Seven Seas Beacon Fire

The three battlecruisers were divided into one group and the three battleships into another. The former's mission was to catch up and slow down one of the targets during the engagement, so that the friendly ships behind could catch up slowly.

In this way, after the two sides hand over their duties, the fast formation can pursue another enemy ship, slow down the new target, and then wait for the follow-up formation to catch up and take down the target as well.

It can be said that the entire fleet's combat style is like a wolf pack, with some responsible for crippling legs and others for strangling, with clear division of labor and each performing its own duties.

As for the two Dragon Abysses?

Yang Yuchen arranged for the two ships to maintain a distance of 20 kilometers at all times. On the one hand, this was to put psychological pressure on the Colombians so that they would not dare to gather together and turn around to attack. On the other hand, it was also to conduct some tests in actual combat.

For example, firing 420mm naval guns at Colombian military transport ships that were also fleeing in the distance could serve as both a training exercise and a further deterrent, preventing some complacent individuals from thinking that the 420mm naval guns carried on these two Longyuan-class battleships were just for show.

Although this may seem like a clear and logical explanation, it is actually a rather tedious process. After all, this kind of long-term pursuit feels like you've found a link to a huge collection of hundreds of gigabytes of files in a group of cars, and even though you've already downloaded it, you still have to decompress it for several hours, which is incredibly frustrating.

The Nevada was the first battleship to be caught up. During the pursuit, the battleship fought back with all its might, and it did achieve a result that would go down in history. When the Laiyuan battleship was about 18 kilometers away, the Nevada broke the silence and opened fire first. The Federal Navy, which had been unable to fire accurately throughout the war due to both personnel training and equipment technology issues, seemed to have forgotten to turn off its supercomputer this time.

First shot! First shot hit!

Although this shell was actually an isolated shell, given the already astonishing dispersion of the Federation standard battleship, coupled with the super luck bonus that probably used up all the luck of the entire ship, this shell achieved the longest moving-to-moving firing record in human naval warfare in this world.

Moreover, due to the relatively long distance and the generally low velocity of shells at that time, the trajectory of this 14-inch shell was more curved than at normal engagement distances. As a result, the shell struck the main horizontal armor of the battleship Laiyuan squarely.

The shell nearly penetrated the horizontal armor of the gunboat, and fragments of the armor even severed some of the pipelines, but the armor ultimately withstood the test.

After the Nevada's most likely attempt to save itself failed to achieve its intended effect, its fate was essentially sealed.

For the next four hours, the USS Nevada and the escorting destroyers fought with all their might, but in the end, the Nevada could only meet its fate as it did now, with its captain shouting "Never get American defeated!" in the conning tower before finally falling to a torpedo attack from the Tang destroyers, a move that felt like an execution.

PS: Facing the turtle 6

Generally speaking, Colombians believe that fake drops are all fake drops, just drops of iced tea water.

Optimistic Colombian military enthusiasts: Immediately bring NGAD back into service;

Pessimistic Colombian military enthusiast: Starting to learn Chinese;

Obsessed Colombian military enthusiasts: Immediately concentrate all the F-35s from the US and NATO allies and blow up the University of Tokyo before it completely gains the upper hand;

Pentagon: Why not spend the money on hiring online trolls?

Chapter 199 I hope you also have an iron will

The sudden scattering of the major ships in the Federal Navy's escort fleet was, in a short time, as sluggish as the neural response of a primitive arthropod to the entire massive transport convoy.

Due to poor communication, and the fact that the masts of these transport ships were nowhere near as tall as those of battleships, most of the transport ships in the convoy had no idea what was going on.

All they knew was that they had encountered an enemy commerce raiding fleet. While this certainly made the captains and sailors of these transport corps, who were experienced in shipping, nervous and on high alert, it was also something they were quite used to.

In previous operations, they had encountered attacks from Tang Dynasty raiding ships more than once, ranging from small second-class cruisers of three or four thousand tons to large first-class cruisers of seven or eight thousand tons and 10,000-ton armored cruisers. No matter what kind of warship, they could easily crush their merchant ships, which had no armor protection and were completely useless in terms of structural strength and anti-sinking ability.

