Since you can't figure it out, don't think about it. Looking at the rapidly approaching Huaxia fleet, Essen eliminated all kinds of distractions and began to deal with this most critical battle! Essen is also a seasoned veteran, he always believes that he will not be worse than anyone else in terms of tactics, and now, Essen finally found an opportunity to prove himself, he constantly marked the trajectory of the two sides on the drawing board, and estimated the distance and relative speed of the two sides, after some deduction, Essen successfully chose to turn and pull away from the battle line after five minutes, at this time, as long as the opponent did not have a big maneuver, he would definitely crash into the T-shaped head of the Russian fleet!

With the click of the stopwatch, the Huaxia fleet still quickly received the enemy along the original route, 3 minutes passed, the distance between the two sides has been shortened to about 12KM, if it was under normal circumstances, the Huaxia fleet would have already opened the battle line to bombard the opponent, and this time, they are still indomitable! Essen felt as if his heart was in his throat, not because he was afraid, but because he thought it was definitely an opportunity to achieve fame! Pulling closer to 3KM, the Huaxia fleet entered the effective range of the Russian fleet, and at this time his fleet was ready to turn, and the course of the Huaxia fleet had not changed! This is already a step slower for yourself!

Just after the Catherine turned 70 degrees at high speed, the two seven-level fast battleships and two Dandong-class battleships behind it also began to turn. And the Huaxia fleet on the opposite side finally had a new move, 8 light cruisers accelerated forward, and then the smoke canisters on the hull were opened together, and a thick smoke screen quickly formed! "What are they going to do?" See thicker and thicker walls of smoke. In the face of the change, Essen seemed to suddenly understand something. Wouldn't the other side use smoke to cover the mine-striking ship to strike first, disrupt the formation of the Russian naval forces, and then open the battle line to bombard, right? If this happens, the Russian fleet, which is changing formations, will be in danger! The fleet is turning. And the other party suddenly rushed out of the smoke screen, and there was a lightning strike at a medium distance, even if it could not hit the Russian battleship at this distance, the probability of the formation being broken was nine out of ten!

Essen is worthy of being a battle-hardened veteran, and quickly deflects a Luo classic to facilitate keeping a distance, and on the other hand, allowing subsequent warships to quickly keep up. Reduce the turning time and shorten the time for the other party to gain an advantage as much as possible, purely from the perspective of strain. Essen's action can be called perfect, but in fact, Essen's biggest problem is that he underestimated the tactical level of the opposite side, Yang Yonglin and others could not only formulate a tactic for disrupting the formation, what the Huaxia Navy needed was a sharp effect! Defeat the opponent in the shortest possible time!

After suddenly losing his goal, Essen did not dare to act rashly. Facing a lightning strike that is highly likely. Essen could only close the distance between the battleships while watching warily to the side. He knew that the other party's capital ship should be very close to him now, but he was not worried, because the smoke screen was fair, blocking the view of the Russian fleet and the view of the Huaxia fleet. He was waiting, waiting for the moment when the smoke cleared and the situation became clearer!

The Russians were waiting, but the Chinese fleet did not wait, when the smoke screen obscured each other's sight. The entire main Chinese fleet suddenly turned 130 degrees, and then rapidly advanced under the cover of a smoke screen. The speed of the entire fleet was mentioned to 20 knots! And the Russian fleet on the opposite side, in order to ensure the accuracy of the shelling, reduced the speed to 14 knots! In this way, the Huaxia Navy has an advantage of 6 knots! And the smoke can buy at least about 10 minutes for the Chinese fleet, and from the point of view of the position, the Chinese fleet is very convenient to cut the opponent's T-shaped horizontal head in the direction of 2 o'clock in the right front of the Russian fleet, and there is also the cover of the smoke screen. The distance between the two sides is not far, so the actual combat effect is that as soon as the Huaxia fleet comes out, it just cinches the other side. And even more so closely!

Of course, there is a premise for this, that is, the course of the Russian fleet does not change much, and in fact, Essen really did not dare to make a big move before the situation became clear! As the minutes ticked by, the Chinese fleet maneuvered rapidly behind the thick smokescreen without the Russians knowing anything. Essen commanded the fleet aimlessly, until a behemoth suddenly appeared out of the corner of his eye!

In front of the Russian fleet, a group of huge ships suddenly burst out of the smoke screen, and the speed of nearly 20 knots made the entire fleet block the Russian fleet as quickly as a swimming dragon! At this time, the straight-line distance between the two sides is only 6KM? And at this distance, it's almost the direct firing distance of a large-caliber gun! The prepared Chinese fleet quickly adjusted its guns, almost all the guns had turned to the side before the fleet sailed out of the smoke, the rangefinder quickly locked the Russian fleet that was slowly sailing, and the huge guns were fine-tuned and pointed at the flagship of the Russian fleet, the Catherine! Before the vast majority of Russian officers and soldiers could react, the three Longtai-class fast battleships had already mounted their guns and aimed at the opponent, and then, the first salvo of the Dongsha naval battle officially began! With a violent vibration, a burst of fire erupted from the muzzle of the cannon, and a heavy artillery shell flew towards the dazed Catherine at a speed of more than 700 meters per second.

