Under the blazing sun and blue sky, four merchant ships flying the British flag sailed in the North Atlantic.

James was the trading manager of the British trading company Chattingsheng, and this time he was ordered by the company's top management to import a batch of valuable supplies from the United States and hire four merchant ships to return home. He thought that he could get the attention and appreciation of the high-level this time, but to his sorrow, when he sailed to the Atlantic, he suddenly found two warships of the Imperial Chinese Navy to intercept him.

"What's going on? Why stop the boat? ”

James immediately came to the captain's room when he found out that the captain wanted to stop the ship, but the captain pointed not far away, where the cannons of the two Imperial Chinese warships were aimed at them, and shouted in English: "Stop the ship immediately, or it will be sunk." ”

"How so?"

James's face suddenly darkened, he had long known that the Sino-British War had broken out and the Atlantic route was unsafe. Because of this, the top management of their company did not dare to come forward to import goods, so this beauty difference fell on his head. He wanted to gamble on his luck, but his luck was not good.

"I can't stop the boat, or I'll die."

James immediately demanded that the captain leave the ship immediately, and he must not let this cargo worth three million pounds fall into the hands of the Chinese Emperor [***], then he will die when he returns.

The captain was able to understand James's distress, so he continued to sail the ship, gambling that the Imperial Chinese Navy would not dare to open fire easily.

The two warships of the Imperial Chinese Navy, one was the battlecruiser Zhou Kangwang and the other was the light cruiser Fengshuo, and the two ships formed a detachment to break the diplomatic relationship, and together with the other nine detachments, they raided and attacked British merchant ships in the Atlantic.

Since the British Navy chose to protect the homeland, the Atlantic Fleet was more comfortable to loot British merchant ships in various places, rather than sinking them on the spot at the beginning.

The looted merchant ships were taken to the San Juan Naval Base in Puerto Rico to be used as additional funds for the Atlantic Fleet and war subsidies.

Seeing that the British merchant ship did not stop, the second ship immediately fired a warning.

"Boom!"

The Zhou Kangwang and the Fengshuo immediately fired warning shots with 88-mm rapid-fire guns, and the shells landed near the British merchant ships, causing smoke and rain in the sky, which immediately frightened the British above.

When the captain saw that the other party was really coming, he was immediately frightened and asked to stop the ship, but James refused.

The captain immediately protested: "Do you want us to die? You don't look at how thick other people's cannons are, a single shell will let us go into the sea to feed the fish. ”

James was finally unable to get the captain to continue sailing, when the two Imperial Chinese warships fired further warning shots, and in order to sink the ship, they attacked with 37mm rapid-fire guns, and the shells suddenly hit the hull of the British merchant ship, and the fragile hull was immediately hit by a row of holes.

The British on the merchant ship screamed even more in panic, forcing the captain to surrender immediately.

In order to protect his own people, the captain could only surrender at the behest of the Imperial Chinese Navy. Soon the Imperial Chinese Navy sent officers and men to occupy four merchant ships and escorted them to Puerto Rico.

Similar robberies occurred every day, and the Atlantic Fleet of the Chinese Empire was divided into nine small detachments and took turns blocking the Atlantic route to Britain, in addition to robbing British large and medium-sized valuable merchant ships, small merchant ships and worthless merchant ships were directly sunk, and merchant ships from European and American countries to Britain were directly "persuaded back" by various means. The political axes of European and American countries were afraid of the powerful maritime power of the Chinese Empire, and they appeased the domestic merchant ships that were "persuaded to return" to avoid being involved in the Sino-British war.

As a result, Britain's Atlantic route was seriously damaged, and within a day of the start of the war, Britain lost more than 200 merchant ships, up to 400,000 tons, and the losses increased day by day.

In order to defend the homeland from the attack of the Imperial Chinese Navy, the British Admiralty hurriedly transferred the main forces of British fleets from all over the world back to the homeland to cooperate with the homeland fleet to make a defensive posture.

After the main force of the Asian Fleet was annihilated, the British navy strength was halved, and the number of capital ships could barely be equal to the capital ships of the Imperial Chinese Navy, but after the lessons of the naval battle in the South China Sea, the British Admiralty believed that the old former dreadnoughts could not deal with the new Shenbow warships of the Chinese Empire, so they could only adopt passive defense, and looked forward to the completion of the construction plan of the new dreadnoughts by the major shipyards in the country as soon as possible.

For the first time, the British Navy, which has dominated the world's oceans, has fallen into a passive defensive posture for the first time. In front of the British Parliament building in Downing Street, reporters from Britain and around the world are barried with questions from British officials every day.

