At four o'clock in the afternoon, east of the Watchman Strait, the 21st Squadron's flagship "Luhe".

The sun was already setting in the west, but it was still very early before sunset.

It would have been nice to have dragged on for more than two hours and entered the strait after dark.

Because He Yongxing was standing next to him, Bai Zhizhan just sighed secretly, did not write his thoughts on his face, and solemnly observed the situation ahead with a telescope.

The strait is just ahead, and you can already see the peak of Wanggui on the island.

It is said to be a mountain, but in fact it is a hill with a height of less than 200 meters. Before the telegraph became widespread, the Imperial Navy built a beacon tower on top of the hill.

Because more than 200 days a year are shrouded in sea fog, there is little point in looking, so the beacon tower on the top of the mountain has been abandoned for decades.

"Are you from Yuzhou?"

He Yongxing suddenly burst out with a sentence, Bai Zhizhan didn't react for a while, and felt that He Yongxing was talking to others.

"Before I was 10 years old, I lived in Yuzhou for half a year. There's a shipyard over there, and my father was a ship engineer. "When He Yongxing said this, Bai Zhizhan understood." What impressed me the most was the old hot pot by the river, and even now I think about it. ”

"The best hot pot is not by the river, but in the river, the kind in the boatman's house." Bai Zhizhan put down the telescope in his hand.

"Really? If you have the chance, be sure to try it. ”

"Just go to my house, my dad is a boatman, and the hot pot base prepared by my mother is very delicious, plus the freshly killed hairy tripe, live fish in the river, boil it in a big pot, and the taste will not be placed." The last half of the sentence, the Yuzhou dialect spoken by Bai Zhizhan, sounds particularly exciting.

When Bai Zhizhan said this, He Yongxing sighed. Bai Zhizhan is not a stupid person, and when he noticed He Yongxing's expression, he honestly closed his mouth. He Yongxing's He family originated in Eastern Guangdong, and the two Cantonese people hate spicy food the most and basically don't eat spicy food.

"Listen to Gui Boyong, how could you choose such a bias for your aviation reconnaissance major?"

Bai Zhizhan was stunned for a moment, and then smiled bitterly.

He Yongxing didn't ask much, in fact, when Bai Zhizhan smiled bitterly, he knew it in his heart. The children of the civilian class, being able to be admitted to the Imperial Naval Academy are already smoking from the ancestral grave, where are they qualified to pick the fat and the thin, and someone must fill the hole in the side profession.

"Do you think we have any hope of winning if we do it all over again?"

"Nope."

Bai Zhizhan answered categorically, which surprised He Yongxing, or rather surprised, after all, Bai Zhizhan had tried his best to avoid answering such questions before.

"If you still follow the current routine and don't make any changes, even if you do it a hundred times, it will be in vain."

"Why?"

"As a latecomer empire, we will defeat not only the Western powers, but the whole world. It's just a fight for strength, no matter how strong the empire is, it is not an opponent in the whole world. ”

"So, how do you change that?"

This time, Bai Zhizhan did not rush to answer.

In fact, the direction of change has long been clear.

After the outbreak of the Great War, aviation came to the stage of war.

Two years ago, the Alliance Group was the first to carry out maritime reconnaissance missions by water aircraft.

During the blockade of the Tyre Empire, Bran Royal Navy's seaplanes carried out the first bombardment. Although the target of the strike was a civilian ship, and none of the bombs dropped hit, this is enough to prove that dropping bombs from the air is a way to strike.

Last year, before the surrender of the There Empire, the air forces of the Royal Navy of Bran carried out its first bombing campaign in the true sense of the word, or more precisely the results of the war. A bomb dropped by a large seaplane successfully sank a wooden-hulled minesweeper of the Thell Navy.

Inspired by this, the Royal Navy began building a mothership with conventional take-off and landing aircraft.

Unfortunately, even in the Royal Navy, no one believed that planes could pose a threat to capital ships, let alone the Imperial Navy.

Traditional generals like He Yongxing use airplanes as reconnaissance tools at most.

In fact, even Bai Zhizhan felt that it was difficult for the aircraft to pose a real threat to the capital ship that was tens of thousands of times larger.

As for the belief that the mothership will replace the capital ship and become the hegemon of the maritime theater in twenty years, not to mention that it is not prescient to stop the war in vain, and even if there is, he does not dare to draw conclusions.

While change may not lead to victory, no change certainly does not lead to victory.

Change is certain, but what has not yet been determined is only the way, method and direction of change.

Just as Bai Zhizhan was thinking about how to answer, Gui Boyong came to the open-air corridor. When He Yongxing and Bai Zhizhan turned around, Gui Boyong didn't explain much, just pointed in the southeast direction, and handed the high-powered telescope he brought to He Yongxing.

There are several faintly visible plumes of smoke on the antenna in the southeast sea.

After a glance, Bai Zhizhan turned his gaze to the "Beihe" in front.

The flag-bearer has lowered the battle flag on the mainmast and is preparing below, waiting for the commander's flag, which symbolizes the status of the flagship, to be raised again.

At this time, a combat alarm sounded.

The lookout had already made a judgment that it was the Combine's fast-fighting detachment that appeared in the southeast direction, and it was coming this way.

It's just that it's still more than 20 kilometers away.

"Go and give orders." He Yongxing let out a sigh and returned the telescope to Gui Boyong. "It's a fortune or a curse, it's a disaster that can't be avoided."

Gui Boyong didn't say much, and when he turned to return to the bridge, he glanced at Bai Zhizhan and asked Bai Zhizhan to remind He Yongxing to return to the commander's bridge.

The appearance of the fast battle detachment in the southeast direction did not surprise Bai Zhizhan.

This situation has long been expected.

The general direction of the labyrinth channel is from northwest to southeast, the width of the channel is only enough for a capital ship to pass slowly, and there is a safe sea area on the east side of the center line of the strait for warships to turn and maneuver, so the fleet can only sail in one direction after entering.

It was this that only a few battleships needed to be deployed outside the exit of the channel to block the entire channel.

The position of the rapid combat detachment was about ten kilometers from the exit of the labyrinth channel, and this distance was exactly within the direct range of the fifteen-inch main guns, so whether it entered the channel or came out of the channel, it would directly face the forty main guns of five fast battleships. Not to mention a weakly armored battlecruiser, even a powerful battleship could not withstand a fifteen-inch armor-piercing projectile fired directly.

With conventional tactics, the 21st Squadron would certainly not be able to enter the labyrinthine passage under the guns of the fast combat detachment, let alone pass through the Watchman Strait safely.

Luckily, it was less than three hours before dark.

Even the most eyesighted lookouts could not see distant ships at night, so as long as they could drag it until dark, they could break through under the cover of night.

How can I drag it until dark?

"Commander He, let's go in."

After Bai Zhizhan said this, He Yongxing turned around and walked towards the commander's bridge.

The breakout tactics were ready-made, and the 21st Squadron had already planned for this, but it had to revise some of the details according to the actual situation.

Then, it's time to turn the paper plan into action!