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At 16:09 p.m. on March 24, 1862, the Zhenyuan ship that rushed back to help took the lead, followed by the Dingyuan ship, and the Yanjing heavy cruiser, the Suzhou heavy cruiser, the Nanjing heavy cruiser, the Jinan heavy cruiser, and the Guangzhou heavy cruiser formed a pyramid shape, and the Zhenyuan ship became the target of everyone, and the explosion flash of overwhelming artillery fire almost covered the Zhenyuan ship. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

In just five minutes after completing the rotation and speeding up the whole car, the Zhenyuan ship was hit by more than 20 bullets on the bridge alone, the helmsman was replaced by three people in a row, the clerk, the first mate and others all fell in a pool of blood, Lin Haijiang's shoulder and right arm were cut by shrapnel, and the medical staff tried to drag Lin Haijiang away, but Lin Haijiang struggled away, Lin Haijiang angrily reprimanded: "What do you want to do?" This is a battle that will decide the fate of the nation and the country, and if we lose, then we will have no future to speak of, understand? Now is the time for us to shed our blood, and in the future we will regret that we have wasted our lives and sighed? ”

Lin Haijiang pointed at Jia Wuji, who was trying to lower the flagship dragon flag, and shouted: "You dare! Whoever dares to lower the flag will kill him now! ”

Jia Wuji, whose eyes were red, stomped his foot fiercely and roared: "Order the military band and the port side gun position of the handymen to prepare for battle, and restore the port side secondary gun!" ”

The Zhenyuan ship galloped on the sea like a fire phoenix reborn from the fire. William looked at the Zhenyuan and Dingyuan ships dumbfounded, with his estimation that the Zhenyuan ship was at least 300 rounds shot, except for its secondary gun position stopped firing, the Zhenyuan ship was still high-spirited, the general flagship dragon flag that had been cut off by shrenchel was still flying high in the wind, and the smoke of gunpowder on the sea had largely obstructed the line of sight.

James. William also realized the Achilles heel of the coalition fleet at this moment, that is, the training of multinational navies and the different tactical standards have become the biggest weakness of unified command, and more seriously, he, the commander of the coalition navy, does have the right to command, but he does not have the power to deal with the generals who do not obey the command at the opportunity? This situation would have been alleviated if the battle had been won by an absolute advantage, but now it has unexpectedly entered the stalemate phase?

James. William didn't expect Prussia to build two such powerful monsters for the Chinese Empire? But James. William still believes that today's victory will still belong to him, because the other party seems to have become the end of the strong crossbow, maybe the other party will collapse if he works harder, how many years has the Chinese Empire been founded? How many years has the Navy only been training? Will they have the qualities of the fighting will of the Royal Navy of the British Empire? This is obviously impossible, James. William thought that what he had to do at the moment was to increase his strength and completely defeat the opponent, if this tactical goal could not be achieved before dark, let the Chinese Imperial fleet return to the Hainan Military Port, unless he cooperated with the army to attack and land, otherwise in terms of the fortifications of the Haikou Military Port in Hainan of the Chinese Empire, it would be difficult for the navy alone to finally win the victory.

At 17:21 p.m. on March 24, 1862, at dusk, three Italian battleships in the third formation of the Allied Forces commanded by Rear Admiral Nimanko of the Netherlands were sunk by the second main force of the empire under the command of Tang Zhiqiang.

At a distance of less than 1,000 meters, eight main guns were fired in succession, and the Spanish armored protection cruiser Herzer with a standard displacement of 2,300 tons was hit six times in a row, and the armor-piercing blasting projectile with a time-delayed fuse filled with a new picric acid filled charge completely cut off the entire armored conning tower of the Herzer, and the Herzer was like a floating bonfire, and the Spanish naval soldiers covered in fire jumped into the sea screaming.

