In the dark night, the South Gate Port of Chongming County was on fire.

The cannon roared, and the smoke of gunpowder filled the air.

The sail battleships of the East China Sea Fleet rushed out along the harbor channel, but they were greeted by heavy artillery fire from the British and French fleets.

The battleship caught fire amid the sound of explosions, but the officers and men of the East China Sea Fleet on the ship still had resolute expressions, which was a resolute determination to die generously without hesitation.

Knowing that there was a fan-shaped blockade of the British and French fleets outside, the fierce artillery fire could easily sink the battleships that tried to rush out, but the officers and men of the East China Sea Fleet were still not afraid, driving their respective warships and frantically attacking outward.

They knew that if they didn't rush out, they would all be sunk in the harbor, because the port of Nanmen was just an ordinary port, not a naval base, and there were no strong defenses.

Watching the ships rushing out one after another, Chen Baocheng's eyes were blood-red, his fists were clenched, and his nails were embedded in the flesh without noticing.

"Why hasn't the battery fired yet?"

"I guess there's another minute or two!"

The adjutant replied with a bitter face, it was only a few minutes later, and Chen Baocheng asked five or six times in a row.

According to the training of the Nanyang Army on weekdays, the defenders of the battery will push down the position of heavy artillery from the bunker, open the ammunition depot, load the ammunition, aim and shoot all the processes, and it will take at least five minutes to complete, which is already the fastest speed.

However, in Chen Baocheng's eyes, it would be more dangerous to wait for one more minute, because the artillery fire of the British and French fleets was too fierce, and all the ships of the East China Sea Fleet gathered in the harbor, and every round of artillery bombardment came over, and many warships were shot and caught fire.

At this moment, in the face of the powerful flowering bomb, the wooden sail battleships of the East China Sea Fleet are quite vulnerable.

In the special care ward of the Huatuo hospital ship, Holland, who was sleeping, was awakened by the sound of cannons.

He quickly got up and saw everything outside through the porthole.

There was a thud, and the door was slammed open. Chen Cheng rushed in.

"The fleet is blocked, we need to help!"

"No problem!"

Huo Lan instantly guessed Chen Cheng's thoughts, he didn't know Chen Cheng very well before, but the two of them cooperated seamlessly in the daytime battle and formed a friendship between them.

At this moment, two young nurses blocked the door.

"You can't go, you are the special care wounded who were ordered to be taken care of by the prince himself, especially Mr. Holan, your body is weak and has not fully recovered."

"Get out of the way! Don't you see a war going on outside? "Chen Cheng has always been machismo. When he saw that the two little girls were blocking the door, he was immediately furious, but he didn't make a move, and the serious feudal ideology warned him not to touch the little nurse, and he would be relied upon.

The two sides immediately confronted each other, and the two little nurses strictly enforced the rules and did not show favoritism at all.

"Let them go!"

A majestic voice sounded behind her, it was Dean Hong Xuanjiao, who also saw the situation outside for the first time. As the former female commander of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hong Xuanjiao knew very well what would happen once the fleet was surrounded by the enemy fleet in the port, and in just a few minutes, the port was already in flames. The East China Sea Fleet has reached a critical moment of life and death.

Hong Xuanjiao spoke, and the two little nurses naturally had to let go.

"Thank you, if the East China Sea Fleet can survive, you are the first hero!" Chen Cheng said solemnly. didn't dare to delay time, and hurriedly pulled Huo Lan and rushed out.

"Heroes? Sounds ironic! Hong Xuanjiao smiled slightly, not caring about that at all. She only cares about the safety of her colleagues and the sick and wounded on the Huatuo.

Holland and Chen Cheng quickly arrived at the inner harbor, the last piece of pure land, which had not yet been shelled by the British and French fleets, but it was also the most heavily defended place, because the submarine Holland was temporarily anchored there.

The other members were already on standby, except for the fallen comrade, but it did not affect the combat effectiveness.

"Let's go!"

Chen Cheng ordered that Holland personally drive the submarine and sail out of the port as fast as possible.

Compared with other steam warships in the East China Sea Fleet, the Holland submarine uses diesel engines and electric motors, and the ignition speed is extremely fast, and there is no need for boiler preheating like other steam engines, especially the electric motor and electricity, which directly drives the submarine forward quickly.

However, there were endless risks that awaited them, as the main channel was full of artillery fire, a large number of shells poured down, and the river was boiling, and any shell that hit the submarine Holland would be enough to sink it.

The submarine Holland was too vulnerable to withstand a single shell.

