"We need to divide the opponent and gain a local advantage before we can rush out of the city, and we will not have a chance at all if we don't defeat the 2nd Fleet in front of us." Makanov looked at the Huaxia fleet in the distance and said to himself, this self-talk, which is almost equivalent to nonsense in the eyes of outsiders, is actually the key to really solving the current dilemma! The key to breaking through the opponent's defense line is not the total strength of both sides, but the strength that is directly used for attack and defense!

"The speed advantage of the four battleships of the Huaxia Navy is not very large, and if we put in all the remaining auxiliary warships, we may not be able to get a first start. What is really terrible is the opponent's firepower and protection, even if we get the first hand to achieve a certain degree of advantage, the other side can still rely on the spear in the hand and the heavy armor on the body to regain the initiative, more importantly, the Chinese Navy also has a fast fleet with super mobility and striking power, if this fleet plugs the leak, the so-called first-mover advantage of the Russians will soon disappear invisibly! Makanov said this when explaining his tactics.

"We must suppress the fast battleship formation of the Huaxia Navy, and we must block the four battleships of the Huaxia Navy from the battlefield, at least for a while. Only then will it be possible for us to break out of the ground. But unfortunately, at that time, we no longer had auxiliary warships to complete this task, and the only remaining warships were not even capable of cannon fodder in the face of the giant guns and light cruisers of the Huaxia Navy. So we have to make sacrifices, sacrifice part of the capital ships in exchange for the success of the fleet's breakthrough! ”

And what warships are in the hands of the Russian fleet now that can be sacrificed? If you consider it according to the criterion of minimum losses, the two last armored cruisers of the Russian-Dutch Navy are undoubtedly the best choices. However, the protection of these two warships was really unable to withstand the indiscriminate bombardment of the heavy artillery group of the Chinese Navy. If this is the case, then the result is that the battleship sinks, and you still can't break through.

The two battleships of the Dutch VII and the Catherine were also not good. Let's not say whether the Dutch will oppose it, purely from the perspective of fleet strength, Makanov is not willing to lose these fast battleships, especially the seven provinces, which are definitely classic battleships, if there are no seven provincial fast battleships, then the Russian-Dutch naval fast fleet is doomed to perish. And once there is no excellent fast fleet as a reconnaissance force, then the Russian-Dutch fleet, which has been seriously weakened, may become completely blind!

After thinking about it, Makanov decided to abandon the Retvizan, which had been seriously injured and slowed down, and another quasi-dreadnought. The former is difficult to run out, while the latter is very low in combat effectiveness, and if you lose it, you will lose it! After having cannon fodder, then the remaining focus even if you choose to break through from there. It is not advisable to continue on the path at the beginning. Don't say anything else. Even the speed of these two cannon fodder ships can't keep up with the Essen fleet, and the gap between them will inevitably lead to a situation like the one when the first breakout, the seven provincial battleships are out, but most of the fleet is blocked! At this time, Essen didn't have the ability to go back to the rescue!

In the next assault operation, the Essen fleet will continue to sail at high speed and then turn to make a gesture of repeating the old trick and then mobilize the fast fleet of the Chinese Navy, and then after the two fleets of the Chinese Navy open the gap, the two selected cannon fodder battleships will launch a suicidal charge under the cover of the remaining 5 Russian dreadnoughts. After the main fleet of the Chinese Navy is attracted, the remaining Russian warships will quickly pass through this gap. And if you can, Makanov wants to flank the fast fleet of the Huaxia Navy with Essen, and the Longtai class cannot be destroyed, but in the face of the two Longxu-class battlecruisers, Makanov still has a lot of ideas!

Makanov was obviously a person who decided to do it immediately, and before the Huaxia Navy was ready to attack, the Russians did it first! The layout of the Russian fleet remained unchanged, with the five remaining fast warships of the Essen fleet still at the front of the fleet, followed by the Retvizhan and the Russian Navy's last quasi-dreadnought, the Potemkin. Behind were 5 dreadnoughts in Makanov's hands and the few remaining mine-strike ships. Then the Essen fleet once again braved the gunfire of the fast battleships of the Longtai class and began to accelerate the impact! And this time, without the accompaniment of thunderbolts and light cruisers, the Russian Navy will bleed with every step!

In the face of the Russian Navy's "uncreative" breakthrough operation, Ye Zusi also had a trace of doubt in his heart, after all, it is obviously not such a reliable thing for a person to fall twice in such a short period of time, especially since Essen and Makanov on the opposite side are not idle! However, this doubt quickly disappeared, because in Ye Zusi's opinion, as long as Yang Yonglin's fleet can entangle Makanov, then he is guaranteed to make a profit here! The Essen fleet, which has no combat effectiveness, will definitely not pose any mortal threat to itself!

