Chapter 498 Strait Assault War

@@@@@@ "Sachete line."

With Li Xiuyan's shouts, the destroyers of the five herringbone goose formation scattered a certain distance to both sides under the leadership of Wei Qing and Bai Qi, and then suddenly turned the rudder and inserted obliquely, and the loose formation became dense in an end.

If there is a plane that can look down from the sky at this time, you will find that the two teams are centered on the three kilometers in front of the two British third-class reconnaissance cruisers in the middle, and then cross each other with two curved routes to form two open bows and arrows, and the tip of the arrow is facing the front of the careful reconnaissance cruiser!

The captain reported the distance loudly, and everyone held their breath. The distance of 10,000 meters took at least 15 minutes for an old capital ship, but only 9 minutes for the Weiqing-class destroyer, which had been fully loaded!

If you only enter the best range of 6,000 meters, it only takes less than three and a half minutes!

I haven't finished smoking all the cigarette butts!

In the telescope, the two British cruisers in the front are already busy with a regiment on the deck. The 152mm gun muzzle of the bow is constantly pressing down in an attempt to catch up with the soaring enemy, and the ten 76mm cannons on both sides are turning to the middle line. Only the 47mm rapid-fire gun on the deck makes Li Xiuyan compare More worried.

"Order the rapid-fire gun group, and suppress them for me later!"

Li Xiuyan pointed to the rapid-fire gun on the deck of the two adventure-class cruisers. The gun captain immediately understood what the captain meant. Because of speed and angle, the formation could almost ignore the enemy's main gun and the gun, but the rapid-fire gun was the biggest threat to the exposed personnel at any time.

Fortunately, Xinhua designers have known this problem for a long time since the continuous naval battle, so the Wei Qing-class rapid-fire gun has not only been replaced with a quadruple 37mm machine gun, but also fine-tuned in its layout. Two of the quadruple guns are placed high between the No. 2 turret and the bridge, so that it can speed up to the target during the assault. The firepower is suppressed.

Of course, no one has thought about how much damage the 37mm rapid-fire gun can do to the target. It's just to scare people with dense rain to create psychological pressure, so that the destroyer can quickly launch torpedoes.

But at this time, it is undoubtedly very useful, because the opponent is just a small cruiser of 2,640 tons, and all the guns are outside, which is simply the target of the rapid-fire gun.

When the target was quickly magnified in the field of vision, and when the captain reported the number of 6,000 meters, Li Xiuyan suddenly clenched his fist: "Fire!"

Almost at the same moment, a total of 20 L47 130mm naval guns in the bows of five destroyers roared at the same time. After several modifications, the guy with a rate of fire as high as 12 pieces per minute roared like a hungry wolf who had been hungry for a few days and nights.

What's more cruel is that in the face of guys who are about the same size as themselves and obviously don't have too thick armor, the gunners all chose high-explosive bombs!

If the destroyer's high-speed movement is bumpy and many shells fall around, then the 37mm rapid-fire gun fired at the same time is simply deadly. Originally, the speed of the double-link was very fast, but now it is changed to a quadruple, and the shells are more dense, and they are all fragmented and lethal bombs, so they are targeted. The careful horn was suddenly in a mess.

Captain Grove's eyes are about to pop out. He has never seen such a fast cruiser (because of its size, all countries mistakenly regard the Weiqing class as a cruiser), and their route setting is very clever and has been kept within the 20° angle of their bow. In this case The careful number and the adventure number can't concentrate all the firepower at all.

In addition to the clever route setting, they did this, which was equivalent to fixing him and the careful to death at a certain point. Now he has only one way. Either he simply come across to give full play to the advantages of the sideboard gun, or dodge it immediately, otherwise he will be blown up by the closer and closer shells.

The British Empire did not have a navy that surrendered without war, but it did not and was unwilling to make unnecessary sacrifices, so he immediately turned to the left and prepared to exert all the firepower on the side.

