Baron would have to seriously up his game if he was to take out these ships that were heading his way. However, he believed that if he could stop these ships now, it would be a big blow to Wu San Gui. He started off with the only advantage that he housed in this situation, the speed at which his ships were able to travel. His sloops had a maximum speed of almost double that of the ironclads that he was facing.
Although that sounded like a huge difference, it wasn't that much of an asset if the enemy could take down a ship with just a few shots, which the ironclads were capable of doing if they got lucky enough. This battle would pit Baron's 500 ships against Wu San Gui's 400, this would almost certainly be a head-on battle with few tricks. A situation that was quite unfavorable to Baron.
This did not bother Baron in the least, however, since he still had one surprise that his enemies still had no idea that he could receive direct orders and intelligence from Wu San Gui himself. It might not matter that much in an entanglement such as this, but every little bit helps.
The land-based artillery was still focusing on the ironclads that were being stalled by Guan Yu and Yue Fei since that place had the highest amount of enemy ships within a relatively short distance of each other. Some of the ironclads were near breaking point while others didn't even have a scratch on them, the later ones will be quite difficult to take down with just sloops of wars.
With all this information in mind, Baron began devising a way for his fleet of 500 to try and outdo their opponent. Hundreds of battle plans ran through his mind while he simulated every way out, in, and around the situation. All of this planning was going on while both sides were shooting at each other and simultaneously closing in on each other getting ready to do short-ranged combat.
Just as Baron was about to issue an order for his fleet, an order from Wu San Gui was intercepted from the ironclad that Guan Yu managed to infiltrate and capture. The message was that someone by the name of Admiral Connely was to take command of the 400 ironclads and the first thing that he should do was to reorganize the mess of a fleet that they were in.
Baron made it known to all his sailors and soldiers that all ships were to thrust their speed up to its maximum and charge at the enemy with everything in their arsenal. A rather bold tactic, but the meaning behind this action was that if the enemy was busy reorganizing their fleet, they would be more prone to damage before they finish their task.
There was no way for Baron to know how competent that this Admiral Connely was, but for him to be appointed the leader of such an important role must mean that he must have some achievements under his belt. There was no way that Baron was going to let such a golden opportunity pass, and now his actions have proved his resolve to end this quickly before Connely could do anything to counterattack.
This quick approach that Baron was using was certainly a surprise for the ironclads that had just started to shift their least damaged ships to the front and the more damaged ones to the back to provide support instead of taking in damage. However, what surprised them more was the speed at which the sloops were coming in at, going by their estimates, they were going at least one and a half times the maximum speed at which their own ships could go at.
Such fast approaching enemies would scare anyone, much less to say a fleet that was in the middle of figuring out which formation was best for them to attack. Their formation became sloppy because of their increasing urgency to get things done as quickly as possible and not to mention, they could not fire their weapons upon their enemy while all of their allied ships are shifting around each other still trying to figure out their position.
Baron's sloops of war were getting closer and closer as was the sound of the cannons that were firing upon the ironclads. 2 kilometers, 1 kilometer, 800 meters, 600, 400, 200, and at last, the two sides meet and it was clear which side held the upper hand in a situation like this. It was the Ironclads, at first. However, with each minute that passed, this advantage was slowly being handed over to the sloops that were being controlled by Baron. This was because that by the time that the sloops arrived, the ironclads still could not get into the arrangement and that leads to a messy, messy group of ships that were individually superior to even a couple of sloops combined, but as a group could not bring out their full potential.
The reason why the Ironclads initially held the dominance was just their vastly superior defense that could withstand multiple attacks, but that defense could only do so much against literally hundreds of barrages of attacks. As Baron's ships worked their way through the outermost, and for the most part least damaged, the layer of ships the fighting became less fierce as each consecutive ship that they destroyed was easier to take down than the last.
At this point, there wasn't much that Baron needed to do, and not much Connely could do given that the ships that were under his command had folded so easily. It was not an easy decision on his part, but he gave the order to fight on until their last dying breath. He knew that if he couldn't accomplish anything, Wu San Gui would have his head. In the Vesper faction, power, intuition, money, and connections are what mattered. It was unfortunate that he lacked 3 out of those 4 qualities.