On the sea thousands of kilometers away from the Seventh Task Force, a huge fleet that was comparable to the scale of the combined fleet of the three countries floated on the dark sea, and the old emperor had not yet slept. Eyes were shining on the large charts in the bridge command room, on which the staff officers had already indicated the number and location coordinates of all enemy submarines that the Seventh Task Force was to face, and the charts were constantly updated with the latest reports from reconnaissance planes and alert destroyers and speedboats.

This kind of diagram method has been widely used in the Chinese Navy for a long time, and it has been transmitted to foreign countries, so that fleet commanders can grasp the battle situation more intuitively and in a timely manner, and accordingly quickly and correctly issue combat orders. At this time, as many as six enemy submarines had been marked on the charts, and they were besieging from the front, left and right of the route of the 7th Task Force, and all of them broke into a 30-kilometer warning circle.

What the Seventh Task Force will be like now, Liu Xian didn't know, he could only see the current array of the task force and the nine European submarines under the waves of the sea. In addition to the six ships that have already been discovered, three others have not been detected by the reconnaissance planes, and the one closest to the Seventh Fleet has also broken through the 30-kilometer warning circle, and the other two are even further away.

Liu Xian stayed up until five o'clock in the morning, when the whole battle was completely over, and the Europeans sank four submarines, and they also knocked out a destroyer and a speedboat of the Seventh Task Force. Based on this density of enemy submarines, the Navy has a new understanding of the total number of enemy submarines in the Arabian Sea, from an estimate of 100 to 150 to 300 to 400, which is quite close to the real figure.

Unfortunately, it will take some time to prepare for the bilateral war, and the four aircraft carrier fleets will not be able to fight the Europeans as soon as they arrive in the Arabian Sea, and the Europeans will need even more time to run in their own large fleet.

Again. Bilateral fleet operations require massive material supplies, and everything takes time to prepare.

And before the battle of the Arabian Sea officially broke out, and before the 'first close encounter' between the huge fleets of the two sides of China and Europe was fighting for the strategically important island of Socotra, a reinforced division had been transported to Kuwait by the Persian Empire's railway, and then a campaign against the tribal forces of the peninsula had officially broken out.

This is a war that is irrelevant in the present moment, but vital in the world of the future. China wants to completely dispel the ambitions of the tribes on the peninsula. It has laid a solid foundation for China to establish its absolute control position on the peninsula.

Iraq and China will not touch it, that will touch the bottom line of the Ottomans. However, the peninsula is different, and in the past few years, when more and more Ottoman troops have been withdrawn from the peninsula, the tribal forces that had previously been greatly reduced in their space and territory have become active again. This is like a scene in history, when the Ottoman Empire's existence was strong, all the tribes of the peninsula were tame and honest, and when the Ottoman Empire's existence weakened from the peninsula, it was the time when the tribal forces took back everything they had lost.

Who doesn't know that the black oil buried in the ground of the peninsula is an endless supply of gold and silver. That's an unimaginable fortune.

So as soon as the Ottoman forces retreated on the peninsula, the tribal forces surrounded the rats that smelled the stench. Up to now, the Ottomans have been drained of blood after years of war, and only Najd still has a certain amount of Ottoman troops on the entire peninsula to prevent the British from moving north from the Sinai Peninsula. The tribal power of the peninsula has completely lost its restraint.

Now, the Chinese, who have been honest and quiet in Kuwait for many years, are finally showing their sharp fangs. In line with the westward expansion strategy of China's navy, land and air forces, the Chinese troops stationed in Kuwait also need to use blood to make all the peninsular tribes understand who is the next master of this land floating above black gold!

The command of Lieutenant General Robert, commander of the 13th Anglo-Indian Army, was placed in Bahrain. Since the Great Retreat in India, the British troops who have withdrawn from India to the peninsula have been joined by a number of Indian troops who have continued to follow the British or semi-forcibly 'coerced' the retreat. It was becoming three army groups, and the Army Headquarters in London left the three army groups of the Indian Viceroyalty: 11, 12, and 13. The unit to which Robert belonged was the last.

