The British Royal Navy formation following the battlecruiser Regulus is four warships of the Indian squadron of the Far East Fleet, and the temporary flagship is the Sovereign-class battleship Royal Oak, which just entered Port Vekia for refurbishment a week ago, and this squadron was supposed to join the Far East Grand Fleet within a week to launch a maritime offensive into the South China Sea.

By the time the telegram from the pursuing Regulus reached Rear Admiral Kembaugh, commander of the battleship HMS Royal Oak, the four cruisers under the rear admiral's command were in the dockyard to clear the large number of attached sea creatures under the armor, and it would take three to five days to make their way into the ranks.

Rear Admiral Kembaugh, of course, understood the disastrous consequences of letting a battleship with great firepower in his back garden, and he immediately hurried out to sea with the only three cruisers of the Indian detachment that were still eye-catching, and in addition, he took two notification ships with him for the purpose of information transmission.

Almost at the same time as Rear Admiral Kembaw's detachment, there were also British light cruisers from Penang, Krabi, Andaman Island, and Colombo, and more than 20 warships of various types and notification ships appeared in the inland sea areas of the Burma Sea and the Bay of Bengal, looking for traces of the Regulus.

In less than eight hours, the Royal Navy light cruiser Pex, which had set off from the island of Andaman Island, had encountered several French and Italian merchant fleets 200 kilometers from the Andaman Island, from which the Pex had received important news that the European fleet had observed a Chinese warship in the southern waters one hour earlier.

Eight hours ago, a large number of British ships under the command of the battleship Royal Oak finally saw the Chinese battleship that had made them toss for more than ten hours on the sea less than 180 kilometers from the western entrance of Malacca. What made Major General Kembaugh depressed happened again. After the opponent pulls the speed. They quickly left behind a large number of British ships and headed straight for the Indian Ocean.

Fortunately, the light cruiser Pex is a new warship that has just entered the ranks this year, and it can run at a speed of 20 knots, which does not make the opponent completely disappear from view, but the fatal thing is that the detachment composed of the Royal Oak and three other cruisers has a cruising speed of less than 13 knots, and the best speed in the ventilated and pressurized state is only 18 knots.

But. Now another problem was in front of him, the sky had gradually darkened, and in this era, to track the opponent at night, except to rely on sound to get close, even the Royal Navy was not sure enough...... Of course, the Royal Navy also has patrol tactics that can be applied at night, and the searchlight technique of night lighting has long been matured, but if this thing is used in night combat, it is almost a big target.

With this in mind. Rear Admiral Kembaugh was also determined to attempt an attack, and he immediately ordered the fleet to pull out of the round-up. Accelerate closer to the Chinese warships and take advantage of the superiority in the number of warships to form an encirclement...... However, the other side apparently did not have any intention of fighting, and quickly distanced themselves.

As the sky became darker and darker, Rear Admiral Kembaugh immediately ordered the light cruiser Peks to close the distance to ensure that it could continue to track the opponent through sound and moonlight at night, and the reason why he used the tactic of keeping an eye on the enemy was because he knew very well that the opponent had a strong strength that could not be won on his own, and Vice Admiral Simon was sending another powerful detachment to reinforce him, and all he needed was not to let the fish in the net slip away, and he looked at the Chinese battleship where the sea and the sky met in the distance...... The heart is full of desire for victory!

At this moment, Tang Qingshan, who was standing on the mast lookout of the Xuanyuan battlecruiser, also saw the British battleship chasing after him, if it weren't for the long talk between Xu Shoushan and him before going to sea, he deeply understood his arduous task, even if there was this monarch-class battleship behind him, he would have the confidence to turn around and beat the enemy fat.

However, his task is not hard-hitting, even if he can completely destroy the enemy, if the battleship is damaged and has to terminate the mission, it is an absolutely unacceptable result, he looked at the sky, hurriedly returned to the bridge command room, and immediately ordered: "Ready, turn the rudder 30 degrees to the left, attack the target...... Follow that little guy and surprise them! ”

Almost at the same time, the unique Storm 90 fire control platform on the Xuanyuan has been operating at high speed, under Qin Kai's arrangement, the entire Nanyang military industry system attaches great importance to artillery research, and the Mawei Artillery Bureau, Mawei Laboratory, and Beihai Research Institute have simultaneously promoted multiple sets of artillery research and development systems.

Nowadays, the earliest application in the navy is the Typhoon series fire control platform on the Huangshan, Taishan and Yuheng ships, with multi-angle research such as ranging, relative distance, relative angle, etc., the Typhoon series artillery command instrument has played a very good role, but the success of the Typhoon series shooting command instrument has stimulated the Nanyang research system under the multi-party competition mechanism, and the Storm 90 fire control platform is the result of the Beihai Naval Armament Research Institute.

The Storm 90 fire control platform is based on the same technology as the Typhoon shooting commander, but it is equipped with more powerful mechanical computing power and manual intervention capabilities, in fact, mechanical calculation and manual intervention are almost two opposite planes, and after being applied to the fire control platform, this means a more complex mechanical system and more complex operation difficulty...... However, Tang Qingshan has a soft spot for this new type of fire control theory.

