There are many islands on the way from Shan Ma Xi to the Karimata Strait at the entrance of the Java Sea, such as the Riau Islands, Linga Islands, Bangka Islands, and Basda Islands, especially the Riau Islands near Shan Ma Xi are more complex waterways, which cannot carry out large-scale operations of the fleet, taking the waters of Bintan Island as an example, the sea area can only accommodate a maximum of 40 warships for a decisive battle, and the Qing army's scale advantage cannot be brought into play, which is also the root reason why the Qing army has not entered the waters of Bintan Island to carry out the blockade mission. The only exception to the entire route was the waters of the Basta Islands, which were open to the public, with few islands and small areas, and which were the only places to pass through if the British Far East Fleet wanted to rush into the Java Sea, and it was for this reason that Yun Yu chose this place as the final battlefield for the decisive battle with the British army.

Maritime communication is difficult, although the shadow has worked hard in the local area for many years, secretly trained a large number of carrier pigeons for communication and communication, but its reliability is very poor, dozens of carrier pigeons are released at a time, and it is already very remarkable to have one to find the destination, and Yun Yu did not count whether the first detachment could receive the order of the main fleet, if Liu Ninghaibu had not received the order, he still retreated to the direction of Tameilan as planned, thus missing the opportunity to join the main fleet, and the consequences would be disastrous- With the small strength of the First Fleet, there was no way to prevent the English fleet from capturing Kalimantan Island, and once the English fleet rushed into Brunei Bay, the Qing fleet would have to take a lot of trouble to force the English Far East Fleet to come out for a decisive battle.

Time passed minute by minute, Yun Yu's face became darker and darker, and his heart sank as if it had been filled with lead—it was too late to return to the waters of Tamilan at this time, but if the English fleet really rushed into the Gulf of Brunei. At this time, it has not yet landed on Kalimantan Island, if the Qing army then covers up and comes to the ground, taking advantage of the fact that the British army has not had time to arrange the defense, it is not impossible to win, of course, the goal of completely annihilating the British Far East Fleet is unachievable, but in case Liu Ninghai received the order of the main force of the fleet, but was entangled by the British Far East Fleet. If you can't get out for a while, if the main force of the fleet turns to the Gulf of Brunei, and the English fleet follows the first fleet to the waters of Bardas, it will be a lot of fun. Division? That's even more of a big joke, once the troops are divided, the size advantage of the Qing army no longer exists, what to use to completely annihilate the Far East Fleet of England?

Yun Yu paced in the war room for a long time, thinking about all the possibilities. Suddenly stood on his feet, looked at Liu Yao, who was always standing silently on the side, and said in a deep voice: "Little demon, what do you think of the current situation?" ”

Liu Yao frowned and said, "Lord Wang, the main fleet of our army has always been ambushed in the waters of the Danmeilan Sea, and the news can't be hidden from the British. If Liu Ninghai did not receive the order and retreated in the direction of Tan Meilan, the British should not be stupid enough to follow along, if this is the case, Liu Ninghai will definitely not give up easily. It is thought that the British army will harass the actions along the road, if so, the speed of the British army will not be able to speed up, but if it is calculated by time, it should be here now, which proves that the British must not be going directly to the Java Sea, then. Will the British go and attack the Cotardine fleet and destroy our army one by one? ”

"Well, this king also thought of this layer. Yun Yu nodded and said: "Although the establishment of our army is confidential, but the first and second fleets have met with the British in the Dongying Sea area, and it is estimated that the specific scale of our army should not be hidden from the British, even if the British eliminate Liu Tianlong and Liu Ninghai, it is impossible to be unharmed, and its overall strength is still far lower than that of our army." This doesn't make much of a difference to the overall situation. Besides, the Erliu Institute is not a soft persimmon, and it is impossible for the British to defeat the Erliu Department without paying a heavy price. The British should not fight such a meaningless battle, and it seems that the British are planning to play a trick to divert the tiger from the mountain. ”

"What the prince said is very true, it seems that this is the real combat intention of the British - to make a plan to storm the Kota Ding land, lure Liu Ninghai and Liu Tianlong to attack, and then mobilize the main force of our army to help, so that even if the British army feints, the second Liu army is bound to worry that the British will kill a horse pistol, and dare not dare to pursue boldly, and the British army can safely enter the Java Sea. Liu Yao thought for a while.

