Chapter 7: Chapter 3: The Mists of History

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In the "Beiping" multi-purpose compartment, almost all the high-level commanding officers of the entire fleet were currently seated around the table, regardless of service branch or region. The entire meeting had lasted for nearly four hours. The giant LED screen on the wall slowly cycled through photos taken by reconnaissance aircraft—each one pale and lacking color. Because they were watching a slideshow, the lights in the meeting room were turned off; whether it was due to the gravity of the situation or the light emitted by the screen, everyone in the room wore a heavy, solemn expression.

"As everyone has seen, the reality is that we have entered history, rather than the electromagnetic interference or total war we originally hypothesized. Based on the intercepted radio signals and broadcast signals, we have returned to 1938. The accurate time should be 8:00 AM on May 15, 1938. Our position is on the ocean surface approximately 400 kilometers southwest of Shanghai, and 254 kilometers from Yibei. It can be stated with certainty that we have encountered a singular astronomical phenomenon; we have traveled back to the period of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression 75 years ago. The specific details will be explained by Professor Tang Xing, the leader of the onboard expert group."

Xia Hai'an was the first to break the heavy atmosphere of the meeting room. As his voice fell, a middle-aged man of about forty, who had been sitting by the slide projector flipping through a notebook, hurriedly looked up.

"Hello everyone, I am Tang Xing from Institute 707. My original duty was to lead the expert group in evaluating the operational efficiency of the aircraft carriers and the effectiveness of the formation's logistical support during this operation, and to participate in establishing frontline supply, repair, and production bases when necessary. Now, I have been tasked by the Commander to evaluate this special event. After the expert group analyzed the wireless listening data sent from each ship and the optical reconnaissance data just sent back by Electronic Warfare 01 and 02, we can be one hundred percent certain that the time-space we are currently in is May 15, 1938. Furthermore, based on the detection of the fleet's belongings using the broad-spectrum spectrometers and radiation detectors carried by this expert group, we found that the surfaces of all objects belonging to the fleet, including human bodies, show signs of large-scale positron escape. Additionally, from the navigation monitoring videos we retrieved from each ship, we found that starting 30 minutes before the crossing, the starry sky ahead of the fleet shifted. According to calculations, this was a typical gravitational lensing phenomenon. The occurrence of gravitational lensing is a sign of large-scale changes in spatial structure. Therefore, we have reason to believe that just over five hours ago, we encountered a spatial distortion—specifically, what is commonly known as a spatial wormhole. However, this distortion was not a simple spatial collapse, but rather a simultaneous distortion of both time and space, which caused us to appear in a historical time-space approximately 75 years away from our original one, and caused the entire formation to shift nearly 100 kilometers to the south. Additionally, according to relevant theories, spatial distortion is a low-probability event in physics, with a probability of occurrence less than 10 to the power of negative 30. So, it can be said that we can never go back."

As Professor Tang finished his speech, discussions immediately broke out in the meeting room. "We can never go back"—this sentence was an incredibly heavy blow to everyone present. Their relatives, friends, their families, and their careers were all left behind 75 years in the future from this moment on. Now, they had truly become people without roots.

"Comrades, please be quiet." Seeing everyone's low spirits, Wang Chongwu felt he had to say something. "I understand how everyone is feeling right now. Before the fleet departed, my daughter had just celebrated her 10th birthday, but now I can never take her to the amusement park again. My heart is also aching as if pierced by knives. But is sadness useful? We can never go back. For the soldiers who came here with us, for the brothers we fought alongside, we as officers should be the first to stay strong. Think about it: we have come to 1938; we cannot change this fact. What we need to consider now is not our relatives and friends at home; they are all living well in that original peaceful country. I believe that even with our disappearance, the state will help us take care of our loved ones. But the era we are in now is an era of war. What we should be considering right now is how to survive in this war-torn age. We no longer have a country as our backbone; we have become duckweed, drifting on the ocean surface without a place to land. Our supplies will run out one day, and before we are out of ammunition and food, we need to find a place to settle so that we can survive. Therefore, please set aside your sorrow and focus entirely on how we should proceed."

Following the Deputy Commander's speech, the meeting room gradually quieted down. Indeed, how should they proceed? The entire fleet consisted of nearly 500,000 people, and their daily provisions were staggering. Although the original attack plan had accounted for the possibility of interference from the US and Japanese militaries, which might prevent logistical connections, the entire formation had carried nearly three months' worth of supplies for the attack force before departure. However, now that they had traveled to this time-space, there was no longer any logistical support from forward bases. Their current supplies could be described as diminishing with every use; finding a place to settle had become an urgent matter to resolve.

