The spacious and bright commander of the battleship "Samarinda".

Rear Admiral Li Siyuan, the crown prince, nailed his feet tightly to the floor, looked ahead with a solemn expression, and about 8 kilometers in front of the right, there were two big fish of the US Navy chopping waves and fleeing all the way, and after being discovered, they threw off the slow coal carrier and ran wildly, and the "three marinda" had been chasing for more than three hours.

These two big fish are the "Connecticut"-class battleship "Louisiana" of the US Navy's Great White Fleet, and the 14,000-ton armored cruiser "Tennessee" of the same class as the "Montana." Both are new ships that have been in the water for less than two years.

The battleship "Louisiana" had a displacement of 16,000 tons, 16,500 horsepower, a speed of 18 knots, two twin 305 mm main guns, four twin 203 mm secondary turrets, and 12 178 mm single-barreled guns.

Its 8 203 mm secondary guns are no longer stacked on top of the main guns, but placed on the sides of the ship's side, and the hull is further enlarged, making it look like a stocky big fat man.

During the Roosevelt administration, six ships were started in one go, namely the flagship "Connecticut", "Louisiana", "Vermont", "Kansas", "Minnesota" and "New Hampshire", all of which were in the Great White Fleet.

The Battle of Seattle, which began at 3 o'clock in the evening, has lasted for 14 hours so far, and in the vast sea area within a radius of several hundred nautical miles, the Imperial Fleet has carried out the tactics of encirclement and annihilation by wolves with "dispersion against dispersion, and single ship against single ship," and has achieved great results in spreading a wide net for the fleet.

As long as the fleeing US Navy ship formation is discovered by a cruiser or destroyer cruising on the sea, it immediately calls the battleship strike formation by radio, and the fate of destruction is bound to follow.

According to the summary of the radio information received by the Samarinda, as of 5:00 p.m.;

The Imperial Task Force sank 5 enemy battleships, damaged and captured one, sank 6 enemy cruisers, captured two, sank several enemy auxiliary ships, captured 21 (including coal carriers and hospital ships), slightly damaged two battleships and seriously damaged one cruiser.

If we add these two big fish in front of us, the US Navy's Great White Fleet has lost more than half of its 13 battleships, and it is sure to achieve a brilliant victory.

The U.S. Navy is too cunning, and if it weren't for the T101 boat tracking all the way and reporting the enemy's latest movements in a timely manner, it would have really allowed the U.S. Navy's Great White Fleet to succeed in its treacherous plan and escape from most of the main fleet at a small price.

It's a bit like catching a fish with a net, and when the fish are blown up, if you don't change formation in time, you can only catch two or three big fish and small fish.

Major General Li Siyuan knew in his heart that it would be dark in another half an hour.

Those fish that have not been caught will be difficult to catch again, and under the cover of night, the remnants of the Great White Fleet will have a great chance of escaping and entering the depths of the Pacific Ocean.

After a night

The area of the ocean that needs to be searched has risen sharply from a radius of a few hundred kilometers to tens of thousands of kilometers, and unless it hits the big luck, the golden time for the search has passed.

For the fish that slipped through the net of the Great White Fleet, the danger period is not over.

After abandoning the slow coal carriers and supply ships, how long can these capital ships fleeing into the depths of the ocean rely on their own coal storage and storage?

If you go around in a big circle at sea, the voyage can last to Central America at best, and you have to resupply, can you still run to Argentina in one go?

Admittedly, that's a myth.

After understanding the combat intentions of the Great White Fleet, the Imperial Fleet will definitely make corresponding adjustments, break the whole into pieces and spread a big net, as long as it keeps a firm eye on the ports along the way, intercept all the coal carriers and supply ships and cargo ships along the way, then you are not afraid of him flying into the sky.

The long voyage of the Great White Fleet back to the east coast was doomed to many disasters.

The strength of the "Sanmarinda" warship formation was not very strong, and the main forces were the battleships "Sanmarinda" and the "White Tiger" heavy cruisers, as well as the three cruisers "Hanayue," "Mingyue," and "Half Moon," and the four destroyers "Rafale," "Rinfeng," "Mountain Wind," and "Ghost Wind," a total of nine ships, closely tracking the two big fish in front.

"Sir, the nearby "Victoria" strike group has just sent a position report, and it is estimated that it will not be able to arrive in time after leaving us for two and a half hours. ”

"Well, it looks like they won't be able to make it to this feast, so don't blame us for enjoying it alone, and order the destroyer to launch a torpedo attack and delay the enemy ships."

"Yes, sir."

