Chapter 32: The bustling Eastern Ocean (continued)
Currently, with the Japanese Empire crumbling in the nuclear explosion of Tokyo, World War II is effectively over.
——The three major axis powers no longer exist, and all the losers are re-aligning themselves. The pattern of confrontation between the red and white camps has begun to take shape.
If it continues like this, it will be nothing more than another version of the long-term cold war between the two camps that changes the situation without changing the medicine. But now, in order to collect the reward points needed by the ship girl Sophie, we have to further subvert history, so we must continue to fight for the death, and start three wars directly after the second world war.
So Sophie, the shipgirl, began to deceive Comrade Stalin: Due to insufficient innate conditions, there was no way for the Soviet Union to engage in peaceful competition with the United States, and the long-term Cold War would undoubtedly fail. The only way to win is to turn the Cold War into a hot war, take advantage of the Soviet Union's temporary absolute numerical advantage in nuclear arsenal, wait until World War II is over, and directly open the World War III dungeon, launch a vigorous world revolution, and completely destroy the capitalist base of the United States.
Besides, the current three wars have actually started in Europe. If we want to relax, we have to give up Western Europe - but how is this possible?
——Seriously, for the Cold War, an all-round soft competition involving global politics, diplomacy, propaganda, economy and welfare, even if the figures from the Kremlin or Zhongnanhai in the 21st century were to sit in the position of Comrade Stalin, It is estimated that it may not be able to operate better. Rather than being so cowardly and ineffective, and having to worry about enemy infiltration all day long, it would be better to simply and brutally kill and dismember the United States, and if not turn it into a radioactive wasteland, at least make it look like postwar Germany. With that look of being unable to take care of himself, all problems can probably be solved.
As the saying goes, "cannonballs are truth and caliber is justice." As long as all the enemies are eliminated, the problem will also be eliminated!
But there is a problem. In the Western battlefield, with the Soviet Red Army's violent crushing and atomic bomb deterrence, at least until the war is over or obvious defeat is revealed, the socialist countries in Europe should be able to work together for the time being. However, in the Eastern battlefield, how to make the Chinese, Koreans and Japanese, who hate each other so deeply, immediately squeeze into the same trench without even a buffer time, is a huge problem.
Although with the gradual establishment of the Soviet regime in Japan, it has been legally separated from the old Japanese Empire that launched World War II, but after all, the time was too short, there were still so many people, and it was impossible to change their minds for a while. Not to mention that the arrogant Japanese soldiers still look down on the "inferior Chinese nation". It is also impossible for the Chinese to forget the various blood feuds in the past. This can not only be resolved by doing some ideological work.
Of course, considering the division of labor and cooperation, there should be very few situations where the Japanese Red Army and the Chinese Red Army fight side by side in a war. But even so, in terms of economic production and resource development, I am afraid there is still no way around this hurdle. At the very least, since the human resources of the Japanese nation are now close to being exhausted, after the outbreak of World War III, the Chinese and Koreans will at least have to mobilize hundreds of thousands or millions just like they did when they participated in the Allied camp and organized Chinese workers to go to the French front during World War I. Go to various resource-producing areas to mine, build factories, farm, and herd cattle with your strong labor force!
Of course, they will not be allowed to work in vain by then. Anyway, there are so many lands and islands in Oceania, and they can be allocated just by dragging them around.
The problem is that the distribution of interests among the top leaders of various countries can certainly be solved by dividing the American and British heritage by drawing a big pie, but how to eliminate the national sentiments at the bottom? In European countries that have fought in countless battles over hundreds of years, the armies and people of the continental powers are accustomed to forming alliances one year and falling out next year. The allies in one war are the enemies in the next. However, the diplomatic and strategic environment in the East is relatively simple, and the minds of the people of various countries are not so flexible. The empty slogan "Proletarians of the world unite" alone is not enough. Therefore, after discussions between Ship Girl Sophie and Comrade Stalin, they found that the best way to unite the East Asian nations to join the Third World War was to...find them a new enemy!
——Probably the same reason as in later generations of online spats, "China-South Korea friendship relies on Japan, and Sino-Japanese friendship relies on sticks"...
