The first salvo of the Chinese army was quite exciting, although it did not hit the target and did not form a close miss, but the accuracy of the effective firing was significantly improved, and the nearest shell was only 300 meters away from the Monmoth's patrol. The officers and men had no doubt that the next moment the shells of the Chinese army would fall on the battleship, and the heavy armor-piercing shells would cause no small damage as long as they hit.

"The left rudder is full, the speed has been increased to twenty-one knots, and it must immediately leave the range of fire of the Chinese army!" As soon as Lieutenant General Jack's voice fell, Commander Natal received a new order.

"If we continue like this, we will lose a lot, and Natal is using our patrol detachment as bait!" Jack slammed his fist on the table, and Natal asked the patrol detachment to shoot at the enemy to attract enemy fire, and then a battleship group launched an attack formation to flank the Chinese battleship on both sides.

Colonel Betty hurriedly reminded Vice Admiral Jack that he must be completely under the command of his superiors in naval battles, and Jack also knew this, so he complained and ordered the fleet to fight back.

It took time for the patrol detachment to move from the pursuing Chinese cruiser detachment to the attack formation, and at this time the second salvo of the Taishan and Huashan arrived, with excellent main guns and observation equipment, good weather and hydrological conditions, more than three years of hard training, more than 4,000 shells fired every year, and more than 200 gun barrels replaced. Even with all these advantages, the second salvo did not hit the target, and it was at a very ideal artillery distance of 11,000 kilometers (the distance of naval warfare during World War II had increased to 20,000 meters).

If this continues, the pressure will gradually shift to the side of the Chinese army, and on the other side, the expeditionary fleet battleship group and torpedo boat group are approaching from about 16,000 kilometers, and will enter the attack state in about 20 minutes. It was necessary to re-inflict heavy damage on the patrol detachment during this time.

The third salvo yielded impressive results, with three of the ten armored cruisers of the mounted patrol detachment hitting, four shells hitting the target, and the third salvo of the Taishan and Huashan hitting 25 percent. It is difficult for Lu Hai to believe such a high hit, and it has to be said that luck plays a very big role in naval battles, and it is no wonder that the officers and men of the navy are generally more superstitious.

The Saarburg of the 1st Patrol Detachment was an armored cruiser replenished from the Indian fleet, and an armor-piercing projectile penetrated the starboard armor belt, and the 380-mm armor-piercing shell easily penetrated the armor protection of the armored cruiser, severely damaging the armored cruiser with a displacement of more than 12,000 tons. Although the ship was equipped with a fully protected shot. The armor coverage area and thickness were also increased compared with the previous patrol, and the deck, waterline, and side secondary guns were all protected, and they had a lot of strength in the face of the former dreadnought battleships, but they were still too thin in front of the Taishan and Huashan.

The other ship that was hit was the Black Prince of the 2nd Patrol Detachment, and the armor-piercing shells penetrated the foredeck main gun armor of the Black Prince and completely destroyed the two 9.2-inch main guns on the foredeck. The entire ship was obscured by thick smoke, which prevented the main guns in the remaining positions from being able to aim accurately.

The saddest thing was the Donegal with a displacement of about 9,800 tons, and the two armor-piercing shells hit the position of the ship with a sharp heart, and the first armor-piercing shell tore through the side armor belt. The second entered from a position of about thirty meters on one side, and two shells tore the Donegal in half, and the bloodiness was too much for direct viewing.

Just ten minutes into the battle, the first cruiser sank into the sea, and the Taishan and Huashan showed their ferocious offensive capabilities.

Vice Admiral Jack's mounted patrol detachment continued to be ravaged by the Chinese battleship detachment, and in the fourth salvo another armor-piercing shell hit the target, this time the unfortunate Argyleshire of the second mounted patrol detachment, and the armor-piercing shell broke into the hull from the right armor belt. After the internal explosion, the nearby boiler compartment was completely destroyed and caused a violent explosion. Fortunately, the ammunition compartment was not detonated. Otherwise, this armor-piercing projectile would have taken the Argyle to the bottom of the sea. Although it lost its ability to maneuver, the main guns on the deck could continue to fire without completely losing the ability to counterattack.

The passively beaten mounted patrol detachments were finally prepared and carried out calibration, and the armored cruisers of the pre-dreadnought era did not have the ability to fire a salvo and relied on six to eight large-caliber main guns per ship. The low hit rate is pitiful, let alone in the absence of advanced artillery aiming equipment and a distance of more than 10,000 meters.

Of the twenty battleships of the patrol detachment, three were heavily damaged, two of them lost the ability to counterattack, and one sank. There were also nine detachments of Chinese cruisers chasing after them outside the battlefield. With four ships lost in the blink of an eye, Vice Admiral Jack almost crushed his teeth. In the pre-war plan, Natal and other senior generals thought that the maximum loss that the expeditionary fleet could withstand was four warships, and now that the patrol detachment had completed its target, what would happen to the rest of the battle? It is impossible for the expeditionary fleet to lose all its warships in this sea area, so what will it use to maintain global hegemony, what will it use to contain the imminent Germany, and what will it use to show off its might?

