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"Still no movement?" In the tall bridge of the flagship Qingchengshan battle patrol, Rear Admiral Chen Xuanning, commander of the First Reconnaissance Fleet, put down the binoculars in his hand with a grim face and looked sideways at the chief of staff on the side.

"Yes, there are no reports." The chief of staff, who had a well-groomed beard, shrugged his shoulders, "Probably afraid of our retaliation, the Germans did not dare to continue to wander around here today." ”

"Stop dreaming." Chen Xuanning, who was wearing a dark navy combat uniform, frowned and waved his hand, turned around and left the porthole to return to the nautical chart. He said in a deep voice: "I really don't understand where your invincible faith in the world comes from?" Never despise your enemies on the battlefield. ”

"Sir." The communications staff officer walked over quickly with a telegram: "The telegram just sent by the headquarters, the mole who was ambushed in the military port of Taranto sent a telegram, a number of large warships left the harbor during the day yesterday, and the destination is unknown. ”

"Yesterday during the day?" Chen Xuanning took the telegram with a speechless expression on his face: "Why did you send it out now?" Destination unknown? How many large warships are there? Is it a heavy patrol or a battle column? ”

"It's dangerous to engage in intelligence, especially this kind of latent type. It is very difficult for them to get information and send it out, especially in places like military ports, where radio detection vehicles are almost everywhere, and we have to be considerate of them. The solemn-looking chief of staff said softly, "As for the specific information, it is not clear, it may be that the place where they obtained the information is very far away, and there is not much time, so they can't observe it carefully." The military port of Taranto has been garrisoned by the Germans since its fall, and many large warships must not have all been battle cruisers and battle columns, but must have included some heavy escort patrols. Then I think the Germans left the port of Taranto yesterday during the day with a detachment of battle cruisers or battle columns. ”

"Where's the destination?" Chen Xuanning looked at the newly transferred chief of staff with some surprise, and asked out loud after a moment of silence.

"It can be, and certainly is, Malta." A gleam flashed in the Chief of Staff's eyes, "They can't go to Gibraltar, it's the French over there who are in charge." It doesn't make any sense to go to Greece without a whole army. The only objective can only be Malta, to block our possible reinforcements to Malta. I think we're going to run into them soon. ”

"......" Chen Xuanning raised his hand and pinched his chin, and suddenly commanded, "All the warships' radars are turned on, and the fleet is accelerated into a battle formation." ”

Zhang Cheng has already provided radar for the Daming Army and Navy, but the failure rate of the first-generation radar is very high and maintenance is troublesome. For the Navy, replacing damaged radar parts at sea is a completely fatal affair. So, while radar is very useful, the fleet is turned on most of the time when it is at sea. But now that the danger has been perceived, there is no need to care about any losses, and all the large warships equipped with radar are turned on together to detect the sea surface.

"Report!" Not long after the order to turn on the radar was issued, the communications staff officer hurriedly came to Chen Xuanning's side: "The Yandang Mountain reports that there are radar reflections from large ships more than 20 nautical miles away on the right side of the fleet!" ”

The night was dark today, the moon hid behind thick clouds and did not show its face, and visibility at sea was low. Neither fleet's lookout posts could see each other, but the Ming fleet, equipped with radar, was in an advantageous position at this time.

In fact, both the Germans, the French, and the British, have already begun work on the development of radars. It's just that they lack a large amount of capital investment and strong scientific research strength, and their progress is far behind that of the Ming Dynasty.

Daming, who had many universities and top-level scientific research capabilities, had already produced radars of a practical nature before the war after Zhang Cheng provided large sums of money and research directions. And the Germans' radar had just come out of the laboratory at this time, and it would take half a year to fully equip the troops, to say the least. And the gap in science and technology for half a year is enough for them to suffer heavy losses on the battlefield.

"Lean in and grab the shelling position." Chen Xuanning took a deep breath and began to order his fleet to prepare for battle.

The Navy's traditional artillery bombardment operations are first and foremost to seize a suitable artillery position, that is, the T-shaped prefix in the traditional sense. The greater the angle of the salvo from the naval guns, the better, so that the battleship that occupies the horizontal position after entering the range of fire will be able to exert its maximum firepower.

It didn't take long after the 1st reconnaissance fleet began to seize the T-junction that the Germans discovered them. At the sound of alarm bells, the Germans also began to quickly turn to prepare for engagement.

By this time the 1st Reconnaissance Fleet had a general idea of the strength of the Germans, two battle cruisers or battle columns, two smaller heavy cruisers, and a fleet of destroyers. After analyzing it, Chen Xuanning confirmed that he had the advantage, and quickly ordered the fast transport fleet following behind to immediately speed up to the port of Valletta.

This fast transport fleet consists of four 3,000-ton fast carriers and two 6,000-ton fast carriers.