The communications staff officer saluted solemnly, turned around and went to the telegraph room to issue an order, Major General Li Siyuan nodded slightly, raised the telescope in his hand and observed carefully.

As the enemy ships ran wildly, the tail battery fired round after round of large-caliber shells from time to time, falling on the waters around the pursuing fleet, blasting out a high column of water, trying to make a dying struggle.

The nearest shell was only 500 yards away from Rear Admiral Li Siyuan's "Three Marinda," which was a very dangerous distance, and the officers on the battleship turned pale with fright.

They are not worried about their own safety, but they are afraid that if something goes wrong with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, it will really be impossible to redeem death.

Li Siyuan was extremely calm from beginning to end, and did not give the order to fire back.

In this kind of high-speed chase, the bow pitches violently, the soldiers must grasp the fixed objects around them to stand firmly, and the shelling is equivalent to a waste of shells, even the well-trained gunners of the main ships of the Ocean Empire do not have the slightest accuracy, let alone the rookies of the US army?

On the sea

The four destroyers that received the order plunged forward at high speed, rushed forward in the face of the sideside fire of the opponent's heavy fire, and after quickly passing several kilometers of the enemy ship, they suddenly made a sharp turn, aimed their bows at the course ahead, and fired six torpedoes like a dragon swinging its tail.

Each "Coldwind" class destroyer is equipped with two triple torpedo tubes in the bow, which cannot be reloaded, and can fire six torpedoes at a time to carry out an attack.

Because the six torpedoes were fired in a violent turn, the six torpedoes fanned into the deep blue waves, drawing six clear white torpedo tracks on the sea surface, which represented the traces of death.

The four destroyers fired 24 torpedoes, forming a criss-crossing death zone on the sea in the blink of an eye, and the frightened US battleship "Louisiana" and the cruiser "Tennessee" immediately turned sharply to the left to avoid the torpedo-covered track.

That's when it happened

A 203-mm shell from the battleship "Louisiana" hit the command tower of the destroyer "Shanfeng" without dying, and after a "boom" sound, a huge orange fire ball enveloped the upper part of the destroyer "Shanfeng", and the 3,200-ton destroyer "Shanfeng" was suddenly stagnant, and its speed slowed down visibly with the naked eye.

After the explosion, a large hole was torn open in the armored command tower of the destroyer "Shanfeng", and there were heavy casualties, and the entire hull of the ship spun uncontrollably on the surface of the sea, igniting a raging fire.

Seeing this scene, Major General Li Siyuan's eyes narrowed dangerously;

The battleship "Louisiana" made a sharp turn in the high-speed march, and this kind of artillery bombardment that hit the big luck can also be successful, then the "Mountain Wind" can only be blamed for its bad luck, this is another blood debt, and the "Three Marinda" will take revenge!

"Left rudder 30 degrees, slow down, prepare for shelling."

The battleship "Sanmarinda" led the heavy patrol of the "White Tiger," and the three general-purpose cruisers, the "Flower Moon," the "Bright Moon," and the "Half Moon," made a graceful arc-shaped track, and turned to the left side at the same time as the enemy ships, forming a "two" shape in the same direction.

The two sides were 8.3 kilometers apart at this time, and were in the stage of rapid attenuation of inertial velocity, and the first round of mutual shelling was all empty, but in the second round of shelling, it can be clearly seen that the shelling points of the three Marinda formations were densely packed, and the high water column exploded at the nearest impact point was already within 350 yards.

In the fifth round of shelling, two 305-mm armor-piercing shells fired by the battleship Sanmarinda and a 305-mm armor-piercing shell fired by the "White Tiger" hit the huge hull of the battleship "Louisiana" at the same time, and several 254-mm high-explosive shells were hit at the same time, which hit the battleship "Louisiana" with fire all over its body, and it was no longer able to maintain a stable course, and it was tilted to the side.

The 7th round of shelling continued to fall on the battleship "Louisiana", destroying its superstructure in a terrible way.

In this case

The battleship "Louisiana" had been severely damaged, and its power was completely lost, and it could only barely float on the surface of the sea to survive.

The guns of the black hole hole in the ship formation turned to the armored cruiser "Tennessee" in unison, preparing to attack it with concentrated fire, who knew that the armored cruiser "Tennessee" obediently raised the white flag, and turned the muzzle back to the direction of the centerline, signaling to give up resistance and surrender.

I have to say that the commander of the armored cruiser "Tennessee" is a chicken thief and has no head to go down.

Presumably, they had also learned about the ferocity of the Ocean Empire's navy in their previous internal radio communications, and they had long since lost the will to resist.

