After the six Spanish warships appeared on the sea level, they quickly confirmed the encirclement of the American fleet, and the Spanish warships did not intend to flee immediately, but were ready to close the distance to fight, and when the distance between the two sides was shortened to 7,000 meters, the leading heavy patrol of the Garsimi began to bombard from a distance, and the black fog covering the sky was immediately lifted on the sea surface.

Just as Sampson was very happy to prepare to send the Spaniards into the sea with heavy artillery, the next situation suddenly changed beyond his comprehension, and after two rounds of fire, the Spanish flagship Gasimi had already signaled and began to withdraw to the southwest, completely unaware of the head-on battle...... God knows what exactly these Spaniards are thinking.

The Spanish fleet did not choose to return to the coast of Cuba through the Caribbean, which was not expected by Commodore Sampson, and the exchange of fire just now had apparently completely cut off the Spaniards from the idea of rushing through the fire net, and now the other side could only have one idea, which was to flee to the Mexican coastline......

To the southwest of the Mexican coastline, 40 nautical miles away in the Strait of Kuzumel, Commodore Sampson immediately concluded that the enemy was trying to burrow into the strait, forcing the American fleet to intercept on both flanks before looking for an opportunity to withdraw...... However, the Spaniards were apparently too optimistic, and with their fleet's cruising speed of less than 12 knots, even if they were all at full speed, they would be able to run 14 knots, and they would not be able to run for a few hours.

"Signal Commodore Winfield to let the detachment follow the Spaniards, and we will speed up our pursuit and strive to completely annihilate them before sunset!" Commodore Sampson gave the order that once the Spanish fleet was completely annihilated, the American fleet would be able to easily control the entire east coast. And the Spaniards on that small island in Cuba. Any possible support will be lost. Finally fall into a crash!

The Spanish fleet's rapid flight to the southwest immediately led to a sea chase, and by 2:40 p.m., when Commodore Winfield's detachment was following the Spanish fleet into the Strait of Couzumel amid the sound of artillery bombardment, the commodore very calmly ordered the fleet not to approach too closely, and the North Atlantic squadron was speeding from the eastern side of the island of Couzumel to the exit of the strait, where the Spanish fleet was destined to be devastated.

"General, 3 battleships have appeared behind us! Rapidly pushing our way! "The cruiser USS Olympia, the flagship of the cruising detachment, is the only heavily armored ship in the entire cruising detachment. It was also just transferred from the east coast to the west coast one year ago to join the fleet, and with a displacement of 5,800 tons, a speed of 21 knots and a very good protection capability, it has become an important maritime force to defend the safety of the west coast.

On the whole, the other warships of the West Coast Patrol Squadron are all small and medium-sized coastal defense ships, after all, the task of this squadron is to protect the coastline, which directly guides the Zhì Patrol Fleet in terms of overall speed is not much faster than the Spanish fleet, and a steady Commodore Winfield is obviously very satisfied with the Olympia cruiser, but he does not intend to rely on one battleship to single out the entire Spanish fleet!

He was convinced that the U.S. Navy had a crushing advantage over the Spanish fleet, so there was no need for a quick decisive battle. And it was his thought that made Lieutenant General Sevela easily run into the strait. Winfield, who was surprised by the rapid approach of the battleship behind him, immediately ordered the fleet to slow down, after all, Commodore Sampson was intercepting the opponent from the flank, and he only needed to block the opponent's retreat.

It's just that 20 minutes later, when the battleship that emerged after the billowing plume of smoke rose on the sea level in the distance, it immediately caused an alarm on the Olympia, and the lookout officer suddenly pushed open the door of the bridge command room, and reported loudly in panic, "General, 3 Chinese battleships have appeared behind us, and they look like Chinese battleships that were engaged with the North Atlantic Detachment earlier!" ”

"What...... Battleship! This news immediately stunned Commodore Winfield, although the cruising detachment also had a new type of cruiser such as the Olympia, but he had no interest in competing with the powerful battleship group, especially the extremely terrifying artillery skills rumored by the Chinese, and the current situation had forced him to make a decision, "Immediately pass the Guò Strait at full speed, we must cooperate with the North Atlantic Detachment to expel the Spaniards before the Chinese arrive, and then use the terrain of the strait to besiege the Chinese!" ”

The huge chimney on the American battleship began to spew black smoke violently, and in the bilge, the boilermen and sailors had closed the hatch, and at the same time opened the huge blower fan to accelerate the blowing of air into the boiler, and the boiling steam in the six Kangping boilers was quickly pushed into the triple expansion steam engine, and then pushed the huge steel shaft to inject powerful energy into the battleship.

The six American battleships began to pick up speed like crazy, completely ignoring the approach of the Chinese battleships behind them, which also quickly closed the distance to the Spanish battleships...... 7000…… 6000……

The 8-inch main gun and 150mm secondary guns of the cruiser Olipia were completely impatient, and the whistling shells were directed towards the unprotected cruiser Hernán in the tail of the Spanish fleet in the distance, and the Spaniards obviously saw the madness of the Yankees, and the 210mm main guns in the stern of the cruiser Hernan immediately opened fire in counterattack.

At the same time, the speed of the Spanish fleet also slowly increased, on the whole, the Spanish Navy obviously has a better naval tradition than the American fleet, but today's Spanish Empire has long disappeared in the long river of history, and the accompanying naval tradition makes the artillery skills of both sides almost half a catty to eight taels.

