Zhang Lin looked at the combined fleet divided into two ways, and the battleships that came over were only two light cruisers, three destroyers, and one battleship, and smiled self-deprecatingly: "It seems that we have been underestimated, concentrate firepower, and hit the battleship that hits it!" ”

The Combined Fleet did this just to hold off Zhang Lin so that it could concentrate its forces to destroy the remnants of the Reims Empire, and then destroy the Storm Fleet led by Zhang Lin! But they divided their forces like this, but Zhang Lin could take advantage of it, after all, the advantage of the Storm Fleet in firepower and the technical performance of the battleships was much stronger than that of the Combined Fleet!

However, the commander of the combined fleet understood that relying on these warships, Zhang Lin could not be stopped, and then let the carrier-based aircraft of the aircraft carrier formation attack the Storm Fleet, so that the pressure on those warships would be reduced a lot, and this menacing fleet could be delayed!

However, their wishful thinking didn't seem to be right, looking at the carrier-based aircraft group coming from afar, Zhang Lin smiled knowingly, what is the strongest in the Storm Fleet? It's not firepower or defense, 20 anti-aircraft firepower, under Zhang Lin's special request, each battleship has been equipped with a large number of anti-aircraft artillery crews, and the anti-aircraft firepower of the entire battleship is all over the hull, just to deal with carrier-based aircraft, and now they are sending carrier-based aircraft to deal with the storm fleet.

When the carrier-based aircraft was still about eight kilometers away from the Storm Fleet, a large number of anti-aircraft guns began to fire, and the dense firepower network made the carrier-based aircraft of the Combined Fleet suffer, because the order received was to forcibly break through the enemy's anti-aircraft firepower and cooperate with the fleet to block the enemy, but this became a nightmare for carrier-based aircraft, thirty-six carrier-based aircraft, in just six minutes, thirteen were shot down, this is still a relatively long distance, a large number of anti-aircraft artillery groups did not fire, if at close range, The anti-aircraft fire of the Storm Fleet is a nightmare that any carrier-based aircraft does not want to see!

This is not over, watching the enemy's carrier-based aircraft begin to wander outside the range of large-caliber anti-aircraft artillery groups, and only carrier-based aircraft with a caliber of more than 60 millimeters can reach the firing range, Zhang Lin ordered: "All the secondary guns of the battleship, all switch the three-phase shells for air defense, and prepare to fire!" ”

After the secondary guns of these warships switched the three-phase bombs used for air defense, they began to fire frantically at the carrier-based aircraft group flying in the distance, and for a time a large number of large-caliber three-phase catapults were fired at the carrier-based aircraft of the United Fleet, and after this group of carrier-based aircraft reacted, it was already too late, a large number of three-phase bombs began to explode, and only one firepower salvo, the number of carrier-based aircraft was lost, and the remaining six carrier-based aircraft fled in a hurry, and the commander of the combined fleet saw this scene, his eyes were straight: "Can anyone tell us what is going on over there, Why did the carrier-based machine disappear? ”

"Sir, I received a report from the aircraft carrier formation that the enemy's anti-aircraft fire was too strong for carrier-based aircraft to approach at all, and before they reached the distance, they were shot down by the enemy's anti-aircraft fire!"

The commander of the combined fleet clenched his fists, was about to have a seizure, and finally put it down weakly, which could be seen in his inner helplessness: "How many carrier-based aircraft are left?" ”

"There are only thirteen left available, and six fighters remain!" Hearing this, the commander of the Combined Fleet was deeply disturbed, and he immediately observed the Storm Fleet from the control tower with a viewing scope, and he was shocked by the scene that caught his eye: "Order the fleet to come back quickly!" ”

It's just that it's too late, the two sides are fighting fiercely at a distance of fifteen thousand meters, and it's too late to withdraw from the battle. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

The Storm Fleet took the Liberty as the vanguard, and the Victory followed closely with the Pioneer, quickly approaching the small detachment of the Combined Fleet, and the battleship faced the Liberty with its bow, who knew that the battleships of the Liberty did not fire at it at all, but the 203 mm guns of the two heavy cruisers of the Sun and the Sun, and after two salvos, a fire broke out on the bridge of the battleship, and the fire was fierce and the damage was difficult to control!

