The fiefdom increases by 1 soldier in 1 second, and the empress kneels down and begs not to rebel

"Damn it! What's going on?"

On the Giant Whale, Federich, holding a telescope, looked at the battle situation ahead anxiously. The warships sent by his side encountered small warships sent by the Yan Army fleet when they approached from the flank. Those warships were very small, not even third-level battleships. To be precise, they could only be considered gunboats.

However, in the close contact with these gunboats, their own second-level warships were obviously damaged, and that was definitely not caused by artillery fire.

What he saw at the moment was the warships that were sinking inexplicably, which was really difficult for Frederick to understand. Due to their size, these enemy gunboats could not be equipped with multiple large-caliber artillery. In fact, he did not see these gunboats launching large-scale artillery fire.

These gunboats were sailing at a rapid speed like annoying flies. They kept changing positions, and their speed was much faster than their own warships. While they were constantly changing positions, their own second-level warships were gradually sinking.

Federici had never seen such a scene. He had nearly twenty years of experience in naval combat and knew countless types of warships. The development of warship technology in various countries to this day is nothing more than a competition of who is bigger, more solid, and can carry more artillery and fire more shells.

It is almost impossible to defeat large battleships with gunboats, unless these gunboats are loaded with explosives and self-destruct after the collision, so as to cause some damage to the large battleships by dying together. This can be said to be all that gunboats can do when facing large battleships, and even so, there is only a slim chance of sinking large battleships.

But at this moment, the gunboats sent by the enemy did not self-destruct. They swam on the sea like water snakes without relying on sails. No matter with the wind or against the wind, their speed was so fast that it was difficult for the shells fired by our side to hit them. These gunboats quickly withdrew after sailing to the side of our warships, just like annoying flies circling around you for a few times, and they suddenly slipped away when you reached out to hit them.

But unlike flies, these gunboats undoubtedly did something you didn't expect after they came by. They caused unacceptable damage, and your own warships were sinking under their invasion.

Seeing this, Federici knew that the tactic of ramming into the Yan Army fleet now seemed increasingly difficult to achieve, because the longitudinal warships behind the "T"-shaped formation of the Yan Army fleet had already regarded the charging warships of their own side as targets after the gunboats withdrew, and were now spewing firepower to suppress them.

Meanwhile, their front-row warships were still bombarding the Dawn Fleet. From Federich's perspective, the horizontal battle line that the Dawn Fleet had finally formed had been shattered into pieces by the bombardment. Fires were burning on a large number of front-row warships, and the devastated hulls were slowly sinking.

Although the warships in the rear filled the gap in time, this horizontal battle line was no longer effective. The destructive power of the artillery shells from Yan Country was too great. Federich guessed that a warship could be destroyed if it was hit by even ten shells.

On the other hand, although the enemy has launched an artillery attack, it has little effect. The enemy ships are all ironclad ships, and the defense of these ships is too strong. Even if 10 or 20 shells are accurately fired at their ships, it cannot cause fatal damage to their ships. Of course, this does not prevent them from continuing to sail.

The enemy fleet was still moving forward in a "T" shape. They never stopped firing while sailing. And unlike at the beginning of the war, the warships at the rear of the enemy fleet were being replenished from the left and right wings to the front of the "T". They were stretching the battle line!

Federici knew what the Yan army was planning by making such a tactical arrangement. He broke out in a cold sweat instantly and took two steps back unconsciously. He began to look around the entire sea area and assess the direction of this naval battle.

On the front battlefield, the Dawn Fleet had suffered heavy losses. Although it was impossible to make an accurate estimate, Federici knew that at least half of the Dawn Fleet's warships had lost their combat effectiveness. Behind the Dawn Fleet was the Pearl Fleet. Being at the rear of the battlefield, they had not suffered any damage, but at this moment the Pearl Fleet broke away from the overall formation. They stretched out their battle line from the left in an "I" shape and outflanked the left wing of the Yan Army's warships.

It seems that they want to invest as much available combat power as possible, striving to launch an encirclement on the Yan Army with their numerical advantage. The left wing should have been the location of the Rose Fleet. If the Rose Fleet launched a general attack from the left wing at the beginning of the battle, then the current situation of this battle might not have occurred.

But now the withdrawal of the Rose Fleet has forced the Pearl Fleet, which is the reinforcement of the subsequent frontal fleet, to make tactical arrangements to move to the left wing. Once their battle line is formed, they will certainly be able to cause damage to the Yan Army fleet, but at the same time, the Dawn Fleet, which has already suffered heavy losses, will probably be completely defeated by the Yan Army on the front without subsequent support.

For this reason, their current tactics are definitely an extremely risky decision. If the Pearl Fleet cannot effectively contain the Yan Army, then once the Dawn Fleet can no longer hold on and is completely defeated, the entire coalition will face a dire situation with the door wide open.

The battlefield will be divided into two, and the only advantage in military strength will disappear.

And now, the Giant Whale Fleet on the right wing needs to cooperate with the Pearl Fleet, stretch the line on the right wing as much as possible, and launch a fierce attack on the Yan Army Fleet together with the Pearl Fleet on the left wing.

But at the same time, if we fail to counterattack before the Dawn Fleet is completely defeated, the final outcome of this naval battle will be self-evident.

After the evaluation, Federici turned pale and sweated profusely. He finally fell into great panic.

At this point, he clearly knew that the coalition forces were walking a tightrope. Many favorable conditions for naval battles, such as the windward position, troop advantage, size of warships, etc., had been gradually disintegrated by the high-saturation and highly destructive offensive of the Yan Kingdom warships.

The enemy's warships rely on internal driving force of unknown origin, extremely destructive shells, and external iron armor... No, it is very likely that their warships are not armored at all, but the entire ship is made of iron as a structure.

With these advantages, they gained the upper hand in this naval battle with far fewer warships than their own!

Thinking of this, Federich's face began to twitch and his fingers began to tremble slightly. Listening to the continuous explosions on the battlefield, he gradually began to think of retreating.

The current casualties of the Giant Whale Fleet are less than half, but if they implement the right-wing flanking tactic, there is a great possibility that they will never return.

The Dawn Fleet can't hold out for much longer, and the enemy is still sailing. Once they occupy the center line, their warships will fire from both sides and launch fierce artillery attacks.

However, our own warships still have to continue to adjust their positions and counterattack by facing the enemy with their side facing the ship, which means that the horizontal battle line has to be changed to a vertical one again, but every change of direction will be subject to artillery fire. In contrast, the enemy does not need to consider the problem of turning at all. Their artillery is not on the sides of the ship, but more like a central turret, and can even launch attacks at any place.

"The gap is too big... too big..."

"This kind of battleship...we have absolutely no way to fight it..."

Although he was unwilling to admit it, in the face of the cruel reality, Federici still bent down and uttered a murmur that was almost a moan.

At this moment, he had a feeling that the previous naval warfare mode would be completely changed after the end of this battle.

The warships brought by the Yan army seemed to have overturned everything.

After realizing this, he stood up tremblingly, his teeth trembling, and then hesitantly said to the herald:

"perhaps......"

"We... must prepare to retreat."

Under the current circumstances, if Federich chooses to withdraw, he believes that he can still retain some combat power, but if he continues to fight, no one can guarantee the final outcome.

The Giant Whale Fleet that came this time can be said to occupy one-third of the country's naval strength. Together with the Sea Lion Fleet that was previously annihilated, if the last ship is left, the country's power at sea will be greatly reduced.

This was an unbearable burden, and Federich had to admit that he didn't dare to fight any further.