After the second wave of air raids on the joint expeditionary fleet formed by the Entente, the Allies and the United States, the seas were in a mess, and many warships of the Combined Expeditionary Fleet still heard explosions from time to time, some mortally wounded warships were sinking, and more warships were emitting smoke, especially those large battleships, almost every one of them had smoke rising, and these battleships were the main targets of the carrier-based aircraft of the Royal Chinese Navy in the bombardment. More or less all suffered from some aerial bombs and even aviation torpedoes.

In the bridge of the Orion-class super dreadnought battleship Orion, the flagship of the British Navy, Bridget, the commander-in-chief of the Combined Expeditionary Fleet, looked out the bridge and observed the tragic scene outside the window, and couldn't help but look gloomy, and said to the captain of the Orion, Ray McCal, with a wry smile: "It's miserable! It's so miserable! 2 rounds of air raids allowed us to lose at least a fifth, or even a quarter, of the strength of our joint expeditionary fleet! ”

Remekar held a piece of paper in his hand, which not only contained the data on the losses of the British Navy in the second round of air raids, but also the number of British naval losses in the first wave of air raids, Remekar sighed and said: "Commander, the losses are indeed too great, in the second wave of air raids by the Chinese Imperial fighters, our British Navy lost 1 Neptune-class dreadnought battleship, 1 Giant-class dreadnought-class dreadnought-class battleship, 1 Dreadnought-class all-steel battleship, 1 London-class all-steel battleship, plus the battleships lost in the first wave of air raids, Our British Navy has sunk 8 battleships, including 1 super dreadnought, 3 dreadnoughts, and 4 all-steel battleships, in addition to the 2 waves of air raids, our British Navy also sank 3 large fast armored cruisers, 7 fast protection cruisers, 7 destroyers, and 1 torpedo boat. It was blown up and sunk, which is really unacceptable! Commander. We must not allow the warplanes of the Chinese Empire to launch wave after wave of bombardment of our combined expeditionary fleet here. If it continues to be bombed like this, our joint expeditionary fleet will be in danger of being completely annihilated, and I don't think it would be as good as ......."

Before Remecal's words were finished, Bridget nodded and said, "You're right, Captain Remacular, our Combined Expeditionary Fleet must not be able to hold out here and let the fighters of the Chinese Empire carry out wave after wave of air raids on us!" Since the navies of other countries do not even have the courage to take the lead, then it is up to our British navy to take the lead and pursue in the direction of the departure of the Chinese Imperial fighters! ”

Ray Makar listened to Bridget. Immediately, the expression on his face was very tangled, and before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by Bridget, in fact, Remekar wanted to say that it was better to order the entire United Expeditionary Fleet to temporarily retreat and avoid its edge, after all, the number of fighters that the Chinese Empire could dispatch to carry out air strikes far exceeded the expectations of the commanders of the Combined Expeditionary Fleet, and the Combined Expeditionary Fleet was in a sea battle with the main fleet of the Chinese Imperial Navy after 2 waves of air raids. Already at a disadvantage, Ray Makar really wanted to shout, Your Excellency Commander, you have misunderstood, I don't want the British Navy to take the lead. I want to retreat!

However, Ray Makar opened his mouth and did not dare to say what was in his heart, in fact, Remekar also knew very well in his heart that it was absolutely impossible for the Combined Expeditionary Fleet to retreat now. Domestic heads of state will not agree, and neither will the vast majority of naval commanders. Even Bridget, who wanted to wash away the shame of this expedition, would not agree, this joint expeditionary fleet that had placed the expectations of countless people. It must not be possible to end this expedition with two waves of air raids, in that case, many people will be unlucky, and Bridget, as the commander of the entire joint expedition, will bear the brunt.

Bridget then said loudly: "Order the navies of all countries to immediately count the losses, leave a few warships to rescue the officers and soldiers who have fallen into the water, and then the navies of all countries will follow the navy of our British Empire and pursue them in the direction of the departure of the Chinese Empire's fighters, find the warships of the Chinese Empire that can carry the fighters as soon as possible, and sink them!" ”

Soon after, the losses of the Combined Expeditionary Fleet in the 2 waves of air raids were counted, Bridget took the loss statistics sheet given to him by Ray Mecal, and his hands couldn't help but tremble, the losses were really great, the navies of 8 countries sank a total of 2 super dreadnought battleships, 14 dreadnought battleships, 19 all-steel battleships, 1 ironclad battleship, 11 large fast armored cruisers, 28 fast protection cruisers, 32 destroyers and 3 torpedo boats.

