Revisiting Azur Lane

Zhou He declined the invitation and went into the kitchen, but Xili curiously poked her head in, sat at the back and watched them play games. After a few minutes, she stood up and ran into the kitchen.

-

It's not lunch time yet, but some people are already eating.

"Commander, this could use more mashed garlic."

Changdao, who was sitting at the dining table, held a large oyster that was just taken off the fire and was still sizzling. He scooped up the juice and raised his hand to make a suggestion.

"It's about right. If you put too much, the taste will change."

Zhou He, who was wearing an apron, looked at the people who had gathered around the table for some reason with twitching eyes. When he caught mussels in Cleveland, he specifically saved the oysters to replenish himself later, but today they were almost gone before he could eat them.

"The commander's Donghuang style is still the most authentic. Manju is a little bit inferior."

Hood was more elegant. He took a sip of the milky soup made from the shells of the sand white and other shells and praised it.

"…Thank you for the compliment."

Zhou He didn't know how to respond, because the food he ate made by Manju tasted just like the food he ate in a restaurant before he traveled through time. It was obvious that they were more Donghuang, and this was just his personal style.

Originally, the oysters should be left for half a day to slough off the sand before being cooked into soup. When he was halfway through roasting the oysters, Hood, who had been playing chess with Bismarck and whose winner was unknown, came in and started ordering food, so he had no choice but to put the food in the pot.

After a while, the crowd dispersed. After eating a full meal, Yudachi leaned back on the sofa with a slightly flushed face and squinted his eyes in satisfaction.

“Just like a little kid.”

After cleaning up the dishes accompanied by Hermione, Zhou He came to the hall and found that Xili's breathing was steady and he had actually fallen asleep on his side, which made him laugh.

"Yeah, in the commander's eyes, Yudachi is just a child?"

Hermione found a thin blanket from the warehouse to cover Yuli, and asked Zhou He with a faint smile. The latter did not answer, but leaned back on the sofa, looked down at Yuli's sleeping face and smiled.

"Hermione, please help me look after Yudachi for a while. I'm going upstairs to take care of some things."

Avoiding Hermione's questions, Zhou He turned and left after giving instructions - he didn't answer, not because he had any improper thoughts about Yuudachi, but just in case, he didn't want to be a person who didn't practice what he said in front of his own ship girl.

However, Hermione's question made him realize one thing. If he was dating someone here, did he not need to follow Donghuang's national policy indicators?

……

"Draw, draw, draw. Tsk, there's nothing that needs my work in the port area. If this continues, my office skills as the commander-in-chief will be even worse than painting?"

Back in the office, Zhou He muttered to himself as he took a large piece of paper from the bookshelf, spread it flat on the table, pressed down the four corners with a book, and opened the system's attack interface:

In the big world-like overview interface, you can clearly see that there are no signs of Sirens in the two districts of southeast, northwest, and northeast at least 150 nautical miles around the port area. Among the three districts, only the North Three and West Three have Sirens. There is no sign of Siren invasion in the South Three and East Three.

At this moment, Zuikaku and his group who were arranged by Zhou He were in the West Zone 1, but it was visible to the naked eye that the number of Sirens in the West Zone 3 was decreasing. The beyond-visual-range strike of an aircraft carrier was so overbearing!

I wonder if No. 01,02 and No. at my doorstep can use energy replenishment... huh?

"Have you salvaged the Builder's body?"

Zhou He suddenly thought of the builder, and his heart suddenly became excited. He focused his eyes and clicked on the map provided to him by the South District 3 base. He observed the system map with his eyes, measured with a ruler to calculate the approximate map scale, and began to put pen to paper after determining the approximate painting order.

He is good at working with a ruler. Whether drawing a straight line or a circle, he needs auxiliary equipment. Therefore, he needs to test and modify a drawing back and forth. It is not difficult, but it is definitely not easy.

After the last stroke was made and the approximate terrain was marked, Zhou He put down his pen, raised his hands, leaned back on the sofa and stretched, and after a while he let out a long sigh, stood up, twisted his waist and started moving, while at the same time turning his sight to the Zuikaku sisters and the approaching Siren fleet.

"They couldn't even take down two aircraft carriers. Could it be that the Siren reserves in this Siren base have been used up? There are no more aircraft carriers?"

Zhou He touched his chin and determined that there was something fishy about this matter. A powerful port with a mirror sea inside could store at least seventy or eighty ships, if not a hundred. As long as the number of carrier-based aircraft was large enough, the Shuanghe sisters could be crushed directly.

