In the bridge of the Giant's dreadnought battleship, Bridget, the commander-in-chief of the Combined Expeditionary Fleet, heard the report of the captain of the Giant, Ryan Meade, that the main fleet of the Chinese Imperial Navy was now within 20,000 meters of the three-way detachment of the Joint Expeditionary Fleet, and raised his hands to rub his somewhat stiff face to lift his spirits.

Originally, the Joint Expeditionary Fleet hoped to have a decisive battle with the main force of the Imperial Chinese Navy after coming to Asia, but now the Imperial Chinese Navy has really assembled the main force and fought a decisive battle with the Combined Expeditionary Fleet here, which is as the Joint Expeditionary Fleet wishes.

The problem is that the script has changed too much after that, and the bombers of the Chinese Empire that suddenly appeared blew up the United Expeditionary Fleet, and a large number of powerful battleships, the main guns have not yet fired a single shell, and they sank cleanly into the cold sea under the bombardment of the bomber group.

This is not the end, the intelligence shows that the 7 provincial dreadnought battleships of the Chinese Imperial Navy that have become existing warships do not only exist at all, but look at the strength of the bombardment of the dreadnought battleships of the Joint Expeditionary Fleet, they are definitely surpassing the dreadnought battleships in terms of combat effectiveness, that is, they have reached the standard of super dreadnought battleships.

What exists on a warship can only be used as an ornament, it's complete nonsense, and I don't know where those intelligence departments got the fake information.

These accidents combined to a big blow to Bridget, you must know that he is ready to take revenge this time, a few years ago he led the combined fleet of the Eight-Nation Alliance, and suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Chinese Imperial Navy. This time he became the commander-in-chief of the combined expeditionary fleet of the Entente and the Central Powers, and it was the best opportunity to wash away that humiliation. I never thought that the beginning of the decisive battle at sea would be so heartbreaking.

But Bridget knew that now was not the time for her to be downcast. When the two fleets approached to within 20,000 meters, the main guns of the dozens of dreadnought battleships of the joint expeditionary fleet could finally fire on the fleet of the Chinese Empire.

Bridget lifted his spirits and then said to the captain of the Giant, Ryan Meade: "Order the dreadnought battleships and all-steel battleships of the entire United Expeditionary Fleet to hurry back to the battle line, seize the T-shape, and prepare to fire a salvo of the main guns on the battleships of the Chinese Empire, it's time for us to counterattack!" ”

In order to escape the bombing of those bombers of the Chinese Empire. The dreadnought battleships and all-steel battleships of the United Expeditionary Fleet, with their neat battle lines, have become a little chaotic, and the battle lines must be rearranged.

Ryan Mead nodded and said: "The battleships have begun to rearrange the battle lines, with our current strength, they still have an advantage over the main force of the Chinese Imperial Navy, but we are worried that the bombing opportunities of the Chinese Empire will come back, and it will be a disaster for our joint expeditionary fleet." ”

There are not a few people in the entire United Expeditionary Fleet who think the same thing as Ryan Mead. Even many officers and soldiers of the Entente and Central Powers have already retreated in their hearts.

Bridget hesitated, then suddenly raised his voice and said, "These bombers of the Chinese Empire must be seaplanes, and there are only these two batches. Otherwise, they will continue to bomb us, and it will be very, very difficult for them to reload those seaplanes with aerial bombs on the water. Or even something that can't be done. ”

After a pause, Bridget said in a louder voice, "Yes! It must be like this. Inform the entire Combined Expeditionary Fleet of my analysis, those obnoxious planes. It will not appear again, so that the officers and men of the navies of all countries can concentrate their energies on the main fleet of the Chinese Imperial Navy on the opposite side, completely defeat them, and the victory will still belong to the righteous joint expeditionary fleet. ”

Bridget still thinks that the Sea Hawk bombers of the Chinese Empire belong to a kind of sea aircraft, otherwise he can't explain that hundreds of bombers can emerge on this vast sea, and he would never have imagined that the Chinese Empire could create a new type of warship called an aircraft carrier, which can run casually on the sea with fighter planes, and the fighters can directly take off from the aircraft carrier to attack the enemy's warships.

Bridget also hopes that his words can boost the morale of the officers and men of the navies of various countries, and after a series of blows just now, it is indeed very embarrassing.

