As a deterrent force in the Far East, according to the emperor's request, the Austro-Hungarian Admiralty decided to send two aircraft carriers, the "Istria" and "Hun King Attila", to the Far East, two battleships, "Frederius", "Maximilian", four air defense cruisers, eight destroyers and four supply ships, to the Far East task force consisting of two aircraft carriers, the "Istria" and "Hun King Attila", the "Frederius" and the "Maximilian" battleships, four air defense cruisers, eight destroyers, and four supply ships, to set off for the Far East.⊥

Admiral Wilmotz Yankel was appointed commander of this task force.

On September 27, the Far East Task Force protected a huge transport fleet of more than 50 merchant ships, sailing out of the Red Sea and entering the Arabian Sea in a mighty manner.

Colonel Heinrich Muller is now transferred to the Chief of Staff of the Second Air Fleet. He is on duty on the bridge of Admiral Sukel's flagship "Istria Grand Duke". The sun has just risen out of the sea, and the sun shines on the deck of the aircraft carrier that is sailing. The entire deck surface is filled with a layer of light red. About two squadrons of fighter jets are placed on the flight deck, full and crowded, and everything looks messy.

Sailors in blue work suits were cleaning the deck, and some aircrews were inspecting the plane. Like all aircraft carriers, except for some anti-aircraft artillery, there were no large caliber naval guns on the warships for self-defense, and other warships were needed to be equipped as guards.

Captain Massas Hogan's figure appeared at the door of the duty room, "No problem, colonel?" he said to Mueller.

"Everything is normal. I think there will be no surprises in this area of ​​sea." Mueller said, "But it is not necessarily true when I go to the Far East. I was listening to short-wave broadcasts from the British at night. Singapore radio stations reported that the Japanese had occupied Shanghai and began to advance to China's hinterland. It seems that the Japanese are preparing to achieve a good strategic situation before the Chinese can react."

"What a bad news. The emperor showed a clear pro-China stance. Our arrival was not popular with the Japanese." Hogan said with a smile. "I regret the Chinese. Their number is about 8 times that of the Japanese, but they are led by a group of people who lack vision. I have brought some Chinese naval students and received some of their naval officers who came to visit. The Chinese are very friendly and very expert, but they have always faced the trouble of lack of funds."

"The question now is, will the current Far East situation have any impact on our mission? If the Japanese ignore our warnings, will the emperor get us involved in this war?" Mueller frowned and said, "I have inspected their arms in China. The Chinese are not well prepared, but their military production is located in the Midwest and should not be greatly affected by the war. But their navy may have to lose two of the most important shipyards."

"I heard that their main naval forces were retreating to Guangzhou Bay?" Hogan asked.

"It should be bombed. In fact, the navies of most countries do not understand the threat of aircraft to warships at present. The Chinese wanted to send a fleet to support Shanghai. However, they were bombed by Japanese fighter jets taken from Taiwan as soon as they entered the Taiwan Strait. Two battleships were hit. They had to retreat to Guangzhou Bay to avoid the control of Japanese aircraft."

"Okay. We are more concerned about the Japanese now. In theory, there should be no war issues here. Our naval power should be stronger than the Japanese, and there is a German fleet that is stronger than them. The Germans have sent five battleships to Qingdao to strengthen their Far East fleet. If the Japanese dare to touch us, it would be a suicide act." General Hogan said, "But the British's attitude is very ambiguous. They do not want to see the Japanese embezzle their market in China, but they have been doing business with the Japanese."

"The British are afraid of fighting with the Japanese, so they are trying to appease them and meet the needs of the Japanese as much as possible - important strategic materials such as steel, rubber, and oil." Mueller said in a sarcastic tone: "The British hate us more than Japan, because it was the Germans and we pulled them from a high position."

"In fact, I think we should form an alliance with the Japanese, but the emperor is obviously favoring China. Maybe the Japanese will drive the British out of the Malay Peninsula."

"This is not a good idea. Maybe Japan will make our decision first. After all, our strength in the Far East is worse than that of the British." Mueller said with a smile.

"Okay, okay, the strategic issue should be the problem that Admiral Yankel is worried about." Brigadier General Hogan glanced at the "Grand Duke of Frederi" on the sea on the right. The battleship's Admiral's flag was hung on the mast. Given that the battleship had relatively complete communication equipment, Admiral Yankel had always regarded it as the flagship of the fleet, although everyone knew that during combat, the real main force of the fleet was two aircraft carriers.

In terms of strength, the Austro-Hungary navy has enough confidence. Now Austro-Hungary's steel production exceeds Britain and becomes the third largest industrial country in the world. In this world, steel represents the country's voice. Although the Japanese are constantly protesting that Austro-Hungary is providing industrial and military assistance to China, they are still full of fear of the two European empires, Germany and Austria.

The task force needs to stay in Annan and South China Sea for a while, to ensure that the Austro-Hungarian merchant fleet safely transports the arms, cars and fuel that China needs urgently, to Hekou Port, and then transports them to China through the two railways, Yueguang and Yueyun.

After the fleet sailed past Socotra, Admiral Yankel ordered to remain alert while sailing.

"There should be no problem. It's 3,600 nautical miles away from Malacca. Do the Japanese dare to send aircraft carriers to attack us?" Admiral Yankel's order made many people complain constantly. In fact, Yankel was worried that the Japanese would send submarines to attack him suddenly. If it was at night, it would be basically impossible to tell who did it.

This transport fleet carries hundreds of thousands of tons of strategic materials that China urgently needs, including bulk arms transactions such as aircraft, tanks, cars, etc., and more of them are machinery and equipment, which will be used to help China establish dozens of factories closely related to the military industry. Yankeer knows the importance of these machinery and equipment in supporting China's war of resistance, so he dare not be careless at all.
Chapter completed!