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147 Ma Rongtao’s Reques
”Unbending Will”, a demonstration ostensibly aimed at ”the Cheonan”, a South Korean warship, was torpedoed, but who knew what the intention was?

The answer was unclear. Some said it was North Korea, others said it was China. But there was no denying the fact that the exercise, which was conducted in the territory of the China, was filled with an intensely competitive atmosphere.

Suddenly, the nuclear-powered submarine in view shot out a dark blue, cylindrical object about the size of a water bottle from the side drain.

”Communications float?” Chen Fan recognized the origin of this thing. It is a way for submarines to contact external forces. Once it reached the surface, it could use the radio waves to send out the information.

Watching the few submarines in front of the electric eel slowly disperse, Chen Fan was free to just stay there and see what were they up to. Now the electric eel doesn’t have to be afraid even if it’s detected by a submarine.

...........

An hour later...

”Turn the cyclic rudder left, dip 15, descend to 200 meters. Heading 315, speed 5 knots... ”

In the command module of the 1,800,000-ton conventional diesel-powered submarine in Busan, South Korea, the captain, Kim Sung-Hwan, quietly issued a command to the submarine.

Since the sinking of the Cheonan Cordon and the death of 46 sailors, the entire military community in the country has been roaring with cries of vengeance for the Cheonan.

But Kim Sung-Hwan knew, they could only cry about it. Although there was enough evidence to suggest that this was done by the North Korean small submarines, they could not start the domestic war with North Korea, because North Korea was a country holding a nuclear bomb. If they made the crazy people mad, they might do anything to them.

This joint military exercise with the United States was only a disguised demonstration.

And the location of the demonstration was fantastic, just over 600 nautical miles from China. The world’s most advanced fighter jet, which will be on display tomorrow, within the radius of the F22 air strike.

Of course, this is just a deterrent, and the F22 can’t really go into the waters of China.

South Korea demonstrate was against North Korea, while the United States demonstrated against the Chinese. It was win-win cooperation.

As the name suggested, the most important part of the exercise was the anti-submarine. Together with their three submarines, they were preparing for a three-to-one melee fight with American nuclear submarines.

Just as Kim Sung-Hwan was in the middle of a conjecture, a quiet report from the sonar came from the microphone.

”Sonar room, what is it?” Kim Sung-Hwan whispered to the microphone.

”Report. Found a suspicious signal.”

”First contact time?”

”Five minutes ago, between position 404 and 500, the side array sonar detected a suspicious signal, about two miles away.” The sonar monitor answered without hesitation.

”And then?”

”Have been listening for a while. There is no confirmation of the nature of the signal, and the contact was lost 20 seconds ago. Between 174 and 230.”

”Was it our other two submarine sound bands?” Kim Sung-Hwan looked at the chart, and according to the exercise, the four submarines were not allowed to sail more than 50 nautical miles. At this distance, as long as they used careful detection, they could find the trail of the other side. But more likely, the other person would find out too.

”Not them!”

”Has the sound been recorded? Let me hear it.” Kim Sung-Hwan asked the surrounding person to keep quiet and then put on the big earphone.

The recorder played the suspicious sound after filtering the background clutter.

The sound was very light, even without background noise, it was not very easy to hear what it was. Kim Sung-Hwan set the sound to the maximum, and finally understood. It was a sound like the flow of water, and it was very rhythmic. Every five seconds there came a ”poop poop” water flowing sound from both sides, which lasted about two seconds every time.

”It must be the American attack submarine!” said Kim Sung-Hwan.

But the American technology was so much better that they couldn’t lock in the target, even if they occasionally caught the opponent’s position.

”Come and trace it.” Kim Sung-Hwan waved to the man next to him.

Manual tracing on the chart had always been a very effective and reliable method.

Through the position of the ship in the chart and azimuth signal identification, it could be seen clearly, this was a signal source in the movement and moved two kilometers in about five minutes. The location of the mobile was precisely their left side before arcing of the submarine.

”Quickly! Torpedo room pressurize the torpedo launcher, sonar room closely monitor the nearby movements.”

Kim Sung-Hwan said with a low voice, ”Shut off the engine and then rise 50 meters.”

He was in a panic, and cold sweat came down from his forehead. He had no idea that they could find his position so soon. And they were circling in front of the submarine.

