readx; After confirming the information of the Tiancheng to the reconnaissance aircraft of the Huashan aircraft carrier again, Rear Admiral Xie Baozhang, chief of staff of the First Fleet, walked up to Cheng Biguang with a heavy face: "The Huashan has confirmed that the 'this formation' that was discovered before is indeed the Amagi of myself and the other three cruisers of the 3rd Squadron to which the Amagi belongs!" ”

Cheng Biguang also took a deep breath after hearing this, when he heard the news just now, he still sent a request to the Huashan to confirm the information, because if it was really the Tiancheng that had been the 3rd team, then Cheng Biguang would not hesitate to turn around and leave, and would never continue to stay at the risk of a decisive battle with the main fleet of the Navy, but if this was just a wrong information, then Cheng Biguang would not give up the current excellent fighter. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

You must know that now your own battlefleet and the 4th Sentai have definitely reached the stage of victory and defeat, they have entered a distance of 18,000 kilometers between each other, they have hit the enemy ships many times and achieved considerable results, the second turret of the Kongo has been destroyed, the bridge of the Haruna has also been hit, the superstructure is almost fragmented, and the Hiei has been pierced through the inner compartment by a huge sixteen-inch cannonball, and the large explosion inside has caused its speed to be reduced to about twenty knots. The two rear turrets even stopped firing. On the other hand, although the two battleships on their side were also hit by more than 14-inch shells, although these shells did not cause fatal damage to the two battleships. Of course, it also inflicted heavy casualties on the two ships, but fortunately, the eighteen main guns of the two ships continued to fire, and the speed also maintained the highest combat speed.

If the fight continues under this situation, it is inevitable that his side will be injured a little, but Cheng Biguang is also confident that he will sink one of the opponent's battle cruisers and even achieve more results, so that the navy will be able to give President Chen Jingyun and the people a full score. However, at this time, the news of the Tiancheng came, which made Cheng Biguang hesitate for a while.

Just when Cheng Biguang hesitated, Guan Gancheng Dazuo on the King Kong suddenly shouted: "Okay!" Good! ”

And along his line of sight, a fierce fire erupted in the front of the bridge of the Yandi, and it was obvious that a fourteen-inch cannonball from the King Kong had hit the Yandi again, and in the war room of the King Kong, including Guan Gancheng, a group of naval officers shouted in unison.

And on the Yandi that was shelled, Huang Pinghan staggered up from the floor of the war room: "Fuck it!" ”

At a distance of 108,000 kilometers, the fourteen-inch shells of the King Kong still could not penetrate the thick armor of the command tower on the Yandi, and Huang Pinghan and the others inside were just unable to stand up by the huge impact and fell to the ground. ”

Not long after, a staff officer stepped forward to report: "The optical command system of our ship's main gun is seriously damaged!" ”

As soon as he heard the news, Huang Pinghan almost couldn't stand still: "What? The fire control of the main gun was disrupted? ”

The staff officer also looked nervous, but he was still sure: "Yes!" ”

Huang Pinghan secretly said that this is not good, for battleships, turrets, side ships, horizontal armor and command towers are very thick, but a ship is so big that it is impossible to have a large amount of armor everywhere, especially the protection of the bridge part is the same as paper paste for large-caliber naval guns, and more importantly, the bridge on the battleship is generally deployed with a large number of equipment, such as radio access equipment and the most important fire control system, especially the unified optical shooting command instrument of the whole ship, And these equipment are generally towering on the bridge, and they are also extremely vulnerable to damage in battle, although there is also a rear main gun fire control system on the Yandi at this time, and even a small fire control system with reading power on each turret, but after the fire control system of the two turrets of the front main gun is destroyed, it will still make the shooting accuracy of the front six main guns drop a lot.

"Report back to Chief Cheng immediately!" Huang Pinghan knew that after this kind of battle damage, only Cheng Biguang could make a decision.

