Code Name: Spain (2)

  After receiving the two pieces of intelligence, Zhou Tianlei did not dare to be slow for a moment. He immediately asked his war advisor to notify others in the temporary command center to come to the villa and hold an emergency war meeting in the room that had been converted into a conference room.

  After other people arrived at the conference room, several officers saw Zhou Tianlei already sitting inside and subconsciously wanted to salute him. Zhou Tianlei smiled and said: "Gentlemen, no need for a salute now, we are not wearing military uniforms, and this is not Germany, our identity here is civilian. Let's not reveal ourselves to others." Those officers awkwardly put down their arms amidst the low chuckles of others.

  Zhou Tianlei asked his naval operations staff officer on the left: "Has our ocean fleet entered first-class combat readiness status according to the orders we sent out?"

  "The naval operations staff officer replied: 'They have already entered a state of first-level combat readiness and are waiting for our next order.'"

  Zhou Tianlei nodded in satisfaction and said, "Good." He turned around to look at the large map hanging on the wall, and another naval operations staff officer hurriedly pulled open the curtain covering the map.

  " Gentlemen, we just received intelligence that the gold reserves of the French Central Bank have been transported. It is estimated that a considerable portion has already been shipped to the coastal ports of France. Due to the excellent secrecy measures taken by the French, our agents only discovered this when the gold was almost completely transported from Paris. Although we were one step behind, we still managed to find out where the gold went. Chief of Staff, please brief us on their specific destinations."

  Rogge, the chief of staff of the German High Seas Fleet, stood up (this man was the original captain of the "Munich" battleship Rogge, because he took over the command of the German High Seas Fleet after the death of Admiral Lütjens, who was killed by a British battleship during the Battle of Dunkirk, and led the fleet to victory). He spread out the documents in his hand and said: "The French gold is mainly transported to the ports of Toulon and Brest. Due to the strict secrecy of the French Navy, our agents only know that the gold was transported to these two ports, but according to my analysis, Bordeaux may also have some gold. Now the French fleet is preparing to set sail, it is very likely that they want to transport the gold to their overseas colonies for safekeeping. My analysis is complete."

  Zhou Tianlei nodded and gestured for him to sit down, saying: "According to intelligence, I think the first batch of French gold transfers will not be very large, and they may transport it to the United States."

  Rog heard a mess, what intelligence shows that the first batch of French gold exports will go to the United States, how did he not know about this intelligence. Just as he was about to speak, he saw Zhou Tianlei looking at him, his right index finger shaking at him, indicating that he should not speak. Rog forcibly swallowed his doubts (he didn't know that his superior was a man from the future, how could he be unclear about this history, and just now saying intelligence was just to cover people's ears).

  Zhou Tianlei continued: "Since we know the destination of the first batch of French gold, let's analyze their route. What method can we use to seize this batch of gold?"

  Rogers stood up at this point and walked to the map, saying: "If the French do this, I think they will definitely pass through the Canary Islands of Spain. From their port, if they want to go to America, they must pass through that island group and replenish there. Their warships are carrying a large amount of gold, and there won't be much space to store food and water. Can I make a bold guess? There probably won't be many bullets on the French ships either. If we want to intercept them, it shouldn't be difficult."

  Zhou Tianlei applauded and said, "You're absolutely right, I think so too. The French warship will definitely replenish supplies on that island. And they won't load a lot of weapons either. They don't have enough space, besides gold is very heavy. If they load gold, then the ammunition will be less."

  Rog asked, "But the key is how we intercept the French ship carrying gold. If we forcibly intercept it at sea and the French open the seacock to scuttle the ship, won't we have made a futile trip?"

  Zhou Tianlei said: "You just said that the French would go to which island group to replenish their ships with living supplies?"

  Rog said: "It's the Canary Islands of Spain, sir, did I say it wrong?"

  Zhou Tianlei said: "There is no way, what you said is right, the French will definitely go to that island, and if we intercept the French ship carrying gold at sea, the French will indeed sink the ship. So we need to think of a foolproof plan to capture both the French fleet and the gold. Moreover, we cannot let the French know that their first batch of gold was intercepted by us."

  The staff below became lively, after all they were going to intercept gold, and they began to whisper among themselves. Because Marshal Raeder had already given the order: if the French gold was successfully captured, the navy would give a 10% reward to those who made contributions. The temptation of gold is certainly great.

  After half an hour, Zhou Tianlei and Luo Ge finally spoke up to stop the heated discussion of the staff below. After summarizing everyone's ideas, they made Plan No. 1: dispatching the German Ocean Fleet's "Gneisenau" battleship, "Scharnhorst" battleship, and "Admiral Hipper" heavy cruiser to rush to the waters near the Canary Islands in Spain; also deploying two submarines from the 8th Submarine Squadron to coordinate. In addition, notify the domestic side, requiring the German airborne troops who had been waiting for a long time and some German naval amphibious reconnaissance teams that had just completed frogman training to take planes to rush to the Canary Islands in Spain for ambush. At the same time, inform the relevant Spanish parties about the German combat plan and ask them to cooperate. The staff took down Zhou Tianlei's combat plan and quickly left the conference room to notify the relevant troops and the Spanish side.

