"Your Excellency, General!" The captains all shouted when they heard this, and several of the younger ones were a little choked up, and Philmante's decision was actually to sacrifice two centurion-class battleships to save the numerous cruisers, which made everyone very moved.

However, some people have questioned Philmantle's decision, no matter which country's navy, it uses auxiliary ships as cannon fodder, and can only sacrifice auxiliary ships to preserve the capital ships, how can there be any reason to sacrifice the precious capital ships to protect the cannon fodder ships?

"Do you think I don't want to, who told Haitian-level patrol to be so fast, and the anti-patrol is too ineffective? Even if you sacrifice all the cruisers, you won't be able to buy a quarter of an hour, and the two Centurion-class battleships still can't escape, so it's better to stay as heroes and minimize losses. Hearing this, Phelimante couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart.

It's just that these words can't be spoken, otherwise not only will the heroic image of Philimante be ruined, but it will also have a big blow to the morale of the fleet. He smiled after carefully wording it, "Hey, what's your expression?" We're not going to die, armored ships are very hard to sink, and battles between them tend to be very long, long enough to run out of ammunition on both sides. In particular, according to the information currently available, although the Haitian-class patrol is powerful, it has neither torpedo tubes nor ramming angles, and the maximum caliber alone is only 8.2 inches (referring to the German-style 210mm caliber, which is the customary name of the caliber in the British countries, due to the different calculation methods of the British and German artillery calibers, sometimes it is not completely consistent with the conversion results). For example, the German 283mm caliber is called the 11-inch caliber in the imperial countries. It is not so easy to sink a 10,000-ton battleship, the Platt armored cruiser in the Battle of Jianghua Bay can hold out for so long, not to mention our Centurion-class battleship? In terms of tonnage and thickness of main armor, the Centurion class is a big cut above the Platte Trowel. ”

In order to further boost everyone's confidence, Phimante also said some of his own unconfirmed conjectures, "And the caliber of the Centurion-class main gun is 10 inches (254mm), and the armor-piercing ability is much stronger than that of the 8.2-inch naval gun. If the Chinese ask the big division of troops to chase you, maybe our side will have a chance to break through and win this naval battle! So the more resolutely you escape, the greater your support on our side. ”

However, at the end of the words, Fermante re-revealed the majesty of the fleet commander, "Although this battle will be more difficult than ever, in any case, you must not forget that you are the glorious Royal Navy!" Don't tarnish this honour and do anything that undermines the dignity of the Royal Navy! ”

"How did you scatter and run away so quickly? The British Royal Navy is indeed the first in the world, even if Dongyang says that their training has been lax in the past few years, but just this kind of judgment and decisiveness is enough to see their heritage", Liu Buyun saw the British warships scattering and fleeing, not only did he not say anything to ridicule, but his face showed a trace of solemnity, "With such a background, as long as the British Navy senior management is aware of the problem of slack training before, it only takes one or two years for their combat effectiveness to fully recover, At that time, the British Royal Navy would definitely be much more difficult to deal with than it is now, so let's take advantage of the obvious superiority in our artillery skills to completely play the prestige of our Chinese Navy, so that it will never dare to attack again! ”

The scattered escape of the British Far East Fleet presented Liu Buyun with a problem, whether to divide his forces to chase those protective cruisers?

There are pros and cons to both options, it is safer not to divide the troops, but the results will be much smaller, and it will be quite troublesome if you break the engagement after so many anti-patrol ships have escaped; And if the troops are divided to chase, leaving only two Haitian-class patrols to deal with the two Centurion-class battleships, what if they lose? After all, those are two battleships, even if they are only second-class battleships, they are also battleships!

However, Li Hui has proved more than once how accurate the intelligence of "Momen" and his judgment and analysis are, Liu Buyun carefully recalled the performance parameters of the Centurion-class battleship he had seen before going south, and finally made up his mind, "Dongyang is not a person who likes to brag, and his previous judgments were all accurate, Zhengqing trusted them to create an unprecedented miracle in the naval battle of Jianghua Bay, not to mention that the current Haitian-class patrol is even more powerful than at that time!" Well, let me see with my own eyes whether the Haitian-class armored cruiser is really invincible in the world, right? ”

It has only been a little time since the naval battle of Jianghua Bay, and it is too late to carry out a major refit in any case, and the mixed formation of the Beiyang Naval Division and the crews of the five ships on the sea and sky will definitely reduce the average quality of the personnel in a short period of time, and the tacit understanding of cooperation has also been negatively affected to a certain extent. Liu Buyun knew this, but he still believed that the current Haitian was stronger than before, what basis did he have?

Although he was ready to fight, Phelimant actually hoped in his heart that he was just thinking too much, but after seeing the other party's division of troops, he finally abandoned the last trace of illusion, and sighed helplessly, "It seems that this battle is still unavoidable, thank God, today is a sunny and sunny day, let us find the Chinese fleet far away, if the visibility is not good, I am afraid that I will not even have time to call the captain to the flagship meeting, it will be too dangerous"

However, after discovering that the Ocean Fleet actually left only two Haitian-class battleships to deal with the two Centurion-class battleships on his side, Vice Admiral Philmante's heart rekindled hope, "The Chinese are so arrogant that they actually think that leaving two Haitian-class battleships can deal with our two battleships?" Were they carried away by the outcome of the Battle of Ganghwa Bay? ”

And the two Haitian-class cruisers lined up in a single column began to turn when they approached a distance of 6,000 meters, trying to face the enemy sideways, which made Philimant more convinced of his judgment, let alone 6,000 meters, even if it was 5,000 meters, they were far beyond the effective range of naval guns, so quickly put on a combat formation?

"I also knew that I had to shoot at school, and there was no full-speed shelling." , This discovery made Phelimant a little puzzled, but the other party was indeed controlling the distance and not letting the two Centurion-class battleships approach, "Is the Chinese really capable of hitting a certain hit rate at a distance of 5,000 meters?" How is this possible? They should just want to entangle us and wait until the other four ships return before concentrating on us" (To be continued.) )