The fatal blow suffered by the battle patrol of the Strong, if it was under the cover of the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet, there was actually room for salvation, and the 13-inch armor-piercing projectile penetrated the horizontal armor and caused the explosion of the bilge, but in fact, the sturdy hull mechanism of the Strongman was not fatally hit, and the loss of less than 30% of the power, although it slowed down the speed, but in fact, the Chinese fast fleet advancing at full speed at this moment did not have an overwhelming speed advantage!

Battlefield maneuvering is not a simple subtraction of speed, especially when the number of your own fleet is superior, although the strong battle patrol was on the right flank of the Chinese fleet before being shot, and after losing its advantage in speed, it actually does not mean that it will be chased by Chinese warships? After all, on the other side, the long-range firepower built by 4 dreadnoughts is still a huge threat to Chinese warships......

Thundered...... Rumble...... Rumble...... Suddenly, there was an unsettling sound of martyrdom from the bottom of the command tower, which made Major General Mikay frown, and the sudden ringing of the telephone brought news that made him uneasy!

"General, it is difficult to advance the bilge damage pipe operation, and the fire has caused a leak in the No. 6 boiler room...... Major Marshall suggested shutting down the 6 boilers in the back at once! ”

"Temporarily shut down 6 boilers, we estimate that we will lose 3 knots of speed, and we can only maintain a speed of 19 knots to get closer to the flagship!" Turning off 6 boilers meant that the battleship lost a third of its power...... Of course, this does not mean losing a third of the speed, and the staff officers on the side have already reported the estimated judgment for the first time.

While Major General Mikay was pondering nervously, on the sea 15,000 meters away, a series of dazzling artillery flames and black clouds rose again, which suddenly made all the American soldiers on the battle patrol of the Fortitude panic, and the senior officers in the command tower looked even more ugly, after receiving the order of the flagship, the Invincible and the Strong turned to try to get out of the battle, the Chinese are obviously not so generous!

The opponent also followed the full speed turn, and used the speed advantage to close the distance with the Strong, it is clear that the Stronghold has been included in the preferred target, and at this moment, the Invincible Patrol in front of the queue did not reduce its speed because of the Strongman's slowdown......

"Add bilge damage pipes from Entrance 12 and be sure to extinguish the bilge fire!" Rear Admiral Mikay saw the cannonballs whizzing in the distance, and very decisively rejected the request from the bilge, losing 3 knots of speed, if he was moving within the battle line of the Grand Fleet, it would be completely negligible, but at this moment, in the face of the Chinese fleet with amazing gunnongry, he immediately gave up this risky idea...... Perhaps, holding on for a moment, the whole battleship can be saved!

The "General......" staff officer was carrying the phone and was just about to speak, but was interrupted again by Major General Mikay.

"Execute it immediately, at all costs......" Major General Mikay stared into the distance and shouted loudly, but the second half of the order was drowned out by the loud sound of the roaring heavy artillery compressed air.

This order would have been advised by the staff officer in normal times, but at this moment, after a fierce confrontation that had lasted for more than 5 hours, in the face of the uncontrollable fire in the bilge at the moment, it triggered a series of uncontrollable consequences!

4 shells whizzed past the battle patrol of the Fortitude, and landed less than 400 meters in front of the side, and this was exactly the area where the Invincible was about to sail, which immediately caused a burst of confusion, Rear Admiral Mikay pounced in front of the microphone and loudly gave the order to deflect the course of 15 degrees, this round of salvo from the Chinese battleship, almost hit a straddle shot, what does it mean, every officer in the commander tower understands very well!

The battle patrol of the Fortitude had just turned, but found an abnormal situation, the invincible battle patrol in front of the formation did not turn right and break away according to the previous plan, but accelerated to the left to approach the Chinese fleet...... The commander of the fleet, Lord Dieters, had obviously changed his mind again, and was not willing to give up the opportunity to flank the Chinese fleet in front of him, so he ordered the Stronghold to move closer to the Grand Fleet, and still ordered the Invincible Battle Patrol to take on the task of containing the Chinese battleship formation on the right flank.

In Lord Dieters' view, the speed advantage of the battle patrol formation on the Chinese battleship formation was enough to complete the task of containing the Chinese and creating an opportunity for the Grand Fleet to launch a battle line operation, and in 5 hours of engagement, the flagship battleship George V fired less than 100 shells, most of which were fired at the extreme combat distance of 17,000 meters, and the results were completely zero.

But this seemingly shrewd order suddenly handed over the initiative of the battle situation to Tang Zhen, who was anxious about not being able to open the situation......

"General, the strong battle patrol wants to run! Here's your chance! "In the commander tower of the battleship Guangzhou, Han Cheng, the chief of staff of the fleet, slammed the iron railing of the lookout platform with a telescope in his hand and shouted towards Tang Zhen.

Boom Boom Boom ...... Boom Boom Boom ......

Without waiting for Tang Zhen to respond, the Guangzhou suddenly fired another round, and the 10 main guns that pointed to the right flank in unison spewed out the gunpowder smoke that rushed to the sky, obscuring the field of vision of the command tower for a while...... These two British battle cruisers are obviously in big trouble.

"Turn the rudder right 30 degrees!" Tang Zhen stretched out his hand to the position between the Invincible and the Fortitude battle patrol at this moment, and made a resolute navigation order, and the three battleships immediately pursued the Fortitude battle patrol at full speed, but the position that broke through did not seem to take the Invincible that was about to seize the top of the T-shaped in his eyes at all.

