On 24 May, while millions of troops were fighting to the death for a territory of size on French soil, on the other side of the vast Atlantic Ocean, the battleship Guangzhou and the light cruiser Poyang Lake under the jurisdiction of the Chinese West Pacific Detachment were chasing them along the Florida Strait to Cuba.

After the intervention of China in the Spanish-American War, although the Spaniards lost the interests of the Far East, they succeeded in retaining the interests of Cuba, although the domestic situation in Cuba is now unstable, but nearly 100,000 Spanish troops and warships stationed in the country can still maintain local rule, and the United States and Spain on the jurisdiction of the Florida Strait negotiations are inconclusive at all, according to the convention, the vicinity of the middle line of the strait should be completely free of navigation.

Therefore, the actions of the Americans immediately aroused the disgust of the Chinese fleet, and coincidentally, the commander of the battleship Guangzhou was none other than Zheng Donghe, who was a battle patrol gunnery officer.

Now that the Spaniards still control Cuba, they absolutely dare not forget the help of the Chinese Navy back then, but it is obvious that the memory of the US Navy, which was beaten with a blue nose and swollen face, is obviously not very good, and it is even in the same place again to provoke the same opponent.

He immediately ordered the warning flag to be raised, and at the same time ordered the Poyang Lake to follow the right flank to form a side-chord tactical maneuver against the American ships, and then launched an artillery drill on the spot under the surprised eyes of the four American warships...... Of course, Zheng Donghe naturally wouldn't really shoot, but the four live targets in front of him naturally had to be used.

When 10 305mm guns were pointed in unison at the American fleet in the distance. Immediately provoked the panicked performance of the American battleship. The four U.S. warships that followed were the Native Fleet warships stationed at the Port of Key West. Except for one, which is a 17,000-ton Virginia-class former dreadnought Rhode Island, the other three are old protective cruisers and light cruisers.

As a home fleet, these old ships are completely a defensive role, and following the Chinese fleet is largely the personal intention of Colonel Joy, the commander of the battleship Rhode Island, but when he really saw the reaction of the Chinese fleet, especially when the 10 black hole heavy guns were pointed at him, he immediately realized that he was likely to make a fool of himself!

The ghost is dead. Colonel Joy, who was full of personal will to fight, did not give up the action of following the Chinese fleet, but finally made the decision to accelerate the completion of the Chinese fleet and also launch an attack exercise, which immediately escalated an unexpected encounter into the Sino-US fleet confrontation crisis that shocked the world!

On the night of May 25, in Manila Bay, a large fleet was quietly leaving the harbor, while another fleet slowly approached the ...... under the light of a huge searchlight

The lights of the pier are swaggered all night long, making the whole city aware of the unusual atmosphere while on the pier. A large number of cheap laborers from various provinces in South China are diligently sending all kinds of houses marked with military words to the docks. The huge boom, which is tens of meters long, still swings back and forth in the night, sending the packed giant gondola to the large ship at anchor.

As an important port in the center of the South China Theater, with high-quality port resources, it has rapidly risen to become a theater naval assembly center, and in the past ten years of continuous construction, it has built dozens of large-scale anchorage points of more than 15 meters, and Admiral Lu Han finally chose to set up a new theater command center here.

On the top floor of the naval headquarters less than 1,000 meters away from the wharf, Admiral Lu Han, whose hair was already a little gray, was holding a small red sandalwood pipe and looked thoughtfully at the brightly lit dock in the distance, the smoke in the pipe was dim and bright, and his thoughts were also full of emotion, from the high-spirited spirit of Mawei back then, in a blink of an eye, he had served in the New China Navy for nearly 30 years, and the weak Nanyang Naval Division had already become a sea power vane that shocked the world.

When he followed Qin Kai to the 501 ship, he definitely did not expect that the navy could develop into the current situation, but there is no doubt that the challenges in front of the fleet are becoming more and more intense because of the expansion of sea power......

"General, the Germans are fighting well, according to this trend, the French will have to go to sea!" Behind Lu Han, several burly young officers were sitting in front of a huge sand table, and it was Tang Zhen, the commander of the Fourth Fleet, who was talking to Lu Han.

"To the sea? In my opinion, the German fleet has not been able to open up the situation so far, and the British can easily take out 11 battleships and a fleet of more than 20 ships to control the coastline...... If the Germans were never able to break this situation, the British would never be invincible! Liu Ye, deputy chief of staff of the Navy General Staff, who had begun to grow a mustache, held a Luzon cigarette and unceremoniously refuted Tang Zhen's view.