But the old sailors in this fleet are survivors of the previous attacks—well, that might sound a bit redundant, like a reporter interviewing passengers on a train to see if they've bought tickets.

But in fact, the experience of most of them who have survived to this day is that in such situations, it is essential to remain calm, maintain strict discipline, and stick together. It is far more dangerous to stray from the main group.

It's like a school of fish in the ocean. When faced with a shark attack, they always stick together. It seems like as long as one "smart fish" breaks away from the school, it can escape the shark's pursuit. But even if you break away from the school and seem to have escaped the shark, in reality, a whole bunch of other hunters will be eyeing you.

For example, submarines roam freely in the ocean. If an unarmed merchant ship encounters these submarines, the submarines don't even need to use torpedoes; they can simply surface and take care of you with their cannons.

Moreover, based on past experience, the escort forces of a fully organized convoy, having been strengthened in recent times, are usually stronger than the enemy's attacking forces. Most of the losses are to the lone transport ships that panic and break away from the convoy under the enemy's attack. Therefore, most transport ships still maintain their group formation.

Most of them thought that the battleships that had broken up the formation were going to actively pursue the invading enemy attack ships. Some army officers and soldiers, unaware of the truth, even waved their caps on the deck of the transport ship to salute these naval behemoths.

However, many transport ships on the outermost edge of the formation soon realized that something was wrong. On the one hand, the enemy warships had already reached a point where they could be seen from the masts of the outermost transport ships in the convoy. These enemy attack ships had not been driven away; on the contrary, they were actively approaching. On the other hand, the large ships in their own escort formation were sailing in the wrong direction. Instead of bravely confronting them as before, they were accelerating in the opposite direction.

Is this an escape?

When the two Nevada-class battleships, traveling at their current maximum speed of 20.5 knots, traversed the entire transport convoy from west to east, with several Tang warships of similar size, clearly capital ship class and flying the dragon flag, in pursuit behind them, anyone with a brain could see what the situation was.

The captains of these transport ships had no time to curse the Tang army's raiding ships or the navy's escort ships, because in the process of chasing and fleeing, these behemoths from Tang and the United States charged into the transport convoy like bulls. The entire convoy was like a herd of wildebeest suddenly attacked by a lion, and in an instant, it was running around the sea like flies.

The two Nevada-class battleships that had temporarily drawn the full attention of the Tang army's attack fleet, as well as Vice Admiral Zangwell, who was commanding the battleship USS Oklahoma, knew very well that they could not outrun the enemy ships by speed alone.

After all, even without considering the enemy's battlecruisers, the enemy's battleships are faster than them.

A speed of 23 knots would make it a "fast battleship" in the Federal Navy, wouldn't you say?

Although the Federation battleships ran very quickly and maintained a relatively large distance from the Tang warships behind them from the beginning, this distance was not enough to ensure that the two Nevada-class battleships would not be overtaken and fatally damaged before reaching Manila Port (Huaiqing Prefecture). Therefore, Vice Admiral Zangwell decisively chose to pass directly through the middle of the transport convoy at this time.

This would almost certainly disrupt the order of the entire transport convoy and could even lead to collisions with the transport ships.

But at this point, he couldn't care less about anything else. After all, the two battleships were tough and durable. If they were to have a sea bumper-up with these thin-skinned, heavy transport ships, the battleships would definitely not suffer the same fate as the shield-bearer ship that was "sunk" by a merchant ship in another timeline.

Of course, his deeper plan was to use these transport ships to draw aggro. If the enemy was distracted by these transport ships, which were as tempting as lambs, and diverted their attention and even forces to attack them, the chances of them successfully retreating into the port would be greater.

In many situations, it's not important whether you can outrun your enemy; what matters most is whether you can outrun your teammates.

However, the result was destined to disappoint Zangwell. Why would a large capital ship need to use its precious large-caliber heavy guns to deal with these merchant ships? Apart from a veteran-class dreadnought that was impossible to catch in terms of speed, all the other warships behind him were methodically carrying out their hunt.

Such a scene was clearly beyond the processing capacity of the sailors and army soldiers on these transport ships.

