Mediterranean Plan (Three)

  Müller exclaimed after listening to Zhou Tianlei's brief explanation: "What? Commander, you're leaving the 8th Submarine Squadron now?"

  "Isn't leaving, but I'm going to get promoted and rich. I will soon take over the position of our Admiral Lütjens who died in battle with the British Home Fleet. Marshal Raeder told me that after my formal appointment, my military rank will be promoted to Major General. And you won't leave me either, you will still be under my command. You will be separated from D?nitz's submarine fleet and join the German Ocean Fleet, along with our 8th Submarine Squadron, also joining is the 9th Submarine Squadron. You will fight under my command. How can I say that I'm leaving you?"

  Mueller scratched his head and said, "I'm just worried that I don't have the ability to command the 8th submarine squadron." Zhou Tianlei said, "You must have confidence in yourself, aren't you trying to become someone like me? Now I'm giving you the opportunity to prove that you can become someone like me, how come you're still not confident in yourself? An officer who doesn't have confidence in himself is someone I will never let stay in my troops, I'll kick him all the way to the Atlantic."

  "Now I won't give you specific orders, you need to lead the 8th submarine squadron well. This submarine force is equipped with the most advanced submarines in the world today. If something unexpected happens, we must not let our enemies get it, do you understand?"

  "Although I also want to participate in this action of the 8th submarine squadron, but now I have other tasks to perform, so I need to command the action on shore nearby, how can I command other troops in a submarine?"

  "What mission, sir?" Müller asked. "Sorry, your current clearance level is not possible to know these combat missions, but in these missions you will assume a very heavy responsibility." Zhou Tianlei replied.

  "I want to talk to you again about the path our navy should take in the future. In addition to the troops we already have, we also need a marine corps. Of course, we will soon have an aircraft carrier fleet joining our combat sequence. We are no longer just relying on those few battleships to conquer the world. If the navy cannot seize control of the sea and air, it is impossible for the navy to survive. Our 'Graf Spee' battleship was sunk, I think you know very well how it happened, wasn't it surrounded by multiple British warships in South America and forced to scuttle itself because it couldn't escape? This is what happens when we don't have control of the sea. Although we can find few opponents in single combat in this world, they are never playing a game like medieval knight duels with us. They rely on their overall strength to fight. Even the strongest tiger cannot withstand a pack of wolves. I hope you understand this logic. So I want to overthrow our previous war rules, and we also need to rely on the overall fleet to fight, and we are going to rely on the three-dimensional power of the sea surface, sky, and underwater to win. Only then can we stand invincible."

  After Zhou Tianlei finished this long speech, he picked up the coffee on the table and took a sip. Müller finally understood Zhou Tianlei's intention, and with a loud "click", he stood at attention and saluted his superior officer. With tears in his eyes, he said excitedly: "I, Müller, will never disappoint my superior officer! I will definitely command the 8th Submarine Squadron even better!" Zhou Tianlei also returned Müller's military salute, saying: "Good brother, I believe you won't let me down."

  The submarine, after arriving near the Spanish coast, saw Zhou Tianlei on the submarine command platform receiving a light signal from the Spanish reception personnel on the coast. Then he also sent a response signal. After getting the response, he boarded the rubber boat released by the submarine and started rowing towards the shore with several German sailors. On the submarine tower, Müller held a telescope and watched, although it was not clear in the telescope more than ten meters away, but he still held it until the rubber boat returned, and several sailors told him that Zhou Tianlei had been taken away by the Spanish reception personnel, he ordered: "All personnel enter the cabin, the submarine fleet dives, continue to execute the mission."

  Zhou Tianlei arrived at the villa prepared for him by the Spanish, and before he came, a group of German military personnel had already secretly arrived here. They took advantage of Spain's cover to establish a secret military command center here. Just waiting for Zhou Tianlei to arrive. When Zhou Tianlei arrived at his own command center, the 8th submarine squadron had also reached its target area, outside the sea of Gibraltar. Müller ordered the submarine fleet to surface and prepare to send out those Spanish soldiers disguised as civilians after determining that he had arrived at his destination according to the navigation device's indication on the map.

  At this time, in the Gibraltar area near the 8th submarine squadron's floating point, there were several British soldiers guarding a sentry tower. One soldier saw through high-powered binoculars that several large objects suddenly emerged on the distant sea surface, but they were quite far away and he couldn't see clearly what they were. The searchlight on the sentry tower had been damaged yesterday, and the superior said someone would come to repair it today. They had to overcome the difficulties for now, and it wouldn't be stopped for a long time anyway. So the soldier in charge couldn't figure out what those things were. He rushed down from his post and went to the duty room to wake up the officer in charge of the sentry tower. The officer was very unhappy but didn't want to make a fuss, just in case something really happened. He rubbed his sleepy eyes, got out of bed, put on his clothes, and walked to the high-powered binoculars on the sentry tower for a rough look. All he saw were the large objects moving on the sea surface that the soldiers had mentioned. Since the 8th submarine squadron's submarines had a whale-like shape and were half-submerged in the water, people couldn't see them clearly from a distance and might easily mistake them for whales. The officer took the several half-floating submarines of the 8th submarine squadron as whales. Now his anger was unstoppable. He scolded the soldier severely, then yawned and went back to sleep in the duty room.

  Müller observed the coastline with binoculars after the submarine fleet surfaced, then commanded the fleet to find a place that looked easiest to land. He didn't know that this action would save his 8th Submarine Squadron. After arriving at the location Müller thought was suitable, German sailors emerged from the hatch, dropped rubber boats, and Spanish soldiers disguised as civilians also climbed out of the hatch and boarded the rubber boats. Once they were all on board, the German sailors began to row, slowly propelling the rubber boats towards the shore. After the rubber boats carrying the disguised Spanish soldiers departed, Müller paced back and forth on the submarine's deck, occasionally glancing at his luminous wristwatch. He worried that if the British had received intelligence about the operation and laid an ambush, his superior's carefully planned action would fail.

