Chapter 447: The Great Conspiracy

[Weak and weak drop update 5,000 words ......]

The Second Anglo-Dutch War broke out in this way, and the British wishful thinking did not start, and instead of causing a war between China and the Netherlands, a second war broke out with the Netherlands.

After the outbreak of the war, the British Royal Navy still pursued the tactics of the First Anglo-Dutch War, placing the main force in the North Sea, intending to blockade the Dutch mainland and fight an economic war of attrition.

However, the Dutch government, which had eaten a trench and grown wise, did not do what the British wished, and also placed the main naval force in the North Sea and engaged the British navy head-on.

Britain and the Netherlands are neighbors on both sides of the English Channel, and the main forces of the navies of both countries are in the North Sea, and they immediately fight.

The Netherlands was too small to tolerate the landing of British marines, and mobilized its navy to prevent or destroy the Royal Navy. Similarly, as an island nation, Britain has a navy that it relies on for the only war effort. Therefore, the British side also gave the Admiralty the ultimate operational goal of completely destroying the main fleet of the Netherlands.

The two main fleets of Europe confronted each other in the North Sea, and the navies and merchant ships of other countries made detours for fear of getting into trouble.

Politicians of all countries were watching jokes about the Great War between Britain and the Netherlands, while their military strategists wanted to see the gap between the British and Dutch wars, and wanted to understand the strength of the Imperial Chinese Navy through the British Navy. After all, the British warships at this time introduced a large number of shipbuilding technology from the Chinese Empire, while the Netherlands represented the highest technology of the European shipbuilding industry. Therefore, behind the Anglo-Dutch war was the first technological collision between Europe and Asia.

However, Britain and the Netherlands seemed to know the intentions of the other countries, and although the two countries declared war, the navies of both sides had been cautiously testing each other's strength, and were not in a hurry to have a decisive battle with the main forces.

From the day the two sides declared war, in the naval battles that lasted more than a year, the warships of the two navies engaged in all-out battles in the North Sea, the English Channel, the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean, and other waters, hundreds of times, large and small, and exchanged fire almost every day without a single large-scale naval battle. The main fleets of both sides are always in the rear, and the fleets involved in the exchange of fire are not large, and they are basically one-on-one between cruisers and frigates, and as far as the North Atlantic, the maximum number of warships engaged is only twenty or thirty.

Time flies, and the Anglo-Dutch war has been going on for a year and a half in the blink of an eye. Maritime trade between the two countries has almost stopped, and the losses have been heavy. Britain had been completely dependent on the Chinese Empire for supplies by sea three months before it had consumed a huge amount of war supplies. The Netherlands were no better, and France, under the enormous political pressure of the Chinese Empire, maintained strict neutrality and had limited aid to the Netherlands. The Spanish Empire was negotiating with the Chinese Empire over some of its colonies in Central America and the Spanish Granada colony in South America, because since the Chinese Empire granted charters to the colonies, the Central Mexican colonies began to expand into Central America, and friction with the Spanish colonies in Central America was increasing. The Chinese Peruvian colony expanded into the Amazon basin, and there were constant frictions with the Spanish colony of Granada, including with Portuguese Brazil.

For this reason, both Spain and Portugal are now engaged in in-depth negotiations with the Chinese Empire over the colonial issue, hoping to cool down the heated Central and South America and avoid a colonial war with the Chinese Empire. In this case, the bargaining chips of Spain and Portugal are naturally on the issue of aid to the Netherlands. In order to cool Central and South America, both the Spanish Empire and the Kingdom of Portugal compromised with the Chinese Empire on this issue and maintained strict neutrality. Especially Spain, the colonies of Mexico and Peru on which he relied have been taken away by the Chinese Empire, leaving some colonies in Central America and Granada in South America, which is the last straw for the Spanish royal family to maintain a luxurious life, so Spain is forced to lease the Gibraltar naval base to the Chinese Empire while maintaining strict neutrality, as a temporary security in exchange for the American colonies.

Due to its strategic importance, the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy used the Gibraltar naval base as the choke point for controlling the Mediterranean, and because of its strategic importance, it could not only control the throat of the Atlantic Ocean into the Mediterranean, but also cut off the Dutch control over Tunisia, Libya and other colonies, and to a certain extent weakened the Dutch supply base overseas. In exchange, the central government of the Chinese Empire limited the pace of southward expansion of the colonial viceroyalties of Mexico and Peru.

