"General Tycho, in front of you is a cruiser fleet of the British, which will arrive in the port of Malta in a few hours." A major said to Lieutenant General Tycho, who was looking for the Englishman in the night with a telescope. At this time, in addition to Lin Xian, another big guy was already hidden in the dark night, and he could only see a looming figure galloping on the sea under the moonlight.

"It's ironic that Malta is so close to us, but it's owned by the British, thousands of kilometres away." Tycho put down his binoculars and muttered to himself as he walked over the huge charts hanging from the wall. The island of Malta and Alexandria, as well as Gibraltar, were the cornerstones of the British Empire's domination of the Mediterranean, trapping the navies of all the Mediterranean countries in this bathtub, not because the Italians did not want to do anything, but because the British were too powerful and controlled the vast majority of the seas in the world.

But now there seems to be such an opportunity in front of the Italians, that is, the already fledgling Germans finally decided to challenge the hegemony of the old colonial empire at sea and on land at the same time, the powerful Germany and the populous Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Turks, in the face of the overall strength may be slightly stronger, but is divided into two lines of Britain, France and Russia, this in the eyes of the Italian government, the Allied side really has a chance to win, so what role should the Italians play in this great change? Or what does Italy have to gain from this?

As a senior member of the Navy, Tycho received far more information than the average person. Just one day before he set sail with three Earl Cavour-class battleships. A secret telegram made him feel the approach of war. "The Germans and Austrians had agreed to bring Albania and Negoro (Montenegro) under Italian jurisdiction after the war. Egypt would be completely integrated into Italy's territory, and more importantly, the Austrians and Turks agreed to send no less than 100,000 troops into Egypt. Of course, all of this is premised on the fact that we can guarantee the smooth flow of transportation in the Mediterranean. After the end of the war, all of Egypt, as well as the Suez Canal, will be brought under our control, and we will have access to a key shipping route to the East. ”

By reading this telegram, Tycho had already understood what the government and the king meant. That is, sooner or later, Italy will stand on the side of Germany, Austria and Turkey to challenge the old colonial empire, and there are only two factors that determine when Italy will enter the war, one of which is when all four ultra-dreadnought battleships of the Italian Navy will be put into service. And the other factor is that Deao will have to prove with his own strength and prove that he will be the winner! However, at present, it seems that Germany and Austria are still some distance away from this requirement.

On the Western Front, the German Army seemed rather powerless in the face of Xiafei's defenses. The Prussian army, which had been quick and aggressive, seemed to be no longer going to fight after decades of baptism. The Germans on the Western Front were more tentative than offensive, and like the French, the Germans hid under thick reinforced concrete covers, hiding their artillery and men tightly, and were determined to defend the line to the death.

You say that the Western Front is more conservative, after all, the Germans are facing two powers, France and England, but it seems to be on the Eastern Front. The Germans were still slow to react, and Russia, which had already entered a state of war, launched an attack from Russian Poland. To the south it was to Silesia and to the north it was East Prussia. Although the Germans had been swearing that Russia would soon lose on the Eastern Front, the Italians chose to wait and see until the Germans could take concrete action to produce results.

If the Italians were concerned about the German war situation on land from the perspective of the overall situation, then whether the German High Seas Fleet could contain the British and prevent them from going south was a matter of vital interest to the Italians! In the face of the British Navy, which has won a hundred battles, although Italy also bears the name of a great power and the title of a maritime country, the gold content of this great power and maritime country is simply incomparable with Britain! The only one that has fought a naval battle, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which can only be regarded as a second-rate power, can only be called a third-rate navy, and as a result, it lost with the superiority of troops! You say, with this record, even if the strength of the fleet is superior, it is really uncertain whether the Italians can beat the British, and the name of the division of a hundred battles is not a fool's name!

If Italy and Austria-Hungary fought against France at the same time, the Italians thought it would be easy and pleasant, but if the British fleet pulled out one of them, then Italy would not be able to mix, so in the negotiations, the Italian Navy demanded that the German Navy must firmly nail the Grand Fleet to the North Sea. At least until the Italians hit France hard. Of course, this is definitely not just words, you have to show the results! Although some time ago Hipper knocked out several British light cruisers, the Italians did not think it was enough!

As a result, this was a dead loop, with the Germans wanting the Italians to contain the British fleet and create opportunities for the High Seas Fleet, while the Italians did the opposite. It is said that such negotiations cannot continue, but Italy, which was originally a weak country, has an advantage in this negotiation, and Germany urgently needs the Italians to express their position, and now Germany can still get some resources from the outside world through Italy, such as rubber, tungsten ore and so on. Therefore, in the end, Germany needs to prove its strength with practical actions first.

