Off the coast of Wusongkou, several armored ships flying blue and white Russian naval flags cruised, drawing white lines on the deep sea.

The eastern sky is full of fish belly white.

In the telescope, you can see the sandbar floating near Wusongkou, which is also the danger of large ships needing to detour.

The command room of the captain of the St. Peterbao, wrapped in thick iron armor, Vladimir gazed silently in the direction of the river from the narrow rectangular observation port, his proud and resolute face was always so hard, like a marble statue, full of inviolable coldness.

The gap in the observation port is extremely narrow, which is necessary to prevent shrapnel from splashing in.

From the narrow observation port, China's long inland river seems to be crystal clear, like a silver belt that flows into the blue sea.

Vladimir knew that in the depths of the inland river, the Chinese ironclad ships were definitely ready to sail, and while sending some of the highly powerful armored ships to search for Chinese merchant ships in the nearby waters, his fleet was also quietly floating at Wusongkou, waiting for the Chinese to come to the trapped.

Vladimir hopes that the Chinese will not be able to resist the impulse to gather all the ships in the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea to fight a decisive battle with him, and to deal with half of the Chinese naval division, which will be easy for his fleet.

This is also the reason why he quickly ordered an attack on Chinese merchant ships.

Divide and strike, sink all the ironclad ships of the Chinese at the minimum cost, and the glory of His Majesty the Tsar shines in the Sea of China.

"Mongolia, don't open your mouth! China, don't argue! For Russia, Nanjing is not far away! ”

Vladimir muttered to himself, this poem, which was once recited in Moscow, was his favorite.

It is the dream of every Russian [***] person to plant the blue and white naval flag flying high on the head of Nanjing City and chant "Ula" on Chinese soil.

At this moment, the Russian warships cruising in Wusongkou are like hunters, waiting for the Chinese to get into the trap they have already laid.

Wusongkou, with the flow of the river, dozens of wooden boxes floated up and down, Vladimir's eyes froze, and the adjutant standing beside him smiled: "Was it the ship that was damaged by us that hit the rock?" Inside is Oriental porcelain, right? When the ladies of Moscow see it, they must let out a feverish scream. ”

The "Shilka River" on the right flank of the fleet has quickly met up, and in the town of Shilkazevo, on the site of the shipyard that was blown up by the Chinese several years ago, a new shipyard has long been erected, and the "Shilka River" is an offshore armored gunboat built by this shipyard, a total of three, along the Amur River, and incorporated into the Russian Far East Fleet.

Although this kind of offshore armored gunboat is only a few hundred tonnage, but it is flexible and flexible, and has an armored body, when the Croatian Kimburn War, the Russians suffered a big loss from the French to build this kind of armored small gunboat, and was forced by several French armored gunboats to carry out close shooting, and bombarded the Kimburn battery in turn, because it can not only dodge the shells flexibly, but also has thick armor protection, the battery fire can not bring any damage to it, and the protection of the armored ship has shocked the world so far.

The three offshore gunboats, including the Shilka, were decked with cast-iron armor and lined with metal gun embassies that allowed their guns to fire outwards from narrow firing ports when the doors were opened.

The Shilka River sailed near a floating wooden box, and the sailors on the deck raised their rifles to shoot, but when they saw nothing unusual, it was obviously not a mine, and then threw out the rope, tied the wooden box and slowly pulled it closer.

The Russian [***] officer next to Vladimir laughed: "The Chinese will not be so stupid and use the way of mines a hundred years ago to deal with us." ”

Before the words fell, the wooden box had been slowly pulled to the side of the ship of the Shilka River, and underwater, there was a sudden muffled sound, and the Shilka River shook violently.

Anchor mines, this idea quickly flashed in Vladimir's head, apparently, the Chinese cleverly tied anchor mines under the wooden box, which made the trigger mines that should have been fixed floating under the water layer become mobile bombs.

The hull of the ship, which was only wrapped in copper skin under the waterline of the Shilka River, was obviously badly damaged, and soon the flagmen above had signaled that water was seeping from the bottom of the ship.

"Order all ships to dodge these crates!" Vladimir's face was slightly gloomy, the anchor mine was an invention of the Russians, but it was used by the Chinese against the inventor.