But the reality is that the two sisters Zuikaku and Shokaku were so overwhelmed by a Siren base that they couldn't get out. Is it that exaggerated?

Thinking of this, he made a video call to Shokaku: In the video, it was clearly visible that Shokaku had a serious expression, with a slightly furrowed brow, as if he was enduring something. In comparison, Zuikaku next door had a much more relaxed expression, and even looked around from time to time, looking much more leisurely.

"commander."

After a brief thought, Xianghe noticed Zhou He's light curtain, pursed his lips, and his brows relaxed a little: "After a few rounds of confrontation, it can be clearly felt that the number of Siren's aircraft carriers is not sufficient. This is unreasonable. Commander, you guessed it right. The Siren is hiding their weaknesses and luring us to attack them."

"Ah."

Zhou He had the same idea. Even if only one of the twenty ships was sailing properly, the Siren had at least five aircraft carriers. 5 against 2, the two sides were evenly matched. Is this possible?

...It is indeed possible. After all, Zuikaku's fighting power is amazing. It is no problem for one to do the job of three.

Moreover, the fact that the other side did not allow the testers to come out to take charge when aircraft carriers were so scarce was enough to show that they were not doing their best - the observers probably didn't know that he could monitor them inside in real time, so they were still using such poor acting skills.

"Can you sink the Siren's aircraft carrier? One or two will do."

Zhou He thought of his daily attack mission. Sinking the enemy's aircraft carrier should be enough to prove that he had attacked, right?

"Can try."

After saying that, Shokaku conveyed the message to Zuikaku, who glanced sideways and saw Zhou He's projection. He instantly revealed an expression of pride that deserved a beating, then raised his thumb and said a few words.

"This guy."

Zhou He sighed, he didn't expect that Ruihe had gotten the upper hand.

In a flash, an idea emerged in his mind: Zuikaku is so confident, if she fails to sink the Siren aircraft carrier, he will let her go and fish, but if she sinks it, he will praise her a lot.

"Ah."

Zhou He chuckled. Zuikaku couldn't see it, but Shokaku did - she had never seen Zhou He smile like that, it looked a little naughty.

Chapter 144 The charm of numbers

Zhou He did not take out the drawn map immediately. Instead, he let it dry for a while and then rolled it up and placed it on the bookshelf, planning to take it out for reference when there was a combat meeting in the future.

Zhou He patted his clothes and walked out of the office, still observing the situation on Shokaku's side as he went downstairs. The air firefight had been going on for more than an hour, and the Siren Base had only sent less than thirty executors to approach and try to drive them away. He even suspected that Xuefeng had fallen asleep while waiting over there.

Although he didn't quite understand how Yukikaze was persuaded by Zuikaku to go over and help with the escort, but with Yukikaze around, he wasn't too worried about anything happening to the two of them, so after helping them replenish their lost carrier-based aircraft, he stopped paying attention to them and went down the stairs, clacking down from the corner stairs that reached the first floor. What came into his sight was Yudachi who was sleeping soundly, and Hermione and Javelin who were sitting opposite her reading quietly.

Unlike when Zhou He was cooking, now is the real noon. The sunlight shines in through the door from outside. The visible beams of light make Zhou He dream back to his childhood nap time in a trance. After coming back to his senses, he sighs that if he could have such beautiful sisters to play with him at that time - he probably wouldn't be interested.

After all, he seemed to be enlightened later than ordinary people. Others started dating in the first and second year of junior high school, but he started online dating in the third year. Alas, he was really too honest.

"Commander, do you need a meal?"

Noticing Zhou He's appearance, Hermione put down her book, stood up and walked over, following him and asking in a low voice, Zhou He was busy cooking just now and there were more people eating than serving, with more than ten people gathered here, the cook could only sneak a few bites before the food was served.

"No, I'll eat with Zuikaku and the others when they come back."

Zhou He also lowered his voice, walked to the sofa, looked down at Xili who was sleeping soundly on his side facing the sofa, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

My Yudachi is very pretty, but she is more simple and cute than pretty. I remember that there is a transformation option for Yudachi in the game. After the transformation, Yudachi is more dashing than before. From the portrait, it seems that she has grown taller (with longer legs)? I wonder if after he uses the system to transform his own ship girl, she will be like a different person in the game (?).

I walked out of the hall cheerfully. The wind blowing towards me brought with it the salty and humid smell of the ocean and the strong smell of earth. The puddles in the roadside lawns had visibly decreased, and the green grass had turned withered yellow without me noticing.

