No. 109 Downing Street, London is a newspaper called Global Military. It has military observers from Europe, Asia, America and Africa. It is an authoritative military newspaper. However, the boss behind it is the Central Intelligence Agency of the Chinese Empire.

Under the entrusted by the Imperial Government, the London Station not only collected intelligence information from the British military, but also cooperated with the Imperial Military to do something within its ability.

The British Asian fleet was hiding in the Singapore port and did not come out, which affected the strategic deployment of the Chinese Empire's navy to quickly fight and seize the Asia-Pacific sea power.

To this end, Colonel Xie Xiaofeng, the director of the London station, ordered the Global Military Newspaper to publish some incitement editorials, titled Marshal Lyons, who lost all the face of the British Royal Navy, satirizing the Royal Navy's Asian fleet, which shrank the Singapore Port and did not dare to fight. The Imperial Navy was just a paper tiger. The former world's strongest navy was about to give way. Some senior military commentators said: "If you cannot fight to face the enemy, the British Navy will lose the power to control the Asia-Pacific seas, and then the Imperial Chinese Navy will sweep the Pacific Ocean and attack the British colonies in Asia unscrupulously."

As soon as the report came out, British public opinion was very much chasing the stick, and British London citizens went to the Admiralty building to protest the navy's incompetence.

As a result, the British Admiralty was under unprecedented public pressure. Telephones and letters of protest from senior British government officials, senior officials from the House of Lords, and civilians filled Fisher's desk.

Fisher opposed an immediate counterattack against the Imperial Navy, because he knew best that the British Navy had no warships that could confront the Imperial Divine Bow Battleship. The test of a Fearless itself was not over yet. The newly built Fearless Battleship on the ship platform would have to be launched in a year at the earliest. The British Navy must endure this period of crisis.

However, Fisher, the Minister of Navy, could no longer suppress the officials of the Admiralty. Under their pressure, Fisher had to issue a fourth order to Marshal Lyons of Singapore to urge him to reinforce Hong Kong.

In the past, the order was passed to the British Asian Fleet Command at the Singapore Naval Base. Marshal Lyons finally could not withstand the pressure from Shangfeng and his subordinates, and sighed and called back to the Navy to prepare to go to sea.

As early as three days ago, the Indian Ocean Fleet had arrived at the Kuala Lumpur Port on the Strait of Malacca and was ready to cooperate with the Asian fleet to lift the siege of Singapore Port at any time.

On the afternoon of the past day, Lyons once again made contact with Lieutenant General Pete, the commander of the Indian Ocean Fleet, agreed to launch a breakthrough operation in the early morning of the Concave Day. The Indian Ocean Fleet restrained the main force of the Pacific Fleet on the periphery and covered the main force of the Asian Fleet to break through the blockade at night and enter the depths of the ocean.

What Lyons never expected was that his communication line with Pitt had been monitored by Chinese Imperial Intelligence personnel lurking between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and quickly informed the Pacific Fleet.

Lin Jianzhang, the commander of the Pacific Fleet, who was waiting for fighter planes in the South China Sea, was very happy when he learned about the information and immediately summoned the fleet officers to discuss the specific combat plan.

"Mr. Commander, I suggest destroying the Indian Ocean Fleet first and then turning back to deal with the Asian Fleet."

"The Indian Ocean Fleet is just a small cruiser fleet. Attacking them will storm the direction of our main battleship. We cannot alarm the snake and have to eat the Asian fleet in one go."

"But if we don't attack the Indian Ocean Fleet, I'm afraid Lyons won't leave Singapore easily."

Everyone expressed their opinions, and the discussions between them made the issue quickly analyze it thoroughly.

Finally, Chief of Staff Ye Zugui said: "I think that if the attack on the Indian Ocean Fleet is lighter, Lyons will not be deceived. If the power to deal with Lyons is weaker, it is better to send the Fourth Squadron to restrain it. If Lyons is not fooled, we will give up the decisive battle with his main force and completely block the Singapore Port until the end of the war."