The formation of ships was quickly disrupted, one by one the ships sailed away from the floating area of the wooden box, and the Shilka River was even more chaotic, and at the bottom of the cabin, the carpenters nailed the reinforced planks to curb the speed of its flooding, and the ships slowly sailed away from the danger zone.

Half a quarter of an hour later, I heard the whistle roaring, black smoke billowing from the inland river, and while the Russian warships were hiding from the scattered mine formations, the Chinese ironclad ships with sails and steam rushed out of the river mouth one by one.

Vladimir snorted coldly: "Order, fire!" "Although it was inevitable to fall into a melee, but it ended here, the Chinese ships in the mine array, the flexible surname was greatly reduced, and there was no choice but to become a live target, stupid Chinese, the grave they dug for themselves.

But when he saw that the Chinese ironclad ship collided with the wooden box and there was no explosion, Vladimir learned that it was obvious that only the first few wooden boxes were hung with mines, and the effect was only for the Chinese to break through the blockade.

"Cunning Chinese!" Vladimir laughed instead, he likes elusive opponents, that's where the fun comes in. With the sound of cannons, it takes less than an hour for nearby ships searching for Chinese merchant ships to arrive for support, and it is interesting to watch its prey struggle, no matter how much it struggles, it will still end up with a desperate demise.

"Sail down! All sail down! ”

On the Yanjing, almost without waiting for the roar of the captain Zheng Youxian to sound, the sailors had skillfully lowered the huge canvases on the masts.

All kinds of shells flew in an arc in the sky, and the sea splashed with columns of water.

After a round of firing from the Russian ships, they slowly regrouped at a distance, apparently unwilling to suffer any damage in this close-range melee.

"Bang, bang, bang" close combat, both sides from time to time have ships in the artillery, especially the Chinese ships that have just rushed out of the estuary, by the Russian fleet bullets rain intensive blows, Chengyuan two guns, fortunately the armor is very thick, a shell hit the waterline part of the thick armor, the position of a shell is in the coal tank area, in addition to the outer wrap of iron armor, in fact, the thick coal pile can also play the role of armor, the designers of the ironclad ship usually design the coal tank in the sensitive part, which is equivalent to increasing the protection of the ship.

The Yanjing's unlowered canvas caught fire after the blossom shell passed through, and a sailor was crushed to the deck by the blazing canvas, screaming chillingly.

Lu Dahua, who commanded the gunners of the guns of the No. 2 battery, suddenly tensed his nerves.

Compared with the Chengyuan, the Changsha luck can be said to be extremely poor, its light and fast, the Russians shells missed, but suddenly there was a muffled sound under the water layer, the Changsha suddenly became clumsy and sluggish, obviously, they were unlucky they hit the mine, the design requirement of the Changsha is to increase the speed as much as possible, up to 17 knots under the current steam power system, it is necessary to sacrifice the thickness of the armor to achieve, its waterline armor is obviously damaged because of the explosion of the mine.

Lu Dahua's heart sank, the combat effectiveness of the Changsha should also be the top in the Pingyuan Naval Division, I am afraid that the Yanjing is slightly inferior to Shang, not to mention the Chengyuan and Jingyuan ships, the Changsha was damaged, which made the situation even more dangerous.

The cannon roared, the two sides were about a mile apart and fired at each other, more than a mile, the front-loading guns basically had no lethality, and under the steam power, the ships on both sides were extremely flexible, and the artillery was difficult to hit the target, and occasionally hit, it was difficult to inflict a fatal blow to the opponent's ships under the thick armor, obviously if the artillery technology could not make a breakthrough, at a long range, it was difficult for the armored ships to really effectively achieve the killing of each other, unless the luck was excellent. This is also the reason why countries have begun to pay attention to the impact angle of ironclad ships, and the maximum damage can be achieved by hitting at the impact angle.

It seems that the artillery battle of confrontation, but the string in Lu Dahua's heart is getting tighter and tighter, the Russians, so timely, are waiting for the fleet to gather, waiting for the ships not far away to arrive one by one, I am afraid that it will be the time when these warships on their side are destroyed.

Lu Dahua's guess was not wrong, one after another Russian ships came from afar to join the battle, and then, the Russian formation changed abruptly, forming a horizontal formation and circling from the flanks to move closer to the Chinese fleet.

