I built an armada.

Blackett hurriedly said, "Quick, decipher it quickly, see what headquarters is saying?"

"Yes!"

After receiving the order, the communications soldier quickly translated the coded message, but couldn't report it for a long time. "Sir, headquarters..."

"What do you mean by 'always'? Tell me quickly!"

Blackett was about to explode with rage; what kind of time was this to be stammering on and on?

The communications officer dared not continue, so he simply printed out the deciphered message and handed it to Cheng Da Blackett: "Captain, you should read it yourself."

Blackett glanced at the communications soldier with a look full of doubt, but still took it. Just one glance was enough to make his body tremble involuntarily, and he froze on the spot.

Seeing the communications officer and the captain's expressions after reading the telegram, the first mate couldn't help but feel puzzled and asked directly, "Captain, what did headquarters say in the telegram? Does it tell us to go to war, or to continue waiting here for an opportunity?"

Blackett gave the vice-captain a deep look, but didn't say a word. Instead, his expression suddenly became much more serious.

Two minutes later, he said with great difficulty, "Headquarters has ordered us to retreat immediately!"

"What? Retreat immediately? Is headquarters mistaken? How can we retreat?" The vice-captain was shocked and asked instinctively.

They've been waiting here for so long, are they just going to wait in vain? So far, they haven't seen any trace of the Longxia Navy, so they had no intention of going back! And now, they're being asked to retreat back to port immediately.

Holy crap, what on earth is going on here?

"Captain, could it be that the White Bear Tribe has launched a surprise attack and is causing trouble in the northern region again?"

Before the captain could speak, the vice-captain quickly added, his expression unusually solemn.

After thinking it over and over, he couldn't think of any other reason besides this one.

"No."

Blackett immediately rejected the claim and then handed over the deciphered telegram.

After receiving the telegram with a suspicious look, the vice-captain read it carefully, and his expression was equally complicated after reading it.

I really don't understand why headquarters would suddenly make such a decision.

Suddenly, at that moment, the communications officer urgently reported: "Reporting to the captain, Captain Adriano requests to speak with you."

Adriano was none other than the captain of the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, and he too had received orders from headquarters.

"I reckon they also received similar telegrams from headquarters as we did."

Blackett sighed helplessly, then said seriously, "Take this call; I need to speak with him."

A two-way communication channel was quickly established.

Adriano asked impatiently, "Captain Blackett, have you also received the order to retreat?"

"Captain Adriano, to be honest, I have already received it."

Blackett gave a wry smile. "It seems you've received the same orders too. What do you think?"

Adriano said bitterly, "How can I see it? I still don't understand what headquarters' true intentions are. Is it just to make us come all this way for nothing? Do you know anything about the inside story?"

After a moment of contemplation, Blackett tentatively said, "I think headquarters suspects that the Longxia Naval Expeditionary Fleet is deliberately provoking us to launch an attack in order to achieve their fishing objective. The consequences of this would be very serious. As for the specifics, I can't say right now, and our headquarters hasn't given us any detailed information either."

"What a coincidence! That's what our headquarters told us too. I wonder what the sinister intentions of the Dragon Xia Navy are, and what they're trying to do." Adriano couldn't figure out the cause and effect either.

"Tell me, what strength does the Longxia Navy currently have to fight us? Even if they're fishing, do you think they can catch us? I don't know why headquarters is being so cautious."

"This is purely a case of boosting the morale of others while diminishing our own. We, the developed Western countries, have truly lost all face."

After venting his frustrations, Adriano steered the conversation back on track, "Blackett, what will you do next? Retreat? Or continue to hold out here?"

His meaning was clear: either disobey headquarters' orders and continue waiting here for the arrival of the Longxia Naval Expeditionary Fleet, or obey headquarters' orders and return home.

Despite his complaints about headquarters' decision, he wasn't stupid. Just as he was about to make a final decision, he suddenly said, "Wait a moment, Captain Blackett."

"Ok."

Blackett thought Adriano had some new information.

After a moment, Adriano spoke: "I have some news for you. Captain Blackett, we just received the latest news that the other allied flagships have also received the same message as us, and they are all required to retreat immediately."

"But they also didn't get an explanation from headquarters, so it's certain that there's some inside information behind this that we don't know about, but headquarters can't say it."

"It seems that we have no choice but to retreat unconditionally!"

Blackett nodded in agreement and said, "Then what are we doing here? Let's retreat."

"retreat!"

Adriano nodded.

After cutting off bilateral communications, Blackett immediately ordered the vice-captain and communications officer: "Pass the word down, the entire force is to immediately execute the order and retreat!"

"Yes, Captain!"

The two of them answered in unison, "We have received your orders."

Almost simultaneously, all four carrier strike groups, along with three conventional fleets, including submarines submerged on the seabed, began to turn around and head towards their home countries.

This scene was detected by the Longxia Navy's long-range detection radar, which was operating in the relevant waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

In the main control room of a 10,000-ton destroyer in the First Combat Corps, Zhou Qinglei, the forward commander, was on edge for several hours.

The reason for maintaining such a state of alert is precisely because we are worried that those descendants of pirates might lack martial ethics and resort to sudden attacks.

Originally, his deployment plan was to catch the enemy off guard!
However, given that peace talks were underway, they did not act immediately, but instead quietly lay in ambush around the multinational fleet, waiting for an opportunity to strike!

To his surprise, the ambush lasted for so long, several hours had passed.

In fact, if war were to break out, this amount of time would be enough for several naval conflicts.

Unexpectedly, headquarters did not issue any immediate orders to start the war, leading Zhou Qinglei to even begin to suspect that the headquarters leaders had forgotten about them.

