The fleet sailed away from the Toulon military port and headed straight for the Strait of Gibraltar from the Mediterranean, and the four successfully renovated warships were absolutely eye-catching on the sea, with tall white sails and jet-black metallic warships cutting through the waves.

The heavy steel armor kept the waterline low, and although the speed was reduced, the increase in the total weight of the battleship strengthened the stability, so that the storms common in the Atlantic Ocean were probably more difficult to hurt this fleet.

"Full speed ahead! Within half a month we must be in the Cape Verde Islands...... Those who Chinese hated France to the extreme, and they would certainly continue to train their hands with French ships to hone in on their new weapons systems......"

"I know the temper of those young people, this one-sided tailwind battle will definitely make them obsessed, they are reluctant to leave such a busy Atlantic golden route, we will definitely catch up with the ......"

Molière boosted the morale of the navy soldiers on the battleship Glory, most of whom were soldiers who had gone on expeditions to the Ryukyus with him, who had experienced the taste of humiliating defeat and were all mad when they heard that they were going to fight the Chinese.

"In Asia, they are at home and we are away, and even if they fail, we have a prevarication, but now they dare to attack merchant ships in the Atlantic, which is the act of piracy...... The Atlantic Ocean of the Europeans will not allow them to run amok! Full speed ahead......"

"Full speed ahead, send them to hell......" roared excitedly from the Glory, followed by cheers from the three battleships, the Piety, the Holy, and the Gaul.

On the Glory, General Bruce was looking at the charts next to the 12-pounder breech-loading rifled gun at the front of the deck, the iron rails and steel guards welded together, and the gear tracks allowed the custom-made gun to rotate freely.

Every time General Bruce saw this cannon, he could feel the surging power in it, and the scene of the live-fire exercise off the coast of Toulon was still vivid, and the range of three kilometers had already crushed all the smoothbore guns on the sea, and even the British warships could hardly achieve such an effective range.

All the old smoothbore guns below deck had been removed and returned to the furnace for steelmaking, and all that was left were ten six-pounder rifled guns on the left and right, all of which were made up of the latest custom-mounted shells.

"Such a warship is invincible within an effective range of three kilometers! No matter what strange things the Chinese come up with, the four-to-one difference in strength is here, Molière, you can boldly rest assured, this expedition is destined to be a journey to wash away shame!"

As a result, General Bruce's cigar, Molière took a deep puff, "I am as confident as you in terms of firepower and steel armor protection of the battleship, but what I am most worried about is the speed, it must be shown by various intelligence that it is a steam-powered battleship, what if you choose to escape against the wind?"

Bruce nodded, "That's really the case! If these cunning Chinese choose to run away against the wind, we really can't chase them and can only watch them escape...... But this is also considered that we have completed the mission, at least we have found out the basic attributes of this battleship, and we can hand it over......"

"Wouldn't the steam-powered warship be restocked, if only we could ascertain its position and basic performance, and then inform all the ports along the Atlantic coast...... Hahaha, without coal, wouldn't the so-called steam power become a joke? Use a few sails to drive a pure ironclad ship? That speed must not be slow down like a snail!"

Hahaha...... The two looked at each other and smiled.

When the fleet passed through the Strait of Gibraltar, Molière went ashore and sent an urgent telegram, and two hours later the British and French military departments began to act, and all ports controlled by Britain and France on the east and west coasts of the Atlantic Ocean strictly enforced the ban on coal trading, and all ships that needed to purchase coal had to obtain the consent of the top governor of the local government.

Now that there were submarine cables connecting Europe and North America, orders from Britain and France were quickly conveyed to various ports, and even diplomatic departments issued requests for cooperation with independent countries in North and South America.

With the exception of the United States, which is ambiguous, all other countries have said they will cooperate with the ban on coal sales issued by Britain and France.

A vast net has been spread, and every European merchant ship that is about to sail has received a new order from all the ports in North America, the Caribbean, South America, North Africa, and South Africa.

"Beware of any steam-powered warship in the Atlantic, as long as you find a steamship of unknown nationality, you must send the coordinates out while escaping, and the whole Atlantic will encircle and suppress that ghost ship!"

Until this point, it was known that it was not a ghost ship at all, but a steam-powered warship of unknown nationality, a new murderous weapon developed by some evil country, which also had a grudge against the French.

By the time Molière's fleet left Gibraltar and sailed to the Madrid Islands, the newspapers in Europe were already in a mess, and the French media were mad at attacking Prussia, demanding that Prussia immediately give an explanation for the ghost ship.

The reason of the French is very strong, a ghost ship with super powerful fire power with completely steam-powered main guns, if you want to build it, you need very strong national industrial strength, and now there are only a few countries in the world that can meet this condition.

With such industrial strength, and with a grudge against France, eight of the nine missing merchant ships were French ships, is there any need to guess such an evil country? It must be Prussia, it must be Prussia!

Prussia, of course, will not let France splash dirty water, starting from the Dover incident some time ago, shaping itself into a weak country bullied by France, and then asking France that 'the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay are under the control of Britain and France, and the Shetland Islands in the North Sea to the north are under the control of the British Royal Navy...... May I ask France, how did Prussia's so-called new warships leave Europe?'.

The people were right to think about it, Prussia did not have overseas colonies, and their industrial power was all at home, and it was impossible to build warships overseas, and the coastal waters of Europe were completely under the close control of the British and French navies, so if there really was such a strange warship leaving Europe, there should not be no trace at all.

For a time, the media in Europe became a mess, and the war of words between the two sides intensified, and even radical remarks appeared, and the smell of gunpowder before the war became a little stronger.

But all this Zhiyuan is completely unaware, Xiang Ying and they are killing in the Atlantic, it turns out that the strategy of using flying clippers to explore the way, Zhiyuan hiding behind to carry out a killing blow is very successful, when the fleet approached the waters of the Cape Verde Islands, 12 merchant ships have been buried under the guns of the Zhiyuan.