The sun is blazing, and in the vast blue waters of Yanma, a large merchant fleet of hundreds of ships is slowly marching.

Since the recent Viking raids on Imperial Chinese merchant ships, the Imperial Chinese Trade Association has issued an urgent warning, demanding that ocean-going merchant ships are prohibited from acting alone, and must form a unified fleet and act together.

In this way, hundreds of merchant ships were grouped together, which was also convenient for the Imperial Chinese Navy to provide escort and unified management to ensure the safety of the caravan.

For the Vikings, this was the last thing they wanted, as they had to commit more pirate warships to the Chinese Empire's large fleet. However, if a large number of pirate warships were invested, the target would be too large, and it would be easy for the Imperial Chinese Navy to detect and be surrounded and suppressed.

However, if they gave up, the pirates were not reconciled.

You must know that the merchant ships of the Chinese Empire are very rich, loaded with a large number of goods from the Chinese Empire, and most of them are sold as luxury goods in the European and American markets, especially the special medicine of the Chinese Empire, which is more expensive than gold, which makes the pirates red.

At the same time, most of these so-called Viking pirates, in fact, were retired soldiers of the British Navy, and they had a very high hatred for the Chinese Empire. In particular, the leaders of the Viking Regiment, these leaders were actually under the secret order of the British Admiralty, leading these retired naval soldiers to deliberately attack the merchant fleet of the Chinese Empire, in addition to attacking the maritime trade of the Chinese Empire and plundering money and resources, more importantly, they robbed the high-tech products of the Chinese Empire, especially the equipment for ships, which were all things that the British Empire urgently needed.

Therefore, with this ulterior secret, the Vikings had to attack the ships of the Chinese Empire.

Several pirate ships suddenly appeared, and although they were flying Viking flags, they could not hide the Victorian battleship livery, which was clearly disguised by the British Navy.

The whole world knows the shamelessness of the British government, but there is no direct evidence that it was instigated by the British government, because ordinary British sailors do not know about it, unless they catch the top of the pirate group, because only a few of the top of the pirate group know the truth.

"It's a pirate! Pull the alarm! ”

A frigate of the Imperial Chinese Navy serving as an escort suddenly sounded the alarm, which immediately filled the airspace within a radius of hundreds of kilometers with tension.

"The pirates are coming, get ready!"

Hundreds of merchant ships were also prepared, and they recruited some bodyguards to resist pirates once they encountered them. He even buried the slag in the warehouse, ready to die with the pirates.

It stands to reason that businessmen are most afraid of death and should not have made such a decision.

But it wouldn't be surprising to know that the Vikings were targeting the Chinese Empire, not only robbing the goods of the Chinese Empire's merchants, but also killing people. Anyway, they are all dead, and the merchant will definitely not let the pirates get the goods, so they must all die together.

But now these merchants are just prepared for what happens, after all, there are Imperial Chinese Navy warships nearby.

"President Lin, we'll be fine!"

Some businessmen surrounded President Lin with a nervous expression.

Chairman Lin smiled slightly and said, "Even if you can't trust me Lin, you have to believe in the Imperial Navy!" Rest assured, if the pirates dare to attack, our Imperial Navy will kill them! ”

"I hope so!"

"We naturally believe in President Lin!"

"Don't forget that President Lin has the most goods, the Lin family has a naval minister, if the Imperial Navy can't even keep the Lin family's goods, then it's better to go home and pick up the child!"

……

The businessmen were gossiping, and this time they were all coming for President Lin's backstage, after all, Lin Jiyun's official residence of the Lin family, the dignified Minister of the Imperial Navy, if he couldn't keep it if he followed the Lin family to sea, it would be really ridiculous and generous.

However, they didn't know that this time President Lin was actually speechless in his heart!

The Lin family did have a naval minister, but this naval minister has always been strict with himself, and it is absolutely useless for the Lin family to use Lin Jiyun's banner to reap the benefits of the imperial government, on the contrary, the Lin family was also seriously asked by Lin Jiyun not to compete with civilians for profit, saving Lin Jiyun his face.

