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Piaotian Literature of the Fourth Empire of China www.piaotia.com Chapter 699 Submarine Attack

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    Arthur Balfour's cabinet is now in a difficult situation. It has invested hundreds of thousands of troops in the Middle East and spent a lot of military expenditures, but victory is still far away.  If it fails to win, Britain will be unable to curb China's ambitions, and the colonial system that Britain has painstakingly established will likely collapse.  In addition, it is impossible to repay the military expenses of this military dispatch and make a lot of profits from it by plundering the oil resources in the Middle East.  But it is impossible to stop now.  Britain and France started the war, but it is not in their hands when the war will end. It depends on whether China is willing to end the war.  From the current point of view, it seems impossible.  Therefore, the UK has no choice but to bite the bullet and fight!  If victory cannot be achieved, it will be a disaster for Arthur Balfour's cabinet!

    "Your Excellency Prime Minister, I think we should probably consider whether we can end this war with dignity. If we continue to fight, we will only pay more. If we lose the war, we will lose it completely!" British Foreign Secretary Lan  Lord Stone suggested.

    Everyone looked at him in surprise. Everyone was thinking about how to let Britain win this war. However, Lord Lansdowne, as the Foreign Secretary, put forward a completely different point of view, which made everyone  Time cannot adapt.

    "Your Excellency, what are you talking about? You are the Foreign Secretary of the British Empire. How can you put forward such a view? The British Empire must win this war!" British Colonial Secretary Edward Gray seemed to have his tail stepped on.  Like a cat, he immediately jumped up.

    "I am only responsible for the British Empire!" Lord Lansdowne said coldly.

    "Your Excellency, do you mean that we have no chance of winning this war?" Prime Minister Arthur Balfour asked.

    "No, Your Excellency Prime Minister, we will try our best to win!" Lord Lansdowne had not yet answered, but Field Marshal Sir Neville Bowles Chamberlain had already answered first.

    "I don't know if we can win, but it is always right for us to prepare in advance, so as not to be in a hurry when things come to pass!" Lord Lansdowne said.

    "But will the Chinese agree to end this war? Although we still have the advantage on the battlefield, the Chinese have not tried their best at all. The troops they invested in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are only one-third of ours.  Once the Chinese increase investment, it will be very difficult for us to continue to maintain our advantage. Under such circumstances, I do not believe that the Chinese will end the war in an anticlimactic manner!" said Finance Minister Charles Thomson Ridge.

    "The Chinese have begun to increase their troops. According to the latest information we received, a Chinese army group boarded a ship from Singapore three days ago. In about half a month, they will appear on the battlefield!"  Lord of the Admiralty Sir John Fisher said.

    "Your Excellency Prime Minister, it seems that we need to continue to increase our troops to the Middle East. The British Empire must invest at least another hundred thousand troops, and France must also invest the same number of troops. Only then can we continue to maintain our advantage!" Field Marshal Neville  said Sir Bowles Chamberlain.

    Prime Minister Arthur Balfour couldn't help but frowned. Britain and France once again invested 100,000 troops each, which would increase their troops in the Middle East to more than 600,000.  With such a huge number, it is not an easy task to be responsible for the logistics consumption of these armies!  However, now that the Chinese have begun to increase their troops, this undoubtedly shows that the Chinese have begun to increase investment and prepare to counterattack. If they do not increase their troops, the British Empire is likely to lose the war.

    "The War Department will take care of the matter of increasing troops. The Cabinet will fully support it. Lord Lansdowne, what price do you think we have to pay to end this war with dignity?" Prime Minister Arthur Balfour  asked.  Now he feels more and more that the war in the Middle East is simply a bottomless pit. If the war can be ended decently, it should be a good way!

    Lord Lansdowne shook his head, and then said: "I don't know either, but at least the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait can't be saved! In addition, we can't even think about sharing the oil fields that the Chinese have found in the Middle East!"

    If we say that before the war started, this condition was unacceptable to the British.  However, now, since China cannot be defeated militarily, such conditions are reasonable.

    "Your Excellency, please contact the Chinese to see if it is possible to end the war with dignity!" Prime Minister Arthur Balfour said.

    "Yes, Your Excellency Prime Minister. However, we cannot have too much hope for this. It is very difficult to resolve this dispute through diplomatic means. If diplomatic means were used before the war broke out, it might still be possible. But now  warNow that we have reached a stalemate, it will be more difficult to use diplomatic means to resolve the problem.  The key lies in whether we can win on the battlefield.  "Lord Lansdowne said. Military strength has always been the guarantee of diplomacy!

