Warship of Great Power

The contract has been signed, and Lao Maozi should implement it in accordance with the contract. Their fleet has been waiting here for a day. Looking at the floating ice floes outside, they feel very uneasy. The Titanic hit the ice floe and sank. They I don’t want to repeat that scene.

Now, where is Lao Maozi?

Just as he was hesitating, a huge ship appeared on the ice in front. It had a wide hull and many buildings on the upper floor. It looked like a cruise ship, and the buildings above were all painted brick red. On the white It looked particularly conspicuous on the vast ice. As it moved forward, it kept pushing against the ice in front of it, directly breaking through the ice and moving forward, as if it was floating on the ice.

This icebreaker looks so cool!

Norway is close to the North Pole and has icebreakers, but they are all small and not nuclear-powered. If you want to walk on the ice all year round, nuclear-powered icebreakers are the best choice.

This kind of ship does not have to worry about running out of fuel and has almost unlimited endurance. In the cold Arctic, only this kind of power can keep every cabin warm!

There is ice everywhere in the Arctic, so there is no need to worry about the source of fresh water. As for what to eat? If the food on the ship is really gone, you can go hunting and get a polar bear to eat for several days.

But if there is no energy, it will soon freeze to death.

However, not everyone can build a nuclear-powered icebreaker. This thing requires too much technical content. The icebreaker needs to break the ice through impact. If it is not strong enough, the nuclear reactor may have an accident, which is fatal. of.

Lao Maozi has this technology, and the East also has this technology, but other countries can only look at it with dismay.

Now, seeing this nuclear-powered icebreaker approaching, everyone became excited. Sorlot let out a long breath: "Okay, let's set off!"

The icebreaker turned around on the ice in front of them and became the vanguard of their formation.

"Hello, my friends." A voice came from the radio: "I am your team leader Zaitsev. Now, let us get on the road. According to your requirements, we will maintain a high speed of 18 knots! "

"No, no, there are several ships in our fleet that can only sail up to 15 knots!" Sollot quickly replied: "Please take us forward at a speed of 15 knots!"

"Roger, fifteenth, let's go now!"

The call on the radio is relatively brisk, and the huge nuclear-powered icebreaker moves very briskly. Even though such a big guy can swim freely on the ice, it is as flexible as a loach. Wherever it goes, it There will be the sound of the ice breaking, and a sea channel will appear in the originally intact ice.

The Docwise Pioneer followed closely, and the other semi-submersible ships also followed, forming a long snake formation and advancing mightily.

I don’t know why, but Sollot doesn’t feel particularly cold anymore. Maybe he’s in a better mood?

Two hours later, it was dark outside.

"Damn, this day only lasted three hours." Sorlot continued to complain.

"This is already pretty good. If you continue walking inside, you will enter the Arctic Circle and you will see the long dark night." The bearded captain said.

The Arctic route cannot be used in winter. On the one hand, it is severely cold in winter and the ice is too thick. On the other hand, the day is too short. In the Arctic Circle, even during the long polar night, there is no trace of daylight at all. The sun peeks out of the sky at most. He was so big that he went down.

Therefore, this place is not suitable for navigation at all, but Sollot does not care at all. In his eyes, everything here is very good! Saving half the time compared to other routes, they can return to Norway as soon as possible!

"I know it's the polar night, but I still hate it." Sollot is a Norwegian and must be aware of this phenomenon. He just doesn't like it.

The bearded captain smiled: "But I like it. This way I can change shifts. First mate, come and drive the ship and keep up with the nuclear-powered icebreaker in front!"

Ships sailing on the sea do not have brakes. When encountering the situation, they can only reverse the propeller to reduce the speed. It takes a long distance to stop. Now it is a single ice-breaking road. Therefore, in order to avoid collision, almost every two Each ship had to be about one kilometer apart from each other, so the entire formation stretched out nearly ten kilometers. In the dark night, the navigation lights pulled out a very beautiful light strip that extended on the ice.

Ahead, on board a nuclear-powered icebreaker.

"If we drive to the 18th knot now, we can get rid of them quickly." Captain Ilovic said.

"No, they have just come in now. If they find out that they have been tricked by us, they can go back at any time. We have to take them forward and wait for three days." Zaitsev said.

"Okay. Let's wait a few more days. How desperate it will be when they are forgotten on the ice. These poor people..." Ilovic's eyes were full of excitement.

More than twenty hours later, the sun slowly rose from behind them, but as soon as it emerged from the sea, it fell again. However, the ice surface did not completely darken.

Although the sun does not shine within the Arctic Circle, there is still diffuse reflection due to ice and snow everywhere. Therefore, the sky at this time looks like a cloudy day, the kind where it is about to rain, but it just doesn’t rain. The way it was at that time.

