The main force of the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire, which was assembled near the island of Sri Lanka, in addition to 37 dreadnoughts into 6 formations, 48 all-steel battleships into 8 formations, and 58 large fast armored cruisers into 10 formations.

It also organized 237 fast-defending cruisers into 24 formations, 248 destroyers into 25 formations, 344 torpedo boats into 35 formations, and 100 submarines into 25 formations, so that all the assembled warships were organized into formations.

Sun Xitao, commander of the First Fleet and commander-in-chief of the main force of the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire assembled this time, continued to say to the other seven commanders in the bridge of the flagship of the First Fleet, the Fengtian Super Dreadnought battleship: "I emphasize once again that this decisive battle with the joint expeditionary fleet of the Entente and the Central Powers is related to the direction of this war, which is very, very important for our Chinese Empire, and the scale of the joint expeditionary fleet is extremely large. The total displacement even exceeds the main fleet we have assembled by more than 1 million tons, and the process of naval battle will certainly be very difficult, and our losses will be very large, but all naval officers and men, from the commander of the fleet to the ordinary sailors, must obey the command, and anyone who disobeys the order, no matter who it is, will definitely be engaged in military law and will not be tolerated! ”

The other seven commanders all nodded solemnly, and they were all fully prepared for the difficulties they would face in this upcoming naval battle.

According to intelligence sent to the Navy by the Military Intelligence Agency, the combined expeditionary fleet of the Allies and the Central Powers had 72 dreadnought battleships, 72 all-steel battleships, 20 ironclad battleships, 66 large fast armored cruisers, 180 fast protection cruisers, 236 destroyers, 308 torpedo boats, and 48 submarines. With a total displacement of 5.44 million tons, the strength is exceptionally strong.

If the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire did not have the killer feature of aircraft carriers. As well as the superiority of submarines, with which they will not fight at all on the sea. He could only retreat in the ports of the Chinese Empire, relying on the support of large-caliber coastal defense artillery and the support of air force fighters to guard the coastal ports.

Although there are now 4 aircraft carriers and 100 submarines, the victory rate of the Imperial Chinese Navy has increased infinitely, but if the fight starts, the scene must be very tragic, and the losses of the Imperial Chinese Navy can be predicted to be absolutely no less.

Sun Xitao from the observation window inside the bridge. glanced at the dense warships outside, and then said: "According to the time given by the Military Intelligence Bureau for the Joint Expeditionary Fleet to leave the port of Mumbai, they are also about to arrive, order the reconnaissance formation of the destroyer to expand the search area, and this feast on the sea will also begin!" ”

Ma Yan, commander of the Third Fleet, said: "At present, the two destroyer formations that go forward for reconnaissance are all subordinate to the Third Fleet, and all destroyers are equipped with radar devices and carry out dragnet searches, as long as the joint expeditionary fleet comes over. It's not going to slip right under our noses. ”

Sun Xitao nodded and said, "I believe that the joint expeditionary fleet of the Entente and the Allied Powers knows that the main force of our Imperial Chinese Navy is here, and they will come to us even more anxiously." ”

Sun Xitao turned his head to look at the sky outside from the observation window again, and then said with a smile: "It's getting dark, I'll invite everyone to a big meal tonight." The feast on the sea that is about to start is not enough to fill the stomach. ”

Zhang Bin, the commander of the submarine fleet, also said with a smile: "I happen to be hungry, so let's try the craftsmanship of the chef of the Giant today." ”

Jiang Chen, the commander of the Second Fleet, said with a smile on his face: "Binzi." You don't know, the head chef aboard the Giant. But I worked as an errand in the imperial dining room of the Qing Dynasty, and I really didn't have any skills. If it weren't for the distance between the stations of our main fleets, I would have come to the commander-in-chief every day to eat. ”

Hundreds of nautical miles north of the main fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy, an equally unusually large fleet is sailing in the direction of the main fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy, which is the combined expeditionary fleet of the Entente and the Central Powers.

On the British Navy's Giant-class dreadnought battleship Giant, Bridget, the commander-in-chief of the entire Combined Expeditionary Fleet and also the commander of the British Navy's fleet, invited the fleet commanders of the other six countries to the Giant.

The commander of the French naval fleet, François, the commander of the German naval fleet, the commander of the German naval fleet, the commander of the Italian naval fleet, Erebet, the commander of the Russian naval fleet, Vladienovich, the commander of the Austro-Hungarian naval fleet, Rusdit, and the commander of the Ottoman Turkish fleet, Ismail, sat with Bridget around a round table in the Giant's dining room, which was lined with rich dishes and seven glasses of wine.

Bridget raised her glass with a smile on her face and said, "Gentlemen, toast to the victory we are about to achieve!" ”

"Cheers!" "Cheers!"

