However, it is not easy to retreat from the current battlefield. In order to resolve the range advantage of the People's Army Fleet's warships, the British fleet paid no expense to lose a warship, and narrowed the combat distance between the two sides to about 4,000 meters. Now it is extremely troublesome to retreat from the battlefield, because it takes more time to escape from the People's Army warships. Therefore, during the escape, they will inevitably be vigorously pursued by the People's Army. Fortunately, Cole has sent a rescue telegram to Martinez. As long as he can persist until his battleship arrives, he can get rid of the People's Army fleet.

So the British fleet immediately turned and left the battlefield, and the People's Army fleet naturally would not let go and pursue it tightly. During the turn and escape, the counterattack power of the British warships decreased, and they were all fiercely pursued by the People's Army warships. First, the Cresent was destroyed and the speed was greatly reduced. It was bitten by the Qingzhou and Yizhou. The shells fell on the hull like raindrops. The entire ship was bombed almost beyond recognition. As a result, it was finally sunk by the Qingzhou and Yizhou.

Other British warships were also pursued by the People's Army warships. Because the British warships were not as fast as those of the People's Army warships, they could not get rid of them at all. In the pursuit, the stern of the ship Blenheim was hit hard by the Tianjin. The propeller and tail rudder were destroyed and could not move when they were parked on the sea. However, the Blenheim was still unwilling to surrender and still used the artillery on the ship to fight back. Moreover, this was a large 9,000-ton protective cruiser after all, and it was relatively resistant to attack. As a result, the Tianjin and Jinan had no choice but to deal with it.

In fact, at this time, the warship can be sunk with just one shot, but the People's Army Navy does not have a battleship or armored cruiser, and does not have a destroyer equipped with a shot, so it can only use artillery to bombard one shot. However, the accidentality of the shelling is very high. As long as you hit the fatal part, one shot is enough; if it is not the Guanjian part, it is hard to say how many shots are needed.

Now Qia Qia is so embarrassed. The Tianjin and Jinan fired in turn. The main gun hit the 4 and 5 guns of Blenheim in a row, almost destroying all the weapons of Blenheim and the hull was severely damaged, but it was impossible to sink the warship. Fortunately, the Qingzhou and Yizhou sank Cresent at this time and continued to pursue it. They happened to pass here. As a result, the Qingzhou fired a shot to resolve the battle and finally sent Blenheim into the sea.

But at this moment, the warships of the People's Army received the order from the first ship, Chitu, requiring the ships to give up their pursuit and immediately turn to retreat. It turned out that the battleship fleet of the British fleet was coming.

The three British armored cruisers did not retreat in dispersion, and were always gathered together to cooperate with each other to cover the retreat. Therefore, although one of the three warships basically lost its combat effectiveness and were pursued by the two strongest warships in the People's Army fleet, they fought and retreated, which was quite organized and much better than the other two groups.

After chasing for a while, the Red Tu received a warning from the Kunming ship. The battleship squad in the British fleet had approached about 15,000 meters away from the battlefield. At the same time, the Red Tu's observation detachment also discovered the British battleship and issued a warning to the Red Tu's command center.

So Lu Kai immediately issued an order to retreat to the other ships. After all, his mission was just to lure the enemy. He had now sunk four warships in the British fleet and led out the British battleship team. Both the results and missions were accomplished very well. There was no need to be greedy for merit. Moreover, using armored cruisers to fight the battleship was just to send heads. Therefore, he did not retreat at this time, and when did he wait?

When Martinez arrived at the battlefield with his battleship team and two destroyer teams, the People's Army fleet had already withdrawn 15,000 meters away, not to mention that the speed of the battleship was not as fast as that of the cruiser, so there was no time to catch up.

Of course, Martinez had no intention of pursuing, but ordered the gathering of remaining warships and rescue of soldiers who fell into the water. However, when they went to war, there were only 5 warships left, almost 1 and a half of them were lost. Even if they were the surviving five warships, only the Cresey and Hogg were not strong enough to fight, and the other three warships basically had no power to fight again.

It turned out that the bottom line set by Martinez for himself was to lose only two warships, but the current loss has greatly exceeded this bottom line, but failed to sink an opponent's warship. Therefore, Martinez was naturally quite annoyed, but this also shows that the People's War Fleet is powerful. After all, the British fleet has a relatively obvious advantage in number. Although the majority of protective cruisers account for and insufficient firepower, it is certain that the People's War Fleet cannot be underestimated.

At this moment, the observation deck of the Kewei reported to Martinez and discovered the People's Army's battleship formation, totaling 6 ships, with a distance of 18,000 meters.

