After the battle, Yang Yonglin also led the fleet to slowly move towards the Windward Strait, and sent regular reports to try to contact Saivela's fleet, and made a report on the entire battle. What Yang Yonglin didn't expect was that when Yang Yonglin was rushing to the Xiangfeng Strait, the fleet led by Sevila had already entered the port of San Diego and had been preparing for more than 3 days. During this period, it was not discovered by the American cruiser, but after the discovery, it followed for a period of time and then evacuated, and now after getting Yang Yonglin's telegram, the reason for the evacuation of the American cruiser is already obvious, because the appearance of Yang Yonglin's fleet disrupted the Americans' plans, and in order to meet Yang Yonglin's fleet, Sevela ordered Scheer to rush to the accident area with two PISA-type armored cruisers to meet Yang Yonglin's fleet.

At this time, Yang Yonglin's fleet, which was sailing towards the Windward Strait, found that there were two faint plumes of smoke rushing into the clear sky on the sea, and it was obvious that two ships were heading towards them, and they were definitely enemies, after all, in this sea area, in addition to themselves, there should only be the American fleet. As for Scheer's detachment? It shouldn't have arrived yet, right?

Probably because of the distance, the American fleet did not realize that the fleet in front of it was the Spanish fleet and not the American fleet at first, but gradually approached as the distance progressed. The Americans spotted the scarred battleship, but still did not turn to evacuate, but continued to approach. And a signal was sent to ask for the identity of the other party.

"They might think we're the Dewey fleet." Looking at the two American ships in the distance, Jericho said.

"Dewey's fleet? How can it be? Siperl said with some surprise.

"You see, our entire fleet now is exactly 5 warships, the same number as the original Dewey fleet, and it is also two large and three small. The Santiago-class cruiser has a slender hull and looks about the same as the 7,000-ton Columbia from a distance, as for the three turrets of the Cologne? It's also good to disguise, don't forget. The New York side chord was also a three-turret. If the other side had not received the telegram from Dewey or Magiffin, they might not have known anything about this naval battle! Jericho analyzed.

"It's such a big ship, I just don't know what it's carrying on the road. Colonel Jericho, you return to the Santiago now, and we're going to capture them. Yang Yonglin on the side ignored the dispute between the two, in his opinion, it didn't matter what the other party misjudged because of something. The important thing is to get rid of them quickly!

"No problem, General Yang." Jericho smiled. Then left the conning tower.

Ten minutes later, Jericho led the two cruisers USS San Diego out of formation and headed for each other. At this time, after looking at the two cruisers that were rushing towards them, the two American ships finally noticed that something was wrong, turned around and left without saying a word, and ran in the northeast direction!

Supposedly, in the absence of an escort, the American transport ship encountered the attack ship of the opposing side. The best way to do this is to immediately choose to disband the formation and evacuate separately, but what Jericho didn't expect was that the other party still maintained the formation, and the speed had actually increased to 16 knots. Because he didn't know the name of the other party's ship, Jericho temporarily named the huge merchant ship in front of him as Taifeng, and the one in the back as bonito.

"This ship is so big, looking at the tonnage, it doesn't have to be a Dante-class battleship at all." Jericho said after looking through the binoculars for a moment. Jericho roughly estimated that the length of the ship was around 160 meters, while the width should be around 20 meters, judging by the ship type. The ship was supposed to be an ocean-going high-speed cargo ship. But what Jericho couldn't figure out was why the other party didn't disperse and escape?

The answer was soon revealed, when Jericho approached with two cruisers, suddenly several thick barrels protruded from the portholes of the side chord, and then with a flash of red light, a row of shells flew towards the Santiago at the head! At this moment, Jericho suddenly had the feeling of going back to 30 years ago, the era of the gun room! Several guns of varying lengths protruded from the Taifeng's side chord. Spit tongues of fire at the Santiago! One of the shells landed in the sea less than 5 meters away from the Santiago, and the water column from the explosion made Jericho's heart tighten, the other party is not a good stubble! This is an 8-inch gun! …,

"The side chord of the Taifeng is 2 8-inch guns and 6 6-inch guns. There were also some 6-pounder guns. The bonito was supposed to be five 6-inch guns and some 3-pounder guns. These two prey are really tricky. Jericho muttered to himself. If the two Santiago ships were in good condition, they would have been able to deal with these ships with no guns and no protection. But now the two cruisers not only lost a lot of firepower, but also basically bottomed out of ammunition. And the tonnage of the other side is so huge. For a while, Jericho felt a little tricky.

However, after a few minutes of firefighting, Jericho found that the opponent's artillery skills could no longer be described as poor, but should be described as quite poor, Jericho bet that the other party had not fired live ammunition for at least 2 years, except for getting too close at the beginning, allowing the other side to shoot close misses, the other shells were thrown into the water, and posed no threat to the two cruisers at all. At this time, the two cruisers also gradually entered the state, and the shells hit the Taifeng and the Bonito one after another. A short time later, two American ships burst into flames.