And the candidate for this enemy is naturally none other than the "white beasts of the United States and Britain"... Unfortunately, although the United States has made it clear that it is supporting the Chinese reactionaries, the "Chiang Kai-shek" National Government continues to give this man who recently lost his capital. The bald chairman gave blood transfusions to cheer him up, but at least for the time being he has not directly sent troops to intervene in the Chinese civil war. The British Eastern Fleet has also stopped in Singapore, and even Hong Kong does not dare to accept it: this hatred value is obviously not enough!
As a result, the matter of establishing the "Eastern Socialist Camp" has fallen into an awkward deadlock: although the upper levels of the parties have actually reached an agreement and initially reached an intention, without a suitable opportunity, no matter how eager they are to achieve it, Even if the enemy becomes a friend, there is no way to start.
——In terms of manipulating public opinion and brainwashing the people, the Chinese Red Army, as a newcomer, is still slightly behind the big conglomerates in the West.
In this case, the 50,000 American and British prisoners of war in Sanya Port on Hainan Island became an excellent bait for fishing out of the hole: they were large in number, close to the coast, weak in defense (after the Japanese navy withdrew), and easy to transport... This Wasn't it clear that the British Eastern Fleet would come to attack and rescue people?
Therefore, at the request of shipgirl Sophie, the Japanese Marine Corps in Sanya Port first patiently left 50,000 white livestock prisoners of war without killing them. Then, in order to prevent the Allied forces from not doing enough espionage work, during the retreat, The Japanese also deliberately arranged for those puppet government officials and landlords who were afraid of the Red Army's retaliation to flee to Macau and Hong Kong by boat in order to spread the news that "the Japanese army voluntarily abandoned Sanya and left behind 50,000 American and British prisoners of war"—— In fact, the news has now appeared in Hong Kong newspapers. At the same time, they also deliberately allowed the main force of the combined fleet to anchor in the offshore waters of Sanya for a long time so that some interested people could grasp this trend. After the combined fleet weighs anchor and leaves, if the Allied fleet takes the opportunity to sneak attack on Hainan Island as expected, breaks through the weak coastal defenses of the Qiongya column, and rescues American and British prisoners of war, then the Guangdong authorities of the Nationalist Government next door, who have just finished changing their skin, will probably still They raised their hands and feet to welcome the foreign adults of the United States and Britain to temporarily resettle prisoners of war in Hong Kong and take over the Hong Kong leased land, so as to give themselves an extra escape route.
In this way, under the most ideal situation, using the 50,000 American and British prisoners of war in the Sanya Gangtian Du Iron Mine Prisoner of War Camp, we can successfully kill three birds with one stone:
First, to lure the British Royal Navy’s Eastern Fleet, which is stranded in Singapore, Yangon, and even in West Asia and East Africa, out of its hole, lengthen the supply line of the British, and drag the British into the quagmire of the Chinese battlefield; second, to release the joint fleet that is operating near Hainan Island The news lured the Halsey fleet operating in the Yellow Sea area to go south to search for the enemy, looking for opportunities for a decisive battle, so as to keep them away The Japanese archipelago allows the main force of the combined fleet and the transport fleet traveling thousands of miles north to pass through the Tsushima Strait and break into the Sea of Japan without going through a bloody battle; thirdly, with the resurgence of the American and British colonial forces and the first opening of fire, they can cause This will dispel some people’s illusions about American and British imperialism within the Chinese Red Army and clear the way for the next joint war against the United States and Britain.
In comparison, allowing the British to rescue 50,000 prisoners of war and slightly supplement their military manpower in the Far East is a very cheap and necessary price.
Major General Kamizhongtoku has always had a lot of doubts about this overly complicated plan. According to his experience all over the world, the more precise and detailed a battle plan is, the more uncontrollable factors there are, and the easier it is for errors to occur during execution.
One of the most critical questions is: What if the British fleet does not come to carry out a sneak attack to rescue people, but instead engages in peaceful negotiations?
——Although the so-called Allies now exist in name only, the Soviet atomic bombs have been dropped on the British fleet. But after all, the name Allied Forces still exists. If the British show a certain degree of sincerity and are willing to provide some funds and materials to the Qiongya Column for transactions, then in view of the severe practical difficulties and the fear that the legacy industrial equipment of the Japanese army in Sanya will be destroyed by the war, the Qiongya Column may not be willing to do so with the United States and Britain. The fleets clashed.
