A salvo from the 9th round of the Sirius battle cruise, hitting the middle of the armor-piercing projectile, pierced through all the armor belts in the middle of the battleship Massachusetts and smashed directly into the boiler room of the bilge...... A white smoke suddenly mixed with the black smoke rose into the air, and it was clearly visible even from a distance.

At this moment, the battleship Massachusetts, which was emitting billowing black smoke in the middle and stern of the battleship, was already in chaos, and the boiler collapse caused by the breakdown of the bilge power compartment not only immediately caused the entire battleship to lose nearly 40% of its power, but also filled the bilge with hot steam for a moment, and the boilermen and sailors inside were directly killed by the hundreds of degrees of heat!

Colonel Poulsen naturally understood his predicament, the speed of the battleship quickly fell to 10 knots, and the Chinese battleship in the distance did not mean to let himself escape, and flew over two more volleys in just 3 minutes, but fortunately, he almost played with a 90-degree full rudder and turned sharply, so he was not further hit.

However, he did not expect the bad situation of the battleship at this moment, just when the Sirius fired the 12th salvo, the middle of the battleship Massachusetts, which was desperately turning around, suddenly appeared again An even more amazing white fog rose into the sky, and then, a huge explosive force directly broke the battleship like a monster in front of everyone, and in just 2 minutes, all 470 US Navy officers on the battleship died in the strait.

The result of the fierce battle between the two navies had completely made Commodore Sampson aware of the unbearable threat, and the astonishing gunnery displayed by the two Chinese warships was completely beyond his comprehension and bearing, and the reality of the sinking of the battleship Massachusetts showed that the US Navy had lost one-third of its combat strength. And the other party has been unharmed so far.

"Immediately ordered all to slow down to 10 knots. The bow of the ship forward. Bombard your opponents with battle lines! Brigadier Sampson made a difficult choice, and in the face of his opponent's crushing of gunnery, he already understood that the roles of hunter and prey had changed radically, and that he had to choose the maximum to save his strength.

At 5:45 p.m., when the battleship Texas, which overturned on its side on the sea's belly, had completely disappeared from the sea, and the American fleet was finally paying a great price. Completed the transformation from a pursuit formation to a full-fledged defense parallel queue.

Liu Hetu stood in front of the lookout window and smiled slightly, the other side had lost two battleships, obviously had given up the intention of attacking, and turned to a full-scale defense, the shelling at a speed of 10 knots was the general training basis of the navies of various countries in this era, and the other party also tried to reduce the speed in exchange for a higher hit rate, however, for him who was well versed in the principles of naval artillery, he naturally understood. Yankees: This is just wishful thinking.

"The main force maintains a distance and shells the enemy ships on the right side one by one!" Liu Hetu gave the order loudly. The U.S. fleet wanted to increase hits by concentrating artillery fire, which was somewhat interesting...... It's just that he naturally won't give the other side any good chances, if it weren't for the fact that he was in the strait at the moment, he would have to take a lot of risks to detour the flanks, otherwise he could complete a roundabout attack at the speed of a battle patrol, but as long as he always shelled any of the opponent's flanks, the Yankees would never get the opportunity to gather fire as they imagined.

As the two ships of the Celestial Wolf and the Celestial Kui turned to the right, and quickly opened the distance between them and the battleships of the American fleet, and quickly approached the battleship Indiana on the right flank to launch an artillery bombardment, Commodore Sampson had to order the battleships on the left flank to speed forward to close the distance, as a result, when the queue was loosened, the armored ship Terror that suddenly broke forward was unexpectedly hit the command tower by a round of rapid fire from the battleship Temporal, causing the tragedy of more than 10 officers, including the captain Colonel Mister.

The U.S. warships desperately opened fire to create smoke, hoping to reduce the opponent's hit rate, but at the same time, it also made the fleet's communication effect, which originally relied on flags and lights, a mess......

Finally, at 6:15 p.m., when the last rays of the setting sun fell, Commodore Sampson had to thank the night for falling, and Liu Hetu looked at the American battleships in the distance, considering that the continuous shelling had knocked out nearly 350 shells, which was half the base of the fleet's main guns, he also gave the order to leave the battle.

In the early morning of 3 March, the news of the Chinese navy's appearance in Havana had spread all over the US mainland, but the news of the US fleet's defeat was not announced to the media on the same day, and the "New York Daily" at this time was at an inopportune time clamoring for "maintaining the autonomy of the Americas" and "destroying the Chinese fleet," which immediately triggered anti-China protests in New York, Oregon, and several other western cities.

Of course, there are also media that obviously do not agree with this fanatical domestic atmosphere, and on the 4th, Yan's "New York Times" reported that "China's intervention in the Cuban crisis will ...... the United States of America will face another San Francisco crisis."

