"Your Excellency Commander, I suggest that in front of the Imperial Chinese Navy, we deploy radium again!"

On board the British ironclad ship Kent, staff officer Holder suddenly proposed to Matt.

"What? Again Bollar? Are you telling the enemy that we are here to cloth radium? Holdel are you crazy! Do you want to put us to death? Another staff officer beside him shouted.

Matt frowned, the secret cloth was his last resort, used to prevent the Chinese Imperial Navy from breaking through, and once it was exposed in advance, it would be useless.

"Why?"

"Your Excellency, Commander, if you were the commander of the Imperial Chinese Navy and suddenly found that your warship had touched radium, what would you think?"

Matt was so shrewd that he immediately guessed it and said in surprise: "You mean that the other party will immediately guess that this is a dangerous situation?" ”

Holdel nodded: "Yes, if I were the commander of the other side and found that my own warship suddenly touched radium, I would guess that the British Imperial Navy had arranged an ambush here in advance. Then I will not hesitate to order the whole fleet to retreat quickly, without giving the opponent a chance to ambush. ”

"You said it so timely, I ignored it, and I thank you for telling me in time, before I made a big mistake!" Matt gave Holdel an appreciative look, he already knew what to do, so he ordered the Radium Boat Brigade to carry out Radium again in front of the Imperial Chinese Navy, braving artillery fire.

At the same time, the Imperial Chinese Navy on the opposite side quickly discovered the signs of the British Navy's Radium Boat activity and reported it to the fleet commander, Admiral Chen Shaoyi, in time.

"Matt must have felt that there was no hope of escaping, and was ready to fight to the death!"

"I think Matt wants to hold on and wait for help, and Bulei is stalling for time!"

"Grinding the gun in battle, this Matt is not stupid, he knows that he can't run away and wants to block us with radium!"

Inside the command tower, several staff officers were discussing. Of course, he is also saying to Chen Shaoyi, this is the staff officer's own job.

When Chen Shaoyi heard the discussion of the people around him, he immediately had a clue in his heart, and immediately ordered the six guerrilla fleets scattered on the periphery to attack the British Cloth Boats.

Naturally, there was also a convoy near the British Cloth Radium boats, so fierce battles broke out again between the cruisers and frigates of both sides.

The cruisers and frigates of the British army were naturally no match for the cruisers and frigates of the Imperial Chinese Navy. The battle quickly became white-hot, the British battleships continued to suffer heavy damage, and several British cruisers that had just retreated to extinguish the fire reopened their hulls after the re-exchange of fire.

Relying on the advanced protection performance of the battleships and the superiority of rapid-fire gun firepower, the Chinese Imperial Navy dealt a heavy blow to the British ships, sinking one British Radium boat after another to stop the British Radium Distribution.

Seeing this result, Chen Shaoyi was laughing, while Matt had a black face. Bleeding in the heart.

However, both sides were quickly distracted by the fierce collision of the main fleet.

At 7:50 a.m., nine Xiongfeng-class capital ships and six Dingyuan-class ironclad ships of the Imperial Chinese Navy formed a five-way column and approached the British fleet on the opposite side, using the bow twin 305-mm main guns to attack.

The cannon roared, like thunder in nine days. The shells exploded around the British ship, stirring up huge columns of water hundreds of meters high, and the waves splashed. Smoky.

Matt sits on the ironclad ship Kent and commands ten ironclads lined up. The hull is horizontal, and the output is carried out with maximum firepower on the side side.

Although it is still an old ironclad ship, since the Fourth Yapian War, the British Admiralty has upgraded it, replacing the original 30 times diameter 110-pounder gun with a 40 times diameter 12-inch main gun, and adding a layer of external armor to the surface of the hull. This brought the total armor thickness to 320 mm. However, due to the fact that after the launch of the battleship, the boilers and steam engine systems inside the hull could no longer be replaced, so the increased weight of the guns and armor reduced the speed of these originally less than 14 knots to 10 knots, in order to improve firepower and armor. In the end, speed was sacrificed.

10 old-fashioned ironclad ships, each equipped with two twin 12-inch guns, a total of 40 12-inch naval guns, lined up in a line, firing a salvo, the scene is quite spectacular.

Knock knock! Knock knock!

The main guns of the British ship fired a salvo, and the huge muzzle of the gun spewed out black smoke dozens of meters long, and then the shells burst out in a cloud of flames, roaring and shooting at the Chinese Imperial Navy on the opposite side.

The shells fell to a distance of more than 10,000 meters and exploded violently, stirring up huge columns of water.