The capital ships that had previously appeared as majestic and powerful as mountains, seemingly possessing invincible strength, now fled like stray dogs, running for their lives in a panic. The 14-inch guns still fired with astonishing noise when returning fire, but the entire warship, amidst the water columns generated by the enemy's continuous shells, resembled a trembling giant, filled with terror and helplessness.

After the two Nevada-class battleships had sailed far away, the Tang army's main warships, which followed closely behind and rushed into their transport convoy, looked so arrogant that the sailors and army soldiers couldn't help but compare the two in their minds.

Is this our navy and the navy on the other side?

Such a comparison is certainly unfair to the Federal Navy, but there is never much fairness in this world. In particular, the two Longyuan-class battleships temporarily stopped on the outskirts of these transport convoys, instead of charging directly like the main warships of the Tang army in front. Yang Yuchen, worried that the Colombian transport convoys might contain destroyers, ordered the two Longyuan-class battleships to bypass these transport convoys. This order allowed the two Longyuan-class battleships to make an elegant turn in front of these Colombian transport ships, fully displaying their figures to the sailors and officers and soldiers of the Federal merchant ships and army.

As one of the most beautiful capital ships in the world, the Longyuan-class battleships may not be immediately apparent to non-professionals in terms of their sheer size and power, but their symmetrical and harmonious beauty is something that can directly touch one's soul.

On one of the transport ships, a young soldier, only 20 years old, later openly expressed his admiration for the elegance and beauty of the Eastern battleship in his first novel, "A Farewell to Arms!", in the voice of the male protagonist. Although this description in the novel was mainly to highlight the cruelty of the war scenes described later, it is clear that, from an aesthetic point of view, Longyuan's appearance had already captivated many people.

Some marveled at the beauty of Longyuan, while others were terrified by the massive cannons on these two powerful warships, which were clearly larger than any capital ships they had ever seen before. Their small boats seemed capable of being reduced to dust with just a single cannonball. In addition, there were cruisers and destroyers surrounding these two battleships, and several savvy transport ships had already decisively raised white flags.

Yang Yuchen's gaze was not on the transport ships that had raised white flags. He didn't have time to deal with the prisoners. He noticed from the command tower that apart from the small group that had raised white flags directly in front of him, the rest of the large Colombian fleet was basically divided into two types. One type was those that scattered and fled on their own, while the other type was those that were collectively banding together and, under the escort of the remaining Colombian escort ships, were trying to turn southeast. It seemed that they were preparing to leave the battlefield first and then change course south to retreat back to Sandakan port.

Yang Yuchen originally didn't intend to interfere with these Colombian transport ships that were preparing to "return by the same route," since the Colombian soldiers on these transport ships would continue to consume the expeditionary force's rations after landing on the island. However, at this moment, the flagship of the squadron led by the cruiser detachment of the Yanping Navy sent a message.

They volunteered to attack the Colombian convoy escorting the evacuation of transport ships.

Anyone with eyes could see what he was planning. The Colombian warships that were still dutifully escorting the transport convoys were reduced to only three second-class cruisers of no more than 4000 tons and a few flat-deck destroyers of about 3 tons. Their weak forces were not worth an attack by a full-strength cruiser squadron.

毕竟延平海军的这个巡洋舰大队基本上算是集中了目前延平海军的大半主力精锐，4条5500吨级的轻巡洋舰和3条4200吨的轻巡洋舰，150毫米火炮加在一起有46门，更不用说还有两支分配在这个巡洋舰大队底下的驱逐舰分队了。

Are you just going to take out those few Colombian escort ships?

However, Yang Yuchen made a decision after thinking for about half a minute.

He agreed to the operational request made by the Yanping Navy and added a seemingly normal admonition in his reply.

"While damaging enemy escort ships, be wary of enemy submarine ambushes."

On the bridge of the cruiser "July 6," the current flagship of the Yanping Navy, which had received the order, Rear Admiral Zhang Ge, with an expression that appeared calm but was actually flushed, addressed the officers and soldiers of the Yanping Navy on the bridge: "Marshal Yang has agreed to let us launch an attack. I know that everyone is not afraid of sacrifice and wants to fight a tough battle, but let us collect a little interest first."

