Around 10 a.m., it was breezy and sunny. The main force of the Pacific Fleet of the Chinese Navy led by Lu Hai appeared in the line of sight of the expeditionary fleet from the northwest, and before all the warships could adjust from the chaotic formation, a cruiser in charge of guarding the periphery issued a warning of an enemy attack.

The lookout first saw two huge bodies appear on the sea level, and then there were tiny black dots on both sides, which were the Chinese fleet! The expeditionary fleet, which had not yet recovered from the bombardment, was found at a distance of about 17,000 kilometers and had to deal with the challenge of the Chinese army with a chaotic formation and low morale. The reconnaissance ships sent by Natal to the northwest did not detect the main fleet of the Chinese army, so that the expeditionary fleet lost the last chance to give early warning.

What worries Natal the most is not only the chaos of the battleship fleet, but also the threat of the Chinese submarines on the periphery, which he does not think will disappear. The search cruiser sent before did not find the target because of the bombing of the airship, and then had to face the main force of the Chinese army, so it did not have so much energy to deal with the submarine, but it had to share part of its forces to prevent the submarine from sneaking attack.

"The battleship detachment immediately reorganized its formation and seized the 'T' position, and sent a telegram to the Second Combat Group, ordering it to enter the battlefield from the northwest and attack the rear of the Chinese army. Execute it now! "Natal's order was very concise, and the detachments and ships after receiving the order moved quickly, but there was confusion again when the formation was formed.

Most of the main forces of the expeditionary fleet were British warships, but there were also some warships from France, Spain, Italy and other countries, which were grouped together with other warships, and there were no problems when sailing, and the problems immediately appeared in the combat state. The orders issued were only in formation, and time did not allow the detachment commander to give orders to each battleship on the direction of action, and it was up to the battleship's own actions and judgment. The British warships had long training sessions, had a high degree of tacit understanding, and were very familiar with each other, so they could make the most reasonable moves in the chaos. But those French, Spanish and Italian warships are not good, and there is no habit of training and exercising together between countries in peacetime. Even in Europe there are contradictions and disputes between each other, it would be good not to fight, how can it be possible to practice together?

Seeing the problem, Natal ordered the neatly formed cruiser detachments to move forward first, and the 1st and 2nd cruiser detachments immediately rushed to the main Chinese fleet after receiving the order to buy time for the battleship group.

At 10:05, Lu Hai ordered the fleet cruiser detachment to turn the rudder in a northeasterly direction. The speed was increased to 27 knots, and the battleship detachment was ordered to release seaplanes for reconnaissance and artillery positioning.

At 10:15 a.m., the seaplanes were ready to take off, and at this time the 12 cruisers of the Chinese cruiser detachment had entered the right flank of the cruiser group of the expeditionary fleet and launched an attack position. Vice Admiral Jack, commander of the armored cruiser detachment of the expeditionary fleet, ordered the cruisers to attack the opposing cruisers, and the naval battle began with a battle between the cruisers of both sides.

The Nanhai class was not a fleet decisive cruiser, it was originally built as an air defense warship, although the four triple 152mm naval guns on the battleship did not fall behind in the face of expeditionary fleet cruisers and armored cruisers, but the fragile armor made the Nanhai class unable to take risks.

Among the armored cruisers of the cruiser detachment of the expeditionary fleet. The Duke of Edinburgh's main guns were six 9.2-inch guns and ten 6-inch guns, and once such fire was hit, the main guns of the Devon-class armored cruisers were four four 7.5-inch guns and six 6-inch guns. In the face of such powerful firepower, the Nanhai class could not deal with it head-on, and once it was hit by the main gun, it would be the end of serious injury.

The commander of the cruiser detachment, Lu Yang, of course, knew this, for only crispy cruisers, and none of the armored cruisers that could participate in the main duel. Lu Yang has always been a lot of slander. Listening to Lu Hai's explanation, the base consumed too many resources because of the production of the second super battleship, the Huashan. The role of the base then shifted to the provision of resources, and the shipyard did not have the capacity to produce heavy patrols at the beginning of 1905. It was only in November 1905 that the Shanghai shipyard began construction of the first heavy cruise, which has not yet been completed and will not be able to catch up with the naval battle. The duel between the cruisers could only be grudgingly coped with by the Nanhai class, which fortunately still had a speed advantage. With a maximum speed of 33 knots, it can leave the armored cruisers of the expeditionary fleet far behind at a speed of about 20 knots.

The advantage of speed brought the possibility of guerrilla warfare, and Lu Yang led the cruiser detachment to cruise around the expeditionary fleet, controlling the distance between the two sides at about 8,000 meters.

On the other side, the maneuvering of the cruiser detachment provided an opportunity for the battleship detachment, and the two Goyue-class battleships led by Lu Hai entered the most desirable "T" position in naval battles. Eight quadruple 380-mm guns on the Taishan and Huashan were aimed at Lieutenant General Jack's patrol detachment.

