Deng Zhilong led the Chinese Navy's overseas Chinese fleet to sail safely from the main channel into Manila Bay, and then the officers and men of the Chinese Navy's Water Radium Battalion quickly dragged the ropes, pulled the Water Radium on both sides into the main channel, and rearranged the Water Radium defense line.

Soon, the British Navy fleet gave chase, ready to quickly enter Manila Bay through the main channel.

With a loud bang, the leading British ironclad ship Thor, touched a water radium, and the impact angle was instantly shattered, setting off a huge wave more than 30 meters high, and instantly slapping more than a dozen British sailors in the bow of the ship away.

If it were a British ship five years ago, the explosive yield of this water radium would be enough to blow the entire bow to pieces. But now the British ships are all forged in ironclad, and their anti-riot ability has been greatly improved, so only the parts below the bow waterline such as the ramming angle are blown up.

Even then, the bow was badly damaged, and a large amount of seawater poured into it.

The watertight cabin structure of the ironclad ship in this era was very primitive, and it turned out that it was almost useless, so seeing the bow slowly sinking, the British sailors on the entire Thor panicked.

"Damage Management Report!"

"The collision angle is seriously damaged, and the gap in the nose of the ship is too large, so it must be stranded immediately for repair!"

"Damn it! How can there be radium here? The captain of the Thor immediately scolded, just now he was happy that he had taken over the command of the right flank detachment (previously under the command of the Doom), and he wanted to do something big, but he was hit hard before he could catch up with the Chinese fleet.

"Manila Bay is occupied by the Chinese Navy, and it is they who have arranged the water radium!" The adjutant hurriedly explained.

"I know! I've got a brain! Need you to be reminded? The captain of the Thor smashed his head and yelled, and there was nowhere to vent the anger in his belly.

"Yes! Sir! The adjutant said with a crying face.

"What is? Hurry up and turn around and find a safe place to dock, do you want to sink into the sea to feed the fish? Your brain is caught in the door, and you still use me to remind you? ”

Really knelt down, the adjutant had an urge to die, and the dog blood spray that was scolded by the captain was directly used as a punching bag.

The Thor quickly typed "This ship has been heavily damaged." Exit the battle sequence", and then made a sharp turn towards the nearby shore shoal, preparing to run aground to repair the warship.

"Stop!"

On the bridge of the Iron Duke, Klaus saw that the Thor, which was leading the way, had an accident, and hurriedly stopped the whole fleet.

"Damn, I was careless!"

Klaus blamed himself, realizing that his anger had affected his judgment, and he had forgotten that Manila Bay had been occupied by the Chinese Navy, so he would naturally arrange a water radium defense.

"Commander, what should we do?"

"Blockade of shipping lanes. Send someone to drain radium! ”

Klaus gave the latest order, because of the timely response, only the Thunder God ironclad was hit, and the other British ships reversed and exited the channel in time, so no further losses were caused.

However, the two Doom-class ironclad ships, the Doom and Thor, were all severely damaged and could not recover their combat effectiveness in a short period of time, which was a disadvantage for the British Asian fleet. The morale of the army was greatly affected.

On the other side of the channel was Manila Bay, and the Chinese fleet led by Deng Zhilong did not go far, but watched from afar.

"It's a pity that we didn't sink it!"

"It looks like the attack power of the water radium against the ironclad ship has weakened a lot!"

Deng Zhilong muttered to himself. I was a little disappointed, I thought that I could sink at least one of the capital ships of the British army, which would greatly reduce the pressure on the defense.

Seeing that the British fleet sent a large number of small hulls to row radium, Deng Zhilong naturally could not let the British army succeed. Immediately ordered the fleet to prepare for an artillery bombardment.

Since the radium area is three nautical miles long, the main gun range of ordinary cruisers and frigates is not enough, so the three ironclad battleships can only be bombarded with their main guns.

The maximum firing range of the 305-mm main gun of the Dingyuan-class ironclad ship is only 10,000 meters. However, the accuracy drops quickly above 5,000 meters, and it is more difficult to hit the British warships on the other side of the radium area, but it can deter these British warships and disrupt their radium operations.

The large range and power of the 305 mm guns soon frightened the British battleships who came to sweep the radium into fled, and not long after, Klaus personally led the main fleet to approach and also returned fire with the main guns.

The 120-pounder guns on the British ironclad ship were theoretically equivalent to the 305 mm main gun, but they were obviously inferior to the main guns of the Chinese ironclad ships in terms of range and explosive power, and it was difficult for the shells to hit the Chinese fleet.

