Facing the enemy surrounded by three sides, as the commander of the second ship of Zhijing, Liu Buyun's face changed greatly in the face of the French warships surrounded on three sides, "Now, which side should we break through?" ”

It is obvious that they have fallen for the trick and have been surrounded by each other.

Breakthrough is certain, but which side to break through is related to their success or failure.

At this time, Leffel was extremely calm, because he knew that every decision now was related to the safety of their small fleet, so every decision needed to be cautious.

To this end, Lefell and Liu Buyun personally climbed onto the lookout and were responsible for observing the French warships in three directions.

First of all, there are the least number of warships coming from the south, and it looks like there are only six or seven.

The second is the warships to the north, which look like there are nearly ten of them.

Finally, the east side had the most warships, and there were fifteen or sixteen in detail.

The difference in the number of enemy warships does not mean that there is also a huge gap in their strength.

Since it is a breakthrough, then it is necessary to choose the weakest side, and according to the general principle, it is a good choice to choose the side with the fewest enemy ships.

However, in Leyfer's opinion, this should be impossible, the enemy has deliberately set a trap, it is certainly impossible to leave such an obvious flaw, maybe this is the strongest part of the enemy.

Moreover, if the breakthrough to the south is successful, although it will directly threaten the French route, it will also increase the difficulty of returning to the country, which is not suitable at all.

In fact, Lefell did not know that he had made the wisest decision, because it was Lone Dial in the south who led an interception formation consisting of five armored ships and two other gunboats.

Speaking of helplessness, according to Lonely's original intention, he originally planned to place his formation in the north, because in his opinion, after the prey fell into a trap, the first reaction must be to escape in the direction of home. That's why he wanted to place his strongest ironclad in the north, but sometimes the plan could not be reflected in his will, especially considering the importance that Governor de Villerell attached to the trade lanes, and the interests of the dignitaries, so in the end, for the sake of safety, he chose to hold the south and not give it the opportunity to threaten the trade routes.

Since he stayed in the south, he naturally had proper arrangements for the north, which was very likely to be broken through.

He arranged a formation of warships to the north, with only three cruisers of the first rank in his hands; The Dilsey (), the Dujuz Rouin (3,189 tons), and the Duwell (5,698 tons, an enlarged version of the Dujuz Luin) were all in this formation, and then there were second-class cruisers; Fellers (2,382 tons), Magon (2,382 tons), cruisers of the third rank; The Wolda (1,323 tons), the Amirin (1,323 tons), the Lea (1,191 tons), and a number of other warships.

Although there are no ironclad ships in the formation, they are the essence of cruisers, and these battleships that have been selected by solitary selection are basically not too long, such as the Fellers only entered service in 1881, and several other ships are either in service in the past five years, or they are vigorous. Anyway, the formation in the north is not easy to mess with at all. Although he couldn't sink the two Venice class ships on the spot, it was still more than wrong to entangle them.

As for the eastern side, it is composed of other remaining warships, although all indicators are poorer, but with the advantage of numbers, the siege strategy of using more ants to bite the elephant is still effective.

And what about Westmeon? I'm sorry, but the west is offshore, and in the face of not knowing the local sea conditions, unless the commander is crazy, he will not go into the offshore, and if he hits a reef, he can't cry.

Faced with the ill-intentioned French warships coming from three sides, Captain Lefel, who was the actual commander, gave the order that he was glad about after some consideration. "Aim for the East, full speed ahead."

"What?"

Leyfer's words startled Liu Buchan, "Captain Leyfer, you don't need to think about it again?" ”

"Don't think about it, just do what I say."

The gap between the two can be seen from here, and Lefell has enough decisiveness, no wonder there will be so much success later. Liu Buyun could only end in pathos, although he won the title of a national hero, but in the future naval battle, he did not have an outstanding performance. (Mantou doesn't look down on this national hero, but in terms of ability, Liu Buyun didn't have much of a brilliant performance in the naval battle of the First Sino-Japanese War, and his profile is also full of heroic battles, which is not qualified as a commander.) ）

Following Leffel's order, the two Venice-class cruisers immediately made a detour and rushed directly to the east.

And the move of the second ship of Zhijing to break through to the east made Gu Ba take a big startle. I didn't expect my reality to be seen through. However, he had no good way to deal with this, so he could only order the armored formation to rush to the east immediately.

And the cruiser formation in the north, after seeing the two Qing warships breaking through to the east, also rushed over at full speed. Compared to the 11-12 knots of the armoured formation, which is based on the lowest ship, the cruiser fleet in the north can maintain a high speed of 14-15 knots.

However, no matter how much they chased them, the two brand-new Venice class could reach a top speed of 18.6 knots, so they could only see the distance between the three gradually widening.

As the commander of the eastern formation, Rear Admiral Lisby immediately gave the order when he saw the two Venetian-class battleships rushing towards his side. "Immediately order, according to the plan, all ships disperse, to meet the head."

With the order of Rear Admiral Lisby, more than a dozen warships of various types spread out like a large net and came towards the two ships.

The second ship of Zhijing was not afraid, and rushed over to this big net. The distance between the two sides was getting closer and closer, and by the time the observing sailors reported loudly, five thousand meters, the artillery of both sides rang out at the same time.

"Boom, boom, boom."

A large column of water appeared near the two Venice-class patrol ships, and the first round of firing from both sides approaching at high speed did not hit anyone.

But that's okay, there's another time.

But at this time, Leffel gave a new order, "Turn right thirty degrees." ”

With Leffel's order, the Zhiyuan and Jingyuan did not face each other head-on with the French formation, but exposed their sideboards.

As the commander of the eastern formation of the French fleet, Rear Admiral Lisby certainly knew what his opponent wanted to do, which was to briefly grab the T position and exert flank firepower.

"Immediately order the formation, thirty degrees to the left, and we will also turn."

With the orders of Major General Lisby, the French eastern formation was similarly turned, which allowed both sides to exert flank fire. In addition, if the two sides do not change their routes, they will collide in a few minutes, and Rear Admiral Lisby's task of entangling the Zhijing II ship will be overfulfilled.

Although the loss will not be small by then, it is still acceptable compared to the acquisition of two 7,000-ton Venice class.

In the face of Major General Lisby's wishful thinking, Leifehr certainly did not want to see it. Then he gave the order again, "Turn fifteen degrees to the right again." ”

He intends to use his speed to distance the two.