"...There is no need to worry about this issue at all. If Attlee's conservative Labor cabinet is still in power in London, then it is possible. But the reality is that Attlee's cabinet has fallen, and the bellicose Churchill has re-entered the government. The Prime Minister's official residence at No. 10 Downing Street in order to cater to the incited public opinion. , to show its tough main war stance, Churchill's cabinet must not make any compromises with the socialist camp at least in the short term. This is true whether on the eastern battlefield or the western battlefield. As long as Churchill dares to be soft, he will immediately become a stranger inside and outside. , was kicked out again
On the contrary, a glorious victory in defeating the Bolsheviks in the East and rescuing domestic prisoners of war, after being packaged and exaggerated by the news media, can give the war-weary and exhausted British people a shot in the arm, greatly consolidate the status of Churchill's cabinet and improve His reputation. ”
Shipgirl Sophie said confidently while drinking coconut wine, "...the Communist International will also mobilize its forces in the UK to try to create a certain amount of momentum and pressure, forcing Churchill to unite American allies in the East to take some actions. ——In fact, Churchill, the fat man, would probably rather do this. In this world war, he would never let go of any opportunity to drag the Americans into the water!”
"...Well, if we can really pull the Chinese Bolsheviks onto the chariot, and further plunge the American and British forces into the Chinese battlefield, turning them into public enemies in East Asia, so as to reduce the pressure on our country's battlefield, then spare these 50,000 American and British whites The life of an animal is still worth it.”
Chief of Staff Shen Zhongde nodded, but turned around and looked at the Sanya Military Port where the red flag of sickle and hammer was flying, as well as the coastline with whirling coconut trees behind the military port, and couldn't help but sigh deeply again, "...But even if If this round of great retreat can be successfully completed, Japan's national rule can be continued. The empire's "Continental Policy" is destined to go bankrupt, and the Japanese nation's imperial dream is also destined to be disillusioned!"
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For Easterners, the concept of empire is actually an imported product. Before Westerners brought this concept, there was no "empire" in the modern sense in East Asia - there were only two concepts of country and "tianxia" in Chinese civilization, and the emperor was The emperor, in theory, rules every place in the world, but some places rule more directly, some places more indirectly, and further away there is only an empty name.
The so-called Chinese Empire is also a term invented by Western travelers. After entering the Age of Discovery, they used their own ideas to define Eastern countries: Turkey ruled by the Ottoman family was an empire, and India ruled by the Mughal Dynasty was also an empire. , China is a well-deserved thousand-year empire. As for Japan, although there is an emperor, it is really not up to the level of an empire. If it lasts to death, it can be regarded as a kingdom. It was not until the miraculous defeat of the Russian Empire in the Russo-Japanese War that the status of the Japanese Empire was recognized and it was truly regarded as an empire by Westerners.
So, what kind of country does it have to be to be considered an empire?
——Empire (empery), its etymology can be traced back to the word "domination and control" in ancient Roman times, specifically referring to the rule of one ethnic group over another ethnic group. In modern Europe, that is when the concept of "empire" came into being During the period, Westerners once gave the most concise and powerful definition of the term empire: "A country that can rule other countries is called an empire"!
Therefore, the empire represents strength and power, arrogance and glory, greatness and conquest, as well as war and oppression...
Countless people hate and curse imperialism, but they are so eager to be crowned with the title of empire. Even in modern society far away from the flames of war, entrepreneurs from all walks of life are determined to run their companies into "empires of such and such industries", which shows how fascinating this term is.
However, among the series of human empires from ancient times to the present, the Japanese Empire can definitely be said to have "a heart as high as the sky and a life as thin as paper."
As an island country located on the edge of the mainland, before England evolved into the British Empire, it had accomplished the illustrious military feat of annexing half of France for a long time during the Hundred Years' War, and the glorious feat of King Richard the Lionheart's expedition to the Holy Land Jerusalem, countless times before and after. Set foot on the European continent.
What about Japan? Except for Toyotomi Hideyoshi's short-lived Korean conquest, the Yamato nation basically never gained a firm foothold on the mainland and could only shrink to the islands and become otakus. Moreover, although the area of the Japanese archipelago is slightly larger than that of the British Isles, its environment is much worse. Volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and typhoons occur in turns, and natural disasters occur frequently throughout the entire territory. Japan is the only developed country on the planet. It is hard to find one. Out the second one.
