The action of the English fleet was extremely fast, and before the first fleet of the Qing Dynasty began to turn, the English fleet had already adjusted the battle line, and at that time, the second fleet of the Qing army that was killed from the direction of Kotarine was less than one nautical mile away from the British battle line, at an angle of sixty degrees, and the first fleet of the Qing Dynasty, which was chasing the English fleet, was in the rear of the English fleet, about half a nautical mile, at an angle of forty-five degrees, and the two Qing fleets traveling in the opposite direction were not in a straight line, and if they wanted to merge into one team, they had to make adjustments- One of the two Qing fleets had to bypass the outer edge of the battle line of the English fleet, and at this time, due to the speed and turning radius, no matter which Qing fleet wanted to do this as soon as possible, it had to turn along the British battle line, so that it would inevitably be baptized by the British battle line fire, and it would not be able to counterattack itself, or it could not effectively counterattack.

Liu Tianlong, deputy commander of the Second Fleet, in his early forties, with the rank of rear admiral, graduated from the first phase of the Shanghai Aviation School, was originally the captain of a large warship in the Second Fleet, and was promoted to the rank of general because of the bombardment of Kobe during the battle in Dongying, and served as Xiao Sanlang's deputy, although he has served in the navy for many years, he has never participated in a regular naval battle. As soon as he received the message sent by Liu Ninghai today, Liu Tianlong's mood was simply terrible - there is no port in Kotadine, and the unloading can only be transported by small boat, although nearly ten days have passed, more than 30 supply ships full of supplies have completed more than half of the loading and unloading tasks, except for some of the materials are already on the way to transfer Johor Bahru, most of the materials are still piled up on the beach, the ship can be withdrawn, but those materials cannot be taken away. Liu Tianlong could not afford the crime of losing strategic materials, so as soon as he received Liu Ninghai's flying pigeon message, Liu Tianlong could only grit his teeth and lead his few warships to go to sea to intercept the English fleet, hoping to hold on to the main fleet to help.

"Lord Liu, the flag from the First Squadron has sent a flag, so that our army will immediately slow down and turn forty degrees. Adjust the formation and wait for the first detachment to converge. The flag-whisperers on the mast of the "Weicheng" noticed the movement of the First Squadron and hurriedly reported in a loud voice.

Liu Tianlong raised his binoculars to inspect the array of the English fleet and the steering action of the first squadron of the Great Qing Dynasty, waved his hand, and ordered in a loud voice: "Order: The whole fleet lowers its sails by half a sail, turns forty degrees, aligns it in a battle line, and sails to the southwest." With the flag soldiers on the "Weicheng", Liu Tianlong's order was conveyed. The eight battleships of the Second Squadron immediately began to adjust their formation, cut out an arc, and sailed in the opposite direction along the southwest course at an interval of more than 300 meters from the British army, with two large battleships in the center and the rest of the battleships lined up in a row on the left and right. At the same time, the bold action of the First Detachment of the Qing Dynasty was also launched at the same time.

Admiral Nadal originally didn't plan to entangle more with these two Qing fleets, but he saw that the tactics of these two Qing fleets were extremely skillful, compared to the Qing fleet during the Battle of Heidao. With a qualitative leap, my heart suddenly sank - this battle is not easy to fight, if you can't hit these two Qing fleets hard, it will not be easy to get rid of the entanglement of the opponent, once the main fleet of the Qing Dynasty comes to help in time, the English fleet is bound to be difficult to get rid of the fate of defeat!

It was too late, but it was too soon, and the First Fleet of the Great Qing Dynasty began to turn along the tangent. Trying to bypass the battle line of the English fleet, the distance between the two sides is getting closer and closer, at this time the English fleet has lowered half a sail, the speed of the ship is slow, the gunners of the battleships have long been ready to open fire, and the first fleet of the Qing Dynasty is full sail, fast forward, although the gunners are already in position. Why the boat shook so badly. Not to mention aiming, even standing on the gun deck is a laborious task. Not to mention the fact that the ships of the Qing fleet were at different distances from the English battle line at this time, and the first "Yanwang" had already rushed to about 200 meters away from the British battle line, while the last "Shengcheng" was still more than 700 meters away from the British battle line, and it was impossible to concentrate firepower at all.