The main force of nearly 50,000 men was concentrated in Bahrain, where the Ottoman army had abandoned it for two years. There are three oil fields that can produce 35,000 barrels of oil per day, or 5,000 tons, when fully operational.

With an annual oil production of 1.8 million tons, it became the golden hen that the British Empire carried in its arms before the war.

Even in the early days of the war, the Ottoman army controlled the area, but the interests of the British Empire were not compromised. The peninsula and the entire oil-producing region of the Middle East have been isolated from the flames of war for several years. There is no war here!

Until the Second Balkan War was completely expanded. The British retreated from Bahrain to Yemen, losing most of their interests on the peninsula. But the Ottomans were not so savage as to wreak havoc on the place. Both sides have shown great restraint in this regard, and until now Bahrain has changed owners in several places, and the pumping units, oil pipelines and oil storage tanks in the three oil fields are still unharmed.

Lieutenant General Robert was well aware of his mission in Bahrain, which was to look at the Chinese opposite.

There were less than 20,000 Chinese soldiers in Kuwait. But there were more than 300 warplanes there, and Persia, which was next to Kuwait, maintained 200 warplanes in the border city of Abadan, as well as a full-fledged Persian regrouper. This kind of power is not something that these little brothers of the British on the peninsula can eat safely. Don't look at whether even Najd is safe and stable, the strength of the British in the heavenly world is not small, but compared to the real elite, it is not worth mentioning.

The so-called 'Lawrence of Arabia' in the original time and space, this world can no longer exist.

The war has changed, and so has the status of the celestial world.

Whether it was the Ottomans or China, or Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary, all the Western countries did not want to see the peninsula in shambles.

The Celestial World of the original time and space was just a vast and desolate backwood, and apart from its superior geographical location, there was no value of interest comparable to its military value. In the world today, the peninsula is an island floating on a sea of black gold. No one will ignore this.

The attitude of the two sides is different, and neither can take this land with an absolute advantage, so it has become a paradise that is not troubled by war. Until now, the Chinese have bared their fangs, and they feel that they have enough strength to take everything.

With the arrival of a reinforced division, the atmosphere of the whole peninsula was very different. In particular, the Chinese Navy is moving westward with great fanfare. Anyone who still has a brain in their head knows that the Chinese are going to do it.

Robert and the other three armies naturally cannot fight a tough battle, but the face of the British Empire cannot be lost. Robert had already been instructed and made arrangements in accordance with the order, which was quite a-for-tat with the Chinese Army. It's just that everyone knows what kind of 50,000 troops he has under his command. Or rather, these troops, which are mostly composed of Indian Asan, are taken as a joke by everyone.

The 13th Anglo-Indian Army had two corps, each with two divisions. Each of them has a certain number of directly subordinate troops, a total of 50,000 people. Bahrain is their headquarters, and the front line is in Dammam.

Dammam was originally a small settlement along the coast, but since the French obtained the right to explore and develop here, and discovered the huge oil reserves, it has gradually developed. By the time of the war, there were more than 30,000 inhabitants. The French have the intention of building Dammam into the largest commercial port on the north coast of the peninsula [the Persian Gulf], and not only invest heavily in the development of oil fields. An oil refinery has also been set up in preparation to turn Dammam into the center of their oil industry in the northern region of the peninsula. The French have set up more than a dozen large sulfuric acid plants, lubricating oil factories and other petrochemical enterprises. At its peak, there were three or four thousand Europeans here!

July 18, 1919 at 6 a.m. On the position of the 1st Division of the Peninsula Column of the Chinese Army, a unit of a mechanized reinforced battalion had secretly entered the position, and less than 2,000 meters away from the position was the forefront of the British fortification in Dammam.

There is a shortage of water in this place, but Dammam itself is not short of water, which is the biggest reason why the French have built many factories here. A small river that is not very wide divides the two sides, and the small river called the Lulahore River has become much more famous.

Dammam in the summer is very hot. It is close to the Persian Gulf, and it rains from time to time, but the narrow Persian Gulf is probably only enough to moisten the 'thin line' near the sea. The water surface of the Lulahore River has narrowed a lot because it is its dry season. The river is only 10 meters at most, and the bridge with a length of more than 40 meters is very eye-catching.