More than 30 large-caliber guns kept bombarding the Russian fleet that was desperately charging, in this battle, two seven-level fast battleships were fired at, although the protection was excellent, but in the face of repeated strikes like raindrops, these two fast battleships that had experienced too many battles were obviously to the extent of running out of fuel! WITH A LOUD BANG, THE A-TURRET OF THE SEVEN PROVINCES WAS COMPLETELY DESTROYED, THIS TURRET FINALLY FAILED TO WITHSTAND THE THIRD BLOW, THE FIRST TWO HITS HAD SERIOUSLY DAMAGED THE STRUCTURE OF THE TURRET, AND THE ARMOR PLATES ALSO FELL OFF AND CRACKED, AND THE THIRD SHELL COMPLETELY PENETRATED THE TURRET, THE POWERFUL ARMOR-PIERCING PROJECTILE TORE THROUGH THE HEAVY PROTECTION, SPUN INTO THE TURRET AND EXPLODED AFTER COLLIDING WITH THE TAIL OF A 274MM GUN! With a loud thunderous sound, a bright yellow pillar of fire rose into the sky, tongues of fire gushed out from the breach, and continuous explosions and metal cracking sounds came from the turret, making people feel chills after hearing it! It was as if the bell of doom had already sounded.

While the foredeck of the Seven Provinces turned into a bloody hell, the Amsterdam was also having a hard time, with a dense rain of bullets sweeping the entire superstructure to pieces, the armor belt at the waterline was repeatedly hit, large parts of the ship's planks were shattered, and the armor belt behind it was peeled off due to shaking and explosions. The entire battleship was tilted to a certain extent due to water ingress and sidechord damage. As for the Catherine in the back, it was almost like a dead fish at this time. There is no role other than continuing to stay on the battle line and share some of the blows.

Behind the Ekaterina is the Dutch Navy's last armored cruiser, the Rotterdam, this cruiser with a 10-inch main armor belt is still holding on, because it has not been taken care of by the opponent's 12-inch level guns in several engagements, so it is okay to live now, but in the face of the attack of the capital ship-level artillery, although it is not a key target, the Rotterdam is already a little unbearable. After being hit three times in a row, the most elite armored cruiser in the Russian-Dutch Navy had no ability to fight back. However, the Varyag armored cruiser, which had been at the tail of the team, was lucky, because of the angle, Ye Zusi did not give it much "care". It was just a fierce blow from the secondary artillery.

If this continues, the result waiting for the Essen fleet is that the battleships are killed one by one, and just when everyone thought that the battle was decided, Makanov finally acted! Under the cover of the last torpedo boats, the Retvizan and Potemkin left the battle, and the billowing smoke from the smoke canisters on the battleships and torpedo boats formed a smoke screen that completely covered the two battleships! "They're going to force a cross-cut?!" Looking at the Russian fleet in the distance braving the rain of bullets from the Huaxia Navy, Yang Yonglin suddenly felt bad in his heart!

Obviously, the current situation is that 7 warships of the Russian Navy are forcing the gap between the two fleets of the Chinese Navy! If it is a head-on battle, Yang Yonglin will definitely not worry, but the current situation is that the fast fleet of the Huaxia Navy is pinned down by the Essen fleet, and it will not be able to come back for a while and a half, if it is forced to make a U-shaped U-turn, it is certain that the other party will run away, and maybe it will be shot in the process of turning, so neither Yang Yonglin nor Ye Zusi will do this, and if not, I am afraid that my 4 battleships will have to face the opponent's 7 capital ships. Yang Yonglin understands very well that these two battleships are cannon fodder, and sooner or later they will be his dish, but the other 5 may be able to run out, and it is difficult to say if they bite back!

"The fleet evaded, concentrated fire on the Retvizan and the Potemkin!" Under Yang Yonglin's order, the four battleships of the Huaxia Navy attacked the two battleships while trying to distance themselves as much as possible. Faced with the attack of nearly 40 heavy guns, the Retvizan, which had already been heavily damaged, could not hold on to it at first. "We have no idea how many shells hit the poor battleship in just 10 minutes after Commander Yang gave the order. Its entire hull trembled in flames and smoke after the explosion, bright yellow flames had flooded the field of vision, and from the scope we could see the occasional exposed mast. A Chinese naval artillery commander wrote in his diary.

"The Letvizan walked very calmly, it sank slowly to the bottom of the sea, the damage to the side of the ship made the water intake irretrievable, the draft of the battleship increased rapidly, and the whole freestring sank to the bottom of the sea quickly. We tried to rescue the people on the deck, but the rain of bullets kept us out of reach, and when the two torpedo boats were destroyed, we abandoned the plan altogether. Thousands of officers and men on the entire battleship sank to the bottom of the sea with their battleship! This is how Makanov described the end of the battleship in his memoirs.

The destruction of the Retvizan was not meaningless, and during this not long period, Makanov led the main fleet through the most dangerous stage, and formed a cross-cutting situation against the Chinese fleet, and the Russian fleet, which had a positional advantage, had more options!

Thank you for the monthly ticket support of Brother Kongchen~~~. (To be continued......)