Chen Shaoyi found through observation that the British Navy has put a lot of effort into the main guns, because the last time it suffered a big loss in the Battle of Huangyan Island, so the British Navy on the one hand raised the caliber of the main guns to the same as the main guns of the Imperial Chinese Navy, and the diameter of the main guns was also increased to 40 times, but compared with the 50 times the diameter of the main guns of the Imperial Chinese Navy, it was still a little worse. In order to shorten the gap, the British Navy put a lot of thought into the artillery charge, increasing the number of projectile packs, so as to ensure the effectiveness of the shells at a distance of 10,000 meters. But the hidden danger is also very large, the stability of the main gun chamber has decreased, the barrel has been seriously corroded and worn, and the life of a gun barrel has dropped from the original 120 rounds to 80 rounds, if the British Navy knows that the life of the main gun of the Chinese Imperial Navy is more than 150 rounds, it is estimated that it will die of jealousy.

"Speed up!"

Chen Shaoyi gave the order, he did not plan to shoot at a long distance with the British fleet, it would be too time-consuming. Although Chen Shaoyi judged according to intelligence that it would take at least five hours for the British main fleet to rush to the rescue, he had time to slowly ravage Matt. But in the end, he was a little more cautious, and decided to let the capital ships rush up, fight bayonets at close range, and fight quickly.

Seeing that the main battleship of the Imperial Chinese Navy did not stop for long-distance shooting, Matt's heart suddenly sank. The reason why he let the main guns of each ship shoot at the maximum range at the first time was that he hoped to make the Imperial Chinese Navy jealous, stop at a distance of about 10,000 meters, and slowly fire at a distance of 10,000 meters with the British fleet.

You must know that even if the Imperial Chinese Navy had advanced optical sighting instruments and fired at a distance of 10,000 meters, it would not be easy to hit the British battleship. At a distance of 10,000 meters, even if the 12-inch armor-piercing shells fired by the main guns of the Chinese Imperial Navy warships, as long as they are not fatal penetrating hits, they can resist more than ten or twenty shells from the opponent. According to the frequency of the main guns of the Imperial Chinese Navy. Calculated by two shells in three minutes, if you want to sink the ironclad ship of the British Navy, you need to maintain a 100% hit rate for at least half an hour, which is obviously impossible to do, and it is not bad to have a 10% hit rate at a distance of 10,000 meters. So Matt thinks that if the Imperial Chinese Navy engages at a distance of 10,000 meters like the Battle of Scarborough Shoal five years ago. There is no such thing as three or five hours that you can't win, and then Matt has successfully completed the procrastination plan.

But Matt's hopes were dashed, and instead of staying at a distance of 10,000 meters, the Imperial Chinese Navy approached at the risk of being hit by the main guns of the British ironclad ships.

At this time, the Imperial Chinese Navy was divided into five columns, and only the lead ships could attack the British ships with the front main guns, a total of ten 305 mm main guns. And ten British ships lined up, which was equivalent to occupying the "T" prefix attack position. It is possible to concentrate 40 12-inch guns for the attack.

In this case, the Imperial Chinese Navy suffered a loss, and the five leading ships in the head were constantly hit by shells fired by the British ships, and some parts of the hull were damaged.

However, it was only a loss, and the 12-inch armor-piercing shells of the British ironclad could not pose a mortal threat to the battleships of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

At least five thousand meters away, the kinetic damage energy of the British ship's 12-inch armor-piercing projectile could not penetrate the 240 mm thick nickel-chromium carbon steel armor covered by the Hsiungfeng-class battleship.

Seeing that the capital ships of the Imperial Chinese Navy were constantly approaching. Matt really wanted to give the order to rush up and fight to the death, but in order to stall for time. He had to endure.

"Order the ships to retreat, try to distance themselves as much as possible, and avoid close combat!"

The British commanders of the ships breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that Matt would hold on. They all knew that the capital ships of the Imperial Chinese Navy had greater artillery power than the British ships, stronger armor protection than the British ships, and faster sailing speeds than the British ships.

Are you kidding. This kind of battle that is not at the same level at all is clearly sent to death!

Therefore, the ten British ironclad ships quickly turned around and retreated in an S-shaped maneuver, while the left and right side guns took turns firing at the rear. Continue to block the approach of the Chinese Imperial Fleet.

It's just that the ten ironclad ships of the British Navy sacrificed speed in order to increase the power of their guns and the thickness of their armor.

Nowadays, it only has a speed of about 10 knots, and it is even slower with constant S-maneuvers. On the other hand, the capital ships of the Imperial Chinese Navy have been accelerating in a straight line, with the fastest speed reaching 19 knots and the slowest being 17 knots.

The distance between the two sides was getting closer, and soon it was five thousand meters away.

