The first round of missile attacks ended quickly, and only then did Marshal Richard Meade recover from the shock.
The marshal simply could not imagine that there were such weapons in the world.
As for who launched the attack on us, is there any need to say? It must be the Nanyang Navy.
Marshal Richard Meade did not become a marshal for nothing. After being shocked, he immediately regained consciousness.
He had to do something, otherwise, if the enemy continued to attack like this, his expedition fleet would be completely wiped out.
The marshal was thinking rapidly in his mind. After about ten seconds, he suddenly raised his head and firmly issued an order to his adjutant.
"Order the entire fleet to conduct a serpentine maneuver and then evacuate southward."
"yes."
After receiving the order from the commander-in-chief, the adjutant wanted to go out to deliver the order, but at this time Marshal Richard Meade stopped him again.
"Wait a moment."
Seeing that the marshal still had orders, the adjutant immediately stood at attention again and stood by the side waiting for the marshal's instructions.
"This time, the new Sovereign-class battleship is in the middle, and the ironclads are on both sides of the Sovereign-class battleship! The outermost is the cruiser. If necessary, order the ironclads and cruisers to block the Sovereign-class battleship's guns."
After hearing this, the adjutant began to beat the drum in his heart. Hearing what the marshal meant, he wanted to abandon the ironclads and cruisers to ensure the safety of the Sovereign-class battleship.
So he asked worriedly: "Your Excellency, Marshal, if the enemy launches another attack like this, the ironclads and cruisers will suffer heavy losses. By then, the tonnage of our fleet will be greatly reduced, and I am afraid that we will not be able to explain it to London."
Marshal Richard Meade squinted his eyes and thought for a moment, and then once again firmed up his thoughts, "Ironclad ships can no longer keep up with the trend of the times. Even if they are all annihilated, it will not affect the overall strength of our navy.
What a loss."
"But if all the Sovereign-class battleships are annihilated, it will be a fatal loss for our navy. By then, the battleship groups in the mainland and the Mediterranean will not be able to suppress the rise of the Mediterranean powers."
The adjutant nodded after hearing this. This was indeed the truth, so he dared to go out and convey the order.
As Marshal Richard Meade's order was passed, the entire expedition fleet began to rearrange itself, and then quickly galloped southward on the sea.
As the expedition fleet left, several burning warships were left on the sea.
Marshal Richard Meade was on the flagship, using his binoculars to look at the warships he had abandoned. He felt very helpless, but he would never abandon these injured warships if there was a way.
After all, in addition to warships, there are nearly a thousand soldiers on these warships. If you abandon them now, you will definitely face parliamentary questioning when you return to your country. I am afraid that your military career will be over.
However, at this time, for the benefit of the entire expedition fleet and the country, they had to be abandoned. If time was delayed because of these injured warships, the final result might be that they would be completely annihilated by the enemy's next few rounds of attacks.
Besides, at this time, the main force of the Nanyang Fleet was more than 80 kilometers away.
Liu Hai held the battle results sent back from several helicopters with a smile on his face.
"Liu Wei, the first round of strikes was very effective. You must continue to work hard and strive to eliminate the entire expedition fleet here."
"Commander, we can now carry out the second round of attacks. After this attack, more than half of the enemy's capital ships will be lost."
While the two of them were discussing the next action, a staff officer hurried in and handed a piece of information into Liu Hai's hands.
Liu Hai frowned when he took the information and handed it to Liu Wei's hand.
"Take a look, it seems that the enemy commander was not given for free. Sao Wei has already reacted to his frustration."
Liu Wei took the information and took a look. It turned out that the expedition fleet had abandoned several damaged warships, began to maneuver in a serpentine manner on the sea, and then evacuated towards the south.
Liu Wei stood there and thought for a while and then said: "Commander, in order to eliminate the expedition fleet as much as possible, there is no need to calculate the results after each attack. We should launch several rounds of attacks in a row to eliminate as many enemy forces as possible.
Main force."
"Well, that's what I think too. The next step is up to you."
"Yes, I will never let the commander down."
After Liu Wei answered Liu Hai, he immediately returned to the command platform of the command module and issued another order to the entire fleet.
"Now carry out the second round of missile attack. After the second round of missile attack, the whole volume will immediately accelerate to pursue the enemy. At the same time, prepare for the third round of missile attack. The missile will be launched immediately after the preparation is completed."
Following Liu Wei's order, the entire fleet boiled into excitement again. First, the 10 missile ships turned sideways again and fired 40 anti-ship missiles continuously in the direction of the British expeditionary fleet.
