Chapter 1: The Wealth of the Aegean

  In the autumn of 1915, a fierce war was raging on the European continent. The ambition of Germany, the determination of France and the pride of Britain were stuck in an unprecedented stalemate on the Marne River front line in eastern France. Cannons, machine guns, barbed wire and trenches crisscrossing each other left commanders on both sides at a loss, with millions of soldiers waiting helplessly in muddy trenches. The war of attrition unfolding in this small area was a huge test for the two major camps of the Allies and the Central Powers in terms of manpower, material resources and patience.

  On the other side of the European continent, the beautiful Mediterranean surface is calm and peaceful, but in reality, it is turbulent. Here are both the sea power of the Allied Powers - Austria-Hungary with an independent navy and Turkey, as well as the powerful fleet of the Entente - the mighty British Mediterranean Fleet, the main French fleet, and the Italian Navy that had just entered the war in the spring. Compared to the stalemate on the mainland, the Entente has an absolute advantage in the Mediterranean, Austria-Hungary's fleet is being tightly suppressed by its arch-nemesis Italy in the Adriatic Sea, Turkey is exhausted from responding to the land and sea attacks of the Anglo-French coalition, and their weak navy can only be useless behind the Dardanelles Strait that the enemy cannot cross.

  The imbalance of power is what makes the Mediterranean so unnaturally calm, but at least until autumn arrives, the ships of the Entente and neutral countries are basically unimpeded here. The route from the Suez Canal to the Strait of Gibraltar is even busier than in peacetime years, with Britain and France constantly transporting troops and supplies from their colonies in Africa and Asia. Only those Allied submarines accustomed to lurking underwater posed a real threat to them. However, neither Austria nor Turkey had many U-boats. So, for most Entente ship captains, the probability of being hit by an enemy torpedo in the Mediterranean was extremely low, they joked that this would only happen on Black Friday...

  Friday, September 25, 1915.

  On the surface of the Mediterranean Sea between Crete and Kasos, a three-funneled steamer is moving from south to north. Although it doesn't have the massive body or luxurious decorations like Titanic, it has a speed worth boasting about in this sea area; although there isn't even one big gun on the whole ship, a flag that inspires awe is flying high on its mast. On this planet, no one wouldn't recognize it - it's the symbol of dignity and power of the world's number one naval power, also the only flag in the world that is always under sunlight for 24 hours.

  "To this pleasant weather and our delightful journey, cheers!"

  In the most spacious, bright and luxuriously decorated room on this ship, a bearded captain and a middle-aged gentleman stood by the window, each holding a glass of wine. After the crystal clear glasses touched lightly and made a pleasant sound, the bearded man drained his glass in one gulp, while the gentleman only took a small sip of the deep red wine that looked like blood.

  "Good wine! Good wine! It's indeed the most authentic Bordeaux red wine!" The big bearded man praised.

  "I said, Captain, we should still have a dozen hours before reaching Athens! Wine may be fragrant, but it can't make us miss our main business!"

  The gentleman's lukewarm tone obviously made Captain Hua very displeased, but being displeased was one thing, the clean-shaven guy in front of him was his big boss after all. Thinking of this, Captain Hua couldn't help but burst out laughing.

  "Mr. Fingar, you can set your mind at ease! Who in Cairo doesn't know me, John White, and this ship that can outrun a torpedo? You know why the Navy didn't take my ship as a troop transport? It's because she's too fast, fast enough to leave the whole fleet behind!"

  "Really?"

  The gentleman's mouth corner flashed a meaningful smile. This ship is fast, but its capacity is really too small. Apart from customers like you who need to transport valuable goods, who would spend a lot of money to hire a ship that can only carry a few thousand tons of cargo across the Mediterranean?

  "I won't pay the rest of the money until both people and goods arrive safely in Athens!"

  The gentleman raised his wine glass to a position level with his eyes, so that the sunlight passed through the red liquid and was refracted into his eyes. Red is not only the color of blood and wine, but also the quality of crystal clarity, which is not unique to glass. In the safe in this room, a piece of jewelry made of rubies and crystalline gemstones has a value thousands of times that of this bottle of red wine, and it is also the most proud collection of his personal and even the entire Feng Ge family. More than a hundred years ago, only on very important celebrations, the most noble woman in India had the privilege of wearing it around her beautiful neck.

  "Of course!"

  The bearded captain carelessly picked up the bottle of red wine with a French label from the table, pouring it into his cup as he said confidently:

  "The pirates who once infested the Mediterranean had disappeared a hundred years ago, and I think that apart from those damned Germans and Turks, no one would dare to offend our British Empire's steamers! Even if the Goeben came, we could leave it far behind!"

