KanColle does not allow me to work from nine to five

As for Iris Jean Bart, in such a dangerous situation, one can only hope that she can hold on until Richelieu's support comes, or that the ship girls of other forces can rush to support her after they have dealt with the critical situation.

The only outsider, Liu Cheng, was standing alone in the corner of the command room.

, a little dazed.

Ever since Liu Cheng was dragged into this exercise by Tirpitz, his intuition told him that this joint exercise was by no means as simple as it seemed, so he was always on the lookout, collecting some information revealed intentionally or unintentionally by the ship girls. A sense of disharmony always lingered in him, and this sense of disharmony reached its peak with the delay of the Iris fleet. As the initiator of this joint military exercise, Iron Blood had the ambition to show its power and gain joint command. Although it was rude to Sardinia, it was so tolerant of Iris's lateness, as if it had known that Iris would be late.

But this was only Liu Cheng's guess after all. Littorio was also happy to see Iris's move to delay time. Moreover, Veneto had sent the Sardinian battleship Marco Polo to Iris in advance. Under the united front, he would definitely get Iris' unanimous support. Liu Cheng's guess seemed a bit groundless.

At this moment, the news of the Siren's invasion came out, and many words instantly emerged in Liu Cheng's mind, connected together by this important clue -

"Maybe it won't take half a year. In a few months you'll become an iron-blooded soldier..."

"Tirpitz is really crazy. He actually wants us to trust an eyesore like you."

"Because this matter involves not only me, but also Iron Blood and many other ship girls."

"Since Iron Blood has become a protectorate of the Kingdom of Spain, we have to cooperate and move into the Strait of Gibraltar. We were short of manpower to begin with, and now we have to take on this kind of dirty work. Otherwise, we wouldn't have asked for joint command."

"To unite as one, one must either have common interests, or have a lofty goal, or be brought together by force. However, interests will change over time, and goals will fade due to difficulties. Force will not last forever, but will instead exacerbate internal rifts..."

……

The last thing that lingered in Liu Cheng's mind was a sentence from Bismarck. It was not Bismarck, the iron-blooded flagship of Tirpitz's sister, but Bismarck, the iron-blooded chancellor in history.

“The great problems of the day will not be solved by speeches and majority decisions, but by iron and blood.”

Later, Bismarck used his outstanding diplomatic skills to maneuver across Europe, and with the help of the unstoppable Prussian army, he finally defeated France, the traditional most powerful country in Europe, and shaped Prussia's national identity in one fell swoop. Not only did he achieve unification, but he also made Prussia take over the position of the most powerful country on the European continent.

This moment seems just like that moment.

Liu Cheng was frightened by his own crazy idea, and his right hand began to tremble uncontrollably. He held his arm and forced himself to calm down. Even though Liu Cheng believed that his judgment was correct, too many joints and lives were involved. Once the judgment was wrong and it was really executed according to Liu Cheng's idea, the consequences might be disastrous. The heavy pressure almost made him breathless.

Bora noticed something was wrong with Liu Cheng. His lips turned pale and his face was covered in sweat. He looked so nervous that he was about to faint. At this moment, she ignored her resolution not to get close to Liu Cheng anymore. She walked over and held his hand, saying gently, "It's okay. It's inevitable to be nervous when facing the Siren for the first time. A true warrior will not be afraid of any challenge. I...my sister and I will protect you."

Liu Cheng held Bora's hand and took several deep breaths to stabilize his heartbeat. He stared at Bora's beautiful and gentle face and said sincerely: "Thank you, Bora, I know what to do."

"You're welcome." Bora saw Liu Cheng calm down, and thinking of his usual behavior, she couldn't help but tease him, "You're usually so good at talking, it would be embarrassing if you fail at the critical moment."

Liu Cheng let go of Bora's hand and said, "It's not shameful, it's not shameful. I'm just an ordinary person. When some responsibilities are placed on my shoulders, I will definitely be a little nervous."

"Hehe, there's no need for you to fight the Siren."

Liu Cheng laughed at himself and said, "That's right, I don't have the ability. The less ability you have, the less responsibility you have."

