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Breaking out in the sea off the port of Mumbai at 10 a.m. on August 29, 1869, Gomsst's tactics and Zhanyang were actually very decent, Zhanyang was to hold back the Allied fleet and prepare for the attack that night, while Gomsted made up his mind to fight a war of attrition with the Chinese Empire from the beginning, and it can be said that both sides of the war achieved their so-called goals. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

As darkness slowly fell, the Allied fleet under Gomsted's command began to gradually reduce its speed, while the light patrol formations that had been following the Chinese Imperial Fleet began to speed up to prevent the enemy fleet from being lost.

Due to the arrangement of Zhanyang, Gommst's main fleet has been firing flares to communicate with the light cruisers, and the light cruisers are also constantly firing flares to determine the location of the enemy fleet, there is no doubt that the British are exposing themselves, but this is also no way, fortunately, although the Chinese Empire retreated very slowly, it did not use their long-range artillery fire to bombard?

Gomst was also a little puzzled by this, and after sailing for more than fifty nautical miles, suddenly the light patrol formation in front fired a large number of flares? Rumbling cannons on the sea?

The rumbling artillery fire and the orange color of the distant artillery fire made Gomst breathe a long sigh of relief, if the Chinese Empire has not fought back, he will also have to analyze and worry about whether the other party has any ambushes, but in the previous battle, he identified and counted the characteristics of the ships of the Chinese Empire in detail, it can be said that the capital ships of the Chinese Empire are here, and the possible names of the ambushes are very small.

As for the so-called secret weapon of the Chinese Empire, the torpedo boat, Gomsted simply dismissed, because there were no reefs and ports in the nearby waters, and the Royal Navy had also developed a torpedo boat, and its short range and slow speed of fish made the Royal Navy finally give up this kind of research, if it was in the reef-ridden sea Gommst would be extremely worried, now Gomsted is very relieved, here is still a four-day voyage from the nearest military port on the Ceylon Peninsula, obviously it is impossible to appear fish speedboats, And he didn't think that a fish could hit anything with less than twenty knots of speed. Unless it's a fixed target where to moor.

The Indian Ocean Fleet under the command of Tang Ziqiang made contact with the Imperial Fleet at a distance of six nautical miles, and the Imperial Fleet began to bombard the Allied light patrol formations that followed it, firstly to show the location of its own fleet, and secondly, to indicate the enemy's position to the torpedo boat formations and destroyer formations.

As the torpedo boat formation and destroyer formation interspersed through the formation of the main fleet of the Empire, Tang Ziqiang witnessed the scarred fleet, and he knew that if this surprise attack could not achieve its goal, then the main force of the Imperial fleet would probably be in a desperate situation.

Therefore, Tang Ziqiang personally led more than 20 light and heavy cruisers of the Indian Ocean Fleet to follow behind a decisive assault group composed of 40 Kraken-class torpedo boats and 25 Storm-class ocean-going destroyers, while Zhanyang commanded all the warships of the Imperial Navy to turn to launch a fateful battle against the Allied fleet.

The early morning of August 30, 1869 is known in history as the War of Atonement in Europe, and August 30 is not the Battle of Atonement, the reason why it is called the War of Atonement is because the survivors who have experienced this battle believe that God is deliberately punishing them, because when the torpedo boats and destroyers of the Chinese Empire attacked, a faint mist happened to rise on the sea, and the Chinese Imperial Fleet and the Entente fleet happened to fire a large number of flares at the same time, and the positions of the enemy and us were immediately exposed.

The officers and men of the British Royal Navy who survived the battle are unforgettable for the terrible experience in the early hours of that morning, because the enemy they faced in the early morning basically lost their minds, and many torpedo boats of the Chinese Empire did not even fire torpedoes, but removed the torpedo safety from the two torpedo tubes in the bow of the boat, and directly used the boats to ram the Allied warships!

The pursuit formation of the Entente fleet collapsed in the darkness, and there were explosions and burning wreckage everywhere, Admiral Gomsted was helpless in the face of this chaotic scene, and in the dark of night he wanted to coordinate a fleet to effectively resist this suicidal attack, which was undoubtedly wishful thinking, even if the naval fleet with high combat power could not do this, the only thing Gomst could do was to order the fleet to fire flares non-stop, and the light cruisers tried their best to protect the battleships and minimize the losses.

The torpedoes on the sea broke through the waves and scratched white traces, and the chaotic artillery fire was like blooming flowers under the miserable white flares!