This situation suddenly surprised the Invincible battle cruiser who was carrying out the orders of Lord Dieters, who was originally advancing almost parallel to the three Chinese battleships, and after changing course before, he obviously also considered implementing the previous tactics to keep a distance with a slight advantage in speed, and then launched a strike on the Chinese battleships.

"General, the Chinese warship is approaching rapidly!" The rangefinder officer who watched from the sidelines loudly reported the sudden situation to Major General Torres, "17,000 meters of range!" ”

Rear Admiral Torres apparently didn't expect the Chinese fleet to suddenly turn and rush towards him almost face-to-face, which gave the Invincible a chance to easily grab the top T-position to block the opponent, which was enough to put the Invincible, with its eight 12-inch guns, into play...... But he clearly did not think that the commander of the Chinese fleet was crazy.

With a little consideration, it is obvious that the Invincible wants to hold off the Chinese warships, giving full play to the flank-chord firepower, but at the same time exposing itself to the range of the heavy artillery fire of the three Chinese ships facing forward...... Although the artillery of the Chinese has not yet pointed at themselves at this moment, even if they occupy an absolutely favorable terrain, it is absolutely unimaginable for them to fight hand-to-hand with 3 battleships with one battle cruiser!

After Tang Zhen made the decision to attack the middle of the battle patrol of the Invincible and the Fortitude, when the Invincible advanced at full speed, occupied a favorable, near-T-top position, and fired a round and a half of volleys from a distance of 15,000 meters, the whole battlefield situation immediately took a dramatic turn!

In the face of the three Chinese battleships that were approaching step by step, the Invincible Battle Cruiser had no time to consider taking advantage of the position advantage to launch a volley, but directly turned to open the distance first, if the three Chinese battleships were allowed to launch a full salvo at a distance of 13,000 meters, Rear Admiral Torres could not imagine the huge pressure he would face......

Tang Zhen unscrupulously attacked the Strong, which had a speed of less than 21 knots at the moment, and the main guns of the battleship staggered towards the Invincible and the Stronghold battlecruisers fired school projectiles one after another, making the two American battlecruisers constantly feel great pressure.

15000 m ...... 14000 m ......

At 12:51, on the Canton, the 10 13.5-inch main guns of the Stronghold Patrol on the right were tilted less than 20 degrees, and the first salvo after the pursuit battle suddenly fired, and the firepower was directed at the Stronghold Patrol who had withdrawn in a hurry.

The skyrocketing cannon roared towards the target with 10 heavy guns, smashing a wave within less than 300 meters of the Senaciend's battle patrol, and the most recent one was nearly missed, less than 50 meters from the bow of the Fortitude...... This made Tang Zhen smash his mouth and feel bad luck!

In the next second, the battleship Shanxi that followed closely behind fired a salvo, but it immediately achieved results!

10 shells whizzed by, and when the angle of the cannon fire was only less than 30 degrees, a round of high-hit straddle fire was fired, and seven soaring waves rose on the sea surface behind the left side of the battle patrol of the Strong, and at the same time, two black tumbling clouds suddenly rose from the hull behind the battle patrol of the Strong, rolling up a large area of sky-high flames.

"Hit the target ......"

"The target is slowing down......"

"Pursue at full speed and concentrate your firepower to sink the Strong!" , a series of reports, finally made Tang Zhen, who had a stiff face, touch his head with satisfaction......

When the Sky Wolf Battle Patrol, which had completed the preparation for the school firing one minute later, launched the artillery bombardment, several red flames suddenly rose from the Stronghold Battle Patrol that was rapidly stalling in the distance, and then, without waiting for the Guangzhou to fire a volley immediately after, a series of sky-high flames erupted from the right side of the Stronghold Battle Patrol, completely ending the fate of this Royal Navy Battle Cruiser.

In the previous salvo of the Shanxi, two 390-kilogram armor-piercing shells hit the 12-inch twin main turret and the stern horizontal armor belt of the C gun position on the rear side of the Strong......

After penetrating the armor belt of the turret, the heavy artillery shell did not detonate directly, but drilled into the bomb magazine on the rear side of the turret, and after hitting the steel plate, it changed direction and turned downward, hitting the projectile barrel that was being hoisted in the bomb magazine, and exploded violently.

The huge flames of the explosion erupted directly from the cracked hole in the turret, directly tearing the top armor of the turret, and the resulting fire poured into the bilge from the bomb magazine, directly burning nearly 40 American troops who were in the process of bilge damage at the moment, and at the same time, the fire that had just been controlled in the bilge suddenly expanded the burning area by more than doubled.

When another armor-piercing shell smashed through several layers of horizontal armor belts and exploded violently above the stern ammunition depot, the entire middle and rear bilges of the Fortitude were completely engulfed in flames, and at the same time, the detonation of explosives on the outside of the rear ammunition depot was triggered again, and finally 8 boilers on the rear of the battleship were destroyed in less than 1 minute!

The violent boiler explosion caused a huge impact, which destroyed the ammunition compartment of the main gun in the rear...... This 18,000-ton Royal Navy Trencher was on the surface of the sea in less than 2 minutes!

Just when Tang Zhen saw the Warring States with satisfaction, the officer in the telegraph room suddenly rushed in and reported loudly with a nervous expression, "General, Dayu reports that the outer formations are under siege!" ”