When he received the second telegram from Chang Zhixin, Yan Shiqi adjusted the course again and let the fleet move forward as fast as possible. At this point, he had two options.

If he wanted to buy time, he would have to throw away the two "Dignity" class battleships and lead the four "Canton" class battleships at a maximum speed of 31 knots. And this can buy at least ten minutes, about 3:20 to reach the area of engagement, shelling the "Z fleet" If he wants to ensure the firepower of the fleet, he must bring two "Dignity" class ships and move forward at the fastest speed of 28 knots (the maximum speed of the "Dignity" class is designed to be 29 knots, but a large amount of armament has been added during salvage and repair, and the main armor of the battleship has also been strengthened, and the displacement has increased by more than 2000 tons, As a result, the speed was reduced to 28 knots), and this could only reach the battlefield at about 3:30.

Yan Shiqi's choice was the latter, to ensure the firepower of the fleet. The "Z fleet" had eight battleships and 84 main guns, and he had only six in his hands, and if two of the "Dignity" class were missing, he would lose a third of his firepower, which would have made it even more difficult to defeat his opponent in an artillery battle. This is the most basic idea of artillery commanders, and it is also one of their characteristics: conservative! In Yan Shiqi's opinion, if the "Z Fleet" can be annihilated, even if all the warships of the Second Task Force are sacrificed, it will be a great victory. At this time, he didn't think about what happened to the Second Task Force, all he thought about was trying to kill the enemy. If there is to be sacrifice, then Task Force 2 is a sacrifice that has already been placed on the altar!

At 3:20 a.m., the radar on the "Canton" was the first to spot the American fleet to the northeast. By this time, the U.S. fleet had already exchanged fire with the second task force, and it was going north in columns. Yan Shiqi did not know the exact location of the Second Task Force, only that the Second Task Force was north of the American fleet. Seeing that the US fleet was heading north in columns, Yan Shiqi immediately ordered the fleet to adjust its course to 90 degrees to seize the favorable position for the shelling. This decision may not be wrong, but Yan Shiqi did not take into account one point, if the second task force was in the north. Then the American fleet will definitely turn around, and he should continue to go north at this time, seizing the "D" prefix in the west, not the "D" prefix in the south.

At 3:28 a.m., the U.S. fleet suddenly turned around, and at this time, the third task force had already completed its turn, and was approaching at a high speed at a distance of 22 nautical miles from the "Z fleet." Ready to start an artillery battle at any time, it is too late to seize the advantageous position at this time, and the only way is to catch up immediately, and take advantage of the opportunity of the "Z Fleet" to also aim its guns at the north, and take the opponent by surprise! Yan Shiqi's steadiness wasted a few more minutes, and in order to ensure that the armor-piercing shells could penetrate the armor of the American battleship, he determined the firing distance at 12 nautical miles, that is, a distance of about 22 kilometers. And to catch up with these 10 nautical miles, it will take at least twenty minutes!

Kimmel deserved to be unlucky, the radar on the "Pennsylvania" should have spotted the Third Task Force from the south. But the huge body of the "Arizona", which followed the "Pennsylvania", just blocked the radar's scanning range. At 3:47 a.m. Two more high-explosive shells fell on the flagship, which was located in the fourth position of the formation. The high-explosive shells tickled the battleship's heavy armor, but the exposed radar was not as strong as the armor, and the flying shrapnel blinded the last eye of the American fleet.

It was also when Task Force 3 was rapidly approaching. In order to avoid torpedoes, the "Z fleet" turned en masse. As a result, the eight battleships of the "Z Fleet" could only use the two main gun turrets in front against the second task force, and only the main guns in the rear towards the third task force.

At 3:55 a.m., the 3rd Task Force was 14 nautical miles away from the "Z Fleet", which was still closing in close distance, and the "Z Fleet" had just finished maneuvering to avoid torpedoes (three torpedoes hit, two of which hit the battleship, but none of them caused fatal damage, and the other accidentally hit a light cruiser behind the battleship). Bombed the cruiser into the sky) Yan Shiqi continued to close the distance, and then knocked the enemy down in the first few rounds of artillery bombardment. It was at this time that he received a telegram.

