Whether it was the Nanyang Naval Division or Colonel Fokk's fleet, the long engagement had drained the energy and fighting spirit of both sides. The losses of the Nanyang Fleet were relatively large, so it was decided to withdraw from the battlefield and withdraw to the northeast, wanting to join up with Deng Shichang's armored cruiser as soon as possible. The Russians were more hesitant, on the one hand, they were really unwilling to give up the two already injured warships, after all, there were two capital ships behind them, but on the other hand, it was too dangerous to keep in contact with enemy ships for a long time in the opponent's waters. Behind him is the Essen fleet, and behind the South Ocean Fleet is the North Ocean Fleet and the Foreign Ocean Fleet! The devil knows when a few armored cruisers will suddenly appear in the road!

At this time, it was already more than 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and Colonel Falk Hill decided to continue the tracking after informing Essen, if Essen's fleet could arrive in time, even if the other side's reinforcements were in place, it should not be a big problem to hold out until the evening and then evacuate, right? Falk Hill thought about it, but he was still unwilling to give up!

In this way, 2 battleships slowly withdrew, and 2 battleships slowly followed. Moving towards the northeast together, and at this time, the two fleets of Deng Shichang and Essen, who were hurrying towards the battlefield, finally appeared in the field of vision of Ding Zhuqian and Fox Mountain! Relatively speaking, the situation on both sides is not too good or too bad, after a long battle, the balance of strength between the two sides is rebalanced, and it is difficult for both the Beiyang and the Russian fleets to eat each other!

"General Deng Shichang? We meet again! Looking at the Tianjin armored cruiser and the flag hanging on it that gradually became clear in the distance, Essen secretly complained in his heart. The current situation is no longer up to Essen, Essen can be sure that as the most offensive general in the Beiyang system, even if the two cruisers in his hands are slightly weaker, he will definitely attack himself without hesitation! This is not a reckless decision, but a kind of bravery and wisdom that goes out of their way to achieve strategic goals!

Now the situation is like this, the Russians have come out of the elite and played all their hole cards! All fleets were exposed to the eyes of the North Ocean, there were no ambushes, nothing was hidden. The Beiyang Fleet, which received the news, will definitely rush to the surrounding waters at full speed. Then a big net will be laid on the periphery and waiting for the Russians to throw themselves into the net! For the Russian fleet at this time to quickly withdraw. Disappearing from view of the North Ocean is the best option. As the record improves, your own life is more important!

At this time, Beiyang is different, fighting in his own territory, there are more brothers behind him, what Deng Shichang needs is to drag the opponent, even if it is a one-on-one exchange! The Russians could not be reupplied. Without reinforcements, as the battle progresses, the performance of the battleship will become worse and worse, and once it cannot maintain even the most basic speed after the battle, then the result can only be annihilated by the Beiyang Fleet, which has an absolute advantage in strength! So at this time, Deng Shichang did not hesitate, and commanded the 2 PISA-class armored cruisers under his command to rush forward!

Facing the two Beiyang patrol ships that rushed up. Essen is completely depressed, it is impossible to run by himself, there are two armored cruisers of the Sea of Azov with oil bottles by his side, and the Vostok and Tatar have not returned, unless Essen throws away these 4 battleships and runs away by himself, otherwise, the Prince and the Russian must be given to the friendly palace! "Just fight, if you really fight hard, anyway. I'm not afraid of Deng Shichang! Essen said with a sigh.

"Keep your distance. Don't rush too close, just hit slowly from a distance. "Deng Shichang is aggressive, but it doesn't mean reckless. The dense group of rapid-fire guns on the Prince and the Russia makes people frightened, if they don't have something to do and rely on the firepower projection so closely, wouldn't it be uncomfortable? Moreover, his 6-inch secondary gun has an extremely limited effect in the face of the heavily armored Prince and the Russian, so it is better to give full play to the advantage of fire control and use long-range hits to slowly consume the opponent! Deng Shichang doesn't expect to solve these two behemoths in one battle, let alone expect these two battleships to eventually become his own record, he just hopes to keep these two battleships, which is very realistic and very rational!

At a distance of 6KM, the Tianjin and Dalian slowly rotated the twin 10-inch 40L turrets and aimed their guns at the Russian one, which was traveling almost in parallel! In terms of target selection, Deng Shichang considered it this way, at such a long distance, only large-caliber guns could cause damage to the patrol, and compared with 8-inch and above caliber guns, the Prince only had 2 12-inch and 1 274MM heavy guns. THE RUSSIA, ON THE OTHER HAND, HAS 4 274MM GUNS AND TWO 8-INCH GUNS THAT CAN BE PUT INTO ONE SIDE ENGAGEMENT. In addition, the protection of the Russian is not as good as that of the Prince, and it is easier to attack the Russian to achieve results! So Deng Shichang took the Russia as the primary target.

The 12 10-inch guns of the two PISA-type armored cruisers were pointed at the Russo, which was located at the tail of the line, and the rangefinder located at the highest point of the battleship also locked the poor battleship! With the issuance of the salvo order, the two battleships were still test-fired, still in the half-salvo mode, each battleship fired 3 shells per round for correction, in order to prevent confusion between the water columns of the two battleships' shells, Deng Shichang also specially ordered the launch of the Dalian in the back to be slightly later, so that the observation of the two warships would not be confused.

