Chapter 240 The advantage is mine, I will run away if I win! (Please subscribe, please collect)

"What? What did you say?"

"Sir Chen, the telegram from Admiral Zhuge said that when we meet on a narrow road, the brave will win. The advantage is mine!"

"The advantage is mine? He, has he forgotten how powerful the Blake-class is? That is a large armored cruiser on the same level as our King-class armored cruiser!"

On the bridge of the old-fashioned armored cruiser Wei Guogong with a standard displacement of 3,000 tons, Captain Chen Jian, the Persian Gulf Fleet chief of staff who temporarily served as the admiral of the armored cruiser formation, already had the urge to drag Zhuge Weidao over and let him see the mines for himself

What a K-class armored cruiser looks like!

Although the Blake class and the Duke class are both called "armored cruisers", if we use tonnage as the standard classification method, the Blake class with a standard displacement of more than 9,000 tons is a first-class cruiser, while the standard displacement is only 3,000 tons.

The Duke-class can only be classified as third-class cruisers.

Not only does the former have far greater protection capabilities than the latter, but it also has an overwhelming advantage in firepower!

The Blake class has a twin-mounted 9.2-inch naval gun turret (located at the bow), a single-mounted 9.2-inch naval gun turret (located at the stern), 10 6-inch rapid-fire guns, 16 3-pound rapid-fire guns, and

Several temporarily installed anti-aircraft guns.

The Guogong class only has a twin 210mm forward main gun turret, a single 210mm rear main gun turret, two 155mm secondary guns on the side turrets, two 75mm anti-torpedo boat guns, and four 50mm

mm rapid-fire guns are also equipped with some anti-aircraft guns.

What's even worse is that the speed of the Blake-class is far higher than that of the Guogong-class! Although the Blake-class is an "old ship" that appears on the front and rear of the Sovereign-class, the original intention of the British in designing it was to break the exchange. So its

The power of the main engine is quite powerful, even more powerful than the Sovereign level. It can reach 13,000 horsepower under normal ventilation, and an astonishing 20,000 horsepower under forced ventilation!

Driven by the powerful main engine, the Blake-class speed can even exceed 20 knots (up to 21.8 knots), far exceeding the 16 knots of the Guogong-class.

So when the Duke level meets the Blake level, "the brave one wins", and he can't even run away!

"Sir Chen, we have no chance of winning. We have more ships than they do!"

Immediately, a first mate of Wei Guogong pointed out his own advantages!

It turns out that the Ming Navy has no chance of "the brave prevailing". Chief of Staff Chen Jian and Chen Da have 8 Duke-level weapons in their hands, while the opponent only has 3 Blakes - 8 to 3, which is a huge advantage!

Moreover, these 8 Guogong-class ships are all equipped with radio stations, which can focus fire! The firepower layout of these 8 ships is also quite unique. The front main gun and the secondary guns on the turrets on both sides can be fired forward, that is, they can be concentrated.

2 210mm guns and 2 155mm guns engage the bow of the ship against the enemy. 8 ships plus 16 210mm guns and 16 155mm guns gather fire. It is still very powerful!

In addition, the main fleet commanded by Zhuge Weidao is arriving quickly. Although the two Hero-class ships have left the fleet, Zhuge Weidao still has 8 battleships, 8 third-class cruisers, and 4 King-class ships, a total of 20 battleships.

As long as Chen Jian can hold on until Zhuge Weidao's main force arrives, if the three Blakes of 28 vs. 3 run slower, they may be wiped out!

Thinking of this, Chen Jian had no choice but to grit his teeth and loudly ordered: "Sound the battle alarm, change the formation, and form a horizontal formation. From left to right are the Duke of Liang, the Duke of Cheng, the Duke of England, and the Duke of Ding.

The title is the title of Duke of Wei, the title of Duke of Yue, the title of Duke of Wei, the title of Duke of Cao!

Also, raise the bloody red flag!”

"Yes, sir!"

"This is a battle formation? Are they crazy? They only have 8 third-class cruisers. They should disband the formation and run away!"

