William Zuxiong was born in Leipzig in eastern Germany in 1864. In 1914, he was 50 years old and served as the commander of the German Mediterranean Squadron with the rank of Rear General. He was dark-skinned, strong in body, and had been in the army for more than 30 years. He was familiar with every position of warships, quick thinking and broad vision, and was called a "smart old sailor" by his colleagues. In 1913, he raised his commander's flag on the "Von-der-Tann". Since then, he has been sailing on various inland seas and straits in his new defense zone, traveling back and forth

The coast and headlands, around the islands and visit the ports. He went to Constantinople and met with the Turks. He also paid tribute to the Italians, Greeks, Austrians, French, and in short, with everyone except the British. He reported to the German Emperor that the British would never allow their ships to be moored in the same port at the same time. The British were always used to appear immediately after the German ships left in order to eliminate the impression that the Germans might leave, or according to the German Emperor's elegant statement, it was a bad act of "spitting into the soup".

On the morning of August 6, 1914, the "Von der Tin" and "Breslau" sailed out of the eastern entrance of the Strait of Messina. The British light cruiser "Gracestell" who was waiting here immediately followed. The ship belonged to the Bristol class light cruiser, which was in the same heavyweight class as the "Breslau", but was built earlier, with a maximum speed of only 25 knots, and was equipped with two powerful 6-inch mkxi naval guns, and 10 average 4-inch mkvii naval guns.

There are several caliber rapid-fire guns, two 18-inch torpedo tubes, and the armor protection level is slightly stronger than that of "Breslau". The two ships are evenly matched opponents, but the triple main gun of the "Von der Tann" can beat the British light cruiser to nowhere to survive. With the tragedy of the French protective cruiser "Lagravier", the "Gracestel" had to follow the Germans far away and constantly inform the target's direction and movements to its fleet with radio.

"Von der Tin" and "Breslau" tried to use their speed to shake off this annoying tail, but the coal they added in Messina was of poor quality, and the black smoke from the chimney formed a striking navigation beacon, and they could judge their location based on the smoke column from a long distance. As dusk approached, the aircraft of the "Breslau" had some minor problems, and the German fleet's speed slowed down to 18 knots. "Gracester" took this opportunity to catch up and once narrowed the distance between the two sides to the range of "Von der Tin". Although the German warship pointed its main gun at the British cruiser, it did not try long-range night shooting.

The "Gracestel" stared at William Zuxiong's fleet, but at this time, Admiral Milne, the commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, and his three battlecruisers, were still in the Malta waters. In Milne's view, if Zuxiong took his two battleships to the Adriatic waters controlled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, they would soon be intercepted by the Trubridge fleet that was monitoring the Adriatic Sea, but he also tended to think that the Germans' route at this time was an illusion, and they would turn north and hunt ships full of French foreign legions, and then wait for an opportunity to rush across the Strait of Gibraltar to enter the Atlantic Ocean.

At around 10 o'clock at night, the engine failure of the "Breslau" was eliminated. William Zuxiong, who was extremely disgusted with the British hound behind him, immediately ordered a full speed northward. The two proud works of the German shipbuilding industry were galloping happily in the calm Mediterranean. The poor "Gracester" had been running at full capacity for 11 hours. The mechanical failure began to torture the sailors and the ship-to-ship engineers. It could only watch the German fleet go far away.

Leaving Messina, he went north and crossing the Otranto Strait and entering the Adriatic Sea. Since the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on Serbia on July 28, the armored cruiser detachment commanded by British Lieutenant General Sir Ernest Trubridge has been squatting in the Otranto Strait. His mission is to "prevent the Austrians from coming out and stop the Germans from entering." However, the four armored cruisers and eight destroyers under his command are not enough to compete with the Austro-Hungarian fleet, and it is difficult to stop the pace of the "Von-der-Tann". Therefore, according to Sir Trubridge's understanding, his primary task is to monitor the enemy's actions. Once the Austro-Hungarian fleet attacks, he will use the speed advantage of the armored cruiser to restrain it. If he encounters a German battle patrol, he will shrink his formation and fight and retreat.

That night, when we learned that "Von der Thenn" and "Breslau" were heading towards the Adriatic Sea, Trubridge nervously set up a battle array. "Duke of Edinburgh", "Black Prince", "Warrior", and "Defense". These four armored cruisers of three levels are the last batch of armored cruisers built by the British Navy and are also the most powerful armored cruisers in the history of the world's naval. Their standard displacement is between 13,500,000

Between tons and 14,600 tons, equipped with 9.2-inch (4 mm) main gun and 7.5-inch (191 mm) or 6-inch (152 mm) large-caliber secondary guns, with a maximum speed of 22 knots. The 1904 Japanese-Russian naval battle was the golden age of armored cruisers. Ten years passed by, and the cost was even higher and the strength of the battlecruisers made these old warships that once had important strategic value completely out of date.

