On the sea, the submarine forces of the Maritime Resistance Army are moving, and the surface combat ships led by Zheng Xuechang are also intercepting at high speed, and a big war is about to break out.

In this battle, the naval resistance army can be said to have the advantage, but the victory or defeat of the war depends on the final kick. In the naval battle of Ceylon commanded by Somerville at the beginning, the Anglo-Tang coalition forces had the advantage, whether it was intelligence, reconnaissance, or equipment. Even Somerville's command was almost flawless, but due to the lack of skill to kick the door and the lack of a spear to break the shield, in the end not only failed to win, but ended in defeat.

People's psychological quality is determined by experience. Before the war, it was impossible for Li Guang to say that he was not nervous. You must know that the 24 warships of the Naval Resistance Army's attack this time are almost all of their combat effectiveness. With the passage of time, Li Guang realized more and more that naval warfare, for a small country and for Haitang, was really a war that overwhelmed the country.

Even Japan, a naval power, could not afford to suffer losses like the Battle of Midway. If it were all like that, the Japanese Navy would only need three or more times to return to zero. In fact, losses like the Battle of Midway are too much for the United States to bear. Don't look at the strong industrial capacity of the United States, but it also can't afford to lose five aircraft carriers at once. Even in the later stages of the Pacific War, the United States had more than twenty aircraft carriers.

In the Battle of the Arabian Sea, the battleship Pacific suffered heavy damage, and in the Battle of Midway, the aircraft carrier Liberty Dragon sank.

All this is a kind of training for Li Guang. Li Guang is still concerned about victory and defeat, but he is quite immune to battlefield losses. After issuing the battle order, Li Guang let go of the mentality of suffering from gains and losses.

Under the dim yellow light, Li Guang pondered another question: The Japanese army only had six merchant ships, how many troops and weapons and equipment did they transport?

Judging by the photos obtained by Zhang Qianwen, the maximum displacement of these six ships does not exceed 6,000 tons. The smallest is only two or three thousand tons.

According to the staff officers' calculations, these six ships can transport up to 6,000 troops (with equipment) and 10,000 tons of supplies.

Li Guang had doubts about the staff officers' calculations. You must know that Nishimura Takama now has a total force of about 15,000 troops in Ceylon, and even if he increases his troops by 6,000, he is afraid that he will not be sure of victory.

Isn't it possible, the command of the Japanese Navy is stupid (referring to the command of Fu Qi Okawauchi. The Japanese Army will also be stupid and unable to see the facts. Fueling tactics?

Li Guang's guess is not right or wrong.

Lieutenant General Nishimura Takuma originally requested that the entire Guards Division be transported to Ceylon. However, on the 18th, there was an accident in the Japanese reinforcement fleet, and two ships hit mines, one wounded and one sank.

The Japanese Navy did not say much. Anyway, since the start of the war, the sunken ships are not one or two. However, the Japanese army was full of distrust of the navy, and it had just gone to sea. There was a troop carrier that hit a mine. The boat was not badly wounded, but dozens of army landlubbers were drowned. How did General Terauchi dare to send the elite Emperor's Guard, the Guards Division, to Ceylon.

This Guards Division, regardless of its combat effectiveness, has absolutely no room for failure in the name of the Emperor's Guard.

Shouichi Terauchi was temporarily adjusted, except for an artillery brigade and a tank brigade. But more than 6,000 recruits who had just been sent to Singapore were sent to the ship in one go.

Regarding the adjustment of General Shouichi Terauchi, Takuma Nishimura has a bitter word. This is purely his own doing, you must know that his report to General Terauchi Shouichi has been on the offensive, but the soldiers are "wounded" a lot. Continuous combat, which needs to be corrected and supplemented.

When the Japanese occupied Colombo, the total number of casualties was more than 10,000. The ashes and the seriously wounded were brought back to Singapore by Ozawa's fleet, and the lightly wounded were still recuperating in Colombo.

Nishimura asked for reinforcements, and Terauchi Shouichi gave six thousand recruits, as well as two brigades of technical troops. It can't be said to be less. Who called Nishimura Takuma has been saying that the war situation is favorable, and the Japanese army is on the offensive.

Terauchi Shouichi's idea is very simple, he is already on the offensive, and with 8,000 troops, he should almost be able to win.

How did he know that at this time, the troops of Nishimura Takuma were no longer reduced to 8,000 at the beginning. In particular, in the First Battle of the 19th, the total number of Japanese casualties reached more than 2,000. From the time of the capture of Colombo to the 19th, the total number of troops attrition of Nishimura Takuma had exceeded 5,000. There is not a shortage of 8,000 troops, but a shortage of 13,000.

