Tian Qiliang said to Major General Albert: "Welcome to the general, I believe that our cooperation will be a pleasant start." ”

"Of course." Albert saw that Huaxia's headquarters was full of broken eaves and broken walls, and said with a smile, "General Tian, your conditions here are too poor, and I sincerely invite General Tian to come to Tangier." ”

Because of the formation of the joint fleet, Tian Qiliang and Albert had a lot of translators around him, so the conversation between the two of them went smoothly.

Tian Qiliang said: "Gibraltar was originally a beautiful city, and now it has been bombed into the way it is by our own artillery, but we are confident that we will build this city even more beautiful than before, so I am very grateful to General Albert for his kindness, and Tangier will not go for the time being." ”

The two of them talked and laughed as they arrived at the conference hall of the headquarters.

The two sides held a simple ceremony on the establishment of the Combined Fleet, and read out the first document of the Combined Fleet, appointing Tian Qiliang as commander of the Sino-British Combined Fleet in Gibraltar and Albert as deputy commander.

The headquarters of the Combined Fleet was set up in Tian Qiliang's headquarters, and after the establishment of the summit organ, it began to plan the first major event of the Combined Fleet, which was to hold a joint military exercise in the Mediterranean.

First of all, it sent an invitation letter to the countries bordering the Mediterranean, and Huaxia funded them to organize a delegation to observe the Sino-British joint military exercise.

After the invitation was issued, in addition to Italy, several other countries accepted the invitation of the Combined Fleet, namely Spain, France, the Ottomans, Greece and Austria, as well as Spain's neighbor the Netherlands.

The combined fleet conducted a short training period of one month, and the exercise officially began on 15 July, with the Chinese Navy taking part in the exercise with 10 Jinling-class internal combustion engine battleships and 20 internal combustion engine frigates. Britain sent three Wuchang-class steam engine battleships and ten second-class sail battleships to participate in the exercise.

The target of the exercise was a small unnamed island in the Mediterranean, and the purpose was to bomb the island indiscriminately, and the mission would be sent to the island to see the bombardment before the shelling, and then the mission would be sent to the island to see the effects of the bombing.

Since there were two opposing sides in the invited countries, Tian Qiliang prepared two battleships for the observation group to ride, one was the battleship Great Wall and the other was the battleship Nanchang.

On the day of the military exercise, the members of the observation group were divided into two groups and sent to the unnamed island for inspection, the unnamed island before the shelling was beautiful, the island was rugged and the sea reefs were craggy, the mountains were stacked with green, the peaks and rocks were ups and downs, and more than 1,000 species of plants on the island were lush and green, among which there were many kinds of birds and beasts passing through it.

Each group was given an hour to enjoy the last splendor of the island's beauty, which would cease to exist after the shelling.

After the two observation groups arrived on the island, they took a Huaxia open-top jeep and drove around the island for a week, and then got off the car and walked, went deep into nature, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the nameless island.

After watching the two observation groups, they returned to the battleship to observe the artillery attack of the Combined Fleet on the Nameless Island.

More than thirty warships swung in a half-moon shape to the southeast of the nameless island, and the Great Wall and Nanchang were moored on both sides of the half-moon array, waiting for the start of the shelling.

The members of the Mission gathered in the promenade of the battleship's lounge, where there were many chairs on which they could sit and watch the shelling while sipping tea.

At a quarter past three o'clock in the afternoon, the shelling officially began, the rumbling cannon sound resounded in the sky, and in an instant, a red light flashed, and earth-shaking explosions came and went, as if a volcanic eruption, and as if a huge earthquake had occurred, the whole sky turned red, the sea rolled up and waves, and the Jinling-class giant battleship began to shake up and down incessantly.

The shelling lasted for half an hour, and the moment the shelling stopped, the whole world suddenly became a deathly silence, not the black smoke in the sky, not the fire on the island, no one believed that the rumbling sound just now was the sound of cannon fire on a battleship.

It's amazing! With such a fleet, which navy in the world can match?

After the bombardment, the battleship again transported the members of the Mission to the island to visit, and by this time the nameless island was already a scorched earth, with burning fires everywhere and the acrid smoke filling the air, so much so that the Mission asked to return to the battleship less than ten minutes after arriving on the island.

The purpose of this military exercise has been achieved, and the members of the observation group have expressed their reverence for the Huaxia Navy, and some have proposed to join the combined fleet.

The purpose of the military exercise is to demonstrate military strength, and with military strength, there is no fear that other countries will be disobedient.

One month after the exercise, Tian Qiliang, in the name of the Combined Fleet, issued an announcement to the Mediterranean countries: In order to crack down on the increasingly rampant piracy and protect the normal trade activities of the Mediterranean countries, the Mediterranean Joint Fleet welcomes the participation of the navies of the Mediterranean countries. It was also announced that, beginning on 1 October 1662, all ships entering and leaving the Mediterranean Sea would be subject to the protection of the Combined Fleet, and that all ships passing through the Strait of Gibraltar would have to pay the Combined Fleet Ghana.

After Tian Qiliang's announcement was issued, all Mediterranean countries expressed their willingness to join the Combined Fleet in the Mediterranean and accept the management of the Combined Fleet.

……

In order to cooperate with the navy in controlling the Strait of Gibraltar, the coastal defense division stepped up the construction of shore artillery.

So far, Sun Hejing is still concurrently serving as division commander, and he has approached Tian Qiliang several times, but Tian Qiliang said that he could not find a suitable candidate, and he believes that Sun Hejing is very qualified for the post of commander of the coastal defense division, and hopes that Sun Hejing will be changed from a part-time position to a formal appointment.

The coastal defense division has three regiments under its jurisdiction, and after Sun Hejing's on-the-spot investigation, only 53 shore guns can be deployed along the coast at most, so one artillery regiment is enough. He readjusted the three regiments, abolished the number of two artillery regiments, and changed the two artillery regiments into transport regiments and guard regiments.

Now is the construction period, the transport regiment can play its important role, Sun Hejing put the guard regiment as a transport regiment, because the construction of the fort requires a large amount of reinforced concrete, and the location of the fort is steep mountains or sea reefs, which requires a lot of manpower for transportation.

One day after the communique of the Combined Fleet was published, Tian Qiliang came to the division headquarters of the coastal defense division. The headquarters of the coastal defense division is located at the foot of the mountain, which is a large courtyard, and Tian Qiliang drove here mainly to learn about the progress of the shore artillery project.

Tian Qiliang said to Sun Hejing: "Master Sun, we are going to blockade this sea area on October 1, can the shore artillery project be completed before October 1 ahead of schedule?" ”