Galayan Island. ※※※※※ I ※ I ※ ※

Located in the Babuyan Islands north of Luzon, it is the largest inhabited island in this archipelago, but after the Chinese army entered Luzon, the Bass Strait and the Babuyan Strait next to the archipelago became extremely important, so the original more than 1,000 indigenous people here were all transferred to Luzon, and a small military base was built here to monitor this strategic passage from the South China Sea to the Pacific Ocean.

Although it is not as famous as Cavite, nor as large as Subic, or even as large as the planned base in Sulawesi, because of its geographical location, it has always been home to a naval garrison battalion, two patrol gunboats, and a reconnaissance airship that has just begun to be equipped.

The naval garrison battalion is under the jurisdiction of the Marine Corps, but it is not the main force, similar to the nature of the internal affairs division, such troops are all over the many inhabited islands controlled by China, and the troops also have to take into account the local construction, often stationed in one place for a long time, so many soldiers have brought their families and even relatives to the local area after taking root in the local area.

In fact, this is a kind of colonization in disguise, these larger islands have a certain economic value, and the army often expells or concentrates the natives after they are stationed, so it has almost become a paradise for soldiers and their families, which is very helpful for the development of the island economy.

On the west side of the island, there is a small bay that curves inward, and here is the Garayan base, which, like many bases, has several brick and wood dormitories and warehouses in addition to a small dock, and a large, well-groomed playground, and beyond the barbed wire fence is the residence of the soldiers' families or others who have been allowed to go to the island.

Now, the large playground is occupied by three small airships, which are tightly lined up, and in the barracks next to them, several naval non-commissioned officers are making preparations.

Originally, airships were the exclusive equipment of the Air Force, but after the General Staff gradually realized the importance of airships, especially the unique advantages in reconnaissance, they began to equip the Navy with airships.

Unlike the Hippopotamus-class heavy airships equipped by the Air Force, the Navy has not yet used airships for bombing, so it is only equipped with this kind of small airship with a length of 15 meters, but after the name Hippopotamus is out, no one dares to find the emperor to name it, which has a nice name.

"Sea Hawk."

The Sea Eagle is a small four-seater airship specially designed and built for reconnaissance, which is the captain, the co-captain and observer, the communications officer and the observer, because the navy needs to use the airship to patrol the vast sea territory, especially to the Daxia Islands and Hawaii This kind of place, it takes a long time and a large endurance to stay in the air, so the equipment department specially added a fuel tank in the belly of the Sea Eagle.

In this way, the Sea Hawk can have a range of 800 kilometers and a reconnaissance radius of 300 kilometers, and can patrol tens of thousands of square kilometers of sea area in a few hours, so it is very popular with the troops.

With more and more equipment such as airships entering the army, military spending has also increased explosively, which has also made the Prime Minister's Office, which is not yet financially rich, begin to reduce military spending again.

After a while, the members of the airship were ready, and walked towards the Sea Eagle 7 outside with a smile, but when they were halfway there, the captain Wang Hua suddenly stopped.

"Double happiness, go pick up two more barrels of oil and put them in the pod."

"Captain, both mailboxes are full? What else do you need oil for? Shuangxi looked up at the sky, some didn't understand, it's past lunch, and now if you take off, you can only fly for three hours to go back, otherwise you dare not come back before dark, so the two tanks are a little too full of fuel, why increase it?

"If you want to go, don't bother. 【 I want: Super fast update 】" After the captain pushed it, Double Happiness hurriedly ran to the warehouse next to him, and after a while, he carried two barrels of ten kilograms of gasoline and stuffed them into the pod.

As puffs of green smoke erupted from the propeller pods on both sides, the airship soared into the sky like a light milky white sea eagle, and in a moment Galayan Island became a palm-sized green emerald.

"Heading due east, at an altitude of a thousand meters, at a speed of fifty knots." After the captain and the co-pilot adjusted the course, they turned their heads and shouted to everyone: "It's going to be hard for the past two days, everyone is staring at the fleet, and the fleet is waiting for news, so if I find a suspicious ship, I immediately remind me to descend, but don't let the British slip under our noses." ”

These few words immediately made everyone understand why they had to bring two more barrels of oil before getting on the boat, and if they needed to raise and drop for reconnaissance many times, it was indeed very fuel-intensive, so everyone began to admire the captain's foresight.

