It should be said that Emperor Yang's guess was very correct, because at the time he made this inference, the fleet attacking the Strait of Otranto had already set sail, although this fleet together with the four Dante class of Italy had a total of sixteen capital ships, but there were more than 400 light warships of all kinds, from cruisers to destroyers to torpedo boats with a displacement of only a few tens of tons, all the warships that Britain, France and Italy could collect in the Mediterranean, not only surface warships, but even more than 20 Holland submarines owned by the French Navy were also dispatched. All that is prepared is to play a super-large wolf pack for the Austic fleet.

As for their opponents, if they only count the capital ships, their strength is also quite good, six combined force class and two Salamis-class, whether the former has a glorious record with heavy artillery and thick armor, or the latter's quality assurance from Yang's shipyard and those battleships with the same roots and origin are invincible in various battlefields in the world, all of which make up for their numerical disadvantage. But if you count light warships, the strength of this fleet is rather shabby, and even the Austro-Hungarian Navy and the Greek Navy have only more than 80 cruisers, destroyers and torpedo boats.

So when the huge Entente fleet appeared on the sea, the Greek fleet, which was on guard outside the Strait of Otranto, was directly stunned.

"What do you mean? They attack the enemy fleet from the perimeter? Admiral House, the commander of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, who had just taken office, couldn't help but sneer when he looked at the telegram sent back by the Greeks in his hand.

"These despicable guys, they're just trying to make it easier to escape." The chief of staff of the fleet next to him said angrily that the Greeks could see through the guise of a little brain, but in this way, the power to guard the Strait of Otranto was further weakened, and the Austro-Hungarian navy now had only sixty light warships.

"Leave them alone, just do our part." Admiral House said, and just as he was saying this, the huge coalition fleet in the distant sea had begun to appear. The six combined-force-class battleships immediately adjusted their formation, staggering their hulls in a diagonal line at intervals of one kilometer in the narrow strait. At the same time, all cruisers, destroyers, torpedo boats were in the rear of the fleet ready for a surprise attack, especially the seven light cruisers equipped with spear torpedoes with a range of more than 20 kilometers, which was the magic weapon of the Austro-Hungarian navy, and the maximum range at low speed was even more than 30 kilometers, which meant that these torpedoes could be attacked completely outside the range of enemy guns, of course, the hit rate would be very low.

Soon after the two sides discovered each other, an exchange of fire began, because the strait was too narrow for the Allied fleet to maneuver. This is especially true for a fleet of their size, where sixteen capital ships would not be able to move like this if they were lined up in a battle line, even if they were a few hundred meters apart from the front and back, and if they were to be placed on the side like this, they would easily become targets for those mysterious ultra-long-range torpedoes without tracks. Therefore, relying on the numerical superiority, the Allied fleet adopted the same attack method as the Austro-Hungarian fleet, lined up head to front, and both sides fought each other with the bow of the ship. In the first ten minutes of the battle. It was in this tedious way that the two sides poured shells on each other, from fifteen kilometers apart to within ten kilometers, and instead of inflicting heavy damage on the Austro-Hungarian fleet, the Allied fleet suffered heavy damage to a Dante-class of its own.

But then the real attack began. The first batch of thirty Allied destroyers and torpedo boats, like Japanese kamikazes attacking, rushed through the gap between the capital ships and braved the dense artillery fire from the opposite side. Try to bring the distance closer to three kilometers, and then fire a deadly torpedo at the optimal distance.

In the Austro-Hungarian fleet, which had been prepared for a long time, a group of light warships of a similar number also swooped out. On the combined-forces battleships, the secondary guns of 152 and 105 caliber also began to fire at the wolves of the Entente, and the destroyers and torpedo boats were disgusted by the explosion of shells, but the rest continued to charge. At the same time, the Austro-Hungarian destroyers that rushed out from the rear of the capital ship fired torpedoes directly before they entered the attack distance, and although they had not yet entered the optimal launch distance after firing the torpedoes, the Allied destroyers and torpedo boats also fired torpedoes one after another, and the tracks of steam gas torpedoes on the entire sea surface were intertwined, which looked extremely spectacular.

The light battleships that had fired the torpedoes immediately turned around, flashed their broadside fire to each other, and began to retreat while attacking in confusion, of course, there must have been a lot less to retreat at this time, whether it was on the side of the Entente or Austria-Hungary, and then we could only look at those torpedoes. On the capital ships of the various countries that are in the midst of the war, an observer is engrossed in staring at the sea, informing the conning tower at any time of the direction of the torpedo attack and then taking precautions to dodge, but the number of these torpedoes is too large to be avoided, and one capital ship in each of the fleets of both sides has been hit by a torpedo, but the results are very different.

