Daily life with the ship girl

"You go make a hamburger. Remember, you need bread, vegetables, pork chops, and then pour salad dressing or ketchup on it, just like a sandwich, layer by layer, understand?"

"Yeah, I can, I can." Quincy looked excited and started making burgers.

Li Ran processed Quincy's masterpiece a bit and finally put the sliced ​​noodles into the pot. Then he was a little worried about Quincy's process of making the hamburger.

Sure enough, Li Ran watched Quincy make a Big Mac and sighed. Maybe he shouldn't have let Quincy learn cooking?

Lunch was finally ready after a lot of trouble. Li Ran was exhausted. It was really tiring to guide Quincy in cooking, but when he saw the smile on Quincy's face when he made the first decent hamburger, he felt that it was all worth it.

Li Ran prepared lunch and asked everyone to eat. Everyone sat around the table, looking at the bowls of sliced ​​noodles and the strangely wrapped burgers in front of everyone. Firefly asked curiously:

"Admiral, what is this?"

"Hamburgers, everyone, come and eat them. This is the result of Quincy and I working together. It tastes very good." Li Ran looked at Quincy nervously looking at his sister. That burger was the best one Quincy made. Li Ran looked at Quincy like this, thought for a moment and said to New Orleans:

"New Orleans, try this. The burger in front of you was made by your sister herself."

New Orleans saw that everyone's eyes were focused on her. She felt a little uncomfortable and wanted to say something, but seeing her sister's face full of nervousness and expectation, she picked up the hamburger and took a light bite.

Quincy was extremely nervous. She stared at her sister without blinking, feeling both expectant and anxious.

Blücher sat next to New Orleans. She keenly noticed that what Quincy needed at the moment was recognition and praise from her sister. She gently poked New Orleans' body and then winked.

New Orleans felt that the burger tasted good, with her favorite tomato flavor. She knew what Blücher meant, put the burger on the plate, and then said to Quincy in a gentle tone for the first time:

"It's delicious. The burgers my sister made are delicious."

Quincy's eyes sparkled. She was so happy that she hugged her sister and said:

"Thank you for your hard work, sister. Quincy will be obedient in the future."

Li Ran secretly breathed a sigh of relief, then he shifted his gaze to his bowl, looking at the super-sized hamburger in front of him, feeling like crying but without tears.

Lexington saw everything and she looked at Li Ran deeply.

Li Ran noticed his wife's gaze. The half-smile made him feel a little guilty. He quickly smiled, then lowered his head and started eating.

Saratoga pouted:

"Sister, you're still watching."

"What nonsense are you talking about? Let's eat." Lexington retracted his gaze, raised the corners of his mouth slightly, called his sister, and thought to himself that perhaps the commander should limit the number of times he enters the kitchen.

Li Ran felt a chill down his spine and nearly choked on his soup. Ping Hai, who was sitting next to him, patted his back and said,

"Admiral, eat slowly. No one is going to snatch it from you."

……

Lunch ended half an hour later, and Quincy was sensible enough to start cleaning up the dishes, but she saw her sister coming over and she suddenly became nervous.

"Let me help you." New Orleans knew that she had been a little strict. She looked at her sister's expression, smiled and said.

……

Li Ran had just finished his meal and was about to go upstairs to get some documents when he saw this scene. He paused, then felt relieved and went upstairs.

Chapter 73: Heart Knot

Li Ran looked at the documents compiled by Lexington and the escort commission agreement mentioned by Bai Nuoyan. He took out the new sea chart that Bai Nuoyan gave him and saw the locations of his own island and the three islands ABC. He fell into deep thought:

"We have to find a way to take down the Death Route. I hope everything goes well for Lexington and the others when they set out tomorrow."

Li Ran thought about it and looked at some of the contents on the escort entrustment agreement again. He frowned. Bai Nuoyan could see the value of this route, so this route must not be that simple.

Thinking of this, he contacted Bismarck through the admiral's personal network:

"Bismarck, come to my office if you have time."

Bismarck and Hipper listened to Blücher talking about the life in the gendarmerie. As ship girls from the same country, G, they had many common topics despite their different affiliations.