Then, the Taifeng began to speed up and tried to leave the Bonito to escape alone, but Jericho naturally couldn't let the other party succeed, leaving the Manila to attack the Bonito, and then he commanded the San Diego to pursue the Taifeng. And in the process of pursuit, the performance of the Taifeng surprised Jericho! This American ship, with a displacement of at least 12,000 tons, actually reached a speed of 21 knots! And this speed is basically the current limit speed of the San Diego! After a long voyage and battle damage, the ship simply could not run at high speeds of 23 to 24 knots, and 21 knots was already the limit!

Not only the speed, but also the protection, also surprised the Jericho. The average merchant ship is far inferior to a warship in terms of structural strength and compartments, which leads to the fact that, excluding the armor factor, a civilian ship of more than 7,000 tons may be inferior to a warship of more than 3,000 tons in terms of sinking resistance! Moreover, the damage pipe and fire extinguishing equipment worn are much less than those of warships, coupled with the scarcity of crews, which leads to a small fire that can lead to the sinking of a large civilian ship!

But this common sense is obviously not suitable for this behemoth in front of you. First of all, Jericho found out that the ship was actually armored! Although the thickness is not large enough, it is still possible to block some shrapnel. At least Jericho saw that a shell fired from a 12-pounder gun had successfully penetrated the outer deck of the ship and did not cause the cannon next to it to fail, which meant that at least the other side's gun gallery was protected.

In addition, the ship's damage management is quite powerful, a few small fire points quickly let the other party control, at this time the San Diego because of the remaining firepower and ammunition stocks, can not be as full output as in the naval battle, but as a merchant ship, it is not easy to control the fire area as soon as possible! Looking through the binoculars, the people who are fighting the fire on the surface of the ship are running back and forth, and in a trance, it makes people think that this is a warship and not a merchant ship!

And at this moment, the ship accelerated again! Although it was already a little overwhelming, Jericho concluded that if the opponent accelerated again, the Santiago, which is known for its high speed, would have a good chance of being thrown off! And this is an absolute insult to Jericho! If the ship is allowed to run away, then all the achievements he has achieved before this will be in ashes! This is something Jericho would never agree to!

"Pull on, we need to paralyze the opponent in the shortest possible time!" At this time, Jericho did not care about the other party's ferocious firepower. The twin-mounted 8-inch guns in the bow and stern also spewed tongues of fire. (Prior to this, Jericho, in order to save ammunition, did not order the main gun to fire.) As the distance between the two sides narrowed, the San Diego finally made the first main gun hit at 1.5KM, and this shell was fired into the stern of the Taifeng's hull. And the situation of the Taifeng at this time proves this. …,

A bright yellow fireball erupted from the stern of the Taifeng. Then there was a violent explosion, a puff of smoke poured out of the breach, and the behemoth of the Taifeng swayed back and forth as if it were drunk, and there was a deviation. Jericho estimates that the other party's wheelhouse may have been damaged!

After the rudder was damaged, the huge auxiliary cruiser was obviously unable to run for a short time, and Jericho gave a signal for the other side to surrender. The Taifeng, on the other hand, responded to Jericho's persuasion with ferocious firepower. The dense rain of bullets is once again smashing heads!

"Reckless fellow." Looking at the cannon muzzle that kept flashing flames in the distance, Jericho said with some annoyance, at this time, Santiago couldn't even play half of the combat power at its peak, and the other party was indeed difficult to deal with. The barrage of artillery turned the ship into a fire-breathing hedgehog! The Santiago was also a little troubled.

At this moment, two huge figures gradually appeared from the northeast. Jericho, who was in trouble, couldn't help but be surprised! But then he was relieved, because he saw through the telescope that the main gun layout of these two battleships was 3 turrets! And the identities of these two warships are also about to be revealed, Princess Maria and Okundo are coming!

Scheer took 2 armored cruisers to patrol at the north entrance of the Windward Strait to prepare to meet Yang Yonglin's fleet, but after not finding the target for a long time, the bold Scheer decided to sail north, because from the intelligence point of view, the main force of the American cruiser fleet has been heavily damaged, and the remaining cruisers themselves are not afraid at all, and the battleships of the US Navy cannot catch up with themselves, so what is there to be afraid of? So the daring German took the fleet around the Florida Strait, as if in his own back garden! And today, after receiving the radio signal from Yang Yonglin's fleet, he rushed to this sea area, but what he didn't expect was that he actually ran into Jericho who was fighting fiercely!

Thanks to the light reward of Shuyoushan and the monthly pass support of Athlon9527, LX731209, and ZXHFHH. A new month has begun, can you help one or two, from January 3rd. The author's subscription to a single chapter has not been on 500. The first day of the new chapter is only in his early 300s, so how motivated does this make the author——! (Your support is my biggest motivation.) )