At the inner harbor dock of Newport Naval Base in Rhode Island, an oceanographic research ship, two heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and a submarine formed a formation and were preparing to leave the port.

The commander of this team was none other than Chen Shaoyi, the former commander of the Imperial Chinese Navy's fleet, and at this time he was the head of the Imperial Chinese Maritime Survey Department.

Since the end of the naval battle in the Solomon Islands, he has been introspecting, took the initiative to resign from the post of commander of the naval fleet, applied for the establishment of the Marine Survey Department, and personally recommended himself as the minister, specifically to provide accurate charts for the Chinese Imperial Navy, and never allow the Imperial Navy to be put in danger because of chart errors.

"Minister Chen, are you waiting for the Imperial Navy to send battleships over, and then set off for Beihai. After all, it is the backyard of the British, and our navy may have been harassed by the British navy in the past, and even clashed. Liang Wei, commander of the Rhode Island Naval Base, said worriedly.

Chen Shaoyi smiled slightly and replied, "Don't worry, we're not going to fight!" Just investigate the water ripples of the North Sea! ”

Looking at Chen Shaoyi's breezy appearance, Liang Wei was also drunk.

But everyone knows the risks of going to the North Sea. It's just that there are some things that someone has to do, and you have to be not afraid of death.

The whistle sounded, and the oceanographic survey vessel 981 slowly sailed out of the harbor, followed by four warships and a submarine.

The four warships are all the latest Dreadnought heavy cruisers and Dreadnought light cruisers in service in the Chinese Empire.

Among them, the heavy cruiser is named after the moon number, a total of fifteen, namely the spring moon ship, the summer moon ship, the autumn moon ship, the winter moon ship, the peach moon ship, the lotus moon ship, the chrysanthemum moon ship, the Guiyue ship, the forest moon ship, the Fengyue ship, the river moon ship, the river moon ship, the lake moon ship, the sea moon ship, the morning moon ship, the sunset moon ship, and the Haoyue ship.

The standard displacement of this class of ships is 10,000 tons, and due to the improved design carried out during construction, although they are all warships of the same class, there is a big difference in tonnage. The largest Akigetsu ship is 11,500 tons, and the smallest Kikugetsu ship is only 9,100 tons. However, the other armament and armor systems are similar, all of them are equipped with 3 triple 203 mm 55 x diameter main guns, 8 47 mm rapid-fire guns, 6 12.7 mm Bloody heavy machine guns, and the main armor belt is 140 mm, 85 mm forward, 105 mm backward, covering 100% of the hull length; 4 chimneys, 18 boilers, steam turbine system, four axles and four oars, speed 28~29 knots, cruising range of 6000 nautical miles per 18 knots.

The light cruiser is named after the star number, and there are a total of fifteen ships, which are the Fu Star Ship, the Lu Star Ship, the Birthday Star Ship, the Xi Star Ship, the Cai Star Ship, the Ji Star Ship, the Gui Star Ship, the Rising Star Ship, the Venus Ship, the Jupiter Ship, the Mercury Ship, the Mars Ship, the Saturn Ship, the Comet Ship, and the Meteor Ship.

The base displacement of this class is between 4200~5200 tons, and it is equipped with 3 triple 155mm 55 times diameter main guns and 122mm armor belt with limited coverage. Steam turbine system propulsion, four axles and four oars, speed 30~32 knots, endurance at 4000 nautical miles every 20 knots,

This time, the oceanographic survey ship traveled with the Akizuki ship, the Yuzuki ship, the comet ship and the meteor ship.

Finally, there is a submarine, the third ship of the Great White Shark class, the Blackhead Shark.

When the formation of six ships, the oceanographic survey ship No. 981, the Akizuki ship, the Yuzuki ship, the comet ship, the meteor ship and the blackhead shark, sailed out of Rhode Bay, they encountered the American Navy fleet head-on.

