Aboard the Empress of India, Arthur who witnessed the disaster aboard the Remilis. Hood's eyes widened, his fists clenched, his breathing was short, his face was like ashes, and there was only one thought in his heart, the British Empire had lost the war! The battleships, on which the empire pinned its greatest hopes, are now being beaten all over the ground by Chinese cruisers! In just ten minutes, two Indian queens were severely damaged!

It's not bad luck, it's a serious mistake in the British Royal Navy's shipbuilding ideas! The bow against the enemy, the diagonal open turret and the large-caliber frame guns are all rubbish! No compromise of garbage! And the British Royal Navy also used this garbage as a magic weapon to defeat the enemy......

"Sir Milne and I should be hanged on a telephone pole by the Thames!" The commander of the Royal Navy's Eastern Fleet muttered, "We buried the Imperial ......"

At his side, the Chief of Staff of the Eastern Fleet, Ray Murray. Asben was also cold with his hands and feet, staring blankly at the Remilis outside the conning tower, shrouded in gunsmoke, fire, and falling Chinese shells...... He was also muttering, "Extinguish the fire, put out the fire!" The fire must not be allowed to reach the ammunition depot......"

Hearing his words, Arthur. It was as if Hood's head had been hammered, and he had no other consciousness but fear!

Underneath the turret is the ammunition depot! The shells from the ammunition depot can be lifted into the turret by means of a hydraulic loader. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info(.) and in between, there is only a sealed hatch that closes manually. If it is not closed in time, the fire will spread from the open turret to the ammunition depot, and then, there will be no then!

With a loud boom, a man-made fireball rose from the surface of the sea, probably the most glorious ever! This is the swan song of a 14,000-ton battleship! With this explosion, the battleship Remilis broke in two from the forward part of the ship, and the violent explosion even threw the wreckage of at least 3,000 tons into the air, and then smashed it into the sea, splashing huge waves.

Everyone was stunned by this scene.

Even Zhu Guoguang was stupid, and only two words appeared in his mind.

Luck!

Luck is great! It's so good! Of course, Zhu Guoguang could see that there was a major explosion at the ammunition depot on the Remilis. Such a thing can only be said to be encountered in naval warfare, but it is not desirable! I was actually bumped into by myself, and I also blew up the largest battleship in the world!

"It's a design problem!" Arthur. In his post-war memoirs, Hood bitterly admitted to the angry British people that "there were so many flaws in the design of the Queen-class battleships of India that the whole idea was wrong...... That is why the tragedy of the explosion of the ammunition depot of the Remilis occurred. This is a problem with open turrets, which are too prone to the tragedy of shells being detonated. And the explosion of a 16-inch blasting shell can produce a huge concussion. I reckon that the sailors in the ammunition depot under the turret were stunned during the explosion, so they couldn't close the fire hatch in time......"

The reason is easy to find, but there is no way to undo the defeat on the battlefield. With the sinking of the Remilis, everyone knows that the winner of this naval battle in the South China Sea has been decided! But the disaster of the British is not over, after all, this is a real war, but there is not a pause button to press...... If there is, Queen Victoria will definitely press it without hesitation. Then discuss with Zhu Jishi the issue of making Princess Helena the queen of Australia and handing over the Straits Settlements.

It's a pity that there is no pause button for the war! Just when everyone in the British fleet knew that they were going to be defeated, the 10 Chinese battleships commanded by Feng Ziye had already completed a roundabout maneuver. On the left side of the British battleship squadron a column was formed to seize the T-shaped position. 40 210mm rapid-fire guns, 59 140mm secondary guns, all pointed at the British battleship HMS Victory. 99 cannons roared at the same time, blooming with flowers of death, and the battleship Victory suddenly fell into endless despair.

