On the harbour of Malta, the sun shines obliquely on the sparkling bay.

The Sakura Ocean Destroyer, which belongs to the Second Secret Fleet, quietly docked beside the dock. The menstrual flag fluttered in the wind at the top of the main mast. The sailors in black naval uniforms sat on a simple hanging basket, gently swung the rope to lower the hanging basket to the waterline near the side of the warship, and pried the fireproof paint to prepare for the destroyer that had performed three ocean escort missions to paint a gray naval paint.

"Captain Tosa said that the Cloud is no longer repairable, it is a ten thousand-ton armored cruiser..."

The sergeant lay beside the hull and scraped off the paint on the rust with a knife to avoid any gaps in the hull during painting. Once the gaps in the paint appear, the anti-rust effect of the hull will be greatly reduced.

The sailor latte pins in charge of painting were mixed with fireproof paint, chatting endlessly.

Last month, the commander of the Second Secret Fleet, Major General Sato Hirozo, led the Izumo armored cruiser and four Peach destroyers to escort a merchant fleet of the Allied countries. After the merchant ship entered the Mediterranean from the Suez Canal, the escort fleet encountered a joint fleet reconnaissance fleet not far from the Port of Said. The first joint fleet, with the Ottoman Empire's battlecruiser as its flagship, severely damaged the Izumo armored cruiser. Four Hurglan-class light cruisers took advantage of the victory to pursue and easily cleaned up the dragged Japanese destroyers and merchant ships.

After the sneak attack, merchant ships lost more than 40,000 tons of tonnage, Japanese Second Secret Fleet lost three destroyers, and sailors killed more than 300 people. Although the Izumo barely returned to his home port, Malta, British engineers have confirmed that the old armored cruiser has no repair value.

"That's a good ship..." The sergeant's gaze fell on the three-chimney forecastle cruiser that was abandoned in the repair dock in Malta and was waiting for treatment.

The first-class armored cruiser of the Izumo was the product of the compensation from the Qing Dynasty in 1894-1895. It was produced by the Armstrong Shipyard, with a standard displacement of 9,000 tons and equipped with an 8-inch main gun and a 6-inch secondary gun. It was the main ship of the joint fleet in the Russo-Japanese War. Even in 1916, thanks to Japan's good maintenance of the warships, this armored cruiser still has a certain combat effectiveness.

"To be honest, we should not be involved in the European war!" The sailor waved his paintbrush and lowered his voice to complain to the sergeant commander: "Compared with European and American white animals, our strength is still too weak. The tonnage of the main ships of the British Empire lost only in the Skagerac Strait was comparable to the total tonnage of our First Fleet. If we included the Dogers Seashore Naval Battle, the Muderos Raid and the Portsmouth Naval Battle, the accumulated losses of the British Royal Navy were enough to build a luxurious 88 fleet, but even so, the British could still complete the reconstruction of the large fleet in a state of war..."

The sergeant who scraped rust and painted turned his head and signaled the sailors to shut up with a cold look. Japan attached great importance to the superiors and inferiors. The sailors did not dare to talk back, and bowed and apologized, and tried hard to paint the destroyer's hull.

It is easy to let the sailors not complain, but the difficult thing is to let them not think. The chief sergeant looked at the sailors who were still angry but still worried, and his worries increased a little.

In 1914, Japan was somewhat dissatisfied with the European War. After the British and French coalition defeated the German offensive on the Western Front, Japan, as the Asian overlord who had defeated Russia, could not wait to declare war on the allies, replaced Germany's interests in Asia and the Pacific, and continued to consolidate its identity as a club in the great power.

However, the proud Japanese soon realized the heritage of European industrial powers: the German East Asian fleet won the Battle of Coronel with no effort to win the Naval Battle of Coronel for a long time, and the Japanese Navy, which was mainly composed of old ships of the Second Fleet, was scared for a long time. The Japanese Army, which was proud of the spirit of Bushido, also witnessed the unreasonable combat methods of the Europeans during the Battle of Qingdao.

Until this time, Japan was still optimistic about the European war. They believed that Japan could successfully become a victorious country, enjoy the arms trade surplus, and get a share of the post-war interest sharing meeting. However, in 1915, the Allies' situation declined. In 1916, not only did they not rebound strongly, but they continued to fall into the abyss.

On the land battlefield, huge European road rollers were dismantled in the face of the powerful German offensive and lost a large area of ​​land. Although the Russian army, which launched the Southwest Battle in 1916, recovered some territory from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, more and more signs indicate that the contradiction between the political forces in Russia was intensified due to the war. The British and French forces launched a massive counterattack on the Western Front, but except for the box of death notices, they did nothing. After the Battle of Paris in 1916, although the British and French forces were still brave, their tactical qualities were still very poor. The existence of the Allies in the Mediterranean also fell apart, and Italy's joining the Allies undoubtedly opened Pandora's cartridge.

On the sea battlefield, the Ocean Fleet and the Grand Fleet were repeatedly entangled, fighting from Hurgland Bay to the Skaglake Strait, and the result was that the seemingly powerful Royal Navy was defeated. In 1916, submarine warfare became increasingly fierce. The total tonnage of British ships sunk by German submarines always exceeded the total tonnage of ships under construction in the shipyard, and the sea transportation of the Allies was almost paralyzed.