At a distance of 6KM, a second-rate fast battleship that was not fully prepared was fired by as many as 27 12-inch guns. Such a tragic thing made Essen catch up. "All I could feel was the light of fire, and the sound of shells exploding and steel plates tearing was everywhere in my ears. In just a few seconds, I had the feeling of falling into hell! I was never met with a more intense artillery bombardment, even in the Baltic Sea in World War 1, and my battleship was not fired by as many as nearly 30 heavy guns. Afterwards, Essen recalled.

The Russian officers and men on the Catherine had no time to check the damage of the battleship, the whole battleship was like a house that was constantly shaking and crumbling in the earthquake, the sound of shells and explosions was continuous, the sound of steel plates being pierced, the shattering of supporting structures and the ubiquitous raging fire constantly challenged the bottom line of the Russian soldiers! The Catherine did not have time to counterattack at all, and after a few shells were hastily fired by several guns, it was immediately blown into twists by the rain of shells. A Russian soldier saw with his own eyes that the No. 1 turret of the Catherine was hit 4 times in just a few tens of seconds! Two of them pierced through the fragile armor, and the huge explosion directly blew this turret into pieces, throwing several tons or even a dozen tons of fragments and parts into the sea. Essen had no chance to give the order to fight back. Russia's last fast warship was on the verge of destruction.

In just a few minutes, the superstructure of the Catherine was in ruins. But the armored conning tower where Essen was located was not directly hit by large-caliber artillery. The heavy armor resisted the impact of shrapnel again and again, and the incessant sound of impact and tooth-aching metal shattering made everyone shudder. Some people attribute it to the so-called God Blessing, but in fact, because the two sides are too close to each other, and the position of the conning tower is too high, no one will deliberately aim at this small and tall east and east, and everyone is firing at the side chords and superstructures with the largest area.

The superstructure has been beaten into flames. The entire side was repeatedly penetrated in a short period of time. The Catherine's sidestring armor could no longer protect its core module, and the closest distance between the two sides was even 4 km. At this distance, the new hardened cap armor-piercing bullet is indestructible! The 10-inch armor on the side was torn off in pieces, or left bullet holes, and after the shells penetrated the main equipment, some exploded on the outside of the dome, turning several compartments into a sea of fire, while others exploded in the power compartment and power supply room. Restore the buzzing machinery to parts. If hitting the superstructure turned the Catherine into a sea of fire, then the explosion of various shells in the hull turned the battleship into an active volcano that could erupt at any moment!

In less than 10 minutes. Catherine was beaten into a pile of scrap steel floating on the sea by the sudden appearance of the Huaxia fleet, setting a record for the fastest battle loss of the capital ship since the start of the war! If it weren't for the flooding of the ammunition depot, I'm afraid the battleship would have been lit with firecrackers. But even so, the survival time of this battleship can only be calculated in minutes. The Russian helmsman did his best to adjust the course of the battleship and let it withdraw from the battle columns. For a moment of respite.

Maybe Essen really shouldn't have died, maybe Yang Yonglin couldn't care about the battleship that had been actually destroyed, the Catherine successfully floated out of the main battlefield, and the Varyag cruiser, which had been falling at the end of the line and did not dare to participate in the battle line engagement, quickly approached and rescued the remaining personnel on the Catherine. When Essen transferred to the Varyag, it was ready to regain command of the entire fleet. Although his brain was a little empty now, all he could see was clouds of flames and smoke after being set on fire, and his ears were full of the roar of naval guns, but he also had an estimate at this time. The Huaxia fleet has a total of 7 warships, in addition to 5 dreadnoughts, the other two should be Scharnhorst-class pocket battlecruisers. The Huaxia fleet concentrated 3 Longtai-class fast battleships to attack itself, so the remaining battleships should be 4 to 4, and the Russian fleet should have the advantage. Ekaterina also supported for almost a quarter of an hour. There should still be some losses in the Huaxia fleet, right? After some calculations, Essen believes that this battle is still to be fought!

"Raise the flag and prepare to take over the command of the battle." Essen just took a breath and was ready to re-command the fleet to fight, according to the agreement before the war, in the case of Essen's inability to command the fleet, Admiral Harvey of the Dutch Navy should take over the command of the fleet, after all, Harvey has the highest official position, and he also has two seven-level fast battleships in his hands, and more importantly, Essen thinks that although Harvey is relatively mediocre, he is at least better than the Russian captain who has just taken over two Danton-class battleships. Therefore, it is most reasonable to do so, both from a practical point of view and from the point of view of taking care of the face of the Dutch.

I don't recommend it this afternoon——! Running naked next week——! (To be continued......)