In the dark night, suddenly pieces of fire shone brightly, and the sound of Russian and rumbling cannons came.

The next moment, shells of various calibers rained down, huge water columns were stirred up on the sea, and the British ships in the chaos were shot one after another, and fiery red mushroom clouds rose into the sky, instantly lighting up the sky.

The Chinese naval fleet, which had been hiding in the shadows, suddenly appeared, and it came up with a saturation fire salvo, which did not give the British fleet a chance to breathe at all.

In a decisive battle of the fleet, the winner or loser is determined by the firepower launched per unit of time, and in order to give full play to the maximum firepower advantage, it is necessary to form a fleet formation and create a local large firepower advantage.

Obviously, the British fleet at this moment was in disarray, unable to form a battle formation at all, fighting separately, and unable to give full play to its firepower superiority, while the Chinese Navy's nine ironclad ships and nine dome-armored cruisers entered the battle in a complete battleship line formation, and formed a T-shaped firepower superiority in some parts.

In terms of armor protection, the British battleships were inferior to the Chinese ones, and in terms of the power of the artillery, the British naval guns were still using hey poison, while the Chinese naval guns used smokeless poison mixed with T Enti, the latter was more than ten times more powerful than the former. In terms of speed, the British ships were inferior to the Chinese warships, and the trapped in the water radium area was like being tied hand and foot, and running around would hit the water radium, so it was difficult to carry out high-speed maneuvers to avoid shells.

In this way, the British Asian fleet, which was already in a weak position, became even more passive.

The two sides fired fiercely, because of the problem of visibility in the night, the two sides were very close to each other, with an average of less than one nautical mile, whether it was the main artillery shells or the secondary artillery shells, all of them were within the firing range.

It's just that the black lights shoot at each other, and no matter how good the gunner is, it is difficult to achieve accurate strikes.

At this time, whoever has fierce firepower will take advantage of it, and the chance of winning will be the greatest.

Undoubtedly, the Chinese Navy has an absolute advantage in this regard.

Carthus took over the command of the British fleet, but unfortunately the entire British fleet was already in chaos by this time. The flag could not be transmitted at all, and the signal lights were also interfered with by the fire of the constantly exploding shells, making it difficult to issue orders.

The ships of the British Navy fought their own battles, all defending the last dignity of the Royal Navy of the British Empire.

"Give me an order, don't fire a cannon!"

Carter gave an order, and the guns of the Iron Duke suddenly fell silent and fell into darkness. At the same time, while avoiding the shells, he carefully sailed forward.

And the bow and ramming horn of the Iron Duke have been put on the anti-radium iron plate for exploration at some point.

Yes, Carthus had no intention of retreating into the Scarborough Shoal lagoon. Instead, take the opportunity to break through.

Because he knows that this is his last chance to break through.

Attract the Chinese fleet's gunfire and attention with other British warships, giving the Iron Duke the only chance to escape.

This was too much, but Carter didn't care, he didn't want to be killed, he didn't want to be captured, and he didn't want to take responsibility for the war.

Although Carter had taken over command of the fleet, he soon devised a series of measures in which he had his henchmen shut down news of Klaus's death. And forged Klaus's order to break through.

In this way, as long as the Iron Duke successfully broke through, then even if he returned to China to be interrogated by the Military Council, Carter could put all the responsibility on Klaus, and he did his best to keep the Iron Duke from breaking through. It will not be "wiped out", it can be regarded as leaving the last bit of face for the Royal Navy of the British Empire, not only is it not guilty, but it is meritorious.

That's right. That's what Carthusian thinks, a little sinister and shameless, but if it were someone else. 99% of the people in the world will choose to do this, because this is called human nature, and it will not be destroyed for oneself.

The cannon roared, the smoke filled the air, and the firelight shone in the dark night, like a million volts of lightning.

The Iron Duke moved silently, the thick smoke obscuring the Victorian hull and blending into the night.

Carthusian had always strictly forbidden the firing of cannons, and even allowed anyone to use lamps and torches, and the occasional vector bomb hit the Iron Duke, and the sailors quickly extinguished the fire, and they even prepared a large number of buckets on the bridge to use drinking water.

"Report, there is a Chinese battleship in front left!"

"Look at the size, it should be a frigate!"

"It depends on the situation, it is on alert in the vicinity!"

When Carter heard this, he immediately became nervous, and ordered: "Find a way to bypass it, and we must not be discovered, otherwise everything we have done will be wasted." ”

"But sir, why don't you just crash into it, sink this Chinese frigate, and we can go directly into the depths of the ocean."

