In the humid sea breeze of the southern and central seas, the two cruisers Zhaohe and Feihong led the two first-generation large destroyers built by the country, Yongji and Yongjian, to ride the wind and waves, and the three-color dragon claw naval flag aft was blown to the sound of hunting.

The first two ships will escort Yang Qiu on a foreign visit, and the latter will also escort him to the United States because he has just completed the modification of anti-submarine deep bombs, and then turn around and return to Europe to join the "China" observation fleet led by Qiu Baoren. This small observation fleet will also add four large destroyers of the Long Wind class in the next six months, and will join the Entente Navy to shoulder escort duties after confirming the declaration of war.

The four warships are all fast warships in the Second Fleet, and compared with the First Fleet, which has more in the old navy, the Second Fleet is all composed of young people selected from naval academies in these years and overseas Chinese children who have witnessed a higher level of knowledge in Chapter 391.

Leading them was the first admiral to be loyal to Yang Qiu, the bearded Wang Guangxiong, who had gone to England to study. Although he gave up the position of the number one in the navy after Sa Zhenbing and others came back, he is now already a lieutenant general on his shoulders. Every time I see the shining star on my shoulder, this bearded man with a straightforward temper is happy. From an inland river gunboat to the commander of the fleet today, who can we rely on today? Therefore, he treated the Second Fleet with special diligence, and after the victory in Qingdao last time, he begged Yang Qiu to pull all the naval officers stranded in Qingdao from Germany and Austria into the fleet as teachers at a high price in the form of volunteers, and was so angry that Sa Zhenbing scolded him for being greedy, and finally used the "price" of letting him equip an Anhai-class first in exchange for more than a dozen people to enrich the instructor strength of the First Fleet.

With the help of German and Austrian naval officers, the young men of the Second Fleet have grown up rapidly and have become proficient in operating four new warships, but there is still a long way to go before the Japanese navy is still far away, and this gap is beyond the scope of training, and they must go through blood and fire before they can finally be reborn. Just like the Japanese navy before and after the Battle of Tsushima. In one fell swoop, it has leapt from a regional navy to one of the world's navies.

Yang Qiu, who was dressed in a coat on the deck, didn't know that Chapter 391 witnessed an incident in Hong Kong that had made a major change in the domestic political circle. At this point, his attention was fully focused on the upcoming visit. This was the first time he had entered the South China Sea. Thinking of the complex territorial sea disputes in this sea area in later generations. There is an impulse in my heart to do it once and for all. It's a pity that at present, China does not have the strength to challenge European hegemony. It's still weak! We must cclose to our thighs, and would rather be a grandson for the time being than exchange for enough technology, talents and funds to complete the construction of basic industries, and wait for twenty or thirty years to make the world shocked!

After thinking for a moment for the first time after Yang Qiu came back, he turned his head and asked Wang Guangxiong beside him: "I heard that your second fleet ran very diligently to the South Seas this year. Let me ask you, what do you think of Zheng Bao? ”

Zheng Bao is the King of Siam, Rama VI, who has just succeeded to the throne. Wang Guangxiong knew that he was inadequate after being transferred to the Second Fleet, so he also strengthened his study, and said very bluntly: "This king is much more enlightened than the previous ones, and he learns from Britain to carry out reforms. Let the Siamese have their own surname. It has also built its own army and navy, and is engaged in free education for all, just like you. Ability-wise, this man has a lot of ambition, but we don't like him. ”

"Oh, why?" Yang Qiu suddenly became interested, and even Gu Weijun and Cai Gongshi, who had just come over to accompany the visit, pricked up their ears to hear the views of the navy people on Nanyang. Wang Guangxiong usually has a rare opportunity to express his opinions, and he is afraid of saying the wrong thing, so he first sorted it out in his mind before saying: "Actually, he is really good as a person." At least the Siamese are very supportive. But this person is very close to foreigners! When we overthrew the Qing court in the Xinhai year, all the overseas Chinese in Nanyang cheered. Many people hung up five-color flags to celebrate. Later, the victory in Qingdao was even more exciting, but later we learned that many overseas Chinese in Siam were ordered to be confiscated after hanging the national flag! Overseas Chinese and their theories have been arrested, and several of them are still missing! ”

