readx;?“ Commander, the capital ships of the British accelerated! ”

Zhu Guohui put down the phone and shouted, the head of the Ming prince was also wrapped in gauze, and the blood had not stopped, and it was slowly flowing out of the red gauze. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 Info Just when the column of 13 British armored cruisers was exchanged fire, the Yongli received four enemy shells, one of which was a 10-inch armor-piercing shell fired by the Nelson class, which happened to penetrate the command tower of the Yongli, just below the bridge of the Yongli - the layout of the Saxony is very peculiar, with an open gun bay on the low command tower, and the open gun bay on the bridge is the bridge. Fortunately, the shell that pierced the conning tower would not have exploded, otherwise Zhu Guohui and all the people on the bridge would probably be gone.

However, Zhu Guohui was still thrown out of the bridge by a huge concussion, and fell into the open-air gun bay below, although his head was protected by a steel helmet, he still broke his head, and his whole body was in pain! He guessed that he must have fallen into an internal injury, but he gritted his teeth and refused to get out of the line of fire...... Everyone on the bridge of the Yongli is now injured, and two unlucky tyrants from the new Japan have fallen to their deaths!

As for the Yongli itself, it was also half-crippled! In addition to the 10-inch armor-piercing shell, there was also a 9-inch armor-piercing shell of the Brutal that made a hole under the waterline on the starboard side of the Yongli, and a large amount of seawater poured in, and the deck was tilted 5 degrees, and a watertight compartment had to be closed, and the water filling was balanced, so that the speed was reduced to 12 knots. In addition, at least two 6-inch shells hit the *one* Ben* read * small * said M cannon and all the crew members, and also caused a small fire.

Unexpectedly, the fire had just been brought under control. The bad news came from the telegraph room under the command tower. The British's three Indian Queen-class ships were in full pursuit.

"All 3 Indian Queen-class ships have caught up?" Takehiro Enomoto gasped. That's a 14,000-ton ship!

"It's all up!" Standing on the low bridge of the Yongli, of course, it was impossible to see the British ships starting to chase after them. But Zhu Guohui still answered in the affirmative. Because the news came from the armored cruiser Shaanxi at the end of the formation.

"Commander. What to do? Takehiro Enomoto asked anxiously.

"Split the formation in two!" Yu Guibei thought about it for a while. "The 3rd armored cruiser detachment turned to the left, and the 1st battleship detachment turned to the right......"

"Turn right is...... To the south! Takehiro Enomoto took a breath. Now the whole column is sailing westward, and if you turn right, it is south, in the direction of Singapore. And the main force of the Nanyang Fleet, which was rushing to the battlefield, was coming from the northeast.

"That's right! To the south...... Strive to divert 3 Indian Queen-class ...... Just lead away for a while, and we'll be victorious. ”

Yu Guibei took out his pocket watch and looked at the time, it was already 8:05, and he would stay up for another hour. The main force of the Nanyang Fleet, including 10 capital ships, 10 armored cruisers and 10 fast cruisers, will feel the battlefield! If, before that, the nine capital ships of the British could be diverted with four Saxony-class ships, then the remaining 35 British battleships would be in bad luck.

……

In the South China Sea, near the Dark Sands of Great-Mother, a large fleet is rapidly moving southwest.

3 Emperor-class battleships, 7 Emperor-class battleships, 5 latest 7,000-ton Nanzhili-class armored cruisers, 5 Guangdong-class armored cruisers, 10 Tianjin-class fast-protection cruisers and 10 Hong Kong-class fast-paced cruisers.

There were 40 warships, and the billowing smoke almost obscured the sky. Such a spectacular scene made the sailors on deck excited. In addition, the 24 warships of the escort fleet and the 6 Hong Kong-class ships patrolling the South China Sea, the Makassar Strait, the Java Sea, and the Gulf of Siam. The entire Daming Nanyang Fleet was almost dispatched. Everyone is looking forward to the early arrival of the decisive battle, so as to annihilate all the British Eastern Fleet entrenched in Singapore and stuck in the Strait of Malacca in one fell swoop!

