On September 15th, the weather was clear, sunny, and breezy.
Chalmers Island.
At the island's temporary encampment, in a wooden shed repaired on the shore, Commander-in-Chief of the Federation Fleet, Admiral Edman, sat expressionlessly in a chair, gazing at the sea.
The warships at sea are practicing battle formations. The person in charge of this exercise is Vincent, Edman's second-in-command. The warships are now arranged in two very long battle lines, which can maximize the role of each warship. If enemy ships enter these two battle lines, they will be subjected to fierce hull gunfire.
Of course, Edman knew that if war broke out with the Yan Kingdom's navy, they would most likely also deploy their battle lines, since they had won the previous battle in the South China Sea, and their navy must have mastered this most effective tactical formation.
This means that the upcoming naval confrontation will be a brutal exchange of fire, a contest of whose warships will break down first.
In addition to this, wind force also plays a role in the success or failure of the battle. If you have the upper wind, then with the sails fully drawn, the warship can directly penetrate the center of the enemy fleet, which will greatly increase the chance of victory. Therefore, seizing the upper wind at the beginning of the battle is an extremely crucial factor.
The Federation fleet had already conducted one similar exercise after arriving at Chalmers Island, three days ago, under the personal command of Edelman, right after that storm.
Although a storm broke out at sea, the Federation fleet was almost unharmed because they arrived at Chalmers Island on August 22nd, after which all the warships lowered their anchors, furled their sails, and anchored in the waters near Chalmers Island.
A few days after they anchored, at the end of the month, a storm broke out at sea, which allowed them to avoid it. After the storm, only a few warships had minor problems, but they could be repaired and were insignificant.
To emerge from a storm almost unscathed is clearly a good sign.
This led Edelman to believe that the voyage had gone exceptionally smoothly, at least so far without any setbacks.
The only thing that bothered him was that the allied forces had not yet arrived at Chalmers Island. They should have arrived by the end of August, but considering the storm, he felt it was understandable. Perhaps their journey had been affected by the storm.
But even now, there is still no sign of the allied forces arriving, which makes Edelman increasingly puzzled and dissatisfied.
Today is September 15th, and it will still take at least another month for the voyage to reach the waters near Yan Kingdom, and that's assuming no bad weather.
If the situation continues to drag on until the weather gets colder, it will have a certain impact on the fleet, which will weaken the fleet's overall combat power. For this reason, three days ago, Edman sent more than a dozen warships to check the route they came from, hoping to find traces of the Allied forces at sea.
But when they returned this morning, they said there was nothing at sea and they hadn't seen a single coalition warship.
Upon receiving this news, Edman wondered if they had encountered an extreme storm on the way, causing serious damage to the fleet and thus slowing down their journey.
But then he thought again, given how much importance they now place on the Yan Kingdom, they must have sent their best warships on this voyage, so how could they easily lose too many in the storm?
Various speculations had been bothering Edman all morning, and even though the wind blowing from the sea was cool, he was still somewhat agitated.
But it must be said that Chalmers Island is truly a livable island. It is surrounded by the sea on all sides, and in addition to its vast golden beaches, it also has forests and rivers, lush vegetation, and even flocks of sheep. This is all that Edelman learned after sending soldiers to investigate a few days ago.
Chalme Island was named by the Kingdom of Sassa. If it weren't for the fact that it was too far from their homeland and transporting supplies there was too uneconomical, Edman thought they would have established a transit point on this island.
After the war against Yan Kingdom ends, Edman plans to leave some soldiers to garrison here.
Just as his thoughts were racing, a bugle call suddenly sounded from the sea. Edman immediately looked up and saw a warship speeding toward Chalmers Island.
"Is there some unexpected situation?"
Edelman frowned, immediately got up and ran towards the shore, and the soldiers left on the island also sprang into action.
A moment later, the warship lowered a small boat, and the soldiers on board quickly rowed the boat to the shore.
"Commander! There's an emergency!"
The soldiers who disembarked from the ship waded through the seawater and shouted excitedly even before they were fully ashore.
"What happened?!" Edman asked, looking at the sea. He didn't see anything unusual in his current field of vision.
The soldier finally approached, panting heavily, and said, "The warships at the front of the battle line have spotted foreign ships! No... that must be a fleet, about one or two hundred ships."
Upon hearing this, Edman quickly turned his gaze back to the sea, muttering to himself:
“Our battle line is arranged towards the Yan Kingdom, and the fleet coming from the opposite side... that is very likely a fleet from the Yan Kingdom.”
"Did you see their flag?! Can you tell which country they're from?" Edman asked urgently.
"It's too far, Commander. The people on the front ship only spotted it by chance through their binoculars. They were very far away and could only vaguely make out that it was a fleet, but the number should be fairly accurate. They were sailing side by side in a 'one' formation and heading in our direction!"
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