"Ding bell, ding bell..." the alarm bell on the warship rang.
Major General Jericho was taken aback.
"General Jericho, a patrol fleet of the Renaissance Army was spotted in the southeast. There are three warships in total, one cruiser and two frigates." The Koreans reported the Renaissance Army's warships according to their own standards.
"Let each ship prepare for battle. Let's go up and take a look." Hearing that the opponent only had three warships, Jericho felt relieved.
This was similar in size to the small Ba'ath Army patrol fleet he encountered last time on Zanzibar Island.
But that's not right. They are now northeast of Maputo and have not yet entered the Mozambique Channel.
This is not as simple as crossing the line.
That's why he ordered the fleet to enter combat mode.
On the destroyer "Jinghai", Captain Wu Haibo was very excited.
His hard work paid off, and thanks to Mazu's blessing, he only managed to find the patrol fleet of the Yu people.
"Send a report to the commander immediately, reporting our position and the enemy's situation."
The telescope in Wu Haibo's hand was still on his eyes, looking at the enemy fleet approaching him in the distance.
"Okay, our mission is accomplished, right rudder, let's get out of here."
Wu Haibo left with his fleet. The distance was a bit far, and the Japanese could not catch up with the three fast battleships of the Renaissance Army. After all, there was a battleship and several supply ships in their team.
At this time, since the enemy has been discovered, naturally we can no longer divide our troops.
"The fleet is on the left rudder. Let's go back to Cape Town. Quick, the fleet will move forward as fast as possible." Jericho decided immediately.
He is a very decisive person.
While moving forward, he also asked the fleet to constantly correct its course and did not take a conventional route.
He had already thought that the enemy might intercept him.
The Daying fleet has experienced successive defeats and can no longer bear any more defeats.
He must be careful and careful, and he must not let the patrol fleet in his hands suffer any losses.
When they arrived in Cape Town, they gathered the entire Indian Ocean Fleet, plus the coastal defense guns set up in the port.
At that time, even if the Renaissance Army gathers the entire Second Fleet, it may not be able to make a good profit.
The three ships of the Renaissance Army quickly disappeared from the sight of the lookout.
This also means that the Renaissance Army can no longer see itself.
It is not too difficult to avoid the Renaissance fleet on the vast sea.
And Jericho also has an advantage, that is, he understands the sea conditions here better than the Renaissance Army.
The Great Empire has been operating routes to eastern Africa for hundreds of years. The Renaissance Navy has only just arrived here.
When Jericho's cruise fleet left, they only paid attention to three warships on the sea.
After they left to a certain distance, a pipe moving at high speed suddenly stretched out from the sea.
The thin tube draws a long and thin water line on the sea surface.
However, such a thin waterline cannot be seen clearly from a distant warship.
It was already ten o'clock in the morning.
Jackley's cruise fleet left the port of Maputo at dawn in the morning.
He did not think about returning to Maputo Port, because it was only a small port and the shore defense facilities were not enough to withstand the attack of the Second Fleet of the Renaissance Army.
Returning to Cape Town was Jackley's only option.
Because the Jackli fleet was not dispersed, the speed of the entire cruise fleet was the fastest speed of the accompanying supply ships.
Otherwise, Guo Yan's submarines would not be able to keep up with the opponent.
In this way, it was very difficult for the two submarines to follow. They often had to rise to the periscope height to determine the enemy's course.
This will send the most accurate position to the fleet.
"Great, we finally locked this big fish. As long as we can eat this cruise fleet, this trip will be worthwhile."
"Yes, this is also our good luck. Thanks to the strong intelligence capabilities of the military department, we have actually deployed people to Cape Town, haha." Wang Huatao said with a smile.
"Taozi, believe it or not, our president knows what color underwear the Queen of the Republic of China wore this morning." Bao Youzhi said with a smirk.
"Haha, if our president's wife knew that the president knew this, would she punish our president to kneel on the washboard?" The two of them were in a good mood and turned on the dirty joke mode.
Being able to lock down a Korean cruise fleet in the outer sea is indeed a great joy for the Renaissance Army.