But Chen Cheng, Huo Lan and others were not afraid, and dived as much as possible to avoid the dense area of shells.

The god is pitiful, the submarine Holland actually rushed out of the harbor without danger.

At this time, Chen Baocheng had already killed the red eye, and personally supervised the battleship Songjiang to play the front and lead the ships of the East China Sea Fleet to break through.

I saw that the battleship Matsue rushed forward against the dense artillery fire of the British and French fleets, and because the tactical position was passive, several guns close to the bow of the ship returned fire, and it looked so vulnerable in the face of fan-shaped concentrated fire on the river.

Boom Boom Boom ......

The battleship Matsue was shot one after another, and the bow of the ship was blown into a mess, with flames flying and thick smoke billowing.

But the officers and men on the ship were still fearless, rushing forward one after another, extinguishing the fire when it should be extinguished, and even if there was only one gun left and not damaged, they would fire at the enemy ship on the opposite side.

"Speed up, hit me over, even if you die, you have to hit a bloody road, and the lives of the brothers and comrades in the back depend on us!"

Chen Baocheng personally supervised the battle, went into battle shirtless, and became a spiritual leader.

The commander was so desperate, what else did the soldiers have to say.

Only to the death!

In the periscope, Chen Cheng saw that the Songjiang that had ignited the fire was attacking with all its might, and the posture was clearly about to die with the enemy ship.

But the enemy ship is an armored ship, and it may not be able to sink the opponent, but it may be sunk by the dense artillery fire of the enemy before it hits someone.

"Bearing 180, ignore the distance! Flow rate 80! ”

In the dark, Chen Cheng could only judge the general direction through the light when the enemy ship opened fire, but could not judge the distance.

But how wide can the Yangtze River be? It's all within the range of the fish radium, and the distance can be completely ignored.

"Adjust the bearing up by 25!"

"Adjust Orientation 205!" Holland quickly took control of the submarine's bearings and turned to 205.

"Fish Radium ready!"

"Fish Ray ready!"

"Launch!" Chen Cheng gave an order, and the fish radium was launched.

Please, don't make a mistake this time, it's about the survival of the whole fleet.

Chen Cheng prayed silently, remembering when he fought during the day. None of the Rays he fired hit their intended targets, but instead sank others.

Every time I heard my comrades praise him as a marksman, I felt ashamed.

In the dark, the fish rays carried a long bubble wake and shot at the target at high speed, and no one could see it.

With a loud bang, the fish and radium hit a French battleship, exploding, and a huge fiery red mushroom cloud was raised.

"Your uncle, you really hit!"

Chen Cheng jumped up happily and slammed his head into the steel plate above his head. His head was bleeding, but he didn't feel any pain at all, he was so excited.

The enemy ship that was hit was a French battleship Alsace blocking the main channel of Nanmen Port, relying on a powerful 64-pounder gun group to suppress the breakthrough of the East China Sea Fleet, and had already sunk three battleships, and was about to sink the Matsue that was colliding head-on in one go, but it was suddenly hit by Fish Ray near the starboard waterline of the ship's amidship.

The huge explosion instantly blasted the fifty-millimeter iron armor of the French ship Alsace, shattering the wooden keel inside. The huge opening more than three meters wide was torn, and the sea water poured into it violently, and the battleship tilted sharply in the blink of an eye, and dozens of guns on the starboard side were aiming at the battleship Matsue. As a result, the battleship tilted sharply, and all the shells were fired downward into the river.

The sudden drastic changes caught the British and French fleets by surprise, and they thought that the Alsace ironclad with a displacement of more than 7,000 tons was invincible. The East China Sea Fleet, which wanted to break through, could be stuck on the main channel, but unexpectedly, the Alsace suddenly exploded, and a huge fiery red mushroom cloud lit up half of the sky. The surrounding British and French ships saw that the Alsace was clearly sinking.

"Damn it! It's that mysterious thing sneaking up on us again! ”

Klaus and Marlin glanced at each other, and both remembered a similar situation during the day, and suddenly became nervous.

"Tell the ships to be careful underwater!"

"The Paladin will go up immediately to fill the position, and the enemy ships must not be allowed to rush out!"

Klaus quickly gave the order, but he didn't expect that the British troops on all ships exploded in an instant, and frantically threw torches into the river, wanting to find the mysterious monster underwater.

However, can a torch fall into the river and still burn and shine?

Obviously, the British army was so nervous that they were even scared silly, which was an outcome that Klaus did not expect.

On the battleship Richelieu, the flagship of the French army, he was so angry that his nose was crooked.

What the hell is this Nima?

My Alsace, I was all at once!

