The reason why the Snail is still able to float on the surface of the sea is because it is still entangled with the Resistance, and if the two are separated, the Snail will not be able to support it for a few minutes.

At this time, the Resistance, which was hit, also lost power, such a violent impact was enough to make those heavy steam engines vibrate, and the parts were damaged, if it could continue to maintain power, then this battleship could not be a human battle, but an alien warship.

Two minutes after the collision between the two, Qian Bingjun decisively gave the order to abandon the ship in the face of the loss of power and a large amount of water.

In the next moment, the sailors put down the small wooden boats they were wearing, and then escaped on the wooden boats, and some of them simply jumped down if they didn't have time.

The same situation also happened on the Resistance, in fact, the damage of the Resistance was even more serious than that of the Female Snail, it was almost stopped and broken, and now it can barely maintain floating on the sea, or it relies on the huge hull and the factor of large reserve buoyancy.

Not only that, but the Resistance could not last long, so the British also abandoned the ship very decisively, and a large number of sailors jumped into the sea while lowering the wooden boat.

The two belligerents abandoned their ships and jumped into the sea at the same time, which is also a very rare event in the history of naval warfare.

After the sailors of the two ships abandoned the ship one after another, everyone stared at each other with big eyes, but there was no fighting, and for them, the battle was over.

But for the officers and men of the Resistance and the Snail, although the battle was over, for Qian Bingjun, the commander of the second column, the battle was still not over.

He took the traffic and soon boarded the Bi Fang. And hung his own flag on the Bi Fang, and he had to continue to lead the remaining three ships of the second column into battle!

At the same time. On the Hector, Rear Admiral Liszt looked at the sinking Resistance, which was gradually sinking. A look of shock: "How is it possible?" How could the Resistance sink! ”

Although he muttered like this, although the fist in his hand was clenched, he did not do anything excessive, did not scold, did not cry or anything like that.

He just took a deep breath, and then said: "Let the William follow the ship closely and inform the fleet that the battle is not over yet, and the victory still belongs to the Royal Navy!" ”

Despite the appearance of Liszt, he remained calm. But the sinking of the Resistance hit him hard.

When he set out from Singapore, he never expected the Resistance or the Hector to be sunk in battle, because these two ships far surpassed the Chinese navy's warships in every way.

To put it mildly, these two warships have no opponent at all in the two seas of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean!

However, now the Resistance is sinking, even if it is not sunk by artillery battles, but by ramming, but in any case, the Resistance is sunk. This is a fact that cannot be ignored.

Perhaps, I should have waited for more warship reinforcements to arrive before coming to Hong Kong!

Perhaps, he should abandon Hong Kong and choose to attack in other seas.

Maybe I shouldn't have come to Hong Kong at all!

In these few short minutes. Liszt's mind was swirling with a lot of jumbled thoughts!

Just as he was thinking about it, the adjutant next to him said again: "General, there is a fire on the Lisa!" ”

Look in the direction the adjutant is pointing. I saw a raging fire on the wooden battleship Lisa in the distance, and next to this battleship. Two Pangu-class ironclad ships are still shelling the burning Lisa!

The V-shaped wedge-shaped arrays of the second and third columns of the British were wooden battleships and small-tonnage offshore ironclads. They simply could not resist the onslaught of the first column of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Navy.

The two Yandi-class and four Pangu-class ironclad ships, like a lion and tiger entering a flock, recklessly attacked all enemies that could be attacked, while the British wooden battleships and small-tonnage ironclads had no power to fight back at all.

At the same time, more importantly, the six warships in the first column are all fast warships, and they can maintain a maximum speed of twelve knots when the sails are lowered and used for pure steam power, which is incomparable to those warships.

Even the Hector, which was trying to catch up, was hard to catch!

Seeing his wooden battleships being damaged or even sunk one after another, Rear Admiral Liszt finally couldn't maintain his usual composure!

"Damn it!"

"What are we going to do now?" A colonel next to him walked over, his face equally full of worry.

Obviously, now everyone can see that the battle situation is very unfavorable for the East India Fleet, and their own wooden battleship groups are simply unable to resist the attack of the Chinese ironclad ships, and their own Hector and the modified ironclad ship William cannot catch up.

If you continue to fight like this, your own dozen or so wooden warships will have to be lost in this battle!

In the end, the Hector and the Wilhelm may be able to exit the battle unharmed, but the wooden battleships and small-tonnage offshore ironclads are simply impossible to survive.

If the battle continues, there is no possibility of victory!

Although Major General Liszt was close to breaking down in his heart, he still did not lose his mind, and did not stubbornly shout for revenge for the Resistance!

Instead, after taking a deep breath: "Order the battleships of the second and third columns to retreat gradually, and this ship and the William continue to catch up and cover the retreat of the other warships!" ”

From the moment the Resistance was rammed, the battle was already a winner!

