The flagship of the reconnaissance forces of the East Asian Army, the battle cruiser "Thunderbolt".

Inside the bridge, Lieutenant General Yuan Feng, who was standing solemnly with a knife, yawned loudly, he was very sleepy when it was time to eat, he was born like this, but at this moment, he had no intention of stopping work and eating.

In the past few days, his reconnaissance unit has been moving vigorously with the mobile troops, watching the planes in the sky come and go, go and come, but it is none of his business, and he has already been aggrieved by this impatient bald general.

Today, no, now, is the time to earn back all the losses that were lost before!

According to the report of the mobile unit earlier, at 9:30 a.m., the enemy's advance guard unit was located 110 nautical miles southwest of our army, heading at 40 knots and at a speed of 15 knots, and at 10:30 a.m., when the mobile unit issued the first air attack wave, it continued to report that the enemy's position was 80 nautical miles southwest of our army and was heading toward us at a speed of 24 knots. According to this calculation, if nothing happens along the way, the two sides should approach at a relative speed of more than 50 knots, and by now, close to noon, they should have appeared within visual range of each other's avant-guards, but......

Why didn't you see anything?

In the midst of the distraction, ominous news followed:

"At 5 o'clock, the group of unidentified aircraft approached the mobile unit!"

"Mobile Force Notification: When a large group of enemy aircraft is coming, our unit will meet it on its own, and then it will evade to the north, and your unit can concentrate on preparing for artillery battles, and in addition, pay attention to anti-submarine, the above-"

"The mobile unit turned eastward and signaled its headquarters to maneuver on its own."

Yuan Feng, who was holding back his strength, clenched his saber and slammed it on the floor, shouting in a bear-like voice: "Don't care about those flies, pass my order, and all the ships carrying the water planes will immediately send out their planes, and give me an inch by inch to search for them, I won't believe it-"

It was almost like shaking the bulletproof glass windows around the bridge to the point of clicking and cracking, and the roar of the bear came to an abrupt end. It's not because Yuan Feng has no strength. Instead, the news he wanted finally popped out of the mouth of a clever herald: an urgent telegram came from the light cruiser "Blue Leopard" at the left end of the outpost line - a large amount of black smoke had been found in the southwest direction!

"The Green Leopard Ship of the Telegraph: Confirmation of Arrival -- Another Dispatch of All Sailors to Carry the Ship. [ ] Send out all the water engines to the southwest. Prepare for the school assignment. ”

Gear up. Ambitious, Yuan Feng suddenly felt a rumbling in his stomach - not good. As soon as I got excited, I became even hungrier.

That's it. It's going to be almost an afternoon. It is not impossible to drag on until the night battle. You can't do it without a little bottom--think about it. Yuan Feng rarely called out to Lao Liang, the orderly guarding the hatch: "Old Liang." Get me some steamed buns in the kitchen. ”

Old Liang nodded his head and said, "Sir." Your lunch has arrived. Right outside the door. You say you don't want to eat it. I'll just put it out for now. ”

"What? Why didn't you get in sooner? Fast. Come over quickly - Staff Officer Xu. You haven't eaten yet, have you? Hurry up. Send a few people to the kitchen to get a light meal. ashu8 will fill in first. You can't go hungry and fight a tough battle! "Flagship. Battlecruiser "Lion".

“…… The Radiance has been abandoned, Vice Admiral Hood has been transferred to the accompanying destroyer, and the Oceans has 1 mine on the port side. There was a lot of water ingress, but it was controlled, but the speed dropped to 15 knots and it was no longer possible to accompany the advance guard. In addition, the destroyer Iron Wolf was hit by a mine on the port side and lost its ability to navigate, and is trying to rescue it. ”

After listening to the report of Lieutenant Colonel Revere, an intelligence staff officer. Vice Admiral Betty nodded emotionlessly: "The enemy should be nearby, we can't go into battle with these burdens, pass the order down, let Commodore Napier's 5th Light Patrol Squadron and the remaining two destroyers of the direct team, cover the Great Ocean and tow the Iron Wolf away from the main force, and avoid the direction of the main force - why, haven't you seen those broken ships of the yellow monkeys yet?" ”

Before she could finish speaking, the hatch behind Betty was loudly pushed open, and a young staff officer with an excited face rushed in. He couldn't wait to unfold the telegram in his hand and read it aloud: "The pilot ship Dublin is calling." A large amount of black smoke was found in the northeast, and 2 enemy Leopard-type cruisers have been confirmed! ”

The corners of Betty's mouth curled. Involuntarily clenched his fists: "Very good, it's finally here, the order - the whole team takes the first sailing sequence, prepares for the artillery battle, and takes off all with water planes!" ”

The order was quickly transmitted to the ships through radio waves, flags, and optical messages, and a huge wheel-shaped array of 49 ships drew a distorted white trajectory one after another, which quickly disintegrated and regrouped, and the three light cruisers "Goddess of War", "Browder" and "Blanche", which served as the rearguard, broke away from the group together with the two destroyers directly under the group, and went to cover the aircraft carrier "Ocean", which was left behind after being mined, and the ship was trying to contain the crew of the sinking "Brilliant" aircraft carrier while recovering the planes. And try to rescue the destroyer "Iron Wolf" that is floating on ground.

The 44 ships that remained in the middle of the large force were soon reorganized into three columns:

The main column in the center was led by the light cruisers "Dublin" and "Southhampton", which sailed in parallel, followed by the 4th Light Patrol Squadron, which was the vanguard of the troops, led by Bristol, Commodore Edlan, followed by the "Glasgow" and "Liverpool" of the same rank. Under the leadership of these five 5,000-ton light cruisers, Betty's flagship "Lion" led three other battle cruisers "Royal Princess", "Tiger" and "Indefatigable" and Rear Admiral Thomas's five fast battleships "Revenge", "Queen Elizabeth", "Brave", "Balham" and "War-weary" to march in a one-line column.

The left flank column was led by Commodore Goodnov's 2nd Light Cruiser Squadron flagship "Caroline", followed by the other three light cruisers of the squadron "Cordelia", "Komas" and "Conquest", and after the squadron was Colonel Ferry's 3rd Destroyer, including the lead flagship "Rapid" and a total of 1 L-class fleet destroyers divided into two sub-columns.

The right flank column was led by Colonel Wintertle's 1st Destroyer Fleet flagship, the Fierce, followed by 8 J-class fleet destroyers deployed in a 1st column.

The extreme part of the formation -- the "Dublin" and the "Southhampton" -- was rushing toward a target more than 10 kilometers away at an extremely high speed of more than 40 kilometers per hour: four light cruisers of the East Asian Army, "Green Leopard," "White Leopard," "Leopard," and "Xuan Leopard," all of which belonged to Colonel Zhu Qun's First Light Patrol Squadron of the Chinese Army, were five or six kilometers behind them. Lieutenant General Yuan Feng's reconnaissance unit of the East Asian Army was advancing in a three-way column......

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