As a deterrent force in the Far East, at the request of the Emperor, on the day of Japan's landing from Hangzhou Bay, the Austro-Hungarian Admiralty decided to send to the Far East two aircraft carriers, the "Grand Duke of Istria" and the "Attila of the Huns", two battleships "Archduke Friedrich" and "Archduke Maximilian", four air defense cruisers, eight destroyers, and four supply ships, to set sail for the Far East.

Vilmots. Admiral Yankel was appointed commander of this task force.

On 27 September, the Far East Task Force, protecting a vast convoy of more than 50 merchant ships, sailed out of the Red Sea and into the Arabian Sea.

Heinrich. Colonel Müller, who is now transferred to the post of Chief of Staff of the Second Air Fleet, is on duty on the bridge of Admiral Suker's flagship "Grand Duke of Istria". The sun had just risen above the sea, and the sun was shining obliquely on the deck of the aircraft carrier under sail, and the entire deck surface was glowing with a layer of pale red, and about two squadrons of fighters were placed on the flight deck, which was full and crowded, and looked like a mess.

Sailors in blue overalls are clearing the deck, and some flight crew in orange jackets are inspecting the plane. Like all aircraft carriers, except for some anti-aircraft guns, there are no large-caliber naval guns on the warship for self-defense, and other warships need to be equipped as escorts.

Captain Massas. Brigadier General Hogan appeared at the door of the duty room, "Isn't there any problem, Colonel?" He said to Muller.

"It's normal, I think there will be no accidents in this sea area." "But not necessarily in the Far East, where I was listening to the British shortwave radio at night, and the Singapore radio station reported that the Japanese had taken Shanghai." And began to advance into the hinterland of China, and it seems that the Japanese are ready to achieve a good strategic posture before the Chinese can react. ”

"That's bad news. The emperor's apparent pro-Chinese stance was not to be welcomed by the Japanese. Hogan said with a smile. I feel sorry for the Chinese, who are almost 8 times as numerous as the Japanese, but are led by a group of people who lack vision. I have brought some Chinese naval students and received some of their naval officers who came to visit, and the Chinese are quite friendly and very knowledgeable, but they have always faced the problem of lack of funds. ”

"The question now is, does the current situation in the Far East have an impact on our mission? In case I ignore our warnings. Will the Emperor involve us in this war? Mueller frowned and said, "I have inspected their armaments in China, and the Chinese are very poorly prepared, but their military production is located in the central and western regions, and it should not be affected much by the war." But their navy could lose two of its most important shipyards. ”

"I heard that the main forces of their navy have been withdrawn to Guangzhou Bay?" Hogan asked.

"It should have been bombed, in fact, the navies of most countries do not understand the threat of aircraft to warships, and the Chinese want to send a fleet to support Shanghai, but as soon as they entered the Taiwan Strait, they were bombed by Japanese fighters taking off from Taiwan, and two battleships were damaged. It had no choice but to withdraw to Guangzhou Bay in order to avoid the control range of the Japanese planes. ”

"Well, we're more concerned about the Japanese now. Theoretically, there should be no question of war here. We should be a little stronger than the Japanese in terms of naval power, and besides, there is a much stronger German fleet than them. The Germans had already sent five battleships to Tsingtao to strengthen their Far Eastern Fleet, and if the Japanese dared to touch us, it would be tantamount to a suicidal act. "But the British are very ambiguous, they don't want to see the Japanese encroaching on their market in China, but they have been doing business with the Japanese." ”

"The British were afraid of war with the Japanese. So they were trying to reassure them and try to meet the needs of the Japanese as much as possible -- steel, rubber, oil and other important strategic materials. Mueller said in a mocking tone: "The British hate us more than Japan." Because it was the Germans who pulled them down from their high position. ”

"Actually, I think we should ally with the Japanese, but the emperor is clearly biased in favor of China. Maybe the Japanese will drive the British out of the Malay Peninsula. ”

"It's not a good idea. Perhaps the Japanese will strike at us first, after all, our power in the Far East is somewhat inferior to that of the British. Mueller said with a smile.

"Well, well, the question of strategy should be the one that Admiral Yankel is concerned about." Commodore Hogan glanced at the "Grand Duke Friedrich" on the right side of the sea, and the battleship had Admiral Yankel's Admiral flag flying on the mast, and in view of the relatively complete communication equipment on the battleship, Admiral Yankel had always regarded it as the flagship of the fleet, although everyone understood that the real main force of the fleet in combat was two aircraft carriers.

In terms of strength, the Austro-Hungarian Navy is confident enough that now Austria-Hungary has surpassed Great Britain in steel production and has become the third largest industrial country in the world. In this world, steel represents the country's right to speak, and although the Japanese constantly protest against Austria-Hungary's industrial and military assistance to China, they have always been full of fear of the two European empires.

The task force was to stay in Annam and the South China Sea for a long time, to ensure that the Austro-Hungarian merchant fleet safely transported the arms, automobiles, and oil that China urgently needed to the port of Hekou, and then to China by the Guò and Yue Yunnan railways.

After the fleet sailed past Socotra, Admiral Yankel ordered to remain on alert while sailing.

"There shouldn't be any problems, it's 3,600 nautical miles from Malacca, how dare the Japanese send an aircraft carrier to attack us?" Admiral Yankel's order caused many people to complain incessantly, in fact, Yankel was worried that the Japanese would send a submarine to give him a surprise attack, and if it was at night, it was basically impossible to tell who had done it.

The fleet carries hundreds of thousands of tons of strategic supplies that China desperately needs, including large arms deals such as planes, tanks, automobiles, and more equipment that will be used to help China build dozens of factories closely linked to the military industry. Yankel knew the importance of these machines and equipment in supporting China's war of resistance, so he did not dare to be careless.

Fortunately, there were no accidents along the way, and the entire fleet arrived at the port of Singapore. (To be continued) R655