"It worked!"

Chen Baocheng was so excited that he was about to cry, and he sank two enemy ships one after another, finally tearing apart the encirclement of the enemy army.

One by one, the warships of the East China Sea Fleet quickly sailed out of the port channel and entered the main channel of the Yangtze River, cooperating with the Songjiang to join the battle.

At this moment, Klaus saw that the East China Sea Fleet had successfully broken through, and his mouth opened wide in surprise, and his jaw almost fell to the deck.

The wooden sail battleship was able to break through successfully from the muzzle of the ironclad battleship, which is too unscientific.

Klaus said he didn't have enough in his brain to understand.

"Your Excellency, Commander, we have to admit that the enemy's artillery is so advanced that it has left us a few streets behind. ”

Is it a problem with artillery?

Klaus suddenly understood that during the day, he just felt that the artillery of the East China Sea Fleet was firing too fast, several times the firing speed of his own artillery, and he didn't pay much attention to it at that time, because he knew that no matter how fast the artillery fired, it could not penetrate the ironclad protection of his own warship.

But now it is different, because it is night, the visibility is too low, so the distance between the two sides is too close at the beginning, less than a hundred meters of fire, obviously the side with a fast rate of artillery fire will take a big advantage, because no matter how thick the iron armor is, it can not withstand the continuous direct fire bombardment at close range by artillery fire.

Miscalculated, Klaus realized the problem, but it was difficult to ride a tiger, and he was unwilling to let go of the East China Sea Fleet.

"Hit me hard! I don't believe it, our British Empire's ironclad ships can't beat the old wooden ships, break the enemy's backbone for me, and let them know the fate of offending the British Empire! ”

Klaus roared, but the battle didn't seem to be going his way.

The submarine Holland, which was in the shadows, continued to attack the British and French fleets, and in less than three minutes, fired three more Fish Radiums, sinking a British ship and a French ship. At the same time, the Anglo-French fleet launched another volley of artillery fire. Sunk three sail warships of the East China Sea Fleet that broke through.

Two ironclad ships for three old wooden sail warships, this is a huge loss-making deal, and Klaus immediately burst the beans.

However, just as Klaus organized the fleet to prepare for another wave of attacks, he suddenly heard the sound of thunderous cannons.

I saw the fire shining on the Chongming County Fort, and the coastal defense artillery of the Nanyang Army finally began to counterattack.

Shells shot into the sky, streaked out rays of light, and then roared down on the British and French fleets.

Boom Boom Boom ......

The shells exploded violently, instantly stirring up columns of water that rushed to the sky, and British and French battleships were constantly hit. Huge and fiery mushroom clouds rose up.

This is a large-caliber fortress gun, with unparalleled power and a curved trajectory, which can directly avoid the vertical ironclad protection of British and French battleships, and directly hit the unprotected horizontal deck, causing huge damage and casualties to British and French battleships.

Klaus and his friends were stunned.

"Damn the intelligence, doesn't it say that the enemy's shore defense artillery is mediocre? This Nima can almost sink an ironclad ship with one shot! ”

"The information is incorrect, Your Excellency, Commander, if I were you. It's time to retreat! ”

"We have completed the raid mission and inflicted heavy losses on the East China Sea Fleet, and I believe that they will not dare to take the initiative to fight again in a short time."

"In addition, Chuansha has already begun to land on the beach. We're going to go over and provide artillery support! ”

Klaus had a black face, and he wanted to continue the attack until he destroyed the main force of the East China Sea Fleet in one fell swoop, but unfortunately it was impossible. I didn't expect that the intelligence was wrong and misjudged the firepower of the coastal batteries on Chongming Island.

"Retreat! Inform the French fleet after a little delay! ”

Well, Klaus is a guy who will get his hands on it. At this time, there is even a pit for the French.

Who let the French not go to war in the first place, this is self-inflicted retribution.

The British Asian fleet quickly retreated and sailed into the dark night, and the French fleet slowed down, because it was dark and could not be seen clearly, and the order transmission would obviously not be smooth, as a result, three French warships were sunk, and the lone was distressed.

When he found out that the British fleet had withdrawn, he immediately scolded his mother in anger and hurriedly ordered the French fleet to withdraw from the battle.

At this moment, the superiority of the steam engine warship was once again exerted, and the British and French fleets quickly withdrew from the Yangtze River and sailed into the East China Sea.

Chen Baocheng was also stunned, and finally broke through, and was organizing a fleet to retreat in the direction of the Wusongkou Naval Base, but the British and French fleets also chose to retreat at the same time.

Chen Baocheng wanted to pursue, but unfortunately he finally gave up, Nanmen Port was in a sea of fire, and there were still many things to deal with.

When Lin Jiyun and the others arrived at the riverside, the battle was already over, and looking at the charred and sunken battleships and floating corpses inside and outside the port, his heart was suddenly overwhelmed with grief.

