The officers and men of the battleship "Sayan Ridge" wearing steel helmets were ready for battle.

In the firing command room, the artillery commander had already ordered the rangefinder and ranging radar to be turned on, and the ballistic calculator installed in the room was buzzing and analyzing the metadata of the shooting.

"Target 26500, azimuth 14!" Lieutenant Colonel Li Weiwei, the commander of the gun, reported the firing data to the operations command room every minute, and now the enemy ships had already entered the range of the main guns of the "Sayanling."

"Armor-piercing shells ready, aim at the ship on the right!" Ou Chen finally gave the order to prepare for shooting.

"Target 25400, azimuth 15, one armor-piercing shell, each gun position ready!" Lieutenant Colonel Lee's voice came from the firing command room.

The main turrets of the two Tang warships pointed to the left front, and the bombardier smoothly pushed the projectile and the cartridge into the breech, closed the bolt, and the muzzle hit the specified elevation angle and azimuth, the target was locked, and the firing safety was lifted.

At 17:19, the green firing signal light in the turret was lit, and with a rumbling cannon sound, the entire warship slammed into it, and the five front main guns of the "Sayanling" spewed out two orange fireballs, and the entire foredeck was then shrouded in a brown-black smoke.

At this time, the two sides were 24,800 meters apart, and with the improvement of artillery technology, the distance of warships was increased compared to the last world war. The West Frankish warships on the opposite side also began to return fire, and both fleets turned slightly, hoping to attack the enemy with all their broadside fire.

At 7:22, the "Anzhou", which was following behind the "Sayanling", finally couldn't hold back and fired the first round of volleys. The rate of fire of the high-level dual-purpose main guns on this light cruiser was high, theoretically the maximum rate of fire could reach 15-16 rounds per minute, but it was already remarkable to be able to reach half in real combat.

Only one minute later, the "Anzhou" hit the enemy ship first, and at this time, the "Sayanling," which fired first, had just fired the third salvo, while the "Anzhou" had already fired four rounds of salvo fire of 12 shells per round within a minute, and soon formed a pincer fire on the "Pencent" sailing close to the side of the Tang fleet.

The two West Francian heavy cruisers chose the "Sayan Ridge" as their target.

After a few more rounds of shelling, the West Francian warships realized that something was wrong, and although the light high-speed shells of the 150-mm main guns on the "Anzhou" could not penetrate the main armor belt of the heavy cruiser and inflict fatal damage on the West Francian heavy cruisers, its rate of fire was too fast. In a short time, several shells had already landed on the deck of the "Pencent", which made the treaty heavy cruiser blaze all over its body and greatly affected its combat effectiveness.

Moreover, the "Sayan Ridge" captured the outline of the target with the help of the fire on the body of the West Francian warship, and the main gun fire became accurate. Seeing this, the "Gox" raised the banner of withdrawing from the battlefield. Colonel Harold was torn and humiliated in his heart, for centuries the British Empire's royal navy had always bullied and bullied others at sea, and he was probably the first West Francian naval commander to give the order to escape from the battlefield.

He suddenly discovered that the 15 treaty-class heavy cruisers built by the Wang Navy at a huge cost in the more than 20 years before the war was a great mistake, because due to the development of ship power system technology, even the opponent's old battleships could reach a maximum speed of close to 30 knots after replacing the new power system, and in the face of such warships, these expensive West Francian heavy cruisers could not escape the fate of being hanged. The cost of these 15 heavy cruisers can basically build 7 to 8 George V-class battleships, and if they are replaced by new high-speed battleships, then the old Austrian dreadnought in front of them can only flee from the wind, and basically they can't escape if they want to.

Now, they are the only ones who will escape.

But what Harold feared happened.

The West Francian fleet had just begun to turn, and the Tang battleships fired shells one after another at the "Pencent", including 330-mm shells that frightened the West Francian heavy cruisers, and 150-mm shells fired from the Tang cruisers, which could not penetrate the main armor of the treaty cruisers, but could still cause great damage to the weak points of the side protection and the deck superstructure.

The sound of artillery on the sea shook the sky, and it was not easy for the two West Francian heavy cruisers to get rid of it quickly after the engagement.

Harold looked at the sea with some anxiety, he regretted his rash decision just now, the "Gocks" was not attacked much, and the Tang people concentrated all their firepower on the "Pencent". Less than 10 minutes into the battle, the lookout reported that the Pencent had been shot several times, and that the weakly defended Treaty Heavy Cruiser was covered in smoke and tilted.

"Sir, the Pencent has completely disappeared into smoke and flames!" The lookout of the "Gox" exclaimed loudly. In fact, Harold had already seen that the last shell should have hit the back of the bridge and the front chimney of the "Pencent", and now black smoke was billowing on the sea, and the warship was completely hidden in a cloud of smoke, and even the "Gokes", which was less than 2 nautical miles away, could not accurately distinguish its outline.

The West Francian Heavy Cruiser had already suffered heavy damage and was leaving the battlefield in full force, its speed was already decreasing, and if it was hit by another heavy bomb, it would most likely be reimbursed. Fortunately, because the sea was filled with smoke, the Tang people couldn't find the target for a while, and their artillery fire temporarily stopped for a while.

"Full left rudder, full speed between them!" Harold understood that he needed to take a desperate gamble now, or the friendly ship under the command of Colonel House would sink, "Cast smoke!" ”

The four smoke canisters on the side of the "Gox" were opened, and with the billowing smoke behind them, they turned in a solitary shape on the surface of the sea and rushed to the left side of the "Pencent", which was slowing down. Now, the distance between it and the Tang warship has been reduced to about 18,000 meters, and the firepower of the Tang people has really been attracted to it.

Two Tang warships began to concentrate their fire and attack the "Goks".

In fact, Ochen made a mistake here, and with the help of range-finding radars, the smoke from the West Franks did not interfere much with the German ship's main gun fire. However, he believed that the "Pencent" had suffered heavy damage and had basically become a dead fish, and that it would be possible to clean up sooner or later, so he gave up continuing the attack and ordered to turn all its fire to the "Gox" and fire.

He's trying to get rid of all of these two damn West Francian warships!