But sometimes, the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility. After Pora left, Liu Cheng took another deep breath. He now finally understood why Tirpitz didn't come. She was telling him not to worry about her. In other words, she hoped he could do something like this.

The destroyer weighed anchor and began to cut through the waves on the sea. At this time, Liu Cheng found Littorio in the command room.

"Needless to say, I will not assign you combat missions. Your mission is to bear witness."

"No, I want to ask you a question." Liu Cheng's eyes were red, and he asked nervously but excitedly, "If Iron Blood became the protectorate of Sardinia, and the Sardinian government begged you to hand over the command to Iron Blood, would you do it?"

Littorio was stunned for a moment, frowned slightly and said: "What do you mean, the crisis is imminent, I don't have time to think about these other things."

"Please answer me, yes or no."

Littorio looked at Liu Cheng and restrained his emotions. He thought seriously and said, "Given Veneto's personality, he should."

"Are you willing to hand over the command to Iron Blood under such circumstances? This is very important. Please answer me."

"Of course I don't want to, but I have no choice after all."

"Then please turn around immediately and rescue Iris's fleet."

Littorio didn't understand for a moment: "What do you mean?"

"I mean……"

Liu Cheng took another deep breath and made his somewhat crazy judgment: "Siren was deliberately released by Tiexue."

Chapter 49: All the strange things and the iron-blooded conspiracy

"Do you know what you are saying?

what? "

Of course, Littorio was not the only one in the command room. After hearing Liu Cheng's words, Duke Abruzzi widened her eyes in shock. For a moment, she even forgot to maintain her noble demeanor. When she came to her senses, she said sternly, "Do you know the consequences of saying such things? Can you bear this responsibility?"

"I can't bear this responsibility, but I have to speak out my judgment." After he really said it, the heavy and nervous emotions disappeared. Liu Cheng felt that he was as calm as an ice sculpture in the Arctic. He looked at Littorio, who rarely showed shock on his face, with bright eyes, and said, "The real decision should be made by the superiors, but this is also an irresponsible act of shifting responsibility, so I am willing to bear all the consequences."

"You are crazy!"

Bora felt that Liu Cheng's nervousness must have not eased, so he had hallucinations. She grabbed Liu Cheng's arm and wanted to pull him away, but Liu Cheng was like a willow tree that had taken root in the ground, standing there motionless.

"Pora, don't worry." Zara came over and stood beside Pora, comforting her sister and also wanting to comfort Liu Cheng, "And Liu Cheng, what do you mean? How could the Iron-Blooded Ship Girls take the initiative to let the Siren in? Do you know how this is a blasphemy to themselves?"

"I know that if this is true, then it is simply trampling on my past glory. It is difficult for any proud person to do such a thing, but even the most absurd things have their reasonable motives." Liu Cheng looked at Littorio more firmly and said, "I think this is the most reasonable explanation for all the unreasonable things during this period."

"That's just your guess. The honor of the nobility must not be violated." The Duke of Abruzzi values ​​dignity and honor the most. He said to Liu Cheng angrily and coldly, "You are just a human being. Don't think you can dictate things just because you can communicate with us. I thought you were an excellent soldier, but you turned out to be a mean person with dirty thoughts..."

"Duke Abruzzi! You're going too far." Zara refuted on behalf of Liu Cheng.

"How is that too much? Zara, you've fallen in love with a human. Have you lost the honor of being a ship girl?" When it came to the bottom line of the Duke of Abruzzi, she was already a little angry.

"Abruzzi, how can you say that about my sister?" Pola also stood with Zara. No matter what, it was not okay to say that about her sister.

"Well." Bolzano raised his hand weakly and said, "Why don't we listen to Mr. Liu Cheng's explanation before making a decision? It will take time to reach the battlefield anyway."

But Bolzano's voice was too soft and did not attract anyone's attention. Liu Cheng smiled at her, and after seeing the latter shyly turning her face away, he still did not speak, but just looked at Littorio quietly. Only she was the decision maker and should have such foresight.

"twenty minutes."

