Chapter 519 The Great Encirclement at Sea Begins

The blue and white frigate Taiping Island slowly pushed south along the coast of French Indochina. The sailors of the coast guard on the deck leaned on the railing, looking at the white sails not far away, and laughing from time to time.

The Royal Coast Guard of the Xinhua Empire, composed of naval veterans and recruits, is the sea eyes of His Majesty the Emperor and the Empire. It patrols the sea territory all the time, monitors every country and region that is trying to do evil and protect the safety of the waterway.

Vietnam, which is not far away, that is, French Indochina, has always been listed as one of the focus targets of the Coast Guard. This French territory, which occupies half of the southeastern peninsula, is too big, with a population of nearly 50 million, which has become a big problem for the empire.

Therefore, after the establishment of the Coast Guard, it has maintained at least ten patrol ships here all the time. From the destroyers eliminated by the first navy to the unified frigates, there has been almost no interruption in monitoring here.

Not only them, but also the Second Fleet of the Navy is here for the potential threat zone, nothing else, because a shrinking fleet is stationed here.

French Far East Fleet.

The decline of France is too fast in the eyes of some veterans of the Xinhua Empire. From the second navy in the world at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China to the fifth in the world at present, the decline has never been interrupted, including the rapid rise of Xinhua and the United States, as well as the naval competition between Germany and Britain.

Of course, the most important thing is the ideological error of the French navy. Influenced by maritime raids, maritime mobile defense and other doctrines, France once gave up the construction of large warships and built a large number of torpedo ships (destroyers), and specially changed the dock for the construction of battleships into a submarine factory, but when they After looking up, I found that the new doctrine not only delayed the French navy, but also completely buried the European maritime power, which was once known as able to challenge Britain.

Although the French navy began to pursue, after building six Dandong-class quasi-new battleships, four new Kolbe-class (Luban-class) battleships and three Brittany-class super battleships were built in a row, and six large armored cruisers were built in a row, the gap is still too obvious!

Not to mention the battlecruisers built by Britain, Germany and the United States one after another, France can't afford such a heavy patrol of Xinhua Dalian-class.

In terms of total tonnage, the French navy was first surpassed by Germany, and then by the United States and Xinhua in succession. With the expiration of the life of the hundreds of torpedo boats they built in their early years, France could only wait for the five Normandy ships that had just begun to be built. The super battleship will be put into service as soon as possible.

Due to the sharp decline of strength, France's control in Indochina began to decrease, especially at sea. It was even more difficult. Ji Rushan, the current commander of the First Fleet of the Royal Navy of the Xinhua Empire, did not dare to fight against the enemy. At this moment, it was completely passive.

For this reason, the French Far East Fleet abandoned its original base in the Gulf of Tonkin, changed to the better conditions and farther Golden Bay, and also transferred a large number of torpedo ships that were about to expire from China, but this still did not reassure the French navy.

In the past two years, European pressure has forced France not to send more large capital ships, so it can only choose to strengthen land control. While sending 100,000 troops here, it has also armed nearly 500,000 pseudo-armies, and the British Far East Fleet stationed in Singapore. We made peace and formulated a mutual insurance agreement.

Fortunately, the French said that in order to focus on the development of the country and ensure the security of the existing provinces, Xinhua did not expand to the Southeast Peninsula. Instead, it reached a friendly agreement with Siam and said that it had no intention to land on the Southeast Peninsula.

However, this good day has come to an end recently. The Germans have entered Belgium. Seeing that France will face a hard battle after the fortress is broken through, the Xinhua Empire, which has the world's first land territory, is very angry for a cross-border time in the north. It not only decided to send an additional 500,000 troops to the north to carry out the national calendar. The largest and longest exercise in history has suddenly increased the garrison of Guangxi, Nanning, Luzon and Borneo.

Especially in Guangxi and Yunnan, after opening trains three years ago, they made convenient use of the railway this time and increased the original division to three in just ten days!

In addition to land, the patrol force at sea has also begun to increase significantly. There are at least 20 frigates patrolling the coast of Vietnam every day, and one can be seen passing by almost every hour.