"Commander, kill me!"

Chen Baocheng knelt in front of Lin Jiyun, he was covered in blood, more than a dozen wounds, and he was also grief-stricken.

"Bastard, do you dare to come to see me? Think Lao Tzu won't dare to kill you? ”

Lin Jiyun was furious, and immediately took out a gun and was about to kill Chen Baocheng.

Li Jun next to him hurriedly stepped forward to stop him and persuaded: "Lao Lin, Chen Baocheng's dereliction of duty led to the attack on our fleet, and he should indeed be shot, but we also wish us this matter!" ”

"Fart!" Lin Jiyun was furious, he had never said swear words in front of Chief of Staff Li Jun, and he had broken the precepts at this moment.

Li Jun didn't mean to blame, but said: "We should have brought the fleet back to the Wusongkou Naval Base, in that case, it would not have been attacked by the British and French fleets." It was because we were in a hurry to go to Shanghai to attend the celebration dinner held for us by the prince, and temporarily left the fleet on Chongming Island, which led to the attack. ”

Lin Jiyun was speechless for a moment, he was a person who had a clear distinction between public and private, although Chen Baocheng always stared at his fleet commander position on weekdays, but Lin Jiyun didn't want to announce his personal vendetta at this time.

Li Jun said again: "We have fought two sea victories in a row, we are arrogant, not only that, but everyone in the East China Sea Fleet is like this, the arrogant army will be defeated, we have to learn this lesson!" ”

Lin Jiyun didn't have the courage to shoot anymore, so he immediately put it away and sighed: "You're right, we are indeed carried away!" From you and me downwards, both guilty! ”

Glancing at Chen Baocheng, Lin Jiyun said: "You get up first and tell us how much we have lost in this enemy sneak attack?" ”

Chen Baocheng stood up and reported the preliminary statistics he had just obtained to Lin Jiyun and Li Jun.

During this sneak attack by the British and French fleets. The two sides fought for only twenty minutes, but both paid a huge price.

The East China Sea Fleet lost 18 sail battleships with a total tonnage of 18,000 tons, including two first-class battleships, three second-class battleships, one third-class battleship, five fourth-class battleships, two first-class cruisers, and four frigates. More than 3,000 people were wounded.

On the British and French side, although they were sneak attackers, they also paid a heavy price, three British ships were sunk, and four French ships were sunk, all of which were ironclad ships, with a total tonnage of nearly 30,000 tons, more than 2,000 dead and wounded, and 171 people captured in the water. Among them, 47 were in the British army and 124 were in the French army, including 24 officers, and the largest military rank was Brigadier General David of the French Army. However, David was seriously injured and is still in a coma.

Li Jun suddenly laughed and said: "Eighteen old wooden warships for seven of the most advanced ironclad warships of the British and French fleets, it seems that we have taken advantage!" ”

Lin Jiyun also smiled bitterly, not expecting this result at all.

"Fortunately, the ten shallow-water heavy turret ironclads are fine. Otherwise, I'll have to judge myself! ”

"It's just that how to explain to the prince, after all, it was a sneak attack. I can't get scolded! ”

Li Jun and Lin Jiyun looked at each other and smiled bitterly, and at this time, there was a rumbling sound outside again.

"What's going on?"

"Report, artillery sounds have been found in the southeast direction, and the fire is all over the sky!"

"Report, Erdaojiang (the northern section of Chongming Island of the Yangtze River) has found a large number of enemy ships rushing towards Jiangbei, and has exchanged fire with the coastal defense battery of Chongming Island, and the commander of the coastal defense of Chongming Island has asked our fleet to support!"

"Report, the General Staff sent an urgent telegram that the British and French forces had landed on the beach in Chuansha, and the General Staff ordered our fleet to provide support and contain the British and French fleet!"

The reports immediately made Lin Jiyun, Li Jun and others nervous, this is obviously the rhythm of the outbreak of the war!

A large number of enemy ships on the Erdao River were obviously Li Hongzhang's Beiyang Army forcibly crossing the Yangtze River overnight in a vain attempt to capture Chongming Island. The artillery fire in the southeast direction is in the Chuansha area, where the British and French fleets are covering the British and French forces to carry out beach-grabbing landing operations.

"The British and French fleets attacked us, in fact, they were also covering their beach-grabbing landing operations in Chuansha!"

"yes, what are we going to do now?"

Lin Jiyun and Li Jun discussed and decided to let the remaining eight sail battleships, four first-class cruisers, and 14 frigates form a formation and go to Erdaojiang to block the Beiyang Army's crossing of the river, while the ten shallow-water heavy turret ironclad ships went to the waters near Chuansha to contain the firepower of the British and French fleets and reduce the pressure on the defenders of Chuansha Sea.