Littorio's voice was not loud, but his words suppressed all the arguments in the command room. "In twenty minutes, the ship will pass the fork of two routes. Whether to rescue Iris or return to Sicily depends on whether you can convince me within these twenty minutes."

"Thank you."

Liu Cheng didn't waste any time, and immediately stretched out three fingers, saying, "First of all, there are three doubts on the premise that I made this judgment——"

"First, the disagreement between the Azur Lane girls has been going on for a long time. The Iron Bloods must have known that they could not obtain joint command, but they still chose to organize this exercise. I don't think that with the proud personalities of the Iron Blood girls that I know, they would do such a useless thing."

"Secondly, the Iris Fleet's late arrival is really strange. It seems more like a delay."

"Third, the Sirens have not been able to enter the Mediterranean region since the victorious counterattack eight years ago. Their sudden appearance now seems even more bizarre. Moreover, they are divided into three groups and suddenly launched an attack without anyone noticing. If the Sirens had such a capability, they would not have been driven into the deep sea. From another perspective, if the Sirens really had such a capability and had mastered the information of this military exercise in advance, why didn't they attack us? It is obvious that the fleets of the three forces are more valuable targets. This is not the way to attack Wei to save Zhao."

After hearing what Liu Cheng said, Duke of Abruzzi wanted to refute it, but her mind also agreed that these were indeed big doubts. She said: "Logically speaking, these are indeed very suspicious, but reality is often illogical."

Littorio also said: "The doubts you mentioned do exist objectively, but what do they have to do with Iron Blood?"

"Yes, of course, because there is a premise that I haven't mentioned yet. I know this premise, you know it, and even many ordinary people know it." Liu Cheng said bluntly, "The Principality of Iron Blood is expanding. In the past few years, Iron Blood has become a protectorate of Spain, Belgium, and the Netherlands, and has formed an alliance with Norway and Sweden. These are countries without ship girls, and the safety of the sea needs Iron Blood to provide protection. Everyone knows that Iron Blood's goal will not be limited to this, so it is natural that it will target countries with ship girls next. I think the first one to bear the brunt is Sardinia. Yes, Iron Blood will seek to become a protectorate of Sardinia."

The Duke of Abruzzi was silent. Anyone who cared about current events and politics would understand this. As for why it was Sardinia, compared to the Royal Family, Iris, and the Northern Alliance, Sardinia was indeed the easiest to deal with among the European shipgirl nations. This was a tacit fact known to everyone. There might be people who would insult France, but the reality was that in most cases Sardinia was willing to

Will surrender faster than Iris.

"So you think this is a trap set by Iron Blood?"

"That's right. If a country can influence its shipgirls, then conversely, the shipgirls can also influence the country." Liu Cheng looked at Littorio and said, "When I was chatting with you and Eugen, I said that if you want to unite others, you either have common interests, or have lofty goals, or you can use power to forcibly bring them together. Now it seems that there is another way, that is, the Iron-Blooded Shipgirls influence the Iron-Blooded Government and make other countries become vassals of the Iron-Blooded Principality, and naturally make the shipgirls of the corresponding countries become vassals of Iron-Blooded."

"Just like what Iron Blood did to other countries before, by hyping up the maritime security crisis, the people were filled with panic. In order to appease the people and maintain support, the elected government had no choice but to seek protection from the most powerful Iron Blood Principality in Europe. Now, Iron Blood is doing the same thing again, only more thoroughly and firmly."

"Just like what the former Iron Chancellor Bismarck did, before actually using iron and blood, he had already made alliances in diplomacy. This is the most classical diplomatic method and a true conspiracy."

Chapter 50 I believe in you, and it is also my big bet

"Could Iron Blood really do something so crazy?"

Duke Abruzzi was shocked again by Liu Cheng's description. Her reason told her that she had been partly convinced, but her inherent cognition and bottom line were shaking her judgment. The resolute warrior Duke Abruzzi fell into confusion.

