The endless sea, shining under the sun, the waves are not high,.

On the sea, a British destroyer flying the "m" flag was breaking the waves, the bow of the ship pointed to the east, and it was heading towards the unknown ahead, and there were no other ships on the sea, even the sailing ships that were supposed to go out to sea to fish were gone, and only this British destroyer sailed alone in this sea area.

This is the Arabian Sea, close to the west coast of India.

The Arabian Sea is a vast sea area in the northwest of the Indian Ocean, where the east is next to the Indian subcontinent of South Asia, and the west is connected to the Gulf of Oman and the Gulf of Aden, geographically, the Arabian Sea is playing an increasingly important role, the reason is closely related to world trade, the Gulf of Aden is connected to the Red Sea traffic, international merchant ships need to pass through the Arabian Sea, and the Gulf of Oman guards the Strait of Hormuz, this strait controls the traffic between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, whether it is the Gulf of Aden or the Gulf of Oman, Maritime trade between the East and the West is crucial, and as China's economy plays an increasingly important role in the world economy, this lifeblood of maritime communication is even more strategic.

In contrast, the Gulf of Oman is more important for trade in the Far East, close to the Persian Gulf, and an important passage for oil transportation, which is called the "blood of industry" and "black gold".

In this day and age, part of the oil needed for China's industrial development is transported back to Bangka Island from the Persian Gulf by large tankers, where it is refined into refined products.

China is a country with a vast territory, but oil resources are not abundant, although China has long controlled the oil production areas in Central Asia, but the oil reserves there have always belonged to the "strategic level", subject to policy restrictions, the amount of exploitation is not large, therefore, the purchase of oil from overseas has always been the focus of the strategic focus of China's central government, although the purchase of oil from foreign countries needs to pay cash, but the central government would rather spend more money to buy oil from overseas, but also to maintain the abundance of local oil reserves, this is a long-term strategy, At stake in the country's security, the central government is always concerned about the self-sufficiency potential of industrial blood, which is directly related to the country's future in times of war.

In addition to extracting oil from Southeast Asia, another key direction for Chinese oil companies is the Middle East, especially the Persian Gulf.

The Persian Gulf region is rich in oil reserves, and the exploitation cost is very low, it can be said that the land in the Persian Gulf is floating on the black industrial blood, although the surface is barren, the desert is everywhere, but as long as a shallow oil well is drilled, you can get "black gold".

Although the oil in the Persian Gulf region has been regarded as a very potential wealth resource by Western oil companies many years ago, but the real commercial exploitation will not be until before and after the European War, and because Britain is very strong in the Middle East, France also shares the interests there, so the oil resources in the Middle East were once controlled by British and French companies, and the two governments also shared huge benefits, in order to facilitate the export of oil from the Persian Gulf region to Britain and France, the two countries even joined forces. An oil pipeline was laid in the area that led from the Persian Gulf to Palestine in the Near East.

In order to break this "colonial monopoly", China's central government began to plan during the European war, and the specific means of implementation was to wage a "proxy war" in the Middle East.

It is not surprising, then, why the civil war in Iraq lasted from the end of the war in Europe until 1930, and through the British archaeologist known as the "Lawrence of Arabia", China's military intelligence successfully found an agent in the Middle East, who was Prince Fishar, who had fought alongside Mr. Lawrence.

After the end of the war in Europe, according to the secret agreement between the British and French governments during the war, the Paris Peace Conference was used as a legitimate tool to redivide the British and French spheres of influence in the Middle and Near East, which angered the Arab nationalists fighting for the Entente bloc, so they quickly launched a counterattack, elected Fizar as king of Syria, and declared Syrian independence, but the independence movement was quickly suppressed, and the French army reoccupied Damascus and exiled Fisar.

