One of the most valuable parts of the art of warfare is the analysis of intelligence. Especially in such a vast battlefield in the ocean, the speed of information transmission is so slow, and every limited piece of news is so precious.

This forces every commander to develop a professional sensibility to make prescient judgments and give the right orders when faced with an unknown battlefield.

I have to admit that the Anglo-Saxons are an extremely good learning people, and they like to "take for their own use" the excellent achievements of other countries and nations without any psychological burden.

Following the establishment of the staff system in the army by the Kingdom of Prussia following the model of the Qi state, the Royal Navy of England also established a staff department ten years ago (1715), with a number of senior naval officers serving as staff officers, conducting detailed analysis and deduction of military strategies and tactics, and providing professional operational guidance for the naval committee and senior admirals who went to sea to fight, so as to avoid one-sided and arbitrary decisions of the generals to the greatest extent.

After all, in a large army sequence, the number of generals with brilliant minds and genius command talents is very small. The Royal Navy of England wants its army to be like Qi State, where every tactical decision is based on keen intuition and professional judgment that has been trained at every strategic pivot.

After the Atlantic Task Force led by Admiral William Payne left the mainland of England and slowly sailed into the windy North Atlantic waters with strong westerly winds, the biggest problem faced was how to find the Qi raiding fleet in the vast ocean and lure them to take the initiative to attack themselves.

After careful planning, the accompanying naval staff officer believed that the Qi fleet, which was roaming the waters of the North Atlantic, must have set up a temporary camp on some island, so that the ships in various conditions could be easily repaired, and at the same time, the wounded and sick crew members should receive timely medical treatment and meticulous care.

You must know that the people of Qi came from afar, and outside the Canary Islands, there is no stable sea base. In the Mediterranean, although there are Morocco, Egyptian, and even Ottoman ports to dock, as long as the English navy blocks the Strait of Gibraltar, then they can only be trapped in the Mediterranean, the size of a "bathtub", and do nothing. Unless, they want to fight a decisive battle at sea with the Royal Navy.

However, after half a year of confrontation, they found that the Qi people were obviously unwilling to have a strategic decisive battle with the Royal Navy, but broke into pieces, hid in the depths of the ocean, and began to frequently attack English merchant ships and destroy England's trade routes, as if they wanted to block England's foreign trade channels in order to achieve the goal of continuously weakening England's economy.

This tactic, which the English navy had used against the Netherlands, Spain, France, Prussia, and Sweden in the past few decades, had achieved good results, not only plundering large quantities of goods and money from the sea, but also forcing the other side's maritime transportation or foreign trade to a standstill, and finally contributing to the final victory of the Kingdom of England.

Damn the Qi people must have learned this flexible tactic from the experience of successful wars in the past, and used it on their England.

Then, in order to maintain long-term blockade tactics, the Qi people must choose a hidden sea base. Not to mention the direct damage to the ship during the battle, even if it is at sea for a long time, it will also cause inevitable wear and tear to the ship, as well as a large number of people are sick or injured.

Looking at the surrounding seas, there are not many islands that are relatively close to England and can sail into the depths of the ocean at any time to threaten the English merchant ships. The Shetland Islands, not far northeast of Scotland, the Faroe Islands northwest of Great Britain, and the cold and remote Iceland are all likely to be used as temporary anchorages for the fleet's temporary rest and maintenance.

The Fleet Staff Officers decided that the Shetland Islands were too close to the English mainland for the Qi people to risk stopping there. Then the Faroe Islands and Iceland may become the selected targets of the Qi people.

According to the feedback of those fishermen who escaped the attack of Qi from the North Sea, after attacking them, the Qi fleet turned around and sailed west. Although this action seems to indicate that the Qi people are going to the depths of the ocean to continue searching for merchant ships returning to England from North America, it is also very likely that they will sail to the Faroe Islands or the southern waters of Iceland and return straight to a temporary anchorage that may be located somewhere in them.

Because, having captured so many fishermen, it is impossible for them to be loaded on ships all the time and cruise with the fleet in the ocean. You must know that at sea, every supply stored on the ship is extremely precious, and it cannot be consumed by the captives at will.

Therefore, instead of searching for the Qi fleet aimlessly at sea, it is better to cruise to the waters of the Faroe Islands and Iceland to try your luck, if you can find the anchor camp of the Qi country, it is the best, you can take advantage of the situation to launch a siege on the Qi people.