In order to eliminate half of the opponent's strength in the port, the second fleet must pay at least the same amount of losses.
But on the high seas, the strength of the second fleet at this time is more than three times that of the opponent, so it is likely to be a complete victory.
Bao Youzhi did not even plan to use the entire army together, because he planned to completely annihilate the opponent, so he had to reserve part of his force to block the retreat route of the Japanese cruise fleet.
He wants to encircle and destroy this enemy.
When a ship sails on the sea, it only needs to know its course and speed, plus the positioning of the origin.
You can accurately locate the opponent on the chart. And mapping positioning is also an essential skill for the navigator and navigator on every warship.
Bao Youzhi already knew the location of the discovery, and the tracking submarine only had to report the sailing direction and speed of the Japanese warship.
In this way, Bao Youzhi can not only know the current position of the Yinjun warships, but also their next position.
The warships of the Imperial Army cannot wander around the sea without any rules.
That way there would be no need for Bao Youzhi to look for them, as they might hit the rocks themselves and be sent to the bottom of the sea.
"Taozi, correct the course, let's go block them." There's nothing more to say, just do it.
"Well, Commander, in this case, we can probably stop them at two o'clock in the afternoon, and we should be able to finish the job in three or four hours without delaying our dinner." Wang Huatao has a very deep foundation in business skills, and he only relied on intelligence.
By making some estimates, you can probably guess how long it will take to block the opponent.
Bao Youzhi deployed two destroyers and four frigates from the fleet to take charge of the interception mission.
Several warships that went out for reconnaissance returned to the main fleet and acted together.
In this way, Bao Youzhi still has three armored cruisers, ten destroyers and a dozen frigates in his hands.
It was enough to make dumplings for the seven warships of the Yin Army.
Submarines do not travel at high speed for long, and they can only last a few hours underwater.
If the battery runs out, you must switch to water navigation.
Fortunately, at 1:30 in the afternoon, the main fleet successfully captured Jericho's cruise fleet.
"Shet! They're here to catch us."
When the fleet's alarm bells came to mind again.
Jericho could already see the huge Second Fleet outflanking him in three columns.
So many battleships made Jericho feel his scalp numb.
Since when did the Renaissance Army develop to this point?
In front of the Renaissance Army Navy, the Dayu Navy was like a dwarf.
Once upon a time, the Great Empire used such a huge scale of warships to make the entire world surrender at the feet of Her Majesty the Queen.
"Full right rudder, each ship retreats at its fastest speed." Seeing the opponent's huge formation, Jericho no longer had the courage to fight anymore. The gap between the two sides was really too big.
There are only seven warships on our side, but the other side has more than twenty warships.
How can we fight like this? This is totally bullying.
"Hahaha, it seems that guy Guo Yan guessed it right." Seeing the other party fleeing to the west, Bao Youzhi actually laughed.
The Yu Kingdom no longer cares about those supply ships.
Bao Youzhi only needs to send a few frigates to force the opponent to surrender.
Of course, if the enemy resisted, he wouldn't mind sending the opponent to the bottom of the sea.
But it would be best to capture them. Mosquitoes and flies are also meat.
The Japanese warships advanced at full speed, and soon Jericho's "Nelson" was left behind.
Although he had put himself in danger, as long as he could escape with a battleship, Jericho felt that it was worth it.
Just as Jericho expected, the Renaissance fleet also turned to chase them.
Moreover, the destroyers and frigates in the front of the Renaissance Army were approaching him at a high altitude.
Except for the battleship "Nelson", several other warships under his command ran very fast.
"Let each artillery position prepare and use artillery fire to stop the Renaissance destroyers." Jericho is still a good naval general. He will use his own sacrifice to save the lives of other fleets in the fleet.
"Boom, boom, boom..." The main gun on the Nelson fired first, shooting at the destroyer of the Renaissance Army that was running at the front.
The shelling attracted the attention of everyone on the warship, who were all paying attention to the effect of the first round of firing.
At this moment, six waterlines five hundred yards away from the Nelson's right turn quickly extended towards the Nelson.
"Torpedo, evade, evade quickly." The dedicated lookout immediately discovered the abnormality.