"Lao Liu, according to what you mean, do the Germans still have a head? Then you might as well start negotiating now! In that case, the Germans would have a lot to gain! Tang Zhen likes to quarrel with Liu Ye, and his understanding of sea power has long been a deep-rooted concept among these naval officers, sea power is power, and the Royal Navy has suppressed the Germans to the death, how to crack it, has long been a proposition that the top of the Navy has argued almost every other time, but the more difficult the situation, the more attractive these pure soldiers.

"Ah Zhen, you sit in Jericho's position, will you agree to negotiate under the current circumstances?" Liu Ye smiled, spit out a smoke ring, and then asked lightly, he naturally thought far deeper than Tang Zhen, as the backbone of planning a large military strategy for the entire South China Theater, the future of the Chinese Navy is by no means just the Pacific Ocean.

Jericho ...... When that guy came to visit a few years ago, he didn't see that he could sit in the position of commander of the navy! Although the relationship between China and Britain has been somewhat tense in the past two years, but because of the prosperity of trade between the two countries, there is no shortage of mutual visits, Jericho visited the Chinese battleship Chiyou when he was a rear admiral, and Tang Zhen avoided answering, obviously this question is not necessary to answer.

With a strong sea power, even if the Germans could conquer all of Europe, it would not be possible to cross the English Channel, even if they were as strong as the Emperor Napoleon, they still ended up falling under the British strategy, and in the past few hundred years, the British Empire has proved the great advantages of this strategy, the French failed once, and now the strong Germans, apparently facing a similar situation to Napoleon at the same time.

Britain occupies a vast maritime territory and a huge colony, and although the industrial capacity of the British Empire is undoubtedly declining, it is now involved in the United States, a newly rising cannon fodder country, and these two unthreatened opponents are the real enemies of Germany!

"It is almost impossible for the Germans to achieve a total victory!" Lu Han suddenly knocked on his pipe, took out a ball of high-grade cloud tobacco, and then said unhurriedly, "In fact, when the European war started, Chairman Qin had already mentioned this conclusion...... And there is only one point we need to pay attention to, that is, the future interests of the entire Chinese nation, as for the interests of Germany, the British, and the Americans, they can only be ranked behind our interests! ”

This group of capable subordinates in front of him, it is the navy has gone through a full 30 years of huge accumulation, 501 ships down the South China Sea, the whole ship is still some rookies who have never experienced the battle array, Da Nang experienced the baptism of giant ship cannons in the first war, can be worthy of becoming a navy, and then a full 30 years can be called the national power of the navy investment, the focus is on the cultivation of vital naval talents, and now, the young Zhuang faction is still beginning to become the backbone of the army.

A room of officers immediately began to mumble about this indeterible conclusion, and Liu Ye gently touched the kraft paper document more than an inch thick next to the table, thinking carefully about Lu Han's assertion, and his eyes showed an irrepressible look of excitement! The regrouping of the fleet has been completed, and the Navy, after a full half year of preparation, has taken the most resolute step.

With the approval of the Ministry of Military Affairs, the three naval formations will depart one after another within 20 days, and before nightfall, Liu Hetu, commander of the 1st South China Fleet, left the port, leading a huge main fleet including 11 battleships, the Jiangsu heavy aircraft carrier, 7 light cruisers, and 11 destroyers, including the three most powerful "Jin" class fast battleships in the navy.

The destination of Liuhetu's trip is undoubtedly the most critical strategic point in the Pacific -- the Hawaiian military port, and Lu Han authorized Liuhetu to integrate the military strength of the Hawaii military port to complete the strategic deterrence of the entire Pacific theater, and there is no doubt that the existence of the first squadron means that the Chinese navy can easily completely cut off the west coast of the United States from Australia, which is an absolute mortal threat to the US Second Pacific Fleet and the British Pacific Fleet assembled in Brisbane.

According to Lu Han's arrangement, after replenishment and rectification, Tang Zhen will lead the second squadron to be stationed in Guam to form the second maritime defense line to defend the South China Theater, and form a posture of defending the two flanks of the Greater China region with the Beiao Native Fleet stationed in Da Vinci Harbor.

Of course, Lu Han will never deduct the hole cards at hand, the navy's cutting-edge, his favorite general He Rin, will command the main force of the South China native fleet, stationed in the Strait of Malacca, at any time needed to intercept the opponent's access to the Indian Ocean, the most important thing is that the home fleet will become a powerful help to project land power, since the outbreak of the European war, the South China Theater has expanded the original 24 divisions, 300,000 troops to 60 army divisions, 700,000 huge troops.

The existence of such a huge army is naturally not just for the defense of South China******...... On the night of the 26th, Lu Han signed a theater warrant, announcing that a large-scale naval exercise would be launched in the North Pacific, and the troops were directed at the US fleet active in the Pacific Ocean! (To be continued.) )