It can be said that the Chinese Republic and the German Empire hit it off. The two sides quickly formulated a cooperation plan. Two days later, a top-secret telegram was sent to the Caroline Islands in the German New Guinea colony through the submarine telegraph line. This is the German Navy's Far East.

The anchorage of the fleet. When the intelligence adjutant sent a telegram to Count Spey with a solemn face, Spey felt that his blood seemed to be boiling!

As a senior admiral of the German Imperial Navy, Rear Admiral Spey was very clear about the mission of his generation, which was to defeat Britain at sea and win territory under the sun for the empire. Before the final war with Britain, Count Spey was very willing to take the

The future allies of the British came to practice their skills. "It is a pity that now

There is only one battleship, the Scharnhorst, that can sortie. It may take more than a month for the Gneisenno to be completed." Rear Admiral Spee looked at the Gneisenno, which was resting in the dock, with regret.

Said. "Order the fleet to prepare immediately, and we must set off within 2 days." Earl Spey ordered.

With the issuance of the secret war preparation order, rounds of 300kg 11-inch 45L main gun shells were taken out from the ammunition depot buried deep underground, transported to the dock by vehicle, and then placed on the deck one by one using a crane.

The ship was then sent to the ammunition depot. At the same time, bags of high-quality anthracite from the Ruhr area were also loaded into the Scharnhorst's coal bunker. Then Spey looked at the several small oil storage tanks in the port.

, gritted his teeth and decided to fill the oil tank as well.

In order to minimize diplomatic passivity, the Scharnhorst and its attached warships will be replaced by the Chinese Navy's Double Dragon Playing Pearl flag after entering Chinese territorial waters. Except for the small battlecruiser Scharnhorst

Rear Admiral Spey will also lead three other light cruisers. They are Em

Emden, Dresden and Leipzig. Among them, Emden is a new Bremen-type light cruiser. Dresden and Leipzig are older cruisers. (For specific battleship data, please see this article

Book Chapter 594 Above the North Sea, there are two levels of light cruisers.)

Two days later, Count Spee led his fleet to leave the Caroline Islands for China. During the four days of sailing at sea, Count Spee did not find a main warship of the Chinese navy sailing at sea, which made him feel

There was a trace of doubt. When his fleet finally arrived at the forward base of the Chinese Navy in the Philippines, there was only one such battleship and a fleet of two light cruisers to greet Count Spee and his fleet. This left him with a lot of morale.

The officer was very dissatisfied.

"Look, the Chinese Navy, which has nine dreadnoughts, actually only dispatched one old armored cruiser. It is the only remaining King-class armored cruiser Taipei." A German naval officer said with some dissatisfaction. At this time, Count Spee considered

The question is not whether the Chinese fleet intends to neglect itself, but what is considered is where is the Chinese main fleet? What are they doing? There is not a single capital ship in the forward base. This is too abnormal.

As for whether the other party is being negligent? Count Spey doesn't think so. The general's flag raised on the Taipei has clearly indicated the identity of the visitor. Major General Liu Guanxiong, commander of the Armored Cruiser Fleet of the Chinese Republic, is coming as the commander of a squadron.

To greet him, the Far East Squadron of the German High Seas Fleet

The commanders and commanders are completely equal. If we talk about prestige, Liu Guanxiong fought all the way from the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 to 1996. There are many outstanding performances in it. Although Earl Spee bears the name of a fleet commander, he has no merit. So Si Spee

Earl Pei did not think that the other party had deliberately neglected him.

"After the two sides converge, I don't want to hear any remarks that damage the friendship between the two countries. Within 10 minutes, this order must be conveyed to the ears of every naval officer." Count Spee turned to the officer behind him and said.

Later, after passing the semaphore and the armored cruiser Taipei

After contacting Liu Guanxiong on board, the Scharnhorst and the three light cruisers behind it slowly lowered the German Navy's flag and replaced it with the Chinese Navy's flag. At this point, all the signs of the German High Seas Fleet had been removed, and Graf Spee

and his fleet officially joined the Chinese Navy.

Half an hour later, Liu Guanxiong and other Chinese naval generals boarded the Scharnhorst. From the moment the officers from both sides entered the conference room, the Scharnhorst began its first battle! "Your Majesty."

The Fang’s fleet seems to have suddenly disappeared from this world. We have been cruising in the Makassar Strait for nearly three days and have not found a single battleship of your country. Where is the Chinese fleet that once spanned the entire Java Sea? Is it there now?

What happened?" asked Count Spey.

"In Taiwan. We will have a big operation in the near future. The entire fleet will go out. We will force the Russian fleet to fight us before their reinforcements arrive. And your fleet will be incorporated into the Chinese Republic's pre-dreadnought fleet as a

The new flagship of the armored cruiser detachment, and the Taipei will be combined with the Ninghai-class battleship." Liu Guanxiong said.

"I originally thought that my fleet would be incorporated into the Chinese main fleet to fight against the Russian battleships. Or to fight against Essen's fast battleships, but in the end I could only fight against armored cruisers like the Rotterdam class or the Varyag."