The Prinz Eugen, which had been hit by a 533 mm heavy torpedo, just jumped up hard, and then nothing happened, but the battleship Dante, which was also hit by a 533 mm torpedo, was blown up by a 200 kilogram antimony charge in the bow of the ship with a large hole more than ten meters long, and then the sea water began to pour in, and the Italian battleship had to run to the side crookedly to study how to plug the hole.

This result was much to the dismay of the Allied sailors, but because of the importance of the battle, their light warships launched a second attack, this time on a larger scale and more organized, with light cruisers and destroyers fighting through the gap between the capital ships, and the numerous torpedo boats attacking from the shallow waters on both sides. It should be said that this trick was very effective, after all, the number of warships of the Austro-Hungarian fleet was too small, and the attacks in three directions made them exhausted, although they did everything they could not let a single enemy ship enter the five kilometers of the capital ship, but they still could not prevent them from firing torpedoes, hundreds of torpedoes were fired in a salvo and the target moved slowly, the hit rate was also very impressive, and almost all six combined-forces battleships were torpedoed.

However, to the madness of the Entente, even the Prinz Eugen, which had already been hit by three torpedoes, showed no signs of entering the water.

What they didn't know was that the battleship had actually been flooded, but the perfect watertight design solved this problem well, this giant ship with a full load displacement of nearly 30,000 tons was only equipped with nine main guns, and the displacement was not as good as its Edward VII class could be loaded with ten, and the battleship oil depot was half smaller than the Edward VII class, and the reduced weight was all used for armor protection and internal compartment design, as long as it was not an explosion of the ammunition depot, it was generally difficult to sink due to water ingress.

"Keep attacking!" Admiral May, commander of the Combined Fleet of the Entente Powers, resisted the hope of wanting to drop something, gritted his teeth and gave the order to continue the attack, knowing that every time he attacked, he had to lose at least a dozen or even dozens of destroyers and torpedo boats, and even a light cruiser was blown in half by a three-five-six-millimeter shell in the attack just now, and the torpedo boat sank when it sank, but the sinking of the cruiser was very heart-wrenching.

When he said this, he did not notice that fifteen kilometers away, on an Austro-Hungarian cruiser, two huge torpedo tubes were aimed at the battleship Edward VII on which he was riding, and after being confirmed by a specially hired Chinese torpedo engineer, the Austro-Hungarian sailors next to the launch tubes immediately pulled off the launch wrench, and two 630 mm heavy spear torpedoes flew out in an instant, silently attacking the British flagship from under the water.

And at this time the third offensive of the Allied fleet began, this time in order to be able to rush closer to achieve a higher hit rate, all replaced by cruisers and destroyers, the use of torpedo boats to attack such a fleet is no different from suicide, although the size is not easy to be hit, but this advantage is completely meaningless in front of the rate of fire of those medium-caliber naval guns, the rate of fire of 105 mm naval guns can reach more than a dozen rounds per minute, and the torpedo boat can be overturned without hitting and simply exploding next to it.

A British heavy cruiser was rushing out at high speed and firing to provide cover for the destroyer, while trying to rush to the close range to fire torpedoes at the United Forces with its armor and size advantages, but unfortunately it happened to hit a spear torpedo, and the charge of nearly half a ton was too cruel for this small ship of only 7,000 tons, and the entire capital of the ship was almost blown up at once, and it began to sink at a very fast speed.

"Super Torpedo!" On the Edward VII behind it, the sailors who saw this scene immediately let out a heart-rending scream, and then one by one they went crazy and ignored the cannonballs flying from the opposite side, lying on the side of the ship trying to find this terrible weapon, even Admiral May stared at the sea very unvividly, he knew very well that he was the target, this heavy cruiser was just a bad luck substitute, but the other side could not fire only one torpedo.

"There!" Suddenly, a sailor exclaimed, the clear waters of the Mediterranean Sea had helped them a lot, and a black shadow that swept by like a dolphin at high speed under the water had finally been discovered, but unfortunately there was no way to avoid it at this time.

In a scream, the huge torpedo crashed straight into the bow of the Edward VII, and the explosion instantly tore a huge hole in the bow of the giant ship of more than 20,000 tons, and the sea began to pour in wildly, and at the same time, the fire also spread rapidly inside the cabin, and the disadvantages of the lack of sufficient watertight design were immediately apparent, and the flames rushed almost unhindered to the ammunition depot under the nearest No. 1 turret, swallowing up piles of shells at once under the desperate gaze of those damaged soldiers. (To be continued......)

PS: Happy New Year!