The Spanish flagship, the Garsimi, apparently also observed that the Yankees were beginning to attack with all their might, and the unprotected cruiser Hernan, at the end of the fleet, although the firepower was not bad, was immediately worried about the opponent's flagship......

And just when Vice Admiral Sevela was still hesitating whether to fight, just 5 minutes after the engagement, the fierce fire of the 208mm main gun in the bow of the armored cruiser Olympia, and the two 30-kilogram shells hit the bridge of the cruiser Hernan very accurately, and immediately raised a red cloud that soared into the sky, and the fire and explosion directly ignited the rear of the bridge of the Spanish cruiser, and by the way, a fire was also set in the lower cabin.

Seeing the danger, Lieutenant General Sevilla finally couldn't sit still, and he immediately gave the order, and at the same time ordered the Gasimi to slow down. Closing the distance with the American fleet. In less than 10 minutes. The Spanish fleet, which had previously sailed diagonally, had switched to a horizontal formation, and at the same time opened heavy fire on the Olympia, the flagship of the U.S. fleet, which had now been reduced to 5,000 meters.

After Commodore Winfield hit the first shot, he soon realized that he had also made a small mistake, because the speed of the Olympia had reached nearly 17 knots at the moment, although it was far from the top speed of 21 knots, but it had clearly opened the distance from the other ships, and in the next 2 rounds of fire, at least 3 shells of different calibers hit the Olipia.

But. Thanks to the fact that the armored cruiser had more than 200mm main armor belt, and the main gun fire of the Spaniards was also not good, plus the luck was also a little bad, among which a shell from the main gun of the 9-inch main gun fired from the rear main gun of the Garimi hit the front turret of the Olympia, not only did not penetrate, but directly ricocheted due to the angle problem, and although the other two 6-inch shells hit, except for burning a sampan, it did not have a big effect.

The Spaniard's fierce counterattack suddenly made Brigadier General Winfield realize that he was too anxious. He immediately ordered an emergency slowdown, after pulling a slight distance. Only then did they continue to shell the Spanish fleet in horizontal formations, and the artillery skills of both sides immediately made the battle enter a stalemate, and both sides shelled at a distance of nearly 6,000 meters, so that the hit rate also dropped rapidly.

During the exchange of fire that lasted for nearly 20 minutes, the rumbling sound of the main guns and small-caliber guns of the two sides enveloped the strait, but after the smoke of gunpowder dissipated, it was difficult to have an effect, and there were less than ten hits from each other, almost all of them were 5-inch and 6-inch secondary guns.

"General, the Chinese warships in the rear have entered the strait, and they have put up their flags demanding that we surrender immediately!" Seeing that he couldn't quickly break through the Spaniards, this made Brigadier General Winfield frown, the fierceness of the Spaniards' firepower made him unable to find the results for the time being, and at this time, the report from the lookout once again made him feel a huge pressure!

Before Commodore Winfield could make a decision, a flash of light pierced the sky in the distance, causing him to immediately rush to the side side, and right in front of him, billowing black smoke suddenly gushed out from the side chords of the three Chinese battleships, mixed with cannon fire that rushed into the sky in the black smoke, which immediately made everyone realize the huge pressure!

A few seconds later, the rumbling shells smashed into the fighting American fleet like a storm, and what was frightening was that one of the shells actually landed less than 50 meters away from the Monadenock coastal defense ship, and the waves set off by the violent explosion startled the American officers on the stern gun of the old coastal defense ship.

The stern guns of the American battleships immediately counterattacked, but to their dismay, the distance of the Chinese battleships far exceeded the 4,000-5,000 meters of their daily training, and after a round of firing, the shells fell far away on the surface of the strait without purpose.

Commodore Winfield looked at the Chinese battleship that was trailing, and he was also in a hurry, he originally planned to make dumplings for the Spaniards, but he didn't expect to be dumplings by the other party now, which is really sad! He immediately ordered the tail cannon to counterattack at full speed, and he personally ran up the bridge to oversee the artillery battle with the Spaniards.

However, what he saw was clearly rather frustrating, and although his fleet was superior in firepower compared to the Spanish fleet, the results of the battle belonged to the Spaniards.

After firing more than a dozen rounds between the two sides, a 9-inch high-explosive bomb fired from the armored ship USS Garsimi hit the American armored ship Arkansas in the second sequence very accurately, and the shell of more than 100 kilograms directly penetrated the top of the front turret dome of the old armored ship.

In an instant, a sky-high flame burst out from the turret of the pitch-black round canister, and the shredded corpses and fragments of the explosion rushed into the sky...... Before Commodore Winfield could worry about the 4,000-ton armored ship, the shells whistling behind him smashed down again, and the distance sign on the lookout on the side already showed that the Chinese had quickly closed to a distance of 7,000 meters in just ten minutes.

The corner of the American commodore general's eyes suddenly startled, the armored ship Aksus, which had just been opened by the Spaniards, was violently hit by a barrage of bullets falling from the sky, and on the side of the battleship command tower, a huge and clearly visible black hole suddenly appeared...... Just one second later, a huge spark of black and bright red sparks emerged from the command tower in the middle of the battleship.

In the destructive force of sweeping a qiē, the armored ship of more than 4,000 tons suddenly trembled like a leaf in the wind, and the rumbling explosion suddenly sounded dullly from the inside of the battleship, and the next moment, the huge explosive energy directly cut off nearly one-third of the superstructure of the armored ship that was re-converted and launched in 95 years, and the fragments rushed directly into the sky of dozens of meters. (To be continued......)