Although the British fleet arrangement could not completely resolve the superiority of the KPA fleet, compared with the naval battle of the Natuna Islands, it was indeed possible to offset the superiority of some KPA, which shows that in the war, the human factor is always dominant, of course, the actual effect will have to be in the real battle to get the result.

However, for Lu Kai, the outcome of this battle is not important, after all, he is only on the task of luring the enemy, and at the same time testing the British fleet to see what new tricks the British fleet has, and even if the British fleet's arrangement is really useful, it is not a big threat to the People's Army, because this time the five modern warships that have crossed will shoot without reservation, and this huge technological generation gap cannot be made up by manpower.

At this time, the Kunming ship informed the Chitu that the distance between the Red Rabbit and the first ship of the British fleet had entered within 10,000 meters, and the accurate figure was 9,770 meters, at this distance, if it was a battleship, it could begin to turn, but the main gun caliber of the armored cruiser was smaller than that of the battleship, so the effective firing range was also smaller than that of the battleship, and Lu Kai was not in a hurry to turn, but waited until the distance between the two sides was shortened to within 9,000 meters, and Lu Kai ordered the fleet to turn to the right and cut the horizontal head of the British fleet.

"Report, the enemy's lead ship began to turn. ”

In fact, at this time, there was no need for the soldiers on the lookout to report, Lieutenant Commander Cole had already seen that the Red Rabbit was turning, so it seems that the course of the naval battle of the Natuna Islands was not false, and the KPA fleet did begin to turn outside the range of the British fleet, but Cole also had a plan for this, so he issued three orders to the fleet in succession: strong pressure and ventilation, accelerate the advance, turn the ships to the left 15 degrees, and fire at each ship.

Accelerating forward is to try to shorten the distance between the two sides in a short period of time, while turning 15 degrees to the left is to expand the range of fire of each ship, and firing now, although it is basically impossible to hit the other side, can also interfere with the KPA firing. These are also the plans of the British fleet to deal with the fleet of the People's Army.

Sure enough, before the Chifu completed the turn, the British warships opened fire in turn, although the 9 British warships were only equipped with one bow main gun, and all of them added up to only one more than the Chitu, but because the People's Army fleet was in a straight line at this time, only the Chitu was exposed to the fire of the British fleet, and the target was concentrated, so the effect of the strike was still quite impressive, and 8 or 9 water columns rose continuously on the sea, but the closest to the Chitu was more than 1000 meters. It was also officially launched for the war of the KPA Navy and the Expeditionary Force fleet.

The hull of the armored cruiser is more slender than that of the battleship, but the draft is shallower, so the speed of the steering is also faster, and the process of completing the whole turning of the Red Rabbit takes less than 2 minutes, although at this time the British fleet has carried out 2 rounds of shooting, but it is always not the range that the British fleet is used to in peacetime, and the landing points are very far apart, and it does not pose any threat to the KPA fleet.

And at this moment, the Chitu opened fire and began a counterattack by the KPA Navy.

The first salvo of the Chitu did not hit the target, only one shell landed about 50 meters to the left of the Aboukir, which can be regarded as a close miss, and another shell fell about 100 meters behind the left of the Aboukir, forming a straddle fire.

Of course, there was no concept of straddle fire in this era, but this also meant that the scattered area of the impact point of the Red Rabbit's salvo had included the Aboouquir. As a result, the second salvo of the Red Rabbit was successful, with one shell hitting the right armor belt of the bow of the Aboukir, and the other shell exploded into the sea less than 20 meters to the right of the bow, forming a near-miss.

The British warships were still struggling to fight back, because at this time the British warships were driving at an angle of 75 degrees, so some of the secondary guns could also fire, making up for the lack of firepower of the main guns, and the water column was constantly rising on the sea, but the landing points of these shells were too far away, all of which posed a threat to the Chitu.

The third salvo of the Red Rabbit hit two more shots, one hit under the command room of the Aboukir, fortunately, although the protection of the British armored cruiser was not strong, but the command room, The protection of the main gun turret is still good, which is also the general idea of the British Navy, the first thing to protect people and weapons, so hitting the command room did not cause much damage to the Aboukir, but another shell hit the unarmored zone on the right side of the port, which immediately blew a large hole in the side of the Aboukir with a diameter of more than 3 meters, and dozens of soldiers below deck were killed.

At this time, the second ship of the KPA fleet, the Jueying, also completed its turn and joined the battle, and the first round of main gun salvo was both hit, and a shell hit the starboard deck, distorting the nearly 60-square-meter deck of the Aboukir.

Later, the Red Rabbit and the Absolute Shadow fired another salvo of the main guns on the Aboukir, hitting a total of 3 rounds and missing 1 close-range.

