At night, the port of Toulon is bustling.

Previously, the French installed explosives on some of the battleships, intending to blow them up and sink them before leaving, but before they could detonate, the entire Toulon naval base was occupied by the Don army.

The troops of the Tang Army's airborne regiment arranged lower layers of defense around the base, and hundreds of Tang naval officers who landed at the Toulon airfield with them also rushed to the port of Toulon at this moment and began to take over all the French warships moored in the port.

There were more than 100 main warships of the French army moored in the harbor, and since the fall of Paris, France, all the French warships fled south to the port of Toulon, which is now considered a huge fortune, and any country will be blushing.

Among the more than 100 warships, all the essence of the French Navy since the dreadnought era are included, among which the Tang Army focuses on the four main aircraft carriers of the French Navy, the "Tester", "Beyan", "Xiafei", and "Banervi". Among them, the two aircraft carriers, the Turst and the Bayarn, were converted from two unfinished Normandy-class battleships, with a full load displacement of 25,000 tons, a speed of 30 knots, and about 40 aircraft. The Xiafei and Banlvi were built by the French Navy in 1933 at the shipyard of the port of Toulon for the rising Royal Navy aircraft carrier battle group of the Tang Empire in the Pacific. The two aircraft carriers have a full load displacement of 30,000 tons, a speed of 32 knots, and about 50 aircraft.

In addition to being most interested in these four aircraft carriers, the Tang Army also has a soft spot for the traditional battleships of maritime supremacy, after all, the battleships are still recognized as the supremacy of the sea. Only countries with battleships are allowed to be called naval powers. The Tang Empire has not yet served with battleships, but many officers and sailors of the Tang Navy still expect their own navy to have battleships deep down.

In total, there were twelve battleships in the port of Toulon, nine of which were already in service with the French Navy. One training battleship, two battleships under construction. The nine battleships were Brittany, Lorraine and Provence, the Brittany-class battleships of the French Navy, the Corbet and Paris of the Colbe-class battleships of the French Navy, the Dunkirk-class battleships of the French Navy, the Richelieu-class battleships Richelieu and Jean-Bar of the French Navy, and the other two Cascoyne and Clemenceau, which were in the Toulon shipyard, although they had been launched, but the superstructure was not completed. Only one main gun was also installed.

The Brittany-class battleships were the old battleships of the French Navy, the construction of which began on the eve of World War I, with five twin 340 mm guns. All are arranged along the longitudinal central axis of the hull. In 1932-1935, the Brittany-class battleships were modernized, new steam turbines with a power of 43,000 hp were replaced, the speed was increased to 21 knots, and the mainmast and bridge were rebuilt. Eight 138 mm secondary guns and torpedo tubes were dismantled. Replacement of 8 100-mm anti-aircraft guns and 6 47-mm anti-aircraft guns.

The Colbe-class battleships are the oldest battleships in the French army, among which the Oceans have been converted into training ships, which are not armed, only the battleships Paris and Corbe, with a displacement of 28,000 tons, are still carrying 12 305 mm guns to continue to serve, but they are old and have been reduced to the guard ships of the port of Toulon.

In 1932, in order to counter the rise of the Italian Navy, France began to build two Dunkirk-class battleships, in fact, the two Dunkirk-class battleships were the product of treaty restrictions and French lack of funds, and when they were finally completed, they were actually fully loaded with 35,000 tons. It is equipped with 2 4-pack 330 mm guns with a speed of 28 knots. With only 280 mm of armor protection, the speed is not fast, the armor is not thick or thin, and it belongs to the battlecruisers of the treaty era, but the French call them battleships.

However, soon Japan was defeated in the Pacific Theater, and the Japanese Navy began to build Yamato-class battleships after being rebuilt, and the Tang Empire claimed to build Chiyou-class battleships, resulting in the Rim of the Pacific arms race, and Britain, France, the United States and Italy were also involved, and France was forced to start building four Richelieu-class battleships to compete with it.

The Richelieu-class battleship is the real super battleship of the French Navy, and his competitors are the Japanese Yamato-class battleships, the American Iowa-class battleships, and the Italian Vittorio-class battleships, although in the end they cannot be compared with the Yamato and Iowa due to financial constraints, but they still suppress the Italian Vittorio-class battleships, with a displacement of 50,750 tons, three triple 406 mm 50 times the diameter of the main gun, 360 mm armor protection, and a maximum speed of 30 knots.

The Don army was overjoyed to take over the two super battleships, the Richelieu and the Jeanbar, and at the same time did not let go of the unfinished Cascoyne and Clemenceau, and Jihua towed away the two battleships that had not completed the superstructure.

The remaining French warships were not as excited as before for the Tang Army, but they did not let go, six heavy cruisers of the French Navy, such as the Duquene, Tourville, Sufflen, Foch, Diolux, and Algeria, and ten light cruisers of the French Navy, including the Trooyan, La Motte, Primaogate, Galisonier, Vienna, Léger, Marseillaise, Glory, Montcalm, and Bertin.