Then he picked up the microphone and addressed all the officers and men on board: "Brothers of the cruiser July 6, our warship has inherited a glorious name. In 1845, our navy thwarted the provocation of the Gallic navy in the South China Sea on July 7th of that year. Although our navy is weak, we also have our own glorious history."

Since the start of the war, our strength has been far inferior to that of the Federation Navy, so we have done very little in the past. In our war to defend our homeland, I believe that you brothers have all heard about the things that those Federation beasts did on land in varying degrees from the letters sent by your relatives.

Since the founding of their nation, these American devils have enjoyed taking advantage of their superior equipment to plunder the people of surrounding countries. On Yanping Island, they have brought over the despicable ways of their ancestors. I do not wish to repeat their countless crimes.

Faced with such an enemy, we must fight them to the end. My younger brother is one of those who fight against them. He joined the guerrillas behind our father's back and has been active in the enemy-occupied area since the beginning of last year.

I received three letters from him. In one of them, he told me that their guerrillas were in dire straits and that they were able to fight against the enemy's steel and gunpowder almost entirely because of their iron will.

Brothers, we now have the superior strength of our forces. We hope our opponents also possess an iron will and will fight us to the last bullet!

After he finished speaking, a death flag was hoisted on the mainmast of the cruiser. Then, the cruisers and destroyers that followed followed suit. These naval officers and soldiers, who were filled with deep-seated hatred for their relatives and friends, piloted what they called "the best warships in all of Yanping" and pounced on the last relatively orderly transport convoy of the Colombian army like a pack of wolves hunting their prey.

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P.S.: When discussing this plot with everyone in the group, I couldn't help but sigh—there are still so many living devils!

Chapter 200 We're on Anti-Submarine Mission

Having served in the navy for so many years, Zhang Ge had never before experienced the decisive effect of a medium-caliber naval gun.

In previous engagements, even against Colombian destroyers of 1,000 tons, the 150mm naval guns needed to hit multiple shells in key areas to effectively disable a destroyer. To completely sink a destroyer, even more shells were often required.

After all, although destroyers are small in tonnage, they are still manufactured in strict accordance with military standards and have a set of strict anti-sinking standards for military ships. Although they do not use an inch of armor steel, the structural steel of military standards is incomparable to the low-carbon steel used on many ordinary merchant ships.

The primary consideration in the construction of these civilian merchant ships is how to reduce construction costs. When the same 150mm shell explodes inside the hull of a destroyer and these merchant ships, which have the same thickness, the damage caused to the destroyer, which has better steel ductility, is much less than that to the civilian ships made of low-carbon steel.

Of course, to some extent, it was already a mercy to the sailors on these merchant ships who died quickly.

When a 150mm high-explosive shell with a fragmentation radius that could cover half a football field is fired from the gun barrel and delivered into the hold of these transport ships, the soldiers on board are in no different situation from the fruits and vegetables inside a giant blender.

From the last century to this century, the two greatest advancements in artillery were the recoil-operated gun carriage and high explosives. Many people who read documents or war histories related to the navy at the end of the last century have surely noticed that similar terms seem to appear repeatedly, such as exploding shells and high explosive shells from the era of ironclad warships.

Most people might think this is just a difference in the terminology used in Chinese translations from different eras. However, in fact, exploding shells and high-explosive shells are not the same thing, because the former is filled with black powder, while the latter is filled with high explosives.

The difference is that the number of fragments produced after a shell explodes is relatively limited and their size is relatively large. You might even have the illusion that you can put the fragments of the exploded shell back together like Lego.

The effect of high explosives is to create countless tiny fragments. The amount of explosive charge in high explosive shells means that they do not need to be slotted to pre-form fragments like weapons such as hand grenades. They can rely entirely on the chemical energy during the explosion to completely blast the steel shell of the shell into countless fragments.

Driven by even greater force, these fragments would sweep across the entire ship's hold like a metal storm. A single 150mm shell exploding inside these high-density transport ships could turn an individual person into a "stack" of people.

