Chapter 982: The Mediterranean, Here We Come One

readx; At the end of March, the first army units departed from Iran to enter Turkey, and at the same time, an advance F12A fighter wing of the Air Force was also transferred from Iran to Turkey. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 Due to the shortcomings of too small railway transportation, and the Turkish side basically does not have the ability to supply China's heavy mechanized troops, the large consumption of combat materials of the Chinese Expeditionary Force has to be transported from the country, through the Sino-Iranian railway into Iran, and then through the Iran-Turkey railway network to Turkey.

At the same time, due to the limited transportation volume of the Central Asian Railway, China has also mobilized a large number of ocean-going cargo ships to transport large quantities of goods from domestic ports through the Strait of Malacca, Colombo, and the southernmost tip of the Indian Peninsula into Abbas in the Persian Gulf.

China's troop and material consumption on the Iranian and Turkish sides is borne by both rail and sea to relieve the huge transportation pressure of the Central Asian Railway, the Northwest Railway and the Far East Railway.

After all, although the above three railways are not small in terms of transportation volume, there is no big problem in meeting the supply of materials for millions of people, but the problem is that it is not a period of super war, these railways hope to not only undertake military transport tasks, but also have to undertake civilian transport tasks, after Siberia and Central Asia were annexed by China, the exchanges between Central Asia and the eastern region of the country were rapidly active, and the grain and various industrial raw materials of Central Asia were continuously transported to the eastern part of the country. All kinds of civilian industrial products in the eastern part of the country are also continuously transported to Central Asia and Siberia. In peacetime, these railways are very busy, and if they are all used to supply the military in wartime, the impact on people's livelihood and economy will be too great.

Compared with the stationing of the army and air force, the action of the Seventh Mobile Fleet of the Navy is even more eye-catching, and China's decision to send the Seventh Mobile Fleet to fight in the Mediterranean region is of great significance, representing that China's large-scale naval forces have been stationed in the Mediterranean, and the future may be to enter the Atlantic.

At the same time, the Mediterranean Sea is home to a dense concentration of Allied navies, and the addition of the Chinese Navy is a sign that the Mediterranean will not be the exclusive domain of the Allied Powers.

Although the strength of the Seventh Mobile Fleet is still relatively weak compared to the British and American navies in the Mediterranean, what matters is not the size of the strength, but the subsequent impact.

Therefore, although the establishment of the Chinese Navy's Seventh Mobile Fleet is very low-key, completely different from the high-profile when the Sixth Mobile Fleet was established a few months ago, when various countries learned that the Seventh Mobile Fleet would go to the Mediterranean Sea to fight, it quickly attracted widespread attention from the navies and even the people of various countries.

Under the excavation of various [***] spies, it was quickly exposed, and even the commander's surname was known in advance, that is, Vice Admiral Zhao Zidong, the leader of the third-generation general of the New Chinese Navy. Among the Chinese naval generals in the eyes of outsiders, the first generation is naturally Sa Zhenbing and Cheng Biguang, most of whom have retired, while the second generation is represented by Guan Shijie, Chen Shaokuan, and Lu Jian, who are currently the core high-level leaders of the Chinese Navy, and most of the military ranks are already marshals and admirals, and the poor one is also a lieutenant general. The third generation is represented by Zhao Zidong, and the military ranks are generally around lieutenant general and major general.

Rear Admiral Zhao Zidong served as commander of the 21st Squadron during the Sino-Chinese War last year, under Lu Jian's Second Mobile Fleet, and in the Amami Naval Battle, which decided the ownership of the third Sino-Chinese War of Naval Supremacy, his 21st Squadron, as the main sub-fleet of the Second Mobile Fleet, participated in the Amami Naval Battle throughout the whole process, and made outstanding achievements. And Zhao Zidong was also promoted to vice admiral in one fell swoop during the war by virtue of this exploit, and this year he is only forty-three years old, after the war, he served as the deputy director of the naval operations department and concurrently served as the vice president of the naval officers, these two positions are important positions, although the post of deputy director of the combat department is only a position with the rank of vice admiral, but because of the special surname of the naval operations department, the important surname of the naval operations department is actually equivalent to the navy department, and the naval operations department is nominally under the management of the navy department. In a sense, the Admiralty and the Naval Operations Department are departments of the same rank, and their officers are all at the rank of admiral, except that one is responsible for administrative affairs and the other is responsible for operational affairs. Therefore, the position of Deputy Chief of Naval Operations is one of the few most core positions in the rank of Vice Admiral, and it is the same level as the Deputy Secretary of the Admiralty, and this position is also the most important way for most Admirals to be promoted to the upper ranks.

Because almost throughout the resumes of many admirals, you will find that they all have the experience of serving in the Operations Division or the Operations Department or in the Naval Operations Department, which used to be the Operations Division, followed by the Operations Department, and then the Navy Operations Department, but these three departments are only different in name, in fact, they are all the same organization, at first it was the Operations Division under the Navy Department, and then the Operations Division was upgraded to the Department, which continued to belong to the Admiralty Management, and later upgraded to the Navy Operations Department, although the name still belongs to the leadership of the Navy Department. But it has already been effectively separated from the leadership of the Admiralty and is directly accountable to the State Military Council.

