Chapter 8: Taking Precautions

Brazil... It's a beautiful and vibrant place, with dense jungles, winding rivers, and picturesque coastlines. Oh, and there's also a terrifying type of fish there, only a little larger than your finger, they swarm together and can strip a person to the bone in minutes, so the locals call them piranhas!"

Seeing Anna's wide-eyed look of horror, Zhang Hainuo chuckled, "Don't worry, our shipyard is on the eastern coast, where there are no piranhas! In fact, piranhas are attracted to blood, much like sharks! If you fall into the river, just get back on the boat quickly, and you should be fine!"

"The outside world is indeed fascinating!" Anna gazed at the distant sea. "When I was in high school, I used to listen to teachers talk about the cultures of different countries. I always looked forward to traveling around the world one day, hehe, but I never had the chance!"

Zhang Hainuo gently embraced her shoulder. "Well, our global journey has just begun, hasn't it?"

"Yes, Brazil, the United States, Argentina, Mexico, and..." Anna tried to list the countries of the Americas one by one, but she couldn't remember the rest all of a sudden, so she shook her head vigorously.

"Hainuo, could you get me a globe? Then I'll know where I want to go!"

"Aren't I your walking globe?" Zhang Hainuo chuckled. "We'll sail past the Strait of Magellan, cross the South Pacific, see kangaroos in Oceania, admire ancient Eastern architecture in Asia, eat Chinese food, then head south through the Strait of Malacca, across the Indian Ocean, over the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, into the beautiful Mediterranean. There, we'll see the beautiful Crete, the great Athens, and the romantic Sicily. We'll go to Spain to see bullfighting, then cross the Strait of Gibraltar and the English Channel back to Germany, and then back to Denmark to see your mother and brother, how's that?"

Anna was obviously surprised that Zhang Hainuo could say all that in one breath, but she thought for a moment. "That sounds amazing, to be able to go to so many places! I wish I had signed up to be a nurse on a medical ship!"

Zhang Hainuo smiled without replying, because he knew that serving on a medical ship in the German Navy would almost certainly eliminate the possibility of circumnavigating the globe. Germany did not have a powerful overseas fleet, and during peacetime, visits to other countries were usually made by cruisers and battleships.

The massive ship they were on now, the 10,000-ton behemoth, was the "Loyal Knight," a long-distance freighter belonging to the Brazilian Schneider Shipyard. It was built by the Bremen-Weisel Shipyard under the agreement's annex terms to assist in the construction of the Schneider Shipyard, and it was the first 10,000-ton ship built by Weisel after the war, marking Weisel's return to the ranks of Germany's top shipyards and signaling a solid first step for Zhang Hainuo's team in the A Voyage Plan.

In this vast navigation plan, Zhang Hainuo and his team, with the backing of the Schneider Shipyard and the Weisel Shipyard, planned to spend ten years building a substantial ocean-going fleet. Ostensibly, it was for operating goods transportation between Europe and America and intercontinental trade. Once the time was right, these ocean freighters would bring large quantities of strategic resources such as wood, iron ore, iron sand, natural rubber, and rare metal ores from Brazil to Germany, and industrial finished products and machinery back to Germany. Historically, before World War II, Germany's Plan 4 placed great emphasis on expanding exports and earning foreign exchange. It was a pity that Hermann Göring, who was in charge of this plan in history, did not have the opportunity to plan and implement it.

German ships and vessels usually liked to be named after places or people, but the one Zhang Hainuo was on was an exception - the "Loyal Knight." He hoped that this would remind his subordinates that despite being in distant South America, they should not forget their original intention, that only Germany and the German Navy were the goals they were striving for.

Before leaving Germany for Brazil, the "Loyal Knight" could carry up to 12,000 tons of cargo, loaded with nearly 8,000 tons of goods:

20 Mercedes-Benz cars - It seemed that the German-Brazilian businessmen preferred these German cars over American-made Fords, Buicks, and Chevrolets.A large quantity of cotton textiles - Brazilian cotton was shipped to Germany for processing using German textile technology and relatively cheap labor, and then the high-quality cotton textiles were shipped back to Brazil for sale, which was still profitable.10 tracked agricultural tractors, 10 large mowers, and production licenses for these tractors - These were all imported from the renowned Renault company, which had mainly engaged in the production of light tanks for the French 6th Army at the end of World War I, and later shifted its main business to cars, civilian tractors, and military orders. Although Zhang Hainuo had no intention of getting involved in tank research, tractors still had great potential market in agricultural countries like Brazil.Finally, a complete set of equipment for a diesel engine production line, originally owned by the German Neumannia Shipyard. The shipyard had previously designed and produced diesel engines for submarines in Italy. During World War I, the German Navy also ordered diesel engines from here to build submarines. During the disassembly of German shipyards and factory equipment by the Allied Powers after the war, the Danish Wiskøl Shipyard bought this production line at a low price from the Allied Powers and the Supervisory Commission. After hearing this news, Zhang Hainuo personally went to negotiate with the Danes at the Wiskøl Shipyard and finally bought it for $3.5 million.