With tensions between China and the United States, the two concessions of the Chinese Empire in the United States have also become very awkward. Be on guard all day, guarding against disturbances by the American people during the day and against sudden attacks by the US military at night. Similarly, the U.S. government also guarded against the Chinese Empire, not only deploying heavy troops on the land borders, but also sending warships at sea to monitor the entry and exit of warships of the Imperial Chinese Navy 24 hours a day.

At this moment, the US warship USS Lexington armored cruiser is cruising in the open sea.

When Captain Dewey saw the formation of ships of the Chinese Empire leaving the port, he immediately became hostile and wanted to find fault, so he deliberately ordered the battleship Lexington to sail to the channel in front of the oceanographic survey ship 981.

The investigators on the 981 were immediately filled with righteous indignation and scolded the US Navy for being shameless.

Chen Shaoyi was also happy to see the US ship behave like this.

Since leaving the fleet, the fighting fierceness in the army seems to have been forgotten, but at this moment, it has been unexpectedly reactivated to the blood.

"Tricksters? Then let's see who can afford it! The course remains the same! Full! ”

With Chen Shaoyi's order, the first mate of the pipe wheel was also taken aback.

"Director, if the course remains the same, it will collide with the US ship!"

"That's right! I'm just going to hit it! ”

Not only was the first mate of the pipe wheel dumbfounded, but the other investigation bureau personnel next to him also had the same expression.

Only a few officers who had been following Chen Shaoyi from the Navy to the Investigation Bureau were very calm, but they knew the temper of the former commander of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

At the same time, on the Lexington, Dewey, who was proud, was also stunned for a moment.

"Captain, who is the commander of the Chinese Empire? Isn't it crazy? He's going to hit us? ”

"He wouldn't dare! This kind of ship hits our warship, purely looking for death! ”

Dewey shook his head, not believing that 981 really dared to hit the Lexington.

However, soon Dewey frowned, and instead of slowing down, the other party accelerated.

Seeing that he was about to collide, Dewey suddenly became nervous.

He is indeed not afraid that No. 981 will hit the Lexington, but once it does hit, it will not be a trivial matter, and I am afraid that it will cause a diplomatic dispute.

At this moment, Sino-US relations are tense, and if we are not careful, we may misfire and break out into war.

In particular, there are four Chinese Imperial warships at the back door of No. 981, and once No. 981 sinks, those four Chinese Imperial warships will definitely fire at the Lexington.

After all, Dewey was only a small captain, and he did not dare to take responsibility for the Sino-American war, so he finally had no choice but to admit it.

"Avoid! Evade now! ”

Hearing Dewey's order, the American officers and men on the Lexington breathed a sigh of relief.

At the same time, the Chinese crew members on the No. 981 oceanographic survey ship burst into enthusiastic cheers, clearly mocking the US military's instigation.

All the American troops on the Lexington, including Dewey, suddenly had hot faces, which was too embarrassing.

As the Lexington took the initiative to evade, the 981 drove directly next to the Lexington in a majestic manner, and the sailors of the Chinese Empire above immediately raised their middle fingers at the American troops with a look of contempt.

Dewey's face darkened with anger.

Subsequently, the four warships of the Chinese Empire suddenly raised their main guns, and the muzzles of the guns were aimed at the Lexington.

Dewey was suddenly startled and hurriedly shouted combat preparations, and the American army suddenly became nervous.

It turned out that the Imperial Chinese Navy was just scaring the US military, but it made the US military break out in a cold sweat.

was going to be angry with the people of the Chinese Empire, but in the end he was slapped in the face! After Dewey realized this, his old face suddenly turned red, and he regretted his previous mistake!

Isn't this nothing to look for!

Watching the Chinese Imperial Fleet sail mightily into the North Atlantic, Dewey's mood suddenly became very bad, and he ordered to return to the sea in a bad mood.

When the Imperial Chinese Navy entered the North Atlantic, not only the American Navy was nervous, but the British Imperial Navy was also very nervous, and quickly dispatched warships to follow and monitor from afar.

Chen Shaoyi is also not afraid of being watched, what should he do, collecting information on the ocean ripples and climate on the Atlantic route every day until he enters the North Sea.

