【2nd Update】

Since taking charge of the Yuheng, the Chinese Navy's strongest maritime force, Ma Zhen has undoubtedly been the best among many graduates of the Nanyang Command College...... Of course, in terms of the Chang'an's 8 13.5-inch 42 times diameter main guns, although they were launched 2 years earlier than the Dreadnought, they undoubtedly belong to the same grade in terms of artillery fire projection capabilities and battleship armor.

The only thing that can be somewhat lacking is the double diameter of the main gun, and there is no replacement of the 13.5-inch 45 times the diameter main gun that Mawei Heavy Industry has mass-produced, mainly considering the current needs of major heavy industries to rebuild battleships and battle cruisers like dumplings, and this little bit of improvement, for Ma Zhen These guys, somewhat disdainful, they fancy the 13.5-inch 48 or 50 times the diameter of the new main gun being developed by North Heavy Industry and Jiangnan Heavy Industry.

Of course, as the first generation of Tenglong integrated fire control trial, Chang'an in the fire control modification can be said to spare no effort, now the original dragon comprehensive fire control has long been eliminated, two months ago, Chang'an has been modernized in the shooting command room, standard 5 people design command team control of the Tenglong II new integrated fire control platform, the combat power once again raised to a new height.

Therefore, when Ma Zhenle was full of tea and the Tieguanyin in his hand, his eyes had already caught a glimpse of the French "war scum" fleet lined up in the distance, and his expression was also the appearance of hating iron and not steel......

For more than two decades since the Sino-French War, the French have been on the decline of their warships, not to mention competing with the formidable Chinese navy. In Europe, Germany and Russia have long been squeezed out of the second and third places. Now the French are even more down, and they are competing with Italy for the position of regional leader in the Mediterranean. The French Guba-class dreadnoughts have just been laid, and the Dante-class dreadnoughts on the Italian side have also been built...... What's even more unfortunate is that now the French have lost even the capital Paris!

The Battle of Le Mans, which lasted for the second half of last month, saw nearly a million German troops on the Western Front storm the newly constructed French front, but this time the Germans seemed to have gnawed at the hard bones, despite their military superiority. However, the French, who fought to the death, fought to the death at Le Mans, and the French army relied on the inland river to build layers of defense lines, which actually hindered the sharp offensive of the German army.

Today, although the French army on the front line of Le Mans suffered heavy casualties, the German army on the attacking side did not seem to have found any good breakthrough. It is clear that the French Marshal Chauffeur learned the lesson of the defeat in the Battle of Paris. The infantry was fortified layer by layer, creating a defensive position of the Iron King.

In the face of the French turtle tactics, although relying on the secret weapon such as the Belta cannon, the Germans broke a part of the French iron turtle defense line, but they could not achieve a breakthrough in the comprehensive annihilation of the enemy, and the Le Mans front has become a large-scale meat grinder tactic...... Although the French suffered heavier casualties overall, the German fortifications were indeed stopped by Marshal Xiafei's Iron King VIII tactics.

Ma Zhen naturally didn't care much about how Germany annihilated the French, but he had always come to the navy to criticize the colony of French Cochinchina in the South China Sea, and now in addition to Thailand, which is still a British semi-colony, South Vietnam has undoubtedly made the powerful Chinese Navy unhappy, of course, the reason, Ma Zhen also vaguely understands that leaving the French in this overseas enclave will undoubtedly give China more means of diplomacy.

Today, he entered the port for maintenance under the pretext of power machinery failure, naturally not to visit old French friends, but to confirm the combat readiness of the French fleet, however, from the current observed situation, Cochinchina obviously did not suffer too much from the European war, when entering the port, the French still routinely came to register, but except for two patrol ships, no movement was observed on the batteries on both sides, and on the way, I did see soldiers entering and exiting the passage in front of the batteries, which shows that after many years of peace, the French army did have many problems in defense.

In the harbor, French torpedo boats and steam patrol boats are the main force of daily activities, and other observation points have observed the French battleship group moored at the northern pier, only two light cruisers are on alert, and it can be seen that they are preparing to go out of the harbor for inspection, the flagship of the French fleet, the Martel, is quietly crowded behind several cruisers, and many soldiers are lazily lying on the not spacious foredeck, and even blocking the passages on both sides, but there is no officer to come out to manage this disciplinary violation.

Waiting for the battleship to anchor in the west position brought by the French pilot ship, the French fleet in the north can no longer be seen here, obviously the French deliberately arranged it, which made Ma Zhen smile slightly, the French are really cautious, a little later, the French officer at the dock boarded the battleship, and after some communication, after receiving a box of Chinese liquor, he happily signed the berthing inspection report and let go, and the crew immediately boarded the port of Saigon under the leadership of the officer.

In the middle of the night, the Chinese soldiers appeared in the port in twos and threes, and many of them seemed to be drinking too much and shouting, which made the secret sentry set up by the French on the dock secretly amused, but they apparently did not realize that the Chinese crew who returned to the ship sporadically were actually slightly more than when they entered the port earlier.

