The twilight gradually covered the sky, and the waves on the vast sea surface continued to surge more than ten meters with the gradually strengthening southwest wind, which made Commodore Lucius, who was on the bridge of the battleship Delaware, finally have some peace of mind.

After sending a telegram to the Grand Fleet, he had already ordered the whole fleet to enter a state of wireless silence, and the frequent radios would obviously allow the surrounding Chinese to obtain information that he did not want to leak, even if this possibility was small, he would not take this risk, not to mention, he must lead the fleet to the north as soon as possible, in order to get rid of contact with the Chinese to the greatest extent, and tomorrow morning, complete the replenishment of destroyers and battleships, estimated to sail at a low speed for at least five to six hours.

However, this sea area is Chinese territory, even if the powerful fleet of the American Navy, after penetrating into the Chinese's sphere of influence, is still extremely dangerous, he has no doubt Chinese that in addition to the powerful main fleet, there will be a more headache-inducing submarine force, Western naval circles are rumoring, the German wolf tactics are learned from the Chinese Navy......

Of course, he did not have the slightest doubt that at this moment the damned aircraft carriers and battleship groups of the Chinese were seeking every opportunity to defeat the combined fleet of the United States and Britain, but as a soldier, he had to throw himself into a decisive battle that he was not optimistic about, and the air strike that collapsed the entire fleet a day ago, those bombers that swooped down with a terrifying whining, are definitely new weapons that the United States and Britain do not have!

"General, ship No. 81 has sent a signal, the sea ahead is safe!" The door of the conton's tower was pushed open, and the watchtower officer brought new news, which temporarily pulled back Brigadier Lucius's thoughts.

After night sailing and radio silence, the fleet adopted the light signal of the battleship in front of it, and the four destroyers were placed in the front and rear of the battleship formation, and the distance of 5,000 meters was opened to ensure that the fleet could be warned, which obviously reassured Commodore Lucius a little...... However, although he got the information he wanted, a hint of foreboding made him walk to the lookout window of the command tower!

"General......

Lucius suddenly waved his hand to interrupt the officer's report, pricking up his ears and frowning, as if listening intently to something, but there seemed to be nothing special except for the sound of the crashing waves, the trills of the steel armor, and the low roar of the machines! Suddenly, at the end of the sky behind the left, several lightning flashes of light......

He immediately threw himself in front of the window, the sky was not clear at all tonight, the heavy black curtain suppressed the whole sky, and nothing could be seen clearly in the distance, but now there was absolutely no sign of imminent rainstorm, and the light in the distance was not at all like the lightning brought by the tropical storm clouds! And at this moment, Lucius finally heard a "bang" sound that made him nervous!

"Enemy attack...... Enemy attack ......"

In an instant, the roar from the battleship command tower completely alerted the battleship Delaware, but without waiting for Commodore Lucius to make any deployment, four eye-catching and suffocating huge flares suddenly exploded at a height of hundreds of meters from the side of the American battleship formation, and the dazzling magnesium light illuminated the nearby sea like a scorching sun!

Commodore Lucius naturally knew very well what the glaring flares meant by the landing of the starry flares, after being equipped with a powerful battleship group and mechanical fire control from the British system, the tactical exercises of the US Navy did gradually increase the subject of night operations, but the dark night was undoubtedly a super problem for the navy, which relied heavily on gunnery and sighting.

Flares, now obviously not a new technology, the U.S. Navy is also equipped with small flares for secondary gun firing, however, the use of flares for night actual combat, for the U.S. Navy, is still just a theoretical concept, the focus of the daily U.S. Navy night combat operation subjects, is to reach a close distance, using the light source generated by the opponent's artillery fire for ranging, and for the projectile observation, it is even more difficult.

On the other hand, the night battle artillery technique launched by the Chinese at this moment, the flare that immediately flew over their battle line, is obviously not the old projectile used by the US Navy, the descending speed and illumination range have been designed for night operations, yesterday just experienced the Chinese's dive bombing tactics, Lucius already has an inexplicable fear of the new tactics.

However, now is clearly not the time to think about how to escape......

"Level 1 combat readiness! Lighting Control ...... Get your ranging done now! ”

"No. 4, No. 6, No. 8 are ready to fire flares!"

"Within 3 minutes, everyone evacuates the main gun deck!"

“……”

"Prepare for long-range shelling, turn the rudder 10 degrees to the left!" Lucius stood in front of the sidestring observation window and gave the decisive order to maneuver, holding his binoculars tightly and staring at the pitch black night in the distance...... Damn the Chinese guys, did they fall into the other party's trap again!

