At 15:15, the British ship "Forwood" spotted a denser column of smoke on the northern water antenna.

Almost at the same time, the North Korean ship "Yanghua", which was at the forefront of the East Asian Fleet, also spotted black smoke spreading over the water antenna to the southeast.

Bernie gritted his teeth, and the trapped beast was still fighting.

Ma Shengyu is gearing up, and he is determined to win.

Looking down from the 6,000-meter sky, the situation between the two sides is clear at a glance:

The rear of the Four Nations Combined Fleet has changed to the front team, and the front team has become the rear team, and it is retreating to the northwest of Lingjiayen Bay at a speed of 14 knots. Eight colonial-type cruisers and two gunboats of the advance guard were in front, the remaining five battleships of the main force were in the right rear, and the remaining six armored cruisers of the rear guard were in the right rear of the main force, and the columns were parallel at an interval of 23 nautical miles. The front of the right column line was covered by light forces - the front guard was covered by 3 American destroyers and 4 torpedo boats, the main force was covered by 16 destroyers of the 9th and 10th British destroyer fleets, and the right front of the rear guard was 9 French and Dutch destroyers. In the previous melee with the mine strike forces of the East Asian Army, the Combined Fleet lost a total of 4 destroyers and 1 torpedo boat.

To the north of the Four-Nation Combined Fleet, 61 ships of the East Asian Army's main force in the South China Sea are heading southwest in a tight formation at a speed of 14 knots -- like a thick steel curtain wall inserted into the front of the Combined Fleet.

If this continues, within an hour, the four-nation combined fleet will become the one under the T-shaped vertical and crash headlong into the fully unfolded firepower of the East Asian fleet.

At that time, the tragedy of Russia's Second Pacific Fleet 10 years ago will be ......

Bernie didn't want to be the second Rozhestvensky.

At the current rate, it will take at least two hours for the Combined Fleet to completely bypass Kabaruyan Island and rush out of the bay.

Of course, it is impossible to get out of the way.

The most valuable thing in the fleet is the five remaining battleships, plus the two battleships that were damaged by the submarine and returned to port first—these seven capital ships will be the basic force of the Pacific and even the Indian Ocean in the coming months to resist the attack of the East Asian army, and not a single one can be lost.

As long as the remaining battleships can break through the encirclement, all the sacrifices will be worth it.

With this belief in mind, Bernie gave orders to the Guard, the Rear Guard, and the Destroyer Fleet to which he was attached: Charge the enemy fleet at full speed!

A few minutes later, the 16 destroyers attached to the main force first turned their bows and accelerated towards the enemy fleet. This was followed by 6 armored cruisers and 9 destroyers of the Guard.

To Bernie's astonishment, after the flagship of the avant-garde, the "Lone Pull," sent a signal to the "Malaya" to "obey orders," the whole team suddenly fell into confusion, and it turned out that the US warships in the team ignored the order and accelerated out of the formation, trying to escape from the bay before the East Asian fleet blocked the retreat route.

"Coward! Idiot! I really shouldn't have rescued you trash! ”

Bernie cursed, but he was helpless, watching as the eleven ships of the US army broke away from the avant-garde formation and rushed to the gap between the forward of the East Asian Fleet and Kabaruyan Island.

In fact, although the United States is also a party to the Far East Pacific Agreement, due to the influence of domestic isolationism and pacifism, its Asian Fleet has never participated in the annual joint exercises of the Far East Fleets of Britain, France and the Netherlands. It seems to fit the usual image of those hillbilly nouveau riche.

Bernie didn't think much about it, and once again ordered the guard: "Leave those sunken ships alone, and charge the enemy fleet avant-garde!" ”

In Bernie's opinion, the fleeing American ships had sunk.

Soon, the lookout on the "Ruixiang" sounded the alarm: "The port side has discovered the enemy destroyer group of cruisers and is attacking our main force!" ”

"The enemy destroyer group has been spotted in front of the port side, and it is outflanking our advance guard in two ways!"

"The enemy central column is casting a smoke screen!"

Ma Shengyu frowned.

"Strike the teams and intercept the enemy destroyers! The ships of the main force and the avant-garde column are ready for anti-lightning operations! ”

"The vanguard mounted patrol team accelerated towards the cape and closed the enemy's escape route."

"The light patrol of the rearguard immediately moved closer to the main force to assist in intercepting the group of enemy cruisers that were coming by surprise."

At about 3:45 p.m., the "Yanghua" of the 1st Light Patrol Brigade of the Korean Army on the left side of the avant-garde column fired the first shot of the main force of the South China Sea at the British ship "Fordwood", which was rushing at full speed, and the battle began.

Immediately afterwards, the ships of the Japanese Light Patrol First Squadron in front of the advance guard also began to fire at the group of American ships that were trying to rush through the front of the squadron, and the American ships immediately returned fire with 6-inch and 5-inch cannons, and at the same time fired torpedoes one after another from a distance-

A few thousand yards away from the port side of the avant-garde column and the main column, the 24 destroyers of the East Asian Army and the 19 destroyers of the Shikoku Allied Forces quickly snapped into each other -- even so, the torpedoes fired from the destroyers of the Allied Forces from a distance still caused a lot of trouble to the avant-garde and the main column.

At this moment, the armored cruisers of the allied rearguard column took the opportunity to speed up their penetration, inserted themselves between their main column and the main force of the East Asian fleet, and supported their destroyer units with heavy artillery fire. After a while, the bullet hole on the left spewed flames, the right ship slanted into the water, the bow deck shells jumped wildly, the stern deck was full of blood, the steel pieces were scattered with stumps, and the flames burned flesh and scorched - a clear blue sea, which turned into a hell of fire and water in an instant.

"No, if you continue like this, you won't be able to capture the enemy's main force at all."

Ma Shengyu was secretly anxious, the enemy's light forces were completely blocked between his main force and the enemy's main force, and the fierce battle between the light forces of the two sides caused a long smoke belt, which seriously hindered the observation of his own capital ships, and the enemy's main forces had been constantly releasing smoke screens since just now, and most of their own capital ships could not observe the enemy's main ships at all.

To make matters worse, a large black cloud from the southwest is pressing low towards the warring sea – which means a storm is coming!

According to the weather forecast transmitted by the Ministry of Intelligence, the weather around Lingayen Bay was sunny to cloudy throughout the day.

The thick black clouds that came in front of me were the forecast - cloudy?

——————

Good book recommendation: Liuwei Dihuang "Demon Inheritor", ISBN 1002404.

——Take you into a different demon world!