In turn, the main guns of the Chinese fleet had a maximum range of 10,000 meters, and although the hit rate at this distance was very low, there were occasional lucky blows that inflicted some damage on the British ships.

The area of radium a few nautical miles seemed to have become a moat, preventing the British fleet from rushing into Manila Bay to fight a decisive battle with the Chinese fleet.

Klaus was so angry that he almost vomited blood, he knew that the Chinese overseas Chinese fleet in Manila Bay was not many, as long as he could rush in, then he was sure to destroy the Chinese overseas Chinese fleet.

Unfortunately, this wish, which was easy to achieve, was now blocked by a water radium area, and the more Klaus thought about it, the more angry he became, and he quickly lost his mind in revenge.

"Let Doom go to the Radium!"

As soon as this order was issued, all the officers and men of the British Asian Fleet were shocked.

Letting Doom go to the Radium is clearly sending the Doom to death.

Some British officers and soldiers were very disgusted by Klaus's decision, because today Klaus could send the Doom to death, and tomorrow it would be possible to send other British ships to death.

Compare hearts to hearts, everyone is afraid of their turn next.

Similarly, some British officers and soldiers expressed their support, because they all found out that the Doom was actually useless, and was burned alive by the fire.

Today's Doom, although after half a day of fire extinguishing, saved the battleship from being burned, due to the fire in the coal tank and the high temperature in the center, most of the keel and transmission shaft in the stern have been burned out and deformed, and have completely lost power. Even if it is brought back to the country for repair, it will cost a lot of money, and it is not even cost-effective at all. It's better to let the Doom go to the radium and play the last value.

Eventually, Klaus's strength forced the Doom to go to the Radium.

So, the Doom was in front, and the Invincible was slowly pushing behind with an iron drill.

Despite the sacrifice of the Doom, the British Navy would not let the Doom sink easily, but used the ironclad protection of the Doom to cover the British ship's radium platoon to sweep the radium.

Meanwhile. The captain of the Doom, Stephenson, was also forced to come up with a way to protect himself.

Stephen Sun's sailors quickly dismantled several large iron plates, spliced them together and supported them in front of the bow impact angle, and used the large iron plates to hit the water radium hidden in the water, which could reduce the damage to the bow and below the waterline when the water radium exploded, so as to keep the Doom unsinkable.

When people are forced to be in a hurry, they will always exert their unconventional thinking ability, and Stephenson's whimsical idea is just in line with the principle of the radium armored car of later generations, and the entire bow of the Doom ship pushes a huge iron plate, which looks like a sea bulldozer.

Forehead. There is no soil on the sea, only water, so it should be called a sea pusher.

Stephenson did not know that his whimsical idea in desperation was included in the ranks of inventors by later generations, because he invented the first sea water pusher in human history, which is known as the originator of radium at sea.

The explosion sounded continuously, and the huge iron plate hit the water radium in the water, and it was instantly blown to pieces.

However, the shock wave of the explosion from the bow and below the waterline of the Doom was small and within the tolerable range.

Stephen Sun saw that his invention had succeeded. Hurriedly shouted happily.

As a result, at this moment, several shells fell with a bang, hitting the Doom.

It turned out that the Doom itself had no power, and was all driven by the Invincible in the back. The speed is already very slow, and the bow of the ship pretends to be a huge iron plate underwater, which makes it very difficult to advance in the water, resulting in even slower speed. Almost like a snail.

This speed, combined with the Doom's 10,000-ton hull, is like a fixed target at sea.

After the Chinese Navy discovered the intentions of the Doom. A salvo of artillery fire was immediately organized, and the shells were fired only once, and the second time they accurately hit Doom.

Boom!

The warhead, weighing more than 200 kilograms, instantly chiseled through the side armor of the Doom, leaving huge holes and sparks in all directions.

This is an armor-piercing projectile, due to the technical conditions of this era, the armor-piercing bullet has almost no charge inside, or the charge is very small, so that its explosive power is very small, and it all depends on kinetic energy impact.

Even so, the kinetic energy of the warhead of more than 200 kilograms is very terrifying, causing huge penetrating damage inside the hull of the Doom in an instant.

Although the damage to the hull of the ship is huge, if it does not encounter a fatal penetrating hit, it will generally not be sunk all at once.

Of course, if more than a dozen non-lethal penetrating hits are hit in succession, it is equivalent to the loss of combat effectiveness or the direct sinking of the battleship, because at that time the entire hull has been beaten into a beecomb, the internal structure has long been sparse, and even the keel has been broken, even if it is not sinkable, it is useless.