Yes, through the reports of merchant ships and fishing vessels that returned to England one after another, the Qi people divided their fleet into at least three parts, operating in the North Sea, the northwest sea of England, and the southeast sea, wantonly intercepting and attacking their merchant ships belonging to England.

In other words, it is very likely that there are less than twenty Qi ships scattered around, and with their own advantage several times, once they are entangled, they will inevitably be severely damaged.

This large fleet was divided into three sub-fleets by William Penn, which in turn were divided into two detachments, each with its own commander. Twenty-two warships disguised as merchant ships and six small supply ships were part of the Central Guard Fleet, while the other twenty warships were divided into two as "escort formations" and were assigned to the Forward Fleet and the Rear Support Fleet.

Payne's battle plan was that after encountering the Qi fleet, the commander of the vanguard fleet, Nolan Madden, led all eight warships to break through to the center of the enemy fleet and make a posture to cover the "merchant fleet"; Tibor Raymond, commander of the Internal Guard Fleet, led more than 20 warships disguised as merchant ships to spread out in formation, posing as if they were scattering and fleeing, attracting Qi warships to attack. Payne himself led the rearguard fleet to destroy and besiege the opponent's warships that had fallen into chaos, directly attacked the opponent's flagship, so that the opponent could not retreat, and finally annihilated the encircled Qi fleet one by one.

In order to ensure the combat effect, Payne required all his subordinates to fight in strict accordance with the pre-war deployment, and did not allow unauthorized actions, and at the same time required them to give full play to the spirit of proactive and daring to fight in close combat, and attack all Qi warships within their line of sight.

The Royal Navy's Atlantic Task Force has made all preparations, as long as it encounters the Qi fleet, with their arrogant character, they will definitely not let go of this "fat prey" in front of them, and they will pounce on it without hesitation. As for who is the hunter and who is the prey in the end, only God who knows everything can prove.

——

In the early morning of 18 November, 15 warships of the 1st Detachment of the Qi Expeditionary Fleet were 380 kilometers southwest of the Faroe Islands. The storm forced the entire fleet to reverse course, causing them to spend four days sailing eastward, trying to get close to the latitude of their intended target in tortuous ways. This continued until early this morning, when the wind finally allowed the fleet to turn the rudder again and sail into the waters of the Faroe Islands.

The "Tianwu" and the "Rongshui" were the most advanced warships in the fleet, and in addition, there were two fast cruisers scattered more than 10 kilometers ahead according to the conventional arrangement, in addition to guarding the fleet, but also searching for possible prey, while the "Yujing" was pursuing a suspicious sailing ship about eight kilometers downwind.

A light breeze blew across the sea, and the fog did not disperse for a long time, making visibility around the fleet extremely limited. However, at about 9 a.m., the "Tianshu" cruising ahead gave the signal that a suspicious fleet had been spotted: eight ships – later revised to thirty-eight – and an unknown flotilla had appeared in a north-easterly direction.

Zhong Zhilin, commander of the detachment and general Guangwei (rear admiral), immediately ordered the fleet to meet them and sail northeast. He formed two columns in close formation, so that it was easy to switch into battle formation at any time.

By noon, the commanders of both sides had detected the sights of the opposing fleet. They were about 25 kilometers apart, but the fog on the sea was so thick that they couldn't make any moves for the next two hours.

The English Atlantic Task Force was originally heading in the direction of the Faroe Islands, but after the avant-garde alert ships spotted the suspicious fleet, they also turned the rudder to meet each other like the first detachment of the Qi Expeditionary Fleet, hoping to find out the details of the other party.

At 2 p.m., the forward avant-garde fleet sent a report to Commander Payne that a fleet of fifteen ships was approaching. He immediately ordered all the battleships to sail upwind and sail to the battle line upwind in order to enter the battle.

On the Qi side, the "Tianshu" and "Rongshui" also identified the enemy fleet, a large merchant fleet escorted by more than a dozen warships, and the situation became clear.

Zhong Zhilin, commander of the first fleet, gave a signal to keep the fleet on course, and at the same time shortened the distance between the battleships to two hundred meters. He was not prepared to compete with that fleet for the upper hand, but hoped to engage the enemy in a downwind position, which would be more advantageous for the seven sailing ships in the fleet.