..........

On the U.S. Navy’s Los Angeles-class attack submarine, Bender listened to sonar monitors and listened to the report on the latest sonar data.

Seven minutes ago, they had successfully detected a South Korean submarine, now although the source had disappeared, this does not prevent them from using the better computer automatic chart instrument of surveying and mapping, to determine the azimuth of the submarine.

”Sir, the data is out!” The next person pointed to the green dot on the screen and said softly.

”Yeah!” Bender just nodded but did not place the attack order.

If it was a one-on-one confrontation with a single submarine, he would dare to beat the chest and let any submarine in the world challenge it!

But he had to face three submarines, attacking one would immediately trigger two more submarines to aim at him. Although the submarine was equipped with four 533 mm torpedo tubes and can target four targets at the same time, it has to find the targets first.

”Left rudder, move about three kilometers north, and then immediately release a torpedo, then dive down to 300 meters, releasing three sonar interference,” Bender whispered, after pondering a moment.

The sonar equipment had fallen dramatically during the rapid navigation of the submarine. In the case of the speed of 30 knots, the sonar can’t hear any sound at all, which was, of course, unsatisfactory. So a high-speed submarine often blurs and poses no threat to anyone.

But Bender knew, competing with the other three submarines that they were not of the same class. They could use maximum speed, as long as they used the sonar jammers to interfere with nearby submarines’ targeting. This kind of submarine at high speed had at least an 80 percent chance to escape the attack of a torpedo.

Shortly after the order had been given, the dark undersea ghost suddenly jetted a sharp stream of water from the stern and sped off to the north side of the little submarine.

”Sir, we have been found. They are approaching us at the speed of 30 knots... Oh, no, they fired the torpedoes.” The sonar room workers were getting more and more nervous, and at the end of the day, even the volume their voices could not be controlled anymore.

”Limit submergence... limit submergence ...” Kim Sung-Hwan’s blue veins on his neck could be seen. ”Torpedo tank, release underwater acoustic interference quickly, and immediately launch two wire torpedoes.”

Rumble...

Two hundred and thirty centimeters of orange torpedoes, dragging long wires, came out of the ship’s bow and sped forward.

But the two torpedoes couldn’t find their target at all, just like a headless fly, moving in an S-shaped route.

Whoosh! An AI-guided torpedo of nearly four meters long passed the two little torpedoes at 50 knots, shot to the Busan submarine like an arrow.

Meanwhile, the two South Korean submarines that were hovering nearby, had also captured the azimuth anomaly using the passive sonar, happened to coincidently release two torpedoes, and then took advantage of the sonar jammer, and used the highest speed to flee into the distance.

Seven torpedoes...

The live-fire torpedoes, which are used for exercises, are specially treated before they are hoisted to the launch module of the submarine.

There was no charge, and five seconds before they reached the target, the torpedo would immediately reverse its engine, the kinetic energy would stop before coming in contact with the submarine, and then the projectile head airbag would inflate. Even if it hit the submarine, it wouldn’t cause any damage.

Seven torpedoes, ”Busan” submarine was successfully hit by the torpedo, while Los Angeles-class attack submarine was much luckier, in that under the six aimless torpedoes’ attack, only one grazed 300 meters off the left side. The others didn’t even come close.

.........

If someone had X-ray vision and could see the area through more than 300 meters of water, he would be amazed to see it.

A more than 70-meter long, black-scale covered terrorist monster, with its claws like a mine excavator, grabbed one of the torpedoes from the American submarine that was slowly floating to the surface, and then through the noise distraction in the surroundings, it broke out a speed three times faster than the torpedo and dashed to the tail of ”the Busan” submarine.

Chen Fan’s purpose was simple. It was to do a little damage, to prevent their exercise from going on.

How to fathom the speed of 150 knots at 77 meters per second?

It was the equivalent of a 250-kilometer sports car that slammed into a van.

Rumble...

There was a tremendous roar.

The 1,800,000-ton ”Busan” submarine’s tail propeller was suddenly torn apart by two tons of torpedoes and the torpedo warhead with the airbag that had exploded.

”Ah, what’s the matter?”

Kim Sung-Hwan was almost knocked to the ground. Grabbing the seat next to him and trying to balance, he screamed, ”Are the Americans crazy? How can an exercise torpedo hit a submarine?”

