The assistant standing beside Hope, who seemed to understand Hope's thoughts, sniffed hard - Hope knew that his nose had always been as sensitive as a dog - and after a moment, the assistant said with a cautious face: "General Hope, the enemy's shells seem to be a little strange, to be precise, their gunpowder is strange. It doesn't seem to be a normal gunpowder formula, and the smell that comes from the explosion isn't quite right. You see, the smoke produced also seems to be somewhat different, with a less sulfur-choking smell. The power of the explosion was much greater than that of ordinary gunpowder. ”

Hope snorted coldly and ordered: "Pass the order, and each detachment will immediately attack with their respective flagships!" ”

The assistant was surprised: "General, before the best firing range is reached, will it ...... if you open fire at this time?"

Hope didn't speak, glared at the assistant fiercely, and the assistant hurriedly went out to issue the order.

At this moment, the sea is already filled with gunsmoke, and the situation of the entire battlefield cannot be seen clearly in the telescope. Hope personally ran to the bow main gun room of the "Warrior", and the gunners of the bow main gun carried one shell after another from the storage area next to it and placed it on the back of the gun, and the four new 110-pound Armstrong guns at the bow and tail of the "Warrior" and 13 68-pounder ordinary smoothbore guns on the right side chord began to adjust their angles and aim at the center of the Chinese Imperial Fleet approaching at high speed in the distance.

Hope personally lit a new 110-pounder Armstrong gun in the center of the bow, and the black hole pointed at the oncoming enemy ironclad ship, which was clearly the flagship, and opened fire.

The cannonball hit the opponent's bow ironclad head-on, but only with a loud tom or two, and the damn protective ironclad was so strong that the Armstrong cannonball couldn't penetrate the protective armor at all. However, the outside of the "Warrior" was also hit by several enemy shells, and it was also not injured at all, and the enemy used most of the flowering shells, which was difficult to cause damage to the "Warrior" ironclad ship at all.

As a result, the two ironclad ships desperately shot at each other, but the ironclad could not be broken for a while, but the masts and sails on the deck could not withstand the bombardment of the artillery, and the sails and masts were blown off and burned, causing the deck to catch fire, and the soldiers were busy extinguishing the fire, and many people were killed and injured by the exploding flowering shells.

Seeing this, Hope simply led the soldiers on the "Warrior", abandoned repairing all sail masts, etc., and only used the steam engine as the power, one ship took the lead, carrying most of the enemy's artillery, and then concentrated several warships to besiege the opponent's ironclad battleships.

At this moment, judging from the frontline of the exchange of fire between the two sides, the British fleet was divided into five columns and inserted in multiple lines, while the Chinese Empire was only two wedge-shaped queues rushing in, and from the battlefield scene, the British army had an obvious firepower advantage.

The warships of the Chinese Empire were the first to engage the British fleet with two ironclad ships, namely the flagship of the Indian Ocean Fleet "Dingyuan No. 1" under the command of Wei Jun and the flagship of the South Ocean Fleet "Dingyuan No. 4" under the command of Tan Tiyuan. Of course, the deputy flagship of the Indian Ocean Fleet, "Dingyuan No. 2," and the deputy flagship of the South Ocean Fleet, "Dingyuan No. 5," also followed closely behind and opened fire together.

However, they were faced not only with the battlearmed battleships "Warriors" of the British 5th Fleet, but also with the two battlearmored ships of the British 1st Fleet "Royal Oak" and the 2nd Fleet "Wangfu", the flagship of the 3rd Fleet "Talbot" and the flagship of the 4th Fleet "Duke Wellington", and the 5 ordinary battleships that followed closely behind as the sub-flagships of the 5th Fleet, all of which were large-displacement warships of more than 5,000 tons and had powerful firepower.

At this time, because both sides were anxious for a decisive battle and relied on relatively close distances, the gap in the range of British artillery was significantly narrowed, but on the contrary, because the warships of the Chinese Empire were only two columns rushing in, and the number of warships in the first line of contact was not as large as the number of British warships, and it was difficult to give full play to the firepower advantage.

