The blue and white frigate Taiping Island was slowly moving south against the coast of French Indochina, and the sailors of the Coast Guard on the deck leaned on the railing, looking at the dots of white sails not far away, laughing from time to time. 【 I want: super fast update 】

The Imperial Coast Guard of the Chinese Empire, composed of veterans and soldiers of the Navy, is the eyes of His Majesty the Emperor and the Empire on the sea, patrolling the sea frontier at all times, monitoring every country and region that attempts to commit misdeeds, and defending the safety of shipping lanes.

Not far away, Vietnam, also known as French Indochina, has long been listed as one of the Coast Guard's key targets, and the French-ruled territory that occupies half of the southeastern peninsula is so large that it has become a major problem for the empire with a population of nearly 50 million.

Therefore, after the establishment of the Coast Guard, it has maintained at least 10 patrol ships here at all times, from the destroyers that were eliminated by the Navy in the early days to the current unified frigates, and it has almost never stopped monitoring this place.

Not only them, but even the Navy's Second Fleet regarded this as a potential threat zone, without any other force, because there was a shrinking fleet stationed here.

French Far Eastern Fleet.

In the eyes of some veterans of the Chinese Empire, France's decline has never stopped, from the world's second navy at the beginning of China's founding to the world's fifth in the world, which has not stopped, including the rapid rise of China and the United States, as well as the contribution of Germany and Britain in the sea race.

Of course, the main thing is the mistake of the French navy's thinking, influenced by the doctrine of sea raid warfare and maritime mobile defense, France once gave up the construction of large warships, instead built a large number of torpedo ships (destroyers), and also specially changed the dock for the construction of battleships into a submarine factory, but when they raised their heads, they found that the doctrine delayed not only the French navy, but also completely buried this European sea power that was once known as being able to challenge Britain.

Although the French Navy began to catch up, after building six Danton-class quasi-battleships, four Kolbe-class (Lone-class) battleships and three Brittany-class super battleships, and six large armored cruisers in a row, the gap is still too obvious!

Not to mention the battle cruisers built by Britain, Germany, and the United States one after another, France could not come up with a single heavy cruiser like the Hualian-class alone.

In terms of total tonnage, the French Navy was first surpassed by Germany, and then successively surpassed by the United States and China, and with the expiration of the life of the hundreds of torpedo boats they built in the early years, while all countries were doing their best to expand the total tonnage of their navy, France could only wait for the five Normandy-class super battleships that had just begun to be built to enter service.

Due to the sharp decline in strength, France's control in Indochina began to decrease, especially at sea, it was difficult, and the current commander of the First Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy, Ji Weishan, did not dare to meet the enemy, and at this moment it was completely passive.

For this reason, the French Far East Fleet abandoned its original base in the Gulf of Tonkin and changed it to Cam Ranh Bay, which has good conditions and a long distance, and also transferred a large number of torpedo ships from China that were about to expire in service, but this still did not reassure the French Navy.

In the past two years, European pressure forced France not to dare to send more large capital ships, so it could only choose to strengthen land control, sent 100,000 troops here, armed nearly 500,000 puppet troops, and also made peace with the British Far East Fleet stationed in Gapo, drawing up a mutual protection treaty.

Fortunately, in order to concentrate on national development and ensure the security of the existing provinces, Hua did not expand to the southeast peninsula, but reached a friendly agreement with Siam, and also said that it had no intention of land in the southeast peninsula.

However, this good day was coming to an end, and when the Germans entered Belgium and saw that France would face a bitter battle after the fortress of Liège was breached, the Chinese Empire, which had the world's largest land territory, was furious about a cross-border incident that took place in the north, and not only decided to send an additional 500,000 troops to the north to carry out the largest and longest exercises in the country's history, but also suddenly increased the garrisons of Guangxi, Nanning, Luzon and Borneo. ※※※※※ I ※ I ※ ※

In particular, Guangxi and Yunnan, after successively opening trains three years ago, made convenient use of the railways this time, and increased the original division to three in just ten days!

In addition to land, patrols at sea began to increase considerably, with at least twenty frigates patrolling the coast of Vietnam every day, and one could be seen passing by almost every hour.

Such frequent patrols, close to the coast, not only made the French colonial government uneasy, but also worried the Vietnamese, but Hua did not seem to have made any special moves other than patrolling, so they could only watch the warships sweeping along the coast like locusts.