”Sir, our thrusters were torpedoed, and now we’ve lost most of our power and have water coming in from the bearings.” The operator in the wheel room shouted at the top of his voice in the microphone.

”Come up quickly! I’ll f*ck the Americans!” Kim Sung-Hwan sat down on the floor, his voice was sad as if he had been neutered.

............

”Report Captain. There was a tremendous crash of metal sound caught by the sonar.”

”What?” Bender grabbed the microphone. ”Did you figure out the place where it occurred?”

”Calculating.” The sonar officer was a bit hesitant. ”A... As if... it was from the South Korean submarine.”

”What happened? Isn’t it a 100 percent guarantee that the torpedo won’t make any mistakes?” Bender sat pale in his chair.

The submarine was more powerful than a ship on the surface of the sea, and it was not very easy to break under the inertial pressure of the sea when something hits the surface of the submarine. And judging from the sonar report, they not only inverted the torpedo engine, but expanded the warhead airbag. If either of them had not happened, the torpedo would still not be dangerous.

Ten minutes later...

More than two dozen ships were sent to the area of the incident when the Los Angeles-lass nuclear submarine had sent out signal.

The reporters were always quick to receive news. The whole warship formation was in chaos. Those journalists who had been invited to come to interview, had come alive, immediately taking pictures of the sea from across the border.

”Excuse me, Colonel Raster, was there an accident. Why did the fleet suddenly go in one direction?” CNN’s female reporter asked, holding a big microphone.

”No comment for the moment! We’re going to hold a press conference,” he said. ”We’ll have a press conference.”

”It looks like there was some sudden accident during exercises just now. The puzzle will have to wait for us to get to the scene to unlock it. Now we’ll connect to our reporter on the ground and ask him to analyze the situation for us.”

The electric eel was to be blamed for the incident, of course. It had to escape with the ”crime tool.”

After escaping 300-400 miles, the electric eel slowly lowered its speed and buried the head of the torpedo in the mud, putting an end to the possibility of it to being discovered.

The next day, all the major newspapers and news headlines revealed that during the first day of the South Korea and American joint military exercises, due to serious technical reasons, a torpedo had struck the South Korea Busan submarine, causing propeller damage and water to enter the vessel.

There was a set of clear photos of the ”Busan” submarine’s damage, which went viral on the internet. There were numerous claps for this incident, and almost every military website had been filled with comments for the post.

”According to our latest news, the two sides have decided to suspend the exercise for a while, wait for the reasons to be investigated and then continue... ”

Chen Fan was lying on the sofa, leisurely watching the news broadcast content. Sigh. ”Electric eel is definitely a little crazy!”

The trip to the Virgin Islands had ended, and $480 million was in the Swiss international bank, leaving only $12 million hidden at home.

The Internet bank account keys for the 20 Virgin Islands bank accounts and various supporting documents were in his hands. What Chen Fan expected most was that there were 11 Swiss bank checkbooks.

Plugging the electronic key into the the USB slot on the computer, Chen Fan logged onto the website of the Swiss international bank, chose the Chinese interface, and respectively, transferred the ten $24-million-account to $240 million Chen Xiaohu, Chen Fan’s virtual identities’ main account.

When it was finished, Chen Fan smiled while holding the remaining 10 checkbooks.

Do you know what a blank check is?

This black cover, with three bank-keys marked on Swiss bank’s checkbook, is a total blank check.

But as for the checkbook, which was bound with $480 million, he should be as prudent as possible.

Having a big bank account, of course, he had to launder the money and bring it back into his hometown. But now Chen Fan was not in a hurry to buy his own company. It was only a useless small company with three cargo ships. At the most it would only cost 100 million RMB. Even if he sells it for 3 million, it would be only a drop in the bucket for the $480 million.

Chen Fan decided to develop the real identity and virtual identity together. One in the light, one in the dark. One in his hometown, one floundering abroad.

Virtual identity was like the electric eel, opening a road for the real identity. If in case there is anything inconvenient for the real identity to do, he’ll let the virtual identity to do it, whether to take money from or make a hostile bid for another party, or to intimidate.