  In the Gibraltar area, as before, several people dressed as British Air Force pilots walked into a restaurant, and after finishing their meal, they took out large-denomination pounds to pay the bill. The waiter saw this and quickly notified the boss. By the time the boss arrived, the group had already left the restaurant and got into a car with a British Air Force insignia on it and drove away.

  The boss had long been prepared and hastily opened the already prepared car to follow up. When following a road junction, he saw that the car turned onto the road leading to the British Air Force Airport. The boss didn't dare to follow again. He picked up the camera placed on the car and took a shot of the rear of the car.

  When driving back with the boss who was tracking down the 'British', several other bosses who were startled also rushed over.

  "They're here again?" one of the bosses asked.

  "Yes, they're here again, a few pilots, they came by car," said the restaurant owner.

  "Where did they go then? Did you see clearly?" another boss asked anxiously.

  "They drove their car onto the road leading to the British Air Force airport, and further ahead was their restricted area. I didn't dare follow them anymore, but I took a picture of their car with my camera. Once we get the photos developed, we'll go find their superior."

  "Okay, let's all go together."

  As for the British side, Admiral Godfrey, head of British Naval Intelligence, and his assistant Ian Fleming, along with their delegation, upon arrival in Madrid, Spain's capital, immediately requested a meeting with Germany's chief negotiator. The Spanish reception staff said: "You two have come from afar and must be tired, so please rest at the hotel we've arranged for you, and we'll start talks the day after tomorrow."

  Goffredo asked strangely: "What, didn't you say that the German chief negotiator Gottfried Prien has arrived in Spain? Isn't he waiting for us?"

  "There is no 'no', there are things that exist, it's just that your responses are a bit slow. The German delegation has gone to our coast. They are not in Madrid now." said the Spanish receptionist with a smile.

  Goffrey glanced at his aide, Ian Fleming. Ian nodded knowingly and slowed down his pace to fall in with the other ordinary members of the delegation.

  Goffrey said: "Alright, take us to the hotel for a rest then, but we hope negotiations with Germany can start as soon as possible."

  Zhou Tianlei and Luo Ge received a notification from the Spanish side that afternoon, stating that members of the British delegation had arrived in Madrid and requested to negotiate as soon as possible regarding the British expeditionary force's prisoners of war. The list of members of the British negotiating delegation was also transmitted.

  Rog looked at the list of members of the British negotiating delegation and said to Zhou Tianlei, "Chief, I suspect that the British may not have any intention of negotiating with us, and may be playing some other tricks."

  Zhou Tianlei said: "Lu Ge, then you say it, what kind of tricks do you suspect the British will play on us?"

  Rogers pushed the list of names of the British negotiating delegation in front of Zhou Tianlei, pointing and saying: "Director, look at them. Their team leader, Godfrey, is said to be the head of the British Navy Intelligence Bureau according to our intelligence. We are discussing with the British about the prisoner-of-war issue of their expeditionary force. There are many people in the British cabinet who are more suitable for talking to us than him. Prime Minister Churchill sent him here, so it's likely that they didn't take this negotiation seriously and came here to do other things."

  Zhou Tianlei patted Rogge's shoulder excitedly, indicating that he made sense. He continued: "The British should be aiming at me. I must be a big target in their eyes, and you also know that I was the first to develop our 8th submarine squadron's advanced submarines. The British suffered greatly from our advanced submarines during the Battle of Norway, so they came back to gather intelligence on these submarines, but were discovered by our security agency. Afterwards, the British came several times, but were thwarted by our counter-espionage system. However, the British must have figured out my role in our new-style submarines. And then there was the Battle of Dunkirk, which was our first major victory over the British fleet since the Battle of Jutland. Can the British swallow this? They definitely won't, so they will try every means to probe our weaknesses. As the Chinese military saying goes: 'Know yourself and know your enemy, and you can win a hundred battles.' We were able to defeat the British in the Battles of Norway and Dunkirk because we knew ourselves and the British inside out. Otherwise, it's hard to imagine how we could have won so big. This time, the British sent such an unusual delegation because they finally understood that their German opponent was not what they had imagined, so they need to reposition us, and intelligence about us is one of their top concerns."

  Rogers asked, "But we were just negotiating with them, we didn't bring our fleet here, and our combat plans and formation, ship intelligence weren't leaked to the British, how did they find our information from the negotiating table?"

  Zhou Tianlei smiled and said, "The knowledge contained within is vast. Your personality can easily be revealed during negotiations. For example, others can roughly judge what kind of person you are based on your negotiation style. This information isn't something that ordinary spies can obtain."

  Rog scratched his ear and said awkwardly, "I've never done this before, but why do you have to come as the chief negotiator, sir? Can't someone else take your place?"

  Zhou Tianlei smiled bitterly and said, "The plan was made by me. This plan has very high requirements for details, basically one ring is linked to another, and any mistake in any detail may lead to overall failure. So I had no choice but to attend this negotiation. Do you think I don't know the danger? Alright, hurry up and prepare things, we're going to Madrid tomorrow."