At this time, the 12-inch shells of the British Navy posed a threat to the capital ships of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

As the flagship of the fleet, the battleship Hsiungfeng was the target of the British Navy's key attack, and its hull was shot in many places, its armor was smashed, leaving dozens of craters of different sizes, the bridge was also shot, some facilities were damaged, and the sporadic flames were quickly extinguished by the sailors on the Hsiungfeng.

The fifth road lead ship, the Weiyuan ironclad ship, its hull is wrapped in wrought iron armor, and it is also the weakest column of the five-way column of the capital ship of the Chinese Empire, its hull was pierced by the British 12-inch shells in three places, and puffs of black smoke came out of the gap in the black hole, fortunately it was not a waterline belt, otherwise it would cause seawater to pour into it from the gap.

"Right full rudder once!"

"Port side artillery fire ready to attack!"

With the commander's order, the lead ship of the Fifth Route Column of the Imperial Chinese Navy quickly turned to the right, the hull of the ship was horizontal, the main gun and secondary guns on the port side were loaded, and the gunners quickly aimed at the British battleship on the opposite side.

The other warships following the lead ship did the same, turning to the right, striking the hull horizontally, exposing the main guns of all levels on the port side, aiming at the enemy ship five thousand meters away.

"Fire!"

"Fire!"

……

The gunners of the ships of the Imperial Chinese Navy, who had already endured impatience, quickly pulled the trigger.

Knock knock......

As the four 305-mm guns of the battleship Xiongfeng fired, the main guns of the other fourteen capital ships of the Imperial Chinese Navy also opened fire one after another.

In an instant, 60 305-mm guns fired a salvo, spewing out white gunpowder smoke that was dozens of meters long, and the sea surface was instantly emptied by the wave of air spewed from the muzzles, and the water mist burst open, as if in a steam room. In the flash of fire, a shell weighing 200 kilograms whistled and fired at the enemy ship five thousand meters away.

A few seconds later, columns of water rose from the British fleet on the opposite side, and huge waves rolled. The British ship was directly shot, raising a fiery red mushroom cloud, and the smoke of gunpowder soared into the sky.

The first hit was an instant hit, and although the hit rate was only one-sixtieth, it also proved that the Imperial Chinese Navy had become more powerful in naval artillery battles.

The salvo of 60 main guns of the Imperial Chinese Navy was spectacular and magnificent, and the British officers and men of the ships were frightened into a cold sweat.

In particular, the British ship Hobart, which was hit by the first shot, was torn open by 305 mm armor-piercing bullets more than a meter wide, and the instantaneous high temperature caused the surrounding 320 mm thick wrought iron armor to be burned red and twisted outward. After the shell penetrated the armor, it penetrated two more compartments, and the high temperature friction caused a fire, and black smoke billowed out of the gap, which was shocking to see, and some British sailors were directly frightened to their knees.

In the next moment, the secondary gun groups of the fifteen capital ships of the Imperial Chinese Navy were also firing a salvo, only one second slower than the salvo of the main guns, not because the gunners were slow, but because the huge recoil caused by the simultaneous salvo of gunfire on the side would make the hull roll of the ship worse.

The secondary guns were aimed at the superstructure of the British ships opposite, and a few seconds later, another barrage erupted in the British fleet, and the British ships were constantly shot, sparks exploded, and black smoke rolled.

The British ships continued to return fire, the fleets of both sides fought, the shells went back and forth on the sea, and the sea water boiled instantly.

The roar of artillery was deafening, and the smoke of gunpowder was filled, covering the sky and the sun.

The capital ships of the two sides exchanged fire for ten minutes, and the all-round superiority of the capital ships of the Imperial Chinese Navy in terms of firepower, armor, and speed was quickly demonstrated.

The Kent was Matt's flagship, and in order to attract Chen Shaoyi's attention, Matt had to raise the command flag on behalf of him, the commander-in-chief of the British Imperial Navy, which caused the guns of the six Imperial Chinese Navy battleships to be aimed at the Kent.

In just ten minutes, the Kent received hundreds of shells, the side armor was beaten into a beecomb, the superstructure was blown up, the deck was full of fires, and there were no British sailors to put out the fires, because under this dense artillery fire, people would be torn to shreds as soon as they got out.

At 8:42, the port side waterline of the Kent was hit by a 305 mm armor-piercing projectile, causing fatal penetrating damage, and a hole more than two meters wide poured more than a dozen tons of seawater into it every second, making the Kent ironclad ship slowly **** and sinking.

Matt's face was covered in ash and blood, and his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears were all bleeding. Although he was in the conning tower, the British Navy did not attach importance to the conning tower, and the armor was less than 100 mm, so it could not stop the artillery attack at all. (To be continued.) )