"The stupid yellow-skinned monkey actually arranged a horizontal formation." Captain Hawk, Colonel Scholes, put down his telescope. "In the Dadonggou naval battle during the Sino-Japanese War of 10 years ago, the Qing Dynasty fleet was defeated by the Japanese fleet. It seems that these yellow-skinned monkeys did not learn a lesson. Now they have arranged a horizontal formation again. It is really ridiculous."

The first lieutenant Colonel Fleman frowned and said, "They are not Qing countries, but the fleet of the East China government. They will not make such low-level mistakes. Will there be a trap here?"

Scholes laughed loudly and said, "What can the East China government do? The same one is also the yellow-skinned monkeys. They have won some battles before, but what kind of opponent is that? The Japanese are just yellow-skinned monkeys like them. The Russians are a group of barbarians. It is nothing to be able to win them. But we are different. We are the Royal Navy of the British Empire. We have glorious naval traditions and rich experience in naval battles. It is not comparable to yellow-skinned monkeys and barbarians. If they had encountered our British Empire navy in the past, they would have long since brought them back to their original form."

Since its establishment, the East China Government has achieved very brilliant military achievements. Therefore, basically all countries will not underestimate the East China Government's military and distinguish them from the Qing court. However, European countries have been in the lead for too long, and some people's ideas have not changed, and they still have a contempt for the East China Government. Scholes is a young and strong officer of the British Navy, and believes in the theory of white supremacy and racial superiority. He regards the East Asian nation as an inferior race and still looks down on the East China Government.

Fleman said: "But their number of warships is 10, two more than us. And it seems that the two warships in the center should be large cruisers similar to our Hawk and Gibraltar, but we have all six of them left, all of them are destroyers. They should have at least 4 small-tonnage cruisers and 4 destroyers. Therefore, if we are more powerful than the fleet, we have a very obvious gap."

Scholes said: "My Colonel, I admit that their warships are indeed stronger on paper than us, but the competition in naval battles does not look at paper data. If you only look at paper data, then the winner of the battle in Dadonggou should be the Qing Dynasty's fleet. Just look at the battlefield situation in front of you. Columns are the best tactics for naval battles. This was already a basic principle recognized by all countries 10 years ago. However, the navy of the East China government is still using horizontal strategist tactics. Even if such an opponent has a warship stronger than us, what's the use of?"

At this time, a signal was sent from the observation deck that the distance between the two sides had been closer to within 5 kilometers. In this era, this was the distance that could be exchanged. Therefore, Scholes immediately ordered the single-mounted 243mm artillery on the head of the Hawk to fire, and at the same time ordered the fleet to accelerate, from 14 to 18, and penetrated directly into the gap between the Jining and Gaomi on the left side of the People's Army Navy. Because in the Dadonggou Naval Battle, the first guerrillas of the Japanese fleet entered the right wing of the Beiyang Navy at high speed after the battle began, splitting the weakest Super Yong and Yangwei ships of the Beiyang Navy from the main fleet, and concentrated their firepower to quickly sink the two warships, which not only hit the morale of the Beiyang Navy, but also seized the weakness of the Beiyang Navy and fought hard, laying the final victory. Scholes obviously wanted to replicate this battle.

"Boom!" The first shell fired from the single-mounted 243-mm artillery on the head of the Hawk fell to a position about 400 meters away from the left front of the Jinan, stirring up a water column more than 20 meters high.

"Do you want to copy the Dadonggou Battle? The mind of the messing stick is too simple. The Jinan and Tianjin fired." The captain of the Jinan, Colonel Chen Changzhi, also the commander of the fleet that attacked Shanghai this time, also issued his own orders.

The head of the Jinan and Tianjin is a 2-connected 200-mm main gun and 2-connected 155-mm secondary guns, arranged in the character "Price". Because this type of warship had considered the head of the ship against the enemy when designing it, it may also be arranged with more naval guns at the tail of the ship. This is also an important reason why the People's Army Navy dared to adopt horizontal formations. Therefore, a total of 12 artillery pieces of the two warships opened fire together. Although they failed to hit the opponent, they aroused 10 water columns of high and bottoms on the sea surface, causing a much larger momentum than the Hawk.

Chen Changzhi nodded with satisfaction, looked at the flat panel monitor on one side, and said, "Please note Gaomi, please pay attention to Gaomi, your position is one hull behind, please pay attention to maintaining a good formation."

Before the war started, Jinan had released a small four-axis rotor drone. Although this drone is not as powerful as the drones that traveled through several warships, it is strictly a flying camera. Of course, it is much stronger than ordinary civil aerial photography drones. The flight altitude can reach 1,000 meters, which can basically clearly show the situation of the entire battlefield and is convenient for command.

