While the alarms over the Royal Navy's escort fleet were heard endlessly, the battleship of the British Oriental Fleet, the flagship "Queen of India" was formed.

At this time, the British Navy pursued a tactic of combining horizontal and columns, which was a bit like the army in the era of line infantry. It was not necessarily a horizontal, but a horizontal and columns flexibly used, and combined light infantry, line infantry, artillery, heavy cavalry, and light cavalry. The tactics were very complicated, and only a well-trained century-old navy like the British Navy could play. If the Royal Navy was like them, it would be impossible to make a mess.

The powerful British Oriental Fleet was also divided into fallen troops.

The first battleship team, with nine main battleships set up on the sea, three "Queen Indian" classes are in the center, and three "Rabbit" classes and three Victory classes are in the left and right respectively.

The second battleship team, three Minotao-class battleships, are on the left wing of the first battleship team in columns.

The third armored cruiser team, two Nelson-class armored cruisers and two barbarian-class armored cruisers, are divided according to British standards. If they are in the Royal Navy of the Ming Dynasty, they will definitely be classified as the main battleship. Unlike the standards for division according to tonnage and armor thickness, the division standard for the British main battleship is cannons (number or caliber, which is also relatively chaotic. The early battleships were divided according to quantity, and later;

;Feng;Literature + Main Gun Caliber). The Nelson class and the Bianheng class have no-load displacements of about 7,500 tons and about 8,500 tons respectively. The armor is very thick, no less than the Saxon class. However, the main gun is only 10 inches and 9 inches. The number of secondary guns is not enough. Therefore, it becomes an armored cruiser. The main guns of these four large armored cruisers are also arranged on the central axis, so they also form a column, located on the right wing of the First Battleship Detachment.

The above 16 battleships and armored cruisers. Although the Nelson class and the Manheng class are armed with armored cruisers, in the eyes of General Hood, they can be used as main ships. In addition to these three teams, Hood has another four cruiser teams.

The Fourth Armored Cruiser Detachment is composed of four Orlando-class ships. It has a displacement of 5,600 tons and a speed of up to 17 knots. It has 2 single-unit 9-inch main guns, 10 6-inch secondary guns, 6 6-pound secondary guns and 10 3-pound guns. These four powerful armored cruisers also form a column, arranged on the right wing of the Third Armored Cruiser Detachment.

The fifth armored cruiser team consists of six "Gemstone" classes, namely Emerald, Garnet, Cat's Eye, Ruby, Tourmaline and Turquoise. This class of armored cruisers is also somewhat unreal, not too large but too small, with a displacement of only 2,120 tons. The speed is 14 knots, and the cannons are 2 6-inch guns and 4 3-pound guns. In fact, it is a light cruiser. Somehow it is given the title of armored cruiser. These six "Gemstone" classes also form a column.

The Sixth Protective Cruiser Detachment, four Leander-class and four Iris-class. These two protective cruisers are new ships that have only been in service in the past two years. The tonnages are 4,300 tons and 3,730 tons respectively. The protection level is comparable to that of the armored cruisers of the Ming Dynasty Royal Navy, and its firepower is also extremely strong. The former is used for 10 6-inch guns and 4 14-inch torpedo tubes. The latter is equipped with 10 5-inch guns and 4 14-inch torpedo tubes.

The Seventh Light Cruiser Detachment, 10 Marvel Classes, are also new ships that have just been launched. They have a displacement of 1,700 tons, a speed of 17 knots, and have 4 5-inch guns, 4 6-pound guns. 2 machine guns and 4 14-inch torpedo tubes.

The sixth and seventh teams are two "guerrilla teams". Now they are arranged to follow the first battleship team. After the battle, they will wander on the battlefield to look for fighter jets.

(To note, because of the early appearance of the steel and rubber industry of Beisemai converter and the emergence of scientific research institutions such as Jason Central Laboratory and the Royal Institute of Ming Dynasty, the world's industrial and technological progress is now ahead of the original time and space. Therefore, these British ships are not the same as warships that used these names in history.)

In addition to the above forty-four relatively new battleships and cruisers, some of them have been sent out to carry out breaking or escort missions. The decisive battle of the fleet has not begun, which does not mean that the navies of both sides are just fighting. In addition to the small-scale contact warfare of light steam warships, breaking and escort operations are frequently carried out throughout the vast seas of the South China Ocean, the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean. However, most of the people who perform these tasks are steam sailboats that retreat to the second line, because compared with all-steam-powered ironclad ships, steam sailboats do not rely too much on coal, and therefore have a larger range of activities than steam ironclad ships. In this era, not all ports have high-quality thermal coal supply.

Now, in addition to the steam sailboats that left the port for missions, two "gunboat teams" were formed according to his orders, and they finally cruised in the entire fleet. Their mission was to find an opportunity to sink the Ming army's transport ships after the decisive battle began, so as to prevent them from heading south through the Sunda Strait to Chittagong.

As the huge fleet slowly completed the formation and array, "Hang the flag language, England hopes that every officer and soldier will perform their duties!" This is the flag language hung by Admiral Nelson on the flagship Victory in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1803. This flag language is also regarded as the soul of the British Navy!

"Enemy Armada!"

As soon as the flag slogan was hung, a shrill alarm sounded suddenly. At the edge of the northern horizon, dozens of blue-black smoke columns soared into the sky. The nerves on and off the British Eastern Fleet immediately tensed up.

The new chief of staff of the Eastern Fleet and the captain of the "Queen of India".

"Admiral, it's 5:50 now, and we have at least 13 hours."

The naval battles in this era often last for a long time because they do not have great power armor-piercing blasting bombs, but 13 hours is enough for two huge fleets to decide the outcome.

"Lei, the Chinese commander and captain are both students of your past, aren't they?", staring at the blue-black smoke pillar in the distance. "What kind of people are they?"

"General." Aspen had served in the Royal Navy for many years, serving as military adviser and chief of staff of the fleet, and served as vice principal and principal at the Royal Navy Academy. It can be said that the core officers of the Ming Navy are his disciples. However, his evaluation of them was never too high. "The Chinese Navy's tactical training level cannot be compared with us. This may be the reason why they have always insisted on column tactics." Aspen showed a slightly contemptuous smile, "If they adopted the same complex formation as ours, they would probably be in chaos if they could not open the battlefield."

The column is indeed the easiest formation to maintain. Just follow one by one, and drive the ship behind the flagship as it drives, without worrying about chaos. The formation of horizontal and columns is much more complicated. Just keeping different types of warships in a neat way during navigation requires a long time to practice! The cooperation of horizontal and columns requires practice and exploration for many years. Just using horizontal and horizontal teams to resist the column is not enough. The flexibility of the column has always exceeded that of horizontal teams. The simple horizontal and horizontal impact tactics cannot deal with the enemy columns at all. The British are not the Beiyang Navy!

"So, can we defeat them?"

"Yes, you can win tactically!" Asben said, "But strategically... what you want to compete is not the quality of the naval soldiers, but the real national strength." (To be continued...)
Chapter completed!