When Ryan Mead heard Bridget's words, he thought it made sense, and his uneasy heart calmed down a little, but the uneasiness in his heart had not completely disappeared, he always felt that things were not so simple, and he had a vague premonition that those annoying and terrifying planes of the Chinese Empire would appear again.

At 9 o'clock in the morning of November 19, 1908, the main fleet of the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire and the joint expeditionary fleet of the Allied and Allied powers were approached to 20,000 meters, that is, they entered the range of the main guns of all dreadnought battleships on both sides, and the most fierce battleship bombardment in the naval battle began.

At this time, although the fleets of both sides had been divided into 3 routes, the 3 route fleets were basically in a parallel position, because the battle lines composed of dreadnought battleships on both sides were grabbing the T-shape, so that the battle lines composed of dreadnought battleships of the 3-way sub-fleets of both sides crossed and turned into three "eight" shapes, sailing together in a northwesterly direction farther away from the island of Sri Lanka.

The distance between the three subfleets of the two sides continued to be narrowed, and other types of warships followed behind the battle line composed of dreadnought battleships, especially the all-steel battleships also formed a battle line, waiting for the two fleets to close to about 10,000 meters, and then put into the battleship bombardment.

The Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire and the Combined Expeditionary Fleet, the dreadnought battleships of each sub-fleet were lined up in a battle line, and they were at the forefront of the sub-fleet.

At 9 o'clock in the morning, the dreadnought battleships of the Allied and Allied Combined Expeditionary Fleets finally fired the first round of main gun salvos at the main force of the Imperial Chinese Navy, and the dreadnought battleships of the three subfleets of the Combined Expeditionary Fleet. Almost simultaneously fired.

The shells fired from the main guns of the dreadnought battleships of the United Expeditionary Fleet had not yet fallen, and the 37 dreadnought battleships above the 3 battle lines of the Imperial Chinese Navy. The first salvo of all dreadnought battleship formations was also fired at the Combined Expeditionary Fleet.

Luck wasn't always in favor of the Chinese Empire, and the first round of the main gun salvo of the dreadnought battleships of the Combined Expeditionary Fleet was fired. There was 1 Dragon-class dreadnought battleship and 1 Phoenix-class dreadnought, which were hit by 305 mm main guns.

The Feng-class dreadnought battleship Fengming, which belonged to the second dreadnought battleship formation in the middle lane, 1 double-mounted 50 times the caliber main gun was hit by the falling 305mm armor-piercing shells, and it was immediately scrapped, so that the main gun firepower of the Fengming was lost one-fifth just after the battle, but compared to the injury of the dragon-class dreadnought, the injury of the Fengming was nothing.

One 305-mm armor-piercing projectile directly hit the Ryukoku of the 4th dreadnought battleship formation of the right fleet, penetrating the armor of the Ryugu at a 240-mm surface position. The explosion inside the hull of the Ryukoku suddenly opened a big gap on the left side of the Ryukoku, so that the sea water immediately poured into the Ryuko, and the officers and men of the Ryugu finally used the method of closing the hatch to temporarily stop the seawater from pouring into the ship's body, but the speed of the Ryuko, which carried nearly 1,000 tons of seawater, also dropped to 17 knots.

The 6 main fleets of the Imperial Chinese Navy currently have a total of 37 dreadnought battleships. Among them, the First Fleet has 7 provincial super dreadnought battleships, the Second and Third Fleets each have 6 Phoenix-class dreadnought battleships, and the other 3 fleets each have 6 Dragon-class dreadnought battleships.

The first salvo of the 20,000-meter joint expeditionary fleet achieved results, and the officers and men of the joint expeditionary fleet seemed to see hope for victory. The officers and men of the navy of many countries could not help but sweep away the depressed mood of being bombed by the fighters of the Chinese Empire, and cheered loudly, especially when they saw the first salvo of shells fired by the dreadnought battleships of the Chinese Imperial Navy. They all fell into the water near the dreadnoughts of the Combined Expeditionary Fleet, and even the 7 super dreadnoughts that had been firing their guns were no exception. No damage was inflicted on the Combined Expeditionary Fleet, and the cheers were louder.

