"Big fish? It's a big shark, right? Not a few words" Makanov was unimpressed by Harvey's words. To be honest, Makanov was disappointed, on the one hand, because the message conveyed by the Huaxia Navy's operation this time was not clear, because the arrival of two light cruisers made it impossible for Makanov to judge whether the opponent was a tentative attack or the vanguard of a powerful fleet. The navy is different from the army, it takes time for the army to move on a large scale, and the speed of the advance of the large corps is extremely slow, but the navy is different, to say go, a warship in good condition and sufficient fuel can easily run a distance of 300 kilometers a day! In other words, if the opponent has a backhand, maybe before his own battleship finds an opponent, I am afraid that those big sharks called "dreadnoughts" have already hit the door!

"No matter what the opponent is, we can't squat in the harbor, the main force of the Huaxia Navy will definitely not come to the Java Sea, and the huge fleet of dozens of warships will definitely not be able to hide. They can only be small fleets...... So this is an opportunity. General Essen's fast battleships and armored cruisers were supposed to play their part. Harvey insisted.

"I also think so, general, our fleet can't just be a fleet of existence, every battleship in my fleet is in good condition, 4 fast battleships and 6 armored cruisers can attack at any time, even if we meet 5 fast battleships of the Huaxia Navy, we still have an overwhelming advantage!" Essen unexpectedly sided with Harvey.........

"Then what if the Huaxia Navy has other warships besides the 5 capital ships?" Makanov said in his heart that the idea seemed somewhat unlikely. The main battleships of the Huaxia Fleet are inferior in endurance because of their emphasis on protection and firepower, and the speed of the main fleet is slow. Huge scale. If you want to go out. It is necessary to bring enough light cruisers and destroyers to provide cover, so that such large targets will definitely be detected as soon as they appear, as for armored cruisers? Makanov considered this even more unlikely, for the simple reason that no one, except for the British, was going to plaster 5 obsolete armored cruisers into the treacherous Java Sea.

Although these outfits are old, they are also an indispensable force for both sides! And in the face of a strong Russian-Dutch combined fleet. This force is a little fragile, and it can't even turn in in the face of a bad battle. If it is said that the two sides fought a decisive battle, it is understandable that this fleet served as a decoy for the enemy. But if these outfits were put in a cannon fodder position just for the sake of 5 dreadnoughts, Makanov did not believe that Huaxia would have such courage! So the idea was just a flash of the day. So he didn't say it to the attendees.

"We can do this, light cruisers as reconnaissance forces. Behind was a formation of fast battleships. Finally with armored cruiser formations and support. If the opponent was only a light cruiser. We can get the reconnaissance fleet to deal with them, if the opponent is the capital ship. We entangle our opponents with fast battleships. At the same time, the armored cruiser was called to come to support. Essen saw that Makanov did not disagree with his opinion and continued. Essen's idea coincides with the idea of the Huaxia Navy, which is to concentrate the strongest warships on the front line, and then protect the relatively inferior warships. And this combination really can't find fault ..........

"Add one more armored cruiser to the two fast battleship detachments, and then take 4 destroyers with each fast battleship unit. I propose that the Rotterdam and the Sealand be assigned to two fast battleship formations, and then the remaining four armored cruisers of the same class should be grouped. Makanov thought for a while and said, in his opinion, it is very likely that the Huaxia fleet will adopt a grouping method of ships of the same class. …。

If this is the case, 2 fast battleships alone will definitely not be able to defeat the opponent's three Longtai-class fast battleships. It can only be transferred in immediately. If you run into two Longxu-class battlecruisers. Taking into account the quality of personnel on both sides, the Russian-Dutch fleet is still inferior. However, it would be different with the addition of an advanced armored cruiser, so Makanov wanted to strengthen the fast battleship formation so that these two sub-fleets could entangle or even severely damage the Longxu-class battlecruisers. Then cooperate with the fleet that arrived to eliminate the elite avant-garde of Huaxia.

"Finally, I would like to add that unless the main fleet meets the opponent, otherwise, before the position of the main fleet of Huaxia is exposed, our main battleship will avoid contact with the opponent's light cruiser formation!" Before the end of the meeting, Makanov repeatedly stressed the importance of covert engagement with the enemy.........

At the same time, the Huaxia Fleet is also assessing the impact of the attack on the oil depot. The Russians will not sit idly by. But how much force they will send against themselves is unknown. In Ye Zusi's opinion...... There is a seventy percent chance that the Russians will send their main fleet, and in the Russo-Chinese War, the only two active attacks of the Russians were almost always in full swing. Moreover, the Russians did not have enough light cruisers, and the capital ships had to be put into battle for search missions. Both from the perspective of war history and feasibility, there is a great chance that the Russian fast fleet will be dispatched.