"What do you think about paving the front to make a square, Hermione?"

Zhou He walked to the paved road and pointed casually at the lawn that extended from the command building to the beach. It was fine when the sun was shining normally, but the rainy day turned the lawn into mud. If you want to go to the beach, you have to take a detour from the dock platform, which is really troublesome. Moreover, whether it is the Siren transfer station in the north or the base in the south, most of the ground in the port area is paved with cement, which is more formal than his home in terms of visual effects. He plans to learn from them.

"very suitable."

While Zhou He was drawing upstairs, Hermione was guarding beside Xi Li. Now she followed Zhou He out, half a step behind him, with a gap of half a body length between them. She looked up and took a quick look at the distance from this side to the bay (nearly a hundred meters), and said after careful consideration: "It's just that simply laying it flat is slightly insufficient in terms of visual effect, so the commander may need to spend a lot of thought."

"Well, I'll consider it."

Zhou He thought so too. This was the home he would live in for the rest of his life. It didn't matter if he spent more time on it. The design had to be beautiful and practical!

Chatting idly, the two arrived at the platform construction area. The drainage here was obviously very good. After nearly two days of heavy rain, there was no water on the roadside after only half a day of sunshine. The more difficult thing was that the green belt here was a bit messy after being blown by the wind, and there was a layer of leaves on the ground where there were trees. Zhou He took a closer look and was ready to look back after studying the builder's body.

Walking along the warehouses and houses to the dock, Zhou He saw Bismarck sitting on a bench in deep thought. Bismarck also noticed him, stood up and walked straight over to greet him, and then asked: "Commander, I heard that you sent the two sisters, Shokaku and Zuikaku, to test the situation at the Siren Base. How are they doing now?"

Zhou He hummed, looking at Bismarck with a slightly serious expression, and an idea suddenly occurred to him. He spread his hands and said, "Siren was only defending against their air raid, and only recently sent out a team to drive them away. Maybe they were short of troops."

"No, the possibility of the Siren being out of manpower is low."

Bismarck gave a direct answer without giving it much thought: "According to what Xuefeng said, the Siren Base is most likely the node that controls the troop transmission of all the shipgirls in this sea area. According to the troop production efficiency of our Siren Base in the Mirror Sea, it can produce at least 50 executor teams overnight. Moreover, the Sirens of the experimental agency chose to actively attack us, which means that they will at least surpass us in terms of combat power and quantity."

When she saw the Xianghe sisters going out, she knew that Zhou He was planning to attack the Siren base. After thinking about it, she came to the conclusion that they would not be defeated by the Sirens in an encounter, but in a siege, their manpower would be completely insufficient. The Sirens in the experimental agency were just not good at on-the-spot command, not really stupid.

No matter what the time is or what the battle situation is, as long as we have not achieved complete victory, we must face the enemy's threat and be prepared to meet the enemy's counterattack.

"That makes sense. Let's test it out for now and see how they react."

Zhou He’s idea was similar to Bismarck’s. Anyway, the Siren base could not be taken in a short period of time. It would definitely not be taken by force, and it would also expose its own flaws. It would be better to proceed steadily, wait until the number and quality of the fleet increased, and then advance steadily.

"Ah."

Bismarck looked at Zhou He and saw that he answered fluently and calmly, so he knew that he must have made some plans beforehand. He was relieved and turned to the berth to look down: "Commander, are you here to investigate this?"

"Yes, although it is only a mass-produced unit, it is a member of the core management of the experimental organization after all, so it is certain that he has outstanding features in terms of ship equipment."

Zhou He followed, looking at the Builder body that had been soaked in water for several days. He remembered that in the game, the Builder seemed to be normally active underwater, but it was not a submarine. It looked like a logistics unit, but its actual combat capability was strangely high. If it was a head-on battle, his people might not be able to take down the Builder, let alone capture it alive.

"By the way, I asked Akashi to do the research. If I come here in person, I'm afraid I'll miss a lot of things."

He smiled, turned around and asked Hermione to go to the production workshop where Akashi was stationed to find Akashi. The Builder itself was just a small cutie of only about 16 meters, but her ship was very large, with a height of more than three meters, and it was equipped with all kinds of weapons such as naval guns and torpedoes, so it needed to be handled with caution.

"Well, we'll help too."

Bismarck raised his hand and gestured to Z23 who was practicing in the bay. The latter understood and began to contact U556 who was blowing bubbles underwater. In less than three minutes, U556, riding a red festive little shark, poked his head out of the water, swam to the shore and looked up at the two people: "Sister, Commander, what's the matter?"