Unfortunately, the foxes such as Klaus and Marin did not tell Lone the details of the battle during the day, and it was obvious that Lone was overshadowed this time, and the French fleet was also trapped.

On the battleship Songjiang, Chen Baocheng was covered in blood, and was about to close his eyes and wait for the next round of saturation artillery bombardment from the enemy, he knew that he could not dodge, and he could not even die with the enemy ship.

However, the next moment, he suddenly found that the enemy ship on the opposite side had exploded inexplicably, and it was sinking rapidly.

Which way did this Nima appear to the immortals?

It is equivalent to saving the life of the East China Sea Fleet!

Saying that it was too late, Chen Baocheng suddenly lifted his spirits, seeing that another enemy ship was coming quickly, and he wanted to get stuck in the channel, he naturally couldn't let the enemy get his wish.

"Right full rudder! Port side artillery fire ready! ”

"Port side artillery fire ready!"

In the gun decks of each layer of the ship's amidships, the officers and men had already opened the gun doors and loaded the shells, waiting for the order to open their guns and strike hard at the enemy ships.

It's a pity that there has been no shooting boundary, and I can't fight back after being beaten.

"Full rudder right!"

As the Matsue quickly rushed out of the harbor channel, the battleship turned sharply to the right, and the artillerymen on the port side of the ship's waist finally saw the long-lost firing range.

"Fire!"

"Fire!"

"Fire!"

……

One after another, the Matsue fired a salvo of guns on the port side, blowing the horn of counterattack.

Knock knock......

The artillery fire was volleyed, and the battleship Matsue, which had been holding back the fire in its belly, let out an angry roar, and streams of light skimmed across the river and shot towards the enemy ship Paladin.

The Paladin was about to go up to fill the vacant space in Alsace, but it was half a beat slower, and seeing that the Matsue fired fiercely at it, it immediately gave up filling the position, directly hit the hull sideways, and began to counterattack.

The captain of the Paladin thought that it would be easy to sink the Matsue, and then it would not be too late to fill the position, but he never expected that the crazy Matsue would not be so easy to sink in.

Since the two sides were fighting on the Yangtze River, it was dark night, and the distance was very close, at this time, whoever had more artillery fire and a fast rate of fire could take advantage of it.

Obviously, in this regard, the British and French fleets had no advantage, because their naval guns were all front-loading guns, the rate of fire was slow, and after each fire had to be cleaned, wiped dry, pressed, and sealed, and the best gunners had to take two or three minutes. On the other hand, the East China Sea Fleet has already been equipped with rear-loading naval guns, and the shells are all integrated, eliminating the need to clean the gun chamber, wipe it dry, press the medicine again, seal the shells, etc., and the best gunners can do four rounds a minute.

At this moment, on the battleship Matsue, the gunners were almost in a state of frenzy, and at such a close distance, the gunners did not need to aim carefully at all, just reload at the fastest speed, and then fire, and the rate of fire soared to an outrageous six rounds per minute.

At this moment, everyone is desperate and has brought out the potential of people to the limit.

After the first salvo, the captain of the Paladin was dumbfounded, he thought that one salvo could completely sink the Matsue, even if it could not be sunk, it could destroy the will of the other party, but in the end he found that not only did not destroy the will of the other party, but aroused the madness of the officers and men on the Matsue.

Knock knock......

The battleship Matsue kept firing without stopping.

Shells kept exploding on the Paladin, and although the Paladin was protected by ironclad, the ironclad was also vulnerable at such a close distance, and it was covered with craters, which gradually cracked and finally penetrated.

With such a dense number of shells, many of them happened to come in through the Paladin's gun doors and exploded inside the gun deck, causing a large number of casualties and even causing a fire.

Laziness and pride made them relax their vigilance, thinking that no shells could penetrate the ironclad protection, so the shells and medicine packs were stacked directly on the gun deck to facilitate the battle, but in this way, once the enemy's shells came in, it was easy to hit the shells and medicine packs on the gun deck, causing a tragedy.

The Paladin undoubtedly had its back, and a shell entered from the front of the No. 8 gun door on the second gun deck, hitting the shells and powder packs stacked near the No. 8 gun position, causing a series of large explosions in an instant, and a few seconds later the entire second gun deck was in flames, and the piles of medicine and shells continued to explode, and finally detonated the central ammunition depot, causing a major explosion.

With a loud bang, like a thunderbolt from the sky, the battleship Paladin blossomed from the center and exploded, and a huge mushroom cloud rose into the sky, soaring into the sky, illuminating the sky for dozens of miles. (To be continued.) )