Compared with Lin Daxin's unusually happy mood, there are many people who are in a very bad mood, Lin Daxin got the news of the great victory of the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire, and even began to think about eating a big piece of fat meat next, those leaders of the Entente and the Central Powers, received the news of the fiasco of the joint expeditionary fleet, and there was only one extremely bitter fruit, so that they had to swallow it themselves.

After a short period of discussion, the commanders of the Allied and Allied Combined Expeditionary Fleets unanimously decided that the remnants of the Combined Expeditionary Fleet would immediately cross the Arabian Sea and return to Europe, not even daring to go to the Indian port of Mumbai to rest for fear of being blocked in the port of Mumbai by the main fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

After the joint expeditionary fleet began to cross the Arabian Sea, the joint expeditionary fleet used the radio stations on the warships to send the news of the defeat in the naval battle to Europe; although the radio stations installed on the warships of the joint expeditionary fleet were not so powerful that it was impossible to send telegrams directly back to various European countries, the joint expeditionary fleet first sent the war reports to the colonies that were closer to each other, and then after two or three relays, the war reports of the disastrous naval battles were transmitted back to Europe.

The commanders of the naval fleets of several countries also hope that the heads of European countries can quickly come up with a way to deal with it, the loss of the joint expeditionary fleet formed by the Entente and the Central Powers this time is really too tragic, and with the current joint expeditionary fleet alone, there is no need to wrestle with the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire in the Asian waters, otherwise they would not have retreated directly to Europe in such a hurry.

However, the entire Entente and the Central Powers have lost a lot of strength in this naval battle, and they don't know the heads of the countries. There is still no courage to continue to compete with the Imperial Chinese Navy for Asian waters.

The official residence of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at 10 Downing Street, London, England. British Prime Minister Henry. Campbell. Banavon, holding a couple of telegrams. With a gloomy face, he said to the British War Secretary Henry Wiley, the Admiral Fisher, and the Foreign Minister Marquis Lansdowne: "You should all know that the joint expeditionary fleet formed by the Entente and the Central Powers not long ago encountered the main fleet of the Chinese Imperial Navy in the sea area less than 300 nautical miles northwest of Sri Lanka Island. Already on the way back to Europe, our plan to seize sea supremacy throughout Asia and launch an attack on the coastal areas of the Chinese Empire has failed. ”

British War Secretary Henry Wiley, Admiral Fisher, and Foreign Minister Marquis Lansdowne, the three of them looked at each other, and their faces showed gloomy expressions, which was also too surprising, the combined expeditionary fleet formed by the Entente and the Central Powers combined had 72 dreadnought battleships and 72 all-steel battleships, plus hundreds of other types of warships. How could it be defeated, which was already far superior to the entire Imperial Chinese Navy in strength? It's an unbelievable thing.

These three important British ministers had just heard the news of the defeat of the Joint Expeditionary Fleet before they came, and as for how they were defeated. They didn't know that Bridget's telegram was sent directly to the Prime Minister's Office, and even to the British Admiralty. At present, we only know that the naval battle was lost, and the specific naval battle process and losses are known. It's not clear.

Admiral Fisher frowned and said, "This is too unbelievable to believe that the combined expeditionary fleet formed by our Entente and Allied Powers. How could it be defeated by the main fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy, you must know that the entire Imperial Chinese Navy combined could not catch up with half of the strength of the Combined Expeditionary Fleet, and the dreadnought battleships of the Imperial Chinese Navy, even if they added the 7 super dreadnought battleships that could only be regarded as existing, only had 37 units, how could they be the opponent of the 72 dreadnought battleships of the Combined Expeditionary Fleet? ”

Prime Minister Henry. Campbell. Bannavin waved the telegram in his hand and said: "According to General Bridget's report, the 7 so-called existence warships of the Imperial Chinese Navy have no problems at all, and their performance in the naval battle is very eye-catching, and our British Navy has many dreadnought battleships and all-steel battleships, and they were killed under the guns of those 7 super dreadnought battleships, and what is even more shocking is that our joint expeditionary fleet was bombed by multiple rounds of bombing by the Chinese Imperial Bomber Group, and many dreadnought battleships and all-steel battleships were sunk and damaged in the bombing, This is also the most important reason why the combined expeditionary fleet formed by our Entente and Allied powers will be defeated by the Chinese Imperial Navy. ”

"What? There are no problems with those 7 super dreadnought battleships! God, it seems that this is a smoke bomb released by the Chinese Empire, we have been fooled! The Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Marquis of Lansdowne, exclaimed.

