So Luke ordered the Red Rabbit and the Jeredient to fight against the three remaining armored cruisers in the British fleet, the Crécy, the Dionysian Priest, and the Hogg.

These three armored cruisers are, of course, the most powerful warships in the British fleet, and the Red Rabbit and the Jueying are also the two most powerful warships in the People's Army fleet, and these five warships are all 10,000-ton armored cruisers, and the tonnage is roughly the same. Although the warships of the KPA fleet were at a disadvantage of 2 to 3 in numbers, they had an absolute advantage of 16 to 6 in the number of main guns, and although they were slightly inferior in caliber, the KPA fleet still had a very obvious advantage in this group of duels.

The Jinan and Tianjin were against the three protective cruisers Blake, Blenheim and Royal Arthur.

In the duel of this group, the People's Army fleet is also 2 to 3, and the numerical advantage of the main guns is not obvious, but it is only a slight lead of 8 to 6, and the caliber is slightly inferior, so the main guns of the two sides are actually half a catty and eight taels; moreover, Jinan and Tianjin are both 7,000-ton medium-sized armored cruisers, while the Blake, The Blenheim is a 9,000-ton protective cruiser, and the Royal Arthur is also 7,000 tons, and the difference in tonnage is very obvious, but the advantage of the People's Army fleet lies in the defensive power, after all, the defense power of the armored cruiser and the protective cruiser is not the same, so the two sides have their own strengths, and they are basically evenly matched.

The last group, and the weakest of the two fleets, consisted of the Qingzhou and Yizhou of the People's Army fleet against the Grafton and Crescent of the British fleet.

The Grafton and the Crescent, like the Royal Arthur, belong to the Edgar-class protective cruisers, both of which are 7,000-ton large protective cruisers, while the Qingzhou and Yizhou are 6,000-ton protective cruisers. The main guns that the Yizhou could use were 16 155 mm guns, 8 105 mm guns and 24 50 mm rapid-fire guns. On the whole, the British warships have a very obvious advantage in the large-mouth naval guns, and in the small and medium-caliber artillery, the warships of the People's Army Navy have the absolute upper hand, and although the Qingzhou and Yizhou are protective cruisers, they are equipped with vertical armor on the side side, so they have to win in terms of defensive power, and the strength of the two sides is roughly equal.

Such three groups of counterpoints are basically strong and weak, strong and strong, weak against weak, and there is no Tian Ji horse racing style is skillful, and the victory or defeat of the battle depends on their own on-the-spot performance.

So the sea was filled with gunsmoke, the roar of cannons was endless, the collision of steel torrents, the exchange of blood and fire, the water column pierced the air, and the waves were rolling, and the two fleets were like two dragons in the flood era, side by side on the sea, and biting and fighting each other, and constantly spitting thunder and lightning at each other, and at the same time bearing each other's blows, not showing weakness to each other.

However, after about 30 minutes of fierce fighting, the British fleet finally gradually lost some support, first of all, in the duel between the strongest warships of the two sides in the first group, the Red Rabbit was hit by the opponent's main gun 4 guns, secondary guns and other artillery hit 18 guns, and the Jeeshadow was hit by the opponent's main gun 3 guns, secondary guns and other guns hit 16 guns, although they also suffered considerable losses and casualties, but the good defense of these two warships, so that the damage to the hull was basically within the bearable range.

The three warships of the British fleet were much more serious, with 10 main guns and 14 secondary guns and other guns in the Crécy, 13 main guns and 12 secondary guns and other guns in the Dionysian Priesthood, 11 main guns and 15 secondary guns and other guns in the Hogg, all of which were seriously damaged, and since it was the Dionysian Priest, the front and rear main guns were destroyed, two large gaps were blown open in the waterline on the side of the ship, and more than 200 tons of seawater had been poured in, and the command of the Hogg was hit four times by the main guns, although it was not penetrated, but it also caused a large number of casualties in the command room, and the captain McClairy was killed, with Deputy Captain Wilkins taking over command of the warship. And with one less warship, the two sides are 2 against 2, and the two British warships are not opponents.

The second was the engagement in the second group, the number of hits on both sides was about the same, Jinan and Tianjin were hit by the opponent's main guns 4 rounds, secondary guns and other artillery hits were 15 and 18 rounds respectively, although the damage was greater than that of the Chitu and Jueying, but after all, it was the foundation of the armored cruiser, so it could still withstand it. The three warships of the British fleet had 5 shells from the main gun and 9 rounds of secondary guns and other guns in the Blakes, 5 rounds of shells from the main guns and 8 rounds of secondary guns and other guns in the Blenheim, and 6 rounds of shells from the main guns and 9 rounds of secondary guns and other guns in the USS Arthur Royal.

