Peng Yulin shook his head and said: "Commander Tan, you have a certain responsibility, but you can't be blamed entirely, our skills are not as good as others, our Chinese Empire's navy is indeed still in its infancy, and there is indeed a big gap compared with foreigners." I have thought about it, even if our two fleets together are more than the fleets of foreigners, it is not necessarily a victory, our naval combat experience and the training and consciousness of our officers and men are not as strong as theirs, and our only advantage is that we have many warships and a long range of artillery, so we cannot abandon this advantage and use our own disadvantages to fight hard with the other side, which is undoubtedly to attack the opponent's strengths with our own shortcomings. We should use the range advantage to attack from a distance. What's more, this failure is not necessarily a bad thing! ”

Peng Yulin said, a trace of mystery leaking from his face.

Tan Tiyuan was stunned: "What did Commander Peng say?" ”

"In fact, Your Majesty has long said that although the navy of our Chinese Empire is developing rapidly, there is still a huge gap between it and the British, so when I learned that Britain had sent a huge expeditionary force to come, Your Majesty once asked the General Staff and me, and the General Staff thought that although it was not the enemy of the British fleet, it had at least the strength to fight, and wanted to find an opportunity to engage the detachment of the British Expeditionary Force a few times, even if it suffered a loss, it could learn the practical experience of this large-scale naval battle and quickly improve the strength of the Imperial Navy. Don't you think so? Peng Yulin sighed: "I also think so, thinking that with the size of our current fleet, even if we can't fight head-on, we won't lose too much, take advantage of them to set a trap in Kuching, and then you and I ambush the two fleets together, the number of warships is more than them, and it is a surprise, even if we can't win a big victory, at least we can defeat the other party's arrogance a little and provoke them." ”

"Provoke them?" Tan Tiyuan was a little puzzled.

"Yes, Commander Tan, let me tell you the truth, it is estimated that at this time, Your Majesty is about to arrive in Guangzhou and come to personally command the battle! The purpose of provoking the British expeditionary force was precisely to lure them all to Canton. Peng Yulin said.

"What!? His Majesty personally came to Guangzhou to command the battle? Tan Tiyuan was even more surprised, and then said in shock: "How can this work!" Your Majesty's golden body, how can you come to the battlefield in person, and Guangzhou is the first to bear the brunt, it must be the first big city captured by foreigners, and it is extremely dangerous for Your Majesty to go to Guangzhou! No, I have to hurry up and persuade Your Majesty to leave Guangzhou! ”

Peng Yulin laughed and said, "Commander Tan is really loyal, Your Majesty must be relieved to know it!" It is precisely because the first thing the British Expeditionary Force will capture must be the city of Guangzhou, that His Majesty will choose to come to Guangzhou! Although the General Staff had already persuaded him, His Majesty decided to go to Guangzhou to personally set up a bureau and completely solve the British fleet at the mouth of the Pearl River outside Guangzhou! He said that if they don't fight, they will fight and beat the British so hard that they will never dare to be the enemy of our Chinese empire again! Moreover, Your Majesty said that Guangzhou is the birthplace of our Chinese Empire, and the status of Guangzhou City is comparable to that of the capital Shengjing, and there is no room for error, so he is determined to personally sit in Guangzhou and completely eliminate the British Expeditionary Force in Guangzhou! ”

"Since Your Majesty's holy will has been decided, we will naturally obey it, and we can only fight to the death to repay the holy grace." After Tan Tiyuan bowed to the northeast of Guangzhou, he asked curiously: "Brother Peng, junior brother, please ask, what is the matter with what you just said that Your Majesty came to Guangzhou to set up a bureau and said that you wanted to provoke those British and lead their fleet to Guangzhou?" ”

Tan Tiyuan was very curious, he even changed his name, close to Peng Yulin, hoping that Peng Yulin could tell him what was going on.

However, Peng Yulin shook his head: "I don't know the specifics!" Your Majesty only said a long time ago, when he was deducing that the European powers would unite to attack us, that to a certain extent, he would personally set a huge trap in Canton, so that the local warships would not return. It's just that this is an extremely confidential matter, and His Majesty is not willing to say more. I don't even know how to annihilate the British expeditionary fleet in one fell swoop. Along the Pearl River estuary, those batteries have been reinforced, and some advanced Krupp cannons have been added, although the coastal defense has been strengthened, but at most the passing enemy fleet has been severely damaged, and it is still impossible to annihilate their entire army! ”

"Yes! I know those forts very well. Could it be that Your Majesty has other secret weapons? Those mosquito boats? Tan Tiyuan said.

Peng Yulin knew what Tan Tiyuan was talking about about the mosquito boat, which was a new type of warship, which was personally proposed by His Majesty and developed and manufactured in the newly built northernmost Dengzhou Ship Administration. This mosquito ship is small in size and has a small carrying capacity, and it is a large-caliber Krupp cannon comparable to the equipment of a battleship on a small hull, which is simply a mobile battery. Therefore, this kind of mosquito ship is actually not a warship and cannot go to sea to fight, but as a mobile battery to protect the port, it is a low-cost, cost-effective port coastal defense weapon.

"It shouldn't be a mosquito boat! The mosquito ships had just begun to be manufactured, and their numbers had not yet formed a scale, and although they were not small, they caused heavy losses to the British fleet at most, but they could not annihilate the entire invading expeditionary fleet. Well, let's not guess too much, just accomplish our mission! Since we can't teach the other party a lesson, we can't be angry, so we simply turn anger into seduction, we simply pretend that we can't beat the other party, retreat all the way, and introduce the other party directly into the Pearl River estuary, so that Your Majesty can decide how to destroy the other party! Peng Yulin said.

