"God bless the Tsar!

powerful and sublime,

Your reign brings glory, our glory!

Thy rule is feared by the enemy,

Ruling the Orthodox Church.

God bless the Tsar! ”

Melodious military music and solemn singing resounded on every Russian battleship, drums sounded in unison, and soldiers raised their guns in salute.

This means that the battle has officially begun. On the six ironclad ships of the Ming Navy, although they did not carry military bands (all of them were on the sail warships), all the officers and soldiers also began to sing "Helping the World to Restore China" in unison. This set of rituals was also learned from the European navy, and compared with a basket of silver dollars, an impassioned national anthem representing the nation seems to have a higher morale-boosting effect.

"The Chinese did not change their formation!" When the music of "God Save the Tsar" died down, Vragel noticed that the six Chinese "coffin ships" were still moving in a horizontal formation, as if they did not notice that the Russian fleet was about to attack their flanks.

"There must be some conspiracy......," Flagel had a very bad premonition.

"Rush up, hit and you'll know everything!" Nevelskoy exclaimed, "There are about 350 cannons pointing at that coffin ship, and I don't believe it's iron-clad!" ”

It is true that the shell of the Chongming ironclad ship is not made of iron, but made of steel!

At 6:10, the port side guns of the battleship Queen Anna, the flagship of the Russian fleet, began to bombard the Chongming, and 40 cannons roared at the same time, and the shells rained down on the steel armor of the Chongming, making a clanging and crisp sound, and twenty or thirty white dots suddenly appeared on the starboard steel armor of the Chongming. It's the Russians' shells that knocked the black paint off!

Yes. Not a single shell exploded! Although the Russians used flowering shells. But in this era, the fuse was not triggered, so the explosion of the shell was delayed. The steel armor of the Chongming was arranged at an angle and tilted, and the shells that smashed on it all rolled into the sea and were doused by the sea.

Seeing this scene, the mouths of Vragel and Nevelskoy on the Queen Anna were so wide open that they could almost stuff an apple into it.

"How can this !!?"

"Oh my God, it's an ironclad !!"

"Signal the flag, disband the formation, retreat!"

Baron Flagle immediately realized that the naval battle had been lost. It's an ironclad ship! Even the 68-pounder cannon on the Queen Anna couldn't be fired, and it was still hairy. Now the distance between the two sides is less than 300 yards, and a 32-pound Hodchsky blaster is enough to kill the Queen Anna.

At this moment, the 10 32-pounder guns on the starboard side of the Chongming ironclad ship fired.

Boom Boom Boom ......

Although only 10 cannons were fired, it was deadly enough for the battleship Queen Anna. The distance between the two sides is too close, and the possibility of missing the shot is not at all. And the 32-pound conical Hodchsky blaster was not at all something that the plank armor of a third-class battleship could withstand. There was a loud clattering sound, and the hull of the big ship shook suddenly.

"God, I was struck ......"

"Are you going to finish?"

Flagle and Nevelskoy closed their eyes in pain, knowing that the Chinese had fired shells filled with starch explosives.

Thundered......

Huge explosions rang out one after another! Six of the 10 Hodchsky blasting shells were successfully detonated. It's not black powder that's exploding, it's nitrate H starch exploding! This explosive even reached the first world war in history. It is still the main explosive used by the countries participating in the war, and it is more powerful than the A oil explosive. And the weight of a 32-pound Hodchsky blaster shell is about the same as the weight of a later 105 howitzer shell. And this is the weight of a pure warhead excluding the propellant, and its explosive power is almost comparable to that of a 150 grenade, what is the fate of a wooden-hulled ship in the middle of the 19th century with six 150 grenades, and you can figure it out with your heels.

Almost as soon as the explosion sounded, Baron Flagle found himself flying in the sky, and then fell into the sea with a thud, and if it weren't for the good body of a naval officer, he would have fainted. He struggled and paddled twice, bringing his bald head to the surface. At this time, the scene that he will never forget for a lifetime came into his eyes, the battleship Queen Anne, with a full load displacement of nearly 2,800 tons, had broken into two sections and was sinking and burning! A tall mast snapped, creaked and screeched, and fell into the water with the already burning sails, sending a wave two stories high that nearly drowned Flagel.

"Baron! Get out of here......"

One of the surviving Russian sailors swam up to the baron, yelled at him, and shoved him with a broken plank. The baron glanced at the finished Queen Anne again, sighed, and swam over to a large ship about a nautical mile away, which was Matthew. Perry's flagship USS Mississippi.

Thundered! There was another loud bang, and the second victim of the Chongming ironclad reappeared, and the battleship Admiral Potemkin followed in the footsteps of the Queen Anna and was hit by seven 32-pound Hodchsky blasting shells, four of which exploded, but for Admiral Potemkin, this result was fatal enough. In an instant, the explosion shook the earth, the flames soared, and the water was strewn with broken ship planks, sails, and the corpses of Russian soldiers.

At this time, the Russian fleet had disbanded its formation and began to flee one after another, and the six steam ironclad ships of the Chinese also dispersed in formation and began to pursue vigorously.

"Come on, smash these Russian ships!"

Rushing to the front was still Feng Ziye's Chongming, and after killing two third-class battleships one after another, he was shouting loudly as if he was crazy, maneuvering the ship, and catching up with the last Russian third-class battleship. But an unexpected scene appeared, a Russian fourth-class battleship didn't know whether it was panicked or couldn't think of looking for death, anyway, it rushed straight towards the Chongming.

"Send it to death, okay, Lao Tzu will fulfill you!" Feng Ziye sneered and turned the rudder and aimed the starboard side of the Chongming at the enemy ship. And the Russian battleship turned out to make the same move, and the two ships were aligned at a distance of 300 yards from each other. Almost at the same time, a fierce confrontation began!

"God bless Russia! Fire, bombard its paddle wheel! ”

The officer in command of the Russian battleship ordered loudly while steering the wheel, this suicidal attack was not a completely brainless move, but aimed at the only weakness of the Chongming-class ironclad ship! Its practical propeller-propelled steam sailing ship Napoleon appeared already a few years ago. However, the engineers of Nanyang Bank did not know how to design the propeller propulsion system in Langdao, so the Chongming class still used paddle wheel propulsion. As a result, the battleships above the waterline that were wrapped in ironclad had such an empty door. But the price of attacking this empty door is life.

"Good! Blow up another one! ”

Seeing a Russian battleship turn into a ball of fire, Feng Ziye shouted loudly, but he soon found that there were not many. His Chongming is circling the seas!

Then he heard the crying voice of the Nanyang Xing engineer who accompanied the ship: "Captain, one of our paddle ships has been destroyed, and the ironclad ship has lost power!" ”

"These Russian madmen ......"

Matthew. Perry witnessed this scene through a telescope, and couldn't help but sigh when he saw a Russian fourth-tier battleship exchange its sacrifice for a respite for the whole fleet.

"But Chinese's progress is more worrying...... Perry muttered under his breath. The British Empire is very awesome, but the focus in Britain is not the Pacific after all! China, a big country on the Pacific coast, originally thought that China was only a strong army, but I didn't expect their navy to improve so rapidly......

"Mr. Brigadier General, quite a few Russian sailors have swam past us!" The Mississippi's first mate suddenly shouted in Perry's ear.

Perry looked out to sea, and sure enough, there were quite a few heads floating on the water, approaching his side.

"No, leave them alone." Perry shook his head, "Let the Chinese go and capture the prisoners." Let's hurry, get out of here......"

The first mate asked, "Where to go?" ”

Perry smiled, "Go to Hawaii, I think I can get those islands for the United States." (To be continued......)