Fortunately, most of the transport ships were structurally quite fragile. The explosion of these medium-caliber shells caused enough damage that the large amount of seawater that poured in through the breaches quickly capsized these transport ships, which were not meticulously divided into compartments.

This is why many light cruisers would apply a layer of armor, perhaps only two inches thick, to the waterline, which looks like a self-deception and could not even stop medium-caliber armor-piercing shells.

The situation is drastically different when the waterline is attacked by high-explosive shells compared to when it is armored. The hull without waterline armor protection can be easily torn apart by the shock wave of the explosion, while the armored parts can either keep the high-explosive shells out or the semi-armor-piercing and armor-piercing shells that are fired into the waterline will not be able to tear the waterline over a large area after they explode.

For transport ships, once they have reached the point of abandoning ship and escaping, they will no longer be subject to further attacks from naval guns. For the survivors who have not yet died under the guns, they can at least jump into the sea to escape.

However, among so many transport ships, there are always some that are unlucky—such as a transport ship named "Narcissus," which was originally a federal navy icebreaker deployed in Alaska. It was a ship built entirely according to military standards and with its hull structure specially reinforced.

Even for Colombians, the evacuation operation was quite challenging due to limited transport capacity (given the continuous losses of ships along the entire transport route). Therefore, this icebreaker was also deployed in the transport operation.

So this sturdy ship was continuously fired upon by a cruiser, with no fewer than 70 shells hitting it, ranging from 150mm main guns to 88mm anti-torpedo guns. However, the ship still stubbornly floated on the sea, only its bow and stern were completely ablaze.

The flames burst out from inside the ship's cabins. Afterwards, many survivors were unwilling to recall the hellish scene inside the cabins. Once the flammable materials inside the cabins were ignited, the flames spread from the lower decks to the upper decks, creating a chimney effect in many places inside the cabins. The speed at which people could escape was far slower than the speed at which the fire spread.

Even worse, because the crew of this ship were probably stunned by the attack, no one raised the white flag. In addition, the icebreaker's shape made it look like an auxiliary cruiser. So when the survivors finally ran from the cabins to the deck, they found that the deck was also a bloody mess. The shrapnel shells fired by the cruiser's 88mm anti-torpedo guns were like a gardener's sickle, reaping the lives of any exposed targets on the deck.

The cruisers and destroyers of the Federal Navy, which were still dutifully carrying out their original missions under these circumstances and doing their best to provide cover for these transport ships, did their best to block the cruisers of the Yanping Navy that were attacking. The cruisers of both sides even rushed to a distance of 3 kilometers, which was almost the normal distance for naval battles at the end of the last century. In this day and age, it was almost equivalent to both sides pressing their guns against each other's foreheads and firing.

In one of the most intense battle zones, five of the seven cruisers on both sides were damaged and caught fire to varying degrees within 20 minutes. As the Colombian forces took the lead in using torpedoes, both sides fired torpedoes at a distance of 2500 to 5 kilometers. In the ensuing chaos, all the warships on both sides launched all the torpedoes they carried on the side of the ship engaged in battle.

A Colombian cruiser and a Yanping Navy cruiser were hit by torpedoes almost simultaneously. Many more torpedoes missed their targets and instead flew past the warships and into each other's rear. However, for the Colombian transport ships, in addition to their artillery, they were also threatened by dozens of torpedoes roaming around the sea.

Many years later, Colombians referred to this day in the western Pacific as the "Great Carnage of the Sharks" because more than 3 people died at sea that day. Colombians used this to portray themselves as victims, constantly emphasizing that many of their officers and soldiers who fell into the water that day were shot by the enemy in an organized manner when they were clearly unable to resist. Among the evidence claimed by Colombians was a photo taken by a photographer on the Pinghai and later published in the newspaper.

The photo that later became controversial actually didn't show any machine guns or small-caliber cannons directly shooting down soldiers who had fallen into the water. At that time, the battleship Pinghai was playing a game of cat and mouse with the Colombian transport ships at sea using high-explosive shells fired from its 280mm naval guns. However, it didn't last long before the Pinghai noticed that the surrounding federal naval transport ships had raised white flags and stopped at sea.

