Second

The Desdan and the Nielli are very unfortunate to become brothers and sisters, both of them are permeable in the aft compartment, and they are not the usual strict zhòng, but obviously the Nielli is even worse at this time because of the lack of processing time of the damage management staff!

The 5o1 ship followed the two cruisers unhurriedly and patiently in the flanks and rear, this is obviously already a boiled duck, and I am afraid that he will fly!

Lu Han had obviously paid attention to the tilt of the hull of the Nielli in front, and the draft of the Desdan hull was obviously not normal, which showed that the previous shelling had caused damage to both warships, and he immediately reported the situation to Chen Ying, and now all he needed was the last straw that crushed the enemy!

However, the luck of the French was obviously good at this time, and after four rounds of mutual fire, the French actually hit the armor belt above the waterline at the stern of the 5o1 ship with one shot at the last moment, but at a distance of more than 4ooo meters, the 19omm gun was too powerful, and it could not penetrate nearly 3oomm of armor at all, and directly released smoke!

It was hit again by the enemy ship, which greatly increased the sharpness of the artillerymen, and finally after three volleys, the port side of the Nielli was shot again, and after the shell broke through the armor above the water level of the side chord, it burrowed directly into the bilge and made a dull explosion. The explosion did not destroy the ship's vital facilities, but it did open a large hole in the bottom of the ship on the left side of the forward compartment.

Under the gaze of everyone, the Nielli drove slower and slower, and the hull of the ship tilted sideways, and finally because the left front and rear compartments were strictly permeable, the hull completely lost its balance and capsized on the water! This situation is very strange, a battleship is lying on its side on the sea, and because of the watertight compartment inside the ship, it will not sink for a while......

At this time, it was only 23 minutes before the Destan and Nielli retreated in groups! Seeing the battleships in the fleet sinking into the South China Sea one after another, Colonel Gallok's mood at this time can only be described as crying without tears, at this time the cruiser Destein is almost a toothless tiger, if the Qing warship rushes up, then there is really no means to deal with it.

After a little consideration, he still very decisively asked Major Sikov to inform the damage manager in the bottom of the ship to be on standby at any time, in case the other party had the intention of capturing the Destan, then he had the only option of opening the inlet valve and sinking himself! As an honorary French officer, Colonel Galloch would not tolerate the disgrace of being a prisoner.

However, it is obvious that Lu Han on the 5o1 ship did not have that intention at all, but directly responded to the two-round platoon of guns, and the 19o gun at the stern of the Destan counterattacked with two shells, and was immediately blown up by the next row of guns.

Xu Shoushan held the binoculars and looked around for a full minute, and suddenly said: "Gengtang, I think the guns of that French battleship have been destroyed, do you want to consider letting them surrender, so that we can have one more iron-hulled battleship in Mawei!" ”

Obviously, this is a good idea, and Lu Han was also moved, but he ...... While the two of them were discussing how to eat the boiled duck on the plate, the duck suddenly flew up.

The door of the command room was pushed open with a bang, and an officer reported loudly: "Pipe band, a large number of warships are advancing towards us at the lookout post, according to preliminary confirmation, it is the French fleet!" The number is more than 1o ships! ”

The distance observed by the lookout post should be more than 1o kilometers, and if the two sides approach in reverse, that is, about 1o minutes, this is obviously not enough to receive the disabled enemy ship...... "Pursue it all, sink it!" Lu Han threw out the order fiercely

The ironclad ships all slashed and rushed towards the cruiser Destein, which was 4 kilometers away, and at the end of the sea level, more than a dozen warships had already formed a huge lineup, and Vice Admiral Gu Ba, the commander of the Jiao Toe China Navy, was standing on the bridge of the cruiser Volda at this time, paying attention to the battle of the two battleships in the distance!

"Order, the fleet is all moving forward, and all efforts are made to meet the Destein", after the outpost appeared from the lookout post, the outpost fleet that had left this morning, there was a sense of foreboding. YZUU POINT

However, it seemed that it was too late to act, and although the fleet was in full advance, it was only two kilometers away, and Guba had already seen several flames on the hull of the cruiser Destein in the distance, and then the pursuing battleship began to turn around with a swagger!