Count Spee was somewhat disappointed with the arrangement of the Chinese Navy. Originally, he wanted to fight against the opponent's battleship, but he did not expect that he was actually arranged to fight against such a battleship. This made him somewhat dissatisfied.

"The fleet needs to be organized in a balanced manner. The Russian main fleet has our nine dreadnoughts to deal with it. It has gained an absolute advantage. I think you should be aware of it to some extent. The former dreadnought fleet is actually a decoy fleet.

The task is to hold back the opponent's fast fleet. Mainly

The force fleet destroys the Russian battle fleet directly under Makanov to buy time. In order to better complete this task, we need to let the pre-dreadnought fleet support the world for a longer period of time, so your country's battleships are incorporated into the pre-dreadnought fleet instead of the main force.

Fleet." Liu Guanxiong smiled and explained patiently.

In fact, he had another reason that he didn't say clearly, that is, the Scharnhorst was not qualified to enter the main battle line! There is an old saying in China that if you don't have diamonds, you can't do the porcelain work. Although the Scharnhorst is called

Small battle cruiser, but with 8-inch side armor and not very thick dome armor

It was really suspenseful to face the 12-inch main gun. The Longxu-class battlecruiser was even grouped behind Longtai during the battle, and the Longxu's dome armor was thick enough and the angle was wide enough, so it was relatively fragile, not to mention the displacement.

With only 16,000 tons, the dome armor could only block the shrapnel of the Scharnhaust.

Are you waiting to be defeated in the battle line? Don't think that you won't be defeated if you have a group of big brothers behind you. In the Battle of Jutland, when the German High Seas Fleet launched a death charge against the British Grand Fleet, the battlecruiser Invincible was brave

We went to block the German charge, with the entire fleet behind us to provide fire support. What was the result? Wasn't it still destroyed by the German battle cruiser? So?

Therefore, when Xu Jie was initially organizing the formation, he insisted on incorporating this German warship that could keep up with the Dreadnought Fleet into the former Dreadnought Fleet just for the Russian Navy's 12-inch heavy artillery. He even grouped it with an armored cruiser in order to avoid the Peter the Great-class rapid

The battleship's 12-inch gun and the seven-provincial 274mm50l main gun, these shells may kill people!

"Although the König has poor firepower, its side armor is 10 inches thick. It can basically withstand the opponent's main gun bombardment. With the addition of the three Ninghai-class battleships, the two sides are basically evenly matched. And Shane

The purpose of mixing the Horst and the cruise fleet is to allow you to

Achieve results as quickly as possible and open up the situation. Our five battleships defeated the opponent's four armored cruisers, and the Scharnhorst was more powerful than any of the opponent's armored cruisers. Even if we only force one of the opponent's battleships to withdraw from the battle, we will

Gain an advantage." Liu Guanxiong continued his analysis.

After some explanations, Earl Spee finally knew how to arrange his forces in a naval battle. It was the best choice to concentrate his superior forces to attack the opponent, but at the same time, he had to ensure that his weaknesses were not broken by the opponent, at least to ensure that he

Before going to the advantage, the weakness on one's own side

The fleet will not collapse. The artillery formation is actually very similar to Tian Ji's horse racing. The Ninghai class is slow and has strong firepower, but more importantly, it has good protection. Its protection is definitely at the battleship level, even if it is occupied with superior firepower

The siege of the Russian fast fleet will not be defeated soon.

What Xu Jie was really worried about at the beginning was the armored cruiser formation. It was no joke that the opponent had as many as 32 10-inch 50L main guns. Even if the armor box of the Garibaldi-class hull could withstand it, the head and tail would definitely be beaten into pieces. Add

In order to increase firepower, the sea trial performance and margin were reduced. Whether it is losing balance or being burned into a torch, it is inevitable. The loss is certain. But

If the loss of the armored patrol cannot buy enough time, the result is most likely that the Russian-Dutch armored cruiser formation will quickly defeat the Chinese armored cruiser, and then cooperate with four fast battleships to wipe out the entire pre-dreadnought fleet. Eventually, the battle situation will be out of control.

But now that there is an additional quasi-equipped cruiser, it will be different. If it is placed in the main fleet, it may be defeated. But if it is placed in the battle of the secondary main fleet, it can kill all parties! Thus revitalizing the entire battle situation!

Or to use an analogy, it is the barrel effect. If you connect a small wooden board to the upper wooden board, it will not change the water capacity, but if you put it on a short board, it can greatly improve the volume of the barrel.

So after some discussion, the Chinese Navy decisively turned the Scharnhorst into an armored ship.

The new flagship of the fleet. After Earl Spee learned the details of the First Java Sea Battle, he also gave up his original idea. After fully realizing the status of his warship in the battle of the Grand Fleet, Earl Spee rationally chose to accept

This arrangement. And six days later, it arrived at the Chinese fleet's base in Taiwan.
Chapter completed!