The artillery fire suddenly became intensive, and all kinds of shells drew countless arcs, and even hung a white mist tail line pouring down like a mountain and a sea, and on the sea near the Changsha, the water column rose like boiling water. Although the flag of the flagship was transferred from the Changsha to the Yanjing shortly after the damage, the Russians were already determined to sink the ironclad ship that had just been launched in the Southern Dynasties, and began to concentrate their fire on the Changsha.

The Russians' two nimble gunboats even broke into the vicinity of the Changsha, about half a mile away, and the solid bullets hit the Changsha from time to time, although the caliber of its guns was not powerful in comparison, but it also brought a lot of trouble to the Changsha.

"Get the Changsha out of battle! Return! Chengyuan and Jingyuan two ships cover! This is the third time that the instructor and captain of the Yanjing, Zheng Youxian, has given an order to withdraw the Changsha from the battle.

Lu Dahua's heart was empty, in fact, the return of the Changsha represented the defeat of this naval battle, but if it did not return, it would be difficult for the Changsha to avoid the fate of being sunk.

The teacher did the right thing, now the only way to do this is to return to Jinling to preserve his strength, and wait for the Nanyang Fleet to come back, and then fight a decisive battle with the Russians.

It's just, why is it so depressed and difficult to be?

In this way, he fled back to Jinling, and let the Rakshasa devils wreak havoc on the sea, sinking merchant ships and civilians, and it will be a ten-day massacre.

Looking at the Russian fleet not far away, which was bursting with white mist from time to time, Lu Dahua clenched his fists tightly.

Soon, the Changsha responded with a flag, refusing to withdraw from the battlefield, and would continue to attract enemy firepower, luring the enemy ships to our best firing range, and asking the flagship and the two ships of Chengyuan and Jingyuan to seek opportunities to destroy the enemy ships.

Immediately, black smoke erupted from the Changsha, turned its head with difficulty, and sailed away to the northwest, seemingly to leave the battlefield, but there is no doubt that if the Russian ships want to sink it and intercept it in a horizontal formation, they will unconsciously get closer and closer to the three ships of Yanjing, Chengyuan, and Jingyuan.

Changsha is likely to have a problem with the power traction device caused by the explosion of the mine, looking at its clumsy turn, Lu Dahua felt sour, Changsha, should have been the pride of the sky dancing in the vast sea, but now, as if suddenly became an old man, in the artillery fire, barely supported, relying on its weak body to resist the opponent's heavy blows again and again, bringing a glimmer of hope for victory for the friendly army.

Lu Dahua suddenly, the whole person calmed down, the roaring cannon was no longer deafening, and the restless blood no longer filled his mind, as if he had returned to the academy and the training ground.

Sniffing deeply at the slightly fishy sea breeze blowing in the distance, and looking at the Russian ships shining with metallic cold glow in the sun not far away, Lu Dahua's thoughts were extremely clear.

"Goal! Enemy flagship! Lu Dahua shouted loudly.

The gunners of several guns quickly pushed the guns in front of the firing hole, and the main gun of the Yanjing used an open turret, similar to an armored wall, with an open top and the gun could rotate inside.

"Gun No. 3! Fire! Lu Dahua stared at the heavily armored ship flying the Rakshasa flag and roared loudly.

Boom, the gunner pulled the rope, the shell flew out, and in the distance, dozens of meters away from the St. Peter, a column of water splashed.

"Gun No. 4! Fire! Lu Dahua shouted out almost instantly, without thinking.

At this time, the No. 3 gun slowly slid down the slope because of the recoil, the gunners immediately loaded the ammunition, after loading the ammunition, they would push it along the slope and then to the front of the shooting hole, which was the fastest way to load the breech gun, but when the closed turret hinge gun carriage was used, the muzzle of the gun was often lowered when loading, such as the Jinling was this design, sometimes it took two or three minutes to complete a shooting process.

"Bang!" As with Lu Dahua's judgment, the shell of the No. 4 gun slammed into the side of the Rakshasa flagship, but the flagship of the Rakshasa people did not even shake, and still aimed the muzzle of the cannon at the Changsha and poured gunpowder.

The gunners who were about to cheer were stunned, the Battle of the South Seas, the power of the Southern Explosive Bombs to sink the Dutch ships like decay, they still remember it vividly.