This light lasted for less than two hours, and then the entire ice surface fell into complete darkness again.

However, the scenery is still very good. For example, if you look to the right side of the ship's side and look at the sky, you will occasionally see special lights.

This light is not green, but slightly milky white. This is the unique aurora in the Arctic. Under the camera lens, as long as the exposure time is slightly longer, it will be green.

The photos are beautiful, but the actual scene is even more beautiful. At this time, looking at the sky, Sorlot was in a better mood.

Today is a very good day, sailing normally at a speed of fifteen knots. Huh, that Qin Haiyang is really a liar. He wants to trick us into taking the normal route and spending more time!

Although hiring nuclear-powered icebreakers costs a lot of money, these eight ships can save almost half of the fuel and save a lot of transportation costs by going this way, which is almost no extra money.

But, time is saved! By saving half a month of time, they can exploit oil and natural gas half a month earlier. The recent energy prices are very good, and they want to make more money!

With beautiful fantasies, Sorlot went back to sleep. When he was sleeping soundly, there was a knock on the door outside.

Boom, boom!

"Mr. Sorlot, something happened!"

"What happened?" Sorlot got up in a daze, opened the door, and saw the nervous look on the bearded captain's face.

"The petrel semi-submersible ship at the end of our fleet is frozen!"

"What?" Sollot said in surprise: "How is it possible? The route opened by the icebreaker can be maintained for three hours!"

The ice broken by the icebreaker will freeze. This is for sure. The key is time. According to general rules, it will freeze three hours after breaking. Therefore, their eight semi-submersible ships can definitely follow, even if they are pulled apart. The distance of thirty nautical miles can be covered in just two hours, so there will be no major problems.

Now we have only closed a distance of more than ten kilometers, and the last ship is actually frozen?

This is unscientific!

"Please ask the Fifty Years Victory ahead for help."

"Can't call!"

"What? Can't call? Why?"

"I don't know. It may be that here in the North Pole, the magnetic field is strong and radio communications are interfered with."

"Then how can we contact the Haiyan?"

"We all use the same radio station, but the one they use is different from ours."

"Damn it!" Sollot gritted his teeth: "Then what should we do?"

If I had my way, I wouldn't come to you! The bearded captain looked helpless.

"Connect with light!"

In the era without radio, maritime communication was carried out by using lights. Now there is a series of commonly known light languages. In this situation, the only way to communicate is by using lights.

Soon, the light signs of three long, three short and three long were played.

A nuclear-powered icebreaker.

"They started calling for help, what should we do?" Ilovic asked.

"Humph, this has nothing to do with us." Zaitsev said: "We are just leading the way normally according to the provisions of the contract. Their last ship was frozen. This is an accident, and we will need to pay extra!"

Zaitsev did not expect that it would go so smoothly. He originally planned to take action in two days, but unexpectedly, the opportunity came like this!

Under normal circumstances, the route opened by the icebreaker needs to be maintained for three hours, but there are also accidents. For example, if a cold wave appears somewhere, this part of the sea will naturally freeze faster. There is no doubt that this is what we are encountering now. Such weather is definitely a force majeure!

Ilovic's eyes lit up: "Yes, there will be extra money! Let's reply to them now! But, what should we use to reply to them?"

The lantern language can only express simple messages, and it is absolutely impossible to say more money, let alone bargain. Do we want to restore radio communication? When the other party called just now, we ignored it. If we resume the call now, will it seem a bit hypocritical and make it easier for the other party to know that we are doing it on purpose?

Zaitsev didn't care and picked up the radio.

"This is the 50-year-old Victory nuclear-powered icebreaker. One of the tubes in our radio burned out just now, so we lost contact for a while. Now that the radio has been restored, could you please describe what happened?"

Tube, burned out? What age is this, and you still have this kind of excuse?

The people behind were also a little stunned: "Your radio still uses vacuum tubes?"

"Yes, only electron tubes can block the effects of various rays in the Arctic region. Other radios are prone to failure. Now tell us, what happened?"

"Our last semi-submersible ship, the Petrel, is frozen and needs rescue!"

"What, frozen? This is impossible! Today is not April Fool's Day. The route we opened can be maintained for three hours, unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Unless we encounter a special cold current, this kind of cold current may exist in the sea area we are in now. Therefore, if we turn around and go back to rescue this unlucky semi-submersible ship, other ships may also be affected. Freeze!"

Thorlot's face changed greatly: "Then what should we do?"

"In another eight hours of sailing, we can reach the New Siberian Islands. There is a military base on the island and we can call for air support at any time. As long as we get there, we will be safe. Our nuclear-powered icebreaker can come back to pick up the trapped ship. "

"Okay." Thorlot knew that he had no other way now. Although one ship was frozen, it was better than all being frozen. The remaining seven ships rushed to a safe area and came back for rescue.

