readx;?“ Turn on the faucet! Hurry up ......"

"Ahem...... Damn, these smokes are poisonous, wear a mask! ”

"Hurry up and save people, is there anyone alive?"

Captain Brosnan, the captain of the armored cruiser Orlando, held his bleeding head with one hand - the British Royal Navy had not yet equipped officers and men with steel helmets in this era, and his handsome face was cut by a piece of glass flying from nowhere, and the blood flowed straight down, but it was a little bitter in the corners of his mouth. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

The deck of the 5,600-ton armored cruiser was already in chaos, the normally well-trained sailors were running like headless flies, and the Chinese's explosive power and choking smoke shells rained down. The fire has never been extinguished since the first Chinese shell hit and ignited several of the Orlando's lifeboats! The 10 rapid-fire guns on the 70 Chinese cruisers were all aimed at the Orlando, and there was a salvo almost every minute, and one or two shells would hit each salvo! Brosnan, who was busy directing the fire on deck, even saw a cannonball hit the open turret in the bow, followed by an unimaginably large fireball and a huge fire that rose into the sky - the shell must have ignited the powder pack that was about to be filled in the open battery!

No one knows how these hellish minutes were spent...... Below the turret is the ammunition depot, in the event of a fire *a*本*read*small* said.. YBDU is spreading, and the Orlando is about to be blown up into the sky! When the water dragons finally erupted from the rubber tube, Brosnan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"God forbid, the fire is under control!" He shouted at a soldier beside him. "Go report to the Command Tower. The fire in the first turret was brought under control. However, all the members of the artillery crew were killed, and the cannon must be finished! ”

The defense capability of the open turret is such a tragedy that a small 155mm blasting shell can mute a 9-inch cannon. And on this armored cruiser, which was burning everywhere, 3 of the 5 6-inch rapid-fire guns on the starboard side were also muted, either blown up by Chinese shells, or killed by the spread of the fire. Only 2 guns and 1 9-inch gun in the stern were still firing stubbornly.

"Brigadier General, the fire is under control."

The first mate of the Orlando put down the phone in his hand and shouted loudly to report to Brigadier General Luang Willy, who was still standing. The British Commodore who served as commander of the Hawaiian Navy Fleet. only to breathe a sigh of relief. A loud "boom" erupted in his ears, and the entire command tower trembled violently, as if there had been a magnitude 7 earthquake, and people who did not hold on to the handrails were shaken to the ground.

Lang Willy only barely stabilized his body, and looked out of the command tower, as if something had pierced the corner of his eye, only to see a raging fire coming out of the place where the starboard torpedo tube was located, it seemed that the torpedo tube was hit by an enemy shell, and the torpedo inside was detonated! A 6-inch cannon next to the torpedo tube, which was also flooded by fire, seemed to be finished.

"Hell!" Lang Willy scolded. Now there are only 2 cannons left available, and one of them is still a cannon that needs to be stopped for a few minutes! A 5600-ton armored cruiser fought for just over 1 hour. It's almost disarmed!

"Brigadier General, the Orlando is almost out of combat!" The first mate cried out in mourning. "It's time to get out of the ......"

"No! We must insist on being a live target, otherwise Chinese will divert firepower......"

Before he could finish his words, the huge hull of the ship shook violently again as if it had been struck by something, and the people who had just stood in the commander tower staggered again, and when everyone regained their footing, a bad news had already come from the telephone.

"Commodore General, one of the torpedoes in the stern torpedo tube has been blown up again! The last 6-inch rapid-fire gun on the starboard side was hit by the explosion, the entire gun crew was killed, and the cannon broke down! ”

"Damn torpedo...... Lang Willy slammed the handrail, "Throw away all the remaining torpedoes, and the lifeboat!" ”

"Brigadier General...... Lifeboats are also thrown away? The first mate's eyes widened, everyone knew that the lifeboat was the hope of the officers and men of the whole ship to escape when the warship could not be saved!

