A scuffle broke out between the South Sea Fleet of the Chinese Empire and the British East India and China Combined Fleet, and the shelling lasted for two and a half hours, with heavy losses on both sides.

The sun had somehow ducked into the clouds, and the sky was overcast, as if it was going to rain, and the two sides woke up from the fierce battle.

On the deck of the "Nanyang No. 1", Tan Tiyuan watched with a sad look on his face as another frigate of the Nanyang Fleet slowly sank in the distance, and unconsciously bit his teeth into the flesh of his lower lip, until he noticed a trace of saltiness.

Ignoring the blood stains on his lips, Tan Tiyuan asked the staff officer of the Nanyang Fleet beside him, "How is the battle situation now?" ”

"Commander Tan, although the number of foreigners' warships is slightly less than that of our Nanyang Fleet, their number of artillery is three times that of ours, so although the other side was hit and sunk by the Dutch cruiser piloted and captured by the death squad sent by our army, and also took advantage of the chaos to sink another capital battleship, but then the effect of the foreigners' long-term training reflected, and they slowly stabilized the battle situation, but instead sank several of our warships one after another. After more than an hour of scuffle, the results of the battle have just been counted: our Nanyang Fleet sank a total of 7 warships, three cruisers, namely the "Nanyang 4" and two captured Dutch cruisers, and two frigates and two steam gunboats were also sunk by British warships. The Nanyang No. 7 left the battlefield due to serious damage and hid on the southernmost island and reef of Temmerian for repair; in terms of soldiers, our Nanyang Fleet was killed on the spot, plus the officers and men who could not be rescued after falling into the water, a total of more than 500 officers and men died. ”

Tan Tiyuan's face became even more gloomy, and with a snap, his palm slapped heavily on the mast, which actually cracked the tiger's mouth, and shouted hatefully: "Brothers died on the battlefield, killed the enemy, there is nothing to say!" Foreigners crisscross the South Seas, not only bullying the Chinese people, but now they have formed this blood feud, and we swear to avenge the dead brothers! Fight to the death! ”

The staff officer saw Tan Tiyuan, whose eyes were red, and reminded: "Commander Tan, the foreigners have rich experience in naval warfare, and the enemy and us have fallen into a stalemate, and our sailors and gunners are already insufficient, and now only 8 of the 15 warships of our Nanyang Fleet have gone out, and they are all injured, so it is not suitable to continue fighting!" ”

Tan Tiyuan glared angrily and said, "So many brothers have been sacrificed, how can we survive in secret?" Needless to say, death is death, and it's a big deal to die with foreigners! What's more, they won't be better, you say, how about the damage to foreigners? ”

"The foreigners have a total of 12 warships this time, and a total of 6 warships were sunk by our army, exactly half of them, namely the main battleships 'Calcutta' and 'Chesapeake', 2 frigates and 2 steam gunboats. In addition, there was a cruiser named "Incitement" that was damaged and captured by our "Nanyang II" and a frigate, and another cruiser was seriously damaged, but unfortunately it escaped from the battlefield, and the rest of the warships should have also suffered some injuries, but the severity is not clear. ”

"So, the combined fleet of the British has only four warships left? Are they all injured? Tan Tiyuan's brows stretched and he began to get excited. He wanted to immediately avenge the dead brothers of the South Sea Fleet.

"Yes, Commander! It was supposed to be the flagship of the battleship, as well as two cruisers with a displacement of about 2,000 tons and a gunboat. However, the enemy's firepower was still strong, and the total number of artillery pieces was still greater than the number of warships and artillery remaining in our Nanyang Fleet. Moreover, the melee strategy formulated by Commander Tan was originally based on the fact that the number of warships in our fleet was more than that of the other side, and it was difficult for everyone to command effectively, but now we only have a few warships, and our advantage is only the range and accuracy of rifled guns, but the training of soldiers is not refined enough......"