Originally, Cheng Biguang was still hesitating whether to evacuate now or wait for a while, sink the enemy first and then leave, but now as soon as he heard that the front main gun fire control system on the Yandi was destroyed, he immediately stood up, and then said: "Order, the battlefleet turns forty degrees to the right, and orders the lightning strike formation to cover the fleet to turn!" ”

After saying that, he didn't stop but continued: "Order the heavy patrol formation to sail according to the original plan, and join the formation at that time!" ”

"The aircraft carrier formation will immediately move south, and it can leave the battlefield on its own and then join us! However, it is necessary to continue to monitor the surrounding seas, especially the northern ones! ”

According to Cheng Biguang's prediction, since the 3rd squadron to which the Tiancheng belongs appeared in the northern seas, then it is very likely that Ben's first fleet will be there, and if he wants to turn to retreat, it will naturally be impossible to evacuate to the north, but to withdraw to the southeast instead, and then with the high speed of the fleet, it will be enough to get rid of the tracking of the enemy's main fleet, as for the tracking of the enemy's small and medium-sized warships, it is not a concern for Cheng Biguang, even if they follow themselves all the way, anyway, their main fleet can't keep up, As long as their main fleet can't keep up, then they will be safe and worry-free, and they can even eat a few small and medium-sized ships that are tracking up.

As Cheng Biguang's battle order was issued, Huang Pinghan's battleship formation immediately made a high-speed turn, and Huang Pinghan's battleship formation and the 4th squadron were sailing in parallel, while the 4th squadron limited by the speed was several nautical miles behind, and now Huang Pinghan's battleship formation made a big turn to the right at 40 degrees, almost trying to copy the front of the 4th squadron. At this time, Lieutenant General Naoe Nakano did not know that Cheng Biguang was already planning to run away, and thought that the Chinese wanted to seize the T-head, so he immediately ordered: "Maintain the highest combat speed and turn to the right thirty degrees!" ”

For the Kongo-class battlecruisers, they are the layout of two turrets in the front and rear, and only when the side is facing the enemy can the power of eight main guns be exerted, and once it evolves into the bow against the enemy, then it can only exert the power of four main guns, and more importantly, the 4th Sentai team takes a long snake formation in order to exert firepower, and the lead ship is the King Kong, limited by the interference of their own warships in front, it is difficult for the three battleships in the rear to exert the power of their front main guns, The former main gun turret No. 2 of the King Kong has been destroyed, and only the two main guns of the No. 1 turret can continue to fight. So no matter what the reason, Naoe Nakano can't let China's two battleships preempt the T-shape.

Immediately, the situation of this naval battle turned to the right of the Chinese battleship formation and the 4th warship, and about eight nautical miles northeast of the battle, the heavy patrol formation of the Chinese task force was rapidly approaching them at a speed of up to 31 knots. About 20 nautical miles northwest of the Chinese heavy patrol formation was the 3rd Squadron, which had broken away from the First Fleet and reinforced, at high speed. At this time, the Chinese aircraft carrier formation, which was three nautical miles north of the heavy patrol formation, also began to turn southward.

And the First Fleet, the main force of the Navy, is still thirty nautical miles away from the rear of the 3rd Squadron

In addition, at this time, both sides of the battle belonged to high-speed formations, and they both soared to the highest speed when they fought, and the speed of the 4th Sentai continued to be maintained at 27 knots, and the Hiei, which was damaged by the power system, was slowly breaking away from the formation. And the 3rd Sentai is also maintaining a speed of up to 28 knots and is heading towards the battle area.

In addition, the speed of the Chinese battleship formation is still maintained at the maximum combat speed, that is, 28 knots, and the speed of the heavy patrol formation and the aircraft carrier formation is even faster, both exceeding 30 knots.

Compared with the high speed of these formations in front, the First Fleet, which was scheduled to be the main force in the decisive battle, was much slower, and the first team of the new battleships maintained a speed of 24 knots, while the four battleships of the 2nd and 6th warships could only rush over at a speed of 20 knots. After all, there has been no battle yet, and it is impossible for them to keep the main engine of the battleship at the highest power and reach the highest combat speed.

