The battlefield suddenly fell silent, except for the fire from the "Massachusetts" and the small explosion on the "South Dakota", the only sound on the battlefield was the "rustle" sound of the ship's hull quickly cutting through the sea surface and the sea water hitting the hull.

Both battleship formations were turning to the left, as Task Force 3 was a little faster (24 knots at 12:25) and Task Force 33 had a smaller turning radius (in the inner circle), so the distance between the two sides was not immediately closer, but in this case, it was difficult for both sides to accurately hit their opponents.

At this point, the commanders of both sides are judging the situation and thinking about how to win the final victory or turn it back. At the same time, the officers and men of the battleship, especially the gunners of the main guns, finally got a chance to breathe. The cooks sent the gunners supper as fast as they could, with Task Force 3 providing rice balls and chocolate chip cookies, and the Americans providing hot dogs and cheese. In addition, the medical officer on the battleship (the U.S. military is a medical corps) is quickly resuscitating the wounded, bandaging the wounds of the lightly wounded, stabilizing the condition of the seriously wounded, and even performing some emergency surgery.

The lookouts on the battleship were constantly reporting the position of the enemy battleship, while the gunnery officers were constantly calculating the shelling parameters, and every two minutes they sent down new parameters.

By 10:10 a.m., the six battleships of the 3rd Task Force had circled to the east of the American fleet and were sailing north. At this time, Chang Jianxin and Gu Zhenyun were a little confused.

"What does Kincaid want to do? Going around in circles with us? ”

"Maybe, I'm afraid he hasn't figured out how to fight yet."

"Then let's take the initiative to go up, are the other warships ready?" Chang Zhixin doesn't have that much patience anymore. The sooner the fight is finished, the sooner he escapes, he doesn't want to wait for the US carrier-based bombers to come and kill him.

"It's all ready. The gunners had a supper ten minutes ago, and now the main guns are loaded with shells! ”

"That's good. Since Kincaid wants to go around in circles with us, then we'll just get rid of him! Chang Jiexin gritted his teeth and loudly issued a new order to the staff officer, "After the fleet turns radius to 15 nautical miles, after reaching the north of the US fleet. Bring the distance closer to 8 nautical miles and have a final battle with the enemy! ”

At 1:13, Kincaid also gave a new order, and he extended the turning radius of the fleet to 12 nautical miles. At this time, the American officers and men on the four battleships were also ready, and he also decided to have a final decisive battle with the third task force.

At this point, neither side probably expected that the distance between the last two battleship formations was not 8 nautical miles, but 3 nautical miles, that is, about 6,000 yards. 5500 meters, at this distance, the two sides are probably completely lucky. And who fired faster.

At 1:38 a.m., the distance between the two sides was reduced to 9 nautical miles, and by this time the speed of the six "New Provincial Capital" class battleships had been reduced to 18 knots northeast of Kincaid. And the speed of the four battleships in Kinkaid's formation was also reduced to 16 knots. Almost at the same time, the battleships of both sides fired the first salvo.

In the first two rounds, the warships of both sides calibrated the shelling parameters, and as a result, of the more than 100 shells fired, only one fell at the ship of the "Guiyang", blowing up more than a dozen small-caliber anti-aircraft guns here (these anti-aircraft guns were open, and in the artillery battle, the gunners of these anti-aircraft guns were not in position, so the casualties were not large). Kincaid finally saw luck, but after two minutes, he realized it was just a flashback.

In the third round of shelling, the "Guangzhou," "Changsha," and "Nanchang" respectively hit their opponents, while only one shell hit the seaplane hangar behind the No. 2 chimney of the "Nanning" in the third round of shelling, and this shell penetrated through the hangar and did not explode in the hangar, but landed on the sea surface outside the starboard side of the battleship.

"Damn, the Yankees' shelling seems to be a lot more accurate!" When the violent vibration came, Gu Zhenyun grabbed the handrail next to him.

Chang Jianxin sneered and said, "There's nothing to worry about, besides, let the captain pay attention to avoiding the enemy's shells!" ”

"Look, the No. 4 enemy ship was shot, it seems to have been hit from the 'Nanchang'."

