On the third day after the East China government's evacuation fleet left Java, the Far East Expeditionary Force, led by Britain and France, which actually brought together the warships of Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Russia, finally arrived at the port of Singapore and began a long period of repairs.

At this time, the expeditionary force had been sailing at sea for more than four months, with a journey of 15,000 kilometers, although because the expeditionary force passed through the Sui Canal, both the itinerary and the sailing time were much shorter than that of the Russian Pacific Second Fleet, but the nearly five months of sailing still made the soldiers tired, although they also stopped at the port to rest on the way, but the time was not long. Moreover, after a long period of sailing, the ship has serious mechanical wear and tear, and needs to be maintained, because it is below the waterline, a large number of shellfish and algae have been attached, which seriously affects the speed of the ship and must be removed.

After leaving Singapore, they entered the Far East Seas, not only did they basically have no ports for the fleet to dock and repair on the way, but they could encounter the fleet of the East China Government at any time, so it was necessary to make the ships and personnel of the expeditionary force repair in the port of Singapore to achieve the best condition before setting off.

In addition, the current situation has changed dramatically compared with before the departure of the expeditionary force, both Japan and Russia have suffered heavy defeats, so that the help of the expeditionary force in the Far East has been greatly reduced, and since it is the British Far East Fleet that has been defeated by the East China government's evacuation fleet, Britain and France have found that they have greatly underestimated the naval strength of the East China government, so it is necessary for the expeditionary force to reformulate tactics. This is another important part of my stay in Singapore.

Of course, because the size of the expeditionary fleet was so large that it exceeded the size of the navy of any country except Britain, although Singapore was the largest port of Britain in Asia, it could not accommodate so many warships, so Dutch and Russian warships were transferred to Java for mooring and repair, while only British and French warships and soldiers were berthed in Singapore.

After a day's rest in Singapore, Admiral Phillips, the commander of the expeditionary force, and Vice Admiral Owen, commander of the Far East Fleet, and the surviving captains of the battleships, learned in detail about the naval battle of the Natuna Islands.

Phillips received the news of the Far East Fleet's defeat in the Battle of the Natuna Islands during the voyage, and Phillips was indeed quite surprised at that time, because in Phillips's view, the strength of the Far East Fleet was superior in this naval battle, and it was a battle of leisure, and at the same time Owen was not incompetent, so it was impossible to lose, but the result was not only lost, but also a fiasco, 3 battleships were sunk, and 3 of the 5 battleships that escaped back to Singapore had to be towed back to Britain for repairs, so Britain had sent a special team to Singapore to assess the damage to these 3 warshipsto determine whether the three warships had the value of being towed back to the UK for repairs. However, the damage of the KPA fleet does not seem to be large, at least the Far Eastern Fleet did not have a definite result in sinking the opponent's battleships and armored cruisers.

Since Phillips received the news in the middle of the way, he did not know the details of the battle, and even suspected that the domestic telegram had been sent by mistake, and called back to inquire, and after receiving a definite answer, Phillips naturally wanted to know the details of the battle.

Owen had already been mentally prepared for this, and after the defeat and return to Singapore, Owen did not entrust others to shirk his responsibility, but seriously summed up, he recruited the captains and other personnel of each warship that fled back to Singapore, inquired in detail about their battle history, and looked at the battle logs of each warship, and reviewed the entire war as a reference after the arrival of the expeditionary force.

After some hard work, Owen was basically willing to tell the story of the Natuna Islands, so he not only gave a detailed lecture to Phillips, but also conducted a complete simulation review exercise with the model.

And after watching Owen's mock review exercises, Phillips did not speak for a long time, because judging from the entire course of the war, the Far Eastern Fleet really had no chance of winning. Judging from the situation in this war, the KPA Navy has three major characteristics: First, the firing range is long, and the firing range is basically between 8 and 9,000 meters, which shows that the KPA Navy has long since expanded its firing range to 10,000 meters, while the British Navy has only just begun to conduct tests with a range of 10,000 meters, and it will take at least two to three years before actual combat; second, the hit rate is extremely high; although it is impossible for the British fleet to calculate the hit rate of the KPA, it is estimated that it will not be less than 10 percent, and the hit rate of 10 percent in actual combat is quite an astonishing achievement; and third, the command of the KPA Navy is quite accurate, and in this era, the combat distance of the Navy is constantly expandingIf it is the army commander who can choose the high ground and command the battle from a global perspective, but the naval commander can only be trapped on the warship, there is no way to jump out of the battlefield, and the entire battlefield can only give each warship greater autonomy, but in this way, there are too many uncertain factors. In this battle, the two nodes of the KPA fleet are very accurate, and it is almost impossible for the captain to make a decision, only the change of formation ordered by the commander, which also shows that the command of the KPA Navy must be unique.

