【Broadcast】Pay attention to "Reading at the starting point", get the first-hand news of 515 red envelopes, and students who have not grabbed red envelopes after the Chinese New Year can show their skills this time.

PS: The range of the main guns of the battleships and patrols of the expeditionary fleet is more than 20,000 meters, but due to the backwardness of the artillery aiming equipment, it is difficult to ensure the accuracy of the shelling after more than 10,000 meters.

On July 17, at 3:35 a.m., there was still a voyage of more than 100 nautical miles from Cam Ranh Bay, and it is estimated that it will arrive this afternoon.

It was raining in the sky, and it was gray, but fortunately there was no strong wind, and the lookouts on the battleship did not have to endure the ravages of the gale. The brightness was very low, and the sight was not too far, the cruiser Fearless was at the forefront of the entire fleet, and the lookouts Ferry and Gascoe were observing the movement in the distance with binoculars in hand, and the two of them, who were on duty in the second half of the night, felt numb in their eyes, and the rain felt very uncomfortable on their bodies, but fortunately, they could change shifts in another twenty minutes, and they could go and enjoy hot coffee and breakfast.

The fleet sailed silently, and the few sailors who got up early were too lazy to get up in bed, but the officers and men on duty on the battleship began to be busy, and the sailors never had time to be idle except for sleeping, and the huge battleship had too much work to do. It is a delicate machine, with a small heart eye, and it needs careful maintenance to function.

At this time, the Huaguo Pacific Fleet was all around, and the first to break the silence was the Huaguo destroyer detachment and the cruiser detachment, twelve destroyers and nine cruisers suddenly appeared in the right rear of the fleet, about four thousand meters away from the expeditionary fleet.

In the visual conditions of the light rain in the early morning, the lookout did not detect the enemy's figure in advance, and the fleet suddenly raised alarm, and the commander of the fleet, Natal, did not sleep at all, and after receiving the alarm, he thought for two minutes before giving the battle order.

The enemy appeared from behind, and as far as observed, no battleships were found. Surely hiding somewhere, Natal did not dare to be careless, and ordered the 3rd and 4th cruiser detachments to follow up to meet the enemy, and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd torpedo boat detachments to attack the opposing destroyer detachments. The rest of the fleet adjusted their formation and faced the challenge of the opposing battleships.

The sleepy sailors quickly moved into combat positions and attacked in the dark. I don't know what the Chinese Navy is calculating, maybe the Chinese people will go crazy in the battle under such conditions.

After going forward for 5,000 meters, the cruiser detachment and the torpedo boat detachment found that they were getting farther and farther away from the Chinese fleet, and after 15 minutes of pursuit, the target disappeared.

The second time the Chinese fleet appeared was at 4:15 a.m., and this time the expeditionary fleet was prepared and spotted the enemy six thousand meters away. However, the pursuit fleet still returned in vain, and after twenty minutes of pursuit, it returned again due to the disadvantage of speed.

Taking advantage of maneuverability and speed, constantly appeared around the fleet. But without fighting, Natal speculated that the Chinese army had two plans, one was to delay the speed of the expeditionary fleet and wait for the battleship detachment to arrive, or the Chinese battleships were around, and wait for the expeditionary fleet pursuit detachment to leave a certain distance before encircling and annihilating the pursuing detachment.

Lu Hai was also a little anxious, his battleship detachment was indeed around, watching the expeditionary fleet through radar. However, his purpose was somewhat different from Natal's speculation, and his goal was not to pursue the expeditionary fleet. Rather, battleship brigades. According to reconnaissance, the expeditionary fleet still had nineteen battleships, plus other ships of large numbers, and it was not advisable to fight hard. From the very beginning, the Navy's strategy was to peel off the expeditionary fleet layer by layer, reduce the number of its warships little by little, and strike a decisive blow after the numerical gap could be sustained.

The pursuing fleet does not go too far. The attack could not begin, and Lu Hai issued a new order, asking the expeditionary fleet to delay it when it sent the pursuing fleet for the third time, so as to buy time for the attack of the main fleet.

When the Chinese fleet reappeared at 4:40 a.m., the pursuing fleet also received a new order from Natal: to be on standby ten nautical miles after thirty minutes of pursuit. He decided to divide the fleet in two. lured the main ship of the Chinese fleet to appear, and it seemed that it was not only Lu Hai who couldn't wait, but also Natal. Both sides unanimously hoped for a decisive battle with the main force.

At 5:15 a.m., the light rain stopped, the clouds dispersed, and the sun rose in the east. The Taishan and Huashan jumped out with the sun from the eastern sea level, and a layer of mist rose on the sea after the rain, and the visibility was very low for the British, and the British battleships were not visible to the Chinese battleships.

At 5:17, Natal ordered the 3rd Battleship Detachment to outflank from the right flank, the 4th Detachment from the left flank, and the remaining battleships to form the main force to prepare for battle.

At 5:21 a.m., the first round of test firing of the Taishan and Huashan formed a straddle fire, and the officers and men of the navy won the opening prize at a distance of 10,000 meters.