Lin Jianzhang nodded and said, "I agree with this suggestion. I would rather lock Lyons in the port than let him enter the ocean safely. I know Lyons's ability. Once he enters the ocean, it will be difficult to destroy him."

Everyone gradually unify their opinions, so Lin Jianzhang made a combat deployment, ordering the Fourth Squadron and the First Battalion of the Destroyer to restrain the Indian Ocean Fleet, and the other squadrons were on standby to intercept Lyons' main fleet.

At 9 p.m. on the 18th, seven Edgar-class cruisers from the Third Cruiser Squadron of the Indian Ocean Fleet advanced from the Strait of Malacca to Singapore under the leadership of Pitt.

At around 10 o'clock, the Flying Fish, the Pacific Fleet's Sixth Squadron, discovered the Indian Ocean Fleet, advancing eastward and quickly informed him. Twenty minutes later, nine Haiqi-class cruisers of the Fourth Squadron of the Pacific Fleet, sailed away from Morro Bay and entered the Strait of Malacca, and moved forward to the Indian Ocean Fleet.

In Singapore port, Marshal Lyons has ordered the Asian fleet to set fire and boiler pressurization, and all combat preparations are ready.

On the bridge of the flagship counterattack, Lyons and Bill looked quietly at the western sky, as if waiting for the sound of cannons there.

Just after 11 o'clock, the Pitt fleet encountered the Fourth Squadron of the Pacific Fleet, commanded by Yang Yongshuang, who was searching forward in the waters near Badong Island. Both sides did not turn on the lights at the beginning and reconnaissanced against the moon in the sky. When they found each other, the distance between the two sides was less than a thousand meters.

"The combat speed is prepared, the main gun in front is ready!" Yang Yongshuang immediately ordered preparations.

At this time, Pitt on the opposite side also issued a battle order.

With a "bang", Pitt's ship Edgar's front main gun fired first.32

The double-mounted rifled gun shot two 234mm shells at Yang Yongshuang's fleet, and the naval battle broke out.

"Fire and fight back!" Seeing that the British army had fired, Yang Yongshuang was not willing to be outdone, so he immediately ordered the Haiqi to fire back.

"Dong!Dong!"

The double-equipped 203 mm 40-fold main gun on the bow of the Haiqi ship opened fire immediately. The explosion of the shells with Heisujin weighing 100 kilograms was no less powerful than the 243 shells of the British ship.

Immediately afterwards, other warships also fired fire, and so did British ships.

I saw the sound of cannons roaring, the fire flashed, and the water columns soared into the sky, and huge waves rolled.

"The left rudder is full, and the starboard cannon is ready!" Yang Yongshuang ordered each ship to turn and make a horizontal line, preparing to attack with the firepower on the side. Because the distance between the two sides is less than 800 meters, at this distance, it is even more difficult to cover the firepower of the rapid-fire cannon...

Similarly, Pitt ordered his fleet to fight with all ships and use the port side artillery of each ship.

Seeing that the two fleets were about to fight each other, the commanders of both sides were unsure. In terms of quantity alone, Yang Yongshuang's fleet had a large group of flying fish-class hunting ships behind nine Haiqi-class cruisers, while Pitt had only seven Edgar-class cruisers and six torpedo boat destroyers. In terms of quantity, the Pitt fleet was at a disadvantage.

However, in terms of tonnage and gun caliber, Pitt's fleet is in the upper hand.

The seven Edgar-class cruisers commanded by Pitt are considered first-class protective cruisers of good quality and low price. The reason is that the Royal Navy not only needs excellent warships, but also needs relatively cheap and reliable ships to meet their global deployment needs. The powerful and economical first-class cruiser Edgar-class has appeared as a reduced price reduction version of the Blake-class.

"Simple but not simple" she is a model of reliable and durable cruiser. In history, all of their nine ships were sunk by submarines in World War I. This was very difficult in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when naval technology was rapidly developing.

Taking the Edgar at the time of service, her displacement reached 7,350 tons. The military equipment is exactly the same as the Blake-class, and the price is only on the British list. Compared with the 350,000-ton Haiqi-class cruiser price of the 4,900-ton Haiqi-class cruiser of the Chinese Empire Navy, the Edgar-class is simply the same as it was picked up for nothing.

