Chapter 633
Global Street Slickers
Chapter 633 Global Street Slickers
At a naval port, at four in the morning.
A destroyer untied its mooring lines.
Her hull number was still very new, and the hull was painted sea gray, gleaming coldly under the dock lights.
There was no smoke coming from the chimney, and the sound of the propellers churning the seawater was much quieter than expected.
On the deck, the sentry stood ramrod straight.
She glided out of the berth with almost no alarm.
The port pilot stood on the tugboat, watching the destroyer's silhouette gradually blend into the dark blue of the sea and sky.
The east began to lighten.
The captain stood on the bridge, holding a cup of tea that had gone cold.
He's thirty-seven years old and only took command of the ship last year. By naval standards, he's excessively young.
"course."
"One hole, full speed."
As the sun rose, its golden-red light bathed the undulating waves, and a warship, like a sharp arrow, shattered this golden mirror.
On a certain overseas border, the Glutinous Rice Ball-shaped aircraft carrier battle group.
This is the face of the American Navy. A 100,000-ton steel island, its decks filled with F-14s and F-18s, surrounded by escorting Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
The Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force's Kongo followed on the right rear, while the South Korean Navy was on the left flank.
More than forty ships covered the sea surface.
The exercise's commander-in-chief, Rear Admiral Holland, captain of the HMS Nuomici, stood on the bridge, looking at the densely packed masts on the sea, and a sense of satisfaction that only a professional soldier could understand welled up in his heart.
This is the largest troop buildup in the Western Pacific since the Gulf War.
"Report." The operations staff officer's voice suddenly changed. "Radar contact. Bearing zero, distance two holes. A destroyer. Heading towards our formation."
Holland frowned. "Whose?"
The staff officer remained silent for two seconds.
"Eastern Navy. Hull number—new ship. No match in the database."
Holland picked up the binoculars.
On the horizon, a gray-white silhouette is approaching.
Her appearance was clean and simple, and the superstructure was so simple that it didn't seem like a design from this era. The lines of the bridge had an indescribable sense of fluidity.
She didn't turn on her radar, and the American electronic reconnaissance equipment didn't detect any of her radar signals.
She walked into someone else's shooting range like a person taking a stroll, hands in pockets.
“Intercept her,” Holland said. “Signal her that she has entered the exercise area and should leave immediately.”
The signal has been sent.
The destroyer responded quickly: "My ship is sailing normally in international waters. Your exercise should not interfere with my freedom of navigation."
Holland was stunned.
These are their exact words to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the East yesterday.
The destroyer continued to approach. She even hoisted international signal flags: "Our ship is conducting maritime training."
This doesn't seem right.
The General Staff had conducted numerous simulations, considered various scenarios, and even... but they hadn't anticipated that the Eastern Fleet would be so relaxed, as if it couldn't sense the tense atmosphere at all.
Is it ignorance breeds fearlessness, or is there something to rely on?
Major General Holland felt a chill run down his spine as he recalled the suddenly appearing Luan Bird fighter jet; he had a bad feeling about it.
He had heard from his fellow air force soldiers that many air force soldiers thought Dong Guo was a hidden master, seemingly shabby but actually highly skilled in martial arts.
The captain of the Kongo asked in the encrypted channel, "Should we drive them away?" Holland hesitated.
He was watching the destroyer's course.
Her entry into the exercise formation was so precise, passing precisely between the JS Nuomici and JS Kongo, at a distance that did not violate international law on either side, yet close enough for the sailors on deck to see her silhouette through the bridge porthole.
This level of navigation is a silent deterrent, a warning to them: I have calculated your formation spacing, your course patterns, and your reaction speed.
The destroyer passed through the entire exercise formation like a needle through a piece of cloth.
Then she turned and kept parallel to the formation, with her speed perfectly synchronized.
Her captain sent a message over the public channel in English, with a hint of nonchalant disdain: "Nice weather. Best of luck with the exercise."
And so she just followed, without using flags, without shouting, without provoking anyone, she just followed.
This feeling is so unbearable, it's like being stuck with a thug you can't shake off.
Holland took a deep breath: "The exercise continues."
Although Gingrich was itching to unleash S3 immediately, Holland knew very well that whoever dared to be the fuse would be blown to smithereens.
Let whoever wants to be it be it; he's not going to.
Sailors on the ship rushed to the side of the ship, taking pictures with their mobile phones.
The destroyer was there, neither too close nor too far, like a mirror reflecting the most powerful fleet on Earth.
The exercise had lost its practical significance, and the remaining time was tedious.
American soldiers don't care about this. As a group of mercenaries who have to pay for their uniforms and food, they simply see being a soldier as a job.
A sense of national honor? Absolutely not.
Fighting spirit? Absolutely not.
If the price isn't right, which working stiff would be willing to work themselves to the bone for the company? Slacking off is the way to go.
Therefore, the sailors from the United States were in high spirits, and some even waved to the particularly mysterious Eastern fleet.
Hey, this sense of relaxation that comes from being so strong is just so cool!
On the contrary, the sailors from Japan and South Korea were extremely upset.
This is like a servant watching his former master being bullied into the mud by outsiders. The servant then curries favor with the outsiders, thinking he can swallow up his master's property, and all sorts of petty people get their way.
As a result, not only did the master not fall, but he was able to fight back. This feeling was both humiliating and terrifying.
Rome in Europe has fallen, and America has never had Rome, but their Rome is still here! It's always been here, and it looks like it's getting stronger and stronger.
I ask you, aren't those treacherous lackeys panicking?!
When the news reached South Korea, the South Korean Ministry of National Defense's analysis report had already been released, and everyone was working to break through the defenses.
The destroyer's external features, navigation performance, and electromagnetic signals were completely different from any known East Korean warship.
Especially her propulsion system; according to sonar data from Japan's anti-submarine aircraft, the underwater radiated noise of that ship was lower than that of the US Navy's Seawolf-class attack nuclear submarines.
Surface ships are quieter than nuclear submarines.
The atmosphere in South Korea has plummeted to freezing point. The Four Asian Tigers? Oh ho, the true dragon has awakened. What should the little dragons do?
Japan obtained the data earlier. The Ministry of Defense's assessment report only had one conclusion: technological gap, source unknown.
The headline of the editorial in the Sakura Country News that day was "The Ghost of the Eastern Navy".
The accompanying picture, besides the warship, also included a photo of the spokesperson for the East Korean Foreign Ministry.
A reporter from Japan asked him for his opinion on the exercise. The spokesperson, dressed in military uniform, had a slight upturn at the corners of his mouth, lowered his eyes, and gave a sharp, disdainful look.
A reporter from Japan captured this scene and captioned it: "The Dragon Empire's contempt."
Powerful, domineering, and chillingly murderous, it made one's legs go weak and one's heart tremble uncontrollably.
The dragon that ruled the eastern continent has returned!
Xiaolong can also be interpreted as snake.