As a result, the Netherlands is unable to receive assistance from countries such as France and Spain within the framework of the European Union, and only the alliance between Denmark and Sweden, which is a northern power, is still relevant because of their location in northern Europe and the fact that they can provide assistance to the Netherlands from the Baltic Sea. At the same time, the influence of the Chinese Empire in Northern Europe was limited, and countries such as Denmark and Sweden were not controlled by the Chinese Empire, so the Netherlands did not fight independently.

Of course, the Netherlands was able to hold out for a year and a half thanks to the dumping actions of the Chinese Empire. During the dumping action, the Dutch government hoarded a large amount of supplies, most of which were strategic, which supported the Dutch war attrition.

After the defeat of the Netherlands in the First Anglo-Dutch War, the British and the Chinese Empire put the "Navigation Regulations" on the Dutch Navy were like a man's back. As a result, the Dutch top brass has been lying on the back burner and looking for an opportunity to regain sea power.

At this time, a year and a half after the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch navy had not made any achievements, so the Dutch top brass was extremely dissatisfied.

In the summer of the 25th year of Shenwu, the Dutch Speaker appointed Admiral de Knight as Commander-in-Chief of the Dutch Navy, replacing the veteran Troppe, who had just been dismissed, as Commander-in-Chief of the Dutch Navy.

Admiral Knight has always specialized in the tactics of dealing with the British Navy, and has made great efforts to reorganize the navy. and reorganized the strategic thinking of the navy: that is, the realization that the British could not be defeated by escorting merchant ships alone. Only by changing this passive strategy, putting aside the merchant ships, and seeking the opportunity of a decisive battle with the British fleet with the main naval force, and seizing sea supremacy, can we win the war.

Guided by this strategic thinking, the Netherlands intensified the training of the Armada on the one hand, and on the other hand, continued to intensify the construction of large warships. By the end of Shenwu's 25th year, the Dutch Navy had 76 large capital warships, hundreds of other small and medium-sized warships, more than 10,000 artillery pieces and more than 70,000 officers and men. Ever since Britain acquired battle line tactics from the Imperial Chinese Navy, the navies of other countries have followed suit. Not to be outdone, the Dutch navy gradually mastered this new tactic in the first two years of the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, and adopted it as the main tactical idea.

During the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the Chinese Empire exported a large number of advanced warships and artillery to Britain and taught advanced battle line tactics to the British Navy, which significantly improved the combat capability of the British Navy. It could have fought against the Dutch navy, but because the Chinese Empire released British pigeons and did not participate in the war, the British government was timid, and the navy lost many fighters.

Naval battles between the two sides were frequent, but small. The Dutch navy was testing battle line tactics, and the British navy was timid, so neither side sent their main forces for a decisive battle. Therefore, in the first two years of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the navies of the two countries as a whole were dominated by confrontation, and it can be said that they were evenly matched.

In the spring of the 26th year of Shenwu, after the winter passed, the North Sea and the English Channel entered the season of the phoenix period suitable for naval warfare, and the British and Dutch navies went to war again.

After several years of study and exploration, the Dutch Navy practiced several sets of battle line tactics, and the Dutch High Command asked the Navy to take the initiative to attack and find the British Navy to fight.

In late March, the Royal Navy's Third Squadron sank three Dutch merchant ships and a Dutch frigate near the Baltic Sea in the North Sea. Soon, the Dutch Navy received the news and quickly dispatched the main fleet.

The Dutch Navy's main fleet, the "Invincible Armada", was commanded by Dutch Admiral Knight, who judged that the British Third Squadron was acting alone, and rushed to the North Sea waters at full speed to intercept it, intending to completely annihilate this detachment and inflict heavy damage on the British Royal Navy.

The Dutch Navy sent a large number of communications ships to reconnoiter the position of the small British fleet, and the next morning it spotted the enemy in the northern waters of the North Sea.

The Third Squadron of the British Navy seemed to have discovered the purpose of the arrival of the Dutch Navy's reconnaissance ships, and hurriedly turned around and sailed westward, trying to hide in the Atlantic.

Knight was pressured by the Dutch Parliament to fight a good fight, and he was bent on taking out the daring British fleet, which had already been laid out so that no matter how clever the British were, they could not escape the encirclement.

