Through telescopes and lookouts, Japan naturally discovered the Ming fleet when it was still ten kilometers away.

"Hmm, leading four ships? Does the enemy want to divide the fleet into four battle lines to fight us?"

Seeing Yu Zigao's formation in the telescope, Tokugawa Yoshihiro couldn't help but smile bitterly after muttering to himself for a while: No matter how the commanders of the Ming Dynasty arranged their formations, there was only one formation on his side.

This is the joint fleet of the three countries, so naturally it can only be divided into three battle lines to fight.

"Send a signal to our allies. Our Japanese fleet is in the middle, Siam is on the left, and Spain is on the right. Our troops form three battle lines and directly insert into the three gaps formed by the enemy's four battle lines."

Following Tokugawa Yoshinao's order, the Allied Forces of the Three Kingdoms quickly deployed and formed three battle lines.

From right to left, the first column is the Spanish Manila Fleet, which has 17 1,200-ton first-class battleships and 33 600-ton second-class battleships.

The second column is the Japanese fleet, which has 13 first-class battleships and 40 700-ton second-class battleships.

The third column is the Siamese fleet, with 20 first-class battleships and 47 second-class battleships.

Above, there are a total of 50 first-level battleships and 120 second-level battleships.

After the combined fleets of the Three Kingdoms completed their battle formation, facing the Ming Dynasty fleet approaching at high speed, they did not hesitate to insert themselves into the three gaps formed by the four battle formations on the opposite side.

At 11 o'clock in the morning on February 15, the Japanese battleship Yamato fired its first shell from the starboard side of the Japanese battleship No. 1, which was approaching and about to pass by. The decisive battle in the East China Sea between the four countries had officially begun!

Since the four battle lines of the Ming Dynasty were two kilometers apart from each other, after inserting three gaps, the combined fleet unconsciously maintained a distance of about one kilometer from the Ming warships on both sides.

This distance is, of course, within the limit range of the front-mounted smoothbore cannon. But in the end, the distance is too far, and the shells can basically do nothing except hit the sea and fry fish. Therefore, one or two ships in front of both sides fired their guns and tried to

, the battle commanders immediately issued new instructions.

"Order, our ship turns 30° to the northeast and lets the battleships of this line follow!"

The old and strong Yu Zigao gave the order first, and then his row of warships quickly turned from the 12 o'clock direction to the 1 o'clock direction.

When he gave the order, Inukai Touji, who was two kilometers away, also issued the order tacitly: Our ship will turn 30° to the northwest!

The commanders leading the two first-level battleships have the same idea: since you dare to intervene, then let's take advantage of our two rows of first-level battleships to sandwich the opponent's one row of battleships, and focus our fire to attack the Japanese fleet first!

From the moment he led his own fleet to approach the opponent's fleet and saw clearly the configuration of the opponent's fleet's four battle lines through the telescope, Tokugawa Yoshinao knew that he was in big trouble: his own fleet was trapped in the opponent's forty first-class battleships.

Under attack!

However, this configuration was agreed upon in advance, so we can’t blame others. What we can do now is of course to drive out of this fatal gap as soon as possible. After the next turn, we can make adjustments according to the battlefield conditions.

.

The Japanese fleet wanted to speed through, but the Siamese and Spanish fleets next to it made completely different choices.

"Order, I turn 30° to the southwest!"

"Your Excellency, the two main battleships of the Ming Dynasty in the distance are encircling and suppressing our friendly forces. Shouldn't we turn to the southeast and go to support the Japanese?"

"No, no, no, Fernando, now, we have 30 second-class warships on the west side. We can rely on our firepower advantage to destroy this fleet first, and then turn around to support our friendly forces."

"Your Mightiness?"

"Excuting an order!"

"...Yes, as you wish, Your Excellency."