"Hmm. Yun Yu nodded, strode to the combat model placed in the center of the war room and drew for a while, and after some calculation, he ordered loudly: "Order: Xiao Sanlang's department immediately moves in the direction of the sea area of Lingjia Island, and forms a horn with our main fleet, and when the main force of our fleet fights a decisive battle with England, insert it from the flank, be sure to cut off the battle line of the English fleet, and create fighters for our main fleet to annihilate the British." ”

An operational staff officer in the war room shouted a promise, and hurried to issue a combat order, Liu Yaoyi raised his hand and shouted: "Wait, lord, if Xiao Sanlang's department is advancing in the direction of the Linga Islands, although it will form a horn with our army, but if the distance is too close, it will inevitably arouse the vigilance of the British, and it is impossible to guarantee the suddenness of the attack, and if it is too far away from our main force, it will not be able to guarantee a timely attack. According to the voyage, it should be here in about an hour, so let Xiao Sanlang's department set off immediately, and how about turning back to the way after half an hour? ”

"Okay, that's it!" Yun Yu groaned for a moment and nodded in agreement. The signal soldier on the mast of "Weisheng" quickly passed Yun Yu's order to Xiao Sanlang's "Weihai", full of thought that there was a regular sea battle to fight, Xiao Saburo's face was difficult to see when he heard that his own task was such a stealing business, but he didn't have the courage to bargain with Yun Yu, and stomped on the foredeck hatefully, and ordered more than a dozen large and small warships to set sail again, and went back to the cabin with a black face to sulk.

At three o'clock, in the Kotarding Sea, the English fleet seized on the slightest confusion in the command of the Qing army, suddenly launched an attack, and took the lead in provoking the flames of war. Because the number of warships in England was nearly twice that of the Qing army, although the rate of fire and power of the artillery were lower than that of the Qing army, but relying on the numerical superiority, it simply occupied an overwhelming advantage, and the Qing army was embarrassed. Several battleships were shot and caught fire, but fortunately, the injuries were not serious. After several volleys of fire from each side, the two lines of battle were completely staggered, with the English fleet heading to the northwest and the Qing army heading southeast.

"The ships obeyed the order, turned around on the spot, maintained the battle line, and headed northwest. Pay attention to keep the distance, and each ship closes the distance to ensure the density of firepower! Be sure to hold off the enemy and wait for the main force to come to help! Liu Ninghai, who had completely taken over the command, gave the battle order with a calm face, and in an instant, the ships of the Qing army, which were originally sailing southeast, immediately turned on the spot. The battle line was quickly laid out again, and unlike the original, the distance between the ships was reduced from more than 20 meters to less than 10 meters, and the more than 20 warships were almost connected in a straight line.

The Qing army was busy turning around. The English fleet was also doing the same thing, but Admiral Nadal did not interfere with Rear Admiral Brown's arrangement, holding a telescope to carefully observe the Qing army's every move, and when he found that the Qing army had narrowed the distance between the ships, he immediately understood that the Qing army intended to rely on the advantage of artillery rate of fire to form firepower coverage and form a local combat advantage, and immediately laughed and put down the telescope in his hand. He ordered in a loud voice: "All ships should be spaced apart, half-sail hoisted, and pay attention to attacking the enemy's mast so as to paralyze the enemy's ability to move. ”

The Qing army adopted a dense disposition, and the superiority of firepower was reflected. In this round of ground artillery battles, they were not at a disadvantage. However, due to the fact that the British increased the speed of the ships at the same time as they widened the distance between the ships. The Qing army's offensive firepower did not achieve much results - the Qing army was in the upper hand, due to the wind direction, the main position of the artillery fire was the hull of the British warship, but it was not easy to hit the British warship that had increased its speed, although it also hit many shells of the British warship, but it failed to achieve an ideal result, but due to the close distance between the Qing warships, the target was too concentrated, this round of artillery battle, the mast of several warships in the Qing array was hit, among which the "Yanye", " The main masts of the two battleships of the "Shenghai" were even broken, and the two side masts of the "Weimeng" were also damaged, although they had little impact on the slow-moving battle line, but they brought a lot of trouble to the Qing army's U-turn and redeployment.