The seven commanders of the United Expeditionary Fleet touched each other's wine glasses and took a sip one after another.

Bridget put down his glass and said: "I invite all the generals to have dinner today, in addition to wishing us to defeat the main force of the Chinese Imperial Navy, I also hope that the officers and men of the navy of all countries will be mentally prepared, our joint expeditionary fleet is about to arrive at Colombo Port on Sri Lanka Island, which will be the last supply port of our joint expeditionary fleet this expedition, and then we will face a battle with the Chinese Imperial Navy, and the battle will definitely not be easy." ”

The commander of the French naval fleet, François, sighed and said: "The strength of our joint expeditionary fleet is indeed huge, but the navy of the Chinese Empire is not in vain, 37 dreadnought battleships and more than 60 all-steel battleships are not decorations, if we want to completely defeat the navy of the Chinese Empire, we must pay a lot of price." ”

Vladilenovich, the commander of the Russian naval fleet, frowned and said: "If the fleet of the Chinese Imperial Navy, afraid of the strength of our joint expeditionary fleet, shrinks into their harbor, how should we deal with it, after all, in addition to the large-caliber coastal defense guns in the port, there are also those annoying aircraft." ”

The commander of the Italian naval fleet, Erebet, also said: "For the sake of those annoying fighters of the Chinese Imperial Air Force, our joint expeditionary fleet cannot even get close to the coast of the Chinese Empire, if the naval fleet of the Chinese Empire really shrinks in the port and cannot come out, what should our joint expeditionary fleet do?" ”

Bridget said at this time: "The ideal situation for our joint expeditionary fleet is to defeat the main force of the Imperial Chinese Navy fleet in a battle at sea and seize sea supremacy in the entire Asian seas. However, if the naval fleet of the Chinese Empire does not dare to come out, then we do not need to be polite, we can attack the coastal ports of the Chinese Empire one by one, the fighters of the Chinese Empire are very annoying, in the battle of the Russian battlefield Chelyabinsk City, our Allied and Allied millions of allied forces, almost were blown up by the fighters of the Chinese Empire, but the fighters of the Chinese Empire, if they want to bomb the warships sailing on our seas, it is not so easy. ”

After listening to this, the commanders of the fleets of the other 6 countries looked at each other and nodded, if the naval fleet of the Chinese Empire really chose to avoid a fight, the joint expeditionary fleet could only choose to attack the ports along the coast of the Chinese Empire.

In addition, although the range of the air defense weapons installed on the warships of the countries of the Joint Expeditionary Fleet is still only 4 or 5 kilometers at a maximum, the threat to the warships under sail has become much smaller when the fighters of the Chinese Empire fly beyond the range of the air defense weapons.

At such a high altitude, if the aerial bombs dropped want to hit the moving warship, it must be a very high luck value, of course, if the fighters of the Chinese Empire take the risk of lowering the flight altitude and bombing the warships of the Joint Expeditionary Fleet under the attack of anti-aircraft weapons, they will have their own ability!

Bridget said to the other six commanders: "The latest news from India shows that the army of the Chinese Empire has opened up a second battlefield on land in the Asian colonies of our British Empire, and the current war situation is very unfavorable to our British Empire, Nepal and Bhutan in the four colonies of Asia have been occupied by the troops of the Chinese Empire, and Burma is about to be unable to be saved, only India, the most important colony of our British Empire, the war is not too bad." This time, our joint expeditionary fleet will also guard against the navy of the Chinese Empire, and cooperate with the land forces of the Chinese Empire to carry out landing operations along the coast of India. ”

Although the Asian colonies of Britain, which were now British, were attacked by the Chinese Empire, the Entente and the Central Powers were already in the same boat, and if the ship sank, no one would want to run.

The fleet commanders of the other six nations had little objection to letting the entire Joint Expeditionary Fleet help the British defend the coast of India.

Then the fleet commanders of the seven countries began to change their glasses and enjoy the food on the table, while the huge combined expeditionary fleet of the Entente and Allied Powers, unaffected by the darkness, continued to sail in the direction of Colombo Port on the island of Sri Lanka.

In the dark night, a destroyer of the Fifth Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy was sailing north on the calm sea.

The captain of the destroyer yawned and stretched his waist in the bridge, it seemed that he would have to stay up late tonight in order to search for the combined expeditionary fleet of the Entente and the Central Powers.

The captain turned his head and said to the first mate beside him: "You sleep for a while, come to me in the middle of the night, let the brothers of the whole ship also divide into two shifts, and we will continue to search north!" ”

As soon as the captain's words fell, the radar crew in the bridge shouted: "There is a situation! Radar shows that 100 kilometers ahead, there is a large flotilla. (To be continued......)

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