The Destan was still struggling on the sea at this time, but after reaching 25oo meters for flat fire shelling, 6 shells shot directly into the waterline of the hull without any suspense, tearing open the armor at the waterline of the Destein as lightly as knocking on an eggshell, and at the same time creating a large terrifying hole, and the battleship tilted to the left Yan in two minutes because of the permeability......

"Report, there are a total of fifteen French reinforcement warships in the front, and the preliminary estimate is 4 ironclad ships, 7 cruisers, and 4 gunboats under 1,000 tons!"

"Report, the French fleet is heading towards our ship at a cruising rate of 12 knots! The current distance is 9 km! It is expected to enter the range of the jiao battle in 15 minutes! ”

"Report! Two fast cruisers of the French fleet broke away from the fleet and sailed to the sea to the left of our ship! ”

Lu Han and Xu Shoushan frowned, and the huge fleet that appeared in the distance of the observer.

"Shift backwards!" Lu Han immediately gave the order, "All the crew members immediately inspect the hull and machinery, and tell every soldier that this will be a protracted battle!" ”

"TMD, the strength of this Frenchman is really not ordinarily strong," Xu Shoushan muttered hatefully.

In the firing command room, the firing officers were also observing the surrounding situation, the French were obviously not stupid at all, at this time the 15 battleships had already been pushed up in the shape of outflanking on both wings, and if they did not retreat, there was only one result, and they were beaten by all the guns of the 15 battleships at close range!

Although the armor of the 5O1 ship was partially strengthened, and when it was customized, the Germans were not sloppy in the materials at all, and it was impossible to completely resist the heavy artillery bombardment at close range.

At this point, a new situation was transmitted to the command room. "Report! The Ji'an ship and two training ships appeared from the rear, and they were collecting the defeated Nanyang Naval Division battleships! ”

Lu Han's face was black, and he was making a lot of fun at this time, "Hurry up and order them to evacuate quickly!" 6 Zhi'an's merchant ships lagged and salvaged the surviving soldiers of the Nanyang Naval Division! ”

After the 5o1 ship made a U-turn, it sailed to the open sea, and in the face of such a large fleet, it was undoubtedly a trap to continue to fight along the coastline.

Ten minutes later, the French fleet had already rushed to the waters where the Destein had sunk, and the two gunboats salvaged the survivors on the cruiser, and when the news of the destruction of the three new fast-armored cruisers reached Guba, the new commander of the Jiaozhichina Navy had a green face.

A calm solitary will not be able to sit still, this is a fifth of the cruisers of the French Navy in the Far East, if you talk about quality and combat power, it is even more true that the best among these cruisers, it was lost here in the first battle!

"Pursue the ironclad ship in front of you! Be sure to sink! The order was immediately given, and Lone Pull looked at the ironclad ship in the distance with a telescope, and the anger in his heart was incomparable...... When did such an elite appear in this Qing country?

At this time, the French fleet was separated from the sea horizon on the other side of the 5o1 ironclad ship, and the Ji'an ship temporarily acted as the flagship's responsibility, and after the three surviving warships of "Wu", "Dengyingzhou" and "Jingyuan" followed the Ji'an ship, it became clear that it was the training camp of the same Nanyang naval division that showed its might in front of them......

For the rest of their lives, the officers and men of the three ships were naturally feeling zero, and in the previous artillery battle, the force displayed by the 5o1 ship was completely beyond their imagination, and they really had no other thoughts except shock and worship. Now, seeing the powerful French fleet led by the 5o1 ship again to the west, I can't help but feel apprehensive. However, Chen An followed the 5o1 ship all the way, but he was also very decisive, immediately raised the flag, turned backwards, and prepared to wait in Hue City first.

The two merchant ships that accompanied the fleet along the way for training, the one piloted by the training camp officer 6 Zhiyuan raised the German flag in full view of everyone and headed south along the coastline, and they received orders to salvage the surviving officers and men of the Nanyang Naval Division at sea after the battle. Seeing the courageous actions of the training camp in spite of their lives, the officers and men of the three ships of Wu, Deng Yingzhou, and Jingyuan all felt a lot of emotion.

