It must be said that the God of Luck once again favors the Imperial Navy.

Although according to the usual saying, the Sea of ​​Xu is on the west side of the strait and the East Ocean is on the east side of the strait, strictly speaking, the Watcher Strait actually runs northwest to southeast.

When entering the battlefield, the local fleet was in the northwest direction, and the second main force team that emerged from the strait was in the southeast direction.

This orientation directly determines the situation during the war.

Don’t forget that it is late winter now, and the north wind is the day and night.

In the northwest direction of the strait, there is a dense cloud floating from the north. The local fleet happened to be under the clouds and was not shining by the moonlight.

On the contrary, the second main team in the southeast was directly exposed to the bright moonlight.

It is precisely because the lookout on the Longxing was discovered by the watchman on the Longxing and made an accurate judgment based on the tall and twisted tower mast building, the lookout on the "Yi Shi" was dark and had not seen the "Longxing" hiding under the clouds.

It was ten forty at that time, and the distance between the two sides was about eighteen kilometers.

In addition to being able to discover and identify enemy ships at such a long distance, in addition to the advantageous position, it is also related to the search range, that is, the lookouts of the "Longxing" only need to stare at the strait.

Then, Gui Boyong issued a crucial and influential order.

Leading by the "Longxing", the four battleships turned left in turn, and after circling 260 degrees, they returned to the straight line.

Why turn left instead of right?

In the battle report submitted later, Gui Boyong gave three reasons.

First, the distance is still too far, and the three battleships in the rear do not find enemy ships, so they need to buy some time for these three battleships by turning, so they can prepare for battle, keep up with the pace of the flagship, and ensure that they are in the best state when they catch the enemy.

Second, the lookout only speculates that the enemy ship is "Yi Shi" class and does not give a positive judgment, so it cannot rule out the possibility that it is other warships. When passing through the narrow strait, the heavy cruiser should be allowed to go out to explore the way, rather than letting the battleships that act as the main force rush to the front.

Third, only when the clouds come from the north can they continue to hide under the clouds and remain hidden.

Obviously, this last point is the most important.

Given the situation at that time, Gui Boyong obviously wanted to hide under the clouds, approach the enemy quietly, and then fire at the enemy ship at a distance close enough.

Simply put, it is to rely on sudden attacks to achieve a decisive victory in the first few rounds of volleys.

Judging from the tactical arrangements made at that time, that is, to allocate the targets of the battle in advance, Gui Boyong did plan so that he hoped to end the battle with a sudden attack after several rounds of artillery attacks, at least defeat the enemy's fighting spirit and reduce his own losses as much as possible.

If possible, you may be able to avoid losses.

Fundamentally, Gui Boyong is preserving his strength.

To put it bluntly, it is because of the fear of damage to the main battleship.

This turn has two effects.

Because the distance expanded, in the next ten minutes, the lookouts of the "Longxing" only intermittently observed the enemy ships and failed to maintain continuous visual contact with the enemy ships. The same was true for the lookouts on the three battleships behind, and they were unable to monitor the enemy ships all the time.

In addition, the lookout did not find the heavy cruiser rushing in front of the battleship!

After the second main force entered the strait, Takaji issued an order to speed up the four heavy cruisers that followed the action to catch up. As a result, when sailing to the west of the strait, that is, when the local fleet was discovered, the four heavy cruisers just exceeded four battleships.

The heavy cruiser was not that conspicuous, and the lookouts focused all their attention on the four battleships, and they did not notice the four heavy cruisers.

The key is that they also disconnected from contact many times during this period, which also had an impact on the search work.

Within these ten minutes, four heavy cruisers and four light cruisers surpassed the main team from the left and right sides, and then searched to the north and south respectively. Four heavy cruisers came to the local fleet, and the four light cruisers went to the south of the local fleet.

At eleven o'clock, when the course turned 230 degrees, the lookout of the "Longxing" saw four warships sailing northwest of the strait at a speed of nearly thirty knots, and then they identified them as heavy cruisers of the Nai Navy.

The bridge that looks very deformed and the three main gun turrets piled in the shape of a font at the head of the ship are the identification characteristics of the Nayi Cruiser.

At that time, Gui Boyong was confused.

What kind of maze array is placed here?

On the overall situation, the four battleships of the local fleet have been lined up and are sailing south-west at a speed of about twenty knots to shorten the distance as soon as possible. As long as there is no accident, the four battleships will definitely turn again after more than ten minutes, when the distance is shortened to about fifteen thousand meters, to be precise, deflecting slightly to the right in order to obtain the most favorable firing angle.

The four battleships of the second main force were still sailing northwest, without turning, and even making adjustments to the queue.

The four battleships are still in columns.

Even if you plan to shorten the distance, you should line up the four battleships so that you can use the main gun in front to fight back after being bombarded.

Rowed into a column, the warships behind were blocked, and only the lead ships could fire and fight back.

The four heavy cruisers sailed at full speed, but their heading pointed to the rear of the local fleet, not the four battleships of the local fleet. It looked like they were assisting the four battleships rushing from the front, preparing to encircle the local fleet from the rear and annihilate the local fleet.

But the problem is that those are just four heavy cruisers.

Who gave those captains the courage to make them feel that using the eight-inch naval gun can get a bargain in front of the "Longxing" class?

When approaching and shooting, the "Longxing" can kill a heavy cruiser with one shot.

Besides, the "Longxing" class not only has 400mm main guns, but also has a large number of secondary guns and anti-aircraft guns.

It is more than enough to deal with heavy cruisers that are not as good as outstanding in protection.

Of course, Gui Boyong did not dare to be careless because the Navy Navy has always regarded heavy cruisers as secondary main ships and has equipped all heavy cruisers with heavy torpedoes. You should know that the commander of the heavy cruiser team is usually a lieutenant general, only half a level shorter than the commander of the main team, while the commander of the aviation team is only a major general. Lan Yun won the rank of lieutenant general after serving as the commander of the mobile fleet.

To get these heavy cruisers to approach, they may capsize in the gutter.

To this end, Gui Boyong issued an order to speed up the heavy cruiser team behind him and hit the enemy ship behind the main team sideways.

Because it has not been exposed, Gui Boyong specifically advised the communication staff not to use radio stations.

Then, only signal lights are used.

Before the advent of radio, night communication could only rely on light signals, resulting in light words similar to flag languages.

Obviously, when giving the order, Gui Boyong forgot a crucial point, so that the commander of the heavy cruiser team did not need to reply.

The worst thing is that the communication officer also ignored this when issuing orders.

Now, it's fun.
Chapter completed!