Of course, the Tang Army was expanding its results. They were not only expanding their results on the South Island, they also continued to attack the Mirage's main fleet at sea.
This time, it was the 7th Destroyer Squadron of the Tang Navy that launched the attack. They were on the side of the Mirage Fleet, so their attack angle was better.
As the frontline commander, Mirage Haifeng waited for about half an hour without a call back from the base camp. His request for the evacuation of the injured warships was like a mud cow in the sea, and there was no news.
The navy of the Tang Empire did not give Mirage Haifeng any time to wait. They followed the plan and launched a more intense attack about 150 kilometers away from the landing site.
One after another, the Styx anti-ship missiles rushed into the Mirage Navy battleship formation. In just 15 minutes, two Mirage Navy cruisers were hit in succession, and another battleship was injured.
Although the injuries to the battleships hit this time did not appear to be particularly serious, some details still made Mirage Feng extremely frightened.
None of these battleships were hit critically, which may be good news for the Mirage Navy, but the places where these battleships were hit were all on the sides!
There are various signs that a Tang Empire fleet appeared on the flank of the Mirage Navy Fleet. They can also fire those weird weapons with astonishingly high accuracy!
Yutaka Mirage, who had problems with his flanks, was worried that his fleet would suffer more heavy losses due to the exposed flanks.
In his opinion, the front of a battleship has the smallest area that can be hit, while the side is obviously the largest. What is even more worrying is that there are many places on the side of the battleship that lack armor protection. These places are the battleship.
The most vulnerable part.
Sure enough, just when Mirage Haifeng was worried that his fleet would suffer more losses, a Styx anti-ship missile directly hit the Mirage Navy battleship Courage from the side.
Although this battleship is also an old-fashioned battleship, it is still a battleship and is an important part of the combat power of the Mirage Navy.
The battleship Courage, which has 10 350 mm caliber main guns, has a very conventional turret layout. The No. 1 and No. 2 turrets are stacked at the front and rear of the ship. There is a turret between the two chimneys in the middle of the hull, followed by the stacked No. 4 and No. 5 turrets.
turret.
This arrangement allows the battleship to protect more artillery with shorter armor defense, and is also a relatively mature design. However, it is a pity that it places the ammunition depot under the artillery and the boiler oil together, which actually has certain safety risks.
Usually, few enemy ships can penetrate the thick armor of a battleship, destroy the internal structure of the battleship, and induce these safety hazards.
However, the jet stream of the Tang Army's Styx anti-ship missile penetrated the pitiful main armor belt on the battleship, which was only about 200 to 300 thick, with ease.
The manic jet will roll and roll in all the cabins it passes through until the jet is dispersed and eliminated by enough cabins.
Obviously, the 500-kilogram warhead combined with the penetration capability close to the speed of sound can easily bring the flames to the core of the battleship.
The Styx anti-ship missile that penetrated the side armor of the Courage directly ignited the Courage's boiler... The fire started all of a sudden, and the boiler exploded due to the high pressure. The explosion destroyed the partition and burned the middle part of the ship.
Ammunition bay.
There was no time to pour water to extinguish the fire, and the ammunition depot of the battleship Courage exploded! The huge explosion suddenly distorted the middle part of the battleship, and lifted the buildings above into the air.
A section of the chimney collapsed directly, and the small-caliber artillery on both sides and the anti-aircraft guns installed later were all destroyed. The warship, which had just been moving at full speed trying to keep up with the fleet, suddenly reduced its speed to less than 10 kilometers.
Because the steel plates on the side collapsed due to the vibration, and seawater poured into the interior of the battleship, it had to slow down the damage control to possibly save its own life.
This attack also proved to Mirage Haifeng that although most of the Tang army's attacks only hit the superstructure of the battleship, it was possible to severely damage a giant ship with a full load displacement of more than 30,000 tons!
But before Mirage had time to regret it, a heavy cruiser on the far side of his fleet was hit by a Styx anti-ship missile.
Suddenly the battleship burst into flames, and the flames spurting out of the chimney frightened the Mirage sailors on the surrounding battleships.
Immediately afterwards, the cruiser named Shenhu was broken in the middle. It became the first battleship of the Mirage Navy to be sunk tonight, a full ten years ahead of the second battleship to be sunk.
a few minutes.
The cruiser Shenhu was not originally a new ship, but its design was too geared towards speed, so it could still keep up with the fleet.
Because of its fragile protection and unreasonable magazine configuration, its death was a matter of course.
The slender hull almost made the Styx anti-ship missile pass through, but the missile luckily hit the chimney of the Mirage warship, as well as the ammunition compartments of some newly added anti-aircraft guns. These equipment became
Another layer of armor is added to allow the Styx missile to exert its full power.
After these ammunition were ignited, they exploded immediately, turning the entire battleship into a brilliant fireworks.
"General! If this continues, the entire fleet will be doomed!" the staff officer reminded Mirage Haifeng worriedly, but his hope that the commander would order a retreat was destined to receive no response.
Mirage Haifeng sighed and said: "The order from the base camp, the fleet must go south! Keep the speed! Execute the order!"
The staff officer was stunned for a few seconds, then nodded heavily, and then retreated to his position. On the other side, the Mirage battleship Niijima had just been hit by a Styx anti-ship missile and also started to catch fire.
As the entire mirage fleet advanced, warships were constantly injured. As they went along, they gradually turned the ""-shaped formation into a