Norfolk is not just Virginia's second-largest city and port. Located on the banks of the Elizabeth River, it chokes the throat of Peake Bay and is also the gateway to Richmond's external communication. At the same time, it is also the largest naval base in the South, but after the outbreak of the war, the more powerful federal navy blocked the external shipping routes of places such as Richmond and Norfolk through blockade, and even now, the Federation can easily use shipping.

Through the Hampton Anchorage, Union forces established an unprecedentedly large munitions supply base at the confluence of the James and Appomatopox rivers in SittyPoint. Relying on the wide river and the fact that it is not far from the mouth of the sea, all kinds of materials are continuously transported here through the inland river routes upstream or from the sea, and the masts of cargo sailing ships are lined with them, and the swift steam engine ships are also spitting black smoke.

What was a dilapidated town wharf last year has been transformed in just a few months, stretching more than half a mile east along the south bank of the James River, with eight acres of terminal facilities, including two acres that provide good security for cargo storage. More than 3,000 dock workers on the shore who are responsible for unloading supplies are busy all day long, they are basically free black slaves, according to different ship types and types of cargo loaded, they can unload 2~25 ships of cargo every day.

Every day, at any time, there are 150~200 ships parked here waiting to be unloaded, and a total of nearly 400 ships come and go here and other material distribution centers. Even some Yankees even boast that it has become the busiest port in the world. Countless vats of flour, biscuits, corned beef, cured pork, ammunition, clothing, tents, medical supplies, livestock fodder, and other military supplies were brought in to keep the Union troops fed and clothed during the protracted siege.

For the Confederates, the port and easy water transportation allowed the Confederates to be well supplied, and for the Confederates it was a paradise where their supplies and troops could continue to reach the Petersburg front, and for the Confederates it was a disaster, which left them under siege.

For the Chinese peacekeeping forces, this is the necessary transportation artery for China to enter the federation and provide humanitarian aid to them, because this is the only port that can meet the continuous transportation of "humanitarian relief materials" in the future, and of course, it is the only place that can meet the entry of peacekeeping troops.

And on the other hand - it is also the only option to stop the defeat of the Confederacy!

Unless it's a break into the James River, the rest ...... No other way!

"We need to buy time for the Army units!"

Ding Ruchang, who was the captain of the ship, looked through the telescope at the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, where the fortress had been occupied by the Federation, and now, their mission was to show Washington their attitude.

"Sir, discover the American warship!"

In the distance, a U.S. Navy steamship was slowly heading towards the fleet, and Lieutenant Colonel Andrew on board looked at the fleet at sea with a solemn expression.

This is a fleet composed of 11 armored ships, in the past period of time, the Caribbean squadron has been continuously strengthened, from the Atlantic coast of the "Shandong" combat ship, has become Ding Ruchang's ship, although it is still the Caribbean fleet, but now this squadron, but can be regarded as the west coast of the Pacific Ocean, the most powerful armored fleet, its strength is even equivalent to the entire maritime power of some European powers.

And for Lieutenant Colonel Andrew, looking at the huge ship like a floating island, he didn't even have the idea of resistance in his heart - this warship is invincible, and even in his opinion, even those large-caliber guns on the fortress are difficult to destroy these ironclad ships, because most of the large-caliber fortress guns of the American army are front-loading guns, and the old guns that fire spherical shells cannot be compared even in caliber.

"10256 tons, four 12-inch main guns, 12 6-inch secondary guns......"

Major Andrew muttered silently in his heart, although he knew that with this warship alone, the Chinese could easily destroy the entire US Navy, but he knew that he had no choice.

"Signal the flag and tell them that they are intruding into the territorial waters of the United States! Order them to evacuate immediately! ”

The signal sent by the US warship did not even attract Ding Ruchang's attention, he just said calmly.

"Tell them that we are entering at the invitation of the American Confederacy, and ask them to give way immediately!"

