readx; At 9:15 p.m., Zhao Zidong stood on the bridge of the Songshan with a cold face at this time, at this time the Songshan had completely stopped deck operations, and the lights had all been turned off to implement the strictest lighting control, and the same was true of the Taishan next to it, they were brought together with the Mengshan, Wuzhishan, and Yandang Mountain of the Fourth Air Brigade, and the three light cruisers in the Eighth Cruiser Group and the 13th Destroyer Group, the 14th Destroyer Group, Under the cover of the 18th destroyer group, it withdrew at high speed in the south-west direction at a speed of more than thirty knots. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

At noon, the Huashan, which had been heavily damaged and lost its take-off and landing capability during the daytime operations, was evacuated south and returned to Taiwan's naval base under the escort of several destroyers.

At this time, the Second Mobile Fleet was extremely nervous because of the advent of the Navy's high-speed attack fleet, and Lu Jian immediately ordered the aircraft carriers to flee south at high speed under the cover of the escort ships, and at this time, the ultra-high speed of the aircraft carrier battle group showed a huge effect, whether it was an aircraft carrier, a cruiser, or a destroyer, they were all speeding at a speed of more than 30 knots, and this speed was actually said to be "Ben's high-speed attack formation could not catch up at all."

In addition, the 5th Cruiser Group and the 17th Destroyer Group of the 21st Squadron and the Shaohao of the 8th Cruiser Group of the 22nd Squadron were transferred.

By this time, Vice Admiral Lu Jian had already concentrated two battleships, two large cruisers, four light cruisers, and fifteen destroyers to meet the original attack formation.

Because he was worried that the strength of the fleet was too large, Vice Admiral Lu Jian urgently ordered the 25th Squadron to reinforce the fleet directly under him, after all, the 25th Squadron had two large cruisers, the Emperor and the Emperor, and the twelve-inch main guns on them were barely the main naval guns, and although the armor of the battleships was a little reluctant, the attacking ones said, "Even if the strength of this fleet is huge, it will not exceed four high-speed battleships, and it would be very good to have two. The others were thin-skinned battlecruisers or heavy cruisers, and the twelve-inch guns of large cruisers were more than sufficient.

In fact, due to the lack of intelligence, Vice Admiral Lu Jian was temporarily unable to judge the strength of the attacking fleet, which was the first guerrilla formation of Yoshimura Ohno, and only the Shinano was the battleship of the right name, this ship was the third ship of the Yamato-class high-speed battleship, which was completed and put into service in 1942, and it was also the last battleship built and put into service in this navy, and like the first two Yamato and Musashi of the Yamato class, its standard displacement was as high as 45,000 tons, and its speed reached 30 knots. It has nine huge sixteen-inch and fifty-fold naval guns. The Yamato-class in this era is different from the historical super battleship Yamato-class, the overall tonnage is about the same as that of the American Iowa, and the main guns are the same sixteen-inch and fifty-fold caliber, but due to technical limitations, the main gun is not as deep as the Iowa's MK7, and the speed is only 30 knots, not as good as the Iowa's 33 knots, but the protection is better than it, and of course, more importantly, the cost is much lower than Iowa.

If you simply compare the combat effectiveness, the Yamato-class high-speed battleship is a little stronger than the Yandi-class that has been in service in China for many years, and the firepower of the two sides is about the same, but as a battleship that has been built and put into service in 1921 and has reached a high-speed of 28 knots at that time, it is natural that the Yandi-class cannot be expected to have strong protection. In fact, the Yandi class was not good at protection among the 40,000-ton battleships at that time, let alone the new generation of high-speed battleships in the 1940s, but the Yandi class of the Chinese Navy has always been known for its firepower and speed, and the modified Yandi class is not much worse than those latest battleships in terms of firepower and speed.

A total of three Yamato-class ships were built, namely the Yamato, Musashi, Shinano, and the fourth ship of the Yamato-class, the Owari, which was discontinued in 1942, and then underwent reconstruction work to prepare for conversion into an aircraft carrier, but it has not yet been completed.

In addition to the Shinano, there were also two battleships, the Kaohsiung and the Haruna, but these two used to be battle cruisers, but they were later called battleships after the Navy was refitted.

On the surface, the strength of Yoshimura Ohno's 1st Guerrilla Formation was about the same as that of Vice Admiral Lu Jian's direct fleet.

Vice Admiral Lu Jian's direct fleet had two Yandi-class battleships with eighteen sixteen-inch and fifty-fold guns, and the Fuxi and Shaohao, which were used as auxiliary capital ships, also had eighteen twelve-inch and fifty-fold naval guns. These 36 main guns were all capable of inflicting fatal damage on the Kaohsiung and Haruna in the 1st Guerrilla Formation, while the 12-inch naval guns were powerless against the Shinano.

In contrast, the 1st Guerrilla Formation had nine 16-inch and 50-fold guns, ten 16-inch and 45-fold guns, and eight 14-inch guns. And these naval guns can cause damage to two Yandi-class battleships and two large cruisers.

