Now Chen Xiaojiang only has two choices, one is to let the battleships disperse immediately, so that there is a great chance that they can avoid the British destroyer launch, but to reunite the fleet in a short time, it will not be easy, it will definitely not be able to catch up with the interception of the British battleships, and can only rely on the cruisers behind to intercept; the second is to continue to complete the turn, so that they can catch up with the British battleships, but they are not sure to dodge, and it is very likely that several battleships will be hit. Of the six battleships brought out by Chen Xiaojiang, two were self-built, and the other four were also relatively cutting-edge battleships, so no matter which one was lost, it would also be a heavy loss for the People's Army Navy, not to mention that it would not be inexplicable to lose three or four battleships.

No matter which choice is, there is a great risk, so Chen Xiaojiang was also a little hesitant for a while, but he also knew that he could never hesitate at this time, no matter whether it was good or bad, he had to make a choice.

At this time, a staff officer suggested: "Let the Red Rabbit and the Absolute Shadow attack to intercept the enemy's destroyers, these two warships have very strong firepower, they will definitely be able to intercept the enemy's destroyers, even if they miss one or two, they will not pose a threat to us." ”

Another staff officer said: "But in this way, there is a risk that these two armored cruisers will be sunk by enemy destroyers with **." ”

The previous staff officer said: "That's better than a battleship being sunk, and the two evils can only be less." ”

When Chen Xiaojiang heard this, he couldn't help but have a flash of inspiration in his mind, and looked at the current situation of the two fleets; at this time, the British fleet had completed its final 45-degree turn and returned to a straight line from south to north, and now the KPA fleet was moving from west to east, with a speed of about 19 knots; the two fleets were horizontal and vertical, and they were exactly perpendicular to each other, but the route of the British fleet's sailing was about 3,000 meters behind the KPA fleet, and it could pass directly, and now it was about 2,000 meters away from the KPA fleet, and at the current speed of the British fleet, it could reach the battle line of the KPA fleet in about 5 to 6 minutesHowever, since the British fleet now has a total of 10 warships and an unfolding length of more than 3,000 meters, it will take at least 10 minutes for the entire fleet to cross the KPA fleet.

At this time, the Cadre General had just completed its turn, and the Mo Xie had only made a 90-degree turn, and the two warships were obviously too late to intercept the British fleet. The destroyers of both sides had already engaged in a fierce battle about 3,000 meters southwest of the KPA fleet, but the KPA had few destroyers and was indeed unable to intercept the destroyers of the British fleet, and four or five destroyers had already broken through the interception of the KPA destroyers and turned to the battleships that were turning one after another.

So Chen Xiaojiang immediately ordered the Mo Xie to stop continuing to turn and accelerate in the current direction, and at the same time, the Cadre General also immediately made a 90-degree turn, following behind the Mo Evil, and the Chifu and the Jue Ying also immediately turned 90 degrees in advance, and then followed the Cadre General and the Mo Evil, after completing these actions, these four warships will be parallel to the British fleet in the direction of travel, and the course is also the same, with a lateral distance of about 4,000 meters, which can be engaged in battle lines.

Of course, due to the small number of KPA warships and the fact that there were two armored cruisers, it was obviously no match for the British fleet to engage in battles on the battle line, but the maximum speed of the Cadre General and Mo Xie was 20 knots, which could reach more than 22 knots under strong pressure and ventilation; The maximum speed of the Jeep was also more than 22 knots, so it was more than 3 knots faster than the British fleet, and it could take advantage of its speed advantage to throw the British fleet away and look for an opportunity, either turn to intercept the British fleet, or join up with the KPA follow-up cruiser detachment and destroyer detachment, and then fight with the British fleet.

The four battleships left behind, the Weiyang, Feiyang, Boyang, and Shikiyo, immediately dispersed in place to evade. And cooperate with the destroyers, first annihilate the British destroyer fleet, and then reorganize the group, rush back to cooperate with the warships that intercepted the British fleet in advance, and flank the British fleet before and after, and at the same time can also attract the main force of the expeditionary force fleet to come to the rescue, so that the expeditionary force fleet can also be introduced into the Taiwan Strait.

Sure enough, after Chen Xiaojiang gave the order, the Mo Xie immediately stopped turning and drove in a straight line to the north, and the Cadre General also made a 90-degree turn and followed behind the Mo Evil, and the Red Rabbit and the Jue Ying, which were originally at the end of the fleet, also turned immediately, and accelerated to catch up with the Cadre General and the Mo Evil, because the reaction of these four warships was extremely timely, so after completing the steering action, it was actually more than 1,000 meters ahead of the British fleet.

Soon, the computer of the Kunming ship simulated the result of running at such a distance and speed, and the four warships led by Chen Xiaojiang could throw the British fleet off a distance of 4-5,000 meters in about 30 minutes, and at that time, the follow-up cruiser detachment and destroyer detachment of the People's Army could almost converge with them, so that there was more room for choice.

