"Report, the KPA fleet turned 90 degrees to the east. ”

"I've seen it. Martinez put down the binoculars, held on to the railing of the bridge, and said with satisfaction: "They have taken the bait, stupid yellow-skinned monkeys, although they can design excellent warships, but if they want to talk about naval battles, they are still far from the British Empire?"

The adjutant also immediately agreed: "Of course, naval battles are not won by excellent warships, the focus is still on tactics, the British Empire won the Battle of Gravolinne and the Battle of Trafalgar, all of which were won by tactics rather than by the excellent performance of warships." ”

The Battle of Gravolinne was a battle in which the English navy defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588, which symbolized the official rise of the British navy and the end of Spanish supremacy, while the Battle of Trafalgar was a battle in which the British navy defeated the Franco-Spanish fleet in 1805, which was one of the most important victories in the history of the British navy, which forced Napoleon to abandon his plan to attack the British mainland, and laid the groundwork for his defeat nine years later, and consolidated the British supremacy at sea.

The common feature of these two naval battles was that the British navy defeated its opponents who were stronger than it was with relatively weak forces. The adjutant used these two naval battles as examples to illustrate that the KPA Navy had indeed demonstrated combat effectiveness beyond the expectations of the British Navy.

Martinez said: "Order the destroyer to come forward and go to the left side of the fleet." ”

Although the combat effectiveness of the destroyer is not strong, it is an important auxiliary force of the fleet, so it generally does not participate in the battle line of battle, and when the two warships are engaged, they will hide in the inner side of their own battle line, and will only attack when necessary, and now Martinez wants to speed up the speed of the fleet's turn, so he ordered the destroyer to run forward to the left side of the fleet.

Since the destroyer was faster than the battleship, after Martinez gave the order, the destroyer also accelerated rapidly, advancing from the rear of the fleet to the left side of the fleet and making a turn.

After the destroyer stepped forward, the British fleet quickly completed the turn, which took about 20 minutes in total, and Martinez ordered the fleet to slow down, and then watched the movement of the KPA fleet with full attention.

Due to the late turning time of the People's Army fleet and the angle of turning was also greater than that of the British fleet, although the accompanying destroyer detachment was also allowed to advance to the left side of the fleet, it was still about 10 minutes later than the British fleet to complete the turn, and in order to intercept the British fleet, Chen Xiaojiang again ordered the fleet to accelerate to 18 knots, and after the calculation of the Kunming ship, the People's Army fleet could intercept the British fleet when the longitudinal straight line distance between the two sides was about 10,000 meters。

However, due to the slowdown of the British fleet, the time for the People's Army fleet to intercept the British fleet was greatly advanced, and it only took 15 minutes to intercept the British fleet, even exceeding the position of the three warships, and at this time the straight-line distance between the two sides was about 10,400 meters, although the People's Army fleet had the Kunming ship to provide shooting parameters, but at this distance, the accuracy of shooting would also be greatly reduced, and the most ideal shooting distance for the People's Army was within 9,000-9,500 meters, so Chen Xiaojiang also ordered the fleet to slow down, and only wait for the British fleet to enter within 9,500 meters, and then launch a strike on the British fleet。 Of course, the purpose of the People's Warships was not to annihilate the British fleet, but to wait for the main force of the expeditionary force fleet to arrive and introduce it all into the Taiwan Strait. Because at this time, the main force of the expeditionary fleet was less than 20 kilometers away from the battlefield, and it only took about 40 minutes to arrive.

Martinez had been observing the movements of the KPA fleet from the bridge, and when he saw that the KPA fleet had stopped him at a vertical distance, he knew that the time had come, and immediately ordered the fleet to accelerate again, turning 90 degrees to the left.

The British fleet turned abruptly again, which caught Chen Xiaojiang a little off guard, because after the turn, the British fleet was heading northwest, while the KPA fleet was heading east, and the two sides sailed in roughly opposite directions, which meant that the British fleet would be able to run to the tail of the KPA fleet. and directly broke through to the rear of the KPA fleet, and at this time the main force of the expeditionary force fleet had approached the battlefield, so that the KPA fleet would be caught in the middle of the attack of the main force of the British fleet and the expeditionary force fleet.

At this time, Chen Xiaojiang also admired the commander of the British fleet very much, but he did not expect that he would use several changes of direction to mobilize the People's Army fleet, and he could almost successfully break through to the rear of the People's Army fleet, and even his own navigation instructions were deceived, and he really deserved to be the king who dominated the ocean for more than 200 years, but it was precisely because he had navigation instructions that he was able to discover the intentions of the British fleet in a very timely manner, so he could also react at the first time, after all, there is still enough time and space for the People's Army fleet to move and flash, if you just observe it with the naked eye, the reaction speed will be much slower, and after you understand, it will be too late。

Of course, even if the British fleet really runs to the rear of the People's Army fleet and forms a flanking attack on the People's Army fleet, it will not have an impact on the overall situation, because there are still two modern warships, the Kunming and the Xiangyang, in the rear of the People's Army fleet, so it is difficult to say who will flank whom at that time.

