Although Liu Da did not take the other party seriously, he was still cautious. He immediately ordered the ironclad Jiangxi in his fleet to lead four cruisers to break away from the main fleet and cruise outside the main fleet.
Liu Da was trying to prevent the enemy fleet from suddenly coming out from behind and causing losses to himself when he was attacking the port. With these few warships, even if the opponent came for a sneak attack, they could withstand it for a period of time, giving the main fleet room to react.
and time.
After making arrangements, Liu Da once again led the remaining warships to enter the offshore waters of Bangladesh Port from the outer sea, and continued the bombardment of Mumbai Port that he had not completed yesterday.
Since the two main forts on the left and right of the port have been destroyed, the port now has almost no defense measures.
The dozen or so temporary gun emplacements established by Governor Victor Bruce received special attention during the first round of shelling and were quickly destroyed.
Then the port completely lost its ability to fight back. Although the army had deployed artillery positions and began shelling the sea, due to the caliber and range of the artillery, it could not do anything to the Liu Fleet on the sea.
threats.
The counterattack of these artillery positions exposed their positions. A few minutes before they started firing, they were immediately locked by the battleship's giant cannon. After only one round of shelling, the army artillery positions were completely destroyed.
After this, the port has lost all counterattack capabilities.
When Liu Da saw this situation in the telescope, a smile finally appeared on his lips. Now he had a sure chance of victory. Liu Da believed that he could completely destroy the largest port in the subcontinent before tonight.
When the bombardment was going on at noon, suddenly the subcontinental fleet appeared again outside Liu Da's fleet.
The fleet led by Lieutenant General Paul Rufkin completely gave up the plan of cruising this time, and went straight to the rear of the Nanyang Fleet squadron led by Liu Da at full speed.
At this time, Meng Su, the commander of the ironclad Jiangxi, saw the enemy fleet suddenly appearing, and knew that he could not let the enemy disrupt his rear, so he led four cruisers to meet it at full speed.
As the fleets of both sides approached, the subcontinental fleet fired first, because their fleet had three ironclad ships, each with a tonnage of 10,000 tons.
Although the Jiangxi ironclad ship was not much inferior to its opponent in terms of tonnage, it was outnumbered, and soon two shells hit the side of the Jiangxi ironclad ship.
Faced with the dilemma that his own ship was shot first before the cannon was officially launched, Meng Su commanded calmly in the face of danger.
He ordered his warships to begin a serpentine maneuver on the sea surface, while facing the enemy fleet with the intact other side of the ironclad Jiangxi, and then began to fire back with four 12-inch main guns.
Since most of the sailors on the Jiangxi were bionics, although they were somewhat emotionally deficient, their combat literacy was much higher than that of the other navy. Therefore, the first round of bombardment achieved results, and at that time an enemy ironclad ship was destroyed.
The superstructure was flattened.
This ironclad ship happened to be the flagship of the Indian Ocean Fleet, and the commander of the Indian Ocean Fleet, Paul Rofokin, was in the command room. It happened that he was on this battleship, and his command room was also bombarded. At that time, the general was hit hard.
, lost too much blood and fainted.
As the fleet commander fainted, the entire subcontinental fleet fell into brief chaos.
But this fleet was indeed an elite division that had been well-trained for many years, and they quickly recovered from the chaos.
The other ironclad ship, the Admiral, immediately raised its commander's flag and took over the command of the entire fleet on behalf of Paul Rofokin.
After the subcontinental fleet recovered, the small fleet led by Meng Su was no match for it.
First of all, the ironclad Jiangxi was besieged by three of the opponent's ironclads, and the cruisers he led were also besieged and attacked by the opponent's superior force.
Seeing this situation, Meng Su knew that if the fight continued like this, his small fleet would probably be annihilated by the opponent soon, and he did not need to engage in a head-on decisive battle with the opponent. He only needed to delay the time and wait until
Just have the main fleet arrive.
Therefore, Mengsu took advantage of the improved Jiangxi ironclad ship to be faster than its opponent and began to maneuver on the sea again.
When the other cruisers led by Uncle Meng saw the ironclad ship beginning to maneuver on the sea, they also tried their best to get rid of the siege of the other side's cruisers. They followed the ironclad ship and galloped on the sea. They did not seek to cause much damage to the other party, but only wanted to entangle it.
other side.
At this time, the commander-in-chief of the subcontinental fleet, Lieutenant General Paul Rofokin, also woke up from his coma.
After understanding the current battle situation, the commander-in-chief immediately ordered the fleet to start disengaging from the opponent.
Yamashita of the Subcontinent Fleet did not understand the commander-in-chief Paul Rofokin's order. In their opinion, in just a few hours, the small fleet of the Nanyang Fleet could be completely defeated. The retreat now was a missed opportunity.
