After getting the emergency personnel appointment letter signed by Nie Renfeng himself and the ink had not yet dried, Tan Renhao got on the plane and left Zhoushan. The plane made a stopover in Guangzhou and then flew directly to the Lion City. At the same time, the 1st Task Force stationed at Naha Port and the 3rd Task Force stationed at Matsue Port also received orders to go south. Within two days, the two large fleets had set sail south.

When he left Zhoushan, the information in Tan Renhao's hand was quite limited, especially how the Fifth Task Force and the South Atlantic Fleet were defeated, he was not completely clear, the battle report sent back by Weng Yiming was not detailed to every detail, and Jiang Zhongmin had not sent back the report. The only thing that is certain is that the size of the British expeditionary fleet exceeded all previous predictions, and that the ships sent by France did not abandon the expedition because the French government had already announced a temporary cessation of resistance in early January.

At the end of December, the German army arrived in Marseille, the defeat of France was a foregone conclusion, and the French government began to engage with Germany through several neutral countries. Because the Tang Empire also sent expeditionary forces to fight in Europe, and in addition, the French army was also fighting against the Persian Empire's army in the North African battlefield, so the Tang Empire, Germany, and the Persian Empire issued a joint declaration at that time, that is, no country could represent the Allied bloc alone, and must win in the common name of the Allied bloc, that is, France could not only negotiate with Germany, but with the Allied bloc. Moreover, this is by no means an armistice negotiation, but an unconditional surrender negotiation, or rather, not a negotiation at all, what France needs to do. It is to announce the surrender before the negotiations.

At that time, the Allied bloc established that it would only accept the "unconditional surrender" of the enemy because Japan was about to be defeated, and Germany and other countries wanted to contain the Tang Empire. That's why this request was made.

The Tang Empire did exactly that, without any form of negotiation with the old Japanese government. Until the forces of the old Japanese government were completely driven out of Japan. Now the question fell to the Germans. It would be most appropriate to accept the surrender of France at this time in the interests of Germany, which had already won over France enough to ensure its absolute hegemony on the European continent. But the problem was that France could only surrender unconditionally. And unconditional surrender to the Allied bloc, and not just to Germany.

In early January, the French government announced that it would no longer resist, but did not announce its surrender. The Germans also stopped less than 50 kilometers from Marseille, and the two sides began to make secret contacts. Because this was an act that violated the principle of collective victory of the Central Powers, the secret negotiations between Germany and France were never made public. By mid-January, the Foreign Ministry of the Tang Empire issued a strong statement of condemnation, exerting tremendous pressure on Germany and, with the demand for the withdrawal of the Imperial Expeditionary Force, forced Germany to abandon any form of negotiations with France. France must be defeated completely.

The problem also arose in the three countries of Tang Debo, and the main problem was after the defeat of France. What to do with this defeated country? At that time, both the German and Imperial armies were engaged in the French theater, and the Persian army fought mainly against the French in the North African theater. According to the meaning of the Don Empire, after the surrender of France. The three countries should jointly occupy France, but Germany resolutely disagreed, because France was Germany's backyard, just as the Tang Empire would not allow any other great power to interfere in Japan's affairs, Germany naturally did not want to see other countries influencing France in the future.

There is also the fact that the Tang Empire left the European continent more than two hundred years ago and lost its last colony on the continent. Although the occupation of France is not the establishment of colonies, from the perspective of any European, if the Tang Empire sends troops to occupy France, what is the difference between this and a few hundred years ago, when the Tang Empire colonized Europe? As the future hegemon of Europe, if Germany wants to obtain a stable development environment, it must appear as a responsible European leader, and prevent the Tang Empire from re-entering Europe, which is naturally Germany's unshirkable task.