"Aim at the waterline!" Almost at the same time as the opponent's two ships, Li Xiuyan accurately found the weakness of the two cruisers when turning. Under his order, the three destroyers of the first team aimed at the larger and larger side waterline.

At this time, it took the life of a careful horn. At this time, the distance is less than 5,000 meters, and such a close distance is a flat shot that lowers the muzzle, so the gunners don't need to think about aiming at all. No matter how bumpy the destroyer is, no matter how bad the technology is, the hit rate will not be 5%.

When three consecutive high-explosive bombs penetrated the thin iron sheet on the starboard side of the Careful horn and entered the hull, there was a scene like a battle in the sail era. Several huge fireballs spewed out of the ship's body along the drilled hull, and thick smoke came out of the inside the Careful USS in the blink of an eye.

Seeing that his partner was hit hard, the adventure was urgently inserted to the right to help block the dense shells.

Seeing that his beloved cruiser was hit by fire and tilted in a few minutes, Captain Grove shook his hat fiercely and ordered to turn the rudder again to restore the bow against the enemy, and then stared at the five nearby destroyers, ready to carry out the best torpedo attack!

Two torpedoes hidden in the underwater launcher of the bow were Captain Grove's secret weapons, but when he ignored the raging shells and hid in the blazing flames, he counted the distance of the other party by one meter and finally reached the 3,000-meter fish laser distance, the scene that made him dumbfounded appeared!

I only saw that the two destroyers on the left suddenly turned right, and the three on the right suddenly turned left, like two roaring trains, and then accelerated to their back again!

"You son of a bitch!"

Captain Gruve jumped his feet and stepped on his navy hat under his feet. Looking at the five Xinhua Empire cruisers that were gradually moving away, he couldn't believe his eyes. Who are these bastards who used warships as trains and could make such cold and accurate mobile tactics like mechanical watches!

Looking at the two British cruisers that were on fire farther and farther away, Li Xiuyan did not have any smile on his face. To put it bluntly, these two small cruisers were equivalent to the unprotected cruisers of the Spanish Far East Fleet dealt with by the Xinhua Army in those years. They did not necessarily lose even if they were single-on-one with the Weiqing class, not to mention that they were as obvious as five against two. Advantages.

Especially at the last minute, the Adventure cut the protection partner, and the Careful gave up the rudder and turned the bow again. Obviously, it was necessary to launch a torpedo attack desperately, which showed that the commanders and sailors of the British navy were of good quality.

Next is the real test. It really takes a little luck to give Qiangsheng at least a few times under the eyes of two battleships and four cruisers.

Is luck on your side? After Li Xiuyan asked about the oil storage of several partners again, he raised his eyebrows and immediately ordered: "Replace all semi-piercing bullets, slow down to 20 knots, and cross the strait and make a detour along the north side of Geshm Island." -

Pap.

Captain Cameron's thick Cuban cigar just erang on the deck and grabbed the telegram in the staff officer's hand. After more than ten seconds, his pupil gradually condensed. He was surprised and said, "Are you sure that his watch is not broken?"

The staff officer shook his head with a wry smile. Although Grove was a reckless man, he had to say that he could indeed be promoted to the position of captain, so he said that he was hit by five light cruisers in less than fifteen minutes and tilted to the left. Everyone was a little dumbfounded.

Fifteen minutes?

According to the 12,000 kilometers reported when they found each other at that time, even at a speed of 25 knots, the enemy had just rushed to him. How could he have crossed them out of the battle and rushed into the strait?

Are you sure they are flying a cruiser, not a recently popular plane?

The bridge of the Qiangsheng was silent. Everyone was looking at Major General Cameron. As a general born in a naval family, although he extremely doubted whether there was something wrong with the clock hanging in the bridge of the Zhongxin, he still made a change.

12 o'clock sharp is the hottest time of the day in the Persian Gulf. Even now that Europe has entered late autumn, it is still the yellow sand here.

