The tactical maneuver of the Qing army was extremely fast, and just when the combined fleet approached half a mile and a half from the Qing army's battle line, the two wings of the Qing army suddenly came out together, and two sub-fleets advanced at high speed, instantly sealing the possibility of the combined fleet maneuvering and escaping at both ends, and the whole shape was like a huge pocket open on the ocean, waiting for the combined fleet to break inside. ●⌒Sanjiang Pavilion,

"Stay in line, get ready to hoist the sails!"

Although the tactical maneuver of the Qing army was sudden, but on such an empty ocean, he could not hide Edward Vernon's observation, but the number of warships under his command was limited, although he saw through the tactical intentions of the Qing army, but there was no choice but to direct his warships to continue to move forward at a constant speed, and gradually, they had driven to the edge of the big pocket arranged by the Qing army.

"All ships are here, full sails, thirty degrees to the left, full speed!"

Walking into the pocket formation of the Qing army, it means that it will be besieged on three sides, and the enemy is outnumbered, it is absolutely difficult to have the slightest luck at all, this point, Edward Vernon knows it very well, he is unwilling to let the Qing army be at the mercy of it, just when the combined fleet is about to step into the pocket formation of the Qing army, but see Edward Vernon suddenly raised his hand and gave a loud order to change direction.

"Order: The 1st and 2nd Fleets will move forward with full sails to block the enemy ships, the 17th and 18th Fleets will turn to the left to block the possibility of the enemy maneuvering to the right, and the rest of the ships will turn around on the spot and keep their formation in order to prevent the enemy from breaking through the chaos!"

Wang Changgeng has always been keeping an eye on every move of the combined fleet, and when he saw that the combined fleet suddenly accelerated to the left, he immediately understood Edward Vernon's tactical intentions, which was nothing more than wanting to rely on the powerful sailing ability of the sailors of the combined fleet to destroy the tactical arrangement of the Qing army.

When it comes to sailing ability, the Qing army is indeed slightly worse than the British fleet, but this gap is not too big, plus there is radio contact, the ability to respond is actually much faster than the combined fleet, with Wang Changgeng's order, the Qing army's various fleets moved in unison, especially the first and second fleets reacted the most quickly, a rapid forward insertion, has been blocked in front of the combined fleet, two large warships, six medium warships lined up, firmly seized the T prefix, If the combined fleet dares to march to the left again, it will inevitably be sacked by the artillery fire of the two major fleets of the Qing army, and even if it can really break through the blockade, the battle damage will inevitably be not small.

"All ships obey the order: go thirty degrees to the right and go straight into the enemy formation!"

Seeing that the Qing army changed its formation so quickly, Edward Vernon's heart couldn't help but sink, but he didn't mess up because of this, and he wouldn't stupidly break into the battle line where the first and second fleets of the Qing army had already been deployed, but seeing that he waved his hand, he made another adjustment to his tactical maneuver.

"Order: The 1st, 2nd, 17th, and 18th fleets will keep their formation unchanged, stop the two flanks of the enemy ships, and the course of the rest of the ships will remain unchanged, and the half-sails will be slow!"

The combined fleet was so changed direction and slanted at high speed, and in an instant, it had rushed closer to less than a nautical mile away from the Qing army's array line, and at this time, the Qing army's battle line had not yet been able to stabilize the battle line arrangement due to the turn of the turn, and the formation was inevitably a little disordered, and it was difficult to concentrate fire and attack.

"Order: Each ship is centered on its own ship, immediately turn thirty degrees to the left, arrange in a battle line, and prepare to engage the enemy!"

The reason why Edward Vernon constantly adjusted the course, in addition to testing the reaction ability of the Qing army, was actually not lacking in the idea of seeing if he could take advantage of the chaos to break through, but this was not fundamental, there was no side, after many hard battles with the Bohai Fleet, Edward Vernon had a general understanding of the Qing army's tactical literacy, and he knew that if the strength of the fleet in front of him was not under the Bohai Fleet, the combined fleet would not be able to fight out of the encirclement without a fight, so Edward Vernon's real purpose was actually only one. That is to rely on the continuous mobilization of the Qing army's formation, to achieve the goal of getting as close to the Qing army's battle line as possible, the reason is very simple, the Qing army's artillery is too powerful, if the distance between the two sides can not be narrowed, the combined fleet's artillery to the Qing warships is not enough threat, can only be beaten, it is difficult to cause a fatal attack on the Qing warships!

"Order all ships to keep a tight formation in a sub-fleet and prepare to engage the enemy!"

With the change of direction of the combined fleet again, the distance between the two sides was close, and Wang Changgeng did not order the change of formation again, but seeing that his face was solemn, he waved his hand and gave the last order before the battle.