Carthus reprimanded angrily: "You are stupid, ramming a Chinese battleship at this time, aren't we exposed?" You know, China's ironclad ships are faster than ours, and once they are discovered, they will soon catch up. ”

The adjutant was still a little unconvinced, obviously as a member of the British Navy, he had suffered defeat so far, and he had not sunk a single Chinese capital ship, and it was too embarrassing to spread the word.

Carter saw through the adjutant's mind and immediately comforted him: "Think about your beautiful wife, if you can't go back alive, then your beautiful wife will definitely bring you a green hat." ”

When the adjutant heard this, he was immediately frightened and hastened to carry out Carthus's order.

The Iron Duke chose a detour, which was a great delay in time, but Carter didn't want an accident to happen, so he knew it was dangerous, but he had already let it go, anyway, there was no worse outcome than now, let it be fate.

At this time, another British ship quickly rushed out.

I saw that this British ship was full of fire, and it was obvious that it was able to break through here, and it was not less beaten.

Carter took advantage of the firelight to take a closer look, and saw that it was the Agile.

"Damn, what's wrong with the Agile!"

"Go away!"

Carter scolded in his heart, and the British sailors on the Iron Duke were also frightened, and finally escaped here, they had already seen the hope of escaping, and naturally did not want the Agile to come and wreak havoc.

"Remove the iron plate immediately and go full speed ahead!"

Carter immediately decided, he knew that if he waited for the Agile to rush over, the Iron Duke would definitely be discovered by the Chinese warships.

Rather than being found and finally sunk, it is better to make a desperate bet now, and the radium will not be probed, and go directly at full speed, anyway, the left and right are dead, if you hit the water radium, you are willing to point your back, and if you can't pretend, you will pick up a life.

In fact. Carter has lost the judgment of a normal person at this moment, since the Chinese warships are here, it is obviously impossible to have water radium, because the black light blind fire can not discern the course at all, if there is water radium, the Chinese battleship will also collide.

Obviously, the Chinese Navy is not stupid enough to bury water radium to bomb its own people.

Carter stumbled into the right one, and the Iron Duke threw away the iron plate and broke through at full speed.

Originally, when the Iron Duke suddenly accelerated, the battleship would emit a violent motor roar and the propeller would stir the sea. Carter didn't care that the sound would be discovered by the Chinese frigate, and only wanted to escape.

It was also time for Carter to be lucky, and at the same moment, on the Chinese frigate Gospel, the commander Xie Jing suddenly turned his head to look in the direction of the Iron Duke, and seemed to hear the roar of a huge battleship.

Just as Xie Jing was about to confirm further, another British ship on the run, the Agile, had a series of large explosions.

It turned out that the Chinese Navy had several submarines on the periphery, and it was originally an ambush circle, because the British fleet suddenly became chaotic on its own. Chen Shaoyi gave up the original plan, and ordered the fish and ray boats and the main fleet to attack one after another, leaving only submarines and frigates here to be on guard.

Several Chinese warships pursued and intercepted the Agile all the way, and the shells kept bombarding. Causes constant explosions on the hull of the Agile.

That is, the Agile is a large ironclad ship with rough skin and thick flesh, so even if it is heavily damaged, it still does not sink.

But the Agile directly hit the attack range of the Chinese submarine. The submarines Heilongjiang Sturgeon, Tumen River Sturgeon, Irtysh River Sturgeon, and Siberian Sturgeon fired radium at Agile from different directions, and as a result, they all hit Agile. Caused the Agility to explode.

It was this explosion that affected Xie Jing's judgment, and the officers and men of the entire frigate Gospel immediately boiled over and applauded the sinking of the Agile.

Xie Jing frowned, and did not reprimand his subordinates who were on the rise, but it was difficult for him to make any more judgments, and he just glanced deeply at the dark night in the distance.

The Iron Duke sped away, getting farther and farther away, the hull of the ship had long been hidden in the night, and the roar was drowned out by the sound of the tide.

Looking at the ironclad ship Agile slowly sinking in the big explosion from a distance, Carter was frightened into a cold sweat, and was blown by the sea breeze.

"What was it that attacked the Agile just now?"

"I didn't see it too clearly, but it was definitely not a shell, nor the kind of small ship I saw before, it seemed to be fired directly from the sea."

The British sailors on the Iron Duke were all staring nervously at the Agile just now, and naturally they were all shocked when they saw the scene of the Agile being attacked.

Out of fear of the unknown, many British sailors were frightened.

"It's 20,000 miles under the sea!" A British sailor suddenly shouted.

"What 20,000 leagues under the sea?"

"A science fiction novel written by the French five years ago about a warship called a submarine that could sail underwater and launch a weapon called Fish Radium underwater."

