Chapter 421: Blockading the Strait of Gibraltar

If the British Navy notified the Spanish government in advance before arriving at the port, and only docked at the Spanish port after obtaining the permission of the Spanish government, it would prove that this fleet's circumnavigation of the Mediterranean had no other intentions.

But it was very clear that the British did not do so. This fleet approached the Spanish port of Cádiz with a very tough posture, without notifying the Spanish government beforehand.

After causing the port's vigilance and signaling to ask the purpose of the British warships, the British side stated that they needed to dock at the port of Cádiz and replenish supplies.

This behavior of forcibly breaking into a Spanish port without any notification was undoubtedly a provocation to the Spanish government, and at the same time, it was also a deterrence to the Spanish government, warning Spain not to participate too much in Portugal's domestic affairs.

If it were the previous Queen Isabella, she might have retreated in the face of the British provocation at her doorstep. But for Gao Da, no matter who the enemy coming to provoke was, as long as they dared to provoke Spain, they had to be prepared to stay here completely.

When Gao Da learned that the British fleet had forcibly demanded to dock at the port of Cádiz with a quite arrogant posture, Gao Da immediately decided to respond.

The British Empire's Navy was indeed powerful; they strictly implemented the "Two-Power Standard," and the total scale of the Navy was more than the combined naval scale of the second-place France and the third-place Spain.

France and Spain possessed 24 and 21 battleships respectively, but the number of battleships of the British reached a staggering 40. The combined number of cruisers of France and Spain was only a little over 90, while the number of British cruisers had long exceeded 100, and adding the large number of armored cruisers, it was about 130.

Under such circumstances, the British had considerable confidence. Not to mention just deterring Spain, even if a naval war broke out with Spain, Britain firmly believed that the winner could only be itself.

Gao Da naturally understood the gap between the Spanish and British navies, but this was not considered "hell difficulty" for Spain.

First of all, the total tonnage of the British Navy indeed crushed Spain, but their Navy was distributed all over the world; Europe actually only had the Home Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet.

The scale of the Mediterranean Fleet was not large, which was also the reason why Britain wanted to deter Spain and had to draw battleships from the Home Fleet.

Even counting this fleet that came to deter, the deployment of British naval power in the Mediterranean was still not comparable to Spain.

This was actually very normal; after all, besides the Mediterranean Fleet, Britain also possessed the Channel Fleet, the Home Fleet, the Pacific Fleet, the North American Fleet, the West Indies Fleet, and so on.

And Spain, counting everything, only had three fleets, which were the Home Fleet split into the Atlantic Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet, the African Fleet protecting African colonies, and the Philippine Fleet stationed in the Philippines.

Among them, only the Home Fleet and the African Fleet possessed battleships; the Philippine Fleet was just a coastal fleet composed of backward cruisers and small gunboats eliminated by the Home Fleet.

The vast majority of Spain's naval power was concentrated in the Atlantic Fleet and the Mediterranean Fleet; these two fleets could actually be seen as a whole, which was Spain's Home Fleet.

The reason why it was split into two fleets was mainly because Spain's coastline was not connected; the Atlantic coastline and the Mediterranean coastline were separated by Portugal's coastline, and one fleet was not enough to completely protect all of Spain's coastlines.

The stationing location of the Atlantic Fleet was A Coruña at the mouth of the Betanzos River, while the stationing location of the Mediterranean Fleet was Valencia, the second-largest port in the Mediterranean.

Once a war or other important situation occurred, these two fleets could meet at the Strait of Gibraltar at any time to control and blockade the western exit of the Mediterranean.

Since the British wanted to give Spain a "downward blow" (a warning), Gao Da naturally could not remain indifferent. Since the British delivered themselves to the door, no matter what, he had to let the British feel Spain's power and let them understand that Spain was not to be trifled with.

The port of Cádiz was located on the south coast of Spain, and not far to the north was Seville, the capital of Andalusia, the state with the largest population in Spain.

After replenishing supplies at the port of Cádiz, this British fleet would head east through the Strait of Gibraltar to officially start their so-called circumnavigation mission of the Mediterranean.

Gao Da naturally could not let this fleet pass through the Strait of Gibraltar so easily. If the terrain around Gibraltar was compared to an hourglass, the Strait of Gibraltar was the narrowest part in the middle of the hourglass, connecting the two areas.