However, Lieutenant General Paul Rofkin, the commander of the fleet, was very calm. He knew that he was not facing only this small fleet, but the main force of the Nanyang Fleet behind this small fleet (Paul Rofkin did not know that,
What he faced was only a squadron of the Nanyang Fleet).
If we continue to delay like this, the opponent's main fleet will arrive. With the current situation of our fleet, we will be unable to run away or fight. In the end, we will only be surrounded by the opponent.
Therefore, he forced all ministries to obey the order, and the captains of the fleet could only follow the orders of the fleet commander and start to turn the ship away from Mumbai.
When the squadron led by Meng Su saw the Indian Ocean Fleet beginning to evacuate, it originally wanted to move forward at full speed and hold the Indian Ocean Fleet back. However, a bombardment from the other side immediately caused a cruiser on Meng Su's side to be hit again.
When Meng Su saw this situation, he knew that if he continued to chase, he might not get any good results, so he could only watch from a distance as the Indian Ocean Fleet broke away from contact with him and disappeared on the sea.
And 20 minutes after the subcontinental fleet left the battle, the artillery fleet led by Liu Da also came to the outer sea again and joined the squadron led by Meng Su.
After understanding the situation of the war, Liu Da finally showed a solemn expression on his face. His opponent, the commander of the subcontinental fleet, was indeed scheming. If he kept harassing himself like this, he would be able to destroy the Port of Bombay.
In the end, there was no time to go north and destroy other ports.
If another fleet faced such an elusive attack, the only option would be to scatter all the cruisers in the hope of finding the opponent's main force.
But there is a better way for the current Nanyang Fleet.
After Liu Da understood the seriousness of the matter, he immediately dispatched the battleship Yandi, letting this giant ship of more than 50,000 tons act as a reconnaissance ship, and began to search for traces of this fleet in the nearby waters.
Song Wei, the captain of the battleship Yandi, after receiving the order, piloted the Yandi and left the main fleet.
After the Yandi left the main fleet, it immediately turned on the search radar on the battleship and continuously scanned the sea surface.
Since Emperor Yan has now received some modifications, its radar search area can reach more than 100 kilometers.
In addition, the Yandi can increase its speed to 30 knots, so in this era, this behemoth can actually be used as a reconnaissance ship.
This was due to the fact that the reconnaissance aircraft on the Yandi battleship had to be repaired due to multiple flights, so they did not follow the main fleet this time.
Otherwise, the Yandi's reconnaissance range can spread to 200 nautical miles away in four weeks.
The Yandi followed the evacuation direction of the Indian Ocean fleet and pursued it at full speed. After traveling for a certain distance without detecting the enemy fleet, it began to cruise nearby in a circular track.
As circles were drawn one by one, the traces of the enemy fleet were finally discovered by the Yandi.
At this time, the Yandi was still more than 100 kilometers away from the enemy fleet.
At this distance, the subcontinental fleet had no idea that their traces had been discovered by the other party.
Hello everyone, our public account will find gold and red envelopes every day. Just follow it and you can receive it. This is the last benefit at the end of the year. Please seize the opportunity. Public account [Book Friends Base Camp]
The current commander of the fleet, Vice Admiral Paul Rofokin, has a bandage on his head and is having a meeting with various captains and staff officers.
Because the last attack went very smoothly, they disrupted Liu's fleet's siege of Bombay.
And before Liu Da's main fleet returned, he left the battlefield and successfully got rid of the opponent's siege.
After the battle, each captain admired their commander's judgment.
Sure enough, Jiang was still too old. If the situation at that time were delayed for another ten minutes, I was afraid that he would be caught by the enemy's main fleet. In the end, he would be unable to escape. The only thing they would face would be annihilation.
Paul Rofkin is also very high-spirited now. After the last contact, he already thinks that his tactics are very correct. As long as he harasses the opponent continuously like this, he can not only save himself, but also disperse their pressure on Mumbai Port. As long as it is
After persisting for more than ten days, when the main fleet arrives, we will be able to fight the opponent decisively.
"Gentlemen, captains, our last battle plan was very successful, so I think we still have to implement it according to the established plan, and we must continue to harass the opponent, but not fight the opponent decisively." After Lieutenant General Paul Rufkin finished speaking,
, Gu Pan looked at his subordinates proudly.
What else can the captains of other warships say now? After the last actual battle, it has been proved that their commander-in-chief’s judgment is correct.
So these people began to compliment the lieutenant general, "Mr. Commander's judgment is completely correct, and we will fully obey the order."
"With the commander strategizing, we will definitely defeat the opponent and finally achieve an unprecedented victory."