With the order of Major General Cameron, four Apollo-class cruisers fanned forward. At the same time, the two battleships of Johnson and Agamemnon and Lord Clyde began to turn the rudder on the main channel west of the Musandam Peninsula, lined up in the middle of the waterway.

There is nothing wrong with his method, because Captain Grove reported five fast small cruisers, so he can use the width of the hull to block it in the center of the waterway and fully exert the full power of the sideboard gun.

But he was too anxious to send all four cruisers, so he later explained that he needed to use the cruiser as the first line of defense to entangle the opponent and force the other party to slow down, but he forgot the width of the strait, so he did not find low-speed sailing. The thick smoke plummeted close to the north coast at a speed of 20 knots, using the shallow water to quietly. Five Xinhua destroyers quietly circled into Qeshm Island.

A little bit.

After the sunshade sails were removed from the battle, the British sailors on the hot sun deck couldn't stand it. No one liked to be exposed like this, even if the enemy appeared immediately!

Major Cameron in the bridge also frowned and began to doubt Captain Grove's words, because if it really had a speed of more than 35 knots, they should have reached the top of the head of the Strait 20 minutes ago. Why hasn't they appeared yet?

Captain Cameron quickly walked to the chart and looked at Qeshm Island at the corner of the human head, and his heart suddenly sank!

Eat water!

Yes, there are many reefs around Gersham Island on the north coast of the strait, and it is difficult to enter with a depth of more than 2.5 meters. If Grove's description is correct, then at least 2,000 tons of cruiser water should also reach this limit, and it is impossible to pass there!

But there is a calculation error here, that is, the load coefficient!

There is no doubt that these five small cruisers will certainly not carry too much oil after a long journey, which makes them unable to reach the due depth of draught. If they deliberately abandon some heavy things, or even release some oil to control the draught at about two meters, then they can completely cross the shallow water reef area. !

In fact, Cameron guessed it right. Due to the lack of torpedoes and fuel consumption of most of the five Weiqing-class ships, their draft suddenly decreased sharply. Li Xiuyan caught this and turned the disadvantage into an advantage!

Being able to find this detail in such a short time and turn the disadvantage into a tool to take the initiative, Li Xiuyan became the best of the younger generation of the Imperial Royal Navy after this conflict!

"Damn it!"

"Order the Rainbow, the Punishment immediately enter the north shore and go to Qeshm Island to search. The Sever and Sia will come back immediately. I need their support!"

Cameron's manic shouting made the bridge busy, and the staff were even more puzzled. Although the Apollo-class cruiser was only 3,600 tons, the consumption was not large. The water intake exceeded the dangerous 2.5-meter line, and rushed into Qeshm Island, and the risk of hitting the reef was greater than hitting the thunder.

1:20, when Rainbow and Punishment bravely crossed the strait and rushed into the diving area on the north shore, there was already a shout on the front mast of the Qiangsheng.

"11 o'clock! Five cruisers!"

This sound made Cameron and quickly grab the telescope. He only saw large areas of thick smoke suddenly floating outside the west side of Qeshm Island. After a moment, five small cruiser formations rushed out of the smoke, killing them like a long dragon!

Of course, this is not a real straight line, but each ship deviates a little bit, giving the front main gun a shot sight and angle.

"Right rudder!"

"The front main gun fired!"

In Cameron's shouts and alarm bells, the already prepared 234mm front main gun made a huge sound, and then the two 76mm rapid-fire guns behind the main gun also hissed, but this is only all the firepower he can use at this moment!

Because the three capital ships were in the middle of the waterway in a 1-shaped shape, the five destroyers of the Xinhua Empire came down with a 1-character head and hid in the 15° angle of the bow, so the tall Qiangsheng blocked the shooting positions of the three front main guns of the two battleships behind!

More importantly, because the Qiangsheng and the two Nelson-class battleships adopt a secondary gun layout, and it is also a unique upper and lower layers, the barrel moves left and right with a certain dead angle. Unless it is horizontal, it is aimed at the high-speed warships coming from a small angle in the direction of the bow.

