At noon, the East China Sea Fleet lured the enemy squadron and the British, French and American combined fleet were only twenty miles apart.∷∷,

The commanders of both sides discovered each other in the telescope and each made tactical actions.

"Half left rudder! Take the upper hand!" Tang Jizu, the commander of the East China Sea Fleet, lured the enemy squadron, quickly issued an order.

"yes!"

"Half-rudder to the left!"

The helmsman and the sailor took the order in unison and each made automatic moves, causing the flagship to turn left, trying to seize the upper hand.

In the naval battle in the sailing era, the upwind direction is very important, and seizing the upwind direction is very beneficial to attack and combat.

With the flagship action, other warships of the East China Sea Fleet followed suit and followed the flagship action.

On the other hand, the flagship of the British-France-American Joint Fleet USS Birmingham.

Commander George saw the movements of the East China Sea Fleet from the telescope. He snorted coldly and said, "It seems that the commander of the East China Sea Fleet is very smart. He actually knows to seize the upper hand first!"

Cook, the captain of the Birmingham, added: "This is the tactic that our Royal Navy in the British Empire taught them. If you don't even understand this, it would be a shame for us teachers!"

George nodded and smiled, "Yes, our Royal Navy students of the British Empire should not be too embarrassed! However, we are too stupid. We know that we want to fight against the Qing Empire, but why did we sell them so many excellent warships? Now the East China Sea Fleet not only learned the naval combat technology of our British Empire, but also used the British Empire warships to fight against the British Empire. This is really ironic!"

Cook said: "The reason why I sold warships to Li Weiguo at that time and helped him form the East China Sea Fleet was not only politically necessary, but also to prevent the Qing Empire from falling to Russia from being unfavorable to the Crimean War. It was also because of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom rebellion, threatening Shanghai. Our concession was in Shanghai, and we needed protection in Shanghai."

George also understood that many things were forced to do, so he said, "Fortunately we won the Crimean War. Now we don't have to see the face of the Qing Empire anymore. Let's teach them a good lesson. I want to see if these Eastern students can beat their Western teachers!"

Cook smiled and said, "Students are always students, how could they win the teacher?"

George also smiled and said, "I hope you have not taught all the skills of your students!"

After a pause, George immediately ordered: "Turn right one third of the rudder, fill the sails, add coal, and seize the upper wind at full speed!"

"Turn right one third of the rudder, fill the sails, add coal, and seize the upper wind at full speed!"

Captain Cook immediately turned to the first mate and second mate, repeating George's order.

"Yes! Sir!"

The first and second mates immediately execute the order.

Soon, the Birmingham began to turn, the sails were raised, the boiler was filled with coal, and the rolling smoke came out, and the speed quickly increased.

At the same time, a command flag was hung on the central mainmast of the Birmingham, allowing all other ships to see the command and seize the upper hand together.

The East China Sea Fleet and the British-France-American Combined Fleet began to seize the upper wind at the same time, but the warships of the East China Sea Fleet were sail warships, which were all driven by wind power, and the sail speed was only eight to eleven knots. In the British-France-American Combined Fleet, all of them were sails and steam engines. After the sails and coal was filled, the speed generally reached more than thirteen knots.

An hour later, the British, French and American combined fleet had exceeded the East China Sea Fleet by three nautical miles, and they successfully seized the upper hand.

Captain Cook immediately smiled and said, "I'm right, students are students after all. How can they win the teacher? Look, we have already grabbed the upper wind position."

"Haha, it's worthy of being a warship equipped with a steam engine. This speed has increased by a huge margin. In the future, this kind of pure sailing warship will never be able to gain the upper hand!"

George nodded and immediately ordered: "Transfer, keep the speed, fill the rudder with the right, and prepare for gunfire on the port!"

"Stay on speed!"

"Right full rudder!"

"Prepatriate for port fire!"

After orders were issued, the battleship Birmingham began to fill the rudder with the right. In the three-layer gun deck on the port side, the British artillery soldiers repeated the orders while quickly loading the artillery with fire medicine and shells. In less than two minutes, the artillery fire was ready.

The port gun door of the Birmingham battleship opened one after another, and the thirty-two black holes stretched out and aimed at the target in the distance.

The Birmingham battleship was originally a first-class battleship with 120 artillery pieces, but in order to be converted into a hybrid battleship of sails and steam engines, many artillery positions were removed in the center to install steam engines and paddle wheels. In this way, the Birmingham battleship would be from a first-class battleship to a second-class battleship, with only 74 artillery pieces, which is commonly known as the 74 artillery battleship.

This 74-artillery battleship shines in the Crimean War and pushes the naval warfare of the Sail Age to its peak.

In the Battle of the Danube, 27 Russian sail battleships used the latest powerful blast bombs to wipe out the Turkish Navy, which had more than 40 sail battleships. Subsequently, in the Battle of Sinop, fourteen steamships of the British-French joint fleet defeated Russia's wooden sail battleships, establishing the important dominance of steam warships in modern naval forces.

At this moment, George thought of the picture of the Sino-British-French joint fleet showing off his might in the Crimean War, and then looked at the East China Sea Fleet opposite, as if he had predicted the result of the East China Sea Fleet being beaten to pieces.

