The Rise Of A Billionaire 1943-Chapter 168 - 180

April 7th, evening.

A fleet of several hundred ships was sailing across the Pacific Ocean. After a long journey, they were now approaching the waters near the Philippines. At the very center of the fleet was the landing ship carrying the Borneo Garrison.

Reinforcements are as urgent as fighting a fire. According to the original plan, the troops were supposed to rest for a few days in Australia. However, because MacArthur demanded that the offensive begin no later than mid-May, the fleet set course directly for Mindanao after refueling in Australia.

Although detouring along the east coast of Australia made the voyage extremely long, the officers and soldiers of the garrison were all in high spirits—they were going to fight the Japs!

While the soldiers were training on deck as usual, Lautrey, dressed in a nurse’s uniform, was once again practicing wound suturing and bandaging on a rubber model under the head nurse’s guidance. The curved needle for suturing was tricky—sometimes her stitches were too big, sometimes too small.

"Pay attention to your strength and depth when suturing. And Ada, watch out—not too deep, just the skin, don’t stitch into the muscle. Eva, just treat it like embroidery, like you’re doing needlework, you know? Needlework is something every woman is born knowing how to do..."

Emma, who was supervising their practice, spoke without the slightest hint of politeness. After all, her husband and friends were in the army. If these girls couldn’t suture wounds properly, it could cost lives.

Because of this, she never went easy on the girls in front of her, even though each of them was prettier than the last.

Precisely because they were so beautiful, she had to be even stricter.

Finally, around six o’clock, the afternoon’s practice ended. Lautrey, drenched in sweat, finally relaxed a little. Just as she sat down to take a sip of water, Ada came over with two cups.

"Lautrey, Eva, have some water first."

Although Ada could speak French, she wasn’t as fluent as in English. Lautrey spoke both French and English fluently but preferred English. As for Eva, a girl from an ordinary family, she only spoke English.

Their shared language brought the three together as a small group. Even after boarding the ship, they shared a cabin. By now, they were the best of friends.

"Thank you, Ada."

As she took the water, Lautrey genuinely liked this little sister—not just for her lovely looks and those eyes that could make any woman’s heart flutter, but because she wanted to protect her!

That’s right!

She had to protect her from all those playboys... 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Thinking of this, Lautrey naturally thought of that guy. Where was he? What was he doing?

He definitely wasn’t on this ship, or else Eva would have sneaked over to him by now—especially at night.

Just then, the loudspeaker suddenly came on.

"We have just received a telegram from Allied Headquarters. At around 9 a.m. today, the Japanese Navy’s most powerful battleship—and the world’s most powerful battleship—the Yamato, with a displacement of 72,000 tons, was sunk by our garrison fleet’s submarine ’Shark’ with torpedoes in the waters south of Kyushu..."

In the next instant, cheers erupted on the hospital ship. Even through the cabin walls, they could hear the celebration outside.

"Hurrah...!"

"We sank the Japanese battleship,"

Lautrey’s face was filled with excitement as she hugged Ada tightly."

Few people could understand Lautrey’s excitement. Neither Ada nor Eva could grasp what it meant for their countrymen to sink the "strongest battleship in history." It wasn’t just a warship—it was a symbol!

Yamato was Japan.

The sinking of Yamato was equivalent to the sinking of Japan!

While Lautrey was so excited she could barely control herself, Eva, who had been swept up in the joy, suddenly let out a long sigh.

"Sigh, what a pity. I can’t share this great news with him."

Eva’s sigh reached Lautrey’s ears, and she couldn’t help but tease her.

"Oh, looks like someone’s missing her man again."

"Darling, one day, you’ll miss him too. And don’t you dare say you don’t!"

"Miss him?"

Lautrey quickly retorted with disdain.

"How could I possibly miss that jerk?"

Eva glanced at Lautrey, then walked up to her with a grin.

"Sweetie, he actually smells really nice. You’ll know when you’re in his arms... Wait, haven’t you already snuggled into his arms? So, how was it? Didn’t it feel great?"