This is good, the Lin family has not reaped the benefits, not to mention, and it is not allowed to compete with the people for profit, and it is not as convenient as ordinary merchant families. It's no problem for ordinary families to go through the back door, but if the Lin family also goes through the back door, it will definitely not work.

The patriarch of the Lin family was so angry that he couldn't wait to drive Lin Jiyun out of the ancestral hall.

Recently, there was a lot of piracy, and the Lin family planned to suspend maritime trade for a few months, but Lin Jiyun went home.

The elder of the Lin family thought that Lin Jiyun had changed his mind and wanted to take care of the Lin family's business, but in the end, he realized that Lin Jiyun was going home to let the Lin family be a bait to hook up with the Viking group and cooperate with the Imperial Navy to exterminate the Viking group.

The old man was so angry that he immediately picked up a stick and beat Lin Jiyun out.

However, angry is angry, the Lin family patriarch still takes the overall situation into account, and finally agreed.

But what the Lin family never expected was that the Lin family went to sea to trade at this time, and the other maritime merchants were all red-eyed, and they all died begging for nothing to take the Lin family's fleet. As a result, the Lin family originally prepared twenty cargo ships by themselves, but when they went to sea, they became more than three hundred, which was a huge momentum.

At this moment, Chairman Lin was calm on the surface, but regretted his death in his heart. If something happens to this Nima, the Lin family will offend hundreds of businessmen in an instant, how will they mix in the future!

Please, don't get into trouble, pirates, are you blind, we have naval warships to escort us, you get out of here!

President Lin prayed in his heart.

It's a pity that the more you are afraid of something, the more you come.

Two pirate fleets appeared to the southeast and southwest, each with three or five warships, all of which were frigates, except for a dome cruiser at the head.

These British frigates were very fast and quickly rushed towards the group of ships.

The escort mission of this group was carried out by the heavy cruisers of the Imperial Chinese Navy, the Heyue and Guiyue, the light cruisers Mercury and Mars, and the anti-submarine destroyers Heron and Caolu.

Two of them were heavy cruisers to the left and right, two light cruisers to the rear, and two anti-submarine destroyers to the front.

At this moment, on the bridge of the Heron, the second prince heard the alarm sound, and immediately became excited.

"Where's the pirate! Where are the pirates! ”

The adjutant hurriedly put down the binoculars and replied: "Your Highness, the pirate attack ship is in the middle of the group, far away from us!" ”

It is indeed far away, and more than 300 merchant ships form a ship group, which stretches for dozens of nautical miles.

The second prince asked puzzledly, "Then what are we waiting for?" Support in the past! ”

The adjutant explained: "No, we have not received an order to act on our own!" ”

"Then we can't just wait here, can we? Watch others kill pirates for meritorious service? The second prince was suddenly unhappy, he wanted to sink a pirate ship as soon as possible, so that the task would be completed. He wasn't interested in joining the military, especially as a navy, it was too hard. He lived with the officers and men on the Heron during this time, and he knew more or less about their hardships, and lived on the ship almost every day of the year, and he could only have a vacation every time he docked to replenish supplies, but it was not for long. Almost every time I go to sea, it takes several months, and if I encounter a big task, it is common to float on the sea for half a year.

This kind of life is definitely not something that the second prince can bear. If it weren't for the homework that his father had assigned him to complete, he wouldn't have come to suffer.

The adjutant suddenly smiled bitterly and said: "Your Highness, even if you go over, it's useless, don't you know that our warships are called anti-submarine destroyers, as the name suggests, they are used to fight submarines, and it is not our specialty to deal with surface ships. ”

The second prince was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly asked, this time he understood what kind of battleship he had chosen to serve.

it, I was pitted by the third child!

The Great Egret-class anti-submarine destroyer, whose main function is anti-submarine, is equipped with a maximum caliber gun of only 128 mm, at best, it can compete with a frigate, and when it encounters a cruiser with a caliber of 155 mm to 254 mm, it will definitely be beaten.

"A mere pirate, even a giant ship cannon, stronger than most of the warships of our regular navy, is this still a pirate?"