The maximum speed of battle does not last long, and few naval commanders will maintain the maximum speed for a long time in a cruising state without engagement.

However, when the Chinese battleship formation and the 4th squadron were turning in unison, due to the high speed of the turn, the inclination of the hull was too high, which made it impossible for both sides to fire and hit in this situation, but the light ships that had always been free from the area of engagement of the main formations of the two sides once again engaged in a fierce exchange.

In the previous engagement, the light ships of both sides were scarred and one was sunk, but the battle between them did not stop, especially when the capital ships of both sides were making high-speed turns, and the commanders of both sides issued orders to their light ship formations to cover the turn of the capital ships and carry out interfering lightning operations with the enemy capital ships in the turning.

Almost having received the same order, the light warship formations of the two countries once again engaged in a fierce confrontation!

Lan Tingshu, commander of the Rear Admiral of China's No. 1 Lightning Strike Fleet, did not care about his military appearance at all, so he opened his military uniform, grabbed the railing and looked at the two cruisers not far from the sea.

"Rush forward and provide artillery cover for the Wanwu! Let the Cheilly follow the ship! "The battle situation has reached the most critical moment, Lan Tingshu did not care about his own safety at all, and directly used this flagship Xia Lan to break through and provide the most direct artillery cover for the lightning attack of the Wanwu.

As the flagship of the lightning strike ship, the Charan has strong firepower, and was originally designed as a leader to break through the interception of enemy light ships and lead the lightning destroyers to launch lightning strike operations.

When the Cheilly and the Charan rushed forward in unison, the Manwu and two other destroyers in the rear followed closely behind, and their target was not their own opponents, the "Ben Light Formation", but the Hiei, which had been heavily damaged not far away, with a speed of only twenty knots and had broken away from the 4th Sentai formation.

When the Chinese lightning fleet charged, the opposite commander said, "This commander is not stupid, he immediately saw the threat, Naoe Nakano ordered the light formation to stop the Chinese lightning fleet, and at the same time, the Hiei itself also aimed its fire at the Chinese lightning fleet galloping towards it."

Shut down

10,000 meters, 8,000 meters, 7,000 meters, when the Chinese lightning fleet assaulted forward, it was also intercepted by intensive artillery fire, and at five thousand meters, the Xia Yi suddenly exploded, and the violent explosion made the entire ship burst out of fire and billowing smoke, and the only thing that could cause such a heavy blow to the Xia Yi was the fourteen-inch main gun on the Billy not far away, and the upper building of the Xia Yi with fire and billowing smoke was almost swept away, and even the two main turrets in the front were overturned, And looking at the scattered bridge command towers, Lan Tingshu knew that the commanding officers on the Xia Yi should have been martyred. Despite the billowing smoke, the Cheilly's position was the upper half of the ship, and it was shelled by the howitzer from the Billy's fourteen-inch gun, so despite the heavy damage to the upper building, the core compartment of the lower half remained intact, and the speed was not even reduced by the slightest.

With the Xia Yi being hit, in a short period of time, China's lightning strike fleet had already broken through the interception of the fleet and reached the vicinity of the Hiei, and Lan Tingshu even felt that he could see every detail on the Hiei at this distance.

Immediately after, the Charan and the Mango fired torpedoes in unison, and the heavy torpedoes sped towards the Hiei in white spray.

Suddenly, the Hiei also made corresponding maneuvers and evasions, but due to the failure of the power system, it was difficult to maintain a speed of even 20 knots, and the Hiei could not escape all the torpedo attacks.

The two torpedoes hit and exploded in the underwater part of the Hiei, the power of the 1918 shipborne heavy torpedo was greater than that of the 1920 aviation torpedo, and the Kongo-class battlecruiser lacked sufficient underwater protection, so when the two heavy torpedoes exploded one after another, two huge holes were blown out, and a large amount of seawater poured into the Hiei almost instantly.