USS Blake, The Blenheim is also a 9,000-ton protective cruiser, and the maximum thickness of the dome armor slope part has reached 152 mm, so although it is also seriously damaged, it can also avoid strong support, but the Royal Arthur is not good, because the body is small, the armor is also thin, the maximum thickness of the dome armor slope part is only 127 mm, and the horizontal part is only 76 mm, 6 200 mm large-caliber shells, it is indeed not something that the thin body of the Royal Arthur can afford, so it was beaten to the deck in ruins, and the hull was also cracked into the water in many places, not only completely lost its combat effectiveness, but also sank nearly 2 meters from the waterlineAlthough the officers and men on the ship were still struggling to rescue them, everyone could see that the success rate was not great.

The last group of weak duels is the closest in strength, the Grafton and the Crescent tried their best to give full play to the advantages of the large caliber of the main guns, but the two warships only had a total of 4 main guns, plus the Qingzhou, Yizhou took advantage of speed and maneuverability, constantly maneuvering and changing the course, so the Qingzhou suffered 3 rounds of 233 mm shells, 2 hit the side side, although the 100 mm vertical armor installed on the side of the side, it could not prevent the explosion power of large-caliber shells, and was blown open two gaps, but the vertical armor also played a certain protective role after all, the two cracks were not large, less than 1 meter, and the dome armor was not damaged, as a result, the gap was soon blocked by the damage control personnel on the Qingzhou, and another shell hit the deck, destroying 2 auxiliary turrets; in addition, Qingzhou also hit nearly 20 other shells, some hit the side side, and were carried by the side armor, but most of the hits were on deck or unarmored areas, and although they caused considerable damage to the Qingzhou, they were not fatal.

The Yizhou suffered two 233-millimeter shells, one hit the command room, but the protective armor of the command room was the thickest, reaching 250 millimeters, so it carried this hard, although many people in the command room were injured, and 4 people were killed, but on the whole, the loss was not large; the other shot hit the part of the side waterline, which was an unarmored area, and blew up a large hole with a diameter of more than 3 meters wide, causing more than 30 crew members to be killed on the spot, but did not enter the water, and other shells also caused a large number of casualties to the Yizhou, but on the whole did not hurt the muscles and bones。

Although the Qingzhou and Yizhou did not have large-caliber main guns, they were superior to the large number of medium-caliber and small-caliber rapid-fire guns, so the shells fired were very dense, and the Grafton and Crescent were hit by more than 50 rounds. Almost the entire deck of the two warships was washed by shells, and not only did they lose a lot of personnel and equipment, but they also suffered huge casualties, and most of their guns were destroyed; in addition, many shots were also taken from the side sides, and because the two warships had no side armor, they were beaten like sifts, and were covered with more than 10 large and small holes. Fortunately, the parts that were hit were basically above the waterline, and the small and medium-caliber shells did not cause much damage to the dome armor of the two warships, so although the damage to the two warships was serious, it was not fatal. However, the left propeller of the Crescent was hit by a 155 shell and destroyed, causing a significant reduction in speed and leaving a huge hidden danger.

At this point in the battle, although the British fleet first paid the price of one warship, so that the KPA fleet could not give full play to its advantage in range, up to now one warship had been sunk, one warship had basically lost its combat effectiveness, and all the other warships had also suffered considerable damage; although the warships of the KPA fleet had also suffered some damage, they still retained at least 5 percent of their combat strength, and since they were four armored cruisers, they still had at least 7 or 8 percent of their combat strength.

The main reason for the difference in the results of the battle between the two sides was that the warships of the KPA fleet had stronger defenses than those of the British warships, so they gradually gained the upper hand in the fierce battle.

Of course, the warships of the People's Army fleet are not only stronger than the British warships in defense, but also not weaker than the British warships in terms of firepower and speed, and in terms of firepower, the warships of the People's Army fleet do not pursue the power of a single main gun, but pay attention to the number of main guns, as well as the amount of firepower delivered per unit of time, and this advantage is simply a huge disaster for the British warships with poor defense.

And in terms of speed and maneuverability, the warships of the KPA fleet were also superior to the British warships. This is because all the warships independently designed by the East China government in this war, in the hull design, it is below the waterline, which is more reasonable, and the hydrodynamic appearance is also better, plus the addition of the bow of the ship, the stabilizer fin, and the propeller, connecting rod and other power devices have been optimized design, so under the same conditions, the warships independently designed by the East China government are at least 2 knots faster than the warships of this era in speed. Of course, this is based on the technical level of the East China government that is more than 100 years ahead of this era, and it is a unique advantage of the East China government.

After receiving the situation reports from the ships, Cole, the captain of the Crecy, also knew that his fleet was no match for the KPA fleet, and since he had now sunk two warships, and one had basically withdrawn from the battle, and that any further battle would only increase casualties, he sent a rescue telegram to Martinez and ordered the ships to retreat.