At noon, the East China Sea Fleet's decoy fleet and the British, French, and American combined fleet were only 20 miles apart.

The commanders of both sides spotted each other in the telescopes and made their own tactical moves.

"Left rudder and a half! Gain the upper hand! Tang Jizu, commander of the East China Sea Fleet's decoy enemy detachment, quickly gave an order.

"Yes!"

"Half rudder to the left!"

The helmsman and sailman led in unison, each moving in such a way that the flagship turned to the left in an attempt to gain the upper wind.

In naval warfare in the era of sails, the upwind direction is very important, and seizing the upwind direction is very beneficial to attack operations.

With the flagship's actions, other warships of the East China Sea Fleet followed suit and followed the flagship's actions.

On the other side, on the battleship Birmingham, the flagship of the combined British-French-American fleet.

Commander George saw the movements of the East China Sea Fleet from the binoculars, he snorted coldly, and said, "It seems that the commander of the East China Sea Fleet is very smart and actually knows how to seize the upper hand first!" ”

Cook Cook, the captain of the Birmingham on the side, added: "This is the tactic that the Royal Navy of the British Empire taught them, and if they don't even understand this, it will be a shame for us teachers!" ”

George nodded and said with a smile: "Also, we students of the Royal Navy of the British Empire can't be too ashamed!" However, we are too stupid, knowing that we are going to war with the Qing Empire, but why do we sell them so many sophisticated warships, and now the East China Sea Fleet has not only learned the naval warfare technology of our British Empire, but also uses the warships of the British Empire against the British Empire, which is really ironic! ”

Cook said: "At that time, the reason why he sold warships to Li Weiguo and helped him form the East China Sea Fleet was not only politically necessary, but also because of the Taiping Rebellion, which was not conducive to the Crimean War, and militarily because of the Taiping Rebellion, which threatened Shanghai." Our concession is in Shanghai, and we need protection in Shanghai. ”

George also understood that many things were forced to happen, so he said: "Fortunately, we won the Crimean War, and now we don't need to look at the face of the Qing Empire, let's teach them a good lesson." I'm going to see if these Eastern students can beat their Western teachers! ”

Cook laughed: "A student is always a student, how can you win a teacher?" ”

George also smiled: "I hope you didn't teach these students all the housekeeping skills!" ”

After a pause, George immediately ordered: "Turn the rudder to the right by a third, full sails, add coal, and seize the upper wind at full speed!" ”

"Turn the rudder to the right by a third, full sails, add coal, and seize the upwind direction at full speed!"

Captain Cook immediately turned to the first and second mates. George's order was repeated.

"Yes! Sir! ”

The first and second officers immediately carried out the order.

Soon, the Birmingham began to turn its rudder, the sails were raised, the boilers were coaled, and the smoke was billowing out, and the speed rose rapidly.

At the same time, a command flag was hoisted on the central mainmast of the HMS Birmingham, so that all other ships could see the order. Seize the upper hand together.

At the same time, the East China Sea Fleet and the British, French, and American combined fleets began to seize the upper hand, but the warships of the East China Sea Fleet were all sail ships. It is all driven by the wind, and the full sail speed is only eight to eleven knots. The British, French, and American combined fleets were all mixed with sails and steam engines, and after full sails and coal, the speed generally soared to more than 13 knots.

An hour later, the combined British-French-American fleet had surpassed the East China Sea Fleet by three nautical miles. They managed to gain the upper hand.

Captain Cook suddenly laughed and said, "I'm right, students are students after all, how can you win over teachers." Let's see, we've snatched the upwind position. ”

"Haha, it's a battleship with a steam engine. This speed has increased a lot, and in the future, this kind of pure sail battleship will never be able to seize the upper hand! ”

George nodded, and immediately ordered: "Order, keep the speed, the right rudder is full, and the port side is ready for fire!" ”

"Keep it up!"

"Right full rudder!"

"Port side artillery fire ready!"

One order after another was given, the battleship Birmingham began to fully rudder on the right, and in the three-tier gun deck on the port side, the British artillerymen repeated the orders while quickly reloading the guns with propellants and shells, and in less than two minutes, the guns were ready.

I saw that the port side gun doors of the battleship Birmingham were opened one after another, and the muzzles of the thirty-two black holes stretched out and were aimed at the target in the distance.

The battleship Birmingham was originally a first-class battleship with 120 guns, but in order to convert it into a hybrid battleship with sails and steam engines, many gun emplacements were removed in the central part to make room for the installation of steam engines and paddlewheels, so that the battleship Birmingham was transformed from a first-class battleship to a second-class battleship with only 74 guns, which is commonly known as the 74-gun battleship.

This 74-gun battleship shone in the Crimean War, pushing naval warfare in the Age of Sail to its zenith.

In the Battle of the Danube, 27 Russian sail battleships used the latest high-power explosive bombs to wipe out the Turkish Navy, which had more than 40 sail warships, and then in the Battle of Sinop, 14 steam ships of the British and French combined fleets beat the Russian wooden sail warships, and in one fell swoop established the decisive dominance of steam warships in the modern navy.

At this moment, George thought of the picture of the Anglo-French combined fleet in the Crimean War, and then looked at the East China Sea Fleet opposite, as if he had predicted the result of the East China Sea Fleet being defeated.

The British, French, and American combined fleets seized the favorable attack position in the upwind direction, quickly turned to the right, and spread out an attack formation like a sickle, preparing to encircle the East China Sea Fleet in one fell swoop.

