The sea is cloudy, the waves are rolling, and the night sky is full of snow. The Imperial fleet waited for a long time on the other side of the bay, sabre-rattling, ready to deliver a fatal blow to the West Franks. And because the attention of the two destroyers who were reconnoitring in front was attracted by the two Imperial destroyers who were retreating to the depths of the bay, they did not find the main fleet of the Empire sharpening their knives on the other side at all, and Kubert's fleet was still in the dark and knew nothing about it.

At 20:43 p.m., the radar room reported that two small warships were speeding past Cape Codreux, and two minutes later, the main force of Kubert's fleet turned around the cape and appeared on the radar screen of the "Qilian Mountain", and the firing command room also gave a series of firing data.

Admiral Chen Shiying immediately ordered the signal corps to issue an order to the ships to prepare for a salvo.

Chen Shiying, who had been guarding the bridge of the "Qilian Mountain", held up the binoculars, and at this time the sea was still dark and dreary, and he couldn't see anything in his sight, but he couldn't take it for granted that the other party hadn't found himself either. Today, with the rapid development of radio detection technology, the dark night can no longer provide natural cover for the ship, and the radar echo of the ship's hull and the water noise emitted by the propeller may make the other party find themselves at any time.

At 20:53, Chen Shiying gave the order to open fire, and the target was directly aimed at the large ship that followed the small ship on the radar.

A sudden, majestic thunder broke the silence on the sea, and the muzzle of the 410-mm main gun of the "Qilianshan", which fired first, spewed out four large orange fireballs, which lit up a large area of the sea in an instant. More than ten nautical miles away, the West Frankish fleet had already spotted the traces of the Imperial fleet and was busily adjusting its guns. Through the sea and sky where snowflakes are flying, you can still see the matchstick-like flames on the distant sea flickering, and then huge warheads with a terrifying sharp whistling sound can still be seen in the air.

The shells flew much faster than the sound propagated through the air, and the shuddering heavy shells, with a peculiar sound of rubbing against the air, streaked overhead and landed on the sea not far away, sending out a violent explosion that coincided with the rumbling of the cannon from 20 kilometers away.

Of course, Chen Shiying could imagine how the sailors on the West Francian battleship in the distance would react in panic in the face of these sudden large-caliber shells, and he was guessing the identity of the West Francian battleship that was being attacked by several German ships, the "Brittany" class, the "Louis III" class, or a "Cardinal" class? The West Frankish warships were lining up and turning around Cape Kodlu, and four large warships had already appeared on the radar screen of the German ships.

Six Imperial battleships and two heavy cruisers opened fire at the same time, and a total of 72 large-caliber guns spewed flames almost at the same time, and under such a dense firepower, the "Louis III", which was at the top of the West Frankish fleet, was hit by two shells in the first round of shelling. Under the guidance of advanced fire control radars, the long-range firing accuracy of large-caliber naval guns has been greatly improved compared with the era when optical rangefinders were used.

There was another rumbling cannon on the sea, and the two heavy cruisers of the "North Garden" class, which were located in the rear of the fleet, opened fire again. The 16 SKC35D 203-mm 60-caliber Krupp guns equipped with the two Imperial Heavy Cruisers had a rate of fire of up to 6 rounds per minute, and although the warhead weighed only 150 kg, it was obviously not enough penetration for a battleship, and it was still able to cause a certain degree of damage to the weak points of its deck superstructure.

Theoretically speaking, the two "Qilianshan" class battleships and the two "Green Ridge" class battleships equipped with automatic bomb lifters can achieve a high rate of fire of 3 rounds per minute with their main guns, while the two "Wuyue" class old battleships have a slower rate of fire with their main guns. However, in actual combat, the battleship's main guns will produce a huge recoil force of thousands of tons after a salvo, and even a giant ship with a full load displacement of more than 55,000 tons like the "Qilianshan" can be pushed flat from the sea by this huge recoil force of nearly ten meters, and the battleship needs to overcome the sway, and wait until it regains its balance before it can carry out the shelling again, and it will take about a minute and a half to two minutes before the next salvo can be fired again.

In an artillery battle at sea, the difference in the rate of fire of the battleship's main guns did not make as much of a difference as one might think.

As soon as the Imperial warships completed the second salvo, the enemy quickly responded with the sound of artillery, although the first salvo fired by the French ships from 20,000 meters away was somewhat inaccurate. But Chen Shiying and the officers on board were still able to judge from the whistling sound of the warheads: those shells fired by ships with a caliber of at least 14 inches or more.

In this bay, which is only more than 30 kilometers wide, since the naval battle in West Africa, the naval duel of the battleship fleet of the Tang-European Navy has been staged again.

After the initial panic, the West Frankish fleet had slowly adjusted its formation. On the signal mast of the flagship battleship "Dunkirk", the Z-shaped signal flag raised by the cardinal in the naval battle of West Africa was raised again, and at the same time, the light signal was used to send a combat signal to the other members of the fleet: the fate of the country is fighting here, I hope you will work hard!

Admiral Chen Shiying, however, did not feel this way, and he still had six aircraft carriers waiting for an opportunity to be dispatched more than 70 nautical miles away. With the strength of the air fleet, it is enough to completely annihilate the main fleet of West Francia, even if he loses, what can he do? Therefore, he was very sure in his heart that the combat signal sent by the flagship "Qilianshan" to the fleet was 276.5.31.

This set of figures represents a day that the Imperial Navy will always remember, in the "West African Naval Battle" that broke out in the last world war, the Tang Imperial Navy finally defeated the European Combined Fleet in the largest battleship duel in history, sending eight enemy battleships and battle cruisers to the icy bottom of the sea.

But now, the enemy will relive that same painful historical memory.

On the other side of the bay, the West Frankish fleet, which had a slight advantage in the number of ships, also quickly entered a state of imminent battle.

Since the previous fleet was in the process of turning, the West Frankish fleet was in a very unfavorable position to engage. Admiral Alain Kupert immediately ordered the Louis III, which had been damaged in the firefight, to withdraw from the queue and move to the rear of the fleet, with the "Prince of Lorraine" following as the head, while the destroyer fleet approached the main fleet of the Empire, trying to disrupt the formation of the Imperial fleet with torpedoes.

More than a hundred years after the Mediterranean naval battles of the cardinal era, in the waters of the North Atlantic, far from the Mediterranean, a naval battle that decided the fate of the Kingdom of West Francia broke out again.