However, just when he was about to act, Lin Jiyun received an order again, which was an order issued by Li Weiguo himself, asking Lin Jiyun to give up sending a fleet to reinforce Chuansha, transfer all naval forces to Erdaojiang, and make every effort to block the Beiyang Army from crossing the river.

"Why did the prince do this?" Lin Jiyun was puzzled, and couldn't guess Li Weiguo's thoughts.

Li Jun shook his head, also frowned, and couldn't think of a reason, but since he couldn't think of it, he had to carry out the order.

As a result, Lin Jiyun personally led the main force of the East China Sea Fleet to Erdaojiang to block the Beiyang Army from crossing the river, while Li Jun stayed behind to deal with the aftermath of Nanmen Port.

At the same time, Li Weiguo, the tallest building in Shanghai, the 30-story Empire State Building, was already standing on the top floor, looking at Chongming Island and Chuansha in turn.

Beside him were Wu Yong, who had resumed his status as chief of the General Staff, and Chen Jingnan, deputy chief of the General Staff, who had not left for the time being, followed by a cadre of staff and security personnel.

Wu Yong smiled and asked, "Lord Wang, if you give up Chuansha, do you want to have another decisive battle with the British and French forces on land?" Just like the last Battle of Songhu, the 200,000 British and French troops killed cried for their fathers and mothers. ”

Li Weiguo nodded and said, "Yes, this king has that idea." ”

Chen Jingnan raised his worries and said: "Lord Wang, in the last Battle of Songhu, our army won the lead in weapons and equipment, which made the British and French coalition suffer a loss, and this time we won the battle." But this time it has changed, and the Anglo-French army still has 200,000 men, but it has been replaced with the same new weapons and equipment as us, and we no longer seem to have an advantage in this respect. ”

Li Weiguo also nodded and said: "That's right, the combat quality of the British and French troops is very high, and the last time we won by luck, it was because of the superiority of the equipment leader." Five years have passed, the king's army has been on the battlefield for a long time, and its combat quality is not weak or even surpasses that of the British and French forces, even if the enemy and us have the same equipment, the king is confident of winning. ”

Chen Jingnan said: "Then why did the prince give up the coastal defense fortifications in Chuansha, relying on the coastal defense fortifications in Chuansha, even if he can't stop the British and French coalition forces, he can slowly consume their troops, and it would be a pity to give up directly." ”

Without waiting for Li Weiguo to answer, Wu Yong suddenly smiled and said: "Ruochen guessed correctly, the prince should have prepared more advanced weapons, ready to be used to clean up the British and French forces, right?" ”

Li Weiguo suddenly smiled, glanced at Wu Yong, turned to Chen Jingnan, and said, "That's right, this king did prepare a big meal for the British and French forces. ”

Wu Yong and Chen Jingnan's eyes lit up, and the former asked, "What kind of feast has the prince prepared, can you open the eyes of the ministers?" ”

Li Weiguo said: "Just open your eyes, this is a secret for the time being, and the enemy can't be allowed to have any chance to notice!" ”

What is the secret, seeing that Li Weiguo is so mysterious, Wu Yong and Chen Jingnan are looking forward to it.

Li Weiguo continued: "Let go of Chuansha and let all the British and French troops land, so that this king is worth using a big killing weapon to destroy them in one fell swoop." ”

Wu Yong and Chen Jingnan were surprised, what kind of big killing weapon could destroy 200,000 British and French troops in one fell swoop, they really couldn't think of it, and they looked forward to it even more.

Li Weiguo looked at his watch, and suddenly said: "It's almost, let the defenders of the Chuansha coast prepare to retreat, let the enemy go ashore, and do enough drama to don't let the enemy see the problem." ”

The telegram was quickly sent, and the commander of the Chuansha town garrison quickly ordered the defenders of the coastal fort to blow up the artillery and ammunition depots, and then retreat under the pretense of being outnumbered.

Because it was dark night, the retreat of the defenders of Chuansha was not seen by the British and French forces, after all, the shelling of dozens of warships of the British and French fleets was very fierce, and the British and French troops who rushed to land on the beach also paid a huge price of thousands of dead and wounded, and the whole process was extremely fierce.

After the successful beach-grabbing landing, Claus and Guba were overjoyed and hurriedly ordered the British and French troops to quickly build beachhead fortifications and advance in depth to open up a landing ground.

"This time, I must take Shanghai and wash away the shame of the British Empire's crushing defeat in the last Battle of Songhu!"

"That's right, the last Battle of Songhu was also a shame for our French Empire, this time I will personally wash it up, and I will cut off Li Weiguo's head and send it to His Majesty the Emperor."

Klaus and Guba swore one after another, as if they had forgotten the lesson of the defeat in the naval battle just now and the heavy losses in the sneak attack, thinking that as long as 200,000 British and French troops landed successfully, they could win the second Battle of Songhu. (To be continued.) )