The main guns of the 3 American battleships have been slowly turning, and the huge gun ports are far away in the direction of the flares fired just now, although the Chinese have dug a big hole here, but the gun barrel is the final force that determines the right to speak, as long as the other side launches shelling, although the US Navy does not have special flares for night battles like the other side, it can still counterattack!

The brief silence before the battle plunged into darkness with the landing flashbangs, but the imaginary stormy blows did not follow, and at the end of the night, suddenly there were several lightning flashes, Brigadier General Lucius immediately glanced at the pocket watch in his left hand, and after six flashbangs burst out in the sky again, he immediately realized that the first round of strikes of the other party was about to begin!

"General, the flare stays in the air for 14 seconds...... The position of the other side firing flares should be at a distance of 9000-11000 meters! "The staff officer on the side reported the battlefield assessment information almost at the same time, which is obviously not too bad news for the US military, with the use of the gun position firing command instrument and the integrated fire control platform, the US Navy has also entered the palace of naval gunnery...... At least, that's what the vast majority of naval officers think.

In the case of sufficient light during the day, the firing command instrument used by the US Navy for a single main gun can easily complete the firepower projection within a distance of 10,000 meters, however, in today's situation of dark moon and high wind, it is obviously impossible to expect to play the standard of artillery skills during the day, but as long as the light of the opponent's artillery bombardment can be fully used to complete the observation, the effect of salvo strike at this distance can obviously still be expected!

Brigadier General Lucius's optimism obviously surprised him a little, and in his opinion, Chinese liked to surprise his opponent, especially after the previous battle, he was even more convinced of this point of view, he stared into the distance, and just now two rounds of flares were fired, and he obviously observed that the opponent was definitely not moving in a straight line, but was probably doing a Z-shaped maneuver to evade and observe...... But this obviously does not conform to the basic logic of battle, and no battleship commander will carry out such a maneuver that greatly affects artillery skills during battle, especially when he has the opportunity to take the lead!

At the next moment, the astonishing artillery fire that pierced the sky suddenly shone out from a position less than 15 degrees to the left in front of the fleet, completely confirming Commodore Lucius's prediction just now...... Bastard! It is clear that the flares are fired not by the main forces of the Chinese Navy, but by the fleet that serves as decoys! And the other side obviously succeeded in inducing the US fleet to deflect direction, and successfully allowed his fleet to occupy the key top of the T-position in the first round of strikes!

"Turn the rudder 15 degrees to the right and maintain speed!" When Brigadier General Lucius realized that he was crashing into a steel wall, he immediately made a helpless decision, he also wanted to turn at a large angle, but at this moment, the battleship was advancing at full speed, and the hull brought by the large-angle turn was violently **** rolling, at least until the turn was completed, the battleship's main guns would lose the ability to counterattack...... As for the secondary gun, that thing is a chicken rib in the battleship decisive battle!

As soon as the order was given, a terrifying "snort" sound was already heard in the sky, and Brigadier Lucius could even feel it, one of the shells swept directly over the top of the bridge of the battleship Delaware, and under the illumination of the slowly descending flares from the top of the fleet, a series of explosions set off a wave that rushed to the sky and appeared around the fleet.

"Battleship! The firing distance is estimated to be more than 18,000 meters! The observer officer on the side had already reported loudly.

"General, the main guns in positions D and E cannot shoot at the front, they must be deflected at least half a compass point!" The shooting officer jumped up and shouted loudly to Brigadier General Lucius, who was staring into the distance.

"How many enemy ships?" Lucius yelled at the observing officer.

"General, it's too far away, you need to observe it a few times!" The observation officer is also too big at the moment, and the opponent suddenly occupies the T-shaped top of the firing position, at this moment the battleship is turning, the huge range of battleship pitch and left and right roll have brought too much trouble, and the enemy ship on the opposite side is obviously premeditated, except for the main gun salvo, completely exposing any light source that can be observed!

Just as Lucius was considering whether to let the two destroyers in front of him carry out a jamming assault, less than 20 seconds after the first round of shelling, a series of cannon flames once again burned the sky!

The Chinese are conducting intensive calibration, which is obviously a matter of no doubt, the first round of shells, at least more than 10, with reference to the US Navy's conventional calibration rules to judge is obviously inappropriate, Commodore Lucius immediately determined that the other side should be a half-salvo calibration of nature, which is comparable to the US Navy learned the strength of the capital ships of the Chinese Guam fleet.

That meant that he was facing at least 3, or even 4 Chinese battleships, which made Commodore Lucius frown...... The lead has been lost, and it is a night battle that the US Navy is not good at......

Boom Boom Boom ...... Rumble......

In a moment, the cannonballs at the end of the darkness whistled again, and when Brigadier General Lucius once again looked up and listened to the sound of cannonballs flying overhead, doom suddenly struck! (To be continued.) )