Never before in the history of warfare in Central America has there been such an unprecedented war, and Iquique has completely turned into purgatory.

The two fleets on the sea were divided into north and south directions to confront each other, arranged in two parallel lines more than 2,000 meters apart, and were desperately pouring fire on each other.

The power of the 24-pounder cannon is not blown, and the entire hull can be seen shaking violently with every salvo, the Esmerdalee is the battleship with the largest tonnage and the most powerful firepower in this war, and every salvo of gunpowder smoke can form a black cloud that envelops the entire battleship, and the huge shaking creates countless ripples on the sea, and all the fish that can escape on the bottom of the sea have fled.

"Volley...... Starboard salvo fired...... The Huaaska is already on fire! They won't last long...... Keep firing!"

The Peruvian army on the opposite side also went crazy, and all the warships raised a banner with the slogan "Concentrate fire and shoot and annihilate the Esmedalae!"

Shoot, reload, refire, reload...... Shot, fire, fire, fire, fire! This naval battle has become a fixed cycle of death, and in the end, the naval soldiers have become completely numb and insensitive machines, and they only instinctively complete the familiar actions of their own training.

After the artillery battle lasted for half an hour, the Peruvian navy, which had the advantage of more warships, gradually suppressed the Chilean fleet, and even the old sail battleships had quietly moved to the west of the battlefield to form an attack posture on the flank of the Chilean navy.

The situation was broken by parallel fire, and the Peruvian Navy had formed an L-shaped firing array on the sea, which they were trying to break through from the western flank of the Chilean Navy.

The pressure on the left flank of the Chilean Navy has never been greater, and they have to divide some of their firepower against the changing sailboats, which will expose the flagship Esmerdale in the central area to more fire.

Later generations analyzed this war, and they all felt that it was a little incredible, it was obviously a pure ironclad naval battle era, but the commanders of both sides subconsciously adopted the same tactic, that is, beheading.

The two armies were like two cavalry in the Middle Ages, each concentrating their firepower on each other's commanders, and the two flagships were almost single-handed.

Now the Esmerdale and the Huasca have become two burning fireships, and the iron armor on the side of the opposite fire has been scorched, and even a huge gap has been blown out in some areas, revealing white stubble of wood.

These are not pure ironclad giant ships, these are the transition products of the ironclad era, and it is not easy for them to survive such a high-intensity battle until now.

The Chilean admiral looked at the enemy's fleet with angry eyes, and then looked at the soldiers on land who were desperately fighting, and a sad feeling of heroic end welled up in his heart.

He commanded in the deepest voice, "Esmerdalee...... Prepare the port side for a salvo...... We're going to rush and kill the Huaska with close range and white-knuckle combat......!"

"General......" The surrounding officers exclaimed, "We can retreat first! We have done our best to fight this part, and the enemy is not guilty of being outnumbered, so let's retreat!"

"Shut up! Retreat? Do we have a way back! The army is desperate, but you say retreat? I will shoot you......" The roaring captain was about to draw his gun, but fortunately the officers around him rushed up to stop him.

"Look at ......," the commander trembled and pointed to the burning Esmerdalae, "can we still escape?

At this moment, there was a loud bang, and the battleship shook violently, and then the outer deck was noisy, "The boiler room was shot...... Call the military doctor, the boiler room was shot, and countless casualties ......"

There was no way back for the Esmerdale, and those present were silent, and soon the separating signal flags fluttered on the flagship's mast, and the wounded behemoth of the sea began to turn around and prepare for a mortal charge.

Before the change, the Chilean Navy was on the south side of the battlefield, with the bow facing west, while the Peruvian Navy in the north faced east, and both sides actually used their starboard guns to bombard the enemy, and the port guns were not used.

At that time, people did not have the consciousness of arranging the guns of battleships on the central axis, although they were ironclad battleships, but the guns were still placed on the left and right sides, but the angle could be rotated and adjusted in a limited angle. But there is absolutely no anti-sky design like the Zhiyuan's main gun that can rotate 360 times.

Although this old-fashioned layout has brought about an increase in combat effectiveness due to the improvement of artillery technology, it is only an enhancement, and it will definitely not achieve an epoch-making improvement like the Zhiyuan.

Of course, this artillery layout also has the advantage of implementing the assault charge tactics commonly used in the era of sail battleships, that is, abandoning the T-shaped firing formation, quickly interspersing into the interior of the enemy's fleet, and at the closest distance, the left and right guns can fire a dense salvo.

There are often such classic pictures in later film and television works, two warships staggered, the nearest distance is not even three meters, and then the artillery rumbles at each other, and the smoke, fire, and sawdust wreckage fill the entire screen.

And now the Esmerdalee was going to carry out such a primitive assault tactic, and he was to carry out a decapitation operation on the enemy's flagship with its port guns, which had not yet been put into operation.

After all, the Esmedarle has a displacement of 500 tons more than the Huaasca, the thickness of the iron armor and the power provided by the boiler are more powerful, although it was blown up with many holes, but the basic performance has not been destroyed much.

The battleship drew a curved arc on the sea, rushed to the west, turned to the north, and rushed towards the flagship of the Peruvian Navy.

"Boiler pressurization...... Shell reload...... Wait for the launch order...... Brave soldiers, the decisive battle is today!"

The Huasca also saw that the opponent's intentions were "not good...... These Chileans are going to be ruined! They are going to die together...... Changing their stance, we rushed forward too, and the port side was ready for a salvo!Since they were going to choose a knightly duel, we would give him this opportunity......"

The heavy bow pierced the waves, the valiant sailors shouted slogans of victory, the desperate commanders threw their lives behind, the god of war had dropped the dice, but now no one could see the final size.

Behind the two flagships were other ironclad ships that followed closely, and now the entire sea was in chaos, and all the soldiers had only one fanatical thought in their hearts: "Rush forward, even if you use a broadside battle, you will tear the enemy apart!"

The navy is a glorious branch of the army, the vast sea, the isolation, the land of life and death make these people never lack the courage to fight, compared with the army of the indigenous soldiers, we have to admit that the two navy formed by the descendants of white immigrants are quite good.

Regardless of victory or defeat, they at least showed the spirit that a soldier should have!