The Chinese fleet never fired a counterattack, which directly caused Brigadier Sampson's error in judgment, and the idea of driving away the Chinese in the original prediction eventually evolved into a big drama of chasing after the rear, and the whole chase lasted a full 2 hours, when the Spanish merchant fleet sailed into the waters of Rajeca, a dense island and shoal in northern Cuba under the cover of the 13th fleet, the sun was setting at this moment, imprinting the long shadow of the American fleet warships on the wide strait.

The U.S. fleet, which had fired nearly 200 shells at two Chinese battleships one after another, finally felt the great threat from the most advanced battlecruisers of this era...... At 5:22 p.m. on March 2, 1898, the knapsack main guns of the two battle cruisers, Tianlu and Tiankui, which had completed the channel switch and ran directly in front of the U.S. right-wing fleet, fired the first round of school firing.

Commodore Sampson obviously felt a huge crisis after seeing the Chinese battleships in front of him change their course, as a naval commander, he naturally understood the importance of the position of the fleet in a naval battle, and the two battleships of the other side were directly stuck in front of his battle line, this intention was too clear, that is, to minimize the pressure from his own battle line.

Because of the influence of the leading flagship's vision, the battleship behind it will naturally not have the opportunity to open fire, but on the battleship advancing at high speed, endure the bow constantly being swelled up and down, the frequency of the main gun fire will be greatly reduced, in case when firing, the battleship in front is exactly in a straight line of shooting, and the cannonball is fired and accidentally touches the bow of the ship, it is really very likely to cause accidental damage.

So, he made the order that a competent naval commander must make. "Issue the order. The right flank fleet was ordered to accelerate to a tactical maneuver. Create trapezoidal layers to minimize the impact of the shooting boundary! ”

The order was immediately transmitted backwards in the form of flags and light signals, and at about the same moment, the first round of school firing was finally fired by the Chinese fleet...... And Sampson's order just now led to another fatal mistake!

At this moment, Commodore Sampson finally saw the naval gunnery comparable to a tutorial, and the twin main guns of the two Chinese battleships fired four high-explosive shells at their respective targets at a frequency of 3 seconds apart. The huge black plume of smoke and the cannon fire that pierced the sky made the battleship Iowa, which had a 13-inch main gun, feel the obvious gap.

The U.S. fleet, which had fired nearly 200 shells before but had no gains, naturally did not believe that the other side could easily hit itself under the same circumstances, and the results of the first round of calibration by the other side did not seem to be very good.

The closest thing to the target was the third school projectile fired from the main gun of the Tiankui C, which was aimed at the second stage of the US fleet on the left flank, the second stage of the battleship Texas, and the shell landed 500 meters in front of the left of the Texas. But it was enough to surprise the Americans.

You know, before the American battleship group fired nearly 200 shells at the Chinese battleships that were constantly maneuvering in front. The firing distance ranged from 8,000 to 11,000 meters, and the most accurate one was to skim the stern of the battleship Tiankui and fly into the sea area on the right side of the battleship, and the other shells were almost all inaccurate at seven or eight hundred meters.

Before the Indiana-class battleships were put into service, the US Navy had no concept of battle line operations at all, and the main fleet was shallow gunboats similar to large mosquito ships.

Although the American-style shallow water gunboats have some advantages that are completely different from the European-style shallow water gunboats, such as the use of more flexible rotating turrets, this kind of shallow water gunboats are defensive counterattacks carried out at low speed with shore batteries in daily gunnery exercises, and there is not much practice under high-speed pursuit at all...... The battleship that was originally intended for coastal defense was not originally used to take the initiative!

If the U.S. Navy had encountered the weak Spanish Navy today, it would have been able to unhurriedly launch a confrontation with the opponent and finally achieve victory while constantly closing the distance and improving the shooting accuracy, but Vice Admiral Sampson, who was quite blindly optimistic, did not realize at all that there was a huge generation gap in the gunnery of the two sides!

