On May 24, 1914, Longtai City, the capital of Java Province in China (formerly Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies. "General, the Chinese government said that the fleet must leave here by 12 noon on May 25, 1914. An adjutant said after handing a note to Count Spee, who was looking out from the command tower.

"Zhilu said, how are the materials we requested in advance ready? We also have some ships flying the flags of other countries, can they continue to use the ports of China and replenish supplies here? Spee asked, thinking for a moment.

"These supplies are all under the control of our army, they will be placed on the warships today, the fuel tanks are already filled with oil and coal, all kinds of material reserves are in place, and the Huaxia government has said that they can allow German ships to continue to purchase and replenish in Huaxia. But after leaving the territory of China, they will not be responsible for the safety of the fleet. And they advised us to leave the Far East immediately, because the British fleet was already moving before the start of the war! The adjutant said.

"What's the situation?! Could it be Australia and New Zealand? "If there is only one force that can really pose a threat to Spee's Far East Fleet in the entire Pacific, it is the Australian Detachment of the Royal Navy entrenched in Sydney Harbour, where the brothers of the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau are located! If the two sides of the capital ships can still fight a tie, then the Germans are much worse in terms of auxiliary warships! 6 British armored cruisers of the 1st rank against 4 light cruisers and a number of mine-striking ships of the German Far East Fleet, this win or loss is clear at a glance. And that's not counting the opposing side's light cruisers!

"No, it could have been even worse, the Canada had just changed in the Balkans. It has already left the Canadian mainland, and now it should have joined the Australian detachment, and the fast battleship South Africa and its escort ships stationed in the Mediterranean are also rushing towards the Indian Ocean through the Suez Canal, and what about our Turkish allies? The Sultan Suleiman I can be put into battle, but another is being maintained on the slipway. According to our estimates, the current Turkish Navy is weaker in combat power than the South Africa and its frigates, and in the Far East. We're going to face three standard fast battleships! The adjutant explained in one breath all the situations that the German and Turkish fleets needed to face.

"It's not good." Lieutenant General Spee walked towards the chart with a gloomy face. Soon there will be 3 fast battleships and powerful auxiliary warships chasing after you in this sea area. Let's not talk about whether the Turkish fleet can come out to respond, even if it does, I'm afraid it will be called back by the South Africa blocked at the gate of the Persian Gulf, right? After all, there is only one Turkish fleet that can come out at the moment.

Although before the start of the war. The German Admiralty had already informed Count Spee of the relevant information, and the entire Far Eastern Fleet was ready to move, but in addition to the two fast battleships, the other four light cruisers did not have enough range to travel from the Far East to the Persian Gulf. So you have to go with the supply ship. And the speed of the supply ship is too low. Only about 12 knots. If you cruise at this speed, sooner or later you will be caught up by the British fleet. So Count Spee, thinking about it, ordered to have more supplies on the fast battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, so that as a last resort, the supply ships would be discarded, and the light cruisers would be supplied by two large ships.

Although Count Spee's plan was to let these warships quickly move closer to Longtai City and join him before advancing directly to the Persian Gulf, this plan was too obvious, and after all, Count Spee did not know the situation thousands of miles away in Longtai. So this plan was taken for granted, just before the war. Three fast battleships under the command of Rear Admiral Hood and part of the auxiliary fleet had already gone to the port of Darwin to intercept the fleeing German fleet light warships. At the first time after the start of the war, Huaxia declared that any warship of a belligerent country cruising in Huaxia's territorial waters for more than three days would be regarded as a hostile act. Therefore, both the Spee fleet and the British fleet had to break away from the major inland seas of the Nanyang Province of China. And Rear Admiral Hood believed that since the Chinese government had already made its attitude clear, the German Far East Fleet would definitely not go to Longtai from the Banda Sea. Then it can only go from the Timor Sea, the British fleet can definitely wait here, as for the two big ships? Rear Admiral Hood thought about it and decided to leave it alone for the time being, after all, these two battleships have been out of their encirclement, and if they want to leave, you have no way at all!

Fortunately, in the Far Eastern Fleet, in addition to the veteran general of Count Spee, his deputy, Rear Admiral Luknall, was also a witty man, when Count Spee was carrying out the last maintenance and replenishment of the main battleship in China. Rear Admiral Luknall also left the German Far East colony with 4 light cruisers and 3 supply ships, but the master who used sail warships to rob British merchant ships in the history of Xu Jie's plane did not go directly to the rendezvous according to Earl Spee's plan, but went south and headed towards Australian waters!