This was followed by a second salvo of both fleets. The good fortune of the Joint Expeditionary Fleet continued, and 2 more Dragon-class dreadnought battleships of the Imperial Chinese Navy were hit by 305 mm shells, and even the provincial super dreadnought battleship Luzon was hit by 1 305 mm shell, but the luck of the Joint Expeditionary Fleet was not extremely good, and there was no one-hit kill, especially the rough and thick Luzon, the 305 mm shells did not bring much damage to the Luzon, only 1 anti-aircraft gun and 1 anti-aircraft machine gun were damaged.

In this naval battle, it was impossible for the Joint Expeditionary Fleet to have fighters for air support, so the injuries of the Luzon had no effect on the combat effectiveness.

In the second round of salvo, the luck of the Imperial Chinese Navy was somewhat restored, and two dreadnought battleships of the Combined Expeditionary Fleet were also hit, especially one of the British Navy's Neptune-class dreadnought battleships hit by 406-mm armor-piercing shells was seriously injured at once, and the speed suddenly dropped a lot.

The heavy sound of cannons continued to sound on the sea, waiting for the 3rd Route Squadron of the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire and the 3rd Route Detachment of the Combined Expeditionary Fleet of the Entente and Allied Powers. When the distance was about 11,000 meters, one hour had passed since the bombardment, and the main guns of the dreadnoughts on both sides had fired nearly 30 rounds of salvos, including 29 rounds of dreadnought battleships of the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire, and 27 rounds of dreadnought battleships of the joint expeditionary fleet of the Entente and the Central Powers.

However, the difference between the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire is that their 7 provincial super dreadnought battleships did not fire a salvo with the Dragon-class dreadnought battleships and the Feng-class dreadnought battleships in this 1 hour, and the main guns of these 7 provincial super dreadnought battleships had a faster rate of fire, reaching 39 rounds.

The reason why it can have such a high rate of fire is entirely because the ammunition feeding devices of the main guns of the seven provincial super dreadnought battleships are original to the United States in the future time and space. Even the bomb feeding devices of the Dragon-class dreadnought battleships and the Phoenix-class dreadnought battleships are modeled after the 7 provincial super dreadnought battleships, and they are not up to the original manufacturing level of the Americans in another time and space, and the rate of fire is not much higher than the fire rate of the main guns of the dreadnought battleships of the Europeans in this time and space.

In this one-hour bombardment of dreadnought battleships, the fleets of both sides suffered considerable losses, and all of them were losses of dreadnought battleships, and when the dreadnought battleships of both sides were bombarded, other types of warships, including all-steel battleships, consciously stayed away from the battle line composed of dreadnought battleships.

Everyone is not stupid, at this time it is completely the rhythm of looking for death, after all, other types of warships, at this distance has not yet reached the effective range of the main gun, if you get close to the battle line composed of dreadnought battleships, you can only be bombarded by giant shells, but there is no way to fight back, it is better to stay away!

As the fleets of the two sides got closer and closer, the hit rate of the main guns of the dreadnought battleships on both sides also increased, making the confrontation between the dreadnought battleships of the two sides more and more intense.

When the one-hour confrontation passed, the British Navy had 1 Majesty-class all-steel battleship, 1 Duncan-class all-steel battleship and 2 Edward VII-class all-steel battleships, the German Navy 1 Westphalia-class dreadnought battleship and 1 Nassau-class dreadnought, the French Navy 1 Lone class dreadnought, the Russian Navy 1 Russian-class dreadnought, the Austro-Hungarian Navy 1 Austrian-class dreadnought, the Ottoman Turkish Empire's 1 Dante-class dreadnought, A total of 10 dreadnought battleships of the Combined Expeditionary Fleet were sunk, and 3 dreadnought battleships were seriously damaged.

Comparatively speaking, the losses of the Imperial Chinese Navy were much less, but they were enough for the six commanders of the main fleet to feel sorry for.

The one-hour confrontation caused the Imperial Chinese Navy to lose 3 Dragon-class dreadnought battleships and 1 Phoenix-class dreadnought, and another 3 Dragon-class dreadnought battleships and 2 Feng-class dreadnought battleships were seriously injured and had withdrawn from the battle line and evacuated to the rear of the main fleet of the Royal Navy of the Chinese Empire. (To be continued......)