On the third day after the East China government's evacuation fleet left Java, the Far East Expeditionary Force, which actually brought together the warships of four British, French, Dutch and Russian countries, finally arrived at the port of Singapore and began to undergo a long period of renovation.

At this time, the Expeditionary Force had sailed at sea for more than four months, with a journey of 15,000 kilometers. Although the Expeditionary Force passed the Sui Canal, both the itinerary and the sailing time were much shorter than that of the Russian Pacific 2nd Fleet, the nearly five months of navigation still made the soldiers exhausted. Although they stopped at the port to rest on the way, the time was not long. Moreover, the ship had severe mechanical wear and maintenance after a long time of navigation, and it was necessary to carry out maintenance. As the part below the waterline, a large number of shellfish algae and flora were attached, which seriously affected the speed of the ship and had to be cleared.

After leaving Singapore, they entered the Far East waters. Not only did there be basically no port for fleet mooring and repairing on the way, they could encounter the East China government's fleet at any time. Therefore, the ships of the Expeditionary Force must be repaired at the Singapore port to achieve the best condition and then set off again.

In addition, the current situation has undergone tremendous changes compared with the expeditionary forces before the departure of the expeditionary forces. Both Japan and Russia suffered a crushing defeat, which greatly reduced the assistance of the expeditionary forces in the Far East. The British Far East Fleet was defeated by the evacuated fleet of the East China government, which made both Britain and France find that they had greatly underestimated the strength of the East China government's naval strength, so it is necessary for the expeditionary forces to re-form tactics. This is another important task during their stay in Singapore.

Of course, because the expeditionary fleet was too large, it exceeded the naval scale of any country except Britain. Although Singapore is the largest port of Britain in Asia, it could not accommodate so many warships. So the Netherlands and Russian warships were transferred to Java for mooring and repairing, while only warships and soldiers from Britain and France were anchored in Singapore.

After a day off in Singapore, General Phillips, the naval commander of the Expeditionary Force, conducted a detailed look with Lieutenant General Irving, the commander of the Far East Fleet, and the surviving battleship captains, to learn more about the naval battle in the Natuna Islands.

Phillips received news of the defeat in the Natuna Islands Battle of the Far East Fleet during his voyage. Phillips was indeed quite surprised at that time, because in Phillips's view, the Far East Fleet had the advantage in this naval battle, and he was waiting to work hard. At the same time, Irving was not an incompetent person and could not lose. However, he not only lost, but also suffered a crushing defeat. Three battleships were sunk. Among the five battleships fleeing back to Singapore, three of them had to be towed back to Britain for repair. Therefore, the UK had sent a special team to Singapore to evaluate the damage of these three warships to determine whether these three warships were towed back to Britain for repair. However, the damage of the People's Army Fleet seemed to be small. At least the Far East Fleet did not have the results of sinking the opponent's battleships and armored cruisers.

Since Phillips received the message midway and did not know the details of the battle, he suspected that the domestic telegram was sent incorrectly, and he also called back to inquire. After receiving the exact reply, Phillips naturally wanted to understand the detailed process of the battle.

Irving was prepared for this. After he was defeated back to Singapore, Irving did not entrust others to shirk his responsibilities. Instead, he carefully summarized. He recruited the captains and other personnel of each warship fleeing back to Singapore, inquired in detail about their battle process, and checked the battle logs of each warship, took pictures of each warship, reviewed the entire warship's journey, and used it as a reference for the arrival of the expeditionary force.

After some efforts, Irving basically fulfilled his wish to do the Nantuna Islands, so he not only gave a detailed explanation to Phillips, but also conducted a complete simulation review exercise with a model.

After watching Irving's simulation and review exercise, Phillips did not speak for a long time because from the entire war, the Far East Fleet did not have a chance to win. Judging from the situation of this battle, the People's Army Navy has three major characteristics; one is that the range is long and the range is basically between 8-9,000 meters, which means that the People's Army Navy has long expanded the range to 10,000 meters, and the British Navy has only begun to conduct a 10,000-meter range test, which takes at least 2-3 years to actual combat; the second is that the hit rate is extremely high. Although the British fleet cannot calculate the hit rate of the People's Army, it is estimated that it will not be lower than 10%, and it will reach a hit rate of 10% in actual combat, which is a very amazing result; the third is the People's Army.

The navy's command is quite accurate. In this era, the navy's combat distance has been expanding, so the scope of the battlefield is also expanding, which has brought great difficulty to the command of naval battles. If the army commander can choose a high ground and look at the overall situation to command the battle, the navy commander can only stay on the warship and cannot jump out of the battlefield. Looking at the entire battlefield, each warship can only give greater autonomy, but in this way, there are too many uncertain factors. In this battle, the two transformation nodes of the People's Army Fleet are very accurate, and it is almost impossible to make a decision made by the captain. Only the transformation of the formation ordered by the commander also shows that the command of the People's Army Navy must have unique features.

