The eastern entrance to the Straits of Malacca is dotted with countless islands and reefs, and the waterway, which is not too open, is only between Temasek and Batam in the north, and the narrowest waterway is less than 10 kilometers. Since Batam originally belonged to the declining Dutch, and could no longer eat the good meal of the international trade node, Temasek Island became the gateway and pearl of the British Empire in the East.

However, this situation has changed after the Ming Dynasty seized Batam and Bintan Island a few years ago. This Batam island is about the size of Temasek, and Bintan is larger than Temasek. The two islands are only connected, the nearest distance is only more than 8 kilometers, and there are scattered islands in the middle to "build a force".

Therefore, after Daming took these two islands, he began to build a large infrastructure, and it has only been about two years now. Forts, military ports, watchtowers, barracks, warehouses, airship yards and reservoirs have been built in the open areas of the islands in Batam and Bintan.

The Nanyang Fleet also deployed a minesweeper brigade on Batam Island, and in addition to laying mines, it also continued to survey the shipping lanes south and west of Batam, and soon found several shipping lanes that could be used by 10,000-ton "giant ships."

However, in order for these waterways to function safely and effectively in wartime, it is better to send troops to land on the surrounding islands, set up outposts, radio stations, lighthouses, and deploy some torpedo boats and gunboats to patrol back and forth.

After taking these islands and opening up the waterways, the Grand Fleet under the command of Guan Tianpei can freely enter and exit the Strait of Malacca outside the artillery fire range of Temasek Island.

As long as the main force of the Nanyang Fleet can freely enter and exit the strait, it will be able to encircle Temasek Island from the sea and send the landing force to any beachhead on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula west of Temasek Island that can be landed - there are many small coastal ports on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula, and if you take any of them, the Nanyang Fleet will be able to ship the troops of the Ming Army's Nanyang Corps currently deployed in Pattani Province to the back of the Anglo-Indian defense line, and the Anglo-Indian defense line will collapse completely.

Oh, by the way, these islands, which are favored by the Ming Nanyang Fleet, are all assets of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. However, now the Dutch do not plan to mix in the war between the Chinese and the Indians, after all, the Indians' "British father" and "beautiful brother" have not ended, what is the Dutch blind?

Moreover, the Dutch's own Belgian brothers were still fighting for independence during this time, and they had already made the King of France anxious - the Dutch territory of Belgium was in a hurry to become independent, and the Dutchman was not in a hurry, but he was in a hurry for King Louis XVII! This is because it was the Bonapartist who wanted Napoleon II to be the king of Belgium during the period when Louis XVII wanted to send troops to help the Dutch maintain their territorial integrity, but the army under his command was either "real Bonapartistes" or "spiritual Bonapartists"!

In desperation, Louis XVII had no choice but to discuss with Nicholas I, wanting to use the French Navy to pull tens of thousands of furry bear soldiers to Belgium to help the Dutch maintain territorial integrity. Why should they interfere? After the French and Rakshasa interventions, is the Netherlands still an independent country?

So King William I of the Netherlands turned to England and Prussia for help, hoping that they would stop the collusion between Rakshasa and France in order to resolve the Belgian crisis peacefully.

In short, the Dutch can't even handle the affairs of their own nest now, let alone the affairs of the Dutch East Indies, so the Dutch government after learning that the main force of the Nanyang Fleet of the Ming Navy was dispatched, it very cooperatively declared its neutrality, and also classified all the Dutch islands at the eastern entrance of the Strait of Malacca as a war zone. Let Da Ying and Da Ming fight there casually, anyway, the Dutch don't care.

The Dutch didn't care, and the Anglo-Indian army in Malaya certainly couldn't divide their forces to defend so many islands. With a total of more than 100,000 troops, it is already a bit stretched to hold a series of strongholds on the Malay Peninsula and the two major fortresses of Temasek and Malacca, and it is definitely not enough to divide their forces to defend the islands.

