Besides, Liu Hai's Nanyang Navy's full fleet has now been divided into two parts.
At the front are ten missile ships. They are: two Kirov-class cruisers. Their full load displacement is more than 9,000 tons, and their speed can reach 36 knots. They have three 180mm naval guns in two forward and one aft seats. Passing by
After the improvement, the rear main gun was removed and two 4-unit missile launchers were added.
Behind are four 051c guided missile destroyers. Its displacement is much smaller, only more than 3,600 tons, but its combat power is no worse than the Kirov-class cruiser in front. It is equipped with two three-link missile launchers.
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At the very back are Liu Hai's four most cutting-edge modern-class destroyers, each of which has a 36-unit vertical missile launch system that can launch various types of modern air defense and anti-ship missiles.
So now that these 10 cruise missiles are launched, no country in the entire Qing Dynasty can compete with this fleet.
Needless to say, the last one is Liu Hai, the first four Iowa-class battleships you purchased. They are still not behind in terms of size or gun power, and they are still the main force of Liu Hai's Nanyang Navy.
Now these 14 warships are speeding on the sea, chasing the British expeditionary fleet in the direction of escape.
However, after all, the two sides are separated by more than 80 kilometers. Although the speed of the 14 warships of the Nanyang Fleet has reached 30 knots, if they want to close the 80 kilometers gap, they must increase their speed to the maximum and sail continuously for several hours.
But this was just wishful thinking. After Liu Hai and the others sailed for a few hours, four or five small bright spots appeared on the radar.
This is very obvious. There should be several warships quickly approaching the Nanyang Navy.
After the radar soldiers discovered the situation, they immediately reported the information to the superiors, and soon the news reached Liu Hai and Liu Wei.
Liu Wei took the information and looked at it, and then said with great certainty: "This should be the expedition fleet, the warship after the break."
Liu Hai listened to what he said, thought for a moment and then said: "Did you find on the radar the direction of the main force of the expedition fleet?"
After Liu Wei heard this, he glanced at the adjutant next to him. The adjutant immediately understood and hurriedly replied: "Come back to the commander, the navy radar has not found any trace of the enemy, but according to the direction of the enemy's retreat, it should be 100 meters away now."
Our main force is more than 100 kilometers south."
After hearing the answer, Liu Hai directly ordered: "Let the helicopter take off immediately to search for traces of the opponent's main force. These warships behind the section will be handed over to the four Ahua-class battleships to deal with them. Our missile ships do not have to contact them and bypass them."
After passing them, continue pursuing south."
Although Liu Wei was the commander of the fleet, he could only obey Liu Hai's orders, so Liu Wei immediately issued orders to each ship.
So the 14 battleships immediately divided into two teams, and the four Iowa-class battleships began to accelerate forward, speeding towards the rear of the five approaching expeditionary fleet warships.
The 10 missile ships drew an arc on the sea, far away from the enemy warships that came to intercept the rear.
But speaking of these warships, what happened to them?
It turned out that after three rounds of missile attacks, except for four or five ironclad warships behind the British Expeditionary Fleet, which were lucky enough to be preserved intact, the other warships were either sunk or severely damaged.
Seeing this situation, the commander of the expedition fleet, Marshal Richard Meade, was so frightened that he no longer dared to have any direct contact with the Nanyang Fleet.
At the same time, in order to ensure that the main force of the expedition fleet could evacuate safely, he categorically ordered the remaining intact ironclad ships to immediately attack northward, looking for the Nanyang Fleet, hoping that they could hold back the Nanyang Fleet so that the main force could evacuate.
And each of these abandoned ironclads was unambiguous. They knew that only their own sacrifice could ensure the safety of the battleships, so they wrote suicide notes one by one, and then decisively searched north.
After these four or five armored ships sailed a certain distance north, the observer finally spotted a few faint smoke pillars on the horizon.
After the five ironclad ships discovered the target, they immediately changed their course slightly and flew towards the place where the smoke column rose.
The four Iowa and battleships that came to meet the five ironclads did not hang them in the distance as before. Instead, they also accelerated their speed and moved closer to the five ironclads.
The distance between the two sides gradually approached from ten kilometers to five kilometers. By this time, they had reached the optimal shooting distance for the Iowa-class battleships.
The lead battleship Huangdi fired first. Since the distance between the two sides was already very close, and the Iowa-class battleship had a fire control radar, the Huangdi's bow gun fired six rounds of 406mm caliber this time.
Two of the artillery shells hit an ironclad ship in the front.
One of these two shells flattened the superstructure of the lead ironclad ship, and the other one was shot from the front deck, and finally ignited the ammunition depot below the deck. With a loud noise, the ironclad ship broke directly.
It broke into two pieces and then quickly sank to the bottom of the sea.