They carried hundreds of heavy anti-aircraft guns and even more small-caliber anti-aircraft guns, as well as more than 3,000 marines. In addition, there are large quantities of gasoline, ammunition, food, medicines, spare parts and other supplies. Zhang Cheng even sent the heavy tank battalion of the Second Armored Division over to be used as an armored force. Escorting the transport fleet was provided by four destroyers.

These fast transports, capable of reaching a maximum speed of 24 knots, quickly accelerated around the outside of the battlefield at the command and were able to enter the port of Valletta to unload their cargo in a few hours at most.

"Boom!" When the distance between the two fleets, which constantly adjusted the sailing angle and wrestled with each other for the horizontal position, entered within 18,000 kilometers. Eight 47-caliber 380-mm guns on the Qingcheng Mountain began the first round of salvo fire. The huge body of the Qingcheng Mountain was all red reflected by the bright muzzle flames.

The Yandang Mountain battle patrol that followed also began to fire salvos one by one. More than a dozen heavy armor-piercing shells, with a heart-rending and terrifying whistling sound, pierced the dark night and smashed heavily into the sea near the German battleship.

The artillery bombardment of the 1st reconnaissance fleet put the German commander Gonse. Vice Admiral Lu Teyans was taken aback, the first round of the Ming Navy's impact point was too close!

It's certainly not the result of training. Under the current technological conditions, it can be fought so close in a night battle at such a distance. Either you're lucky, or you have a secret weapon. The level of technology of the German ZEISS optical instrument company is the pinnacle, but the optical sighting equipment they provide can never do this.

"Fire!" In any case, such a time is bound to be fiercely counterattacked. Lütjans quickly ordered his own fleet to open fire and counterattack. The two Scharnhorst-class battlecruisers soon erupted in long tongues of fire.

The two sister ships were experimental works of the Germans and were the last battlecruisers of the German Navy.

With the continuous advancement of new engine technology, new battleships can already have a speed that is not inferior to that of battle cruisers. In this case, it becomes very awkward to sacrifice armor to increase speed. Countries around the world followed in the footsteps of the Ming Navy, after the Ming Navy began to launch new provincial capital-class battleships and new aircraft carriers. The days of the war patrol are over.

The two Scharnhorst-class guns equipped with eighteen 380 mm guns opened fire on the Ming fleet in the distance, which looked like a match. With two more guns, the Scharnhorst-class salvo looked even more powerful. However, their impact point is too floating.

The two fleets continued to fight each other, and the entire dark sea was illuminated by the rain of bullets and the blazing muzzle flames of the shelling. It's not just the big Warcruisers who are battling each other, but the smaller Heavy Cruisers are also quickly joining the fray.

The 1st reconnaissance fleet had four heavy cruisers, while the Germans had only two. At first glance, it seems that the Ming Navy has an absolute advantage, but the four heavy cruisers of the First Reconnaissance Fleet of the Ming Dynasty are basically old guys who have served for many years, while the two heavy cruisers of the Germans are all cutting-edge Admiral Hipper.

The standard displacement of the Admiral Hipper-class carefully built by the German Navy reached almost fifteen thousand tons, and the full load displacement was up to almost eighteen thousand tons! And the heavy patrols of all levels of the Ming Dynasty are basically hovering between 10,000 tons and 12,000 tons.

The Admiral Hipper class is armed with four twin 203 mm 60x caliber SKC/34 guns. This German science and technology crystallization of the main gun has strong firepower, long range, high rate of fire and great power. On the other hand, although the heavy cruiser of the Ming Navy is also equipped with a 200 mm main gun, it is inferior to the Admiral Hipper in terms of power and range and rate of fire.

Others in terms of armor protection, speed, endurance, etc. Admiral Hipper also defeated the Ming Heavy Cruise.

It's not that Daming can't produce a battle cruiser with similar or better performance to the Admiral Hipper. With the scientific and technological and industrial strength of the Ming Dynasty, it was not difficult to build a warship with at least the same performance as the Admiral Hippel class. The main reason for not building it was because Zhang Cheng, who had a strong influence on the construction of new warships in the navy, had no intention of building a new type of heavy cruiser at all.

Zhang Cheng didn't even want to build a battleship. It was only in order to appease the conservatives in the navy and cope with the night battle of the navy that the new provincial capital-class battleships were introduced.

And the cost is high, and it can catch up with the new heavy cruiser almost half the cost of the battleship. Neither can it beat the battleship, nor can it resist the attack of the aircraft group on the aircraft carrier. They can't be anti-submarine, and the Ming don't need them to break the engagement. In this case, what is the waste of resources to build a heavy patrol? It is better to build a few more aircraft carriers.

However, in special circumstances, such as this nighttime artillery battle tonight. In the case that the capital ships of the Ming Dynasty do not have an advantage, this new type of heavy patrol still has some value. However, Zhang Cheng and the Ming Navy will definitely not invest huge sums of money for some specific battlefields.

While the Qingchengshan and Yandangshan began to gradually suppress the Scharnhorst sister ships, the two German Admiral-class heavy cruisers had already begun to blow up the four Ming heavy cruisers. (To be continued.) )