The result is obvious, one side insists on entering, and the other side insists on blocking, and this time, Ding Ruchang does not have the restriction of "the first shot is not fired by me", after all, the environment has changed, and what they have to do now is to break into this bay, and then "kill" here!

"Five nautical miles!"

The distance slowly approached, and when the small American brig steam warship approached the position of the fleet less than three nautical miles, the "Nagasaki" immediately accelerated to meet it, and took the initiative to fire at it at a distance of two nautical miles, but only a few minutes later, the small warship was sunk, and at the same time, the federal fortress of the bay fortress began to fire at the fleet, in the face of the old guns of the federal fortress with huge calibers, although he knew that it was difficult for them to pose a threat to the fleet, Ding Ruchang still cautiously kept a certain distance and ordered the fleet platoonThe "one" column carried out artillery bombardment of the Federal Fortress in turn.

The battleship "Shandong" and eleven armored ships leading the fleet formed a column, almost at the same time, and the rear seat of the main and auxiliary guns was generated when the salvo was fired, allowing the battleship to pan several meters on the sea surface, and the gray warship was flashed with hundreds of bursts of flames in an instant, and the blast wind from the muzzle of the gun stirred up layers of ripples on the sea surface.

Hundreds of black-orange clouds of cannon smoke shrouded the massive fleet in a cloud of smoke.

The Caribbean detachment fired.

There were no warnings, no ultimatums, just the crushing of the weak by the powerful, and once upon a time, just a dozen years ago, this country sent their fleet to sail into China's ports with great force, and there was even a small but far-reaching naval battle between the two countries.

But now, in the face of the Chinese fleet coming to the door, the US Navy is not even able to go to sea to meet it, even if they form a fleet and sail out of the bay, what will happen? Nothing more than a devastating naval battle.

As for the thousands of officers and men of the detachment, all of them were buzzing with the shock of this first salvo, they had experienced dozens of salvos in their past training, but this was the first time that such a fleet had been assembled and the live ammunition had hit the real target.

When people looked into the sky, the air was full of 305 mm, 254 mm and 150 mm naval artillery shells, and the roar of a train locomotive when it pierced the sky, the whistling sound had a momentum of wanting to tear the sky apart, but the momentum was unstoppable.

But whoever tries to stop him is destined to be destroyed, and for the federal troops on Cape Charles' Fortress, for the first time, they have a deep understanding of what hell is/

"Boom ......"

In an instant, the sound of explosions sounded in the Cape Charles fortress, dozens of heavy artillery shells exploded to level the houses in the fortress, lifted the stone slabs on the street for several meters, and the fragments of steel mixed with countless gravel flew around at a high speed of several times the sound speed, harvesting the officers and soldiers of the federal army who were desperately loading shells and trying to block the attack of the Chinese.

As the cannonballs fell, the Cape Charles Fort was filled with images of flesh and blood. Hundreds of federal officers and soldiers lost their lives before they even had time to react, and unlike the black powder shells used in the American Civil War, the high-explosive shells used by the Chinese Navy were so powerful that they were completely beyond their imagination.

And the real disaster is not the amazing power of high-explosive shells, but the artillery shells launched by the navy, not ordinary high-explosive shells, but a special kind of "barrier-breaking bombs", during the Sino-British War, in the face of the technological changes of the navy, the navy put forward the requirements for the development of new armor-piercing shells, although the development of armor-piercing shells lasted a long time, but as an unexpected gain - barrier-breaking bombs have entered the active service of the navy as early as last year.

This kind of barrier-breaking projectile with a time-delay fuse can easily drill into the concrete with a thickness of half a meter to one meter thick, and then explode, and use it to attack the battery, it is undoubtedly the best choice, because now the offensive of the Chinese Navy, so, this special new type of shell, was immediately included in active service, and a large number of equipment Navy, of course, it will also cause great damage to armored ships with relatively weak armor, because of its wide use, and won the trust of the Navy, now, artillery at the beginning, The Navy fired hundreds of barrier-breaking bombs at the U.S. strongholds.

