"Although the number of our warships far exceeds that of the enemy, the cruiser's 6-inch (152mm) caliber main gun cannot sink the large armored cruiser of 10,000 tons in any case, so it can only approach the enemy ship and fire torpedoes, or directly hit it, for this point, everyone should have understood. However, our enemies are not only the six Haitian-class cruisers, but also the six old ships of the Chinese Navy, especially the four smaller ones (Jinglai and Zhijing are not easy to distinguish in naval battles, especially when the smoke is heavy). Our artillery fire is still capable of sinking, and there are those troop carriers, which are worth more than the old ships of the former Beiyang Fleet. To sum up, unless there are no other targets within the effective range of the naval guns, it is not allowed to fire on the Haitian-class patrol, and then among other targets, give priority to shelling the Chinese troop carriers, followed by the four old cruisers, and then Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, do you understand? The commander of the British fleet made meticulous arrangements, but only to make the sacrifice of himself and his subordinates more worthwhile, which is really a great sorrow for the invincible British Royal Navy

"Good fellow, why are there so many? The British can't have sent all the ships of Asia, right? Although he had guessed that it was the enemy's fleet when he saw the smoke on the horizon before, and the scale would not be small, but after seeing it with his own eyes with a telescope on the bridge, Liu Buyun couldn't help but be slightly taken aback, but he was only surprised, he was afraid that there was not even a little bit, he sneered, "How many ants bite the elephant?" Where is it so easy? ”

After receiving the order from the flagship Haitian, the other five Haitian-class patrol ships immediately followed her out of the group, formed an independent single column, and then rushed straight towards the British fleet!

"What? The six Haitian-class patrol ships actually left the brigade and rushed over by themselves? Are the Chinese confident that they can defeat us with only these six, or are they trying to cover the retreat of slow-moving old ships and transports? The commander of the British fleet was somewhat surprised to see this, but he didn't dwell on it for too long, and soon sneered and said, "No matter what you think, since you sent it to the door yourself, then I'm welcome!" No matter how powerful the Haitian-class patrol is, being surrounded by a large number of warships without cover is also a dead end! ”

Then the new flagship of the British fleet immediately issued the flag as previously agreed, and each ship lowered the small torpedo boats (if any) they carried, so that the number of British ships at sea increased to hundreds, and it was dense and magnificent from a distance.

However, compared with the multiple columns of the British, Liu Buyun's single column was obviously much more flexible, and after seeing a beautiful big turn, the Ocean Fleet quickly detoured back to the right side of the British fleet, and the weakness of the latter's formation was exposed when it landed

Fearing the sharp artillery fire of the Chinese warships, especially the Haitian-class patrols, the British fleet commander came up with a multi-column formation, so that multiple ships could charge at the same time, so as to dilute the enemy's artillery fire, avoid being knocked out by the enemy's concentrated fire one after another, and have a greater hope of rushing into the torpedo range. However, due to the lessons of the Battle of Jianghua Bay, multiple columns need to maintain a large enough distance to prevent collisions when they are parallel, resulting in the multiple columns of the British fleet looking extremely bloated in shape, and even looking a little horizontal from a distance.

From the beginning of the formation of the Beiyang Naval Division to the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War, the training has always been a horizontal formation, Liu Buyun is too clear about the defects of this formation, he commanded the Ocean Fleet to the enemy's flank, and the fatal wound of the difficulty of turning the horizontal column was exposed at once, especially the huge size of the British fleet, which was even more fatal.

"Oops!" , The commander of the British fleet finally discovered this problem, and his face turned pale immediately, and now he had two choices, one was to keep the fleet in formation and turn slowly, but it could not keep up with the speed of the enemy's single column, and then until it was completely wiped out by the enemy, he could not get close to the six Haitian-class patrols; The other is to ignore the queue and let the ships turn to charge on their own, but in doing so, the fleet will almost certainly fall into chaos, and he can only rush in a chaotic manner, which makes him feel weak to think about it

Either option, it doesn't look good, but relatively speaking, the latter is at least theoretically a little hopeful, the fleet commander finally gritted his teeth and let the flag soldier send the order, but because the size of the British fleet is too large, in the current situation that it has been lined up in battle formation, the flag issued on the flagship is actually not clear to all the lookouts on the warship, as a result, some warships turn on their own regardless of the queue, and some warships continue to follow the previous orders, As a result, the British fleet not only could not continue to maintain its formation, but even had a serious accident in which warships collided, and the sea was simply a mess!

After seeing this tragic scene, the commander of the British fleet clasped his forehead weakly and fell into deep self-remorse. In the final analysis, it is to blame that he has never commanded such a large-scale fleet before, even if he can analyze the situation before the war, there will inevitably be omissions, and the larger the force, the more serious the consequences after making mistakes

Liu Buyun didn't know much about the British commander, but he had already expected the chaos of the British fleet, because he knew that the British fleet was actually temporarily assembled from the British colonies in Asia, and they came quickly, they didn't have much time to practice together, if it was a simple formation like a single column, it would be just a multi-column column, or a multi-column horizontal formation, like the current one, was also disturbed by its own sudden cut-in, and it was a miracle that there would be no chaos. Even if their lord will be the best admiral in the world, it will still be unavoidable.

"Actually, if the British target our supply ships and the six old ships in the Beiyang, it will be a little troublesome, but they care too much about the sea and the sky, but where can the sea and the sky be eaten by the number of piles?" A total of 36 210mm guns on the six Haitian-class armored cruisers fired at the same time on a British protective cruiser of more than 2,000 tons on the left, just one salvo turned it into a huge fireball. When the smoke cleared, there was no longer a shadow of it on the sea, as if it had never been there.

Although it is not the first time that some British have seen the terrifying firepower of the Haitian-class patrol, the British fleet still exclaimed, but a light anti-patrol that is only a grade with the Zhiyuan class, in Liu Buyun's eyes, can't even be hungry (to be continued.) )