"Order: All ships ignore the enemy forces in the direction of Kotardin, and attack the enemy fleet behind them with all their might, and open fire!" Admiral Nadal gave the battle order with a cold face, and in an instant, several warships in the English fleet closest to the Qing fleet immediately and unceremoniously smashed hundreds of shells into the head of the "Lookout," which had been cut into the range of the British artillery. In the cabin of the "Lookout", the whole ship tilted in an instant, and the speed suddenly slowed down, and it swayed crookedly on the sea.

"Yanwang" is a new ship, the officers and men of the ship are also just put together, even the captain He Shanlan is also a new captain who has just been promoted from the first officer, but at this critical juncture, no one tried to jump into the sea to escape, the officers and men of the whole ship desperately tried to put out the fire and drain the water, how could the hull be damaged too much, there was no hope of rescue, He Shanlan stood under the mast with a blue face, angrily glared at the England fleet not far away, and roared wildly: "Left full rudder, hit the damn!" ”

"Our ship is sinking, see you on the hero monument!" The flag-whisperers on the "Lookout" sent back the last message to the follow-up ships, and the whole battleship suddenly had a left full rudder and rushed crookedly towards the English battle line, with a posture of dying with the enemy. At this time, the "Lookout" was like a large burning torch, which ship was hit, it must have been unlucky, the English fleet was suddenly in chaos, and it didn't care to fire at other Qing warships, and the several English battleships next to the "Lookout" frantically poured artillery fire on the "Lookout", and in just more than 200 meters, two rounds of salvo fire fell on the "Lookout" again, and the medium-sized warship of the Qing Army finally couldn't withstand the baptism of so many artillery fires, and the whole ship swirled on the water. It flipped and sank to the bottom of the sea more than 30 meters away from the British battle line, and all the more than 300 Qing soldiers on board sank with the ship.

Without firing a shot, he lost a medium-sized battleship in one shot, and this result suddenly made Liu Ninghai feel so distressed that he wanted to roar loudly, but as the commander of the fleet, he knew better that this was not the time to vent his dissatisfaction, and the most important thing was to take advantage of the English fleet's attack on the "Lookout". Make every effort to bypass the battle line of the British fleet, otherwise the blood of the officers and men of the "Drill Lookout" will be shed in vain.

"Order: All ships must not slow down and fire, and rush over at full speed!" Liu Ninghai looked at the sinking "Yanwang" with a dark face, and ordered in a loud voice. The first fleet of the Qing army did not stop and fire back because of the sinking of the "Drill Lookout", but still sailed with full sails, crossing with the British fleet, and the English fleet fired thousands of cannons in unison, unceremoniously bombarding the Qing ships that could not fire back twice. The Qing fleet was so embarrassed that it finally broke out of the range of fire of the English fleet, and more than a dozen warships of the first squadron were damaged to varying degrees, the most serious of which was the small battleship "Shengcheng" - four shells hit the helm of the "Shengcheng", the helmsman was killed, the rudder was damaged, and it was no longer possible to continue the battle, so it could only withdraw from the battlefield with hatred. Retreating crookedly in the direction of the Statine; The flagship "Weilong" also broke a side mast, and the speed slowed down, but fortunately it had already rushed out of the range of the British ground artillery. The First Fleet began to turn again, and lowered its half-sails, ready to join forces with the Second Fleet. Together, they blocked the way of the English fleet.

