At the mouth of the Yangtze River, clouds are shrouded, and the sea breeze blowing from the southeast rolls up waves and crashes towards the shore.

The East China Sea Fleet dispatched its entire main fleet, including 10 shallow-water heavy turret ironclads and 22 sail battleships, to stand guard at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

"The enemy fleet is eight nautical miles away!"

On the high mainmast tower of the battleship Matsue, a sailor lowered his binoculars and shouted below.

On the deck, there were dozens of senior generals and officers, all of whom wore black military uniforms, and a young man in a white military uniform was the most conspicuous, he was the generalissimo of the Nanyang Army Navy, Li Weiguo, the king of Wu.

Li Weiguo personally supervised the battle, which greatly boosted the morale of the East China Sea Fleet, and in addition to the recent victory in the Battle of Chuansha, the first naval battle made a good start, and all the officers and men of the East China Sea Fleet were more confident in defeating the British Royal Navy, the most powerful in the world.

"The enemy ship is seven nautical miles away!"

Hearing the report, Lin Jiyun persuaded Li Weiguo again: "Lord Wang, you are a golden body, please go back to the shore to supervise the battle, it's too dangerous here!" ”

Li Weiguo waved his hand and said, "No need, this king is here, I want to watch this king's naval officers defeat a strong enemy!" ”

What are you kidding, since you have come to supervise the battle, you have to show that since all the officers and men of the East China Sea Fleet know that he is supervising the battle on the battleship Matsue, if he goes down at this time, it will make the officers and men think that their leader is afraid of death, then the 200% morale that has been stimulated with great difficulty will be gone in an instant.

Since he came, Li Weiguo didn't plan to go down.

Lin Jiyun's persuasion was ineffective, so he could only bite the bullet and say: "Since the prince has made up his mind, then your subordinates have the courage to ask the prince to grant his subordinates full command in the next battle." ”

The generals of the General Staff who accompanied Li Weiguo suddenly darkened their faces, and even the naval officers under Lin Jiyun instantly broke out in a cold sweat.

This Nima is afraid that Li Weiguo will interfere with the command!

Talking to the Supreme Leader like this, it's the rhythm of looking for death!

"You are presumptuous! The prince personally supervised the battle. Are you afraid that the prince will interfere with your command? ”

Before the generals on the side of the General Staff could go berserk, as the third-in-command of the East China Sea Fleet, Rear Admiral Chen Baocheng was the first to open his mouth to reprimand.

Lin Jiyun was also taken aback, and hurriedly apologized to Li Weiguo: "The minister doesn't dare!" It's just—"

"It's okay!" Li Weiguo smiled slightly, but he was not angry, although he was the supreme leader. However, there is still trust in the subordinate generals, and there is a great hidden danger in overstepping the command, which is a distrust of the subordinate generals, and it is easy to make huge mistakes. You don't see that Lao Jiang often over-commands, obviously he is just a second knife, but he has to pretend to overstep the command, and as a result, Lao Jiang's subordinates are all vested, and the battle is defeated.

Of course, Li Weiguo is self-aware, and he can point out the direction for the development of the navy. It can provide inspiration for the research and development of warship equipment, but he has no experience in commanding naval operations, and indiscriminate command on the battlefield can kill people, and this kind of thing will not happen to Li Weiguo.

"Lord Wang, this Lin Jiyun is too presumptuous, since the Lord personally supervises the battle, it is natural that the Lord should command the battle!"

Chen Baocheng and Lin Jiyun are in competition on weekdays, because Li Jun, the chief of staff of the fleet, has no intention of competing for the position of commander of the fleet. But Chen Baocheng wanted that position, and now he saw that Lin Jiyun dared to offend Li Weiguo. He thought that this time Lin Jiyun was finished, so he fell into the well.

Before this kind of thing was changed, Li Weiguo would definitely not give him a good face, because he didn't like the intrigue of his subordinates, which would affect the combat effectiveness of the army.

However, as the power in Li Weiguo's hands became more and more huge, the ambitions of his subordinates became bigger and bigger. It is human nature to compete for official positions and interests, who doesn't want to be a big official, who doesn't want to get more benefits?

Of course, there is a kind of person called unenterprising. As long as you give work and food, you will be satisfied, but that is only a very small number, and most of them are upward every day.