And this is why the profile gun was quickly replaced by the deck turret secondary gun.

"Fed! They are so fast that the main gun can't keep up with them!" On the Qiangsheng, the gun captain finally realized Captain Grove's distress. When the 234mm main gun had just filled the second shell, the enemy's position was nearly a kilometer away from before, and he was constantly carrying out snake-shaped maneuvers. How could the gunner aim?!

The Qiangsheng was still desperately turning the rudder to open the position for the two battleships behind him, but the huge hull and tread made him like a heavy elephant, and he could only watch the mouse run around under his feet.

"Pang-Pang."

In the distance, a group of fireballs announced that these bastards who suddenly came out of Qeshm Island finally opened fire. At this time, five minutes have passed, and the five small cruisers of the Xinhua Empire were close to 6,000 meters!

Fortunately, the rear Agamemnon has been out of position, and the bow and the three double main guns on both sides suddenly burst into a huge roar, and then Lord Clyde's first three main guns also began to roar!

Listening to the sound of shells roaring overhead. Before the sailors on the Qiangsheng had time to get excited, they saw the opponent's five cruisers suddenly serpentine maneuvering at high speed. When the shells fell into the sea and stirred up a water column nearly ten meters high, they had already re-killed from between the water columns--

"The main guns are all concentrated on the Qiangsheng! Aim at the waterline!" Chen Jiliang pointed to the starboard side of Qiangsheng, which had been deflected, and jumped his feet and shouted, "Sub-gun, press the cannon with all your strength!"

"Don-Don-Don." The sound of gunfire was more intense than the most intense drums, which ignited the flames of all the officers and soldiers on the destroyer. The blazing smoke was more fierce than the sun in the sky. Even the Venomous snake machine gunners began to sweep the deck and mast of the Qiangsheng and killed all the visible targets.

5,500 meters!

Although it was the maximum range of the big poisonous snake, and there was no need to look at the accuracy, his dense bullet rain still jingled the hornhead, especially after a few bullets crossed the small porthole to penetrate an observer, Cameron and everyone suddenly became nervous.

As the distance got closer and closer, the three British capital ships finally deflected, and the dense artillery began to turn slowly. Li Xiuyan gave the order to turn left rudder sharply into the Persian Gulf.

With his order, Wei Qing first drew a huge arc on the sea and suddenly accelerated to 37 knots. In this navy at this time, it was lightning!

This speed made the unprepared British deputy gunners unable to aim at all. They had to let the Wei Qing turn to the next sharp Li Mu, but when the muzzle was repositioned, the Li Mu had also completed the steering and began to accelerate.

This feeling of a cannon hitting a mosquito made the British secondary gunners stamp their feet angrily and simply closed their eyes and aimed at a little.

Maybe God really stood on the side of Britain today. When a black dot suddenly flashed out of the porthole, the staff shouted, "Captain, be careful." Then he rushed to Chen Jiliang.

Boom!

In the Baiqi, all the sailors felt that the hull shook violently, and then a spark exploded between the two chimneys, and the speed suddenly dropped.

"Are you all wrong!" Chen Jiliang quickly got up, patted the staff gratefully, and then shouted.

"It's okay, Captain, we're all fine!"

Hearing that everyone was fine, Chen Jiliang was finally relieved, but the phone that rang at this time brought a bad news. The two boilers in the middle of the hull were hit and exploded, and the steam pressure was passing rapidly, causing the speed to drop to 25 knots all of a sudden, and it continued to fall!

On Wei Qinghao, Li Xiuyan saw this scene and immediately ordered Bai Qihao to break away from the battle and hide in the shallow water area on the north bank for emergency repair. Chen Jiliang had no choice but to hang a white flag and stamp his feet to temporarily withdraw from the battle.

However, the lack of one does not mean that Major General Cameron's good day is coming. On the contrary, because the remaining four destroyers have completed their turn, they once again formed a certain angle with the Qiangsheng, and the secondary gun began to go crazy again.