The battleship detachment was about 11,000 kilometers away from Jack's patrol detachment, and although the caliber and firepower of the main guns of the patrol increased greatly at this time, the backwardness of the gunner's aiming equipment led to the engagement distance of the patrol between 6,000 and 9,000 meters. After the Battle of Tsushima, countries accelerated the research of artillery aiming equipment, but in this naval battle, relatively backward artillery aiming equipment was still used, and although the maximum firing range of the main gun exceeded 10,000 meters, no one would fire when the distance exceeded 10,000 meters in the naval battle.

Although he noticed the strangeness of the Chinese battleship, Vice Admiral Jack, according to his own understanding, did not take evasive measures and still pursued the Chinese cruiser detachment. His mission was to drive away or destroy the Chinese cruisers, providing an opportunity for the battleship group and torpedo boats to attack the two super battleships, and after discovering that the Chinese cruisers had a speed advantage, Rear Admiral Jack ordered the first patrol detachment to turn to the southwest and try to encircle and destroy the cunning cruisers with the superiority in strength.

After providing a relatively accurate positioning, the reconnaissance planes left the engagement area, and the main guns of the Taishan and Huashan first fired a half-salvo at a distance of 11,000 kilometers, and the gun crews on the foredeck and aft deck fired a parallel fire and corrected at the same time. With the ability of the Wuyue-class battleships, it is normal to conduct calibration firing at a combat distance of 20,000 meters, and it can actually be fired directly at a combat distance of about 10,000 meters, but in order to ensure the maximum hit rate, the two ships still carried out three rounds of calibration firing.

At 10:25, when the first shell landed on the sea about 900 meters to the left of the Warrior, the captain of the Warrior, Colonel Jericho, was taken aback. The goal is for us to install a patrol detachment? At a distance of 10,000 meters? Many questions immediately came to mind, and without receiving the order of the flagship, the Warrior had to carry out the task of encircling and suppressing the Chinese cruiser.

Most of the shells fired in the first wave of school patrols landed in front of the patrol detachment and more than a thousand meters to the left and right, and although he was taken aback, Lieutenant General Jack, who stayed on the patrol squadron's flagship Antrimshire, did not change his order. He believes that even if the young Chinese navy has a super strong warship, it will not be able to exert its maximum combat effectiveness, and firing a cannon from a distance of 10,000 meters is indeed within the range of the main gun, but it is impossible to hit, unless it is integrated with the goddess of fate!

In the second wave, three shells fell about 500 meters near the patrol detachment, so close that Colonel Betty, the captain of the Antrim County cruiser, looked at Vice Admiral Jack a little nervously, such a distance shows that the Chinese battleships are fully capable of hitting the patrol detachment, and the current strategy must be changed.

Jack began to hesitate, and the news from his own battleship group was that the reorganization was about to be completed, and that it would launch an attack on the Chinese battleship detachment in fifteen minutes. Commander Natal demanded that he continue to pursue the Chinese cruiser detachment and ignore the bombardment of the battleships.

The tension is not so easy to eliminate, especially in the face of the scream of 380 mm caliber shells, in the face of the huge waves of shells hitting the sea, as if the next moment will fall on you. Lieutenant Commander Jericho, the captain of the Warrior, was skeptical of his superiors' orders, and when his own battleship group attacked, he was afraid that the patrol had already been damaged, and perhaps this was the price that must be paid for victory.

Jericho's conjecture soon became a reality, the third round of school firing of Taishan and Huashan formed a straddle shot, and Lu Hai was not satisfied with the formation of a straddle firing only after the third round of school firing, at this time the wind and waves were calm, and the impact of the wind and waves on the Wuyue-class battleships was very small, which can be said to be the ideal state of artillery warfare. It seems that the boys need to be trained more intensively, and more actual combat is needed to eliminate their tension before the battle.

The seaplanes observed and corrected the gun's firing, constantly corrected the direction of the main gun's aiming, and after the third round of calibration, the scattering area covered most of the ships of the patrol detachment, which were already shrouded in their own firepower.

At 10:28 a.m., the first salvo of the two Goyue-class battleships began, and the officers and men had hit 7 percent at a distance of 15,000 kilometers during training, and the sea conditions at that time were not as good as they are now.

The high-intensity charge of the main gun created a huge propulsion, pushing the heavy armor-piercing projectile out of the breech, ****** creating a huge shock wave at the muzzle and pressing the sea surface on the side of the ship into a semicircular vortex. The salvo of eight main guns put a great burden on the battleship, and under the violent vibration, Lu Hai still held coffee and sat leisurely in the command cabin, now he can only rely on the performance of the young men, in any case, he believes in the accumulation of the Chinese Navy in the past six years.

Vice Admiral Jack finally changed the plan, the first round of salvo fire of the Chinese army was earth-shattering, and most of the British Navy, which had just entered the era of dreadnoughts, had not experienced the scene of a salvo of battleship artillery, nor had they felt the power of the salvo in actual combat. Although Fisher and others vigorously advocated it at home, more people still believed in the capabilities of the existing battleships, of course, excluding Jack, Jericho and others under artillery fire. (To be continued.) )