The cost control of Edgar's success is often said that war is a manifestation of politics.

For Britain, both political and military, they serve their economy, and the purposeless policy of bullying the military will not be adopted by the British government. In order to achieve the goal of maintaining the colonial system and protecting the British power and interests in other countries, Britain needs an efficient army to complete this complex task.

Since ancient times, as a huge gold-eating beast, if the navy cannot be controlled skillfully, it will not only fail to achieve the purpose of defending national interests, but will instead squeeze out the national treasury, and may even in turn affect the nerves of politicians and ordinary citizens, pulling the country into the abyss of unnecessary war. Therefore, the larger the navy, the more superb operating skills are needed.

This Edgar-class protective cruiser is exactly the same as the Blake-class in terms of firepower, but in order to control costs, the original dome with a maximum thickness of 6 inches was changed to a maximum thickness of 5 inches (at the slope, the thickness of the horizontal armor at the top remains unchanged to 3 inches). In addition, the three-in-one steam engine was reduced from three to two, and a relatively compact new model was adopted. These two measures reduced the total weight of the Edgar-class and the scale was reduced, which not only reduced the construction cost, but also reduced the usage cost.

Compared with Blake's class, the Edgar's class's displacement has been reduced from 9150 tons to 7350 tons to 7700 tons.

Tons (Tropical type moving has increased the displacement of 350 tons due to thickened wooden insulation): The scale has not changed much to the reduction of draft, but the length has been reduced by more than one meter, laying a solid foundation for controlling the displacement. On this basis, the fuel consumed by the boat has also been reduced accordingly. The Edgar-class cruise range is also 10,000 nautical miles/10 knots, but the coal load capacity is 550 tons less than the 1,800 tons of the Blake-class. The total construction cost of the two-class ships has decreased from 440,700 to 367,000.

The goods are cheap, but the quality is excellent. The power system of this class of ships is not only reliable and very high (the No. 5 ship Poyalarthur once maintained an average speed of 18 knots for 48 hours, and no armored cruiser could compete with it at that time). During the trial voyage, the power of each ship generally exceeded the designer's expectations, and after a long-term test of various bad weather in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, it was proved that the Edgar class deserves the honor of world cruisers. They are all warships with excellent navigation capabilities.

In order to reduce the first draft and further improve navigation energy, the Edgar-class ships No. 4 and No. 7 removed a 9.2-inch gun on the forecastle and replaced it with two parallel 6-inch speed guns to make the 6-inch guns of the entire ship reach 12. In addition, the two 234 cannons of its front main gun, and one with a stern.

The firepower is very strong.

Faced with this situation, the Haiqi-class cruiser of the Chinese Empire was several thousand tons less than the tonnage. The main gun was only 203 mm in diameter and the secondary gun was 119 mm, which was 234 in diameter.

The main gun is at a disadvantage compared to the 152nd secondary gun.

However, naval combat emphasizes practical combat effectiveness. Although the Haiqi class is weak in the caliber of the gun, it has an advantage in the double-scaling of the gun. Edgar's 234 main gun only extends 31 times, 152

The cannon is only 40 times extended, while the Haiqi-class 203 main cannon is 40 times extended, and the 119mm secondary cannon is 50 times extended. The shear force of the shell is not worse than that of the Edgar level. In the comparison of the charges between the two sides, the Chinese Navy's shells are powerful Hesockin charges, while the British Navy is still using old cotton gunpowder.

In this way, the destructive power of the artillery on both sides is basically the same. In terms of the number of artillery, the total number of main and secondary artillery on both sides is the same. In terms of the third-level rapid-fire guns, the Haiqi class is equipped with 16 47-level rapid-fire guns, which is three more than the Edgar class, and has a small advantage.

However, in terms of speed, the gap between the two sides is huge. The combat speed of the Haiqi level reached 25

The Edgar-level 127mm dome armor protection makes her very capable of getting beaten.