But Fisal did not give up, he immediately remembered the Chinese friends who had funded him a large number of old arms and weapons during the European war, although the British government also extended a "friendly hand" to him at that time, and intended to ask him to come forward as the king of the soon-to-be-"independent" Iraqi constitutional monarchy, but Fisal could not trust the British, he insisted that the Chinese were more reliable, so he quickly decided to ask Chinese friends for help, and Chinese friends quickly gave him a reply, this reply is not a verbal promise, Rather, it was two ships of new rifles and cannons, and Mr. President of China told Prince Fessar, "Go to Iraq, which is where the Arab nation is revived." ”。

So, without any hesitation, Prince Fisal quickly gathered the old army, united many nomadic tribes, armed himself to the teeth with the two ships of new Chinese rifles and cannons, and then set out from the Hejaz for Iraq.

At that time, it was 1922, and the "Iraqi Constitutional Monarchy" planned by the British had been officially established, and the king was naturally not the disobedient Faisal, but a distant relative of Faisal.

Although they are distant relatives, if they prevent the prince's hope of reviving the Arab nation, then the relatives can not cooperate, so at the end of that year, the Iraqi civil war broke out, Prince Fishar held high the banner of "Arab revival", vowed to fight the British puppet to the end, this war was fought for many years, until 1930, because of the intervention of the League of Nations, and the Chinese government of Li Yuanhong withdrew military aid to the Farsar army, Prince Fishar had to accept international mediation and stop the attackand led his army to move to a designated area, close to the mouth of the Tigris River, and rich in oil underground, with which the prince and his subjects finally settled down, and although the international community did not recognize the emir state he had founded, at least, he had a piece of territory.

Since this territory was obtained with the strong support of Chinese friends, Prince Fishar was very willing to strengthen ties with Chinese friends, although he felt very incomprehensible about the lower field of President Zhao Da, who had always supported him, but at the same time, Prince Fishar did not forget this old friend, so when this old friend proposed that the two countries cooperate to form a large oil complex, Prince Fishar quickly accepted the proposal. He wanted to develop the company into a multinational that could compete with Britain's Anglo-Polish oil company, named Gulf Oil, in which the prince himself owned 51 percent of the shares, and the rest was shared by several Chinese oil companies.

Now, 70 percent of the crude oil China buys from overseas comes from the Gulf Oil Company, which is a win-win trade, with Fissar's country getting a lot of money and weapons and industrial goods from China, and China getting a lot of cheap oil.

Although the prince insisted that the British and his distant Iraqi relatives had encroached on his oil fields, the British government never budged, and because of this, the relationship between the prince and the British did not return to normal with the end of the Iraqi civil war, and the friction between the two sides was fierce, and the central government of China has always given the prince strong support, not only diplomatic, but also military, and the prince's army included many career officers from China, They were responsible for training the prince with a force capable of fighting well.

After the start of the "Asian Liberation War", the British government quickly ordered the navy to block the Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf, and prohibited any oil tankers carrying oil to China or Lanfang from passing through the strait, in an attempt to cut off China's oil supply, but the British government's wishful thinking failed, in fact, long before the war, the Chinese government ordered the domestic oil fields to increase production, and at the same time began to use strategic oil reserves to ensure the supply of military oil and industrial oil, so, throughout the war, China's domestic oil and refined oil prices fluctuate little, slightly rising, but not so that it does not affect the national economy, on the contrary, the price of oil in Britain fluctuates greatly, although there is the oil pipeline connecting Iraq and Palestine to deliver oil to the Mediterranean ports, do not have to worry about the Chinese submarines in the Red Sea, but the problem is that since the end of the Malayan campaign, the oil pipeline will be often attacked, bombed beyond recognition, once the oil supply is stopped, The price of oil in the UK and even in Europe will be like a roller coaster, making the hearts of governments and businesses tremble.

The British government has always suspected that the attack on the pipeline was carried out by local spies trained by China, and they may be lurking in Prince Fissar's territory, but there is no hard evidence to prove that the prince is related to this matter, the British commander in the Middle East once considered sending troops to attack Prince Fissar's territory, but this battle plan was rejected by the British government, Prince Fissar's army has first-class equipment in the Middle East, all of which come from China, and through the Malayan campaign, the British government has realized, In such a situation where China is already far ahead in terms of armament build-up, who can guarantee that Fissar's army will obediently obey the command of the "international community" as it did in 1930?

