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Because the losses in the last war were too heavy, the Imperial Navy for this expedition, from the Endless Ocean Fleet to the Mediterranean Fleet, as the commander of the Endless Ocean Fleet, Yue Shi Niang naturally did not want to miss such a decisive battle, no need to give orders, so he first followed the other supplementary personnel to the Mediterranean Fleet. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Buchen was a little helpless about this, but it was not good to dampen Yue Shi Niang's enthusiasm for war, after all, this battle was likely to be the last decisive battle between the Central Empire and the Immortal Kingdom, and as the righteous sister of the pirate king Duncan Lu, Yue Shi Niang had a reason to participate in this battle.

In fact, if it weren't for his advanced age and the fact that his position was too important, Zuo Hengyan's request for war would have been accepted, but fortunately, he still had reason and forcibly retained Zuo Hengyan with the emperor's order, and didn't let this veteran who was over the age of sixtieth go desperately.

Of course, Zuo Hengyan naturally has opinions on this, and it is not small, but at this time, Buchen doesn't have much heart to pay attention to it.

After more than three years of crazy development, the grain and grass problem that has been plaguing the imperial army has been completely solved - because of the tax exemption policy, the empire has been using money and materials to buy a large amount of grain output from the "new immigrants" in recent years, and the current stock of grain is enough for a million imperial army to attack everywhere and hit the edge of the Xionghe River!

It has to be mentioned that the 13th Cavalry Army, composed of the Bloodcloud Iron Cavalry, has made great contributions in this matter, and the target of 2 million immigrants per year set by the Ministers has long been exceeded, and in the craziest year alone, the 13th Cavalry Army has taken back 8 million people for the Empire......

Although the difficulty and efficiency of the raids increased a lot in the next two years due to the sparse population in the border areas, they still reached the achievement of 5 million people per year, and with the efforts of these 18 million "new immigrants", the Empire's cultivated land area was directly doubled, supplemented by the construction of powerful water conservancy facilities, so that the Empire not only completely overcame the problem of reduced grain production caused by the natural disaster, but also completely exceeded the level of per mu yield before the natural disaster!

It can be said that the time has really come for the Central Empire to conquer the Central Plains and restore Donghua!

However, there is no interest in fighting at the same time on land and sea, first, his energy is limited, and he cannot always pay attention to the two battlefields, and second, the empire cannot devote all its strength to both battlefields.

Meals should be eaten one bite at a time, and things should be done one by one, which is the safest choice for Buchen.

On the occasion of the combined fleet of the navy, Buchen personally went to the Hushan Military Port to make a magnificent trip for the naval officers, and in the face of His Majesty's ardent care of the emperor, many naval officers and men were moved to tears, and made up their minds to become benevolent if they did not succeed!

At the beginning of November 4870 in the Guangming calendar, the Imperial Combined Fleet, consisting of twenty ironclad light cruisers and one hundred clipper clippers capable of reaching speeds of fifteen knots, embarked on a journey!

At this point, the curtain of the decisive battle related to the sea power in the Mediterranean, as well as the future and destiny of the two races of mankind and the undead, has officially opened!

As early as after getting the intelligence of the Imperial Steam Ironclad Ship, the Immortal Kingdom increased its reconnaissance of the Hushan Military Port, almost to the extent of no cost, every two days, a space ghost would teleport to the interior of the Hushan Military Port in a suicidal way, and send the detected news back to China.

Therefore, the ironclad fleet is completely in the hands of the Immortal Kingdom from the assembly to the expedition, although Buchen knows this situation, but he has no intention of changing the decisive battle plan, for the Central Empire, which already has a strong equipment advantage, it is the most advantageous choice to launch a decisive battle as soon as possible!

In the face of the menacing Imperial Combined Fleet that came from its own homeland, the Undead Kingdom naturally had no interest in being beaten by the other party in the harbor, and in order to keep the enemy out of the country, the Undead Kingdom gathered all the current one hundred new magic guide battleships and launched an attack on the United Fleet.

On November 18, 4870 in the Bright Lunar calendar, two huge fleets, both of which had no intention of hiding themselves, finally encountered in the southwestern part of the Mediterranean, and the epic Armageddon broke out!

……

On the morning of November 18, 4870, on board the Yenshu, the flagship of the Imperial Combined Fleet, Admiral Du Wei, the commander-in-chief of the fleet, was observing the enemy's position with binoculars.

