In particular, it is worth mentioning that after drawing lessons from the naval battle of Jianghua Bay and taking into account the design characteristics of the Centurion-class battleships, the main target of this naval battle, Li Hui specially ordered the Ocean Fleet to reset the fuses at the bottom of the large-caliber artillery shells before setting off to make them more sensitive, so that on the one hand, the situation in which they can only be detonated after passing through the hull is reduced, and on the other hand, when the detonation is closer to the hull, it will naturally be able to blow up larger and more breaches, and the speed of water entry will naturally be more rapid and more difficult to block.

In order to maintain the balance of the warship and avoid capsizing, the British could only fill the opposite compartment with water, which led to a doubling of the actual water intake, and it did not take long for the draft of the two Centurion-class battleships to deepen significantly.

Although the ingress of the unprotected zone was not enough to cause the Centurion-class battleship to sink to the point where the main armor belt was completely submerged due to the more advanced design, the drop in speed was unavoidable, which made Philimant's heart continue to sink.

Although the Centurion-class battleship is positioned as a battleship, in fact, its imaginary enemy is a large cruiser of Russia, France and other countries, so the speed is quite fast, although it cannot be compared with the Haitian-class cruiser, but the maximum speed of more than 18 knots is enough for the two Haitian-class battleships to continue to circle with it, but it has never been able to grab the T-shaped crosshead, but as the speed of the two Centurion-class battleships continues to decrease, the situation has gradually changed

"No, after the speed drops, the opponent's hit rate is already getting higher and higher, and the opponent must not be allowed to grab the T-shaped crosshead again, in that case, it will become the enemy's 12 main guns against 2 of us, and even the theoretical possibility of winning is gone." , Philmante is worthy of being an excellent fleet commander, and he quickly discovered the problem, but even if he had the ability, he couldn't make the warship go faster, even if he racked his brains, he still couldn't think of any good way.

"Sure enough, the diamond-shaped layout is better, even if the speed is not as good as people, and the T-shaped horizontal head is not afraid." Philmantle exclaimed in an embarrassing situation, unaware that this realistic need was actually contrary to the future direction of the Navy's development

Seeing that the situation was getting more and more critical, Vice Admiral Philmante came up with an unavoidable solution, and he asked the Bannerman to send orders to the Balle to flee the battlefield immediately.

In this case, if the enemy does not split one of the sea and sky to pursue the Balre, the latter has a chance to escape, which is better than taking out both.

Even the Chinese refused to let go, and it was better to fight two Centurion-class battleships separately than to maintain a single column, because then they would have 4 main guns to shoot and twice as much firepower as when a single column was bitten in the tail.

"The Brits are going to separate and run away?" After Liu Buyun saw the other party's movements, he quickly made a decision, "You don't have to divide your troops to chase immediately, as long as you don't run out of sight, it doesn't matter, the weather is so good, we have to run, let's concentrate on sinking the Centurion first, and then it's too late to chase the remaining one." ”

However, Liu Buyun also knew that the Centurion-class battleship was a new type of battleship after all, and no matter what the bow and stern unprotected area were bombed into, the main armor belt could not completely sink below the waterline, that is, if you wanted to sink the Centurion-class battleship, you had to penetrate the armor. After thinking of this, Liu Buyun's face showed a resolute look, and he ordered, "Rush over at full speed, rush to a distance of 1,000 meters, and shoot armor-piercing bullets!" ”

The formation of the two Haitian-class armored cruisers showed great superiority at this time, from a distance they looked like a single column, but in fact they were small diagonals, and when facing the enemy on the side, they were similar to a single column, and when facing the enemy, they were similar to horizontal formations, and because they were not really parallel, they did not have to worry about collisions. Therefore, when it is necessary to approach at full speed, the two Haitian-class patrol ships can switch to horizontal formation mode with only a slight turn and get closer to the Centurion faster.

Although this formation is only suitable for smaller formations, because the Haitian-class patrol and the battle cruisers that originated from it are more suitable for small formations, especially two-ship formations, and they shine in this time and space, and now the battle that took place outside the mouth of the Yangtze River is just its first appearance.

After discovering that the Chinese warships were not separated, Philmante couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, the firepower and speed of the Centurion could not compete with the Haitian-class patrol patrol, but the defense was still very strong, as long as the damage management work was done carefully and did not make low-level mistakes, it would definitely be able to hold out until the Balle escaped from the battlefield.

But what Philmant didn't expect was that the two Haitian-class patrol ships suddenly changed formation and rushed towards the Centurion, and it didn't take long for them to approach within 3,000 meters!

However, Philmante was not surprised after receiving the report, because it meant that the naval guns on the Centurion finally had hope of hitting the enemy ship, and God was pitiful, this battle has been fought until now, and the gunners on the Centurion have not even hit the target with a single shell, if it were not for the long glorious history of the British Royal Navy to bring a deep-rooted sense of honor, I am afraid that the officers and men would have collapsed long ago.

However, even if the enemy drove into the effective firing range, with the slow rate of fire of the Centurion main gun of only 1.5 rounds per minute and the numerical disadvantage of 1:6, the difference in rate of fire was as high as 18 times, and counting the huge gap in the accuracy of the artillery fire between the two sides, the Centurion had already hit an unknown number of 210mm shells before it hit the other side

However, Philmante was still very calm, anyway, no matter how fierce the enemy's artillery fire, it was difficult to sink the Centurion, especially in order to avoid detonation, he had people take out all the torpedoes in the torpedo tubes in advance, and even the ammunition of the secondary gun was only put on the deck in a small amount. The other party has no chance to take advantage of the loophole.

He even had time to write down the number and time of the enemy's artillery fire, hoping to provide it to the technicians for analysis after the war, although Philmante himself was determined to sink with the ship to defend the dignity of the Royal Navy, but he would not let his men also sacrifice a large number of people meaninglessly, and when the time came, he could give this information to them to take back home.

But without looking at the recorded data, Fremant intuitively noticed a strange change, "Huh? Why did the opponent's artillery fire suddenly thin out so much? ”

"Could it be that the ammunition type has been changed, so it needs to be recalibrated to shoot more accurately? Now it's time to switch to armor-piercing shells? But Filimant was an expert after all, and he quickly found the answer. (To be continued.) )