In the eyes of others, such equipment might only be sold as scrap iron, but for Zhang Hainuo and the Schneider Shipyard, it had extraordinary value - they could use this production line to manufacture diesel engines at the technological level of World War I and improve them based on it. With physical objects, the research results of experts on paper could be put into production.

After loading most of the cargo hold, the "Loyal Knight" was mostly stable during its voyage across the Atlantic. Even so, this time they did not bring Anna's mother with them. One very important reason why Anna was reassured to leave Denmark was that her older brother, Boas Difet, got married a month ago. The bride was a diligent and kind Danish girl. In this way, leaving her mother in the care of her brother and sister-in-law made Anna more at ease, hoping that her mother would fully recover and join her in the peaceful and remote Americas - since World War I broke out, it had become a veritable paradise in the eyes of many Europeans.

After sailing around for a while, they finally arrived at the port of Salvador in Brazil. Seeing Hess and the others again, Zhang Hainuo's worries from his time in Germany vanished. He introduced all his companions to Anna one by one. At this point, Anna was still ignorant of their entire plan; she only knew that her husband and his former colleagues had opened a supposedly large shipyard in Brazil, but she was unaware of the situation regarding the Aegean treasure (referred to as u148).

Zhang Hainuo wasn't afraid of her leaking information; he just felt that she knew too much, which wouldn't benefit anyone.

The Schneider Shipyard, spanning 80 hectares, now boasted two 10,000-ton dry docks, eight 8,000-ton dry docks, two 5,000-ton dry docks, four 2,000-ton dry docks, three fitting-out production lines, and two wood processing lines. Apart from one 2,000-ton dry dock undergoing modifications to accommodate the construction of military vessels, the other eight dry docks all had shipbuilding tasks. The workforce at the shipyard had reached a record high of over 7,200 people.

The scale of the shipyard and the bustling scene in the shipbuilding area clearly exceeded Anna's expectations. At the same time, she felt genuinely proud of her husband. It was evident that everyone here held him in high regard, although they all addressed him as "Link" rather than "Hainuo" — Zhang Hainuo had explained to her onboard that, to avoid unnecessary trouble for former German naval personnel in Brazil, he, Hess, Otto, and others were currently posing as Austrians in Brazil and using false names.

Anna didn't dwell much on this explanation. She cooperatively played the role of "Mrs. Link" and never confused Otto with "Braun," or Hess with "Host." She was very friendly with the crew. When she saw the seaside cottages described by Zhang Hainuo several times, she was ecstatic because such houses were both comfortable and beautiful. Standing at the window on the second floor, she could overlook the sea, and more importantly, she could enjoy such a whole villa-style cottage with Zhang Hainuo alone, living a true "world of two."

To welcome the arrival of the "Captain's Lady," the crew and their families held a grand welcome dinner in the dormitory area that evening, and Mr. Schneider and Florence were also invited to attend. Nearly four years had passed since their kiss in Rio de Janeiro, and Florence had transformed from a young girl with budding feelings into a mature young woman. However, to this day, she still maintained a kind of ambiguous relationship with Zhang Hainuo. Watching Anna happily snuggled up to him, there was a complex expression in her eyes, seeming lost and sorrowful.

Zhang Hainuo had always intended to match Otto and Florence because they were only two years apart in age, and both were talented and good-looking. But Otto soon surprised everyone: he wanted to get engaged to Adenia.

One was a scion of a noble family from Baden, although he hadn't inherited the family title, he was promising and had a bright future. The other was the granddaughter of a Brazilian tobacco tycoon, though she was a bastard, her family was prominent in Brazil. And her father had only this daughter. Such a match could be described as "well-matched."

Danaman, the lively little princess, had always been regarded as a little sister by Zhang Hainuo. Otto, needless to say, had become his most trusted assistant after Edwin's departure. Such a marriage would undoubtedly bring a potential partner to the Schneider Shipyard — although the Schneider Shipyard had already become the most powerful shipyard in Brazil, Danaman's influence accumulated over the years in Brazil and the wealth of this family were still beyond Zhang Hainuo and his group's short-term reach.