It turned out that the People's Army's battleships were also about 22,000 meters behind the battlefield, and they were able to handle the armored cruiser team at any time. However, the battle of the armored cruiser team was relatively smooth, so they did not attack. However, now that the British battleship team has arrived, the People's Army's battleship team will naturally appear. The Chitu, Jueying, and the Battleship team in the armored cruiser team also turned around and returned, with the destroyer team accompanying them, while the Jinan, Tianjin, Qingzhou and Yizhou retreated to join the cruiser team and remained unmoved for the time being.

But at this time, Martinez hesitated a little. It turned out that he firmly believed that the eight battleships he brought were enough to fight against the People's Army's battleship detachment, and at least it could be invincible. However, the battle between the cruiser fleets on both sides just now shook Martinez's confidence, because this battle has proved the combat effectiveness of the People's Army Navy. After all, the cruiser fleet has suffered a heavy blow. If the battleship detachment is unexpected at this time, no matter what the outcome of this Far East Battle, his military career has ended.

However, now the opponent's battleship has come to the door. If he doesn't want to fight this battle, he can only retreat. So Martinez decided to first inform the main force of the expeditionary fleet of the cruiser's battle results to the main force of the expeditionary fleet, and then make a decision.

Soon, Martines received a reply from the main force of the Expeditionary Fleet, asking him to find a way to delay the People's Army's battle fleet. At this time, the Expeditionary Fleet was about 40 kilometers away from the battlefield, and it only took 1 hour and 30 minutes to arrive. No matter what, he had to hold on for this one hour.

After receiving the order, Martinez was happy and worried. What was happy was that the main force of the fleet could finally arrive. As long as the fleet arrived, there was no need to worry about the People's Army fleet. What was worried was that he had to hold on for another hour and a half. This period was not long, but it was not really short. The battle between the cruisers on both sides just lasted for more than an hour, but he was sunk 4 ships and 3 were destroyed. Therefore, for these 1 and a half hours, he had to pay the price of several battleships?

Of course, the fleet's orders were only to drag the People's Army's battleship fleet, and it was not necessary for Martinez to fight with the People's Army's fleet. But if they did not fight, how could they drag the People's Army's battleship fleet? However, Martinez had received regular naval combat theory education and many years of military command experience. He quickly came up with a trick, which was to try to go around the rear of the People's Army's battleship team. This not only cut off the retreat route of the People's Army's battleship team, but also temporarily avoided head-on battleship teams with the People's Army's battleship teams. After the expeditionary fleet arrived on the battlefield, he could also attack the People's Army's battleship teams in front and back, and annihilate all the People's Army's battleship teams in one fell swoop. Not only did he fail, he made great contributions.

However, when both sides discovered each other and set up a big battle, how to go around to the back of the other party became Guan Jian, the success or failure of Martinez's idea. However, for this tactic, the British Navy's tactical manual has very detailed instructions. In fact, in naval battles, it is common for both sides to exchange positions with each other, just like the cavalry hedging in land wars, so it is not difficult to go around to the back of the other party in naval battles.

After deciding on the tactical plan, Martinez immediately began to act, first ordering three heavily damaged warships to return and rush to Kaohsiung to dock and repair. Two armored cruisers that could still fight were followed by the fleet, lined up with the battleships, and two destroyers were in parallel, following the battleships behind the battleships, and heading towards the People's Army's battleships.

Martinez did not return to the command room, but stood on the bridge to observe the movements of the People's Army fleet and commanded the actions of the fleet.

At this time, the fleets of both sides were not traveling in a straight line. The British fleet was traveling from south to north and located eastward; the People's Army fleet was from north to south and located westward. About 20 minutes later, the observation deck reported that the vertical distance of the fleets of both sides was 16,000 meters and the lateral distance was 2,500 meters.

Martinez nodded, so he immediately ordered: Turn right rudder 45 degrees and accelerate to 15 knots.

Turning right rudder 45 degrees means that the British fleet has changed to the northeast, and the change of the British fleet was soon discovered by the People's Army fleet. Fleet Commander Chen Xiaojiang looked at the British fleet's navigation route displayed on his tablet computer in the command room of the Ganjiang, murmured: "What are the British guys doing?"

It shows from the tablet that the British fleet is now traveling from south to north to north, which is changing to northeast, which is to increase the lateral distance between the Big and the People's Army fleet. But the question is what is the purpose of the British fleet in this way? If you want to avoid the People's Army fleet? Then why not just turn around and run? Chen Xiaojiang of course knew that the Far East fleet was not far from here, and he didn't want to fight with the other party. He was only prepared to retreat immediately after a few moves and lead the British fleet into the Taiwan Strait, but he didn't expect that the other party would give him this trick.

However, Chen Xiaojiang soon thought of a possibility, that is, the other party did not want to play the game of "t" with him, because he could not even rob, so he planned to pull the horizontal distance between the two sides to a suitable position, and then change to a straight line to engage in an artillery battle with the People's Army.
Chapter completed!