——Of course there are unlucky countries all over the world that suffer more severe natural disasters than Japan, but there are absolutely no countries as ambitious as Japan.
Because the conditions on their own island are so miserable, God knows what day they will be shaken to the bottom of the sea. Therefore, for thousands of years, the Japanese have not given up their attempts to land on the mainland. However, right at the door is the rebellious and highly cohesive Korean nation. Because The two are similar in size, and the Japanese cannot even kick this stumbling block away. After finally waiting for Toyotomi Hideyoshi's era, he assembled the veteran warriors accumulated over the past century in Japan's Warring States Period, and finally defeated the Korean Lee Dynasty in one fell swoop, and even attacked Seoul and Pyongyang. It seemed that victory was in sight. Unexpectedly, the Koreans immediately called for Chinese foreign aid and again pressed the Japanese on the head and beat them back.
Compared with the strategic environment of medieval Britain, it was simply hellish for the Japanese to expand into the Asian continent. Unless North Korea and China can be defeated at the same time in one battle, they will not be able to gain a foothold. It is no wonder that they can only go back to the island and continue to be an otaku in seclusion.
When the Tokugawa shogunate, which was closed to the country, was overthrown and the reform government determined to be pioneering and enterprising came to power, the crisis of becoming a colony was temporarily lifted. Next, I wanted to learn from the good example of the British Empire. Since the East Asian monster house around me is too difficult to defeat, I can’t chew it. , turned around and jumped out to develop overseas colonies.
Who would have thought that when all the Meiji heroes picked up the globe and looked at it, what the hell! Is there any place left for the Japanese to colonize today? The Americas are restricted to the Americans, and Africa has been completely divided. Even Germany only got a few of the poorest bits of land. Southeast Asia has long been a colony of Britain, France, the Netherlands and Spain, and Northeast Asia is the territory of the Russian woolly bear. Australia and New Zealand were dominated by the British, and even the coral islands in the South Pacific had their flags planted. With Japan's small size at the time, no one could beat them. Where else to colonize next? Do you want to go to Antarctica to dig ice?
The Japanese finally took advantage of the opportunity and found a small and weak Hawaiian kingdom that they could attack, but they still couldn't capture the Americans. Later, they gritted their teeth and accumulated some warships to capture the Philippines from Spain, but they were still one step too late for the Americans. So far, The road to overseas colonization was completely blocked.
So the Japanese had no choice but to go back to the old path, grit their teeth and venture into the Korean peninsula, gambling on the national destiny and conquering the world again and again. The only period of opportunity in Japan's history for large-scale expansion has finally arrived: North Korea is poor and rich. Weak, the Qing Dynasty only had On the other hand, the Russian bear is also a powerful external force... After the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, with mountains of corpses and seas of blood, draining the people of their lives, a spectacular Japanese empire finally succeeded in establishing its identity: annexing North Korea, occupying Taiwan, and taking the north. Sakhalin Island, occupying Liaodong to the west. Then use this as a foundation to attempt to replace China and seize the throne of East Asia's hegemony.
But even if they rely on the virtues of their ancestors and receive decades of blessings from heaven and earth, the East Asian monster house that the Japanese face is still a monster house. Not to mention going further, it is very difficult to maintain the current territory, and the surrounding environment is extremely isolated. They are enemies from inside to outside. Koreans and Taiwanese have never been able to integrate into their own ethnic groups, and it is difficult to treat the Indians as Americans do. Killing them all, the class conflict in Japan is on the verge of breaking out.
Lenin once said that Tsarist Russia was a huge prison that enslaved people of all ethnic groups across Eurasia. In the same way, the Japanese Empire was also a huge concentration camp entrenched on the edge of the East Asian continent, enslaving people of all ethnic groups... The empire's development reached a bottleneck period, and the greedy plutocrats were unwilling to spit out half a mouthful of food to appease the people who were crying for food. In the end, they could only resort to militarism. Launching overseas wars to divert conflicts. As a result, the more enemies we fight, the more enemies we fight. The more we fight, the more our national strength is overdrawn. Once the chariot starts, it cannot stop. Anyone who wants to apply the brakes will be killed by our own people. No matter how many victories we win, it is meaningless.
