On the battlefield, soldiers are afraid of death, commanders are afraid of defeat, and for fleet commanders who are responsible for the lives of tens of thousands of officers and men of the entire fleet and the survival of dozens of warships, what they are most afraid of is a sudden attack by the enemy, and they do not even have a chance to counterattack.

Tan Renhao has such fears, often recommends new ones, and Cunningham even more. Because of their lack of understanding of the battlefield situation, as a result, the three commanders once again made wrong judgments and decisions. Before dawn, the British Expeditionary Fleet was fleeing south at full speed, while Task Force 3 was pursuing at full speed, and Task Force 1 was rapidly pulling away. The problem was the relative speed of the 1st Task Force and the British Expeditionary Fleet, at that time, the speed of the British Expeditionary Fleet going south was 29 knots, and the speed of the 1st Task Force returning to Moroni was 24 knots, excluding the difference in the angle of the school, its relative speed was about 50 knots, that is, the distance between the two fleets would increase by 50 nautical miles every hour. From the time the British expeditionary fleet turned around, it was about three and a half hours before dawn, and the actual distance between the two sides was closer to 110 nautical miles than 100 nautical miles.

Thus, at dawn, the distance between Task Force 1 and the British Expeditionary Fleet should be about 280 nautical miles, which is almost on the maximum strike radius of Task Force 1's carrier-based bombers.

Of the three, Cunningham was the one he feared the most. He was not afraid that he would not be able to defeat the Third Task Force, but that he was afraid of being bombed by the bombers of the First Task Force. The news of Task Force 1's return to Moroni was certain, and Task Force 3 was clinging to his back, if Task Force 1 was not nearby. That's the weird thing. As the minutes ticked by, Cunningham became more and more uneasy, and he regretted a little that he didn't take the three aircraft carriers with him. There are dozens of fighters on board three aircraft carriers, if they are covered by these fighters. He would have been able to turn around and go to Task Force 3 for a decisive battle right away, instead of running away in embarrassment like he was doing now.

By about half-past three, Cunningham discovered a new problem, which was that the speed of the fleet had been affected. The damage on board the "Brave" was revealed at this time. The battleship could reach a maximum speed of 30 knots, but a shell near the power compartment damaged several pipes inside, and the steam turbine was also affected, so the battleship could barely reach a speed of 28 knots when it retreated, and now it is difficult to maintain a speed of 27 knots. Then another wounded battleship, the "Howe", also had problems, and the speed was reduced to about 27 knots. At this time. The other battleships in the fleet maintained a speed of 29 knots, and in peacetime, there was no problem with the difference in speed between the two knots. But at this juncture, the speed of 2 knots is likely to cost him his life. To make matters worse, these two battleships also had the slowest ground steering speed, therefore. Don't drag it to the back of the fleet, about 8 nautical miles from the flagship, and 3 nautical miles from the nearest battleship. What to do?

Before Cunningham could make his decision, Task Force 3 killed a group of destroyers, which immediately helped him make his decision. He immediately ordered the "Brave" and "Hao" to turn to intercept the destroyers of the Tang Empire, and sent four cruisers to assist two battleships to intercept the rapidly approaching enemy destroyers, while the other five battleships and battlecruisers continued to retreat south, accompanied by other escort ships. In other words, Cunningham made the decision of a strong man with a broken arm, and he could only hope that the two battleships that were destined to escape would buy enough time for the other ships to escape, which was much better than all the battleships being destroyed!

The captains of these two battleships also knew their fate, and had to sigh at the self-sacrifice spirit of the British naval officers and men, perhaps the British warships were not the best in the world, and the British navy was not the most powerful, but as a powerful navy with hundreds of years of glorious naval history and had obtained the same status as the Tang Imperial Navy, there was no need to have any doubts about the sense of honor and quality of its officers and men. Moreover, in the whole of Europe, the quality of the British navy was commendable, and it was much superior to the navies of France, Italy, Spain, and other countries that boasted of being European naval powers at that time, and in the whole of Europe, the only one who dared to compete with the British navy for the quality of officers and men was probably the German navy, which was strictly disciplined and had a meticulous work style.