"Let the Germans and the French laugh at it! We must hold our breath! ”

When asked by reporters, the new British Prime Minister Henry had to admit the reality that the face of the British Empire had to be put down first.

"May I ask you, Your Excellency, the Atlantic Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy is attacking the Empire's merchant ships in all directions on the North Atlas Sea (North Atlantic), how will the Imperial Navy respond?"

Henry replied: "The Imperial Navy of China attacked the innocent civilian merchant ships of our country, this is the most shameless act, the Imperial Navy is formulating countermeasures, please be calm." ”

"The Atlantic Fleet of the Chinese Empire has nine advanced Divine Bow battleships, and the active warships of your navy are unmatched. In addition, I heard that the only Divine Bow battleship in your country, the Dreadnought, is still in sea trials, will she go to war? ”

"Please ask the relevant departments for specific questions." Henry didn't want to explain and entered the mansion under the escort of the security guards.

In the prime minister's office, Fisher was called in for a meeting.

Henry directly questioned Fisher and said: "In the past month, we have lost more than 200 merchant ships one after another, with a registered gross tonnage of 400,000 tons, and a direct economic loss of more than 5 million pounds. ”

Fisher replied: "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, we have recalled more than a hundred warships from all over the world. Since there were no corresponding ships that could oppose the nine battleships of the Chinese Navy, we could only temporarily avoid them. ”

"Avoid? What do you want your navy to eat? Henry was dissatisfied: "The Imperial Chinese Navy is obviously preparing to attack the sea life supply lines on which we live, if your navy cannot stop them in the next six months, the empire will lose at least two thousand merchant ships, the total tonnage of the empire's shipbuilding in a year is only 2 million tons, it will be lost, then we will have no merchant ships to transport goods, our people will starve, our industry will be forced to stop, including your warships under construction will also be shelved because there is no iron ore, Do you know the consequences? ”

Fisher nodded, "I understand, Prime Minister. However, according to our reliable intelligence, the Imperial Chinese Navy played a trick on us, they did not build eighteen Xia Dynasty-class battleships in one go, and the nine battleships assigned to the Atlantic Fleet were very advanced, and their speed was conservatively estimated to be more than 24 knots, and maybe even 27 knots. ”

Although Henry did not know much about naval affairs, he also understood that the fastest British battleship was only 21 knots, and if the other side reached a speed of 27 knots, it would be a nightmare for the British navy.

"How can there be such a fast battleship?"

"Seven days ago our Royal Cruise Ship Belana was attacked, and their last distress signal to us was that they were attacked by enemy battleships, and they tried to break away, but they were quickly overtaken," Fisher said. ”

Henry asked, "I remember that our Royal Cruise ships were all sailing at more than 24 knots, how could their battleships catch up?" ”

"Here's the problem!" Fisher frowned, "The Belana Royal Cruise Ship had a top speed of 25.5 knots during the test, and they would flee at full speed if they spotted an enemy ship, but they reported that they could not escape the pursuit of the enemy's large battleships. ”

Henry analyzed: "If this is true, it is really terrible. ”

Fisher nodded: "So according to various intelligence analysis, we believe that among the eighteen Xia Dynasty-class battleships built by the Chinese Empire, nine are other mysterious warships, and they have extremely high speed and the main gun caliber of the battleship. ”

Henry said: "I've heard that if it is impossible for a battleship to have speed, firepower, and armor at the same time, how did they do it? ”

Fisher replied: "Quite simply, if the armor protection of the Xia Dynasty-class battleships is reduced, and the weight of the armor saved is used to build more boilers and turbines, it is not impossible to reach the speed of a cruiser above 25 knots. ”

Henry asked, "Is there any concrete evidence?" ”

Fisher shook his head and said, "I originally planned to build a new type of battleship with strong battleship firepower and cruiser speed, but unfortunately because of the outbreak of the Anglo-Chinese war, all slipways were building battleships, and I didn't have a chance to test my new idea." ”

Henry said: "According to your inference, the battleships deployed by the Chinese Empire in the Atlantic Ocean have changed their surnames, but we have no way of judging from their appearance what the thickness of their armor is. ”

Fisher said, "You can have a tentative battle and send a battleship formation to engage them, so that you will know if they are of the same class as the nine battleships of the Pacific Fleet." ”

Henry shook his head and said, "It's too risky, if your inference is wrong, then our warship will be tantamount to a sheep's mouth." ”

Fisher said: "We can take advantage of the escort opportunity to send the capital ship to test it, which can not only detect the reality of the other side, but also carry out the escort." ”

