"The unprecedented Benghazi defeat of the Italian reversal, the destruction of 5 Italian transport ships, the heavy artillery bombardment of the landing force from outside the port, and the heavy losses......"

"The Ottoman Empire is bursting out with amazing fighting power, and Italy is losing control of the Mediterranean......"

On May 13, 1909, the news of the Ottoman navy's raid on Benghazi shocked the world, and this aging empire, which had never been taken seriously by European countries, seemed to become an important force affecting the Mediterranean in the blink of an eye.

In the early morning of the 14th, four battleships, two cruisers, and six destroyers of the Second Fleet, which had arrived in a hurry from Tripoli and the Italian mainland of Caraña, had already appeared off the coast of Benghazi, and the two Edgar-class cruisers of the British Royal Mediterranean Fleet, which were indeed less than 400 kilometers away from Benghazi and sailed from Alexandria, Egypt, arrived earlier than them.

Two full days had passed, but the scattered planks in the port of Benghazi, the sunken merchant ships outside the harbor, and the destroyed terrace gun emplacements on the batteries in the harbor still angered the commander of the Italian detachment, Rear Admiral Giovanni...... As the only maritime power in the Mediterranean for 50 years, the Italian navy has never had such a bad start against France and Austria-Hungary.

The reason why Italy has maintained its position as a great power in the Mediterranean is largely due to the strong and repressive power of the navy, and even the British Empire must maintain respect for Italy in the Mediterranean, and the two countries have always maintained very close naval interaction, which immediately brought very direct benefits.

Colonel Sima, the captain of the British battleship HMS Hawke, who arrived early, boarded the Italian flagship Queen Margarita, and brought information from the British...... Although the Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet will not be directly involved in the war, however. The Royal Navy's vast cruising fleet would provide information to the friendly Italian fleet.

Just 10 hours earlier, the British destroyer USS Sears, escorting a combined British, French, and German merchant fleet, had observed an unidentified convoy 220 kilometers north of Benghazi and southwest of Antikythera, but it was difficult to observe it carefully in the middle of the night. The destroyer Shills also made an approach to observe this, although the night was dark. But it was finally determined that it was the Ottoman fleet that had been withdrawn from Benghazi.

And this news was immediately and secretly told to the Italians, for the Royal Mediterranean Fleet, an Ottoman navy did not pose a threat, but an Ottoman navy that could conquer and win battles absolutely needed to be suppressed.

Within half an hour, the staff officer of the 2nd Detachment had handed over the pursuit plan to Rear Admiral Giovanni, it was clear. It was impossible to complete the pursuit of the Ottoman fleet with the second squadron alone, and it is said that the opposing side also had 3 battleships and 3 destroyers, although it was only 300 kilometers from Benghazi to Antikythera, but it was enough space for the Ottoman navy to play hide and seek.

The plan brought up by the naval staff can be called a classic, and the news has been sent to the other main fleets of the mainland on standby in Malaysia at the first time, Commander Graziani will lead a huge formation of 5 battleships, 2 cruisers, and 10 destroyers to pull out a 100-kilometer-long search line at a distance of 7,000 meters, and pull the net from west to east to intercept the Ottoman fleet, while the second squadron will fan from south to north to pursue the Ottoman naval fleet, which is definitely fleeing at this moment.

at a cruising speed of 14 knots. As long as the Ottoman Navy did not escape from the coast of Greece and returned to its homeland, it would not have escaped the fate of being intercepted in the middle of the Mediterranean, with the combat strength of 9 battleships, 5 cruisers, and 16 destroyers of the Italian Navy that were now involved in the pursuit. Once engaged, this is a sea war without any suspense, so this sea siege and annihilation battle will start immediately without any suspense!

Two large nets were cast at once from the port of Benghazi to the west and west-north, and the cruiser HMS Hawke of the Royal Navy followed the Italian fleet, and the British Empire maintained an absolute interest in any naval war.

Less than 50 kilometers from the port of Benghazi, a large German-flagged steam merchant ship is slowly sailing from east to west, in the aft compartment of the merchant ship. More than a dozen capable Chinese men in civilian clothes kept moving in and out of their respective cabins, and the intercepted telegrams were quickly gathered into another cabin.

"Old Wu. The frequency of wireless telegraphy in the port of Benghazi has increased dramatically, and there are several unknown telegraph signals among them! Could there be any problems? A dark-skinned, muscular man held several telegrams and compared them. Then he turned back to another middle-aged short man in his thirties who was sitting next to the table on the other side, and asked sternly.