Bismarck heard Li Ran's request and said to Blücher and Hipper:

"Sorry, the Admiral is looking for me. I'll go upstairs to check."

"Yes." Blücher expressed his understanding.

Bismarck went upstairs, while Hipper and Blücher looked at the G country's big sister in a hurry, feeling a little confused and began to make wild guesses.

Blücher said: "Hippel, you have an admiral, what do you think Bismarck is going to do?"

Hipper frowned and said softly:

"I don't know. Maybe the Xiguang Garrison has some internal affairs to deal with. By the way, First Ship Girl Academy, have you found Prince Eugen?"

"No, I haven't heard of Prince Eugen appearing recently. Maybe he hasn't been created. But Tirpitz has left."

"That rotten girl."

"Do you know her whereabouts?"

"I don't know, I just heard some gossip."

……

Just as Blücher and Hipper were talking about Bismarck's sister Tirpitz, Bismarck walked to the door of the admiral's office and found that the door was not closed.

"Admiral, is there something urgent?"

Bismarck simply knocked on the door and walked into the office.

"You are here. This is what I have not asked you about the escort mission last time. Sit down and talk." Li Ran looked at Bismarck standing opposite him. His body was as straight as a pine tree, worthy of the style of a Prussian soldier. He pushed the escort commission agreement in front of her and said:

"This is the agreement for the Death Route escort commission. The Sihai Chamber of Commerce sent Bai Nuoyan, who has become the admiral, to work with us to develop this route. You take a trip. I want to learn more about the details of the Death Route."

Bismarck nodded. She took the agreement, but did not sit down. Instead, she looked at it carefully.

Li Ran looked at Bismarck who was concentrating and serious. When she saw the agreement, her cat ears sometimes trembled slightly. He did not urge her, but continued to review the documents of the past two days, including the incoming resources and the list of required materials submitted by Team Leader Ruoduo Fairy. There were so many materials in total that Li Dan sighed.

These things are very expensive, so I have to find a way to make money.

Li Ran looked at those machines, all of which cost tens of thousands of ocean dollars. Ocean dollars are the universal currency of this world. Because of the emergence of the deep sea, the theory of sea power supremacy has been taken seriously by all countries. Although countries cannot directly command the admirals of the garrison, they will always use various means to establish good relations with the garrison in the waters near their own country. The unification of currency is also to avoid the trouble of tax rate conversion for world trade.

After all, deep-sea fleets appear all the time, and ocean trade is not easy. The world's big businessmen reached an agreement to cancel various currencies and unify the ocean currency as the world's currency.

Getting back to the topic, Li Ran looked at the supplies listed on the list. Just from the names of those machines, one could tell they would not be cheap.

And because there have not been many merchants coming to the garrison to import timber in the past half month, the Xiguang Garrison has only more than 10,000 ocean coins, which is too little for the construction of a garrison.

Li Ran felt that he had arrived in this world. Although he had no worries about food and drink and his safety was temporarily not a concern, he was short of money.

For the first time, he thought of building a garrison, no, now he was managing an island with a radius of nearly 500 square kilometers, which is one-third the size of Xiamen Island. For him and the ship girls to live together, this island is considered very large.

As for the measurement of the island, it was the result of reconnaissance by Lexington and Saratoga using carrier-based aircraft. Although this may not be very accurate, Li Ran knew that the difference was not much. Before he traveled through time, he had never expected that one day he would become the owner of an island.

Li Ran knew that the hope of returning to Earth was very slim, so he had already regarded Xiguang Island as his second home. In order to build this second home well, he gritted his teeth and decided that these equipment must be purchased, and all kinds of miscellaneous supplies must also be replenished.

However, all of these require a lot of money. He saw on the nautical chart that the country closest to his Xiguang Island was New England. This country was about two thousand nautical miles away from the island, and Xia Country was even farther away, nearly three thousand nautical miles. This resulted in Li Ran's Xiguang Island being able to ensure self-sufficiency for the time being, but if it continued like this, it would only be able to maintain a self-preservation level. He did not want to travel through time and spend his whole life on this island. Although having the company of a ship girl was not bad, this different world should also have many different excitements.