The Doom had very bad luck, and the main gun of the No. 4 stern of the Laiyuan opened fire, and the trajectory was slightly increased, as a result, the shell had a large arc, passed the vertical ironclad protection of the side of the Doom, and hit the horizontal deck of the ship at a large angle.

Except for the Chinese Navy, the warships of this era have no horizontal armor protection, and this is the case with the Doom, the horizontal deck is just a thin layer of iron plates and wooden floors, which cannot withstand the impact of more than 200 kg of high-speed armor-piercing shells, and they are instantly penetrated.

The shells continued from top to bottom, penetrating the three-story compartment and then penetrating the seawater valve in the bilge, causing the seawater valve to malfunction and a large amount of seawater began to pour in.

This sea valve was originally a self-sinking device set up by the navy to prevent the enemy from capturing the warship, and once opened, the bilge was instantly filled with seawater, and it was very difficult to close it again.

The panicked British sailors jumped into the water and tried to close the valve, but it turned out that it was simply impossible, because the valve had already been destroyed by shells.

When Captain Stephenson got the news, he immediately cried bitterly, the Doom was like his lover, and he was naturally heartbroken when he saw the Doom slowly sinking.

But Klaus, who was watching the battle from the rear, didn't think so, and when he saw that the way of discharging radium from the Doom was working, he was immediately overjoyed and ordered the other ships to quickly cooperate and follow the method of the Doom to dissolve radium.

On the other side, Deng Zhilong on the battleship Weiyuan did not have a trace of joy in sinking the Doom, but had a solemn expression.

He thought that the water radium area was enough to block the British fleet from entering Manila Bay, but now it seems that the British have really taken **** luck and can find a way to discharge radium by hitting water radium with an iron plate.

Although this method is too primitive, stupid and slow, it works.

In the radium area of three nautical miles, it only takes half a day to arrange radium according to the way of the British army.

"Deputy Commander Lin, get your Fish and Radium Boat Brigade ready!"

Lin Changlong nodded and said, "My Fish and Radium Boat Brigade has long been prepared!" ”

Deng Zhilong said: "It is best for you to attack at night, so that using the cover of the night is more conducive to getting close to the British ships and attacking successfully." ”

Lin Changlong said: "I understand what you mean, don't worry, the British want to complete the radium row, and it is estimated that it will be dark." When they are about to break through the radium zone, you lead the fleet to delay for a while, and wait until it gets completely dark, and then I will do it. ”

Deng Zhilong smiled bitterly: "Brother, you forgot that we are here in Nanyang, you look at this day, if you want to completely darken, it is estimated that it will be after nine o'clock in the evening." ”

Lin Changlong was stunned for a moment, then looked at the sky, and immediately smiled bitterly.

"Okay, then let it go, the twelve fish and radium boats of my fish and ray boat brigade, even if they fight to destroy the whole army, they will sink twelve British warships."

The Fish Ray Boat did not have any armor protection, and even if it was hit by an 80-mm naval gun, a blasting shell would be certain to death.

Therefore, in Lin Changlong's eyes, a fish and radium boat can basically only be replaced by a British ship, or in the case of a sneak attack, if it approaches head-on, the column guns on the side of the British ship fire a salvo, and there is no scum left to be bombed, and it is impossible to get close at all.

"Let me think!" Deng Zhilong thought for a while and said: "I want to find a way to divert the frigates near the British capital ships, you had better sneak attack the British capital ships, the more you sneak attack, the greater the chance that our capital ships will survive." Otherwise, let the British fleet come in, and our two fleets will be explained. ”

Lin Changlong nodded and said, "I know, don't worry, even if you die, you have to pull a cushion." ”

Then, Deng Zhilong studied the specific tactics and cooperation with Lin Changlong, and Lin Changlong personally went to supervise the Fish Ray Boat Brigade.

The plan could not catch up with the changes, and the British came up with a new way to crack the water radium defense area, and Deng Zhilong had to inform the Imperial Admiralty in time.

Originally, Deng Zhilong was completely sure that he would hold on for two days and wait until the main fleet of the Imperial Navy arrived, but now it would be good to be able to hold on for one day.

Once the British fleet breaks through the water radium area and enters Manila Bay, the decisive battle between the two sides will break out with the capital ships, and it is a question whether they can survive tonight, after all, the number of capital ships of the British Navy is too large, even if two ironclad ships are scrapped, there are still eight ironclad ships and fifteen cruisers left, and Deng Zhilong only has three ironclad ships and five cruisers, and the gap in the number of capital ships is too big. (To be continued.) )