In about six or seven minutes since the start of the battle, the Aboukir has been hit by 7 bullets, nearly 2 missed, and if the secondary guns are hit, it has exceeded 20 rounds, and the parts of the shots are basically concentrated on the port side of the bow, which is almost completely deformed, and the two or three floors below the deck have been exposed. The command headquarters was also hit by many bullets, but fortunately it was well protected, and only one 200-mm shell was hit, so the command was not blown up, but there were several obvious depressions, and in the headquarters, many people had been scratched by the iron pieces and glass fired from the explosion.

However, since the parts of the bomb were all in the bow of the ship, the power was intact, and the speed of the ship was still unreduced, but it had not yet turned, but still rushed towards the KPA fleet at a high speed of 21 knots.

And the counterattack of the British fleet finally responded, and the Red Rabbit also received two shells, fortunately they were both medium-caliber shells, and the Red Rabbit's protection was also very effective, so the losses were not large. At the same time, a shell fired from the main gun of the Aboukir landed 35 meters on the side of the side, forming a near-miss, but it did not cause major damage to the Red Rabbit, but it indicated that the British warship had entered the range to which it was customary.

On the Red Rabbit, Lu Kai received a notice from the Kunming that the Abukir had already advanced to within 6,000 meters, and was only 5,740 meters away from the Red Rabbit. Moreover, the other three armored cruisers of the British fleet also entered within 7,000 meters of the KPA fleet.

Luke was also taken aback, he did not expect that the British fleet would advance so quickly, and the range advantage of the KPA fleet no longer existed. However, the British fleet had not yet turned, and was clearly preparing to break through to close range before engaging the KPA fleet. At this time, three warships of the People's Army fleet had completed the turn, and the fourth warship Tianjin had also entered the turn, so the attack on the British fleet had also increased a lot, and it still occupied a certain advantage.

However, Luke also knew that the time for such an opportunity was running out, and he had to hurry up to strike at the British fleet and inflict as much damage on the British fleet as possible before the British fleet turned.

The target of the KPA just now was mainly concentrated on the lead ship of the British fleet, the Aboukir, although it also hit many times and dealt a heavy blow to the Aboukir, but after all, the power of the 200-millimeter caliber main gun was still a little weaker, and it could not inflict a fatal blow on the Aboukir, so that the Aboukir sank or lost its combat effectiveness.

However, after all, the Abukir had been severely damaged, and it only took a little more force to completely sink the warship or lose its combat effectiveness, so Luke ordered the Shadow to continue to attack the Aboukir, and the Jinan and the Tianjin, which was about to complete the turn, together with the second warship of the British fleet, the Crécy.

The Red Rabbit and the Absolute Shadow fired a salvo each at the Aboukir again, and because the distance was so close at this time, the hit rate was also greatly improved, the Red Rabbit's main gun hit 2 rounds and missed 2 shots, while the main gun of the Absolute Shadow hit 3 rounds, while the other secondary guns also hit more than 10 rounds.

The Aboukir was already badly damaged, and this time it was even worse, the bow of the ship was completely blown up, there was almost no place to stand, a large amount of sea water poured into the ship's cabin, and the command headquarters was also pierced through 2 holes, and nearly half of the members of the command were killed or wounded.

At this time, on the flagship of the British fleet, the Crécy, the captain of the ship, Cole, had seen that the Aboukir had been hit by the other side in succession just now, although he did not know the situation of the Aboukir, but it was certain that it had been hit hard, after all, such a fierce blow was not something that an armored cruiser could withstand, and it was a British armored cruiser. Moreover, by this time the target of the People's Warship had begun to shift to its own Cressie, which had opened fire on the Cressy in succession, and had hit three small and medium-caliber shells, it was clear that the British fleet needed to make a change.

So Cole first inquired about the distance between the Cressy and the enemy fleet, and soon got a reply from the lookout, which was about 5,500 meters.

After receiving this reply, Cole also nodded with satisfaction, this distance has basically reached his expected goal, so he immediately ordered the ship, turn to the right 60 degrees, now the British fleet is traveling diagonally at an angle of 15 degrees, and then turn 60 degrees to reach 75 degrees, and the People's Army fleet has turned the warship at an angle of 15 degrees, so that the British warship can exert all the side firepower, and at the same time can continue to close the distance with the People's Army fleet.

Cole then ordered the Abukir that their mission in the battle had been completed and that they could leave the battle. Because the task of the Booukir is to attract the firepower of the KPA fleet and cover the fleet to approach the KPA fleet, now this goal has obviously been achieved, and the following is the real strength of the two sides, but the Aboukir has been heavily damaged, and it does not provide much combat power to the British fleet, but it occupies the position of the lead ship, and instead becomes an obstacle to the British fleet, it is better to let him withdraw from the battle, and the Cressy returns to the position of the flagship and directs the battle behind.