After getting this result, Chen Xiaojiang also breathed a sigh of relief, although it took a lot of effort, but he finally resolved the plot of the British fleet. So the fleet was ordered to speed up.

After the British fleet crossed the KPA fleet that was entangled with the destroyers, it was found that the KPA had 4 warships that had turned back one step in advance, and was also more than 1,000 meters ahead of the fleet, and Martinez was once again amazed by the enemy's commander's keen battlefield observation and judgment, if the enemy changed formation 2 or 3 minutes late, then it should be his own fleet that took the lead now, and it seems that it is not easy to implement the battle plan to go around the back of the KPA fleet.

However, now it is only the last step away from success, and the speed of the British fleet has reached 19 knots, if you fight for speed, Martinez believes that the British fleet still has a chance, and now the distance between the two sides is no more than 5000 meters, which is the range that can be engaged, and the other side now has only 4 warships, two of which are armored cruisers, and if you really want to engage in a battle line battle, the British fleet will have a great advantage.

In fact, when it crossed the KPA fleet just now, the British fleet could shoot at the battleships left behind by the KPA, but at this time, the battleships left by the KPA had already been scattered, and they were engaged in a melee with the British destroyers, which was difficult to aim, and if they were not done well, they would be accidentally damaged, so the British fleet gave up attacking the battleships left behind by the KPA and carried out the original plan wholeheartedly.

Of course, at this time, the British fleet can shoot at the KPA retreating warships, and the KPA warships can also return fire, and because of the angle relationship, only the first four warships of the British fleet can use the front and rear main guns at the same time, and the rear six warships can only use the front main guns, while the four warships of the KPA can use the front and rear main guns, so that the main guns that the British fleet can put into battle are 24 305 mm guns and 2 233 mm guns, and the KPA fleet is 16 280 mm guns and 16 200 mm guns, and the actual gap is not as big as the number of warships。

So both sides opened fire almost simultaneously, firing at each other, and at a distance of 5,000 meters, the British warships also had a fairly high hit rate, so the KPA's advantage of a high hit rate was greatly weakened.

The two sides carried out 4 or 5 rounds of firing in a company, and each other was hit, and the KPA hit each other with a total of 15 guns, and they also suffered 11 guns, but both sides were mainly battleships, so they could still carry it, but at this time, the longitudinal distance between the two sides was further extended to 2,000 meters, and only the first two warships of the British fleet could use the front and rear main guns, and the firepower was also weakened a lot.

Of course, the weakening of firepower was not the most fatal to the British fleet, and it was the same for both sides, but the difference in speed was the factor that made the British fleet completely lose its chances of winning, and Martinez had already discovered that the opponent's speed was almost about 3 knots ahead of him, so the implementation of the battle plan to go around the back of the KPA fleet could basically be declared bankrupt.

And at this time, the lookout of the Dreadnought found the follow-up warships of the People's Army, at least more than 10, at a distance of about 15,000 meters, Martinez was completely dead, although the follow-up warships of the People's Army are unlikely to have battleships, but the numerical advantage still cannot be underestimated, and now the British fleet is 2 10,000-ton armored cruisers in addition to the battleships, there is no small and medium-sized warships to escort, if the other side dispatches small cruisers, or destroyers arrive close for ** The attack will be a great threat, and at this time, the main force of the expeditionary force fleet has approached the battlefield, at least the goal of dragging the KPA fleet has been achieved, of course, there is no need to hold on, so Martinez decisively ordered the whole fleet to turn around and retreat.

The British fleet gave up the battle plan to go around the back of the People's Army fleet, and Chen Xiaojiang was completely relieved, but he couldn't relax at this time, because there were still 4 battleships in the back, and if the British fleet retreated, he would easily do these 4 battleships, but the result was still a failure, so Chen Xiaojiang also ordered the fleet to turn around and chase the British fleet, if the British fleet attacked its remaining 4 battleships, then he would give them a front and rear attack.

Seeing that the KPA fleet also turned around and followed him, Martinez of course knew that the other party was afraid that their remaining 4 battleships would be attacked, in fact, at this time, Martinez had no intention of entanglement with the KPA fleet, as long as he smoothly merged with the main force of the expeditionary force fleet, so he ordered the fleet to deviate slightly from the battlefield where the destroyers fought just now, to show that he would not attack the remaining 4 battleships of the KPA, and at the same time recruit his own destroyers, so as to add a few escort warships to himself.

In the destroyer battle just now, 5 British destroyers were sunk, but 4 were sunk by battleships, although the British destroyers fired a total of 15 shots**, because the KPA battleships were scattered very much, so they were all avoided by the KPA battleships and were not damaged, while the KPA destroyers were sunk 2.

The remaining five destroyers joined up with the British fleet and sailed towards the main force of the expeditionary fleet, which had already arrived on the battlefield, while the KPA fleet had no intention of pursuing, so it joined up with its own warships and regrouped to meet the main force of the expeditionary fleet.