readx;?“ Who are they, O God? ”

"Great, our reinforcements have arrived!"

May 10, 1876, 9:05 a.m. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

All the soldiers at the observation posts of Chinese and British ships in the South China Sea, about 55 nautical miles north of the Riau Islands, exclaimed in surprise almost at the same time. They all saw the smoke rising from the surface of the southeastern ocean.

The first to arrive at the battlefield is 10 Tianjin-class fast cruisers, they are the treasure of the Ming Royal Navy, starting from the design and construction of the first Tianjin ship, has been overhauled several times, the last overhaul was completed 1 month ago, and the naval guns were replaced with 155mm/40 times the diameter to enhance firepower. As a result of this change, the tonnage of the ship has increased slightly, reaching 4,480 tons, and the maximum speed has also dropped slightly to 18.2 knots, but it is still one of the fastest cruisers in the world. So even if they made a little detour and inserted themselves to the south of the main combat area, they were still the first reinforcements to rush to the battlefield.

"Sir, it's Tianjin-class, and the Chinese's 10 Tianjin-class ships have arrived!" Inside the command tower of the Empress of India, the fleet communications staff officer roared loudly. His voice fell, and a loud roar came to mind, and then the entire hull trembled. To be honest, the Indian Queen-class, which has a full load displacement of only about 15,500 tons, is definitely a small boat cannon. Although the weight of the cannons cannot be compared with the barrel cannons, and the speed of the 25 times the diameter of the cannon is not high, the recoil of the cannon still makes the ship shake violently.

"General, the Chinese really have ambushes!" Thunder. Aspen was a little worried.

"Don't care, 155mm and 140mm rapid-fire guns can't sink ironclad ships!"

Arthur. Hood is still confident. It was nothing more than the destruction of the deck superstructure of a few more battleships...... Anyway, it's been until now. The losses of the Eastern Fleet are already not small. If you can't sink a few Chinese ironclad ships. A deep enough lesson to the Chinese that they will certainly continue to send supplies to Chittagong through the Sunda Strait or the Lombok Strait. At that time, the outcome of the battle for India will be unpredictable. And once something happens in India, Singapore will be a rootless wanderer!

And the four ironclad ships of the Chinese have already been caught up by him! The distance between the formations of the two sides, at most, is only 5,000 meters, and it has entered the best firing distance of the naval guns!

"Tell Rear Admiral Hopkins that he will take over the command of the entire fleet, except for the three Indian Queen-class ships. Let him hold on for another hour no matter what! ”

Look at the victory that is about to come. Arthur. Hood would not even consider returning to engage the 10 Tientsins, who he knew to be faster than all the cruisers in the Eastern Fleet, and the Empress of India class could not catch up. After a moment's thought, he handed over command of the battlefield to Rear Admiral Hopkins, who was aboard the battleship Mitauno. The latter is also second only to Arthur in the Eastern Fleet. Hood and Ray. Aspen's senior general.

"Hell, these yellows couldn't have come at the right time! If it's two hours later...... What the hell! ”

Major General Hopkins received Arthur. When Hood ordered, he was gritting his teeth and scolding his mother.

His current command position is on the foredeck of the Minotaur, an "old" (in fact, less than 10 years old, and only on the verge of obsolescence because shipbuilding technology has advanced so quickly in this era) side-gun battleship with no real conning tower or bridge. The deck superstructure of this battleship was very few, almost none. So I am not afraid of the "deck-washing stream" of the Chinese. So the three Minotaur class are now forming a separate formation, entangled with the five armored cruisers of the Chinese. I don't know how many 155mm and 140mm shells I received. The biggest damage was the breaking of a wooden mast, which the Minotaur had five very tall. It was originally used to hang sails, but now it can only be used to dry clothes, even if it is all interrupted, there is not much practical damage to the Minotaur.

But the other ships on the sea were not as lucky as the Minotaur class, and Hopkins looked around and saw that there were burning ships everywhere, both British and Chinese. More than 60 warships of both sides were in a scuffle on the sea. Except for the formation of three Minotaur classes, the other formations on the battlefield have been dispersed and turned into a catch-and-fight between warships and battleships -- this is a "chaotic war", which sounds like a mess, but it is a trick that the British have been training hard for many years to use against the Ming Navy.

As mentioned above, the British Navy's current tactics are to focus on the bow against the enemy (not that they can't fight columns), and each ship is usually equipped with strong firepower in the bow, and they are also equipped with ramming angles. According to the tactical regulations of the British Royal Navy, the principle of "first wounded, then sunk" should be pursued in naval warfare. And to implement ramming tactics, of course, it is impossible to maintain a column in line. Therefore, after the naval battle was carried out to the white heat, the flagships of the British ship formation issued orders for "chaotic warfare" one after another, disbanded the formation, and began to look for the middle of the collision and deceleration. ship of chance. Because many Chinese warships were wounded in the previous firefights and slowed down, even the various columns also slowed down together, and now they were hit by the British ships violently, although none of the battleships were sunk, but the original queue could not be maintained, and they could only be forced to fight with the British fleet that they were not familiar with.

However, the three Minotaur classes, which were too slow and particularly battle-hardened, did not participate in the chaotic battle, but formed a small column, crisscrossing the sea to rescue their own warships in danger, and playing the role of a firefighting brigade. But there was not much "fire" on the battlefield to save these three Minotaur from the enemy, because after the start of the chaotic battle, the British fleet, which had the advantage in numbers, training and equipment (with ramming angles), was already in full swing. It's only a matter of time before you win big!

But the Chinese reinforcements have arrived!

"Major General, should we retreat? Reinforcements from the Chinese have arrived! The navigator on the side pointed to the smoke that was getting closer and closer in the sky.

"Retreat? Isn't it just 10 Tianjin-class, let's stop them and keep the world empire for England! Hopkins exclaimed, and now the balance of victory had tipped in favor of the British—though the cost of the victory was high, with more than 15 British ships reported to have been heavily damaged alone! But as long as they can sink a few more Chinese warships, they will learn a painful lesson and realize that the sea belongs to the British Empire! Hopkins believed that as long as the Chinese emperor realized that he had no way to win at sea, he would have to sit down at the negotiating table...... The British Empire may have to sacrifice a little of its territory in North America, but as long as it can keep the eastern part of North America, Australia, and India, the future of the empire will not be lost!

"Commander, three Minotaur ships are heading towards us." It was not the first time that Zhu Guoguang had been on the battlefield, his voice was slow and calm, "This kind of battleship has very little deck superstructure, and although the armor is not strong, it is enough to withstand 155mm armor-piercing shells, unless we get close to releasing torpedoes, we have no way to deal with them." ”

"Zixiu, what do you suggest?" Although Wang Boen's military rank is higher than Zhu Guoguang, his years of service in the navy are longer than Zhu Guoguang's. But the actual combat experience is almost zero. I don't have to be ashamed to ask.

When he joined the navy, the war with the Russians had ended, and although he was a captain in time for the First North American War, he did not have the opportunity to make a career in the navy. And before serving as the commander of this detachment, he was the head of the Personnel Bureau of the Admiralty. It's just a general sitting in the office, how can he compare his actual combat experience with Zhu Guoguang, who has been at sea for several months?

"Don't entangle with those three Minotaur classes, and disband the formation to disrupt the war!" Zhu Guoguang said, "Our task is not to sink as many British ships as possible, but to leave the British fleet as much as possible...... As long as we wait until the main fleet arrives, I am afraid that we will not be able to drive the British Eastern Fleet out of Asia! (To be continued......)