The Chinese Republic and the German Empire hit it off. The two sides quickly drew up a plan for cooperation, and two days later, a top-secret telegram was sent to the Caroline Islands in the German New Guinea colony via an undersea telegraph line. And here it was the anchorage of the Far Eastern Fleet of the German Navy. When the intelligence adjutant sent a telegram to Count Spee with a solemn face, Spee felt as if his blood was boiling!

As a senior admiral of the Imperial German Navy, Rear Admiral Spee was well aware of the mission of his generation, which was to defeat Britain at sea and fight for sunlit territory for the Reich. And before the eventual war with the British, the Earl of Spee was more than willing to use the future allies of the British to train his hands. "It's a pity that only one battleship, the Scharnhorst, can make a sortie. It may take more than a month for the Gneisenor to be refurbished. Rear Admiral Spee, who was resting in the dockyard, said with regret. The fleet was ordered to be reconditioned immediately, and in 2 days we had to depart. Count Spee ordered.

WITH THE SECRET PREPARATION ORDER, A 300KG 11-INCH 45L MAIN GUN SHELL WAS TAKEN OUT OF THE AMMUNITION DEPOT BURIED DEEP IN THE GROUND, TRANSPORTED TO THE DOCK BY VEHICLE, AND THEN PLACED ON THE DECK BY CRANE AND THEN SENT TO THE AMMUNITION DEPOT. At the same time, bags of high-quality anthracite coal from the Ruhr area were loaded into the Scharnhorst's bunkers. Then Spee looked at the small oil storage tanks in the harbor and gritted his teeth and decided to fill the tanks as well.

In order to minimize diplomatic passivity, the Scharnhorst and its auxiliary warships will be replaced by the Chinese Navy's Ssangyong Zhuzhu flag after entering the territorial waters of China. Except for the Scharnhorst, a small battle cruiser. Rear Admiral Spee will also lead 3 more light cruisers. They are the Emden, Dresden and Leipzig. Among them, the Emden is a new type of light cruiser of the Bremen type. The Dresden and Leipzig, on the other hand, were older cruisers. (For specific battleship data, see Chapter 594 of this book on the North Sea, which shows the situation of these two classes of light cruisers.) ）

Two days later, Count Spey left the Caroline Islands with his fleet and headed for China. And in the 4 days of the sea voyage. Count Spee did not find a single main warship of the Chinese Navy sailing on the seas, which made him feel a little puzzled. When his fleet finally arrived at the Philippine Naval Advance Base, only one of these capital ships and two light cruisers were waiting to meet Count Spee and his fleet. This made his German officers very dissatisfied.

"Look, the Huaxia Navy, which has 9 dreadnoughts, actually sent only one old armored cruiser. It is still the only remaining King-class armored cruiser Taipei. A German naval officer said with some dissatisfaction. And what Count Spee was thinking about at this time was not whether the Huaxia fleet intended to snub himself, but where the main Huaxia fleet was located? What are they doing? There is not a single capital ship at the forward base, which is too abnormal.

As for whether the other party is sluggish? Count Spee did not think so, and the flag raised on the Taipei had clearly indicated the identity of the comer, Rear Admiral Liu Guanxiong, commander of the armored cruiser fleet of the Republic of China. To greet him as the commander of a detachment was a complete reciprocal to the commander of the Far Eastern detachment of the German High Seas Fleet. If it comes to prestige, Liu Guanxiong fought all the way from the First Sino-Japanese Naval Battle. There is no shortage of outstanding performances. Count Spee, though, bears the name of a fleet commander. But he was defenseless. So Count Spee didn't think that the other party had deliberately snubbed himself.

"After the convergence of the two sides, I do not want to hear anything that would damage the friendship between the two countries. Within 10 minutes, this order had to reach the ears of every naval officer and sailor. Earl Spee turned to the officer behind him. Subsequently, after contacting Liu Guanxiong on the armored cruiser Taipei, through the flag. The Scharnhorst and the three light cruisers behind it slowly lowered the flag of the German Navy and replaced it with the flag of the Huaxia Navy. At this point, all the German High Seas Fleet markings had been removed, and Count Spee and his fleet had officially joined the Chinese Navy.

Half an hour later, Liu Guanxiong and a group of Chinese naval generals boarded the Scharnhorst. From the moment the officers of both sides walked into the conference room, the Scharnhorst began its first battle! "It's as if your fleet has suddenly disappeared from this realm. We cruised in the Makassar Strait for nearly three days without finding a single capital ship of your country. Where is the Chinese fleet, which once traversed the entire Java Sea, now? Has anything changed? Count Spee asked.

"In Taiwan. We will have a big operation in the near future, the whole fleet will be gone, and we will force the Russian fleet to fight us before their reinforcements arrive. And your country's fleet will be incorporated into the former dreadnought formation of the Republic of China as the new flagship of the armored cruiser detachment. The Taipei, on the other hand, will be grouped with Ninghai-class battleships. Liu Guanxiong said.