War Minister Henry Willy asked in surprise: "Bombers of the Chinese Empire?" How is this possible? How did the bombers of the Chinese Empire fly to the warring seas? The battlefield is very far from the territory of the Chinese Empire, and it is impossible for the Chinese Imperial bombers to fly to the sea several hundred nautical miles northwest of the island of Sri Lanka to bomb our joint expeditionary fleet. ”

Prime Minister Henry. Campbell. Bannavin sighed and said: "This is a very true thing, the entire United Expeditionary Fleet has dozens of dreadnought battleships and all-steel battleships, which were blown up and sunk by the bombers of the Chinese Empire, otherwise how could the extremely powerful expeditionary fleet be defeated by the hands of the Chinese Imperial Navy!" General Bridget said on the telegram that these bombers of the Chinese Empire were most likely a kind of seaplane, otherwise it would not have been possible to fly to the sea area where the two sides were at war. ”

At this time, the Minister of the Navy, Fisher, suddenly remembered something, and then said: "Prime Minister, I think that maybe these bombers of the Chinese Empire are not seaplanes. ”

Prime Minister Henry. Campbell. Puzzled, Banavin asked, "It's not a seaplane, what is it?" ”

Fisher said: "Our British Admiralty warship designers recently designed a warship that can carry aircraft, this kind of warship has a deck of more than 100 meters of airstrip, which can allow light fighters to take off directly on the runway on this deck, so that during the voyage of the fleet, there are aircraft that can follow the fleet to act together." Provide reconnaissance and air support for the fleet. I have some hunch that the Chinese Empire may well already have such warships with warplanes on board. And the performance is relatively good, allowing heavy bombers to take off and fight on it. ”

Prime Minister Henry. Campbell. Banavin listened. After pondering for a moment, he said: "In this way, those bombers of the Chinese Empire are very likely to take off on warships that can carry fighters, since the Admiralty already has the design of this kind of warship, it will continue to improve the design of this kind of warship, it is not enough to only take off light fighters, and strive to design a warship that can carry bombers as soon as possible." Alas, the losses of our British navy in this naval battle are too great, and we must work together from all sides to restore our British navy as soon as possible. ”

Admiral Fisher asked, "Prime Minister." What is the situation with the specific losses of our British Navy? General Bridget did not send a telegram to the Admiralty, and I, the Prime Minister of the Admiralty, am still confused. ”

Prime Minister Henry. Campbell. Banavin smiled bitterly and said, "Fisher, you better see for yourself!" What a disaster! "After saying Prime Minister Henry. Campbell. Banavin handed several telegrams in his hand to Fisher.

Fisher took the telegram and took a cursory look, and suddenly his eyes were a little black, and he didn't hold the few telegrams in his hand, and they fell to the ground in a swaying manner.

It's miserable, it's miserable! Such a loss is as simple as hurting the vitality. It was like taking half a life for the Royal Navy of the British Empire.

The British Navy sent as many as 420 warships to join the Joint Expeditionary Fleet this time, including 22 dreadnought battleships, including 4 Bellerophon-class dreadnought-class battleships, 8 St. Vincent-class dreadnought-class battleships, 6 Neptune-class dreadnought battleships, and 4 giant-class dreadnought battleships. There were 24 all-steel battleships, including 6 Majesty-class all-steel battleships, 4 London-class all-steel battleships, 4 Duncan-class all-steel battleships, and 10 Edwardian VII-class all-steel battleships.

In addition, 8 ironclad battleships, 28 large fast armored cruisers, 76 fast protection cruisers, 106 destroyers, 140 torpedo boats, and 16 submarines joined the joint expeditionary fleet. The total displacement of warships that allowed the British Navy to join the Joint Expeditionary Fleet exceeded 2.1 million tons.

