It would have been a wonderful season, and a wonderful event. Rodney and I were both given the identity to show ourselves, and if the war had gone well and we had done something, it would have undoubtedly made an amazing mark on our resumes, but God dozed off that day and did not pay attention to his children. As a result, this war came to an ending that we had never imagined at all.

To be honest, I don't have a high opinion of Major General Bomai, who is a general who is not very good at dealing with army morale and regulating the atmosphere. Everyone knows that in the army, the morale of the soldiers is high, and the unity and trust of each other are the absolute guarantee of victory. But, obviously, Rear Admiral Bourmet, like any British admiral, has good expertise and naval commander-in-chief, and I dare to admit that even the Chinese Navy, which is still bouncing around the world like fleas, is no match for our British's expertise in naval technology. However, in my opinion, only the technical expertise of the Navy will not be able to lead such a fleet as ours to a brilliant victory.

The defeat at the Battle of Malacca in 1840 was due to a number of factors, one of the key to which historians and military scientists have been highlighted by discord within the coalition forces.

I don't like to talk about these things, and though I'm a sociable gentleman general, my love of battle is obviously higher than these things. We were ecstatic when we saw a dozen medium-** ships, and I thought: "How great, get rid of them now, and our mission will be accomplished." ”

The Rear Admiral also gave the correct order, asking us, the officers who commanded the frigate, to form a formation to block the "retreat" of the Chinese. To be honest, when I saw the huge flagships of the Chinese, I was moved, this is obviously an ironclad warship that none of us British have, and I had a delusion at that time, maybe I can capture him, and then with this merit, I can become the captain of these giants.

It was these five ironclad warships that slowed down the speed of the entire Chinese fleet, they could only travel at about 13 knots, while our formation could reach a speed of 14 knots, catch up with them, and then block them, and at that moment, I imagined it to catch up with them and then kill them.

I believe that Rodney of Mune had the same idea at that time, that any navy had a strong sense of honor, and it seemed that at that time, honor was within our reach.

It's just that, as I said before, God wasn't on our side that day.

The blow to us was the ironclad warship, which was called an epoch-making warship

Memoirs of the famous Marshal James Hope of the British Royal Navy

The five ironclad ships that have been leading the world for 10 years are the improved version of the Shanghai class, although they are not equipped with rotating turrets, because there is no hydraulic system, the front and rear main guns are installed in the gun room of the ship's amidships, although the main gun emplacements cannot rotate, but they can rotate the main guns, when the first shot of the conical shell hit the Dutch battleship at a distance of two miles, James Hope was completely shocked, originally Lin Hong's suggestion was that there was no need for deck guns, which was closer to the ironclad ship type at the end of the 19th century, However, the experts of the logistics and equipment department have found that the current world navy is proud of multi-layer and multi-artillery, coupled with the slow rapid-fire of the main and secondary guns, once it exchanges fire with a large number of guns of the sailing ship, it is easy to suffer, although the enemy's front-loading shells and even flowering shells can not cause much damage to the ironclad, but the artillery and speed of the ironclad ship is indeed a big problem, and in the end, Lin Hong had to let the Shanghai-class add a layer of deck guns to the ironclad ship, and it became the current Huaxia-class ironclad ship.

The 3,000-ton ironclad ships Changfeng, Breaking Waves, Dingyuan, Weiyuan, and Laiyuan are the world's largest and most advanced weapons in this era, and there are four of them at one time. As an ironclad ship, although it can withstand such terrible recoil, it can't withstand too much. A total of four huge main cannons in the front and back are already its limit, plus more than 30 other cannons of various types, it has made it as terrifying as a demon.

As a well-trained naval officer, James Hope knew that frigates had the advantage of being able to attack these behemoths where battleships were firing from dead ends. But it is clear that the range of the ironclad is far superior to that of any battleship. And the steam power also made it not need to wait for the wind to push, but only needed to rely on the commander's temperament to aim its two terrifying cannons at the poor Anglo-Dutch convoy.

Eight- or 10-inch guns may have become the norm today, but in 1840, it was a big surprise to see that a single shell could pierce or even sink a weak sail-hulled battleship.

James Hope already knew at that time that this war could not be won, and that the Chinese had built such terrible warships, maybe now they only have five, but given them enough time, they could build ten, twenty more, and unless we capture it and study how it was made, the sea in the future will no longer belong to the Britons.