Now for Li Weiguo, with the continuous improvement of his status and power, his imperial skills are becoming more and more mature, and the way to control lies in balance. Therefore, Li Weiguo was no longer disgusted with Chen Baocheng's behavior of taking the opportunity to attack Lin Jiyun, but tacitly supported Chen Baocheng and Lin Jiyun to work against each other, which is called the art of balance, and Lin Jiyun cannot be allowed to dominate the navy.

However, Li Weiguo has a bottom line, he can tolerate Chen Baocheng and Lin Jiyun fighting for power and profit, but in the face of major rights and wrongs, Li Weiguo still adheres to principles, and now that the enemy is current, Lin Jiyun has his reason to ask for full command, after all, the battle is changing rapidly, if Li Weiguo suddenly intervenes, it may cause a huge danger of command confusion and defeat.

After figuring out this section, Li Weiguo said again: "It's okay, this king is just here to supervise the battle and improve the morale of the fleet, Commander Lin is the commander of the naval fleet, so he naturally has full command, and this king guarantees that he will not interfere with your command." ”

When Chen Baocheng saw Li Weiguo say this, he didn't talk much at the moment, and the other generals also breathed a sigh of relief, secretly scolding Lin Jiyun for being too upright, and talking to the leader like this is the rhythm of looking for death.

Lin Jiyun didn't think so, and immediately saluted: "Thank you for your trust, your subordinates will live up to the expectations of the prince and win this battle!" ”

Li Weiguo nodded and said with a smile: "Okay, this king has you Lin Jiyun, why can't you sweep the five continents and four oceans, this king is here to cheer for you." ”

Lin Jiyun thanked him again, and a crisis passed easily.

At this time, the warning came again.

"It's four nautical miles away!"

Li Weiguo and the others suddenly raised their heads, and at this time, they could see black pillars of smoke appearing on the sea in the east of the sky without binoculars, and dozens of British warships broke through the waves, murderous.

The air suddenly tensed.

"Prepare for war!"

Lin Jiyun gave an order, the flag was sounded, and the officers and men of the entire East China Sea Fleet quickly moved and took their places.

Ten shallow-water heavy artillery ironclads were placed at the front, acting as meat shields, and twenty-two sail battleships were placed in the back, acting as firepower output.

The entire East China Sea Fleet is a defensive posture with echelon firepower configurations.

In the distance, on the battleship Nelson, the flagship of the British Royal Navy's Asian Fleet, the British commander Claus also saw the East China Sea Fleet ahead through a telescope.

"It's just twenty-two wooden sail battleships, and they dare to compete with the commander's ironclad ships, and they will destroy you in minutes!"

This period. The concept of an ironclad is vague, and the definition varies from country to country.

In the British Royal Navy, ironclad refers to a battleship with a wooden keel covered with thick iron armor, and the French Navy called it an armored battleship, and it was not until ten years later that France built the first all-ironclad battleship to abolish the sail lock.

And now the East China Sea Fleet is under the vigorous construction of Li Weiguo. Ten years ahead of schedule, it took the lead in building a battleship with all ironclad and the abolition of sail locks, so ten Weiyuan-class battleships were defined as ironclad ships by Li Weiguo.

It can be said that the Weiyuan-class ironclad is the real ironclad, although his role is only a shallow water gunboat, used for coastal defense, and the so-called ironclad of the British is not yet worthy of the name.

"Your Excellency Commander, please take a closer look at the five hundred meters in front of the enemy fleet, where is their new ironclad ship!"

It was Marlin who spoke. Although he was punished and confined to prison, Klaus wanted to understand the reason for the defeat in the Battle of Chuansha a few days ago, so he had to release him again.

Klaus then looked over, and sure enough, in the middle of the waves, he found the new enemy warship that Marin had mentioned.

"What kind of battleship is this?"

It was also the first time that Klaus had seen this kind of rotating turret battleship, and he was very curious.

Marin hated this kind of gunboat, explaining: "The freeboard of this kind of battleship is no more than a meter, and the entire hull is almost under the surface of the sea, only the turret and chimney are exposed. The naval guns of our Navy are all direct-fire cannons. It is very difficult for the shell to hit the opponent, even if it hits. The opponent also has a very thick armor protection, and in the recent battle, our 64-pounder guns failed to penetrate its armor, and the preliminary judgment is that its armor thickness is at least 100 mm. The opponent's turret can be rotated, and the armor is just as strong, which cannot be penetrated by our shells. However, each turret of the opponent lacked two 305 mm guns with huge caliber and double diameter, with a firing range of more than 3 nautical miles, which was very powerful, and our 4,000-ton battleship was sunk by the opponent's first shot. ”

Klaus didn't feel anything when he listened to Marin's report a few days ago, but now he saw the huge cannon muzzle of the black hole. Suddenly there was a palpitation and fear.