Now that the Japanese Empire has collapsed, looking back, we can see that the entire Japanese nation has been tirelessly invading East Asia for decades and trying to land on the mainland, but it ended in nothing. Even in the best case scenario, it would only be possible to regain the homeland, so stop dreaming about territory on the East Asian continent.
Although Major General Kami Shigetoku is from the Navy and the "Southern Movement" and is not the same as those army horses who are bent on going north, but seeing the continental territory built up through decades of bloody battles being lost in one fell swoop, the three largest cities in the mainland have Even though they lost all their enemies, they still couldn't help but feel infinite melancholy and sadness in their hearts.
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"...What can we do? People always have bad luck, and so does the country. Chief of Staff, don't be too greedy. Don't forget that compared to when the war began, the territory controlled by the Japanese nation is still different today. It’s bigger instead of smaller. Still not satisfied with this?”
Shipgirl Sophie said while drinking coconut wine, "...if Japan wants to reborn and get rid of its historical burdens, withdrawing from the East Asian continent is the minimum prerequisite. Besides, that area is not very rich and has too many people. What's the point of having four to five billion Chinese people fighting in such a small area? Moreover, a country's strategic expansion cannot take into account both sea and land. As an island country, Japan's development along the island chain towards the Pacific is the right way. Even if the Japanese nation must want to escape from the island and land on the mainland...don't you already have one? Almost a complete continent? ”
"...You mean...Australia?" Shen Zhongde rubbed his chin and muttered, "...Compared to Manchuria, it always feels a bit tasteless."
"...Yes, although it is the smallest island continent on earth, and although it is covered with grasslands and deserts, it is still a continent after all!"
Shipgirl Sophie shrugged her shoulders, "...More than 20 divisions of the Imperial Army have been fighting in Australia for so long, and the three-guang policy has been publicly implemented for two and a half years. How many white people are left in that place now? The army alone The recent series of massacres in Australia in retaliation for the US military's nuclear bombing of Tokyo and landing in Japan seemed to have killed 1.5 million white people! Wouldn't that just make room for East Asian immigrants to build new homes? "< br>
——As we all know, Australia was the first place where British prisoners were exiled. Captain Cook first discovered this place in 1770. During the Qianlong period of China, it was developed even later and at a slower pace. It wasn't until the United States was born that Australia's colonization had just begun.
Therefore, during World War II, the population of Australia as a whole had just reached 7 million, and New Zealand had a population of 2 million. Even if they were added together, it was less than one-third of the population of the three northeastern provinces of China, including those in The local indigenous people hated the white colonists.
And these Australian white people are naturally brave, fierce, unruly, and believe in white supremacy. They would rather die than submit to the rule of the yellow-skinned dwarfs of Japan. They are definitely not those Chinese kings who look at the changing flags on the city wall and want to live as long as they can. It can be compared to the numb and obedient people who are willing to continue to pay taxes and perform labor according to regulations. Encountering the Imperial Japanese Army with the same human face and animal heart, it was really a thunderous collision, and the fight was really fierce. During the entire war to conquer Australia, the Japanese army slaughtered almost every city and exposed them everywhere. The remaining white Australians were put into comfort stations, while the men were packed into concentration camps. They were then pulled from the mainland and occupied areas in East Asia. The young men will come over to fill the labor gap and restore the production of Australia's agriculture, animal husbandry and various factories and mines.
However, although the Soviet Union has provided the Japanese with tens of millions of tons of merchant ships, and the shipping capacity is still sufficient, the human resources of the Japanese archipelago itself are also limited, and Japanese immigrants also prefer places with better natural conditions and more generous treatment. On the coral islands in the Pacific, only low-class people from places like China, Korea, and Vietnam had no choice but to come to Australia to eat sand and watch kangaroos under the bayonets of the Imperial Japanese Army.
On the eve of the Tokyo nuclear explosion in October 1945, Australia's population distribution was roughly like this: First, after counting the American soldiers who "helped defend", there were about 350 white people left in Australia. Ten thousand, which is half of what it was before the war. One million white people were trapped in Melbourne and Tasmania, and two million were imprisoned in various labor camps under the control of the Japanese army, working day and night until they died of overwork. Finally, there are a small number of "submissive people" living in some isolated and remote areas in the Japanese-occupied areas, or wandering in inaccessible deserts fighting guerrillas.
