At 9 a.m. on July 10, 1892, on the periphery of Lang San Island in the Strait of Malacca, the huge Royal Navy fleet was rapidly assembling, and a large number of gunboats and light cruisers intercepted all merchant ships entering the strait north of Lang San Island, while the long Royal Navy fleet was still crowded in the nearly 30 km wide strait.

Finally, a notification ship came quickly, it brought important news from the Straits Colonies from the mouth of the Xingzhou Strait, after the reconnaissance of the naval torpedo boats, the Chinese Navy blockaded the strait is still the main warship of the Pacific Fleet, which is the current flagship of the Pacific Fleet, Dayu, and the lieutenant general's flag on the mast of Dayu has also been confirmed.

After Vice Admiral Simon confirmed this news, he immediately issued a combat mission, and the sub-flotillas who received the order quickly ordered the warships to leave at high speed, and the second squadron under the command of Rear Admiral Tauwell quickly sailed into the narrow Kundur channel southeast of the Strait of Malacca, where more than six torpedo boats and four shallow gunboats had been secretly clearing the channel for a long time.

The 7th Squadron of the cruiser Pavler, after exerting great courage, successfully repelled the opponent after an hour-long fierce battle with 4 Chinese destroyers in the channel, and the Chinese apparently saw more and more and larger giant ships coming, and finally gave up the idea of defending the channel and quickly withdrew.

By 2 p.m., more than a dozen British torpedo boats had finally cleared dozens of anchor mines laid in the channel by using underwater netting tools, clearing a channel that could accommodate a large warship.

The Orlando-class heavy cruiser Aurora was the first to sail into the strait, at this moment. The only thing the Royal Navy is worried about is the anchor mines laid by the Chinese in the strait. Despite careful minesweeping. But apparently no one could give any guarantees, and the Dawning Goddess, which was almost a trap mission, slowly entered the channel and slowly moved forward at a speed of less than 8 knots.

At 3:40, the Goddess of Aurora successfully passed through the Kundur channel, and the news was quickly delivered by the Grand Fleet 20 kilometers away, and the six cruisers led by the Goddess of Aurora successfully laid a cordon at the southeast exit of Kundur Island, which immediately swept away the troubles brought by Vice Admiral Simon because of the raid on the Xuanyuan for several days. The Royal Navy's meticulous preparations finally broke through China's blockade line in the Strait of Malacca, which means that it has finally grasped the full initiative in the wider South China Sea.

However, to Vice Admiral Simon's slight surprise and surprise, the Royal Navy had never encountered a Chinese warship outside the Kundur Channel...... But the other side did lay a lot of torpedoes here...... In the end, he very calmly decided that the Royal Navy was maneuvering quickly. So that the Chinese who are still waiting at the exit of the Sin Chew Strait cannot intercept in a roundabout way!

At this time, the shipping lane between Sugi Island and Blue Island, which is less than 40 nautical miles east of the Kundur Channel. The cruiser USS Intrepid cautiously broke into the channel with the assistance of two shallow-water gunboats and three Sea Serpent torpedo boats, and they were tasked with opening a second channel for the fleet.

However, at the beginning of the month, when the cruiser Sturdy struck a mine near Sugi Island, only about 30 of the 285 crew members, including the captain of the Sturdy, Colonel Hawke, escaped, and the commander of the cruiser, Colonel John, did not want to make the same mistake, so the whole advance was very slow.

Because the water depth of the channel here is more than 15 meters, the anchor mines lurking in the water depth of six or seven meters must rely on the demining device to tow and cut off the anchor chain at a distance before the final detonation can be carried out......

However, compared to the Dawn Goddess in the Kundur channel, the mission of the Fearless encountered a lot of trouble, from the morning, the end of the channel continued to appear Chinese warships, the other side did not directly attack, but quietly waited whether to launch a rapid artillery attack on the gunboats and torpedo boats that were demining.

Of course, the Fearless immediately counterattacked with a 234mm heavy gun in the bow, but the distance between the two sides was more than 5,000 meters, and they were all shelling like cold guns.

On the contrary, the small-caliber rapid-fire guns of the Chinese battleships shelled several times, almost overturning the shallow water gunboats that were operating, causing the two gunboats to escape behind the Intrepid with their lives, and the torpedo boats, which were weaker in firepower and armor, were more like chickens that saw eagles in front of the Chinese destroyer group blocking the shipping lane, and did not dare to move.

At about 6 o'clock in the afternoon, when the Royal Navy's Sovereign-class battleship Counterattack slowly sailed out of the Kundur channel, the afterglow of the setting sun had already dyed the sea level in the distance red......