  "Go Ben? Hmph!"

  As for this name, the gentleman seems to be very disdainful, in his eyes it is nothing but a warship that only knows how to escape, now the British and French fleets are gathering at the Dardanelles, it probably doesn't even have the courage to leave Istanbul to get some fresh air, let alone dare to cruise around the Aegean Sea.

  "Anyway, it's always better to be careful! And Captain, I don't want to see your people recklessly rushing to my door again. If something happens, I won't take responsibility!" The gentleman glanced at the sturdy safe in the corner of the room, which was the real "cargo" he was transporting on this trip, compared to the red wood furniture and 500 barrels of top-grade wheat whiskey in the cabin. However, don't think that he was a fish on a chopping board on this ship, anyone who wanted to enter this room had to ask the four burly men with ill intentions at the door and their quick-draw guns first.

  "Mr. Fenger, rest assured, I'll make sure they remember this!" The bearded captain downed the remaining wine in his cup in one gulp and, as he was leaving, didn't forget to stuff the half-full bottle of wine into his coat pocket. "You just get some rest, I'll have them send lunch up, see you later!"

  "I'm not sending it!"

  The gentleman said with a bad temper, if it weren't for the fact that all the luxury liners in Cairo had been requisitioned by the Navy as troop ships, he wouldn't have chosen such a drunkard captain and such a stupid ship.

  On the deck of this ship, the off-duty stokers were leisurely enjoying the warm sunshine on this spring day. For these sailors who had been living at sea for years, it was a rare pleasure to go ashore and have fun, but during the voyage, listening to old sailors tell stories was an entertaining way to pass the time without spending money.

  "It was in 1756 that the British East India Company was at the height of its prosperity, making huge profits from their trade in India and even building their own army to fight on their behalf. To house their troops and store valuable supplies, they built a massive fortification in Calcutta. Who would allow outsiders to build such a fortress in their own home? This soon led to discontent among the Indians, and after the Nawab of Bengal's protests against the East India Company were ignored, he ordered an attack on the fort. At that time, there were only 900 British soldiers in Calcutta, plus fewer than 3,000 Indian sepoys they had trained, while their opponents numbered over 70,000!"

  "Did they win then?" a small sailor boy asked eagerly.

  "Damn it, Jim, you're interrupting again..." Another sturdy stoker swung his fist.

  "Cough, cough! 3,000 people against 70,000, can we win this battle? ... Of course not!" The old sailor shook his head, and a sigh immediately followed. Judging from the facial features of these people, except for the old sailor and that short-statured sailor who were typical Europeans, the others should be local Egyptians.

  "Don't be in a hurry, don't be in a hurry, this head-on confrontation is not going to win, our East India Company still has other means!" The old sailor sold some suspense and proudly replaced the word "we" with "our". Seeing that the people around him were getting anxious, he said calmly:

  "So, we bribed the officers of Wana Nab with a large sum of money. When we fought against the Indian army again, they mutinied and even Wana Nab was killed by us! Our troops then marched towards the treasury of Bengal. When the doors were opened... Oh God! The whole room was filled with gold, silver and jewels, it was dazzling to look at! Suddenly someone shouted 'Loot!' and in an instant the scene got out of control. Everyone started stuffing their pockets, boots, even hats with as much treasure as they could grab. Do you know what the British commander said afterwards?"

  "What's going on?" The sailors were both envious and curious as they poked their heads over.

  The old sailor said with a vivid tone:

  "He said: Ah, I was really stupid at the time. I was surrounded by gold and silver treasures, boxes and boxes of gold bars, bags and bags of all kinds of precious stones, but I only took away 2 million pounds!"

  "Alas..." The sighs around him had different connotations, some with regret, some with envy, and some with jealousy.

  "A total value of over ￡58 million in treasure!" The old sailor laid particular stress on the figures, "The officers and men got ￡21 million, and the rest went to the East India Company!"

  "Ah......" These riches are still astronomical figures today, the sailors' eyes are all wide with excitement, and they can't help but regret not being born 100 years earlier, even if it's just as a ordinary groom, they would have participated in that thrilling battle for wealth.

  "Don't be discouraged, everyone!" The old sailor suddenly said in a very mysterious tone: "Gold, silver and jewels are not only found in India! For example, the Aegean Sea floor is buried with countless treasures!"

  "Hey, Old Jack, you're not kidding us, are you?"

