The battle alarm sounded, and the officers and men of the fleet, who had been stationed near their respective posts, immediately entered the combat posts, and the surplus officers and men (some important posts could be equipped with up to three batches of officers and men, and only a very small number of posts had only one group of officers and men) took on the work of managing the damage to the battleships, and the battle was about to begin.

"The 'Lidong' sent it confirmed that there were four large targets, suspected to be the enemy's capital ships, and more than a dozen small targets. Now the distance is about 20 nautical miles, and the 'Lidong' is accelerating......"

"Keep it at this distance!" Chang Jianxin interrupted Gu Zhenyun's words, "The fleet is spread out in accordance with the artillery battle queue, in addition, contact the first task force, we have already encountered the French expeditionary fleet and are preparing for battle!" ”

Gu Zhenyun did not dwell on any more, and immediately sent someone to send a new order to the cruiser "Lidong", and sent the news of the close encounter with the enemy fleet to the 1st Task Force, which was 1:25 at this time.

The queue of the 3rd Task Force changed rapidly, and the five battleships were arranged in a single column according to the order of "Nanning", "Wuhan" (previously written as "Changsha", a mistake, it was "Changsha" and not "Wuhan" that sank in the Coral Sea), "Nanchang", "Guangzhou" and "Guiyang" in the order of "Nanning", "Wuhan", and the distance between the single ships was quickly reduced to about two nautical miles. Three cruisers, together with ten destroyers, formed another formation, while three more cruisers in other directions were also rapidly returning to the fleet, and only the heavy cruiser "Lidong" remained in the southeastern direction of the fleet to monitor the movements of the enemy fleet with radar. By this time, the Third Task Force had changed course and was heading directly towards the French Expeditionary Fleet. The distance between the two sides is rapidly decreasing. … ap．１６

At 1:30 a.m., two seaplanes departed, and Chang Jianxin ordered the heavy cruiser "Lidong" to quickly return to the fleet. Because there were no aircraft carriers in the French expeditionary fleet, seaplanes did not enter the range of enemy anti-aircraft guns. There would be no danger, and it would be more effective to monitor the movements of the enemy fleet by water planes, which would also determine the exact size of the enemy fleet, which was an important task for the seaplanes in Task Force 3.

"Often, the enemy fleet is starting to turn!"

"In what direction are they turning?"

"Due north. It seems to be accelerating! ”

"Damn, it must have been their radar that discovered the 'Lidong'!" Chang Jianxin gritted his teeth, the two seaplanes had just set off, and the first task force was in the north. "The fleet turned due east and immediately accelerated, and it was necessary to stop the French expeditionary fleet. Also, inform Task Force 1 that the enemy fleet has turned around and let them try to evade! ”

The 3rd Task Force began to turn to accelerate, and the telegram was immediately sent. Tan Renhao received the second telegram from the 3rd Task Force at 1:40 a.m. And at the time of receiving this telegram. Tan Renhao also had a headache.

When he received the first telegram from Chang Jianxin, Tan Renhao was only a little surprised as to why the French expeditionary fleet was sailing in the northwest direction. And not sail north? Lagos is in the north, and the northwest is just a vast sea, so what reason does the French expeditionary fleet have to sail in a northwesterly direction? Also, why didn't the French expeditionary fleet act in conjunction with the British expeditionary fleet? How to say. The British expeditionary fleet also has three aircraft carriers, which can provide air defense cover for the fleet, and if it retreats, then the French expeditionary fleet, acting alone, will not even be able to do the third task force!

Tan Renhao's first thought was that the French Expeditionary Fleet had come to attack the First Task Force, and it must have been the radar signals in the fleet and the radio signals when communicating with the Third Task Force that exposed the approximate location of the fleet to the enemy, so the French Expeditionary Fleet killed it. But he was a little hard to believe this judgment, how long had the fleet been exposed? Could it be that Cunningham guessed Tan Renhao's arrangement? If Cunningham guessed this arrangement, then the British and French expeditionary fleets would be killed together, which would be a greater threat than the British expeditionary fleet as bait and let the French expeditionary fleet launch a sneak attack. It is impossible for Cunningham not to have thought of the existence of the Third Task Force, so this arrangement of his is unreasonable!