This is a new telegram from the regular recommendation. I often recommend a telegram from the new when he is about to lose his grip. Soon after the battle began, the "Gao Shilian" received a shell. Although the shell flew past the bow deck of the battleship and then exploded under the sea surface on the right side (the armor-piercing shell had already penetrated the hull before the ground delay fuse had time to work), the huge shock wave almost destroyed all three compartments in the bow, the bridge also shook, and the radio station used for fleet communications was destroyed!

It's a bad thing to say. The "Gao Shilian" has lost the ability to communicate with other formations, although it can still communicate with nearby warships through light signals, but Chang Zhixin is no longer able to command the destroyer formation, nor can it communicate with the third task force! While he had people repair the radio station, he used the lights to contact the surrounding battleships and concentrate his forces on attacking the fourth battleship in the American formation, at which point he had already judged that it was the flagship of the American fleet, the USS Pennsylvania, for the simple reason that every salvo of the American fleet was started by this battleship first, and the other battleships followed suit. If this is not the period, which one is the flagship?

After emergency repairs by communications officers, the radio station was repaired at about 3:50 p.m. Chang Jianxin immediately contacted the destroyer formation, but he couldn't get in touch (he didn't know that Major House's ship had been sunk and Major Househouse had died), and then he sent this telegram to Task Force 3.

The wording of the telegram was not harsh, but it was accusatory. Originally, the 3rd Task Force was supposed to fight the main force, but now the 2nd Task Force has been holding out for 25 minutes, and the 3rd Task Force is still nowhere to be seen. There was only one sentence in the telegram: Where is Task Force 3?

This sentence is sufficient. Yan Shiqi is not a person who doesn't know the importance of the matter, when he was on Dabazhang Island, he cooperated with Lei Shaoqing and Chang Jianxin, two young generals, and he is also very familiar with these two people. Lei Shaoqing belongs to the kind of enthusiastic and unrestrained general, who is very honest with everyone and is easy to become friends. Chang Jianxin is more like an old-school general, more calm, and an ideal candidate for chief of staff. This also means: Chang Jianxin is by no means the kind of person who complains easily. He would not have sent such a telegram until the last minute.

Indeed, by the time Chang Jianxin sent out this telegram, the "Gao Shilian" had already received nearly 10 shells, two of which were huge shells, the first huge bomb shattered the radio station, and the second huge bomb hit the ship, blowing up the entire aft deck. The dozens of small-caliber anti-aircraft guns deployed on it all disappeared without a trace. Fortunately, this did not affect the "Gao Shilian" ground artillery combat capabilities, and the other 203-mm shells were not very threatening to the Grand Cruise. The situation of the other two Grand Cruisers was even worse, one of them had already begun to sink, and the officers and men were trying their best to rescue it, and withdrew from the battle ten minutes ago, and the other also had several large holes in its body, and I am afraid that it would not be able to hold out for even five minutes. Two of the five heavy cruisers have been sunk, and the other three have all been wounded. Task Force 2 is on the verge of collapse!

Yan Shiqi did not delay again, the distance of 14 nautical miles was actually enough. Although the main armor of American battleships was 14 inches to 18 inches thick. But the armor steel on these battleships is decades old. The strength is definitely not as good as the current armor steel, if you compare it with defensive capabilities, the 14-inch armor plates on American battleships. Up to 10 inches (254 mm) of armor steel of the "Dignity" class. The 360-mm armor-piercing projectile of the "Dignity" class can easily penetrate 250 mm of armor steel plate at a distance of 25 kilometers, while the 400 mm armor-piercing projectile of the "Guangzhou" class is enough to penetrate 300 mm of armor steel plate at this distance. And at a distance of 14 nautical miles (about 26 km), the proportion of armor-piercing shells penetrating the armor of American battleships by the main guns of six battleships will not be lower than 30%, which is enough!