Just as Liu Ninghai was busy directing the ships to rearrange their formations, the lookout post on the "Weilong" suddenly shouted: "Commander, the British have escaped!" ”

"What?" Liu Ninghai was stunned when he heard this, hurriedly raised the telescope, looked in the direction of the England fleet through the smoke on the battlefield, but saw that all the warships of the England fleet had completed the turn at this time, and galloped towards the south with full sails.

To chase or not to chase? Liu Ninghai suddenly made a mistake - at the moment, his own warships were not lightly damaged, if he wanted to chase, he could only send thirteen or four battleships to pursue, once the British killed a horse gun, with the situation of the Qing army's warships at this time, it is not easy to form a battle line again, if a chaotic battle is formed, the enemy is outnumbered, and the strength of his own troops is not enough for the British to plug his teeth, and his fleet is not tight, I am afraid that the direction of Kota Ding will be lost, once the British really copy the back road of the marines, With such a heavy responsibility, he Liu Ninghai has a few heads that are not enough to cut off; If you don't chase the ground, God knows where this British guy is going to go, according to the direction of the British Yankee's travel is the sea area of Badas Island, where his main fleet is located, but if the British Yankee changes direction on the way and goes to other places to make trouble, then how to explain to King Yongjun?

Liu Ninghai watched the British fleet gradually move away, so anxious that he saw sweat on his forehead, but at this time, Liu Tianlong at the front of the queue sent a request for instructions, asking Liu Ninghai to indicate the next battle plan, which made Liu Ninghai even more upset, and walked back and forth on the front deck of the "Weilong" for a while, gritted his teeth and ordered: "Order, all ships of the whole army are on standby, under the unified command of Rear Admiral Liu Tianlong, the ship immediately turned to the south, sailed with full sails, and caught up with the British!" ”

The English fleet had the upper hand in the half-hour battle just now, and it was regarded as completely suppressing the Qing army, but it was not without damage, and several third-class warships and cruisers in the fleet were also damaged to varying degrees, so that the speed of the entire fleet was affected, and the ship traveled for only an hour and a half, and the "Weilong," which was originally far behind, gradually caught up and hung about a nautical mile behind the English fleet.

"Your Excellency Commander, there is a Qing warship behind me, see that the flag is the flagship of the First Fleet of the Qing Dynasty, there must be big fish on it, do you think it's better to catch fish at sea?" Rear Admiral Brown, Chief of Staff of the Far East Fleet of England, who received the report from the lookout, smiled and suggested to Admiral Nadal.

"Oh, there's no need to waste time on a fly, let him follow if he wants, and wait until our army has crossed the Karimata Strait to pick him up. Admiral Nadal shrugged his shoulders disapprovingly and said dismissively.

"Oh, well. Your Excellency, Admiral, in front of you is the sea area of Badas Island, after this open sea, you will reach Banga Island, not far from the Karimata Strait, it seems that our army can spend the night in the Java Sea tonight, God forbid......." Before Rear Admiral Brown's words were finished, he was interrupted by the exclamation of the lookout post on the mast of the "New Wales" - "The Qing fleet, it is the main fleet of the Qing army, oh my God! ”

Admiral Nadal's face suddenly turned pale, and he hurriedly raised the monocular in his hand and looked in the direction of the Badas sea area, but seeing the white sails covering the sun, a large number of Qing warships were riding the wind and waves towards the English fleet at high speed......

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