"General, I will build yì to let all the follow-up warships press up, and then the Chinese can only flee in the wilderness!" The Kent staff officer on the side has seen that the Chinese have finally begun to counterattack, which means that the war has entered a new stage, before the Chinese have been sailing eastward, making it impossible to close the distance, but once they shoot at each other, this will be the best time to seize the opportunity to hit the other side hard!

Commodore Sampson, apparently tired of tailing his opponent and ineffective front gun fire, began to consider taking advantage of the narrow geographical advantage of the strait's shipping lane, and when he pursued the Iowa and Oregon, the fastest ships in the fleet, he was suddenly shocked by the second round of school firing from the Chinese warships.

Less than one and a half minutes after the first round of firing, when Commodore Sampson was about to issue a new battle order and personally lead the two most powerful battleships to attack, he was surprised to find that the opponent's huge main gun was once again violently spraying huge cannon fire...... And this time, it was still 4 rounds of ladder launches.

He immediately terminated the order, and asked in surprise to Kent, the staff officer of the fleet who was observing from the lookout post: "Kent, the interval between the previous rounds of shelling by the Chinese?" Am I mistaken! ”

And the other party was also surprised at the moment, "General...... I am sure that the interval between their firing is 1 minute and 35 seconds, and the caliber of their main guns, according to the observation of the gunpowder flame, should not be less than 13 inches...... It's completely impossible! ”

The two of them were surprised, and naturally saw the huge gap in the main guns of the two sides...... In terms of caliber, the US Navy is obviously not too obviously backward, the 13-inch, 30-fold diameter main gun, although the range and accuracy are not small compared with the Krupp 13.5-inch, 43 times diameter main gun on the Sky Wolf, but it fully meets the current distance of shelling.

However, the American naval guns, which still use the old rebar gun bolts, fire every 3 minutes, which is already in an excellent state of training, and today's situation of close to 16 knots of high-speed maneuvering, and the waves are strict, 4-5 minutes is a normal level. There is a huge gap in the time interval between these shots. Immediate results. It is the geometric difference in the amount of ammunition projected by the two sides per unit of time!

How could Sampson not understand this? So at this moment, he secretly rejoiced, fortunately the Chinese launched an artillery bombardment before they changed their tactics, if he gave the order before, lead the battleship Oregon to catch up and fight with the opponent, not to mention the confrontation on the thickness of the cannon barrel, that is, in the rate of fire of this artillery, the opponent is enough to blow himself up!

Think of this detail. He immediately realized that something worse was going on, Chinese he had mastered such a terrifying artillery technique, but he had always maintained restraint, and he was beaten and did not fight back in the previous pursuit that lasted for nearly 2 hours, there was definitely a huge conspiracy in this...... He couldn't help but glance around at the sparkling sea that shimmered in the setting sun!

Could it be that the Chinese ambushed the fleet here? Could it be that the Chinese and the Spaniards joined forces to ambush here? Although this qiē seems unlikely! But it's very suspicious! A series of doubts flashed through his mind, and he immediately made a decision, "Order, all artillery fire, and immediately stop the pursuit, and close the distance of the fleet to the 5 chain." Prepare for disengagement! ”

At this moment, Liu Hetu, who was standing in front of the lookout window and looking at the target in the distance, naturally did not expect the chain reaction of this Brigadier General Sampson. After seeing that the U.S. right-wing fleet began to slowly dislocate and unfold the crane wing formation, in his opinion, the Yankees' improvisation was quite decent......

However, the battle line operation of the Yankee fleet is a completely failed tactic for the 13th fleet, which has a speed advantage, and makes full use of the geographical effect of the strait, making it impossible for the opponent to open the battle line, and the opponent's speed disadvantage is completely impossible to surround him!

Now the Americans have made a mistake that none of them are aware of, the tactical maneuver that has just been carried out, the maneuver of the American left flank, although logical, has created for itself an excellent opportunity to shell the enemy ships on the right flank.

He had long observed that the Yankees' battleships were still low-freeboard battleships, and when the low-freeboard battleships were turning and accelerating, the up-and-coming waves of Yan zhòng would make it almost impossible for the opponent's bow to strike forward, and during the two-hour pursuit, the lookout and observation positions confirmed this fact.