Cape Charles, built more than a hundred years ago, was originally just a simple fort to defend against pirate invasion, until after the founding of the United States, in the Second American-British War half a world ago, the fort was improved and turned into a fortress, which was originally able to block most attacks, but it was against the old weapons of the old era.

Although the fortress is sturdy, it was designed with no thought in mind that it would be attacked by barrier-breaking shells, let alone equipped with high-energy explosives.

"Buzz ......"

Four 305 bullets roared like a train flew in a parabola into the coastal defense fortress at Cape Charles in the distance, and the American soldiers on the battery listened to the huge sound of breaking the air in the air, they were stunned for a moment, and then fell to the ground.

They could hear from the sound that these shells were in no way different from the shells they were familiar with, and the caliber of these shells must have been large......

Four 305 metric centimeter barrier-breaking shells weighing more than 360 kilograms, almost at the same time ordered the fortress battery to threaten the most threatening coastal defense batteries, this is the fleet's specially customized barrier-breaking shells for shelling coastal fortifications, at the moment of ordering the battery, penetrated the stone base of the fort until it drilled into the thick fortress of the fortress several meters deep, and the delay of the bullet tail was used to detonate the shell.

When the tens of kilograms of high-energy explosives in the four barrier-breaking bombs were detonated, even several US Navy sailors who were preparing to rush out of the bay to defend the country in the bay looked at the coastal guns that had been blown up dozens of yards into the air in amazement.

This fortress, which was once considered an unattackable fortress by the Confederate army, almost did not survive the first round of shelling, and the originally beautiful fortress was turned into a ruin in the shelling, and the coastal guns were also turned into scrap metal, and even the barrels of some artillery were directly blown off.

Compared with European military technology, the military technology of the United States is undoubtedly backward, and the Rodman cannon casting method may have provided the US military with a huge caliber "beer bottle cannon", but they have long lagged behind the times, after all, Europe has now entered the era of forging steel cannons.

Gazing through the telescope at the fortress under fire, which was now almost completely powerless, at most occasionally slammed some shells around the fleet without any damage, and hit some columns of water, and that's it...... Ding Ruchang's expression seemed very calm, and he issued orders from time to time to ensure the effectiveness of the fleet's artillery bombardment of this fortress, after all, whether this fortress can be completely destroyed is directly related to the next action, if he can, he hopes to completely raze this fortress to the ground!

And at this time, a new signal came from the mast watchtower - the American fleet had been dispatched.

Old steam galleons, and some paddle steamers, most of which were unarmoured. But they rushed over without hesitation.

"Hey......"

Ding Ru shook his head helplessly and sighed lightly.

"The main guns continued to attack the fortress, and the secondary guns were aimed at the American fleet."

Even if it is only a secondary gun, the threat to the US fleet is also fatal, with the new coordinates coming from the phone, the gunner constantly adjusts and re-aims at the enemy ship, from time to time there will always be shells falling on the US warship, the wound of the high-explosive bomb to the wooden warship is devastating, one by one the warship was torn to pieces, burning, and slowly sinking into the sea.

"Send them all to the bottom of the sea!"

The gunners in the gunroom of the ship were all blackened by the smoke of gunpowder, except for the teeth and eye sockets were white, and the whole "black Africa" was gone, but their faces were full of unprecedented excitement.

At this time, the sea breeze blew the gunpowder smoke of the fortress to the surface of the sea, and met with the smoke rising from the burning of the US fleet at sea, and on the sea in front of the sailors, a thick gray-black huge wall of smoke was formed that covered the entire bay behind.

But for the Americans, this was a disaster, and this disaster did not stop because of this, in the face of the fortress and the US Navy fleet, which had lost resistance, Ding Ruchang calmly ordered.

"Keep moving ......"

A few hours later, the fleet arrived at the Monroe fortress at the tip of the peninsula between the York and James rivers, the shelling began, and again began......

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