When the Huaxia fleet fired the first salvo, the officers and men of the Mi warships were dumbfounded, and they could not imagine that the enemy could fire the first shot at their own flagship at a distance of nearly 6,000 meters.

And the backing of the Mi Army to the sun did not work at all!

The enemy is so strong!

For a while, the Mi army was shocked, and even the experienced veteran fleet commander John Te Lang didn't know what kind of decision to make in half a minute.

While the Mi Guokee was still in a daze, 34 210-mm shells and hundreds of 155-mm caliber shells pounced on its flagship Oregon.

The first salvo was fired, forming a pinch bomb, and the Oregon was surrounded by a column of water that exploded in the middle of the sea by a cannonball.

The second salvo was still as accurate as the first, and the Oregon received a few shells.

The earth-shattering explosion of cannonballs resounded through the Oregon, and although the conning tower was not harmed by its strong armor, it looked out from the observation hole and saw a world of fire and smoke, interspersed with the screams of several soldiers of the Mi Army who had been shot.

In the third salvo, the accuracy continued unabated, and the Oregon continued to feast on shells.

In the fourth salvo, several armor-piercing shells unique to the Huaxia Army pierced the Shen-2, which drilled into the hull of the Oregon and exploded.

"Not good! The stern port side was shot into the water, and the hull was tilted ten degrees to the left! The damage management in the cabin reported in a panic.

In this battle, which could only be beaten but could not be effectively counterattacked, the ears of the captain of the Oregon were buzzing with shells, but the long-term training before the war finally came into play at this moment, and he still heard the report and quickly made the most correct decision: "Pump the water immediately, and at the same time inject water into the starboard side to maintain balance." ”

A large amount of seawater poured into the hull of the Oregon, and the speed of the Oregon immediately dropped to only fourteen knots, falling behind the Grand Fleet, and the ropes of the signal flag were all blown off in the fierce explosion of artillery fire.

It's obvious. The USS Oregon is temporarily unable to perform its duties as a fleet commander.

Rear Admiral Montgomery Sicarr, deputy commander of the Atlantic Fleet aboard the USS California, saw this and immediately ordered the ship to raise the flagship flag of the fleet in accordance with the predetermined plan before the battle. began to act as the commander of the whole fleet, and he wanted to lead the whole fleet to continue to charge the Huaxia fleet.

Hu Zhen saw that the other side was getting closer and closer to his side, and immediately issued an order to change the course and adjust the target of the shelling: "Fifteen compass points to the right of the course, maintain a distance of more than 4,500 meters from the Mi army at the maximum speed of 17.5 knots, and immediately transfer the artillery fire to the California." Distance XXXX, angle XXXX, all salvo! ”

The USS California barely had time to issue a flag command to "charge with our ship" before it was immediately enveloped in bullet fire.

Five extremely accurate salvos left the California bruised.

However, the Atlantic Fleet, at a heavy cost to the two flagships in the front and rear, finally desperately rushed into a distance of 4,200 meters from the Huaxia Army, which was a distance that could barely aim at the target and fire its cannons for the Mi fleet.

Without waiting for the order of the fleet's flagship, the Mi ships could not wait to open fire on their respective targets.

But this scattered firing did not form a concentrated and unified salvo. The effect was greatly reduced, but its shells still posed a certain threat to the Huaxia fleet.

Boom, boom, the flagship Dahua was besieged by the Mi army's shells, hundreds of shells smashed into the sea in front of and behind it, and the hull of the ship was hit by at least five Mi army shells one after another, and the explosion set off orange flames and smoke, mixed with a lot of fine debris, and threw them into the air.

The soldiers of the Mi army cheered when they saw the flagship that had hit the enemy.

But the smoke of the flames dissipated, and the Dahua was not affected at all. The original high speed was still maintained, and the guns on the ship still spewed blazing flames in the direction of the Mi army.

"What's going on?"

According to the idea of the Mi army, the large-caliber armor-piercing shells of their own side hit the enemy's ship and did not penetrate its hull. At the very least, it must leave a hole or two in its hull.

But the warships of the Huaxia Army just didn't see a single pothole that was broken by the explosion.

The mystery lies in the fact that Hu Zhen has ordered the use of suspended improvised reactive armor on the battleship.

Hu Zhen ordered the steel mill to make pieces of beveled triangular armor, wrapped in sacks and hung in key parts, from the outside, like a warship in general combat in this era, hung with sacks of sandbags to strengthen protection.

After the shell hits the reactive armor. During the explosion, the reactive armor unloaded the huge kinetic energy of the explosion outward, ensuring the safety of the ship's hull, which caused outsiders to appear unharmed.

The Dahua was not damaged in any way, but the successor flagship of the Mi Army, the California, was not as lucky as its predecessor, the Oregon, and in the sixth salvo of the Huaxia Army, a 210-mm Breaker II shell broke through the thick armor and penetrated into the ammunition compartment and exploded violently, triggering an even more violent ammunition explosion.

The powerful explosion opened three astonishing holes in the USS California's hull, and sea water instantly poured into the ship's hull, flooding the power compartment.

The California, which lost power, had no power to pump away the incoming seawater and accelerated its sinking.

Hu Zhen commanded the fleet to endure the artillery bombardment of the Mi army, and fired the seventh and eighth salvos at the California.

The California, which suffered heavy blows one after another, capsized in just ten minutes, revealing the bottom of the ship covered with various marine life, and finally floated on the surface of the sea for more than an hour before all of it sank into the water.

This dealt a heavy blow to the morale of the Mi army, but it also aroused the courage of some Mi troops.

In the absence of the command of the flagship, the cruiser of the Mi army could not hold back, and no longer moved at the speed of following the battleship, but started the top speed to charge.

But at this moment, a large black oppressive thing suddenly appeared in the air and rushed towards the Mi fleet.

"The enemy's airship has appeared, ready to shoot into the air!"

The airship bombing of the Huaxia Army had already appeared in the First World War of Luzon, which caused a sensation in military circles all over the world, and the Mi Army had also carefully studied this and made serious preparations for dealing with it before the war.

The strategy of the Chinese army was to install twenty or thirty Gatling and Makqin heavy machine guns of two calibers, 12.7 mm and 7.62 mm, on the deck of each battleship, and the muzzles of the guns were aimed at the sky.

Thirty-six airships of the Huaxia Army flew over the Mi fleet, and the heavy machine guns on the Mi warships sprayed a rain of bullets in the direction from which the airships were flying. (To be continued.) )