Because the firing angle was not very good, the Liberty turned its gaze to another light cruiser, at a distance of fifteen kilometers, no matter what posture it used against the Liberty, the four hundred and twenty mm cannon could easily penetrate its armor, with Zhang Lin's order, the six giant cannons in front of the Liberty opened fire, the light cruiser hated bad luck, the outer plate of the bow directly tore the shells of the Liberty, and began to enter the water, and the bulkhead behind it was also damaged by the explosion of the shells, and a large amount of water ingress caused the light cruiser to quickly lose its combat effectiveness, In the end, the captain had to order the flagship!

Subsequently, the Liberty Pioneer and the Victory had their secondary guns aimed at the battleship and began to shoot wildly, a large number of shells were completely buried, the battleship, under the high-intensity secondary artillery attack, the battleship's superstructure was beaten to pieces, there was no power to parry, the main gun could still fight back, but the detection radar, fire control radar was destroyed one after another, so that the battleship lost the power to parry, coupled with the hull fire, the battleship's sailors died heavily, although the hull structure remained relatively intact, But basically lost its combat capability, and in order to avoid the capture of the ship, the captain ordered to abandon the ship at the same time, and ordered to open the dense water valve at the bottom of the ship to sink itself!

However, Zhang Lin didn't fancy these battleships at all, the design concept was backward, except for the thick main gun, there was no other excellent place, the damage was so bad, in addition to repair, it had to be modified, it was better to rebuild it!

After the battleship sank, the remaining two light cruisers and destroyers did not dare to stop Zhang Lin at all, and withdrew from the battle under the cover of a smoke screen, and the commander of the combined fleet saw that his fleet had only blocked the storm fleet for less than thirty minutes, and the depression in his heart could be imagined, but the Reims Imperial fleet was still resisting stubbornly, and it would take a while to defeat them, but the storm fleet was eyeing it here, and it was difficult for the combined fleet to ride the tiger for a while!

However, the commander of the combined fleet is also very courageous, at present, the battleships of the Reims Imperial fleet are basically injured, and the combat effectiveness is seriously damaged, and the new fleet is in full swing, first frustrate the spirit of this fleet, and then teach them a lesson!

Then the commander of the combined fleet personally led half of the battleships to fight against the Storm fleet, and the remaining battleships continued to suppress the Reims Imperial fleet, and the storm fleet immediately felt the pressure, facing three battleships and two battlecruisers, even if it was the storm fleet, it didn't feel good, but that was the end of it, in terms of the battleship design concept and the caliber of the main gun and armor protection, the storm fleet was stronger than the combined fleet, and in this case of fighting, the storm fleet still had a lot of advantages!

Seeing the enemy unfold the formation, Zhang Lin immediately ordered the fleet to release the torpedoes, this time the torpedoes provided by Smith have been improved, and they can reach a range of more than 20 kilometers at a speed of 60 knots, and each of the battleships of the Storm fleet has torpedo launchers, the Hope-class destroyer has two five-pack torpedo launchers, the Liberty has four, which are distributed and installed on both wings, the Pioneer and the Victory each have four four-pack 533 mm caliber torpedo launchers, and the same is true for the two heavy cruisers, with Zhang Lin's order, All ships fired torpedoes in accordance with the angles and azimuths calculated by the fire control radar, a total of ninety-two torpedoes were fired, and a large number of thunderbolts attacked the combined fleet!

The commander of the Combined Fleet had never seen such a huge battleship, neither the Liberty nor the Victory was different from their battleships, and now they still used the mainstream flying scissor bow, while the Liberty took a spherical bow The whole hull design is full of streamlines, so the speed is slightly increased!

In naval warfare, it is advantageous to grab the T-shaped formation, and every commander understands that this posture can allow the naval gun to point to one side and fire a salvo, so as to ensure that their firepower is maximized, but there are also disadvantages, that is, the main armor belt of the battleship will leak to the enemy head-on, but in naval warfare, the hit rate of the shells is extreme, almost between one and two percent, and the probability of being hit in the main armor protection zone is lower, but there is no such probability in battle, once the main armor belt is penetrated, it will cause fatal damage to the vital parts of the battleship, And this kind of damage cannot be repaired in battle, so Zhang Lin will generally order the battleship to be at an angle of thirty-five degrees, which can not only maintain the fire salvo, but also ensure that the armor belt will not be easily penetrated!