The captain also responded immediately and turned the battleship's steering wheel to the left.
The huge battleship traveling at high speed, during such extremely fast turns, the entire hull tilted a little.
Some gunners and sailors on the deck were thrown to the ground.
But six torpedoes had long blocked any evasive path of the "Nelson".
"Dive, reverse, and get out of here." Under the water, Guo Yan, who succeeded in one blow, directed the submarine to evacuate.
He divided his submarines into groups of three.
Before the main fleet met the Japanese, they ambush at several predetermined positions.
Of course, this needs to be calculated in advance, the time and location of the two parties meeting.
When Jericho chose to escape here, he had already fallen into Guo Yan's trap.
Guo Yan judged that the Koreans would flee to the west, east and north, and they would only get farther and farther away from Cape Town. After losing the supply ship, the fuel on their warships would eventually run out.
To go south is to attack a stone with an egg, and no fleet commander with any sense would do this.
So they must run westward.
There are many reefs and shoals near the land, and the Second Fleet may not dare to pursue them all the time.
Only then would they have the possibility of escaping.
So Guo Yan ambushed several points on the west side of the battlefield.
He deliberately let go of the Yinjun destroyers and frigates ahead.
The target of their submarines is always the big guy in the fleet.
As long as this big guy is killed, it will not be able to delay the Second Fleet's pursuit.
The Chinese have already suffered losses from submarines. They should be prepared.
But this was on the high seas. Who could have imagined that there would be a submarine ambushing the retreat route they had chosen temporarily?
Ambush on the battlefield is undoubtedly a new tactic invented by Guo Yan.
"boom……"
With the sound of explosion.
The hull of the "Nelson" trembled, and then the warship seemed to hit the sea again.
"Only one shot hit. This Korean warship must have been very lucky." Bao Youzhi could already see the results of the attack through a telescope from behind.
This warship not only dodged five torpedoes, but it did not remain silent.
It's just that the stern of the ship was hit and now it has lost power.
"Check the damage to the warship." Jericho struggled to stand up.
Fortunately, the warship is still on the sea and there is no obvious tilt.
"General, the stern of the ship was hit by a torpedo, and we have lost control of the warship. In addition, the engine room has also been flooded."
At this time, the most tragic scene on the entire warship was undoubtedly the engine room.
There were jets of steam everywhere, and the sea water had reached the engineers' knees.
Soldiers tried to block the water ingress.
But the jet of steam made it impossible for the sailors to inspect it.
"Forget it, abandon the engine room and close the waterproof door. Let the gunners continue to attack the target. Try to attack our submarines under the sea. Once discovered, use the secondary guns to attack them."
Jericho had long given up hope of escaping. Since God allowed them to still float on the sea, Jericho must persist in fighting to the end.
"Boom, boom, boom..." The artillery on the Nelson was fully fired.
The warship is still gliding forward according to its inertia.
Now that we have reached this point, there is no need to save artillery shells anymore.
Bao Youzhi looked at the Nelson, which was still resisting, and ordered: "Send a signal to all destroyers and frigates to bypass the Nelson and pursue other warships of the Japanese Army."
"Let's leave this battleship to three capital ships."
In fact, the "Nelson" is the same model as the three "mountain" armored cruisers in Bao Youzhi's hands, and they even come from the same shipyard.
It's just that when the Renaissance Army repaired and renovated several captured warships such as the "Kunlun Mountain", they replaced the weapon system on the ship and the drive system of the warship.
The weapons system was changed to accommodate Baath Army ammunition.
Otherwise, these warships would have to design and produce specialized ammunition.
In addition, the production line of gun barrels will also be costly because it cannot match the Renaissance Army's own.
However, overall their combat power is almost the same.
"General, look, three Renaissance battleships are approaching. They are going to fight three against one." said the captain of the "Nelson" next to Jericho.
"Yes, I saw it. These three warships are almost exactly the same as the Nelson."
"This is the warship they captured." The captain suddenly realized.
A sense of humiliation arose in Jericho's heart.
In the end, he will be buried under his own battleship.