Chapter 342 Yang Feng's Indian Ocean Fleet
Having had enough of performing in the United States as a philanthropist, a messenger of peace, and, of course, a conspirator, Boss Yang returned to China via North Africa contentedly, and by the way, at the invitation of the Germans, visited the Cyril oil field, and after getting a map of his oil wells, the mustache had already started the production of this oil field as quickly as possible.
According to their expectations, millions of tons of crude oil can be extracted this year, which is a huge surprise for the German tank, and when Rommel welcomed Yang Feng, the desert fox, it was extremely friendly, if it weren't for his two wives by his side, it is estimated that it would be indispensable to send him a few Arab beauties to enjoy, and now this guy is like an emperor in the whole of North Africa.
Because the mustache transferred the main forces to the Soviet battlefield, there were actually only five German divisions in the whole of North Africa, one of which was an armored division, and about 200,000 Italian troops, a volunteer division composed of Arabs. And his opponent Montgomery, with less than 60,000 British troops in his hands, and then about 50,000 Jews armed with Chinese weapons, considering the tragic combat effectiveness of the Italians, the two sides are actually half a pound and eight taels, and no one can help anyone across the Suez Canal, Yang Feng is very satisfied with this result, as long as the mustache does not enter the Arabian Peninsula, he has nothing to care about.
After a pretended expression of hope for peace, after visiting the pyramids, Boss Yang flew to Islamabad with a mouth full of sand, and now Pakistan has become China's most loyal ally, nearly 800,000 Pakistanis armed with Chinese weapons are stationed in their own homes and northwest India, and together with the Chinese army in India and the British army, they control the vast land from Pakistan to Assam, and the newly opened India-Burma Highway will transport weapons and ammunition from Chongqing to this place in a steady stream.
Their main enemy was a hodgepodge of about 1.5 million merged Indian Zhengfu Army, or in British parlance Indian puppet army, the Vietnamese. The Burmese, Malays, and even the Indonesians were left without a single Japanese army on the front line, and about 200,000 Japanese troops were stationed in southern India and Sri Lanka, enjoying the docility of the Asan just like the British colonists in those days.
Here, however, Jinnah asked him to help build the navy. They were mainly worried about the Japanese attack on Pakistan from the sea, and although the main forces of the Japanese navy had been transferred back to China to cope with the growing tensions between the United States and Japan, they still retained a fleet in the Indian Ocean with the Mizuru light aircraft carrier as the core.
Jinnah hoped to have a coastal defense fleet with destroyers as the core, including submarines and large torpedo boats, and the number was not too much, ten destroyers, twenty or thirty large torpedo boats, and five submarines would be enough. After all, they can't afford to play any more. The British will not pay for this fleet, and now Britain is living a very tight life, and it is not easy to maintain the expenses of the Pakistani army and air force, so the Pakistan navy has to spend its own money.
Jinnah's goal was to buy them from the United States, but as a belligerent with Japan, the Germans would not allow these warships to pass through the Suez Canal, and the Japanese fleet did not care, they were now in Australia to support the army in the war. Therefore, Jinnah hopes that Yang Feng will come forward to get rid of the mustache.
This is a trivial matter for Yang Feng, so he patted his chest and agreed. He was not very enthusiastic about the construction of the Pakistani navy, he suddenly thought that it was time to start building a base for his navy, since the Pakistanis want to build a navy, then by the way, they should also build a base for the Chinese navy, so that Ma Hongbin's UAE garrison will also have sea security, and it can also be like the Pakistanis. Warships were ordered from the United States and deployed directly here.
For Yang Feng's request, Zhenna naturally welcomed it very much, and the Chinese fleet stationed in Pakistan was equivalent to providing them with protection, otherwise the small navy in his plan was really not very confident.
The two quickly negotiated some details, and the location of the military port was naturally Karachi, although the Gwadar port was more suitable. But now it's just a small fishing village, and there is not even a military port built on the road, but Karachi has a railway, which is convenient for both oil and other transportation.
After negotiating this, Yang Feng flew back to China, and then went to Todman and told him that he would buy a naval fleet, including two heavy cruisers and four light cruisers, plus twenty destroyers, thirty large torpedo boats, and ten submarines, which would enter the Indian Ocean through the Suez Canal.
"Of course no problem, we are friends, this little thing is not a big deal, but I have a suggestion I don't know if you want to hear it." Toddman said with a smile.
"Say."