However, soon, the incendiary media "New York Daily" immediately launched a verbal and written attack on China, "The Chinese fleet prevents American warships from intercepting Spanish merchant ships, we must worry about China's forces intervening on the West Coast, we must make every effort to prevent the infiltration of Chinese military forces, and at the same time avoid China and Spain forming an alliance to contain the United States of America......

At 2 p.m. on the 4th, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Huang Zunxian met with U.S. Secretary of State John Zunxian. He lodged a solemn protest with the US Government, demanding an explanation from the US side for the clash with the Chinese Navy in the port of Havana, and also presented the US Government with the investigation report and photographs obtained on board the British merchant ship Ransom and the German merchant ship Priss who were present that day.

When these almost irrefutable pieces of evidence were placed on the table of President McKinley in the White House, the president, who had placed great hopes on the Admiralty, was immediately enraged. Alger has sent the war reports of the U.S.-China naval clash to the White House, and has lashed out at the Admiralty for having spent so much money on the Navy and now losing such a terrible war.

A little later, because of the Secretary of the Navy John? Long is on sick leave, Deputy Secretary of the Navy Theodore? Roosevelt was summoned to the White House, and in the face of Alger and President McKinley's stern questioning about the outcome of the naval battle, the deputy secretary of the navy, who was extremely enthusiastic about the construction of the US navy, had to propose that he should independently bear the responsibility for the naval defeat, but he still proposed to President McKinley that the offensive against Cuba could be suspended, but an armistice would never be declared, because the Chinese could not be stationed on the west coast of the Americas for a long time.

While President McKinley was considering how to release the results of the battle in the Florida Strait to the outside world, on the night of 4 July, two independent US media suddenly received anonymous news announcing the cause of the Sino-US conflict and the defeat of the US fleet in Florida.

However, President McKinley immediately responded on the 5th, announcing in detail the situation of the conflict between the United States and the Chinese Navy, and the White House confirmed that in the battle with the Chinese Navy on the 3rd, the United States lost three warships, including the battleships Massachusetts and the battleships Texas, in addition, the battleships Oregon, Amphitlett, Monterey, and the armored ships Yanzhòng were damaged, and the entire Western Pacific Fleet had lost half of its maritime power in a short period of time.

And since the news has been leaked, the White House originally planned to take advantage of the national sentiment of the anti-China plan to directly abort, and Theodore, who originally planned to leave after congressional questioning? On the same day, Roosevelt announced that he would take the responsibility for the naval defeat and resign, and announced that he would organize civilian volunteers to land in Cuba and continue to support the Cuban independence movement.

Completely ignoring the evidence presented by the Chinese side, the US Congress passed a bill on 6 March by a two-thirds majority to continue to support Cuban independence, saying that it would continue to put pressure on the Spanish Government and maintain the original motion of military offensive, and asking President McKinley to consider sending troops to land in Cuba.

Two days later, Roosevelt announced that he had received $220,000 in donations and formed a 300-member volunteer army that would go to Florida for preliminary training and called for more people to join! This immediately sparked a flurry of repercussions in the United States, with supporters beginning to raise funds in major cities on the West Coast, while opponents voiced their opposition to the expansion of the war through various channels in the media and the government.

Qin Kai immediately convened a cabinet meeting on 8 March to discuss further countermeasures on the American issue, and immediately sent a note to the US consulate in China in the afternoon of the same day, demanding that the US side immediately stop military operations on the west coast of the Americas, launch an investigation into the Sino-US conflict, and at the same time put forward a 15-point agreement including compensation for losses and punishment of the parties concerned.

U.S. Minister to China Conger, who just took up his post a year ago, naturally felt the anger from China, and Foreign Ministry Counselor Wu Tingfang specifically conveyed to him that if the United States continues to provoke China's bottom line, China will dispatch all its maritime forces to completely destroy the economy of the East Coast of the United States.

This is completely a threat to Chiguoguo...... However, Conger had to tell Wu Tingfang in a trembling manner that he would do his best to advise the White House to start talks with China to avoid the intensification of contradictions between the two sides...... Because, as a person who understands, he is soberly aware that the US East Coast Fleet, because of the backwardness of the East Coast shipbuilding industry and the previous development strategy of the US Navy, has completely failed to form a naval combat capacity.

As a matter of fact, although the envoy received some information about the losses of the US West Coast Fleet, in fact he did not know the specific situation, and much of the information he learned was even confirmed from the domestic media in China, but naturally there were many specious contents, such as the 13th Squadron, which was reported in the domestic media in some artistic ways.

The concept of the fleet as a mobile land has undoubtedly become more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people with the help of the media, and the heroic struggle of the officers and men of the navy to safeguard the rights and interests of the country has promoted another wave of domestic military participation.

On the morning of March 9, just as Bauer, the British minister to China, came to visit Qin Kai and negotiate on the Sino-British joint mediation of American affairs, another shocking news came! (To be continued......)