At this time, the Dongchang, Jining, Linqing and Wuding also opened fire. These four ships were 3,500-ton protective cruisers. The main guns were a 2-mounted 130mm naval gun each at the head and tail of the ship. Although they were not as good as the Jinan and Tianjin, they also increased the firepower of the People's Army Navy.

Since the British fleet was a column array, only the leading Hawk could fire. The Hawk could only use a 234mm main gun at the head of the ship and two 152mm secondary guns on both sides, a total of 3.

Although the main gun of the Hawk is the largest caliber of all combat ships, because the construction of this type of warship was too early and it was built around 1890, the naval gun also used old-style artillery, with a theoretical rate of fire every 2 minutes, and can only reach the level of 3 minutes in actual combat. The eight warships participating in the People's Army are all new ships built in the past 3-4 years. The main guns and secondary guns are also the latest rapid-fire guns. The 200mm main guns of the Jinan and Tianjin can reach a rate of fire of 1 minute in actual combat, and the 155mm secondary gun can reach 5-6 rounds in 1 minute. Naturally, the People's Army is far ahead in firepower. Almost all the water columns of takeoffs and landings around the Hawk. There are many shells with landing points less than 100 meters away from the Hawk.

At this time, the Captain of Hawk Scholes's face was also very ugly. He had never expected that the firepower of the People's Army Navy would be so fierce. Although he looked down on the People's Army Navy, he also knew that if he continued to fight like this, he would definitely be shot first without waiting for the Hawk to be inserted into the People's Army array.

The first mate Fleman also looked nervous and said, "Captain, now it will be too late to turn."

Before he finished speaking, he heard a loud "boom" sound, and the Hawk vibrated violently. It turned out that a 155mm shell hit the Hawk. In the command room, many people fell to the floor without stabilizing their bodies.

When Scholes reached the extreme, he grabbed the handrail and did not fall. He shouted: "Report the part of the shot and report the loss."

Someone immediately reported: "The left side of the head of the ship was shot, and the shot was 3 meters above the waterline, and the losses are being counted."

Scholes also breathed a little relieved, because the shot was on the waterline, which would not cause too much damage to the warship. Moreover, the Hawk was a protective cruiser with no side armor. The thickness of the horizontal part of the dome armor was 76.2 mm, and the thickness increased by 127 mm on the inclined surface was still reliable.

At this moment, there was another "boom" sound, and the porthole glass of the command room was broken. It turned out that another 155mm shell hit the command room of Hawk. However, Hawk's command room had the thickest armor, reaching 305mm, which was almost the standard of a battleship. Of course, this is also the usual style of British warships. The protection of the command room is the most important, followed by the protection of weapons, and the protection of the hull can only rank third.

Of course, the 155mm shell could not cause any damage to the 305mm armor, so the shell did not cause much casualties. However, in a short period of time, the warship was bombarded twice in a row, and Scholes also realized that the situation was not good, which meant that the enemy had locked his warship, so he hurriedly ordered a turn to face the enemy with the sideways so as to exert the maximum firepower, and the entire fleet could also participate in the war.

However, it is also very dangerous to turn in front of enemy artillery fire. When turning, the warships are almost fixed and become living targets for the enemy. However, now the British fleet has no other way, so they can only take a risk.

But the order for "turning" was issued, and the Hawk was shot again, and this time he was hit by a 200mm shell. The point of the shot was on the front deck. The entire deck was suddenly hit by an explosion, and it was in a mess.

"The enemy ships began to turn!"

"I can't stand it. Don't want to repeat the battle in Dadonggou?" In fact, Chen Changzhi could see clearly without the observation deck report, because the distance between the two sides is only about 3.5 kilometers, and it can be seen clearly without a telescope. So Chen Changzhi also ordered the ships: "Concentrate firepower and bombard the British flagship. Before it completes its turn, it must destroy this warship."

In fact, in the Battle of Dadonggou, the Japanese fleet was able to insert into the Beiyang Navy array and divide the Beiyang Navy's Super Yong and Yangwei ships from the home team. One important reason was that the Super Yong. The two ships of Yangwei were too old and too slow to keep up with other warships. As a result, a big gap was formed on the right wing, which gave the Japanese fleet an opportunity to take advantage of. However, the warships of the People's Army were new ships, fast, and there were drones in the air to guide them, so they would never give the British fleet an opportunity to take advantage of them.

Before the Japanese fleet could insert into the Beiyang Navy's array, it was also hit by the Beiyang Navy's firepower. After about 10 minutes, the Beiyang Navy had a significant advantage, but the Beiyang Navy's warship gun fire speed was too slow. The two main forces, Dingyuan and Zhenyuan's four 305mm main guns were powerful, but they could only reach the level of 5-6 minutes. Therefore, they did not make full use of this rare favorable time. Moreover, during the entire battle, the Beiyang Navy failed to fully exert the huge power of these 8 heavy artillery.
Chapter completed!