During the Russo-Japanese War, Trubridge served as a military officer in the naval stationed in Japan and knew not to underestimate the effectiveness of long-range artillery fire. He was not only a famous family, but his great-grandfather once fought on the Nile with Nelson, and also enjoyed the reputation of "the best officer in the navy in his youth." His belief in navigation technology was just like the Europeans' belief in the Bible. Churchill valued him very much and appointed him to participate in the newly established naval combat staff in 1912, but at the moment of a critical and desperate battle, outstanding talents in navigation technology and staff work did not necessarily help a commander.

By 4 a.m., before Trubridge could wait for the "Von der Tann" and he concluded that he had no hope of fighting with it under favorable conditions. He believed that in broad daylight, even if the "Von der Tann" was intercepted, it could escape his cannon range and sank his four armored cruisers one by one. He knew that once he fought with it this shooting and fighting skills, any of his four cruisers and eight destroyers had very little chance of hitting it with artillery fire or torpedo. So he notified Milne of his concerns with radio telegraph, and then led the fleet out of the Otranto Strait.

The door to the Adriatic Sea was suddenly open, but William Zuxiong did not take this opportunity to enter the Austro-Hungarian waters controlled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In fact, even without the secret orders of the German Admiralty, he would not want to curl up in Pula Port with two new warships and accept the protection of the Austrians. After midnight, when there was about an hour left from the Strait of Otranto, Zuxiong ordered a turnaround. The two German warships ran along the Greek coastline and arrived near Zakynthos Island in the southeast of the Ionian Sea by dawn. Given that the long-distance high-speed navigation consumed a lot of coal and heavy oil, Zuxiong decided to add fuel to the Aegean Sea.

In order to prevent war, Germany had already divided the oceans of the world into a series of areas, each of which was supervised by a German official, who had the right to order all ships in this area to travel to wherever German ships might meet with them, and to requisition the wealth of German banks and commercial banks to meet the needs of warships. In the Mediterranean, the military officer was supervised by a major officer on the "Von-der-Tann".

After studying the chart, Zuxiong set the connection location on the deserted island of Tinos, and used radio to summon a merchant ship that could provide coal-fired and a secret supply ship loading heavy oil to sail to the island in advance. The British Navy received a powerful signal from the "Von der Tin" at the radio monitoring station in Malta. Although he could not decipher the German communication code, he could use radio side technology to calculate the location of the telegraph sender. However, at this moment, Milne still believed that the "Von der Tin" had the intention to turn around and look west. He took three battlecruisers back to Malta for coal maintenance, preparing to be in the best condition.

The state gave the German war patrol a fatal blow. Milne sent a telegram to the frustrated "Gracester" to make it give up its tracking and join the Trubridge fleet. It is obvious that the British regarded the "Von der Tin" as a pirate ship that ran around the sea to attack merchant ships. They hoped that they would always be surrounded, but they lacked urgency when chasing it, because they were always waiting for it to turn around and did not see that it was trying to escape east, or to be precise, it was sailing towards the Dardanelles with an extremely important political mission.

By midnight on August 6, Milne's three battleship fuel tanks were filled with coal and heavy oil, and they sailed out of Malta and sailed eastward. With the idea that the German fleet would turn around, Milne made his fleet move slowly at a speed of 12 knots, so as not to go too far and let the Germans take advantage of the loopholes. In fact, Zuxiong's two warships had already sailed through Cape Matapan at the southern end of Greece and entered the Aegean Sea. However, in the early morning of August 7, "Von der Tin" and "Breslau" accidentally encountered a ship from Constantinople.

The Italian passenger ship heading to Venice, although Zuxiong ordered the warship to lower the German flag and raise the British St. George's flag, his intention to escape was not fulfilled. The passenger ship happened to have two British intelligence personnel who identified the German battle patrol. A few hours later, the news reached Milne, but he only believed that the Germans were planning to attack the Suez Canal or find a Greek port to shelter the wind. As for the possibility that the two German warships would sail to Turkey were the same as the British Admiralty, he had never thought about it.

At 2 pm on August 7, Zuxiong, who had been traveling around the sea to cover up his eyes and ears, finally arrived at Tinos Island with his two warships. There, "Von der Tin" and "Breslau" were like two hungry beasts, and finally got food to fill their stomachs from their companions. In order to prevent the British, the boilers of the two warships were burned with steam so that they could set off within half an hour as soon as they received the alarm. Zuxiong also set up a lookout on a mountaintop on the island, but in fact, the British were monitoring the Austrians five hundred nautical miles away.
Chapter completed!