The 16-inch guns of the two sides were equal, and the second-class main guns said that 'the original was eight 14-inch guns, while the Chinese Navy had 18 super 12-inch cannons that were not weaker than the old 14-inch guns.

In terms of firepower, the Chinese Navy has an advantage, and the speed is comparable, but in terms of protection, the Chinese Navy is much inferior.

But the battle does not mean that only the comparison of surface firepower and protection is seen, if this comparison can distinguish the winner from the loser, everyone does not have to fight, just put the fleet out and count the number of main guns.

Tactics and luck are very important in specific battles.

During the daytime battle between the two aircraft carriers, the Chinese Navy first launched the "Own Fleet", and then the 21st Squadron launched the first attack on the "Own Fleet", and the "Ship Fleet was a little less lucky, and it took a long time to find the 21st Fleet of the Chinese Navy and launch an attack." Next, due to the great difference between the carrier-based aircraft and air defense capabilities of the two sides, the results of the air raids between the two sides were very different.

The 22nd Squadron of the Chinese Navy and the Second Mobile Air Fleet of the Chinese Navy were put into operation one after another, but before the Second Mobile Air Fleet could send out an attack wave, it was attacked by the Second Mobile Fleet of the Chinese Navy, so that it hurriedly retreated before it could launch an attack.

The military weapons of both sides here, as well as luck and tactics, occupy quite a lot of ingredients!

By tonight, Lu Jian's expected battle would be dominated by surface artillery battles and torpedo battles, and unfortunately he was more skilled in this than the Chinese navy, although he was limited by the radar surname and said, "The navy's long-distance artillery bombardment ability in night combat is not strong, but their lightning strike operations are very awesome, this is not a boast but a fact."

When fighting against the United States in the Pacific theater, the U.S. Navy repeatedly inflicted heavy losses on the U.S. Navy with the mode of night lightning strikes.

Now they want to use this tactic on the Chinese Navy.

"According to the intelligence from SS96, the size of the enemy fleet is at least twenty or more, and the number of large capital ships is determined to be more than four, and it is not clear whether there are more others. Moreover, since SS96 reported the news, we have lost the news of the enemy fleet, and we do not know their exact location yet! ”

"General, our strength is not enough now, and we need to disperse the defense, so it is easy to be scattered and broken by the enemy fleet, do you think we will also gather the fifth cruiser group?" Rear Admiral Lin Yonghai, chief of staff of the Second Mobile Fleet, said this to the charts.

But Vice Admiral Lu Jian said: "It's dark now, and the intelligence is insufficient, what if the enemy fleet bypasses our reconnaissance network?" They must not be allowed to bypass! ”

"And now the 24th Squadron is also on the way, and they will be able to reinforce us in the second half of the night, so as long as they are discovered, they will be dragged and said, 'This attack fleet should not be a big problem, wait for the dawn, our aircraft carriers will be able to take off carrier-based aircraft, and I won't be able to return to them at that time!'" Lieutenant General Lu Jian is an ambitious man.

He was not satisfied with just blocking these attacking fleets, he wanted to entangle them at night, and then wait for the dawn to kill them all at once.

If one or two more battleships of the Chinese Navy can be sunk in this battle, then the Chinese Navy will not be able to muster many high-speed battleships, and the threat to the Chinese Navy's huge aircraft carrier battle group will be greatly reduced.

At this time, the course of the two fleets was not opposite, but somewhat deviated, and at the same time, the fleet directly under the Second Mobile Fleet had already sent a large number of destroyers to reconnoitre, and Yoshimura Ohno's First Guerrilla Fleet had also sent a large number of destroyers to reconnoitre, trying to expand the search area to find the enemy fleet.

At 10:05 p.m., the Zizhan of the 17th Destroyer Group reported that a suspicious radar surnamed Neng was approaching for investigation.

At 10:08 a.m., the Zizhan reported again and found a small high-speed warship, which was judged to be an enemy ship.

"This must be a scout ship that says, 'My own ship!'" Be sure to sink or drive it away immediately before it spots our main fleet! Lin Yonghai said.

Lu Jian also nodded: "Summons the seventeenth destroyer group, reinforce the Zhan!" And continue to scout! ”

Although it is impossible to determine whether this is a warship called "Ben" because it is nighttime, in the huge North Pacific Ocean, especially in the waters east of the Amami Islands, there are either warships of the Chinese Navy or ships of the Chinese Navy, and the US Navy is still active in the waters east of Australia and the waters east of the Philippines, but it rarely appears here. The high-speed target is almost certainly a warship target, and in this case, Lu Jian is 80 percent sure that it is a warship.

And this is the area where the Chinese Navy is at war, and if there is really a US [***] ship that is mistakenly attacked by the Chinese Navy, it can only be said that it is unlucky.

Whether it's or not, let's talk about it, this is Lieutenant General Lu Jian's order!