The man known as Lao Wu is a veteran figure on this naval intelligence ship, a technical officer with nearly 10 years of experience in intelligence cracking, and this Hormel merchant ship was just transferred from the Pacific Fleet to the Mediterranean Sea two months ago, and at the same time transferred to carry out a mission, as well as 24 soldiers directly under the Naval Intelligence Department on this ship, of course, they will not have anything to indicate the identity of military personnel on board.

The question was asked by Major Zheng Xi, the head of this intelligence group, whose task was to work with Major Lin Yunheng, the Naval Intelligence Department stationed in the Mediterranean, to build a meticulous maritime intelligence system -- control of the Mediterranean Sea was enough to plunge Europe into madness, and orders from home made these young soldiers devote themselves to this war without gunpowder.

"Major, in my opinion, we should not only be engaged in intelligence here, the Turks, and even Russia, France, and Germany are very likely to be lurking, but ...... I guess they won't build a boat as big as ours! The consciousness of our big navy is enough to make the Europeans look up! Speaking of hitting here, Lao Wu couldn't help but get up and take a sip of tea and smile slightly.

Then he turned to the main topic, "From the telegrams intercepted earlier, there is no doubt that the Italians are ready to start a decisive battle with the Ottomans, and from the few intercepted commercial telegram messages, the British are obviously not aware of our existence, and they also pass on ordinary information through these public channels, but this is enough to show the position of the British - they are obviously more willing to support the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire by Italy, and we must remind other channels to pay attention to the movements of the British, and do not be spoiled by the British!" ”

Zheng Xi also nodded very strictly, although this mission was almost no danger at all, but after receiving the order, he still felt deep pressure, fortunately, the brother department of the Intelligence Department in the Mediterranean did a lot of preliminary work, and the task was carried out extremely smoothly, and even surprised him a little, it was exactly the same as the usual intelligence detection exercises.

After picking up a telegram that had just been delivered, his attention was immediately attracted, and then he walked to the large nautical chart in the middle of the cabin, took the triangular ruler and began to draw it carefully, and when several dotted lines representing the route appeared, he immediately smiled slightly, "Old Wu, let's turn around at once, sail along the plotted route, and keep the telegraph detecting...... I guess in a few hours, I'll be able to make a decision! ”――

Selik, west of Antalya, is a permanent camp for the Ottoman Marines, home to a brigade of nearly 6,000 marines recruited in the past two years.

As a supporter of Al-Shabaab, his comrade-in-arms, Lieutenant General Nver, led by Al-Shabaab, was at the heart of imperial power, but the Turkish Joint Council was a hodgepodge of old and new forces, and now that Al-Shabaab had risen to prominence in the west, he was well aware of the plight that Enver faced.

However, today he was suddenly a little dazed by the opportunity that fell from the sky......

"What...... Are you saying that the Chinese government is willing to fully arm the Marine Corps according to the squadron's armament? And it can be delivered immediately! Major General Kaiermo stared at He Xiaohai, the Chinese military attache who had just arrived at the station yesterday.

He Xiaohai also stared at the bearded Turkish officer in front of him with great interest, naturally it was not the first time they had met, but they were very familiar, for the Turkish army in front of him, He Xiaohai's evaluation was still very good, at least in the entire Ottoman army, it should be rare to see infantry with such a level of training, the only problem is that the equipment is too poor.

"General Kelmo, your country's navy and marines were all established with the help of China, can't you still see our honesty and sincerity?" He Xiaohai smiled slightly and asked rhetorically.

The bearded man was originally a figure who was not alarmed, but the news just now was much better than he could have expected, so he made a slight gaffe, but he was a thoughtful soldier, and he was not in a hurry to answer He Xiaohai's rhetorical question, but continued to ask: "Military Attache He, the cost of weapons and equipment, I think General Enver will definitely compensate your country after the war, but what we cannot understand is why your country chose to help us instead of landing on the Arabian coast and encroaching on our local sphere of influence like the Italians...... In my opinion, this should be the way to realize the benefits more easily! ”

He naturally thought that this bearded man would ask some questions, or accept assistance directly without asking questions, and leave the questions to Enver and the Joint Committee in Istanbul, but Kelmo still chose to communicate more directly before accepting the benefits - this bearded man is not simple, but this is not what he leads the Mediterranean strategy needs?

He smiled slightly, but also said, "General Kelse, less than 20 years ago, China in the Far East was also a great power in crisis, so we can deeply understand the situation of your country, and we believe that maintaining the survival and growth of the Ottoman Empire will be more beneficial to our interests in China, and we are willing to help you and General Enver for this, and your strength will also make Europe have no time to look east!" (To be continued)