It took three minutes for the fleet to turn (in fact, a single ship, when the fleet was already lined up in a horizontal formation, and each ship only had to point its starboard side in the direction of the enemy), while the three turrets on each ship had also turned, and all nine main guns were loaded with shells and propellants. At fifty-nine minutes, the shelling parameters were lowered by the main fire control system to the respective gun positions (only after the main fire control system was destroyed, the turrets fought separately. The main fire attack system, in fact, the main thing is a high-precision rangefinder with more accurate measured distance parameters) Ten seconds later, the first salvo begins.

The salvo of the battleships was actually carried out separately, and Yan Shiqi did not concentrate artillery fire on a certain battleship, but in order, starting with the first battleship to the east of the US fleet, and the six battleships of the third task force each corresponded to an enemy ship. And "Canton" was located in the second ship of the battleship formation (the fleet sailed westward), and it happened that "Canton" was against "Pennsylvania". Flagship-to-flagship. Yan Shiqi didn't know this, he just followed strict artillery battle tactics, and he didn't care if he was hitting the enemy's flagship or not.

Before the first row of shells fell, the second round of shells flew out again (it took about 130 seconds for the shells to fly 26 kilometers, while the main guns of the Tang battleships fired a salvo every two minutes), and when the 54 huge shells fell one after another, Kimmel was so excited that he almost jumped in fright. Although not a single shell hit accurately (three near misses, one of which was less than 100 meters from the "Pennsylvania"), the distance was very close, and the shells were all flying from the south, not from the north, and the shells were much more powerful!

At this time, the U.S. fleet had almost completed its turn, and when those huge bombs exploded hundreds of meters of water column on the high ground, Kimmel found that the previous artillery shells of the Tang Army were all less powerful, and all of them were high-explosive shells, not armor-piercing shells. That is, it is quite possible that those three large battleships in the north were not battleships of the Don Army, but only cruisers! Now it is the main fleet of the Don Army that appears in the south!

Kimmel had no choice, and before the second batch of shells fell, he gave a new order, and the main guns of the fleet were all aimed at the Don fleet in the south, and the secondary guns on the starboard side continued to deal with the enemy ships that were still resisting in the north. At the same time, the fleet turned to the left and formed a new battle line as soon as possible, so as to bring out the full power of the main guns!

At this time, the "Z fleet" still had an extremely strong advantage in the firepower of the main guns, and in the fierce battle at the beginning, none of the 84 main guns were destroyed (those shells of the second task force could not threaten the turrets of the American battleships at all) and only two failed (both were the main guns of the "Oklahoma", and this battleship was located at the rear of the fleet, and the opponent was the battleship "Dignity") There was nothing wrong with Kimmel's order, but the problem is, The main guns of the eight battleships had to be rotated 180 degrees (about 200 degrees in fact, and the ships themselves had to turn 20 degrees to the left) and the main gun turrets rotated slowly, and by the time the main guns of the fleet turned around and headed at Task Force 3 to the south, Task Force 3 had fired a fourth salvo.

None of the first two rounds of shelling hit accurately (in artillery battles, the first round of shelling was almost always used for calibration, while the second round of shelling provided more precise parameters for correcting the trajectory, and from the third round onwards, the accuracy of the shells increased significantly) except for a few near-misses, 108 shells did almost no damage to the American battleship. From the third round of shelling, the "day of disaster" for the American fleet arrived.

54 shells fired in the third salvo (in fact, these shells fell one after the other in a minute. As the number of salvos increases, because of the uneven quality of the gunners of each ship and the different performance of the battleships, the fleet salvo will become a separate salvo of each battleship, and at this time it will be a one-on-one duel between the battleships. This problem will not be solved until the later part of the war, with the emergence of a unified fire control and command system) Three shells accurately hit the target. Then the hit rate of the fourth salvo increased again, and the counterattack of the American fleet also began at this time, and the battle entered the stage of a giant artillery duel!

All three shells were fired from the "Dignity". Almost all of the officers and men of the artillery on the "Dignity" were veterans, and most of them escaped when they were attacked by the Japanese. And now, it's time for them to take revenge, only the object of revenge is not Japan, but a new enemy, an even stronger one!