"Throw it away! Let the whole detachment throw away torpedoes and lifeboats, these two things are useless at all! Lang Willy roared.

There is really nothing wrong with his words, the torpedo range of this era is too short, and now the artillery battle distance between the two sides is about 5000 meters, which is simply outside the torpedo range. With these torpedoes loaded with explosives, the only effect seems to be to be detonated! As for lifeboats, it was a burden, and the earliest fire on the Orlando was lit by lifeboats.

"They didn't sink our fire! We can just keep it up! Luang Willy was very sure, "Our sacrifice will win the friendly ship a chance to sink the enemy ship!" ”

In the command tower of the Wuchang, Lieutenant Yan Fu vigorously helped Liu Yaxing up, and the situation here was not much better than that of the Orlando armored cruiser. The British ship column was also concentrating its fire on the protective cruiser, which was the flagship of the detachment, and just now a 9-inch armor-piercing shell hit the armor belt of the ship's amidships, effortlessly penetrating the armor and penetrating the boiler room! If it weren't for the fact that this armor-piercing shell wouldn't have exploded, the Wuchang would have probably been blown into two sections by now!

"General, the boiler compartment was shot, one boiler was destroyed, 24 people were injured!"

The report of the captain of the pipe loss came from the telephone receiver. The Wuchang has a total of four coal-fired boilers, and the destruction of one means the loss of a quarter of its power! It is no longer possible to maintain a speed of about 16 knots.

"Major General, should we hang the flag?" The first mate asked aloud.

"No, we can still hold on!" Liu Yaxing said, "Now is not the time to quit!" He held up his binoculars and looked across the Orlando, which had also burned into a fireship. The Orlando has been destroyed, pass my orders to divert all the firepower to the Goddess of Dawn...... Our tactic is to hurt ten fingers rather than break one of them! ”

"Admiral, the Orlando, the Emerald, the Garnet, the Opal, the Ruby, the Tourmaline, the Turquoise, the Leander have all reported heavy damage! All on fire! The Nelson and the Savage ......"

"The enemy had two Saxony-class ships hit fire, two Saxony-class ships were hit by bullets, one Guangdong-class was heavily damaged, one Shandong-class was heavily damaged, one Wuchang-class was heavily damaged, and one Liaoning-class was heavily damaged. The shelling detachment reported sinking an armed merchant ship and severely damaging two ......"

The Commander of the Empress of India, Arthur. Hood craned his neck to look at the smoke-billed battlefield in front of him, beads of sweat on his forehead, and the voice of Chief of Staff Aspen reported in his ears.

The situation is not ideal, there have been 8 armored cruisers reported heavy damage, 2 armored cruisers comparable to ironclad ships reported to be created, although 6 of them are gem-class "fake armored cruisers" that are not worthy of the name, but 8 heavy damage, 2 losses in the middle of the creation still make Arthur. Hood's heart throbbed.

And the result of this loss was nothing more than four heavy losses to four Chinese cruisers, two Saxony-class medium-sized ones that caught fire were at most medium-sized ones, and two Saxony-class ones were only slightly damaged. But even more so that Arthur. Hood was annoyed that the 9 most powerful capital ships on his side had not fired a single shot so far! Also slowly followed behind the ass of the Chinese's capital ship column.

"Full speed ahead! Burn the wind! "Arthur. Hood finally decided not to consider the formation of the formation anymore, "Order the whole formation to move forward at full speed and catch up!" ”

"But Admiral, then we can't stay in formation!" Aspen reminded that "the Indian Queen-class can sail to more than 16 knots, and the other 6 capital ships can only maintain a speed of 14 knots, if at full speed...... The horizontal team will turn into a goose formation, and the firing range of several capital ships will be blocked. ”

Arthur. Hood stomped his foot, "Fuck the team, we're all stupid, this kind of team can't be used in the current actual combat at all!" Don't care so much, rush up and spank the Chinese's ass! (To be continued......)