Finally, the noise and noise stopped.

The submarine no longer swayed, and the churning stomachs of the crew were a little more relaxed.

"Gone?" Flink wiped his sweat.

"Gone!" The sonar soldiers were relieved.

"Float!"

After nearly 3 hours in the sea, the air in U213 became quite turbid.

The 1,100-ton U2 submarine adopts the world's leading diesel-battery dual power mode, two 750-horsepower diesel engines can provide the submarine with a water speed of 16 knots, and the slurry positive plate battery can ensure that the submarine can sail underwater at a speed of 6 knots for 2-3 hours. On non-maneuverable observation missions in the water, such submarines can stay underwater for a day or more.

A few minutes later, the U213 surfaced smoothly.

Surrounded by more than 10 cruisers and destroyers, who dropped no less than 100 depth charges, it was a great blessing to be able to survive unharmed.

Walking onto the deck, Flink and his sailors gulped in the fresh air from the sea.

Not a single Austro-Hungarian warship was missing from the starlit sea, and the other two German submarines were nowhere to be seen.

U213 is just floating alone on the vast sea.

It is far from the military port of Pula.

Major Frink was both happy and dismayed at this point.

Thankfully, he was alive and all three torpedoes hit the target.

Frustrated, the Austro-Hungarian battleship was not sunk, and although the German-made 533mm steam torpedo was powerful, it seemed that the mine nets on both sides of the opposing battleship successfully neutralized a considerable part of the explosive force.

After that, U213 had no chance to attack, and could only be exhausted by evading the pursuit of the opposing ships.

Fortunately, the Austro-Hungarian Navy's anti-submarine capabilities were less than half that of the German Navy, otherwise the U213 and its 42 crew members would have lost their lives.

Looking at the direction in which the Austro-Hungarian fleet was leaving, Flink sighed.

At this time the Austro-Hungarian navy. But not as vulnerable as the British fleet.

The once close cooperative relationship allowed the German-Austrian Navy to know each other and know each other.

"Send a report to Tunisia that the main Austro-Hungarian fleet has left the port, the exact number is unknown, and it is now heading in the direction of the Mediterranean!"

At this time, the military port of Tunisia was busy.

In the outer harbor, high-power searchlights patrolled back and forth on the sea surface of the harbor, and one after another large-caliber fortress guns aimed the muzzles of the black holes at the pitch-black sea.

In the inner harbor, the lights around the pier were turned on, and the German warships in the harbor were neatly arranged on their berths.

All ships have been fired. But the order to lift the anchor has not yet been given.

In the brightly lit headquarters of the German Mediterranean Fleet, staff officers hurriedly delivered the latest news back and forth, while the generals gathered around the huge Mediterranean miniature in the center of the war room, frowning.

The first of these generals, dressed in the dark blue uniforms of the German Navy, was Admiral von Hipper, the hero of the German Navy in the last war, known for his wit and courage in command.

Next to Admiral von Hippel, the rather old general was Benck, commander of the Tunisian base and deputy commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, a veteran of the German Navy, who was equally decisive in command and dared to stand up for his opinions before his superiors.

One more next to it. Not too young. Compared to Admiral von Hippel and Admiral Benke, he is much younger. He was dressed in a brand new commodore uniform, and in fact he had only been promoted to this rank for more than half a year. In May 1915, Kaiser Wilhelm III visited Tunis to inspect the Mediterranean Fleet and visit the newly built Tunisian military port and fortress. And very satisfied with the defense system here. Naturally, Colonel Erich Raeder, who was in charge of engineering, was appreciated by the Kaiser, who personally awarded him the rank of brigadier general and gave him a face-to-face lecture on the admiral who had studied naval scholarship and published many naval papers and books.

Now, 40-year-old Erich Raeder, as chief of staff of the Mediterranean Fleet, has been unanimously recognized by many colleagues, including Admiral Speer. The only thing he lacks now may be an opportunity to become famous.

Against the Austro-Hungarian Navy, which ranked second in Europe and fourth in the world, Germany's Mediterranean fleet was not weak. The battleships "Elector", "Prince William", "Heinrich", "Oldenburg", "Hindenburg", "Wilhelm II", the battle cruisers "Seydlitz", "Goeben" "Moltke", plus the heavy cruiser "Thomas", these 10 capital ships plus 7 light cruisers, 12 destroyers, 2 medium seaplane carriers and 35 submarines formed the powerful German Mediterranean fleet.

