Chapter 38 of Part 6

The harsh natural environment of Southeast Asia's jungle has led to the fact that several countries around China, except for Vietnam, which was the starting point of Shen Congyun, the land transportation routes in other places are almost all ideas. They have no choice but to choose trains to depart from Nanning and Kunming, and unload materials in Saigon before transfer to Bangkok. The materials plundered from Indonesia and Malaysia were transported to Bangkok first by railway and sea, and then transferred, so Bangkok became a huge transit station. Of course, it was for security reasons. Although the air force defeated the British Far East Fleet, the Far East Fleet still had the power to fight. At least after slipping out of Mumbai, if you want to block the British Far East Fleet on the vast sea, with the current strength of the Chinese special-mix fleet, since it escorted the landing troops and materials, it also had to encircle the Far East Fleet, which is a very difficult task.

The British Far East Fleet under the leadership of Carter carried out a beautiful concealed attack. The wind and waves made the submarine unable to monitor the Mumbai military port normally, and the intelligence of the Far East Fleet's attack was not discovered immediately.

The last bit of the Far East Fleet of 10 armored cruisers, 6 light cruisers, and 20 destroyers is the last bit of its fortune. If we fight a battle with the main force of the Chinese special-mix fleet, we will naturally have a lot of gap in strength. If we attack the Chinese transport fleet on the sea, it will be a huge threatening force. Since we have not defeated the Chinese special-mix fleet, Carter can only settle for the second best. After all, it is really difficult to compete with China's huge Southern Army for only 20,000 British ground troops.

It took three days before the Chinese Marine Division 1 before all personnel completed the landing. The Marine Division did not rush to advance to the depth of India, but stopped to consolidate the bridgehead of Kolkata, and waited patiently for subsequent materials and troops to be transported from Yangon.

In the early morning of the 14th, the British Far East Fleet, which secretly and carefully chose a hidden route to attack on the sea, appeared on the sea in eastern Kolkata.

A Chinese seaplane hovered over the sea, which was a routine investigation.

"Report the flagship, and find a fleet on the sea surface at xxx? Is there any of our squadrons operating in the nearby waters?" The question sent by the pilot scared the director of the telecommunications office of the "Qianlong" in a cold sweat. He rushed to the chart and observed carefully, and asked someone to report to his superiors while explaining the seaplane to continue to see the situation of the fleet clearly.

Li Jun, who was in a good mood, was tasting a cup of Brazilian coffee. The adjutant rushed in without even knocking on the door, which made Li Jun very dissatisfied and said angrily: "Why don't you knock on the door? Are there any rules?"

"Report, a huge fleet was found on the sea thirty nautical miles away from Kolkata." The adjutant had no time to explain, and quickly told the emergency information.

Bang! The cup in Li Jun's hand fell on the table. The hot coffee poured on his thighs did not feel the pain, but rushed to the chart immediately.

"Damn it, it's the British Far East Fleet. What does the submarine force do?" Li Zhun cursed angrily, turned his head and shouted at the adjutant: "The emergency escort fleet is careful and notify the main fleet to ignite the fire immediately."

Carter, holding a telescope, found that more than ten Chinese warships in front of him appeared in his field of view, and his face finally showed a smile.

"The tuna information is correct!" Tuna is the code name of the British micro-submarine formation. It was precisely through the reconnaissance of more than a dozen submarines that Carter successfully left Mumbai and chose to bypass Sri Lanka, avoid the patrol of Chinese warships, and successfully appeared in front of a Chinese escort squadron.

"Bang!" Chen Congyun slapped hard on the table, facing Deng Shichang who came to report, angrily said: "What did Li Zhun do for? He actually made the British Far East Fleet quietly arrive near Kolkata before discovering it."

"Sir, this is the shame of the navy! As the commander-in-chief, his subordinates bear the main responsibility." Deng Shichang took the initiative to take the blame for Li Zhun, which shows how broad he is.

After a little furious, Chen Congyun slowly calmed down and said to Deng Shichang, who was ashamed, "What is the specific loss?"

"When we encountered an enemy fleet, a transport fleet happened to pass by. Although the escort fleet fought to the death, it still lost the supplies of nine transport ships. Fortunately, it was not the combat troops that were transported. The escort squadron, two armored cruisers, three light cruisers, and six destroyers were sunk and suffered heavy losses. Fortunately, the fleet transported not the combat troops, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable. Li Zhun's previous call said that the main fleet was chasing and searching for the British Far East Fleet, but no trace of the opponent was found yet, and it is not yet certain whether the British Far East Fleet has returned."

