The battle between the two sides since the early hours of the morning was undoubtedly a time-consuming and labor-intensive super tug-of-war, the so-called fast fleet of the Royal Navy, in the face of the three main warships of the Guam Squadron under the jurisdiction of Tang Town, only two battle cruisers could maintain the advantage in speed, but another key reason why Lord Dieters still followed closely was the news from the former Dreadnought Squadron that had fallen behind as early as 2 hours ago.

The 4 former dreadnoughts in the fast fleet can only serve as the task of intercepting at the bottom due to the disadvantage in speed, unless the Chinese battleship group turns around like crazy, it is actually nothing at all, but the commander of the detachment, Rear Admiral Austin, is obviously not willing to play the role of soy sauce, and the senior admiral will release two Cuckoo T1 reconnaissance planes from the two battleships Edward VII and the USS London after the war.

As the war progressed, Rear Admiral Austin was almost certain that he would not be able to catch up with the Grand Fleet besieging the Chinese battleships, so he focused more on reconnaissance around the perimeter, and the No. 2 reconnaissance plane released in the northwest direction accidentally spotted a wisp of black smoke at the end of the sea and air, and a little later, the reconnaissance plane crossed the clouds and saw the Second Detachment of the Guam Fleet that was on guard in the sea area 50 kilometers away.

The No. 2 reconnaissance plane, which hurriedly returned home, dropped a signal bottle in front of the battleship Edward VII, and this news immediately surprised Rear Admiral Austin, and the reconnaissance plane did not dare to approach the reconnaissance at the first time, so it was roughly confirmed that the peripheral Chinese fleet was an aircraft carrier, a former dreadnought battleship, and a destroyer detachment, and that it had 4 dreadnought battleships and 12 destroyers on hand, which could almost be said to be an overwhelming advantage.

Lord Dieters, who was entangled with the main fleet of Tang Town, also gave Rear Admiral Austin the greatest autonomy at the first time, this opportunity to steal chickens, no commander would be willing to give up, and before obtaining authorization to attack, the No. 2 reconnaissance plane sailed to the northwest sea again to prepare for another reconnaissance, but to Rear Admiral Austin's disappointment, this reconnaissance operation became a one-way flight.

At first, the No. 2 reconnaissance plane was far away from a destroyer on the periphery of the Chinese detachment, and made full use of the thick clouds of the day to cover it, while the four former dreadnoughts and six destroyers under the command of Rear Admiral Austin quickly followed after them, and by the time the Guangzhou damaged the battle patrol of the Jianqiang, he had already approached from the flank to 25 kilometers to the left of the Shandong aircraft carrier formation.

Seeing the arrival of the support fleet, the No. 2 Cuckoo reconnaissance plane obviously had the courage to move forward and began to prepare for the battle to reconnoiter closer, but it turned out to be a cup......

Two Tissot II fighters flying over the Shandong aircraft carrier discovered the British reconnaissance plane in the airspace 15 kilometers away from the fleet, and immediately launched a joint attack; for the Dujuan reconnaissance plane, which was only equipped with a Rolls 200-horsepower MKIII water-cooled engine, the power of the Tissot II's Taihang engine was nearly doubled, and although the weight of the fuselage increased slightly, the maneuverability of the single-wing skin fighter occupied an absolute advantage.

This unsuspenseful aerial strangulation battle lasted only 8 minutes, and the two Tissot fighters that swooped down from the clouds bit the British reconnaissance plane that fled in a hurry, and locked onto the target from a distance of 300 meters with two chains of 16mm cannon shells, and finally the Royal Navy's No. 2 Cuckoo reconnaissance plane just turned in the air and escaped less than 5 kilometers before being directly bombarded into a fireball by the bullet chain.

The fighter planes that strangled the enemy planes also discovered the plume of smoke rising from the sea level at the first time, and one of the planes immediately went to reconnoitre, and the other fighter plane immediately returned and dropped a message bottle over the Shandong aircraft carrier!

According to the squadron's battle plan, unless there is an irreversible extreme situation in Tang Town, the Shandong aircraft carrier and the Dayu battleship are only prepared for the final rendezvous with the Grand Fleet...... Dragging the British to death was originally the ultimate goal of this campaign.

Unexpectedly, the British would sneak to the vicinity, which was obviously beyond Lu Zhiyuan's expectations, and he was cautious in the past, constantly flying reconnaissance planes to investigate the combat situation, but he didn't expect the British to put reconnaissance planes so far away...... He immediately sent a telegram to Tang Zhen, and at the same time ordered the battleship and destroyer formation of Dayu, who served as the escort, to form a battle formation!

At 12:45, almost at the same time as Tangzhen was chasing and killing the battle patrol of the Fortitude, the British battleship formation led by the battleship Edward VII appeared on the sea level on the right side of the battleship Dayu, and a few minutes later, the returning Tissot fighter brought accurate news.

The other side has 4 former dreadnought battleships, and their own only one Dayu battleship, although the Dayu battleship was modernized in 1900, the fire control, motor and hull armor were upgraded, but the predecessor of the Dayu battleship is only a 12,000-ton heavy ironclad ship after all, in contrast, the Royal Navy's former dreadnought battleship has advantages in tonnage, armor, and firepower.