Then other Iowa-class battleships also began to fire their guns one after another.
The opponent's ironclads did not show weakness, because at this distance, although there was some gap in power and accuracy of the British ironclads, they were still within their attack range.
However, the naval guns on British ironclads now rely on the experience of the gunners to fire, so the accuracy of the gunfire is not the same as that of the four Iowa-class battleships.
Therefore, in their first round of firing, not one of the 12 main guns fired from the ironclads landed within 200 meters of the four Iowa-class battleships.
If the next four armored ships want to conduct the second round of shooting, I am afraid they will have to wait a few minutes.
The opponent's armored ship had just completed its first salvo, and the Yihua-class battleship had begun its second salvo.
This time, the four Yihua-class battleships had turned their huge bodies into a curved shape, filling the battle line, allowing the nine 406mm main guns on each battleship to fire.
This time, a total of 36 406mm cannons bombed away.
Since the distance between the two sides is now close to 3 kilometers, the shooting accuracy of the Iowa-class battleship is even higher this time.
This time, out of the 36 shells, an unprecedented 12 were hit. Almost all of the opponent's four armored ships were hit by 1 to 2 shells.
At that time, each of the four ironclad ships still floating on the sea burst into flames.
As the captain of the battleship Huangdi, Liu Da took a telescope and looked at the four armored ships in the distance that were all on fire. Finally, a smile appeared on his lips. Then he smiled at the adjutant beside him and said: "Continue.
Fire the cannon and send all these ironclad ships to the bottom of the sea, and then we will hurry up to meet the commander."
Following Liu Da's order, not only the main guns of the four Iowa-class battleships began to roar, but even the 127mm secondary guns they carried began to fire continuously.
After several minutes of shelling, these last few ironclad ships finally sank to the bottom of the sea.
At this point, the dozens of armored ships carried by the expeditionary force had been completely wiped out.
Now the expeditionary force has lost hundreds of thousands of tons of tonnage before it has really seen the main force of Liu Hai's Nanyang Navy. It can be said that the combat capability of the expeditionary force has been weakened by more than half.
After Liu Da cleaned up the four broken armored ships, he immediately contacted Liu Hai through wireless telegraphy.
At this time, Liu Hai was leading 10 missile ships to search in the direction where the main force of the expedition fleet disappeared.
After he received the news that Liu Da had destroyed the enemy's five armored ships, he closed his eyes and thought for a moment.
Although the expeditionary fleet still has seven or eight Sovereign-class battleships, these 10 guided missile ships are enough to cope with it.
As for the four Yihua-class battleships, since they are all large-caliber gunboats, they have no effect even if they keep up with 10 missile ships. It is better to let them perform other tasks.
However, he still had to discuss this matter with Liu Wei.
"Liu Wei, Liu Da has destroyed the enemy's armored ships, what do you think we should do next?"
After hearing this, Liu Wei thought for a while and then said: "In my humble opinion, it is better for them to join the two Sovereign-class battleships, the Jiangxi ironclad and the cruiser, and directly enter the strait to regain the lost territory."
"Yes, this opinion is exactly what I want."
Liu Hai praised Liu Wei and then said to the adjutant next to him: "Give Liu Da and the others power and order them to rendezvous with the battleships, ironclads and cruisers, and then enter the Rokko Strait to regain lost ground and regain control of the Strait Corridor."
"yes."
After the adjutant agreed, he immediately went to the communications room next to him.
Soon Liu Hai's order was transmitted to Liu Da's battleship Huangdi via wireless telegram.
After Liu Da received Liu Hai's telegram, he ordered the Yihua-class battleship to start turning to the south.
After driving south for more than an hour, they finally rendezvoused with the two Sovereign-class battleships, the Iron Jiangxi ironclad, and a dozen cruisers that were rushing forward behind them.
After the warships reunited, Liu naturally took over the command of the fleet. Then the fleet was led by the Sovereign-class battleship, four Iowa-class battleships and the Jiangxi ironclad as the center force, and other cruisers cruised on both wings of the battleship.
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After arranging their formation, dozens of their warships sailed toward the Strait of Malacca.
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This time, there were several small warships left by the British at the outlet of the Strait of Rokko. These warships were intended to block the Strait of Malacca and prevent Liu Hai's supply troops from officially transporting supplies to the Nanyang Navy through the Strait of Rokko.
Therefore, it is okay for them to fight against the transport ships, but it is simply a fool's dream to have a decisive battle with the dozens of warships led by Liu Da.
Therefore, these small warships were also single. When they saw the large fleet led by Liu Da approaching from a distance, they hurriedly turned their bows around, ignoring the outlet of the Rokko Strait, and headed directly for the Lion City deep in the strait.