South China Papua Province, on the map of later generations, here is called Papua New Guinea, however, due to the rapid rise of the South China Democratic Republic, it has become the closest port to Australia in the entire Nanyang Free Trade Port, but the Australian economy in this era is really difficult to say developed, in addition to wool, or wool, so, 3 years ago Papua Province built the largest wool trading port in the South Seas - Mobius Port.

By the end of 1897, a staggering 20 million textiles were traded here every year, making the local area rapidly rise to become an important trading area west of the province of East Timor.

In the early morning of January 18, 1898, a detachment of three Kunlun-class destroyers drew a huge arc outside the port and sailed into the port, on the destroyer No. 1053 and Yangzhou, the commander of the destroyer fleet, Sa Zhenbing, stood calmly on the terrace and glanced at the dense merchant ships in the port. This makes him feel very proud of himself.

Soon, 2 local officials in charge of port affairs and 1 naval officer stationed in the port hurriedly boarded the battleship, they had obviously received the previous telegram, and Sa Zhenbing brought an important order, "Admiral Xu Shoushan's order to complete the preparation of 6,000 tons of coal supply by the 22nd." At the same time, please ask the port to raise food supplies for the Pacific Fleet's maneuver exercises! ”

Get orders from Port Mobius. It was immediately in full speed under high load. The military patrol boats began to dock the merchant ships around the dock, and quickly launched several anchor docks, this time it was the arrival of the entire fleet, and the now congested port was obviously unable to meet the entry of the large fleet.

Port Mobius is undoubtedly the largest port in the Pacific Ocean in the South Sea island chain, and it is also the closest port to Australia.

As the outpost formation of the entire fleet, Sa Zhenbing naturally felt the heavy responsibility on his shoulders. Originally, with his qualifications in Beiyang, he had long been able to serve as the commander of a cruiser, but he had been studying at the Naval Command College before, and only applied to be transferred to active duty in the Navy two years ago.

This time, the Chinese Navy will once again show its indomitable ambition in front of the whole world. And this qiē is undoubtedly the original intention of going abroad to study......

"Colonel. Major Liu has an important situation to report to you! Just as Sa Zhenbing was considering the next cruise plan of the destroyer fleet, the officer on duty suddenly ran in and couldn't report.

When Major Liu came in from the garrison port, Sa Zhenbing got a report that there was a problem with the coal supply of the Port of Mobius, and the storm in the western Pacific that lasted for many days made the coal ships from the Philippines have to return to the ship, and the coal in the direction of Sumatra also lagged behind for the same reason, and the coal supply that the entire port can mobilize is only about 4,000 tons, which still needs to meet the supply of some merchant ships!

This news immediately troubled Sa Zhenbing, who was obviously not well versed in these matters, and immediately sent a telegram to the Pacific Fleet, which was assembling in Singapore Harbor, and this unexpected incident directly triggered another episode that greatly benefited the Navy.

On the afternoon of the 18th, when Xu Shoushan got the telegram sent by Sa Zhenbing from Port Mobius, he was also a little anxious, for the battle of interests between the two sides of the Central American continent that was rapidly fermenting, he naturally received an urgent notice from Beijing, after several years of strategizing, the navy finally got an important opportunity to cut into Panama, and he naturally understood the heavy interests!

Therefore, at this critical moment, Qin Kai decided to organize an unprecedented circumnavigation of the naval fleet, and the direction of the voyage would be all the way to the east, circumnavigating the entire South America and entering the Atlantic! This will be an unprecedentedly large and modern navy, and in addition to the Han-class battleships of the Northern Fleet, which are in a top-secret state, even the Sirius-class battlecruisers will participate in this round-the-world voyage.

In the past 15 days, the Pacific Fleet has completed the assembly of Singapore Port and South China Pontianak Port with good anchorage and maintenance conditions, and the entire fleet includes 15 of the most advanced battleships, battle cruisers, armored ships, 2 airship aircraft carriers, and 10 destroyers in the Chinese Navy.

"General, if the port of Mobius is fully replenished, we can consider sailing the warship with full loads, so that we can bring at least about 15% more coal, and then enter the port to replenish in Guam, Hawaii and other ports along the way, although it will take an extra week, but the risk can be fully avoided...... When you get to the west coast of South America, these problems can be solved! Han Tianye, a staff officer of the fleet on the side, stood in front of the chart and compared the distance, and put forward his own opinion.

For Han Tianye's calculations, Xu Shoushan is very relieved, this person's ability is very clear, there are more than 10,000 people up and down the entire fleet, and every soldier and this guy may not know each other, but these thousands of captains, their staff officers know better than themselves......

However, there is obviously another reason for his concern now, and there is no doubt that the Pacific Ocean is now the territory of the Chinese Navy, and the torpedo boats and old armored ships of the US West Coast Fleet, that is, the materials running on the shore, cannot pose a threat to the Pacific Fleet at all, and as for the South American countries, they are obviously the targets of their own round-the-world voyage that must be fully wooed or deterred.

"Tianye, I'm not too worried about running the Pacific Ocean, just a few days ago, armored ships, didn't we also penetrate the Pacific Ocean, what I think about is that once we bypass the Strait of Magellan, it will be the first time we have entered the waters ruled by the whites, Premier Qin didn't send us to play soy sauce, this voyage, including supplies, communications, combat exercises and almost all maritime operations, is very important for the training and growth of the fleet!" Xu Shoushan touched the messy beard on his chin and said slowly.

"General, what do you mean ......"

"This time, we will accompany 2 Zhanjiang-class supply ships, in addition, we can consider buying coal from foreign merchant ships, especially British coal carriers, after all, the British have the longest sea supply line now, and the contact with the British is clear, I think it will be more conducive to our voyage this time!" Xu Shoushan thoughtfully expressed his opinion-

On the 19th, when the Irina, a 4,000-ton coal carrier flying the rice flag, slowly sailed into the port of Singapore with billowing black smoke, the captain of the ship, who was standing in the cockpit, could not help but be surprised by the prosperity he saw, holding the pipe that had been extinguished, and the British gentleman, who had been on the sea for most of his life, had to be surprised to talk in a low voice with another young British businessman beside him.

To the surprise of the British, a patrol ship flying the red Chinese flag quickly approached, and after a brief confirmation, immediately introduced the Irina into a specially opened anchorage area on the west side of the port, and soon, two young Chinese officials and a Chinese officer boarded the merchant ship, and soon, the old Hawke heard a very pleasant news that surprised him.

The Chinese officer asked him if he sailed with the Chinese navy as a supply ship, and the Chinese side would pay him a 50% premium on the price of coal and crew expenses, and after some consideration, the old Hawke readily agreed to the Chinese's trading request that afternoon, you know, in this era, sea transportation, one-way cargo empty warehouse return, is obviously a bad decision, running two-way trade.

However, the 50% premium given by Chinese is still a very good price...... In just one day, an Italian coal carrier, a German coal carrier and two other British coal carriers also quickly received orders from Xu Shoushan.

In the early morning of the 20th, General Xu Shoushan, who now controls the largest maritime power in the Far East and even in the Indian Ocean, stood on the flagship Dayu and issued a very famous combat order in the future - all the way to the east! Let's go! (To be continued......)