Before nightfall, the Leipzig, which was about to return home, was unexpectedly intercepted by a Chinese destroyer, a Chinese battleship with a tonnage of slightly less than the 2,200-ton Leipzig light cruiser, which showed amazing power and easily caught up with the German battleship that was cruising at 25 knots.

Since the previous dreadnought unveiled the era of large battleships, but cruisers have always been the focus of all countries, after all, as a naval power, the task of cruising the four seas is an important content that must be considered, but this also brings a series of problems, especially when the tonnage of heavy cruisers is getting closer and closer to battleships, heavy cruisers with heavy armor but no heavy guns, which somewhat embarrassed the designers.

Especially in the era when battleships are everywhere, this kind of large cruiser shouldering the heavy responsibility of overseas is indeed not embarrassing or embarrassing in the naval sequence, so at the beginning of the century, there was a clear differentiation in the direction of the development of cruisers in various countries, and heavy cruisers still exist, but it is obvious that it is better to build heavy cruisers than to go directly to the front of the dreadnought, or even dreadnought, after all, the combat power of the two is not the same.

But on the other hand, the light cruiser has shown another prosperous situation, the displacement of 3000-6000 tons of light cruisers, in a large number of new power, especially kerosene mixed boilers, steam turbines, gear reducers and other technologies, and even the US Navy has also appeared electric transmission technology cruisers, although because of the immaturity of technology and failed to mass-produced, this is enough to show that countries attach importance to light cruisers.

After all, in the era of destroyers promoted and led by China, the 2,000-ton destroyer has completed the era of torpedo boats that France and Russia were keen on, and destroyers can also shoulder overseas escort, cruise, anti-submarine, and fleet peripheral tasks. Equally. With rapid-fire firepower perfected. The contest between large destroyers and cruisers has become a problem that designers must consider.

The 2,200-ton Leipzig light cruiser is to a large extent a German destroyer with enhanced armor and endurance, and the target of the confrontation is the destroyer whose firepower and armor are inferior to their own, with 150mm twin main guns and 6 102mm side guns, with a speed of 30 knots, and the layout of the central two sides of the battery, which provides a horizon for the pursuit of the first 8 guns to shoot. The target is obviously the destroyer, which is now increasingly lethal to large warships.

Of course, considering the attitude of the Chinese government in the European war, the commander of the light cruiser Leipzig, Lieutenant Colonel Meyer, was not worried about the other side revealing his identity, so he quickly stopped the ship and waited after seeing the signal of the other side, and the other side unexpectedly conveyed to the Germans a startling news - the Royal Navy battle cruiser fleet had entered the Indian Ocean.

Lieutenant Colonel Meyer naturally didn't take this news as a deaf ear, God knows how Chinese found himself in disguise so quickly, but the other party was obviously trying to deliver this important news...... Two British battle cruisers, which was definitely a great threat to the German Far East Fleet, which was confidently preparing to fight in the Indian Ocean.

This judgment of his. It was also endorsed by Lieutenant General Spee after 20 minutes, though. Old man Spee was obviously more mentally prepared for the British to send war patrols to deal with him, which was only slightly higher than his prediction, he originally judged that Britain might use the battleships of the Indian detachment and the Australian fleet to search and intercept him, but obviously, the maritime situation in Europe was obviously far from threatening the sea power of the British Empire, so let himself lead the Far East Fleet, so that the British and France could really appreciate the power of the German navy.

As the Empress set sail quietly in the nightfall, the commanders of several warships came to the flagship Queen, and Old Man Spee's eyes were on the Great Nicobar Island on the chart, facing the exit of the Strait of Malacca, which was the terminus of a chain of islands connected to the Little Andaman Island, 110 nautical miles from the French fleet detected before nightfall, and 130 nautical miles from the Little Andaman Island! Then he slammed his fist down on Great Nicobar Island!

If you look down at the edge of the Burma Sea from the sky, on the night of July 13, 1910, two huge fleets were sailing from the east and northwest to Great Nicobar Island, of course, the Spey fleet, which had almost no lights, cruined at a speed of up to 18 knots, and several high-speed warships were at about 25 knots, compared to the French fleet, which was mixed with a large number of economic merchant ships, although the signal lights at the bow and tail of the ships were very bright, but the speed of the fleet was reduced to less than 8 knots after nightfall.

At 1 o'clock in the morning, Spee's fleet, which had already sailed close to the island of Great Nicobar, was immediately put into combat readiness, and the light cruiser of the Leipzig, which had arrived an hour earlier, approached the fleet, and Lieutenant Commander Meyer boarded the ship to report the most detailed reconnaissance, but also brought with it the news that worried Vice Admiral Spee-the French fleet was unusually slow!