Wang Guangxiong was straight, and he became angry first as he spoke. "The year before last, he also wrote a book to say that we Chinese are Jews, and we want to follow the example of Europe to get rid of us!" Later, when the Qingdao victory came, he ordered the book to be withdrawn. In fact, this kind of thing is not only in Siam, but also in Borneo, Java, and Annam. At the end of last year, when we were escorting the Luzon mining fleet to Mindanao for temporary refuge in a strong wind, we encountered the Dutch and local natives who asked us to withdraw our flag before entering the port. Fuck it! If Lao Tzu had a battleship, why rush in! ”

Gu Weijun has become much more stable after all these years of training, unlike when he and Murong Han were arguing on the warship for a republic or a dictatorship, he danced in order to emphasize his views, but he deeply felt the same way about the situation of the Chinese, and interjected: "Not only Nanyang, the life of the Chinese all over the world is not good, even if we defeat the Japanese capital, the mainstream society in Europe and the United States still does not look at us squarely, and the most hateful thing is that these small countries that follow them and take the opportunity to exclude China and invite merit!" Europe and the United States at least have a bright cloak of human rights, but they are unscrupulous! Behind the Lanfang tragedy back then, it was the Dutch instigation that could do it, but it was those people who could do it, and hundreds of thousands of Chinese were slaughtered even if they were not as good as pigs and dogs! ”

Nanyang has been the inherent sphere of influence of the Chinese for thousands of years, but with the intervention of European and American forces, the Chinese have become the target of the natives, who are enclosed like pigs and sheep, and slaughtered and plundered wealth after fattening. To put it mildly, there is no better lazy thing in this world than these natives! I don't learn from the hard work of the Chinese, but I always want to rob the wealth of the Chinese by killing!

The hard-working Chinese have become the "leeks" in their fields! Yang Qiu sneered: "I just like the methods of the Jews!" Tiger idiot, you write it down, and Zheng Bao will meet with a Kunming-Bangkok economic railway plan, and now Britain and France are begging us to simply let the two families participate in this railway! Pull them together to open up the peninsula, I want to see how he still does ** independence! ”

Gu Weijun was a little worried: "The southwest is finally peaceful, will the first repair of the railway introduce British and French forces?" ”

Before Yang Qiu could speak, Wang Guangxiong grinned and said, "I'm afraid of a ball!" The Manchu Qing Dynasty has been closed off for hundreds of years, and they haven't seen anyone stop it! Besides, this time the foreign hairs must be very badly damaged, I don't know anything else, but I still know something about the water. In the past two years, Britain and France have lost more than a million tons of sea transport ships alone! If you want to rebuild these ships, it will not work at all for four or five years, and if there are no ships, what can he do to interfere in the southwest? When he recovers in four or five years, we already have four Anhai cruisers, not to mention that we have also obtained the production technology of large-caliber sleeve naval guns in this self-building opportunity, and the equipment of the Zhengzhou Naval Gun Factory has also arrived. ”

Hearing him say it with confidence, Yang Qiu was also happy. smiled: "Do you dare to think about building a few more ships, do you know how much an Anhai will cost?" It's not unusual for you to get the guns back. But things such as gun mount bearings, steam turbines, and boilers are not easily transferred by foreigners. Wang Guangxiong smiled innocently. In fact, he also knew that the Republic of China would not be able to complete a battleship by itself within ten years, it was nothing more than that the navy wanted to take advantage of this long-term escort opportunity to make a good impression on Yang Qiu, after all, the power of domestic military spending was all in Zhang Wenjing's hands.

