The new commander of the Second Fleet of the Gafia Imperial Navy, Admiral Daniel, had a very simple combat idea, and he did not take the initiative to attack, so he blocked outside the Bowa military base and waited for the fleet of the Great Heng people to come by itself.

At the same time, avoid fighting with the opponent's new patrol formation!

I'll get a bunch of battleships to block here, and I'll wait for the other party to kill me.

After all, the main task of the Gafia Imperial Navy is not to defeat the fleet of the Great Heng people, but to blockade the Bowa military base and create a favorable opportunity for the army to conquer the Bowa Fortress, as long as the army forces take the Bowa Fortress, there is no need to fight the subsequent naval battle.

If the other party does not give up and has to kill him, then he will directly let an old battleship push it up, and he will not engage in any high-speed formation battles with them, of course, the intelligence advantage on the battlefield still needs to be fought for, but he does not plan to use ordinary protective cruisers, mounted cruisers and the like to investigate, and directly let a bunch of large lightning strike ships of four or five hundred tons to investigate, simply rely on high speed to conduct reconnaissance, and avoid engaging with the opponent's cruiser, especially the opponent's cruiser fleet.

In this way, in the end, if the other party wants to fight after coming, then it must first fight with its own fleet of old battleships.

And there are a lot of old battleships, even if these old capital ships are outdated and backward, but the number is here, the tonnage is there, and the naval guns with a caliber of more than 300 millimeters are placed there, even if they are at a disadvantage, they can entangle their main fleet and create opportunities for the new capital ship formation to fight in the flank and rear directions.

The whole strategic idea is actually a bit like the defensive operation of the army, with the Chinese army entangled and contained, and the flanks surrounded in a roundabout way.

As for taking the initiative to attack and fight a high-speed maneuver battle with the enemy's fleet, this is to attack the enemy's strengths with his own shortcomings, and he is not stupid to this extent.

Therefore, after receiving the news that the main fleet of the Great Hengren had left the port, his fleet also departed from the port of the Republic of Kean, and then went straight to the sea west of the sea off Beauva.

They arrived here yesterday, and the capital ship formation began to cruise at a low speed, while a large number of large torpedo boats of several hundred tons went out of the periphery to conduct reconnaissance and provide early warning.

On the evening of May 11, the 12th year of Qiansheng, the forward reconnaissance ships of the two sides finally came into contact with each other, the fleet size of both sides was very large, and the number of avant-garde reconnaissance ships sent out was also extremely large, and more importantly, the strategic purpose of the two sides was very clear, one was to go to the Bowa military base, and the other was to stop the other party outside the Bowa military base.

The light reconnaissance ships of the fleets of the two sides quickly spotted each other after making contact with each other!

However, it didn't start a fight, and most of the reconnaissance ships of the Gafiya were large torpedo boats/mine-strike ships of several hundred tons, and if they were replaced by the navy of the Great Heng Empire, they belonged to the category of third-class destroyers.

The destroyers of the Daheng Imperial Navy are generally Yuanlin-class destroyers of more than 1,000 tons.

The Gafia were not stupid, and when they saw the other party's two thousand-ton destroyers rushing over, they turned around and ran, and at the same time passed the information to the ships in the rear.

After the information was relayed by many ships, soon the commanders of both sides knew that the other team's fleet had appeared.

Although only the light ships of both sides are currently in contact with each other, if nothing else, the capital ship formation of the other side is far behind.

After discovering the traces of the enemy's reconnaissance ships, because night was about to fall, in order to avoid being attacked by the enemy's torpedo boats at night, Admiral Weng Zhexi did not let the fleet speed up to engage in battle, but ordered the fleet to start turning north, and at the same time ordered the Fifth Destroyer Formation to continue in-depth reconnaissance, and let the Third Destroyer Fleet reinforce to see if there was a chance to launch a torpedo night attack.

Coincidentally, Admiral Daniel was also afraid of being attacked by the enemy's torpedo boats at night, so he also took evasive measures, not to the north, but to retreat directly backwards, and at the same time ordered a large number of large torpedo boats to go forward, looking for an opportunity to attack the main fleet of the Great Heng people at night.

The intention of both sides was very clear, that is, to avoid being attacked by the other side's torpedo boats as much as possible, and to try to delay the engagement of the capital ships until after dawn the next day.

However, it was the main fleets of both sides that were evaded, but the light formations of both sides invariably moved forward and headed in the predetermined direction they had envisioned.

This also led to the fact that on this night, the light warship formations of both sides encountered many times.

The third destroyer formation and the fifth destroyer formation of the Daheng Navy, a total of two Yuchi-class cruisers and eight Yuanlin-class destroyers, made many contacts and exchanged fire with the light formation of the opposing side in this sea area.

During the night scuffle, a Yuanlin-class destroyer of the Daheng Navy was sunk, and several ships were heavily damaged by rapid-fire artillery attacks, but the light fleet of the Gaphians was no better, with at least three large torpedo boats sunk and many heavily damaged.

This night melee between the light formations of the two sides lasted intermittently until dawn the next day, and there were losses on both sides but neither side could find the opponent's capital ship formation, so both sides actually failed to achieve their tactical objectives.

After dawn the next day, the light formations of both sides continued to move, but they had already turned into capital ship formations looking for each other.

However, after a night of maneuvering, the capital ship formations of both sides had already left their original positions far away, and it was difficult for both sides to find traces of the other side's capital ships for a while.

By about eight o'clock in the morning, a Gafian reconnaissance cruiser had spotted a number of Great Hengren warships about three hundred nautical miles directly from the Beauva military base.

What they found was naturally the patrol formation led by Lieutenant Secretary Ren Zhongping in the First Mobile Fleet.

Ren Zhongping looked at the dark shadow in the distance, but there were not too many surprises, although it was said that after a night of maneuvering, the fleet detoured due north of the Bowa military base, but everyone knew that his fleet was preparing to go to the Bowa military base, and no matter how it went, it was impossible to say that it was too far away.

With so many warships on both sides concentrated in this sea area, it was only a matter of time before they were discovered.

Besides, it's daytime, so what if his patrol formation is discovered?

Relying on the powerful rapid-fire artillery firepower, Ren Zhongping's patrol formation was not afraid of harassment by torpedo boats, and the fourth destroyer formation was also nearby, which could provide close protection for his patrol formation at any time.

As for the enemy's cruiser fleet, there is no need to be afraid, he is confident enough to take out the enemy's cruiser formations such as mounted cruisers and cruisers of the first rank.

With the strength of his patrol formation, even the battleship formation of the Gaphians could fight.

It's really not good, you can still get out with the speed!