Just a minute later, the Hiei had already tilted fifteen degrees to the left, and in order to save the battleship, the captain of the Hiei, Shindasa Nakamichi, ordered water to be poured into the starboard side to maintain balance, but due to the rapid inflow of water and too much water, the sea water quickly flooded a large number of the core compartments inside, and it was the power compartment at the bottom that flooded the power compartment, so that the Hiei, which was already only 20 knots high, completely lost power.

Seeing that the torpedo hit, Lan Tingshu did not fall in love with the battle, but led the fleet to turn directly to the east at 90 degrees in order to escape from the pursuit of the enemy's light formation.

But war is war, just when Lan Tingshu was still able to get out of the battlefield, although he had lost power, but there were still two front main guns that could shoot and fight, the Hiei let out a roar that belonged to the cannon of the giant ship, and Lan Tingshu's flagship Xialan was immediately shot, and the huge fourteen-inch shell penetrated the horizontal armor of the rear of the Xialan, and then directly penetrated the ammunition depot and exploded, and caused a violent explosion!

The violent explosion caused the Xia Lan to explode directly into two, and then sank directly, and the whole process was not even thirty seconds!

In Lan Tingshu's lightning strike formation, the upper building of the Xia Yi was destroyed, resulting in a complete loss of combat effectiveness, so that it could only maintain the speed of evacuation, and then the Xia Lan and Wan Wu fired torpedoes at the Hiei together, and successfully hit two, and then the Xia Lan was directly sunk by the retaliatory fire of the Hiei. The whole process lasted less than five minutes, but it became the most tragic confrontation in this naval battle.

Cheng Biguang looked at the billowing smoke on the sea in the distance, the smoke was not only the Billie's, but also the light ships of both sides, including the Xia Yi, the light ships of the two sides who participated in the battle were all scarred without exception, with bullet holes and blood everywhere, but although they were scarred, as long as they were not hit by concentrated fire or the large-caliber naval guns of the main fleets of both sides, then even if the ship was full of bullet holes, it was generally difficult to sink, and the entire superstructure of the Xia Yi was knocked out in the naval battle. Although it is said that it has lost all its combat effectiveness, it is far from the point of sinking, and the anti-sinking surname of warships is not comparable to those civilian ships, as long as they are not punched by large-caliber naval guns or torpedoes in a big hole under the water, or hit the ammunition depot, generally speaking, they can rarely sink. So far, the two sides have sunk a total of three, two of which are the Chinese light cruiser Xialan and the destroyer Markham, and the one that has sunk is one destroyer.

The fierce exchange of light formations on both sides once again won time for the capital ships of both sides to turn smoothly, and at this time, the artillery battle of the capital ships of the two sides was once again fierce, and not long after, the two Huatai-class heavy cruisers also followed behind the battleship formation, and shelled the Haruna in the rear to provide artillery support for the battlefleet. It's just that although the protection of the Kongo-class battleships is the same as paper paste for the sixteen-inch naval guns, there is still no pressure to protect the eight-inch naval guns on the Huatai-class, and the Haruna did not pay attention to the shelling of these eight-inch guns at all, but continued to aim the main guns at the Chinese battleships, and only used secondary guns to counter the heavy patrol shelling of China.

Since the distance between the two sides has been shortened to only 15,000 meters again, the main cannon of the King Kong class at this distance is enough to cause serious damage to the protection of the Yandi class, and in order to achieve better shooting results, Naoe Nakano has always ordered to concentrate fire on one of them, which is why the Yandi suffered most of the fire attacks.

When one of the main guns of the Yellow Emperor hit the No. 4 turret of the Haruna, and successfully destroyed and paralyzed the turret, a shell fired by the Kirishima also hit the base of the No. 1 turret of the Yandi, although the shell did not penetrate the frontal armor of the No. 1 turret, but the violent explosion caused the base of the No. 1 turret of the Yandi to bend, so that the turret was completely stuck and could not be rotated, and the turret could not rotate means that it could not continue to aim at the enemy and fire. It can be said that this No. 1 turret has completely lost its combat effectiveness, and due to the distortion of the base, this kind of failure cannot be solved by the engineers of the ship, and it must be returned to the shipyard for repairs, and the Chinese battleship formation, which has suffered a loss of combat effectiveness, is even more anxious to retreat sideways.

