[Only this article pays tribute to the iron army that defends the motherland's maritime frontiers! ] 】

The one who came alone was undoubtedly the 501 ship that left Subic Bay a few days earlier, and the five-star red flag on the mast was still following the wind hunting and fluttering despite being soaked in seawater!

The soldiers on the battleship are quietly resting, and the non-stop sailing on the vast sea is undoubtedly the most boring thing, except for the firmly fixed clock showing the changes in the world, everything seems to be immutable, but everyone is very excited, because they know that a historic moment is coming!!

In the command room, Lu Han was drawing nautical charts, a technique he had wholesaled from Qin Kai, a pencil line that ran diagonally south from Subic Bay, and in a place called Saran, they parted ways with the Second Fleet.

When he was leaving, he saw the resolute expression on the face of Lu Zhiyuan, the commander of the Second Squadron, when he left, he secretly laughed in his heart, this gale was really bold! However, in the face of this boldness, he had no fear at all!

Men should be unavoidable, Qin Liefeng dares! Why wouldn't he want to!!

After the First Fleet sailed westward, on the second day, he saw a large number of island communities, Qin Kaile pointed to the small islands that appeared from time to time in the distance, "Gengtang, this is the southernmost sea frontier of our dignified China, today we are driving a powerful warship here to declare the sovereignty of the country, don't you think this feels very good!" ”

Lu Han has long been immune to Qin Kai's strange theories, but what Qin Kai said is really exciting, and he can't help but start the case, and blurt out an ancient poem: "Serve the king for thousands of miles, and ask for nothing!" ”

Qin Kai was stunned for a moment, turned his head to look at Lu Han, and suddenly smiled: "Gengtang, what are you going to do?" ”

Lu Han smiled, "King's business!" King's business! That's a big thing in the world, and now we're not doing a king's business! A few years later, when I am too old to walk, when I think of you and I today's madness, if I can still worship with emotion, then I have no regrets! ”

The two looked at each other and smiled, standing in the command room and looking up at the east, in the midst of the storm, through the dark and heavy dark clouds over the sea, a bright light in the east had appeared! At this time, the wind at sea became more and more violent.

The wind and rain of this night, can toss the whole ship of people enough, sailing in this storm, is undoubtedly the greatest test for all soldiers and sailors, of course, the most important thing is to test the bottom power cabin, boiler engineer Lu De can be said to have stayed awake all night, with a few workers in the boiler room, steam engine room back and forth, to eliminate any hidden dangers that may arise.

At this time, the sailors and soldiers on every post are guarding their posts in an orderly manner, and their silent efforts have created the powerful combat power of the 501 ship.

When the sky was light, the battleship had already appeared in the distance of a coastline, sailing in the wind and rain overnight, and the deviation of the channel was inevitable, which made Lu Han, who was on this mission, also a little anxious, and he must immediately judge the current approximate location, otherwise when the sky is bright, the warship that suddenly appears in the offshore sea will inevitably attract attention, and the effectiveness of this covert operation will be greatly reduced.

After calculating the latitude and longitude of the's room, Lu Han lay on the chart and drew it carefully, turned his head and said to Qin Kai: "Gale, we have shifted our position by nearly 50 kilometers, I am afraid that it is not right to set off at the destination at this time, there is a large circular island half an hour west of here, is it to anchor there for a day!" ”

At this time, the wind and rain outside did not stop at all, except for a slight light in the sky, the sky was still dark and dreary, and the coastline in the distance was also pitch black, he looked at the clock, it was 4:50 in the morning, and the chart showed that the distance from the destination was about 52 kilometers, and if it was traveling at a cruising speed of 10 knots, it would be close to 3 hours.

You must know that this is a tropical region near the equator, and the sunrise time is around 6 o'clock, but the dawn is even earlier, and you don't arrive at your destination until after 7 o'clock, and the effect of the raid is difficult to say.

And Lu Han's idea is also reasonable, avoid the daytime, and then choose the time to attack, then the grasp of the attack time is very accurate, this era has no GPS and holographic sea navigation in their own era, entering the harbor at night is definitely a challenging job, so they chose to sail late at night, and enter the port in the early morning ......,

It's just that the sky is not beautiful, this heavy rain has affected the navigation and speed, and obviously also affected the efficiency of the operation, and now it is almost up to his own decision, Lu Han has already put forward his opinion...... God is not beautiful! Qin Kai sighed secretly, but in an instant, a thought pierced his mind like lightning!!

Heaven is not beautiful...... It doesn't have to be so, such a stormy season is an obstacle for yourself, and it's not for the enemy!! Heaven is not beautiful, I am not up to God!

He immediately sent someone to call Lin Yunshan, who was in charge, to come up.

"Gengtang, Lin Yunshan, there are still 52 kilometers to Zigong Port, if you drive at full speed at 16 knots, and slow down and cruise after entering the war, will our boiler and steam engine be able to withstand it!"