There is a saying that the world is so big and I want to go see it. Li Ran actually hopes that after traveling through time, he can travel to every corner of the world.

Therefore, Li Ran attached great importance to the value of the Death Channel. Compared with the International Golden Channel that Bai Nuoyan mentioned that day, this channel is closer to New England. Although there are only a few small islands and reefs in the middle of the Death Channel, these islands and reefs are uninhabited, but they can provide some fresh water supplies for merchant ships sailing far away. In this world, these islands and reefs are collectively called supply reefs.

However, these islands and reefs are limited in size and are too far away from the large islands where many garrisons are located. Except for those ocean-going trade fleets, few people arrive there. No one in this world has announced any intention to claim these small islands and reefs as their own, so these islands and reefs have been turned into internationally shared areas.

However, wherever there are supply reefs, there will be deep-sea fleets, and supply reefs are often scattered in the center of some important shipping routes, so many merchant caravans will hire the fleet of ship girls from various admiralties as escorts. This is the origin of the escort commission mission.

Li Ran also knew that if he wanted to make money, accepting escort commissions from major chambers of commerce would be the fastest way to make money, but this meant that he had to put his ship girls in danger. Although he could click without any psychological burden in the game and just click to repair a broken ship, this was reality now. The ship girls were living beings who lived with him and protected his safety. He still couldn't get over that hurdle in his heart.

Back to the topic, when Li Ran was worrying about how to make money, Bismarck finished reading the escort commission agreement. She pondered for a moment, organized her words and said:

"Admiral, the Death Route itself is not dangerous, but there are some small uninhabited islands and reefs along the way, which are called supply reefs. These islands and reefs are the stopping points for ocean-going fleets to replenish fresh water resources. There are many deep-sea fleets in the waters near these supply reefs. Last time when I was in charge of the escort, I was lucky. The deep-sea fleet I encountered was just a team of deep-sea destroyers and deep-sea light cruisers.

Later, I heard from those crew members that they were not so lucky every time. They talked about some smugglers. Many smugglers took this route to make huge profits. One of the smugglers was a sailor from the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce. I heard him say that when he was a sailor on a smuggling ship, their fleet did not hire a ship escort to save money. That time, they encountered a large deep-sea fleet in the waters near the supply reef. He was lucky and survived by chance.

Based on his description, I guess it's not surprising that there are any deep seas near these supply reefs, so if we want to sign this agreement with the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce, I'm afraid that one trip will require twelve ship girls to escort the whole journey, and the fleet size cannot exceed six ships, otherwise it will be too big a target and it will be easy to have big problems when facing the deep-sea fleet. "

Li Ran listened quietly to Bismarck's words. He pushed the sea chart in front of her and said:

"Can you recall the last time you visited those supply reefs?"

"Well, let me see." Bismarck put down the agreement and looked at the nautical chart. She pondered for a while and then said:

"It should be here, at this place called Coral Supply Reef. We encountered two full-strength deep-sea fleets (a full-strength fleet is six ship girls. Whether it is a deep-sea ship girl or a fleet composed of ship girls, this configuration is the same. I would like to explain this.), but because the merchant ship had already docked at that time, we were safe."

Chapter 74: Sense of security?

Li Ran listened to Bismarck's understated narration and realized that the situation at that time must not be that simple. He frowned and pointed at the two supply reefs above that looked like wind chimes and pears and asked:

"What about Wind Bell Reef and White Pear Reef? Didn't you encounter the deep-sea fleet at these two reefs?"

"No, these two reefs are very close to the east side of Island A. The fleet chose to take a detour. Although it took some time, the voyage was smooth all the way until we encountered the deep sea at the coral supply reef."

"In this case, we can't just hand over any of the three islands. It seems that I must reconsider my cooperation with the Thunder Garrison."

"Admiral, do you want to use these three islands to further gain access to the Death Route?"

"Well, don't be so blunt. My idea is just to build a supply station and make some money. However, I won't be greedy. If I need to let go of Islands AB, I won't hold on to them. After all, your safety is the first priority."