At this time, the Amagi, which came with high-speed reinforcements, was already less than fourteen nautical miles away from them.

In order to prevent the Amagi of the 3rd Sentai from catching up too quickly, Cheng Biguang ordered the heavy patrol formation to lead the light formation to carry out interference and lightning strikes against the Amagi, so as to free up a certain amount of time and space for the two capital ships. If the remaining three battle cruisers of Ben's 4th team continue to pursue, then Cheng Biguang doesn't mind running while fighting, although his two battleships have been damaged, but the opponent's three battle cruisers are no better at that time, and if they continue to fight all the way, they may be able to severely damage one or two more enemy ships.

Just when Cheng Biguang's main fleet was engaged in fierce fighting, the aircraft carrier formation in the northeast direction of the main fleet once again transmitted reconnaissance information: "It is confirmed that a large number of the main fleet is coming to the high course theater, located 30 nautical miles northwest of the aircraft carrier formation and 60 nautical miles due north of the main fleet.

When the naval battle just broke out in the early hours of the morning, the aircraft carrier formation in the avant-garde fleet was deployed 20 nautical miles away, so it was not able to find the second fleet that broke through from the southwest and rear, and then considering the weak survivability of the aircraft carrier formation, Cheng Biguang ordered two aircraft carriers and three destroyers to continue sailing in front of the main fleet and reconnoiter the surrounding waters, although the aircraft carrier had also sent a wave of bombers to carry torpedoes to support the decisive battle of the main fleet. However, in the face of the high-speed enemy and enemy armada with a speed of more than 27 knots, it was difficult for the torpedo aircraft formation with a speed of less than 100 knots to find a suitable opportunity to drop bombs. However, it was the discovery of the Amagi and the most timely warning to the main fleet, and soon after, and now the main force of the First Fleet has been discovered.

When the Chinese aircraft carrier group discovered the First Fleet, it found that this First Fleet not only had a large number of capital ships, but also aircraft carriers, that is, the Fengxiang aircraft carrier, which had just been in service for a short time. When it was discovered that there were Chinese reconnaissance planes over the fleet, the Fengxiang aircraft carrier quickly took off fighters to expel them, which broke out the first duel between aircraft carriers in human history, and the carrier-based aircraft of both sides fought in the sky, and at this time, the fighters of both sides were also half a catty, and no one could take advantage of the fight, China was shot down two planes, and the battle was said to be "Ben was also shot down three planes."

Subsequently, because the aircraft carriers of this era still lacked attacks on high-speed mobile targets, and they had to evacuate at high speed, otherwise they would be easily swallowed by the enemy if they were left alone, so the aircraft carrier formation of the task force continued to fly reconnaissance planes to reconnoiter the First Fleet and the surrounding waters, and on the other hand, it also headed for the southeast at high speed, so it did not continue to send planes to the First Fleet to carry out large-scale air raids.

The speed of the aircraft carrier formation is not small, the maximum speed of the Huashan-class aircraft carrier is equivalent to that of the Huatai-class heavy cruiser, which is up to 32 knots, although this speed is not as good as the destroyer and the light cruiser, but the Huashan-class aircraft carrier is a big guy of more than 20,000 tons, and it has paid a considerable price in order to run so fast, and the power system occupies a considerable amount of tonnage.

At 8:40, the Yellow Emperor's Nth salvo against the King Kong hit again, a shell penetrated directly from the weak side armor in the front of the King Kong, and directly detonated the King Kong's ammunition depot, although the violent explosion did not make the King Kong directly break in two, nor did it cause a large crack in the water, but from the situation of the King Kong's continuous smoke and fire, the situation of the King Kong was still very bad, and as a last resort, Vice Admiral Naoe Nakano ordered the fleet to reduce its speed, If you continue to catch up with your two damaged battle cruisers, it is estimated that you will suffer even greater losses.