The battle began between the ships of both sides, and the initial battle was extremely uneven. The destroyers of Task Force 3, which had launched the torpedo attack, made a fierce charge, and by the time Chang Jiexin reacted and realized that the British battleship had turned and was ready to deal with the assault destroyers, it was too late. These destroyers had already rushed within range of the guns of the battleships and cruisers, and if they retreated, not only would the torpedo attack fail, but the destroyers would certainly suffer. Therefore, Chang Jiexin did not order the destroyer formation to retreat, but let the battleship formation approach as soon as possible, and quickly assigned targets to the five battleships.

At 4:20 a.m., after two of the twelve charging destroyers had been sunk and two others had been seriously wounded and had withdrawn from the battle, eight more had torpedoed at a distance of about four nautical miles from the six British battleships, and two more destroyers had been hit by shells as they withdrew from the battle, and only six had escaped. And the torpedo attack of the destroyer also quickly paid off.

At 4:23, the formation of six battleships began to turn to avoid the approaching torpedoes, when the eight destroyers fired a total of 73 torpedoes (several of them were not fired because of a malfunction), these torpedoes were fired in a fan-shaped range towards the British battleship, and the captain of the British battleship also knew very well that if they wanted to avoid the torpedo attack, they had to turn the battleship, aim the bow or stern in the direction of the torpedo attack, minimize the length of the bomb, and whether they could avoid the torpedo or not, it depended on luck. But at this time, they had to consider not only the torpedo attack, but also the shelling of the battleships of the Tang Empire, which had narrowed the distance in more than half an hour!

At 4:25 a.m., while the British fleet was still panicked to avoid torpedoes, five battleships under the new command turned left at the same time less than six nautical miles from the two British battleships. The starboard side of the battleship was aimed at the British battleship. At 4:28, the first round of salvos began, and at this time. Two British battleships with four cruisers had just evaded a torpedo attack, and one of the cruisers was torpedoed. It was on fire, and although the other five battleships avoided the torpedoes, they were not ready for artillery battle!

Within two minutes, the first salvo of five battleships fired 45 Type 25 armor-piercing shells all fell. As in previous artillery battles, the first salvo was mostly of a calibrated nature. As a result, the 45 powerful armor-piercing shells failed to hit the two battleships, and one of them miraculously hit a light cruiser on the port side of the "Brave", which was still trying to block the torpedoes for the battleships behind while avoiding the torpedo, and as a result, at the beginning of the artillery battle, it was less than 500 meters away from the "Brave". And this Type 25 armor-piercing shell drilled directly into the boiler compartment of the light cruiser, and broke out when it was almost about to drill out of the belly of the battleship, and how could the light cruiser with a displacement of only a few thousand tons withstand the blow of a 400-mm huge bomb, and in less than ten minutes, the ship disappeared from the sea, and only more than 70 officers and men of the whole ship escaped. All the others perished in the sea.

Chang Jianxin will not be soft at this time, five battleships fight two battleships, this is simply letting him reap the results. After the start of the battle. The main guns on the five battleships were tilting their shells at intervals of 25 to 30 seconds, and the distance between the two sides was getting closer and closer, and the accuracy of shelling was quite high at a distance of less than 6 nautical miles. More importantly, at this distance, the Type 25 armor-piercing projectile can easily tear through the landlord armor of the American "Iowa"-class battleships, and it is even less of a problem to deal with the battleships of the British Navy.

At that time, the "Nanning", "Changsha" and "Nanchang", which were at the forefront of the formation, concentrated their firepower against the British battleship in the east, the "Brave". The "Guangzhou" and "Guiyang" at the bottom of the line focused on the British battleship to the west, the "Howe".

The battle was almost one-sided, even if these two battleships were the latest types of battleships of the British Navy, and they were also the most combat-ready battleships, but after the five "New Provincial Capital" class of the Third Task Force fired five salvos, the British battleships fired back, and the fire was not accurate at all, and it was not until the eighth salvo of the "Nanning" was fired that the "Brave" fired the first decent salvo, and the "Howe" fired a threatening shell five minutes later.

