After abandoning the two "North Carolina"-class battleships, Yan Shiqi had to turn around with the four "South Dakota"-class battleships led by Kincaid. Although the two sides are basically fair in terms of numbers, and both the "South Dakota" and "New Provincial Capital" classes are capable of penetrating each other's main armor belts within a distance of 10 nautical miles. However, the situation on the battlefield at this time was very unfavorable to Yan Shiqi.

In order to deal with the two battleships of the "North Carolina" class, the course of the 31st Battlefleet had turned to 285 degrees, that is, it was sailing in the direction of 1 Plating by the West. The four battleships led by Kincaid were killed from the east, and their course was 230 degrees, that is, 40 degrees south-west. In other words, at this time, the angle between the two fleets was 55 degrees, and the 31 battleship formation was facing each other with its tail facing each other, and the four battleships could only fight with the turrets in the tail, and the "Guangzhou" was at least 13 nautical miles away from the nearest "Indiana," while the "Chengdu" was only 8 nautical miles away from the US fleet, and was completely in a situation of being passively attacked.

Before Yan Shiqi gave the order to turn, the "Chengdu" had already suffered three shells, although the battleship could still hold on to the battle, and the tail turret was intact, but the battleship was already very dangerous. Yan Shiqi quickly gave the order to accelerate the left turn, wanting to complete the left turn before the enemy fleet, aiming the port side in the direction of the enemy battleship, and pulling a certain distance. In fact, his order was at best for the battleship to point its port side in the direction of the enemy fleet, and it was impossible to get away. … ap．16

Kincaid also immediately ordered the fleet to make a good left turn and aim at the enemy with the starboard side. His ships had no advantage in speed, and if he accelerated in a straight line, he could easily encounter his opponents, and the result was an artillery battle at a very close range, and it was most likely that the "South Dakota" would face the shelling of two enemy ships. Therefore, he can only turn left with the momentum, form a battle line, and have a standard battle line with his opponent. Such. The distance of engagement can be controlled within the range of 5 to 8 nautical miles, and both sides can see the artillery fire, and both can easily penetrate the opponent's landlord's armor, fighting an evenly matched battle.

By 4:35 a.m., Yan Shiqi had already turned the fleet around, and during this period, the "Chengdu" had received two more shells, and the "Guiyang," which had rushed ahead of the "Chengdu," had also received one shell. In addition to the fact that the radar on the "Chengdu" was broken. The combat effectiveness of the four battleships was not affected. At this time on the battlefield, the cruisers and destroyers of both sides were already entangled, and both commanders focused on the battleship's confrontation, and the battle between the cruiser and the destroyer was the responsibility of the secondary commander.

At 4:50, both sides formed battleships, Yan Shiqi used a course of 195 degrees, while Kincaid used a course of 200 degrees, only 5 degrees of angle, and the distance between the two battle lines was 7 nautical miles. It's a distance that couldn't be closer. Both sides abandoned the way of radar aiming. Instead, an optical sight was used, and the decisive battle was fought in the oldest and simplest way.

The order in the formation of 31 battleships remained unchanged. At the top of the list is "Guangzhou", followed by "Kunming", "Guiyang" and "Chengdu". The order of the warships on Kincaid's side did not change, with the USS South Dakota at the top, followed by the USS Indiana, USS Massachusetts, and USS Alabama. When both sides have formed a battle line, the only thing to do is to continue to let the battleship advance at the most stable speed (about 12 knots, if the speed is too fast, it will affect the accuracy of the shelling). It is to hit the opponent with a huge bullet on the battleship.

It's like a medieval duel in Europe, where four ships on both sides take on each other, and four one-on-one duels begin.

The "Guangzhou" and the "South Dakota" are the flagships of both sides, and the distance between the two warships is also the closest, and the battle begins with the confrontation between the two flagships.