This is a 305mm cannon, and even the Royal Navy has only the main gun of the most powerful battleship Warrior that can compete with it.

Fortunately, the other side only has ten ironclad ships, each of which has only two or three turrets and four to six 305 mm cannons, although Klaus's fleet does not have such large-caliber giant guns, it is superior to the number of battleships and the number of guns.

In Klaus's opinion, he still has an overwhelming advantage.

Of course, this will have to be done to know the outcome.

At this moment, I saw a sudden flash of fire on an ironclad ship in the East China Sea Fleet, and gunpowder smoke several meters long erupted from the muzzle.

Immediately after, there was a loud bang, like a thunderbolt from the sky.

A 305-millimeter shell exploded more than 100 meters to the left of the Nelson, stirring up a huge column of water, splashing and making a huge sound.

This power, Nima wants to go against the sky!

Klaus was also instantly stunned, although he had seen the huge firepower of the 110-pounder guns (about 300 mm caliber) of the Warrior ironclad, but compared to the power of the 305 mm shells of the enemy ironclad ship in front of him, it was a big difference.

This Nima is not scientific!

It is also more than 50 kilograms of shells, even if the charge is a few catties off, the explosion power will not be so different!

No, it's not a hey pill.

Even if the medicine exploded in the seawater, it would be black in the huge waves, but in the huge waves that exploded in front of me, there was almost no black, but gray and white.

Klaus was keenly aware of this, but he didn't have time to think about it.

"The opponent's 305-mm cannon can hit 4 nautical miles away?"

"This should be an enemy ship engaged in artillery fire!"

"That's right, it's the artillery that fires, and they're going to fire!"

Klaus's eyes tightened, and he immediately ordered: "The whole fleet is ready for battle!" Pay attention to evade enemy fire! ”

Sure enough, as soon as Klaus and Marin's words fell, they saw ten shallow water heavy artillery ironclad ships of the East China Sea Fleet firing one after another, and 305-millimeter shells weighing more than 50 kilograms roared in.

Boom Boom Boom ......

The shells exploded on the sea near the ships of the British Asian Fleet, and huge columns of water rose into the sky, and the sea water boiled instantly.

This time, the East Sea Fleet changed its tactics and instead of waiting for the British fleet to come within 1 nautical mile before firing, it carried out long-range artillery strikes.

A few days ago faced Marin's detachment. Because of the small number and scattered targets, Lin Jiyun used to get closer and then fight, after all, the British Navy did not know the power of shallow water heavy gunboats. But in today's re-battle, it is clear that the British Navy has learned a lesson, facing dozens of British Navy main warships. It is not cost-effective to put it in and fight again, and the long-range killing advantage of the 305 mm main gun should be brought into play.

In the face of the huge power of the 305 mm cannon, the British troops on each ship were a little afraid, the more experienced the British army knew how powerful the cannonball that could set off a huge wave of eighty or ninety meters high was, once it hit the battleship, it would be a devastating heavy blow, which could tear the flesh and blood apart in an instant.

"Distance!"

"3 nautical miles, sir!"

Klaus rolled his eyes, how could this Nima be so far away. In accordance with the British Army Code of Battle. The fleet had to get within a kilometer of the enemy ship before the guns could fire, and although it was not mandatory, it was the most suitable distance for British artillery to exert its power and give the enemy the maximum firepower.

But now, there are still four kilometers to go, and although the largest caliber 64-pounder can barely get into range, it is useless.

"Accelerate!"

Klaus was helpless and could only order the fleet to accelerate the onslaught.

I saw black smoke coming out of the chimneys of the British ships. At this time, the steam engine could only provide faster speed.

Knock knock......

The second round of artillery rang out again, and the East China Sea Fleet still had only ten shallow water heavy gunboats firing again. The twenty-two sail battleships in the back also did not fire for the time being because of the small caliber of their guns and insufficient range, but only pressed the formation.

The stern guns of the Zhiyuan opened fire, and a 305-mm shell was fired at the British ship Immortal, exploding near its starboard side. Almost hit the Immortal directly.

Even though it was only a close arrow, it also caused great damage to the Immortal, causing the explosion to break below the starboard waterline of the Immortal, and the sea water poured into the crack.

At the same time, huge waves caused by explosions. The battleship Immortal was almost overturned, but the roll of up to 70 degrees made the British troops on the Immortal instantly turn on their backs, and they were suddenly in a mess.