In general, the strength of the warships of both sides is basically evenly matched. The Chinese Empire Navy relies on its speed advantage and maneuver quickly, which makes the British Navy's shells unable to be hit. Conversely, the British Navy's speed is not good, so it's okay to take advantage of the thick armor to get a few more shells.

In this way, both sides are in a state where you can't beat me and I can't beat you.

At 11:40, the fleets of both sides fell into a melee.

At night, fires flashed on the dark warships on both sides, artillery shells roaring and coming and going, and countless water columns on the sea surface rose into the air, and the battle situation was extremely fierce.

Standing on the bridge of the Battleship Counterattack in Singapore, Lyons watched the flames flashing in the western sky and the sound of cannons roaring, knowing that the navies of the two countries had already started fighting.

Bill said: "Let's start to act too! General Pete's cruiser fleet is probably not the main opponent of the Pacific Fleet, and I'm afraid it won't last long." Lyons nodded, so he called a communications consultant and ordered more than 20 cruisers from the port defense fleet to set off and enter the South China Sea from Morrow Bay to the east.

Bill frowned and said, "Marson Marshal, you let the defensive fleet go east into the South China Sea. Why is this?" Lyons smiled and said, "I have been in China for five or six years. I have specially learned the Chinese Sun Tzu's Art of War, which is called "East and Attacks West". I believe that Lin Jianzhang, the commander of the Pacific Fleet, will definitely not transfer all the main forces to attack the Indian Ocean Fleet. Their main forces must be waiting somewhere in the South China Sea, waiting for us to come to our door."

Bill said in surprise: "If you guessed it right, then you let the defensive fleet take the route we have booked, wouldn't they be killed?"

Lyons said: "In order for the main fleet to successfully break through, some small sacrifices are inevitable. Besides, they are all fast cruisers. Once they meet the main force of the enemy fleet, they can only run back. Believe me, this is the best way to escape."

Bill asked, "Then how can we go?"

Lyons said: "We went out from the west of Morro Bay, where the Chinese Empire naval fleet had just gone west to intercept the Indian Ocean fleet. The defense power was weak and we could quickly break through there. After breaking through, we entered the Bellaha Strait and turned north into the South China Sea."

Although Bill was not very satisfied, he had no better way. At present, as long as the main force of the Asian fleet could break out and enter the ocean, they could use the vast overseas colonies of Britain to fight.

"Start!" With Lyons' order, the main ships of the British Asian fleet quickly set off and moved from west of Morro Bay toward the Bellaha Strait.

At this time, as long as the five flying fish-class hunting ships of the Sixth Squadron of the Imperial Navy of the Imperial Empire were patrolling and alerting, when the main force of the British Asian fleet appeared in front of them, they had no way to stop them. Under the fierce shelling of the British fleet, the five flying fish-class hunting ships quickly retreated and reported to the fleet headquarters.

At this time, the main force of the Pacific Fleet was gathering in the northeast direction of the exit east of Morro Bay. When the patrol ship discovered a large number of British warships, Lin Jianzhang immediately ordered the Pacific Fleet to launch an attack formation.

"What? They walked from the direction of the Bellaha Strait?" Lin Jianzhang was shocked after receiving the report and asked, "Then what is in front of us?"

Ye Zugui thought for a while and said, "It may be that Lyons divided into two groups, put a basket of eggs in two baskets, smashed one and another one."

Lin Jianzhang shook his head and said, "Lionce is a famous British naval general. He has been with us for so many years. He believes that he is not a fuel-efficient lamp. If I were him, I would rather stay in the port than separate the fleet and lose half of the fleet's strength in vain. You must know that after we attacked Singapore Port, the British Asian fleet had lost one-third, and another one-third, the British navy would not have the strength to compete with us. Lyons would not be so stupid!"

At this time, the fifth and sixth teams of the Third Squadron of the Pacific Fleet, which were detoured by the two wings, had already exchanged fire with the British fleet.

The sound of cannons roared in the distance and the flames shone.