Six minutes later, the ammunition depot of the Hezer exploded due to a fire, and the bow of the ship split into two sections and sank into the sea at great speed

The huge whirlpool caused by the sinking of the ship dragged the Spanish sailors who were struggling on the surface of the sea to the bottom of the sea.

At 17:37 p.m. on March 24, 1862, the flagship of the third formation of the Allied forces, the Dutch Rear Admiral Nimanco, was besieged by five warships, including the Wuhan Heavy Cruiser, the Changsha Heavy Cruiser, the Xining Heavy Cruiser, and the Lanzhou Heavy Cruiser, including Tang Ziqiang's flagship.

At this moment, the eight warships of the first main force sub-fleet of the Chinese Empire, except for the two ships Zhenyuan and Dingyuan, basically suffered serious personnel losses, and the battleships were scarred, and the combat effectiveness was only about 40%.

The afterglow of the setting sun makes James. William was very anxious, because in another half an hour, the sea would be shrouded in darkness, and he was extremely unwilling to let the Chinese Empire escape, and what made him even more ashamed was that the coalition forces had not sunk any of the opposing warships so far? However, they were sunk by as many as seven ships one after another.

The entire battleship of the fourth formation of the coalition was either sunk or stranded, or escaped without a trace. William's view of the navy is a combination of knights and gentlemen, and it is understandable to protect ships, but it is intolerable to escape in military law, otherwise it is a pity that James. William's proud statutes of the Royal Navy could not discipline these so-called coalition forces.

This naval battle in the South China Sea was fought by James. For the first time, William had an intuitive impression of the Prussian-built warships, whether it was the Fili-class with a standard displacement of more than 2,000 tons and a 150-millimeter guns, or the Yuanwang class with a standard displacement of 4,700 tons and 210-mm guns, or even the 7,500-ton Royal class, they could not pose a threat to the enemy's two core ships.

James. William looked at the two giant ships that had been shot at least more than 500 rounds in a daze, if the Chinese Imperial Navy did not have the support of these two giant ships, this naval battle would probably have come to an end, even so, James. William also found that most of the Chinese Imperial warships had minor problems with the rudder and even the power system, and for the cruisers that could not maintain their combat speed, the only thing left was to be slaughtered.

The battle has been going on for a whole afternoon, and the shells carried by the ships have basically been depleted, and the spare ammunition depot has not yet been opened. William knew that it was almost time to stop, and the final decisive battle should be in the morning of tomorrow, although nineteen of his own warships were sunk or incapacitated, but compared to the battered Chinese Imperial Naval fleet, the coalition still had an absolute advantage.

James. William understood the tactics of the other side, in the old saying of the Chinese, it is better to break one finger than to hurt ten fingers, the most important loss on the part of the coalition forces is due to the wrong intelligence on the part of the coalition forces, it can be said that the intelligence stolen by the empire from the Prussian Hamburg shipyard is not reliable at all, at least for these two naval battles dominated by these two new battleships with novel designs and heavy armor, and the speed is not slower than the new battleships of armored protection cruisers, James . William believed that if the Chinese Empire had two more such warships, it might be the Allied fleet that would be encircled and annihilated today, and that the Allied ships would have no scruples about destroying each other's behemoths by direct fire, and the Allied ships could only helplessly adopt S or C-shaped maneuvers to try to dodge.

It can be said that today's naval battle has strengthened James. William's belief in the cannon of the giant ship, the giant ship cannon of the British Royal Navy in history, turned out to be the only magic weapon in this situation to realize that the giant ship cannon is the only magic weapon to win the decisive battle of the ocean.

At 17:51 p.m. on March 24, 1862, the sea was already sprinkled with the afterglow of the setting sun, and the allied fleet began to gather its formation to maneuver and swim to cover each other, but the scarred Chinese Imperial Fleet had no intention of stopping, and still braved the other side's artillery fire to bravely intersperse.