This scene naturally could not escape Klaus, who paid close attention to the changes in the battlefield, and calculated the firing interval of the opponent's 305 mm main gun, the accuracy and power of the shelling.

"It turned out to be a rear-loading gun!"

Klaus was surprised to find that the opponent's artillery did not reload shells and propellants at all, which only showed that the shells were reloaded in a rear-loading manner.

This is the rear-loading artillery technology that the British Empire has not deployed in actual combat at present, which makes him jealous.

Marin added: "Although it was a rear-loading gun, the rate of interval fire was not satisfactory, and it was more than a minute faster than our 110-pounder front-loading rifled gun." I don't know how they did it! ”

If Klaus and Marin knew that Li Weiguo on the other side was still dissatisfied with such a fast launch speed, they didn't know if they would vomit blood.

At the beginning, Li Weiguo promised to install a mechanical loafer for the 305-mm main gun, but unfortunately the time was too short, and a naval battle broke out before the development work was completed.

At this moment, in the shallow water heavy gunboats, the officers and men of the East China Sea Fleet are sweating and raining to load shells and propel kits, all relying on manpower to lift them, which can be described as very hard.

However, every officer and soldier had excitement on their faces.

Hiding in the turret, not afraid of being hit by the enemy's shells and being injured, on the other hand, as long as one shot hits the enemy ship, it is enough to inflict a heavy price on the enemy ship to sink or suffer heavy damage.

This Nima couldn't have imagined it before!

In the second turret of the Chaoyuan, several artillerymen were busy loading shells and propellants, but they were all nagging.

"I said Wang Cannon, you can't shoot on time, as long as you sink an enemy ship, the money for my brother's daughter-in-law will come out!"

"That's it, Wang Cannon, my brothers are counting on you, didn't you see that Zhang Erzi of the Dingyuan sank an enemy ship with one cannon yesterday, and I heard that the fleet headquarters promoted him to the rank of second-class artillery sergeant, and gave him a bonus of five hundred yuan, and I heard that he redeemed the top card of the Cuihong Courtyard on the same day."

"Look at his smug death, Lao Tzu is angry when he looks at it, why doesn't this good luck fall on us?"

"Okay, okay, don't beep, don't affect Brother Cannon."

"What's the top card of the Cuihong Courtyard, Brother Cannon, as long as you hit this cannon, I'll give you a few shots of my family's Cuihua!"

"your mother, your Cuihua is also called a woman, and she doesn't even do it!" Wang Dacang suddenly laughed and scolded, but this did not affect the movements of his hands.

I saw Wang Cannon skillfully correcting the mechanical sights, estimating the advance of the enemy ship, and then shouted: "Fire!" ”

Wang Cannon pulled the cannon guide cable suddenly, and the other comrades-in-arms were reminded, quickly stepped aside and covered their ears.

Boom!

With a loud bang, the No. 3 main gun of the No. 2 turret of the Chaoyuan opened fire, and a 305-mm shell broke through the waves, roaring and shooting at the British ship Orlando 2 nautical miles away.

Be sure to hit!

Be sure to hit!

……

Several artillerymen, including the king cannon, were praying.

A few seconds later, there was a loud bang, and the British ship Orlando was hit.

In an instant, a huge cloud of fiery red mushrooms rose into the sky, and the bow of the battleship Orlando was directly hit, and it was instantly blown to pieces, the flames were raging, and the smoke was billowing.

"Haha, Lao Tzu hit!"

Wang Dacang grinned, and the other comrades-in-arms were stunned for a moment, and then cheered one after another.

One of them hurriedly lay down at the observation port to inspect, and sure enough, he was hit.

"Blind our golden dog eyes, Nima's shot is really accurate, daughter-in-law don't have to worry!"

"Haha, the master will show off the faction tomorrow when he gets the bonus, what is the point of getting a head card from the second stunned, the master will directly get a foreign girl back, and blind you golden dog eyes!"

When everyone was shouting and bragging, suddenly there was a loud shout from the call pipe.

"Damn, what are you talking about, this is a war, if you miss the fighter, believe it or not, Lao Tzu will collapse you all!"

At the other end of the pipeline was the battleship command room, and Wang Cannon and the others were suddenly startled, and they didn't dare to scream, so they hurriedly took their places and continued to fight.

Something like this is not only the king cannon of the Chaoyuan, but also the other ships have many similarities, and everyone is working hard. (To be continued.) )