He just wanted to say a few more words, and take the opportunity to build more warships for the navy to get more military spending. The ship's staff officer suddenly came running to salute and handed the telegram to him. After opening the telegram and looking at it twice, he forwarded it to Yang Qiu: "It is a telegram sent by the British Ambassador Liu to the General Staff, and Qiu Baoren called him yesterday afternoon to say that the British Navy has all gone to sea. ”

Yang Qiu's eyebrows jumped. Jutland!

********

On the last day of May, 60 nautical miles north of the Skagerrak Strait.

The detachment of German battlecruisers ran 60 nautical miles more than in history! Because of this extra distance, Bingwen almost died in Beihai. But also because of this critical link from the "Rhineland" project was successfully broken! But at this time, Bingwen and everyone didn't realize it. He was standing on the left deck of the Sedlitz and was acting as a lookout. It wasn't his job, but because he wanted to visualize the operation of the entire fleet, he picked up a telescope in his free time.

He didn't know what kind of battle he would witness!

Not far away, a British armored cruiser was burning, and the hapless fellow was attacked by 5 battlecruisers, although it was too late to send a telegram in the end. The Lyutzov broke through the waterline with a salvo. The valiant British sailors on deck were still trying to save the warship, relying on the side secondary guns to resist the approach of two German light cruisers and several destroyers. The main battle cruisers did not use large-caliber naval guns, because the main guns had limited ammunition and had to be prepared for more important decisive battles.

General Hippel did not order him to leave immediately, for his mission was to seduce David Betty out, so he had enough patience to stay here for a few more days. Of course, the British agents were clearly not going to leave a fleet out of control alone in the North Sea for a few days.

"Enemy ships!"

A mournful cry came from above Bingwen's head, and the observer inside the mast watchtower issued a warning. When he quickly pointed the telescope to the right, the entire fleet was stunned! Because everyone has always felt that the British will not find out the departure of the Ocean Fleet until at least tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and at present, the bow of the Seydlitz is facing north, and the enemy should appear on the port side, how can it appear on the Danish side on the starboard side? How much did the two fleets go wrong? How many misjudgments have occurred? This is no longer something that the fleet is thinking about at the moment. They were naval figures, not war history researchers, so Captain Hakan immediately sounded the battle alarm, and at the same time the Lützov also sounded a light signal.

"9 ships!"

After obtaining permission, Bingwen rushed into the bombardment control tower, and through the five-meter Zeiss scope, he could clearly see the terrifying black smoke in the distance, and under the smoke was a British cruiser consisting of 3 Lion, 1 Tiger, 2 Indefatigable battlecruisers and 3 light cruisers.

But everyone didn't know that in fact, there was a British fast battleship formation consisting of four Queen Elizabeth-class ships on the port side, but they didn't find themselves for the time being for unknown reasons. When Bingwen looked at his watch and recorded the time with the notebook he carried with him, the exchange of fire had already appeared between two German light cruisers and three British light cruisers, and from a distance, these little dots looked like children chasing and playing with each other between two giants. But neither David Betty nor General Hippel ordered support, they only saw the main force of the other party!

The two generals made their choice at the first moment, with the Lützov signaling a retreat, while the Lion signaled a full-speed approach. This choice is not surprising, considering that during the Battle of Dogle Sandbank last year, David Betty even sent a formation of battlecruisers into a minefield to pursue the German Navy, which earned him the nickname General Madman.

The British are faster! After the speed of 28 knots brought the distance a little closer, all the German naval officers and men understood that it was impossible to complete the decoy mission safely, so everyone widened their eyes and prepared for battle. Due to the caliber problem, Bingwen always thought that the British should fire first, because their 13.5-inch caliber should have an advantage over the 280 and 305 mm naval guns on their side. But when they got closer to 16,000 yards, there was still no movement.

"Maybe they forgot to bring their shells before they went out."

