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At the turn of spring and summer, the weather is unpredictable, and most of the time it is rainy. When the Villenick fleet sailed out of the Scarglak Strait and entered the North Sea, it was indeed raining lightly in the sky. Although it was already morning, the entire sea surface was gloomy and the visibility was very poor.

The two destroyers "Fum", "Kor" cruisers, "Aquila" and "Centaur", which were performing the search mission in front, could not find the German fleet led by Sorochin in the predetermined waters. In desperation, Verennik ordered the "Pra" cruiser to send a telegram to ask the other party's specific location.

Soon, Sorochin's telegram came back.

"They are in area k34!" the communications officer walked out of the telegraph room behind and said.

"k34? But we are here too!" said the sailing officer.

"Well, each area on the chart is 12 nautical miles, and you may not see each other." Sorochin said, and we moved a few nautical miles to the right."

The fleet began to turn south, with a speed of only ten knots.

About ten minutes later, the flanking Sirius first discovered the German fleet, and the two fleets flashed with lights and greeted each other. Sorochin's fleet was much larger than the Austrians. His men included five newly-served "Markensen-class battlecruisers, three "Deferring" and "Sedlitz", with a total of nine main battleships, and four cruisers, six ocean-type destroyers and fifteen supply ships, which looked like a large area of ​​blackness.

The two fleets were reorganized on the sea surface. Sorochin led the German fleet to walk in front, and all the transport ships lined up in three columns in the middle. Verennik led the main force of the Austro-Hungarian fleet to drag behind, while cruisers and destroyers performed alert tasks around the fleet.

As noon approached, the fleet began to sail towards the Norwegian waters in a mighty manner.

At the same time, in London's Supreme Command, most of the main members of the wartime cabinet sat in a spacious combat conference room. The ubiquitous British spies had already conveyed the news of the German and Austrian fleet dispatching back to London, and General Oliver, the Chief of the Navy's General Staff, was introducing this new situation to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Minister.

"Based on the intelligence we just obtained, the entire battle cruiser fleet of the Germans and Austrians was dispatched, and combined with the previous information learned from the French resistance organization, the Germans and Austrians have completed the renovation of the ports of Saint-Nazell and Brest. The Naval Operations Office believes that the German-Austrian fleet will break through the North Sea blockade at this time, enter the North Atlantic, and then move to southern France with great possibility!"

"We must intercept them. If they are allowed to enter the Bay of Biscay, it will pose a great threat to our route!" Churchill, who returned to the position of the Minister of the Navy, said loudly that if the British transport line was hit by the German surface ships, the current disappointment of the British people will have more people standing on the anti-war position.

After France's defeat, the British cabinet fell into many contradictions. Although it received support from the Americans, the United States' military strength is now incomparable to Europe. Apart from the navy, the US Army can be said to be a mess, with basically no heavy equipment, which is much worse than the British Army.

Moreover, before obtaining absolute sea control, the United States is not prepared to take major military actions in Europe or even North Africa. A considerable number of cabinet members proposed to reach a decent peace agreement with Germany and Austria, but the hardliners in the cabinet still had the upper hand during the war, hoping to drag down Germany and Austria economically by extending the war.

The Secretary of Navy Wilson, who advocated peace, resigned, and the hardliner Churchill returned to the position of Minister of Navy. However, as Russia withdrew from the war, production of Germany and Austria, which had no threat on land, began to recover, and the purpose of their economic drag on their opponents now seems to be simply impossible to achieve.

"The problem is that our fast fleet seems to be difficult to gain advantage in confrontation with our opponents now. Germany has greatly strengthened their battlecruising fleet, but our new warships need to be put into service in one year. Although the strength of the large fleet has been greatly increased with the support of eight American battleships, the large fleet has been greatly increased, but due to speed problems, the large fleet cannot capture the opponent at all." Earl Kitchener calmly analyzed that the Royal Navy currently has an advantage in the number of battleships, but the Germans are already ahead of the fast battleships. The "Admiral-class" battlecruiser built by the Royal Navy has just been launched to deal with the "Markensen-class" battlecruiser, and it will take at least more than a year to serve.

However, if the German fleet was allowed to rage on the sea, Britain would probably collapse within three months.

"The British Empire has no way out. If the ceasefire negotiations are carried out at the current military dividing line, the British Empire will die slowly. The colonial system we have built for hundreds of years will collapse in less than twenty years. At that time, we have to rely on the breath of the Germans to survive." Churchill said toughly. This is the main reason why the hardliners insist on continuing the war of resistance. If the British Empire loses all face in this war, then the entire colonial system it maintains will collapse. At that time, more and more unrest in the colonies will make the entire empire exhausted, thus dragging down the entire Britain.

The problem is that all hope is now placed on the Royal Navy, but with the addition of the Austrians, the strength of the Germans is rapidly increasing. This is a huge mistake in the pre-war assessment. According to pre-war estimates, the Austro-Hungarian Empire would soon collapse due to national conflicts in the country after the outbreak of the war. But the fact is just the opposite. Due to the successive victories on the battlefield, the Austro-Hungarian Empire seemed unprecedentedly united, and the nations in the country actively participated in the war, hoping to gain more national power after the war through manifestations in the war.

The Habsburgs used this war to effectively differentiate the power of the Magyar nobles and the German nobles. The emerging Croatian nobles, Romanian nobles and Czech nobles obtained almost equal political rights with the Magyars and the Germans in the empire. Although the dual monarchy system was in name only, the newly established plural political system was more dynamic.

This was a major mistake in decision-making by the British Empire. If they realized this before the war broke out, the British would work with the Russians to force the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire to collapse first. But it was too late, and the British realized this after the Italians collapsed quickly.

"Well, the Navy will have to do its best to intercept, including the local fleet." Prime Minister Lloyd George made a decision after thinking for a while, but he then said: "In addition, prepare me a warship and I'm going to have a detailed discussion with President Wilson."

Lloyd George's confidence was also shaken, and he needed to sit with the Americans and have some talk.

The British fleet has been dispatched. (The novel "Double Eagles" will have more fresh content on the official WeChat platform, and there is also a 100% lottery gift for everyone! Open WeChat now, click the "+" sign in the upper right to "Add Friends", search for the official account "qdread" and follow, hurry up!)
Chapter completed!