"How about it, Xiao Du, you should already know how to deal with it, right?" Admiral Qian Laosi, who has always been known as an old man in the navy, asked with a smile beside Du Wei, he participated in the battle as the deputy commander of the combined fleet this time, and the ship was not Yanzhou, but another ironclad light cruiser Renzhao, which appeared on the Yanzhou at this time, just to discuss the battle strategy with Du Wei, the current commander.

Du Wei put down the binoculars, glanced at Qian Laosi, and replied: "The enemy is aiming at our army with the bow of the ship at this time, approaching at full speed, presumably realizing that the range is not as good as mine, so he plans to close the distance as soon as possible so as to give full play to his numerical advantage,"

Qian Laosi nodded slightly, he is also a telescope, and he knows exactly what kind of tactics the enemy has adopted: "Xiao Du, just say how to fight!" ”

Du Wei smiled: "Mr. Qian is taking the school again, the most important thing in fighting with soldiers is that you can't act according to the enemy's will, the enemy pigs are advancing by leaps and bounds, because their range is not enough, only six kilometers, the speed is still slow, only ten knots, the only advantage is that the accuracy of artillery fire is far better than me." Since this is the case, our army should do the opposite, taking advantage of our army's long range and fast speed to keep a distance to meet the battle. ”

Qian Laosi nodded again and again when he heard this, he is an old man in the navy, he has been a vice admiral since the establishment of the navy, but now he is overtaken by Du Wei, a junior, and has become a subordinate of the other party.

It's just that in the face of his "school examination", Du Wei has always been able to answer fluently, not only what he says is the way, but even what he does is extremely steady, and he has the demeanor of an old and serious general! In the face of such Du Wei, Qian Laosi sometimes can't help but secretly admire in his heart, and he is ashamed.

At this time, if Qian Laosi were to make the decision, he would also make a similar choice to Du Wei, but he couldn't say it so clearly.

"Now that Xiao Du knows how to fight, the old man will stop talking nonsense, and return to the ship to prepare for maneuvering." Qian Laosi stroked his gray beard and smiled, saying goodbye to Du Wei.

"Mr. Qian, go well, I wish you great achievements in this battle!" Du Wei gave a military salute and said with a sincere face.

Qian Laosi's face was solemn, and he immediately replied with the same military salute: "You are the same!" ”

The Renzhao was sailing next to the Yanzhou, so it didn't take long for Qian Laosi to return to the ship, and at the first moment when the other party stepped on the Renzhao, Du Wei gave the order for the fleet to turn around collectively and sail to the northwest - at this time, the fleet of the Immortal Kingdom was rushing from about twelve kilometers to the south, and in order to achieve the tactical purpose of keeping a distance, the turning maneuver of the imperial fleet was very necessary!

After the steering maneuver was completed, Du Wei issued another order to change the formation, allowing the fleet to adjust the original compound column formation into a trapezoidal formation that was deployed diagonally, and meet the enemy at a 45-degree angle to the side side!

"Damn humans!" Xerxes, the commander of the fleet of the Immortal Kingdom, still had a single barrel of clairvoyant mirror in his hand still on the ground, and Du Wei's intention to change the formation naturally couldn't hide it from the eyes of a veteran of naval warfare, as far as I knew, all the main guns had completed the turretization of the ironclad light cruiser At this current angle, all four turrets could shoot, therefore, Du Wei put out such a formation not only to achieve the purpose of keeping a distance, but also to give full play to the fleet's firepower! In comparison, the fleet of the undead kingdom that meets the enemy with the bow of the ship is in a state of inferiority, and can only attack with the bow gun, and because of the lack of range, even this bow gun can only stare and be beaten!

Utaniv participated in the battle as Xerxes's deputy this time, although he was not as experienced as the other party, but he could still see the intention of the imperial fleet to change formations, and asked with a frown: "Lord Xerxes, the current situation is extremely unfavorable to our army, how should we deal with the battle?" ”

But Utaniv didn't expect that the current situation was actually not particularly unfavorable for them, and then Du Wei's order made the situation of the undead fleet even more worrying!

Du Wei ordered the one hundred flying scissor sail cruisers that were originally following the actions of the ironclad ships to break away from the main fleet, use a single horizontal formation, outflank from the flank of the undead fleet, and use the characteristics of flexibility and maneuverability to carry out fire strikes on the enemy's flanks!

Although the Scissor sail cruiser was not equipped with any heavy guns for the sake of speed, and each ship had a layer of gun windows, and was armed with eight old breech guns of 75 mm caliber, with a range of only four kilometers, because they were all equipped with white phosphorus incendiary bombs, the threat to the undead fleet using wooden hulls was not small at all!