The only way to eliminate the range gap is to attract the firepower of the Chinese army with the main brigade, and the two flanks to quickly outflank and close the distance.

At 5:23, the first salvo of the Chinese army hit the Monmoth, and the thin armor could not withstand the heavy armor-piercing shells, and the foredeck main turret and near the bridge were swept away. However, the power system and the remaining three main guns were still able to fire, and the officers and men of the Monmoth continued to fire despite the loss of command.

The second salvo hit two ships again, and the Monmoth was again ravaged by two armor-piercing shells and soon sank into the sea. Another Italian cruiser ******was a little lucky, the armor-piercing shell penetrated the side armor and completely destroyed the boiler room, and the interior of the battleship was in a mess, but fortunately the ammunition compartment was not affected, and several main guns could continue to fire, but they lost power and could only float on the sea, acting as a fire battery.

Natal wondered why his patrol had been treated so favorably. From the beginning to the present, all twelve cruisers of the expeditionary fleet have been sunk or heavily damaged, and the remaining cruisers are old and dilapidated battleships, whose main guns will lose their accuracy at a distance of 4,000 meters, and their firepower is not ordinarily weak.

At 5:25, the main force began to counterattack, but none of the shells fired by the ten battleships came within a 1,000-meter range of the Chinese army.

In order to gain time and turn the tide of the situation, Natal ordered the capital ships to continue firing on the one hand, and ordered the 4th and 5th torpedo boat detachments to carry out torpedo attacks on the other.

The two superships continued to be in great shape, and the third salvo of the battleship USS Republic hit the bow of the ship, causing the bow to separate from the hull with great force, followed by a large influx of seawater. The battleship Barrier was even worse, the Barrier was hit in the main turret, not only did it fly, but the flames from the explosion went straight to the ****** storage depot, where nearly 700 tons of ammunition were detonated, and the crew of the Barrier did not even have time to fill the ammunition compartment with water, and it turned into a piece of debris.

At this time, the 3rd and 4th battleship detachments finally arrived at their designated positions, about 6,000 meters away from the Chinese battleships, and had completely fired from the side.

At 5:29, the first armor-piercing shell of the expeditionary fleet finally hit, and the 320-mm armor belt above the underwater part of the side of the Tarzan kept out the armor-piercing shells fired from the 305-mm main gun of the London. The French battleship Henry IV of the 4th Battleship Detachment hit the Tarzan Command Tower, still without causing damage to the 350 mm armor on the front of the Commander Tower.

Then the battleships of the expeditionary fleet, which surrounded the Chinese warships on three sides, opened fire wildly, and the two Wuyue-class battleships were constantly hit, although they did not penetrate the thick armor, they still caused damage to the superstructure and some small-caliber guns.

At 5:30 a.m., the sixth salvo of the Chinese army was again successful, still aimed at the main group, the battleship Exmouth was hit on the starboard side, causing a fire and withdrawing from the battle, and 35 minutes later had to abandon the ship because of serious damage to the hull and excessive water ingress into the hold.

Natal began to think about resetting his tactics, the reality was too different from his expectations, the expeditionary fleet battleships finally realized the artillery bombardment of the super battleships, but they didn't expect that the huge armor-piercing shells could not penetrate the two super battleships, so the expeditionary fleet didn't know how many capital ships it would take to sink the Chinese super battleships. He ordered the fleet to speed up, ordered the third detachment to intercept the advance route of the Chinese army, desperately close the distance between the two sides, and tried to penetrate the armor of the super battleship through close shelling.

The tenth salvo caused the expeditionary fleet to lose two more battleships, and the Revolt was hit on the side of the ship, limited by the thickness of the armor and the material limitations, the Revolt was pierced by armor-piercing shells like a paper ship, and caused a violent explosion amidships, and thirteen minutes later the Revolt broke in two and sank into the South China Sea. The battleship Triumph suffered heavy losses, and in the face of the main guns of the super-battleship, the armored cruisers and battleships of the expeditionary fleet did not differ much, and neither could escape the penetration of armor-piercing shells.

The fiercest moment of the battle occurred at 5:55 a.m., when a detachment of torpedo boats sent by Natal crossed the line of fire and sailed 4,500 meters, at which point the secondary guns and small and medium-caliber guns of the two super battleships all opened fire, aiming at the group of torpedo boats and firing fiercely. A fire barrage net consisting of six twin 155-mm secondary guns, eight twin 105-mm guns, and twelve twin-mounted 37-mm rapid-fire guns prevented the torpedo boat detachment from entering.

Of the sixteen torpedo boats, only 11 broke through the 3,000-meter range, and three of the other five torpedo boats were sunk with more than four 155-mm shells, and two were slowly sinking.

Ps. chasing more children's shoes, are there any free appreciation tickets and starting coins~ The countdown to the 515 red envelope list is over, I'll pull a ticket, ask for an increase and appreciation vote, and finally rush a handful! (To be continued.) )