In the northwest sea, a fireball appeared on the No. 3 enemy ship, illuminating the enemy ship at this moment, and then the fireball quickly disappeared into the night sky.

"Didn't get through the main armor, presumably in the front of the tail turret." Gu Zhenyun immediately made a judgment.

"Bring the distance a little closer, and finish the enemy as soon as possible!"

As soon as Chang Jianxin gave the order, a violent explosion came, and the officers and men in the commander's bridge were all startled, and then they all judged that it was not his own battleship that had been shelled, but from the back of the fleet.

"It's the 'Wuhan', it seems that the ammunition depot of a secondary gun has been hit."

Chang Jianxin immediately rushed to the porthole on the left, and behind the "Changsha", a fire had already broken out on the "Wuhan", and it was vaguely seen that many officers and soldiers were separating and extinguishing the fire.

At this time, the "Nanning" fired a fifth salvo, and when the cannon sound of the sky and the earth cracked, the battleship also shook violently.

"Hit, hit, look, this round hits!"

The fifth salvo of the "Nanning" hit at least one shell of the enemy ship No. 2, and this armor-piercing shell must have penetrated the main armor of the enemy ship, and it can be judged from the flash of light from the explosion and the size of the fireball whether the shell exploded inside the ship or outside the ship (if it had exploded outside the armor, the fireball would have been much larger and quickly dissipated).

The battle was still raging, and the "Wuhan" was on fire, making it the best target. By the time the "Nanning" fired the eighth volley, that is, 1.55 points, the distance between the two sides had been narrowed to 7 nautical miles, and it was still approaching. At this time, the "Wuhan" had already hit five times with shells from the enemy ship No. 614, that is, the "Wisconsin".

"General, the No. 1 and No. 3 boiler compartments of the 'Wuhan' have been flooded, and the captain has ordered the boilers to be turned off. Evacuated the personnel inside......"

"Let the 'Wuhan' immediately withdraw from the battle and arrange two destroyers to cover its return to the target!" Chang Jianxin did not wait for the communications staff officer to finish the situation before immediately making a judgment.

Although the three main guns on the "Wuhan" were firing at this time, it had already done its best. Water in the two boiler compartments meant that the ship lost half of its power. They could barely keep up with the fleet, and could not continue to accelerate. Chang Jianxin didn't let the battleship hold on any longer.

Seeing that the enemy ship No. 5 withdrew from the battle. Kincaid immediately adjusted the target of the "Wisconsin" ground strike, and let the "Wisconsin" immediately strike at the No. 6 enemy ship. At this point, Kincaid saw hope again, but ten minutes later, Kincaid saw no hope. Or rather, he doesn't need any hope.

On the battle lines of both sides, in addition to the "Wuhan" that was severely hit and had to withdraw from the battle because of the flooding of the two boiler compartments, the most tragic thing was actually the "Iowa" at the head of the US formation, that is, Kincaid's ship, the flagship of the 33rd Task Force. It was the "Guangzhou" and the "Guiyang" that attacked the "Iowa", and the two warships once again joined forces, and this time, the "Guiyang" became the "terminator" of the enemy ships.

In the fourth and fifth rounds of shelling. The "Guiyang" simply knocked out the tail turret of the "Iowa". At a distance of 7 nautical miles, it is quite possible that a 400-mm armor-piercing projectile will tear through the frontal armor of the main gun turret of the American ship (here is the thickest armor on the entire battleship). A shell from the fourth round of shelling hit the frontal armor of the turret, but failed to penetrate the head. And in the fifth salvo, another shell miraculously hit the frontal armor of this turret, and drilled into it, directly scrapping the turret.

Then. In the sixth to eighth rounds of salvo fire, the "Guiyang" hit at least six shells of the "Iowa", especially in the eighth round of salvos, the distance between the two sides was only 6 nautical miles, and this round of salvo had three shells hit. At the same time, the "Canton" also hit three shells of the "Iowa". A total of nine shells hit almost all of them on key points. Two of them took out the A turret, the other took out the B turret, and the fourth hit the side of the commander's bridge, killing dozens of officers of the fleet command, including Kincaid. Of the other five shells, three hit the ground below the waterline, and two hit the secondary gun group at the starboard tip of the battleship and the root of the chimney.