The rangefinder made a sneer while calculating the distance, when the reading reached 15,000 yards. The officer, who loved to talk and laugh, suddenly shouted: "15,000 yards! It's our turn! ”

"Boom, boom." The voice burst out of his chest for a moment. The Lützov in front of it was the first to fire the first salvo, followed by the Seydlitz at its feet, and 10 280-mm naval guns roared at the same time. There are no words to describe how Bingwen feels at the moment, if you really want to say it, it is only four words.

Landslides and cracks!

When he first saw the power of naval artillery in China, he fell in love with the navy. After coming to Germany, I found that the muzzle of the original world had developed to such a point, but until now! It wasn't until the actual firefight that I realized that I still seriously underestimated the power of these big guys!

One by one, the shells were discharged. The sea was full of thunder and mania, and countless columns of white water rose around the British fleet in the distance, and then Betty's fleet returned fire. The Seydlitz began to enjoy greetings from England. A terrible jet of water rose into the sky. A pungent bitter and sour taste wafts through the air.

Fire! Fire! Fire!!!

All diplomatic rhetoric is gone, faith, honor, country, nation! All turned into shells that rushed towards the enemy. When Bingwen felt that the blood in his whole body was boiling, the noisy German rangefinder officer actually had time to tease a few words: "Look at it, I think Belson must be very aggrieved." ”

Belsen is the captain of the cruiser Regensburg, and at this moment ~~- update the first ~ ~ he is indeed very tragic. Because the eight 13.5-inch guns on the battlecruiser Tiger were bombarding his light cruisers, and the process lasted a full ten minutes. Wretched! A light cruiser needs to withstand the wrath of the battleship class for ten minutes, and everyone is wronged for him. Bingwen couldn't describe the mentality of these steely German soldiers, and there was an explosion and hissing in his ears. As the enemy drew nearer, they still had the mistake of playing tricks on the British. Although the Regensburg is really tragic.

"Hit! Look, it's the Lyuzhov! Attaboy! ”

Bingwen looked up and saw that a fire had already broken out in the middle of the British Lion battlecruiser against the Lützov, the turret was gone, and hundreds of British sailors were doing their best. Just when everyone was cheering for the Lützov, there were even louder cheers around him! The Indefatigable, the British battlecruiser Indefatigable! Only later did he learn that the steel behemoth with a full load displacement of 22,000 tons had a terrible explosion after being hit by the von der Tahn with two 280-mm armor-piercing shells!

He is also one of the few Chinese naval personnel who have seen this picture. First of all, smoke and fire came out of the bridge in front of the Indefatigable, and after a pause of about 30 seconds, a fireball of up to hundreds of meters suddenly rushed out under the bow A turret, and the earth-shattering explosion was caused by the fire igniting the ammunition depot, black smoke and flash completely submerged the battleship, countless steel fragments and parts spread outward from the black mass, and the turret of hundreds of tons was even lifted to a height of 200 feet before falling to the sea!

While everyone was still immersed in the hope of defeating Betty completely, the entire Seydlitz was slammed! Bingwen slipped hard under his feet, and then he heard a terrible explosion coming from the front. Although his head was cracked in the steel, he still wanted to understand what was happening in the severe pain, so he forced himself to look out.

After reading it, I was completely stunned!

The bow turret of the Sedlitz has completely disappeared like the Lion just now! Smoke and flames covered the entire front bridge. He later learned that, as he had said in response to Hakan's question that day, the improved fireproof hatch and the efforts of the sailors had saved the ship, but before everyone could get out of the frustration of being hit, a second shell from the Tiger hit it again.

At the same time, four terrible Queen Elizabeth-class battleships appeared on the port side.

The situation has deteriorated!

At that moment, Bingwen didn't know that when the four queens were involved in the battle circle, General Scheer and the main force who were worried about Hipper were already less than 30 nautical miles away from them, and when he rushed into the fire regiment to save the battleship with everyone, and returned home desperately to survive, only Yang Qiu's words were left in his mind.

"When you set off again, be sure to protect yourself."!!