Bola opened her lips slightly. She looked at Liu Cheng with a determined face and suddenly felt a little strange. The usually smiling Liu Cheng, the bold and unreasonable Liu Cheng, and the crazy yet calm and reliable Liu Cheng now, which one is the real Liu Cheng? Or are they all Liu Cheng?

"I think Iron Blood has already done it, and it doesn't seem crazy to me. In order to achieve their goals, they use all available means. I don't know if this is Iron Blood's style, but if you want to avoid getting involved, you must respond decisively." Liu Cheng looked at the ship girls in the command room and said, "I'm not shirking my responsibility, because I'm from Donghuang and I'm only temporarily serving in the Sardinian Navy. To put it bluntly, no matter how Europe's geopolitics develops, it has nothing to do with me, but the choice in this matter concerns the future of all of you. I will express my judgment and I will be responsible for my judgment, but I can't make decisions for you."

The command room fell into an unspeakable silence. The ship girls looked at each other, and finally focused their attention on Littorio and Liu Cheng, silently expressing their attitudes.

Littorio raised her head, her eyes regained their luster, and she said in a serious and high-spirited tone: "Tell me, my personal soldier Liu Cheng, why do you want me to rescue Iris? What is your reason?"

"That's the target, the Iron Blood's target. Now that we have determined the result they want, we can infer their plan."

Liu Cheng knew that Littorio had at least half believed it, so he said more confidently: "Iron Blood's goal is to make the Principality of Iron Blood a protectorate of Sardinia. What they have to do is to convince the people and government of Sardinia that you are not capable of protecting them at sea. In other words, Iron Blood's goal is to make you, the Sardinian shipgirls, make strategic mistakes, and then deepen this impression through diplomatic means, rather than really wanting to weaken your power. After all, in their view, your power will eventually be controlled by Iron Blood. If a large number of Sirens really attack Sicily and are surrounded and annihilated by you, it will only make you appear to be outstanding, and naturally you will not achieve their goal."

"There is another important reason. After all, Iron Blood is now the guardian of the Strait of Gibraltar. They are ultimately responsible for the appearance of Sirens in the Mediterranean. If there are only a small number of Sirens, they can use the excuse that they accidentally leaked in when switching positions with the Royal Navy. If a large number of Sirens really appear and cause serious consequences, Iron Blood will also bear the main responsibility, and naturally they cannot use this as an excuse to make a fuss."

"To sum up, I think that even if there are Sirens on their way to attack Sicily, their number is definitely small. It is even possible that this is deliberately false news."

After hearing Liu Cheng's words, Tianying was completely confused, Zara also had a hard time, and only Littorio could barely keep up with Liu Cheng's thoughts.

She held her chin lightly and thought for a few seconds, then nodded imperceptibly: "So your idea is to do the opposite and not fall into such a trap?"

"That's right." Liu Cheng further explained, "From the purpose, it can be deduced that Iron Blood wants such a result - the Sardinian fleet was completely defeated because of an inaccurate news. At the same time, the Iris fleet suffered losses from the Siren attack. Iron Blood can make a big fuss about this and hype that Sardinia's command made a mistake in decision-making and was unable to maintain the safety of the sea and friendly neighbors. Iron Blood itself can evade responsibility by using the image of a newcomer. In this case, the way to break the deadlock is to do the opposite. As long as the besieged Iris Mediterranean Fleet can be rescued in time, all problems will be solved."

"Then have you ever thought that this might just be your guess? In fact, it is the most stable strategy for us to support Sicily now. At least we won't make mistakes in the short term."

Littorio stood up and looked directly at Liu Cheng, emitting a fierce aura: "Do you have this awareness? If your judgment is wrong, if there are really a large number of Sirens, then Veneto and the others will be in a difficult battle, and the people along the coast will be in a sea of ​​fire. Can you bear this responsibility?"

"I can't afford it."

willow

Cheng's decisive words were in stark contrast to Littorio's momentum, and the nervous Pola couldn't help laughing. Noticing the gazes of others, Pola immediately cleared her throat and said with a stern face, "You're not worthy of it, and yet you still say that?"

"You can't just not say anything because you can't afford it. That would be even more of a coward." Liu Cheng said firmly, "But I have absolute confidence that my judgment will not be wrong."