Shortly thereafter, the usually cold-hearted Hess also announced his marriage. Fortunately, he married a daughter of a German family in Salvador, who had been a clerk at the Schneider Shipyard since 1923 and was a hero on the battlefield with no opponents.

June 1924 seemed particularly favored by Zhang Hainuo's bachelors. After Otto and Hess, three more got engaged or entered the church with their loved ones — when they first joined, they were mostly young men in their early twenties, and it had been almost six years since the war ended. It was normal for each of them to find their own place in life.

Zhang Hainuo was genuinely happy for them. After experiencing the hardships of war, they were now a carefree group of people. When the next war broke out, they would be in their forties, and whether they returned to serve the German navy or quietly supported their homeland from behind depended entirely on their own choices — in Zhang Hainuo's mind, war should belong to adventurous young people and professional soldiers, while he himself belonged to the third category: those who constantly strive for a goal, in simpler terms, ambitious people.

Although he had been away from Brazil for more than half a year, Hess, Wolf, Simon, and Giselle still managed the shipyard efficiently. Zhang Hainuo was sincerely pleased and satisfied with this. As the only "navigator" of this team, he quickly summoned all the officers and crew to summarize the gains of the previous stage and allocated a portion of the profits from the American coffee to bonuses for the previous year.

Then, they discussed the next work plan. It was foreseeable that the scale of the Schneider Shipyard would gradually expand, the personnel would increase accordingly, and it would attract more and more attention from the outside world, which also posed higher requirements for the security and confidentiality work of the core personnel of the shipyard. In the past, the goal was to "prevent any information leakage about the sinking treasure of u148," but the new idea was to "fortify" the shipyard — all crew members and their families, important technical personnel, and technical data would be protected as the core of this fortress. To achieve this goal, simply strengthening security measures was no longer enough.

After deliberation, Zhang Hainuo and the others decided to reorganize the internal structure of the shipyard: Mr. Schneider would still serve as the company's representative, and 99% of the assets under the names of "Albert Link" and "Mitchell Braun" would be transferred to the names of the crew members who had obtained new Brazilian identities; the daily affairs of the shipyard would be managed by a six-member management committee consisting of Zhang Hainuo, Hess, Otto, Wolf, Simon, and Giselle, with another 55 crew members forming a committee underneath, which would be further divided into a technical department, a fund supervision department, and an internal security department; the crew area and the expert area would be further isolated from the outside world, and submarine and shipbuilding experts would work in the newly built research building, which would be strictly off-limits to outsiders; experts, technical personnel, and long-term shipyard workers would be checked and their identity files established by the internal security department. Only those who passed strict checks and screenings would be allowed to work in the shipyard in the future.

After the new system was established, the six-member management committee quickly determined the main tasks for the second half of the year of the shipyard and the first half of 1925: the construction of another 10,000-ton dry dock, the completion of the river patrol boat commissioned by the Brazilian police, and the substantive stage of submarine construction — building the first batch of submarine docks and commissioning the Royal Iron Works to trial-produce the first batch of submarine components.

"Before the end of 1925, strive to start the construction of the first aircraft carrier deck landing test. Strive to build a 1,000-ton auxiliary vessel!"

The goals on the table were set. After the general meeting ended, Zhang Hainuo, Hess, Otto, Wolf, Simon, and other key leaders gathered again to discuss the plans beneath the surface: they planned to select several young people from the existing personnel of the shipyard who had served in the German navy and were ideologically reliable, gather them together to learn Portuguese and Brazilian culture and geography. Afterwards, Zhang Hainuo would use the politicians he had previously supported to change the status of these qualified individuals to Brazilian, and then find other ways to send them to work in government departments — with strong financial support, fifteen years was enough time for some of them to become prominent figures in the political arena. Even if they couldn't influence the political situation in Brazil, they could still provide cover for their own plans during World War II.

The so-called Plan B corresponded to the "A-class Navigation Plan." Navigation and sailing seemed to differ only in terminology, but in reality, they were two entirely different plans — the ocean fleet of Plan A would sail arrogantly on the sea, while Plan B:

To implement this second plan, Zhang Hainuo reached a cooperation agreement with the current Bay State legislator, Laut Walker — one of the German politicians sponsored by the Schneider Shipyard in the election, the scar-faced young man who had volunteered to join the German Sixth Army during World War I, and also the son of a wealthy farmer. Together, they applied to establish an underwater tourism company in Salvador under Laut's name.

Since it was an underwater tourism company, there had to be relevant diving tools. Before the outbreak of World War I, when the military use of submarines had not been fully explored, people in Europe used submarines for underwater sightseeing. Noblemen and ladies were very interested in this novelty, although they couldn't see anything interesting through the periscope underwater.