Doubts are doubts, and the most important thing at hand is to solve the threat posed by the enemy. Tan Renhao was about to recruit Qiu Gengbo's fleet back and let Qiu Gengbo's fleet kill the French expeditionary fleet, but he quickly vetoed this method. The 3rd Task Force had already discovered the French Expeditionary Fleet, and the 3rd Task Force was in a favorable position and was not below the French Expeditionary Fleet, so the 3rd Task Force had enough ability to intercept the French Expeditionary Fleet and was sure enough to defeat the French Expeditionary Fleet. At this time, Yang Qinkai's group should have approached the British Expeditionary Fleet, and after Yang Qinkai's group returned, it would not be too late to bomb the French Expeditionary Fleet, which would be two hours at most. Therefore, Tan Renhao did not let the Qiu Gengbo group turn, but let the Qiu Gengbo group continue to carry out the mission of bombing the British expeditionary fleet.

When the second telegram came, Tan Renhao had a little headache, the French must have come for the First Task Force, otherwise, why suddenly turn and accelerate northward? If it hadn't come for the First Task Force, then this step of the French fleet would not have made sense!

Although the Third Task Force had also turned around and began to accelerate at the same time, and its position was relatively favorable, Tan Renhao still had to think carefully, victory was just around the corner, and he didn't want to taste the shells made by the French at the end.

"The fleet is ready to turn." It only took Tan Renhao half a minute to make a decision, "Turn the course due north, and the speed will increase to 28 knots!" ”

"Due north?" Zheng Guanhua walked over. Even the nautical staff officers looked at the commander in amazement.

"Yes, due north, and at the same time start to accelerate." Tan Renhao nodded, "Although the best way to avoid it is to sail westward, but if we sail westward now, then Yang Qinkai's group will not be able to return to the fleet, and if we sail eastward, as long as the French expeditionary fleet breaks through the interception of the third task force, then we will have to suffer shells." We could only sail north, keeping our distance from the British expeditionary fleet. At the same time, the French expeditionary fleet was not allowed to approach quickly to gain time, as long as Yang Qinkai's group returned. Then the French expeditionary fleet will have to be bombed by us! ”

Zheng Guanhua sighed secretly and nodded towards the navigation staff. Let the nautical staff carry out the orders of the fleet commander.

"Xiao Zheng, contact the Qiu Gengbo group and Yang Qinkai's group and tell them the new meeting point." Tan Renhao sat down, "Now is not the time to fight hard with the enemy, arrange a few seaplanes to monitor the movements of the French expeditionary fleet. Also, keep a close eye on the movements of Task Force 3. Contact the new general, if the 3rd Task Force can't handle the French Expeditionary Fleet, then try to hold off the enemy and wait for us to clean up the French Expeditionary Fleet! ”

Zheng Guanhua immediately made relevant arrangements, and victory was indeed in sight. Among the four fleets on the battlefield, the fastest is the first task force, and Tan Renhao controlled the speed at 28 knots, but he didn't want to be too far away from the third task force. If the First Task Force had tried to escape, the British and French battleships would not have been able to catch up. And. It was still a few hours before dark, and the two groups of bombers could still carry out at least two rounds of bombing, with the help of Task Force 3.

There is little suspense in this battle!

At this time, on the battleship "Richelieu", Godfoy did not realize that he was only one step away from being finished.

After rushing out of the Bay of St. Helena. The French expeditionary fleet did not go north along the coastline of the continent, but in a northwesterly direction. At that time, Goldford also thought about going to the port of Lagos, and after refueling, he would go to the port on the Caribbean side controlled by the French army. But the problem was that many of the staff officers in the fleet at that time did not agree to go to the port of Lagos, the reason was simple, Lagos was a port controlled by the British, and when the fleet arrived in Lagos, not only could not get fuel, but also fell into the hands of the British, and they would definitely be unlucky for the French naval officers and men who did not obey Cunningham's orders. Goldford listened to the advice of the staff officer, and he also knew something about Cunningham, knowing that Cunningham was not without guts, and had only tried to resolve the contradictions between the two sides before, and when the problem developed to the point of being out of control, Cunningham would definitely take tough measures.