After the 3rd Sentai reduced its speed, the Chinese battleships avoided the artillery fire and successfully evacuated at high speed, but Vice Admiral Naoe Nakano did not stop at that although he reduced his speed, he was ready to cooperate with the Amagi to knock out the two Chinese heavy cruisers, and the two Chinese heavy cruisers that saw the bad opportunity immediately withdrew to the southeast, but in the end it was still late, although the other three cruisers in the 3rd Sentai were not good, but the speed was not low, and they successfully entangled the Huatai, Immediately after that, the Huatai was concentrated in the rear by a sixteen-inch naval gun of the Amagi, which directly penetrated the internal compartment, causing part of the power system to be damaged, and the speed was suddenly reduced from 32 knots to only 25 knots.

Song Wenlong, the captain of the Huatai, looked at the front and back and left and right and said, "Benduo battle cruisers, gritted his teeth and said: "Send a report to the Huawu, please rush out!" ”

Immediately, Song Wenlong ordered again: "Turn right to the eighteenth degree, concentrate all the firepower on the King Kong, and prepare for lightning strike!" ”

Song Wenlong knew very well that in this naval battle, in the face of the pursuit of several high-speed cruisers of the enemy, the Huatai, which had been heavily damaged to a speed of only 25 knots, could not leave the battlefield at all, and there was no possibility of returning home with the main fleet. Now he has not many options left, that is, to cover the Huawu to break out of the encirclement, and he has to pull a cushion before the battle sinks, and the King Kong, which has been hit hard, is the best target.

At ten o'clock at nine o'clock, after the Huatai fired a large number of eight-inch main gun shells at the Kongo, it launched a lightning strike operation that is rarely used in large warships, and fired a torpedo at the Kongo and successfully achieved a hit, a torpedo tore through the huge gap in the underwater part of the Kongo, and led to a large influx of seawater. But it was still floating on the sea, and the sinking of the King Kong was crisp and fast, and it didn't even hold on for five minutes.

At 9:20, after covering the evacuation of the Huawu, the Huatai was overwhelmed by the blows of many large-caliber naval guns of the enemy!

At 9:30 a.m., the rear main guns of the Huawu fired the last shelling at the pursuing ship, and after successfully damaging the enemy ship, the Ben Light Patrol retreated. At this point, the battle of the sea, which lasted for three hours after the outbreak at dawn, finally came to an end.

In this battle, it was said that the Second Fleet of the Navy suffered heavy losses, and the Kongo, which belonged to it, was sunk on the spot, and the Hiei was forced to abandon the ship and sank at 10:30 a.m., and the Kirishima and Haruna were seriously injured and had to return to port for major repairs. In addition, the cruiser Natori and two destroyers were sunk, while the other cruisers and destroyers were also heavily damaged.

In China's task force, dominated by the First Fleet, the two capital ships did not suffer fatal damage, but due to the repeated shelling of the bridge, the casualties were heavy, and the bridge part was seriously damaged, and it was necessary to return home for major repairs. The heavy cruiser Huatai was sunk, the Huawu was seriously injured, the light cruiser Xialan was sunk, the destroyer Markham was sunk, and the rest of the ships were seriously damaged, especially the almost entire superstructure of the Xiayi was destroyed, and more than half of the officers and men on board were killed or wounded.

After receiving the battle report from the navy, Chen Jingyun sighed deeply: "I see the efforts of the navy, and the people also see it, posthumously awarded Lan Tingshu as a lieutenant general and awarded the Golden Double Sword Medal; Song Wenlong was posthumously awarded the rank of major general, awarded the Golden Double Sword Medal, and other casualties in the naval battle should also do a good job of preferential treatment! ”

"In addition, the news of the sinking of the enemy's two battle cruisers should be greatly publicized in order to publicize the bravery of our Chinese naval officers!" Chen Jingyun could already see what kind of excited faces the citizens would have when they learned that the navy had sunk two battlecruisers.