"What are you kidding, fiction is not reality? How could the Chinese have such advanced things! ”

The speaker had no intention, the listener had intention, and Carter quickly connected with some things, and seemed to have found some clues, but he was not sure yet, and was ready to investigate again after returning home.

"Is that thing a submarine?"

"It's kind of interesting!"

Carter smiled slightly, as if he had discovered some new continent.

It seemed to have something to do with his mood, as the Iron Duke managed to break through and escape.

On the other side, the naval battle had come to an end, and under the encirclement and fierce attack of the Chinese Navy, the ships of the British Navy were either directly sunk or ran aground with tentacles while fleeing for their lives.

In the end, the four ironclad ships of the British Navy sank, the Hercules was stranded and captured, the seven cruisers were sunk, the Ajax and Norfolk were stranded and captured, and the Leander and Achilles fled back to the lagoon, and soon encountered a low tide, the battleships ran aground, and finally the two ships surrendered under the leadership of their respective commanders.

This is the first time that the British Royal Navy surrendered to the Chinese Navy since the many wars between China and Britain, and it has gone down in history.

"Why didn't you see the Iron Duke?"

"Where's Klaus?"

After the battle, Chen Shaoyi checked the battle report, but found no Klaus and the Iron Duke.

"Maybe it was sunk, and it sank into the sea to feed the fish together!" Li Weijun reasoned.

"No way, the battle records of our ships are here, and they didn't fight the Iron Duke!"

"Not good!"

Speaking of which, Chen Shaoyi still didn't understand, Klaus ran away with the Iron Duke.

Li Weijun also realized this and glanced at Chen Shaoyi.

"Chase!"

It is necessary to chase, and not just to make up for mistakes, no battle is perfect, there are always some fish that slip through the net, it is like a massacre, the corpses are buried, and there are still people who can crawl out of the pile of dead people and make the truth public.

This kind of thing is very evil and difficult to explain scientifically.

But the real reason that prompted Chen Shaoyi and Li Weijun to pursue the Iron Duke came from Li Weiguo's edict, when he went south, Li Weiguo learned that the flagship of the British Asian Fleet was called the Iron Duke, his face suddenly looked bad, and asked Chen Shaoyi to have a chance to sink the Iron Duke.

No one knows why, and Chen Shaoyi is just acting on orders.

Only Li Weiguo knows in his heart that the Iron Duke has always been the naval flagship of the British war of aggression against China, from the first Yapian War, the second Yapian War, and the Eight-Nation Alliance's war of aggression against China, every war of aggression against China in which the British Navy participated, it was inseparable from a flagship, which was the Iron Duke, which owed China a blood debt and must be repaid.

Knowing that the Iron Duke had slipped through the net, Xie Jing, the captain of the Gospel, hesitated again and again, but still reported his instincts at that moment to Chen Shaoyi.

Chen Shaoyi did not blame Xie Jing in the end, and through Xie Jing roughly judged the position of the Iron Duke at that time, he guessed that the Iron Duke could only return to Singapore, with the speed of the Iron Duke, it would take more than two days to return to Singapore, with the speed of the Chinese ironclad ship, calculating the time difference, there is still a lot of hope to catch up.

Chen Shaoyi personally went out, and the three ships, the Dingyuan, Zhiyuan, and Jingyuan, broke away from the fleet and searched all the way in the direction of Singapore.

After a day and a half of pursuit, the Iron Duke was finally spotted near Patong Island, which was about to reach Singapore.

Seeing the sudden appearance of the three ironclad ships of the Chinese Navy, Cartter, who was racing the sun, was dumbfounded.

"Fake, don't you want to do it so desperately, why did I owe you money in my last life, and I actually drove you to chase so hard!"

Carter was on the verge of collapse, and was about to reach Singapore, but was blocked by the Chinese fleet.

If you can't run away, do you want to fight?

Carter shook his head, first of all, an Iron Duke would never be able to defeat three Chinese Navy ironclad ships, and secondly, he saw that the faces of the British sailors around him were pale one by one, they had been scared, and the pride of the British Royal Navy had long been gone.

The equipment is not good, the people have no fighting spirit, and this battle cannot be fought.

"Surrender!"

With Carter's order, the British sailors were suddenly relieved, but they were also ashamed, and the arrogant British Imperial Navy was reduced to the point of surrender.

Seeing the white flag raised by the Iron Duke, Chen Shaoyi and Li Weijun also breathed a sigh of relief, fortunately they did not let the Iron Duke escape back to Singapore, otherwise a beautiful battle of Scarborough Shoal would greatly reduce the glory of the total annihilation of the British Asian fleet, after all, the Iron Duke is the flagship of the British Navy. (To be continued.) )