"Don-Don-Don." Perhaps the injury of the Baiqi aroused the anger of the gunners. The shells kept hitting the Qiangsheng, which hit the partner, like five long eyes. After the distance was close to 4,500 meters, the power of the semi-armor-piercing shells began to appear. These guys, similar to the steel-core armor-piercing shells of later generations, kept drilling through the 152mm armor of Qiangsheng on the ship. An explosion occurred in the body.

The flames and smoke kept coming out of the Qiangsheng. When a shell accurately penetrated into the torpedo tank on the side of the Qiangsheng's bow, a big explosion occurred!

Like a group of fireworks, countless steel fragments sprinkled out of the bow of the Qiangsheng. The violent explosion not only tore a big hole in the Qiangsheng bow, but also led to the rapid water in the hull. Captain Cameron had to order to turn the rudder again and give way to the latter two battleships.

Five minutes later, when two huge battleships deviated from behind the Qiangsheng again, Li Xiuyan had ordered to speed up the battle and enter the shallow waters of Absam Island.

At 1:40, two Nelson-class battleships finally accelerated out from both sides of Qiangsheng, over the injured partners and accelerated to Absam Island. Six double-loaded 305mm main guns poured shells at the small diving reef area at a speed of one shot per minute, in an attempt to drive the four small The cruiser is stuck inside.

But because this is a shallow area full of reefs, when two Nelson-class battleships dragged their heavy bodies and carefully slowed down to 12 knots, Li Xiuyan and four destroyers rushed out of the other side of the island again against gunfire!

Captain Agamemnon was about to go crazy. Looking at the four ships lined up in a line and rushing face to face at a 15° angle of his bow again, like a possum, the little guy who couldn't die and was running around like a possum, his head was about to explode!

He didn't dare to accelerate the rudder. After all, this is a shallow water area. For a battleship with a water of more than eight meters, fighting here is no different from a tightrope!

The 37-kilometer high speed made the remaining four Weiqing-class destroyers shuttle through the two battleships seven kilometers away like a runback wild horse again. When the Qiangsheng, which was slowly driving ten minutes later, appeared in sight again, Li Xiuyan ordered the last Li Mu to hit the only four of the two battleships behind. Spear-type torpedo!

When the four snow-white tracks appeared on the water, the Agamemnon and Lord Clyde had no time to chase and immediately began to turn the rudder to avoid them. However, it was too troublesome to avoid torpedoes in such a shallow water area. It was not until the four torpedoes rubbed their hulls and hit the reef in the distance and exploded.

But when the gun re-adjusted the angle to the four small cruisers of the New China Empire that were rushing out of the Strait of Hormuz, the faces of the two captains darkened at the same time.

I only saw that the Qiangsheng, who was staggering in the water, had almost become a fireball. A row of shells hit the tall side like free of charge. The Qiangsheng, which was walking side by side, and the four small cruisers of the Xinhua Empire almost became the ship-up battle a hundred years ago!

Even the extremely fast small-caliber multi-link rapid-fire gun has never stopped.

At 2:15, when four destroyers rushed out of the range of the bombardment with flames, and ignored the two intercepted British cruisers, they escaped through the Strait of Hormuz into the Indian Ocean at a staggering speed, everyone was dumbfounded!

At 2:40, after the round of the four damaged destroyers re-anding the Baiqi at a speed of 25 knots, this was crazy and made the whole world see that the Strait assault battle with the speed advantage of the Xinhua Navy was finally over. Li Xiuyan sat on the deck and breathed a sigh of relief while ordering to speed up the escape without no demeanor. Run, how far you can escape!

At the same time, send a telegram immediately for emergency support!

At the same time. When Captain Cameron got preliminary statistics that more than 60 holes were made on both sides of the ship, he immediately drew a cross on his chest. Thanks to the help of the Virgin Mary, he let the Qiangsheng hit the ammunition depot by such dense shells, and then gave an order.

"stranded." ......

(to be continued)