The Strait of Tunis is a choke point and a key area for Italy. Especially after the French formation went to sea, the number of ships and airships patrolling here also increased, and even yesterday a small Italian warship boldly came to the coast of Tunisia.

For this reason, the French side taught the other side a hard lesson, and only after the other side fled in embarrassment.

Lessons are learned, but since the other side dares to come, it is clear that they are not afraid of France's maritime power in Tunisia. This gave the reinforcements preparing to cross the Tunis Channel less time to choose, unless they were willing to stand up to the sight of the Italians.

At this point, the night became an excellent cover for the figures to creep through the area.

The sound of a fluttering motor sounded off the coast of Tunisia, and a small patrol boat carefully observed the surrounding movements in the night. Its searchlights were constantly shining in all directions.

At this time, more than a dozen French naval officers and sailors were watching the movements around the patrol boat with their eyes wide open.

"Didn't notice anything, everything was fine."

"No suspicious circumstances were found, safe."

As the officers and men of the patrol boat continued to observe the surrounding waters to ensure safety, the reporter sent out a safe secret telegram at the signal of the captain.

In fact, starting from Bizerte at the end of the western section of the Tunisian Strait, to Sfax at the eastern end of the Tunisian Strait, which has long exceeded the scope of the Tunisian Strait, the French side has arranged for many warships and ships to conduct inspections in its own open seas. The reason why the French are so aggressive is because there is a formation that wants to pass through here at night.

And the best way to get through here is to take advantage of the cover of night, take advantage of the Tunisian sea, and get out of the strait before sunrise tomorrow.

Vice Admiral Sterdy thought the same thing, and at this time he was leading the British and French reinforcements through the sea.

"It was reported that a telegram from the French side had not found anything unusual on the Tunisian side of the strait. In addition, Lieutenant General Dufornell sent a telegram asking if the speed should be increased now. ”

At this moment on the flagship, Lieutenant General Stedi was listening to the communications officer report on the situation.

"Tell Lieutenant General Dufornell not to worry now, increasing the speed late at night may cause unnecessary harm. The speed of 14 knots was enough for us to leave before dawn. ”

Lieutenant General Stedi asked the communications officer to convey his intentions.

By this time, Vice Admiral Sterdy had already waited for the French formation, and after a short exchange, the reinforcement formation became a reinforcement fleet. Stedey was promoted to commander of the fleet and commander of the British formation, while the commander of the French side was Vice Admiral Dufornell, who also held the post of chief of staff of the fleet.

In addition, after some friendly exchanges and discussions, the two agreed that the northern shipping route near the island of Malta was too dangerous, and that only the southern shipping route near the Libyan Sea was the best choice.

To this end, Vice Admiral Stady made a special report to the Mediterranean Fleet led by Admiral Carden, informing him of his course of action.

Of course, it is not enough to rely on the reinforcement fleet to cross the Tunis Channel itself, and the French maritime forces in Tunisia also need to explore the route in advance to ensure that the fleet can safely slip through the strait without being detected by the Italians.

It looks good at the moment and they're lucky.

Yes, luck is one of the guarantees of the success of the operation, as long as you are lucky enough, sometimes the seemingly unreliable plan will succeed by mistake.

So far, Lieutenant General Stedi feels like he's been lucky.

And with the help of the French colonial navy, a joint reinforcement fleet formed by Britain and France sneaked through the Tunis Strait under the cover of night.

At this time, the Italian side was still ignorant of the reinforcement fleet that slipped through the Tunis Channel, because most of its attention was attracted by the Mediterranean fleet.

At this time, there were few ships off the coast of Libya, and because of the attack of British warships in Malta, Italy was the first to create an escort formation.

So at this time, there were very few ships in Libyan waters, except for fishing boats in the coastal waters, only a few smuggling boats were infested here.

That's right, smuggling ships, although Italy and France are already at war, and the two countries are already fighting in Europe. But how to say it, where there is demand, there is sales, especially after the two countries cut off the economic and trade exchanges on the surface, so that many people pay attention to the huge profits.

In Europe, smuggling is not very serious because of strict regulations, but in Africa, where it is sparsely populated and poorly regulated, this kind of smuggling is becoming more and more rampant.

Those adventurers who wandered in the gray zone smuggled oil cars and their parts from Libya to Tunisia, and then loaded them with tobacco, olive, wool, wine and other materials from Tunisia, smuggled them back to Libya, and then returned to the mainland through transport fleets.

This back and forth, in which the huge profits doubled, is enough to tempt all the brave people. A sage surnamed Ma once said that as long as there is 100% profit, people will be disregarded by all laws.

The smuggling of the two countries around Tunisia and Libya shows the truth of his words.

At this time, a smuggling boat disguised as a fishing boat appeared on the surface of the sea.

The deck of the boat is filled with crates of sea fish, like a fishing boat full of catches, but if you open the cabin, there are bags of car parts crammed inside. Several crew members, led by the captain, are operating the fast, unconventional fishing boat as it is heading towards Tunisia.

To run smuggling, speed is the most important thing.

First of all, it needs to be faster than the anti-smuggling ship, so that it can calmly deal with the official forces to avoid getting the stolen goods. Secondly, speed is still profit. Smuggling also requires efficiency, and when the price of a certain cargo fluctuates, the vessel that can bring the cargo back as soon as possible will always get the most generous return.

