Irish Republican Army

  Hitler summoned Zhou Tianlei on the second day to listen to his report on the French campaign and future prospects on behalf of the German Navy.

  Zhou Tianlei first summarized the performance of the German Navy in the Battle of France. He said that in this battle, the German Navy was very successful in intelligence gathering and deception, successfully interfering with and deceiving the British Admiralty's decision-making, causing them to order the British Home Fleet to wait at Scapa Flow for a non-existent attack by the German High Seas Fleet, laying a good foundation for the German High Seas Fleet to smoothly deploy and execute its next task near the English Channel. In addition, the cover provided by the German Air Force was also indispensable, without which British reconnaissance planes might have discovered the Germans' true plan during the deployment of the High Seas Fleet, thereby foiling the plan.

  Secondly, the German U-boat fleet accomplished their mission well. In addition to monitoring the movements of the British Home Fleet, they also disrupted the formation of the British fleet during the Battle of Jutland and damaged three British battleships, allowing the German High Seas Fleet to gain an advantage on the battlefield. This was due in part to the use of a new tactic by the German Navy, employing high-explosive shells instead of traditional armor-piercing shells to attack British ships. The target of these attacks shifted from the armored sections of enemy vessels to their upper structures, resulting in significant casualties among enemy personnel and disrupting the connection between the shooting command system and main guns on British warships. This rendered the main guns of British warships ineffective, posing no substantial threat to German fleets.

  However, Zhou Tianlei also pointed out that the German fleet's battlefield awareness was still lacking in some respects. In the decisive battle, they did not understand the damage situation of the British battleship "Rodney", and no ships were assigned to continuously track it, indicating that it entered the battlefield in the later stages of the war, taking advantage of other German warships being busy dealing with their own targets, allowing it to easily attack the German fleet's flagship "Scheer" battleship, resulting in the death of Admiral Lütjens. If not for the timely assumption of the flagship duties by the "Munich" battleship, the outcome of this sea battle would not have changed, but some British naval officers who survived the battle might have escaped and returned to study German naval tactics, rendering German naval tactics ineffective in a relatively short period of time.

  Weeks later, Lieutenant-Colonel Rudolf Witzig summarized the assault on Gibraltar, which had not yet taken place and was still in the planning stages. The attack on the Canary Islands, however, was a different story for the German Marines and paratroopers. Their actions were far from successful due to the fact that their training was incomplete at the start of the operation, especially the amphibious reconnaissance units, which had not even come close to completing their training, and they did not have enough personnel, so they had to borrow troops from other units, and before that, the troops had not undergone sufficient simulated combat training.

  But the British reaction speed was also unexpected, and Zhou Tianlei reviewed himself here, admitting that he had underestimated the wisdom of the British. He originally thought that he had already beaten the British dizzy in the Battle of Dunkirk, but unexpectedly, the British quickly recovered from the blow and realized their role in the naval battle, and sent special forces to attack him. If it weren't for the wounded German marine amphibious reconnaissance troops who were injured in combat on the Spanish Canary Islands, he might have been killed or captured by the British special forces.

  But there is also good news. Last night, the French fleet and the French Ministry of Finance transported over 1,000 tons of gold from Toulon to Brest, all of which fell into German hands. The gold, including this batch and previous ones, has already been enough to move France's treasury to Germany. However, a German submarine that was tracking the French gold transport ship had mechanical trouble and had to abandon its pursuit. As a result, it could not provide accurate coordinates for the French gold transport ship to the German fast battleships "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst", which searched for the ship in possible areas but found nothing. The French gold transport ship may have carried nearly 300 tons of gold, and its final destination was likely the French West Indies.

  Hitler said that since the British treated our negotiating representatives this way, we should also give them a lesson and let them understand the consequences of opposing Germany. He approved the second part of Zhou Tianlei's Mediterranean plan.

  Suddenly, Hitler asked Zhou Tianlei: "Are you going to get married? I heard that your fiancée is Chinese, and you met her on the first night you arrived in Paris when you were dealing with a dispute between Chinese and Japanese people?"

  Before Zhou Tianlei could respond, one of Hitler's military advisors knocked on the door outside. Hitler let him in, and upon seeing Zhou Tianlei inside, the advisor didn't know what to say. Hitler signaled for him to put down the documents in his hand.

  After the military advisor left, Hitler picked up the file and looked at it carefully before handing it over to Zhou Tianlei. Zhou Tianlei opened it and found that it was about the Japanese people he had caught the night before yesterday. They finally couldn't bear the exhaustion of the Gestapo's bombing and confessed their purpose in coming to Europe.

  They came to Europe in order to steal the technical intelligence of Germany's newly developed submarines, because last time Japan tried to obtain the technical data of Germany's newly developed submarines through the relevant clauses of the Axis Agreement, but was refused by Germany at that time.

  The Japanese had no way out, so they sent spies to Germany to steal the data of the new submarine that Zhou Tianlei participated in the research and development. They used a large number of silver bullets and feminine charm, and finally pulled down some people from the German military arsenal, who provided the Japanese with a considerable part of the technical intelligence about the submarine.