Lin Yunshan thought about it, when the battleship was delivered, the German engineer specifically explained that the time to travel at full speed should not exceed 3 hours, he thought about it and said: "My lord, this distance is 16 knots, it only takes 1 hour and 40 minutes to arrive, of course, today's wind and rain will obviously have some impact on the speed, it will only take two hours, but after reducing the boiler pressure after two hours of sailing at full speed, it is not appropriate to re-pressurize immediately, it will take at least half an hour to complete the preparation, this point should be considered in advance......"

Lu Han looked at the clock, 2 hours, that is, he could reach the destination at about 6:50, for this half an hour or so of preparation, he thought about it, this is basically no problem, after all, in the port, it is impossible to sail at full speed, it is necessary to slow down, as for half an hour...... He smiled, it seemed too short! Where would he like to stay for 24 hours if possible!!

"This should be no problem, Lu De from the steam engine workshop on the other side of the boiler is here, and he should be able to handle it! It's just, Gale, you're trying to take advantage of the downside of this rainstorm, right? Lu Han looked at Qin Kai very seriously.

"Gungtang, what do you think? This Zigong Port has never experienced any baptism, let's use our horsetail artillery fire today to let the French sober up for a while! Qin Kai smiled and showed off his plan!

Lu Han thought about it, hit the case, and smiled heartily, "The wind and the grass, it should be today!" ”——

It was almost 7 o'clock, due to the heavy rain and strong winds for two consecutive days, the sky was still gloomy, which made Zigong, the core city of Cochinchina, France, under the baptism of heavy rain, permeated with a lazy atmosphere.

In the bay of Zigong Harbor, the sea breeze seems to be much lighter, but the rainstorm has already been poured, sitting on the wide and comfortable bridge, Captain Flo and a few of the first mates are enjoying breakfast, their British cargo ship is one of the few large ships of the WKK shipping company, with a full tonnage of more than 9,000 tons, so compared to the surrounding ships, the position of the bridge is naturally more towering.

While cursing the damn weather in Cochinchina, Flo talks to First Officer Jack about the style of Zigong, which has been occupied by the French for decades and has been built into a sprawling European-style city with a blend of Baroque and Gothic styles.

The conversation of a few old men who were far away from England quickly shifted from business to women, and old Flo was not as indulgent as he was when he was younger, but he knew that the first mate Jack had just brought two Vietnamese women from the shore yesterday, and immediately opened his mouth to laugh, "Jack, what time did you fight until last night?" ”

Before the words fell, a sudden rumbling roar came from the mouth of the harbor, this sound was not unfamiliar to these old sailors, it was the roar of artillery, but it was ...... How can there be cannon fire in this quiet French port!

"Battleship ......" Jack jumped up all at once.

First mate Jack's stunned answer surprised him a little, but he immediately realized that something unusual had happened, following the direction of Jack's finger, in the midst of the storm behind him, a battleship appeared at the mouth of the harbor, and what was even worse was that the guns on the sides of the battleship and the gun mounts in front and behind were still violently spraying fire......

And at this time, the whole port had just woken up from its sleep, and no one could have expected this sudden guest, let alone beware, at the mouth of the bay, the French had built huge batteries, and it was said that huge artillery was installed, but ...... The muzzles are all designed in unison, how could the original designers think that this battery still needs to shoot at the ships in this harbor! ,

Old Flo's eyes were naturally vicious, and he could see at a glance the sharpness of the opponent's artillery and the advanced warship, and the six heavy guns in front and behind were constantly rotating, bombarding the nearest ships, and the first to suffer were the three cruisers flying the French flag that were moored in the harbor......

The 501 ship was in the rain and fog before, without hoisting any national flag, from the harbor outside the harbor in front of the four huge batteries swaggering into the harbor of Zigong, after entering the harbor immediately hung up the dragon flag of the Qing Dynasty, this is the national war, after the sound of the cannon can no longer be sneaky, as the closest to the Qing European ships must pass through the port, Zigong port moored ships are definitely not a few, this time the order issued to the officers of each gun position is the 501 ship rarely issued the order of free fire.

From the beginning of the first round of free fire, the whole port was immediately plunged into complete chaos and rumbling cannons, and most of the sailors on the ships who had just woken up chose to abandon ship and go ashore to escape......

The three closest French battleships, the fast cruiser Totolin, the torpedo boat Night Cat, and the torpedo boat Viper, were the targets of the first round, because the terrace-style turret at the front of their battleship betrayed them first, and with the order of Tang Qingshan at the No. 1 gun position, the twin 254mm heavy guns sprayed 230 kg of flowering shells at the waist waterline of the opposing ship!

To be honest, in the aftermath of the battle discussion, the officers had a lot of complaints about the use of heavy artillery at this distance, such powerful heavy artillery was not used to hit fixed targets, not to mention that the targets were only a pitiful 1,300-ton cruiser and two 470-point torpedo boats and gunboats.