Nishimura Takuma's report also misled General Shouichi Terauchi. Nishimura pondered that in the face of heavy casualties, he did not dare to truthfully say that the attrition was all combat casualties, but only that it was "wounded and sick".

The devil is indeed a lot of injuries, when a submarine of the Second Submarine Team of the Maritime Resistance Army sank in battle, the sacrifice was in exchange for the sinking of two Japanese transport ships. One of them happened to be loaded with medicines and medical equipment. The little devils are in Ceylon, and there is a shortage of medical treatment. The harsh tropical climate of Ceylon caused the Japanese wounded to become seriously ill and minor injuries to serious injuries.

Injured a toe, which developed into amputation, amputation and hiccups. This situation abounds. The little devils have the spiritual support of bushido on the battlefield, and they are willing to die for their emperor, but when they see the fate of the wounded soldiers, they are beating the drum in their hearts, for fear that they will be injured on the battlefield and the small injuries will become life-urging ghosts.

The morale of the Japanese army plummeted, and after the 19th, the Japanese army did not launch a large-scale attack, but Bao Gang commanded the naval resistance army to constantly counterattack.

Knowing that the reinforcements were only 6,000 recruits and two brigades, Lieutenant General Nishimura Takuma was no longer talking about suffering, but as if the end was coming. If God gave him a chance, Lieutenant General Nishimura Takuma would definitely swear that even if he was dismissed, he would tell his boss the truth.

What Nishimura didn't know was that now these thousands of recruits have also been targeted by the Naval Resistance Army.

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30th, early morning.

The battleship Atlantic led more than a dozen warships to the north at high speed. On the charts, the staff officers were constantly calculating the theoretical distances. Every ten minutes, he reported to Zheng Xuechang.

A little round.

Zheng Xuechang issued an order: the submarine Lixi 007 reported the position of the enemy fleet.

In order to avoid being discovered by the Japanese army, in the past few hours, neither the submarine No. 007 nor other submarines led by Ren Tianyang have sent a report, and have maintained a silent telecommunications.

Now, although there is no enemy engaged. However, the distance between the two armies is not too far, and continuing to maintain the silence of telecommunications may delay the fighters.

One point and five points. Zhao Luoshu sent a telegram back to No. 007, accurately reporting the position, course, and speed of the Japanese fleet.

The first hand has always been in hand. Li Guang excitedly waved his fist at the command headquarters.

One point ten. The battleship Atlantic began to adjust its course. Six air defense destroyers split out of the queue and headed northeast, preparing to carry out the outflanking mission.

On the battleship Atlantic, the officers and men at all posts were ready for battle. The weatherman is constantly measuring the wind speed and direction, and the air humidity is also checking again and again. The optical lens begins to heat up, eliminating the fog. The battleship's cannon also began to move its barrels. Up and down, as if arms were waving.

Night fighting is a topic in the Army, and even more so in the Navy. In World War II, in fact, the navies of all countries tried to avoid night battles. Because under the conditions of the existing technical equipment, the chance of night battles is too great. Playing against both sides, it is both fighting for equipment. Fighting for training is also fighting for character.

Naval night battles. The Japanese army is the most important among the countries. The path taken by the Japanese was to fight for training, and the arduous training had long since given the Japanese navy confidence that it was invincible in night battles.

The British fought both equipment and training, and anyway, Britain's unique maritime popularity made him not lack a crew with sufficient experience. The deep understanding of naval warfare made Britain attach great importance to the role of radar technology in night warfare.

As for the United States, the quality of the Navy is clearly inferior to that of the British. The main fight is technology. Although the British military temporarily led the United States in radar technology in terms of navy (referring to 42 years), the Americans came behind, and the upgrade of artillery sighting radar made the American army have a lot of potential for improvement in night battles.

As far as the Naval Resistance Army is concerned, what Li Guang wants to learn most is Britain. Spell training and spell technique. Training. The Atlantic battleship almost fought the battle ship of the Pacific Pacific, and it should be no worse than the British. Although the Atlantic battleship is not as good as the most advanced British battleship in some indicators, it is also world-class. And the new technology - radar, the Atlantic battleship of the Maritime Resistance Force is the only warship equipped with radar in the Naval Resistance Force.

This radar was given to the Naval Resistance Army by Admiral Somerville before he organized the Battle of Ceylon. The radar is considered not for sale in the UK, and the level of secrecy is quite high. However, Somerville himself is a radar expert, and what he gave to the Naval Resistance Army naturally cannot be a good thing. This is just an old air defense radar that the British have begun to phase out in 39 years, and the core element is still an old-fashioned electric vacuum tube, not a new magnetron. Both peak power and frequency parameters lag behind.

