The artillery battle lasted almost two hours, with the boundary of half past three in the morning, divided into two phases.

For more than half an hour ahead, the first main team was rushing westward, trying their best to shorten the engagement distance, and they kept firing back.

Obviously, Takano is also starting to fight for luck.

Unfortunately, in addition to sailing about 20 kilometers to the west, the biggest gain of the two "Gate" class ships in this half hour was that they each received several armor-piercing shells, of which the "Gate" was the mainstay, and there were at least seven direct hits confirmed by visual confirmation.

Fight back?

Not a single hit.

In fact, in the first few return hits, the "Damin" was still able to aim at enemy ships. At about 3:10, after the main rangefinder on the roof of the bridge was broken, the return fire was nothing more than blind fire. Because it was sailing towards an enemy ship, the secondary rangefinder mounted in the back was not used at all.

On the contrary, the situation with the "Luo" was slightly better.

Because the two enemy ships kept firing at the "Gate" and were blocked by the "Gate", in the first half hour, the "Luo" fired several threatening half-salvos with the four main guns in front, and it was even possible to hit the enemy ship once.

According to the report, after the seventh half-salvo, the lookout of the "Luo" saw an explosive flash on the enemy ship No. 1.

However, the enemy ship did not catch fire, so it cannot be determined that it was a hit, maybe it was just the enemy ship communicating with each other, or it was possible that the lookout was mistaken.

In addition, it cannot be ruled out that the captain is falsely reporting the results of the battle.

All in all, Takano did his best, and the more than 2,000 officers and men of the two "Daimon" class battleships also did their best.

Unfortunately, the huge gap in strength cannot be made up by relying on mental strength such as will and fighting spirit.

The reality is very harsh.

In the face of two fast battleships that are ahead of an era, the two "Gate" class not only can't beat the opponent, but can't even catch up with the opponent!

Both Gate-class ships reached speeds of 25 knots, which is also the fastest speed that can be achieved after the modification, and the power system will be overloaded if it is too fast. It's a pity that the speed of the two "Xuhai" class ships is faster, and every tactical turn can pull the distance away by several kilometers.

After running wildly for more than half an hour, the distance did not shorten, always between 17 and 20 kilometers.

By half-past three, Takano had given up.

If you don't give up, you can't do it!

After several successive heavy blows, the "Gate" No. 1 main gun turret had long since been paralyzed, the main gun to the left of the No. 2 main gun turret had also been abandoned, a large piece of the bow had been cut off, and the lookout on the top of the tower mast had been smashed to pieces by an armor-piercing bullet.

Sadly, the speed of the "Gate" has dropped to twenty knots.

It was not the power compartment that was hit, but after more than two days of continuous high-speed travel, four boilers failed, causing none of the four steam turbines to reach their maximum output. According to the chief engineer's report, if the course continues, the speed of the "Gate" will be reduced to sixteen knots.

What needs to be considered now is not how to fight, but how to withdraw.

In addition, the second main team had already entered the Guia Ocean from the Watchman Strait at half past three, and two mine teams were on standby near the strait. When the first main force returned, the destroyers of the two mine teams launched a surprise attack, attacking the pursuing enemy ships with heavy torpedoes.

It's time to say retreat.

It was precisely in this way that at half past three, Takano gave the order to retreat, allowing the two warships to turn separately, and the "Daimon" was responsible for breaking the rear.

At the time of this decision, Takano already knew that it would be impossible to escape.

The point is that after completing the turn, the butt is exposed in front of the enemy ship, and the probability of being hit in the power compartment and propulsion compartment at the rear of the hull becomes greater.

The speed of the "Gate" is getting slower, the range of tactical maneuvers is getting smaller and smaller, and it is more difficult to avoid the incoming shells.

On the contrary, the situation with the "Luo" was slightly better. If the "Gate" attracted the fire of the enemy ships, the "Luo" would have had the hope of escaping.

Let the "Luo" slow down to cover the "Gate"?

Takano hasn't been selfish enough yet.

Go back alive, suffer the ridicule of others, and bear the shame of defeat?

As for what kind of orders Takano gave and what he did at the last moment, it is unknown.

At 3:54 a.m., about 20 minutes after the completion of the turn, an earth-shattering explosion occurred on the "Gate", and it was visually judged that the explosion point was in the tail of the battleship.

Then, in less than a minute, the "Gate" sank.

The speed of sinking is unmatched among capital ships.

It is precisely because of this that from Gao Ye down, none of the more than 1,300 officers and soldiers on the "Gate" survived!

According to what was observed by the officers and men of the "Luo", it is likely that the ammunition depot of the main gun in the tail section was detonated.

This cannon came from the "Yanhai".

Half a minute before the explosion of the "Gate", the "Yanhai" fired the twenty-second salvo and was ready to turn after this salvo.

As a result, the lookout of the "Yanhai" did not observe the impact point according to the regulations, that is, they were lazy.

This is also understandable, the battle went on for an hour, and the lookouts were already exhausted. In addition, the fire control data needs to be recalculated after the turn, so even if the impact point is not observed, it will not have much effect, and the retargeting will have to rely on the gunsight radar anyway.

Later, after a survey of the wreckage of the "Gate", the cause of its sinking was confirmed.

It was the main gun ammunition depot in the tail that was directly hit by a 400-mm armor-piercing projectile, and it exploded in the ammunition depot, detonating dozens of tons of propellant. Because it was a direct hit, not a safety hazard caused by the spread of the fire after hitting the turret, precautions such as closing the fire door in the ammunition elevator, opening the pressure relief valve in the turret, and filling the main gun ammunition depot did not work.

Besides, no one will fill the main artillery ammunition depot in advance.

It's just that "Luo" didn't go far either.

At 4:22 a.m., about 10 kilometers from the unnamed reef in the middle of the strait, that is, the sea area where it had already reached the strait, the "Luo" came under fierce shelling from the northwest direction, and in just three minutes, it was hit more than a dozen times in succession.

That's right, the home fleet has arrived.

Gui Boyong was angry, but he still returned to the battlefield with the main team.

Because the two fast battleships controlled the situation, Gui Boyong did not go to grab the credit, but went straight to the Watchman Strait and waited for the rabbit there.

When making this decision, Gui Boyong wanted to block the strait and find and annihilate the second main team.

Since you have to fight the enemy to the death, you can't let any of them go.

To put it bluntly, if the first main team is annihilated, there is no reason to let go of the second main team.

At 4:35 a.m., after the hull of the ship was almost completely submerged by the sea, the captain of the "Luo" gave the order to abandon the ship, and then locked himself in the bridge of the commander's ship.

More than ten minutes later, the "Luo" sank.

Gui Boyong did not compete with his two subordinates, and counted the merit of sinking the "Lu Ao" on Li Jie and Jin Hong.

Interestingly, he later acted on his own in accordance with the disobedience order, but it did not cause serious consequences, and he gave both of them a major offense.

The first main force was destroyed, and Admiral Takano, the invincible god of the narrow navy and the commander of the permanent fleet, died in Asahimi.