Therefore, to go to the port of Lagos is actually to take the initiative to disarm the British.

But the question is, if you don't go to Lagos, where else can the fleet go? With the remaining fuel of the fleet, it was impossible to reach the Caribbean, or even the ports of South America, and the fleet had to get fuel supplies on the way, and at that time there was no French supply fleet in the Atlantic, or even a merchant fleet hanging French. What to do? At this time, a staff officer suggested that he could go to St. Helena or Ascension Island to get fuel supplies there, and then go to the ports of neutral countries in South America to seek assistance.

At that time, St. Helena was a French colony in the Atlantic Ocean and was a small island with just over 500 inhabitants. Previously, there was a seaplane base on the island, and in addition there was a small port, there should be a certain amount of fuel reserves, although it was not much, but it was better than nothing, and the battleships that could not go by then could still stay there. Ascension Island was a British-controlled colony, with a British seaplane base and a dock for the British merchant fleet to dock, and there must have been a lot of fuel reserves there, and there were not many British troops stationed on Ascension Island, so it would be more advantageous for the French expeditionary fleet in the event of an armed conflict.

It was for this reason that Godford took the advice of his staff and decided to go to St. Helena first, and then to grab fuel on Ascension Island. Since you have already fallen out with the British, it is not a big problem to rob the British of fuel again. As long as the fleet reached the ports in the Caribbean controlled by the French army, and declared that it would not surrender its arms to Germany, the British would not provoke a major international dispute at that time, and they would still be able to try to get help from the United States, which would be much better than reaching Lagos and being detained by the British.

Having made up its mind, the French fleet turned northwest shortly after leaving the Bay of St. Helena, heading in the direction of St. Helena. And Godford didn't know that the fleet of the Tang Empire was in this direction, and soon discovered the British expeditionary fleet, and the French expeditionary fleet only happened to pass by the four Tang Empire fighters on reconnaissance missions because it left the Bay of St. Helena a few hours earlier, and was not discovered, and the route he used actually happened to collide with the Tang Imperial fleet.

The French battleships also had radars, but the radar technology of the French was not very good, not only far worse than the Tang Empire, but also much worse than the British and American ones. At that time, the radar on the "Lidong" had already detected the French battleship, but the radar on the French battleship did not detect the heavy cruiser! It was not until the distance between the "Lidong" and the French fleet was only 15 nautical miles that the radar on the French battleship made a discovery, but by this time it was too late!

When Godford learned that there was a ship of unknown origin in front of him (the radar on the French battleship at that time did not determine whether it was a battleship or an ordinary ship), he was first surprised, but then it occurred to him that it was most likely a warship of the Tang Empire. At least, at this point, Godheadford's consciousness is not low, but his consciousness came too slowly, and his luck was extremely bad, the vast sea, he just ran headlong into the fleet of the Tang Empire, if he chose to go north, I am afraid he would have escaped!

Godelfoy's most immediate reaction was to turn to accelerate, and the direction he chose was to go north, and his destination was Lagos. He no longer considered the question of whether the battleship was seized by the British, even if the battleship fell into the hands of the British, it would be ten thousand times better than being sunk by the Tang Imperial fleet. But the question is, it's too late to turn now, the fleet of the Tang Empire is nearby, and the speed of the French expeditionary fleet is not faster than that of the third task force, is it so easy to escape?

On the sea, the French expeditionary fleet was moving north at full speed, and soon accelerated to 27 knots, instead of the fastest 29 knots, and the condition of the four battleships was not ideal, and the fastest could only reach 27 knots.

The 3rd Task Force sailed eastward at 30 knots in its northwest direction, intending to intercept the French expeditionary fleet. And in the northwest direction of the 3rd Task Force, the 1st Task Force, having completed its turn, was accelerating, and then headed north at a speed of 28 knots.