But. Since the battle cruisers "Goeben" and "Moltke" were cruising in southern Spain and the waters of Gibraltar, and the battleships "Oldenburg", "Hindenburg", "Wilhelm II" and the heavy cruiser "Thomas" were in support of the German-Turkish forces in the Arabian seas, only the King-class battleships "Elector" and "Prince William", the battle cruiser "Seydlitz", and the Italian battleship "Heinrich" were now stationed in Tunisia. and 2 3,000-ton Lipe-class light cruisers, 3 2,300-ton Valdejk-class light cruisers, 5 1,080-ton standard-class destroyers, 4 1,500-ton Competition-class destroyers, 1 3,500-ton Pelican-class seaplane carrier, 5 1,500-ton U2 submarines, three 800-ton U1E reconnaissance submarines, 7 800-900 ton minelayers, 8 300-600 ton gunboats, 11 offshore patrol boats of less than 300 tons.

"Sortie? Standby? "These are the two options that are in front of the commanders of the Mediterranean fleet.

If the entire Mediterranean fleet had been in Tunisia at this time, and if the fleet had arrived from the mainland, the choice would not have been as difficult as it is now.

The German Navy's warships, with their unrivalled defensive and survivability capabilities, were equally difficult to outnumber.

Although the Austro-Hungarian battleships were small in tonnage, they were superior in firepower and numerically and geographically.

These circumstances were well known to Admiral von Hipper and his commanders if the Austro-Hungarian fleet was coming from the conflict in Nice. They don't have to worry so much. However, if the Austro-Hungarian fleet intended to harass and bombard the port cities of the German colonies in northern Africa, it would cause incalculable losses and fear to the locals, and it would also be a great setback to the regular construction of the colony.

"Ladies and gentlemen! The chance of victory is only 1 in 5 at most. The chance of a big win is only one in 1 percent; If we don't go to war, we can only wait for the army to force Austria-Hungary into submission, or wait for the home reinforcement fleet to arrive! How is it? Admiral von Hippel glanced keenly around the faces of the crowd, not seeing a single cowardly face.

"With the right tactics, it is not impossible to reproduce the victory in the Battle of Salamisa!" Commodore Raeder took Speer's words, "Our army has high morale, good training, and a large number of submarines deployed in the Mediterranean, which can be used to lure the enemy into depth. You can also use the submarine force to make the Austro-Hungarian fleet suffer a double blow of ships and psychology all the way, and wait for them to get tired and then look for a decisive battle! ”

Hipper looked at the crowd again, "Do you have any objections?" ”

There were no objections.

Hipper's right hand clenched into a fist in front of his chest and loudly announced, "Alright, let's let it go!" Life or death, glory is ours! ”

The crowd responded impassionedly:

"Win or lose, we'll fight together!"

"Fight to the death!"

At 5:10 a.m. on February 7, 1916, just two hours after the departure of the Austro-Hungarian Home Fleet, the German fleet of 25 ships assembled outside the port of Tunis. After the "Elector" hoisted the signal flag for its advance, the ships and their 8,500 officers and men embarked on the road of battle without hesitation.

However. The Austro-Hungarian home fleet, led by Admiral Anton House, did not go south to the Mediterranean. Instead, it suddenly turned after driving some distance south.

At the same time, the Austro-Hungarian 2nd Fleet, departing from the military port of Taranto, after making a circle in the Mediterranean, left behind 3 ships damaged by German submarines and headed for the Adriatic Sea. And enter the Adriatic Sea at about 6 a.m.

After daybreak, the charged German submarine U213 was surprised to spot the Austro-Hungarian fleet that had sailed out of the port of Pula 15 nautical miles southwest of the port of Pula.

On the vast sea, a huge fleet of hundreds of warships sailed north in six columns, and the black smoke that erupted from the chimneys of the battleships covered the sky and the sun.

"This ......" Flick was speechless in astonishment, and it took several seconds for him to remember that it was time for his submarine to dive, and immediately asked his communications corps to report this astonishing information to Tunisia.

A few minutes later, when two Austro-Hungarian seaplanes flew over the ground, the U213 was already in the water.

By the time the telegram reached Admiral von Hipper, his fleet had sailed south of Sicily.

Before that. Hipper had already received the news of the turn of the Austro-Hungarian fleet that had come out of Taranto, and combined with this information, he immediately understood the intention of the commander of the Austro-Hungarian fleet.