Henry said: "No, the battleship must stay in the coastal sea to guard the territory, as for the escort, it is only necessary to send and frigates." ”

"That doesn't work at all!" Fisher said: "The caliber of the opponent's main gun is very large, judging by the power described, it should be a 305 mm main gun, and sending a frigate to escort the enemy can only add spoils to the opponent." ”

Henry had his considerations and said: "Homeland defense is the top priority, and the capital ship must not leave without permission. What if the Imperial Chinese Navy attacked the empire itself? We have to give an account to the people. ”

Fisher also knew Henry's difficulty, so he took a step back and said, "In this case, we will at least send a first-class cruiser to sail, even if we encounter the opponent's capital ship, at least we can retreat." ”

Henry thought about it, escorting is also a top priority, so he nodded in agreement.

Fisher then ordered the cruiser detachment of the Home Fleet to draw out two cruiser detachments and two frigate detachments, a total of 30 warships, to begin escorting British merchant ships.

The two cruiser detachments were the British 7th Cruiser Squadron and the 9th Cruiser Squadron. The 7th Cruiser Squadron consisted of eight cruisers of the first class, six of the Cressy class (Crécy, Aboukir, Dionysian Priest, Hogg, Satleger, and Euryales) and two of the Qiangsheng-class (Mighty and Terrible). The 9th Cruiser Squadron consisted of six Devonshire class ships (Devoonshire, County Antrim, Argyllshire, County Canafon, Hampshire, Roxboroughshire) and two Duke of Edinburgh-class ships (Duke of Edinburgh, Black Prince).

These four-class sixteen battleships as the British Navy's first-class cruisers, the oldest is the Qiangsheng class that started construction in 1894, and the latest is the Duke of Edinburgh class that started construction in 1903, they are all large armored cruisers of more than 10,000 tons, with a speed of 21 knots ~ 23 knots, and a maximum main gun caliber of 234 mm, and their combat effectiveness is comparable to that of the Hunter class and the Wind Catcher class heavy cruisers of the Chinese Empire.

Beginning on December 9, 1905, sixteen first-class cruisers and fourteen frigates of the British Navy entered the Atlantic Ocean and escorted British merchant ships.

The CIA intelligence station in London intercepted the news and immediately reported it to the Atlantic Fleet.

Admiral Du Sikwei, commander of the Atlantic Fleet, immediately made a decision to stop the small raiding operations and replace them with a collective action of the warbands, and prepared to start a decisive battle with the main force of the British cruiser fleet to deter the British navy.

On the bridge of the King Zhou Wuwang, the sea breeze in early winter was very cold, and all the officers and men of the Atlantic Fleet had changed into dark blue winter naval uniforms.

"It was reported that the Ninth Squad had spotted a large number of British merchant fleets, about 50 ships, accompanied by British naval escorts."

Li Dingxin, chief of staff of the fleet, took the information and glanced at it, and said to Du Xigui: "Old Du, the opportunity has come!" ”

Du Xigui was immediately overjoyed and said with a smile: "After waiting for more than a month, they finally came out." ”

Li Dingxin nodded and said, "Yes, the Pacific Fleet has taken out the main force of the British Asian Fleet and is out of the limelight." Our Atlantic Fleet has not done much since its establishment, but it is too shameful to be a pirate. How are you going to fight? ”

Du Xigui then ordered his staff officer to send the information of each ship of the British escort cruiser formation and evaluate their combat strength against the surnames of the ships of the British fleet.

"The main force of the British escort fleet consisted of eight cruisers of the first rank each of the 7th and 9th cruiser squadrons, as well as fourteen destroyers. There were more of them than we had, and in order to ensure the effectiveness of the attack, nine light cruisers of the 3rd and 4th armies of the 2nd Detachment were responsible for attacking their fourteen hunting fleets. Nine battle cruisers of the 1st and 2nd warframes were devoted to sixteen of their heavy cruisers. ”

Li Dingxin said: "We will fight more with less, and we will annihilate them completely, and if this succeeds, it will certainly be much more majestic than the Pacific Fleet's sneak attack by bullying more and less." ”

Du Xigui said: "Ancient wars were won by quantity, but modern warfare technology has become the decisive force, and we occupy a qualitative advantage, which cannot be compensated by the British by quantity." One of our battlecruisers is enough to take out two of their cruisers, and nine battlecruisers is equivalent to eighteen, and it is enough to take out only sixteen of them. ”

Li Dingxin nodded, although he agreed with Du Xigui's point of view, but after all, he had no actual combat experience in battle cruisers, and the surname of the British first-class cruiser was very strong, which made him feel a little drummed in his heart.

