Chapter 424 Sea War II, the Empire is Waiting

On the mast, Hippell gently pushed the Xinhua observer beside him, who neither knew German nor English, and pointed to a small fleet that suddenly appeared ten nautical miles away in the distance, hoping to remind the partner who was reporting.

The observer quickly turned his head and pointed the telescope at the direction of Happel's finger. After careful observation for a while, he suddenly waved his hand with a smile, probably afraid that the other party would not understand, and said a word in poor English: "Partner"

Partner?

Hipelle nodded to show that he understood, but somehow a strange feeling suddenly rose in his heart. Although the fleet that was not in the sequence was composed of a light patrol of more than 4,000 tons and two destroyers, it always gave him a strange feeling, as if there was something very important on it.

In fact, Hippell guessed correctly. The cruiser was the test ship Honolulu, and Li Mo and Chen Ping were also on it.

For a fanatical BB party who came through time, it is simply a sin to miss such a sea battle. Emperor Delan Li thought he was hopeless, but his fleet and others should always look at it, so he arranged dozens of war correspondents to go with the ship with cameras to record this important moment. At the same time, he also stubbornly asked Chen Ping to let him go to the "royal expedition".

But now, Xinhua is still very fragile. Although the prestige of Li Mo and the royal family has begun to penetrate into the hearts of the people in continuous publicity, after all, the time is still short. Once Li Mo has a long story, God knows what will happen, so let alone the "royal driver's personal expedition", even the Jilin did not let Emperor Li climb up.

But in the end, he really couldn't get around Li Mo, so he had to arrange the Honolulu and two destroyers, which were conducting steam turbine tests in Guam, to learn how to observe the foreign ships. They were accompanied by the capital ship from afar, and he had to listen to all of them after Li Moden.

The reason why Chen Ping dared to agree in the end was not only Li's promise, but also because the Honolulu happened to be testing new steam turbines and boilers, with a superhuman speed of up to 34 knots. Once there is a problem, he can pat his buttocks and run away.

As long as you can look at it twice!

With this idea in mind, Emperor Li boarded the Honolulu, which he nicknamed the king of escape, and finally rushed to the war zone a moment before the war under the protection of two destroyers.

But before it started, he was dumbfounded, because Roger Winster actually ordered to turn right!

On the chart table, there were several small wooden ship models representing the situation of both sides. Looking at the Russian expeditionary fleet that suddenly turned right to the direction of Australia, Chen Ping was also confused.

If the Russian fleet has speed, then Roger St. Winster's hand is a good way. When he suddenly turns to force the opponent to follow the maneuver, he turns left and takes a big Z again to seize the T position with the advantage of speed and the time difference of the rudder.

But the problem is that at this moment, even the Russian sailors themselves know that after nearly six months in the sea, the speed of the fleet has dropped to an unbearable level. This kind of turn will not only not seize the T position, but will lose valuable breakthrough time because the fleet is too large.

In fact, according to Chen Ping's eyes, if Roger Stern puts on a Russian bullish surname and rushes forward, it is really impossible to eat more than 60 warships in one go.

As the staff shouted that the Xinhua Fleet also began to turn, Li Mo and Chen Ping immediately gave up their research and hurriedly climbed to the highest point of the bridge. When Li Mo took over the telescope, six hummingbirds had soared into the air and spared two laps over the fleet with two standard triangular formations. I just flew to the distance.

"A bunch of guys who love to show up!"

Long Guozhang held a cigar in his mouth and looked at the group of planes that circled his head twice. The corners of his mouth couldn't help twitching twice, so that the staff behind him could not help but bite his mouth tightly.

But I have to say that the sudden jump of the fighters reached the peak of the morale of the ships. When Huppert finally knew what was under the canvas and was stunned, there was already thunder on the deck, and even the Xinhua observer beside him raised his arm vigorously.

When Hipper was about to point the telescope at the hummingbird, the mast under his feet suddenly tilted sharply. When he held the armrest, the fleet had begun to turn rapidly. At the same time, a large amount of thick smoke surged up in the sky in the distance.

"The Russians are coming!"

The rapid flute and alarm sounded together. The sailors who saw the war eagle leave ran to the battle position as fast as possible. The huge turret began to rotate, and the muzzle began to rise rapidly. Although the situation in the turret could not be seen, huge shells could not be stuffed in Hippel's mind. The scene of entering the cannon.

In the No. 1 turret of Guangxi, the old gun pointed to a 305mm hooded armor-piercing bullet that had just been raised and cursed, because he found that it was stained with a piece of oil the size of a nail cover. Although the deputy gunner immediately carefully wiped off the oil, the old gunner seemed to feel that it was not enough and took it off. The clothes were wiped twice more, and it was not sent into the gun until it was confirmed that the figure could be taken out, and three pieces of propellant were stuffed into it.