  "Ah ah! Old Jack, where did this treasure come from under the Aegean Sea!"

  "You don't know?"

  The sailors all shook their heads.

  "In the heyday of the Ottoman Empire, this Aegean Sea was an inland sea for the Ottomans, with a large number of merchant ships plying between Athens, Cairo and Istanbul. A pirate attack or a storm could send countless treasures to the bottom of the sea! Do you know how many? How much?" The old sailor's eyes scanned the audience, but no one could answer.

  "Innumerable!" The old sailor sighed deeply, "Every year, many treasure hunters come with hope, but the sea is vast, and most people ultimately return empty-handed!"

  "Wow..." The sailors let out a burst of amazement.

  "But there are also people who find one or two sunken ships, some of which are worthless, while others can find millions of gold coins and all sorts of jewels! Maybe... maybe right beneath us on the ocean floor lies a ship filled with treasure chests, but who knows?"

  The sailors let out another burst of amazement.

  The old sailor looked at the Egyptian sailors with great satisfaction, who could hardly recognize a few big characters. In fact, what he knew was only heard from several ships he had stayed on, and as for how much basis there was, even he himself did not know.

  Just then a sailor standing near the ship's rail suddenly shouted:

  "Look quickly, what is it?"

  The sailors all ran over to look, but the old sailor had a nonchalant expression.

  "What's all the fuss about!"

  "What a big fish!" The big-headed Egyptian sailor gave an imaginative answer.

  "Fish?" The old sailor looked in the direction everyone was pointing and nearly scared himself into a stupor.

  "Sub...sub...submarine!" The old sailor stared for two or three seconds before shouting breathlessly, "Captain...submarine! We have a submarine on our starboard bow! 500...no, at most 450 yards!"

  What is the concept of 450 meters? 1 meter equals 0.9144 meters, which translates to over 400 meters. On the vast ocean, a distance that can be clearly seen without binoculars. What's more terrifying for old sailors is that on the conning tower of the submarine, a flag quickly rose - the black cross naval ensign of the German Navy, a symbol deeply hated by all British people!

  "The Germans, the Germans!" The shout sent the whole ship into a panic. After all, in British government propaganda posters, Germans were a group of ruthless devils who killed without blinking! As for why German submarines would appear here, the sailors didn't know and had no time to think about it.

  Just then a hail came from the German submarine in not very good English, and because of the megaphone everyone on board could hear what was being said:

  "Stop ship! We command you in the name of the German Imperial Navy to stop your ship immediately, you are being captured by the German Imperial Navy! Stop ship at once or we will use our cannons and torpedoes!"

  It's true, in the control room on the ship, Captain Beard could see through binoculars that the sailors on the German submarine were removing the waterproof canvas from the deck gun at the bow of the ship. Although this type of deck gun had limited power and range (the deck guns of submarines during World War I were usually less than 100mm), it was more than enough to deal with a civilian ship of less than 10,000 tons that had no way of fighting back.

  "Don't stop the ship!" The owner of this vessel - that elegantly dressed gentleman suddenly appeared in the control room and roared at the captain: "Ram it! Sink it!"

  "Are you crazy?" On this matter of life and death, the captain seemed extremely sober. "We'll be blown to pieces!"

  "No, its cannon cannot sink us at once, but we can ram and sink it! At such close range, the German submarine has no time to escape back into the water!" The gentleman's tone left little room for discussion, and Captain Whiskers was about to retort when he found himself staring down the barrel of a revolver.

  "Do as I say, it's the only way we can escape safely!" The gentleman said this with his mouth, but in fact he was unwilling to hand over the things in the safe to the Germans - in this situation, the Germans would board the ship and loot it, then leave a few lifeboats for the crew and passengers, and finally sink the ship with cannons or torpedoes. This was what the gentleman had learned from British newspapers, although they were not entirely reliable, but he clearly did not want to risk his own property to try it out.

  "Madman! He's really mad!"

  The captain with the big beard grumbled and muttered to himself, but the situation below did not allow him to hesitate for a moment. He pushed away the first mate who was steering and took control of the helm himself. Since the distance between the two ships was so close and his own ship was already at high speed, he didn't need to order acceleration, just a sudden turn of the helm would do. The bow of the ship quickly aligned with the German submarine, which had a much lower speed. As the two ships were previously advancing in parallel, the cargo ship was now heading straight for the opponent's hull. If they collided like this, the German submarine with its thin hull would inevitably be at a disadvantage.