In addition, there was also the French Navy "Joan of Arc" training cruiser, Pluto mine-laying cruiser, and the Tang army was taken away with Jihua.

The largest number is the French destroyer fleet, a full 57 destroyers, of which the Tang Army's favorite is the stubborn, utopian, terrible, reckless, vicious, and triumphant, these six utopian-class destroyers, they are of the same class as the main destroyers in service in the Tang Navy. In addition, the five Jaguar-class destroyers, the Jaguar, the Jackal, the Leopard, the Black Panther, and the Bobcat, were also good, and the Tang Army took them all with them.

Because the Tang Army had purchased a large number of French-built Utopian-class destroyers, many officers and men of the Tang Navy had been trained in France and were very familiar with the French language and French warships, so they quickly took control of more than 100 valuable French warships.

At three o'clock in the morning, the officers and men of the Datang Navy drove one after another French warships out of the port of Toulon and headed for the Portuguese coast, where transport planes would be sent there one after another. The airborne regiment of the Tang Army took away the heavy equipment by transport planes, and they carried anti-aircraft guns on board the ship together, fighting along the way to provide a certain amount of anti-aircraft firepower, after all, there were very few anti-aircraft guns on the French Navy battleships, and the consequences were unimaginable once they encountered the British bomber group.

According to Zhang Meng's Jihua, he is ready to use these French warships to form an Atlantic fleet, but in the end whether to fight in the Atlantic or sail back to the Pacific Ocean, he has not yet decided, because this matter is bound to alarm both Britain and Germany, Britain will destroy this fleet at any cost, and the ducks in Germany's mouth will definitely be unhappy, and will find the theory of the Tang Empire, how to send the Germans Zhang Meng has not yet figured it out.

After daybreak, the British fleet blockaded the port of Toulon, more than a dozen warships shelled the Toulon's naval base, and a large number of bombers flew in the sky to bombard the port of Toulon.

Before retreating, the Tang army took away all the prisoners of the French anti-Japanese forces in the port of Toulon, planted a large amount of explosives in the port of Toulon, and at the same time set fire to create a large amount of black smoke.

After daybreak, the German troops a hundred kilometers away had already received a report and urgently approached Toulon, and by the time they arrived, Toulon had been completely blown up, all the ships were sunk, and there was a sea of fire.

A day later, a large number of French warships appeared in the southern Portuguese seaport city of Sebatur, and the Tang army safely delivered more than 100 French warships to Sebatur.

Since Saibatur was a military base lent by Portugal to the Tang Empire, after the Tang Empire was involved in the Second Shijie War, the Portuguese government declared neutrality, and when the more than 100 warships arrived at Saibatur, the Tang Empire announced that the more than 100 French warships had surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, and published the photos of hundreds of French naval officers and soldiers, so that the whole Shijie believed that these French drove the warships to the military base of the Datang Dynasty, so as to block the Germans' questioning.

Britain was naturally unwilling, and immediately prepared to send a naval fleet to besiege Saibatur, but before the British could make a move, the Tang Empire announced that Saibatur would be returned to Portugal, and Portugal seized all Tang troops and warships in Saibatur as a neutral country until the end of the war.

In this way, Britain did not dare to risk attacking Saibatur, after all, Portugal was neutral, and an easy attack would be blamed by Shijie, and Spain was also in a neutral attitude, attacking Portugal was afraid that Spain would have an excuse to enter the war, at this time France had fallen, and it was not easy for Britain to fight alone to make too many enemies, and finally Britain gave up attacking Saibatur.

In fact, this is just a trick by the Tang Empire and the Portuguese government, and the Tang Empire is ready to send an expeditionary force to Europe, in fact, it is to receive these more than 100 French warships.

Similarly, the Germans also suffered a loss, knowing that this was a dark operation of the Tang Empire, but they were afraid of affecting the alliance and could not ask the Tang Dynasty for these warships.

However, Hitler still relied on a sharp mouth, and after talking to Zhang Meng on the phone, Zhang Meng agreed to send a fleet to Europe to assist the German Navy in attacking Britain, after all, the German Navy was too weak to compete with the British Navy. And this is exactly Zhang Meng's original intention, which kills two birds with one stone.

However, the question of how many warships the Tang Empire sent to Europe to participate in the war has been discussed many times in the Empire State Building, and the most critical issue is undoubtedly that there is still a Japanese fleet in the Pacific that threatens the Tang Empire, the aircraft carrier battle group of Onodera Gonori, if this Japanese fleet is not destroyed, once the Tang Navy draws out Liliang and goes to Europe, I am afraid that there will be some mistakes.

Based on this consideration, Zhang Meng finally decided to destroy the Onodera Itsunori fleet as soon as possible, and then send the fleet to Europe to participate in the war.

As a result, the navy and air force of the Tang Empire were dispatched to prepare to hunt down the Onodera Gonori fleet with all their might at any cost. (To be continued......)