"The sixteen first-class cruisers of the United Kingdom should not be underestimated, the Duke of Edinburgh-class that has just been commissioned has a displacement of 13,550 tons, a speed of 23 knots, and is equipped with 6 234-mm main guns, 10 152-mm secondary guns, and 22 76-mm rapid-fire guns, which are much more fierce than our self-built heavy cruisers. The tonnage of the Qiangsheng-class heavy cruisers, which have similar firepower to hers, exceeds 14,000 tons, and the minimum tonnage of the sixteen heavy cruisers is also more than 10,000 tons, and the threat to us should not be underestimated. ”

Du Xigui smiled: "You can't judge and evaluate it just from theory, judging by my combat experience when I was chief of staff of the Pacific Fleet. Although every naval battle has an uncertain surname, our experience is that the first round of fatal blows. ”

Li Dingxin asked, "How do you say it?" ”

Du Xigui said: "The so-called first round of fatal blows is actually very easy to understand, as soon as the battle at sea began, our imperial navy gave the enemy fleet the most fierce attack, sinking the enemy's flagship, or sinking several important warships of the opponent, so as to intimidate the morale of the enemy fleet. Often, if the enemy fleet sinks a few key warships in the first round of engagement, then their fighting spirit will be lost, and their morale will become weaker and weaker, while the officers and men of our imperial navy will become more and more courageous the more they fight. Don't underestimate this psychological factor, often this is the key to determining the outcome of a battle. ”

Li Dingxin asked: "Do you mean that we will take out their flagship in the first round of attacks or concentrate on inflicting heavy damage on them, that is, give them a dismount?" ”

"That's right! It's the dismount! Du Xigui nodded and said, "Through many naval battles, I gradually understand the true meaning of Xia Mawei. Since ancient times, in any war, both warring sides want to win the first battle, and they want to win the first battle at any cost, and they think that if the first battle is won, the battle will be won, and if the first battle is lost, the next battle will be lost, in fact, this is what it means. ”

Li Dingxin nodded, roughly understood what Du Xigui meant, and said: "Although this combat thinking is a little incomplete, I have to say that it is valid in most cases. In the first round, Suo concentrated all his strength on taking out their flagship, paralyzing their chain of command, and breaking their will to resist. ”

Du Xigui smiled: "That's right, that's what I mean." Regardless of what happens in the naval battle, let's win the first round first. ”

Then, Du Xigui said: "According to intelligence, their capital ship has a maximum tonnage of 14,000 tons, a speed of 23 knots, and a maximum caliber of 234 mm of main guns. What I'm thinking about is not how to defeat them, but how to annihilate them gorgeously, our first battle must be played at a high level and wonderful, and our Atlantic Fleet can't let the Pacific Fleet look down on it. ”

"That's right!" Li Dingxin nodded and said: "The first battle involves the face and honor of our Atlantic Fleet, and at the beginning of the design of our battle cruisers, except for the fact that we could not confront the battleships head-on, all other types of warships were not our opponents. The British Navy still does not know our battle patrol combat surname, and this time they sent an escort formation without battleships, which was purely to send them to death. ”

As he spoke, the two looked at each other and laughed.

December 15, 1905, Friday, November 12, the fifth year of the Guanghua of the Chinese Empire. The weather in the Atlas Sea is cloudy to overcast, with winds of level 3 and waves of 1.5 meters high.

The Atlas Sea is the name of Europeans and Americans, and it is the Atlantic Ocean in the mouth of Chinese.

Unlike other translations of the ocean, "Atlantic" is not a translation, but an authentic domestic Western place name. Since the Ming Dynasty, China has often used to use the Leizhou Peninsula to Kalimantan as the boundary line when expressing its geographical location, with the east of this line being the East Ocean and the west of this line being the Western Ocean. That's why we often call ourselves Orientals and Europeans Westerners. During the time of the Myojin Sect, Matteo Ricci came to China to meet the Chinese emperor, and he described him in the Chinese way as a "Atlantic" man west of the "Little Western Ocean (at that time China referred to the Indian Ocean)". It can be seen that at that time we already called AtlanticOcean "Atlantic", and this name has not been translated in any other way.

The Atlantic Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy is translated as the Caribbean Fleet in the mouths of Europe and the United States, and is translated as the Atlas Sea Fleet, which shows that the Europeans and Americans do not want the Imperial Chinese Navy to set foot in their Atlas Sea, and although the Chinese Imperial Navy is strong, they are not willing to admit it.

