"Order, use the Chongming and Yongan ships as the lead ships..."

Following the orders of fleet commander Zuo Xiaotong, the fleet's battle formation continued to adjust its formation.

The Chongming and Yong'an were both Taiyuan-class armored cruisers. Yong'an was the capital of Shandong Province, while Chongming was the seat of government in the New Guinea territory. Its name originated from Chongming Earl Gan Hui, a general under Zheng Chenggong. It was across the sea from the Chenggong Islands.

Although they are armored cruisers, the 254mm main guns of the two ships are not much inferior to those of battleships. After all, the ten-inch main guns were once the main guns of the second-level battleships of the United Kingdom.

"Raise the Z flag!"

After completing the formation change, Zuo Xiaotong gave the order to raise the Z flag, which seemed to have become a habit during the decisive battle of the Empire's naval war.

As the "Z" flag was raised, the flag bearer began to signal: hundreds of millions of citizens are looking forward to everyone's hard fight!

In the armored fire control room at the top of the mast of the battleship Chenggong, Li Jieyun, the rangefinder, stared at the opponent in the distance. At this time, he was very awkwardly using both eyes to observe through the left and right eyepieces at the same time, and adjusting the adjustment knob without turning it - this is the characteristic of the stereoscopic rangefinder, which is the latest achievement of the Empire's optical technology, but it is very awkward to use. The image seen by both eyes is the image of the same target formed by the two ends of the rangefinder. Focusing on the target in the distance, he kept manipulating the rangefinder wheel to move the diamond-shaped cursor in the eyepiece back and forth.

Done!

When she saw the diamond-shaped cursor overlap with the image of the target, Li Jieyun immediately read out the latest distance number aloud.

"Sir, the Imperial fleet has been spotted!"

September 13, 4:35 in the morning.

A powerful shout came from the throat of the lookout on the Iowa pre-dreadnought battleship. The officers began to adjust the observation instruments and telescopes, and they even seemed a little excited.

Because they knew very well how powerful they were - in the pre-dreadnought era, the "Iowa" was definitely the king. It had two twin 305mm naval guns at the bow and stern, eight 203mm secondary main guns, and six 100mm secondary guns. In terms of firepower alone, the Imperial Navy had only two "Huizhou-class" ships that could compare with it.

But even the best pre-dreadnought is still a pre-dreadnought.

"Twelve ships against nine. The advantage is on my side!"

Before Admiral Schroeder could finish his words, his brows suddenly furrowed. At this time, the distance was closer, the sea surface was as smooth as a mirror, and the Imperial South Pacific Fleet had completely revealed their ships.

Although the distance was far, it was possible to see that the enemy's six battleships were deployed in a line, but the distance between them was very close, so close that it almost gave people the illusion that they were one warship.

"What are they going to do?"

While Schroeder, the commander of the US Pacific Fleet, was puzzled, at this moment, on every warship of the South Pacific Squadron, the well-prepared gunners were eager to load 254mm or 305mm capped armor-piercing shells into the gun barrels. While the turrets were turning to point at the enemy ships, the thick gun barrels were raised to the maximum elevation angle, pointing maliciously at the enemy.

Moreover, the damage control team is already in place. They squat at the hatch, ready to attack at any time. Whether a warship can defeat the enemy depends not only on the accuracy of the shells, but also on the excellence of the damage control team. An excellent damage control team combined with a good watertight compartment is enough to allow the warship to survive in the brutal naval battle.

Suddenly, the damage control soldier at the hatch felt a shock under his feet, and the next moment, a deafening artillery sound was heard, while the fierce artillery wind swept across the deck.

Everyone's heart tightened, the long-awaited battle finally began!

"Distance 17,000 yards!"

The moment the rangefinder officer delivered the distance reading, Admiral Schroeder's brows furrowed.

The enemy ship opened fire!

So far!

In the US Navy's artillery exercises, the longest shooting distance was within 12,000 yards, but now the Imperial Navy began shelling at a distance of 17,000 yards.

Can you hit it from such a distance?

It takes 22 seconds for a 305mm shell to fly 16,000 meters. Standing in the command tower of the flagship battleship Chenggong, Zuo Xiaotong held a telescope in his hand, and next to him, the young first mate held a stopwatch and counted.

"…20, 21, 22, 2…"

Finally, two columns of water rose about a hundred meters away from the "Iowa".

"There's still one more chance!"

At this moment, Zuo Xiaotong's heart was twisted into a ball, he knew that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - as early as five years ago, with the invention of new positional rangefinders and calculating disks and other devices, the Imperial Navy's artillery combat distance increased from 12,000 meters to 16,000 meters, and a warship even hit a target ship at 20,000 meters away.

These 4,000 meters are their advantage!

Although the technical advantage only lasts for a few minutes, if we seize the opportunity, we can give these Americans a good beating.

"As expected of the Imperial Navy, their artillery is so powerful even at such a long distance..."

Schroeder ordered in between his praises.

“Speed ​​up!”

Just as Schroeder gave the order to try to close the distance and fight in a position where he was good at, the Imperial Navy warships launched two more rounds of bombardment. After two rounds of calibration, the shells finally fired more and more, and the third round of bombardment directly resulted in a near miss.

It was at this time that the gunner of the Chenggong battleship gave an angry shout, and the shells from the four 305mm main guns suddenly fired out. At the same time, the 8 305mm main guns, 12 254mm main guns and secondary guns of the other five battleships of the Second Fleet fired at the same time. This was their first round of salvos.

Ten seconds later, the Royal Navy's "Barfleur" was accompanying the lead ship. The British sailors on the deck of the "Barfleur" battleship and the officers in the command tower all saw the flash of light tearing through the sky. The shells landed accurately on all sides of the "Barfleur", and almost one-third of them formed near misses. At the moment when the white water column rose into the air, a loud but harsh crash was heard in the violent explosion, which instantly drowned out the sound of the explosion.

When the sound of metal collision was heard, everyone's expression changed. The battleship was hit!

"boom……"

At the No. 1 gun position on the port side of the "Barfleur", a cloud of smoke suddenly exploded right below the command tower, and the smoke from the explosion suddenly spewed out in all directions.

At the same time, more violent explosions continued to sound on the port side and near the port deck of the "Barfleur". The "Barfleur", which was being cared for by the concentrated firepower of six warships, became the most favored celebrity on the sea for a while - the whole ship turned red!

The red started smoking, and the red turned black!

In the fiery red smoke, black smoke rose into the sky, and in the violent explosion, even a lifeboat was blown into the sky...