Although from the appearance, the four Jilin-class main guns seem to be no different from the Italian-like main guns used by the previous capital ships, they are especially aimed at the new generation of naval guns developed by armor-piercing shells after acquiring German gun steel technology. Because the previous Italian naval guns did not have the new heavy-duty of full-load firing. The ability of armor-piercing bullets can only be filled with two pieces of propellant, which greatly weakens the advantage of armor-piercing kinetic energy.

In addition to solving the need for armor-piercing shells, the speed of the naval gun has also improved a lot. After using a high-speed electric hoist to automatically fill it, it reached two per minute for the first time, which is only slightly weaker than the three 280mm naval guns per minute just developed by Germany.

When all three bullets were filled, the fire controller had obtained the coordinate data from the aircraft from the headphones. According to these data, the gunners began to adjust the angle. From the outside, it seemed that the three naval guns were constantly swaying up and down.

Although Fisher took into account his demeanor and did not climb to the mast and the observation post to grab the site, he still climbed the highest flying bridge. It seemed that it was not enough, and finally let people bring a ladder to set it up.

From the "dark cloud" in the sky, he realized that no matter what Roger St. Winster wanted to do, the war would break out in a short time, so he focused all his attention on the direction that the Xinhua Fleet was about to appear. Unexpectedly, he hadn't seen the "new warship" he guessed, and six black spots suddenly came out of the lens. Sliding quickly.

Is there a fly?

Fisher subconsciously waved his hand in front of the camera, but suddenly found that the six annoying "flies" not only did not drive away, but also dilated sharply in their pupils.

Is that?

Airplane!

Yes, it's a plane!

Fisher and all those who saw this scene remembered the plane and the silent movie pictures suddenly announced by Xinhua a year ago. Although some similar planes have emerged in various countries since then, and some of them have made great progress, they have not been fully practical, but what do you see now? They are all equipped with the fleet!

Europe is obviously lagging behind again!

Although Fisher and all the national observers are a little sluggish, no one thinks that the plane will change the outcome of the war. At most, it can reconnoitate the enemy's position, and even after observation, there is no way to inform the fleet immediately, which is completely a hoar.

So everyone's attention quickly focused on the direction of the plane, but when the twelve capital ships of the Royal Xinhua Navy jumped out of the water, the air solidified again, and Fisher's body was soft and almost fell down.

Semore, who had been standing next to him, could understand Fisher's feelings very well. As a fighter who vowed to do his best for the imperial navy, a current helm of the British Imperial Navy, when he saw that the world's No. 7 hegemon fell behind again, his loss could not be described in words.

Although there are still 18,000 kilometers away, the figure of the eight main ships listed by all countries in the lens is still a little blurred, but there is no doubt that they will set off a naval frenzy again!

Just when Fisher was dizzy, the deck of the Russian fleet had already been in a mess, shouting and whistles one after another. The soldiers rushed to the battle position in a hurry, turned the turret, and aimed at the direction of the appearance of the New China Imperial Navy.

In the bridge, Roger Stern's eyes widened even more. He didn't understand that the Ochakov clearly reported that the eight new capital ships of the Xinhua Navy were still on Natuna Island. Why did they appear here overnight? You should know that the two places are more than 400 nautical miles apart. Even if it is 20 knots, it will take one day and one night to arrive. Da!

"Commander, they are approaching!" Cologne reminded the stunned commander loudly that as a staff officer, he felt it necessary to help the commander make a judgment at this time and shouted, "We should take advantage of quantity!"

The sound suddenly woke up Roger Winster. Cologne was right. Although Xinhua has eight new capital ships, four Dukes and eight Jinghai-class, he has 18 battleships and 18 first-class cruisers, which is almost a one-to-two advantage, so he abandoned the previous idea. He quickly issued an order to prepare for the battle, and ordered to raise the main mast and raise the Andre flag.

Long Guozhang on the opposite side also made adjustments, ordering him to turn the rudder five degrees and continue to close the distance. At the same time, he ordered the first battleship and the triple patrol team to speed up to 22 knots, leaving aside the slower second battleship detachment, they tried their best to seize the T position.

At the same time, the Jilin also raised the famous blood cloud dragon claw battle flag, and the signal soldier made a sentence that was later widely praised by the navies of various countries, comparable to the famous British admiral Nelson, and was known as the symbol of Xinhua's entry into the era of empire.

"The empire is waiting, go fight!"

(to be continued)