The torpedo that passed by made Lin Taiquan break out in a cold sweat.

In the eyes of this senior admiral from the Nanyang Navy, this is purely a meaningless and unnecessary naval duel. As the supreme commander, Admiral Chen Shiying just wanted to relieve the grievances of the Imperial Navy in his chest, and fought a "West African-style naval battle" with the West Franks with an attitude that it didn't matter if he won or lost.

With the sound of artillery and the smoke of gunpowder, the scene is like a trip back to the Gulf of West Africa 25 years ago.

The "Kunlun Mountain", which was attacked by the concentrated artillery fire of the West Frankish fleet, finally could not stand it, flashed its signal lights and began to turn to the left, and gradually broke away from the array. The remaining five Imperial battleships bit the battered Jean Bar at a distance of 18,000 kilometers, and the traditional naval artillery battle was very fierce.

Now the "Qilian Mountain" is at the top of the entire battle column. The "Kunlun Mountain", which had only three main turrets left in the battle, still had a terrible attack power, and it slowed down a little, and was separated by 1,000 meters from the "Qilian Mountain", maintaining a parallel state. Its remaining 6 410 mm naval guns are worthy of being the most powerful naval guns currently equipped by the navies of the world, and an armor-piercing projectile weighing 1.2 tons accurately hit the bridge of the "Jean Bar", and actually tore through the heavy armor of the battleship as thick as 380 mm, and penetrated into the bridge!

The bridge of the heavily armored battleship seemed to be torn apart from the middle, and with a violent explosion, the upper part of its heavy bridge fell to the surface with a screeching sound of metal twisting, and more than a hundred people on the bridge, including the captain, Colonel Richie, were killed, including several major officers. Immediately afterward, a 350 shell hit its No. 3 turret mount, and the unturnable quadruple turret was like a broken sword, causing it to lose nearly half of its firepower at once.

Seeing that the "Jean Bar" was so critical, the "Dunkirk", the flagship of the West Frankish fleet following behind it, issued an order to the "Jean Bar" to "leave the battle", and at the same time Admiral Kubert ordered the flagship to turn to the right to accelerate and protect the flank of the heavily damaged "Jean Bar".

Seeing that the "Jean Barr" was trying to turn away from the battle, the Imperial warships fired a series of accurate salvos, and large-caliber shells smashed into the battered giant ship one after another, and in just a few moments, the new battleship was on fire in three places!

At this critical moment, a warship finally blocked the side of the "Jean Bar", and that was the flagship "Dunkirk" in Kubert's location!

During the period when the Imperial fleet had severely damaged the "Jeanbar", the other West Francian ships were not idle. They forced the "Kunlun Mountain" to withdraw from the battle column and began to bite the "Qilian Mountain" as a target again.

Admiral Alan Kubert found himself guilty of a mistake that the two Qilianshan-class battleships at the head of the Imperial fleet were nearly 10,000 tons taller than the West Francian battleships, and certainly much more capable of carrying guns than the West Francian warships. In this ten minutes of artillery battle, two warships of the West Frankish fleet have been forced to withdraw from the battle, while the wounded warship of the Imperials is hiding on the side of their fleet and can still continue to fight!

The West Franconian fleet also caused considerable damage to the "Kunlun Mountain": its bow starboard steel plate was rolled over, the bow compartment was flooded with more than 500 tons, a near-miss bomb caused the two heavy oil tanks on its starboard side to burst, another 15-inch shell rendered its No. 3 turret useless, its aft bridge was also hit hard, and the rear mast was blown off the middle.

Now, the West Franks turned their guns to the Qilianshan, but after two volleys, its fire was dispersed again. Kupert found that the main guns of the battleships in the middle and rear of the Imperial battleships were not a small threat, and of course, they were easier to take out than the fortified "Qilianshan".

The capital ships of both sides engaged in a life-and-death struggle at medium distances, and those West Frankish destroyers who entered the battlefield with the main fleet were not idle. After receiving instructions from the "Dunkirk", the six destroyers quietly circled to one side and rushed towards the Imperial fleet at an ultra-high speed of 36 knots.

The days of the "Songshan" and "Taishan", which were located at the rear of the Imperial Fleet array, became very difficult, and every large-caliber shell flying from a distance made Lin Taiquan feel terrified. Judging by the frequency of four shots per shot, it should have been a firing method only found on a "Cardinal"-class battleship equipped with two quadruple 15-inch guns on the foredeck, and it was clear that the "Cardinal"-class battleship turned its fire to the "Songshan". Although it has been modernized and strengthened, Lin Taiquan does not think that his old ship can withstand the attack of 15-inch naval guns.

Time passed minute by minute, Chen Shiying looked up at the time, nearly 20 minutes had passed since the first shot was fired, and this battle had passed. The two fleets, which had previously been on almost parallel routes, were moving in opposite directions, and after a short period of "hand-to-hand contact," the distance between them had gradually widened.

Chen Shiying ordered the fleet to turn to the right and keep a distance from the enemy's fleet. As the artillery battle became more and more intense, the crews of both sides gradually found their senses, and the landing points of the shells became more and more accurate. The heavy battleship suffered three shells in succession, one of which hit the upper part of the bridge of the "Qilian Mountain", and its two uppermost radar antennas, the top observation room, and the top firing command room were destroyed in an instant. Even so, because the fire control radar could not work, the "Qilianshan" could only rely on the firing data provided by the "Songshan" that followed behind for shelling, and its combat effectiveness was greatly reduced.

The situation of the West Francian battleships was also not good, in two consecutive rounds of rapid salvos, the "Songshan" and "Taishan" hit the "Dunkirk" one after another, of which the "Taishan" fired a 330-mm shell directly hit the secondary turret behind the side of the second main gun, and the protective armor tens of millimeters thick was completely vulnerable in the face of the large-caliber armor-piercing shells of the Empire, and the first explosion directly overturned the turret, and the shells and propellants that had just been sent to the turret soon caused a second explosion. The fire quickly spread along the lower compartment of the bomb supply channel.

After suffering several large-caliber shells one after another, the "Dunkirk", the only leader of the West Frankish fleet, also burst into flames, and the "Jeanbar" also withdrew from the battle ahead of schedule. The only remaining battleships in Kubert's hands that are still intact are the "Ocean" and two "Cardinal"-class battleships.