The British Navy saw that it could not escape, and was forced to turn around and engage the Dutch Navy.

The British Navy's Third Fleet, consisting of 33 large and small warships, was besieged by more than 100 warships of the Dutch Navy's main fleet.

The navies of the two countries mainly tried to seize sea supremacy in the form of a decisive battle with the main force of the navy and in accordance with the tactical operations of the battle line. Due to the improvement of artillery fire and the increase in range and lethality, the losses of both sides in naval battles were greatly increased.

The Third Detachment of the British Navy was outnumbered even if the battle was high, and the two sides engaged in a battle line duel, and the large-caliber artillery almost all opened fire at a distance of several hundred meters, and the naval battle between the two sides was extremely tragic.

At first, the British navy had a tactical advantage, but soon the Dutch navy adapted to the tactics of the British, resulting in heavy losses for the British. By evening, the British Third Fleet had lost seventeen warships and the Dutch navy had lost nine.

Knight was very happy, and was about to destroy the British Third Fleet in one fell swoop, when he received a report from the sentry ship that the main force of the British Navy was about to arrive.

It turned out that after the main force of the Dutch Navy left the port, it was quickly detected by the airship of the Chinese Imperial Air Force, and soon the news reached the British Navy Fleet Command. The British Naval Fleet Command quickly made a decision and sent the main fleet of the British Royal Navy, commanded by Admiral Warrent, to the North Sea.

The main force of the British Navy was dispatched, and it came so quickly, which surprised Knight. Originally, he was ready to eat the British detachment in front of him, but now it seems that it will be very difficult. Judging from the battle just now, Knight at this moment realized that there was still a considerable gap between the Dutch Navy and the British Navy.

The British navy began to use battle line tactics in the First Anglo-Dutch War, and it was clear that the British had the upper hand over the experience of both sides.

Knight felt that it was better to take it, and ordered the Dutch fleet to withdraw from the battlefield.

However, it backfired. The British naval commander Warrent also wanted to destroy the main Dutch fleet, and also made arrangements to set up a net on the return of the Dutch navy.

Knight left the fleet behind and then led the main fleet to retreat. Walter had the Chinese Empire's airships in the air to reconnoitre, so he quickly found the movement of the Dutch fleet and set up an ambush on the predetermined route.

Since the Royal Navy of the Imperial Chinese Navy was preparing to enter the war at the end of the First Anglo-Dutch War, Knight included the Imperial Chinese Navy in the ranks of hostility and strictly guarded against it.

The advanced airship technology of the Royal Air Force of the Chinese Empire has always been favored by military families all over the world, but no country has obtained this kind of military technology export. The Netherlands has a hot-air balloon squadron, but it is part of the army combat sequence. Although Britain did not have access to the airship technology of the Chinese Empire, Britain, as a loyal servant of the Chinese Empire, received direct support from the airships of the Royal Air Force of the Chinese Empire, and obtained valuable military information at any time.

Knight knew this, so when the Sentinel spotted the airship in the air, Knight immediately realized that his location had been revealed to the British Navy.

As a strategist, Knight realized that the journey home would be very dangerous, because the British were sure that the cats were somewhere preparing to attack them

In order to avoid airship reconnaissance in the air and the ambush of the British Navy, Knight finally chose to turn around and enter the North Atlantic, taking advantage of the harsh sea conditions in the North Atlantic to expel the Chinese Imperial airship, and then quietly sneak back to the Netherlands.

God is very powerful, the Dutch Navy just sailed into the waters of the North Atlantic when it encountered strong wind and rain, the airships of the Chinese Empire had to give up tracking and return, and the British Royal Navy, which had been trailing, also lost information.

After three days of drifting in the North Atlantic, the Dutch Navy had already dumped the British Navy's sentinel ships. However, a fast communication ship under the banner of the Chinese Imperial Postal Group happened to appear nearby and spotted the movements of the Dutch fleet.

By the middle of the 17th century, the Chinese Empire had replaced the Netherlands as the world's sea coachman, and the merchant ships of the Chinese Empire were all over the world's seas, as well as the communication ships that served as the postal group to transport letters. Since the establishment of the postal company, the current postal group, although for the purpose of making money for business, is one of the main sources of information for the intelligence department of the Chinese Empire to collect information from all countries in the world.