The battleship was roughly designed to be similar to the Empress of India - in fact, the ravage, the Victory, and the Empress of India were multiplied consistently. They were all oblique open turrets, flashy 16-inch cannons and bow ramming angles, and the side firepower was insufficient, except for the twin 16-inch rack guns, there were only four 6-inch guns and a few machine guns. Machine guns, of course, had little role in naval warfare at this level, and could now be used to fire at 99 Chinese cannons. There were only 6 British cannons.

99 rapid-fire guns, with two rapid-fire shots per minute, constantly fired blasting shells at a close range of 5,000 meters. Although the blaster did not pose much threat to the Victory's sturdy armor, it was able to set the battleship's superstructure on fire in a very short time.

The fire soon spread to the Victory's officers' quarters, which had served as the flagship of the British Home Fleet, and the interiors were lavishly decorated, with the high-grade wood, Persian carpets, and paintings that could be found throughout the officer's cabin were fatally wounded. The fire in the cabin began to spread, and after only a few minutes, the fire was difficult to contain. In order to avoid a recurrence of the tragedy of the bombing of the ammunition depot. The captain of the Victory had to order the ammunition depot in the amidships to be filled with water, which was tantamount to disarming the Victory. The battleship quickly fired the signal flag that it had suffered heavy damage and withdrew from the battle. However, the Chinese battleship did not let the poor British battleship go, and still used rapid-fire guns to frantically pour ammunition on it, making the fire out of control. Just ten minutes later. The battleship, with an unladen displacement of more than 10000 tons, had to be abandoned.

After the loss of two battleships and one battleship, the British Eastern Fleet's doom came to an end for the time being, as their horizontal assault tactics played some role. Nine battleships (including two armored cruisers) that had been beaten to the ground of fire finally "broke up" the column of the Chinese fleet as they wished-this was actually caused by Wang Bern's and Zhu Guoguang's greed for merit, and in order to inflict maximum damage on the British ships, they ordered the entire column to pass through the front of the British column at a low speed of 10 knots, and as a result, the British battleship column rushed to the eleven Hong Kong-class cruisers at the end of the column. In order to avoid losses, Wang Boen had to order the eleven Hong Kong-class cruisers of the rear team to disband. Freedom of movement. And Arthur. Hood seized this opportunity and decisively gave the order to break through the formation.

On the left flank of these nine British ships, the Chinese battleship column also encountered a small trouble, and a "small horizontal squadron" composed of six battleships, the Minotaur, the Agincourt, the Northumberland, the Ravage, the Warrior, and the Glory, also rushed to a distance of 5,000 meters.

"The No. 1 target ravages, concentrate firepower ......" Feng Ziye was already full of excitement on his face, and the naval battle was fought so far, even a fool could see the result - he won a big victory! The marshal and the marquis and the duke were already beckoning to themselves.

"Commander, the second horizontal team of the British has also been disbanded." Chief of Staff Zhao Dalong suddenly interrupted Feng Ziye's order, because the battle situation at sea had changed again. "The three Minotaur class seem to have formed a small horizontal team and are charging at full speed, and the remaining three ravaging class ships seem to be about to escape!"

"Commander, the first column of the British is also dispersed, and they want to escape!" Liu Buyun, the communications staff officer of the fleet, also shouted.

"Commander, the Minotaur class doesn't have much superstructure, and the cannons are all hidden in closed gun compartments, which are difficult to sink and damage hard, but the guns of this class of battleships are also outdated, they are all old-fashioned rack guns, and there is no rapid-fire firepower. It is advisable not to dwell on it. ”

Chief Staff Officer Lin Tai had immediately made a suggestion, and when the Remilis exploded, he and several other staff officers already knew that the naval battle was about to be won a great victory, and they had already discussed a plan to intercept the British Eastern Fleet in the shortest possible time!

"Commander, the command proposes to immediately send fast armored cruisers and fast cruisers to control the entrance to the Strait of Malacca. At the same time, light patrols were sent to the Sunda Strait and the Lombok Strait to lay mines, and strive to block the British in the South Seas! (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation and monthly passes, and your support is my biggest motivation. )