Chapter 541 What the hell?

June 6, southern Mexico, off the coast of Salina Cruz.

Two cruisers flying the U.S. Navy flag slowly sailed to the port controlled by the Mexican rebels. Captain Charles lay on the chart. His mission this time was to patrol the sea area and intercept the ships delivering weapons to the Mexican rebels.

The United States has been involved in the war, but surprisingly, when the country was actively preparing to send the first batch of army soldiers to Europe as soon as possible, Mexico had a problem, and there was chaos and civil war again.

Although the scale is small, the Admiralty still needs everyone to be prepared to strengthen patrols, because recent intelligence has found that a large number of Chinese weapons have appeared in Mexico, which has aroused everyone's concern. If Mexico and the Chinese come together, it will threaten the United States, and even heard that the army has done it. Plan to enter Mexico in an emergency.

That's why he led the Milwaukee and his sister ship Raleigh to this generation to carry out patrol duties.

Milwaukee and Raleigh are both Omaha-class light cruisers that have been built for ten years. Due to the birth of the Jinghai-class light cruiser, it has triggered a wave of imitation in countries around the world. However, at that time, no breakthroughs were made in the triple-loading technology, and the United States was the same. Therefore, the designers adopted the front-back double-loading, plus the middle The design of one left and one left makes the ship have six double L45/152mm naval guns.

It should be said that this is a good warship. Compared with the previous American cruisers, it can reach a speed of 24 knots, and with a range of 5,000 nautical miles, it can perform tasks similar to long-distance patrols and escorts. The only drawback is that the tonnage is too small, only 7,500 tons.

However, light cruisers are particularly important for the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet, which has only been formed for three years, because the Pacific Ocean is too big, and now it has entered Australia, so the navy needs warships with greater endurance to patrol the channel.

Naval patrols are not unconsciously sailing back and forth, but must strictly follow the designed specific routes. Since the United States has declared war on the Allies, in addition to paying attention to ships going to Mexico, it is also necessary to be careful of sudden attacks by Allied ships, especially disguised armed merchant ships and submarines.

Although there is no evidence that German submarines are active in the Pacific Ocean, their performance in the Atlantic Ocean is too worrying, so everyone needs to be extra careful. After all, the neighbor opposite the sea has a tradition of helping the Germans, and it is not impossible to secretly let German submarines use bases.

Long patrols are boring. When there is nothing to do, most of the sailors will squeeze into the deck to breathe, so there will be bursts of laughter on the deck from time to time.

Suddenly, a few wisps of black tobacco attracted everyone's attention. When the silky smoke began to turn black and thicker, the faces of the sailors gradually changed. As soon as some people looked up at the lookout on the mast, they heard a rapid alarm.

The sound made the sailors explode like frightened rabbits. The gun clothes were quickly removed, and the turret began to rotate. When everyone was ready, two huge light gray warships had appeared in the distance.

The captain suddenly opened his mouth wide and looked at the two battleships slowly passing through the distance. His eyes were about to fall off. God, so big! What kind of battleship is this?

"Captain, in the direction of nine o'clock."

In the bridge of the sailing ship Medan, Chen Shaokuan raised his glasses and followed the staff officer's fingers to see two Omaha-class light cruisers. The shape and surname of this kind of cruiser have long been known by the navy. It is not a particularly good warship. Although the firepower is not bad, the hull is too small and narrow, resulting in insufficient endurance, and And the bumps during the fast voyage are very severe, and in the case of bad sea conditions, it will even be impossible to fire.

As the distance got closer and closer, the busy American soldiers on the opposite deck made the corners of his mouth smile. Obviously, the sailors had never seen the Guam-class battleships, so they caused confusion and panic. To be honest, even if he still led the destroyer, he would probably see such a big battleship. Dizzy.

Looking at the light signal on the top of the Guam mast in front of him, Chen Shaokuan nodded to the gun commander. As the telephone was picked up, a beep alarm immediately sounded in the warship. Countless young sailors rushed out of the deck and rushed into the battle position under the leadership of the old non-commissioned officers.

Every time I encounter an opponent and a special situation at sea, it is a good training opportunity. What's more, I still have a task this time. How can I miss such a good opportunity?

"Captain, their radio signal is very busy."

On the Guam, he was also busy. The electronic intelligence officer on the ship took advantage of the gap to hand over the collected radio feature data to Li Xiuyan and asked, "Do you want to send it back?"

"No, continue to keep the radio silent. Our task is to attract the attention of the U.S. Navy here and not to meddle our own business." After putting down the telescope, Li Xiuyan walked to the chart. According to the intelligence, there were as many as ten American [***] ships patrolling nearby from the Gulf of Panama to the San Diego base. In order to cover the smooth arrival of the transport fleet in Ecuador, he had to be wronged here for a few days.

Li Xiuyan took off his hat and scratched his head. He always felt that the navy's decision this time was a little strange. It was exaggerated enough to use two newly commissioned Guam-class as bait, and let himself be delayed for at least ten days in this area. Don't they know that the eldest prince is on their own ship?

