I painted an aircraft carrier on the courtyard house for Dongda University.

"Yu'er, I've recovered everything from the cave. Next, you must keep a close eye on Xiao Rizi and see how many ships they send. I estimate more than fifteen, considering the contents weigh over 5,500 tons. By the way, any news about Xiao Rizi? When will they likely make their move?"

"Master, there is still no news." Tamamo-no-Mae replied in a deep voice.

Zhou Weiguo nodded, already having a guess in his mind: Xiao Rizi was most likely waiting for the US, Canada, and China to restrain each other in the Taiwan region before making his move. After all, this location wasn't too far from one of Canada's naval bases, and the timing was quite tricky.

In fact, the moment he saw the gold, he had already made a deduction: The local economy was currently in a period of rapid development, but last time he had not only emptied their gold reserves but also seized the gold ore. Now, unless the local economy finds a new vein, their gold production would decline significantly. These guys were really cunning; this was probably the last batch of gold they left behind when they were on the verge of defeat. Fearing it would be discovered if transported back to their homeland, they simply hid it here, waiting for an opportunity, keeping it as a backup plan.

"Wow, that's really something!"

A cold glint flashed in Zhou Weiguo's eyes. "This time, I'll let you have a good 'fun'!"

three days later.

Inside the Pentagon in the United States, the atmosphere in a war room was so tense it could drip water.

Around the long conference table, officers of all ranks sat upright, their eyes fixed on the nautical charts on the wall. The air was thick with the smell of cigars and a sense of oppressive anxiety.

"Defense Minister, something's wrong! Our joint fleet has been searching the entire Taiwan Strait for 24 hours, and so far, we haven't even caught a glimpse of the 'Great Goose' ship!"

An officer stood up abruptly, his voice filled with barely concealed impatience.

Upon hearing this, the white-haired defense minister, sitting in the main seat smoking a cigar, smirked and slowly exhaled a smoke ring: "George, calm down. I've said it before, these special ships of the Goose are just rats hiding in the water. Last time they were able to inexplicably launch a sneak attack and destroy three of our warships, I seriously suspect they are the Goose's most advanced new submarines."

Five-star Admiral Mike sat to the side, his face ashen, his knuckles slamming heavily on the table: "Secretary of Defense, the naval forces have been far too eager in this joint naval operation. I have a feeling they're hiding something."

"Oh? How could I not have noticed that?"

The defense minister raised an eyebrow, his tone full of disdain, "But what does that have to do with us?"

Mike leaned forward abruptly, urgently retorting, "But Minister of Defense, our original plan was to absolutely avoid conflict with Xia Country! Now, with these little devils jumping around like this, we've completely deviated from our objective!"

The defense minister, who was in charge, shook his head and tapped his finger on the conference table: "Mike, don't you understand yet? The reason we brought Xiao Rizi along this time was to make Xia Guo see the gap between the two sides. Even Xiao Rizi, who is like a lapdog now, is much better than them. In Xia Guo's words, we are the bad cop, and Xiao Rizi is the good cop."

"Once we find the Goose Fleet, we can focus all our efforts on dealing with their new warships and aircraft. But given the temperament of the Xia people, do you think they'll remain indifferent to a confrontation with the Goose Fleet right on Xia's doorstep?"

The defense minister paused, his tone laced with sarcasm, "You don't actually think I called upon those pitiful fleets of the 'Little Ones' to fight against the 'Great Goose's' advanced warships, do you?"

A flash of understanding crossed Mike's eyes, and he slapped his forehead, saying, "Oh! Sir, so you want Xiao Rizi to keep Xia Guo in check, to prevent us from having direct friction with Xia Guo!"

The defense minister immediately interrupted him, his tone resolute: "Don't worry, the Goose won't openly send a large number of ships. We've communicated with them many times, and they simply don't admit to ever entering Xia's coastal defense system, or even to the last fighter jet attack, saying they 'have never sent any navy or aircraft to that area.'"

"They're treating us like fools! On the entire planet Earth, besides the Goose, who else could develop a fighter jet of that caliber?"

The defense minister clenched his fist. "So all they'll do is send those rat-like new ships and aircraft. For this, I've deployed three anti-submarine destroyers, three air defense destroyers, and three of the latest submarines, even sending nuclear-powered cruisers—a total of 50 advanced ships and two aircraft carriers. How could we possibly not find these rats hiding in the water?"

His eyes flashed with a sinister light: "The more the goose denies it, the more we need to find out the details of these new weapons!"

Just then, the communications soldier sitting in the front row suddenly stood up and reported loudly: "Reporting, sir! News from South Korea: several small and medium-sized ships have passed through the Daebong Strait. Fishing boats have seen Russian numbers on the hulls, suggesting they departed from the Vladivostok base and have now passed Jeju Island!"

The defense minister's eyes lit up instantly, and he slammed his hand on the table three times: "Good, good, good! You say one thing but do another! I didn't expect the goose to know about Xia's military strategy?"

He stood up abruptly, his voice booming, "Order all fleets to immediately deploy into attack formation! Take off all carrier-based fighters! We must leave these little rats behind!"

"Also, contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately! I want to ask them, since they said there were no plans to deploy ships for the next two months, whose ships are these? Do they belong to South Korea or Japan?" The defense minister's laughter was full of smugness.

Mike breathed a sigh of relief and analyzed, "Sir, the ownership of the ships isn't actually important. The key is that they didn't depart from a Xia Kingdom military base, which means that the joint defense between Xia Kingdom and Goose is still in the testing phase. Next, we'll see where those mysterious fighter jets come from."

The defense minister nodded in agreement: "That's right. Once we shoot down these new 'goose' warships, we'll see how they try to justify themselves!"

Four hours later, in the East China Sea.

Inside the bridge of the USS Blue Ridge flagship, the green light from the radar screen reflected the tense faces of everyone.

"Reporting, sir! All ships have reported no enemy vessels detected! The two aircraft carriers have dispatched a total of 80 fighter jets to search, but they haven't even seen a shadow of them. However, they have spotted quite a few fishing boats."

The scout's voice was filled with frustration.

Lieutenant General Wallace Medsker, seated at the head of the table, had a grim expression. His knuckles gripped the armrests of his command chair tightly. "This is impossible! The higher-ups clearly stated that the Goose Fleet had crossed the Great Bang Strait. How could it have vanished into thin air? Did it simply hide in the Xia Kingdom's naval base?"

As he was deep in thought, another communications soldier suddenly stood up, his face grave: "Report! South Korea has issued an urgent notification that 10 unidentified aircraft have just passed through their airspace, and are estimated to be no more than 100 kilometers away from our aircraft!"

The lieutenant general looked up abruptly, a flash of shock and anger in his eyes: "A coincidence? Last time they shot down eight of our planes with just one, and this time we took off with 80, and they only sent 10?" He slammed his fist on the table. "Order both aircraft carriers to send out all their fighters! This time, we must keep them all in this area!"

P.S.: Please urge me to update more and give me good reviews. Thank you!