However, the British fleet could not be allowed to realize its own tactical plan, after all, it was really difficult to get over face, and when there were navigation instructions, it was actually played by the British fleet, and as a traverser, he really could not afford to lose this person; of course, if it was just a loss of face or a trivial matter, Guan Jian would affect the operational plan of the People's Army Navy to completely annihilate the expeditionary force fleet in the Taiwan Strait, so it was necessary to intercept the British fleet again no matter what.

So Chen Xiaojiang immediately ordered the fleet to make a 180-degree turn on the spot, preparing to intercept the British fleet again. Because the vertical distance between the two sides is still more than 10,000 meters at this time, and the British fleet is walking diagonally, and at least one 45-degree turn is needed, so it will take at least 20-30 minutes to completely break through to the rear of the KPA fleet, and this time is almost enough for the KPA fleet to complete this 180-degree turn and intercept the British fleet again. At the same time, Chen Xiaojiang was still afraid of insuredness, so he ordered the Jinan, Tianjin, Qingzhou, Yizhou, and cruiser detachments on standby in the rear to rush over, and if the battleship detachment could not intercept the British fleet in the end, then they would undertake this important task.

By this time, the British fleet had already completed its turn, and while it was desperately accelerating, even using strong pressure ventilation, the speed of the whole fleet was increased to more than 19 knots, and on the other hand, it was also closely monitoring the movement of the KPA fleet. Seeing that the KPA fleet began to make a 180-degree turn, Martinez was also a little surprised, this reaction speed was too fast, of course he did not know that at this time, because the KPA fleet had navigation instructions, it could only be attributed to the KPA fleet's unusually keen observation.

However, before setting up this plan, Martinez also considered that there might be an accident, so he also reserved a backhand, so he immediately ordered 10 destroyers of 2 destroyer detachments to attack the KPA fleet together. Of course, not to strike at the KPA fleet, the main thing is to delay the time of the KPA fleet.

The destroyer's firepower is not strong, but if it can be fired at close range, it can still pose a great threat to the battleship, and the destroyer's speed is fast, maneuverable and flexible, and it is 10 destroyers attacking together, and it is impossible to defend against it only by relying on the firepower of the battleship. And now the People's Army fleet is turning around, it is the weakest time for defensive firepower, although there is also a destroyer detachment in the People's Army fleet, but the number is only 4, compared with the British 10 destroyers, the gap is very large, so the British destroyers have a great chance of breaking through, even if there are 2 or 3 destroyers who can break through the close range of the battleship and launch **, even if they can't sink 1, Two battleships can also disrupt the rhythm of the KPA fleet's turn and buy enough time for the battlefleet to break through. In addition, this can also contain the destroyers in the People's Army and prevent them from interfering with their own assaults.

After Martinez's order was given, the 10 destroyers immediately attacked, first in two columns, and then quickly spread out in the shape of a fan on the surface of the sea, and increased their speed to more than 25 knots in a short time, and rushed towards the KPA fleet, which was in the process of turning and fighting.

At this time, the KPA fleet and the British fleet were already staggered in the lateral distance, so Martinez ordered the fleet to turn 45 degrees to the right, and the fleet again headed north, sailing at full speed, striving to break through the interception line of the KPA fleet as soon as possible, and run to the rear of the KPA fleet, and then it was done.

As soon as the British destroyer was dispatched, Chen Xiaojiang immediately received a warning, it seems that the other party's tricks are linked one link after another, if it were not for the navigation instructions, I am afraid that today's battle would really be a complete defeat.

But the top priority now is to block the British destroyers, otherwise once the destroyers surprise into the battleship within 1,000 meters, it will be very dangerous, because now the fleet is turning, not only the formation is dense, but also limits the fleet's mobility, so Chen Xiaojiang hurriedly ordered his own destroyer fleet to attack quickly to intercept the British destroyers.

Chen Xiaojiang was accompanied by the second destroyer squadron, which had participated in the naval battle of the Natuna Islands one month ago, and originally had five destroyers, but in the naval battle of the Natuna Islands, one of the river thunderbolts was sunk, so now only these four are left, namely the River Dragon, the River Qing, the River Rhino, and the River Hua.

However, Chen Xiaojiang also knew that of course he could not intercept the other party's 10 destroyers by relying on these 4 destroyers alone, and at the same time secretly regretted it, because there were originally 2 destroyer detachments in the Northern Fleet, a total of 8 destroyers, but his own attack this time was just to lure the enemy, so he only brought one destroyer detachment.

But now it's too late to regret it, the KPA destroyer fleet can only intercept half of the British destroyers at most, so how to deal with the remaining half of the British destroyers.