"Change to solid bullets!" Lu Dahua gritted his teeth and roared loudly.

Obviously, the Rakshasa flagship is extremely thick, and the power of the current 66-pound flowering blasting bullet in the south is not enough to penetrate its armor, but with solid bullets, it can shatter its iron-clad wooden keel under heavy blows again and again, causing substantial damage to it.

At this time, the No. 1 battery of the Yanjing ship suddenly erupted in cheers, someone threw his hat higher, and a Russian offshore gunboat chasing the Changsha was hit by the tail gun of the Changsha, and black smoke was emitted. The blasting shell fired by the No. 1 battery of the Yanjing ship hit the second enemy ship on the right flank, which was one of the five large ships of the Russians, the sail second-class ship was modified, equipped with a thick armor turret, and the flowering shell exploded a gap a few centimeters above the waterline, and this modified ship, trying to integrate the turret and the sailboat, but the too low freeboard made its stability worse, coupled with the additional weight, the technology was slightly inadequate, and there was often a danger of capsizing in actual combat, quickly tilted, staggered away from the battlefield.

Lu Dahua punched hard, if the whole team of the sailors was there, could it still be allowed to run?!

However, Lu Dahua immediately knew that danger was coming.

The results of Fort 1 infuriated the Russians, and it was clear that the Russians realized that the Changsha was taking them in circles and had no intention of leaving the battlefield.

The Yanjing, Chengyuan, and Jingyuan ships immediately became targets for Russian gunboats.

"Bang", a flowering bomb exploded on the observation hole of the captain's command room of the Yanjing, shrapnel splashed, and a miserable scream was immediately heard in the command room, and the No. 2 battery very close to the captain's room had a metal partition, and there was a loud sound like "bang bang bang" raindrops, and the upper metal sheet was as if it had been stabbed by a knife, and suddenly raised a few pieces.

The Yanjing slammed into a cross, and Lu Dahua's foot slipped and almost fell.

Lu Dahua is like falling into an ice cave, teacher, teacher will be fine, right?

"Pipe tape, pipe tape, how are you doing?" Lu Dahua asked loudly.

There was an intermittent moaning inside, and Lu Dahua was even more anxious, and shouted loudly: "What's wrong? ”

"I'm fine." Zheng Youxian's steady voice made Lu Dahua's heart settle down at once.

"The helmsman is seriously injured, and now the helm is ordered by Bao Daling!"

Nosy Parker? Lu Dahua was stunned for a moment, he, did he succeed? But at this time, it is obviously not the time to be cranky, the Russian artillery fire is extremely fierce, the sky seems to rain thousands of bullets, and the cruel and cold breath of death only makes people feel that there is no chance of victory.

Fortunately, however, the Yanjing drew an irregular white line in the sea, and under several rounds of shelling by the Russians, the vital parts were not hit, but the solid shells fired by the 110-pounder guns of the No. 3 battery hit the tail of a medium gunboat on the other side, and the gunboat that was hit slowly rose black smoke.

The Chengyuan was not so lucky, it was also an open battery, and a flowering shell happened to fall into the main battery, and the main battery immediately fell into the fire, needless to say, the four splashes of shrapnel killed all the sailors in the battery. Soon a dozen black dots climbed up the gangway and into the battery.

The Changsha is getting more and more difficult to move, and it is afraid that if it holds on for a while, it will sink in the Russian fire.

"My lord, are we going to lose?" In the captain's room of the Changsha, the helmsman suddenly turned around and asked.

Li Chengmou, frowning very tightly, he is a native of Hunan, excited and excited about the naming of Changsha, and has extraordinary feelings for Changsha.

He was just 28 years old this year, but he fought bravely and was repeatedly promoted unusually, and at a young age he was promoted to the deputy general of the right wing of the Pingyuan Naval Division and the Changsha Pipe Band.

However, today, will you lose?

Li Chengmou bit his lip, the saddest thing was that even if he wanted to die with the enemy, the slow speed of the Changsha was now impossible to hit the enemy ship with a ramming angle.

"We're going to die, are you afraid of death?" Li Chengmou asked loudly.

"Don't be afraid!" The young helmsman replied loudly.

Li Chengmou laughed and said loudly: "Okay, pass the order, give me a damn beating, and tell them that whoever doesn't run out of shells before the sinking ship is not fucking Lao Tzu's soldiers!" ”

"Yes!" The herald ran to give the order.