Then, the number of workers and immigrants from Asian countries who landed in Australia with the invading Japanese army reached as many as five million. Among them, there were less than half a million Japanese, and the rest were mainly Taiwanese who were forcibly recruited or lured. , Koreans, Thais, Chinese and Vietnamese.
Usually it was the Japanese army who slaughtered all the white Australian villages and towns and looted all their belongings. These laborers and immigrants followed behind, carrying their bags and moving into houses with still blood stains, and continued to cultivate the fields left by the white people to produce food, fruits and vegetables for the imperial army. , or go to work in various factories and mines.
Finally, there are the aborigines of Australia. Before the arrival of white immigrants, there were about 800,000 people. By the eve of World War II, only 60,000 or 70,000 people were left. When the war broke out on the Australian continent, new massacres began again. The number of surviving aborigines A further plunge will be basically negligible.
Next, in the retaliatory massacre and poison gas war carried out by the Japanese army shortly before the invasion of Australia, the number of white Australians evaporated by another 1.5 million in an instant. From then on, they completely became a minority in Australia, leaving Australia as an isolated island. The mainland has changed its race again in a hundred years.
——Although the method is indeed bloody and brutal, since in the last century, the British slaughtered the Australian indigenous people so ruthlessly to expand the living space of the white race. So now that I am being massacred by the Japanese and expanding the living space of the yellow race, there seems to be nothing to complain about.
What's more, in the future world revolution, the Anglo-Saxon nation will still be the number one public enemy of the entire socialist camp.
At least, in the eyes of Miss Sophie, a shipgirl who extremely hates the Anglo-Saxons, these descendants of John Bull are definitely not worthy of death.
In addition, more than 100,000 of the two million white people in New Zealand died in the fierce tug-of-war between Japan and the United States, which was also severely damaged. The Anzacs who followed MacArthur to land in Japan are mainly composed of New Zealanders who have a bloody hatred against the Japanese army, as well as some white Australian refugees who were driven out of their homes and fled to New Zealand. Basically, everyone is burdened with the hatred of the country and the family. The attitude towards the Japanese is naturally one can imagine.
"...That's right. Since the dream of dominating East Asia is no longer necessary, at least Oceania, which has been obtained, must not be thrown away again."
Chief of Staff Kami Shigetoku nodded. As a rear admiral, he naturally hopes that the Japanese nation will continue to develop towards the ocean in the future, "...but we cannot just watch the local elders being slaughtered, otherwise even if we have land, But without the population, it’s still nothing.”
——Before the war, if we only counted the mainland of the Japanese archipelago, the Japanese nation had a population of approximately 70 million. Counting Taiwanese and Koreans, we could barely make up 100 million. Next, as the war progressed, three million Japanese died overseas. Then there was the sarin gas war in Tokyo and the double blast of two atomic bombs, which sent millions of Japanese souls to heaven in one breath. By the time the U.S. military landed on the Japanese archipelago, they burned Kyoto, massacred Osaka, dropped incendiary bombs and poison gas bombs everywhere, and killed like crazy every day. In addition to the previous nuclear explosion in Tokyo, seven million Japanese had died in the war in Japan.
At this point, the Japanese nation has lost 10 million people in the war, and it is not known how many people will die next.
"...That's why the Combined Fleet is now heading north in a big way to give the local Japanese a way out, isn't it?"
Shipgirl Sophie burped, raised her glass, and then suddenly closed her eyes and remained silent for a long time. Major General Shen Zhongtoku also suddenly became serious: he knew that the lady in front of him was receiving and translating a certain radio wave floating in the sky.
After a moment, the ship's wife Sophie opened her eyes with a wry smile, "...Chief of Staff Shen Zhongde, it seems that we can no longer wait for the movement of Halsey's fleet on Hainan Island. The combined fleet must weigh anchor as soon as possible! ”
"...Why?" Shen Zhongde frowned, "...In this case, wouldn't the original plan of luring the enemy be in vain?"
"...Because, the transport convoy led by General Horikichi suddenly changed its plan and went to Okinawa! We can't let the million-ton merchant ship be like a target to be hit by the US military there!" Miss Kanji sighed, "...Then But more than half of our maritime transport capacity..." "...and the world's largest super transport ship... Understand, this is indeed a loss that we absolutely cannot afford at the moment."