Before dawn, a few more drunken Chinese soldiers appeared on the docks, and had an argument with the French servant soldiers patrolling nearby, those French soldiers had already gone to rest, this kind of hard work of staying up late naturally did not need arrogant French soldiers to perform, and the South Vietnamese servant army could not raise their heads in the French army in peacetime, and now it was even more difficult to parry the Chinese soldiers with fierce faces and ignoring the French.

What alarmed them even more was that a few moments later, a large number of more fierce Chinese sailors came down from the ship, and after a push, several South Vietnamese servants, although they had a few spears in their hands, did not dare to put one more, and hurried away before the French arrived, and took advantage of the pre-dawn mist to sneak out of the harbor last night.

At dawn, Ma Zhen was holding a big steamed bun and eating a plate of fermented bean curd juice while considering the information he had obtained last night, and the development of the situation was obviously beyond the plan of the South China Fleet Command. They were originally coming into port. One is to look at the French fleet and learn more about the recent movements of the French from the eyes of the port. The second is to look at the situation of the anchored French caravans...... Of course, the South China Military Region did not plan to engage the French, it was all for Spee's fun.

Unexpectedly, this time the fun seems to have been bigger, the French are actually preparing to send reinforcements to the country, this news is extremely reliable, it is from a small French official in the Doge's Office secretly controlled by the Intelligence Department, although no more detailed information is not yet available. But if Old Man Speey knew that Ma Zhen didn't have to speculate, those Germans would definitely have to rush up with red eyes to do a vote...... However, this vote is clearly not easy! The French are not idiots, and with such an important task, they will certainly do everything in their power to provide protection.

"What a coincidence...... The French actually gave us a chance at this time! "As soon as he entered the South China Military Region Headquarters in the morning, Lu Han got the encrypted telegram sent back by Ma Zhenpai, before he was still in a dilemma about how to use the Germans well, but now it seems that he is thinking too much, and the opportunity will come. The question is simply how to make Old Man Spee's chance.

"General. Ma Zhen also reported on the liaison with the South Vietnamese guerrillas, left them a batch of explosives that day, and informed them according to the previous plan that if the matter in Saigon is done, we will continue to provide them with a batch of munitions! Is it delivered? How to deliver the contact points and contacts, the Intelligence Department has already arranged! Wang Shizhen, a staff officer on the side, took the telegram and quickly made the next presumption.

Lu Han nodded, this matter was originally the work of the Maritime Intelligence Division, and he was not happy to engage in this kind of small action, but the network set up by the Maritime Intelligence Division could not be wasted, as long as it could cooperate with the promotion of changes in the entire situation and seek more diplomatic benefits for the country, even national interests, it would be worth investing.

He stood in front of the huge map of the Pacific Ocean and pondered for a moment, then turned his head and asked, "Counselor Wang, what is the extent of their trial voyage in Tomini Bay?" There is no possibility of going to war immediately! ”

"Enough!" When Wang Shizhen heard this, he immediately made his own judgment, "The newly recruited sailors in Subic Bay only arrived in Tomini Bay on the 22nd, and Spee has already recruited some officers, sergeants and recruits to form the team of the Empress and Hans, but Spee obviously refuses to give up the other two heavy cruisers of Scharnhorst and Gneidnau, and it is not easy to skillfully control the Queen-level battle patrol within a week!" I guess at least another month! ”

Lu Han naturally understood the fact that Wang Shizhen said, although the Scharnhorst Heavy Cruiser was a German battleship that was launched only the year before last, the relatively conservative German military industry tended to be conservative in its design ideas for the heavy cruise, which requires long-term naval operations, and did not use the gear transmission and steam turbine technology that has been commonly used on dreadnoughts, but used a four-expansion steam engine.

However, although the Queen-class battle cruiser uses a BH99 steam turbine, the boiler of this type of battle cruiser belonging to the export type is not stuffed, compared with the Tiankui battle patrol of the same type and level of the Chinese Navy, the boiler is less than forty percent, but thanks to the improvement of boiler technology, it can still run an amazing speed of 26 knots, compared with the 21 knots of the dreadnought standard of this era, it can completely achieve local suppression.

"Is it possible to send our personnel with the ship......"

"Or some other way to quickly improve the Germans' handling skills......"

“……”

In the next few days, Lu Han was worried about the Germans' ship management skills in the headquarters, and he was eager to come to guide the old man Spee in person, but this was obviously not suitable, China needed a bystander role in this world war, not to intervene immediately!

On the afternoon of July 9, when the good news of the European war came from Beijing again, after more than 20 days of fierce confrontation at Le Mans, the Ludendorff Corps of the German Second Army made a beautiful detour from the upper reaches of the Sart River, and under the bombardment of airships and the surprise attack of the First Panzer Division, it successfully broke through the weak western defense line of the German Seventh Army, and directly threatened the rear of the Le Mans Line.

Before nightfall, an urgent telegram came from the Fourth Destroyer Fleet, which was cruising in the South China Sea, "A large French fleet has been spotted sailing, accompanied by the French battleship Martel!" (To be continued......)