Zhao Zidong was transferred to the Naval Operations Department as deputy chief, and it was almost certain that even if Zhao Zidong accumulated seniority step by step in the future, he would have great hope of being further promoted to admiral, and considering that he was only 43 years old this year, it was not impossible for him to be promoted to marshal in the future.

Among the high-ranking military circles of a large number of old men, the forty-three-year-old can be described as a young man with an unlimited future.

This time to form the Seventh Mobile Fleet, Lu Jian and Guan Shijie jointly recommended Zhao Zidong to Chen Jingyun, claiming that the person has the style of a general, Chen Jingyun felt that although Zhao Zidong was young, but now the senior generals of the Navy are generally aging, and they also need some fresh blood to supplement, plus Zhao Zidong's outstanding performance during the war against Yue left a very deep impact on Chen Jingyun, so he approved this appointment.

At the end of March, after Zhao Zidong met Chen Jingyun, the two talked in Chen Jingyun's study for nearly an hour, and then Zhao Zidong took a special naval plane to Iran to take up his post, where the shelves of the Seventh Mobile Fleet had been erected and he was waiting for him to take up his post as commander.

Chen Jingyun's reception of high-level generals before the expedition can be regarded as a tradition, and the most important intention is naturally to cheer up these generals under him, and promise high-ranking officials to be generous, and at the same time, he must personally instruct some things to avoid these generals from being confused on the front line.

After Zhao Zidong arrived at Bandar Abbas, Iran, by special plane, some of the ships under the jurisdiction of the Seventh Mobile Fleet were still on their way, so he had to wait a few more days, and on April 2, Zhao Zidong led the Seventh Mobile Fleet to leave the Persian Gulf, and then went south along the coast of the Arabian Peninsula, bypassing the Arabian Peninsula and entering the Red Sea.

At this time, his Seventh Mobile Fleet was not only the ships of the Chinese Navy, but also a large number of warships of the British and American Navies, and the British and American navies paid frequent attention to the movements of China's Seventh Mobile Fleet.

The Americans' intentions are very simple, not to provoke military conflicts and increase friction, but to be able to obtain more information about the Chinese Navy, and some information is not known to military spies on the ground, for example, how the Chinese Navy's sorties, its anti-aircraft early warning capability, and its anti-submarine capability against the sea are all unknown, and the US Navy needs to test them step by step.

For example, if your plane flies at an altitude of 5,000 meters, how far will it be detected by the Chinese Navy, how many minutes will it take for the Chinese Navy's carrier-based aircraft to come to intercept it, and if it is flying at an altitude of 1,000 meters, when will the Chinese Navy's interceptor fighters come? Another example is the anti-submarine capability of the Chinese Navy, and how close their submarines can break through at night without being detected, these may not be important now, but this information is extremely valuable information in wartime, and if the Americans do not know it now, then they need to pay the price of blood during the war to obtain this information.

When they were in the Arabian Sea, it was better, but after arriving in the Red Sea, due to the narrow sea area, the British and American navies even approached the distance of about five or six nautical miles to reconnoitre, and if it were not for the destroyers of the Chinese Navy, I am afraid they would have to directly approach the Chinese aircraft carrier for reconnaissance.

As the sea gets narrower and narrower, the Suez Canal is just around the corner!

Zhao Zidong, who was standing on the bridge, looked at the two shores, and he could clearly see with a telescope that there were large-caliber shore defense guns on the shore aimed at him.

"Such an important place was actually occupied by the British! Alas! Zhao Zidong sighed a little, the Suez Canal is controlled by Britain and the United States, which means that as long as they want, they can prevent a piece of the Chinese Navy's sampan from entering the Mediterranean.

This time, his Seventh Mobile Fleet entered the Mediterranean, which was also made possible by the existence of the Sino-US Joint Pact, otherwise Britain would not have allowed the Chinese Navy to cross the Suez Canal.

Even if the Chinese navy was allowed to pass through the Suez Canal, the British and American navies were also very serious, not only sending a large number of ships to monitor along the way, but also having planes in the air to monitor at all times.

And the 7th Mobile Fleet was also forced to pass through the Suez Canal honestly and slowly under the guidance of the British navigation ships. This is not to say that the British deliberately made things difficult, but after many years of war in North Africa, although the Axis [***] team never hit the Suez Canal, but the Navy and Air Force of the Axis countries still mined the Suez Canal and other means, trying to block the Suez Canal, and the British have been continuing to carry out demining and cleaning lanes to ensure the navigability of the Suez Canal, so although it has occasionally been unable to navigate for some time in recent years, the Suez Canal has remained smooth for most of the time, At this point, it can be seen that the British still spent a lot of effort.

There are a lot of mines and shipwrecks in the Suez Canal, so it is really difficult to pass through safely without navigation boats.

After passing through the Suez Canal with trepidation, Zhao Zidong also breathed a sigh of relief, looking at the blue sea without waves at the mouth of the sea, Zhao Zidong took a deep breath and said to the sea: "The Mediterranean, we are coming!" ”