Knut Clone saw that another Sovereign-class ship was injured, and he did not dare to continue fighting with the opponent. He immediately recalled all his light cruisers and asked them to protect the surroundings of the main force.
Next, all warships began to perform blackout. Lewis wanted to use this method to reduce the target of his main fleet on the sea.
And Liu Hai saw the other party's warships regrouped in one place, which was exactly what he wanted. If the other party scattered the warships on the sea, it would be troublesome for him to attack, and secondly, if he could not protect them, a light cruiser would appear on his warships.
Nearby, fire yourself a torpedo.
So Liu Hai also increased the distance between him and the opponent. From a distance of fifteen kilometers, he continuously bombarded the enemy fleet.
As for Knut Clone's fleet, due to the capabilities of its artillery, only a few capital ships are able to fight back. However, because the light on the sea is too dark, accuracy cannot be guaranteed. They can only fight back in a general direction, hoping blindly.
A cat meets a dead mouse.
But this method of attacking by stewing was so wrong. Until almost dawn, none of their shells landed within 50 meters of the four Yihua-class battleships.
However, the Iowa battleship used radar targeting and continuously hit the opponent. During this night's bombardment, four Cossack light cruisers and two Edgar-class cruisers of the Knut Clone fleet were sunk.
Since the opponent's battleship was hiding behind the cruiser this time, it did not suffer much damage.
Liu Hai saw that the sky was starting to get brighter. If he continued to fight, the opponent's shooting accuracy would become higher and higher. In order to prevent his four precious battleships from being damaged, he turned around and left the sea area.
Knut Clone breathed a long sigh of relief when he saw these four ghostly warships finally leaving.
This night was simply a torture for him. In terms of speed, his fleet could not keep up with these four behemoths. In terms of shooting accuracy, it goes without saying that his fleet fired guns all night, but there was no one.
However, the opponent succeeded continuously, causing heavy damage to his two most elite Sovereign-class battleships, not to mention the fact that nearly 6 cruisers were sunk by the opponent.
A shadow has arisen in Lewis's heart now, and he has no hope for this war with the Qing Dynasty.
Because as long as those four battleships are there, it is impossible for any country's fleet to gain an advantage.
When he was worried, his chief of staff, Peter Lamont, came to him and asked: "Your Excellency, Commander, what should we do next?"
Knut Clone frowned after hearing this. He thought about his nightmare tonight and felt that if he delayed the time until tomorrow night, he might face another night attack from the opponent. It would be better to fight with the opponent's main force during the day.
Fleet battle.
"Immediately send out a cruiser and search along the distance of the opponent's retreat. I must find the opponent's warship during the day? Then I will fight with it decisively."
After listening to Lewis's words, Chief of Staff Peter Lamont thought for a moment and immediately agreed with the commander's opinion. Now unless the fleet returns to the base in embarrassment, otherwise it will have to face the harassment of the opponent's four giant ships at night.
In this case, it would be better to have a decisive battle during the day.
What about Liu Hai's four Iowa-class battleships? When the sky began to lighten, they broke away from contact with the enemy fleet, and then headed southwest to join their own cruiser formation.
After all the warships met, Liu Hai discussed with Liu Wei once how to fight next?
Liu Hai wanted to continue sneak attacks at night and hide during the day, but Liu Wei rejected Liu Hai's proposal. As the commander of the fleet, Liu Wei believed that a decisive battle should be fought with the enemy during the day.
The reason is also very simple. Since the number of transport ships on Liu Hai's side is limited, the supplies brought by them are not very sufficient. If we continue to fight guerrillas with the opponent, I am afraid that the fleet will not be able to sustain it for such a long time.
And the other one is the artillery shells on the Iowa-class battleships? They are all purchased from Hyundai. Although sneak attacks at night can reduce the damage to the Iowa-class battleships, they will greatly consume the stored artillery shells, and eventually even destroy the Iowa-class battleships.
-class battleship lost combat effectiveness.
Since we are faced with such a situation, it is better to engage in a decisive battle with the opponent's main force. This can make the limited artillery shells on the Yihua-class battleship play a huge role.
After careful consideration, Liu Hai agreed to Liu Wei's suggestion. After all, there was still a huge gap between him and Liu Wei.
So Liu Wei, as the commander of the fleet, immediately raised the command flag and ordered the entire fleet to be divided into three columns. The three Cossack-class light cruisers were at the outermost edge of the fleet, and the four Yihua-class battleships were in the middle.