Lin Haijiang, whose face was splashed with the blood of unknown people, looked at his pocket watch with a serious expression, took a deep breath and said, "Jia Wuji! Ten red flares! Full rudder left, port side fifteen degrees, all ships at full speed assault, impact the coalition fleet of the main formation! ”

Lin Haijiang waited for a while, but no one replied? As soon as he turned around, he found that the clerk, recorder, fourth mate and other officers were all lying in a pool of blood, the windows of the bridge were in tatters, and the bloodied helmsmen yelled and repeated the order: "Left full rudder!" Fifteen degrees on the port side! ”

A trembling female medical officer picked up the blood-stained notebook from the bloodstains and said, "Chief of Staff Jia was wounded and carried down!" ”

Lin Haijiang said coldly: "You are responsible for recording and conveying orders!" The female medical officer nodded yes!

Ten red flares rose from the enemy ships that were rushing towards their battle formation like wild horses on the loose. William stands on James. The binoculars were slowly lowered on the bridge of the HMS William Victoria, and he was very incomprehensible about the behavior of the enemy ships firing flares, especially the enemy flagship?

In the course of the engagement, the bridge of the Queen Victoria was directly hit by a 260 mm high-explosive shell, and almost seventy percent of the British officers and men in the bridge were killed and wounded. William miraculously unscathed? James. William, as a veteran admiral, had this kind of luck extremely important to the officers and men of the navy. William thinks that with this kind of luck, he will definitely win the final victory, maybe this victory is very difficult to win and expensive, but after all, Lin Haijiang is a very difficult opponent, this victory is very difficult for James. William himself and the coalition forces were too important.

James. William, as the commander-in-chief of the Allied Navy, knew very well that the Russians could not achieve any victory worthy of showing off in front of the land forces of the Chinese Empire on land, and he could not hope for the so-called victory of the Russians on land, after all, the Chinese Empire had the most powerful modern naval ironclad fleet in the world for the time being, which made the Chinese Empire desperately develop and build a navy in order to maintain this development momentum, and finally made the development model of the Chinese Empire similar to that of the British Empire. Become a nation that relies on sea power for colonial expansion.

At 18:17 p.m. on March 24, 1862, Qi Bin, the captain of Wen Tianxiang's brigade, and Liu Hongtao, the captain of Shi Kefa's brigade, witnessed ten red signal flares rising into the air almost at the same time, and thirty-eight torpedo boats that had been ambushed for a week began to start one after another. These camouflaged sea light horses rushed out of the cracks in the reef, which can be said to have taken the coalition side by surprise.

James. The torpedo boat in William's telescope was like a sharp sword. William had never seen torpedo boats before, and he didn't know much about the new weapon torpedoes, and he could even be said to be completely unfamiliar with them.

James. William didn't even know what these dinghys were doing at the sea. But these dinghys were given to James. William brought a considerable crisis and pressure, the warships of the Imperial Chinese Navy were desperately dividing and interspersing, and these small boats were galloping towards his formation.

James. William ordered the second and third formations to intercept and fire at these small boats approaching in all directions, and the team under his command concentrated artillery fire on the Zhenyuan and Dingyuan two ships, which were the lead battleships.

Rumble! The front torpedo tube of the No. 112 boat of Wen Tianxiang's brigade was directly hit, and the huge flames that soared into the sky set off a huge column of water hundreds of meters high! James. William looked at the huge column of water in amazement, he finally understood where his previous uneasiness came from, and the previous uneasiness made him shout in horror: "Order the fleet to disperse, the formation to disperse!" ”

After four or five torpedo boats were hit in a row and exploded, the formation of the coalition fleet on the sea suddenly became chaotic. William's eyes must be suicide ships, the opponent chose this kind of sea area with many islands for a decisive battle, he should have expected that the other party would use a suicide ship or a demolition ship, and the first vigorous main formation duel made James. William's blood boiled, ignoring the attack of the demolition ship, and it can also be said that the rapid maneuverability of the armored protection cruiser and the extremely fast rate of fire of the breech naval guns made the old suicide ship and the demolition ship a target.

