When his fleet began to turn north, he received news that Qin's squadron was attacked. Except for one lucky destroyer, the Courage, the Qin guard fleet in the northwest was almost destroyed.
Of course, the battleship Mighty was still floating on the water, but it was hit by a missile and ignited a fire. The Courage was rescued. The scene was tragic.
In fact, there are still thousands of Qin army sailors, or former Shu sailors, floating on the sea at this moment. They cried for help, but no one paid any attention to them.
The main fleet passing by here had no intention of slowing down to save people. They were busy collecting various types of aircraft hovering in the sky.
The battleships following the aircraft carrier on both sides are also busy. These battleships have been modernized and can take off seaplanes.
These seaplanes had just gone to yesterday's anchorage of the Combined Fleet, from where they had rescued several valuable pilots who had fallen into the water.
As for the sailors floating on the sea now, they are all worthless things, and they can be handed over to the warning fleet coming from the southwest.
John Cleeves did not dare to slow down his main fleet to save people. For him, this was an unnecessary risk.
It didn't matter if these soldiers were soaked in the sea for several hours, but he couldn't bear to lose another battleship.
In fact, John Cleeves is actually feeling slightly more comfortable now, because he is unwilling to face the fact that only the Dornish Empire has suffered heavy losses.
It's better now. He saw with his own eyes that Qin's squadron also suffered heavy losses. This at least showed that Qin did not betray the combined fleet and Dorne's losses were not one-sided.
This kind of psychology is actually quite subtle. A certain person is actually miserable, but when he sees someone who is worse off than himself, he will feel much better.
"General..." Seeing the capsized Qin cruiser in the distance, the chief of staff stopped talking nonsense. The current situation is that the Tang Empire's naval fleet... is indeed not something they can deal with.
It's easy to accept this fact. You just need to calculate your remaining combat power: two aircraft carriers were sunk and one aircraft carrier was seriously damaged. Several battleships have lost the ability to continue fighting, and one-third of the destroyers and cruisers have been lost.
In this case, the naval battle can be said to have been a disastrous defeat. The question now is, how much of their remaining wealth can they take back with them!
As naval admirals, the fleets they command are all the wealth accumulated by their country over several years or even decades. All these assets may sink to the bottom of the sea in one morning, which is much more enjoyable than the army and air force.
"I know... Now that we are moving towards land, it is actually a counterattack!" John Cleeves explained: "I am not escaping, but looking for the opponent's fleet!"
"If we are close to the land, then we can at least be sure that the opponent's fleet is not in the northeast and northwest directions. Because enemy planes flying over the land will be discovered by the army anyway!" His intention is obvious - There is no way for an aircraft carrier to reach land.
Then, after excluding the low-suspicious area in the southwest, the Tang Army's aircraft carrier will only be in the southeast direction.
As long as we send planes to counterattack in this direction, we should be able to find the enemy's fleet! This is John Cleeves's counterattack! This is the resilience of a Navy veteran!
Upon hearing that his commander was still thinking of turning defeat into victory, the surrounding officers all showed admiration. Sure enough, he is still old and hot, and sure enough, the United Fleet has not lost this crucial naval battle!
"Report! The battleship Qin Feng sent a signal. They are going to slow down, salvage the fallen soldiers and then chase the fleet..." A communications officer came over and reported the news from the Qin fleet to John Cleeves.
The commanders of Dorne were not emotionally disturbed when they saw Qin's sailors falling into the water, but the commanders of the Qin navy fleet saw that their own people were soaking in the water, which was obviously not the same thing.
This is an emotional trade-off. In short, there is nothing wrong with the Qin commander's decision. At least they exude humanity at this moment.
"The Tang Army's attack may come at any time... They slowed down to rescue... Whose fault is it if there is a problem?" The chief of staff frowned, obviously unwilling to let the Qin Army's warships slow down.
But John Cleeves was thinking about another question: If the Qin navy fleet was behind the entire fleet...then when he was beaten, would he have more human shields on his back?
Since the Qin Navy wants to cut off the queen, it is really the best thing. So John Cleeves immediately ordered: "Call back to Commander Qin... allow them to slow down the rescue, and ask them to follow up as soon as possible after completing the rescue... I wish them all the best."
You see, this is the art of conducting. Not only did it give the Qin Navy freedom, but it also found a scapegoat for its own fleet... It was a good deal no matter how you looked at it.
At the same time that John Cleeves allowed the Qin warship to cut off its rear, the Tang Empire carrier-based aircraft coming from the southeast crossed the sea area where the combined fleet originally operated.
Under their feet were the wreckage of battleships that had capsized, been seriously injured, tilted, or broken, as well as countless sailors floating on the sea.
These sailors from Dorne finally saw their enemies this time. Above their heads were roaring jets. The intruder attack planes had already dropped to some altitude. Under the cloudless sky, swarms of killing machines Toward the combined fleet heading north.
Above the heads of Dorne's fallen officers and soldiers, the invaders from the Tang Empire began to launch anti-ship missiles. One after another, the missiles detached from the wings and flew towards the sea level at extremely fast speeds.
"Oh my god..." On a lifeboat, the first mate of a destroyer of the Dorne Navy raised his head and saw the Tang Army's carrier-based aircraft force. Only now did he know what kind of opponent he was fighting.
It turns out that the Tang Empire's navy has already been equipped with jet aircraft... It turns out that the Datang Empire's naval aircraft can launch missiles... It turns out that the Tang Empire's navy fleet has never been near the combined fleet from the beginning to the end!
"It's over! It's all over!" An officer who was picked up was covered in oil, squinting at the enemy plane launching missiles overhead, and muttered dully.
"We can only save as many people as possible now... we can't do anything." The first mate looked at the destroyer that was rescuing them in the distance and said with an embarrassed expression.
Yes, the Dornish destroyer didn't even dare to fire... It seemed to be pretending to be a little transparent, or praying, praying that the Tang Empire's planes would regard it as a rescue ship...
They finally saw what their opponents looked like, but unfortunately they didn't want their opponents to see them now. The captains of the two Dornish destroyers who stayed to rescue people didn't actually know that the target of the Tang Empire's carrier-based aircraft was not them.
The goal of these carrier-based aircraft is to continue to hunt down the main fleet and sink as many combined fleet warships as possible. As for the remaining defeated generals at our feet, the destroyers and cruisers of the Tang Empire will soon come to take care of them.
(End of chapter)