On the innermost side are the ironclad Jiangxi and the armored cruiser Hefei (armored cruiser Olympia).
After that, Liu Hai continued to release reconnaissance planes to conduct reconnaissance of the enemy fleet, and provided artillery targeting data to the main fleet when necessary.
In this way, the two fleets headed towards each other. At about 10 a.m., the radar on the Iowa class detected the other's front light cruiser.
Then Liu Wei ordered the entire fleet to prepare for a decisive battle, and then the Iowa-class battleships began to turn, formed a battle line, and aimed all nine heavy guns in the direction of the opponent's fleet.
The enemy's former reconnaissance fleet did not know that they were in crisis, and they still searched southwest as fast as possible.
When they found more than a dozen smoke pillars appearing in the distance ahead, they immediately understood that this was the main force of the Nanyang Navy. Now they wanted to retreat immediately and join the main fleet.
But it is not that easy to retreat. The three light cruisers on Liu Hai's side have quickly approached each other, and then launched a harassing attack.
The four Yihua-class battleships in the rear increased their power, and after quickly approaching, they used their main guns and secondary guns to fire at the same time.
Immediately, there was a burst of water in the opponent's fleet.
In particular, the water column and shock wave formed by the 406mm cannon are even more powerful. As long as one of them explodes near the Cossack-class light cruiser, it is enough to overturn the light cruiser.
Holland, the temporary formation commander of these ten light cruisers, saw this situation and knew that if the other party bombarded him like this, his squadron would probably be completely annihilated soon.
So he carried forward his fearless spirit and directly ordered the cruiser to turn its bow and approach the opponent's battleship as quickly as possible, hoping to conduct a close torpedo attack.
His idea was good, but the reality was cruel. When Liu Wei saw these 10 light cruisers on the battleship Huangdi, he turned the bow and sailed towards his main fleet. A disdainful smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and then he
Order the four Iowa-class battleships to use full power to get rid of the opponent.
As soon as the Iowa-class battleship increased its power, it immediately started galloping on the sea, and soon got away from the approach of the light cruiser.
Holland was stunned when he saw these four behemoths galloping across the sea from the light cruiser. These four battleships were already perfect warships in his mind. Not only were they huge in size and armored, but they were also fast.
No battleship in the world can match him.
While Holland was stunned, the four Iowa-class battleships once again drew a graceful arc and aimed their 36 406mm main guns at these light cruisers.
This time the opponent was not so lucky. 4 of the 36 shells were hit, and immediately three Cossack-class light cruisers sank in the sea.
At this time, the ironclad Jiangxi and the armored cruiser Hefei, which were following the Iowa-class battleship, also appeared in sight.
Although the two trailing warships are large in tonnage, their speed is not slow. The speed of the ironclad Jiangxi has reached 20 knots, and the speed of the armored cruiser Hefei has reached level 21.5.
After the two battleships entered the battlefield, they did not immediately rendezvous with the four Yihua-class battleships. Instead, they used the opponent's fleet to mainly deal with the four Ahua-class battleships, detouring back to the opponent's rear wing and then attacking them.
.
With the addition of these two battleships, the enemy fleet was completely under attack from both sides.
After several rounds of attacks, the cruise fleet had been reduced from 10 ships to 4 ships, and the others had sunk in the Pacific Ocean.
At the moment when the cruise fleet was in danger of being annihilated, the long-awaited main fleet finally arrived.
When Knut Kron led the main fleet to appear on the battlefield, what caught his eye were four Cossack-class light cruisers that were escaping in panic, and the others had disappeared.
After Liu Wei discovered that the opponent's main fleet had arrived, he immediately passed on the order, ordering the ironclad Jiangxi and the armored cruiser Hefei to immediately rendezvous with the four Ahua-class strategic ships to form a strategic line.
The three Cossack-class light cruisers are listed at the outermost edge of the team to prevent the opponent's light cruisers from launching torpedo attacks.
When Commander Knut Kron saw that the enemy warships had split into battle lines, he did not dare to neglect, and immediately ordered four Sovereign-class battleships and two Admiral-class ironclads under his command.
, four Edgar-class armored cruisers (two were sunk last night) formed a battle line and slowly approached the opponent.
The remaining nine Ureales-class cruisers and five Cossack-class light cruisers form a single order to form a torpedo attack fleet. When necessary, they can make assaults, disrupt the opponent's battle line, and conduct torpedo attacks on the opponent.
In this way, the fleets of both sides slowly approached, and a large sea battle was about to break out.