Kincaid may have had a lot of feelings when he died, but death came quickly, and the powerful armor-piercing bullets touched out all the clues that these dozens of American military officers once existed! And the effect of this shell is obviously the greatest, from two to eight minutes, the American fleet lost its unified command!

Luck is obviously on the side of Chang Jianxin, but this does not mean that the US military does not have a little hope, after all, the power of the 406 mm cannon on those battleships cannot be underestimated, as long as it hits the fatal part, any battleship will be finished, and the most lethal part of the battleship is the ammunition compartment of the main gun, where hundreds of tons of shells and propellant packs are stored, and a spark can detonate these hundreds of tons of ammunition, let alone a powerful armor-piercing bullet!

The disaster occurred just after 2:10 p.m., shortly after Kincaid's finish, when a shell fired from the USS Missouri accurately hit the ammunition depot of the "Changsha" B turret, which was in combat at the time, and when the captain learned that the ammunition depot had been hit, he immediately gave the order to fill the water, it was too late. More than ten kilograms of explosives may not pose much of a threat to the battleship, but the problem is that a detonation of hundreds of tons of ammunition is enough to completely destroy the battleship. And the "New Provincial Capital" class, in order to shorten the main armor belt of more than ten meters, resulted in the B turret being too close to the bridge in the rear, and the ammunition compartment of the B turret was just below the front of the bridge!

When the violent explosion occurred, the first thing that came over was a flash of light, and the first thing Chang Jianxin and Gu Zhenyun saw when they rushed to the porthole was the turret that had been blown away, and the skyrocketing fire that came out of the front end of the battleship's bridge, and the violent explosion came after a few seconds.

"Contact the 'Changsha' now!"

"There is no answer, the bridge of the 'Changsha' must have been blown up, and we can't get in touch."

"Use the backup channel, let them report the damage as soon as possible, if it ......" Chang Jianxin hesitated, "If it can't be saved, abandon the ship immediately and let the officers and soldiers retreat." Send the order, the order of the fleet commander! ”

In fact, there is no need to contact anymore. Three minutes later, because the initial explosion killed hundreds of officers and soldiers in the vicinity, the gunners in the armor turret were stunned, and as a result, the fire door of the ammunition compartment of the armor turret was not closed, and the ammunition compartment of the armor turret exploded. At 2:15 p.m., the chief engineer of the battleship (who was already the highest-ranking officer at this time, since he was not on the commander's bridge before, so he was not killed) gave the order to abandon the ship, and the officers and men of the fleet withdrew as quickly as possible. Ten minutes later, the "Changsha" began to sink, and there were several small explosions under the surface.

Before the sinking of the "Changsha", the "Guangzhou" and "Guiyang" avenged it.

After the two battleships knocked out the No. 1 enemy ship, they immediately accelerated, and again reduced the turning radius, and when the "Changsha" caught fire, the two battleships immediately let go of the No. 2 enemy ship that they had been preparing to deal with, but directly shelled the No. 3 enemy ship, that is, the "Missouri"! In eight rounds of rapid and accurate shelling, the "Missouri" received at least eight shells, and almost fatally.

One of them hit the bridge of the commander's ship, and three shells knocked out the two main gun turrets A and B. And the deadliest shell hit the middle of the battleship directly, causing a large fire. As a result, the "Missouri" quickly lost its combat effectiveness.

Just after 2:40 p.m., that is, before the "Canton" had completely sunk, a large explosion occurred on the "Missouri," and the battleship struggled for more than 10 minutes before finally disappearing from the sea before 3 o'clock.

The intense artillery battle was so tense that it was breathless, and Chang Jiexin had delegated command to the captains of the ships, at least the captains of these battleships were the best, proficient in artillery tactics, and knew very well how to engage the enemy in battle. And the captain of the "Nanning" took into account that the commander and chief of staff of the fleet were on this battleship, so from the beginning of the battle, he did not fight hard with the No. 2 enemy ship, but skillfully dodged the enemy's shells.