December 25, 1832, around 5:15 p.m.

More than 100 nautical miles west of Kwajalein Atoll, another face-to-face collision between the British Royal Navy and the Ming Navy is about to begin. Unlike the last time they met in the narrow road of the Strait of Malacca and the Strait of Gretel, this time the two warring sides met in the vast Pacific Ocean.

Although they met on the vast ocean, neither of the warring sides thought of escaping and avoiding the battle - this naval battle was a rare opportunity for the British, and if they didn't fight now, they would have no chance of winning when the Pacific Fleet and the South Ocean Fleet of the Ming Dynasty completed their assembly.

For Da Ming, if the main force of the British Royal Navy is released, there will be many variables in the future landing in Australia, and the current world war may also be protracted.

Although the Ming Empire was not afraid of a protracted war...... But the nature of the current war is actually more "imperialist" than the historical World War I. It is purely that the two imperialists are fighting for colonial and world hegemony, so neither warring side has the intention of beating the opponent to death with a stick.

Daming was too strong for Britain to fight at all.

And Britain is a-stirring stick for the Ming Dynasty to divide Europe, and Europe will be unified if it is killed!

Since you can't kill the opponent, it's almost enough, and it's not interesting to keep fighting for the people and money...... Therefore, although both sides have long-lasting capital, they both want to decide a winner as soon as possible.

Of course, the commander of the British Australian Grand Fleet, William Brown. General Baga doesn't want to win or lose, he still feels that the certainty of winning is a little small. Perhaps it is better to let the Grand Fleet retreat to India, and then let the Chinese land in Australia, relying on the Anoz-British army with a strong cavalry corps and the Chinese to last, and at the same time using fast armored cruisers and fast aircraft-carrying armored cruisers to fight the Chinese at sea.

According to William. Baga is aware that the British shipyards of Bath and Armstrong have each developed two fast armored cruisers with a standard displacement of 15,000 tons...... All of them are equipped with 6 9.2-inch guns, and they can run 25 or 26 knots at the fastest!

When these two levels of clippers are in service, Australia may have to fight the war!

"Boom ......"

The sound of cannons suddenly drifted into the bridge of the King William IV, and it turned out that the B Fleet, which was responsible for chasing and luring the enemy, was engaged in an exchange of fire with the cruisers of the Daming Pacific Fleet that they had led over! Until this time, William. Baga suddenly woke up to the fact that it was no longer time to consider whether or not to fight a decisive battle. But the prelude to the decisive battle has begun!

William. Baga immediately ordered his battleship units to start forming in detachments, from five marching formations to shelling battle lines, because the speed of British battleships was generally slow, the four classes of battleships of King William IV, Emperor of India, Victory, and Indomitable could only run at a speed of more than 20 knots, so it would take at least 10-15 minutes to complete the change.

However, at this time, the battleship force of the Daming Pacific Fleet should still be 40,000 yards away, and there will be no exchange of fire for the time being. What Baga has is time. Thinking of this, he looked up at the "dark cloud" in the sky in the distance...... It's still far away, and I'm not in a hurry at all.

Thinking of this, William. Baga began to give orders: "11 Sovereign class to form the first battleship detachment, after the Sovereign class 6 Indian Emperor class to form the second battleship detachment, 'the Indian Emperor class is followed by 2 King William IV class to form the third battleship detachment, then 11 Victory class to form the fourth battleship detachment, and finally 11 Indomitable class to form the fifth battleship detachment. ”

This time William. Baga brought out a total of 41 battleships of 5 tiers, which is really a lot!

And by William. The Sovereign-class that Baga will arrange to take the lead is a "former hero ship". Although their performance is outdated, the age of the ship is still very new, so the British are reluctant to retire them all. Therefore, they were rebuilt and equipped with more powerful boilers and steam engines for the Sovereign class, so that they could barely reach a speed of 20 knots. The four 13.5-inch guns of the monarch class were also dismantled and replaced with two triple 10-inch cannons. Not only did the rebuilt Sovereign-class have a higher speed to keep up with the Royal Navy's new battleships, but the firepower of the six 10-inch rapid-fire guns was much stronger than the original four 13.5-inch cannons.

But William. Baga arranged for them to take the lead, not because they were strong enough, but to test and attract enemy firepower...... Commonly known as cannon fodder!

Behind the 11 cannon fodder ships is the killer feature of the Royal Navy of the British Empire - 6 Indian Emperor class with a standard displacement of 25,000 tons, a full displacement of nearly 30,000 tons and 2 King William IV class with a standard displacement of 29,000 tons!

Cannon fodder tests the depth of the opponent, and then immediately uses a killer weapon to give the opponent a head-on blow!

Behind the two killer classes are the 22 Victory and Indomitable - these two battleships are neither new nor old, they are not trump cards, but they are definitely the main force of the Royal Navy.

According to William. Baga's plan, once the killer is used, the opponent will most likely be in chaos, at this time it is time for the 22 Victory-class and Indomitable class to go up and fight - although the performance of these two ships is not outstanding enough, but fortunately, the artillery fire is intensive, and it can win by quantity.

In addition, according to William. As Baga knows, the main force of the Pacific Fleet of the Ming Navy, which is approaching, is only about 20 battleships...... And he has 41 ships! 0 is more than 20, so ...... The advantages are still there!

And if nothing else, there will be an accident!

"Admiral, the enemy seems to have set up a horizontal formation!" At 30 o'clock, William. Baga's fleet had just finished being set up when an accident came!

"Horizontal formation?" William. Baga was stunned, "How is this possible?" ”

"Admiral," said the Chief of Staff, Major General Jervis, who put down his binoculars, then raised his hand to point to the pillar of smoke that appeared in front of him, showing a horizontal formation, "12 boats...... It should be the old battleships of the Chinese, and seeing them want to use these battleships as cannon fodder to attract our attention. ”

This is still the same as what the hero sees!

"But why did they start a horizontal team?" William. Baga didn't quite understand.

"Perhaps...... They enjoyed the torpedo attacks of these old battleships covering cruisers, destroyers? If these 12 old ships attract the firepower of the Sovereign-class, the cruisers and destroyers lying in ambush behind them will be able to launch a charge, according to the intelligence...... There are more than 40 cruisers and destroyers in the enemy's vanguard formation, which can fire hundreds of torpedoes at a time! ”

"Damn torpedoes!"

William. Baga couldn't help but curse, and his face was a little ugly - in fact, the secret of the steam gas torpedo had already been discovered by the British! Steam gas torpedoes are not 100 percent capable of exploding, and in the past year or so of submarine breaking engagements, the British have picked up quite a few steam gas torpedoes, which can naturally be copied out. It's just that there is still a process from the knock-off to mass production, and the troops are not yet equipped. Otherwise, the Royal Navy's bunch of 1,000-ton destroyers would have been of great use.

But it is absolutely not okay to scold and question the wise decisions of His Majesty the Emperor.

Thinking of this, William. Baga had no choice but to order: "Order the first battleship detachment to turn left and seize the T-position...... But calculate the distance and don't let the enemy's battleships get too close...... Keep the distance above 16,000 yards! ”

"Yes, sir!"

......

"Admiral, the British monarchy has begun to turn!"

At the same time, on the side of Daming, on the 103 fleet's flagship "Kong Ming", Guo Xiaobao also got a report of the enemy's fleet turning.

"Hehe," Guo Xiaobao smiled, "It's to grab the T position, right?" He held up his binoculars and said, "It's quite far away, it seems that I am afraid of our lightning tactics...... Very good! That's just the right distance for the 320mm guns of the Island class! ”