Compared with the air defense radar equipped with US warships, the function is one grade lower. In addition to the Saratoga aircraft carrier, which has just completed the transformation, the radars on the US aircraft carriers are all equipment before the Pacific War. Even so, it is superior to the radar that Somerville sent to the Naval Resistance Army.

The US shipborne air defense radar can detect a hundred kilometers, and it is quite accurate within sixty kilometers. The radar on the Atlantic can only detect 60 kilometers, and it can only be quite accurate within 30 kilometers.

As an air defense radar, sixty and thirty kilometers, the early warning time for a warship is twenty minutes and ten minutes. Don't underestimate this gap, in a life-and-death war, ten minutes can sometimes decide victory or defeat.

For the poor, not picky. This is even more true of the Maritime Resistance Army, this backward radar, the Maritime Resistance Army not only absorbed the technology in it, but also transformed it. Outwardly, the antenna can not only turn with its face up, like a general air defense radar, but also change the elevation angle. Internally, technicians have added a set of filtering devices, and now this radar can be used not only as an air defense radar, but also as a sea search radar.

However, because the frequency used is too low, it is still a wavelength of three meters, and there is no accuracy at all. For sea targets, they can barely detect them within 30 kilometers, but they can't tell whether they are islands or warships. And because the terminal display is still an oscilloscope, not a PPI radar display screen configured by the US and British armies, it is quite difficult to operate. However, for the battlefield of this naval battle, this inferior performance has already played a role, and the Maritime Resistance Force is very familiar with this sea area, there are absolutely no islands here, and the radar should not be misleading.

Such a garbage radar played a great role in the early morning of the 30th. By the time the radar operator reported the detection of enemy ships, the battleship Atlantic was already less than twenty kilometers away from the Japanese fleet.

Although the wind and rain are not heavy, on the dark sea, it is impossible to see far at all by relying on the observation post alone.

Radar technology showed his role, and the Naval Resistance Army scored another point.

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The Japanese Okawauchi Fu 7th fleet was moving straight west in an irregular circle.

Twenty kilometers is already quite close, and if it were daytime, both sides would have already opened fire. The Great War came, and there was silence in the bridge. Zheng Xuechang was unusually calm at this time, he did not immediately give the order to fire, but gave a series of orders.

Later, Li Guang gave a very high evaluation of Zheng Xuechang's performance in this half an hour - the demeanor of the famous general began to appear.

Zheng Xuechang did not take advantage of this opportunity to attack the enemy first, but commanded the fleet to make two right turns.

The huge fleet completed a series of formation actions in more than half an hour, and the naval resistance fleet successfully occupied the T-shaped cross-head position.

At this time, the fleet of the Naval Resistance Army was arranged in double columns, with four destroyers in the first column and the battleship Atlantic in the second. According to the traditional battleship formation, the battleships would generally be in the battleship line at a distance of twenty kilometers, and the heavy cruisers at a distance of fourteen kilometers. But there were no heavy cruisers in the Naval Resistance Army.

If, as a rule, the battleship should rely on the advantage of long range to close the distance between the enemy ship. But in this battle, Zheng Xuechang did the opposite and used the battleship as a heavy cruiser. And the four destroyers lined up at a distance of about ten kilometers. The four torpedo boats thrust like assassins into the ribs of the Japanese fleet.

The first shot of the battle was not fired by the battleship Atlantic. Although at this time, Zheng Xuechang had basically confirmed the location of the Japanese fleet.

At 1:49, six air defense destroyers were the first to open fire in the rear of the Japanese fleet, and twelve three-inch anti-aircraft guns roared together.

In an instant, the sky over the Japanese fleet was illuminated by twelve flares, and even in the rainy night, the Japanese fleet revealed its swarthy silhouette.

In less than a minute, the battleship Atlantic's two quadruple main guns had adjusted their firing elements, and the huge muzzles sprayed scorching projectiles. The four destroyers also began to pour fire on the Japanese ships.

The main force of the Naval Resistance Army occupied a T-shaped horizontal position, the Atlantic battleship was 14 kilometers away from the enemy ships, the destroyers were less than 10 kilometers away from the enemy ships, the torpedo boats had already inserted into the ribs of the Japanese fleet, and the air defense destroyers of the Maritime Resistance Forces in the rear of the Japanese fleet fired flares, and the battleships were the first to open fire.

All this shows one point -- the naval resistance army occupies the absolute first hand in naval warfare. (To be continued......)