From the observation hole, Li Chengmou looked at the black boat shadow of the Rakshasa people in the distance, turned around, turned west, knelt down slowly, took off the military hat, kowtowed, and said a final goodbye to His Highness, to his relatives, and to that land.

"My lord, my lord, our ship!" In front of the observation hole, a young officer shouted excitedly.

Li Chengmou got up and slowly leaned over, and in the distance, two battleships flying the flag of the southern country joined the battlefield and began to bombard the Russian fleet from the flanks, it was the Jinghai and the Lingbo, and finally rushed over to participate in the battle.

The pressure on the Changsha suddenly lightened, and the Russian fleet began to form a V-shaped formation to deal with the threat from both flanks.

The artillery roared, and the fierce fire roared, and the fierce naval battle continued until nearly noon off the coast of Chongming Island.

The Chinese ironclad ships were damaged, and the Changsha was already billowing smoke.

On the Yanjing, the flag was once again raised, and the Changsha was ordered to sail into the Shanghai dock as soon as possible, and it was dealt with in violation of military law!

As a result, the Changsha made a difficult turn and headed westward, completely losing its combat capability, and if it remained on the battlefield without Russian shells, it would surely capsize within an hour or two, and if it could safely sail into the Shanghai dockyard, it would be the best outcome.

"Get me the explosives!" Li Chengmou roared loudly in the captain's room.

In this naval battle, if the Russians win in the end, in fact, most of the anchors at the Shanghai dock will be captured by the Russians, but now the situation of the Changsha is no longer possible to sail back to the inland river, and the only option is to blow up the ship in Shanghai once the naval division loses the naval battle, and it must not be captured by the Russians.

Wusongkou originally had a fort, but it was destroyed in the first Opium War, and has been abandoned until now, the Southern Dynasty has just recovered Shanghai, and the plan to build a fort in Zhangjiabang and Nanshitang has not yet begun, and now Wusongkou and Shanghai are completely undefended, and the Changsha is moored in Shanghai, which is really a helpless move.

"Chase!" On the St. Petersburg, Vladimir coldly ordered that he could see clearly how sharp the guns of this Chinese ironclad ship were, and he must not let it escape safely, this should be one of the top ironclad ships of the Chinese, if it escapes and is maintained and transformed, it will still pose a threat to the Russian Far East Fleet.

A large amount of black smoke soon erupted from the St. Peter's Paul, and it chased the Changsha at full speed.

The fierce battle at sea was raging, and seeing that the Changsha could not escape the catastrophe, at this moment, in the oblique stab, suddenly a clipper rushed over and stopped in front of the St. Petersburg.

The Lingbo, one of the fastest light armored ships of the Southern Dynasty.

Lingbo pipe with Wang Miao, as his name suggests, Sven is calm, is the surname of Wen Tunshui, born in blue clothes, and later Ye Zhao saw that he was literate and hyphenated, thoughtful, and loves ships, so he sent him into the Ship Master School, which is also the first graduation of the Ship Master School, and has been the captain of the Lingbo for three years, Lingbo, just like his child, every time he returns to the military port, he has to wash the ship clean with the sailors with his own hands.

But today, seeing that the Changsha was being chased by the Russian flagship and was about to be sunk in the vast sea, Wang Miao suddenly shouted: "Left full rudder!" ”

The old helmsman at the helm in front of him trembled, and then turned the rudder at a rapid ninety degrees, although he knew better than anyone else the meaning of this order with a wrinkled face.

Wang Miao looked at the back of the old helmsman, took two steps, and gently patted him on the shoulder.

The old helmsman smiled back, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.

Several officers in the command room began to pull out their revolvers and load them to welcome the final moment.

Wang Miao looked at these unusually calm young men, her eyes slightly wet. But how important is the Changsha? In the Pingyuan Naval Division, it is the latest ironclad ship whose combat effectiveness is second only to the Jinling, and in any case, Nanguo cannot afford this loss, so no matter what the price is, it must be safely removed from the battlefield.

When the Lingbo suddenly appeared in front of the St. Petersburg, the Russian [***] officers on the Petersburg were startled and did not know what it wanted.

