The three conditions put forward by the Governor of Singapore are as follows.

First, the Chinese Empire pledged not to invade the territories of the British Empire, such as Burma and India.

Second, not to garrison troops in Siam and not to infringe on the interests of British merchants in Siam.

Third, the Chinese Empire and the British Empire worked together to build the Strait of Malacca into a demilitarized international shared strait, through which any country could freely pass through the Strait without notifying the other parties.

Each of the three armistice conditions of the Governor of Singapore seems to be very reasonable and has no aggressive meaning, but it is full of "stabbing in the back".

Let's talk about the first article first, which means that the Chinese Empire cannot enter Myanmar and India, and Lin Fei will enter the Middle East sooner or later to control the world's oil hegemony, and not being able to enter Myanmar and India means losing two important transit points.

Speaking of the second one, this is the most direct proof of Britain's ambition to monopolize Siam, Siam is too close to China, and the British stay in Siam is to plant a time bomb around China.

In particular, the third one, if the Strait of Malacca is demilitarized and internationally shared, it means that the Chinese Empire cannot station troops anywhere in the Strait of Malacca, so that the British fleet, the German fleet, the French fleet, and even the Austro-Hungarian fleet can enter the territorial waters of the Chinese Empire at will, posing a huge threat to the Chinese Empire.

Of course, Lin Fei could not agree to such conditions, so Lin Fei sent a telegram back to the Governor of Singapore, stating that "the Strait of Malacca is the territory of the Chinese Empire, and the Chinese Empire has the right to deploy military bases in it to ensure the security of the Chinese Empire."

In the face of Lin Fei's reply, the Governor of Singapore replied strongly: "If the Chinese Empire does not agree to our British Empire's conditions, we will continue to carry out punitive strikes until your country agrees to our conditions." ”

While Lin Fei and the Governor of Singapore were bargaining, the British fleet sank another Chinese merchant ship, causing a large number of casualties and property damage.

The British performance made Lin Fei wonder, since the British wanted to negotiate, why did they keep sinking the merchant ships of the Chinese Empire? Didn't the British really want to negotiate?

At this time, Ruan Fu Baojiao stood up and said to Lin Fei: "Master, have you ever thought that the British agreed to negotiate just to attract our attention, and then they took this opportunity to strike at our merchant ships. ”

Lin Fei woke up like a dream, Ruan Fu Baojiao's words were very reasonable, he wanted to use negotiation means to buy time for himself to assemble the navy, but the British wanted to use this time to strike at as many merchant ships of the Chinese Empire as possible, and put the greatest pressure on themselves to force themselves to agree to the conditions of the British.

Thinking of this, Lin Fei immediately decided not to go to Singapore in person, but to go on behalf of Ruan Fu Baojiao, and return to Dayu City, no, not to Dayu City, go directly to Zhurong City, and command this sea battle there, Zhurong City and Dayu City are connected by submarine cables, and Lin Fei commands in which city is the same.

Lin Fei was diverted to Zhurong City, and Nguyen Phuc Baojiao went to Singapore, this time Nguyen Phuc Baojiao's escort force was extremely strong, and it was absolutely impossible for the hijacking incident to happen.

On January 14, Lin Fei arrived in Zhurong City, and in these three days, the British fleet was getting closer and closer to Zhurong City, and the people in Zhurong City were panicked, and the British fleet sank six Chinese Imperial merchant ships along the way, which made Zhurong City even more panicked.

As soon as Lin Fei arrived in Zhurong City, he made a public speech in Zhurong City, in which Lin Fei assured the people of Zhurong City that not a single British shell would fall into Zhurong City.

On January 16, two Dynasty-class battleships and four Emperor-class cruisers rushed to Zhurong City, these battleships were rushed from Dayu City, of which the Dynasty-class battleships are the latest Western Han Dynasty ships and Eastern Han Dynasty ships to enter service, and the Emperor-class cruisers are the original Qinhuang ships, Han Wu ships, Tang Zong ships and Song Zu ships, Lin Fei in the naming of naval ships, using the same ship name to name different warships, even if a battleship sinks, the subsequent warships will use the original name.

Zhurongcheng originally had two dynasty-class battleships, namely the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period were not strictly speaking, they were just two historical periods, and they were both subordinate to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, but there were not too many dynasties in ancient China, and Lin Fei could only pull the "Spring and Autumn Warring States" over.

Zhurongcheng also has four emperor-class cruisers, namely Zhou Wen, Zhou Wu, Zhou Mu and Zhou You, of which the name of Zhou Youjian comes from "Zhou You King", although Zhou You King is the king of the dead country, but it was still used by Lin Fei.

In this way, Zhurongcheng had four Dynasty-class battleships and eight Emperor-class cruisers, and Lin Fei organized these warships into the Zhurongcheng fleet, with Liu Daming, deputy commander of the Chinese Imperial Navy, as the commander-in-chief, with full command of the battle against the British fleet.