The second prince finally realized that something was wrong, in his traditional thinking, pirates should be a group of shrimp soldiers and crab generals rowing small sampans, but now he saw the opposite.

The adjutant rolled his eyes suddenly, thinking that the second prince knew the goal of this mission, and he didn't understand anything!

This has to be popularized quickly, otherwise something big will happen!

Thinking of this, the adjutant hurriedly explained: "Your Highness, this time the pirates are only called pirates in name, and any Viking regiments are all excuses for the British. In fact, their ships were all warships of the British Navy, and they themselves were officers and men of the British Navy. To put it bluntly, these pirates are all pretended by the British Navy. ”

Yes!

The second prince inherited his mother's business wisdom, but he didn't know anything about military affairs, and he didn't pay attention to it at all, so he didn't even bother to ask before he came.

At this moment, when he learned that the Vikings were pretending to be the British Navy, his little heart suddenly fluttered.

Depend on! Can fighting pirates be the same as fighting the British Navy?

The second prince was suddenly a little scared, and he regretted it!

I knew this, I should have learned from my eldest brother in the first place, and it was safest to fight with the British Navy or a battleship!

Third, thanks to you, I'm not done with you when I go back!

At this moment, the second prince began to complain about the third prince, and he completely forgot that he had chosen it himself.

"Then let's be honest anti-submarine!"

"By the way, is that pirate's submarine awesome?"

The adjutant then replied: "Your Highness, don't worry, we have absolutely no problem with anti-submarine, not to mention pirate submarines, even if submarines from all over the world come, we can easily find them and sink them!" ”

"That's good! That's good! The second prince immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and decided to honestly anti-submarine, sinking a pirate submarine to complete the task and quickly slip away.

At this moment, in the middle of the group, the Lotus Moon and Guiyue ships on the left and right sides had already exchanged fire with the Viking warships.

The rumbling sound of cannon came quickly.

The second prince also saw the naval battle for the first time, and he was a little nervous and scared, but also a little excited!

Knock knock!

On the right side of the ship's group, the three triple 55-diameter 203-mm guns of the Heyue opened fierce fire on the oncoming pirate cruisers.

There were four pirate warships on the opposite side, starting with the domestic cruiser Koukou, which belonged to the British old ship eight years ago, and the British were not willing to convert their most powerful armored cruiser into a corsair.

The gun layout of the Algae is still the former dreadnought, three 254 mm main guns, two in the bow, one in the stern, four ear stations in the ship's amidships, and four 120 mm single-mounted secondary guns, the guns look fierce, but unfortunately the tonnage is too small, only 1450 tons of displacement, typical small boat anti-cannon.

The Vikings obviously couldn't defeat the Heyue with the firepower of the cruiser and three other frigates, after all, the Heyue was a 10,000-ton heavy cruiser, and it was the most advanced dreadnought.

As a dreadnought heavy cruiser, the Holland has a unified central fire control system for its nine 203mm guns, and each salvo fires, nine shells fall almost in a straight line, making it easier to calculate the impact point, after only three salvos.

In the fourth artillery salvo, five of the nine shells hit the algae at the same time.

Boom!

Five 203-mm shells exploded on the algae at the same time, and in an instant, sparks exploded, and pitch-black gunpowder smoke wrapped in flames rose into the air.

The Algae was hit hard in an instant, the bridge was blown up, and the hull was pierced through two huge holes.

The Vikings disguised as British sailors were stunned, believing that the thick armor of the Algae would be enough to block the 203 mm armor-piercing shells, but they found that not only did they not block it, but the wounds were terrifying.

"How is this possible? How can a 203-mm gun shoot the lethal power of a 305-mm shell? ”

With an unimaginable expression on his face, he clearly saw that the caliber of the main gun of the Heyue of the Imperial Chinese Empire on the opposite side was only 203 mm, but his hull armor was blown open with a huge hole with a diameter of nearly half a meter, and a single shell completely destroyed many compartments inside the hull.

This terrifying power can only be achieved by a 305-mm naval gun, and after a 305-mm armor-piercing projectile penetrates the armor, it is impossible for such a huge explosion to occur.