The fleet of the Chinese Empire has entered the North Sea, which is the backyard of the British Empire!

The entire British Empire suddenly became nervous, although the Chinese Empire only sent four warships and no battleships, but it was the first time to enter the waters of the North Sea, and it was to test the pattern and climate of the North Sea.

What does the Chinese Empire want to do?

The British can figure it out if they think about it with their ass!

Two British battleships were quickly dispatched to show off their might in front of the Imperial Chinese Navy in an attempt to prevent the Imperial Chinese from surveying and gathering intelligence in the North Sea.

However, Chen Shaoyi did not pay attention to the other party, but just killed the British Navy under the banner of freedom of navigation.

Like the American Navy, the British Imperial Navy did not dare to attack the government ships and warships of the Chinese Empire on the high seas, and could only choose military confrontation to interfere with the investigation of the Imperial Chinese oceanographic survey vessels.

It's just that the British army only has two battleships, although the force is strong, but if they don't dare to open fire, they don't have any eggs, and they confront the four cruisers of the Chinese Imperial Navy, and they suffer in speed, and they can't interfere with the other side at all, so they can only watch the oceanographic survey ships of the Chinese Empire surveying and mapping in the North Sea.

However, soon the British Navy sent a large number of cruisers and frigates to circle around the Chinese Imperial Oceanographic Survey Ship No. 981 and interfere with the mapping of No. 981.

Fisher was also on the scene, not to play a pediatric game such as military confrontation, but to observe the new cruisers of the Chinese Empire.

"Three triple 203 mm caliber main guns, no secondary secondary guns at all, only 47 mm caliber close-in rapid-fire guns!"

And so it was! In addition to the four triple 305 mm main guns, there were also 8 more 203 mm secondary guns on the new battleships of the Chinese Empire, which I suspected at the time that it was fake and deliberately misled us. ”

Hearing Fisher's words, the Earl of Newcastle, the Minister of the Navy next to him, also had a suddenly realized expression, and said angrily: "Damn the Chinese, they will play tricks, but fortunately, we have a shrewd Fisher, so that we will not be deceived by the Chinese Empire." ”

Speaking of which, Newcastle was also afraid for a while, and the British Navy was forced by the Imperial Chinese Navy to join the large-scale naval arms race, starting construction of 12 new battleships, imitating the latest dreadnought-class battleships of the Chinese Empire.

However, in the design and actual construction, it was found that after being equipped with four triple 343 mm cannons, when installing the 234 mm secondary guns, the entire hull was too crowded, and it seemed to return to the waist gun layout of the early sail battleship era. The worst thing is that the installation of so many guns consumes a lot of displacement, and if the total displacement is not increased, it will have to sacrifice the weight of armor, the weight of the engine and the location of the endurance supply bin. For the British Empire, it was obvious that such a big sacrifice could not be made, so it had to increase the displacement, from the original plan of 16,000 tons to 21,000 tons, and soon found that this was not enough, because after increasing the displacement, the length and width of the hull also increased, and naturally the length of armor coverage had to be increased, which in turn squeezed a large amount of displacement, and it was necessary to ensure a speed of at least 16 knots, and a large-scale increase in the boiler compartment.

As a result, the British Navy suddenly found that they seemed to be in a vicious circle, no matter how they designed, the relationship between firepower, armor, power and displacement was not reasonable, and the budget soared from the initial 4 million pounds to 5.5 million pounds a ship, which made the British Treasury so angry that it almost set fire to the Admiralty building.

It wasn't until today that Newcastle and Fisher discovered the real problem.

From the very beginning, the new battleships of the Chinese Empire did not have secondary guns, and they deliberately showed their faces outside, probably using paper shells to temporarily forge secondary guns, and deliberately let British intelligence officers send the photos back to the mainland to mislead the British Imperial Navy.

"After removing the secondary cannon, everything becomes very reasonable!"

Fisher took out a design of a new battleship and removed the 234 mm secondary secondary gun on it, which was originally intended to fight against the 203 mm main gun of the new battleship of the Chinese Empire. After removing it, the layout of the battleship as a whole looked much more reasonable.