Although the domestic shipbuilding industry will quickly make up for this loss, no one can afford this loss, and Britain will be greatly damaged by this loss.

The fierce battlefield did not allow Jack to think too much, and what made him relax a little was that the fifth round of salvo of the Chinese army did not hit, maybe the first two rounds were all luck, and it was impossible for the Chinese army to maintain such a high hit rate at a distance of 10,000 meters. I hope that luck will return to my side as soon as possible, so that the sixteen warships and nearly 100 main guns of the patrol detachment can complete the redemption. It was also hoped that Natal's battleship group would quickly complete its pre-war preparations, enter the sequence of flanking the Chinese army, and disperse the pressure on the patrol detachment. After all, it is not a battleship, and the thickness of the armor of the patrol is really not able to withstand the attack of armor-piercing shells.

The advantages of the main guns of the Wuyue-class battleships are reflected in all aspects, the caliber is only one of them, and the rate of fire is also desperate. The sixth salvo quickly fell on the heads of the mounted patrol detachment, this time with a hit rate of more than 15 percent, two armor-piercing shells hit the target, and one armor-piercing bullet formed a close miss.

An Italian patrol was hit in the armor near the waterline, the armor-piercing shell tore a huge opening, a hole that made the damage control personnel desperate, and the rapid tilting of the battleship reduced its speed to 5 knots, and the tilt of the hull also made it lose its ability to counterattack. The other ship that was hit was the French cruiser Meyer, which had a displacement of less than 8,000 tons and was a product of the French Navy's coastal defense strategy, and its simplified structure was not at all suitable for ocean-going navigation, and it was the luck of the Meyer to be able to hold out until now before it was sunk.

Another near-miss bomb unfortunately hit the flagship of the patrol detachment, the Antrimshire, and the armor-piercing projectile that exploded fifteen meters on the right side tore through the armor of the waterline and formed a water inlet more than a meter wide. It wasn't until thirty minutes later that the damage control personnel blocked it, but the hull had already been flooded with more than 2,000 tons, and the hull was tilted about nine degrees.

Losing two mounted cruisers again, Jack still has fourteen battleships in his hand that can counterattack, at this time the second mounted patrol detachment has outflanked the right side of the Chinese battleship detachment, and Natal's battleship group has also entered the maximum range of 13,000 kilometers.

Vice Admiral Jack felt extremely aggrieved, although his own patrol detachment can also be used as the main decisive battle, but these warships are designed to break engagements, ocean reconnaissance, etc., and are built to maintain the colonies of the British Empire all over the world. The responsibility for the loss of three seriously damaged, two sunken and one lightly injured cannot be completely put on oneself, not because of poor command, but because the gap between the battleships is too great.

The favorite thing about Taishan and Huashan is to rub salt on other people's wounds, and the more sad they are when they see the enemy, the happier they are. In the seventh salvo, two armor-piercing shells hit the flagship Antrimshire, and the Taishan and Huashan coincidentally chose the Antrimshire, which was reduced due to water ingression, and successfully hit.

An armor-piercing projectile miraculously hit the bridge directly and also passed through the bridge and exploded inside it, almost completely destroying the buildings near the bridge. The armor-piercing shell also took away the command of the patrol detachment, and the bones of high-ranking officers, including the commander of the detachment, Lieutenant Admiral Jack, and the captain of the Antrimshire, Lieutenant Colonel Betty, were gone. Another armor-piercing projectile was the main contributor to the sinking of the Antrimshire, which pierced through the stern armor and completely tore the stern from the hull, pouring into the turbulent sea and sinking into the sea twenty-five minutes later.

The Warrior then replaced the County Antrim as the new flagship, and when the new order was issued, all aspects of the 1st Combat Group of the Expeditionary Fleet finally moved into the designated attack position. The nine battleships led by the Dreadnought entered the attack distance of 9,000 meters to the southwest and set up an artillery bombardment position, the second patrol detachment arrived at the northeast attack position, about 9,000 meters away from the Chinese battleship detachment, and the first armored patrol detachment was located in the southeast, about 10,000 meters away. The expeditionary fleet stood on three sides, and Natal at the same time sent an attack detachment of twenty torpedo boats.

At the same time as the capital ships were bombarded, Natal believed that the Chinese fleet did not have the energy to deal with the attack of the torpedo boats, and even if the hit rate of the main guns was not high, the group of torpedo boats with a displacement of about 2,000 tons would inflict an unbearable blow on the Chinese army. Except for the nine mounted cruisers of the Chinese cruiser detachment, the rest of the battleships all entered the attack position, and the time for counterattack finally came. (To be continued.) )