However, in order to show sincerity, the Italians still made some meticulous preparations for the war, well, this meticulousness was according to Italian standards. First of all, the first action of the Italian Navy was to cooperate with the Austro-Hungarian Navy to completely wipe out the entire Allied fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean, in fact, there were not many Allied navies in the entire Eastern Mediterranean, but two Danton-class battleships of the French and one provincial battleship, at least for now, as well as a Constitution battleship of the Greeks (formerly the battleship Huaxia Longteng. However, these few ships, together with a large number of auxiliary warships and the formation of armored cruisers left by the British in Alexandria, were enough to suppress the Austro-Hungarian navy in the Adriatic Sea. The Italians lack fighting spirit, but they are not badly equipped. However, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not very good at fighting spirit and equipment. The two Prinz Eugen-class battleships are only in service now, and they simply do not have the strength to compete with their opponents.

Italy stated that after the declaration of war, after the Allied fleet was wiped out and expelled from the eastern Mediterranean, it would launch an attack on the island of Malta and use it as a springboard to launch an attack on North Africa, and then the Italian Navy would be responsible for cutting off the eastward advance of the Allied fleet, while Austria-Hungary and the Turkish Empire would have to take on the task of attacking Egypt and eventually capturing the port of Alexandria to cut off the Suez Canal. According to the regulations, Egypt would be an Italian dependency after the war, and Austria-Hungary and Turkey would naturally not work for Italy in vain. Italy promised that after completing the suppression of the Mediterranean, it would send a fleet into the Indian Ocean to connect the German-Turkish fleet and completely destroy the British detachment in the Indian Ocean!

As a participant in the plan, although the war had not yet begun, Tycho still led his fleet to cruise the eastern Mediterranean, reconnoitring the islands of Malta, Crete, and the coast of Egypt. In order to prepare for future battles. At this time, the Entente would never dare to do anything to the Italian fleet, and there is a saying in China that there is no tiger in the mountains and a monkey is called the king. And the situation in the Mediterranean Sea at this time can be completely described by this sentence, the Italian Navy, which is not a particularly powerful fleet in the first place, has unparalleled control in the here and now! If he stands over there, that side will have an absolute advantage!

People are under the eaves and have to bow their heads. Although the British did not know the proverb, they must have understood the meaning of it, so the British were only spying on Tycho's fleet, and could not make some excessive moves. At this time, Thomas was even more worried that the other party would suddenly attack and solve himself, so he ordered the fleet to leave immediately, but fortunately, both the Defense and the Lin Xian were fast enough, and it didn't take long for them to disappear from the sea.

"What will we do if the Italians are on the side of the Germans?" Stirred up by the Italians, Thomas threw aside half of the plan in a distraught mood, at this time, he already vaguely felt that the German-Turkish combined fleet in the Indian Ocean was not particularly terrible, but the really terrible Italian fleet! He has 3 dreadnoughts and 4 ultra-dreadnought navies of a regional power.

It is impossible for the Italians to break out of the Strait of Gibraltar at this stage, but if they cooperate with the army to fight into the Mediterranean Sea and move to the Indian Ocean, then they will be completely finished! 4 dozen 11 can figure out the result with your toes! What's more, the arrival of the Italian Navy brought not only capital ships, but also a large number of auxiliary warships. Thinking of this, Thomas's heart couldn't help but tighten.

Just when Thomas was worried about his future, Betty was leading the British Empire's fast fleet to sail comfortably south of the North Sea. The Germans really didn't expect the British to be so decisive, and after they easily kicked the ball to the British, the British didn't say a word, and directly killed them with their capital ships, and 8 ships came at once! Domineering side leak! At this time, Betty was thinking about how to use the light cruiser formation as a bait to lure out the German fleet and then sink several capital ships of the opposing side.

And today, it seems, the opportunity has come, Betty's avant-garde fleet has spotted several vague figures, and judging by their appearance, these things do not seem to be light cruisers! And this discovery made Betty very excited, but because it was at night, in order to avoid stepping on a mine, and also to avoid mistakes in the chaos at night, being overshadowed by torpedo boats, Betty still restrained the excitement in her heart, but let the light cruiser keep contact with the opponent and wait until dawn before acting.

Thanks to the book friend zhouyu1976 for the tip~~~. At the end of the month, the author's monthly ticket list was squeezed to 400 yuan——! The author's heart is called a sad urge——! Ask for a monthly pass~~~. (To be continued......)