After all, the 280mm naval gun can indeed make people more clear-headed. Some of the federal army officers and soldiers on these transport ships even took off their underwear, probably afraid that the sailors on the ship would be late in raising the white flag. They climbed to the top of the ship naked and waved it vigorously.

The naval officers and men on the Pinghai were displeased with these pragmatic federal transport ships. They genuinely hoped that these Colombians would fight to the bitter end and refuse to surrender. In that case, they would admire these federal naval soldiers from the perspective of traditional Eastern values ​​and pay them the highest respect—to exterminate them.

After all, these naval officers and soldiers had already learned from newspapers and radio broadcasts what had happened on Yeonpyeong Island and how many heinous war crimes had been committed by the federal army troops on these transport ships.

Although not all federal troops participated in the shark hunt, many ordinary naval officers and soldiers equated the Colombian federal army with beasts. In their eyes, these beasts were people who had committed war crimes on the island, lost on the battlefield, and now wanted to slink home.

How the hell can this be allowed?

You came to the land where our compatriots live, destroyed the crops they grew, bombed the factories they built, and killed their relatives, and now you want to just pack up and go back as if nothing happened?

If it weren't for the fact that the navy's requirements for military technology have always been more stringent than the army's, the officers and men on the Pinghai would have really wanted to use their cannons to send all those bastards into the sea without hesitation.

"Are we really going to let these bastards get away with this?" On the bridge of the Pinghai, a staff officer couldn't help but ask the same question on everyone's mind: "Can our military tribunal really find all the war criminals among these bastards?"

"That's hard to say. Anyway, I think if all these people are executed, there will definitely be some who are wrongly accused. But if we spare one person and avoid them, there will definitely be some who escape."

"Alright!" The captain of the Pinghai interrupted the conversation of his indignant young men: "The army has discipline. The marshal did not authorize us to attack the enemy forces that have already surrendered, so we cannot do that. Have the destroyers gather all these transport ships together. We'll go over there and help those people in Yanping. It seems like they're having quite a fierce battle there."

As he spoke, the captain of the Pinghai naturally looked towards the sea area where the Yanping Navy was located, where explosions were still being heard continuously: "It seems that their battle is not over yet. Let's go and lend them a hand."

The captain's words naturally diverted most of the young men's attention. The thought of their ship's 280mm cannons being able to unleash their power again made them eager to get to work.

However, at that moment, someone on the bridge, oblivious to the danger, asked, "What should we do with those Colombians who fell into the water? Should we rescue them?"

"You're so kind! If you ask me, they should just freeze to death in the water!"

"Exactly. If you ask me, I'm starting to miss the sea in the north. If this weather were up north at this time, people would be frozen solid in less than 30 minutes. We wouldn't need to worry about rescuing them then."

"The temperature is still too high in the south."

The officers and soldiers naturally hoped that these federal army soldiers who fell into the water deserved their fate. Not to mention taking the initiative to rescue them, some even started to suggest that they throw the leftover offal and other things in the kitchen into the sea to attract sharks and give them a meal.

Of course, such unrealistic suggestions ultimately remained just words. After thinking for a moment, the captain of the Pinghai ordered the destroyers to organize the federal merchant ships that had raised white flags to rescue their own people, and then headed towards the friendly forces in Yanping.

However, as they sailed over there, they soon discovered that the artillery battle had ended, but the explosions continued, and white "lotuses" kept rising from the sea surface—the unique and beautiful marks left by depth charges.

But now these white lotuses seem to be engulfing the Colombians struggling to survive at sea. The Colombian officers and soldiers, clinging to life rings or planks and thrashing about, watched as the cruisers and destroyers of the Yanping Navy approached them, and the white lotuses bloomed continuously behind the warships. They desperately tried to paddle away from this deadly path, but it was clear that most of these army soldiers couldn't swim. Those still floating on the surface were mostly clinging to something to stay afloat, and could only watch helplessly as a black barrel was thrown onto the sea not far from them.

As the dark figure gradually sank, many of the Colombian soldiers let out heartfelt lamentations. Some called out to Jesus and God, while others cried out for their mothers or wives—just as the local people of Yanping had cried out to God and their mothers when some of them were slaughtering civilians on land.