"I thought that my fleet would be integrated into the main Chinese fleet to fight against the Russian battleships. Or to fight against Essen's fast battleships, but in the end I had to fight armored cruisers like the Rotterdam-class or the Varyag. "For the arrangement of the Huaxia Navy, Count Spee was somewhat disappointed, originally he wanted to fight with the opponent's capital ship, but he didn't expect that he was actually arranged to fight with such a capital ship. It made him a little dissatisfied.

"The fleet needs to be evenly grouped. The main fleet of the Russians has 9 of our dreadnoughts to deal with, and it has achieved absolute superiority, I think you should be aware of it somewhat. The former Dreadnought is actually a decoy fleet, and his mission is to hold back the opponent's fast fleet. Buy time for the main fleet to destroy the Russian battlefleet directly under Makanov. And in order to better accomplish this task, we need to make the former dreadnought fleet support the longer world realm, so your country's warships are incorporated into the former dreadnought fleet instead of the main fleet. Liu Guanxiong smiled and patiently explained.

In fact, there is another reason why he didn't say it clearly, that is, the Scharnhorst is still a little unqualified to enter the main battle line! There is an old saying in China that no diamond does not do porcelain work, although the Scharnhorst is called a small battle patrol, but the 8-inch side armor and not very thick dome armor are really hanging in the face of the 12-inch main gun. The Longxu-class battlecruisers were still grouped behind Longtai in the engagement, and the Longxu's dome armor was thick enough and the angle was large enough, and it was still relatively fragile, not to mention the Scharnhaust, which had a displacement of only 16,000 tons and could only block shrapnel.

Is it waiting to be seconds on the battle line? Don't think that if there is a group of big brothers in the back, it will not be seconds, in the Battle of Jutland, when the German High Seas Fleet launched a death charge towards the British Grand Fleet, the Invincible battlecruiser bravely blocked the German charge, and the entire Grand Fleet provided fire support behind it, what was the result? Wasn't it still wiped out by the German war patrols? Therefore, when it was first grouped, Xu Jie insisted that the German battleship that could keep up with the dreadnought fleet be incorporated into the former dreadnought team for the 12-inch heavy guns of the Russian Navy, and even grouped it with armored cruisers, in order to avoid the 12-inch guns of the Peter the Great-class fast battleships and the 274MM50L main guns of the seventh provincial level, these shells could kill people!

"Although the King's firepower is not good, the sidestring armor has a thickness of 10 inches, which basically resists the enemy's main artillery bombardment, plus 3 Ninghai-class battleships, the two sides are basically evenly matched. The purpose of mixing the Scharnhorst with the patrol fleet is to enable you to achieve results as soon as possible and open up the situation. Our 5 battleships beat 4 of the opponent's armored cruisers, and the Scharnhorst was stronger than any of the opponent's armored cruisers. Even if it is just to force one of the opposing ships out of the battle, we will gain an advantage. Liu Guanxiong continued to analyze.

After some explanations, Count Spee finally understood how to arrange his forces in a naval battle, and it was the best choice to concentrate his superior forces to attack the opponent, but at the same time to ensure that his weakness was not broken by the opponent, at least to ensure that the weak fleet on his side would not be defeated before he went to the advantage. The artillery formation is actually very similar to Tian Ji horse racing, the Ninghai class is slow and has strong firepower, but more importantly, it is well protected, and its protection is definitely at the battleship level, even if it is besieged by the Russian fast fleet that occupies superior firepower, it will not be defeated quickly.

What Xu Jie was really worried about at the beginning was the armored cruiser formation, and the opponent's as many as 32 10-inch 50L main guns were not a joke. Even if the Garibaldi-class hull armor box could resist, the head and tail would definitely be beaten into a sieve. In addition, in order to increase the firepower, the sea trials and margins were compressed, and it was inevitable that they would lose their balance or be beaten into torches. The loss is certain. However, if the loss of the loading patrol cannot be exchanged for enough time, then the result is very likely that the Russian-Dutch armored cruiser formation will quickly defeat the Huaxia loading cruiser, and then cooperate with 4 fast battleships to sweep away the entire former dreadnought fleet. In the end, the situation of the battle got out of control. But now with an extra quasi-loading cruiser, it's different. Put it in the main fleet may be seconds. But in the battle of the secondary main fleet, it can kill all sides! So as to revitalize the whole battle situation!

Or to use an analogy, it's the barrel effect, you put a small plank on the top plank and it doesn't change the amount of water, but if you put it on the board, it can greatly improve the volume of the barrel. Therefore, after some discussion, the Huaxia Navy decisively made the Scharnhorst the new flagship of the armored fleet. After learning the details of the First Battle of Java, Count Spee also gave up his original idea, and after fully realizing the status of his own warship in the battle of the Grand Fleet, Count Spee sensibly chose to accept this arrangement. And 6 days later, arrived at the base of the Huaxia fleet in Taiwan.

Thank you for the tears of the republic, the heart floats, and the monthly pass support of flay007 ~~~~. (To be continued......)