Today's tutelary fort remains peaceful.

Although he still declined politely, Richelieu's expression looked a little better when he heard Xue Cheng say that.

Lin Xiaohe didn't make it in time when the deep-sea beast tide hit last time. She had only heard of the so-called deep-sea monsters. It would be a nice experience if she had the opportunity to actually fight with them.

Thinking of this, Richelieu heard Constellation, who had been silent the whole time, say carelessly:

"Well, the Admiral is right. Exercises are really unnecessary. If the difference in strength is too great, even if we fight, we won't gain much experience."

It's bad! Xue Cheng was shocked, and Lexington sighed secretly.

Before coming, facing Constellation who insisted on coming with him, Lexington had no choice but to tell her not to speak carelessly in order to avoid saying something wrong. Unexpectedly, Constellation persisted for a while but eventually gave up.

What an idiot! Saratoga glared at the clueless Xinghanhan fiercely and said:

"Sorry, that idiot didn't mean it. She was just a little too direct and didn't know how to adapt. She definitely didn't mean anything else..."

You are an idiot too! Lexington looked at Saratoga with a somewhat powerless look. If she hadn't known Gaga's character well, she would have almost thought that Saratoga was deliberately provoking her.

Richelieu took a deep breath and looked at Constellation with an unfriendly expression: "Your Excellency is saying that in this exercise, your side has an absolute chance of winning?"

"Isn't this obvious?" Xing Hanhan tilted his head:

"I heard your admiral is a newcomer? Then your training level shouldn't be very high. As for top-grade equipment... I'm sorry, I don't sense any danger from you."

"Okay, I've made up my mind." Richelieu stared at the constellations quietly. "Exercise! I challenge you to a battle of military honor!"

"Hmm...are you sure?" Xing Xing kindly reminded, "I know you might be very strong, but the gap between us isn't as simple as you think."

"No need to say more!" Richelieu said firmly. "I have already made up my mind!"

"Okay..." Xing Hanhan sighed and looked at Xue Cheng: "What does the admiral say?"

"...Everyone, please stop now and don't hurt the relationship." What else could Xue Cheng do? If he refused Richelieu's request, he would probably really upset this proud girl.

"Don't worry! I will do my best!" Xing Hanhan rubbed his hands together.

Hey! You idiot! I told you to go easy on me! I didn’t tell you to go all out! Xue Cheng screamed in his heart.

"Admiral?" Richelieu also looked at Lin Xiaohe.

"Well, that kind of thing doesn't matter. Just be careful." Lin Xiaohe seemed to not care at all. Her dark eyes followed Xiao Zhai and the other two everywhere.

“…” Richelieu was speechless.

So the Richelieu and Constellation exercises were scheduled for the afternoon.

……

Someone is here to challenge!

When this news spread throughout the garrison, the usually quiet crowd became abuzz with excitement.

For a long time, their own naval base has always been the trump card of the Navy Headquarters. Although it is not well-known in the public opinion, the high-ranking naval officials have always attached great importance to it. Not only are their welfare benefits extremely high, but the rules and regulations of the Navy are also very relaxed for them.

Over time, even the most humble ship girl has a sense of pride deep in her heart.

The pride called "the strongest".

Now someone comes to challenge her. Although she is a new young female admiral and the training level of the ship girls under her command does not seem to be very high, what if?

If the challenged loses, the title of "the strongest" will disappear with the defeat.

Therefore, even if they were scolded for bullying the newcomer, even if a crushing defeat would make the young admiral cry, they would never allow themselves to lose.

Two o'clock in the afternoon, at the port terminal.

The dazzling sun hung high in the sky, and although it had begun to tilt towards the west, the temperature did not drop at all. The dock was crowded with people, and even the most playful destroyers or submarines did not miss this battle.

Surrounded by Lexington and Reputation, Xue Cheng stood under an umbrella, waiting for the exercise to begin.

On one side of the dock, Xing Hanhan was surrounded by a group of girls, who were bombarding her with words.

"How is it? Is Zodiac confident of winning?"

"Relax, don't be nervous, adjust your condition to the best, and absolutely cannot lose!"

"Where's the water? Who has water? Hurry up and get some water so Constellation can moisten his throat!"

"Here comes the fan! Everyone, move aside and let Constellation cool down with the fan!"

"..." Xingzhi looked at the sisters who surrounded her and asked about her well-being, and couldn't help but sigh:

"Does everyone have so little confidence in me? I'm actually quite confident in my own abilities."

"Idiot! Don't be careless!" a young girl said, "That's Richelieu, one of Europe's Three Musketeers! How dare you look down on Sister Richelieu?"

Noticing a glance falling on him, Xing Xing shuddered and said quickly, "How could that be possible! Who dares to underestimate Sister Li's strength?"

"It's just that the Richelieu on the other side hasn't even reached the transformation level, and most likely doesn't have any high-level equipment, so..."

"I don't care what your reasons are." Maryland was wearing a sports bra and shorts, with fingerless gloves on her hands. It seemed that she rushed from the boxing gym as soon as she received the news.

She clenched her fists, making a crisp sound. Her blood-red eyes stared at the constellation, gleaming with a bloodthirsty light: "In short, you can't lose this battle. If you lose..."

Maryland twitched the corner of his mouth, his white teeth gleaming in the sunlight. "As punishment, just box with me for a week."

"Fight with Maryland?!" Xingzhi's expression froze. "Are you kidding me, dear Maryland?"

"Haha..." Maryland smiled slightly. Before Xingzuo could relax, her face suddenly turned serious: "Who's kidding you? Anyway, if you dare to lose this exercise, even Lexington can't save you!"