Her friend’s teasing made Lautrey blush. She pushed away Eva’s "devilish claws" and said,

"Eva, you... you pervert! I’m not talking to you anymore..."

Meanwhile, Ada sat beside them, her big, bright eyes sparkling...

His eyes were fixed on his two older sisters. What were they talking about?

Were they discussing men?

It seemed like they were talking about the same man!

One man?

Both of them?

How could that be possible!

"I don’t mind sharing with you,"

Ava said to Lautrey with a smile, then pulled Ada over and hugged her slender waist—so slim it would make anyone jealous—and added,

"Mm, Ada can join us too..."

Before she could finish, Ada was pulled over by Lautrey, who exclaimed excitedly,

"Ada, don’t listen to her nonsense! Our Ada is so cute and beautiful, she must stay far away from that guy..."

"Lautrey, we need to learn to share. Good things shouldn’t be kept to oneself..."

Suddenly, Ava, who had been teasing her two younger sisters, fell silent. She seemed a little agitated and said,

"Oh my God, I’m so stupid!"

"What?"

"What’s wrong?"

Lautrey and Ada asked with concern.

"Heidi! Heidi must have already gotten her hands on that guy! They must be together now!"

There was actually someone else!

While Ada was still reeling from this revelation, what they didn’t know was... Pierre hadn’t had any time to spend with Heidi at all. Even though they were on the same ship, most of his time was spent with his command team and advisors conducting war games.

But half an hour ago, the simulation had been cut short halfway through because of some sudden, wonderful news.

"We’ve sunk the Yamato!"

Even though half an hour had passed, Pierre was still visibly excited. Gunshots rang out from all directions—the officers and soldiers were firing celebratory shots to mark the victory!

The Yamato had been sunk!

With a cigar between his fingers, Pierre’s lips curled into a wide smile.

Those submarines were worth every penny!

Just then, footsteps sounded behind him. When they stopped beside him, he didn’t need to turn around—just the scent of her perfume told him it was Heidi. She worked in the communications office and had always been on the same ship as him, though they rarely saw each other.

"The Yamato isn’t just a warship!"

"Mm."

"It’s a symbol—a symbol of Japan, representing all the achievements Japan has made since the Meiji Restoration: economic, technological, educational, and so on. It’s basically Japan itself. They call themselves the Yamato people, and they named their battleship after their nation. Such heavy expectations..."

Taking a puff of his cigar and savoring its aroma, Pierre smiled.

"And yet we sank it with just five torpedoes! Only five!"

In history, the Yamato took more than a dozen torpedo hits before sinking, but that made sense—after all, the Americans dropped aerial torpedoes, which had far less explosive power than the G7E torpedoes. With a 320-kilogram warhead, just two could send a battleship to the bottom. The Yamato took five before it went down—well-deserved for the ’strongest in history.’

But who cares if it was the strongest in history? Now that we’ve sunk it, it’s the strongest in history, period!

"We didn’t just sink a warship—we destroyed a symbol, a spirit, a faith. People say faith can’t be destroyed, but they’re wrong. Faith can be shattered. It seems strong, but in reality, it’s incredibly fragile. Japan... this time, we’ve broken their backbone..."

A battleship named after their nation had been sunk just like that!

And this was only the first step in breaking Japan’s backbone. What comes next? Naturally, it’s to fully subdue Japan—turn it into a dog. And of course, America won’t be the only master.

The Allies, after all!

And yes, Borneo will get a share too!

"Under Mount Fuji, the Han flag flies; beneath the cherry blossoms, beauties get drunk..."

Thinking this, unwilling to let the Japanese girls get ahead of her, Heidi looked at him with her enchanting eyes. Feeling the heat of her gaze, Pierre finally turned his attention to her.

Oh!

The allure of a uniform!

Though dressed in a female soldier’s uniform, Heidi’s beauty wasn’t diminished at all. In fact, it made her even more tempting, making it hard for anyone to resist.

Just then, Heidi parted her red lips and spoke in a soft, seductive voice.

"Darling..."

Faced with such temptation, what man could possibly control himself...