The US Second Destroyer Detachment was responsible for the reconnaissance of the right flank of the Grand Fleet, and it was faced with the reconnaissance of the sea area of about 80 kilometers between Tinian Island and Paro Island north of Guam.

It was obviously expected that Chinese would be attacked here, but even Vice Admiral Abel never expected that the Guam Defense Fleet, with only a few warships, would take the initiative from the harbor and attack its own flank near Paro Island, 40 kilometers north of Guam...... The direct consequence of this was that the second destroyer was accidentally introduced into the ambush circle carefully laid out by Wu Hongyuan.

The armored cruiser USS Ryukyus, with two triple 210mm main guns and 12 100mm side guns, rushed out almost in a closed door in the face of the swarming American destroyer formation following its own destroyers, and the seven American destroyers deployed in a double column fan immediately felt the pressure of the battlefield.

At 11:37, the four Chinese destroyers that had been evacuated at full speed in front also immediately turned their hulls and began to shoot fiercely at the US ships rushing behind them, and the 100mm naval guns in the bow of the seven US ships also immediately launched a counterattack, because the distance between the two sides at this moment is more than 5,000 meters, which is almost the limit distance for torpedo launches, as the main ships of torpedo warfare, neither side will carry out meaningless torpedo covering tactics at such a moment.

Of course, after the US Second Destroyer Formation encountered a sudden pinch, Major Torres, who was the commander of the Second Destroyer Fleet, had a short command window, except for ordering to continue to counterattack with the bow guns and report to the Grand Fleet, he did not make any specific formation changes, after all, in his opinion, if he chose between the four Chinese destroyers in front and the slower Chinese battleship behind him, the more threatening one was probably the large destroyer of the Chinese.

If we judge it simply from a military sense, this inference is not too problematic, after all, the earlier battle of destroyers in the Atlantic Ocean has already made the US Navy destroyer commanders deeply feel the combat power of their Chinese counterparts, and it is said that the latest destroyers in service by China have comprehensively crushed the Vickers-class destroyers, the main force of the US Navy, in terms of speed, firepower, and armor, not to mention the earlier Caldwell and other models.

But it was this short-term tactical hesitation that made Wu Hongyuan immediately seize the fighter, and when the destroyers in front launched a counterattack to drag the American destroyers, he had already broken through the northern flank into the northern flank of the American destroyer formation......

Although the width of the sea area from Tinian to Paro Island is 80 kilometers, and the width of the navigable sea area from Paro to Guam is less than 40 kilometers, he has long judged that the Americans are very likely to take the waters north of Paro Island.

The position of the US fleet constantly reported by the Guam base command also confirmed his judgment, but in the judgment of the battle situation, Wu Hongyuan obviously could not have the slightest optimism, he had brought out almost all of Guam's sea forces, but there were only 6 destroyers and the USS Ryukyu, and it was not a fool or a madman to expect these firepower to confront the US Grand Fleet with 10 battleships!

(On the issue of judging the capital ships, the naval reconnaissance made a slight mistake due to the need for covert reconnaissance, and the US Navy carried out the camouflage of warships, so the two camouflaged supply ships mixed in the US Grand Fleet were mistaken for large warships.) ）

And when the USS Ryukyu launched flank fire and violently bombarded the destroyer USS Manli on the outside of the US destroyer formation 7,000 meters away, the offensive and defensive posture of the entire battlefield had actually undergone a key reversal, because ...... The crushing firepower possessed by the USS Ryukyu, which has a displacement of 5,600 tons, is completely beyond the capabilities of the Vickers-class and Caldwell-class destroyers under the jurisdiction of the Second Destroyer Formation of the United States.

The destroyer Manli, which suffered the first wave of firepower, suddenly spotted the Ryukyu appearing behind the side, the commander, Major Perles, was not too worried, and after he first observed the Ryukyu, he had already judged that it should be an old Chinese armored ship, and his own battleship had enough speed to shake off the opponent or launch a counterattack.

This idea obviously also influenced the commander of the destroyer formation, Major Torres, in his opinion, turning his head to besiege the armored ship behind him, which was not very fast, but certainly more powerful, was obviously not the first choice, and concentrating firepower to destroy the Chinese destroyer, which had weaker frontal protection, was more enforceable, at least from the point of view of deduction.

You know, although the second destroyer fleet lost 2 ships, it still has 7 destroyers at this moment, and the opponent under siege only has 4 destroyers, but more importantly, at this moment, the huge battleship formation of the Grand Fleet is passing through the northern waters of Paro Island less than 40 kilometers away, even if the Chinese fleet is twice as large, but in terms of the quality of the opposing battleships, it is impossible to fight against any American battleship.

Major Torres did not make any more tactical responses other than immediately telegraphing the flagship USS Utah to the discovery of a Chinese cruiser in the same area, but this did not mean that the other warships of the destroyer formation could carry out the formation's combat plan at such a moment...... As a result, just one minute later, the tide of the battle changed......

