In the southeastern waters of Kingdom Island, a small fleet is sailing north at a speed of about ten knots.
This is a transportation formation that sets off from a small neutral country in the southwest continent, crosses the endless sea, and returns to Kingdom Island.
There are seven cargo ships in this small formation, carrying about 100,000 tons of cargo. These materials were purchased by the Kingdom of Krul from neutral countries in the southwest continent.
Along the way, there were already several squadrons of the Krull Kingdom Navy providing escort.
After approaching the southeastern waters of Kingdom Island, the mainland of Kingdom Island secretly dispatched a new cruiser detachment, sailed at night, bypassed the warship blockade of the Daheng Empire, and went to respond.
However, even though they sailed carefully, they could not escape the detection of the Daheng Empire Navy in the end.
At noon on March 7, a seaplane from the Daheng Empire discovered this small formation. The seaplane did not approach, but hid far away in the clouds and sent a telegram back to the fleet behind it.
After the Krul Kingdom's transportation fleet was discovered by the Daheng Empire Navy, it goes without saying what the outcome will be.
A fleet led by the heavy cruiser Antong arrived quickly and engaged in an exchange of fire with the escort ships of the Krull Kingdom Navy.
During the exchange of fire, the Antong heavy cruiser showed off its might, using its nine 200mm main guns to severely damage the flagship of the Krul Kingdom's naval escort fleet, a large cruiser with a displacement of tens of thousands of tons, at the beginning of the battle.
Demonstrating the huge combat effectiveness of its new generation heavy cruiser.
The Antong heavy cruiser was commissioned last winter and is the second ship of the Luoying-class heavy cruiser.
Luo Ying-class heavy cruiser, the first ship Luo Ying was commissioned last fall, with a standard displacement of 15,500 tons, a full load displacement of 18,000 tons, a maximum speed of 33 knots, and a three-seat, three-seat, two-seat cruiser.
100mm fifty-five times caliber naval gun.
The maximum range of the main gun can reach 30,000 meters. Under the command of unified fire control and high-speed shooting in the air, it is enough to effectively attack targets about 25,000 meters away. Moreover, the attached artillery shells are heavy shells, which can be fired under long-distance bombardment.
, the terminal kinetic energy of armor-piercing projectiles is very large, and the armor-piercing ability is quite powerful.
The secondary armament is five twin-mounted 120 mm 40 times sea and air dual-purpose naval guns. This twin-mounted naval gun is a specially re-developed high-low dual-purpose ship by the Daheng Empire Navy after learning from previous lessons.
The gun seems to have a small diameter, but it is low in cost, accurate, and has a very fast rate of fire. It is a weapon for air defense and has good sea strike capabilities.
There are also a lot of 40mm anti-aircraft guns and 20mm anti-aircraft guns.
In addition, it also carried four seaplanes. The water reconnaissance plane that previously detected the transport formation of the Kingdom of Krul was launched by this ship.
In addition, the ship also has a side main armor belt with a thickness of up to 150 mm. The command tower also has a thickness of 150 mm and a horizontal armor of 65 mm. The armor belt of the main turret is even thicker.
Up to two hundred millimeters.
This class of ship can be said to be the masterpiece of Daheng Empire’s industrial system.
It is also the pinnacle of the Daheng Empire's development of the balanced cruiser concept. It has powerful firepower, ultra-high speed, powerful anti-aircraft firepower, and very good armor.
Several ships of this class have been built and are currently in service on the Eastern Front. Because there were no naval battles before, their performance was not outstanding. The only thing worth mentioning is that in the Bell Island air battle, the anti-air combat effect was good.
Using its powerful anti-aircraft firepower, it shot down many enemy planes and also rescued many fallen pilots on both sides.
Now, this is the first time this class of ships has participated in a regular naval battle.
And it performed well, using its powerful firepower to destroy one of the opponent's main large cruisers.
Needless to say, there was no need to say much about the ensuing battle. The interception fleet of the Daheng Empire Navy took advantage of its numerical advantage to directly engulf the opponent, and finally captured five of the opponent's merchant ships.
When the fighting broke out here, hundreds of kilometers away to the northeast, near the large military port Buder in the east of Kingdom Island, a Daheng Empire submarine was lurking on the seabed.
This is the submarine No. 156 of the Daheng Empire Navy. At this time, it was ordered to lurk in the important port Buder Port in the eastern waters of Kingdom Island to monitor the enemy's main fleet in the port.
There are several other submarines performing the same mission, and they are all lurking outside the port at this time.
The Xing 156 submarine is a star-rated submarine and the first large-scale ocean-going submarine of the Daheng Empire. It has a surface displacement of 1,500 tons and an underwater displacement of 2,600 tons.
The submarines of the Daheng Empire Navy are somewhat different from other countries, that is, they are larger in tonnage and have a longer range.
This is also in line with the tradition of Daheng people, who like to build everything big!
Nowadays, the navies of several other belligerent countries often prefer to use submarines that are more cost-effective and have an underwater displacement of about 1,000 tons. The underwater displacement of large ocean-going submarines is generally only less than 2,000 tons.
However, the large ocean-going submarine of the Daheng Empire Navy has an underwater displacement of more than 2,600 tons, which is undoubtedly the largest tonnage among the main submarines of various countries in the contemporary world.
Of course, this does not mean that the combat effectiveness is the most powerful and the results are the most brilliant...
In fact, the Daheng Empire's submarines are not only large, but also not very powerful in actual performance. Even the most advanced star-rated submarines are only at an average level among the main submarines of various countries.
At the same time, the Daheng Empire's submarine force had little practical performance in the war.
This is mainly because the Daheng Empire Navy does not attach much importance to submarines. Well, the Navy of the Kingdom of Krul also does not attach much importance to submarines.
Because submarines these days are basically used to break up engagements and attack merchant ships. They are weapons for countries with weak navies.
But for naval powers, especially for the Daheng Empire and the Kingdom of Krul, which have a lot of battleships, the role of submarines is actually not that great.
The navy of the Daheng Empire blocked the sea transportation lines of the Kingdom of Krul. It did not need submarines to attack at all. Instead, it directly sent its main fleet to blockade the coast of the Kingdom Island, directly blocking their main fleet in the port and not daring to come out. At the same time, it sent a large number of
Fast patrol formations composed of cruisers and destroyers roamed everywhere.
And use carrier-based aircraft and seaplanes to conduct aerial reconnaissance.
With such a complete combination, the blockade effect is much stronger than a submarine ambush.
Therefore, the submarine force of the Daheng Empire Navy is very embarrassed. It has nothing to do with ambushing transport ships on the route, so most of the time they go to various sea areas along the coast of Kingdom Island, especially those near the ports, to conduct surveillance.
Utilize the submarine's long-term latency capability for long-term surveillance.
Just like the current Star 156, they lurked on the seabed for a day and used underwater monitors to monitor the movements on the surface of the water at all times.
At night, it sneaks up to the surface to recharge and breathe.
But soon they noticed movement in the distance!
Under the moonlight, many black shadows appeared on the water and were heading outside!