Earlier, at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the battleship formations of the "Missouri" and "Minnesota" were under siege, the battleship Missouri was sunk despite desperate and stubborn resistance, and the battleship "Minnesota" suffered heavy losses.

Seeing that the enemy ship sank by itself, the besieging Royal Navy of the Ocean Empire did not actively rescue it, but slowly gathered the surrendered military auxiliary ships, allowing the American officers and soldiers who jumped in the icy sea to struggle to the death.

After more than an hour, the US coal carrier "Little Rock" was arranged to go to the rescue.

In the cold and biting sea water in November, the human body will suffer from severe hypothermia after 15 minutes of falling into the water.

All the officers and men on the two battleships were killed, but not a single one survived, and the coal carrier "Little Rock" salvaged 733 bodies, most of whom were drowned.

The lesson is in front of us, and it is no wonder that the armored cruiser "Tennessee" wisely chose to surrender instead of going to the dark with a dead end.

The battleship "Louisiana" stubbornly floated on the sea in the raging flames, until about 7:00 p.m., the cruiser "Mingyue" was ordered to end its painful struggle, firing two torpedoes at a distance of 1,100 meters, after two dull explosions, the battleship "Louisiana" once again triggered a more violent explosion of ammunition depots, and the huge fire generated by the explosion rose to a height of 150 meters, reflecting half of the sky.

Due to the close proximity of the cruiser "Mingyue", the side of the hull was hit by an armor fragment the size of half a small table, and two sailors operating the auxiliary guns were killed on the spot, and one sailor was seriously injured.

At this point, the Battle of Seattle came to an end.

The whole naval battle lasted 16 hours, and a total of 12 large and small sporadic naval battles took place, and the Royal Navy of the Ocean Empire sank 6 battleships of the Great White Fleet, severely damaged and captured the battleship "Vermont", sank 6 enemy cruisers, captured 3 ships, sank several enemy auxiliary ships, and captured 21 ships (including coal carriers and hospital ships), and once again won a complete victory.

In this battle, the US Navy's Great White Fleet lost seven battleships, 4,160 officers and men were killed, 722 were wounded, and 1,465 were captured.

Two battleships of the Royal Navy of the Ocean Empire were slightly damaged, one cruiser was seriously damaged, and one destroyer was seriously damaged, 56 killed and 113 wounded.

The Battle of Seattle on November 9, 1908 ended only the first phase of the Battle of the Pacific, and the second phase of the "Eastern Pacific Pursuit" began.

From November 10 to December 23, it lasted 43 days, from Seattle in the north to Buenos Aires in Argentina in the south, the battlefield was tens of thousands of kilometers away, which is rare in history.

The Royal Navy of the Ocean Empire was divided into two, and a part of it was organized into an expeditionary strike fleet, and then quickly went south, chasing the fish that slipped through the net of the Great White Fleet, and vowed to eliminate the enemy.

A part formed an escort formation and began to cover the landing of the Royal Army in North America, opening the prelude to the vigorous North American War.

On 27 November, the Ocean Empire Expeditionary Strike Squadron blocked the battleship "Kansas," which had run out of fuel, in the remote port of Hermet, north of Los Angeles, and after some twists and turns, killed dozens of officers and men who tried to resist with secondary guns, and captured the battleship "Kansas" completely.

Hemet Harbor is a small, remote port not far from the U.S.-Mexico border, where the battleship "Kansas" has taken refuge, and it has done its best.

On 6 December, the US battleship "Rhode Island" finished replenishing in the port of Panama and was about to slip away at night when it was blocked outside the harbor by three battleships of the 1st Squadron of the Expeditionary Strike Formation, the USS Queensland, the USS Tasmania, and the USS Beilun, and a fierce night battle broke out.

That night, three powerful battleships surrounded the US battleship "Rhode Island", which was hit by seven 356-mm large-caliber shells, two 305-mm shells, and more than 20 152-mm shells, and sank miserably to the bottom of the Central American sea, with only 17 people rescued and the remaining 877 people killed.

December 11th

After learning of the news that the remnants of the Great White Fleet's ship formation and the port of Iquique, which belongs to Chile, the 2nd detachment of the Ocean Empire Expeditionary Strike Formation arrived at the starry night but pounced, and the formation of 11 ships, including only 3 battleships, had left and fled into the vast Pacific Ocean again.

The Ocean Empire was extremely angry about this, and issued a naked threat of war against Chile, and if the other side did not give a clear explanation, it would be no wonder that the sword soldiers would be added.

December 12th

The Royal Army of the Ocean Empire officially landed on Eugene Beach, opening the prelude to the land war.