As the Taiping Island gradually reached the waters off Cam Ranh Bay, the 1,000-ton frigate somehow plunged headlong into the bay, and a moment later, four French torpedo ships came up like hunting dogs guarding the door.

"Tell them that our ship's power is out of order, and it needs to be repaired here urgently, and it is expected to leave in three hours."

The captain of the Taiping Island, who retired from the navy but left the sea and didn't know what to do, came to the coast guard to rely on the bottom laid in the navy, and after becoming the captain of his dreams, he almost used the frigate as a battleship to play, so he was naturally not afraid of this kind of "little worm" that could be penetrated with 37 mm rapid-fire guns, and looked at the torpedo ship that rushed quickly, as if he didn't see it, he leisurely lit a cigarette, kicked the nervous young communications officer, and asked him to send a signal.

Power failure in need of repair?

What can the French do, even if they don't believe this explanation? The four torpedo ships could only stupidly monitor each other, but this beautiful-looking frigate of the Chinese Empire did not expect that on the mast of the Taiping Island, the observer was holding a telescope and "bored" to scan the situation in the harbor.

After more than two hours of grinding, the "power failure" Taiping Island left the mouth of the bay in good faith, and after drawing a beautiful arc on the sea surface, it suddenly began to accelerate and pounce on the Nansha Islands in the distance.

Just as the Taiping Island was hurrying in, in the South Island of the Spratly Islands, in the South Island of the Spratly Islands, inside the armored cruiser Scharnhorst, Spee looked at the charts and frowned.

Coming out of Sasebo, he with four cruisers had already sunk two in a row, captured three British and French freighters, and even one of the French freighters was preparing to go to Luzon to load rubber.

He was still a little worried at first, after all, this area was the sphere of influence of the Chinese Empire, although people said that they would help him, but no one knew whether it was true or not, at first he was still worried, because the French freighter was fifty nautical miles off the coast of Luzon at that time, but then a telegram changed his mind.

Because the content of the telegram was, "Next time they are waiting for the payment, they will be calling." While crying and laughing, I finally let go of my hanging heart.

Li Mo is indeed helping himself, but this kind of help is not without a price, and the way out for 10,000 army brothers is pinched in his own hands to put it bluntly.

He is not stupid, he naturally knows what Li Mo wants, and along the way, there is intelligence and supplies, and they all point to the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, which makes it clear that he hopes to go there and make a big fuss.

This was not what he wanted to do, he initially thought of leading the fleet around South America and then forcing a breakthrough to return home to fight, but now he had to change his plans on the fly.

However, this problem is not big, anyway, it is all a war, not to mention that the road home is too difficult, if Britain and France can be forced to send a large number of fleets to encircle and suppress themselves, it can be regarded as relieving the pressure at home.

In the Far East, although the Chinese Empire temporarily dominated the Pacific Ocean, it was not without hidden worries, and the British Far East Fleet in Canada, the Indian Fleet, the rising Australian Fleet, and the US Pacific Fleet, which was already in a uproar and began to speed up its catch-up, were all threats.

With his own strength, he couldn't gnaw on the top ones, but the Frenchman in Cam Ranh Bay couldn't help but move his appetite.

But it is unwise to storm Cam Ranh Bay, and France has made adjustments before the war, and it is still unknown how many cruisers and mines are in it, and it is necessary to wait for accurate information, and now the news of the British and French freighters that were sunk and captured by themselves has not yet spread under the deliberate interference of the Chinese Empire, so as long as he gets accurate information, he is still sure that the French can taste the power of the eight 210mm naval guns on the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

The Emden and the Nuremberg had already left, and they had entered the dangerous waters of Malacca, where they would find a few French freighters to lure the French out, and in order to make the French feel that their main force was also there, Hua also took out two old armored cruisers that he did not know from there to hide in the distance to camouflage, waiting for the French to take the bait.

Shi Pei smiled slightly, although he didn't like to accept being someone else's puppet, but if he could help the motherland, why not cooperate for the time being?

"General, a telegram has been sent from the Chinese patrol ship."

The words made Shi Pei stand up immediately, and before leaving, Li Mo provided four special high-power radios for himself to communicate, so he could get the news quickly.

Spee took the binoculars, looked at the blue and white striped frigate that was speeding past the open sea, took a deep breath, and took the telegram.

