"The last batch of supplies has been on board, here's the cargo list, Captain." First Mate Lieutenant Commander Winsbach handed an envelope to the captain.

"The quarters of the mission personnel have been assigned." Christian. Feng. Admiral Hertz opened the envelope and pulled out the documents inside.

"It's all arranged, Captain." The first mate took a cup of coffee from the orderly.

"How's the refueling going?" Feng. Hertz tucked the papers back into the envelope and slipped them into the inside pocket of his uniform.

"It will take another three hours, and the tanks 1 to 3 are already full. Fresh water has been replenished, and food supplies are almost underway. Just now, the Deutsche Bank office in Saigon Port has sent 20 baskets of fresh fish, which have already been sent to the freezer. The first mate picked up the silver tweezers, picked up two sugar cubes and put them in the cup.

"Has the weather forecast for today and tomorrow been delivered?"

"It has been sent, the weather is clear in most parts of the South China Sea, with a northwest wind of four to five and light waves in the Taiwan Strait. Shanghai will be sunny tomorrow, and the temperature is expected to be around 15 degrees Celsius. Winsbach stirred the silver spoon.

"Very good, we should be able to get to Shanghai on time, Berlin is already a little unhappy."

"It's all to blame on the British bureaucrats." The first mate took a sip of coffee and shook his head.

"yes, damn bureaucrats." Feng. Hertz grinned.

"I'll leave it to you here, I'll go to the deck and have a look."

"No problem, sir."

"The captain has left the bridge!" The officer on duty announced loudly, and the captain walked into the doorway between the spiral staircase at the back.

The heavy cruiser "Prince Eugen" finally arrived at the dock of Haiphong Port within the stipulated time limit, and was accompanied by the long-awaited transport group.

As the heavy cruiser passed through the Suez Canal, the fleet was delayed for three days because the accompanying destroyer collided with a barge of the port authority. The inefficiency of the British bureaucracy made the Germans suffer enough. Hertz was eager to turn his guns and bombard the Authority building in Alexandria.

It didn't matter much in normal times, the problem was that they had official business and had to rush to Saigon, in French Indochina, by mid-November to make a state visit to Japan as part of the German envoy.

Originally, the special mission was going to Japan on a French cruise ship, but the Japanese side felt that this was a bit inappropriate and did not show the closeness of the relationship between Germany and Japan. The Japanese government offered to send the Japanese naval battleship Mutsu as a carrier of the German mission out of respect for Field Marshal Brumberg and as a sign of the strong friendship between Japan and Germany.

It's just that the Japanese can see through this kind of small abacus at a glance, not to mention Xu Jun, even if it is Hitler, it is impossible to agree.

Therefore, Xu Jun ordered the naval command to immediately dispatch the "Prince Eugen", which was on a mission in the Mediterranean, to rush to French Indochina with two German destroyers to undertake the glorious mission of transporting the German envoy.

In the order, the commander-in-chief of the Navy, Field Marshal Raeder, also stressed that this was an important foreign mission, and that it was necessary to display the majesty of the Third Reich, and that the officers and men should always remember that they represented the Great German Empire, and that they must not let the glorious Imperial naval flag be disgraced and live up to the trust of the Reich Führer in the Navy.

The time when the Prinz Eugen received the order was 2 November, the day the Italian naval fleet surrendered, and by the time she arrived in the Strait of Malacca, it was already the early morning of 9 November, less than three days before the date set by the mission for her visit.

It was only after arriving in Malacca that the Germans realized that they were not the most unlucky, and it is said that the transport group at the berth in the outer harbor had been stuck here for a full week.

After a night's stay in Singapore, the Prinz Eugen was hastily replenished with some food and fresh water, and set sail at noon on November 10 for the port of Haiphong in French Indochina.

Because the Franco-Siamese War was going on at that time, this small German fleet also took on the escort mission of the transport ship group, which was also a new experience for the German heavy patrols who were good at breaking the engagement.

The voyage was very calm along the way, and the group also met the Fifth Fleet of the Japanese Navy near Cape Kinou, and the French Far East Fleet followed closely by the Japanese.

Feng. Hertz didn't know about the terrible situation of the Fifth Fleet in the afternoon, and wondered why the Japanese naval fleet looked a little wilted, and even more wondered why the Japanese were followed by a whole fleet of French warships.

Hertz then found the answer to her question off the coast of Saigon Harbor, when she spotted the heavy cruiser Furutaka being watched by a group of destroyers, and the hapless warship was still smoking from its deck.

Here some of the transports in the group parted ways with the Prinz Eugen and turned around for Saigon Harbor to the north, while the rest of the ships turned northeast and prepared to sail along the coastline into the calm Gulf of Tonkin .

On the way, the Prinz Eugen also rescued three French naval pilots, who were paddling a small rubber lifeboat and had completely lost their way. After arriving at the port of Haiphong, the Germans handed them over to the French port side, receiving the sincere thanks of the commander of the French garrison in Haiphong.

The Prinz Eugen became the first German naval warship to reach the Far East after World War I. The Far East Fleet led by Vice Admiral Spee has long been reduced to iron filings on the seabed, but the heroic history of this small fleet has inspired generations of German naval officers and men, and now there are many descendants of the officers and men of the East Asian Detachment on the "Prince Eugen".

Accompanying the Prinz Eugen to Haiphong were two German destroyers of the 1936A type, known as the Narvik type, which was an improved version of the earlier Project 1936 destroyers, with a redesigned bow and armament, and a new twin 150-millimeter gun and torpedo launcher.

The Z23 and Z24 destroyers, which had not been in service with the Navy for two months at this time, were new to the ship, and it was worrying that they were new from the officers and men to the ships. But they did a great job of testing the voyage, and the sailors had gained valuable experience in this intercontinental voyage, which was why the naval command had deliberately sent these two new ships to the Far East.

There are many similarities between the style of German destroyers and French destroyers, both sides made this type of ship similar to that of light cruisers, and the German Navy's destroyer fleet was very active during the European campaign, sinking hundreds of thousands of tons of transport ships, and finally erasing the stain left by the fiasco at Narvik with real results.

"There's a notice from the command that the marshal will be on board in half an hour, captain." The third mate hurried over to the captain, who was strolling around the aft deck.

"Get the deck cleaned up immediately, and everything has to be cleaned." Feng. Hertz shouted orders to the sailors beside him.

"Are the marching bands and honor guards ready?"

"It's ready."

"Let them be on deck in five minutes."

"Yes, sir."

"Have the gunner check the salute again. No, you should go for it yourself. ”

"Yes, sir."

"What do you think of me? Is it decent? The captain showed off his naval gown.

"Very powerful and decent, Captain." The third mate nodded his head.

"Very well, you go and carry out the order, and if you see Winsbach, let him come to me immediately." Feng. Hertz pulled a white glove out of his trouser pocket and put it on carefully.

"Yes, Captain, I'll inform the lieutenant colonel at once." The third mate faced Feng. Hertz saluted, turned around and ran.

PS: The Asian plot is indeed easy to make taboos, and the information is also very messy, and it is very brain-consuming to write, but it has a lot to do with the development of the plot.

I'll do my best to make this story as wonderful as possible. (To be continued.) )