Vladimir soon learned of the Lingbo's intentions, looked at the light gunboat from the observation port in amazement, and did not speak for a long time.

Boom, boom, the St. Petersburg turned to the left, and the turrets on the deck rotated at the same time, and together with the heavy guns in the bow, it spewed the breath of death.

The distance was too close, and the starboard side of the Lingbo was hit continuously, and hundreds of meters away on the Changsha, it seemed that the muffled sound and cracking of the metal could be heard.

The Lingbo moved forward crookedly, and several solid bullets rose into the air, but the ship, whose torso was heavily damaged, could not be aimed, and only one solid bullet slammed into the St. Petersburg's waterline armor.

The Lingbo's hull was damaged, and soon a large amount of seawater poured in, but the gunners on the deck were still struggling to reload and shoot.

"Bang!" The St. Petersburg, which tried to quickly rush from the side of the Lingbo, was hit another shot.

And just like that, the Yanjing and Jinghai had already broken away from the enemy ships and rushed over, and the artillery fire was poured around the St. Petersburg.

The sea rushed into the cabin, and the Lingbo's hull tilted extremely quickly.

On the deck, the soldiers and officers gathered more and more, looking at the sea filled with gunsmoke, almost no one spoke, and before setting off from Dinghai Harbor, everyone wrote a suicide note and explained what happened.

Then, I don't know who started the head, someone slowly sang "Yu Si Wannian, the Great Empire of Yadong!" ”

There are more and more people singing in the chorus: "Yu Si Wannian, the Great Empire of Yadong!" The mountains are vertical and horizontal, and the rivers are stretching with civilization waves! ”

The song is majestic and low, floating on the sea, "Thousands of people and gods, the land is vast and the products are rich." Raise my Yellow Dragon Imperial Emblem and sing my Imperial Song! ”

"Sing the Song of My Empire!"

The ship is sinking very fast, but the song is getting louder and louder, as if it will never subside, forever echoing on the sea frontier they guard!

On the deck of the Changsha, headed by the captain Li Chengmou, a platoon of officers knelt down in the direction of the Lingbo, kowtowed hard, and blood soon poured out of their foreheads.

The Yanjing and Jinghai seemed to be crazy, and they all crashed into the St. Petersburg.

Lu Dahua's eyes were red, watching his compatriots, robes, and brothers slowly sink into the water, who can know this kind of pain like a knife?

But he just wiped his eyes, and loudly ordered the guns to fire, and he and Bao inquired more and more tacitly, and Bao inquired as if he knew his every combat intention, and could always match the angle and distance of the ship just right.

The St. Petersburg quickly retreated, but was still hit hard by the No. 2 battery commanded by Lu Dahua on the Yanjing.

"General, we don't have much gunpowder, and the ships of Mir and Kip don't have a few shells, and, listen?" The adjutant whispered a reminder at Vladimir's side.

Vladimir could feel that the keel of the ship was already showing signs of breakage, and turned his head to look at the chaos of the battlefield.

The Chengyuan and Jingyuan, as well as several Russian warships, rose with black smoke, and two Russian offshore gunboats sank, but most of the people on board were rescued.

Vladimir's face is pale, Chinese, when did he become so brave and fearless? An inevitable attack, but difficult to imagine, he had never felt so difficult, even in the Crimean battlefield, he had never encountered such a rock-solid resistance in several superior sneak attacks against the British steamers with his backward sail warships.

"Retreat!" Vladimir sighed softly, from the observation hole, looking at the scarred Chinese ironclad ships, Vladimir knew that from today, he needed to re-examine the Chinese, and when he launched another attack on China, if those arrogance and prejudice could not be put aside, then he would once again taste a painful defeat.

In April 1861, the Sino-Russian naval battle of Chongming Island finally ended with the withdrawal of the Russian fleet from the battlefield.

Pingyuan Naval Division, Lingbo was sunk, Changsha lost its combat capability, Chengyuan and Jingyuan were seriously damaged, and nearly 200 soldiers were killed, most of whom were crew members who were not rescued after Lingbo fell into the water, however, the Chinese Navy successfully lifted the blockade of Wusongkou by the Russian Far East Fleet.

This first ironclad battle in the history of the world's navy has an indelible impact on the history of naval development, marking the beginning of the ironclad era, and opening a new page in the history of the world's navy.

(To be continued)