Like the last encounter with the Somali pirates. If he had registered the offshore company earlier, then he could have pretended to be an agent for Chen Xiaohu and could have made the Cruiser international business company out to be a super-large organization. And then to intimidate the other party, tell them if they touch Chen Xiaohu’s men, they’ll face the consequences.

”Oh, cool!” Lying on the bed, Chen Fan with his hands on his head, kept imagining.

At that moment, the telephone ringing interrupted Chen Fan’s fantasy.

”Hello?” Chen Fan touched the phone and did not look at the contact number before answering.

”It’s your Uncle Ma. Xiao Chen, you haven’t got up yet?” On the other end of the telephone came the voice of Ma Rongtao.

Chen Fan sat up in bed, pinched his nose and said. ”I’m up. What’s the matter Uncle Ma?”

”That...” Ma Rongtao’s voice sounded tired and hesitated for a few seconds. ”Do you still have the phone number of the pirate you contacted?”

”I didn’t delete it. What happened to you Uncle Ma? Why are you asking me this question?” Chen Fan was a little suspicious. Why he was asking about the pirate?

”Well, that’s good... that’s good ...” Ma Rongtao was obviously relieved and said, ”Can you come to my office right now? I have something to tell you.”

”Well, I’ll be there in 40 minutes,” said Chen Fan, rising from his bed.

.........

Thirty-two minutes later, Chen Fan parked his car in the parking lot and headed for Ma Rongtao’s office building.

Only two people were in the office, Ma Rongtao and his niece, Wu Ruoyu. Both had faces shaded with melancholy. Even when Chen Fan came through the office door, Wu Ruoyu just glanced up, not even in the mood to give Chen Fan a sour face.

”Chen, you have arrived.” Ma Rongtao tried to give out a smile. ”Shasha, quickly go and make a cup of tea.”

”Okay,” Wu Ruoyu replied weakly.

”What the matter Uncle Ma?” Chen Fan sat on the sofa. The expressions on their faces told him that they might have encounter something bad. Most probably it had something to do with the Somali pirates. Otherwise, Ma Rongtao would not ask him about the pirates.

Ma Rongtao’s appearance as a successful businessman had faded and had already descended into the grievance of a little old man. He sighed. ”At 2 o’clock last night, my five-ton container ship, on the way through the Gulf of Aden to Turkey, was hijacked by the Somali pirates. Now they want a ransom of 50 million from me.”

Even though he had guessed it, Chen Fan was still surprised. Were the pirates crazy? More than 300 million RMB of ransom.

”Uncle Ma’s boat… Didn’t it go with a convoy?”

Chen Fan took over the teacup handed over by Wu Ruoyu, frowning and sipped his tea.

”The ship needed repairs.” Ma Rongtao was like a wife filled with resentment at that moment. ”When the convoy went to the coast of Oman, one of the ships had some mechanical problems, and then the other cargo ship pulled it to Oman where it took three days to fix. The convoy was not specially designed to protect me, and they asked my ship to stay there for 10 days and wait for the convoy to return with another cargo ship and join the team. But I couldn’t wait. This batch of goods was the bulk order I received from this side. There were more than 50 people involved. If we took a detour to the Atlantic Ocean south of the African continent, the freight rate would be doubled, and it would have taken nearly a month. So I had to make a bet with these two ships, but who knew.”

Wu Ruoyu sighed and then clenched her small mouth. She sat on the sofa, wanting to know the development of this matter.

”Fifty million dollars,” Ma Rongtao kept sighing. ”My two ships, including the goods, are around 7.8 billion with a crew of ninety-six people. The group of pirates are giving me a week to pay the 50 million dollars. I need to accept the fate. Fifty million dollars I can’t keep quiet about. I dare not go to the bank to take out that much money, and I could not raise so much money from the black market. The pirates were Somali sailors, so I wanted you to call the man who asked you for a ransom, and say we were relatives or something. And ask them if they could delay a few more days since we have been robbed twice.”

In fact, the main reason that Ma Rongtao was looking for Chen Fan, was that he wanted to borrow some money from Chen Fan. Just 10 days ago, Chen Fan had said that he had done big business and had earned a lot of money. But Ma Rongtao was embarrassed to ask directly and tried to use another method. It would be the same if Chen Fan was willing to automatically lend him some money or help him to delay the ransom payment for a few days.