  The Germans apparently also saw the signs, a flash of fire on the submarine's deck, followed by two roars less than 1 second apart. A shell accurately hit the right side of this ship. In the fragments and splinters flying around at an extremely fast speed, several sailors didn't even have time to react before falling into the blood pool.

  "These bastards... I'm done!"

  Although the glass of the pilothouse windows was shattered in several places and acrid smoke poured in, Captain Whiskers became more determined than ever. His eyes were bloodshot as he stared at the German submarine ahead, 250 yards away - he could see with his naked eye the German crewmen busy loading shells into the deck guns; 200 yards - he saw a German officer wearing a white cap on top of the conning tower, what was that German thinking? How would he react next?

  Rumble...

  Another cannon shot, this time the shell hit the bow of the ship accurately. The bearded captain, however, showed a hint of disdainful smile. Germans, do you think that's enough to sink my ship?

  150 meters - The bearded captain discovered that the submarine was also turning, but not aiming its bow at him, but rather turning its own butt around. As this movement progressed, the German submarine's deck gun quickly lost its shooting angle.

  "Want to escape? A group of German pigs!" The big beard sneered, unless the Germans could dive completely in a very short period of time, otherwise, just relying on speed was not enough to be a match for this ship. But suddenly, he found that behind and in front of that submarine, a cluster of water bubbles suddenly emerged, what was it? A signal from the propeller at the bottom of the boat? Or...

  "It's impossible!"

  The big beard said to himself in his heart, "No one will launch a torpedo at this distance, because the torpedo will pass under and even if it hits the target, I will be injured by the huge shockwave. Unless... unless the other party is a madman!"

  But he was wrong, just a few seconds later, accompanied by a thunderous explosion, the entire ship was almost blown into the sky - this was a powerful German T-type torpedo, even large warships with some armor would try to avoid it, let alone such a steel-framed wooden ship?

  The big beard had no chance to think about why it was like this, in such a violent explosion, none of the 42 crew members and passengers on board survived, within a few minutes, they sank into the sea floor along with the ship, leaving only floating debris and some miscellaneous items on the surface.

  However, Captain Haddock was right about one thing: the commander standing on the conning tower of that submarine with a cold face was indeed a "madman". His name was Hersing, and he was the captain of the German U-21 submarine. This name and boat number were well-known in the German Navy. In the spring of this year, this brave captain commanded his U-21 to break into the Irish Sea, which was considered sacred by the British military. Despite the fact that there were many "sentries" on the surface and anti-submarine mines underwater, he successfully sank three British warships and even sailed close to the British coast at night to shell a nearby British airfield. It was because of such an almost crazy move that Hersing got the nickname "Madman of the Sea".

  However, Hessen's madness didn't stop there. In the face of the British and French army's fierce offensive, the Turkish government asked Germany for support, and Germany subsequently sent a fleet of submarines to the Mediterranean, including U21. After a 4,000-mile journey through the Strait of Gibraltar, which was heavily blockaded by the Allies, Hessen commanded his submarine to sneak into the Allied anchorage near Cape Helles under cover of night and sank two British battleships, HMS Triumph and HMS Majestic, creating a minor miracle in military history.

  Compared to the two powerful British battleships, this small British freighter was hardly worth mentioning. Looking at the debris floating on the surface of the water, Hessen's face did not show a hint of triumph. After all, in this distant place far from home, every torpedo was extremely precious. He had originally thought of using two shells to scare the British into abandoning ship, then sending sailors aboard to find some valuable things such as fresh vegetables, meat and freshwater, and finally having the sailors lay some explosives on the bottom of the boat, which was also a common practice among German submarine commanders.

  When he discovered that the freighter was going to ram and sink his own boat, Hinson immediately ordered all of his crewmen into the forward torpedo room because only with the submarine's stern slightly elevated could a torpedo fired from the after tubes possibly hit a ship at such close range.

  In addition, this commander had a very special habit. As long as his submarine left the port, he would definitely let the crew load a smallest depth torpedo in the rear torpedo tube, but before that day, no one knew why he did so.

  Affected by the close explosion, U-21 was slightly injured, but Hessen didn't worry. His well-trained crew quickly eliminated the faults one by one, and he habitually recorded the time, place and general process of this attack in his own navigation logbook.

  After recharging his batteries, Hesson and his submarine dived into the water again, continuing their journey in search of prey...

  Weeks later, in a corner of the London Times, there appeared this notice: A fast boat called "The Needle" had disappeared on its way from Cairo to Athens. Also missing was the famous jeweler, Steppich Finger and his jewels worth over 2 million pounds sterling. Information leading to their recovery will be rewarded by the British authorities.