James Hope was once again struck when he looked at it up close, like four ferocious lions, five ironclad ships that rushed straight into the Anglo-Dutch convoy like sheep-like men.

The hull of the ship, which corresponded to the deep black sea, was unscathed by the shells fired by the Anglo-Dutch battleship, and it could only make a mark at most, and the huge naval guns equipped on its side could sink a battleship with a single shot at close range. In the three wars for hegemony between Britain and the Netherlands, many naval battles broke out between the two countries, but the warships on both sides were sunk very few, most of them were wounded and captured, so the power of naval artillery at this time can be seen in general, plus the shells of the current naval warships are mostly solid bullets, shotguns, and chain bullets, and the flowering shells are not equipped with a large number of European navies in service due to high manufacturing costs and complex processes. On the contrary, the Imperial Chinese Navy, equipped with shells made of nitroglycerin, could basically sink a sail warship with a single shell.

From the first shell fired by the ironclad to the frigates that rushed into James Hope's formation and attacked the British and Dutch at close range, the Dingyuan sank a total of 5 frigates and the cruiser Changfeng also sank 3 frigates, and the other two ships also had their own successes. As they advanced, they tore the frigates apart. If it weren't for the glory of the Royal Navy, perhaps James Hope would have been a shameful deserter.

Afterwards, Rodney had spoken to James Hope, and he said that ironclads such as the Dingyuan were not invincible, and that the guns on the frigate were too small to break through its armor, and that if the 68-pounder guns on the Bombay were used to attack one position in a row, then its armor could be broken.

Hope's ship was on the periphery of the formation, and there was no direct lethal attack, and he thought that if they could stop the giant ship with sacrifice, then maybe they would be able to defeat it and capture it and gain manufacturing technology when the capital ships behind followed.

As a result, the frigate captains of the Combined Fleet tacitly reached a consensus at that moment that even if they used sacrifice to block, they would leave the ironclad ship behind. The remaining dozen frigates wanted to use layers of encirclement to limit the movement of this giant ship, and then occupy the ship with broadside battles.

It's just that Cao Fu, who is known as "China's Nelson", took advantage of the steam power of the Dingyuan to control this giant ship, like a small and flexible sardine, and led the other three ships in and out of the layers of encirclement. Each escape was accompanied by heavy broadside fire from the ironclads, and the frigates were constantly sunk by it, and the wreckage of the warships also hindered the encirclement of the Anglo-Dutch frigates.

To James Hope's surprise, at that time, none of the captains retreated. The ironclad ships are obviously going to kill, maybe the convoy wants to run, and they can completely rely on their speed to avoid such powerful losses. However, both the Dutch and the British themselves, these hot-blooded young captains were shocked by this charming weapon, and in their hearts, they did not know whether it was more thought of completing the combat mission, or more of capturing it and getting this powerful weapon.

As a result, there was such a ridiculous, funny, tragic and heroic scene on the sea.

The cruisers of the Imperial Navy lined up in a line in the distance, using the range of the cannons to hang the Anglo-Dutch convoy far away, and when the Anglo-Dutch frigates went out to pursue them, the cruisers hid far away, and the frigates could not catch up and could be sunk and had to turn back, the cruisers of the two levels of martial arts were actually not their opponents, Lin Hong's cruisers were built completely according to the type of the iron-hulled wood-hulled cruisers before World War I, so there were no deck guns, and the guns were all in the turrets on the deck, In addition, the current boiler output power is not large, in terms of speed, the cruisers of the empire are only one or two sections faster than those frigates, and the cruiser is definitely not the opponent of the frigate with melee guns, of course, if Lin Hong can build rapid-fire guns now, there is no need to be afraid, although he has the drawings of rapid-fire guns, but the current level of the country's steel industry is not enough to build, so the cruisers are arranged to use the range advantage of artillery on the periphery of the battlefield to suppress. And the four ironclad ships are like four paladins, wielding the big sword in their hands, wearing this indestructible armor, every time the big sword rises and falls, a life is taken away. They are calm, as if they are playing, but they are extremely serious, shuttling between the enemy, as if entering a no-man's land, as if they have obtained the true meaning of fighting, unhurried, but send and receive from the heart, when the enemy has not reacted, a sword to seal the throat.