This decision of the naval command was made after integrating intelligence from all sides, and it was also a tactical need of the navy. On the east side of the South China Sea is the Philippine colony of the United States, and Manila is home to the Philippine fleet of the United States, with three old cruisers and five old destroyers (torpedo boats), which pose no threat to the Chinese Navy.

To the west was the colony of French Indochina, where the French stationed their Far East Fleet in Cam Ranh Bay, with one battleship and six armoured cruisers, all of which were launched before 1900, but these warships were not only not comparable to the British warships, but could only be used in Fujian under the Manchu dynasty. Before 1900, the French navy was dominated by the "New School", which built a large number of small cruisers and torpedo boats for coastal defense, which left the French navy far behind the British. When the super-battleship was introduced and the British battleship Dreadnought was launched, the first battleship of the French in the true sense of the word, the Motherland, had just entered service. The Far Eastern Fleet was also flooded with a large number of torpedo boats, numbering up to thirty-five, as well as three submarines that could only cruise near the offshore coast.

There is also a Dutch fleet in Indonesia, where the Bureau of Investigation has found three wooden sail/steam warships, posing no threat. The Dutch themselves were dependent on the British and kept pace with the British.

In Singapore, the British Far East Fleet was the strongest before the Chinese navy appeared, but after the failure of the invasion of Guangzhou, it became timid, and after the Chinese navy participated in the Battle of Tsushima, the British hid in the port of Singapore, and even if Hong Kong was captured, there was no intention of sending a naval rescue.

Two Centurion-class battleships, the Centurion and the Palermo, have been repaired and returned to service, plus four new armored cruisers, four old cruisers and seven destroyers, and the British Far East Fleet has been reloaded. With the expeditionary fleet as a strong backing. The South China Sea became lively again, with British, French, and American warships shuttling through it to collect information on pre-war hydrology, climate, and shipping routes for the expeditionary fleet, and most importantly to escort the transport ships that were going to and from Cam Ranh Bay and Manila to and from the expeditionary fleet's scheduled resting places.

In the darkness, the destroyer Hangzhou sailed out of Zhanjiang Port and left with it. There were also three other ships of the 3rd destroyer detachment, Chengdu, Nanchang, and Wuhan. In addition, three Nanhai-class cruisers of the 2nd Cruiser Detachment will also join the operation to sweep the South China Sea. The Navy's Pacific Fleet named the operation "South China Sea Sweep" with a very clear intention.

Businessmen are no less sensitive to the international situation than politicians, and there are no more merchant ships in sight on the vast sea from Singapore to Guangdong, and the Hangzhou has only encountered a few fishing boats of local fishermen in the hot waters of the South China Sea. After going all the way south along the coast of Vietnam and parting ways with other warships, no large ships were found on the radar of the Hangzhou, and the radar captain Wang Bin was extremely bored, waiting for the captain Lu Bei to give an order before turning on the plane. Scan for a while, then turn it off, then service it to make sure the radar is working properly. The importance of Wang Bin is more reflected in the scanning before the start of the battle and after the fleet enters the predetermined area, which needs to be judged by the captain according to the actual combat situation.

During the reconnaissance, Lu Bei did not know when he would encounter the enemy, and it was impossible for the lightning strike to be turned on all the time, and besides, the South China Sea was not calm now, and there were times when the radar failed. It is not practical to rely entirely on electronic devices, and sometimes it is necessary to observe with the naked eye, such as a column of smoke rising from sea level. Intelligence indicated that the French warships were still coal-fired, and their plumes of smoke ensured that lookouts could spot the enemy early.

Really. At noon that day, the visual conditions were very good, and the lookout found a thin column of smoke, about 12,000 kilometers away. The scorching heat of 15 degrees north latitude made the lookout almost faint, and the weather was good, which also showed that the sun transmitted a huge amount of heat. But it's better than a rain storm.

After discovering the anomaly, Lu Bei ordered the Hangzhou to continue to advance, with the speed of this class of warships, no warship in the world can catch up, plus more than 2,000 tons of displacement, five machine guns, Hangzhou can wrestle with any warship other than the battleship. And it doesn't fall behind.

Wang Bin proved the merits of advanced equipment after the radar was turned on, and the six optoelectronic signals showed that the other side had six ships, not a column of smoke found by the lookout. Lu Bei chose to trust the radar's judgment, believing that it was a fleet or fleet, and accordingly ordered the Hangzhou to leave the main channel, turn fifteen degrees cheaper to the left, and make a detour to the right side of the opposing fleet/fleet for observation.