The first target chosen by the Ryukyu Assault was the destroyer Manley, which was located on its own side and was the closest to the voyage, this 11-year-old Caldwell-class destroyer, except that the tonnage was slightly smaller than that of the Vickers class, the difference in firepower speed was actually very small, but the difference in tonnage of 100 tons meant that this type of battleship was slightly inferior to the Vickers class in terms of protection capability.

Of course, the USS Ryukyu armored cruiser did not know the details of the opposing American destroyer group, and the gunners chose the Manli only because the location of this battleship was close to the Ryukyu sortie, and the first round of range was less than 7,000 meters, which was a sufficient target for the 210mm main gun of the Ryukyu that had completed the transformation of the firing commander.

In the first round of single-shot calibration after Wu Hongyuan gave the artillery order, the C turret of the Ryukyu at the stern of the ship fired a near-miss bullet of less than 100 meters, and the gunnery officer Gao Xiang naturally did not waste this excellent opportunity, immediately skipped the single-shot calibration stage, made full use of the advantage of the Ryukyu installed with a triple main gun, and after fine-tuning the firing parameters, the second round and a half salvo were fired in less than 25 seconds.

This time the half-salvo definitely hit the high level of Wu Hongyuan's troops, 3 210mm high-explosive shells actually played a beautiful round of straddle fire, the shells fired by the C gun position directly smashed on the low command tower of the Manli destroyer, a huge black cloud visible to the naked eye suddenly rose from the center of the Manli destroyer's hull, and the raging fire was mixed with the black smoke of the explosion, which suddenly made the Chinese soldiers on the Ryukyu boil!

Although Wu Hongyuan is full of confidence in beating the Yankees, happiness also came too quickly, and his hand holding the binoculars couldn't help but tremble, however, as the former commander-in-chief of the defense of the Guam base, this small victory was obviously not enough to fill the big appetite of this goods, he asked Lin Yongsheng to guard the base, and he took a few boats out to fight guerrillas, just to give the Yankees a good look.

However, such a good start, he was also a little excited at the next moment, grabbed the officer's hat and slapped it fiercely, turned around and yelled at the shooting officer, "Xiangzi, you can still hit this hit on the next boat, Lao Tzu will give you ......credit when he goes back."

His words obviously did not affect the fire control platform officer who was nervously operating at all, and before the words fell, the third round of full salvo loading had been completed, and in the rumbling sound of the right side side of the auxiliary gun, the three green lights suddenly lit up, and the hull of the ship pitched and rolled at high speed, and as the shooting officer suddenly pressed the launch button, a series of fierce artillery flames immediately enveloped the battleship.

This was only a short 3 minutes before the US destroyer formation reported the military situation to Vice Admiral Abel and the two sides officially engaged, and this round of full salvo fire, 9 210mm guns immediately completely covered the hapless destroyer USS Manley in the distance......

A series of black clouds rose from the destroyer Mannley, and a series of explosions continued to spread from the exposed middle and rear hulls of the hapless battleship...... In this round of salvo, the 210mm shells that directly hit the destroyer Manli turned out to be 3, which can be said to be an astonishingly high hit.

The destroyer Manli is actually still following the formation and turning to the left flank at this moment, so that the hull side is exposed, and the two sides are obviously not pulling away after the shelling, you know, at this moment at a distance of 7,000 meters, in the regular training of the Chinese Navy, the hit level of the main turret firing commander can hit nearly 30% of the hit rate, not to mention the dense coverage of the target in a salvo......

With the popularization of rapid loading and integrated shell technology, the theoretical rate of fire of the 210mm rapid-fire guns equipped by the Chinese Navy has already exceeded five rounds a minute, while the ordinary 210mm naval gun shells weigh 180 kilograms, including 140 kilograms of warhead and 40 kilograms of ******.

In fact, this round of salvo fire had just been launched, and there were already signs of collapse on the destroyer Manli in the distance, and the fire that suddenly erupted from the middle of the hull actually followed the wind and flew directly to an altitude of nearly 20 meters.

Immediately afterwards, the Mannley, which had been rapidly stalling, was again unlucky to be hit by the left side of the ship with a salvo of high-explosive bombs, and the 140-kilogram bomb easily smashed through the paper-thin horizontal armor, and then smashed the No. 3 torpedo tube on the left side of the deck, and the violent explosion tore the triple torpedo tube very easily, and the explosion caused an earth-shattering explosion in a few seconds!

The destroyer Mannley disappeared from the sea level in a series of clouds of explosions that shot in all directions, and only the two broken masts were still floating on the water......

The astonishing shelling of the Ryukyu immediately attracted 2 destroyers on the right flank of the American formation, although the commander of the formation, Major Torres, had not yet made a new response, but seeing that the Manli suffered a catastrophe so quickly, these two American ships were naturally unwilling to be attacked by the other party from behind! (To be continued.) )