Not satisfied, very dissatisfied! Although the English fleet took advantage of the Qing army's inability to fight back, sinking and wounding one, Admiral Nadal was not at all satisfied with this result. Glancing at the first detachment of the Qing army that was turning in the distance, Admiral Nadal gave a combat order with a dark face: "Order, the whole fleet adjusts its course, leans up, is two hundred meters away, and attacks the Cotardine fleet with all its might!" ”

The English fleet moved quickly, forty-two battleships adjusted their course in unison, and the whole line of battle kept moving forward. Soon approached the distance of more than 200 meters away from the Second Fleet of the Great Qing Dynasty, at this moment, because the First Fleet of the Great Qing Dynasty was still adjusting its course in the distance and could not arrive at the battlefield in time, the Second Fleet was alone and could not compete with the British fleet at all. Liu Tianlong has no actual combat experience, but he is not a fool. Seeing that the British army was planning to break through each one. How could he be beaten, and only glanced at the adjustment of the English fleet. He guessed the intention of the British army, and ordered without hesitation: "Order: The whole fleet is here, turn left thirty degrees, half sail, and open the distance!" ”

In terms of the sailor ability of the fleet, I am afraid that the English fleet is still slightly higher, but it is not too high, the English fleet is very beautiful in the kung fu of changing the direction of the battle line, but the Qing army is also not bad, moreover, the Qing army has few ships, it is much easier to adjust, the two sides have changed directions several times, and the distance between each other has always been kept three hundred meters away, this distance is a little farther for the power range of the guns of the English fleet, even if it fires, it cannot penetrate the side of the Qing warship, Therefore, the English fleet never opened fire, and Liu Tianlong just wanted to drag the main force of the Qing army to help, and did not intend to fight to the death with the British army, so the two sides maintained a calm battlefield very tacitly, until Liu Ninghai's first fleet arrived at the battlefield and joined Liu Tianlong's department, and the two sides finally began a fierce battle at sea.

Although the first fleet and the second fleet of the Qing Dynasty belong to the same first fleet, they are basically independent in peacetime, although there are many cooperative exercises with each other, but it is the first time to form a battle line to attack, at this time the two detachments are not fully equipped, each only part of the warships participate in the battle, according to the military rank, Liu Ninghai is the lieutenant general, Liu Tianlong is the rear admiral, according to the position, Liu Ninghai is the commander of the detachment, Liu Tianlong is only the deputy commander, the command of this battle should undoubtedly belong to Liu Ninghai's unified command, therefore, Liu Ninghai led the troops to arrive, Immediately, an operational message was issued: "With our ship as the flagship, the whole army obeys the order, be sure to hold off the enemy and wait for the main force of our army to come to help!" ”

The discord between the First Fleet and the Second Fleet is an open secret in the First Fleet, especially Liu Ninghai was originally only a rear admiral, not even the deputy commander of the Fleet, but because of the exploits of the Battle of Heidao, he rose to the ground, and in Liu Tianlong's eyes, he belonged to the category of explosive households. Taking advantage of the fact that the Qing army had not yet formed a command consensus and was slightly confused, the command of the British battle line narrowed the distance between the two sides, and with the sound of Admiral Nadal's order to fire, the British flagship "New Wales" took the lead in firing, and a great battle of blood and fire began......

At noon on May 11, the eighth year of Yuanzhuo, the main force of the Qing fleet with full sails all the way arrived in the Basta sea area, but at the end of the day, the main team did not wait for the arrival of Liu Ninghai, the first detachment of the Qing Dynasty - because the first fleet of the Qing Dynasty had already left the sea area of Tamilan after releasing the flying pigeon message, so it did not receive an urgent letter from Liu Ninghai's department and Liu Tianlong's department, and it was not clear that the English fleet turned to attack the Kota Ding transport fleet. The main fleet of the Qing army waited for more than an hour in the Basta Sea and did not receive any news. At three o'clock in the afternoon, Xiao Saburo's unit, which had been ordered to come to the convergence, arrived in the Basta Sea, and Xiao Bu had all arrived except for two medium warships and three small warships to keep on guard in Batavia.

What's going on? According to the calculation of the voyage, the first detachment should have climbed even if it climbed, could it be that the first detachment was completely wiped out? It doesn't make sense, Liu Ninghai is not the kind of person who forgets his orders when he starts a battle, he can't beat the British with the strength of the first fleet, but it's not difficult to escape, how come he hasn't seen anyone here yet? Yoonyu walked around the war room anxiously, watching the time pass continuously, and his heart was full of peace......

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