At this time, the 5o1 ship on the sea level in the distance had already run away from the shadow, and when 6 Zhiyuan drove the merchant ship to the sea area where the decisive battle had just begun, the French left only a Xiao torpedo boat to salvage the soldiers who fell into the water in the distance, and the other party also paid attention to this merchant ship flying the German flag, the old creation of the Franco-Prussian War 1o years ago was the eternal pain for France, but the French torpedo boat quickly gave up the idea of looking for trouble, turned around and sailed to the open sea to find the survivors of the La Perlouz.

At this time, the sea east of the battlefield was already a jī flying dog jumping, and the French fleet was full of horsepower to intercept the hateful ironclad ship in front, and Guba sent the latest ironclad La Gazonia to lead the cruiser Ferrers and four other warships to form a right flank fleet.

The Triumph ironclad and 3 cruisers are the left flank, with his flagship 13oo ton cruiser Volda as the middle lane, and the accompanying leader of the Atarante ironclad and the Victory ironclad and the cruisers of the first class Duwell and Fort Renault as the middle lane. ,

For this lineup, Lone is full of confidence, there are a total of three Galizonian-class ironclad ships, namely Galizonia, Triumph, and Victory, all of which appear in the huge French Jiaotoe China fleet, all of which are heavy ironclad ships with strong national high-carbon steel armor, and the displacement of the three battleships has reached 4645 tons, and the artillery also has a powerful twin 24o heavy gun 3 and 19omm secondary gun!

In his opinion, any Lagazonian-class ironclad ship and the other party are at least evenly matched, and at this time he is not stupid enough to think that the enemy who has sunk three fast cruisers will be a vulnerable opponent, and now he needs to sink or capture the other party in order to wash away the shame of the destruction of the cruiser.

Lu Han is observing the measured chart, from which to the east is the vast sea, the 5o1 ship has only finished replenishing coal, if the whole voyage, it can sail 25oo kilometers, that is enough to run to Guangzhou, if it is a cruise, there is no problem at all to run back and forth, but now the French Far East Navy chasing the tail is not good at stubble.

Chen Ying had just completed the assessment of the degree of the enemy ships in the field of vision, the degree of the opponent's fast cruiser was about 14 knots, and the large battleship (estimated to be an ironclad ship) that appeared in the front was about 13 knots, so it was easy for Lu Han to assess that what the opponent could achieve in the pursuit was about 13 knots, which was completely easy for a 5o1 ship to get rid of the opponent.

He looked at the clock on the wall, it was already 1 o'clock in the afternoon, he discussed with Xu Shoushan, it is not too difficult to conduct guerrilla warfare, but at this time, the other party has formed the scale of 4-5 warships, and it is not ordinarily difficult to retreat with one shot!

And to spread the French apart...... Where are the bloody examples of the previous three fast cruisers being sunk, if the opposing commander is not very mentally retarded and impulsive, he feels that the success rate is really not too great, and the current situation is really not suitable for adventure! But...... Wouldn't it be very shameless to withdraw like this?

At this time, Qin Kai, who had been idle all morning, had already slipped out of the shooting command room, "Gengtang, how do you think you can deal with the French?" This French name is not the second largest in the world, so it has such a large number of warships! ”

"Supervisor, the result of my discussion with yù Shan is not to take risks lightly, and now if you want to break them all, the success rate is too low, it is not worth taking risks, and ...... The French are making such a big move, I don't think they came to bask in the sun on the coast of Vietnam! ”

Qin Kai nodded, the French are definitely the main force of the French fleet in the Far East at this time, and this large number of warships must have a plan! This made him a little uneasy, the 5o1 ship is indeed strong, but it is far from being able to be a hundred, that thing is not an ironclad ship, it is a space battleship!