The Spaniards obviously wanted to be lazy, so Alfonso took 50 of his own warships to pursue the detachment led by Wang Mengxiong, which had only 30 second-class warships. On the other side of the battlefield, the Siamese commander Zhan Laqi chose

is the complete opposite of Alfonso.

"Order, our fleet is divided into two columns, and the 20 first-level battleships turn 30° to the southwest. The second-level battleships turn 30° to the southeast!"

"As you command!"

Therefore, with the latest orders from the commanders of each battle line, the seven originally basically parallel battle lines began to undergo changes.

At this time, on the westernmost side of the battlefield was the detachment led by General Wang Mengxiong of Funing Town in the Ming Dynasty. As a naval general who had followed Yu Zigao and fought on the coast of Fujian for many years, Wang Mengxiong saw the Spaniards pressing towards him.

Not surprised but happy: "Hahaha, these bastards are all pressing towards me? Great, this way, the pressure on the commander-in-chief is relieved!"

Of course, as a long-time general, Lao Wang is not stupid at all. Although he said this, he also quickly issued the order: "This battle column will first turn to the northwest to increase the distance from the enemy ships.

Then try to pull the opponent's battle line away, as far away as possible!"

On the easternmost side of the battlefield, I saw that the originally extremely long Siamese battle line was divided into two rows, and then more than forty second-level battleships approached me. The easternmost part of the Ming Dynasty

The commander of the side battle line, Sun Guozhen, who was also a long-time navy general in Funing Town, also made a decision similar to Wang Mengxiong: the battle line turned to the northeast and used 30 warships to pull away the four enemy forces.

More than ten (47) second-level battleships - this is still a profit for the Ming Dynasty.

As a result, the entire battlefield was quickly divided into three large parts.

On the west side, 50 Spanish battleships (including 17 first-level battleships) chased and faced off against 30 second-level battleships led by Wang Mengxiong.

On the east side, there are 47 second-level battleships of the Siamese facing off against 30 second-level battleships led by Sun Guozhen.

The battlefield in the middle is two columns of 40 first-class battleships led by Yu Zigao and Inukai Toji, facing Japan's 13 first-class battleships, 40 700-ton second-class battleships, and Siam's 20 first-class battleships.

.Among these four lines of battleships, Tokugawa Yoshinao's battle line and Inukai Touji's battle line were both flanked by the enemy.

"Boom~!"

While Yu Zigao's battle column turned slightly, he did not stop shelling. When his ship Ri-1 approached the Japanese fleet about 800 meters away, near misses slowly began to occur.

"Very good, get closer! No more... bad!"

When the old commander looked at the command platform and saw that the impact point of his side was getting closer and closer to the enemy ship, and he seemed to be fighting high-spirited, he suddenly felt that the top of his head went dark!

"No way? It's actually a cross-fire?" After a moment of surprise, Yu Zigao came to his senses: "How many enemy ships are there closest to our ship?"

"700 meters!"

"The Japanese pirates' cannons are so accurate!"

As soon as Yu Zigao finished saying this, he felt his feet shaking. There was no doubt that the ship had been hit!

"Where was it hit?"

"Commander, there is a hole in the middle of the gun tower on the second floor below the deck. The exact casualties are unknown. But it will not hinder navigation."

"Okay, let the brothers adjust the shooting of Zhu Yuan and continue firing!"

And on the other side.

"Kongfangdian, the Mutsu behind has hit the opponent's flagship!"

"Yoshi! We have to work hard too!"

"Hi!"

It seems that this talent is really not fake, and it is not in vain for me to risk my life and board the ship myself.

Just when Tokugawa Yoshinao was feeling greatly relieved, he suddenly felt a shaking under his feet.

"Well, it seems that the artillerymen of the Ming Dynasty are not vegetarians either."

As both sides scored hits, tens of thousands of artillery pieces on hundreds of warships began to spit thick smoke more violently. The vast sea and sky that were originally vast suddenly became filled with smoke and rumbling cannons. The battle situation began to change.
Chapter completed!