When the distance was about 10,000 meters, it seemed that the other party had also discovered the Hangzhou, and a boat went out and headed for the Hangzhou. More recently, the Hangzhou lookout could determine that it was a warship, but it was not certain which country's warship, and Lu Bei directly identified it as an enemy warship. At this time, it is impossible to be a warship of other countries in the South China Sea.

Rear Admiral Odd, captain of the cruiser Sanjo Whale, was a well-known hardliner in the Far Eastern Fleet and a star among the young admirals of the French Navy, and at the age of 35 he was promoted to rear admiral and served as captain of the cruiser Sanjo Whale cruiser of the Far Eastern Fleet and commander of the cruiser detachment. He was very dissatisfied with the atmosphere of the Far Eastern Fleet, which was not enterprising, and this time he was more active than the commander of the fleet after receiving the order to cooperate with the expeditionary fleet. When his uncle followed Vice Admiral Guba to fight against the Qing Kingdom, his blood boiled after hearing those stories when he was young, and he was determined to dedicate his life to the navy, but unfortunately his naval genes were not strong, and although he became a dazzling star in the navy under the hard work of the family, he did not join the Atlantic Fleet or the Mediterranean Fleet, but was assigned to the Far Eastern Fleet, which was not taken seriously.

It's good to come here, you can continue your uncle's unfinished business. Therefore, after seeing the warship on the sea, Rear Admiral Odd ordered the cruiser to break away from the transport fleet that needed to be escorted behind him, and go forward to reconnoitre, if it was a friendly warship, it would be better to say, if it was a Chinese warship, then let him taste the iron fist of the Far Eastern Fleet!

The two ships were separated by about seven thousand meters, and the Hangzhou was still slowly moving at a speed of eighteen knots, while the three whales were only twenty-one knots at the fastest, and looking at its panting appearance, the navigator suspected that the cruiser, which had been in service for more than thirty years, would disintegrate in the next moment.

At a distance of six thousand meters, the lookouts on the three whales still couldn't see which warship the other party was, and they could only see a vague shadow at such a distance, not to mention the shape, color, marking, or light signal of the warship. The three whales continued to move forward, and Rear Admiral Odd estimated that it was a cruiser, and its tonnage was not much worse than that of the three whales, and it was still two to say whether it could be defeated. Intelligence shows that all of the warships owned by China are more than 10,000 tons of capital ships, and the number of cruisers is about 2,000 tons (the West believes that the Guangzhou-class destroyers are cruisers), and that warship should be China's cruisers.

Just when the two sides were five kilometers apart and could identify themselves, the Hangzhou suddenly accelerated to twenty-five knots, easily shook off the three whales, and went straight into the direction of the French transport fleet.

Odd almost didn't spurt out a mouthful of old blood, without such a bully, his own battleship almost didn't fall apart, why don't you let me into range, fire a few shots and then accelerate!

"Captain, the warship of China is sending out a light signal, which means 'Hurry up and keep up!' ”

Does this still need to be reported? Odd can also see it clearly, buried it! Hurry up and keep up, the other party obviously wants to get rid of himself by virtue of the advantage of speed and attack those unarmed transport ships, it's really TM insidious!

The distance between the two sides was more than 7,000 meters again, and the Hangzhou successfully approached more than 2,000 meters near the frightened transport ship, and the lone wolf was watching the sheep in the grass.

The crew in the coal bunker ignored the physical exertion of filling coal, thick smoke billowed out of the chimney, and the speed of the transport ship increased sharply under the maximum power output. That Chinese warship is closer!

The maximum speed of the transport ship was no more than 13 knots, and after 15 minutes, the Hangzhou approached the first target ship, a distance of 1,000 meters, and after entering the attack position, three 127-mm machine guns opened fire, and the shells rained down on the transport ship with a displacement of about 1,000 tons. The fragile hull of the ship could not stop the baptism of shells, and the rate of fire of the machine guns was an eye-opener for the crews of other transport ships, and the crew of the target transport ship did not even have time to sigh before being torn to pieces by the shells or sunk with the transport ship.

In less than two minutes, the transport ship was in ruins, watching the Chinese warship turn around, and the rest of the transport ships wanted to put on their wings and move a little farther away from this devil. In fact, even if they fly into the sky, it is useless, the five main guns of the Hangzhou were originally Gaoping dual-purpose guns! It also has six 40-millimeter high-level dual-purpose machine guns and eight 20-millimeter high-level dual-purpose machine guns, and the original world's destroyers of this class served as air defense warships of aircraft carrier formations, and now they are used to attack those fragile transport ships, which is really suitable. (To be continued.) )