If in the previous battles, the German fleet faced artillery bombardment like a thunderstorm, although fierce but extremely short-lasting, basically a round of salvos, emphasizing explosiveness, then now the rain of bullets faced by the Russian can be called a rainy season! Although it is not violent, it lasts for a short time, and a wave of shells will hit almost every ten seconds! Some are close misses, others fall a little farther away, but under constant shelling and correction, the accuracy of the artillery is getting higher and higher! In the fourth round of shooting, the Tianjin successfully hit the target, and then in the fifth round of shooting, the Dalian also succeeded! When he saw that the Russoya was close to missing bullets on the left and right, Essen's heart sank violently, and he knew that after the rainy season, it should be a violent storm!

"Shoot at the highest rate of fire! Sink the Russia! "After the successful straddle fire, the gunners of the two armored cruisers shouted and poured a deadly rain of bullets on the Russia! The two battleships quickly switched to all-salvo mode, and every 30 seconds or so, a wave of 6-gun salvos was fired! Sometimes, there are even 12 shells weighing 227KG that fly towards the Russian at the same time, and in such a wave of attacks, the Russian will have to withstand nearly 2 tons of shells!

In such a dense rain of bullets, it was only a matter of time before the Russia was shot, and in the 8th salvo, two 227KG armor-piercing shells smashed this French Russian ship! A shell passed through the upper edge of the rear main armor belt of the Russo, and after tearing through the 4-inch armor, it hit the dome armor that protected the propeller shaft, and because of the angle, the shell did not penetrate the dome, but was ejected by the thick dome armor, and exploded on the other side of the hull after passing through several compartments. Under the violent impact, the leftmost drive shaft of the Russian suffered a slight failure, but it was able to continue to be used. Another armor-piercing round hit the bow of the ship, leaving a piercing hole directly at the waterline of the hull.

Just as the Russian damage management team went to extinguish the fire and plug the breach under the leadership of the officer, another 10-inch shell hit the sidechord armor belt of the Russian with heavy protection, and the heavy protection blocked the blow, and the shell did not penetrate, but it did not mean that there was no damage. Thick armor plates broke at the joints, and a huge gap appeared in the otherwise flat armor belt. Then another 10-inch shell completely destroyed a 6-inch gun gallery in the amidship of the Russian hull, and no one survived the entire gun crew!

Although the effect of these 4 shells was average and did not cause fatal damage to the Russia, for a long time, the Russia will definitely not be able to withstand such a high frequency of strikes. Looking at the Russia, which was already on fire at the tail of the team, Essen gritted his teeth and ordered the fleet to deviate 1 to the left to launch an approaching attack on the Beiyang Fleet! If you want to get the hunter to give up the prey in his hands, then the only way is to defeat him. In long-range artillery battles, the large number of medium-caliber guns of the Prince and the Russian cannot exert the corresponding power, so Essen needs to seek an advantage through hand-to-hand combat!

The Prince quickly turned to draw a huge arc on the surface of the sea, and the Russian followed the flagship maneuver, and because of the change in navigation parameters, the hits of the two PISA-class armored cruisers plummeted and had to be re-ranged and compared. In the face of Essen's desperate play, Deng Shichang only ordered the fleet to deviate half to the left, so that the two battleships in Beiyang could seize the T-shaped crosshead and prevent the other party from approaching him too early.

"Concentrate firepower on the opponent's flagship, the Prince, and beat him back!" LOOKING AT THE PRINCE WITH TEETH AND CLAWS, DENG SHICHANG SMILED CONTEMPTUOUSLY, THE MAIN GUN FIREPOWER THAT THE PRINCE CAN USE IN THIS COMBAT SITUATION IS ONLY 1 12-INCH GUN AND 1 274MM GUN, SUCH A WEAK FIREPOWER IS A JOKE TO DEAL WITH THE PISA TYPE OF PATROL! The distance between the two sides was close to 4KM, and the heavy artillery was basically a direct fire, and after omitting the step of shooting, as many as 12 heavy guns on the two armored cruisers washed the deck of the Prince fiercely!

With two violent explosions, the Tianjin and Dalian almost simultaneously hit the Prince who was rushing like a bull, and one shell hit the main turret of the Prince fiercely, and the huge shock made the 12-inch gun temporarily disabled, while the other shell hit the left side of the Prince control tower, blowing several cabins to pieces, and casually swept away a 5.5-inch gun. And as the distance approached, the secondary guns of the Beiyang Fleet also began to rain bullets on the Prince, and the dense high-explosive shells turned the foredeck of the Prince into a sea of fire.

"The right rudder is full, and the battle column parallel to the Beiyang Fleet is re-maintained." Essen, choked by the smoke wafting from the foredeck, immediately ordered. Now that the distance has been reduced to about 3,500 meters, in order to ensure sufficient output, the Russians must reline the battle line parallel to the North Ocean. At the beginning, due to the angle problem, although the Russian avoided the attack of the other side, it was also unable to exert firepower, and now, it is time for the Russians to take revenge!

Thank you for the reward of the constellations soaring in the universe, and the monthly pass support of the book friends with a breeze~~. Anyway, looking at the subscriptions this morning, 333 is basically the lowest subscription since the book began.