By this time, the two sides had not yet recognized the exact strength of their respective opponents. The fog gathered again, and the two fleets could only see the enemy vaguely through the fog. Over the next hour, the fleets of both sides continued to approach in a thick fog.

After 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the fog dissipated, and the cruisers arranged in front of the first detachment of the Qi Expeditionary Fleet finally saw the enemy's battle column clearly, so they sent back their details with a signal.

The number of ships on the other side made Zhong Zhilin stunned, and he fell into a difficult choice for a while.

"General, England has thirty-eight ships, almost twice as many as mine, and the other side is implicitly putting on a-for-tat posture. I highly suspect that the ships that look like merchant ships are likely to be professional warships in camouflage. Hou Guangtai, Chief of the General Staff of the Fleet and General Mingwei (Commodore General), said in a deep voice: "It is reported that decades ago, European countries did this and achieved good results. Therefore, we should not move forward now, let alone fight the enemy. ”

"General, as for whether the other party's merchant fleet is disguised by warships, let's get closer and have a try." Captain Ling Lu (Lieutenant Colonel) Zhao Jinchun, the captain of the Houji, was eager to try, "If we kill them closely, and the Yingyi fleet still puts on a fighting posture, it means that they have no fear, and it may prove that those merchant ships are probably camouflaged warships to lure us into the battle." But if the other party is really a merchant ship, let's hesitate here, maybe they will take the opportunity to slip away. ”

"Right now, the fog hasn't completely dissipated, and none of us knows if there is another Yingyi fleet in other directions besides the more than thirty Yingyi ships in front." Hou Guangtai shook his head and said: "I always feel a little strange, when my cruising battleship found them, they didn't do anything to avoid them, but drove in our direction. Once we engage them, if we get caught in the middle of a scuffle and another heroic force comes out, it will not be easy to get out. ”

"There are seven steam warships in our fleet, and now more than two hours have passed, and the boilers are all heated up and are running at full capacity. Even if there are dozens more British ships, as long as we want to retreat, they may not be able to stop them. ”

"The steam battleships can be withdrawn from the battlefield, so the remaining few sail battleships will be lost to Yingyi?"

"We can divide the fleet into two parts, with sail warships as the rear guard and steam warships as the lead, to break through the blockage of the opposing avant-garde fleet and attack their central defense fleet. If the opponent is indeed a merchant ship, the sail warship will then follow up and hunt down the target one by one. If the opponent is indeed a warship disguised as a merchant ship, we can withdraw from the battlefield, and the sail warship is on the periphery, so we can avoid entanglement with the enemy and pull the sail at any time to avoid it. ”

"What if our steam warships break into the enemy's line and are surrounded by the superior forces of the other side, and then they are entangled and cannot withdraw? Although our sail warships can watch and fight from the periphery, if the fleet ambushed by Yingyi suddenly kills, how can we guarantee that we will not be taken advantage of by the other side and fall into a bitter battle? ”

“……”

"Did the Hound No. 3 in the downwind position send back any news?" Zhong Zhilin waved his hand to stop everyone's argument, and turned his head to the intelligence staff officer and asked.

"Back to the general, there is no news from Hound 3 yet."

"The Yingyi fleet in front of us still hasn't changed formation?"

"Twenty minutes ago, the Tianshu in front reported that the Yingyi fleet had eight escort warships ten kilometers ahead of us, and it seemed that they were guarding the fleet."

"In other words, after the Yingyi fleet was discovered by our side, there has not been any retreat and evasion?"

"Yes, General."

"Hehe...... such a big piece of fat is really eye-catching when it is placed in front of our eyes!" Zhong Zhilin chuckled twice, "I just don't know if there is a deadly poison in this piece of fat." That being the case, we might as well ......"

"Report to the general, there is something unusual in the Yingyi fleet." A sentry officer quickly entered the command compartment and reported loudly: "The ship in the middle of the Yingyi fleet has begun to turn around and head southeast!" ”

"Huh? …… Is this what they want to go? ”

"General, Yingyi is timid. …… Let's catch up! ”

"General, Yingyi's move may be a trick to lure the enemy, don't be easily fooled!"

"Since the enemy has fled, if we don't catch up and take a look, won't it frustrate the spirit of our imperial navy?" Zhong Zhilin said proudly: "Needless to say, send signals to all ships and prepare for battle!" ”

(End of chapter)