The two warring sides of the battle line can choose to gallop against each other, or they can choose to drive in the same direction, generally speaking, these choices are made because of the battlefield situation, if it is an encounter, there are not many choices that can be made between each other, when the two sides maneuver to seize a favorable position, what pattern is formed to engage in what pattern, but at this time, the combined fleet first seized the downwind line, and the battle line has been placed, and the Qing army naturally has the maneuver to choose the formation. A longitudinal queue was formed at the far end, and then the rear drove unhurriedly into the battlefield.

"Order the ships to go diagonally thirty degrees and move forward!"

As soon as the battle line of the Qing army sailed to the battlefield, Edward Vernon, who was standing on the foredeck of the "Brave", immediately noticed that something was wrong, and instantly understood the intention of the Qing army's move, which was intended to rely on the advantage of artillery range and power to take the combined fleet by surprise, and he refused to obey the will of the Qing army, so he hurriedly issued an order, and with the flag soldiers waving two small flags, the order was quickly transmitted to the ships, and immediately, the ships of the combined fleet changed their course one after another. Diagonally inward, he faced the Qing army array and killed it.

"Order: All ships immediately change course, at an angle of thirty degrees to the east, and widen the distance between them and the enemy ship array!"

As soon as the combined fleet changed direction like this, Wang Yanxia did not dare to sit idly by, and hurriedly ordered the whole fleet to adjust its direction in order to widen the distance between them.

When the Grand Fleet is driving in the battle line, it is not easy to adjust the course, it is by no means a single order can be done, the two armies have begun to adjust one after the other, and the formation is inevitably a little chaotic, there is nothing else, after all, the Combined Fleet is a multinational force, although there is no difference in the flag, but there is a big gap in the training level of sailors in various countries, although the British Navy is acting quickly, but the French and Portuguese fleets are obviously not in tune, Even if the officers and men of the two navies have gone all out, their tactical actions are obviously lagging behind by a large margin, so that the British navy, which has already completed the maneuver, has to slow down and wait for the backward navies of the two countries. The longitudinal distance between the vanguard warships led by the two sides was already less than 300 meters, and there was not enough time left for the combined fleet to maneuver again.

"Order: All ships will be inclined to another twenty degrees, and resolutely lean up!"

Faced with the result of the maneuver, Edward Vernon's heart was very unwilling, no side, if the battleships participating in the battle were Britannica, the result of the maneuver at this time must be completely different, with the ability of the British navy, it is completely possible to close the distance between each other before the Qing army's maneuver is completed, even if it is impossible to get close to the usual combat distance of 200 meters, it is enough to close to the distance of about 600 meters, and when the two sides exchange fire, they can continue to maneuver and approach, At least it will not let the Qing army's firepower advantage be brought into play, but unfortunately the efforts of the British Navy have been completely blinded by the dragging behavior of the French and other navies, seeing that the Qing army's artillery superiority is about to be brought into play, Edward Vernon did not want to be beaten in vain, and after gritting his teeth, he still decided to take a risk.

"Order: Ships fire in turn as appropriate!"

Although Wang Yanxia has noticed the move of the combined fleet to adjust its course again, but it is obviously not caring, in his opinion, this is already a move to change the formation in battle, in addition to the chaos of the formation, it can not really achieve much effect, there is nothing else, according to the speed of the two armies in the opposite direction, even if the combined fleet can close the distance, it is not enough to close the distance of 300 meters when the battle line crosses, at most, the dozen or so warships at the end of the two armies will shoot one or two rounds at a relatively short distance, in terms of the battle situation, The impact is not great, the Qing army's artillery advantage can still be well played, as for the two sides to turn around and start hedging again, the Qing army can make adjustments again to ensure that the distance between the two sides will not be too close.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

Wang Yanxia's order had just been conveyed to the ships, and the "Zhenyu", which was the first ship in the Qing Dynasty's battle line, had already sailed to the position side by side with the Spanish second-class battleship "Federde", which was the first in the combined fleet, although the Spanish battleships were driving diagonally at this time, the distance between them was still about 1,100 meters, although the Qing army's medium guns could also get the opponent's battleship, but the captain of the "Zhenyu" Lin Xudong did not order all the guns to fire, but only let the fourteen heavy guns on the lower deck shell in turnWith the rumbling sound of cannons sounding one after another, 14 conical blasting shells pierced the sky, whistling and smashing towards the "Federly", but unfortunately the distance was a little farther, none of the 14 shells hit, only one hit a near miss, and a huge wave exploded less than five meters away from the "Federde".

"Heavy artillery counterattack!"

Although the Qing army's first round of artillery bombardment was fruitless, the captain of the "Federly" Federlander did not intend to be beaten in vain, even if the effective range of the heavy guns equipped on his ship could only be just enough for the "Zhenyu", but he still gave the order to counterattack, and immediately, the eighteen heavy guns on the bottom of the "Federly" were fired one after another, but they also failed to hit the target, and they did not even miss the bullet.