The telegram is the details of the French Far East Fleet in Cam Ranh Bay, two Glorious-class armored cruisers, Marseillaise and Sully, which are two first-class armored cruisers launched ten years ago, with a displacement of 9,800 tons, two 190 mm guns, 12 152 mm guns, plus a large number of Haggaeus rapid-fire guns, which can barely be considered good, but the weakness of the small caliber of the main guns and the small number is too great, and the speed can only reach 21 knots.

Two Frionte-class protective cruisers, the Friant and the Robert, had a displacement of 3630 tons, 10 152-mm naval guns and a speed of 20 knots.

In addition, there are about thirty torpedo ships and ten auxiliary ships, but those are old men, torpedo ships are faster, but they can't enter the open sea, so.

"Contact the Emden, you can do it."

"Get ready, we'll set sail in half an hour."

At two o'clock in the afternoon, Spee finished his lurk, and quietly rushed out of the Spratly Islands with the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, heading west for the mouth of the Mekong River.

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On the Emden, Major Müller's eyes lit up as he stared at the three French freighters that were shining in the darkness ahead.

To be honest, he didn't like killing, he was willing to fight like a lone knight in the eighteenth century, so before setting out, he made a suggestion to Lieutenant General Spee, try not to kill and injure a large number of people, at first he was still very apprehensive, but he didn't expect the lieutenant general to agree, several freighters in a row did not kill, but only blew up and sank, as for those crew members were released after signing not to participate in the war.

But today he had to show the power of the German naval guns, because what he and the Nuremberg were going to do was to seduce the French Far East Fleet!

Although a fake chimney of a cargo ship was installed for camouflage, this is the waters of Malacca, and there are many British patrol ships, and if it were not for the warnings sent by the Chinese patrol ships from time to time, they might have been discovered long ago.

As one of the busiest waters in the world, there are too many ships coming and going in this area, more than half of them are Chinese, and most of the rest are American and Allied ships.

After lurking for a long time, he selected three targets looming in front of him, and judging from the course, their destination should be Cam Ranh Bay.

Müller looked back into the darkness in the distance, where lurking were two armored cruisers that the Chinese Empire had bought at some unknown time, disguised as the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau, and would send a false signal with their large-caliber naval guns.

"Do it!"

Müller gave the order, and immediately a series of light signals were emitted from the Emden mast, followed by the Emden and Nuremberg began to accelerate.

The two cruisers, which had just been serviced in Arthur before departure, were in good condition and had accelerated to 22 knots, and as the two ships suddenly shone brightly and drew closer, the three French freighters suddenly became restless.

"8000 yards."

"Fire!"

"Tell them that this is a German ** ship, surrender immediately, otherwise it will be sunk."

Mueller habitually gave the order, but turned his head and felt that it was not possible, because if the French surrendered professionally, wouldn't he be able to complete the task, and then grabbed the messenger and said solemnly: "Remove the surrender and announce the sinking." ”

"Yes."

A moment later, there was the rumbling sound of cannon on the sea, and 105-millimeter shells smashed on the side of the French freighters, which frightened them into accelerating towards Cam Ranh Bay.

At this moment, a huge ball of fire suddenly exploded in the darkness in the distance, which was the characteristic roar of heavy artillery, and Müller believed that the French captain would be attracted by this scene in the darkness.

Ten minutes later, the Emden and the Nuremberg caught up with a freighter and poured 80 105 mm shells at the poor freighter at close range, staging a massacre under the noses of the remaining two French freighters.

The French were frightened to death, and when the hapless ship caught fire, the remaining two began to run along the complicated coastline, not even noticing that the German fleet had not followed, but the frightened French shipowner would not suspect it, and would only think that he had been lucky to get rid of the other party.

The next morning, when they arrived in Cam Ranh Bay with scars, the French shipowners immediately cried to the Far East Fleet that they had been attacked by four German fleets, including two large warships!

Two large cruisers ?!

The commander of the French Far East Fleet was red-eyed, and he was attacked by German ** ships at his doorstep, which was simply a humiliation to France, not to mention that he had already received an order from home to search for the main force of the Spee fleet with all his might, so the fleet commander immediately rushed out of the bay with four cruisers and a torpedo ship support ship.

Of course, the cautious French did not attack blindly, they sent a telegram to the British before they set off, and Vice Admiral Phillips, commander of the British Far East Fleet, immediately sent four armored cruisers to search for the accident area.

A maddening sea encirclement battle has begun!