"I'm afraid that the hull of the ship that has been under construction for almost a year will have to be dismantled again!"

Newcastle said with a wry smile that it had been deliberately misled by the Chinese Empire before, and the designers of the British Navy could not find the reason. In addition, the Chinese Empire has already started to build 12 new battleships, and the British Navy feels the imminent military pressure, so it can only let the designers of the British Navy design while the shipyard starts to build the battleship hull, and the result is that it has been built and dismantled and built, and this has been a year later, and the British new battleships in the shipyard are still being dismantled and built, while the main hull of the new battleships of the Chinese Empire has been completed, and the power system has begun to be installed, and it looks like it is about to be launched.

Every time I think about it, Newcastle is so angry that I flappe the table and scold my mother.

"This is the tuition we have to pay!" Fisher also said with emotion: "I can't understand why the Chinese Empire was able to design such an advanced battleship, the layout of this new type of battleship is too clever, why can't our designers think of it?" Twenty years ago, the Chinese Empire could not even build sail battleships, and had to learn technology from us, but now it has surpassed us! ”

Newcastle didn't want to mention this sad incident, and it was tears in their eyes when they mentioned it.

"Well, now that you've found the crux of the problem, you can go back to the shipyard and quickly revise the design. Now that the construction of the new battleships of the Chinese Empire is already ahead of us, the unprecedented military pressure that will be brought to our British Empire must be hurried. ”

Fisher also knew the urgency of time, but he still had a question in his mind, and he had to say.

"Lord Earl, I have one more question here. I just estimated, increasing the number of main guns, canceling the secondary guns, although the overall has become reasonable, but there is still a huge hidden danger! ”

Newcastle was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly asked, "What hidden danger?" ”

Fisher then said: "The number of main guns has increased, and the attack power against large enemy warships in the distance has increased, but how can we prevent the enemy's fast cruisers and frigates from attacking at close range?" You must know that during the Battle of Solomon, the speed of the Zhongning-class armored cruiser of the Chinese Empire has exceeded 24 knots, while the speed of our battleship is only 16 knots. ”

Newcastle frowned and said, "You mean this cannon must be there?" Wasn't your reasoning nonsense before that! ”

Fisher is also entangled!

It's not reasonable to put this Nima secondary cannon up, but it's also unreasonable to remove it!

What kind of spell did the Chinese Empire use to turn this unreasonableness into reasonableness!

Unless it solves the power system problem, so that the speed of the battleship is greatly increased, and there is no fear of being attacked by the enemy's fish and radium!

Impossible! No matter how good the Chinese Empire is, it is impossible for the Chinese Empire to solve the power problem in such a quick time!

Fisher shook his head, not believing that the Chinese Empire had solved the problem of power.

"It's a big deal that we can increase the number of frigates and escort the capital ships, the key problem now is that the progress of building ships cannot be delayed any longer, otherwise, when the Chinese Empire completes the 12 new battleships into service, I am afraid that we will be even more dangerous."

Fisher nodded, the only solution now was to protect the battleship with more frigates and prevent the battleship from being attacked by enemy Fish Rays.

Fisher left, Newcastle stayed, and his target was Chen Shaoyi. It was because of this damn guy that the British Empire finally lost the Battle of the Solomon Islands and lost the Fifth Anglo-Chinese War. Now everyone in the British Empire hates Chen Shaoyi to death, and they can't wait to peel off his skin and kill him quickly!

"Chen Shaoyi, you want to measure the sea state of the North Sea, go dream! I'm not going to let you get away with it! ”

"Pass my orders, harass me vigorously, and never let the Imperial Chinese Navy get information on the sea conditions of the North Sea!"

Newcastle swore the order, but it didn't take long for him to be dumbfounded.

Chen Shaoyi didn't care about the British at all, and he was indifferent to the interference of the British warships, what should the marine surveyors do, the warships of the British Navy are air.