The first two characteristics were not possible for the British navy, and the third feature, Phillips asked himself, if this war had been commanded by himself, it would not have been possible to achieve such precise control, but the People's Army navy had achieved all three points, which also showed that at least a considerable part of the naval technology of the East China government had surpassed that of the British. If the expeditionary force recklessly fights the KPA Navy, it will certainly suffer a great loss.

Later, Phillips, Owen and others re-deduced this battle, and after several deductions, they came to the conclusion that in the replacement of the more combat-effective pseudo-majestic class battleships, it was necessary to have 8 ships to be able to defeat this KPA fleet, because the KPA Navy had a longer range than the British Navy, so at the beginning of the battle, the British Navy had to withstand the blows of the other side to shorten the distance, and at least to pay the price of losing two battleships; although the British still had a slight advantage of 6 to 5, the KPA Navy had a higher hit rate, and won with 28 to 24 guns in the number of main gunsFortunately, the defense of the Majesty-class battleships is stronger than that of the Old Man-class battleships, and the final victory is unpredictable, if the British Navy wants to win steadily, it needs 10 Majesty-class battleships, or 8 of the strongest Edward-class battleships.

Now the expeditionary force Britain has 3 battleship detachments, the first is composed of 5 Majesty-class battleships, the second is composed of 4 Duncan-class battleships, and the third is composed of 3 Dreadnought-class battleships and 2 Edward VII-class battleships, of which the Dreadnought class is an improved and upgraded version of the Majesty class, and its combat effectiveness is stronger, but the Duncan class is a simplified version of the Dreadnought class, and its combat effectiveness is weaker than that of the Majestic class. Therefore, any of these three battleship detachments was obviously no match for the evacuation fleet, and as for the French, Dutch, and Russian navies, it was even worse. And taking into account the fact that the KPA Navy has at least 2-3 more battleships, it is also possible to form a much more powerful fleet.

Although on the whole, the strength of the expeditionary force navy is still far above that of the KPA navy, the KPA is fighting at home, waiting for work, and is familiar with the sea environment, so it is completely capable of biting the expeditionary force navy.

Therefore, Phillips also decided to reorganize the British battleships in the expeditionary force navy, and merged the three battleship detachments into two, consisting of 5 Majesty-class battleships and 3 Dreadnought-class battleships to form the 1st battleship detachment; 4 Duncan-class battleships and 2 Edward VII-class battleships to form the 2nd battleship detachment; at the same time, the five French battleships were similar to those of the Netherlands, The five Russian battleships were grouped together, so that the expeditionary force navy could organize three fleets that could fight the KPA navy, so that they could be calmly arranged.

Originally, Phillips planned to first concentrate the main force of the fleet and block the coastline of the East China Government as soon as he arrived in the Far East, and then seek an opportunity for landing operations, and attack on both land and sea lines to defeat the East China Government in one fell swoop. But now that the East China government's naval strength is far beyond previous estimates, the plan to blockade the East China government's coastline may not be easily completed, after all, the East China government only needs to concentrate forces to break through one of these points. The Japanese government also promised to send 6-8 divisions, plus the 50,000 troops of the expeditionary force, and the Russian army to contain it in the north, which was enough to pose a greater threat to the East China government on land. But now that Japan has taken care of itself, and the Russian army has withdrawn from China, it can't help the expeditionary force, and only relies on the 50,000 troops of the expeditionary force to land, isn't that just for the East China government to go head?

The original plan was definitely not implemented, so Phillips consulted with the army commander, the French army admiral Beauchamp, and finally decided that after reaching the East Asian seas, the expeditionary force would be divided into two, the warships of France, the Netherlands and Russia, and the expeditionary force army would be anchored in the port of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and the British navy would be stationed in Nagasaki, Japan.

Although there is a suspicion of dispersing forces in this way, both fleets have the strength to confront the East China Government's navy, and although they cannot completely block the coastline of the East China Government, they can also form a situation of holding the East China Government hostage from the north and south, and they can coordinate with each other, which can greatly limit the East China Government's ability to carry out maritime activities.

Moreover, the expeditionary force army stationed in Taiwan can also wait for the opportunity to land in Chinese mainland. After the British Navy is stationed in Japan, it can first assist Japan in solving the problem of the People's Army landing in Japan and open up the route from Japan to the Korean Peninsula, so that Japan can also free up its hands to support the landing operations of the expeditionary force. However, in this way, the war will be prolonged, at least for more than half a year, or even a year.

However, in the current situation, it is impossible for the expeditionary force to defeat itself quickly, and it can only adopt such a steady and steady tactic.