The result was naturally devastating, as the three free-firing twin heavy guns undoubtedly hit the enemy ship's waist and waterline, and the blossoming shells that easily penetrated the pit viper's torpedo boat also detonated the torpedoes in the hull, and the chain of explosions almost shattered the entire pit viper torpedo boat, and even the broken ship board flew to the sea 100 meters away.

The Night Cat torpedo boat, after being bombarded by heavy artillery, burned directly into a huge fireball after the explosion, and the most wronged in this raid was the fast cruiser Tuo Lin, who belonged to the French Mediterranean Fleet, this time because the escort mission had just arrived in Zigong a few days before, and no one expected that this would be a one-way ticket.

On this morning of rain and mist and torrential rain, in the heart of the colony of Cochinchina, which France was proud of, there were fanatics who had so recklessly bombarded the battleship Toylin in two in the harbor where thousands of French expeditionary forces were stationed!

On the entire battleship, except for the dozen or so French soldiers who were in charge of lookout and duty, they jumped directly into the water to escape, and the soldiers and sailors on the other ships went directly to heaven in a daze of sleep!

The first round of shelling and the resulting explosions apparently caused a shock throughout the harbor, and the small cargo ships began to anchor in panic, but the steam engine power of this era, from the beginning of igniting the boiler to the time the ship could only move, it was a long process, and everyone began to curse the pirate who broke into the port...... And then there's the lax French army!

However, as the second round of shelling unfolded, Captain Flo of the British freighter Asaph in the distance immediately noticed the flag flying on the battleship, and he immediately shouted loudly, "Jack...... Jack, get everyone to hang the flag and fill our cargo ship with the flag of the British Empire! That's a Qing warship! Not a pirate ship......"

Tang Qingshan on the gun position had never urged his artillery so much, and the artillerymen never thought that there would be such an artillery bombardment, and hundreds of target ships would appear in front of him, but Guan Tie and Lord Qin had already given the order, only shelling the French ships with the red, white and blue flags, giving priority to warships, and then shooting at will.

The six 150mm rapid-fire guns on the sides of the 501 ship, which had rarely played a chance in the past, were in full swing this time, and Wang Tao, the fast-fire gun shooting officer on the port side, jumped left and right excitedly at this time, shouting loudly, "Brothers! Brothers, aim for me to hit! The French who only play the red, white and blue flags! ”

It's just that his roar has long been drowned out by the continuous sound of cannons, and his command is almost useless, because, at this speed, there is almost no need to aim at the target that is all the shots, because there are all the merchant ships flying the French flag, and the only thing to do is to rain 150mm shells as fast as possible. ,

For a large cargo ship with a wooden hull, a 150mm rapid-fire shell is already a lethal weapon, and after two or three hits on the waterline plank, the hull immediately topples due to widespread water penetration......

In fact, there were not only French merchant ships in the port, but also a large number of British merchant ships, and even four large warships, but none of them were French warships, two of which were British warships, an American warship, and a Portuguese warship, and they were also in a panic at this time, after all, they did not understand the situation of this sudden attack.

The British anchored in the harbor were two 3,000-ton cruisers of the Indian Ocean Detachment of the Far East Fleet, but because the comprehensive refit of the British Far East Fleet had not been completed, these two cruisers of considerable tonnage were the kind of battleships with very outdated side-chord gun positions, and the armor was limited to the protection of key parts.

When the fleet commander, Colonel Solon, ran to the bridge in a panic, he was also angry about this embarrassment, if he was inexplicably sunk by a pirate ship in Saigon Harbor, it would be enough to lose the face of the British Empire, and his naval career would be completely over!

"Bastard, hurry up to the gun position, and prepare to counterattack with all your strength before the battleship starts!" Colonel Sauron loudly rebuked his officers.

"Colonel, in the direction of our berths, the side guns simply cannot ...... the enemy" the officers had helpless expressions.

"Then use the secondary gun in the bow of the ship, and resist until the battleship starts!" Sauron yelled at the officers to drive the officers away, telling them to take the soldiers who had not yet woken up to the gun emplacements and prepare for battle.

In the confusion, the rumbling of cannon was getting closer and closer, but after carefully observing the situation in the harbor, the originally angry Colonel Sauron slowly calmed down, and he also gave the same order as the British freighter captain Flo, and immediately the flags on both warships were hung with beautiful rice flags. Because at this time, in the place where the battleship had been baptized, all the ships flying the red, white and blue flags went to feed the fish without exception, and most of the ships of other countries were fine......

This is a counterattack by Qing warships on French ports, and it is absolutely an incredible example of war, and Britain announced its neutrality on the Sino-French war as early as two months ago, and Colonel Sauron naturally knew it. He immediately picked up the telescope and started to be a spectator with peace of mind, and so, under the observation of foreign warships, the 501 ship completed his pinnacle in the history of sinking!