The British fleet was able to give full play to its firepower, and among the Chinese imperial fleet, the "Dingyuan No. 1" and "Dingyuan No. 4" ships that served as the lead were both attacked most fiercely, and the "Dingyuan No. 4" alone was besieged by five British warships, if it were not for the fact that he was an ironclad ship, this would have been seriously damaged, but even if it was an ironclad ship, the hull did not suffer major damage, and some facilities on the entire hull deck had already been destroyed by artillery shells, and even the flagpole that issued the order was blown off, and dozens of soldiers were killed and wounded.

However, at this moment, on the "Dingyuan No. 1" ironclad ship, Wei Jun was not in a hurry at all.

Long before entering the range of the artillery, he had already issued two orders: the basic tactical rule of the warships of the Chinese Empire was to keep the bow facing the enemy's main warship, and choose the opportunity to bombard the enemy ship with the side of the ship; All warships followed the movements of their respective ironclad flagships as much as possible, coordinated and cooperated as much as possible in the operation, giving priority to concentrating firepower on the most powerful wooden enemy ships, and preferring to sink one ship first than severely damage ten.

In addition, Wei Jun had no orders, and he had also explained to Tan Tiyuan in advance that during the battle, due to the poor communication conditions and the complexity of the situation of the warship, even if the order was issued, it was impossible to receive it or it was difficult to execute it, so it was better to finalize a general principle in advance, and then let the captains of the fleet choose the most suitable tactics according to the battlefield situation.

This is full decentralization. Of course, one of the principles of this is that all warships work closely together and concentrate their firepower on enemy ships that are easy to sink.

Facing the British flagship "Warrior", which was even bigger than the ironclad ships of his own fleet, Wei Jun smiled and ordered to Chief of Staff Buchanan: "Chief of Staff Buchanan, always pay attention to the movements on the 'Dingyuan 2', once they launch a signal flare, they will lean up and use the ramming angle to resist the British flagship and implement the 'Water Ghost Plan'!" ”

Buchanan nodded excitedly.

At this moment, the "Dingyuan No. 1" was already within 300 meters of the enemy ship "Warrior", and while attracting the firepower of the Warrior, it turned the side of the ship and aimed part of the gun muzzle at the wooden battleship "Talbot" on the right rear side of the "Warrior" ironclad ship, and opened heavy fire.

Wei Jun's purpose, on the one hand, was to adjust the ironclad surface that was bombarded by the opponent's artillery, so as not to cause damage to the ironclad in one direction, and on the other hand, it was difficult for the artillery to attack the "Warrior" ironclad ship for a while anyway, so it was better to first shell the wooden battleship "Talbot" on the side and rear. And the biggest purpose is to let out the 'Dingyuan No. 2' behind him, so that he can get close to the enemy ship "Warrior". Of course, the price paid was that the "Dingyuan No. 1" slanted into the British "Warrior" and "Talbot", and was suppressed by the fire of the two enemy ships.

At this time, a bright signal flare was fired into the sky from the deck of the "Dingyuan No. 2". Buchanan said loudly: "Commander Wei, the water ghost of 'Dingyuan No. 2' has been launched!" ”

Wei Jun said loudly: "Great! Tell the helmsman, lean in and stick to that British flagship! ”

Suddenly, the "Dingyuan No. 1" turned slightly sideways and approached the "Warrior" of the British army. And the "Warrior" apparently discovered the intention of the "Dingyuan No. 1", and the temporary lookout standing on the deck quickly reported to the commander, General Hope, and Hope laughed: "That flagship of the enemy fleet is a little strange! The big iron bump installed on the bow of the ship is supposed to be a replica of the ramming angle used in ancient naval battles. Oh God, so it is! They actually installed ramming horns on ironclad ships!

Not to mention, it is installed on this ironclad ship, which is not afraid of enemy artillery fire and is really an excellent means to deal with wooden battleships! I can't imagine that the Orientals are so treacherous! Fortunately, our 'Warrior' is also an ironclad ship, with steel plates of several centimeters, and there is no fear of their collision angles, but our displacement is large, and their own hull may be damaged.

The order went down, and the Warrior adjusted its direction, and the thickest steel plate in the bow met it. Other wooden battleships dodge the enemy's ramming tactics! ”