The Ninth Fleet sailed in the South Pacific.

February is the hottest time of the year.

The Ninth Fleet has a total of four aircraft carriers, two modernized old battleships and four cutting-edge anti-aircraft light cruisers that have only been in service for five years, as well as two integrated supply ships with a displacement of 12,000 tons.

According to the order of the Navy Headquarters, the fleet set off from New Luzon (New Zealand) and changed its original plan to the port of Sinaiju, intending to enter the Caribbean Sea through the American Canal.

Ling Wencha accompanied the fleet commander Vice Admiral Chen Shiying and the commander of the screen protection fleet Huo Xunchi to stand on the bridge outside the command tower of the flagship "Yunling", the fleet commander's face looked a little haggard, he had not had much rest in the past few days.

The maritime war in the Americas worries them.

This time the Europeans seemed to be prepared, and the combined fleet of the three countries in East and West Francia plus Spain actually dispatched 10 aircraft carriers and 12 battleships. After suffering a serious blow, the North Atlantic Fleet of the Tang Empire has basically lost control of the sea areas in this area.

However, in the Pacific Ocean, they are not worried about any major danger now.

According to the original plan, the Ninth Fleet was to go to the Falklands in South America, but now it needs to cross the Pacific Ocean to the ports around Central America, and then cross the Canal of the Americas and enter the Caribbean.

The waters of the Central Pacific Ocean are sapphire-colored, hot and tidal, and a dazzlingly blazing sun hangs high in the sky. It was a sunny day, and the sun was emitting endless heat, and the crew working on the deck felt as if they were about to be scorched. In the cabin, the temperature was also nearly 30 degrees Celsius.

The sea water is almost opaque and takes on an unfathomable blue color. The high-speed rotating propeller stirred up the deep blue water, and two white tracks behind the warship stretched out towards the water antenna in the distance.

"The Canal of the Americas is being bombed and damaged, and I feel as if I can't get into the Caribbean through it." Lieutenant General Chen Shiying is now feeling a little hesitant. "Alright, Huoxun, let's go to the Tahiti Islands first, and then gather a meeting of all the captains after we get to the supply port, and study where we will go in the future. You keep an eye on it here, and I'll go back to the cabin and rest for a while. Chen Shiying sighed and said to Huo Xunchi, after he finished explaining, he habitually picked up the telescope and looked at the sea, where there was nothing but rolling waves and a few seagulls.

Signal lights flashed on the mast of the "Yunling", telling the other ships of the fleet to be removed from combat readiness and changed to normal combat readiness duty. After more than ten minutes, the entire fleet began to turn around and sail northeast along the route from the central port of New Luzon to Sinlaiju. The cruiser "Wuzhou" served as a guard in front, the battleships "Qinling" and "Qiongzhou" crashed at the back of the queue, and several aircraft carriers and supply ships were sandwiched between these battleships.

The two high-speed integrated supply ships sent to the Far East with the fleet were a feat of the Imperial Navy.

During the ironclad period, due to the vast sea area and inconvenient supply, this also greatly restricted the imperial navy's ocean-going combat capability. In order to compensate for this shortcoming, the Imperial Navy's armament and shipbuilding department created a new type of ship, which, according to the designers, was inspired by some kind of inspiration.

In this era, the replenishment of warships by other countries was separated, oil tankers were oil tankers, dry cargo ships were dry cargo ships, and the replenishment of a warship at sea required at least two ships at the same time to complete. The advantage of this is that when the warship leaves the combat position for replenishment, it only needs to dock with the integrated supply ship once, and all the supply materials such as fuel and ammunition can be obtained, and there is no need to dock with different types of supply ships many times, which increases the supply time, thereby increasing the danger of being exposed to enemy firepower.

The "Dalinghe" class comprehensive supply ship is a kind of rapid supply ship specially built by the Imperial Navy for ocean-going operations, with a standard displacement of 12,000 tons, a full load displacement of 27,600 tons, and a capacity of 15,000 tons of oil and various supplies. Its power system uses 8 high-power marine diesel engines, with a total power of up to 64,000 horsepower, using a two-shaft propulsion mode, its maximum speed can reach 21 knots in the case of full load, and it can run more than 25 knots of high speed under light load, in addition it also has a long endurance of more than 18,000 nautical miles and 12 knots.

It is precisely with the existence of such high-speed supply ships that this imperial fleet has the ability to directly carry out transoceanic operations.

More than a dozen seagulls were chasing the white trail dragged out behind the cruiser "Wuzhou" in front of them, flying up and down.

If it weren't for the war, sailing at sea at this time would really be an unbearable thing.

Above the bridge, the sailors are taking advantage of the good sea conditions to hurry up and install radar antennas on the warships - out of secrecy, the Admiralty strictly ordered that all ships should not install radars during port calls in peacetime, and that this new equipment should only be used at night and other times when the light is very poor, and that the radar antennas and other related equipment installed on the roof of the bridge must be removed completely.

Now that we are at war, the so-called pre-war secrecy has lost its validity.

Although there is no major threat in this area at the moment, they still need to be careful to avoid accidental strikes such as enemy submarines, and the environment in this area is relatively safe in general.

The fleet sailed in the South Pacific for a day and a half, and in the evening, it received a telegram from China that the Tang Empire had officially declared war on the Kingdom of East and West Francia and the Kingdom of Spain.

The radio on the warship was able to pick up shortwave radio broadcasts from Australia, the Pacific Islands and South America, and the next morning, as the fleet sailed to the waters south of the Cook Islands, the telephone in the command tower rang, the staff officer on duty picked up the receiver, and the upper lookout reported that an unidentified aircraft had been spotted in the west, flying in their direction.

"Sound the battle alarm, all ships are on alert!" Colonel Liu Mingliang, the captain of the ship who was on duty, gave an order for combat readiness.

"Woo woo woo ......" The piercing sirens sounded throughout the ship, the red lights flashed in the passage of the cabin, and the crew ran to their posts in the chaos. As a matter of fact, the "Yunling" has been in a state of combat readiness since it left the port of Hekou, so I was able to enter combat mode in a very long time.

Soon, reports of the completion of combat readiness came from various departments.

"What's going on?" General Chen Shiying entered the war room wearing a military uniform, and Ling Wencha, who had just arrived, noticed that he was wearing a pair of pajamas inside, and he didn't even have time to change his pants urgently.

"It was found that a plane had been circling around us, it was supposed to be a reconnaissance aircraft." Liu Mingliang reported.

Chen Shiying picked up the binoculars and looked at the direction he was pointing in for a while, "That's right, it should be our own plane." However, the Canal of the Americas was destroyed, and we had to take a detour to South America. ”