However, from December 15, they had to admit that the Atlantic Fleet of the Chinese Empire was indeed qualified to be one of their overlords in the Atlas Sea.

At three o'clock in the morning, the water reconnaissance aircraft of the Atlantic Fleet of the Chinese Empire spotted the British merchant fleet and the escort fleet.

At five o'clock in the morning, the main eighteen warships of the Atlantic Fleet headed for the intended ambush position, searching for traces of the British fleet along the way.

At 6:47 a.m., the main force of the Atlantic Fleet appeared in the sea area about 15,000 meters in front of the side of the British fleet. At the same time, the British convoy also discovered the main force of the Atlantic Fleet. The alarm sounded in the British fleet, and the British convoy began to line up.

At 8:12 a.m., when the two sides were close to 12,000 meters, they issued battle warnings to each other by constantly changing their tactical formations.

Since the primary goal of the British convoy was to escort ships, the speed of the merchant fleet affected the speed of the British convoy, and the Atlantic Fleet, by virtue of its speed advantage, was divided into four warbands to approach from the east, west, north, and south directions of the flotilla respectively, with the goal of attacking the British convoy, forcing the British convoy to protect the convoy in the center. In this way, the British convoy was passive, and they were led by the nose by the Atlantic fleet.

The various sub-units of the Atlantic Fleet also took advantage of this opportunity to look for loopholes in the British escort fleet, and if they did not attack, an attack would inevitably be fatal.

Although the Atlantic Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy had nine formidable battle cruisers, because it was the first time that a battle cruiser was used to attack a British Navy heavy cruiser formation, the commander was inevitably cautious, so both sides kept testing each other and did not take the lead in firing.

Both sides were playing psychological warfare, and the Atlantic Fleet hoped to constantly circle around the British ship regiment, thereby creating psychological pressure on the officers and men of the British escort fleet in order to gain the upper hand in the ensuing engagement. Similarly, the British Navy's escort fleet was constantly changing its defensive formations, hoping to frighten the Imperial Chinese Navy fleet and make them afraid of attacking the idea of a ship group.

The psychological warfare between the two sides continued until 10:50 a.m., and finally the Argylshire of the British 9th Cruiser Squadron did not hold its breath and took the lead in firing at the Storm, the flagship of the 2nd Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet.

"Knock knock!"

The starboard side of the Argylshire concentrated three 7.5-inch guns, three 6-inch guns and nine 3-pounder guns to fire at the light cruiser Fundsian, firing the first shot of the Battle of the Atlantic and the first naval battle in the history of the human navy.

The Argylshire was a 1st class cruiser of the Devonshire class, and was the weakest of the British escort cruisers in terms of firepower and tonnage. But despite this, the Argyleshire with a displacement of up to 10,000 tons is not something that only the Windsy with more than 3,000 tons can compete with.

The Storm was clearly no match for the Argylshire and immediately turned around to avoid it, and the Argyllshire's shells landed on the sea, setting off irregular water jets and waves.

The Windsy led the 3rd Squadron of the Windling, the Windshuttle, the Storm, and the Storm, and instead of engaging the British Ninth Cruiser Squadron, they chose to deal with the Seventeenth Destroyer Squadron of the British Frigate. Light cruisers come to fight hunting ships, this is the tactical purpose.

The British Ninth Cruiser Squadron was unable to catch up with the Fairy-class light cruisers, which had a speed of up to 28 knots, because the maximum speed was only 23 knots and the average speed was only 22 knots.

With the firing of the Argyllshire, the ships of the Atlantic Fleet also fired back, and the Battle of the Atlantic officially broke out, and the ships of the British escort fleet also opened fire one after another.

At the beginning of the artillery battle, both sides tested the shots, using the impact point to correct the trajectory and prepare for the next fire salvo. However, due to the difference in caliber and extension of British battleships, the impact point distribution of shells was very uneven, which brought difficulties to the comparative firing. The nine battlecruisers of the Atlantic Fleet were different, with uniform caliber and multiplied 305-mm guns evenly distributed, basically in the same straight line, and after several rounds of tentative shelling, they had accurate strike parameters.

At 11:15 a.m., the flagship of the First Squadron of the Atlantic Fleet, King Zhou Wuwang, led the four battle cruisers of the First Fleet, King Zhou Chengwang, King Zhou Kang, King Zhou Zhao, and King Mu of Zhou, suddenly accelerated, entered the limit speed of 27 knots, and suddenly shook off the British Seventh Cruiser Squadron that was circling with it, and circled to the rear flank of the opponent's flank.

(To be continued)