Although the array lines of the two sides are not full sails, but after all, they are hedging, and staggering is just a matter of blink of an eye, whether it is the "Zhenyu" or the "Federly", it is already wrong to attack the other side again before they have time to attack each other, and soon, the two "Wei" ships on the Qing army's array line that are almost connected from end to end rushed forward again, and the "Weiwu" in second place and the "Weiyuan" in third place opened fire one after another.

This time, the "Federly" was not as lucky as before, first by the "Weiwu" a heavy cannon smashed on the second gun deck on the side of the side, and was immediately gnawed off a large piece of the ship's side by the huge power of the blasting shell, two medium naval guns were completely destroyed, more than a dozen gunners were either killed or wounded, and then, the "Weiyuan" heavy guns and medium naval guns opened fire in unison, and three of the twenty shells hit three, one of which was a blasting shell fired by the heavy artillery, which hit the foredeck of the "Federery". Suddenly a huge crater was opened on the foredeck, and the flying shrapnel swept in all directions, and several sailors who were busy on the deck were blown into a sieve, and although the two medium-sized flowering shells hit the side side, they failed to penetrate the thick side of the "Federly", except for blowing up two shallow pits, there was not much gain, but a heavy cannon of the "Federy" smashed on the rear deck of the "Weiyuan", although it penetrated the aft deck of the "Weiyuan" and fell on the second gun deck. However, only one unlucky Qing gunner was injured by the indiscriminate shells -- the medium artillery of various Western countries had already begun to use flowering shells, but the heavy artillery still used solid shells, and the reason was that the research on the huge size of flowering shells had not yet been completed, and the 32-pound heavy artillery flowering shells were not stable enough and were in danger of exploding, and all countries, including the British navy, did not dare to equip them with their navy.

In addition to the first few consecutive bullets, the "Federly" began to be lucky again, and successively fought with the 21 Qing warships that staggered by, but was not hit, but successively hit the "Zhenning", "Weimeng" and "Weiting" in the Qing army's array line with heavy artillery, but unfortunately because of the range of the artillery, the results were not too big, and only the "Weiting" was slightly unlucky, and was hit by two heavy shells on the same position on the side of the side, a medium naval gun was destroyed, four gunners were killed, and one was seriously injured.

Good luck could not last long, and the lucky journey of the "Federly" finally came to an end in front of the Qing army's flagship "Zhenyang" -- the "Zhenyang" fired a round of full broadside salvos, 14 heavy guns and 36 medium guns fired in turn, and eight heavy artillery shells and 10 medium-sized flowering shells actually hit the "Federderick", of which four heavy explosive shells hit the side of the "Federed", two hit the foredeck, and the other two smashed into the middle building of the "Federdy". The 10 medium-sized flowering bombs hit all over the hull of the ship, not to mention that the main mast of the "Federde", which had run out of good luck, was blown off, and the ship was also on fire, thick smoke billowed up, the officers and men suffered heavy casualties, and the speed slowed down in an instant, even if the officers and men on the ship tried their best to put out the fire, it was difficult to stop the loss, and the entire battleship burned into a huge torch.

Although the "Zhenyang" has missed the opportunity to give the "Federly" the final blow because of the route, the "Weiming" and "Weishun" ships that followed it will definitely not let go of the "Federly", which has almost lost all speed, and seized the opportunity to shell repeatedly, and the ferocious firepower overwhelmingly covered the "Federly", although the distance between the two sides is still about 700 meters, but for the Qing gunners, Eighty percent of the salvos fired by each of the two ships hit the target, and what was even worse was that the two explosive bombs of the "Weishun" hit the waterline of the "Federly" fiercely, and immediately blew up the central waterline of the "Federed." A large amount of seawater poured wildly into the hold of the "Federderick," and the three waterspaced compartments were damaged one after another, and the entire battleship tilted uncontrollably to the right, and finally fell to the surface of the ocean, and sank to the bottom of the sea in a whirlwind. Of the more than 800 sailors on board and the captain of the ship, Vice Admiral Ferdiland, less than a third of them had time to abandon the ship, and the rest were taken to the bottom of the sea by the shipwreck.

Perhaps due to the bad luck of the "Federly", the luck of the "Zhenyu", which was the first to fight with it, was not too good, and fought all the way through, but the results were always few, and nearly 20 warships of the Combined Fleet passed through one after another, firing fourteen rounds of salvos, but only five shots were hit, and none of them caused much damage to the Combined Fleet, but the "Zhenyu" itself was hit by four heavy flowering shells in a row in the hands of the "Brave", the flagship of the Combined Fleet......