The bridge was built by the French. It is very strong, and because it is so representative, no one on either side of China and Britain controls this bridge. The bridge for two trucks to cross side-by-side is very clean and open at both ends, but there are no pedestrian vehicles passing by at all.

Robert was so desperate to blow up the bridge that the Chinese army would have to build if they wanted to cross the river. However, the Chinese side protested sternly, and the troops were directly in front of Robert's eyes, and the British Governor of the British Peninsula in Aden hurriedly stopped Robert's operation.

Oh yes. This governor of the peninsula is also a novelty that has only appeared for two years, and it was the Ottomans who retreated from the peninsula and London was elevated to the rank of Aden. Russell was the first person to be John. The grandson of the Earl of Russell, John. Russell was the leader of the British Whig Party in the middle of the last century and the Prime Minister of the British Empire.

So Robert was very bitter. He knew that the Chinese army on the opposite side would come sooner or later, but he couldn't blow up the bridge in front of him, what could be more humiliating for a soldier in this world?

The Anglo-Indian army defending in Dammam was always in combat readiness. But they did not know that for this offensive, the peninsula column mobilized 80% of its artillery, a total of more than 80 heavy guns of more than 105 mm caliber. In addition, the fighters of the Air Force are also ready. As soon as the battle began, the fighters of the air force would launch an all-round suppression of the British and Indian air force and land.

Garrisoning Dammam was a division of the 25th Army of the 13th Army of the British and Indian Army, with more than 10,000 men in the division, and the establishment was quite in place, and the commander was the newly arrived British Army Colonel Phil. Lambart. Colonel Lambat had been fighting on the Ottoman battlefield for three years, and his successful rise from a major in the native army to colonel was indisputable in terms of combat experience and personal ability.

The battle began, and as long as he could hold off the opposing Chinese army for three days, he would be promoted to brigadier general. This was said to him by the governor himself.

The total strength of the Chinese is only more than 40,000, while the British army has more than 200,000, but the combat effectiveness of the two sides is really disproportionate.

This large army, built with the defeated Anglo-Indian army as the main force, seriously lacked the courage to train and fight, and at the same time the weapons and equipment were very mediocre, lacking the necessary heavy firepower and armored tank configuration.

More than 2,000 planes were still on their way to the peninsula, and during this period, he had to hold the peninsula. Myers. Russell did not seek to defeat the entire Chinese army, he only needed to hold on to the existing land, and even retreat a little.

- For example, retreat to the Jafura Desert. The territory north of that area was completely ceded to the Chinese, even to Yardley.

For the current British Empire, the Persian Gulf has been relegated to a secondary position, as long as the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea are held. That's where the British Empire really ends.

At 6 o'clock in the morning, most of the British and Indian troops were still sleeping under the covers, and countless Indians had built a relatively strong defensive line under the supervision of British officers and soldiers, but the laziness of the tropical race had penetrated into their bones. After all, this Anglo-Indian army was built with them as the main body. The purebred British army, only those directly subordinate units at the divisional, corps, and group levels, still used the old tricks for the British in the main force -- the British served as middle and senior officers, and the Indians as soldiers and junior officers. Therefore, the Anglo-Indian division in Daman is really no different from the Anglo-Indian army in India.

The British and Indian armies and the Chinese armies confronted each other across the Lulahore River Well, at the beginning, these Indian Asans were still very nervous, for fear that the Chinese army would come over. But now they are not worried at all. It's just that what the Chinese army needs is this effect, and after these Anglo-Indian troops with a combat strength of five relaxed their vigilance, it is a good time for the peninsula column to attack!

"Fire!" At 6:20 a.m., the artillery commander-in-chief of the Dammam front gave the order to open the artillery. More than 80 large-caliber guns and no less than 200 75mm guns of the Chinese army artillery group deployed in secret artillery positions on the west bank of the Lulahore River opened fire one after another. The dense shells pierced the air, made a sharp sound, and then fell into the Anglo-Indian lines!

At the same time, the Chinese fighters that had just taken off from the rear airfield were also flying towards the east like goshawks, facing the rising sun. (To be continued.) )