"General Hope, the enemy ironclad didn't hit us, but used howitzers to hook our bow with chains and cables. I've ordered my soldiers to come forward and cut the chains and cables, and I've sent thirty men to guard the bow with rifles to prevent the damned enemy from sneaking up the cables! ”

After listening to the assistant's report, Hope nodded, but he didn't understand, what did this flagship of the Chinese Empire want to do? Connecting their flagship with the Warrior with a cable, is it really an attempt to use the oldest tactic – broadside combat – to send soldiers along the cable to climb over and fire rifles at themselves? This is too whimsical.

Hope scoffed at this, but when he thought about it, he seemed to feel that something was wrong. That's the other party's flagship! The commander of the Chinese Imperial Fleet is above the flagship, and if he can lead a flagship of this scale, even if he is not as smart as himself, he is not a fool after all, how could a bad brain come up with such a method of fighting?

As long as he sent a few sailors to cut the chains and cables, the other party's hard-working plan would be in vain, and even let the other party crawl over, as long as he sent ten or twenty soldiers to guard the bow of the ship, and one enemy soldier shot an enemy soldier, he could easily hold it, after all, it was too close, and the hull of the "Warrior" itself was higher than the opponent's flagship, and the opponent's artillery could not shoot on the deck.

Moreover, the two warships continued to bombard each other with artillery, because the distance was very close, the power of the guns began to increase, and even the protective steel plates began to be noticeably dented, especially the enemy's ironclad ship, because the thickness of the steel plates was thinner than that of its own "Warrior", and it was obvious that it began to have scars, although it would not be immediately damaged, but as long as the attack continued, especially the solid bullets that were attacked according to the depression, it would not be long before it could be penetrated. And the distance is so close, the accuracy of the shell can be adjusted, and then the flowering shell can hit the broken ironclad hole, and the enemy ship can be completely damaged.

But no matter what, cut the enemy's cable first.

Hindered by rifle fire from soldiers on the enemy deck, it took more than ten minutes for the sailors to cut the cables and chains. However, the next moment, a howitzer with an iron chain was fired, and it was once again bolted to the "Warrior", and at the same time, the enemy ship began to turn to one side and continue to turn to the right, and the chain was tightened, so that the "Warrior" that was originally going to be diagonally inserted to the left side was affected to a certain extent, and the two forces were slightly neutralized, and the "Warrior" stayed on the surface of the sea and basically did not move.

Of course, no one paid attention to this detail, and all of them, including General Hope, focused all their attention on cutting the cable and shelling the enemy ships here.

At this time, on the other side of the "Dingyuan No. 2" ironclad ship, which was invisible to the British army, a hatch was opened, and several thick iron chains on the stern side of the ship hoisted a black iron can into the sea under the action of the pulley group.

Not long after, this black iron can only showed a little sharp angle on the water, bypassed the "Dingyuan No. 2", and under the cover of gunfire and smoke, slowly approached the "Warrior" ironclad ship, and sank into the water at a distance of nearly 100 meters, as if it had never appeared.

Of course, this scene was not noticed by the British troops who were busy fighting, and even the soldiers of the Indian Ocean Fleet except for the officers and men on the "Dingyuan II".

On the ironclad ship "Warrior", General Hope smashed his fist on a wooden table. Just now, after the protective steel plate on one side of the enemy's ironclad flagship on the opposite side was hit by more than a dozen shells in the same area, it finally couldn't bear it, and the dented hole was suddenly pierced, breaking a big hole, just as he ordered to change the shells to blow up the enemy ship, the ironclad ship actually successfully turned around and replaced it with the other side of the protective ironclad to face the "Warrior".

In just a few minutes, the enemy's flagship can be completely destroyed! Hope, somewhat reluctant, was about to give the order for a pursuit, and continued the attack on the flank of the enemy ship on the bypass. At this time, suddenly the "Warrior" jumped violently, and it seemed that an indescribable force suddenly lifted the entire warship of more than 9,000 tons from a draft of nearly 10 meters to a draft of more than 9 meters, and the entire "Warrior" shook violently. At the same time, the people of the entire warship heard a dull loud noise from the bottom of the ship, several huge waves tumbling out from the bottom of the ship, and many bubbles tumbling out from the bottom of the ship.

If it weren't for the thin smoke on the surface of the sea, and if it weren't for the fact that enemy rifles were shooting at the deck of the "Warrior", the British soldiers on the "Warrior" would have noticed that the bubbles flipped out on both sides of the ship exploded, and there was black and gray smoke wafting out, but there was no smell of sulfur, nor was it the white smoke produced by the explosion of black powder. But at the moment, no one has noticed.

And the commander of the British fleet on the "Warrior" Hope was in his heart! Although he didn't know what was going on, his heart sank, and his intuition told him that something was wrong, something was wrong! The violent beating of the "Warrior" must have been attacked by the enemy! It's just that he still doesn't know how he was attacked! This must have something to do with the enemy, or the enemy ironclad ship to be exact, otherwise, it would not have been able to dangle in front of the "Warrior" at the risk of being blown up. There must be some conspiracy in this to attract your own attention!

"General, we have been attacked by unknown ground!" The assistant cried and reported with a face cannon: "The bottom of the 'Warrior' has been blown up by something, and the bottom bilge of the ship has cracked more than ten feet into the channel, and a large amount of seawater has poured in. Soldiers and sailors are desperately trying to plug and repair the hole, hoping to barely plug it, but the "Warrior" will definitely not be able to continue the battle, and must return to the ship as soon as possible! ”

"What!?" Hope grabbed his assistant by the collar, his eyes widened, and he exclaimed in surprise, "Say it again!" The ironclad ship 'Warrior' was blown open? ”

"Yes! The sea has poured in! The assistant said with some hesitation: "General, my subordinates suspect that there is a secret ship called a submarine on the enemy's side!" ”

"Submarine?!" Hope seemed to have heard naval experts mention this, but he had always scoffed, and he didn't expect that according to his assistant, he would actually encounter it today, but he still couldn't believe it: "Impossible!" Humans are not fish, so how can they sneak in the water? Besides, how could it be that soon after the Oriental people learned to build warships, they could build submarines that even our Kingdom of Great Britain would not be able to make? It must be a mine that the enemy has placed in advance or something. ”

Hope said that, but he wouldn't have believed it himself. Mines have always been arranged in ports or rivers, it is impossible for anyone to arrange in this vast open sea, not only is it not easy to arrange, a wave will be overturned to I don't know where, but also may injure their own warships, if the vast sea wants to have a little power, then must not be arranged tens of thousands? Therefore it is not possible. And fighting in this place is not something that the enemy can know in advance.

As soon as Hope's words fell, the "Warrior" ironclad jumped again, and this time, an obvious boom was heard, and the entire "Warrior" trembled a little.

Hope's heart was in his throat, and he didn't wait for his men to report it, and walked straight to the cabin on the bottom floor of the Warrior. Before he arrived, an oncoming soldier hurriedly reported: "General, major, it's not good, there are mines arranged by the enemy in the sea, and the bilge of our Warrior has been blown two large openings by the enemy's mines, and the sea water has poured in violently, and it is difficult to block it." General, we hurriedly abandoned ship and moved to other warships. ”

Poof, Hope sat on the ground, he was a little scared, his mind was blank! God, this is the first ironclad ship of the British Empire, how could an ironclad ship that can never be breached, how could it be blown up at the bottom and poured out of control! The "Warrior", which has only been in service for half a year, is undoubtedly a great tragedy for the British Empire's largest displacement and strongest protection battleship.