PS: Thank you for the reward from the book friend "Quancheng people", and ask for recommendation votes ^_^ again

Although the British Air Force in Malaya relied on fighter planes to temporarily change their careers and achieved certain results, their own losses were also very large, and they were simply unable to attack the task force until they were reinforced by British India, and by that time the Chinese were afraid that they would not know where to run for a long time. The more he thought about it, the more unwilling the British Governor of Malaya decided to borrow a knife to kill people, and he not only told the Japanese the news of the Chinese fleet, but even sent reconnaissance planes equipped with airborne radars to take turns to help the Japanese locate the exact location of the task force. Although the British airborne radar is still very immature, even the detection range of surface ships is only less than 20 kilometers, but it is enough for the reconnaissance aircraft to follow far beyond the range of the task force's anti-aircraft guns, and even at night it cannot be shaken off, this task force is really in big trouble

The Chinese task force formation, which has been relying on the longer detection distance of the radar and the faster speed of the warships, has finally been entangled by a large number of Japanese ships, and the only way to survive is to rush out at full speed before the encirclement network is tightened.

But the problem is that the current Zhiyuan no longer has a speed advantage, with it in the fleet, it is impossible to get rid of the pursuit of the Japanese ships, only by abandoning it, can still drive the maximum speed of the Jingyuan can have a life. In this way, at least one heavy patrol can be kept and most of the officers and men. But for soldiers, abandoning their comrades is the most painful thing, even if Ye Fei has been fighting for many years, he can't make up his mind for a while. But at this time, Shen Honglie and the officers and men on the Zhiyuan showed their decision with their actions, they drove the Zhiyuan to deviate from the course without authorization, just like the warship of the same name many years ago, rushing towards the direction with the most Japanese ships, Ren Yefei shouted in front of the radio, and the Zhiyuan did not look back

Originally, the commander of this Japanese fleet, Yamaguchi, had planned to detach some high-speed warships to chase the Jingyuan, but the Zhiyuan sank a Kaohsiung-class heavy cruiser of comparable tonnage in just a few minutes. But his pupils couldn't help but constrict. "How can the Chinese's warships be so strong? Apparently it was captured from our warship."

Yamaguchi was an expert, and he soon saw the doorway, and he found that the naval guns equipped on the enemy ships were far superior to their original guns, such as the 203mm main gun. The rate of fire reached an incredible 10 rounds per minute. The 203mm guns of the Japanese heavy cruisers could only fire 4 shots per minute. And what's even more terrifying is that the accuracy of the enemy's naval guns is actually higher than that of the Japanese ships of the same caliber, that is, that is. The difference in artillery performance alone made each Chinese heavy cruiser capable of outnumbering three Japanese heavy cruisers of comparable tonnage. And judging by the effect of the shelling of the Japanese ships, the armor protection of the enemy ships was also exceptional. However, Yamaguchi was a Yamaguchi after all, and he quickly noticed that the Jingyuan always seemed to be trying to face the Japanese ship with its bow facing it, and his eyes suddenly narrowed, "Could it be that they sacrificed the protection ability of the main armor belt of the side chord in exchange for the strengthening of the frontal armor?" ”

Yamaguchi immediately ordered the "First Guerrilla Force," which consisted entirely of cruisers, destroyers, and other high-speed ships, not to confront the enemy ships head-on, but to try their best to go around to the side and shell the Zhiyuan. Although Yamaguchi Tabun was the backbone of the Japanese Navy's aircraft carrier faction, this time the southward operation was not able to bring out a single aircraft carrier because it was being modernized, so now it can only rely on battleships. However, even Yamaguchi Tabun had to admit that any other type of warship, as long as it entered the effective range of the battleship's main guns, was by no means an opponent of a battleship, not even an aircraft carrier, let alone a heavy cruiser that also used naval guns as its main means of attack.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that after realizing the powerful combat power of China's heavy cruises, especially when dealing with the enemy vertically, Yamaguchi gave up the idea of sending warships to chase the Jingyuan, because only cruisers and destroyers could catch up with the enemy ships, but none of the two types of Japanese ships could compete with the Jingyuan, especially in the position of chasing and fleeing. And because of the huge losses in the previous series of naval battles (air battles), the number of Japanese cruisers and destroyers is now seriously insufficient, so that the number of such ships he takes south is relatively limited, although it is enough to make up for the gap in performance and obtain an advantage over China's heavy cruise, but it is far from the extent of crushing, even if it can win, it is estimated that the loss will not be small, which Yamaguchi Tawen never wants to see, "The Imperial Navy can no longer afford to lose, if the number of auxiliary ships is not enough, what is the use of having an air carrier?" ”

Soon Yamaguchi Tawen was glad for his decision, before the battleships entered the battle, a dozen cruisers and destroyers against a Chinese heavy cruiser that had slowed down greatly could not be taken, but was sunk by its sharp artillery fire three warships, fortunately, the construction of the heavy patrol did not suffer any more losses, otherwise Yamaguchi Tawen would have been distressed to death. Judging from such a miserable exchange ratio, if Yamaguchi Tashi really divided his troops to chase after him, not only would it be difficult to succeed in the goal of completely destroying the enemy fleet, but he would also be bitten off a large piece of meat

Although the Zhiyuan once again achieved good results, but under the siege of more than a dozen Japanese high-speed warships, its weak defensive side chords were inevitably exposed, under the fierce artillery attack of the Japanese army, the Zhiyuan was soon hit by unprecedented heavy damage, the power system only one steam turbine unit was available, the speed has dropped to less than 15 knots, completely lost the ability to seize the advantageous position, can only be passively beaten, and the leakage of heavy oil caused an uncontrollable fire, due to hundreds of rounds of bullets in the side chord, resulting in water in many places, The massive hull began to tilt. And at this time, two Japanese Kongo-class battleships finally arrived to join the battle.

Since they were converted from battle cruisers, they were not slow, and these two huge ships would not have been left behind if it had not been for Yamaguchi's fear of being escaped by the Chinese and allowing the First Guerrilla Squadron, which generally had an average maximum speed of more than 35 knots, to move at full speed. Even so, they were not far away, so they quickly caught up, but the Japanese officers and soldiers on the ship did not expect that such a fierce battle would break out in such a short period of time, and there were several sunken Japanese ships alone, but since they had caught up, there was no longer any suspense about the outcome of the battle (to be continued......