If Rear Admiral Liszt still had the Resistance intact in his hands, then with the combination of the Resistance and the Hector, it may not be impossible to fight the first column of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Navy again.

But now that the Resistance has been hit, it is already abandoned and about to sink, and only the Hector and the half-hung William are left, and it is difficult to have a showdown with a large number of medium-sized ironclad ships in China.

When Rear Admiral Liszt gave the order to retreat, the captains of the British wooden battleships who seemed to be suffering in hell breathed a sigh of relief.

This situation of being beaten but unable to cause actual losses to the opponent made them very aggrieved.

Although the British had no less wooden battleships, as well as ironclads of small tonnage. But in today's battles, their numerical superiority simply cannot be brought into play. Because the ironclad ships of the Chinese attacked with the British naval guns.

Their own shells were of no use against their armor, at most they were killing and injuring their personnel on deck and attacking the superstructure. However, it was not possible to cause actual damage to the ironclad.

But in the face of the shelling of the Chinese, the situation at home is reversed, and the wooden battleship in front of the ironclad ship is equivalent to no protection, and any shell will be greatly damaged.

After receiving the order to retreat, the captains of the wooden battleships immediately turned around and began to disengage.

Since these wooden battleships were all equipped with steam engines, it was possible to maneuver and sail at speed, and it was not easy for the first column of the Imperial Navy to catch up if they were bent on escaping.

Seeing the British warships begin to retreat. The faces of many officers in the command room on the Yandi were all happy: "They have retreated!" ”

A staff officer of a staff group even walked up to Lin Tongshu: "Team leader, we have won this battle!" ”

Shen Tongdeng next to him also looked back at Lin Tongshu, and his face was also full of joy at this moment!

But then a staff officer asked, "Are we in pursuit?" ”

At this time, Shen Tongdeng glanced at Lin Tongshu, and then said: "Now the casualties of our ships are not small, and the two British ironclad ships behind are still chasing!" ”

Although Shen Tongdeng didn't say it explicitly, the meaning was very obvious, that is, he didn't want to continue the pursuit, and he would accept it now when he saw it. Avoid accidents.

Lin Tongshu didn't make a decision at the first time, but said: "Let the ships report the losses!" ”

After collecting the loss reports of each ship through the flag, Lin Tongshu found that the losses in the battle were even greater than he expected!

First of all, the ships of the first column were basically subjected to intensive enemy shelling, and the superstructure was almost not intact. The chimney of the Zhurong was even interrupted, and although it did not lose power completely, its speed also dropped to only a pitiful six knots.

Furthermore. The casualties of the ships are also very large!

In particular, the gunners who fought on the deck were almost always under intensive artillery fire. Although they have semi-enclosed turret protection, the protection is quite limited. It's just a block of shell fragments, and if the shell really falls on the turret, then a gun crew will have to be reimbursed for one shot.

On the other hand, those deployed on the broadside decks and protected by armoured belts suffered much less losses.

In this case, although the first column still has the strength to fight, there are too many unforeseen situations if it continues to fight, and these accidents are not very good.

The fact that the Resistance was able to sink the Resistance, as well as at least two wooden warships, and caused heavy fire damage to many enemy ships, was enough to give an account to the country.

In the future, the Imperial Navy may have to prepare more British capital warships, so it is necessary to return to port as soon as possible to repair and replenish the losses of gunners, etc., and prepare for the next decisive battle.

Therefore, after Lin Tongshu thought about it in detail, he said to Shen Tongdeng: "Commander, now it's time for us to go back!" ”

Shen Tongdeng listened and nodded, he was very satisfied with Lin Tongshu's cautious attitude, this young man did not become impulsive or had no sense of the overall situation because of the victory in front of him.

Shen Tongdeng wants to go back more than Lin Tongshu!

The results of this battle are rich enough, and Shen Tongdeng is eager to report the news of the victory to Nanjing, and what awaits him at that time is to be promoted to the rank of knight.

The British are going to retreat, and the Imperial Navy has no intention of pursuing!

As a result, the naval battle, which lasted for nearly two hours, came to an end, and the other warships in the fleets of both sides broke away one after another.

After the detachment, the capital ships of the Imperial Navy did not stop, but returned directly to Guangzhou, where most of the capital ships needed to enter the shipyard for repair.

At the same time, the two Zhenguang-class gunboats stayed behind and began to salvage the crews that had fallen into the water, as long as they were the crews of the Zhenbei and the Nusnail, as well as the crews of the British Resistance and many wooden battleships.

Of course, after these British sailors were rescued, they all became prisoners of the Chinese Navy.

That night, a telegram of the great victory in the naval battle was sent from Hong Kong and then transmitted to Nanjing.

At nine o'clock that night, Lin Zhe in the palace saw this good news. (To be continued.) )