  On the conning tower of submarine U-353, which Zhou Tianlei had once commanded, its new commander Balkhorn saw his superior Müller pacing back and forth on the deck like an ant in a hot pot. He couldn't help but say: "Commander Müller, what are you doing there? You're making my eyes dizzy." Müller said irritably: "I'm worried about our sailors, they've been gone for so long and haven't sent us a signal as agreed. Where are they?" Balkhorn said: "Don't worry, Commander, they're all seasoned veterans. Nothing will happen to them. They'll definitely return safely." Ah, Commander, they've sent a successful landing signal!" Müller shouted: "Hurry up and send a signal, tell them to come back quickly!"

  "Ah, yes, Lieutenant Müller!" Balkhorn replied loudly with a salute. Shortly after the submarine's signal was sent out, German sailors appeared in Müller's line of sight, paddling rubber boats towards him at an incredible speed, either due to the reduced number of people on board or their joyful mood. On the submarine, German sailors who were not assigned tasks rushed to help retrieve the rubber boats and quickly stowed them away. Balkhorn ordered from the conning tower, "Quickly enter the hatch, prepare for dive!" The German sailors scrambled into the ship's hold, while two other submarines did the same. After entering the hold, they ran to their respective positions, closing the watertight doors behind them as they reached their stations.

  "Alright, let's proceed with the plan and head to the Strait of Gibraltar to monitor the movements of British and French warships," Müller said, studying the nautical chart. In the Spanish command center, Zhou Tianlei asked his staff officer, "Has there been any response from the British side regarding the diplomatic letter we had the Spanish Foreign Ministry forward to them?"

  At 10 Downing Street, the British Prime Minister's residence in London, UK, Prime Minister Churchill stared blankly at a letter written by German leader Hitler and handed over by the Spanish ambassador to the UK. After reading the letter, Churchill thought: Has the sun risen from the west today or have my eyes gone blind? Or has Hitler gone mad? Why would the Germans propose negotiating the release of British Expeditionary Force prisoners captured in Dunkirk, and even offer to release some wounded soldiers back to Britain? What are the Germans up to? Are they really so kind-hearted? Churchill felt his head had grown a size bigger. He sensed that there was a huge conspiracy hidden behind the seemingly peaceful letter, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. It was just a feeling honed from years of experience in politics. Churchill rubbed his temples with his fingers and pressed the bell to summon his secretary. "Please inform the officials of all departments of the Cabinet that I want to hold an emergency meeting," he said. Meanwhile, at a temporary secret command center in Spain, Zhou Tianlei received news that the British had not yet responded to the letter written by Hitler and handed over by the Spanish ambassador. He sneered, thinking to himself: My move has probably already thrown the British into enough chaos. They must be holding meetings to discuss how to respond to this development.

  British Prime Minister Churchill handed over the letter written by German leader Hitler to the cabinet members for circulation after an emergency cabinet meeting began. When the letter finally returned to British Prime Minister Churchill, he spoke up: "The Germans are now willing to negotiate with us on some issues regarding our army, navy and air force personnel who were captured by them at Dunkirk port, and they also said that they can release a batch of wounded prisoners in advance. They want to hold this negotiation with us in Spain. I'd like to hear your opinions, shall we go to Spain to negotiate with the Germans?" "We all know that Spain is Germany's puppet, what if the Germans have some conspiracy against us while negotiating there?" The Home Secretary said. "That's unlikely, the Germans won't do anything to us in a country that at least appears to be neutral on the surface, and once something happens to our negotiation representatives, everyone will think of the Germans, so they must ensure the safety of our representatives." The Foreign Secretary said. "I still suspect that the Germans have some conspiracy, but I don't know what they want to do," the Home Secretary said. "I have the same feeling, the Germans are definitely not negotiating with us out of goodwill, they must be trying to cover up some action of theirs through negotiation. But I don't know what that action is." The First Lord of the Admiralty said.

  British Prime Minister Churchill spoke up after listening to the cabinet members: "Everyone is right, the Germans must be plotting something behind our backs, but we still have to go to Spain and negotiate with the Germans. Because of the surrender of our expeditionary force in Dunkirk, this cabinet has fallen into a very serious crisis. Those few days when we collectively answered questions in Parliament, everyone remembers it deeply, right? If our party didn't occupy the majority of seats in Parliament, I would say that the opposition party would definitely pass a motion to impeach us. If we don't go and negotiate with the Germans now, this impeachment motion will definitely be passed. Some of our members will also stand on the side of the opposition party."

  After taking a sip of his tea, British Prime Minister Churchill continued: "Also, the German negotiator this time is an officer from their Navy, and that's Prien. He was the one who commanded the submarine to infiltrate our Scapa Flow naval base last year and sank the flagship of our Home Fleet's Second Battle Squadron, 'Royal Oak'. According to intelligence from various sources, the Germans' current possession of a mysterious submarine has a lot to do with him. Additionally, the surrender of our expeditionary force at Dunkirk and the heavy losses suffered by our Navy and Air Force also have some connection to this person. However, he has been very low-key in the past, and apart from attending a press conference after sinking 'Royal Oak', he has hardly appeared in public. Our agents have tried several times to get close to him but were thwarted by German intelligence agencies. It's clear that this man is extremely important to Germany, so I demand that our negotiators this time must find out more about him and clarify things we didn't know before. If possible, no matter the cost, bring him back to Britain for me to take a good look at what this German national hero looks like."