Upon hearing the report that 14 of the 3rd Fleet's main ships were entangled in the enemy fleet, Hope was shocked and furious. He didn't have time to scold the commander of the 3rd Squadron for being a bastard, so he didn't wait for the fleet to be sorted out, and immediately ordered an attack, preparing to fight to the death with the Chinese Imperial Fleet not far ahead.

He was indeed afraid, the loss of 30 warships in Yangon Port not long ago was an unexpected mistake, but this loss of these 14 warships was no longer an unexpected mistake, but would be said to be a command error and his own incompetence! If this continues, if it is delayed for a while, the expeditionary fleet led by himself will lose even more, and if it is consumed back and forth, maybe before it reaches Hong Kong, its own fleet will be even weaker than the other party's fleet! After all, I had learned in advance that the naval fleet of the Chinese Empire also had a displacement of 150,000 or 60,000 tons, and in addition to the main force of the Pacific Fleet in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River basin in North America, there were also dozens of warships that could participate in this operation, with a total displacement of 100,000 tons.

Not long after, two fleets lined up in the sea in front of the right appeared in a wedged formation, which was the main force of the Chinese Empire's fleet.

Hope immediately ordered five detachments to enter the battle formation, meet them and open fire.

And he himself personally led the largest hole card of the Chinese expedition fleet, a black steel monster-like flagship, the nearly 10,000-ton ironclad battleship "Warrior", which has not yet been fully completed, to rush to the front.

Thinking of the combat readiness data and origin of this ironclad battleship named "Warrior", Hope's confidence immediately rose a little, and his originally nervous heart began to relax.

This ironclad ship, which began to be built at the Thames Steel Works four years ago, is different from the French "Glory" ironclad ship that has been put into use for a long time, although the "Glory" is also called an ironclad ship, but Hope scoffs at it: although it was launched early, it is still fundamentally a wooden hull, just an armored ship wrapped in iron plates around the waterline and above, and the "Warrior" battleship led by himself is the real world's first ironclad ship- The main part of the hull is made of iron hull, and only the corners are made of hardwood, which is a real ironclad ship, and because of this, although the hull is only a little larger than the Frenchman's "Glory", the displacement tonnage is almost doubled, reaching 9,137 tons.

The "Warrior" ironclad ship, due to the pressure of insufficient equipment of the British Navy, was launched faster than planned, and was launched as early as the year before last, a full year earlier than originally planned. And its main artillery equipment is also much more powerful than ordinary battleships, 26 68-pounder guns, 4 70-pounder guns and 10 110-pounder guns, all front-loading rifled guns, and even the 4 70-pounder guns and 10 110-pounder guns are still imitations of a new Armstrong gun developed from a Krupp cannon captured during the first naval war against China, the range and frequency are greatly improved. Not only that, the "Warrior" ironclad ship uses a super-powerful single-expansion cylindrical piston steam engine, and the front part of the hull adopts a streamlined V-shaped design suitable for breaking waves, and the speed is very fast, as the world's largest tonnage battleship, the "Warrior" ironclad ship can reach about 14 knots when moving at full speed, which is far beyond other ordinary battleships, and even those cruisers.

The British Expeditionary Fleet still adopted a formation of five columns, with the flagship of the 5th Squadron, the "Warrior," taking the lead and rushing to the front, while on the opposite side, Tan Tiyuan, commander of the Chinese Empire's Nanyang Fleet, also personally led the fleet's flagship "Dingyuan No. 4" ironclad ship to swoop straight over.

"Oh God! When did the enemy army in the east also have powerful ironclad ships! This is still a real ironclad ship, although I have never seen such a style, but it is indeed not the iron-clad armored ship like the 'Glory', but an ironclad ship like our 'Warrior'!

This is a real opponent, and there are two more, God! Luckily, it's a little smaller than our Warrior. Hope's assistant, a major, exclaimed.

Hope's face became ugly, he didn't expect that the other party also had ironclad ships, and there were more than one or two, looking at the left side in the distance with a telescope, the enemy fleet on the opposite side was led, and there seemed to be two iron bumps that were black like hills, which seemed to be ironclad ships, at least large-tonnage battleships with ironclad. In this way, this damn Chinese empire unknowingly bought or built a number of ironclad ships?

Hope couldn't help but gasp! Originally, because of the "Warrior", he gave him a feeling of confidence, but now he suddenly felt a little bad!

It is clear that the Chinese Empire has become stronger. Powerful enough to build your own ironclad ship! Because Hope knows very well that the countries that can make ironclad ships in this world today, in addition to the British Empire, there are only a few countries such as France and the United States and Austria, the United States has been busy with the civil war, and the only ones left are France and Austria, but these two countries have just started to develop ironclad ships for less than two years, even if the Chinese Empire buys them at a high price, there are no two good ones to sell. Therefore, so many ironclad ships appeared here, and some of them must have been built by the Chinese Empire itself.

That's what makes Hope feel terrified. Because Hope knows very well that the strength of this country lies in its large population, the land area is originally very vast, and now after the war and expansion, the area is going to become the world's largest country, such a country, the weakest point is that the industry is not good, especially the lack of military industry, but now it can not only make its own muskets and artillery, but also make its own most powerful ironclad ships, which is amazing, enough to threaten the entire Western world.

"Boom! ......" A few cannon explosions disrupted Hope's thoughts and brought him back to the battle in front of him.

But the enemy warships that rushed straight forward opened fire fiercely, and at this time, the distance was less than half a nautical mile, and Hope still did not give the order to open fire, but let the entire five detachments continue to move forward, fully close to the enemy fleet.

He is an experienced commander in naval warfare, and he knows very well that when the enemy fires at such a distance, it seems that the shells are flying all over the sky, but in fact, they can hit, and it is only two or three hundred miles, so it is better not to shoot blindly but waste ammunition and lose the lead, and wait for the enemy to fully approach the best range of naval warfare, that is, within 1,000 yards, and then concentrate and open fire.

Gradually approaching the Chinese Imperial Fleet in a two-column formation. But in the process, the first "Warrior" slammed several shells, but there was not much damage, and the ironclad ship really lived up to its name. But several wooden steam galleons that followed behind were damaged, two of them were hit by shells, and to Hope's shock, one of the cruisers, with a tonnage of no less than 2,000 tons, was actually hit by a shell and broke the side panels of the ship, followed by a violent explosion, the entire cabin exploded, and a fire broke out. Just when Hope thought that the cruiser had been unfortunate enough to hit the ammunition depot, there was another bang that exploded, and the BII had just been even more violent. The whole ship was in tatters and completely damaged.

Hope's face turned blue, and then he realized that the first explosion just now was just the sound of enemy shells bursting. At this time, a few shells hit the warships next to them, exploding one after another, and soon these warships were also damaged, although they did not withdraw from the battlefield, but their combat effectiveness was greatly reduced. Judging from the sound and movement of these explosions, Hope was even more cold in his heart, and the enemy shells seemed to be a little different, and the power was particularly huge. A wooden warship was hit by such a shell, at least with a fairly ordinary destructive force of two or three shells.

So, is there a problem with the enemy's shells or gunpowder?

.......... PS: Thank you for reading the book friends of QQ.