The British government intends not to take action against Fisar for the time being, on the one hand, the prince is already seriously ill in bed and does not live long, and the crown prince is unpopular, once the prince dies, there may be a civil war in the local area, and on the other hand, considering that the Burmese counteroffensive is about to start, it is really not appropriate to make enemies, and everything will wait for the Burmese counteroffensive to talk about it.

But the British counteroffensive in southern Burma was a disaster, and after this war, the British government was less interested in any attacks on Fissar's territory, and after the League of Nations mediated the Sino-British war and China agreed to peace talks on the basis of a cease-fire, the British government did not dare to act rashly.

However, the British government did not lift the naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, although the British Indian Ocean detachment was devastated, and the main force basically ceased to exist, but relying on those light warships, the British Royal Navy can still be competent for the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, after all, this strait is not very wide, and there, the British Royal Air Force has also deployed many of the best fighters and the best pilots, if the aircraft carriers of the Chinese Navy dare to come, the British Air Force will launch a fierce air assault.

In addition to blockading the Strait of Hormuz, these British light warships occasionally go around the Arabian Sea and go to the west coast of India to carry out reconnaissance missions, but according to the temporary ceasefire agreement with the Chinese government, British warships cannot enter the Indian territorial waters, although for the time being, the British government still does not recognize the "independence" of the Indian Confederacy, after all, there are still a large number of British and Indian troops stationed in the southern part of India, and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) is completely controlled by the British. Although China also harshly put forward Ceylon's demand for independence in the terms of negotiations.

Now, the Royal Navy destroyer is on a reconnaissance mission to monitor the Arabian Sea to see if the Chinese Navy has violated a temporary ceasefire agreement under which surface ships of the Chinese Navy are prohibited from entering the Arabian Sea, and conversely, surface ships of the British Navy are not allowed to enter the Bay of Bengal in the east of the subcontinent.

This kind of task was very boring, and the sailors and officers on the warships looked a little listless, which of course also had the effect of defeat, and until now, many British people still could not accept the reality of the British army's crushing defeat in the Far East, and if even the Chinese army could not defeat it, what confidence did the British army have to defeat the rapidly expanding German army?

While the sailors and officers of the destroyer were listlessly busy with their respective work, the lookout post on the mast suddenly reported that two unidentified planes had appeared in the eastern sky, most likely Chinese fighters.

In the case of the "Falcon" fighter, it is necessary to maintain a high degree of vigilance, because this fighter can not only hang small aerial bombs under the wings, but also a kind of rocket, in the Burma and Malayan battles, not only the British Army was attacked by such rockets, but also the British Navy light ships have suffered the loss of such rockets, this situation has now been reported to all British troops, although this rocket is unlikely to sink the warship, but it is still a great threat to deck personnel.

Although China and Britain have achieved a ceasefire at the campaign level, sporadic military clashes still occur from time to time, not only in the mutual shooting of infantry, but also in the naval confrontation and even artillery shelling of naval ships, and just yesterday, a British Navy submarine hunting submarine was chased and killed by Chinese water patrol aircraft off the coast of Ceylon, because the Chinese insisted, Ceylon waters are also part of the Bay of Bengal, and under the temporary cease-fire agreement, surface ships of the British Navy cannot be present there.

Although the Chinese felt a little overbearing, the British government endured it, and at the same time warned the front-line troops not to provoke unless the enemy attacked first.

Now, two fighter planes of the Chinese Air Force suddenly flew over the British destroyer, which caused great panic among the British sailors and officers, which is understandable, since the start of the war between China and Britain, the Chinese Air Force has become a nightmare for British soldiers, and now even British children know that in Asia, there is a gang of "air snitches", they are highly skilled, and they regard the "empire on which the sun never sets" as nothing, and they are rampant in the skies of Asia, and the British Air Force is defeated.