Bismarck saw that Li Ran did not hide her thoughts. As a soldier, she did not ask right or wrong, but only obeyed orders. As long as it was the admiral's order, even if she knew it was wrong, she would execute it first and then ask whether it was right or wrong.

She felt that Li Ran always put them first. She felt cared for, but more of a sense of being looked down upon. So her tone was full of determination and confidence:

"Admiral, we are confident in this Dawn Operation. We will do our best to capture all three islands without any help from outsiders!"

Li Ran smiled bitterly. He was about to speak when he saw Lexington, Saratoga, and Richelieu standing outside the door. They all answered in unison:

"Same for us."

Li Ran was silent. He sighed and said:

"No matter what, follow my orders. This is the letter about the joint attack strategy. Lexington, arrange for Helena to go to the Thunder Garrison. Your combat goal for this Dawn Operation is to hold down Islands A and B at the Thunder Garrison before you can attack Island C."

Seeing that the ship girls wanted to say more, Li Ran's tone turned cold and he shouted:

"Just do it, and stop talking!"

After saying that, Li Ran felt a little annoyed and waved his hand, signaling them to disperse.

Bismarck didn't know that Li Ran's reaction was so dramatic. She looked at Lexington who was about to speak and shook her head slightly.

The four ship girls looked at each other and gently closed the door of the admiral's office.

Li Ran felt particularly irritated. He should have been very excited when he heard Bismarck say that, but anger, or rather fear, rose uncontrollably from the bottom of his heart.

He would never forget the look on the faces of the ship girls when they returned from the disaster not long ago. He could remember it vividly before he fell into a coma with a high fever.

The tattered ship uniforms undoubtedly showed that the battles of the ship girls were not as easy as they described.

Li Ran cannot and will not turn the ship girls into tools for his own profit, otherwise he would be no different from some admirals in this world.

Li Ran felt very irritated. He walked to the window, glanced at a group of birds flying not far away, and listened to the sounds of fireflies playing in the woods. He felt the burden on his shoulders become a little heavy.

Li Ran now understood why Lexington said that the admiral is very important to the ship girls, because the admiral is not only the choice of self-restraint for those ship girls who have abandoned their freedom, but also carries the trust of the ship girls.

As Li Ran was thinking, a breeze blew towards him, calming his anger a little. He laughed at himself and realized that he was still the same, easily losing control of his emotions.

Although he believed that Lexington and her team could capture the three islands, and he also said that Operation Dawn was decided by them themselves, whether it was his sudden intervention in their combat meeting in the morning or his unreasonable orders just now, it seemed that he did not trust them wholeheartedly.

Li Ran sighed, thinking that he might need to calm down. He had always said that he would not interfere in this operation, but he still did.

He turned around, pushed open the door of the admiral's office, went into the bathroom, washed his face with cold water, and then went downstairs.

Bai Nuoyan and Pinghai were making tea, Blücher and Hipper were talking at the door, and Lexington and others were no longer in the garrison. He sighed and sat down next to Pinghai with a sad face.

Pinghai glanced towards the kitchen nervously, then quickly looked away.

Bai Nuoyan frowned and said:

"Don't look so sad. I just saw your main battleship girl go out with a serious face. What happened to you?"

Pinghai also noticed that Li Ran was in a bad mood, so she silently poured him a cup of tea.

Li Ran didn't say anything. He picked up the tea and found it very bitter. His brows frowned even more tightly.

Bai Nuoyan didn't know what Li Ran had said to them that made the ship girls look so serious, but as a thoughtful woman, she still sensed that something was wrong with the atmosphere. When she saw Li Ran with a sad face, she knew that Li Ran and his ship girl must have had an unpleasant argument upstairs, so she tentatively said:

"What happened? Let me tell you, although I have been a trainee admiral for a short time, I understand that no matter what happens, no matter what the ship girls say, their starting point is for us admirals. They are not as sentimental as we are."

Li Ran felt a little upset. He didn't know why he was like this, so he asked:

"If it were you, would you let your ship girl take risks?"

"Hmm? What do you mean by adventure? Be more specific. Except for enemies like the Deep Sea, ordinary people can't cause any harm to the Ship Girls."