    "Your Majesty, we will do our best!" Field Marshal Sir Neville Bowles Chamberlain said in a deep voice.  Because of the unsatisfactory war, he, a field marshal, also felt deeply ashamed!

    Like the United Kingdom, the French government is also worried about the war situation in the Middle East. The war has been going on for two months. France has paid huge casualties, but victory is still far away. This makes it difficult for the French people who are waiting eagerly to understand.  Those industrial and commercial capitalists who were looking forward to sharing the huge oil benefits in the Middle East expressed serious dissatisfaction with the incompetence of the French army.  You know, the military expenditures for France's war this time were mainly funded by these industrial and commercial capitalists. If the French army cannot win, wouldn't their investment be in vain?  What capitalists value most is profit. This kind of loss-making business is absolutely unacceptable to them.

    Under such circumstances, the French government is in turmoil. Outside the Elysee Palace, there are protesting crowds almost every day, which makes President Emile Francois Loubet exhausted to deal with.  At the same time, industrial and commercial capitalists also took offense, claiming that they would stop supporting the war if there was no hope of victory before the end of the year.  Without their support, the troops fighting on the front line are likely to lose supplies, which would be a huge disaster for the French government.

    President Emile Francois Loubet and the French government had no choice but to bite the bullet and send more troops to the Middle East again and again. At the same time, they communicated with the British and asked the frontline generals to do their best to defeat  Chinese.  Otherwise, both governments will be doomed.

    Therefore, the British government and the French government have sent more troops to the Middle East, desperate to continue the fight.

    At the same time, British Foreign Secretary Lord Lansdowne also met with the Chinese Ambassador to the United Kingdom and proposed a peaceful solution to the war in the Middle East.  However, this did not receive a response from China.  At this moment, China is fully implementing its plan to counterattack the British and French coalition forces.

    On December 9, a huge fleet was sailing in the Gulf of Aden in the western Indian Ocean. This fleet consisted of hundreds of ships.  Of course, most of them are transport ships.  These transport ships are carrying soldiers from the Seventh Army of the Chinese Army.  They did not enter the Persian Gulf from the Indian Ocean as Britain and France imagined, but directly entered the Gulf of Aden.  Of course, the fleet's actions are completely confidential. On the periphery of the fleet are the heavy cruisers of the Indian Ocean Fleet.  Light cruisers and destroyers formed a tight defense to expel all foreign ships encountered along the way in advance to ensure that the fleet's whereabouts would not be exposed.

    One hundred kilometers ahead of this fleet, there is also a small fleet sailing westward. This fleet consists of five transport ships, a light cruiser and two destroyers.  These five transport ships are not ordinary transport ships, but submarine carriers of the Navy.  With the performance of the 'Shark-class' submarines, they cannot sail from China's naval base to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait alone to launch attacks on the British and French navies. They can only rely on the submarine carrier to take them from the base to the warring area and then carry out operations.

    A submarine mothership is nothing more than a transport ship with a displacement of more than a thousand tons. It only has booms installed on both sides to tie the submarine to it.  Before combat, put the submarine into the water.  At the same time, the submarine mothership is also responsible for the rest and life of the submarine officers and soldiers. After all, the premise is only that big. It is necessary to squeeze 20 people into it and live in the water for a long time, which will make people feel depressed.  When there are no combat missions, returning to the mother ship to rest can undoubtedly improve the living conditions of the officers and soldiers.  In addition, the submarine mothership can also provide logistical supplies, simple repairs and other functions for submarines.  Before the performance of submarines is greatly improved, the submarine mothership will be an indispensable and important auxiliary warship in the Chinese Navy's submarine operations.

    In this time¡¯s counterattack plan against Britain and France, submarines assumed the most important combat plan.  The Chinese Navy's submarine force has only twenty 'Shark-class' submarines in total, and half of them were dispatched at once, which shows that they attach great importance to this operation.

    Brigadier General Su Leping, commander of the submarine force, was also personally responsible for commanding this battle.  The combat plan is very simple. The submarine force uses the cover of night to pass through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, sneak into the British and French fleets, and perform free hunting missions.  The primary targets for hunting are the British Navy's 'Dreadnought-class' battleships and the French Navy's 'Gourba-class' battleships!  (To be continued. Please search Piaotian Literature, the novels will be better and updated faster!)
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