As the saying goes, there are gains and losses, and although the combined fleet succeeded in seizing the customary combat distance of about 200 meters from the Qing army's battle line through constant changes of direction, it failed to achieve the tactical maneuver of driving in the same direction as the Qing army.

The East China Sea Fleet has exhausted its main force this time, with a total of 88 large and small warships, excluding the eight high-speed cruisers loitering around the battlefield, as many as 80 of them actually participated in the battle, of which the 1st, 2nd, 17th, and 184th sub-fleets have 16 battleships to blockade both ends, and there are still 64 warships lined up on the battle line, of which 16 are large warships, and the rest are medium-sized warships, and the specifications of each type of warship are no different from those of the Bohai Fleet, while the combined fleet has only 31 warships, including three second-class battleships. Nine third-class battleships, fifteen medium-sized battleships, and the other four were cruisers, which were not suitable for a decisive battle of this scale, but the combined fleet had reached the end of the mountain, and even the cruisers, which were pitifully small in tonnage, were also lined up in the array line.

"Fire!"

"Fire!"

……

With the passage of time, the front end of the two parallel lines finally converged at a distance of two hundred meters, the Qing fleet was led by the "Zhencheng", the captain of the ship, Rear Admiral Lin Shuangrong, and the combined fleet was led by the Spanish second-class battleship "Whirlwind", the captain of the ship, Vice Admiral Aranda Dias, and the two sides gave the order to open fire almost at the same time.

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

With the order of the two captains, the two ships began a fierce shelling almost at the same time, and in the rumbling gunfire, shells of different sizes staggered through the air, whistling and smashing towards their respective targets, and the hit rate was quite good, among which the "Zhencheng" had five heavy artillery blasting shells hit the "Whirlwind", and another eight medium shells also smashed on the front and rear decks of the "Whirlwind", and they also hit four heavy artillery solid shells, five medium flowering shells and six small shotguns.

Judging from the hit rate, the "Whirlwind" was obviously slightly superior, but judging from the results obtained, it was diametrically opposed, and although the power of the Spaniards' 32-pound shells was not small, three of them smashed into the thickened side of the "Zhencheng", and only smashed a few not shallow pits, and then they were bounced away, and only one was hit on the three-story gunhole of the "Zhencheng", which destroyed a heavy gun of the Qing army on the spot, and several gunners were either killed or woundedThe damage brought by the "Zhencheng" was not great, and only a few sailors were injured by the flying projectiles, and the other sail was broken, in general, the attack of the "Whirlwind" did not cause too much trauma to the "Zhencheng", and on the other hand, the "Whirlwind" was bombarded by the "Zhencheng" so wildly, the hull was instantly blown out of five huge holes by five heavy explosive shells, the fire on the bottom gun deck was raging, four heavy guns were destroyed on the spot, and the gunners of each gun position suffered heavy casualties. There was also a heavy shell smashed near the waterline, and a huge opening was made at the waterline of the "Whirlwind", and a large amount of seawater rushed into the water compartment, which immediately reduced the speed of the "Whirlwind", and the medium-sized flowering shells that hit its front and rear decks caused a sky-high fire, just such a counterfire, the "Whirlwind" has been hit hard, there is no doubt that this is not a tactical gap, the fundamental reason is that the difference in the power of the artillery of the two sides is too great!

The Qing army had many warships, and it was natural to put on a dense formation, and the "Whirlwind" had just fought with the "Zhencheng," and the "Weiyan" and "Weishan," which were immediately behind the "Zhencheng," caught up one after another, and unceremoniously bombed the "Fury," which had already suffered heavy damage, until the "Whirlwind" burst into flames, and soon lost the strength to fight again, and the officers and men on it jumped into the sea like dumplings, struggling and shouting in the water.

"Open the cannon and sink it for Lao Tzu!"

Although the "Whirlwind" has basically lost its combat effectiveness, but the last battleship of the Third Fleet, the "Weiren", does not intend to put a yard on it, with the captain Yao Xuwu's order, twenty cannons fired in unison, a full fourteen shells suddenly hit the "Fury" that was already unable to move, in the violent explosion, the huge "Whirlwind" could no longer support, circled on the sea surface a few times, and then slowly sank into the water, the captain Vice Admiral Arandadiyaz refused to abandon the ship and fled, sinking with the ship, Bu Yi started a war, The Combined Fleet has suffered a heavy blow!

"Order: All ships concentrate on attacking the enemy's lead ship and make sure it is sunk!"

Edward Vernon tried his best to shorten the combat distance between the two sides, thinking that he could rely on his own tactical literacy to achieve a situation that competed with the Qing army's artillery superiority, but he never thought that the distance was shortened, but the advantage of the Qing army's artillery power became more and more obvious

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