Lin Fei seemed to have the capital to compete with the dreadnoughts of the British fleet, but Lin Fei still wanted to wait for another five days or so, in that case, four Dynasty-class battleships and eight Emperor-class cruisers could be assembled, and the Huaxia Imperial Navy would form a huge numerical advantage over the British fleet.

However, the British fleet did not give Lin Fei this time at all, and when they saw that the person who went to Singapore to negotiate was Ruan Fu Baojiao and not Lin Fei, they knew that Lin Fei was unwilling to give in, so the British fleet decided to attack Zhurong City in advance and deal a fatal blow to Lin Fei.

The British fleet then accelerated its approach to Zhurong City, and when it encountered the merchant ships of the Chinese Empire on the way, it did not attack, but let the merchant ships of the Chinese Empire go.

If the British fleet wants to attack Zhurong City, it is absolutely impossible to launch a landing operation, because the British fleet does not have that kind of strength, and the landing operation must first master the sea supremacy, otherwise the landing force will be a meat bun and a dog, and the British fleet at this time is not fully sure of controlling the sea power at all.

The attack method that the British fleet intended to adopt was to kill and injure a large number of merchant ships of the Chinese Empire, especially the ships transporting petroleum products, which were the economic lifeblood of the Chinese Empire, and attacking them would make Lin Fei feel distressed to death.

On 17 January, the British fleet appeared on the sea 50 kilometers south of Zhurongcheng, and was soon discovered by the reconnaissance fleet of the Chinese Empire, which reported the news of the discovery of the British fleet to Lin Fei, who immediately ordered the Zhurongcheng fleet to go out to search for the British fleet.

Liu Daming, who has always liked to fight and rush, persuaded Lin Fei at this time: "Lao Lin, will we fight a decisive battle with the British fleet now, the time is not too ripe, right?" ”

Lin Fei sighed lightly, "I also know that the time is not ripe, but we have no choice, the British fleet is aggressive, we can't help but fight." ”

Liu Daming nodded lightly, his face was solemn, he knew the gap between the Dynasty-class battleships and the dreadnoughts, although the Dynasty-class battleships had rockets, but whether the rockets could offset the dreadnoughts' advantages in firepower and protection, everyone had a question mark in their hearts.

Liu Daming led the fleet to set off, but Lin Fei did not follow, after all, Lin Fei's status was special, and he could no longer venture to the battlefield.

At eight o'clock in the morning of January 18, in the sea area twenty kilometers south of Zhurong City, the Chinese Imperial Fleet discovered the British fleet.

Liu Daming looked at the battleships flying with the rice flag fluttering on the sea in the distance, and his heart couldn't help but hang, he ordered the fleet to be divided into two tiers, the first echelon, the dynasty battleship echelon, this echelon is the main force attacking the British fleet, the second echelon, the Emperor class cruiser echelon, this echelon is located in the rear of the dynasty class battleship echelon, used to defend against the sneak attack of British large cruisers.

The British fleet also formed a similar formation to the Chinese Imperial fleet, with dreadnoughts lined up in front and cruisers in the flanks and rear.

The two sides lined up, the distance has dropped to 20,000 meters, and after another 5,000 meters, the British fleet will enter the range of the rockets of the Dynasty-class battleships, but Liu Daming picked up the communicator and said loudly: "Attention to the Dynasty-class battleships, reduce the distance of using rockets to 10,000 meters, repeat, reduce the distance of using rockets to 10,000 meters." ”

Liu Daming was the captain of the Western Han Dynasty, Hua Hai, who was originally the captain of a merchant ship, and later the latest dynasty-class battleship Xihan entered service, Hua Hai was transferred to the captain of the Western Han Dynasty, Hua Hai is also a famous figure, the Son of the Ocean incident, that is, his merchant ship sank the American merchant ship Son of the Sea, and the world was shocked.

Hua Hai asked Liu Daming: "Commander, our rockets can hit targets 15,000 meters away, and now we have to endure launching at 10,000 meters, right?" ”

Liu Daming shook his head and smiled: "The accurate firing distance of the British dreadnought's naval guns is only seven or eight thousand meters, and if we launch rockets at a distance of 10,000 meters, they will not be able to hit us, so why don't we wait until the distance of 10,000 meters to launch it, then the accuracy will be higher." ”

"But Commander, the accurate firing distance of the dreadnought's guns is only seven or eight thousand meters, this is the public data of the British, can we believe it?"

"This is not just the public data of the British, but also the conclusion of our artillery experts after calculations."

Liu Daming swore and was solemn, Hua Hai didn't say much, and gave an order according to Liu Daming's words.

Preparations for rocket launch immediately began on the Dynasty-class battleship, all the tarpaulins of the launch canister were removed, the safety of the opening cylinder had been lifted, the stability system of the launch platform was activated, the gyroscope was rotating rapidly, and people on the deck could feel a slight vibration coming from under their feet...... (Canghai shared the writing story on the WeChat public platform, please search on WeChat - qietingcanghai, that is, listen to Canghai's pinyin, reply 2 to watch)