This is the most classic fan-shaped encirclement tactic in naval warfare in the Age of Sails, and if this tactic is successfully implemented, the East China Sea Fleet will suffer heavy losses.

At this moment, the East China Sea Fleet lured the flagship of the enemy's detachment to look upstairs, and the commander Tang Jizu was already in a cold sweat, he wanted to seize the upwind position to launch an attack on the enemy fleet, after all, his more than 40 warships were frigates, but the other side had many battleships, which were not suitable for hard encounters, and if Tang Jizu grabbed the upwind direction, he could take advantage of a little advantage.

But now, Tang Jizu found that the opponent's warships were too fast, generally more than two to three knots faster than the warships of the East China Sea Fleet, and in less than an hour, the upwind position was snatched by the enemy.

"How is this possible? The speed of the opposing battleship turned out to be faster than ours frigates? Tang Jizu said in surprise, his face full of disbelief.

You know, battleships are huge. The huge displacement dragged down the speed, and the frigate had a small displacement, which naturally led to a faster speed than the battleship.

But at the moment, the speed of the enemy's battleships is two or three knots faster than the speed of the frigates of the East China Sea Fleet, how can it not be surprising.

Of course, if this was said to Li Weiguo, Li Weiguo would not be surprised at all. But for the officers and men of the East China Sea Fleet. Four years ago, they were all ordinary people in a fishing village by the sea, although they studied frantically for four years, but after all, their foundation was weak and their knowledge was insufficient, and in the face of this epoch-making product, surprise and ignorance were understandable.

"Their battleship has a steam engine installed, don't you see that the big water wheels on their battleship are spinning rapidly, it is that thing that makes the enemy's battleship speed increase rapidly, so it surpasses us."

Then. Yuan Tengfei, chief of staff of the decoy fleet, gave an explanation. As chief of staff, he must have a high level of education, and he is the first batch of officers to graduate from Danfu University after four Chinese New Year's Eve, and his education level has reached the level of middle school, so he can see the problem.

"Chief of Staff, what are we going to do? If you can't grab the upwind direction, you won't be able to occupy a good position, and our frigates don't have as many guns as the opposing battleships. You're going to suffer a lot if you fight! ”

Yuan Tengfei put down the binoculars, turned to Tang Jizu and said, "Don't forget that we are here to lure the enemy. Don't fight hard with the enemy, turn around quickly, let's retreat! ”

"So withdraw? I'm a little unwilling! "Tang Jizu knew that the mission was to lure the enemy, but he didn't think so at first, when he received the task from Lin Jiyun, the commander of the fleet, he had the intention of 'even if it is a bait, he will burp the enemy's front teeth'. Now that he turned around and ran, he suddenly hesitated.

Seeing Tang Jizu's expression, Yuan Tengfei shook his head and said, "Don't hesitate, don't run again." Our entire convoy has to stay! ”

Tang Jizu suddenly stomped his feet, sighed, and nodded in agreement.

"Right full rudder! Remove! ”

Hearing Tang Jizu's order, the captain, first mate, second mate and others were all stunned, but the strict military training soon made them sober up and received their orders one after another.

"Yes! Full rudder right! ”

"Hang the flag of retreat!"

As Tang Jizu's flagship hoisted the retreat flag, the captains of the other ships, although they didn't understand one by one, didn't dare to disobey, and they also turned around and retreated.

Originally, the fleets of both sides were preparing for battle, so when the two sides were vying for the upwind position, the fleets of the two sides were also constantly shortening the distance, and the distance between the two sides was only four or five nautical miles at this moment.

On the battleship Birmingham, George saw the East China Sea Fleet turn around and flee, and he immediately laughed and said: "This is the student you taught, it's a shame, it's scared away before you even fight!" ”

Cook smiled: "This just shows that we teach well as teachers, if these students know that they are going to die and do not run, then we are not teaching well as teachers!" ”

George snorted coldly and said, "A group of cunning students, but it's not so easy to run!" ”

He paused, and immediately ordered: "Pass my order, the whole fleet pursues, and sink them for me!" ”

The order was given, and the combined British, French, and American fleets quickly launched a pursuit.

I saw thick smoke billowing from the thick chimneys, which was a sign of acceleration.

"The enemy ship is too fast, and the rear team is about to be overtaken!"

Tang Jizu received the report, hurriedly looked over with a telescope, and sure enough, he found that the enemy fleet was speeding up with all its strength, and it was about to approach the rear of the decoy enemy fleet.

"Order the rear team to break off and block the enemy fleet with all your might!"

"No!" Yuan Tengfei immediately stopped: "We are here to lure the enemy, if we let the rear team break the rear, our front team will certainly be out of the battlefield, but it is equivalent to a failure to lure the enemy." ”

Tang Jizu frowned and said, "Then you mean that we will be bitten by the enemy fleet all the time?" How many ships and brothers do I have to lose? ”

Yuan Tengfei said with a dark face: "For the most taboo of women's benevolence for generals, you must know that Ci is not in charge of the army, the sacrifice that should be made is necessary, as long as the enemy fleet is introduced into our ambush circle, this sacrifice is worth it!" ”

Tang Jizu gritted his teeth and finally gave up the order to let the rear team break with all his might.

At this time, the sound of artillery was heard, and several frigates in the rear had already exchanged fire with the advance team of the combined British, French, and American fleet. (To be continued......)