"Send a telegram to Berlin at once, the Austro-Hungarian navy is massing towards the Gulf of Venice, threatening to threaten our army forces entering Croatia-Slavonia! I ask the High Command to make a decision as soon as possible, I have already led a part of the Mediterranean Fleet to the Adriatic Sea, hoping to find an opportunity to inflict heavy damage on the Austro-Hungarian fleet! ”

After this, Admiral Hipper ordered the submarine forces of the Mediterranean Fleet to assemble in the Adriatic Sea area, and on the other hand, sent submarine supply ships from the port of Tunis to rush to replenish the submarine forces with fuel and torpedoes. And his own fleet headed for the target area at a formation speed of 15 knots.

By the time Hipper's telegram was transmitted to the German High Command, Chentian and his generals had already made new arrangements for the movements of the Austro-Hungarian navy.

In the center of the hall of the High Command War Room was a larger sand table with a miniature topography of the Austro-Hungarian Empire centering on northeastern Germany, northern Italy, and the Adriatic Sea, in which the small ships representing the Austro-Hungarian fleet had been adjusted to their actual location.

"Marshal, I'm afraid the Navy is not very interested in capturing the ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy!" Chen Tian asked Marshal Boll this to confirm the German Admiralty's opinion on the Austro-Hungarian naval warships, basically saying that those old and small ships with a very average overall design did not meet the operational requirements of the German Navy at all.

"Of course, we would rather build new ships than spend a mark on the maintenance and repair of Austrian ships in the inland sea!" Like most naval observers, Marshal Boll always referred to the Austro-Hungarian warships as "inland warships" because of their poor seamanship, suitable only for sailing on the calm shores of the Mediterranean, where the crew was said to be miserable when the waves were bumpy.

"Well, let's just clean them up in the garbage dump!" After that, Chen Tian turned his head and asked Air Force Minister Zeckert, "Our airship unit is still in Rosenheim and has not been disbanded, right?" ”

Zecht, who wore monocles, replied: "Yes, Your Majesty! We were going to have them go back to the heart of Austria to distribute leaflets! ”

"Well, let them take down the leaflets and replace them with heavy bombs suitable for attacking surface targets! Also, let the Meteorological Department send the weather forecast for the next three days in the Adriatic region as soon as possible! Chen Tian thought in his heart, using these air battleships against the Austro-Hungarian water battleships, even if he didn't abolish the other party, he would make the other party pee his pants in fear.

"Your Majesty, if we are going to deal with the Austro-Hungarian fleet with air power, it would be best if we could temporarily build airfields and airship landing fields in southern Austria, so as to save fuel for planes and airships, and increase the frequency of attacks! It's just that this is also easy to be attacked by the Austrians, so we must make a trade-off as soon as possible! Zeckert analyzed that his current role had completely changed from an army staff officer to the Minister of the Imperial German Air Ministry, and it was important to know that planning, deploying, and directing the cluster of aviation units to attack various targets was a very complex task, no less than the traditional problems of transporting troops and logistical supplies. For now, Zechter's outstanding organizational talent is indeed not boasting.

Chen Tian thought for a while, "Well, General Hausen can urgently build a number of airfields and airship landing sites in southern Austria, but be careful that only ordinary types of planes and airships can be landed there, like our Vulture 1 attack aircraft, Hummingbird 2 fighters and fortress-class airships can only be stationed at the home base, I don't want these high-end weapons to be snooped on by outsiders!" ”

The Vulture-1 attack aircraft, that is, the J1 all-metal attack aircraft, all technologies are listed as national first-class secrets; Hummingbird 2 fighter, a transitional fighter, between a wooden-framed skin aircraft and a metal aircraft, semi-metallic structure, monoplane, wing cross-section is convex and concave structure (historically, the wing of the Junkers J1 all-metal biplane attack aircraft developed by Germany at the end of 1915 adopts this structure), which is currently in the battlefield testing stage, and the German Army and Air Force are equipped with 10 each; The Fortress-class airship, the super-large Zeppelin, uses a traditional aluminum skeleton, hydrogen airbag and rigid airship, and the most distinctive feature is that it has a 75mm short-barreled howitzer mounted in a sturdy metal pod and is equipped with 15 high-explosive shells to accurately bombard ground targets from the air.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Zekett was already full of expectations at this time, not only him, but even Chen Tian wanted to see the limit of the power of aviation weapons in this era.