As the first battlecruiser to be launched, the Xuanyuan focused on the premise of high speed and heavy artillery firepower, the tonnage allocated to the armor was naturally reduced, and, in the most half a year of the launch, Tang Qingshan, as the commander, he was more focused on giving full play to the firepower advantages of the battleship, and the more mature Typhoon series shooting command instrument was once installed on the battleship, and finally, in the test of the weapon platform, this enterprising officer chose the storm fire control platform developed by the Beihai Research Institute.

The storm fire control platform, the reason why it is called a platform, is obviously because this naval gun command system has long been out of the scope of a single command system, the typhoon shooting commander needs to be equipped with a main shooting officer and 2 deputy shooting command officers in actual combat, and now the storm fire control platform configured on the Xuanyuan, operating this large machinery, requires a fire control team composed of an astonishing 8 excellent officers, which does not include the non-commissioned officers who serve as rangefinder missions.

Under Tang Qingshan's order, the officer at the observation position had already reported the ranging results loudly, and at the same time, the real-time data was entered into the dial at the ranging point, "Ranging, enemy ship, 9400 meters, 1 time...... 9100 m, 2 ...... 9200 meters, 3 times! ”

The long-awaited ranging data officer had already rotated the dial to input the experience-based error data into the system, and the needle calibration operated by the distance data plotter on the side immediately calibrated the initial distance in the form of ink dots on the huge drawing on the side of the platform.

"The relative position of the enemy ship, -11, -17.8, and the course angle -127.11 degrees...... Complete! At the same time, the enemy ship's orientation plotter officer gave the opposite position of the enemy ship at the moment, and at the same time quickly completed the input through the direction adjustment handle.

"Wind direction, 61 degrees north-west, wind speed forecast 12.8 m/s, strong wind state ......" The wind deflection calculation officer quickly completed the setting and pressed the ready button.

The storm calculation clock control officer at the core of the entire fire control platform had completed the calibration of the initial firing parameters within 2 seconds after receiving the data, and as the red light was lit all the way, Lieutenant Colonel Wu Hongyuan, commander of the main control console artillery crew, immediately pressed the main gun calibration indicator......

At this moment, the huge 10-inch gun barrels on the three main turrets of the Xuanyuan Battle Patrol 2 and 1 were still held high, and the firing team in the turret was in a hurry to stuff 250 kg shells and 4 packs of propellant into the barrels, while the officers at the firing positions carefully checked the data calibrated on the dials of the high and low planes and the steering planes, and then decisively pressed the button on which the main guns were ready.

"A gun position...... Proofreading! When Wu Hongyuan saw the three rows of indicator lights on, he immediately issued an order for continuous single-shot calibration.

Rumble...... Rumble...... Rumble......

In just ten seconds, the ABC three twin 10-inch guns on the battlecruiser Regulus had already fired fiercely at the British light cruiser Pecks, which was closely following behind the buttocks...... Nearly 10 seconds later, around the British battleship in the distance, more than 3 waves rose into the air and was immediately recorded by the officers who were at the observation position.

The position of the B gun position in the three-round calibration projectile was less than 300 meters away from the light cruiser Paces, which was advancing at high speed, and a set of deviation data was immediately entered into the system by the accumulator operation officer, and the calculation clock controlled the officer to quickly rotate the deviation manual runner, and at the same time that almost all the observation data were recorded again, a new set of calibration data was controlled......

"Ready...... A, B, and C consecutive single-shot school shots! As the direct commander of the entire fire control platform, although he only had less than four months to control this platform, more than 300 exercise shells were shot down through this platform, and the results of this round of calibration were also within his prediction error...... Looks like good luck today!

Rumble......

"Target deceleration, 30-degree steering ......"

Almost just as the second round of school firing began, the British battleship Pex suddenly changed course...... Obviously, the calibration of the cannon just now, which was more than 9,000 meters away and only had an error of 300 meters, really frightened the opponent, and the Royal Navy was still stuck at a theoretical combat distance of 5,000-6,000 meters, but it was suddenly bombarded by a terrifying shelling from 9,000 meters away, and any experienced commander would immediately make tactical adjustments.

Rumble...... The school firing is still being carried out in an orderly manner, and Wu Hongyuan is obviously confident about the enemy's maneuver, all of which are already within the control of the fire control platform, otherwise...... How could the mighty Regulus end up choosing the Storm system!

Rumble...... The third school projectile from the C gun position roared out, and 10 seconds later, it flew over the Pex light cruiser, which was maneuvering sideways, and smashed into the sea behind.

"Bullet correction completed......" proofreading

"Corrected the distance change rate of enemy ships......

Ranging Correction ......

"Calculated ......"

After a series of orders to "salvo preparation ......", Wu Hongyuan had obviously gained enough confidence from the results of continuous calibration, he immediately pressed the salvo preparation button, and a series of shooting parameters had been displayed on the dial in the turret room of the three twin giant guns, and next, we had to look at the perfect storm performed by the Xuanyuan! (To be continued......)