From 4:38 a.m., the "Guangzhou" was violently shelling the "South Dakota," and even though Yan Shiqi did not know that the ship opposite was the "South Dakota," Kincaid's flagship, he could only choose this target. The battleship bombardment was actually a one-on-one battle, with the same number of battleships. Each ship will choose a duel with a ship in the same position on the opposing line. It's an old-fashioned tactic, but it's also an effective one.

It was not until 4:56 a.m. that the "Guangzhou" fired its ninth salvo at the "South Dakota" that it achieved its first result. A Type 23 armor-piercing projectile accurately hit the South Dakota's ground A turret, and after penetrating the nearly 460 mm thick armor steel plate, the armor-piercing projectile entered the turret and exploded, and the turret was immediately and completely destroyed. Thankfully, the turret had automatic fire doors and the ammunition was kept separate from the propellant (which reduced the firing rate of the main gun, but made it less likely for the main turret to detonate after being shot), so there was no devastating explosion.

Immediately, the "South Dakota" also hit the C turret of the "Guangzhou" with an armor-piercing bullet fired from its B turret, and completely destroyed the turret, killing all the gunners inside.

At this time, both battleships were on fire, and the shelling on both sides became more intense. If there was one more battleship at this time, maybe the tide of the battle would have changed forever, but the problem was that the other warships in the battle lines on both sides were bombarding their opponents, and they were not able to provide any help to their companions. The two battleships continued to fight with six huge guns, and there was no intention of retreating at all.

At 5:25 p.m., the good fortune of the "South Dakota" finally came, and a shell hit the "Canton" below the waterline, and after penetrating the nearly 400 mm thick armor steel plate, the shell exploded in the engine room of the battleship, damaging a quarter of the ship's power system. The speed of the "Guangzhou" dropped sharply, and Yan Shiqi immediately asked the battleship to turn left quickly to avoid being hit by the "Kunming" behind, but in the panic, the news that the "Guangzhou" had left the formation was not sent, and the "Kunming" still followed.

At 5:30 a.m., the "Guangzhou" counterattacked and the "South Dakota" suffered. An armor-piercing projectile hit the base of the B turret of the USS South Dakota, and after penetrating almost 440 mm of armor plates, exploded above the main ammunition compartment. Although it was not able to detonate the ammunition in the main ammunition compartment, it deprived the B turret of ammunition, which meant that the "South Dakota" once again lost one of its main gun turrets, and only the C turret remained in service. By this time, the "Guangzhou" had received 8 shells, and the "South Dakota" had received 7 shells. The hit rate of both sides was almost the same, except that the "South Dakota" was a little less lucky, three out of 7 shells hit the turret.

At this time, the left turn of the "Canton" actually shortened the distance between the two sides again, and as the distance was closer, the accuracy of shelling the ground became higher and higher, and as long as the optical sight on the battleship was not completely destroyed, the accuracy of the battleship's shelling at a distance of 5 nautical miles was at least twice as high as that at 10 nautical miles. Or even twice as much!

The opponent of the "Kunming" was the "Indiana". "Indiana" had been hit in previous battles, and the rate of shelling of the battleship's B turret had been reduced considerably. And the "Kunming" is intact. In the duel between these two warships, the "Kunming" had the absolute upper hand.

4:43, 4:52, 4:58, 5:2, 5:7, 5:14, 5:16, 5:21. Five twenty-eight a.m.

At 5:32 a.m., the "1 Kunming" hit the opponent in these rounds of volleys, almost every two salvos on average. That is, one or two shots hit the opponent out of every 18 shells, and the accuracy of the shelling is close to 10%, which is already a bit ridiculously high. During the 50-minute battle, the "1 Kunming" "sent" a total of 17 shells to the "Indiana", one of which hit the commander's bridge, completely destroying the opponent's command center, two hitting turret A, three hitting turret B, and two hitting turret C. In addition, four more shots hit the superstructure in the middle of the battleship. One of them hit the chimney, while the other five all hit below the battleship's waterline. All but three shells failed to penetrate the main armor, and the other 14 exploded inside the hull. Seventeen huge bombs almost completely destroyed the Indiana.