After the missile was launched, the entire fleet immediately organized itself and began to pursue the British Expeditionary Fleet in the direction in which it was escaping. This was to ensure that the British Expeditionary Fleet was always within the range of the Nanyang Navy's missiles.
At this time, the British Expeditionary Fleet had already increased its speed to the highest level. If it were not for the fact that dozens of ironclads could not reach the speed of 18 knots, the Sovereign-class battleship could still continue to increase its speed.
But no matter how fast they are, they can't keep up with the missile's flight speed.
Ten minutes after the first round of missile attack, the second round of missiles finally came to the head of the expedition fleet again.
However, this time the expedition fleet had already made some preparations. The lookout of the expedition fleet saw the fire ball flying towards the fleet again from a distance, and immediately issued a warning to the headquarters.
Marshal Richard Meade immediately ordered the entire fleet to perform a serpentine maneuver, and at the same time asked the ironclads to be near the Sovereign-class battleships to act as shields for the Sovereign-class battleships.
The cruisers also began to maneuver around the perimeter of the fleet with fire, trying to attract attacks from the opponent.
However, Marshal Richard Meade's arrangement did not achieve good results.
These flying missiles searched for their targets under the guidance of helicopters in the sky. They did not even look at the cruisers on the periphery of the fleet.
As the missiles got closer and closer, the missiles also carried out terminal penetration. Now the C802 missiles were already close to the sea, flying towards the monarch-class battleships in the middle.
Fortunately, this time, Marshal Richard Meade issued a fatal order to all warships in advance, that is, the safety of the Sovereign-class battleship must be guaranteed no matter what.
Therefore, now the entire expedition fleet, the remaining 8 Sovereign-class battleships, are each flanked by 2 to 3 armored ships guarding them.
The officers and soldiers on these armored ships were also completely desperate. They didn't know how to dodge now, but tried to maximize their speed and stretch their bodies in the direction of the missile.
Therefore, despite being guided by helicopters in the sky, these missiles still failed to hit their targets.
Although this round of missiles hit all the targets, they did not hit the intended Sovereign-class battleship. Instead, they were blocked by the front of the armored ship next to them.
By this time, Marshal Richard Meade could no longer care about the injured and about-to-sink ironclads.
The marshal once again issued an order, "Order all the ironclads, as the descendants of the entire fleet, to block another enemy attack, and the cruisers and Sovereign-class battleships to use full power to evacuate southward."
This is also the marshal's last resort, because he has already seen that if this continues, the entire fleet may not be able to escape.
The only way now is to let the Sovereign-class battleship get rid of the slow ironclads, and then lead the cruisers that can keep up to quickly evacuate southward.
As for those armored ships, they can only resign themselves to their fate now. If there are any left in the end, they will naturally go south to join forces with themselves. If they cannot be left, this will be their last contribution to the country.
At this time, in the sky, the helicopter monitoring them could no longer hover over the British Expeditionary Fleet due to time and fuel problems. They had no choice but to return to the Nanyang Fleet to replenish fuel.
Although these monitors in the sky no longer exist, the third round of missiles still arrived on time a few minutes later.
However, this time, without the guidance of these helicopters in the sky, the missiles could only attack individually according to the procedures they had already established.
Therefore, these missiles turned on their main control radars one by one and searched for large targets on the sea.
The dozen ironclad ships behind the British Expeditionary Fleet, due to their large size and slow speed, became the targets of these missiles.
Therefore, after a short search, the C802 anti-ship missile set its target on these ironclad ships.
Next, according to the procedure, the C802 missiles carried out terminal penetration. They stayed close to the sea and rushed towards the dozen or so ironclad ships at a speed of Mach 0.9.
The dozen ironclad ships behind the British Expeditionary Fleet on the sea will not sit still and wait for death. After the first two attacks, they have already gained some experience.
The dozen or so armored ships now have forced ventilation turned on. They don't care whether the boilers and pipes can withstand it. They want to increase their speed and ignore everything else.
Therefore, the current speed of these dozen warships has exceeded their design speed, each reaching 15 to 17 knots.
And in addition to speed, these armored ships began to perform snake-like maneuvers on the sea, trying to get rid of these devils flying in the sky.
Not to mention that the expedition fleet's troubles really caused some missiles to lose their targets, but these missiles were not in vain. After losing their targets, the radar in front of the missiles started to search for the nearest large radiation source again.
Therefore, the result of this round of attacks was that several ironclad ships were unlucky because the targets were too large, and they were hit by four or five missiles in one search.
Therefore, these three or four armored ships were immediately blown into several pieces and sank to the bottom of the sea.
Except for three or four other warships who were lucky enough to not be damaged, the other warships were all attacked to varying degrees, some by one missile, and some by two or three.