And this is exactly what the Huaxia Navy wants to see, the fleet can only be destroyed when it leaves the port! In order to meet the Russian fleet, the Huaxia Navy changed its formation again, if the advance fleet of the Huaxia Navy was a long snake formation before this, then the Huaxia fleet at this time became an inverted triangle, and the Longtai-class fast battleships quickly moved forward and formed a line together with the Longxu-class battlecruisers. And Liu Guanxiong's five armored cruisers also quickly followed, ready to support the two fleets that went forward.

"Let the 3rd Light Patrol Detachment carry out reconnaissance missions in front of Deng Shichang's fleet. The 2nd Light Cruiser Detachment was responsible for searching the empty space between Deng Shichang's fleet and Lin Yongsheng's fleet, and the 1st Light Cruiser, as the vanguard of Lin Yongsheng's fleet, immediately changed formation, and the fleet continued to advance westward at a speed of 12 knots. Take Semarang as the bottom line of the activity area. Ye Zusi ordered..........

At this time, the Chinese advance fleet spread out throughout the sea area. The Longtai battle group led by Ye Zusi and Deng Shichang sailed on the side close to Java Island to prevent the opposing detachment from being stationed outside Batavia and posing a threat to the relatively vulnerable Longxu battle group. The distance between the three main fleets is about 40 nautical miles, and the distance between the avant-garde light cruisers and the two fast dreadnought formations in the first line is about 50 nautical miles, so the entire Chinese navy has formed a wide formation with a depth of 80 nautical miles and a frontal distance of more than 100 nautical miles, and the direction corresponding to this huge ship formation is Batavia, the anchorage of the Russian-Dutch fleet, and the most likely place for the opponent!

"Commander. General Liu Guanxiong asked whether the armored cruiser detachment could choose to attack the Dutch port off the coast of Java, and he said that although the warships of the armored cruiser detachment were somewhat old, it was still possible to deal with those ports that lacked protection, especially the Surabaya military port, which was very valuable for attack, and there were not only supplies but also a large dock to provide maintenance for the warships. If we destroy it, then only Batavia, Belibi and Semarang can provide such docks in the whole of Java. A staff officer stepped forward and asked.

"No need, tell General Liu that his fleet is our greatest reliance and guarantee, and it is also the only hole card of the advance fleet, and unless it is discovered by the opponent, there is no need to take any orders that may reveal their whereabouts, including approaching the coastline and attacking merchant ships." Ye Zusi thought about it and rejected Liu Guanxiong's proposal. Now is not the time to go all out, and it is obviously taboo for the two sides to expose their full strength before they have yet to fight. Moreover, Ye Zusi is worried that if the opponent entangles Liu Guanxiong, several slow ships may be left in the Java Sea, and this risk is really a bit big for the Huaxia Navy! …………。

At the same time, the Russian-Dutch fleet also put out its own formation, which was also 6 light cruisers, which was already the largest reconnaissance force that Makanov could give. It's still unfolding along an arc. It was followed by two battleship formations and one armored cruiser formation, albeit again in two arcs. However, the distance between the six light cruisers on the first line of the Russian fleet is very large, with a distance of more than 80 nautical miles between them, but in order to make up for this too sparse reconnaissance network, the distance between the first and second arcs is relatively short, only 30 nautical miles, which means that the Russians directly compressed the depth in order to pursue a wide frontal ...... The advantage of this is that you can search for opponents in as wide a range as possible, but the disadvantage is that it is difficult to rush to the opponent as soon as you find it!

In terms of the matching of the main forces of the second line, the Russians also wasted some thoughts. On the northern and middle lines of this wide arc were two formations of fast battleships, of which the northern line was the Dutch seven-provincial battleship and the armored cruiser Rotterdam, the fundamental reason why they chose to be on the northern front was that it was close to the island of Kalimantan, and the Dutch still had some heavy oil reserves in the coastal area, which could be easily replenished, and in the middle were naturally two Peter-class fast battleships and the armored cruiser Sealand Province under the direct command of Essen. And on the southern route are the Bayan and the Crimea. These two guys, armed with 6 10-inch guns, were very ineffective, but considering the proximity of the southern front to the island of Java, these two warships with a relatively small displacement could choose to take refuge in the harbor or enter the shallow water in an unfavorable situation. In other words, if you can't beat it, you can at least run ..........

Essen had originally planned to place Rurik and Varyag on the southern front, but Makanov directly rejected this proposal. "If you really run into the dreadnoughts of the Huaxia fleet, there is not much difference between 6 10-gun guns and 8 10-inch guns. In that case, why do we have to let Rurik take the risk? Makanov said. In this way, two Rurik-class armored cruisers were arranged in the third line so that they could always support friendly forces in front, a search line with a wider front spread out in the Java Sea, and the two fleets were going in opposite directions, and a collision was imminent

Thank you for the monthly pass support of the book friend Day Sleeping Animal, DSBGHOST, and Zhiqiu Yiye~~~. (To be continued......)

Chapter 624: The Great Collision.

Chapter 624: The Great Collision. ，。