Around this issue, the contradictions between the three kingdoms of Tang Debo first broke out. Persia's demands were met first, and Persia was the first to withdraw from the diplomatic dispute. The Persian Empire did not seek to occupy the French mainland, but obtained French colonies in North Africa, and both the Tang Empire and Germany made a commitment that after the war, the Persian Empire would control all French colonies in North Africa, while the Persian Empire voluntarily gave up its claim to occupy France. The question finally fell to the disagreement between the Tang Empire and Germany, and the main question at that time was whether the Tang Empire should send troops to occupy France, and what proportion of the territory occupied by the Tang Empire.

It is precisely because of this that the surrender of France has been delayed. The Germans played a shrewd game. The Tang Empire had just slaughtered Germany in naval aid, and now the French expeditionary fleet was advancing towards the Indian Ocean, and the German government had put pressure on the Tang Imperial government, and as long as France did not surrender for a day, the French expeditionary fleet would not stop for a day, and it would still pose a huge threat to the Tang Imperial Navy.

Therefore, if the negotiations drag on, it will be even more detrimental to the Tang Empire. But the Tang Empire will not make concessions easily, even if the Tang Empire knows that to occupy France is to put a knife on Germany's back, which is almost impossible, but this is a huge weight for the Tang Empire to gain world hegemony in the future, through the entanglement of the French issue, Germany can be forced to make concessions on other issues.

Both sides are playing the political card and seeking benefits for themselves, and as a result, a very strange phenomenon has emerged. The French were waiting for surrender and had promised not to attach any conditions to surrender, but the Tang Empire and Germany were in no hurry to make France surrender. The French government in Marseille had already begun to prepare surrender documents, and the French army had largely laid down its arms. Only near the Pyrenees, when the French legion led by Charles de Gaulle entered Spain and went to England on the eve of the French surrender, the rest of the French army largely ceased to resist.

This strange phenomenon on the European battlefield can only be said to have been caused by the internal contradictions of the Central Powers, which will continue to exist as long as the fundamental contradictions between the Tang Empire and Germany are not resolved. Of course, this is not Tan Renhao's concern. He was bored with the disputes between politicians and land, and the soldiers finally won the victory on the battlefield, but the politicians used them as bargaining weights. But the problem is. The army was supposed to be under the command of the government, because of fear. Anger is useless.

After the plane took off from Guangzhou, Tan Renhao fell asleep on the plane, he did not read the information in his hand, and many of the materials were outdated, especially most of the information related to the British and French joint expeditionary fleet was wrong. This gave him a bit of a headache, and maybe, when he arrived in the Lion City, new information would be delivered. The plane flew south all the way, and Tan Renhao soon entered his dream, he dreamed of his wife and son, and dreamed of his relatives at home.

When Tan Renhao flew to the Lion City, Chang Jianxin had already arrived in the Lion City one step ahead of schedule. He received an order from the headquarters when he went to Guangzhou to receive a repaired battleship, telling him to go to the Lion City immediately to meet Tan Renhao, and the personnel appointment letter would be brought to him by Tan Renhao. Therefore. When Tan Renhao had not yet arrived in Guangzhou, Chang Jianxin took a plane and rushed to the Lion City first.

The Lion City also has a name, which is "Singapore". It is an island city built on the southern tip of the Straits of Malacca. Since the Tang Empire's immigrants first arrived here more than 1,000 years ago, the empire's first overseas "colony", or diaspora settlement, was established. Afterward.

The Empire built a fort here, and also built it as the Empire's first colony overseas, and it was also the first naval base of the Imperial Navy outside of the mainland.

The Lion City guards the Strait of Malacca, the most important of the three straits from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean. Especially after the discovery of a large amount of oil in the Gulf region of the Persian Empire, and oil gradually became the main fuel for industry and the army, the Tang Empire began to import oil from the Persian Empire on a large scale, and in addition, more than eighty percent of the goods exported by the Tang Empire to the Persian Empire and the Western world needed to pass through the Strait of Malacca. It can be said that this strait is the throat of the Tang Empire, and it is one of the most important straits that the empire must control.

