Outside Calcutta, at the wharf next to Fort William, the East India Fleet, composed of seven or eight warships, was cowering in the harbor, trying to borrow the support of several shore defense guns on the side of Fort William and the dock.

Some captains even joked that when the fleet of the Easterners came, they would teach them what naval warfare was.

But when the huge fleet of dozens of warships of various sizes appeared in front of the mouth of the Ganges, the British navy of the East India Fleet was dumbfounded, and they did not even have the courage to rise up and fight.

It's not a level battle at all!

The first two black-body battleships alone were like two mountains, forcing over, and seemed to block the entire Ganges tributaries, and the roar of huge motors resounded throughout the banks of the Ganges, and even the docks and even Fort William vibrate. These two swarthy monsters, the top of the hull was still emitting black smoke, and on the side were more than a dozen half-open gun chambers, which had slowly stretched out the black barrels.

This is what a sentinel ship of the East India Fleet saw. The captain's face changed, and he recognized that these were two ironclad battleships, the most advanced and well-protected warships in the world today. But the sentinel ship still bravely met it, waving the flag, asking the menacing Eastern fleet to stop, but the two ironclad ships simply ignored it, and only responded with brazen cannon fire.

Even, the two ironclad ships did not even adjust the angle of the hull, but directly kept the sailing posture unchanged, and fired two shells directly from each of the two guns in the bow, and the four shells smashed next to the sentinel ship of the East India Fleet like a huge meteorite, stirring up huge waves.

The British soldiers on the sentry ship turned pale and were startled. Then he began to rejoice that the shell did not hit, and while rejoicing, he couldn't help but curse the shamelessness of the Chinese, and at the same time hurriedly retreated.

But the sentinel ship didn't have time to turn around, and the four booms were 4 cannons, this time the sentinel boat was not so lucky, 2 of the shells hit the hull of the sentinel ship, and the British troops on the ship had no time to sigh, so they were blown up and fell into the river, and the sentinel boat was already torn apart.

Several British sentries on the shore on war horses turned pale with fright, and hurriedly turned back to the port of Calcutta to report that the fleet of the Chinese Empire had opened fire on the East India fleet and attacked the port of Calcutta.

A total of 72 warships of all sizes from the Indian Ocean Fleet and the South Ocean Fleet, lined up in two rows, went upriver along the tributaries of the Ganges, and the British outposts on the shore were expected to be blown up with one shot.

The two batteries on the banks of the Ganges could not bear it anymore and fired at the two ironclad ships in the lead, but they were immediately covered by dozens of shells, and immediately fell silent, and it is not known whether the gunners on the batteries were killed or the entire batteries had been blown down and disappeared.

In this way, the two fleets of the Chinese Empire were unimpeded, led by two ironclad ships of the Indian Ocean Fleet, and when they reached the bend of the river at 5 kilometers, the river narrowed suddenly.

At this moment, a lookout on the ironclad battleship "Dingyuan No. 2" suddenly noticed several black spots on one side of the river in front of him, as if something was floating on the water. He hurriedly reported it to the captain, who was an experienced Irishman, and he was a little skeptical that the black spots could be mines.

Lowering a small rowing boat, several soldiers took a closer look at the rowing boat, and it was really a mine.

The British East India Fleet's laying of mines on a tributary of the Ganges River was soon reported to the fleet commanders Wei Jun and Tan Tiyuan, and both of them were furious when they heard this. Both of them secretly rejoiced, fortunately not long ago, the navy began to raise mines, fortunately, the mines planted by the British East India Fleet were too rough, if there was some camouflage, or sink into the water, I am afraid that it would be really difficult to find, and by then, the fleet would suffer huge losses.

What's more, although the "Dingyuan No. 1" is known as an ironclad battleship, the ironclad protection is mainly based on side plates, and at most it only extends to a depth of more than half a meter under the waterline, while the bottom plate of the warship is only a sturdy oak plank, which was blown up by a mine, although it will not sink, but it is really possible to suffer great damage.

And these two ironclad battleships are Wei Jun's most beloved treasures, so Wei Jun was suddenly furious, gritting his teeth and saying that he would destroy the British East India Fleet.

The two ironclad ships did not dare to rush to the front anymore. Wei Jun sent three rowing boats and two merchant ships converted into troop carriers as mine-probes to open the way in front, followed by ironclad battleships. Although it was safer in this way, the speed of progress was significantly reduced.

Luckily, it's not that far from Wilhelm Castle. After more than half a day's advance, nearly 230 mines were discharged, but two rowboats were blown up, one troop carrier was damaged, and more than 10 Tamil sailors and four soldiers of the Indian Ocean Fleet were lost. This made Wei Jun and the officers and men of the entire Indian Ocean Fleet and the South Ocean Fleet full of anger.

Finally arrived at the river more than two kilometers above William's Castle, and after destroying the two batteries in front of William's Castle, Wei Jun directly ordered that more than 20 main warships at the front line formed an oblique column and launched a bombardment on William's Castle.

Although Fort William had sensed that something was wrong, and fired first, the cannons on the high and thick walls piled up of stones roared and smashed the cannonballs, but these guns in Fort Wilhelm were all old smoothbore cannons, with short range and low accuracy, more than half of the shells failed to shoot down the distance of the fleet, and the others fell into the water piecemeal, only the two unlucky two large cruisers were hit by three shells, but only some minor injuries.

And Wei Jun and Tan Tiyuan did not give Fort William another chance to open the first round of artillery.

With the order of the two of them, on the surface of the Ganges tributary, more than 20 main warships roared at the same time, and more than 240 shells rose from the river and smashed into Fort William, smashing the masonry on the city wall into pieces and falling into the castle, and there were bursts of miserable screams and howls. Before the British troops in the castle could come to their senses, the second round of shelling began.

Moreover, in addition to these more than 20 main warships, more than a dozen warships following behind also adjusted their angles and began to bombard Fort William from a distance of about 2.5 kilometers. If it weren't for the fact that the river was already filled with these more than 30 main warships, and it could not accommodate more warships, the other 30 or so warships would have to join the bombardment of Fort William.

The cannonballs of the river fleet rained down on William's head like hailstones, suffocating the British troops in the castle. What's worse is that more than 350 shells fall on Fort Wilhelm within a radius of less than 0.5 kilometers almost every minute, that is, every 3 minutes, a shell will fall on it within a radius of 10 meters.

Half an hour later, when the smoke-filled Fort William appeared, the entire castle was in ruins, the masonry walls had collapsed, the corpses or stumps of British soldiers were everywhere, and the whole of Fort William seemed to have never existed.

And the British East India Fleet, which was hiding 500 meters upstream of the Ganges River next to Fort William, was completely stunned!