However, in the flagship battleship Guangfu, Admiral Feng Ziye, commander of the Nanyang Fleet, was not as optimistic as most of the officers and sailors, and he even felt a little uneasy standing in front of the chart platform.

Yes, it's a little uneasy.

To be honest, he didn't want to fight a decisive battle right now, even if the number of new steam warships in his hands exceeded 70, far more than the British Eastern Fleet, he still didn't want to start immediately. In fact, he was a representative of the "conservatives" of the Navy. It is believed that the decisive battle at sea is related to the fortunes of the country, and it cannot be moved lightly without full certainty.

Had it not been for the Crown Prince's Indian raiders, he would have preferred to wait until the 10 15,800-ton "Chinese Empire"-class battleships on the slipways of the shipyards in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Canton were completed and put into service before launching a decisive battle – the first keels of the 10 "Chinese Empire" class ships were laid between July and August 1875 and were expected to be delivered to the navy by the end of 1877. At that time, the British's new generation of 20,000-ton (the Navy's projection) battleships will certainly not have time to be built, at most 10 to 15 Indian Queen-class or Indian Queen-class modified ships. And it is impossible to send them all to Singapore, so that the Ming Navy will be completely sure...... But now, the British's three 14,000-ton Indian empresses have appeared on the battlefield, while the Nanyang Fleet has only three 11,000-ton Great Emperor-class ships that can fight against one of them.

Moreover, the main guns of these three 11,000-ton Emperor-class guns have been replaced with 210mm rapid-fire guns, and there is no possibility of penetrating the Indian Queen-class armor at all. And the three 16-inch heavy guns of the Indian Empress class are very powerful!

"How's the situation going with the escort fleet?" Admiral Feng Ziye turned around and looked at the nautical chart platform in the command tower, which was surrounded by several fleet staff officers, including Lin Taizeng, chief staff officer of the Nanyang Fleet, Ito Hengyou, artillery staff officer, Tsuboi Hangzo, and communications staff officer Liu Buyun, who were fiddling with a pile of wooden ship models according to the telegram sent back from the front line.

"Commander, the situation is very chaotic now," said Vice Admiral Zhao Dalong, chief of staff of the Nanyang Fleet and a graduate of the second phase of the Daming Royal Naval Academy, a brother of Zhao Daheng, who followed Zhu Jishi in his early years. "There were 10 warbands on the battlefield, and they were widely dispersed, among which an armed merchant detachment of ours and a British steam sailing detachment fought and walked in a north-east direction, about 30 nautical miles northwest of our fleet; In addition, four Saxony-class ships led three British capital ships to the south......"

"What? Yu Guibei lured away 3 British capital ships? He is going to ......" Feng Ziye's face darkened slightly, "Did he forget that there was another prince on the Yongli!" ”

"Commander, the Yongli should be able to hold it, right?" Zhao Dalong's face was calm, his relationship with the Ming Dynasty was much closer than Feng Ziye, of course he knew that Zhu Guohui's status in the royal family was not high, and Emperor Zhu had more than eighty sons, so he could treat them all as treasures? Commander Feng was really a little worried.

"Commander, now is a great opportunity! The formation of the British is already out of order, as long as we can get to the battlefield, we will win! Zhao Dalong reminded, "Let the fleet move forward at full speed!" Don't let the British run back to Singapore. ”

"Slow, it's still too slow!" Feng Ziye groaned slightly and shook his head, "Now that I have gambled on a prince, I will win a big victory no matter what!" It is not enough to severely damage a dozen or twenty British ships, they must be beaten so that they cannot gain a foothold in Singapore! ”

He paused for a moment, seemed to think deeply again, and then said, "Divide the troops!" The 10 capital ships formed the 1st Battleship Squadron, 5 Nanzhili-class formed the 2nd Armored Cruiser Squadron, 5 Guangdong-class formed the 3rd Armored Cruiser Squadron, 10 Tianjin-class formed the 4th Rapid Squadron, and 10 Hong Kong-class formed the 5th Rapid Squadron. All teams are heading to the battlefield at full speed to join the battle! Order the whole fleet to fight the enemy! Drive the British out of the South Seas, out of Asia, and back to their hometown! (To be continued......)