In the Yanmen Strait, after the expeditionary fleet of the Shalad Empire and the independent fleet of the Royal Navy of the Liuyun Empire met, the first battle broke out was not the battleships of the two sides, but the cruisers of the two fleets.

The independent fleet, consisting of four battle cruisers and six large armored cruisers, met head-on with the first partisan group of eight large armored cruisers of the Sharad Imperial Expeditionary Fleet, which wanted to go around the flank of the opposing fleet, while the second partisan group of sixteen medium armored cruisers of the Sharad Imperial Expeditionary Fleet followed the first guerrilla.

At 9:36 a.m. on May 28, 3011, the four Lion-class battlecruisers of the Independent Fleet's Fast Fleet, when they were 18,000 meters away from the First Guerrilla Group of the Shalad Imperial Expeditionary Fleet, first launched the first salvo with 343 mm main guns, but unfortunately not a single shell hit the target.

At this moment, in the bridge of the Ares of War, the flagship of the Sharad Imperial Expeditionary Fleet, the captain of the Ares Rofeyer said to Commander Denis with a wry smile: "Commander, there is good news and bad news now, the good news is that the enemy still only has six super dreadnought battleships, instead of ten, and the bad news is that the four giant ships of the enemy that meet the first guerrilla group and the second guerrilla force in a narrow way should be the battle cruisers that our Sharad Imperial Navy is designing!" ”

Commander Denis said with a gloomy face: "With a speed of more than twenty-five knots, and four twin-mounted main guns with a caliber of at least 305 mm, it seems that it should indeed be a battle cruiser that the Admiralty is still designing, I heard that the British Ropa Empire is also designing a battle cruiser, but I didn't expect that the baron of the Liuyun Empire could be the first to have this combination of battleship and cruiser." ”

Captain Rofayer of the Ares continued: "Commander, with the strength of the first guerrilla group and the second guerrilla group, it is impossible to match the enemy's four battle cruisers, do you want the sixteen ironclad ships of the second battle line to support it?" ”

Commander Denis pondered for a moment, gritted his teeth and said, "The speed of the sixteen ironclad ships is too slow, and the range of the main guns is not enough, letting them deal with the enemy's four battle cruisers is equivalent to sending them to death!" Immediately send a telegram to the 1st and 2nd guerrillas and ask them to do everything possible to entangle the enemy's detachments, protect the flanks of the formation, and give the battleship formations of the formation to buy time to defeat the main forces! ”

Captain Rofeyer hesitated slightly, "Commander, then the first guerrilla group and the second guerrilla group are bound to suffer very large losses. ”

Commander Denis sighed and said: "The strength of the baron fleet of the Liuyun Empire is far beyond what we knew before, in addition to the other party has six super dreadnought battleships and four battle cruisers, it also has eight dreadnought battleships and four former dreadnought battleships, our expeditionary fleet, if we want to win the final victory in this naval battle, it seems that it is impossible not to pay the price, in order to crush the opponent's battleship formation, we can only let the first guerrilla group and the second guerrilla group make some sacrifices." ”

Just as Commander Denis finished speaking, the battlecruiser Lion's Roar of the Independent Fleet hit the broadside armor armor of a large armored cruiser of the Shalad Empire in the second salvo of main guns.

Only the 140 mm side armor was blocked, where could the 343 mm armor-piercing shell be blocked, and finally this shell directly drilled into the hull of this large armored cruiser before exploding, and also detonated its boiler, making this large armored cruiser slowly sink to the sea in the sound of successive explosions.

Seeing this, Commander Dennis's face couldn't help but change, but he didn't change his order, "Tell the First Guerrilla Brigade and the Second Guerrilla Brigade that whether the expeditionary fleet can win this battle depends on whether they have the determination to break the boat!" ”

The captain of the Ares Rofeyer nodded gloomily, "Yes, Commander, I will immediately have someone send a telegram to convey your order to the First and Second Guerrillas. ”

In the bridge of the Yongxiang, the flagship of the independent fleet, the commander Wang Chengliang saw that there was a large armored cruiser of the enemy, which was hit by the main guns of his own battle cruisers, and it seemed that it was bound to sink, and he couldn't help laughing and said to Yuan Fan, the captain of the Yongxiang next to him: "Good sign! The Fast Squad has given our entire independent fleet a start! Tell Cao Junrong, the captain of the Lionroar battlecruiser, that the fast team does not need to support the main formation for the time being, and their first task is to destroy the opponent's armored cruiser formation. ”

Cao Junrong, the captain of the Lion's Roar, is also a navy-type mid-level combat biochemical, because Wang Chengliang appointed the Lion's Roar as the flagship of the Rapid Force, so Cao Junrong temporarily served as the commander of the Rapid Fleet's four battlecruisers and six large armored cruisers.

After Cao Junrong received a telegram from Commander Wang Chengliang, he immediately said to an officer beside him: "Immediately order the Feihong, Feiying, Feiting, Feirui, Feihe, and Feichen to circle the right flank of these enemy armored cruisers and flank each other with the four battle cruisers, but don't get too close to guard against the enemy's torpedo attack." ”

At 10:08 a.m., the six super dreadnoughts of the Independent Fleet, about 20,000 meters away from the battle line of the Sharad Imperial Expeditionary Fleet, launched the first round of main gun salvos, and a minute later, the four super dreadnought battleships of the Sharad Imperial Expeditionary Fleet also returned to color and also carried out the first round of main gun salvos.

The first salvo of the strongest battleships on both sides did not achieve any results, but the shells dropped by the six super dreadnought battleships of the independent fleet were less than 500 meters away from the target, while the shells dropped by the four super dreadnought battleships of the Sharad Imperial Expeditionary Fleet were all two kilometers away.

At this time, the 1st and 2nd Guerrillas of the Sharad Imperial Expeditionary Fleet, which had been fighting for half an hour, had already sunk two large armored cruisers and four medium armored cruisers, and several armored cruisers were seriously damaged.

On the side of the Rapid Strike Force of the Independent Fleet, only the large armored cruiser Flying Crane was slightly damaged, and the battle cruiser Shiwei was scratched a little.

"Commander, now our first battle line is 20,000 meters away from the opponent, and at this distance, it is almost difficult for the four Ares 343mm main guns to hit the opponent, and we must try to close the distance with the opponent's battle line." The captain of the Ares Rofeye said to Commander Denis urgently.

Commander Dennis gritted his teeth and said: "Then let's not seize the T-head with the other party, and order all the battleships to face the enemy's battle line with the bow of the ship and move towards it at full speed." ”