators returned, and "according to port dispatchers and dockworkers, more than a dozen unfamiliar Westerners with high noses had recently appeared here."

All of this evidence points to the involvement of American intelligence agents.

"Investigate! Seal off all ports, halt all cruise ship operations! Bring all Western-looking individuals here for the dockworkers to identify!"

Maeda Minoru left a small group of people to continue the investigation at Kobe Port, while he led a team aboard a warship arranged by Aoki Seigen, and arrived at the Takada Heavy Industries dock in Kagoshima Bay with Aoki Seigen.

"My Yamato is gone. My Yamato..."

"Aoki-kun, the most important task right now is to investigate the truth."

"That's Maeda-kun's job. Seigen is going to check on the damage to the Yamato."

……

After disembarking, the Special Higher Police technicians first discovered the wreckage of the "M2 flamethrower." "General, this should be a flamethrower device."

"Yosh, I can smell a conspiracy. Keep this safe, I'll check where it was made when I get back."

"General, there's an even more important discovery here." A naval technical officer excitedly ran up to Maeda Minoru, holding a blackened metal container.

"We found this near the lubricating oil storage tank where the explosion was heaviest. It is the remains of a timing device, and preliminary analysis shows it to be a Type C timer manufactured in the United States."

A glint of light flashed in Minoru Maeda's eyes. "Contact Tokyo immediately. We need to let the Cabinet know that the United States has begun to resort to despicable sabotage!"

Maeda Minoru was a staunch pro-German figure within the Naval General Staff, a member of the "Americaphobia" team. If he found evidence of American sabotage, he didn't care if it was a conspiracy; the evidence would always point to America. (End of Chapter)