The patrols so frequently and close to the coast not only made the French colonial axe panic, but also made the Vietnamese start to worry. However, Xinhua did not seem to make any special moves except patrols, so they could only look at the warships passing along the coast like locusts.

After the Taiping Island gradually reached the sea off the coast of Jinlan Bay, the 1,000-ton frigate somehow plunged into the bay. After a while, the four French torpedo ships chased up like hounds on the door.

"Tell them that my ship's power is out of order and needs urgent repair here. It is expected to leave in three hours."

Captain Taiping Island, a veteran who was discharged from the navy but left the sea and didn't know what to do, came to the coast guard to rely on the base of the navy. After becoming the dream captain, he almost played the frigate as a battleship, so naturally he was not afraid that this kind of 37mm rapid-fire gun could be penetrated. The little bug" looked at the rapidly rushing torpedo ship, as if he didn't see it. He leisurely lighted a cigarette, and then kicked the nervous young correspondent and asked him to send a signal.

Does the power failure need to be repaired?

Even if the French don't believe this explanation, what can they do? The four torpedo ships could only foolishly monitor each other, and the beautiful Xinhua Empire frigate did not expect that on the mast of the Taiping Island, the observer was holding a telescope and "boring" scanning the situation in the harbor.

After grinding for more than two hours, the "power failure" Taiping Island left the mouth of the bay. After drawing a beautiful arc on the sea, it suddenly began to accelerate and rush to the distant Nansha Islands.

Just as the Taiping Island arrived in a hurry, in the bay of Nanzi Island (realism occupied) of the twin reefs of the Nansha Islands, in the armored cruiser Sharnhorst, Spee looked at the chart and frowned.

All the way out of Sasebo, he has sunk two in a row with four cruisers, captured three British and French cargo ships, and even one of the French cargo ships is preparing to go to Luzon to install rubber.

At first, he was still a little worried. After all, this area was the sphere of influence of the Xinhua Empire. Although people said they would help themselves, no one knew whether it was sincere or not. At first, he was still worried, because at that time, the French cargo ship was 50 nautical miles away from Luzon, but with The latter telegram changed its mind.

Because the content of the telegram is, "Next time I'll call when they pay." 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 cost. To put it bluntly, the way out of the 10,000 army brothers is pinched in his own hands.

He is not a fool. Naturally, he knows what Li Mo wants. He has intelligence and supplies along the way, and he points to the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, which makes it clear that he wants to make a scene there.

This is not what he wants to do most. His initial idea is to lead the fleet to take a detour through South America, and then forcibly break back to fight, but now he has to change his plan temporarily.

But this problem is not big. Anyway, it's all wars, not to mention that the road home is too difficult. If we can force Britain and France to send a large number of fleets to encircle and suppress themselves here, it can also be regarded as a relief of pressure for China.

In the Far East, although the Xinhua Empire temporarily dominants the Pacific Ocean, it is not without worries. Singapore's British Far East Fleet, the Indian Fleet, the newly-emerging Australian Fleet, and the U.S. Pacific Fleet, which has begun to accelerate, are all threats.

With his own strength, he couldn't nip the upper ones, but the Frenchman in Jinlan Bay made him not fast and move his fingers.

But it is unwise to rush to Jinlan Bay, and France made adjustments before the war. It is unknown how many cruisers and mines there are in it. We must wait for the exact information. Now the news of the British and French cargo ships that were sunk and captured by themselves has not been spread under the deliberate interference of the New China Empire, so as long as you get the exact According to the intelligence, he is still sure to let the French taste the power of the eight 210mm naval guns on the Schahnhorst and Gneisenau.

The Emden and Nuremberg have left. They have entered the dangerous waters of Malacca, where they will find several French cargo ships to lure the French out. In order to make the French feel that their main force is also there, Xinhua also took out two old-fashioned armored cruisers that they did not know where they bought to hide in the distance. Disguise and wait for the French to take the bait.

Shi Pei smiled. Although he doesn't like to accept being someone else's puppet, if he can help the motherland, why can't he cooperate for the time being?