Blockading the sea areas on both sides of the strait was impossible; the area of these two sea areas was extremely large, and wanting to blockade a fleet of not-too-small scale in such a vast sea area was undoubtedly very difficult.

But if it was blockading the Strait of Gibraltar, the difficulty would drop sharply. If this British fleet was completely blocked in the Strait of Gibraltar, would the British panic?

Thinking of this, Gao Da's anger because of the British provocation at his doorstep also eased a lot. If this fleet was blocked in the Strait of Gibraltar, when the news spread, it would not be Spain that lost face.

If the British wanted to deter Spain, they had to be prepared to be counter-deterred by Spain.

As for whether these British fleets would "jump over the wall in a hurry" (a Chinese idiom meaning to do something desperate) and launch an attack on the Spanish fleet after being blocked in the Strait of Gibraltar, Gao Da was not panicked at all.

As long as the British Navy dared to open fire, the Spanish Navy would immediately eliminate this fleet in the Strait of Gibraltar.

Where did Gao Da's confidence come from? Naturally, it was the *Dreadnought*-class battleship that had already entered service and formed good combat effectiveness.

The *Dreadnought* battleship started construction in April 1901 and officially launched for sea trials in March 1902. By April 1903, this battleship officially entered service in the Spanish Navy, and more than a year had passed so far.

After long testing and service time, the *Dreadnought* battleship had initially formed combat effectiveness and could definitely give this British Navy a surprise.

Even not just the *Dreadnought* battleship, the *Courageous* and *Fury* battleships had also completed construction and successively entered the stage of sea trials.

If the British were not sensible, these three battleships could all be put into battle to ensure that all warships sent by Britain could be eliminated at once.

As long as these 5 battleships and 12 cruisers were left in Gibraltar, the British naval strength would also be significantly affected, and the threat to the Spanish Navy would not be that great.

Unless they were willing to draw warships from other fleets or send all warships of the Home and Channel Fleets to the Mediterranean, otherwise, even if a naval war broke out, Britain could not occupy a great advantage.

Before the British possessed dreadnoughts, Spain, relying on its own dreadnoughts, could still occupy a certain advantage in naval warfare, and even had the hope of defeating the British.

In order not to "startle the snake" (a Chinese idiom meaning to alert the enemy), Gao Da decided to "use the enemy's own strategy against them," first agreeing to the British fleet's request to replenish supplies at the port of Cádiz, Spain, and then dispatching the fleet to directly surround this British fleet in the Strait of Gibraltar, forcibly blockading it for 24 hours.

After the 24 hours ended, he would let this British fleet out to let them understand the situation in the Mediterranean, especially the situation around the Strait of Gibraltar, which was decided by Spain.

If the British dared to "jump over the wall in a hurry," Gao Da didn't mind having a war with the British before the outbreak of the First World War.

At worst, Spain would simply and neatly defect to France, forming the Franco-Russo-Spanish military group to confront the German-Austro-Italian military group.

Gao Da did not believe that Britain would be like Spain, decisively defecting to the German-Austro-Italian side. After all, the Anglo-German relationship at this time was no longer like the end of the 19th century; Germany had been vigorously building and developing its navy since the end of the 19th century.

It was true that Britain was wary of France's military strength, but they were also wary of the Germans' military strength. If they helped Germany defeat France, the Germany that won after defeating France would only become more powerful, which would be an even more invincible enemy for Britain.

Precisely because of this, it was impossible for Britain to decisively defect to the German-Austro-Italian alliance unless Germany had the risk of defeat.

Precisely because of having the Franco-Russian alliance as a trump card, Gao Da had no worries when facing the British.

At this time, because Russia had just failed in the Russo-Japanese War, it was still quite hateful toward the British. After all, the one standing behind the island nation was the British, and Britain could be considered one of the culprits for Russia's defeat in the war.

If there was no support from the British, it was impossible for the island nation to defeat Russia. The island nation's navy was built for them by the British; if there was no such navy, it was impossible for Russia to collapse so quickly on the front line battlefield.

France and Russia were still hating Britain, which was also the biggest difference between this world and history.

Currently, Gao Da had basically determined that the world war about to happen in this world should have significant differences from the world war in history.

The Anglo-Franco-Russian alliance in history should not appear; the French government obviously paid more attention to Spain behind it, and Spain had also reached multiple cooperations with the French government, just short of directly announcing its joining of the Franco-Russian alliance. ===== CHAPTER 422 =====