The British, French and American combined fleet seized the advantageous attack position on the upper wind direction, turned right quickly, spreading its attack formation like a sickle, preparing to surround the East China Sea Fleet in one fell swoop.

This is the most classic fan-shaped surface siege killing tactic in the naval battle in the sailing era. Once this tactic is successfully implemented, the East China Sea Fleet will be severely damaged.

At this moment, the East China Sea Fleet lured the enemy squadron to look upstairs. Commander Tang Jizu was already sweating coldly. He wanted to seize the upper wind position and launch an attack on the enemy fleet. After all, his more than 40 warships were frigates, but the other side had many battleships, which were not suitable for head-on battles. If Tang Jizu grabbed the upper wind direction, he could take advantage of it.

But now, Tang Jizu found that the opponent's warship was too fast, generally more than two to three knots faster than the warships of the East China Sea Fleet. In less than an hour, the upper wind position was stolen by the enemy.

"How is this possible? The speed of the opponent's battleship was faster than our frigate?" Tang Jizu said in surprise, with an incredible look on his face.

You should know that the battleship is huge in size and its huge displacement drags down the speed of the hind legs. The frigate has a small displacement, so its speed is naturally faster than that of the battleship.

But at present, the enemy's battleship speed is actually two or three knots faster than the frigates of the East China Sea Fleet. How can this not be surprising?

Of course, if this is said to Li Weiguo, Li Weiguo would not be surprised at all. But for the officers and soldiers of the East China Sea Fleet, four years ago, they were all ordinary people in the fishing villages by the sea, although they had been studying for four years. But after all, they had a weak foundation and lacked insight. Faced with such epoch-making products, surprise and ignorance were understandable.

"Their warships were equipped with steam engines. Didn't they see the big water wheels on their warships turning rapidly? It was that thing that quickly increased the speed of the enemy's warships, so it surpassed us."

At this time, Yuan Tengfei, chief of staff of the Bait Fleet, gave an explanation. As the chief of staff, he must have a high education. He was one of the first officers to graduate from the four-year school in Danfu University. His education level reached the middle school level, so he could see the problem.

"Chief of Staff, what should we do? If we can't grab the upper hand, we can't occupy a good position. Our frigate guns are not as many as those of the opponent's battleships. We will definitely suffer a great loss when fighting!"

Yuan Tengfei put down his telescope and turned to Tang Jizu and said, "Don't forget that we are here to lure the enemy. Don't fight against the enemy head-on. Turn around quickly and let's retreat!"

"I'm evacuated like this? I'm a little unwilling to accept it!" Tang Jizu knew that the mission was to lure the enemy, but at the beginning he didn't think so. When he received the mission from the fleet commander Lin Jiyun, he had the intention of burping off the enemy's front teeth even if it was bait. Now he turned around and ran away. He hesitated immediately.

Seeing Tang Jizu's expression, Yuan Tengfei shook his head and said, "Don't hesitate. If you don't run away, our entire frigate will have to stay!"

Tang Jizu immediately stomped his feet, sighed, and nodded in agreement.

"Right full rudder! Retreat!"

When they heard Tang Jizu's order, the captain, the first mate, the second mate and others were stunned, but the strict military training quickly awakened them and they all took the orders.

"Yes! The rudder is full right!"

"Hang the retreat flag!"

As Tang Jizu's flagship hung the retreat flag, although the captains of the other ships were very confused, they did not dare to disobey and turned around and retreated one after another.

Originally, both sides were preparing to fight, so when both sides competed for the upper wind position, the fleets of both sides were also constantly shortening the distance. At this moment, the two sides were only four or five nautical miles apart.

On the battleship of Birmingham, George saw the East China Sea fleet turn around and run away. He laughed and said, "This is the student you taught. It's so embarrassing. He was scared away before he even fought!"

Cook smiled and said, "This just shows that we are teaching well as teachers. If these students know that they are coming here to die but don't run away, then it means that we are teaching well as teachers!"

George snorted coldly and said, "A group of cunning students, but it's not that easy to run!"

He paused and immediately ordered: "Tell me the order, and the whole fleet will chase them, and sank them!"

The order was issued, and the British, French and American joint fleet quickly launched a pursuit.

I saw thick smoke coming out of thick chimneys, which was a sign of acceleration.

"The enemy ship is too fast, and the back team is about to be caught up!"

After receiving the report, Tang Jizu hurriedly looked over with a telescope. Sure enough, he found that the enemy fleet was accelerating with all its might and was about to approach the rear team that lured the enemy fleet.

"Order the rear team to cut off the rear and block the enemy fleet with all their might!"

"No!" Yuan Tengfei immediately stopped and said, "We are here to lure the enemy. If the back team is asked to cut off the rear, our front team will certainly leave the battlefield, but it will be equivalent to the failure to lure the enemy."

Tang Jizu frowned and said, "Then what you mean is that we will be bitten by the enemy fleet all the time? Then how many warships and brothers will I lose?"

Yuan Tengfei said with a dark face: "For generals, they are most afraid of the kindness of women. You must know that kindness does not control the army. The sacrifice that should be sacrificed is necessary. As long as the enemy fleet is introduced into our ambush circle, this sacrifice is worth it!"

Tang Jizu gritted his teeth and finally gave up the order to let the rear team cut off the rear with all their might.
Chapter completed!