Hearing this, Tan Tiyuan rudely waved his hand to interrupt the staff officer, and said loudly: "So what? I'm not afraid of death for the officers and men of the Nanyang Fleet, so what are you afraid of? Needless to say, even if we don't have enough training in naval warfare, but with advanced Krupp rifled artillery and a heart loyal to Your Majesty, we will definitely be able to defeat everything! ”

After speaking, he turned his head to the Nanyang No. 2 cruiser that was still bombarding the battle in the distance, and the soldiers who were lying on the planks in the sea with the undulation of the sea, sighed, and continued: "Order all ships to put down the rowboats and salvage the brothers who fell into the water, and at the same time deal with the foreigners." Don't fight head-on with foreigners, but use the range advantage to widen the distance with enemy ships and entangle the other party! Even if we are not afraid of death, we can't fight stupidly with foreigners. We must take advantage of the advantages of our advanced firearms! ”

As soon as Tan Tiyuan gave the order, the Nanyang Fleet was like a tiger, and the artillery became sharper, only to make the British Combined Fleet secretly complain.

Originally, because the Combined Fleet had more than 10 warships scattered over the sea, it was difficult for the Nanyang Fleet to distance itself from it and to give full play to the advantage of the long range of artillery, but now, only four warships remained in the United Fleet in the entire battlefield, and the seven warships of the Nanyang Fleet kept a distance of six or seven hundred meters from the four directions of the outer ring, and unhurriedly took advantage of the range advantage of rifled guns to open fire from a long distance.

The four warships of the Combined Fleet were in trouble, and the "Ellecourt" and the other three warships slowly formed a column and withdrew straight to the west. However, one of the steam gunboats, because its displacement was less than 300 tons, was soon concentrated on dealing with the South Sea Fleet, which was surrounded by a round of shelling, and two of the more than ten shells hit the gunboat, and it was about to sink, and dozens of British soldiers on the ship ran to the deck to ask for help from the cruiser in the rear.

The Combined Fleet had already resumed command at this moment, and West Malaysia was already frightened at this moment, and ordered to break through to the west, preparing to break out of the encirclement of the South Ocean Fleet.

He never thought that the battle would be like this?

At first, it was just a little worry, but if you want to talk about confidence, there is still something, how can the East India Fleet, which crisscrosses the Far East, not even be able to defeat the fleet of an ancient country that has just been established? Otherwise, the detachment would not have been wiped out in one fell swoop a few days ago.

But what he didn't expect was that little worry turned out to be a reality!

There was chaos just now, all the warships were firing and fighting, and he didn't feel it, but now when he looks at it, he is dumbfounded. The combined fleet, which was finally put together, actually fought seventy-seven-eighty-eight.

In retrospect at this moment, it suddenly dawned on me that the enemy fleet, first with a death squad, drove a cruiser as an outcast and a target, rammed and sank the "Chesapeake", and launched a melee while its attention was on the cruiser. The combined fleet led by himself unknowingly fell into the trap. The opponent seems to be chaotic, but in fact it should be a tactic, after adopting an overall formation formation to approach your own fleet, and then dissolving it into scattered tactical detachments, first breaking through one by one to attract attention, and then taking advantage of the chaos to break through the enemy's ship formation, conduct a melee, relying on the advantages of ramming angles, long-range artillery, etc., to win in chaos. Isn't this just right for the navy of the Eastern country, which has not been trained in systematic naval warfare at all?

Simas suddenly came to his senses, but alas, this realization came at the cost of the huge losses of his own combined fleet.

In this situation, even if you try your best to fight and destroy all the enemy forces, you will have to lose at least one or two warships, and your own combined fleet will also lose almost the same, not to mention, there are hundreds of British soldiers struggling in the sea with wooden planks and mats to cry for help.

Can't fight anymore!

At this time, the assistant came to report: "General Sima, the last steam gunboat has also been sunk by the enemy!" The enemy also has seven warships, and they are viciously outflanking us. General, for the glory of the British Empire, I beg you to order the soldiers to fight to the death! ”

Sima waved his hand, frustrated but firm, and ordered: "Pass the order, hang the white flag!" We ask for a truce ......"