The headquarters of the European branch of the National Security Agency of the Chinese Empire were located in the United Kingdom, and the postal ship quickly delivered the information to the Isle of Wight Naval Base.

In the office of the General Staff Headquarters of the European Dispatch Army of the Chinese Empire, Shi Jianfei immediately came to find Huang Zupei, chief of staff of the headquarters base, after receiving the information.

"Huang Lao's opportunity is here"

Shi Jianfei hurriedly handed the information to Huang Zupei, who looked at Shi Jianfei's excited appearance, and did not look at the information, but directly put it on the table.

"Huang Lao, who are you?"

Shi Jianfei looked at Huang Zupei puzzled, the latter smiled slightly, and said, "Jianfei, I know that you have spent seven or eight years of hard work preparing for this war."

"It's okay" Shi Jianfei hurriedly said: "Although it is very hard for me to prepare for so long, as long as I defeat the Dutch Navy with one blow, then I am worth everything"

"You listen to me" Huang Zupei hurriedly stopped Shi Jianfei and said: "It is necessary to defeat the Dutch Navy, there cannot be any fleet in this world that can threaten the security of the Imperial Sea However, there are many things that we don't need to do by ourselves."

Shi Jianfei chuckled in his heart, feeling a little bad, and asked, "What does Elder Huang mean that we don't make a move yet?" That Dutch fleet is heading to the Norwegian Sea, and we will be able to annihilate the Dutch fleet by setting up an ambush in the Faroe Islands."

Huang Zupei waved his hand and said, "Let the British go."

Shi Jianfei said: "But it is impossible for the British to completely annihilate the Dutch fleet"

Huang Zupei replied: "Even if they can't destroy the Dutch fleet, at least they can lose both."

Shi Jianfei said: "But if we dispatch, we can at least beat the water dogs and directly kill the Dutch fleet, and solve the Dutch Navy once and for all."

Huang Zupei smiled and said, "Do you tell me that the war between my countries will really end?" ”

Shi Jianfei asked, "What does Huang Lao mean by this?" ”

Huang Zupei said: "It's like the first Anglo-Dutch war between Britain and the Netherlands five years ago, and now the second Anglo-Dutch war five years later. ”

"This is not possible," Shi Jianfei said, "As long as one of them is still on the earth, the rescue will not stop"

"So," Huang Zupei said, "wars between countries are fought today and tomorrow and are like a common thing, some are fought every day, and some will be fought after a few years or decades." ”

Shi Jianfei was stunned by Huang Zupei and asked, "What do you mean?" ”

Huang Zupei said with a smile: "I'm just suing you, this time the military department transferred me to prevent you from participating in the war."

Shi Jianfei was shocked and asked in disbelief: "Old Huang, do you mean not to let me-"

"No," Huang Zupei said, "I will not be allowed to participate in the Anglo-Dutch War if I change any of them."

Shi Jianfei suddenly said urgently: "You know, I have been transferred here for seven years, and I have been preparing for seven years to deal with the Dutch, and now you tell sù that I will not fight, so haven't my preparations for the past seven years been in vain?" ”

Huang Zupei comforted: "I know you are unwilling, but your efforts are not in vain, but a huge success"

Shi Jianfei looked at Huang Zupei puzzled. The latter said: "It is precisely because you are actively preparing for war that you have formed an elite navy, land and air force on the Isle of Wight, which has put tremendous military pressure on European countries, causing countries to launch a large-scale arms race with you as an opponent. Today, European countries spend a huge amount of money on the arms race, and their annual military spending has been a serious drag on their finances and economic development. According to the plan of the military department, when we suddenly withdraw the navy, army, and air force, the external pressure on Europe will suddenly disappear, and the whole of Europe will now be a huge powder keg, and without external pressure, there will be an imbalance internally. The Second Anglo-Dutch War is an example of this, and soon other countries will be unable to bear the loneliness and start fighting."

Only then did Shi Jianfei understand that this qiē was all a conspiracy. The old foxes of the military department did not have a good intention to calculate the whole of Europe from the beginning, and a series of actions were deliberately instigated, the purpose of which was to turn Europe into a huge powder keg, and now that lead has been ignited.

"What should I do next, I don't think you need me to say it with your cleverness."

"Of course"

Shi Jianfei picked up the information, smiled bitterly, saluted and turned to leave. A