Chapter 162: Fight to the death! The decision of the South China Sea! (III)

Singapore Port, on the morning of December 28th local time, the United Kingdom, France and the Dutch United Fleet, which had been established less than 12 hours ago, is ready to go.

Earlier yesterday, Britain, France, Russia and the Netherlands had declared war on China one after another. Although the Netherlands did not immediately attacked by China, the content of the "liberation of Asia" in the edict issued by the Chinese Empress on December 26 clearly involved the Dutch East India, and the Dutch 'government' believed that China declared war first and was forced to respond.

The British, French and Dutch governments immediately ordered their respective Far Eastern Pacific Fleets to assemble to Singapore Port immediately to form a three-country joint fleet to prepare for combat against the East Asian coalition.

Yesterday afternoon, the main force of the French Far East Fleet led by Lieutenant General Desert arrived at the Singapore Port before the Dutch Far East Fleet. Its forces include: the fearless battleship "Dantong", two large Ferry-class armored cruisers, two protective cruisers, four destroyers and two small gunboats.

The French Indochina authorities are fully vigilant about the large-scale assembly of the Chinese teams on the border in recent months. The weak French Far East Fleet has been more prepared for fear of being destroyed in the port overnight by the Chinese fleet of n levels higher than the strength of the country overnight. Therefore, they often change berths and take all possible measures to hide the whereabouts of the fleet.

The French's caution brought them good luck. On the morning of December 26, local time, only five hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, dozens of Chinese aircraft came to Haifang Port, blowing up and injuring merchant ships, gunboats, and patrol boats. Immediately afterwards, a powerful East Asian Allied Forces fleet drove outside the port, and within two days all the turrets that defended the harbor were mute. At the same time, 11 ships of the Far East Fleet were cruising near the Jinweng Point. After learning the news of the war, they immediately drove south to avoid fighting with the advantageous ASEAN fleet. After receiving the order from the French "government", they drove to Singapore at full speed.

The main force of the Dutch Far East Fleet, commanded by Lieutenant General Rupert, did not enter the port until night yesterday. The troops include 2 Java-class fearless battleships, 2 small protective cruisers and 6 destroyers.

The Three Kingdoms Joint Fleet Command was quickly formed, and Lieutenant General Bernie, the commander of the British Pacific Fleet, naturally became the commander of the Joint Fleet, and a joint staff quickly came up with a combat plan.

The reason why such high efficiency is due to the Far East Pacific Agreement signed by Britain, France, the United States, Germany, and Portugal in 1911. The agreement stipulates that the six countries jointly ensure the current territorial status of each contracting party in the Far East Pacific and cooperate with each other to deal with invasions outside the contracting party. Based on this agreement, the most closely related Britain, France and the Netherlands hold a joint naval exercise every year to jointly respond to the threat of "relationship with the interests of the Far East Pacific of the Three Kingdoms".

At this time, only two months have passed since the closest exercise. The three fleet commanders and their staff are familiar with each other and do not need to spend more time to work together. A series of combat plans for the East Asian Combined Fleet have been practiced one by one in previous exercises. It can be said that the coordination of the United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands is no less than that of the Sino-Japanese and North Korea joint fleet as an imaginary enemy.

According to the intelligence provided by the US, a powerful fleet of the East Asian coalition forces continuously bombarded the Corregido Fortress at the entrance of Manila Bay on December 26 and 27, and at the same time bombed ships in the port with seaplanes. The weak US resident fleet relied on the shore artillery fortress to actively defend and temporarily blocked the enemy fleet outside the port.

At the same time, ASEAN troops landed in the Lingayan Bay northwest of Luzon and Subic Bay on the west coast respectively. Large numbers of ships gathered in both bays.

The final combat plan determined by the Joint Staff is as follows: rush into Subic Bay and Lingayan Bay in turn, destroy the landing fleet there, and eliminate the enemy combat ships that protect the landing fleet as much as possible. Finally, turn around and attack Manila Bay, and rescue the American Asian fleet trapped here.

In order to ensure that the combat achieves the intended effect, while maintaining close contact with the United States, submarine troops were sent to the above-mentioned three bays for reconnaissance and surveillance as early as last night, and strict confidentiality measures were taken in all aspects.

The main ocean-going forces of the Three Kingdoms Combined Fleet will be fully developed in this battle: including 6 Fearless battleships, 1 Battleship cruiser and 4 Old-style battleships (carrying 68 12-inch and 8 15-inch main guns in total), 10 armored cruisers, 14 protective cruisers and 30 destroyers. These forces will be organized into 3 battleship squads, 6 cruiser teams and 4 destroyer teams, and will be commanded by Lieutenant General Bernie in the "Malaya". It is scheduled to sail at 09:00 on the 28th. It is expected to break into Subic Bay in three to four days.

Bernie's Lieutenant General's flag was raised to the mast top of the Malaya, the world's number one battleship, about to begin its first battle since its service.

Lieutenant General Bernie was full of confidence. According to the information collected by all parties, almost all the fearless battleships and battle cruisers of the East Asian Combined Fleet were driven to Hawaii. The South China Sea had only 10 old-style battleships. The Three-Nation Combined Fleet had obvious advantages in terms of main battleships - a single "Malaya" alone would be enough to kill three or four outdated big garbage on the other side.

With the sound of the "Malaya" whistle, the 65 combat ships of the Three Kingdoms Combined Fleet were guided by more than ten patrol boats and gunboats, and the detachment drove out of Singapore Port and prepared to form a formation in the waters east of the Singapore Strait.

At this time, within a depth of 30 nautical miles near the east entrance of the Singapore Strait, 33 shark-2 submarines of the East Asian Alliance were hiding underwater, waiting for prey to come to the door...

In Zhanjiang Port, Guangdong, the main force of the 2nd Fleet of the East Asian Combined Fleet, which completed the shelling of Haifang Port, is replenishing coal bombs here.

During the battle two days ago, the 2nd Fleet's old battleships and armored cruisers fully utilized their residual heat and swept across the Haifang Port with 90 305mm main guns, making the poor French people furious. A bunch of shore defense turrets built with thirty years of strength was no longer able to fight back after only two days.

Within 48 hours, 19 old-style battleships and armored cruisers fired 4,500 305mm main artillery shells and more than 20,000 150mm secondary artillery shells. Only one battleship and two armored cruisers on its own were hit by medium caliber shells, with minor damage.

While the main force of the 2nd Fleet attacked the Haipang Port Fort, the 201st Division of the Vietnam Restoration Division, as the advance unit of the First Army of the Asia People's Liberation Army, landed in Halong Bay, quickly captured Halong Port, and began a "half-cut" battle against the French army stationed in Vietnam.

After completely suppressing Haifang Port, in addition to leaving a few troops to support landing operations, the main force of the 2nd Fleet arrived at Zhanjiang Port last night and began intensive supply operations.
Chapter completed!