Deng Shichang should have arrived even more fortunately, Major General Carter's caution. After five hours of desperate resistance from the Chinese escort squadron, Carter did not have the courage to go to the Kolkata port because he was worried about the arrival of the main force of the Chinese special-mixed fleet. Otherwise, more than 30 cargo ships in the port and a large amount of shore supplies would all turn into ashes under the artillery fire of the British Far East Fleet.

Chen Congyun's face became more and more gloomy. The British Royal Navy was really strong. He actually braved a lot of wind and rain to leave the port. This shows the foundation of the old British navy as the world's number one.

Being angry does not solve the problem, so Chen Congyun tried hard to calm down after lit a cigarette.

"The British have tasted the sweetness, and this matter will definitely be a second time. If we lose this batch of supplies, our army's actions in India will be greatly postponed. Li Jun is notified to be careful of the British attack on Yangon, and such a thing will never happen again in the future."

Deng Shichang hesitated and said, "Are you considering drawing a squadron from Lushun to support it?"

Chen Congyun thought for a moment and said, "No, the Americans are currently ambiguous. Once the United States cannot stand the temptation of huge interests and joins the war, the Japanese will definitely jump out and stand on the side of the Allies. In this way, pull out the secretly built seaplane carriers and be responsible for monitoring the British Far East Fleet. In addition, we must speed up the construction of airports in Yangon and Kolkata, and give full play to the advantages of our air force. The Navy quickly formulates a detailed plan to report it to completely eliminate the British Far East Fleet."

Deng Shichang went out, and Chen Congyun's calm face became gloomy again. At this time, Chen Congyun was worried that it was not the situation in India, but the successful attack of the British Far East Fleet would affect the final decision of the US government. Chen Congyun has always taken action before the United States, with the purpose of using continuous victory to force the United States not to enter the battlefield. At present, Russia's problems are not big. Germany reported that 3 million troops had already gathered on the Western Front battlefield, intending to launch a fierce attack, striving to completely defeat France by the end of 1917 and force France to surrender. The war to this extent, the Germans could not afford it.

The Germans can't afford to consume it, and Shen Congyun can't afford to consume it either.

Carter, who had gained a lot in Kolkata, did not return immediately as Chen Congyun expected, but sailed south. After a fake shot, he took advantage of the cover of night to quietly turn around and shoot back and head straight for Yangon.

Fortunately, on the way to Yangon, the destroyer's sonar system discovered a Chinese submarine. Although it successfully sunk the submarine, Carter was very cautious to give up his plan to attack Yangon and redirected. Carter's caution saved the British Far East Fleet this time, because just fifty nautical miles ahead, the Chinese special fleet led by Li Zhun was chasing him.

The special mixed fleet's pursuit naturally had no results. Because of concerns about the safety of the route from Yangon to Kolkata, Li Jun did not continue to pursue the British Far East Fleet, but chose to visit the next visit with caution and increased the intensity of sea patrols.

The British Far East Fleet returned to Mumbai safely, and sank a Chinese submarine along the way, equipped with a sonar system destroyer and cruiser, becoming the number one rival of the submarine. This successful attack was also the last wonderful performance of the British Fleet. After that, the entire British Fleet no longer had the chance to successfully attack. Li Zhun directly placed the main force of the special mixed fleet at the port of Colombo, and then used the seaplane aircraft carrier to expand its reconnaissance ability to cooperate with the blockade of the submarine force, making the British Fleet unable to move.

Because of the successful attack of the British fleet, the Chinese army wanted India to advance in depth until the end of April and barely prepared.

Compared with the difficulties of fighting in the south, the Northern Russia's operations, the Rapid Army, commanded by Yang Zhi, launched another attack on Moscow and Petrograd after half a month of rest. The Rapid Army's advancement seemed quite smooth, and the Russian army, which had no fighting spirit, showed no sign of resistance along the way. At the end of April, the Rapid Army occupied Kazan and divided into two groups, taking the Killing Xiang Benza all the way, and heading down to Lovgorod.

The result of the confrontation between Moscow and Petrograd was that the Soviet regime won steadily and entered a counterattack. This result directly led to the Russian army withdrawing from the Western Front sitting more steadily at the negotiating table.

On April 30, Germany, which had completed preparations, launched a huge attack, and invested a total of 230 infantry divisions.
Chapter completed!