My Italy

Facing the enemies from three sides, Liu Buchan, as the nominal commander of the second ship Zhijing, faced the French warships that were surrounded from three sides. His expression changed drastically, "Now, where should we break out?"

It was obvious that they had fallen into a trap and were surrounded by each other.

Breaking through is certain, but which way they break out is related to their success or failure.

Leifer was extremely calm at this time, because he knew that every decision now was related to the safety of their small fleet, so every decision needed to be made carefully.

For this reason, Leifer and Liu Buchan personally climbed up to the observation deck and were responsible for observing French warships in three directions.

First of all, there are the least number of warships coming from the south, only about six or seven.

Next are the warships to the north, which look like there are nearly ten.

Finally, the east side has the most warships. There are actually fifteen or six warships in total.

The number of enemy warships is different, but it does not mean that there is also a huge gap in their strength.

Since it is a breakout, you need to choose the weakest side. Generally speaking, choosing the side with the fewest enemy ships is a good choice.

However, in Leifer's view, this should be impossible. The enemy had deliberately set a trap, and it was certainly impossible to leave such an obvious flaw. Maybe this was the enemy's strongest part.

Moreover, if the breakthrough to the south is successful, although it will directly threaten France's route, it will also increase the difficulty of returning, which is not appropriate at all.

In fact, Leifer did not know that he had made the wisest decision, because it was Guba who led the interception formation composed of five armored ships and two other gunboats in the south.

It was helpless to say that according to Gubo's original intention, he originally planned to place his formation in the north, because in his opinion, after the prey fell into the trap, the first reaction must be to escape towards home. That's why he wanted to place his strongest ironclad in the north, but sometimes the plan could not be reflected in his will, especially when he thought of Commander de Villiers' emphasis on trade routes and the calculations of interests by dignitaries. , so in the end, for the sake of safety, he chose to guard the south and not give it a chance to threaten the trade routes.

Since he stayed in the south, he naturally had proper arrangements for the north, which was very likely to be broken through.

He arranged the warship formation in the north. He only had three first-class cruisers on hand; the Dilce (), the Dujeux Rouin (3189 tons), and the Dowell (5698 tons, including the Ducuisluin). (an enlarged version of the USS), are all in this formation, and then there are second-class cruisers; Ferrers (2382 tons), Magon (2382 tons), third-class cruisers; Walda (1323 tons), Amirin (1323 tons), Li'e (1191 tons), and some other warships.

Although there are no ironclads in the formation, they are the essence of cruisers. These warships selected by Guba basically have not been in service for too long. For example, the Ferrers only entered service in 1881, and the other ships either entered service in the past five years. , or they are energetic. Anyway, the formation to the north is not easy to mess with at all. Although they are not capable of sinking two Venice-class ships on the spot, it is still a mistake to entangle them.

As for the east side, it is composed of other remaining warships. Although the various indicators are worse, the siege strategy of relying on the numerical advantage and using many ants to kill the elephant is still effective.

What about Simeon? Sorry, the west is offshore. Faced with the situation of not knowing the local sea conditions, the commander will only go offshore unless he is crazy. If he encounters a reef, he will not be able to cry.

Facing the malicious French warships coming from three sides, Captain Leifer, as the actual commander, gave the order after some consideration, which he was later very happy about. "Aim east, move forward at full speed."

"What?"

Leifer's words startled Liu Buchan, "Captain Leifer, you don't need to think about it again?"

"Don't think about it, just do as I say."

From here you can see the gap between the two. Leifer was decisive enough. No wonder he would achieve such great success later. Liu Buchan could only end in tragedy. Although he won the title of national hero, he did not perform well in future naval battles. (It’s not that Mantou looks down on this national hero, but in terms of ability, Liu Buchan didn’t have many outstanding performances in the Sino-Japanese War of Sino-Japanese War. His introduction is full of heroic battles. As a commander, this is not qualified.)

Following Leifer's order, the two Venice-class cruisers immediately made a turn and rushed directly to the east.

The action of the second ship Zhijing to break out of the encirclement eastward shocked Guba. I didn't expect that my falsehood would be seen through. However, he had no good solution to this problem and could only order the armored formation to rush east immediately.

The cruiser formation in the north also rushed over at full speed after seeing the two Qing warships breaking out eastward. Compared with the armored ship formation, which can only reach a speed of 11-12 knots (the speed of the formation is based on the lowest speed warship), the cruise fleet in the north can maintain a high speed of 14-15 knots.

But no matter how they chased them, the two brand-new Venice-class boats could run at a top speed of 18.6 knots, so they could only see the distance between the three gradually widening.

As the commander of the eastern formation, Rear Admiral Lisby immediately issued an order after seeing two Venice-class battleships coming towards him. "Immediately order the ships to disperse according to the plan and meet them."

Following Rear Admiral Lisby's order, more than a dozen warships of various types spread out like a large net and mounted patrol covers on the two ships.

The second ship Zhijing was not afraid and rushed towards the big net. The distance between the two sides was getting closer and closer. When the observing sailors loudly announced their arrival, at five thousand meters, the artillery fire from both sides sounded at the same time.

"Boom, boom, boom."

A large amount of water jets appeared near the two Venice-class cruisers. The first round of shots from the two sides approaching at high speed did not hit the other.

But that’s okay, there’s still next time.

But at this time Leifer issued a new order, "Turn thirty degrees to the right."

Following Leifer's order, the Zhiyuan and Jingyuan no longer faced the French formation head-on, but exposed their sides.

As the commander of the eastern formation of the French fleet, Rear Admiral Lisby certainly knew what his opponent wanted to do. He wanted to briefly seize the T position and exert firepower from the side.

"Immediately order the formation to turn thirty degrees to the left, and we will also turn."

Following Major General Lisby's order, the French eastern formation also turned, allowing both sides to exert flanking firepower. In addition, if the routes of both sides do not change, they will collide in a few minutes, and Rear Admiral Lisby's task of entangling the second ship Zhijing will be overfulfilled.

Although the loss will not be small by then, compared with taking down two 7,000-ton Venice-class ships, this loss is still acceptable.

Faced with Major General Lisby's wishful thinking, Leifer certainly did not want to see it. Then he gave the order again, "Turn right another fifteen degrees."

He planned to use his speed to distance the two.

Although I don’t have a girl to accompany me on Chinese Valentine’s Day today, I still plan to have some fun. Today is just one chapter.