Seeing that the situation was becoming increasingly unfavorable to the Allies, Japan, who was afraid that the Allies would fall and would incur revenge on the Allies, finally stopped being artificial and decided to send troops to Europe.

The Japanese government transported Chinese and Japanese laborers to the French front, and the Army sent a luxuriously equipped division to Europe. The Navy established two escort fleets to Malta and South Africa, respectively.

Japan carefully took a tentative step towards the flying artillery Europe, and was frightened like an American.

The Japanese Fifth Division arrived in France was in the Battle of Paris. Before the Germans could reach the city of Paris, the gentle French left enough adaptive training time for reinforcements from afar and gave a heavy artillery battalion. The samurai samurai was in high morale and dragged large-caliber artillery free support from the French into the battlefield. However, when the Battle of Paris began, the full Fifth Division was only left with the size of the corps. If it weren't for the legendary meat bomb offensive and super strong fighting will to win some face for Japan, I'm afraid the Japanese would have been incorporated by the hungry French.

The Satsuma Japanese sent four old cruisers, sixteen ocean destroyers and four torpedo boats to Europe. At that time, Germany spared no effort to destroy the Allied Transport Line at the cost of losing one or two submarines a month. The loss of merchant ships in the Allied countries has been raised to a higher level since the Battle of Paris started, and 410,000 tons were lost in June alone, and the annual loss even exceeded 3.5 million tons.

The Second Japanese Special Fleet quickly completed the escort mission of the Fifth Division and joined the Allied Mediterranean Fleet to carry out the escort mission. The younger generation of the Japanese Navy, who grew up after the Russian-Japanese War, thought they could succeed in the Mediterranean, but the Allies taught them a lesson with bloody facts.

The Second Secret Fleet operating in the Mediterranean has lost an armored cruiser and four new destroyers. The First Secret Fleet operating in South Africa has also lost a new destroyer under the attack of the German East Asian Fleet operating in German West Africa and German East Africa.

The war loss of four new destroyers was undoubtedly a heavy blow to the Satsuma family, which changed things after the Siemens incident. The once prosperous Satsuma family was greatly reduced due to large funds, and even the Six Six Fleet was difficult to preserve. Under such a difficult situation, the war loss of Japan's extremely scarce ocean destroyers was undoubtedly a pain.

Feeling the intensity of the European war, the post-Meiji era Japanese politicians finally woke up from the fanaticism and seriously thought about the possibility of defeat in the Allies and their response measures.

It is unlikely to keep a distance from the Allies. The Japanese Army, which has more than ten divisions, does not have much significance for Germany, not to mention that the Battle of Qingdao has become an unforgettable shame for the German Army. The Japanese first fleet with relatively considerable strength is somewhat helpful to Germany, but they have previously loaned two King Kong-class battlecruisers to the British, and the Ocean Fleet has already made enemies with Japan.

The Japanese were embarrassed to find that they could only stand on the side of the Allies, and their concerns about the future finally turned into resentment towards politicians.

The sergeant was still thinking about it, and at this time, the sound of warships whistle sounded from the port of Malta.

"It's the Akashi cruiser, the general is back..."

The sailors cheered because the Akashi cruiser and four birch destroyers who went out to sea for escort half a month ago all appeared in their sight, which meant that this time the escort was zero casualties!

The water diversion ship led a Japanese warship with a long snake slowly into the military port. The Akashi cruiser, which was in service in the 19th century, was a Sumo-class protective cruiser. It was designed and built by the Japanese, with a standard displacement of more than 2,700 tons and equipped with 6-inch guns. This flat-deck cruiser slowly approached the dock, and the sailors standing at the bow skillfully threw down thick cables and tied them to iron piles by the sailors on the shore.

The commander of the Second Secret Fleet Major General Sato Kaoruto walked out of the bridge and came to the front deck with the wide-open real vision of the cruiser, allowing the sea breeze to sway the telegraph papers in the Major General's hand.

"Notify all the captains and captains of the Second Secret Fleet to attend the flagship Akashi for a meeting!"

When Sato Kaoru turned his head and instructed the first mate of the cruiser, the major general's telegrams and papers were rising and falling in the corner, and the words "Alliance United Fleet", "Talento Counterattack", "Alexandria assembly" and "Decisive Battle of the Mediterranean" appeared and appeared.

"General, what's wrong?" the captain of the Akashi cruiser came over and asked.

"Information shows that there have been constant disputes after the establishment of the Mediterranean Combined Fleet. The battle for interests between Italy, Austro-Hungarian Empire and Turkey seriously dragged down the synthesis drill of the joint fleet. As of September, Taranto's joint fleet had only once a joint training for large formations, so our Mediterranean Fleet Commander Lieutenant General Pierre Alexis wanted to fight Heidi Sileme in the Mediterranean." Sato Kaozo frowned and said, "The French ordered us to go to Alexandria to gather and participate in this naval battle."

"Tarento, Heidi Sileme, who has been famous for a long time, can he easily fall into the trap of the commander of French land combat naval forces El Alexis?"
Chapter completed!