The first two characteristics are that the British Navy cannot do it, and the third characteristic is that Phillips asked himself, if he had changed his own command in this battle, it would not have been possible to achieve such precise control, while the People's Army Navy did all three points, which also shows that at least a considerable part of the Navy's technology in the East China government has surpassed the United Kingdom. If the Expeditionary Force rashly fights the People's Army Navy, it will definitely suffer a great loss.

Phillips, Irving and others then re-define the battle. After several deductions, they concluded that when using pseudo-magnanimous class battleships with stronger combat power, eight must be able to defeat this People's Army fleet. Because the range of the People's Army Navy is farther than that of the British Navy, at the beginning of the battle, the British Navy must bear the opponent's strike to narrow the distance, and at least pay the price of losing two battleships. Although Britain still has a slight advantage of 6 to 5, the People's Army Navy's hit rate is higher, and it won 28 to 24 in the number of main guns. Fortunately, the defense of the Magnificent class battleships is stronger than that of the Old Man Star Battleships, and the final outcome is unpredictable. If the British Navy wants to win firmly, it will need 10 Magnificent class battleships, or 8 strongest Edward VII battleships.

Now the British Expeditionary Force has three battleships, the first one consists of 5 majestic battleships; the second one consists of 4 Duncan-class battleships; the third one consists of 3 fear-class battleships and 2 Edward VII-class battleships. Among them, the fear-class is an improved and upgraded version of the majestic class and has stronger combat power, but the Duncan-class is a simplified version of the fear-class, and its combat power is weaker than the majestic class. Therefore, any of these three battleship teams is obviously not the opponent of the evacuation fleet, and it is even worse than the French, Netherlands, and Russian navy. Moreover, considering that the People's Army Navy has at least 2-3 battleships, it can also form a more powerful fleet.

Although overall, the strength of the Expeditionary Navy is still far above the People's Army Navy, the People's Army is fighting at home, waiting for work, and familiar with the sea environment, and has the ability to bite the Expeditionary Navy at one's own.

So Phillips also decided to reorganize the British battleships in the Expeditionary Navy, merge three battleship teams into two, consisting of five majestic battleships and three fearsome battleships to form the first battleship team; four Duncan-class battleships and two Edward VII-class battleships to form the second battleship team; at the same time, the five French battleships were organized into a group with five battleships from the Netherlands and Russia, so that the Expeditionary Navy could form three fleets that could fight the People's Army Navy, so that they could be arranged calmly.

The fleet was reorganized to the ground, but the tactics needed to be greatly changed. It turned out that Phillips planned to first concentrate the main force of the fleet, block the coastline of the East China government, and then seek opportunities to land and fight, and attack the sea and land lines together to defeat the East China government in one fell swoop. But now the naval strength of the East China government is far beyond the previous estimate, and the plan to block the coastline of the East China government may not be easily completed. After all, the East China government only needs to concentrate its forces to break through.

Break a point of this. The original plan to land on the Japanese army was the Japanese army. The Japanese government also promised to send 6-8 divisions, plus the 50,000 troops of the Expeditionary Force, and the Russian army restrained it in the north, which could pose a great threat to the East China government on land. But now Japan has no choice but to take care of itself, and the Russian army has withdrawn from China, and cannot help the Expeditionary Force. It only relies on the 50,000 troops of the Expeditionary Force to land. Isn’t that just for the East China government to take the lead?

The original plan was definitely not implemented, so Phillips negotiated with the army commander and the French General Boschon Army. He finally decided that after arriving in East Asian waters, the Expeditionary Force would be divided into two, with the warships of France, the Netherlands and Russia, as well as the Expeditionary Forces stationed in Kaohsiung Port, Taiwan, and the British Navy would enter Nagasaki Zuo Sebo, Japan.

Although this is suspected of dispersing power, both fleets have the strength to confront the East China government's navy. Although they cannot completely block the coastline of the East China government, they can also form a force of controlling the East China government's north and south, and cooperate with each other, which can greatly limit the East China government's maritime activities capabilities.

Moreover, the Expeditionary Army can also wait for the opportunity to land in mainland China when entering Taiwan. After the British Navy enters Japan, it can first assist Japan in solving the People's Army landing in Japan and open up the route from Japan to the Korean Peninsula, so that Japan can free up its hands to support the landing operations of the Expeditionary Army. However, in this way, the war will be extended, and will last at least half a year, or even a year.
Chapter completed!