The return fire of the "Indiana" also caused the "Kunming" to hit 6 turrets, the battleship's armor turret was destroyed, and the No. 1 chimney was also damaged, but this did not affect the speed of the battleship (the speed was already very low), in addition, most of the secondary guns on the port side of the battleship were destroyed, and the battleship received a shell below the waterline. Let the battleship enter the water by at least more than 1000 tons. However, "Indiana"

The return fire stopped at 5:35 a.m., and the battleship, which had been heavily flooded and had tilted nearly 15 degrees to the right, could no longer hold on.

The confrontation between the "Guiyang" and the "Massachusetts" was not so accurate. Both ships were dodging each other's shells left and right, while constantly shooting them at their opponents. During more than fifty minutes of fighting, the "Guiyang" was hit by 5 shells, of which turret B was destroyed.

At the same time, the "1 Guiyang" also gave the opponent a color, hitting at least 6 shells of the opponent, but did not knock out one of the opponent's turrets, but only blew up its chimney, so that all the secondary guns on the starboard side of the "Massachusetts" became dumb, and an armor-piercing shell that hit the part below the waterline also caused the "Massachusetts" to enter the water by hundreds of tons.

At the end of the queue, the "Chengdu" had the saddest days, and its opponent was the "Alabama". Before the formation of the battle line, the "Chengdu" received several shells, and although the main equipment of the battleship was not damaged, the sight of the battleship, as well as the secondary sight of the C turret, were destroyed. Thus, in an artillery duel, the two turrets in front of the battleship could only be aimed at the target with a sub-sight, and the C turret could only shell with the firing parameters of the first two turrets. This significantly reduces the rate of the ship's salvo, and the accuracy of the C turret is very low. On the opposite side of it, the shells from the "Alabama" were much more accurate.

In less than fifty minutes of fighting, the "1 Chengdu" received at least 12 shells, and all of these shells penetrated the armor belt and exploded inside the ship. The gunners on the "Alabama" also found that the accuracy of the aft turret of the opposite battleship was very low, so in the artillery battle, the three main turrets on the "1 Alabama" were all aimed at the bow of the "Chengdu", and of the 12 shells, 10 of them hit the bow of the battleship, and only two fell on the swollen part. At 4:53 a.m., the B turret of the "Chengdu" was destroyed, and all the gunners were killed, and at 5:12 a.m., the first turret was destroyed, and only two gunners survived. By this time, the "1 Chengdu" only had the last C turret left to fight, and all the optical sighting systems on the battleship were destroyed, and the radar was also destroyed, and the C turret could only rely on the gunner's experience to open fire.

"Chengdu" did not give up resistance, and before five o'clock, the armor turret "sent" three shells to the opponent, one of which destroyed the B turret of the "Alabama". By 5:10, the Armor turret again made a meritorious contribution and fired a shell into the No. 2 boiler compartment of the "Alabama", but this did not have much effect on the "Alabama". Perhaps, the bad luck of the "Chengdu" has also come to an end. At 5:25 a.m., a blind shelling of the C turret miraculously hit the seaplane fuel depot of the "Alabama" and ignited dozens of tons of aviation gasoline in it. But the "Chengdu" will last until this time at most.

In the first hour of fierce artillery battle, Yan Shiqi's four battleships fired a total of 870 shells, while Kincaid's four battleships fired 820 shells, and the hit rate of both sides was about 0.40%, which means that each of them hit more than 30 shells of the opponent. One of the ships on each side was badly damaged and almost incapacitated, but the battle did not end at this time.

In the midst of a brutal artillery battle, if neither side has any intention of withdrawing from the battle, then the battle will end when one of them falls. But the problem is that neither side has any intention of retreating, and both Yan Shiqi and Kincaid know that their bombers will arrive before dawn, so they don't need to withdraw from the battle before dawn. By this time, the battle had reached about 30 nautical miles north of Rennell Island. The battle continued to rage, and the roar of the cannons did not stop, but soon after, both sides found themselves in a problem with the ships in their formation. Is it to fight, or to withdraw?