In the midst of sycophancy and laughter, the Seahawk 7 began to reconnoiter eastward along the Bass Strait, and gradually disappeared from sight.

Off the coast of the Yaeyama Islands.

Liu Buyun slowly boarded the Duke Flybridge, looked at the back of the Duke who was still leaning forward, holding the railing with both hands as if admiring the blue scenery, and his heart was as uncomfortable as being put on a veil.

Two Arctic ships, four dukes, and four heavy Vladivostok cruisers.

This is the configuration of the General Staff to the First Fleet for this mission, not only did not cut it, but instead transferred two heavy cruisers that originally belonged to the Second Fleet, in order to stop the main force of the Far East Fleet of Filitman, or even defeat him completely

But no one expected that on the day of the swearing, Philettman would lead twenty-one ships, evade surveillance, and successfully escape the Luzon Sea and burrow into the vast Pacific Ocean.

This is not a mistake, in fact, the Hurricane has been following very closely, and several times it has even tried to overwhelm the range of the opponent's naval guns, but the opponent is worthy of the top students of the Greenwich Naval Academy, using the cover of night, after suddenly releasing a large amount of smoke, using cross-dispersion tactics, and finally deceived the Hurricane.

Twenty-one ships, though they sound like a lot and will be huge, are actually as inconspicuous as a stone thrown into this sea, and unless Philettman has a bad brain, and scatters the ships of the fleet very widely, and turns on the deck at night, he will probably not be able to find it for ten days and a half months, if he really has the heart to hide from it.

Importantly, Britain has the largest naval hydrographic survey ships in the world and many years of experience dominating this generation, many of which are even more familiar than local controllers, so when he knew that half of the British Far East Fleet had entered the Luzon Sea, he immediately realized that something was wrong.

The fleet is in a confrontation, and everything is empty talk now, so finding the other side is the top priority now is to find the other side, and if it cannot be found for a day, it means that the coast will be threatened for one more day, even if the army fights well, it is very likely that it will suddenly face an attack from the sea.

Even if Philettman did not attack the southeast and instead joined forces with the other half of the fleet stationed in Hong Kong, it would be tantamount to dragging his side into a decisive battle, and the British Far East Fleet, which had the number of ships, would take the initiative, and even if the other side was defeated, it would suffer great losses.

Therefore, taking advantage of his rare division of troops, eating or hurting him and forcing Britain to withdraw from the Chinese sea is a task that the navy must complete

However, reconnaissance ships and destroyers have already been dispatched, various waterways and straits have been filled with surveillance ships, and even the aviation detachments set up by the navy have taken the initiative in an all-round way, and it is estimated that there are more than 30 sea eagles patrolling everywhere in the sky at this moment, in order to find opponents

There he is?

"Report, the Ogasawara Islands Garrison Battalion reports that one of their patrol boats spotted a British cruiser outside the volcanic archipelago thirty minutes ago, confirmed to be the British Far East Fleet 1st Class Armoured Cruiser Saxony, which is currently heading in the direction of Honolulu."

"To Honolulu?"

Hearing the news, Liu Buyun and everyone were nervous, Honolulu is the emperor's starting place, although the heavy industry is basically withdrawn, but there are hundreds of thousands of Chinese living there, if Philettman really goes to attack where, I'm afraid the loss will not be too small.

"Commander, do you want it immediately?"

Liu Buyun had just spoken, but Ji Weishan, who had always seemed to be looking at the scenery, waved his hand: "Continue south." ”

"Continue south?"

The staff officers frowned violently, isn't this the opposite of the opponent? The General Staff and the Naval Command handed over most of the capital ships to the First Fleet, that is, they asked the First Fleet to stop Philitman, and now they will not chase others, but continue to go south, what are they doing?