  Zhou Tianlei was very clear about the actual level of the submarine he participated in developing. This new submarine can be said to have put a German 209 shell on a German U-boat, and only improved the underwater navigation characteristics of the submarine to some extent, including underwater noise, underwater speed, diving depth, endurance mileage, and living conditions for crew members. However, there were no revolutionary changes in the submarine's reconnaissance system compared to previous German submarines. Not to mention the advanced electronic fire control system on the 209 submarine. Moreover, Zhou Tianlei also knew that based on the current level of the electronics industry, it was impossible to install an advanced fire control system similar to that of the 209 submarine on this submarine, and its upgrade capability was very limited. Therefore, once the technical data of this submarine is leaked, the German Navy may face huge losses or even catastrophic consequences.

  So Zhou Tianlei was marveling at his good luck that day, if it weren't for those two Japanese who were planning to return to Japan from Paris, and they inexplicably went to participate in the local Japanese destruction of Chinatown that night. In the end, they saw the German Defense Forces arrive, and because they had been noticed multiple times by German counterintelligence while gathering intelligence in Germany, they thought the German Defense Forces came to arrest them for their conspiracy being discovered. That's why they took hostages, and it was precisely this that caught Zhou Tianlei's attention.

  Thinking of this, Zhou Tianlei's back couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat. He hadn't expected that the things he thought were still secret had already become public knowledge. It seemed that he needed to strengthen his intelligence confidentiality work.

  He had originally intended to discuss the fate of the Jews with Hitler in a roundabout way, hoping to rescue those people through labor. However, he looked at Hitler's eyes and knew that bringing it up now would get himself into serious trouble. What means would he have left to support his deeply troubled homeland?

  He saw Hitler had no other indication, bid farewell to Hitler and prepared to leave the office. Hitler suddenly said: "When you hold your wedding, tell my secretary in advance, I will attend your wedding if I have time." Then waved his hand to let him go.

  Zhou Tianlei returned to his hotel in Paris, while Li Xia had already been discharged from the hospital and was taken by Lafen to Zhou Tianlei's room.

  Zhou Tianlei stepped into the room and found that someone had already entered his room. It seemed like there was someone in the bathroom, accompanied by the sound of running water. He drew out the P-38 Walther pistol from his body, cocked it, and cautiously approached the bathroom.

  As he quietly opened the bathroom door, a burst of steam rushed out. The shower curtain was pulled up and it was impossible to see who was inside. He quickly went over and yanked open the curtain, his gun at the ready, aimed at the person inside.

  As a woman's high-pitched scream echoed, Zhou Tianlei suddenly found that the person taking a bath inside was his own fiancée Li Xia. Seeing her discover that it was Zhou Tianlei who had pulled open the curtain, her wide-open mouth slowly closed. Zhou Tianlei saw this and put away his gun.

  Raven rushed to Zhou Tianlei's room after hearing Li Xia's shout, and let out a sigh of relief when she knew it was a misunderstanding. But soon she was scolded by Zhou Tianlei.

  At this time, Li Xia had already put on her bathrobe and walked out. Zhou Tianlei saw the situation and immediately drove Lafen away.

  He stared blankly at Li Xia, who had just finished bathing and had two red flushes on her face due to the hot water. Her white skin was even more prominent in front of Zhou Tianlei, and he couldn't help but go up to her and hold her in his arms.

  On the third night after that, on a remote beach north of Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, it was overcast with light rain. Suddenly, several dark figures appeared on the coast, and they found some shelters to cover themselves on the beach.

  After about half an hour or so, one of them asked the other: "John, are they landing here tonight? Why haven't we seen anyone yet?"

  The man called John said, "Don't worry, these Germans are always punctual and do things on time. If they're late, they'll definitely let us know."

  The person who started speaking took out his own watch and shone a flashlight on it, finding that there were still several minutes before the agreed-upon time. He smiled awkwardly.

  After a few more minutes, John suddenly pointed at the sea and shouted: "They're coming, it must be them."

  A few people looked up towards the sea and saw a submarine's silhouette suddenly appear on the distant surface. The people on the shore quickly shone their flashlights at the submarine, sending out the pre-arranged signal of three long and two short flashes to indicate that the landing site was safe. The submarine's liaison officer also quickly sent back a signal preparing for landing.

  After a while, the two rubber boats were put into the water. Then some people started arranging things in the boats. After more than ten minutes, the two rubber boats began to paddle towards the shore.

  When the rubber boat reached the shore, two people on the rubber boat jumped off and pulled the boat ashore with force.

  When they reached the shore, several people who had been waiting there jumped out from behind their shelters and approached the Germans.

  After the Germans met with them, both sides made self-introductions to each other. The Germans inquired about the intelligence they had obtained beforehand and verified that the person who came to meet them was a high-ranking figure of the Northern Ireland Republican Army. His name was Ramzi Al-Fawaz. He introduced several subordinates he brought with him.

  Then the Germans and the Northern Irish Republicans began to unload some military supplies, including guns, ammunition, explosives, hand grenades, and wireless transmitters, from the rubber boats. After unloading, both sides checked that everything was correct, and the leading German officer said to the Irish Republican Army: "We Germans support your independence movement. These people are our instructors, they will be responsible for training your personnel and guiding your combat actions. Now it's getting late, we need to withdraw, otherwise it won't be good if we're discovered by the British." After finishing speaking, he turned around and led his subordinates to push the rubber boats into the sea and row towards the submarine.

  Meanwhile, the people on the shore were also hastily carrying away the military supplies from the beach and loading them onto a small car parked nearby. The driver then started the engine and the car disappeared into the vast night.