Ye Qi was studying a Bible when Bai Chongxi, chief of staff of the Ninth Regiment of the Chinese Workers' Corps, walked in from outside the tent.

"Why, are you going to convert to that God?" Bai Chongxi was laughing at him.

The Chinese Workers' Corps is very short of officers, and junior officers like Ye Qi, who have just graduated from the Baoding Military Academy for just over a year, have now become regimental-level officers, while the cadets who have graduated from the Army University have become brigade-level or even division-level officers. You must know that in China, a division commander is basically the overseer of a province, and they are all regarded as party members. But this is Europe, and they're nothing.

", I'm researching how Moses led the Jews out of Egypt to Israel. Now we're going to go back the opposite way. Ye Qi raised her head and tossed the Bible aside.

"You are wrong, the Jews led by Moses crossed the Red Sea to the Sinai Peninsula, and we will not go through the mountains in the south, but along the open hills near the Mediterranean coast, to the Suez Canal Zone. The march may be arduous, and there is a lack of fresh water for about 200 kilometers in this area. Bai Chongxi said, "We will fight with the British soon, and that Commander-in-Chief Wu is a little timid, hesitant, like a girl." ”

"He may have been concerned about the pressure of Britain, and it is impossible for a country like ours to confront the great powers." Ye Qi sighed, the Chinese Workers Legion was actually under the command of the Austro-Hungarian Military Advisory Group, but Wu Guangxin really lacked the style of a general, he was only able to sit in his current position through the nepotism between Guò and Duan Qirui, lacking enough prestige.

"Now the question is, why are we going to war with the British?" Bai Chongxi said.

"It's very simple, let our soldiers go through the fire, there is no complicated reason." Ye Qi said, "We will only participate in some less intense battles. ”

The war finally reached Egypt.

On November 7, 1917, the German-Austrian army began its march on Egypt.

The blue sky was clear without the slightest cloud, and although it was already November, the distant horizon rose with bursts of hot mist characteristic of the desert of the Middle East, and at the end of the desert as far as the eye could see, the horizon was twisting.

Fatigue and thirst afflicted the Chinese Workers' Corps, and the gentle hills of the northern Sinai Peninsula were dry and rainless, and the troops marched from Gaza along a camel road that had been left behind for thousands of years to Abu Ogra, the British stronghold in the middle of Sinai. The desert was full of white sand, there was no one on either side of the road, and with the advent of war, Bedouin tents, sheep and camel caravans were gone.

Nearly 40,000 men of the 1st Division of the Chinese Workers' Regiment flocked to this dusty "highway" almost simultaneously, flanked by rolling deserts and Middle Eastern wilderness, and some tall date palms could be seen in Gaza, but here there was hardly any greenery on the ground except for a few sparse camel thorns. There were no animals to be seen, and occasionally one or two goshawks circled in the sky.

Although the Austrians equipped each Chinese division with hundreds of vehicles, the transport vehicles were far from sufficient, and the vast majority of the soldiers, except for artillery and baggage troops, still had to march on their feet. Tens of thousands of people opened a three-way column stretching for dozens of roads in this wasteland, marching into the depths of the desert.

"General, discover the enemy fleet!"

A Fokker III seaplane landed in the sea near the battleship "Deutschland", the flagship of Admiral Maouf, and the pilots then reported the latest findings.

The German Mediterranean fleet had been greatly strengthened, and with the addition of three Brittany-class battleships captured from France, Admiral Maouf now had 8 battleships in his hands, and the "Yavos", which now carried the Turkish battle flag, was also under his command. However, Admiral Maouf was still accustomed to the "Deutschland", with a displacement of only 21,000 tons, as his flagship.

"They still dare to send their navy to operate in the Mediterranean, and they are really bold." The Admiral took a note from the communications officer's hand and glanced at it, and found a British fleet in the waters near Arish, though it was unknown whether it was to deliver supplies to the British troops defending it or to withdraw its troops. There was no expression on Maouf's face, he just said flatly: "Order the fleet to turn, now let's go and teach them a lesson, tell the British that this is not the place for them to stay." In addition, he sent a telegram to Admiral Horty, saying that at about 11 o'clock, the British fleet was discovered in the waters south of Arish, and that our fleet would launch an attack on the enemy, hoping that they could help us intercept it, so that the British would not slip away. ”

According to the battle plan, the German Navy was responsible for blockading Port Said to the entire Middle East coast and for securing the army transport fleet, while the Eastern Mediterranean Fleet, consisting of the 1st and 4th Austro-Hungarian Battlefleets, was responsible for blockading the coast of North Africa, with a focus on Alexandria, where the British Navy was concentrated.

"General, according to the pilot's report, the enemy has about six capital ships, and we now have only five battleships, and three 'Brittany' class are on escort duty." The Chief of Staff, Brigadier General Kahn, reminded the commander in a whisper.

"No problem, send a telegram to Rear Admiral Hubbart and ask him to lead the 'Yavos' to rush over first and entangle the enemy!" Admiral Hipper was promoted to commander of the High Seas Fleet, and Admiral Sorochin has now been transferred back home to take over as commander of the German fast cruiser, Maouf said. Rear Admiral Hubbart is now the commander of the Ottoman fleet, and now Rear Admiral Hubbart is directing the Turkish fleet on patrol duty, about 30 nautical miles southeast of the Maouf fleet, which is closer to the enemy's fleet. However, since the Turks did not equip the warships with seaplanes, it was Mauf's fleet that first discovered the enemy.

At sea, the German fleet began to turn and picked up speed, heading towards the waters near Arish.

At the same time, in waters about 10 nautical miles south of Arish, a British transport fleet was turning, preparing to return to Port Said. Slightly different from the normal British fleet, there were also four Japanese warships flying the Rising Sun flag in this fleet.

On the bridge of the Japanese battleship "Yasukie," Rear Admiral Sato Sakuzo looked at the two enemy reconnaissance planes hovering in the sky, and could not help but feel worried about the dangerous situation he was about to face.

The Japanese got into the European war early on because of their greed. The British promised to give the German colonies in Asia and the Pacific, including the Jiaozhou Peninsula and the islands in the Pacific Ocean, which the Japanese had long coveted, to Japan after the war, which led to the Dawei government joining the Allied front without hesitation.

However, the situation in Europe did not go in the direction that the Japanese had hoped, and the British Empire, which had dominated the world for nearly 150 years, was more likely to lose the war as it stood. At the beginning of the war, no one could have predicted that the Germans would be able to defeat the combined forces of Britain, France, and Russia.

At present, the whole of Japan is accusing the Great Men of their rash move to draw Japan into the war, but in order to preserve the "results" they have obtained so far, the Japanese have no way to retreat, and can only follow the British in advancing and retreating together. Now the Germans were about to begin their assault on the Suez Canal. If the Suez Canal had been occupied by the Germans, it was conceivable that when the German fleet had rushed out of the Indian Ocean and returned to the Far East, the Japanese Empire would have faced relentless German retaliation.

What a big mistake!

However, Sato Sakuzo did not have time to sigh anymore.

At this time, the communications officer ran over and reported, "Sir, the enemy's fleet is nearby, and we need to protect the convoy for the retreat to Port Said!" ”

"Well, what should come will come, and if we can't escape, we must also show the courage of the imperial army in front of the Europeans!" Sato Sakushi gave the order with a blushing face, and the two enemy planes in the sky were still buzzing like flies, circling in the sky not far from the front of the fleet.

This gave him a sense of foreboding.

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