In the full assault of the Imperial Navy fleet, the torpedo boats finally broke into the chaotic coalition fleet within a distance of 300 meters, under the chaotic artillery fire, Wen Tianxiang's brigade and Shi Kefa's brigade lost a total of 11 torpedo boats, with Wen Tianxiang's brigade captain Qi Bin and Shi Kefa brigade captain Liu Hongtao's two command boats hung up the red free attack signal flag, each boat locked onto the target and launched torpedoes, for a time the white waves on the sea rolled, and the white waves forced the coalition fleet.

This batch of torpedoes installed with gyroscopes can be said to be the world's first batch of torpedoes with actual combat value, the General Administration of Scientific Research uses gyroscopes to control the directional direct navigation of torpedoes, which greatly improves the accuracy of torpedoes, but although the use of hot gas power instead of the previous compressed air power, but due to technological defects, in addition, this batch of torpedoes is simply immature test products, if it were not for Lin Haijiang's urgent order to let the General Administration of Scientific Research first manufacture 200 for this campaign, The Directorate of Scientific Research also intends to make repeated attempts or modifications to fish carriers and charges, as well as power systems.

The steam gas torpedo equipped by the Chinese Empire is a kind of thermodynamic torpedo, which uses fuel and water to enter the combustion chamber at the same time, produces steam after combustion, pushes the transmitter, drives the propeller to rotate and propulsion, and the steam after work is directly discharged into the seawater to produce a wake, and the total kinetic energy of the steam torpedo is high, so theoretically different speeds can be selected, but this time the Chinese Empire used only an experimental product, and there was a situation where the torpedo hit the enemy ship and did not explode?

Just when Lin Haijiang was worried about the actual combat effectiveness of the torpedo, two loud bangs in succession, orange-red flames rose into the sky against the setting sun, and the French Navy's 3,200-ton Shield armored protection cruiser shook violently, and the hull of the ship broke straight apart, and in just a few tens of seconds, the Shield rolled and sank to the bottom of the sea.

Lin Haijiang remembers very clearly that on January 13, 1887, Russian warships fired a torpedo at the Turkish 2,000-ton communication ship Intibach 60 meters away and sank it, which was the first time in the history of world naval warfare that an enemy ship was sunk by torpedoes.

However, the French armored protection cruiser Shield seems to have won this honor! It became the first battleship in the world to be torpedoed and sunk.

James. William was stunned by the scene in front of him, he was completely sure that the Imperial Chinese Navy was using an unprecedented underwater attack weapon, the carrier of this weapon was those boats with a speed of more than 20 knots, and the coalition ships on the sea were shot and caught fire, after all, this kind of torpedo that has not yet been officially named is still in the research and development stage, so the power is quite limited, so many coalition ships can still be forced to run aground on the beach of the nearby islands after being shot, as the sky gets darker and darker, the coalition fleet is still broken, James. William's attempt to lead the way with the flagship's lights was met with overwhelming artillery fire, and the Queen Victoria fled with billowing smoke.

Did you really lose like this? James. William's question, I'm afraid no one can answer him, a big battle with a chance to win ended in such a hurry? James. William is puzzled? Where did the Chinese Empire get those advanced secret weapons? First rifles and field guns, then naval guns and warships, the design of the Chinese empire always seemed to be ahead of the rest of the world?

James. William didn't know how many warships broke through the opponent's interception blockade. William can only describe himself as a frustration, hiding alone in the captain's room and dragging his hair one by one! James. William Dow still thinks it was just a nightmare.

It's been a long time! A gunshot rang out from the captain's room? Adjutant Wellingt slowly pushed open the unlocked hatch, only to see James. William lay in a pool of blood, a silver-handled revolver fell to the side, blood and brains splattered everywhere in the cabin! The glazed-eyed Wellingt did not scream, but closed the hatch softly as before, as if he was afraid that someone would disturb James. William in general!

(To be continued)