Lin Jianzhang hurriedly picked up the telescope to observe. He could not judge the caliber of the British fleet in the dark, but Lin Jianzhang relied on his years of experience to judge that the caliber of the British fleet would not be the 305 main gun.

"It should be a cruiser fleet on the second and third lines!" Ye Zugui said: "The British have a lot of family backgrounds! There are so many bait fleets!"

Lin Jianzhang said: "British empire known as the sun never sets, and it is not uncommon for the huge overseas colonies to require hundreds of warships to maintain."

At this time, the communications staff report: "Report to the commander, and the commander of the Sixth War Team, Lin Yongsheng, reported that their opponents are not the main force of the British fleet, but only some second- and third-class cruisers in Britain."

"It's true!" Lin Jianzhang was already convinced that the main force of the British fleet was the one who walked through the Bellaha Strait.

"Get the chart!" Ye Zugui shouted loudly, and the combat staff hurriedly unfolded the chart. Several other staff members illuminated the chart with flashlights.

Ye Zugui looked at the chart and found the location of the Bellaha Strait and said, "There is only one channel exit to the South China Sea, and the other channel leads to the Panjiang Strait. You can also enter the South China Sea from the southeast of the Panjiang Strait, but you have to go 200 nautical miles more. Now we turn around and rush to the slogan sea area of ​​the northern exit of the Bellaha Strait, and it should be too late."

Lin Jianzhang nodded and said, "Fortunately, we did not put the battle fleet into battle as soon as possible. Now we have time to turn around. The order was sent, the first and second squadrons immediately headed to the No. 17 waters to meet the enemy. The third squadron immediately escaped from the battle, did not entangle the enemy, and returned quickly."

The order was issued, and the main ship of the Pacific Fleet quickly turned around and headed southeastward, and rushed to the No. 17 waters at full speed. At the same time, the Third Squadron also received an order to quickly get out of entanglement with the British Port Defense Fleet and turn around to chase the main fleet.

The British officers and soldiers on more than 20 warships of the British Port Defense Fleet were relieved. They were suddenly attacked by the flanks of two Pacific Fleet teams, and the opponent's fierce artillery fire caught them off guard.

They thought they were finished, and they couldn't help but scold Lyons for shamelessly treating them as bait to die, but just when they were desperate, the Pacific Fleet suddenly stopped attacking and turned around and left, which made them cry with joy. They actually walked away from the gate of hell and survived a disaster, but they didn't dare to move forward, so they turned around and retreated to Singapore Port, and informed Lyons at the same time.

When Lyons learned that the defensive fleet was attacked by the main force of the Pacific Fleet in the east, he was overjoyed, but when he heard the opponent quickly escape from the battle, Lyons suddenly realized that the opponent had already known his intention and was quickly rushing towards the Bellaha Strait.

Bill praised Lyons and said, "The Commander is indeed a perfect match. The Pacific Fleet really appeared in the east to ambush us! This time it was so dangerous that it almost fell into the trap of the other party."

Lyons shook his head and said, "We have not escaped the danger yet! I did not raise the enemy's bait. Judging from their rapid escape from the battle, Lin Jianzhang gave up eating our port defense fleet. He is now coming to deal with us!"

Bill frowned and said, "This Lin Jianzhang has a big appetite. He dared to eat our main fleet. He was not afraid of breaking his front teeth!" Lyons said, "Let's ignore his teeth for now. If it is blocked by him at the exit of the strait, it will be very unfavorable to our fleet."

Bill asked, "Then what are you good at?" Lyons said, "The Chinese destroyers nearby are very annoying. They ordered all torpedo boat destroyers to be dispatched, and they must drive them far away and prevent them from detecting our course."

The adjutant turned to convey the order, and soon more than a dozen torpedo boat destroyers left the fleet and chased towards the five hunting ships of the Imperial Navy.

A small-scale artillery battle broke out in the nearby waters. Due to mission reasons, the Chinese Empire's destruction ships refused to leave, and finally forced Lyons to be impatient and actually transferred the Seventh Team of the Cruiser Fleet to expel them.
Chapter completed!