On the bridge of the "Jiangjiao" ship, the flagship of the German "Jianghu"-class shallow gunboat of the Sichuan Navy Army, He Wenjun was holding a telescope to observe Tang Qianming's fleet a few kilometers away.

"Ziqiao was messed up by these boats? Didn't he always boast that no fleet could match his artillery group? Saying that, He Wenjun put down the binoculars. But Tang Qianming's ships are really small, even smaller than the photos provided by the Military Intelligence Bureau show..."

It's no wonder He Wenjun would say this, after all, He Wenjun's 15 gunboats are all large gunboats with a standard row of 800 tons, so he naturally looks down on the small ships in Tang Qianming's hands.

Hearing He Wenjun say this, He Jishi, the captain of the Jiang Jiao ship, also said with a smile.

"Commander, I'm afraid you're a bit of a bully when you say that."

He Wenjun and He Jishi are both surnamed He, they are considered to be their own family, and their relationship has always been good, so they don't have to be too restrained when they speak.

As for He Jishi, He Wenjun bullied people? The price of each of the 15 shallow water gunboats that Yan Guang bought back reached 1.3 million, and in Tang Qianming's fleet, even the Flying Eagle with the highest price was less than one million silver dollars, and Jiang Li and Jiang Yuan, with a displacement of 550 tons, were only worth 300,000 yuan, and the two could not be compared at all.

Just when He Wenjun and He Jishi were talking and laughing at Tang Qianming's fleet, 9 white strips suddenly shuttled from Tang Qianming's fleet.

"It's a torpedo."

Just when He Wenjun and He Jishi made their judgments, the Jiang Jiao ship had already sounded a rapid alarm, and the other 14 gunboats were also the same.

There was no need for He Wenjun to command at all, and after seeing the shuttled torpedoes, the 15 gunboats had already automatically carried out evasive actions.

Torpedo, from the British engineer Robert Brown. After Whitehead invented the first actual combat torpedo "white-headed torpedo" (with a range of 180-640 meters and a speed of only 11 kilometers per hour, which is quite a cup), this new type of naval warfare weapon has been continuously improved, but it is still the British engineer Robert who has improved it more in actual combat. Whitehead.

In 1895, Robert. Whitehead made the first major improvement to the white-headed torpedo, this time increasing the range of the white-headed torpedo from the original cup of 180-640 meters to 6400 meters, that is, six and a half kilometers...

Except for Robert. In addition to Whitehead, there are also other people who are improving torpedoes, such as the thermodynamic torpedo invented by the American E.W. Bliss in 1904, that is, the steam gas torpedo, after replacing the cold power (compressed air engine) with thermal power, the speed reached 65 kilometers per hour, but the range was only 2740 meters...

Of course, the American one has nothing to do with us, because Tang Qianming they used British white-headed torpedoes...

Although after Robert. After Whitehead's improvement, the theoretical range of the white-headed torpedo has been able to reach 6400 meters, but if it is really launched at this distance, it is difficult to say how far it will be off target.

He Wenjun: Although the water area where they are located is not as wide as the Yangtze River estuary, which is more than 30 kilometers wide, or a little less than 7 or 8 kilometers wide, it is also more than 1 kilometer wide. In addition, the sailors on Tang Qianming's fleet suddenly saw such a large hostile fleet, and they were somewhat "fertilized" psychologically, and the torpedoes launched naturally lost their accuracy, not to mention that Tang Qianming's purpose was only to disturb He Wenjun's formation.

9 torpedoes that were inaccurate, although they were a little thrilling in the process of evading, but in the end, He Wenjun and they successfully avoided the torpedoes.

It's just as Tang Qianming hoped, after avoiding the torpedo, He Wenjun's formation was completely messed up.

"The dog said..."

Looking at the white-headed torpedo that passed by more than ten meters next to the Jiang Jiao ship, He Wenjun said to He Jishi on the side after spitting out a dirty word.

"Regroup the formation, and then sink Jiang Yuan and Jiang Li's two scrap copper and rotten iron for me first."

With his legs together, He Jishi nodded in understanding.

A few minutes later, the 15 gunboats that had regrouped turned their four 120-caliber guns on the foredeck at the Jiang Yuan and Jiang Li......... The speed of the destroyer Flying Eagle and the two torpedo boats of the Lake Falcon and Lake Eagle were all 23 knots, while the maximum speed of the two gunboats Jiang Yuan and Jiang Li was only 13 knots, so they naturally lagged far behind.

Standing in the bridge, Zhu Tiansen, the captain of the Jiang Li ship (historical facts), first looked at the Flying Eagle and other ships in front of him who were fleeing in the direction of Wuhan, and then looked at the Jiang Yuan ship that was suffering from the same illness on his side, and understood that his fate was only to be sunk in addition to surrender, Zhu Tiansen ordered the gunners to use the 75 mm Armstrong naval guns in the stern of the ship to shell the Sichuan naval forces chasing behind......... Although Zhu Tiansen is very aware of the consequences of doing this, as a regular soldier who has studied at the Greenwich Naval School and the Portsmouth Naval University in the United Kingdom, he does not want to do such a thing as surrendering without a fight, even if the final result will be death...