The oceanographic survey ship No. 981 advanced according to the original plan, and the four cruisers, the Akizuki ship, the Yuzuki ship, the comet ship, and the meteor ship, were loaded with main gun shells, and once the No. 981 had an accident, it immediately opened fire and attacked, and the submarine Blackhead Shark was also secretly preparing for battle.

Several British frigates blocked the channel in front of No. 981, intending to force No. 981 to turn or leave, but when they found that No. 981 did not turn at all, but directly collided forward, the British suddenly panicked, and finally chose to get out of the way.

Seeing this, Newcastle was furious.

"Fack! A bunch of cowards! ”

"Block it for me, don't dodge, just let him hit it, I think he can't sink our warship with a survey ship!"

After receiving Newcastle's order, several British frigates turned around again and re-blocked the front of the 981, which continued to move forward as always, without changing course in the slightest.

It's about to be bumped into!

At this critical moment, a loudspeaker sounded on the Qiuyue ship of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

"Listen to the British naval commander opposite! Our Imperial Chinese Oceanographic Survey Ship is sailing freely on the high seas, and if you dare to obstruct and cause damage to the Imperial Chinese Ship, we will immediately open fire and attack, and all the consequences will be borne by Britain! ”

The sound of the loudspeaker startled the British Navy, which had seen such a novelty for the first time. Although there are also large speakers based on telephone technology in the United Kingdom, they are only a rarity. Not to mention the loudspeakers on the British Navy battleships, there was not even a telephone. However, the warships of the Chinese Empire were equipped with loudspeakers and even telephones.

Newcastle was stunned for a moment, being threatened by the Imperial Chinese Navy like this made him feel disgraced. He wanted to shout back, but unfortunately there was no such high-tech equipment as a loudspeaker on his battleship.

"What shall we do, Lord Count?"

"Ignore him!"

Newcastle snorted.

At this moment, a British sailor suddenly shouted.

"Oh no, the main guns of the Chinese Imperial warships are all raised and aimed at us!"

Newcastle was startled for a moment, and hurriedly took a look, and sure enough, he saw the main guns of the four Imperial Chinese Navy warships rattling and raising their muzzles.

"I don't believe you dare to shoot! We have two battleships, and a dozen cruisers and frigates, and you only have four cruisers, and if we start fighting, you will definitely not be our opponents! ”

Newcastle said unbelievingly.

The British officer next to him suddenly reminded: "But Lord Earl, even if they can't defeat us, but in this way, even if it is a full-scale war!" Are you sure we can go to war with the Chinese Empire? ”

Newcastle's bull B attitude is gone in an instant!

Yes, as soon as the fire is fired, it will be the Sixth Anglo-Chinese War!

The problem is that the current British Empire can't afford to fight!

Knock knock! Knock knock!

At this moment, the Qiuyue ship of the Imperial Chinese Navy opened fire, and the three triple 203 mm main guns opened fire in mourning, and the nine shells formed a straight line and landed on the sea next to a British frigate, instantly stirring up nine columns of water that were brushed together.

Nima, how dare you open fire!

Newcastle's face was as dead as he could, and he wanted to give the order to open fire and do it with all his might, but in the end he was not confident enough to give an order that would ruin his reputation.

"No return fire!"

More than a dozen British ships were loaded with shells, and as a result, they received orders not to return fire, which immediately made all the British soldiers vomit blood angrily.

"Let's retreat!"

Newcastle gave the order again, as if it had aged ten years in an instant.

More than a dozen British warships fled quickly, did not dare to return fire, and walked away in disgrace.

Seeing the British Navy fleeing with its tail between its legs, the staff of No. 981 and the officers and men on other warships of the Chinese Empire immediately cheered, and the degree of joy was self-evident.

Not long after, the major newspapers of the Chinese Empire published front-page headlines about the 981 oceanographic survey ship being troubled by the American Navy and the British Imperial Navy, and as a result, it was scared away.

The Chinese Empire quickly lodged a solemn protest against the United States and the British Empire and threatened war.

The governments of Britain and the United States hastened to apologize and pledge not to make similar mistakes again.

The whole world was in an uproar, and the British and American militaries were collectively silent. (To be continued.) )