Such a round trip would probably take a day, but there was no other way.

The semi-submersible ship Haiyan was frozen on the surface of the sea, watching the other fleets go away alone. For some reason, the crew members had an ominous premonition in their hearts, and they always felt that something terrible was about to happen.

Time passed little by little, and eight hours later, a piece of land appeared in the distance.

This is the New Siberian Islands, which consists of three islands. Nine months of the year are frozen, so there are almost no people living on the islands, and there are no trees. They are all tundra.

During the Red Empire era, soldiers lived here. However, for a long time after the collapse of the Red Empire, due to tight military expenditures, Lao Maozi once withdrew all the troops stationed here. Until the Arctic shipping route was reopened, this place was taken seriously. The troops were redeployed.

There is no suitable port on the island, but there is an airport. If someone is trapped, helicopters can be dispatched to rescue people, and transport planes can be dispatched to take people directly to big cities for rescue.

Seeing that they had reached the place where people were being rescued, everyone on the seven ships finally relaxed. Sorlot picked up the radio and started to contact them.

"Call the Fifty Years Victory and ask you to rescue the Petrel immediately. They are eagerly waiting for you."

"Of course, please pay our $500,000 rescue fee immediately."

"What, you actually want money? How can you do this?" Sollot was immediately anxious: "We have already paid."

"Yes, you have paid, but the money is for one way trip. Now, if we have to go back and rescue, it will consume more of our resources. It is a project outside our contract. If you don't pay, , then we can only move forward with you."

"No, no, you can't do this!"

Listening to the almost desperate roar on the radio, Zaitsev and Ilovitch looked at each other and smiled.

Humph, when we get one-third of an acre of land, why don’t you listen to us?

"I will publicize your actions and let the whole world know that the Arctic shipping route is unreliable!"

"Mr. Sorlot, can I interpret this to mean that you want to terminate the employment relationship with us? If terminated, we will not refund the money. After all, we have to go back the same way and it will cost us money. I wish you a happy journey ahead.”

What a joy. After leaving the nuclear-powered icebreaker, they will all be frozen here. Even if the people can leave, where is the equipment and the ship? They have to wait until next summer before they can move. How much compensation will they have to pay?

Sorlot was trembling all over: "We, we don't mean that. We ask you to help us rescue the ship first, and the rescue costs will be paid later, okay?"

"No, we have encountered defaults many times. You are a big company in Norway. You can't even get out half a million dollars, right?"

Sollot felt very cold, bone-chilling cold. After turning off the radio, he picked up the satellite phone and called back to the company.

At this time, Oryang was steaming in the sauna, comfortably enjoying his favorite thing every day.

Norwegians don’t have to travel, party, or even do that kind of thing with their partners, but they must take a sauna. This is their habit since childhood, just like brushing their teeth and washing their face, they want it every day.

The phone rang three times before he finally came out of the sauna, wrapped in a bath towel, feeling the beauty of life.

"Hey, Sorlot, are you okay? What?"

The phone in Oryang's hand suddenly fell to the ground. How could this happen? Damn, another unexpected expense!

Where to get money?

Dongfang, Mingzhou Group.

Qin Tao sat on a large chair and listened to Xu Zhengyang's report.

"It seems that this is simply their bad luck. Da Mao has clearly marked the price, and he is honest."

"Yes, it is indeed their bad luck. Who would have thought that they encountered a cold wave? They can't blame anyone else."

"Now, they are afraid that the sky will not respond and the earth will not work. Haha, why did I suddenly think of a place?"

"where?"

Qin Tao didn't speak, but looked at the map of his motherland. There was a famous tourist attraction there. Tourists who had never seen snow ran all the way there. They originally wanted to enjoy the wonderful snow scene, but they didn't expect that they would have to bleed themselves.

Accommodation, the price originally agreed upon, but after I went there, the other party refused to accept it, and they had to pay more, or even five times or ten times more. Can't stay? Why don't you freeze to death when you get outside?

Regarding traffic, the car asked for extra money halfway through. If you don’t give money, you won’t drive. You can just walk back. You will freeze to death if you don’t make it halfway!

Can you go anywhere where the sky is high and the emperor is far away?

"Will this affect the reputation of the Arctic shipping route?" Xu Zhengyang thought of something and asked.

"The facts are clear. If there is any impact on reputation, rescue is free. This half a million dollars is an absolute conscience price." Qin Tao said: "Don't even look at how much it costs to call an ambulance in the United States. Anyone who wants to use Anyone who makes a fuss about this will be thoroughly refuted.”

To be fair, half a million dollars is not much, but this is just the beginning!

Seadrill also realized this. After Oryang picked up the phone, he quickly notified others to hold a meeting. Five hours later, the money was collected and transferred to the Russians.