The reason why the torpedo boats of the Joint Expeditionary Fleet suffered few losses was that the carrier-based aircraft of the Imperial Chinese Navy did not take torpedo boats as attack targets at all, and two of the three torpedo boats that were sunk were aerial bombs that fell into the sea water next to them, and the waves that blew up directly overturned the two torpedo boats with a displacement of about 200 tons, and the other one torpedo boat was directly sunk by a 100-kilogram aerial bomb thrown by the carrier-based aircraft.

In addition, the submarines of various countries of the Joint Expeditionary Fleet did not lose any losses in the two waves of air raids, and the submarines of various countries with no air defense capability wisely stayed away from the surroundings of the battleships at the beginning of the first wave of air raids by the carrier-based aircraft of the Imperial Chinese Navy, and then all of them dived into the sea.

When Bridget saw this loss list, he was even more determined that he must find the warships of the Imperial Chinese Navy that could carry fighters as soon as possible, otherwise he would not talk about washing away any shame this time, and if he didn't get it, he would have to increase the number of fiascos.

In addition to giving Bridget the loss statistics sheet, the captain of the Orion, Remekar, also reported to Bridget, and the fleet commander of the German Navy, Tessim, sent a telegram that the German Navy was willing to go to the forefront of the entire joint expeditionary fleet, pursue the direction of the departure of the Chinese Imperial fighters, and find the main fleet of the Chinese Imperial Navy.

Bridget thought about it for a while, and agreed to Tessim's request, although Bridget had decided to let the British Navy take the lead in pursuit, but now that the German Navy has taken the initiative to jump out, it can't discourage the enthusiasm of the German officers and soldiers, so let the German Navy be at the front!

Shortly after the second wave of air strikes by carrier-based aircraft from the aircraft carriers of the Royal Chinese Navy, the Joint Expeditionary Fleet finally moved in the direction of the three aircraft carrier battle groups of the Royal Chinese Navy. The navies of various countries left only a few fast protection cruisers and destroyers, in the sea areas that were under air attack. Salvage the officers and soldiers who escaped from the sunken warship floating on the sea.

The German Navy was at the front, followed by the British Navy, the American Navy, the French Navy, the Italian Navy, and the Russian Navy. As well as the last Austro-Hungarian navy and the navy of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, at this time, the officers and men of the entire joint expeditionary fleet did not have the same spirit as before the air raid, and the air raids of the two waves of carrier-based aircraft have already blown up the hearts of the officers and men of the United Expeditionary Fleet, and many people have already doubted the victory, can we still defeat the main fleet of the Chinese Imperial Navy?

At this time, about 140 kilometers away from the Joint Expeditionary Fleet, the three aircraft carrier battle groups of the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire were approaching the direction of the Joint Expeditionary Fleet at a speed of 14 knots. It is believed that it will not be long before the fleets of the two sides will meet on the sea, and a confrontation between battleships is inevitable.

Before the battleship bombardment, according to the distance between the two fleets, the carrier-based aircraft of the Royal Chinese Navy aircraft carrier could carry out at least two or three waves of large-scale air strikes, and the strength of the joint expeditionary fleet was further weakened, which made Sun Xitao, who was in the bridge of the super dreadnought battleship Fengtian, the flagship of the First Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy, look like he was holding a cup of coffee in his hand. Standing in front of the observation window in the bridge, watching the carrier-based aircraft that are landing one after another in the sky, these are the carrier-based aircraft of the first wave of air attacks, they have been returning to the sky above the three aircraft carrier battle groups for some time. However, each aircraft carrier has only one runway for landing, and it takes a lot of time for carrier-based aircraft to land one by one.

The 9 aircraft carriers that Lin Daxin got from the future time and space all have 2 flight runways. One for take-off and one for landing. In this way, the aircraft carrier can release the carrier-based aircraft while recovering the carrier-based aircraft that have run out of ammunition. Forming a continuous attack on enemy ships, the Mythical class aircraft carriers built by the Chinese Empire itself, using only a single runway.

The first wave of carrier-based aircraft that had landed on the aircraft carrier, the operators on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier began to help these carrier-based aircraft reload aerial bombs or aerial torpedoes in preparation for the third wave of air strikes against the Joint Expeditionary Fleet.