"Your Excellency, I forgive you for not accepting your order, according to intelligence analysis, the British fleet should already be waiting for us in the Timor Sea, if my fleet goes to the sea off Longtai according to the plan, then we will plunge headlong into the trap set by the British, even my fastest battleship can't outrun the fast battleships of the British, the British and your Scharnhorst are ships of the same class, their performance, you should know it very well, so I think my fleet should go around in a circle and go to the Australian waters to carry out a battle to break diplomatic relations, If you would like to pick us up, we will be waiting for you off the coast of Perth in a week's time, and if you are heading directly to the Persian Gulf, then we will meet you in the Persian Gulf. "Before leaving, Rear Admiral Luknall sent a telegram to Count Spee, and now that this telegram is in the hands of Count Spee, it is now faced with a choice, whether to go, or to go south to meet Luckner's fleet.

Earl Spee was a little hesitant in the face of this young commander, who was both his subordinate and his own student, and to be honest, he was really unwilling to engage the dominant British fleet now, 2 to 3, and 6 ships to patrol and watch. How do you look at it, it's a must-lose ending! Although you may not be able to keep yourself, if you are severely damaged, even if you return to Port Fao, repair will be a problem. Who knows how long his battleship will lie down.

But if it is not saved, it is equivalent to throwing away 4 light cruisers and 3 transport ships with the potential to be converted into assault ships at the beginning of the war, as well as thousands of German naval officers and men and a large amount of supplies.

This was also definitely a significant loss for the German Far East Fleet, far from home! What if these things are really lost? Should the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau be separated from each other to attack those merchant ships in the ocean? These targets are too low of value in the eyes of Count Spee to be worth his ship! Why don't you have to fight a few ships? Count Spee thought in his heart

After some deliberation and consideration, the Earl of Spee still decided to go to the pre-agreed area for the rendezvous, but he decided to go west for two days first, make an attempt to escape the Persian Gulf, so that the British could rest assured, and then he changed course at night to the rendezvous, as for how Rear Admiral Luknall successfully arrived at the predetermined rendezvous, it was not up to him to decide, the Earl of Spee was even ready to bombard the port of Perth after the confluence! As the saying goes, if a person leaves a name and a goose, he will leave the Far East, so he has to leave something for the British, well, the cannonball is not bad!

So, at 3 p.m. on May 25, 1914, Count Spee and his two fast battleships finally left Longtai Harbor and sailed in the direction of the open sea. And before Count Spee left, Luckner's fleet had reached the waters near the Great Barrier Reef, and now his pleasant hunting was ready to begin, while Hood's main fleet was still wandering around the waters near Darwin, knowing nothing about the movements of Lucknar's fleet!

Across Asia, it's not just Spee, Hood and Luknal who are busy. Rear Admiral Goodnow, who led the South Africa and its frigates, also entered the Red Sea, and soon they were to the west coast of India, where the British immediately concentrated their most elite fast fleet and threw it into battle in the Indian Ocean, with the clear aim of destroying or weakening the German and Turkish fleets before they converged, and weakening the Allied navy to the Indian Ocean shipping lanes. If they succeeded in defeating them, the British could also transfer some of their fast battleships to the Mediterranean and North Seas. Four fast battleships were enough for France to form an absolute advantage over Austria-Hungary, and even if the Italians sided with Germany and Austria, the situation in the Mediterranean remained under control. Even the Entente could make the Italians dare not act rashly by virtue of their military superiority in the Mediterranean, after all, if even the most elite navy of the Italians could not take advantage, the army of the Kingdom of Italy, which could be called "pocket" in the eyes of the great powers, was not to be feared!

"The Sultan Selim I is ready to strike at any moment, and in this sea, our ship is the true king! Hood's fleet is entangled with Count Spey thousands of miles away, and Goodnow's fleet should still be in the Mediterranean, and we should do something about it now, at least we should go around Karachi, which is the largest grain export port in British India, and the nearest port to us where we can dock capital ships, and if we destroy it, then the British fleet will have to be stationed in the port of Bombay, thousands of kilometers away, and the blockade of us will be much weaker. Although he only had one capital ship in his hands, Al Barsha still felt that it was necessary to strike first and gain a head start for future battles.

Thanks to the little pig running away from the book friend, the reward of zhouyu1976, and the monthly ticket support of the book friend Qingyue Flying Bird~~~. There is one more update this afternoon!! I hope you will support us. (To be continued......)