The sixteen members of the Republic of China Navy led by Colonel Wang Chongwen and Colonel Shen Honglie visited the European Tournament and the sixteen members were received by the crown prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as soon as they arrived in Vienna. Wang Xudong from the Beiyang Government's Embassy in Vienna told them that they were very lucky. Although Grand Duke Haydn Fredrich was quite friendly to the Chinese, he would not see him in Vienna at all. This time, he returned to Vienna due to the visit of the German Navy Chief of Staff General Spe.

The Austrian crown prince met with this small naval delegation from the East at St. Brun's Palace. He wore a fancy Austro-Hungarian Navy uniform, his hair was cut very short, and he did not have a beard like other Westerners, and his face was shaved very clean. He looked very relaxed when he met guests from China, and sometimes a strange, almost childlike feeling on his face.

"Austria!" said Frederick Grand Duke in Chinese. Although his tone seemed a little awkward, it still surprised the officers from the East. No one expected that this heir to the throne of Austria would speak fluent Chinese.

Shen Menglin, Minister of the Republic of China in Vienna, introduced the names of members of the Chinese Navy Viewing Group to the Crown Prince of Austria one by one. "Chief of the Navy Bureau of the General Staff Headquarters, Colonel Shen Honglie, Deputy Commander of the Navy Visiting Group in Europe!" When he introduced Shen Honglie, Li Haidn's hand stopped. He looked at Shen Honglie's face, as if he remembered something, but he quickly let go of his hand and said, "Everyone is welcome to Austro-Hungary and Germany to learn experience."

Shen Honglie was also stunned for a moment. He said awkwardly in the German he had just learned nervously: "I'm glad to see you, Your Excellency!"

The crown prince laughed, "It seems that your German is not as good as mine in Chinese." He said, then stretched out his hand to continue shaking hands with the people behind him.

The last are seven young officers who have just joined the navy for several years. The 20-year-old Sa Shijun is at the end of the line. When Shen Menglin said his name, Li Haidn said: "You should be from the Sa family in Fuzhou? What is your relationship with General Sa Zhenbing?"

"That's my uncle." Sa Shijun said.

"I have met General Sa twice before, and he is a respectable soldier." Lee Haydn said.

Wang Chongwen briefly introduced to Li Haidun the composition of the officers who visited the battle group sent by the Navy Department of the Republic of China. Most of them were learning warship commands, three were learning ship construction, one was learning submarines, and a captain named Jiang Lu graduated from Yantai Naval School and went to Nanyuan Aviation School to study.

Li Haidn listened to the introduction and turned his head from time to time to explain to an adjutant behind him. The meeting was not long, but the crown prince of Austria said that China is the "sleeping lion of the East" and that sooner or later it will become a powerful country in the world, which will still greatly encourage the officers sitting there.

These may be polite words, but the problem is that when the great powers treat China, they are too lazy to even talk about such polite words, especially those who are eye-catching around the world like Grand Duke Frederick, who rarely speak words that boast about the Chinese from them.

Two days later, Lee Haydn sent his adjutant to contact Wang Chongwen at the embassy in Vienna. The Crown Prince of Austria said that it could provide these naval officers from the East to participate in the battle. However, he said that the risk of this battle was very high and that it might be possible to die, and everyone could participate voluntarily.

These officers were of great interest, but Wang Chongwen and Shen Honglie discussed that it was not very meaningful for those officers who learned to build ships, submarines and aircraft to experience naval battles personally. In the end, they decided to participate in the naval battle arranged by Li Haidn and the two of them and seven naval officers who were professional in piloting and commanding.

On July 16, Wang Chongwen and his group boarded the train from Vienna to Germany accompanied by an Austro-Hungarian Navy major named Kohl.

What they didn't expect was that this gave them an experience of personally participating in the most famous maritime war in the history of world naval warfare.

The German cruiser fleet led by Lieutenant General Hippel attacked the British coast many times since May, which became a piece of red cloth that teased the British Betty fleet. Now the British are furious. As long as Hippel's fleet takes action, the fast fleet led by Betty will rush towards him quickly.

The tactics formulated by Spee and Schell have been successful, and now we are going to start the next step and action.

But before the operation, the excessively frequent radio contact between the German Navy fleets still exposed their intentions. On August 30, the British Admiralty Department informed Jelico, stationed in Scapa Bay, about signs of dispatch of the German fleet, and ordered him to lead the main fleet to go out to sea early and gather east of the Longfortis shoal to prevent accidents.

At 9 p.m. on August 30, Jelico was ordered to personally lead a huge fleet of 24 battleships, 4 battlecruisers, 20 cruisers and 50 destroyers to drive out the Port of Scarpaflo. Due to the strict radio silence, the Germans did not notice this.

And a few hours later, in the early morning of August 31, General Spee sent a telegram on the "Bavaria" in the north of the Katgat Strait, ordering the combat plan to proceed as usual.

At 1 a.m. on August 31, 1916, Lieutenant General Hippel led a "bait fleet" composed of 7 battlecruisers, 5 light cruisers and 30 destroyers as planned. According to the order of the General Staff of the Navy, this "bait fleet" would sail northward along the west coast of Denmark directly towards the Skagrak Strait. In this way, many British spies on both sides of the strait would report the location where the Hippel fleet passed to London. During the voyage, Hippel also asked the radio transmitters of each ship to send reports to lure the British into the bait.

Two hours after Hippel set out, Schell personally led the main force of the local fleet and quietly left Wilhelmshaven. This was a huge fleet of 17 battleships, 6 light cruisers and 31 destroyers. It was hidden 50 nautical miles behind the "Bail Fleet" fleet, ready to annihilate the hooked enemy at any time. In addition, a reconnaissance and support force composed of 26 large submarines, 6 small submarines and 10 large "Zeperlin" airships have been launched in the British waters and the North Sea waters to closely monitor the movements of the British navy.

In addition, General Spee led a "sea test fleet" composed of 6 battleships, 3 cruisers and 16 destroyers, and began to turn to the North Sea.

In contrast to the voyage of the Hippel fleet, which acted as a "bait", Schell's main formation was strictly silent. At the same time, Wilhelmshaven's radio station continued to use Schell's flagship "Frederick the Great" to contact the outside world, creating the illusion that Admiral Schell and the main force of the local fleet were still in the port.

The German Navy's combat plan seemed impeccable, but they never expected that the secret of this operation had been leaked. This was because in August 1914, after Russia sank the German "Magdeburg" light cruiser at the mouth of the Gulf of Finland, Russian divers accidentally discovered a German Navy's codebook and flag language manual in the wreckage of the German ** ship and provided it to the UK, allowing the British to easily decipher the German Navy's radio code.

Admiral Jelico made a combat plan that was almost the same as the Germans: a fast fleet led by Lieutenant General Betty, consisting of six battlecruisers and four Queen Elizabeth-class battleships led by Lieutenant General Betty set out from the Port of Rosess in Scotland and arrived at the waters near the Jutland Peninsula east of Norway on the afternoon of the 31st, in order to meet the German fleet. Jelico personally led the main fleet from the Port of Scarpaflo and also arrived at the waters near 60 nautical miles northwest of the Betty fleet on the afternoon of the 31st. If Betty had a fire with the German fleet at this moment, after actively showing weakness, he led the opponent's fleet to the direction of the main force of the fleet led by Jelico, so that Jelico's huge fleet would appear behind the German ship. With the huge firepower and speed of the British fleet, Jelico believed that he was fully sure to annihilate the German fleet that appeared in the expected waters.
Chapter completed!