The attack on Connely's forces, while they were still in the middle of organizing themselves, worked like a charm. Baron's fleet showed their superiority in the latter part of the engagements, but things were changing. Somehow, someone was controlling the situation so that the Ironclads would start to once again dominate. Baron knew that it wasn't Wu San Gui because there weren't any more intercepted orders, It could only be Connely.
Connely was confident in his skills to reform the fleet that he had been given and coordinate them into a formation before Baron's ship arrived. That turned out to be a big miscalculation on his part since he did not anticipate that the sloops would be coming at him in full force at full speed.
However, just because he messed up on one little detail did not mean that he was going to just croak at such an important situation, plus, he had one trick up his sleeve that he believed that Baron just did not have the ability to counter. Once he lulled the enemy ships into thinking they were starting to gain the upper hand, he unleashed the first part of the plan that he believed to be the best course of action.
At first, Baron was only slightly aware that something was going on on the battlefield that was allowing his fleet to cede dominance of the battlefield. In only a matter of a few minutes, he could see clearly now just what that something is, the hired guards of Wu San Gui were fighting all-out and taking down one sloop of war after the next. There was no time for Baron to think about it, he needed Guan Yu and Yue Fei to take down these powerhouses. The orders were sent out immediately and those two left a portion of their already small fleet to further stall the much larger enemy fleet behind them. They came back as fast as they could because they realized the impact that the 5 guards were capable of.
With these reinforcements of Baron's slamming into the rear of Connely's fleet, there was further chaos that reaped into the mess. Most of the ships that Guan Yu and Yue Fei were now doing battle with were already worn out and most were already highly damaged from the earlier barrage of the land artillery. This did not mean it was any less of a challenge to fight through them as their superior offensive capabilities were far greater. Now that Connely's fleet was being pincered, there wasn't much to do but see if either would be able to make any breakthroughs without him.
The two warzones continued on for another half hour before the much larger Ironclad fleet was finally able to break through the sloops of war. What was surprising was that those ironclads had decided to completely destroy every ship that stood in their way, presumably to make sure that no troubles would be following them. This did not spell well for Guan Yu and Yue Fei as they would become trapped in a sea of enemies if those ironclads reached them before they were able to rout the 5 guards of Wu San Gui and Connely.
Going by Guan Yu's estimates, the ironclads that were behind them were still being bombarded by the land defenses and would likely not be traveling at full speed, therefore, they would still require nearly an hour before they would be able to join up with their allies. Guan Yu signaled for Yue Fei to attack at a single point alongside him that he had been eyeing for some time now. Yue Fei understood and complied. The two headed towards each other and went straight for the few ships at the front that was making the most progress since it was likely that that would be where Wu San Gui's guards would be.
The two of them had now less than 50 ships under them and they directed them to destroy as many ships as they could. Guan Yu and Yue Fei got onto the same ship and headed to the other side while trying to avoid all the enemy ships that were in their way and dodging any projectiles that were coming their way as best as they could. If the enemy was allowed to break through, their land would eventually be run over, and that would look bad upon them especially since that would give Vesper an access route to deal further damage to madam Zheng's territory. That is if they managed to get past her blockade.
By some form of miracle, Guan Yu and Yue Fei managed to get to the very front to confront the 5 guards. Guan Yu, having fought with these 5 before knew of how difficult it would be for them to be taken down. However, he knew just what to do now that he had Yue Fei with him.
(GY) "Brother, we have to take down those 5 right there. They don't see us at the moment so we must use this to our advantage. If we don't do this fast they will breakthrough and we will almost certainly have lost this battle." Guan Yu relayed to Yue Fei.
(YF) "You go first, I'll provide support!" Yue Fei screamed back.
Guan Yu nodded and climbed aboard the ship that housed the 5 that gave him a good beating the last time that they met. On the other hand, Yue Fei and the rest of the crew climbed aboard a ship that was directly adjacent to the ship that Guan Yu just went on and tried to take over that one as quickly as they could. They used every single able-bodied soldier for this, essentially abandoning the ship that they came here in and got to work. Yue Fei fought through many enemies until everyone that was not an ally was killed or thrown off. Now that this was done, Yue Fei glanced over at Guan Yu who was hiding on the next ship over and signaled for him to begin.