"General, the U.S. fleet maneuvers in formation, it will take at least 20 minutes!" On the side, Zheng Donghe had reminded loudly very seriously.

This means that in the next 20 minutes, your ships will only be attacked by the left wing flagship Iowa and the right flank 4 target ships, which will be the best time to counterattack!

"Order, full power acceleration, turn the rudder 20 degrees to the right, prepare for shelling the target!" Liu Hetu did not hesitate to make a key order immediately, and now it is time to speak with strength!

The bilge boiler room of the Sky Wolf Battle Patrol immediately sounded a rumbling sound that made the scalp tingle, the huge blower buzzed at high speed, and the thick pulverized coal on the iron coal row was immediately blown into the boiling boiler by the huge wind, the temperature in the furnace rose rapidly, and the flames that rushed to the sky quickly vaporized the boiling hot water in the bent pipe under the mixed action of accelerating the input of air and pulverized coal.

The 24 SG94 boilers immediately burst out with amazing heat energy, the hot steam quickly gathered with the pipes, and then gushed out from the steam nozzle, forming an elegant space in the arc wheel of the first stage of the steam turbine to expand rapidly, and the high-temperature steam poured to the second stage wheel without stopping between the rotating wheels, and the huge kinetic energy immediately made the power of the steam turbine rise rapidly.

Although it was only a 20-degree right-turn rudder, the huge hull still drew a huge wall of waves on the sea, and the hull was deflected to the right by at least 30 degrees.

Just three minutes later, when the battlecruisers Tianwolf and Tiankui completed their lateral rotation and pointed their six main guns at the left flank fleet of the U.S. Navy, the flag command on the battleship Iowa had just been conveyed to the battleship Oregon that was following closely, and the officers of the battleship Massachusetts lookout on the left flank in the distance were laboriously recognizing the signal transmitted from the flagship in the backlight.

"Damn sunshine...... The bastard of the flagship can't make the flag a little bigger, what is this shaking! Lookout Sergeant Pete frowned at the right flank fleet glittering in the distance in the setting sun, which was right behind the fleet, which shrouded the main fleet in a halo.

"Pete, the order from the flagship...... It seems to stop the pursuit! Another lookout recruit hesitated to report his observations to Sergeant Pete, but immediately denied himself, "It's impossible, maybe I'm wrong!" ”

And at this moment, in the bridge of the battleship Massachusetts, Colonel Poulson saw a clear crisis, the two Chinese battleships suddenly accelerated, right under his nose, he clearly recognized that the speed of the other party was increasing, and the other party also turned the rudder and inserted diagonally in front of him, maintaining such a course, the other party could use all the main guns in front and behind, although the firing angle was a little large, but indeed all the main guns were pointed at him.

Rumble...... Rumble...... Rumble......

Almost at the same time as he was thinking about the countermeasures, six dazzling artillery fire in the distance shone brightly, and just as Colonel Poulson was considering whether to open fire now, the battleship that was moving forward at high speed shook violently, and the teacups, maps, and triangular rulers that were originally placed on the table flew out, and then, a creepy rattling sound sounded from the back of the bridge.

As the officers looked at each other, there was a loud shout and scream comparable to the firing of a cannonball, and then a huge pillar crashed from the sky, flashed through the open lookout window of the command room, and then made an earth-shattering loud bang on the foredeck.

At this moment, Colonel Poulsen immediately jumped up like a rabbit and rushed out of the command tower, and a scene that stunned him was presented in front of him......

The main mast of the battleship was directly hit by the opponent's gun, you know, the main mast of the battleship Massachusetts was made of steel, but it obviously did not withstand the direct hit of this shell, and the armor-piercing projectile weighing 680 kg easily penetrated the hollow steel mast at a distance of more than 9,000 meters.

The huge weight of the double-cage lookout on top of the steel mast is obviously the key to breaking the mast, and this thing is now like a sledgehammer smashing on the horizontal armor of less than 30mm in the bow, which is a large hammer of six or seven tons, which is simply inserted into the deck in front of the latest American battleship, and some of the steel masts even hit a gun barrel on the left side of the front twin main guns. (To be continued......)