When his fleet began to turn north, he received news that Qin's squadron was attacked. Except for one lucky destroyer, the Courage, the Qin's guard fleet in the northwest was almost destroyed.
Of course, the battleship Formidable was still floating on the water, but it was hit by a missile and ignited a fire. The courage was rescued. The scene was tragic.
In fact, there were thousands of Qin army sailors, or former Shu sailors, floating on the sea at this moment. They were crying for help, but no one paid attention to them.
The main fleet passing by here had no intention of slowing down to save people. They were busy collecting various types of aircraft hovering in the sky.
The battleships following the aircraft carrier on both sides are also busy. These battleships have been modernized and can take off seaplanes.
These seaplanes had just arrived at yesterday's anchorage of the Combined Fleet, where they rescued several valuable pilots who had fallen into the water.
As for the sailors floating on the sea now, they are all worthless things, and they can be handed over to the warning fleet coming from the southwest.
John Cleeves did not dare to slow down his main fleet to save people. For him, this was an unnecessary risk.
It didn't matter if these soldiers were allowed to soak in the sea for several hours, but he couldn't bear to lose another battleship.
In fact, John Cleeves is actually feeling slightly more comfortable now, because he is unwilling to face the fact that only the Dornish Empire suffered heavy losses.
Now that he is better, he has seen with his own eyes that Qin's squadron also suffered heavy losses. This at least shows that Qin did not betray the combined fleet, and Dorne's losses were not one-sided.
This kind of psychology is actually quite subtle. A person is actually very miserable, but when he sees someone who is even more miserable than himself, he will feel much better.
"General..." Seeing the capsized Qin cruiser in the distance, the chief of staff stopped talking nonsense. The current situation is that the Tang Empire's naval fleet... is indeed not something they can deal with.
It is easy to accept this fact. You only need to calculate your remaining combat power: two aircraft carriers were sunk and one aircraft carrier was seriously damaged. Several battleships have lost the ability to continue fighting, and destroyers and cruisers have also lost three points.
one.
In this case, the naval battle can be said to have been a disastrous defeat. The question now is, how much of the remaining family wealth can they save and bring back!
As naval admirals, the fleets they command are all the wealth accumulated by their country over the past few years or even decades. All these assets may sink to the bottom of the sea in one morning, which is much more enjoyable than the army and air force.
"I know... Now that we are moving towards land, it is actually a counterattack!" John Cleeves explained: "I am not escaping, but looking for the opponent's fleet!"
"If we are close to the land, then we can at least be sure that the opponent's fleet is not in the northeast and northwest directions. Because enemy planes flying over the land will be discovered by the army anyway!" His intention is obvious -
There is no way for an aircraft carrier to reach land.
Then, after excluding the low-suspicious area in the southwest, the only direction left for the Tang Army's aircraft carriers is the southeast.
As long as we send planes to counterattack in this direction, we should be able to find the enemy fleet! This is John Cleeves' counterattack! This is the resilience of a Navy veteran!
As soon as they heard that their commander was still thinking about turning defeat into victory, the surrounding officers all showed admiration. Sure enough, the old man is still hot, and sure enough, the combined fleet has not lost this crucial naval battle!
"Report! The battleship Qin Feng sent a signal. They are preparing to slow down, salvage the fallen soldiers and then chase the fleet..." A communications officer came over and reported the news from the Qin fleet to John Cleeves.
The commanders of Dorne were not emotionally disturbed when they saw Qin's sailors falling into the water, but it was obviously not the same thing for the commanders of Qin's naval fleet to see their own people soaking in the water.
This is an emotional trade-off. In short, there is nothing wrong with the commanders of Qin making such a decision. At least, they exude the brilliance of humanity at this moment.
"The Tang Army's attack may come at any time... They slowed down to rescue... Whose fault is it if there is a problem?" The chief of staff frowned, obviously unwilling to let the Qin Army's warships slow down.
But John Cleeves was thinking about another question: If the Qin navy fleet was behind the entire fleet...then when he was beaten, would he have more human shields on his back?
Since the Qin Navy wanted to cut off the rear, it was really the best. So John Cleeves immediately gave the order: "Call back to the Qin Commander...allow them to slow down the rescue, and ask them to follow as soon as possible after completing the rescue."
Come up...wish them all the best."
You see, this is the art of command. It not only gave the Qin Navy freedom, but also found a scapegoat for its own fleet... It was a good deal no matter how you look at it.
At the same time that John Cleeves allowed the Qin warship to cut off its rear, the Tang Empire carrier-based aircraft coming from the southeast crossed the sea area where the combined fleet originally operated.
Under their feet were the wreckage of battleships that had capsized, been seriously damaged, tilted, or broken, as well as countless sailors floating on the sea.
These sailors from Dorne finally saw their enemies this time. Above their heads were roaring jets. The intruder attack planes had already dropped to some altitude. Under the cloudless sky, swarms of killing machines
Toward the combined fleet heading north.
Above the heads of Dorne's fallen officers and soldiers, the invaders from the Tang Empire began to launch anti-ship missiles. One after another, the missiles detached from the wings and flew towards the sea level at extremely fast speeds.
"Oh my God..." On a lifeboat, the chief mate of a destroyer of the Dorne Navy raised his head and saw the Tang Army's carrier-based aircraft force. Only now did he know what kind of opponent he was fighting.
It turns out that the Tang Empire's navy has already been equipped with jet aircraft... It turns out that the Datang Empire's naval aircraft can launch missiles... It turns out that the Tang Empire's navy fleet has never been near the combined fleet from the beginning to the end!
"It's over! It's all over!" An officer who was picked up was covered in oil, squinting at the enemy planes launching missiles overhead, and muttered dully.
"We can only save as many people as possible now...there is nothing we can do." The first mate looked at the destroyer that was rescuing them in the distance and said with an embarrassed expression.
Yes, the Dornish destroyer didn't even dare to fire... It seemed to be pretending to be a little transparent, or praying that the Tang Empire's planes would regard it as a rescue ship...
They finally saw what their opponents looked like, but unfortunately they didn't want their opponents to see them now. The captains of the two Dornish destroyers who stayed to rescue people didn't actually know that the target of the Tang Empire's carrier-based aircraft was not
them.
The goal of these carrier-based aircraft is to continue to hunt down the main fleet and sink as many battleships of the combined fleet as possible. As for the defeated soldiers at their feet, the destroyers and cruisers of the Tang Empire will soon come to take care of them.