Waiting in the rear, Vice Admiral Simon, although he was not satisfied with the efficiency of the passage, but, considering that the original combat intention had in fact been achieved, he ordered to continue to pass through the channel at night, and excluded a large number of small boats from being responsible for the command of the channel, which had caused his grand strategy to be greatly delayed because of the exit of the strait blocked by the Chinese, and now in this situation, he was not willing to waste a minute and a second.

What's more, although the Chinese were still blocking the mouth of the Sin Chau Strait before the opening of the voyage, he was not sure whether the other party had come at full speed, in theory, the Chinese fleet bypassed Bintan Island to intercept at least 20 hours of cruising time, but the Chinese had already given him too many surprises, this so-called theoretical time, he was a little skeptical!

At 8 o'clock, while Vice Admiral Simon was enjoying a delicious film steak on the flagship Hood, the briefing ship from Sugi Island brought the news that the Chinese Navy destroyer formation was engaged with the cruiser formation Intrepid Fearless, which once again increased his uneasiness, and he naturally knew very well this type of high-speed sea light cavalry created by the Chinese, and from his point of view, the Chinese destroyers had completely replaced the relatively backward torpedo boats, and gradually became a new maritime force.

Although the firepower of the 120mm guns of the Shanghai-class destroyers could not pose a threat to the Royal Navy's powerful Orlando-class and Blake-class cruisers, the installation of high-range torpedoes on the Chinese destroyers made the Royal Navy deeply uneasy, and after thinking twice, he issued the order again...... The fleet must pass through the Kundur channel that night, and after dawn tomorrow, he will advance into the Java Sea and first cut off the claws of the Chinese reaching for the Dutch East Indies!

The shining light signals on the Hood sent the command out in an orderly manner, and a string of non-stop flashing lights, the entire fleet of effective destroyers slowly entered the safe passage that could only pass through two warships, and the military quality accumulated by the Royal Navy for hundreds of years, even under this inefficient command system, still broke out with a strong ability to organize and coordinate combat.

"General, news came from the Counterattack that patrols have been arranged in accordance with the second-class patrol norms within 50 nautical miles of the exit of the channel, and so far there has been no approach by Chinese at all, and Major General Hunt has asked the torpedo boat unit to expand the search area!" Intelligence Staff Officer Wells hurried into the bridge, leaving Vice Admiral Simon to stop for the idea of dinner again.

"Grant execution...... Wells, tell Major General Hunt that if Chinese try to stop us, then we must not hesitate to attack, and we will give them the greatest support in time...... By the way, is there still a war on Sugi Island? "Lieutenant General Simon was quite satisfied with Henry's professionalism, and at the first moment he had already put his ideas into practice...... This is the real military capability of the Royal Navy!

"The Chinese warships on Sugi Island have retreated, but the Intrepid has not completed the minesweeping mission of the fairway, and Colonel John will need another day!"

Vice Admiral Simon was also a little disappointed that he had not been able to open a second shipping route to the Java Sea, but he had taken a two-pronged approach, originally to ensure that the navy could open the situation, he stood up, picked up his glass of red wine, turned and walked onto the porch, where in the dim moonlight, several light cruisers were illuminating the dark strait in the distance with their huge searchlights...... At this time, the question that he had thought about before, I don't know what the reason was, suddenly popped up in his mind again!

He suddenly reversed course and gave up attacking from the Sin Chau Strait in favor of attacking along the coastline of Sumatra...... It really looks like it's been hidden from the Chinese!

Lieutenant General Simon naturally couldn't answer this question, but in the Kundur Channel, which seemed to be quite busy at the moment, someone could answer his question, close to a coral reef in Sumatra, under the sea water of nearly 20 meters, four huge steel monsters lay silently on the yellow sand at the bottom of the water, seemingly lifeless.

Suddenly, the tail of the steel monster, the two circular propellers hidden in the huge cover, slowly rotated, driving the sea water to make a low humming sound, and within the body of the steel monster, dozens of national sailors who had been silent a few minutes ago had quickly entered their respective combat positions.

"Electric engine starts......" the officer's deep voice issued the publisher ordered.

"Done!"

"Check torpedoes No. 1 and No. 2!"

"Done!"

"Prepare to empty the 6 water tank and slowly float up...... Enter Level 1 Combat Readiness! Hu Xueyong, commander of the S3 submarine, looked at his watch, made a gesture, and gave the order to prepare for battle. (To be continued......)