Littorio walked up to Liu Cheng, looked him in the eyes without saying a word, and asked seriously: "Are you confident?"

"Have."

"why?"

“Intuition and logic.”

"Do you have any information that we don't know?"

"Yes." Liu Cheng said without hesitation, "Before this exercise, Tirpitz told me a key piece of information - the Iron Blood's target is Sardinia. This allowed me to connect all the doubts. I think this is also the reason why she asked me to participate in this exercise. Even within the Iron Blood, there is no monolithic block."

"Could it be that she is using you to mislead us? Do you trust her so much?"

"No, because such misleading is illogical and unprofitable. Besides, I believe her. Tirpitz will never use me."

"Okay, I believe you too." Littorio patted Liu Cheng on the shoulder and said proudly, "This is also my gamble."

After making a decision, he would not hesitate. Littorio immediately turned around and ordered: "Duke Abruzzi, change course and support the Iris Fleet."

"Yes."

"Pola, inform Veneto of my decision and ask her to be extra careful."

"clear."

"Zara, strengthen the investigation, contact all the reconnaissance means that can be contacted, and confirm the Siren intelligence that was obtained previously."

"clear."

"Skyhawk, release the carrier-based aircraft and conduct a reconnaissance flight at the fastest speed."

"Ok."

After giving the order smoothly, Littorio turned around and looked at Liu Cheng, saying, "I can also tell you something you don't know. You asked me and Eugen before whether similar things happened in the Atlantic battlefield besides the Pacific battlefield. Now I tell you, there were. Just half a year ago, the Iron Blood and the Royal Army confronted each other in the waters of Gibraltar. No one knows what happened, but I know that since that incident, Bismarck of the Iron Blood and Hood of the Royal Army have never appeared on the battlefield again."

"You reminded me that the Iron Blood seeking to speed up is indeed capable of doing such a thing. Thank you, Liu Cheng."

"I should be thanking you for your trust..."

Liu Cheng pursed his dry lips. He didn't know why, but even though he had achieved his goal, he didn't feel happy. At the same time, an idea kept circling in his mind -

If I could dominate the entire Azur Lane, would everything be different?

Chapter 51: The Meaning of Guarding

Bismarck stood proudly in the iron-blooded command hall with her hands behind her back. The black military cap on her head was held in the arms of Mainz on the side, revealing her gorgeous long golden hair that reached her waist. Her delicate and beautiful face was meticulously facing the screen in front of her, her waist was straight, and her legs were stretched out. Even with her perfect figure, people would subconsciously forget her gender at the first moment, and only remember her proud leadership temperament.

Because she is Bismarck, the iron-blooded flagship Bismarck.

Prince Eugen's image appeared on the big screen, reporting the current situation to Bismarck, who was sitting in the command center thousands of kilometers away.

"Currently, Operation Glorious March is going smoothly. The Sardinian Fleet is already heading for our pre-arranged decoy target. The pre-arranged false intelligence is still being shared with the Azur Lane intelligence system in an orderly manner. Except for the fact that there is no news from Jean Bart for the time being, everything else is proceeding as planned. However, with the strength of Jean Bart's Iris Mediterranean Fleet, there is no chance of any problems."

Bismarck nodded and asked, "Did Sardinia notice anything?"

"The last time we shared our location information, the Sardinian fleet was still on its way to the decoy target in Sicily as planned, so they probably didn't notice anything."

"it is good."

Bismarck moved her lake-blue eyes imperceptibly, and saw the figure of her sister Tirpitz in the corner of her eye. The latter was standing not far from her, concentrating on analyzing the information on the screen. There was a slightly peaceful smile on her elegant face, and she seemed not to be distracted by anything at all.

Bismarck secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and his tone became slightly calmer: "It's too late even if Sardinia realizes it now. This is an open conspiracy. If we are slow, we will be slow all the way."

Prince Eugen on the screen also saw Tirpitz in the command room. She closed one eye and said meaningfully, "Indeed, although I had some expectations, it seems that someone did not play an unexpected role."