The gray merchants who roam this sea area understand this truth, so these smuggling ships are willing to have enough horsepower for their ships without affecting the cargo.

Of course, this alone is not enough, and the crew needs to be vigilant. Keep an eye out for any movement in your surroundings and know where the anti-smuggling boat is coming from.

At this time, at the top of the smuggling ship, Captain Saba kept looking.

"What's wrong with you, Captain?"

"I feel something is wrong."

"What's the matter?"

"My gut tells me that something is very wrong right now."

Captain Saba's words made the crew nervous as well. Their captain's instincts were very trusted, and once he said something was wrong, only to find that three anti-smuggling ships were surrounding them. If it weren't for everyone's high vigilance and early discovery, they would definitely have been sent to the desert to mine.

It was just like that, when everyone was nervously watching around under the guidance of Captain Saba, suddenly a crew member shouted. "Notice that there is a pillar of smoke in front of us to the left, and a ship is approaching us."

At the crew's notice, Captain Saba then noticed as well.

As a captain who has been adrift at sea for half his life, his wealth of experience immediately makes him feel that something is wrong.

"This pillar of smoke is right, it's a battleship."

The experienced Captain Saba saw the situation at once, because the ships were made of the finest anthracite, and their plumes were completely different from those of economical merchant ships. So experienced people can see it at a glance.

"Captain, what shall we do now?"

As soon as they heard that it was a warship, the crew immediately became nervous, no matter which side of the warship, they would be vigilant against their suspicious fishing boat, and smugglers would be caught no matter which side they were.

"Now turn the bow of the ship and we'll rush to the shallow waters."

At this moment, Captain Saba immediately gave the order, and he personally steered the ship to steer. They just want to stay away from these ships now, and they don't want to be discovered by them.

But this wish was not discovered by God today.

At this moment, ships in the distance have appeared on the horizon, and the tall warships are seen through the telescope by Captain Saba.

"Played, this is the battleship of the Entente. Or a battleship. ”

At this moment, Captain Saba's face turned pale, and cold sweat was already breaking out on his forehead. Because as long as you are not stupid, you will know that this sudden appearance of the battleship is still several battleships, and it must be to perform some secret missions. In order to keep it secret, they even threw people and boats to the bottom of the sea to feed the fish.

"Full speed, hurry up."

At this moment, how Captain Saba wished that the other party did not find them, as long as he could escape from here, he would immediately go back and surrender to the customs.

Unfortunately, Captain Saba's wish has been disappointed, and they have already been noticed.

I saw a destroyer chasing them from a distance, and its extremely high speed made Saba, who was trying to escape, look like they were doing useless work.

In the face of the menacing destroyer, Saba and they lost the desire to escape. The other party saw that the speed was as high as 30 knots, and how to let them run the smuggling ship that was only 19 knots at the highest.

"Everyone pretends to be innocent, we are fishermen who go out to fish."

At the moment, the people on the smuggling boat tried to look like fishermen, and now they could only count on each other to do more than to carry out inspections.

"Collapse"

However, the sudden explosion of shells from the side made everyone on the smuggling ship fall into despair. It was obvious that the other party had no intention of boarding their ship at all, and only wanted to sink them and destroy them.

"Keep running."

Sitting back and waiting for death is not the idea of these daring smugglers, and the desire to survive is flooding the brains at the moment.

And this smuggling ship swayed from side to side, trying to influence the other side's shelling.

"Collapse~Collapse~Collapse......"

Then several shell explosions sounded around the ship, indicating that the movement was still effective. But as long as you have a clear mind, you know that unless the other party suddenly loses power, otherwise this is just slowing down the death of yourself and others.

"Ram, come here and take the helm."

Saba knew this, too, and after handing over the rudder to his deputy, he plunged headlong into the captain's room. He opened one of the dark cabins in the captain's room and pulled out one of the latest Marconi radios.

Smuggling ships also need to be in contact at all times, and it is normal to have a radio station.

Saba then showed a fierce face and launched a telegram.

A few minutes later, a clear-code telegram was sent around.

"We are in the sea area off Libya with a latitude of 34.652 and a longitude of 14.15496, and we have encountered a British and French fleet of seven battleships coming from the northwest, and the other side is chasing us, please pay attention to the passing ships and dodge, good luck to everyone, I am Captain Saba."

At this moment, this telegram was received not only by passing ships, but also by Tripoli, Palermo and other places. Of course, the first to receive the telegram was the British and French reinforcement fleets that were close at hand.

"Lieutenant General, this is a clear-code telegram we just received."

With a strange look on his face, the communications staff officer handed the telegram to the fleet commander, Vice Admiral Steddy.

"Ahem, ahem, ahem......"

Lieutenant General Stedi, who was drinking black tea, choked on the tea.

"This is the enemy's reconnaissance fishing boat, but it is just a customary cover-up technique, which is too inferior."

His Excellency, the recovering lieutenant general, put down the telegram with a tone that had already seen through the conspiracy of the other side.

"So what do we do next?"

"Send a telegram to Admiral Kaden, and now that we are exposed, we are moving closer at full speed. Give our position to the Admiral as well. ”

"Yes, Commander."

(End of chapter)