It is not only the difference in the number of warships that leads to the one-sided battle, but also the difference in the performance of the warships of the two sides, especially in firepower. The main guns of the British battleships were 14 inches and 15 inches, both of which were smaller than the main guns of the "New Provincial Capital" class battleships. The artillery production technology of the Tang Empire has always been the most advanced in the world, and now the battleships of the Tang Empire have begun to use heavy ammunition, and the Type 25 armor-piercing projectile has changed the previous style of the Tang Empire Navy, and its armor-piercing ability has surpassed the similar shells of the US Navy by a lot.

In the Third Task Force, the "Guangzhou" was the first to be shelled, and a 1-milligram-inch armor-piercing shell hit the front of its armored turret, but the "Guangzhou" seemed to have been bitten by a mosquito, and the armored turret was silent for less than 10 minutes, and then another cannonball was fired. The "Nanchang" also received a 14-inch shell above the waterline in the middle, but this shell was not able to penetrate the main armor belt at all, but only stunned a few sailors in the rear compartment. From here it can be seen that the problem of shells in the British Navy is already quite serious.

In fact, before the war, the development lines of battleship shells between the Imperial Navy of the Tang Empire and the British Navy were relatively close. At that time, the Tang Imperial Navy also attached more importance to semi-armor-piercing shells, and the charge of its armor-piercing shells was generally relatively high, and they could even be used as high-explosive shells when necessary. Moreover, the armor-piercing bullet of the Tang Imperial Navy is also a light bullet, focusing on the armor-piercing power at close range, especially the penetrating power of the opposite side armor, but the problem is that as long as the combat distance is a little farther, the speed of the light bullet will be reduced very quickly, and the armor-piercing power will also be rapidly reduced. In the war, the battleships of the Tang Imperial Navy suffered a loss, so they urgently developed the Type 23 armor-piercing projectile whose performance was not too ideal, and since then it has changed to the heavy bomb line, and reduced the charge of the armor-piercing projectile, so as to improve the armor-piercing power as the primary goal.

In the North Atlantic, the British Navy did not encounter much of a challenge, the German Navy had a small number of warships, and the British Navy could completely crush its opponents with numbers. In the Mediterranean, the battleships of the Persian navy did little decent action, and most of the time, the French and Italian navies rushed to the front line.

Thus, the British Navy did not change its requirements for ammunition for battleships. To put it bluntly, the British Navy still considered the power of semi-armor-piercing shells to be sufficient, and it seemed more beneficial to have more charges. It can be said that among the armor-piercing shells of the same caliber in the navies of various countries at that time, the power of the armor-piercing shells of the British Navy was the worst!

During the battle, this problem was immediately exposed, and for the first time the battleships of the British Navy encountered such a formidable opponent in battle. The performance of the "New Provincial Capital" class battleship was already one of the best in the world, especially after the second stage of improvement, and its performance has comprehensively surpassed that of the "Iowa" class of the United States. The penetration rate of the Type 25 armor-piercing projectile against the main armor belt of the two British battleships was close to 100 percent, and it could cause serious damage almost if it hit. On the contrary, the British Navy's 14-inch and 15-inch armor-piercing shells (presumably semi-armor-piercing) could not penetrate the main armor belt of the "New Provincial Capital" class even at a distance of less than six nautical miles (about 10,000 yards).

The "Nanning" was shelled for the third time, and the battleship only shook violently a few times, and Chang Jianxin was bounced up, and then fell on the deck, and when he got up, he found that all the officers in the command cabin were injured.

"How's the situation with the battleship?"

"General, no damage reports have been received, there should be no problem!"

Chang Jianxin breathed a sigh of relief, and had already received the news that the other two battleships had been shelled, and only one of the main guns on the "Guangzhou" had a small malfunction, and it was still being repaired.

It seems that there is simply no need to worry about enemy shells!