But now, with such a huge British naval fleet, there are only 7 dreadnought battleships, 8 all-steel battleships, 17 large fast armored cruisers, 36 fast protection cruisers, 45 destroyers and 71 torpedo boats. There are also quite a few warships that have been seriously damaged, and they don't know if they will be able to survive and return to Europe.

The British Navy in order to compete in the naval arms race of the world. Maintaining the supremacy of the Royal Navy of the British Empire, he worked hard to build warships over the years. In particular, the most powerful warships in the world at present, the dreadnought battleships were built before the start of the war, ranking first in the world, and the British Navy also has 50 all-steel battleships.

As a result, after this naval battle, the British Navy's operations for many years were almost destroyed, and 15 dreadnought battleships and 16 all-steel battleships were sunk, which was an unbearable price for the British Navy.

In that naval battle, the British Navy lost 4 Bellerophon-class dreadnought battleships, 8 all-steel battleships, 6 ironclad battleships, 4 large fast armored cruisers, 8 fast protection cruisers, 12 destroyers, 16 torpedo boats, 18 small gunboats, 4 submarines, including 2 Bellerophon-class dreadnought battleships, and a number of British warships, which were captured by the Chinese Imperial Navy.

After a simple addition and subtraction, there are only 20 of the most combat-effective dreadnought battleships left in the British Navy, which has to allow the seriously injured British Navy dreadnought battleships in the Combined Expeditionary Fleet to return to Europe safely.

The all-steel battleships, which are only weaker than the dreadnought battleships, have only 26 left, and this also counts the all-steel battleships of the British Navy that were seriously injured in the joint expeditionary fleet, plus the losses of other types of warships, the overall strength of the British Navy has plummeted by half at once, and it would be strange if Fisher, as the British Admiralty, could still calm down!

Henry Wiley, the Minister of War who was sitting next to Fisher, reached out and picked up a few telegrams, looked down quickly, and then sighed and said: "It is indeed too miserable, not only our British Navy, but also the navies of other 6 countries have suffered very large losses, and the navy of the Chinese Empire is really against the sky, after this naval battle, the situation of our Entente and Allied countries in this war is becoming more and more unfavorable." ”

After Henry Willie's words were finished, Prime Minister Henry. Campbell. In Banervan's office, there was a brief silence, now that the naval battle has been defeated, the situation on land is also very unoptimistic, in the Russian battlefield, the army of the Chinese Empire has already fought through the Ural Mountains, into the region of Russian Europe, at present, the Allied and Allied forces are in the city of Ufa west of the Ural Mountains, gathering heavy troops, trying to stop the Chinese Imperial Army from continuing to advance, if the Chinese Imperial Army captures the city of Ufa, then the situation of the Russian war will become completely erosive, Several other belligerents on the European continent should think about the defense of their own territory.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Marquis of Lansdowne, broke the silence and said: "What is the loss of the navy of the Chinese Empire in this naval battle?" ”

Henry Wiley, who was holding a few telegrams in his hand, replied: "According to General Bridget's telegram, the Imperial Chinese Navy sank more than 10 dreadnought battleships in naval battles, and more than a dozen all-steel battleships, plus the losses of other types of warships, although the Chinese Imperial Navy won a great victory, it was inevitable that it would be broken. ”

The Marquis of Landsdownne nodded and said: "Although the joint expeditionary fleet has suffered a crushing defeat, it still has a certain strength, otherwise it is impossible to evacuate safely from the pursuit of the main fleet of the Chinese Imperial Navy, is it not to contact the other countries of the Entente and the Allied Powers, so that the navies of various countries can take out some more strength, form a fleet again, merge the original joint expeditionary fleet, and have a decisive battle with the Chinese Imperial Navy again, after all, the Chinese Imperial Navy has also suffered a lot of losses, and once again a decisive battle at sea, Maybe we'll be able to turn the tables around. ”

Fisher immediately shook his head and said: "Our Royal Navy of the British Empire simply can't transfer too many warships again, and we have already sent everything that can be transferred to the Joint Expeditionary Fleet last time, and the situation of the navies of other countries is not optimistic, so it is not easy to form a support fleet again!" (To be continued.) )