Chapter 3

When the doors of the auditorium on the "Beijing" aircraft carrier were hastily pushed open by a duty soldier, Captain Lin Yuan was smiling and raising his glass in a toast to the scientists and engineers present.

The auditorium was hosting a celebration banquet to mark the successful completion of the "Beijing" aircraft carrier's final sea trial. Lin Yuan couldn't fathom what could have made the soldier so flustered.

The duty soldier glanced at the civilians in the room, suppressing his panic, and leaned in to whisper a few words into Lin Yuan's ear. Lin Yuan's brow furrowed, and he quickly left the auditorium.

* * * *

On the "Beijing" aircraft carrier, in the radar room

Lin Yuan entered the radar room, where chaos reigned. Technicians and operators were frantically adjusting the equipment. The screens of both the surface and air surveillance radars were blank. "It can't be electromagnetic interference!" he thought to himself. He knew what radar screens looked like under strong electromagnetic interference; they were as chaotic as a bustling market.

Seeing the captain, the radar officer quickly stood at attention and saluted. Lin Yuan waved him off and asked, "What's going on?"

The radar officer hurriedly replied, "Report, Captain. The radar is not emitting any electromagnetic waves. We suspect a malfunction in the transmitter or receiver."

"How is that possible?" Lin Yuan said. "There are over a dozen radars on the ship, with hundreds of transmitters and receivers. How could they all fail at the same time?"

The radar officer was speechless. Such a failure had never been seen before. Lin Yuan silently prayed, "I hope only the surface and air surveillance radars are malfunctioning." He thought this because there were over a dozen destroyers and frigates around the aircraft carrier, which could take on a significant portion of the surveillance duties.

Accompanied by the radar officer, Lin Yuan quickly made his way to the flight control room, the nerve center for managing aircraft takeoffs and landings. From there, he could see the parts of the deck where aircraft took off and landed. As he entered the flight control room, his heart sank. The radar screens there were also blank. This meant that both the air traffic control radar and the landing guidance radar had lost their functionality. This also meant that the J-24 fighter jet, which was still in the air, would be unable to find the carrier in the vast sea, and even if it did, it would not be able to land safely.

This fighter jet was a heavy carrier-based aircraft with stealth, beyond-visual-range attack, and super-maneuverability capabilities, and it was extremely expensive. The responsibility for losing one due to equipment failure was something he could not bear. More importantly, the pilot, Xu Feng, was a close friend of his. They had graduated from the same university and were both selected as pilots. Xu Feng's flying skills were among the best, and the captain was usually chosen from those with carrier-based aircraft experience. If not for his laid-back nature, Xu Feng might have been the captain.

Lin Yuan glanced out the window. The deck crew, unaware of the radar system's malfunction, was working methodically. The soldiers of the landing assistance team were uncovering the Fresnel lens, while others were inspecting the arresting wires and nets. A soldier was driving a tractor to its designated position, and the elevators were open. The damage control team had prepared firefighting equipment and was sitting by, waiting for an unlikely accident. They were chatting and laughing in small groups.

Lin Yuan withdrew his gaze and thought silently. The radar system's failure meant that the aircraft carrier had become deaf and blind, completely losing its ability to defend against attacks. Instinctively, he looked up, searching for his escort fleet. Suddenly, he noticed that today's escort fleet was different from usual.

First, the distant warships were emitting a faint black smoke. The escort destroyers and frigates all used gas turbines, which burned fuel efficiently, so the exhaust would not have such black smoke. Second, their shapes looked disordered, unlike the well-defined outlines of modern warships.

Lin Yuan raised his binoculars and looked at the distant warship. The first sight made his spine chill. The warship was flying a large flag with a white background, a red sun near the left side, and sixteen red rays radiating from the sun!

It was the flag of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force!

The binoculars' scale showed that the warship was no more than 4,000 meters away! Cold sweat broke out on his forehead. At 4,000 meters, the carrier's defense range could extend over 500 kilometers. How could it have breached to such a close distance? Was war about to break out?

Thinking of this, his heart raced. In 663 AD, 1592 AD, 1894 AD, and 1931 AD, we fought four wars that changed the fate of two nations with this so-called neighbor across the water. Only the Chinese people would treat their enemies with such selfless sentiment. The glory of the first two wars has been forgotten, but the last two wars have left the darkest marks in Chinese history!

In 1894 AD, the Chinese lunar year of Jia Wu, the 20th year of the Guangxu era, and the 27th year of the Meiji era, China and Japan went to war over Korea. China called it the Jia Wu War, and Japan called it the Sino-Japanese War. In this war, the Beiyang Fleet was completely destroyed. The following year, the Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed, and China was forced to recognize Korea's independence, losing its suzerainty over Korea. China had to pay 200 million taels of silver in war reparations and cede Taiwan and all its affiliated islands, the Penghu Islands, and the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan! To this day, the anchor of the Beiyang Fleet is still on display in a Japanese park, and the souls of the victims of the Lushun Massacre are still weeping! This is a humiliation that every descendant of the Yellow Emperor cannot forget!

This battle today will wash away the past humiliation! This battle today will usher in the great rejuvenation of a nation!

But as a senior commander, his rationality soon took over. "War is a matter of national importance, a matter of life and death." Rashly starting a war would inevitably plunge the nation into an irredeemable abyss.

As he looked more closely, he frowned. The warship on the opposite side did not look like a modern warship. It had a tall chimney emitting black smoke, no radar equipment, no anti-ship or anti-aircraft missiles, and gun ports on both sides. Lin Yuan had studied the history of warships in university, and this knowledge made him suspect that it was a 19th-century Japanese warship.

"The flag of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force is the same as that of the old Japanese Navy. Could this warship really be from the old Japanese Navy? Could we have traveled back in time?" Lin Yuan was surprised by his own thoughts. Time travel was something that only happened in穿越 novels.

He didn't have time to think it through. He vaguely heard a dull sound, and a cloud of white smoke suddenly rose from the distant warship. Then a cluster of black dots came hurtling towards him. Those black dots were countless cannonballs.