For the speed that is crucial for sea battles, the battleship Dayu can also run at a speed of 18 knots relying on the strong transformation ability of domestic heavy industry, even slightly faster than the early British dreadnought - but this is obviously not enough to become a 1V4 hole card...... There is another way, Lu Zhiyuan is naturally very clear, that is, to slip away!

However, Lu Zhiyuan obviously did not think that the British fleet that came out was a mortal threat, and the Shandong aircraft carrier also severely damaged the opponent with almost slight losses in the previous operations in the waters near Nauru, but the problem is that it is obviously not a good idea to keep sailing against the wind and fly the fighters when the British battleships and destroyers have already entered the combat area.

What's more important is that through the practice of previous battles, he has realized that although air strikes have some incomparable advantages, there are obviously shortcomings in the performance of the current naval aviation fighters, relying only on the attacks launched by bombers, and in the case that the opponent has a large number of destroyer defensive firepower, the combat effect cannot satisfy him in his pursuit of perfection, not to mention ...... The Grand Fleet is coming at the moment!

"General, Captain Dayu sent a telegram!" Just then, the officer reported aloud, sending a telegram that had just been transcribed.

Lu Zhiyuan squinted his eyes and looked at the few words of the telegram, the corners of his mouth twitched slightly, this Ma Tianxiang had an idea with himself, "Call back immediately, and follow Captain Ma's suggestion!" ”

At 1:21, after following the Chinese fleet for nearly an hour, Rear Admiral Austin's Royal Navy Dreadnought Squadron finally closed the distance from the flank, because the reconnaissance plane was shot down, he did not release a new reconnaissance plane, the opponent's fierce pursuit in the air, and it was obviously a meaningless act to release the reconnaissance plane again, and he had already bitten the opponent.

At 22 minutes, the battleship Edward VII in the first combat position fired the first school projectile from the A gun position, and the target was directly pointed at the Dayu who was maneuvering rapidly at the sea level in the distance, and the news came from the lookout that the Chinese aircraft carrier observed by the reconnaissance aircraft was not found in the field of vision, but the opponent's 1 battleship and 6 destroyers took a posture and were obviously not ready to escape.

On the Dayu, the captain Ma Tianxiang lay on the chart and carefully surveyed the battlefield situation map, the main force of the fleet was fighting with the main fleet of the British in the southern seas, and he obviously couldn't burn the war in that direction, and the flanking British warship, he was even more careful to keep his distance, but the problem soon appeared......

"General, two British battleships on the right, measured at a speed of more than 19 knots...... Approaching us! The speed of the two British battleships in the back of the flanks is comparable to ours! Tang Yi, the shooting officer, ran to the side of the chart and marked the battle situation between the two sides at this moment, not having an advantage in speed, and at the same time trying his best to drag the opponent, which suddenly made Ma Tianxiang frown.

A few seconds later, he drew a course slightly southerly west on the chart, and then put down the pencil in his hand heavily, there is no doubt that it will be a difficult defensive battle, but it will not be able to extinguish the will of the Chinese soldiers to fight, "Keep the course and prepare to counterattack!" ”

"Target, speed measurement...... Verse 18 ......"

"The rate of course change is 1.1...... The azimuth motor is set! ”

"Ranging...... 16,000 meters, wind speed 4...... Wind deflector adjusted ......"

"Shot count...... Reset complete! ”

“……”

A series of compact orders sounded in the command tower, and the officers sitting in front of the Tenglong integrated fire control platform began to operate in an orderly manner the mechanical system in front of them, which represented the most cutting-edge armament technology of this era, and the green light representing the three main turrets of the Dayu was also quickly lit!

Rumble......

The main gun raised in the A gun position slammed, and the spitting cannon flame with a shocking roar projected the 300-kilogram armor-piercing projectile at the rapidly pursuing British battleship at the sea level in the distance.

Almost at the same time, the destroyers of both sides had quickly distanced themselves and launched a rapid maneuver on the periphery of the main battleship engagement area, and the sixth destroyer detachment that cooperated with the Dayu to defend did not take the initiative to attack, but quickly pounced on the British destroyers trying to cross the engagement line...... These quick raid firepower, while unable to inflict a fatal blow on a battleship, were able to directly threaten an aircraft carrier with less firepower.

In less than 20 minutes of fighting, the battleship Dayu had obviously fallen into a disadvantageous situation, and the two Edward VII-class dreadnoughts under the command of Rear Admiral Austin had taken advantage of the small advantage in speed to close the distance from the right flank to 14,000 meters, while at the same time, the two Dreadnought-class battleships on the left flank also began to slowly close the distance......

Immediately afterwards, at 1:44, a salvo from the battleship Hindustan on the right flank, 6 12-inch shells hit a good dispersion, one of which was close to the main armor belt behind the Dayu less than 30 meters, and the huge wave set off by the explosion rushed directly to the stern of the battleship, and Dayu's 4 rounds of salvo strikes on the left wing Empress (Dreadnought class) battleship did not achieve actual results.

Ma Tianxiang immediately gave the order for tactical maneuvering, but then, a salvo from the battleship Edward VII on the right flank directly hit a straddle shot at the Dayu who had just maneuvered, and a 300-kilogram high-explosive bomb smashed directly on the horizontal armor belt less than 2 meters in front of the aft C turret of the Dayu!