The artillery shells of the Imperial Chinese Navy have the armor-piercing ability of armor-piercing shells and the destructive power of explosive shells.

The captain of the Algae and his men didn't have time to think about it, because in less than half a minute, the heavy cruiser Heyue began its fifth salvo of fire, and they were stunned again.

That's a salvo of 9 guns!

That's too fast, isn't it?

You must know that the most elite British naval artillery must also go through more than a dozen artillery shots before they can calculate the trajectory that can be fired in a fire salvo, and the Heyue ship on the opposite side has a fire salvo from the beginning, and the hit rate of the fourth time is more than half, I thought it was blind, but in less than half a minute, the fifth fire salvo followed.

Boom! Boom!

Full Hit!

Nine 203-mm armor-piercing blasting shells hit the Algae at the same time, instantly blowing up the Algae beyond recognition, and the entire superstructure was in flames, with black smoke billowing out, up to thousands of meters.

One of the shells caused fatal penetrating damage, piercing the waterline on the port side of the Algae, instantly bursting a gap of more than 30 centimeters, and black smoke and fire erupted from the gap A column of smoke more than ten meters long, followed by a violent backpour of seawater, causing the hull to tilt rapidly.

For a warship of fifteen hundred tons, if it is only a thirty centimeter gap, it will not sink easily. But the problem lies in the design of the Algae, the boat is resistant to cannons, once the hull is flooded, it will lose its balance in an instant, and it must be immediately filled with water on the other side to maintain balance, but unfortunately before it can be, the battleship capsizes.

The three Viking frigates in the back were suddenly stupid, they didn't evaluate the combat power of the Heyue ship, but it was just a cruiser with a larger tonnage, even if they couldn't fight, they could hold out for at least an hour or two.

But now I realized that the Heyue ship was too ferocious, and it had only been less than five minutes of fighting, and the algae had been sunk in five firepower salvos, and this combat power was too strong!

Run!

How dare the three pirate frigates scream, they quickly turned around and planned to escape.

At the same time, billowing black smoke suddenly rose from the four chimneys of the Heyue ship, and the entire battleship quickly accelerated to 30 knots, chasing the three pirate frigates.

The Vikings looked back and were frightened.

This Nima is a ghost!

It's just a cruiser, how can it run faster than a frigate!

"Fack! We've been cheated by James' cousin! ”

That's right, they were ordered by James to come and hook up with the Dutch Moon ship. The original plan was to contain or lure the Lotus Moon away, and then the other pirate warships would take the opportunity to attack the ship group, destroying the Heron by the way.

The pirates thought that this mission was originally not risky, but now they found that it was too dangerous, it was terrible!

If this is caught up by the Heyue ship, it will be killed in minutes!

After all, the three pirate frigates, all of whom had been British sailors and had a lot of experience, quickly split into three and fled in three different directions.

Sure enough, the Heyue could only chase one of them, sparing the other two.

Twenty minutes later, the Lotus Moon caught up with the frigate Nitero, sank the Nitero with only three salvos, and then quickly returned to the ship's regiment.

Similarly, on the other side of the group, the Katsuki also encountered a pirate cruiser and four pirate frigates at the same time.

The result was the same, under the ferocious fire of the Katsura Yue, the pirate cruiser Sheffield was the first to be sunk, and then the other four pirate frigates were immediately scared away. However, the Katsura did not pursue, but stayed near the ship, and it was obvious that the captain of the Katsura was more cautious than the captain of the Heyue ship.

An hour later, in the waters near an isolated island on the eastern side of the Dutch East Indies, James arrived with the main fleet of pirate regiments.

Originally, James sent two pirate detachments to attack the group of harassers, and it was best to divert the two most powerful heavy cruisers in the group's escort formation, so that James would have enough time to surround the destroyer Heron and then destroy the entire group.

However, the plan could not catch up with the change, and before James could get ready, the bad news came back, and only six frigates escaped from the two cruisers and seven frigates that were sent, and two cruisers and one frigate were sunk.

Poof!

James almost spurted out old blood in anger!

"Bastards, a bunch of rubbish!" (To be continued.) )