Almost all the secondary guns of the Entente warships are desperately firing, this kind of aimless shooting makes the battlefield fall into a panic-like panic, the storm-class ocean-going destroyers take the opportunity to fire torpedoes in a row, although the hit rate is not high, but there are always unlucky people will encounter, such as the Dragoon second class dreadnought, when dodging a scurrying Bloomington-class heavy armored protection cruiser, unexpectedly picked up at least four torpedoes one after another, in the undulating explosions of each other, the speed of the Dragoon began to decrease suddenly, The hull began to tilt severely.

Under the blocking fire of the Allied warships, the Kraken-class torpedo boats were constantly hit, and the Kraken-class torpedo boats loaded with six torpedoes were like a small arsenal, as long as they were hit by one or two shells of more than 100 millimeters, they would suddenly lose their combat effectiveness, and even be directly killed, although nearly half of the Kraken-class torpedo boats were intercepted by the naval guns of the Royal Navy, but the nearly twenty Kraken-class torpedo boats that successfully broke through brought huge losses to the Allied fleet, which had become the fleet of the Royal Navy. Especially the subsequent arrival of the Storm-class ocean-going destroyers who did not look at the target and fired torpedoes.

As the main force of the Chinese Imperial Fleet began to press, Admiral Gomsted, who was standing on the bridge of the flagship, had already realized that it seemed that the general trend had gone, so he calmly gave the final order to launch a whole group of fifty yellow signal flares, which was the signal for the fleet to disperse and break through!

Gommst was no longer in the mood to care about the orange muzzle flames at this moment, everything had lost its meaning to him, his decades of struggle and countless hardships and efforts were all in vain in this night, Gommst was afraid that he could remain so calm at the moment, he walked quietly back to the cabin alone, on the way several times because of the huge shaking of the battleship was shot and fell, and the passage in the cabin was full of blood stains left by wounded soldiers, There are even the bodies of officers and soldiers who have been killed before they have time to be sent to the infirmary are abandoned in the corner, and at this time the living are no longer able to care, where can anyone take care of the dead?

The Navy is different from the Army, the main reason why the Navy carries out sea burials is because the bodies of most of the dead officers and soldiers after the naval battle cannot be recovered or salvaged, so the Navy is far less concerned or concerned about the remains of the fallen officers and soldiers than the Army.

Gomsted, who had returned to the cabin, could already feel that the flagship Queen Victoria had tilted badly, but this did not affect him to open a bottle of aged whiskey, Gomsted, who had not drunk for a long time, made an exception and took a big sip, and then let out a long breath. What seems impossible has happened?

How could a torpedo of a new class of ships, which was considered useless by the Imperial Admiralty, have a weaker defense than battleships, but whose speed is much higher than that of light cruisers? The speed of the torpedo is really not fast, but it can be mounted on a faster boat for a suicidal attack? Launching a torpedo with a destroyer in close proximity can actually break a battleship? It can be said that many of the battles Gommst saw with his own eyes tonight subverted many of his inherent concepts and thoughts, and it seems that in this battle alone, the tactics inherited by the Royal Navy of the British Empire for hundreds of years have become a thing of the past?

Adjutant Lem knocked on Gommst's hatch in some panic, looked at the life jacket in the adjutant's hand, Gommst shook his head lightly and said, "I order the ship to be abandoned!" So be it! ”

Lem hesitated for a moment, and finally failed to speak, the first creed of captains and admirals of the Royal Navy is to live and die with ships, unless it is James. Only a general with a background like William or George is qualified to say anything like a comeback to evade responsibility for himself, Gomsted has no special background, in the world's industrial revolution, the era of scientific and technological innovation, the largest and most casualty naval battle, cut off the main force of the Royal Navy of the British Empire, even if Gommst can return to Britain alive, he can only affect his relatives, friends and family.

As a Royal Admiral, Gommst naturally has his own pride and honor, as a subordinate Lem knew that he had to respect Admiral Gommst's decision, Gommst handed a gold naval service medal to Lem and said: "I have worked hard for you for so many years, I will give this to you at parting, and leave a souvenir!" ”

Lem quietly took the medal, snapped and saluted, Gomst waved his hand, Lem gently closed the hatch, Gommst picked up an unknown novel and flipped through a few pages, and slowly closed his eyes! This defeat was very difficult for Gomst to accept, when victory was in sight, he suffered a fiasco like the high-spirited Napoleon who swept through Europe and suffered a waterloo, for his opponent, Gomsted still thinks that it is the devil of Lin Haijiang, and only that devil will be so uneasy to play his cards logically, will be so despicable, use a decent war of attrition and his own hard shock, lower his vigilance, feign defeat and set up an ambush, and directly reverse the tide of the war with an extremely despicable suicide attack.

(To be continued)