"It's very simple, you now want to get a fleet with enough combat power as quickly as possible to deal with Japan's increasingly powerful navy, so you are building dozens of shipyards on both sides of the Haihe River at one time, but the construction period of warships is very long, especially large warships, as far as I know, the largest of your slipways is no more than 10,000 tons of heavy cruisers, which is obviously far from enough.
So you should have an aircraft carrier or even a battleship, ah, you already have an aircraft carrier, to be honest, even I was shocked that giant merchant ship you towed, it is indeed a good idea to convert it into an aircraft carrier, but you still lack battleships, but even if you let the Americans build this, I'm afraid you won't be able to see it in three years, so why not buy a ready-made one?" Toddman said with a mysterious smile.
"Ready-made? Where's the ready-made one?" Yang Feng paused for a moment, but then came to his senses, and exclaimed with a bit of a gaffe: "Richelieu."
He suddenly remembered that he had missed a big deal, the French Vichy Navy in Dakar and Toulon, after being overshadowed twice by their allies back then, this navy was still alive as a cockroach, with a lot of strength, including the Richelieu, Dunkirk, and Strasbourg three battleships, but the current French Vichy government would certainly not be willing to continue to maintain this fleet.
In particular, the battleship Richelieu in Dakar, which had been wounded in the British naval attack last year, was in fact now blocked in the harbor as a fixed battery, and with the loss of British colonies in North Africa, as well as the current erosive situation in their country, it was certainly impossible to attack French West Africa, so it was pointless for this battleship to stay there, and if they proposed to the French Vichy government to buy it, they would never refuse, not to mention that since Todman said so, Germany will certainly put pressure on the French at that time.
Moreover, he bought it to deal with the Japanese, which was undoubtedly very appetizing to the French, and the big tusha of Saigon had already made the French people hate Japan so much that they gritted their teeth.
"But as allies, it doesn't seem appropriate for you to do this, does it?" Yang Feng said with a smile.
"It's very simple, first, we are friends, and second, we don't want the Japanese to turn their eyes to Asia again." Todman shrugged and said, this is actually the mustache's thanks to Yang Feng, and the recent performance of the Japanese has also made the Germans very worried that they will continue to attack China, after all, the feud between China and Japan is too deep, especially between them and Yang Feng.
And in recent times, the military strength of the Japanese has developed, so that the mustache is also worried that they will have the courage to take revenge, but the Japanese go to war with China again, which is the last thing he wants to see, in fact, in his opinion, it is most beneficial for Germany for China and Japan to maintain hatred but never fight.
Once China and Japan fight again, the Japanese will definitely affect their determination to start a war with the United States, and now the mustache and Yang Feng are eagerly looking forward to the war between the United States and Japan, if the Japanese win, then Germany will have to face a huge empire that almost dominates the whole of Asia, at that time, Japan and Germany are crowded on the same continent, and they will definitely become direct opponents, so now he hopes that China can have a navy that is enough to calm down the Japanese.
Yang Feng quickly understood this, since this is the case, then he is naturally very welcome, this work will be handed over to the Germans to be responsible for contacting him, he doesn't care much about the price, there are tens of millions of dollars in the sky, now this money is not worth mentioning to him at all, these just from the British is enough to sell a dozen ships.
Of course, the Richelieu needs to be bought, and the other originally scheduled ones have to be sold as well, and since the battleship is bought, then even the aircraft carrier is simply bought, and the one being built on the slipway has to be built, and the warship is not afraid of much, especially to prepare for the post-war land grabbing, this thing is not afraid of the more the better, Yang Feng even asked Todman to ask him by the way, whether the two battle cruisers of the French and the big fantasy are sold, if he is willing to sell, he doesn't mind buying more.
As for the warships purchased in the United States, this one is very easy to choose, the aircraft carrier will come with two Essex-class, and the heavy cruiser will naturally be the Baltimore-class, and now the United States has just begun to build these two kinds of warships, so let them add two more by the way to speed up the progress, and it is estimated that they will be able to get it four or three years ago.
The light cruiser uses the Cleveland-class, which is also a cutting-edge under construction now, let them move four from the naval order, it is estimated that they will be able to get it by the end of the year, the destroyer is also the latest Fletcher-class, this thing is built very fast, twenty are estimated to be delivered in one year, when the time comes, with the battleship Richelieu as the core, four Cleveland-class light cruisers, twenty Fletcher-class destroyers, it is best to have two more big dreams, and then with shore-based aviation, the entire Persian Gulf is its own range of potential, When aircraft carriers and heavy cruisers join, then the Indian Ocean itself can be said to be the hegemon. (To be continued......)