Hearing Zhu Tiansen's order, although the gunners and loaders at the stern of the ship were a little scared, they still aimed their guns at Jiang Jiao and the other ships that were chasing, but before they could fire, a rain of guns had already bombarded them...

120 caliber naval guns? For the Dreadnought-class battleships, it may be just a drizzle, well, it may be a rain of needles, although it hurts, but it does not hurt the roots. But for the two gunboats, Jiang Yuan and Jiang Li, whose tonnage is only 550, 120 caliber shells, only a few rounds are enough, and they are enough to hit them hard......... If you're lucky, you might be able to sink them to the bottom of the river with a single shot.

During the Battle of Germany, the average hit rate of German ships' large-caliber artillery shells was 3.33 percent, which showed the extremely high training quality of the German navy. Of course, the Sichuan Navy could not be compared with the Germans, and even 2.17 percent of the British could not reach it, but 60 120-caliber naval guns, according to the probability, even if it was Mongolian, a salvo could hit at least 1 shell...

1 round of 120 caliber shells? Of course, it is not painful for the dreadnought-class battleships, but for the small bodies of Jiang Li and Jiang Yuan, it is really terrible...

Soon after Zhu Tiansen in the bridge gave the order, he first heard the roar of artillery coming from a distance, and then felt the violent shaking of the ship's hull and the deafening explosion.

"Shot!"

This was Zhu Tiansen's first reaction, after holding on to the table next to him to prevent him from falling, when the shaking of the ship's hull was not so violent, Zhu Tiansen ran towards the outside of the bridge, wanting to see how the loss was.

But before he could run out of the bridge, one of the officers on board had already run in and shouted.

"Captain, we've been shot!"

"I know, how about the loss."

There was such a big movement just now, even a blind man knew that he had been shot.

The officer also knew that he had just said nonsense, so he continued.

"It's not too bad, but it's not very good, just now there was a shot in the stern, the gunner, the loader and the 75 guns are all in the sky, and..."

"What else?"

Looking at his appearance, Zhu Tiansen hurriedly asked.

"And the propeller seems to be broken, and the speed has dropped a lot now..."

This is not good news, the speed of the Jiangli ship is not as good as that of people, and now the propeller is broken again, and the only news that can be worse than this is probably the explosion of the ammunition depot...

And after hearing the news, Zhu Tiansen was also stunned.

Looking at Zhu Tiansen's appearance, the officer said anxiously.

"Captain, what do we do now?"

With a speed of less than 10 knots, and still on the Yangtze River, if you don't hurry up and find a way, they will all be live targets.

At this moment, there was another roar of artillery fire, and it was clear that the second round of ammunition had been loaded.

However, this time the Jiangli ship was lucky, although many of the 60 shells fell on the side of the Jiangli ship, none of them hit the target......... However, the Jiang Yuan ship not far away was not so lucky, in the round of shelling just now, a shell hit the middle of the Jiang Yuan ship's hull, and the explosion caused many casualties is not known for the time being, but two, and at the same time, the only two chimneys were all blown up by this shell...

Facing the Jiang Yuan ship that was in flames, Zhu Tiansen and the officer both had a very strong sense of immediacy...

But at this point, I don't know why the officer calmed down.

"Captain, let's surrender."

Surrender or die. Now there are only two ways out in front of them.

And after a short but careful choice, Zhu Tiansen's hand put on the officer's shoulder.

"This battle must not be won, you don't need to die together..."

"Captain!"

Hearing Zhu Tiansen say this, the officer was shocked and said, although Zhu Tiansen didn't say it explicitly, the meaning of his words was obvious...

"Alright, let's go!"

Gritting his teeth, the officer turned around and left, and a white flag was hoisted on the Jiangli ship in a short time.

After seeing the Jiang Li ship hanging the white flag, Jiang Yuan's ship also hung the white flag, looking at the two gunboats that chose to surrender, although He Wenjun wanted them to sink to the bottom of the river to feed the Dragon King, he could only reluctantly order to stop the attack. After leaving two gunboats to accept the surrender of Jiang Li and Jiang Yuan, He Wenjun continued to pursue Tang Qianming with the remaining 13 gunboats.

At this time, looking at the gunboat that was gradually approaching, Zhu Tiansen also slowly raised his pistol.

As a person born in 1881, Zhu Tiansen is only in his early 30s and is ......... young Definitely not, but there is still some arrogance, although he had to choose to surrender for the sake of his subordinates, but...

Before Zhu Tiansen's pistol could be lifted much, the officer had already snatched Zhu Tiansen's pistol with several other officers on his ship (the whole ship was 85 people) and pressed him to the railing.

"What are you doing here? Hurry up and let me go! ”

However, in the face of Zhu Tiansen's roar and struggle, the officer only said bitterly.

"Captain, now it's not a foreign invasion, it's just that we Chinese fight the Chinese, why do you want to die?" As he spoke, the officer swept the pistol out of the railing with his foot.

With a "poof", the pistol slowly sank to the bottom of the river...

(To be continued)