Yin Jian, the captain of the Fengtian, walked up to Sun Xitao and said: "Brother Sun, the second wave of carrier-based aircraft groups has completed the bombing and started to return, according to the news from the second wave of carrier-based aircraft groups, they have sunk more than 10 battleships of the Joint Expeditionary Fleet, but the accurate data is still impossible to know, but it is certain that the Joint Expeditionary Fleet has suffered a lot of losses in the air raid." ”

Sun Xitao asked: "What about the losses of carrier-based aircraft in the second wave of air raids?" ”

Yin Jian immediately replied: "The losses are also very large, at least hundreds of carrier-based aircraft crashed in the second wave of air raids, and the accurate data of the losses of carrier-based aircraft in the first wave of air raids have been counted, our first wave of 720 carrier-based aircraft, in the air raid lost a total of 124 aircraft, including 31 Seagull fighters, 72 Sea Eagle bombers, 14 Sea Eagle dive bombers and 7 Puffin torpedo bombers. ”

Sun Xitao frowned slightly, and then said: "The warships of the Joint Expeditionary Fleet are basically equipped with new anti-aircraft guns and anti-aircraft machine guns, and our carrier-based aircraft launch air strikes against them, and losses are inevitable. It's a pity that the high-altitude bombing sight developed by our Chinese empire has not been made, otherwise the loss will be much smaller, at least the Sea Hawk bombers do not have to risk dive bombing, in the first wave of air raids, 288 Sea Hawk bombers lost 72 at once, which is equivalent to the loss of a quarter, that is, the loss of 72 Sea Eagle bomber crews, this loss is big enough, and it seems that the second wave of air raids, the loss of Sea Hawk bombers is definitely not small. ”

Yin Jian said: "But everything is worth it, the battleships of the Combined Expeditionary Fleet have been bombed and sunk at least more than 20, maybe more than 30, so that our Imperial Chinese Navy has a very big advantage in this naval battle, I believe that a few more waves of bombing of the Combined Expeditionary Fleet, maybe there is no need for battleships, and our Imperial Chinese Navy will win this naval battle!" ”

Sun Xitao put the coffee cup in his hand on the platform under the observation window, and then turned his head to Yin Jian and said: "Relying on the air attack of the joint expeditionary fleet by carrier-based aircraft alone, maybe it can really blow up the joint expeditionary fleet, so that the main force of our three fleets does not need to start a frontal naval battle with the joint expeditionary fleet to achieve victory, but the carrier-based aircraft of our aircraft carrier will definitely suffer very serious losses in many air raids, only the first wave of air raids we lost 124 carrier-based aircraft, and the second wave also lost more than 100 aircraft. After a few more waves of air raids like this, I don't know how many carrier-based aircraft will be left of our 9 Emperor-class aircraft carriers! ”

Yin Jian nodded when he heard this and said, "Yes! We can bear the loss of carrier-based aircraft, but the pilots and crews of those carrier-based aircraft are very valuable to our Chinese Empire, especially pilots, and it is not easy to train them. ”

Sun Xitao looked up at the nearly 200 carrier-based planes in the sky that had not yet landed, touched his chin and said to Yin Jian: "I consider whether to temporarily stop the next wave of air raids on the Joint Expeditionary Fleet, and then the main forces of our three fleets quickly approach the current remnants of the main force of the Combined Expeditionary Fleet. During the air attack, the warships of the Joint Expeditionary Fleet are pinned down by the main forces of our three fleets, which is bound to reduce the losses of the air raid, and because of the containment of our warships, it will be relatively easier for carrier-based aircraft to bomb the warships of the Joint Expeditionary Fleet. ”

Yin Jian thought about it for a while, anyway, to defeat the joint expeditionary fleet, in the end, it is necessary to rely on the frontal battleship to bombard, the loss of the bombardment is inevitable, there are carrier-based aircraft in the sky to carry out air strikes, can also play a complementary role, reduce the losses of the three fleets in the head-on battle, so Yin Jian also agreed with Sun Xitao's tactics, and then Sun Xitao immediately sent a telegram to the commanders of the other 2 fleets, as well as the commanders of the 3 fleet aircraft carrier formations, asking the other commanders what they thought of his tactics, As a result, Jiang Chen, commander of the Second Fleet, Ma Yan, commander of the Third Fleet, Zhen Li, commander of the aircraft carrier formation of the First Fleet, Fan Yongchang, commander of the aircraft carrier formation of the Second Fleet, and Shi Youming, commander of the aircraft carrier formation of the Third Fleet, sent telegrams back one after another, agreeing to temporarily suspend air raids, and the main forces of the three fleets and the joint expeditionary fleet narrowed the distance and launched a decisive battle against the battleships. (To be continued.) )