"Let me say a few words," Li Dekai, the captain of the aircraft carrier 'Puhai', broke the deadlock. "Since we are a unit of the Communist Party, I think we can contact the CPC Central Committee currently stationed in Yan'an and have them receive us."

"Very good. Everyone should actively offer suggestions. Does anyone else have any ideas?"

"I object," Li Hao, who had been sitting in the corner of the meeting room reviewing data, suddenly spoke. "Our entire fleet, including the land, sea, and air forces as well as the crew members of the conscripted merchant fleet, totals 540,000 people. The daily consumption of food and fresh water alone is more than what the current CPC Central Committee can bear, let alone the various types of fuel consumed daily. If you add the ammunition consumption during combat, even the Republic of China government led by Chiang Kai-shek, who currently holds power in China, might not be able to afford it. Furthermore, our Party currently has no coastal ports to provide us with a place to land. In my view, we can only contact the Republic of China government."

"Does anyone from the logistics sub-fleet have any opinions?" Seeing Li Hao finish, Xia Hai'an turned to ask the merchant ship captain, Li Bingguo.

"I have no opinion on who to join, but shouldn't we consider the current war situation on the mainland? It is now May 1938. According to history, most of China's major seaports have already been occupied or besieged by the Japanese. Even if the existing Republic of China government is willing to accept us, we have no place to land."

"May I say something?" A soft female voice came from the room.

"Oh, there is a lady here as well. Come, come, tell us."

"Hello everyone, I am the leader of the Xinhua News Agency's military correspondent group. My name is Tang Yan. I have an idea, but I don't know if I should say it."

"It's fine, go ahead."

"I feel that since we are an offensive-type fleet, our military strength is sufficient to break the current status of China's coast being blockaded by Japan. Additionally, it is May 1938; Zhang Teli has already been expelled from the Party. The Chinese Communist Party has basically escaped Soviet control, which means the process of the CPC unifying China has officially begun. We can fully participate in the national war in the capacity of a Chinese Communist Party Naval Branch, and then use our current strength to fight for a place to land, advance the transformation of the entire Chinese resistance, and lay the foundation for national unification. Besides, if these 500,000 troops cannot contribute to the resistance, then our travel to 1938 would have been in vain. With our existing strength, I think it is possible to end the War of Resistance several years early, or even avoid the full-scale outbreak of the Civil War."

"Yes, yes, yes, I'll add something too." After hearing Tang Yan's speech, Professor Tang of the expert group appeared very excited and interjected, "Our onboard expert group consists of 122 people in total, mainly covering specialties such as shipbuilding, aviation, metallurgy, energy, and mechanical manufacturing. Furthermore, as far as I know, the formation also carries various types of machine tool equipment. These were originally added to the fleet to participate in the exercise because the arrival of these materials had been postponed to coordinate with the drills. These pieces of equipment can manufacture all the various combat materials we need and perform maintenance and repairs on existing equipment. I remember there is even an aircraft engine production line imported from Russia among them. So, as long as we can find a place to land, we can establish basic supply and repair bases. We can survive very well and begin China's industrialization process ahead of schedule."

"I agree with this," said Li Hao, who had just objected. "I apologize to everyone. I was only focused on logistical needs just now and didn't consider our actual strength. We actually have no other requirements for the CPC Central Committee in Yan'an; we just need them to allow us to be reintegrated. Through our own efforts, we can start directly from the Japanese-occupied areas, take back occupied territories from the Japanese military, start the national industrialization process early, and use this to open up communication with places like Shanxi and Shaanxi, striving to complete national unification before World War II. This way, we can reclaim our lost 4 million square kilometers of territory during WWII to make up for past deficiencies."

"Agreed, agreed." At this point, most of those present nodded in agreement.

"Very well. There are now two opinions: joining the Communist Party army or joining the Republic of China army. Everyone, please vote by a show of hands."

After the vote, unsurprisingly, almost everyone chose the policy of joining the Chinese Communist Party. In the hearts of these modern soldiers, they perhaps still equated the historical Republic of China army with the Japanese islanders they had always regarded as their hypothetical enemy.

"Good. Since everyone has made a decision, I will deliver a speech to the entire army in one hour to announce the current situation and conduct a full-army vote on this decision. As long as more than half pass, it will be approved and implemented. Chief of Staff, notify the entire army immediately. Open the broadcasts on all ships, bring all personnel tactical terminals online, and use the data link to count the full-army vote."