Tan Tiyuan nodded and said happily: "That's it!" The younger brother said before that the entire Nanyang Fleet will be under the unified command of you, elder brother! ”

"Good! Even so, Peng did not pretend to refuse, so Peng commanded the two fleets to meet the British army! Peng Yulin said proudly, and after speaking, he ordered the whole fleet to pursue the British Hober fleet with all its might.

Half a day later, the South Ocean Fleet and the Pacific Fleet gradually pulled apart, and the warships composed of more than a dozen sail clippers, which were the fastest sails, had caught up with the British fleet, and the distance was only two miles.

Peng Yulin immediately gave the order to spread all the sails, and the ships found an opportunity to open fire and bombard the British ships.

Half an hour later, sailing on the foremost cruiser "Pacific 3", two 200 mm caliber Krupp breech-loading rifled guns installed in the bow gun position opened fire fiercely, the maximum range of the shells with a muzzle velocity of 430 meters per second was as high as more than 5 kilometers, at this moment because it was a stressless pursuit, the gunners who did not panic at all were surprisingly accurate, one of the shells weighing hundreds of kilograms hit the back of a British warship at once, and the huge impact threw the British warship up violently, and then slapped heavily on the sea, The hull shook violently, almost causing the cabin to fall apart. A solid shell with a direct hit, the power is so great.

The other two Pacific Fleet warships, the "Pacific 5" and the "Pacific 8," also approached the British ships, and they got an excellent opportunity to open fire, and immediately opened fire one after another, although they did not hit each other, but they also terrified the British soldiers on the British warships in front. Perhaps they realized that the enemy fleet behind them, although the command was chaotic and the gunner's shooting accuracy was low, the power and range of the artillery were really no worse than their own. This made the British even more determined to destroy the Eastern Fleet, and if possible, it would be better to capture a little more of the guns on the warship and transport them back to London for the arsenal to make some.

Seeing that the long-range firing tactics were effective, Peng Yulin signaled all ships to continue and use the range advantage to expand the results of the battle.

After another half an hour of continuous shelling, the last two British warships, one of which had a displacement of about 600 tons and a gunboat with a displacement of more than 400 tons, both suffered heavy losses and lost their speed and became targets.

Peng Yulin was overjoyed and ordered the Nanyang Fleet next to him to also increase their horsepower to pursue, while several clippers of the Pacific Fleet caught up and prepared to intercept the British ships from the side. At this moment, the British fleet in front suddenly changed formation.

The British naval fleet, which was originally a column, suddenly turned around, spread out into two diagonal lines, and then slowly turned into two horizontal columns, and actually plunged directly into the pursuing two fleets of the Chinese Empire, ready to fight with them.

Peng Yulin thought that the British army knew that they couldn't escape, so they simply turned back and fought head-on with him, but he couldn't let them get his way, and he had to use the range advantage to entangle with them, and there was no need to bombard them head-on, in that case, it would not be advantageous for his untrained subordinates.

Just as he was about to order the dozen or so fastest warships in high-speed pursuit to turn to the side and continue to carry out long-range strikes from the warships behind, the lookout suddenly reported: "Commander, there are a large number of black spots in the distance due south, it seems that it is a fleet composed of a large group of warships!" ”

Peng Yulin was startled and came back to his senses: "It's not good! It must be the main fleet of the British Expeditionary Force, which has only heard the news and has never seen it! So that's the case, no wonder the British fleet in front of us fled south, just to lure us here, and the calculation was that they and reinforcements would join forces to besiege us. Tell the order to go down, don't think about engaging the enemy, and all warships immediately withdraw to the battlefield to the north! ”

With Peng Yulin's order, the South Ocean Fleet and the Pacific Fleet quickly turned around and withdrew north.

As a result, just now, the two fleets of the Chinese Empire pursued the British Ho Bo fleet, and now the British Ho Bo fleet and Seymour's main fleet far behind pursued the two fleets of the Chinese Empire together.

Three hours later, the sky slowly darkened, but more than 20 extremely fast capital warships of the Seymour fleet, the main force of the British Navy, had caught up with the Hober fleet, which was only three miles away from the South Sea Fleet in the rear.

The South Ocean Fleet and the Pacific Fleet led by Peng Yulin did not change direction to Kuching, but continued to the north, and actually sailed straight to Saigon in Ninan Province.

And the British fleet of Seymour and Hober also seemed to know that the other side was eager to get rid of themselves, and did not let up at all, and they clung to the chase and mustered all their strength to catch up. The two sides sailed north day and night, and when they passed a slightly larger island in the northernmost part of the Natuna Islands, the main force of the combined fleet of the Chinese Empire was finally overtaken by the forward warships of the British Seymour fleet.

In desperation, Peng Yulin tearfully ordered two slower gunboats and a frigate to stay behind to block the enemy warships, and the other warships took the opportunity to quickly evacuate north.

The three warships left behind understood that they were just to cover the departure of the main force of their own fleet, and after the enemy caught up, they would never be spared. However, the three selected warships, chanting the slogan "Long live the Chinese Empire", lined up in a row, crossed the sea from which the enemy troops came, and began shelling.

More than a dozen warships of the approaching Seymour fleet also opened fire, and after three rounds of artillery, three warships had lost power, and one of the gunboats began to flood in large quantities. But even so, the three warships of the Chinese Empire remained lined up, and the British warships were stuck in front of them by repeated shelling, until half an hour later, two of the three warships began to sink, and the other powder magazine was hit and exploded, and thick smoke billowed out.

The sacrifice of three warships allowed the main warships of the two fleets of the Chinese Empire to escape the pursuit and enter the southeastern coastal boundary of Ninan Province.