Beginning on the morning of the 7th, the No. 8 reconnaissance airship of the Pacific Fleet, which stayed outside the port of Xingzhou, discovered unusual movements, and before 12 o'clock in the morning, there were constantly British warships sailing into the strait, and at the same time, a large number of British merchant ships also appeared in the port of Xingzhou...... These are all flotillas that replenish the fleet...... But throughout the afternoon, no British warships or merchant ships entered the harbor.

The battleship Hood, the flagship of the British fleet, which Xu Shoushan had repeatedly cared for, never appeared in the field of vision of the airship monitoring Xingzhou Port and the Xingzhou Strait, but these news naturally immediately made Xu Shoushan a little surprised, and he also realized the actions that the British were advancing......

In view of the intelligence department's infiltration into South Asia and the influence of the Chinese there, he was fully confident that the Pacific Fleet's reconnaissance capabilities were obviously superior to those of the British, and this also determined that he had obtained more detailed information here.

Among them, a detail also immediately attracted the attention of the fleet staff, although the Chinese and British warships around the entire Malacca, the surrounding shipping lanes of the Straits of Sing Chau broke out dozens of naval clashes, but the battle that occurred in the sea area west of Kundur Island last night was the only fierce battle between the two sides at night, and this time, the British warships even bypassed Kundur Island and entered the area near the coastline of Sumatra.

Involved in the battle were the destroyers USS Pyongyang and the mine-laying gunboats USS Seoul, although the commander of the destroyer, the USS Pyongyang, sent a telegram saying that he had encountered the British fleet by chance. But in fact. The prior intent of the whole battle. Almost all the staff officers of the fleet staff believed that this must be Liu Jin, a kid who took the initiative to provoke the British after seeing the results of the Yinzhou battle......

The result of the battle seemed to be that neither side was cheap, the Pyongyang secretly fired two torpedoes, but the black light did not hit, and the British counterattacked, and a shot hit the Pyongyang's lifeboat hanging on the side chord, causing a fire. This made Liu Ji busy for a while, and it was really a bad luck to light a fire on his battleship this night, that is, with this fire, the British followed all the way.

However, when Liu Jin, this kid, reported to the command of the Second Fleet, he was scolded, how can the ghost mind of this thing be hidden, how long can it take to put out a fire in the middle of the night, this guy is burning a big candle. Wandering around the channel with the British, this clearly wants to tease the British. Ready to lead the opponent into the minefield, but, this time, it seems, did not succeed, and the British made a roundabout, but ran out of the fairway.

Of course, in view of the principle of neutrality, trade goods will exclude armaments and weapons, therefore, the Pacific Fleet adopts the blockade of the main channel of the Xingzhou Strait, and the small channel on the flanks is mainly based on mine-laying warnings.

"Since the Hood did not appear in the port of Sin Chew, it is more likely that the British want to enter the South China Sea and take the Kundur Channel, where it is quite difficult for us to reinforce...... Moreover, the Dutch can provide them with more assistance along the coast of Sumatra! A young staff officer mapped the route and the position of the support fleet on the map, giving his own opinion.

"Indeed...... I heard that the 1st South China Division is still besieging the Dutch fortress, and the speed of the army's gang of guys is really snail...... Otherwise, the British probably wouldn't have thought of getting some benefits from the Dutch! ”

"It's not easy for the British to keep hiding in the strait, and it's not easy to have a good fight, we can't line up and rush in and knock out their batteries and ports......"

Xu Shoushan and Tang Hong, who were discussing military strategy, were naturally happy to see the atmosphere of the Fleet Staff Department actively seeking war, as soldiers, they naturally wanted to protect their homes and defend the country, and annihilating the enemy, especially the powerful enemy, was the best way!

"Tang Hong, our strategic purpose of blockading the strait should be achieved, since the British want to come up with it, we really can't take them to the end, now is a good opportunity, you go and plan well......" Saying this, Xu Shoushan began to point out on the chart!

At 9 o'clock on the morning of the 8th, China's Pacific Fleet suddenly intensified its pressure on the Sin Chew Strait, and the four warships Taishan, Yuheng, Dingyuan, and Chiyou, under the flank arch of the six destroyers, rushed into the Sin Chew Strait.

The 6,800-ton Iron Duke battleship was indeed a formidable battleship 10 years earlier, and also served as the flagship of the Far East Fleet, although it has undergone a series of artillery modifications, but the disadvantages of the old battleship layout and wrought iron armor make him obviously far behind the Chinese Navy that has just shown superhuman gunnery.