“If we wait any longer, it will get dark.” Zhou Qinglei picked up his binoculars and glanced at the silent ocean. “Everyone is getting sleepy, and morale has been worn down.”

He had done a lot of pre-battle mobilization for this operation, and the soldiers were already eager to fight. But who could have imagined that they would have to wait for several hours?

Naturally, this made him very anxious.

The only thing that keeps him from worrying is that the overall situation is still under his control.

In fact, during these few hours of waiting, the Western allied fleet did not send any reconnaissance aircraft to patrol the area, as if it were full of confidence and arrogance.

Perhaps in the eyes of these Western allies, the Longxia naval expeditionary fleet was not an insurmountable force. A distance of 218 kilometers was still within a safe range. Otherwise, conflict would have already broken out.

Suddenly, the radar monitor urgently reported, "Captain, here's the latest situation."

"A new development?"

Zhou Qinglei's heart tightened, thinking that the joint naval fleet of the Western countries was about to start a war.

Under the surveillance of long-range early warning radar, any unusual movements of the enemy fleet would be completely exposed to them, and they would inevitably engage in battle immediately.

So he quickly went over and started staring at the radar display.

He frowned immediately after just one glance, completely baffled as to what the enemy was doing.
"What's going on? Could it be that our radar is malfunctioning?" Zhou Qinglei asked incredulously.

The radar monitor reported truthfully: "Captain, our radar is performing very well. I had the same feeling as you at first, but that's the truth."

"Is it a ghost?"

Zhou Qinglei was completely baffled, his brows furrowed tightly.

So he hurriedly instructed the communications officer to contact the other warships to check the situation.

The feedback he received was consistent with what he had seen: the combined fleet of the Western nations was indeed retreating!

To back down without firing a single shot is very unlike the bloodthirsty nature of Western pirates. Have they gone mad?
They come out, put on a show, and then head back home. What kind of war is this?

"Everything's fine here, so why are they retreating?"

Zhou Qinglei was very puzzled and subconsciously said, "Could it be that our headquarters reached some kind of agreement with the European countries, and then they withdrew? That obviously doesn't make sense. If that were the case, why haven't we received any related news?"

In any case, if the headquarters were to negotiate with the European countries, it would be impossible not to inform them of the results of the negotiations.

This makes the matter very strange.

After a moment of contemplation, the vice-captain tentatively suggested, "Captain, perhaps we should inquire with headquarters about the situation?"

"Well, that's all it can do."

Zhou Qinglei nodded slightly and immediately instructed the communications soldier to contact headquarters.

The communications officer acted immediately and soon received a report: "Captain, we just received a message from headquarters that they have not contacted any European countries."

Not a single one contacted? Zhou Qinglei was completely dumbfounded, utterly bewildered by what the enemy was up to.

No agreement was reached between the two sides' top leaders, and then the coalition of European maritime powers suddenly withdrew?
Could this be a deliberate act by the enemy, a feint?
Zhou Qinglei's overthinking stemmed purely from the fact that the current situation was far too bizarre, bordering on abnormal.

The Western naval coalition alone had more than two hundred warships, including nearly one hundred large destroyers and frigates.

They also have submarines, aircraft carriers, and a large number of fighter jets in the sky.

It can be said that the naval and air forces are extremely powerful and unprecedented in scale, making it clear to everyone that the European countries have ulterior motives and want to annihilate the Longxia naval expeditionary fleet in one fell swoop!

But now, without firing a single shot or launching a single missile, they withdrew from the battlefield on their own. What's going on?

After a moment's thought, Zhou Qinglei made a decision: "Pass down the order to hold back for now. We've already waited for several hours; are we afraid of waiting a little longer?"

"Yes!"

After receiving their orders, the ships continued to be stationed in their original positions, while taking on a higher level of vigilance, keeping a close watch on the joint naval fleet of the Western nations that was carrying out the withdrawal mission.

Meanwhile, in the capital city of the Longxia tribe, at the naval headquarters military base.

After receiving the intelligence from Zhou Qinglei, Zhang Zhaoxin immediately rushed to the conference hall.

Even though they had been working for more than ten hours, Liu Huaming and the other bigwigs were in very good spirits, and their faces were relaxed.

In conclusion, the main reason is that the Longxia Navy achieved an absolute victory and reaped great rewards in this conflict in the east.

Aside from capturing an aircraft carrier, Su Dingping's side boarded the carrier and acquired a great deal of military technology.

Naturally, no one felt sleepy anymore; everyone was in a state of high excitement.

"Reporting to the commander, breaking news from the expeditionary fleet."

Upon entering, Zhang Zhaoxin immediately reported, "There is something that requires your judgment."

"what's up?"

Xu Dongguo spoke first, "What kind of trouble could the expeditionary fleet encounter?"

Zhang Zhaoxin nodded and said, "They did encounter something strange, and Commander Zhou Qinglei couldn't quite figure it out."

Zhou Qinglei, Liu Huaming, and the others from the expeditionary fleet immediately perked up and became serious.

"Tell me quickly, what's the situation on Zhou Qinglei's side? Has war broken out?" Liu Huaming asked impatiently.

Zhang Zhaoxin quickly shook his head and said, "Commander, they haven't started a war, that's why the situation is not right."

"We just received a report from Zhou Qinglei. He said that the joint naval fleet of European countries has begun to retreat, leaving them unable to figure out the opponent's true intentions for the time being."

They retreated?
When these three words were uttered, Liu Huaming and all the other leaders were stunned.

At first, they thought the two sides had already gone to war.

As a result, the enemy retreated without firing a single shot! What the hell are they trying to do? (End of Chapter)