"I, I get it!" Under the interference of external forces, Xingxing finally realized the seriousness of the situation. A sense of momentum slowly gathered around her: "I will definitely win!"

"Oh!" The girls around her waved their arms vigorously and cheered as if to cheer her up.

"I will definitely win!" Richelieu sat in the pavilion, listening to the thunderous cheers in the distance. As if to strengthen her confidence, she murmured to herself, "I will definitely win!"

"Sister Richelieu." The blonde girl, Jilin, pulled out a tissue and carefully wiped the sweat from her forehead, whispering, "Are you okay?"

"It's okay..." Richelieu shook his head and touched Killin's hair.

Until just now, she still had enough confidence in herself. However, after seeing the ship girls arriving at the dock one after another and identifying their identities one by one based on their features and conversations, a sense of uneasiness began to linger in her heart.

Especially when everyone was present, Richelieu found that he had seen more than 90% of the ship girls in the ship girl encyclopedia, and there was even a blonde girl who looked very different from himself but had a somewhat similar temperament. The uneasiness in his heart was like a seed sprouting into a towering tree.

Let’s not talk about the training level of these ship girls for now, but the number alone is terrifying enough. It is said that the Governor of the South China Sea, the most powerful of the four governors, has only more than a hundred ship girls under his command.

But what did she see here? A rough estimate showed that in this short period of time, Richelieu had seen no less than four hundred ship girls, and more were still arriving.

"Wow..." The girl with long green hair put her hands on the awning, looked around, and exclaimed: "How many ship girls does this Admiral Xue Cheng have?"

"A conservative estimate is over 450." Battleship Girl Massachusetts said with a grim expression, "Richelieu, you've never lost in exercises with other garrisons, but this time..."

Shaking his head, Massachusetts sighed, "To be honest, I'm not very optimistic about you."

Admiral Count Spee also nodded in agreement.

"What's wrong with having more people? We agreed on a one-on-one fight, are they going to gang up on us?"

An energetic voice came from the light aircraft carrier Raider, who changed into a cheerleader-like outfit and held a colorful balloon in her hand, cheering for Richelieu: "Come on! Richelieu! You are the best! You must win for the Admiral!"

Richelieu took a deep breath and nodded slowly.

"If it were for my sake, I would rather Richelieu didn't work so hard."

Lin Xiaohe's voice suddenly came from behind Richelieu. Before she could say anything, she felt a chill on her cheek.

"Admiral?" Richelieu subconsciously took the object pressed against his cheek in his hand. It was a can of drink with water droplets still on it.

"How is it? Are you nervous?" Lin Xiaohe chuckled, jumped over the chair into the pavilion, and sat next to Richelieu.

"I..." Richelieu wanted to deny it, but she knew that she must be very uneasy.

"Well, isn't it normal to be nervous?" Lin Xiaohe swung her calves, rested her hands on her waist, squinted her eyes and looked at the girls on the dock, with undisguised envy on her face.

"This is the first time I've seen so many shipgirls, and they belong to just one admiral. I'm so jealous. It's normal for Richelieu to feel pressured."

"But I clearly said that I wanted to win victory for the admiral..." Richelieu bit his lip lightly.

"It's too early to tell who will win or lose, so let's just do our best."

Lin Xiaohe patted Richelieu's shoulder and said with a smile, "Just because there are more people, you've lost your confidence? This is not the Richelieu I know."

"No..." Richelieu wanted to deny it, but he was interrupted by his own admiral before he could finish his words.

"However," Lin Xiaohe held her cheeks and said with an intoxicated look on her face, "As the saying goes, you can't talk about victory without talking about defeat. I don't dislike Richelieu for this. After all, everyone has to experience failure."

Richelieu wasn't moved by her words at all, his forehead veins throbbing. "Admiral, do you mean you have no confidence in me?"

"Seeing so many five-star and six-star ship girls, even I find it hard to have confidence in you."

Lin Xiaohe said helplessly: "Even if we change their equipment to that Miss Constellation, it will be enough to arm her to the teeth."

"..." Richelieu remained silent. She was of course aware of this truth. Even if that constellation's training level was not as good as hers, with the help of high-level equipment, it would be enough to narrow the gap between the two sides.

"However," Lin Xiaohe changed the subject: "Even so, I will pray to the gods, hoping that Richelieu can win, so..."

"Go hard!"

"...Yes." Richelieu looked at the girl who clenched her fists tightly to cheer herself up, and nodded heavily.

Facing the gentle sea breeze, Richelieu stood on the sea. She looked at the girl coming from afar, then lowered her head to her right hand, where a lavender hairband lay quietly in her palm.

Richelieu casually tied up his long hair that was fluttering in the wind, looked at the girl who had already arrived at the preparation area, listened to the cheers coming from afar, and felt surprisingly calm in his heart.

Hmm? When did it start?

Richelieu was a little surprised. She thought about it carefully and it seemed that she had calmed down since talking with the admiral.

"So it is, Admiral..." Richelieu whispered to himself.

"Hello, Miss Richelieu from Admiral Lin's family?" Constellation's voice came from afar: "Excuse me, can we begin?"

Richelieu came back to his senses, took a few deep breaths, and responded in a deep voice: "Come on!"

"Bang!" At the distant dock, a flare was fired into the sky, and Constellation and Richelieu simultaneously took fighting stances.

Thanks to Xicarlo's CD for the four monthly tickets~

Thank you for the monthly ticket from my book friends~

Thanks to the extremely bored person A for voting for two monthly tickets~

Thanks to Xiyi Xinshang for the two monthly tickets~

Thanks to Devil's Palm Flower for the two monthly tickets~

291. Proposal