Comrade, your ingredients are too complicated.

Liugong Island, Beiyang Navy Governor's Office.

Ever since Director Xiao returned to Weihai from the Indochina Peninsula, he keenly discovered that something was not right with his comrades.

In daily work and training, everyone's words and deeds have become more impatient, even the French consultants are no exception. The calm style of the past seems to have disappeared overnight.

There is no way. Anyone who is forced into the state of "standing still like a mountain when friendly forces are in trouble" will be extremely tormented.

If it were a younger army commander, he would probably be so anxious that his mouth would be blistered.

"Comrades, let me make it short. The fighting on the northern end of the Jinpu Road has been in full swing since the beginning of September. The air force soldiers have been working day and night to stop the enemy with all their strength."

In order to stabilize the situation, Director Xiao had to convene an impromptu meeting.

But before he finished his opening remarks, the combat meeting room exploded. The comrades were furious, and it was obvious that they were very upset about not being able to participate in the war.

Seeing this, Director Xiao pressed his hands down, signaling everyone to stay calm.

He pointed to the tactical strategy board covered with cloth behind him, and then continued in a soft tone:
"I know that our comrades are all holding their breath and can't wait to fight the enemy. But for us now, completing the training mission on time and in full is the primary goal."

"Of course, our North Sea Fleet can't stay in the anchorage forever. I have made a plan these days to assist the army in attacking important cities."

After saying that, Director Xiao went straight to the point and pulled down the dust sheet. On the tactical strategy board behind him, there was a coastal sea chart around Tianjin.

In this battle, as long as the Shandong Provincial Military Region can directly defeat the Kwantung Army and the North China Front Army coming from the south.

Therefore, the strategic goal of the border area and the headquarters in the next stage must be to pursue the victory and take back the two major provinces of Chahar and Hebei while the enemy is defeated, and further expand the area of ​​the liberated area.

Chahar is an inland province, so the North Sea Fleet is naturally out of reach. But Hebei Province has many coastal cities, so the comrades have more or less the opportunity to show their skills.

Everyone present was a veteran with rich combat experience. After a little thought, they understood what Director Xiao meant.

As a result, the operations meeting room was once again filled with noise.

"Good! Good idea! When the Japanese attacked Tianjin, their navy sent a small fleet to provide support. We should give the enemy a taste of what it feels like to be attacked by land and sea."

"Yes! With the current strength of the fleet, we are fully qualified to cooperate with the air force to blockade the sea."

"When we besiege Tianjin, we will make the Japanese feel like they have no answer for their cries to heaven or earth."

Seeing that the morale of his comrades had returned to its peak, Director Xiao nodded with great satisfaction. Thanks to his trip to the Indochina Peninsula, he now felt that he was terribly strong.

After all, since he was able to handle a series of troubles caused by the Viet Minh, there should be no military problems in the world that can stump him again.

Thinking of this, Director Xiao couldn't help but look out the window.

At the military dock not far away, a steel behemoth with a full load displacement of nearly 10,000 tons was slowly leaving the port, about to start a new day of training.

That's right, Director Xiao did not go back home empty-handed this time. He also brought home the flagship of the French Far East Fleet, the second ship of the Duguet-Trouin class, La Motte-Piquet.

As a light cruiser designed during the interwar period, La Motte-Piquet had a full load displacement of 9350 tons. She was equipped with four twin 155 mm main guns and four triple 550 mm torpedo tubes.

In terms of air defense, the original equipment is a 75mm anti-aircraft gun with poor power and sustainability, and is paired with a French heirloom 13.2mm anti-aircraft machine gun.

This weak combination could not make any progress even in the Pacific Ocean in 1940. Naturally, the TG, which had experienced many storms, looked down upon it.

When the La Motte-Pickett arrived at Liugong Island, the comrades immediately changed into the Mle1933/42 type, a set of 55-caliber 100mm anti-aircraft guns plus Bofors and Oerlikon.

Equipped with the world's most advanced radar technology, this old French firepower light cruiser has been transformed and has gained a second life as an air defense cruiser.

As if he had noticed Director Xiao's distraction, the legendary Captain Philip followed his gaze and looked towards the port.

After seeing the La Motte Picquet, he patted his ally on the shoulder with a smile and congratulated him:
"Xiao, I didn't expect that you would have such an unexpected gain during your trip to Indochina. It seems that the Vichy people are not all idiots, otherwise this ship would not have been able to return early."

"It's a pity that there are still a few gunboats and torpedo boats left there. Although they can't fight in the ocean, they can definitely be used as training ships for students to practice."

Unlike Philip's regretful attitude, Director Xiao has always been a contented person.