The two sides launched a fierce artillery battle at a distance of 18 kilometers, after the last time the fire control radar of the Liberty was damaged, Zhang Lin specially asked Smith to install two more fire control radars, although it will increase some displacement, but the accuracy of the artillery will be greatly improved, in the first exchange of fire between the two sides, this gap was revealed, the shell of a battle cruiser of the combined fleet directly crossed the Liberty, fell into the water three hundred meters away from the Liberty, and the Liberty with the help of the water reconnaissance aircraft, actually made a hit, Although the shell passed through the front mast and did not cause any damage, it also made the construction of that battle cruiser nervous!

However, the first shot was to provide data support for subsequent shots, with the data of the first shot, the main gun of the Liberty slightly lowered the aiming height, only zero and two degrees, but this was enough, the main gun of the battle cruiser opened fire again, this time they were lucky, two shells hit the main armor belt of the Liberty, but both ricocheted, with its 305 mm caliber main gun, it was impossible to penetrate the main armor belt of the Liberty at a range of eighteen kilometers, The main guns of that battle cruiser penetrated only three hundred millimeters horizontally at about eighteen kilometers, which naturally did not make any sense for the main armor belt of four hundred and twenty millimeters of the Liberty!

However, this salvo of the main guns of the Liberty made the battlecruiser not so lucky, a shell hit the B turret, completely destroying the main gun, and a shell hit the waterline armor, but it left a big hole, the shell did not explode due to malfunction, as for the reason, Zhang Lin did not know!

However, this huge shell aroused the interest of the sailors, and after measurement, it turned out to be a 420-mm shell, and this shocking news was immediately reported to the commander of the combined fleet!

"What do you say? A 420 mm caliber gun, oh my God, who managed to make such a main gun! ”

"Commander, according to the information we have obtained, all major arms dealers can manufacture 406 mm caliber main guns, this technology has matured, not the previous experimental state, but no one should be able to manufacture 420 mm caliber main guns, this is not only a matter of increasing caliber, is it difficult for someone to end up with the problem of pressure that rises with the increase of caliber?" The adjutant of the combined fleet analyzed!

The commander of the combined fleet waved his hand: "This is not a problem we are discussing now, the caliber of the enemy's main guns is beyond our expectations, we are not their opponents at all, according to the manufacturing and operation of the battleship, the armored protection zone will be able to withstand the shelling of the ship's main guns at about twenty kilometers, then the armor protection of this battleship should be four hundred and twenty millimeters, and our main guns will not be able to penetrate their armor belt at this distance!" ”

The results of the analysis silenced both the commander and the adjutant of the combined fleet, they were fighting a war that could not be won, which they could not accept!

"Send a report to the joint command, request the 3rd and 7th Fleets to come to support, we must use 400 mm caliber main guns to defeat them, we are now fighting and withdrawing, try our best to hold off this fleet, buy time for our fleet, and destroy the fleet of the Reims Empire!" The commander of the combined fleet paused: "Order the main artillery crew to switch high-explosive shells and destroy their superstructure!" ”

In the captain's room of the Liberty, Zhang Lin constantly felt the vibration of the Liberty, but there was no damage report, it seems that the Liberty has not hit the superstructure at present, but Zhang Lin knows very well that once the fleet is close to about thirteen kilometers, the enemy's 380 mm main gun can penetrate the armor of the Liberty, but now the combined fleet has begun to retreat, which makes Zhang Lin feel a little strange, I don't know what medicine the enemy sells in the gourd!

Then the Liberty opened fire on the battlecruiser again, this was already the sixth salvo of the main guns, and the battlecruiser now looked like it was hurtling, although it hadn't hit the vital point yet, but it could be seen that the accuracy of the Liberty's main guns had put a lot of pressure on him!

However, this time the Liberty was more lucky, Zhang Lin saw in the observation mirror in the control tower that a large number of sparks came out of the chimney of the battlecruiser, and dense black smoke kept coming out of his chimney, and the Liberty pierced the boiler of the battlecruiser, and the enemy's power system was seriously damaged!

Without waiting for the Liberty to fire a second time, the Victory, which was not far away, gave up the target of its attack, and the nine 406-mm guns were aimed at the battlecruiser with the damaged boilers, and after losing the ability to maneuver, five shells from one salvo of the Victory hit the battlecruiser!

After that battle cruiser was hit by victory, there was a distance explosion, and in less than a minute, it capsized and slowly sank!