"General, the Xinhua patrol ship sent a telegram."

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

Spee took the telescope and looked at the frigate with blue and white stripes passing quickly from the sea. He took a deep breath before receiving the telegram.

The telegram is the details of the French Far East Fleet in the Gulf of Jinlan. There are two Glorious-class armored cruisers, the Marseille Qu and the Sully. These are two first-class armored cruisers launched ten years ago, with a displacement of 9,800 tons, two 190mm main guns, 12 152mm cannons, and a large number of Hakiz. The rapid-fire gun is barely good, but the main gun has a small caliber and a small number of weaknesses, and the speed can only reach 21 knots.

Two Fliant-class protective cruisers, Fliant and Robat, with a displacement of 3,630 tons, with 10 152 mm guns and a speed of 20 knots.

In addition, there are about 30 torpedo ships and 10 auxiliary ships, but those are all classic goods. Torpedo ships are fast, but they can't enter the distant sea, so.

"Contact Emden, you can do it."

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

At 2:00 p.m., Spee ended its lurking, quietly rushed out of the Nansha Islands with the Schahnhorst and Gneisenau, and headed for the mouth of the Mekong River in the west--

On the Emden, Major Mueller stared at the three French cargo ships shining in the dark in front of him, with his eyes shining.

To be honest, he doesn't like killing. He prefers to fight with lonely knights in the 18th century, so before leaving, he made a suggestion to Lieutenant General Spee not to try to kill a large number of people. At first, he was very worried. Unexpectedly, Lieutenant General agreed. Several consecutive cargo ships did not kill people, but just sank the ship. That's all. As for those crew members, they were released after signing for not participating in the war.

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

Although a fake chimney of a cargo ship is installed for camouflage, this is the waters of Malacca. There are many British patrol ships. If it hadn't been for the warning from the Xinhua patrol ship from time to time, I might have been found.

As one of the busiest waters in the world, there are too many ships coming and going in this area, more than half of which are from Xinhua, and most of the rest are from the United States and the Allies.

After lurking for a long time, he chose the three looming targets ahead. Judging from the heading, their destination should be Jinlan Bay.

Mueller looked back at the darkness in the distance, where there were two armored cruisers that the Xinhua Empire did not know when they had bought. They would be disguised as Schahnhorst and Gneisenau, and will send a wrong signal with large-caliber naval guns.

"Do it!"

Mueller issued an order, and a series of light signals immediately appeared on the mast of the Emden, and then the Emden and Nuremberg began to accelerate.

The two cruisers that had just been maintained in Lushun before departure were in good condition and soon accelerated to 22 knots. As the two ships suddenly brightened and got closer and closer, the three French cargo ships suddenly became uneasy.

"8000 yards."

"Fire!"

"Tell them that this is a German [***] ship. Surrender immediately, or sink."

Mueller was used to giving orders, but he turned his head and felt that he couldn't do it, because if the Frenchman surrendered with dedication, wouldn't he be unable to finish the task? He grabbed the correspondent and said again, "Remove the surrender and announce the sinking."

"Yes."

A moment later, there was a rumble of cannons on the sea, and 105mm shells hit the French freighter, which scared them to accelerate in the direction of Jinlan Bay.

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

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

The French were really scared to death. When the unlucky guy ignited the fire, the remaining two ships began to run along the complex coastline, and did not even notice that the German fleet did not follow. However, the frightened French shipowners would not doubt it, but only thought that they were lucky to get rid of each other.

The next morning, when they arrived at Jinlan Bay with heavy scars, the French shipowner immediately cried to the Far East Fleet and was attacked by four German fleets, including two large warships!

Two large cruisers?!

The commander of the French Far East Fleet was red-eyed and was attacked by a German [***] ship in front of his home, which was simply a humiliation to France. What's more, he had received a domestic order to search for the main force of Spee's fleet, 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 departure, and Lieutenant General Phillips, the commander of the British Far East Fleet, immediately sent four armored cruisers to search the sea.

A crazy naval siege has begun!

(to be continued)