Therefore, the British and Indian troops stationed in Malaya seem to have only watched the surging Nanyang Fleet of the Ming Navy send marines to seize the small islands at the entrance to the Strait of Malacca one by one.

Before this series of small islands was captured one by one, the main force of the fleet led by Guan Tianpei was cautious in the waters south of Batam Island and west of Lentpang Island and Garang Island.

"Junmen, the airship has discovered the Anglo-Indian fleet!"

On Guan Tianpei's flagship, the Hongwu Emperor, the chief of staff of the fleet, Ge Yunfei, took a telegram from the communications staff officer, looked at it and shouted: "A total of 15 shallow water heavy gunboats, 20 cruisers of the third rank, destroyers or small gunboats have sailed out of Temasek's naval base and are sailing northwest along the Malay Peninsula. It looks like it's going to be withdrawn to Penang Port. ”

"They are going to do this" Guan Tianpei, who was standing on the edge of the chart platform, watching the staff officers insert the small flags of the sun and moon symbolizing the Great Tomorrow Dynasty on the small islands on the map, only thought for a moment, and already had the answer, "They must want to let us enter the Strait of Malacca, and then send shallow heavy gunboats and torpedo boats to attack when we land on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula!" ”

The Strait of Malacca is located in a windless zone, with calm winds and waves, and narrow terrain, which is not conducive to the activities of large surface fleets, but rather to the activities of ships such as shallow heavy gunboats and torpedo boats.

If 15 shallow heavy gunboats and a group of torpedo boats suddenly killed when the Ming army organized the landing, it would be a lot of fun!

Ge Yunfei said: "Junmen, our island-class shallow water heavy gunboat formation has not yet arrived, so it is better to send an armored patrol detachment with torpedo boats to chase after us!" ”

Shallow water heavy gunboats, such cheap and high-quality "beggars version of battleships", of course, the Ming Dynasty also has them. Moreover, the shallow water heavy gunboats of the Ming Dynasty are a little higher than the shallow water heavy gunboats of the Great Britain - the shallow water heavy gunboats of the Great Britain are at best the "beggar version", while the shallow water heavy gunboats of the Ming Dynasty are at least the "youth version". One of the most representative is the "Island" class shallow water heavy gunboat, named after the small island owned by the Ming Dynasty.

In terms of design, the "Shima" class borrowed the idea of the "Four Heavenly Kings" of Japan next door, and was divided into the "Shima-1" type that used "face" to scare people and the "Shima-2" type that used "buttocks" to attack the enemy. Moreover, they were built larger and stronger than the British shallow-water gunboats, generally had a standard displacement of seven or eight thousand tons, and were equipped with twin 320-mm heavy guns, which were quite impressive in offshore combat. The disadvantage is that the speed is too slow, the fastest can only run to 12 knots, and the economic speed is only 8 knots. Therefore, the Fifth Heavy Gunboat Squadron, composed of 16 "Island" class ships assigned to the Nanyang Fleet, is still slowly on the way!

"Give Chen Lianfeng an order!" Guan Tianpei immediately made a decision, "Let him lead the fourth armored cruiser squadron to attack, and then give an order to the airship base on Batam, let them send a few more airships to search the sky over the Strait of Malacca, beware of fraud!" ”

"Yes, Junmen!"

Contrary to the expectations of Guan Tianpei and Ge Yunfei, when Rear Admiral Chen Huacheng, a veteran of the Nanyang Fleet, led the fourth patrol detachment with 10 armored cruisers as the main force, cautiously left the temporary anchorage south of Batam, passed through a large number of small islands, and embarked on the journey of pursuing the British and Indian fleets. In the vicinity of the Shidu Strait, about 1,500 kilometers from the eastern entrance of the Strait of Malacca, a huge Anglo-Indian fleet of hundreds of ships of various types is waiting for a telegram from the Straits Fleet like a group of monsters lurking waiting for its prey!

(End of chapter)