"We'll drag this thing out of the water in a bit. 556, can you help push it from below?"

Zhou He half squatted down and spread his hands to explain to U556.

"understood!"

U556 sat on the little shark, raised his hand and clapped it with Zhou He's outstretched hand. After responding, he smiled and moved away, then dived back into the water.

"Submarines are amazing. How long can U556 stay underwater at one time?"

Zhou He squeezed his palms. U556 had just emerged from the water, but surprisingly there were no water stains on his hands. This was magical.

"The longest you can last is 1 hour and 48 minutes. It's best to come up and breathe once an hour."

Bismarck had a deep understanding of her own people, but her brows slightly frowned as she spoke: "U556 has gained a more flexible body, but as a submarine, it is difficult for her to exert her due deterrence before there are a large number of herds."

In the game, submarines can cause high lightning damage to the enemy, which is very useful.

But in reality, submarines are not as useful as imagined. First of all, their speed is very slow. For example, U556 can only run at a maximum of about 14 knots. Once a long-distance rescue mission is carried out, everyone else may have already finished their task before U556 can barely arrive at the scene.

In addition to its slow speed, submarines are very fragile. Once discovered by enemy radar, only a few destroyers are needed for anti-submarine operations. You either have to withstand their firepower or dive directly into the deep sea. You have to be OB throughout the entire battle and be careful of enemy submarines.

If you want submarines to be effective, you can either set up an ambush and kill the enemy with one strike, or you can act as a mobile ward to ensure that enemy torpedoes don't suddenly appear under your own people's feet.

"Will have the opportunity next time."

Zhou He supported himself on his knees, stood up and looked at the sea. He did not promise to increase the number of submarines because this type of ship was more or less rare. If he could unilaterally name the ship girls who wanted to join, he could try to form a submarine brigade in the short term.

'Om—'

As the two were chatting, a discordant mechanical roar came from behind them. Zhou He turned around and saw a tracked vehicle that had been transformed into a strange forklift. The green-haired cat was sitting at the back of the tracked vehicle. It used its amazing turning skills on the street and safely parked the forklift next to Zhou He.

"Thank you, Commander."

Akashi jumped down from the open-air driving platform, patted the track edge of the crawler next to him with his palm, and proudly explained: "This is an old thing I dismantled and modified by the commander. It is safer to use it to lift valuable goods."

"You're welcome. After all, I have to rely on you to get a more complete picture of the situation."

Zhou He understood that the old things she was talking about were the tanks and anti-aircraft vehicles he had made before. If they were considered from the perspective before the time travel, they were indeed still usable, but in this world decades later, they were indeed a bit old.

Although they were made by Zhou He, they have never been officially put into use.

"Meow meow~"

As he spoke, Zhou He's hands climbed up Mingshi's head disobediently. The latter felt uncomfortable at first, then became comfortable and dazed, as if his IQ had been taken away. After Zhou He stopped, his IQ regained its high ground. He dropped a thick and heavy rope from the crawler forklift he had modified, and commanded Zhou He and his men confidently: "Tie this to the builder, meow. I'll use this to help you pull her out."

"Please ask U556 to help me again."

Zhou He possessed and picked up the rope that Mingshi dropped. It felt relatively rough when he held it. He did not support Mingshi. Providing these things were probably thought of and made by Mingshi and Lingmin (possibly). They were not very useful, but worthy of praise.

After handing the rope to Bismarck, Bismarck summoned U556 again, then grabbed one end of the thick rope and dived into the water, tying up the Builder's body from all angles. At the other end, Akashi tied the rope to the crawler forklift, apparently preparing to borrow the power of the machine.

"It's started, meow."

Everything was done in coordination. Akashi drove the car in the front and steered the boat, and the ropes at the back were not light, so the rough ropes rubbed against the edge of the dock, making strange noises.

The Builder's body was very large, and U556 was pushing it hard from the back, while Bismarck was heavier. She dived into the water and unfolded her ship's equipment while the Builder's body was floating in the air. She pushed reliably from the wall of the dock and directly lifted the more than three-meter-high thing up!

She is simply superhuman.

"That's awesome."

After working together to get the Builder out of the water, Akashi began to load the truck. Many nearby shipgirls came to visit and help. Zhou He didn't care. Instead, he stretched out his hand to Bismarck on the water, pulled her out of the sea, and praised with a smile: "Bismarck, you guys are really amazing. Could it be that your physical abilities will also be improved after you unfold your shipsuit?"