After World War I, the Tang Empire reclaimed the Lion City and built it as the Empire's core base in the South Seas. At the beginning of the war, the Lion City fell into Japanese hands, and the Empire's ties with Persia and Germany were also cut off for a time. In the ensuing counterattack, the empire first decided to recover the South Seas, and the most important purpose of the recovery of the South Seas was to regain control of the Strait of Malacca. The Lion City was the first site to be reclaimed, and the Lion City's military port facilities were the first to be restored. Today, it is the home port of the Fifth Fleet and the most well-equipped military port of the Imperial Navy outside of mainland China.

After Chang Jianxin arrived in the Lion City, he immediately learned that Tan Renhao was coming, so he did not rush to the port headquarters here to report, but waited for Tan Renhao at the airport. More than five hours later, Tan Renhao's plane arrived.

"How were you doing along the way?"

"I slept and am much better now." Tan Renhao nodded to Chang Jianxin, and then walked towards the car parked in the lane next to the runway. "You haven't been to Port Command yet?"

"No, just a few calls here, how serious is it this time?" Chang Jianxin also quickly followed.

"Very serious." Tan Renhao got into the car first, and only after Chang recommended the new arrivals did he continue, "The principal issued us an emergency personnel appointment letter, and the order to the fleet was sent directly to the chief of staff of the fleet, Gu Zhenyun should have received the news, right?" ”

"Got it, he's organizing a fleet, and he'll be able to go south in about two days."

"Zheng Guanhua should also have received the news, if his action card is made, maybe the First Task Force will be able to go south tomorrow." Tan Renhao gave the document in his hand to Chang Jianxin, and then said to Du Xing, who was sitting in the co-pilot seat in front, "Go directly to the port headquarters and drive as fast as possible on the road." ”

Chang Jianxin quickly browsed through the documents, he was not surprised, and his expression was very serious.

"Fortunately, Weng Yiming and Jiang Zhongmin are fine, Weng Yiming's injuries are much lighter than we expected, and he will be transferred back soon." Tan Renhao sighed, "However, the enemy we are facing is much stronger than expected, and the information we received before is not accurate, judging from the situation reported by Weng Yiming and Jiang Zhongmin, the total number of battleships and battlecruisers in the British and French combined fleet this time should be about ten, and there must be three aircraft carriers of the British Navy, as well as more than forty cruisers and destroyers." ”

"It's a lot bigger than we expected."

"In addition to the expeditionary fleet, there is also an expeditionary force of about 30,000 people, Cape Town has fallen, and Moroni will definitely fall, and now our defense line has retreated to Colombo, and then retreat, it will be the Lion City." Tan Renhao paused slightly, "This time it is a direct order from the Prime Minister, according to the Prime Minister's will, we must defeat the British and French expeditionary fleets at all costs!" ”

"What's the bottom line?"

"The bottom line?" Tan Renhao glanced at his friend, "At the very least, we also have to hold the northern Indian Ocean route, and we can't let this route be threatened by the British and French expeditionary fleets." ”

Chang Zhixin smiled bitterly and shook his head. "This is no different from defeating the joint Anglo-French expeditionary fleet."

"Yes, to hold this line of communication, you have to defeat the combined Anglo-French expeditionary fleet." Tan Renhao sighed, "Well, it's not exactly bad news, judging from Weng Yiming's report, at least three battleships have been seriously damaged, and many have been slightly injured, and the strength of the British and French joint expeditionary fleet has been weakened a lot." ”

"But we're not much better, Task Force 1 still has only two aircraft carriers?"

"Yes, only two of them were left for me, and the other one was assigned to Task Force 2, which is now operating on the other side of the Coral Sea, and there is no way to transfer it.

"Looks like we've got to think of a better way to do it, or we won't be able to defeat this much stronger opponent."

The next moment, both of them were silent and did not speak. The Anglo-French joint expeditionary fleet is indeed much stronger than the first task force and the third task force, and Tan Renhao and Chang Jianxin do not know much about the situation in the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic, and it is by no means an easy thing to defeat the enemy under such conditions!