The main French force appeared in the waters of Vietnam, this purpose is obvious, the destruction of the first three cruisers, did give France a head-on blow, but it was not to the point of breaking the muscles and bones, to be honest, in this case it is almost impossible to break the muscles and bones! Each cannon of the 5o1 ship is only equipped with 8o shells, and a third of the previous battle has been consumed, and the French will put it there for you to smash at this time, and this shell is not enough!

And once Jiao fights, the opponent's ironclad ship is not a decoration at this time, and the tonnage of the five or six big guys is over 5o1, and it is also equipped with a twin three-seat turret, no matter how you look at it, it is not a vegetarian! But showing the lower muscles is a must...... Qin Kai understands the importance of deterrence too well!

"Gungtang, take them for a lap first, let them die and want to chase us!" Qin Kai said with a smile, "Let the soldiers eat, and after half an hour, we will come back and return the color!" ”

Lu Han was stunned, this Qin Liefeng was really bolder than the sky, giving more than a dozen warships behind his ass, and thinking about coming back to give people a look......

"Supervisor, I have also discussed the possibility of fighting guerrilla warfare with Gengtang, and I feel that it is still too risky, it is better to withdraw first, and then find another opportunity to raid the French, that is more certain!" Xu Shoushan on the side pondered for a while, but still put forward his own ideas.

This Lu Han and Xu Shoushan are very open-minded, and they have considered guerrilla warfare, Qin Kai smiled, "Yù Shan, don't worry, of course I don't plan to take risks, I want to teach the French a lesson in a dignified manner!" ”

The two pipe bands glanced at each other, this Qin supervisor is addicted to being an instructor! But since the supervisor is sure, how can they not have confidence, this superintendent, who is younger than himself, everything he does is of great significance, and every time he makes a move, there will be results! ,

"Then let's start, take the French on a tour of the South China Sea!" Lu Han laughed and said.

Since the "Fujian Xinbao" covered the French invasion of the Qing vassal Vietnam, the Guangxu Emperor, who was a little bit of a fart, naturally did not have any ideas, but the Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces, who relied heavily on Qingliu's remarks, also forwarded the matter to the Prime Minister Yamen, saying that she wanted the French minister to give a clear statement.

Prince Gong was naturally reluctant to go to the brown-headed French minister Bao Haijiao, this matter has always been in charge of a special person, isn't it the governor of Zhili, the minister of Beiyang Li Zhongtang, so this matter was quickly transferred to the governor's palace of Tianjin Wei. The French minister, Bao Hai, had been negotiating with the Qing Dynasty, Lord Li, since the beginning of June.

The French had a great appetite, and Bao Hai insisted that the king of Vietnam voluntarily broke away from the Qing Dynasty, and took out the content of the two "Saigon Treaties", demanding that the Qing recognize the contents of the treaties and voluntarily renounce the status of Vietnam's suzerainty. Of course, the French very cunning added that both countries are willing to maintain equal status vis-à-vis the state of Vietnam.

As for whether the king of Vietnam is willing to be on an equal footing after the Qing Dynasty gave up the suzerainty of Vietnam, it is up to the guns of the French to decide!

At this moment, when the soldiers in the South China Sea were fighting, in the Tianjin Weizhili Governor's Mansion, Li Zhongtang was discussing with several cronies.

Today, in addition to Zhou Fu, Chen Ding, and Sheng Xuanhuai, there is also a forty-year-old man in military uniform sitting on the left side. ”

This person is Ding Ruchang, the commander of the Beiyang Naval Division, "I have been under the supervision of adults in the Qing Dynasty coastal defense over the years, and it is by no means comparable to that year, last year, the Mawei Artillery Bureau was able to produce 5oo pounds of heavy artillery, and now after the Tianjin Dagu Fort has added 1o heavy artillery, it can be described as solid, if you urge Mawei to do your best to produce, this coastal defense can be safe!" ”

"This is very good, I will naturally discuss with Governor Ding when you mention it, but this artillery is a weapon of the country," Li Zhongtang nodded when he heard this, remembered something, and turned his head to ask Sheng Xuanhuai, "Xingsun, Ding Yusheng promised to increase the industry of our Weaving Bureau, has it been done this year?" ”