What the hell are you doing? ——

London, Whitehall.

In the world-famous conference hall of the British Royal Admiralty, there was already a lot of noise. The generals discussed the way to deal with it fiercely. The staff and technical officers tried hard to analyze the surname energy through their appearance. Looking at all this, Asquith and Churchill, who was holding a cigar, couldn't help touching the corners of their foreheads and mouth bitterly.

All this is because of the two damned battleships that suddenly appeared off the coast of Mexico the day before yesterday and were photographed by two American cruisers on patrol! Two super battleships with a displacement of at least 40,000 tons!

Looking at the blurred photos faxed from the United States to London in front of them, no one would have thought that Li Mo had built such a large warship. You know, the queen and the monarch with eight 15-inch main guns were only more than 30,000 tons, but these two battleships with nine 380mm guns reached More than 40,000 tons, which means that no Allied warship in the Pacific Ocean can shake it.

Even if warships are transferred from the Atlantic Ocean, whether it is the Queen-class or the Monarch-class, or the Mexican-class battleship that the United States has just imitated the Monarch-class, the maximum displacement is only about 35,000 tons.

Thousands of tons of transcendence is not a joke. In addition to representing a country's industrial capacity, it also represents better defense and resistance. Although Britain has the strength to build more than 40,000 or even 50,000 tons of battleships, the war has made resources more tense. Chasing the madman Li Mo has become a difficult problem in front of everyone.

Another problem is that when the two battleships appeared off the coast of San Francisco, the Ally had been forced to another road. Either take advantage of Xinhua's inability to build more such battleships to fight, or shrink its forces and cancel the plan to send troops to Europe, because if the U.S. Navy can't contain it, it will As a result, the Xinhua Army from Hawaii could easily tear through the maritime defense line and land on the west coast of the United States.

What's the use of an American who joins the agreement orally but can't send troops?

"Your Excellency the Prime Minister." Lao He George pushed the door and came in and handed in the latest information: "This morning, there were twelve Xinhua cargo ships passing through the coast of Hanzhi, but the patrol ship found that they were all empty ships. They thought it was very strange."

"Also, the Xinhua Army has begun to gather in Guangxi and Yunnan. In addition, Japan and North Korea have also found that a large number of soldiers have begun to board the ship."

"This bastard, we should go to war immediately!"

Fisher roared. He was really angry recently. First, the Xinhua Police Department actually issued a global wanted notice to him, the First Minister of Maritime Affairs, who ordered the interception of four cruise ships, to arrest him as a "terrorist" back to Xinhua for trial. Now two super battleships have emerged, which is simply fighting the British emperor. The face of the country!

"Prime Minister, if we can't avoid it, I also suggest doing it first!" George Lloyd sat down and looked at the officers present with bright eyes: "Li Mo has warned us several times to let go of the Suez Canal and the Strait of Hormuz immediately, but his deployment has not been completed. If he is given another year, the difficulties may increase a lot."

"Moreover, we still have an advantage now!" Lao Georg said again and again.

"Have you answered President Wilson and Nicholas II?"

"The United States has no news, but Nicholas II has issued a second mobilization order. He will recruit another 10 million soldiers and start to set out for the Far East Theater of the Yenisei River. He assured us that at least three million soldiers will appear in the Far East battlefield before winter comes!" Gray said.

"Three million gray animals?" General Haig shook his head: "Prime Minister, if you want to solve the current difficulties, I still suggest that the Persian and Indian armies attack Greater Kuwait immediately. As long as more than 10,000 [***] teams are eliminated, the ties between Asia and Europe will be cut off!"

"Winston, does your navy have a plan?" After thinking about it, Prime Minister Asquis looked at Churchill, who had just experienced a naval defeat and his reputation was affected.

"Mt. Admiral Phillips suggested that the Longshou Island outside the Strait of Malacca should be occupied immediately after the war. After the blockade of the Straits, the fleet quickly marched to Kundian to attract the Chinese Nanyang Fleet to fight. In addition, three battlecruisers stationed in Ditus, Australia, will lead three battlecruisers to cooperate with the Australian Army to attack Nauru, Seamore Central The two battlecruisers and the Australian fleet will cooperate with the troops to attack Western Australia and drive the Chinese there into the sea.

After listening to Churchill's words, Prime Minister Asquith nodded, but he was still worried about the United States. If the United States was not ready to take action immediately, it would be difficult for Britain to achieve a preliminary victory even if it attacked in an all-round way.

So, the attitude of the United States is crucial, so how will Wilson choose?

In the conference room, it cooled down in an a moment. Everyone knew what the Prime Minister was worried about, but there was no way to solve it by himself. Pulling the Americans into the group did greatly strengthen the strength of the agreement, but it also attracted a powerful enemy.

So the best way is to let the dominant navy launch a fierce attack while the opponent is not fully ready, just like the German raid on Belgium.

"Prime Minister, there is news in the United States. They are scheduled for August 1st!" The sound suddenly sounded.

(to be continued)