"It's only 60 nautical miles now......," Lieutenant General Spee muttered in surprise, and after a little estimation, he found a problem, at this rate, even if the French have maintained no problems, when they arrived on Great Nicobar Island, it was already 7 days later in the morning, and then they saw from afar that they were 7 battleships in the sky, which was beyond his plan for an attack!

At 1:20 a.m., Vice Admiral Spee made a new decision, and it was obvious that victory in the battle needed to be won by oneself, rather than waiting here for the enemy to come to the door, so seven battleships set out a battle line one nautical mile away, followed the battle patrol of the Empress and set sail away from Great Nicobar Island, which was very convenient for concealment, and searched forward along the west-east channel.

However, when sailing in the dark of night, to maintain the formation of the fleet, the signal light is obviously a necessary thing, otherwise, no one can say what will happen when the day dawns after sailing blindly in the dark, but this light, for Vice Admiral Shi Pei, who intends to carry out the attack, is obviously the last thing to do.

The Germans also had their methods, and soon three one-way lights were hung on the tail of each battleship to ensure that the lights did not scatter forward, of course, this light was not impossible to observe head-on, but the intensity and chance of observation were obviously much smaller than ordinary lights, and on the Empress, Vice Admiral Spee had already given the order for a resolute raid!

The huge French fleet, unaware at the moment, was that a German fleet, armed to the teeth, was hurrying to the teeth on the dark sea...... The two British Brasger-class light cruisers that greeted them in Penang did not reveal any news to the French, which was not deliberate on the part of the British, but that the Brasger light cruisers, which belonged to the Indian detachment, did not worry about the French at all, after all, it was a problem that the French fleet should consider, and the Royal Navy also came to help out of the morality of the alliance.

With a displacement of 4,500 tons, a speed of 26 knots and up to 16 150mm-105mm rapid-fire guns, the two Brasger-class light cruisers are the most cost-effective war machines for the Royal Navy's overseas deployments.

At about 4 o'clock in the morning, when the fleet of nearly 40 warships and merchant ships sailed into the channel 70 kilometers north of Sabang Island, the northernmost point of Sumatra, the entire sea area was suddenly hit by a small rainfall, which led to a very poor view of the entire sea level, and the British warships in front of the fleet issued an order to strengthen the ship marking, requiring all ships to turn on the signal lights so that the ships behind could only clearly determine the position, and the gradually lit signal lights quickly brought the entire fleet into a disaster.

At 4:17, Lieutenant General Spee, who was sitting by the bridge chart and drinking coffee relaxedly, suddenly heard a rush in the tick-tock telegraph room, and after a while, the officer came out and reported loudly, "General, the light patrol of the right wing Emden has found a suspected target!" ”

A few seconds later, the position reported on the telegram was marked on the chart, and it was only seven or eight nautical miles away from the coordinates of the Empress's cruise at this moment, but the staff officer quickly pointed out the doubts, which was quite a deviation from the earlier route of the Leipzig reconnaissance to the south, but the telegram sent back by the Leipzig light patrol at 21 o'clock confirmed that a large fleet had indeed appeared in the staggered position of the search of the two ships.

The entire French fleet sailed in a relative position of about 600 meters apart from 30 chains, so that the entire huge fleet stretched for nearly 20 kilometers, and the reason why it was first discovered by the German fleet was undoubtedly that it was the escort warships and the four-corner signal lights lit up on the merchant ships, but it was a real battle, but Vice Admiral Spee was also slightly surprised, this is more than 40 ships large and small, even if the Empress battle patrol runs from beginning to end, it will take more than half an hour.

"General, I have observed that a battleship is leaving the queue and heading for the heavy cruiser Gneizenau! Failed to recognize the model! Suddenly, the ticking telegraph room sounded again with a rush of reports, which immediately made the pre-war atmosphere extremely urgent.

In the slightly crowded bridge, Vice Admiral Shi Pei closed his eyes, and the tense game had already begun in his mind, the so-called changes in the battle situation were often unexpected situations beyond the commander's consideration, the fire control platform, after entering the combat readiness, the shooting commander had already begun to mark the battlefield situation in real time, and the two fleets were approaching at an angle of 60 degrees at the moment, and the German fleet was lined up in a parallel queue of three ships on the left wing and four ships on the right wing, which was also formulated to increase the search range and reduce the probability of missing the enemy.

The Emden, which was in the first place on the left flank, was the first to spot the opponent, mainly because of the signal lights on the French fleet, due to the greatly reduced horizon caused by the rain, at this moment the battleships of the opponent's first sequence had already entered the average combat range of the German Navy of 12,000 meters, and the heavy patrol of the Gneizenau was in the first place on the right flank, and the other party was very surprised to sail towards it, which was really a little strange.

How to attack? How can you find the battleship Martel in this rainy and misty night? In addition, the French also have an 8,000-ton cruiser, although it is not at all a match for the Queen-class battle cruiser, but if you run to run over the little guys like the Leipzig, it will be a big problem...... (To be continued......)