Cooperate with the Second Fleet to blockade Hong Kong, there is only half a fleet, and there are submarine forces to help, whether they can leave the port is still a problem, is it necessary to intervene?

"Commander, us."

Before the staff officer finished speaking, Ji Weishan had already turned around and raised his hand to stop the staff officer from speaking, but asked with a smile: "Captain Liu, you are familiar with the British Navy, I want to know if you were Philettman, would you attack Hawaii?" ”

After thinking about it, Liu Buyun immediately shook his head.

Philettman had no reason to bombard Honolulu, although the fleet was out, but there were still nearly a hundred torpedo boats there, and Pearl Harbor was more than two hundred heavy guns, and the British had no reason not to know where the situation was, and to go to such a hard bone with half a fleet was no different from looking for death.

Even if you go to the Bactrian Islands, to Borneo, or even to Luzon, you shouldn't go to Hawaii

So the British would never be so stupid, otherwise they would not be the world's number one navy, and they would not have bypassed the whole earth from where to return to Europe, and they would not have begged the Americans for protection, not to mention that if the other party really went to Hawaii, they had already passed the Ogasawara Islands, and they would not be able to catch each other at the moment.

And the important thing is that Philettman led the Far East Fleet, which was mainly used to protect British interests in China and the East Indies, that is, the South Seas, from being violated.

After listening to Liu Buyun's words, the staff officers around him also understood, and Ji Weishan nodded heavily at this time: "Judging from the time he chose to leave Shanghai, Philettman knows us very well, so he must know where his advantages are, as long as he can pull out half of the fleet in Hong Kong, he will have a chance to win." ”

"He made a big mistake, if he didn't send that decoy cruiser, maybe he would have a chance to win" Ji Weishan muttered to himself, a cold star flashed in his eyes, and he seemed to have made up his mind: "Keep course, tell the kitchen to prepare supper, I believe, he is still here"

When Ji Weishan finished speaking, he slowly turned around again, in fact, everyone knew very well that although the young fleet commander had a very reasonable analysis, he was not completely sure in his heart.

He was taking a risk, because if Philettman did go to Hawaii, even a few hundred shells would be overshadowed by his future.

Seeing that the sun was already setting in the west, and the day was about to pass, if we could not find the other side, then the fleet would face a bitter battle when the British fleet from Canada and even India arrived

"Lieutenant General, coffee."

In the old man's asterisk, Philitman took the coffee, holding a spoon and stirring it unconsciously, but his heart was extremely remorseful.

Soon after the Anderson left, he began to regret it, but by that time the cruiser had been gone for nearly two hours, and it was already difficult to chase it at the speed of a torpedo ship, not to mention that if the few torpedo ships were to be dispatched, the fleet would suffer a great loss if it encountered the same high-speed small ships of the enemy.

So he could only watch as the cruiser continued to carry out the order, and the only thing he could do now was pray that God's opponent did not discover the Anderson, or that he had misjudged as he had begun to expect.

But is that possible?

Although the Chinese Navy is young, the speed of growth is also extremely amazing, especially since they also have the world's large-scale ironclad combat experience

He had been in the country for many years, and he knew very well that the Chinese were capable of learning, and when they were armed by the careerist of Li Mo, the nation began to burst out with amazing potential that would stagger the world.

The Jinghai class and the Rhine are the embodiment of their wisdom

They have a history of 5,000 years, and those histories are full of oriental wisdom, and their history is originally a history of war, so he can't take it lightly.

Looking at the fleet that entered the light control all around, without a trace of light, the chagrin in Philettman's heart gradually faded, for him, the way to win this war is very simple, even if there was a mistake before, it is not a big problem, as long as he lurks, waiting for the arrival of the three Sovereign-class battleships that should have set off from India, and then rendezvous with the remaining fleet in Hong Kong, then he can give the Chinese Navy a head-on blow with his absolute superiority

War, especially the navy, is still based on strength, and even if it is held back by the Boers, the British Royal Fleet still has such capabilities

"Course." Philitman took a sip of his coffee, but the smile on his lips had not yet faded, and a shout suddenly sounded from the observation window.

"Airship"