As the commander of the Iron Duke, Colonel Rox was naturally well aware of these shortcomings, and he immediately decided to set the blocking area in the sea less than 3,000 meters away from the Sin Chau Port Battery, while the two torpedo boats that had previously conducted reconnaissance missions at the mouth of the strait were unlucky, and in the process of escaping back at full speed, they were still pursued and killed by the newly recruited Kunlun-class destroyers, and finally were sunk by the destroyer's fierce small and medium-caliber guns in front of the Iron Duke battleship.

The Iron Duke and the Essenke battleships shelled the Kunlun destroyer forward, thus opening the first large-scale artillery battle in the Xingzhou Strait, and the fierce fire from the Taishan, Yuheng, Dingyuan, and Chiyou 4 ships immediately attacked the Iron Duke at a long distance, and in less than 20 minutes, the Iron Duke was hit by 7 210mm caliber guns and more than 20 small-caliber guns.

The unarmored area of the Iron Duke was badly damaged, but the thick armor of the British battleship still allowed Colonel Rox to easily support the two Admiral-class battleships and two Orlando-class cruisers in the harbor, and as more British torpedo boats joined the battle, Rear Admiral Chen Ming, who was in charge of the attack, gave the order and returned at full speed.

Rear Admiral Tauwell saw the Iron Duke on fire everywhere from the Collingwood, and he couldn't help but have a headache about the fierceness of the Chinese Navy's artillery fire, and waited for Colonel Rox to report, so he was relieved, what the Iron Duke needed was only to clean up, and it would not affect the next move, but at the same time, considering China's fierce combat power and the military strength of the satellite port of Baoxingzhou, he had to think carefully from the beginning.

The headache here is not over, and just after returning to the port, Rear Admiral Tauwell received another urgent telegram from Penang, the commander of the Grand Fleet, Edward ? Vice Admiral Simon sent a telegram requesting that the cruiser USS Blake, the core battleship of the fleet, be transferred back to Penang Port to form a special fleet.

The cruiser Blake, with a speed of nearly 22 knots, complete heavy guns, rapid-fire guns and strong armor, is comparable to the existence of battleships, especially against the destroyers of the Chinese Navy that run like rabbits, Rear Admiral Tauwell had to send a telegram to Vice Admiral Simon, stating a large number of reasons, the surprise attack of the Chinese fleet on the port that day was also included in it, anyway, there is only one request, the Blake cannot be transferred, and he still expects it to take the initiative to attack!

However, his telegram did not solve the problem at all, but instead attracted a barrel of instructions from Vice Admiral Simon, asking him to consider the strategic arrangement of the fleet, and must immediately re-patrol the port of Penang.

This news immediately made Major General Tauwell almost break out in a cold sweat, and the Indian Ocean ...... The Indian Ocean region that makes Lieutenant General Simon pay so much attention is obviously not the vast uninhabited sea southwest of Sumatra, but a large sea area linking Bangladesh and India and forming the backbone of trade in the entire Far East.

Did the Chinese warship crawl over the Straits Settlements with long legs? It is impossible for the Strait of Malacca to pass through a single Chinese merchant ship, let alone a Chinese warship...... And the same problem is also making Vice Admiral Simon, commander of the Far Eastern Fleet, anxious at this moment......

Four hours earlier, a huge fleet of six German merchant ships, three Italian merchant ships, and three American merchant ships sailed into Penang Harbor, and the German captain Sillett was guided by a naval officer to meet Vice Admiral Simon, who handed over to the British Royal Navy a total of 463 British sailors, including more than 30 British sailors, according to him, these Englishmen were adrift on the sea in lifeboats, and they were rescued after seeing the German fleet.

Almost at the same time, Vice Admiral Simon also learned from the officers who received a large number of crew members that the fleet of more than 400 British sailors was not an accidental wreck at all, but was intercepted by Chinese warships on the periphery of Burma, and the other side announced that all British-flagged merchant ships would be inspected on the grounds of Sino-British declaration of war, and that all those transporting military supplies would be sunk.

The merchant fleet, which had a cruising speed of only 10 knots, was unable to fight against the warships, but the cruiser HMS Tiesput, which was escorting the fleet from Tamil, India, bravely attacked the other side and tried to protect the merchant fleet from the control of the other side, but the 2,100-ton shipside gun armored ship, launched in 1871, was blown into two pieces and sunk into the sea after only 3 minutes in a salvo of the opponent's six main guns.

The violent explosion of the cruiser Tiewei became the strongest warning to all those who tried to escape the inspection of the British merchant ships, and the results of the inspection, not surprisingly, all the merchant ships were characterized as transporting war-related materials, and the Chinese Navy ordered them to lower their lifeboats within 20 minutes, and then smashed six British merchant ships into burning pillars of fire in front of them with heavy artillery fire. (To be continued......)