In his opinion, being able to bring back a light cruiser without any effort was the best solution under the current situation and there was nothing to regret.

Besides, you can't chew too much.

Even if he could pack up the entire French Far East Fleet, he didn't have enough manpower to operate more warships. It would be better to leave the ships where they were, which would more or less confuse the Japanese. "Well, the advisory group we sent to aid Vietnam made quite a stir in the Indochina Peninsula some time ago."

"Especially in Siam, the main force of this vassal state has suffered a lot of casualties recently."

"The above military actions may have given Jean Degou hope of restoring his country, so the admiral simply handed over the warships."

To be honest, Philippe actually has a lot of feelings for the cruiser La Motte-Piquet. After all, it is the only warship in France that has sunk an Axis surface ship head-on.

In the eyes of the legendary captain, it is definitely a good thing that she can leave the Vichy camp and join the North Sea Fleet.

If it continues to stay in the Indochina Peninsula, even if this light cruiser is not forcibly requisitioned by the Japanese Combined Fleet, it will most likely be sunk by the bombs of the Ugly Navy in the future.

Alas, this is what a puppet country is like, you are neither popular inside nor outside.

As if realizing that he was feeling a little down, the legendary captain Philip forced himself to stop thinking about it. After a while, a smile returned to his face.

"In any case, you Eighth Route Army must treat her well. After upgrading from the inside out, the La Motte-Pickett should be qualified to fight head-on with the light and heavy cruisers of the Combined Fleet."

"Even if we can't beat Tone, Atago, and Mogami, we can definitely squeeze the weak ones like Aoba and Furutaka."

The IJN's old cruisers are basically the epitome of thin skin and big fillings. Even in the magic world of the white-haired Japanese, the HP of a Japanese silver-coin heavy cruiser is surprisingly low.

As long as the angle is right, even a 127mm naval gun can give them a hard time, not to mention a light cruiser equipped with 155mm frontal firepower.

Hearing this, Director Xiao nodded, obviously very confident in the new ship. He was in a very good mood and even made a little joke.

"Philip, what you just said seems to be a bit like destroying your own morale and helping others. A mere Japanese cruiser is nothing. We should take a long-term view."

"I believe that La Motte-Piquet alone can sink the Italian battleships in the Mediterranean with her naval guns."

When the legendary Captain Philip heard that Director Xiao wanted to use the cruiser's guns to sink the battleship, he was a little confused for a moment.

He was familiar with Italy, as it was the only imaginary enemy of the Toulon fleet in the Mediterranean.

Although the opponent's navy is not very strong, it still has two Littorio-class ships, two Andrea Doria-class ships and two Count of Cavour-class ships.

Theoretically speaking, as long as it is not a large cruiser like Alaska, or a later heavy cruiser like Des Moines, an ordinary cruiser has basically no possibility of sinking a battleship by head-on bombardment, not even the Iron Turtle from World War I.

It turned out that Philip's idea was very correct.

During the night battle of Guadalcanal, Achou's Nan Pang was bombarded for a long time by various 127, 155, 203 and even Kirishima's 356. Even though the superstructure was destroyed beyond recognition, it was still able to fight back.

On the other hand, the North Carolina II ship fired three rounds of salvos in seven minutes, and nine of them hit the target, directly killing Kirishima.

Even high-speed battleships cannot withstand the 406 super-heavy shells, let alone light and heavy cruisers.

After creating enough atmosphere, Director Xiao did not keep anyone in suspense. He looked at his allies who were thinking hard with a sly smile, and then directly announced the answer:

"When I was studying, I found out that the Italian Navy actually has a seventh battleship in service. Its name is Vespucci."

As soon as these words came out, Philip immediately rolled his eyes, but soon laughed out loud.

The Vespucci is indeed a battleship, and it is a cutting-edge surface ship that was launched in 1930. But the problem is that this thing is a sailing battleship.

Not to mention the light cruiser, the North Sea Fleet could sink the enemy even if they sent a Benson.

This kind of strange thing may only be difficult for the future 815 and 055. Well, the former's radar cannot capture the signal, and the latter is afraid that walking cultural relics will actively touch porcelain.

"I'm impressed. I really am. I didn't expect you to have such extensive knowledge."

Just as Director Xiao and the legendary captain were laughing and joking, a sharp and piercing air defense alarm suddenly rang out over Liugong Island.

To be honest, although Xiao and Fei are old comrades, neither of them has ever suffered an air raid as a navy officer.

After a very brief panic, the two ran directly towards the door of the conference room.

"Everyone, return to your posts immediately! You've been complaining about not having a war to fight, but now the Japanese planes are coming, let me test the results of your training!" (End of this chapter)