On the bridge of the armored cruiser Blake, Captain Andrew Jervis of the Royal Navy saw eight third-class cruisers of the Ming Dynasty on the opposite sea forming a bow-to-enemy formation, and he felt a little suspicious that he was dazzled.

.

The advantage is clearly on his side!

He has three powerful Blakes and three Surprises that serve as notification ships. Although the opponent has eight armored cruisers, they are only the 3,000-ton Duke-class ships, not the 10,000-ton County King.

Level, why are you so cool?

Is there a scam?

Thinking of this, Colonel Jervis immediately asked to the left and right: "Have you found where their main formation is?"

There are two terrifying Hero-class ships in the main formation of the Ming army. Not to mention running faster than the Blake-class, each Hero-class has 12 280mm main guns. This is simply the nemesis of the Blake-class!

"Sir, nothing was found."

"Sir, under normal circumstances, the A patrol formation is the vanguard of the main formation, and their main formation should not be far from us!"

"Sir, the armor patrol of the Ming army must be equipped with a radio, so their two heros must be coming at full speed, so we."

When someone mentioned the radio station, Colonel Jervis's expression turned bitter.

The enemy has a radio station, but he doesn't! The disadvantage here is too great. He doesn't know where his main force is now? And it's impossible to summon them at the first time. Even now, he doesn't know where his main force is.

I wonder if there was a war between the Ming Dynasty and Britain?

Everything can only be guessed, which is too passive.

"Sir, the enemy seems to have raised the bloody red flag and is rushing towards us at full speed!"

While Jervis was guessing, a first mate next to him started shouting loudly.

"What? We're really going to fight." Jervis quickly raised his telescope and took a look, and found that the eight Guogong-class ships on the opposite side had lined up and started to speed up. The top of the mast of each Guogong-class ship

, all hoisted a bloody red flag.

After all, Colonel Jervis was an old colonel who had fought with Nelson in the French Navy. He had quite a lot of actual combat experience. He calmed down and asked loudly: "What's the distance?"

"About 20,000 yards!" the captain replied loudly.

Jervis took a breath and said: "Let the two reporting ships stay away, and the three Blakes form a single line, in order: Blake, Blenheim, and Waterloo!"

"Yes, sir!"

While the formation was adjusting, Jervis raised his telescope again, looked uneasily at the Ming Navy formation ahead, and whispered in a low voice: "It seems that the two heroes are nearby."

The first mate of the Blake on the side came forward and said: "Sir, we can retreat. We are faster than them. We have to retreat."

"We are going to retreat," Jervis nodded. "The Blake class is designed according to the standards of a destroyer. A destroyer is supposed to hit and run. So before retreating, we should still fight and inflict at least one serious damage.

A Duke-class ship!"

"Sir, which Guogong-class ship do you want to severely damage?"

"On the right, the enemy's rightmost ship. We can charge towards the center of their horizontal formation first. When we reach 13,000 yards away, we can then turn left and focus our broadside firepower on the first warship on the enemy's right wing!

After severely damaging or sinking it, immediately head south at full speed and retreat along the Indian coastline!" Colonel Jervis thought for a while, "Okay, let's do this, use a semaphore to announce the plan to the Blenheim and Waterloo.

Number."

"Yes, sir."

"Sir, the enemy is charging straight towards us in a single column! It seems that they want to cut our horizontal column into two sections!"

In the bridge of the Wei Guogong, the captain of the Wei Guogong was loudly reporting the enemy situation to Chen Jian.

"No," Chen Jian shook his head and rejected the first officer's analysis, "Their three Blakes are very valuable. If we want to land in India or the Gulf of Aden, these three Blakes will pose a great threat to our logistics line.

We can't afford the loss. So the British must not be willing to let us severely damage one of their ships. Because if they are severely damaged, they will become heroic prey, but they will be gone!" He paused, "Their real purpose is to attack our flanks.

A Duke-class enemy will hurt eight of our fingers rather than cut off one of ours! So they will definitely turn after approaching our formation. Send the order, press the ventilation, move forward at full speed, wait for the enemy formation to turn, and immediately slow down to 12 knots, so the firepower is aimed at the enemy.

The last ship in the formation concentrated its fire and launched a salvo!"

"Yes, sir!"
Chapter completed!