From the point of view of physics, water is a liquid and cannot be compressed, while air is a gas and can be compressed, so when a missile hits a warship and explodes, the surrounding air will be compressed, which instantly plays a role in buffering and offsetting part of the explosion power.

However, because the water is incompressible, all the energy generated by the explosion of the torpedo warhead will act on the shell of the warship or submarine through the water, which determines the same amount of explosives, and the power of the torpedo is greater than that of the missile.

For example, an anti-ship missile with a charge of 1,800 kilograms can make a 3,000-ton frigate incapacitated, and when a 533-mm torpedo with the same charge hits the hull, theoretically speaking, just one shot is enough to sink a 50,000-ton giant ship.

Of course, this is only theoretical, and in addition, there is still a big gap between the torpedoes of the Democratic Alliance and modern standard torpedoes, no matter in terms of cruising speed, explosive power, structural design, manufacturing technology, etc., but it is not a problem for a torpedo to sink a 1,000-ton wooden-hulled frigate.

When one shot sank a convoy, everyone was stunned, and the ferocity of the torpedo was beyond their expectations!

In an instant, a thunderous cheer erupted from the top of the Stone Bell Mountain, and all the faces of the Anglo-Dutch fleet were dead, and Van der Bergh even trembled with his lips and exclaimed, "Oh my God, can you tell me what this is?" How could the NLD have such weapons? It's over, we're finished, we've been killed by this old fellow Raglan, and he must be held fully accountable and tried by a court-martial! ”

"Shut up!" Cowles was also distraught, and when he couldn't bear it, he scolded him sharply. At the same time, his heart was filled with a sense of powerlessness.

The NLD was initially a ragtag army with rudimentary guns, but 600 people from the British, French, and American coalition were destroyed by mines. By the time the East India Company was in the war against the NLD forces, mines and mortars appeared. To this day, the NLD army has sacrificed a completely unfamiliar anti-ship mass killing weapon, this army can always surprise, its speed of innovation is frightening, and in every war, he can play new tricks.

According to the intelligence of various parties, the self-made artillery of the Democratic Alliance Army has a faster rate of fire and is more accurate than that of the British artillery, and the warships seem to be traveling a little faster. Today, there are powerful anti-ship bombs, and although he is very reluctant to admit it, Cowles has to admit that Britain's superiority over the NLD in weapons has been completely lost, or it can be said that the NLD is ahead of the British.

"Is this battle going to be lost again?" Cowles could not have imagined that when the NLD forces were in the narrow waterways of the Yangtze River, they would bring this kind of self-impetus. The disastrous consequences of launching a new type of bomb that can be propelled in the water to the coalition fleet, especially since there is not even a shadow of the NLD warship, makes him regret fighting in China for the first time.

"Look, gentlemen, it's here again!" Just when Cowles was in a trance. An officer made a voice of extreme horror.

I saw more than ten white lines running on each side of the riverbank, and this time I saw it clearly, and the attack was half-hidden under the water. It is a streamlined, thick cylinder that is more than twenty feet long.

"Turn the rudder quickly. Dodge! The captains of the ships shouted hoarsely, but the surface of the Jiujiang section was only two kilometers wide. The speed of the torpedo was much faster than that of the warship, and the helmsman slammed the rudder, and it was already booming, the water exploded, and huge waves were set off, and pieces of wood, corpses, and even artillery were blown into the air.

"Wow la la~~" after a minute or two, the second round of mines was launched, whenever the smoke dissipated slightly, you can see more clearly, the soldiers on both sides of the torpedo were launched round by round, including the transport ship did not let go, after five or six rounds, there was a thick layer of debris floating on the river surface was washed downstream by the current, and among the debris, there were some soldiers who jumped into the water earlier to escape, and they were waving their hands and struggling to call for help.

January is in the middle of winter, generally speaking, the water temperature of the Yangtze River in this season is generally between 10 and 12 degrees, the river water has reached the level of cold and biting, ordinary people can not bear to hold on for half an hour at most, if you can't swim on the shore for half an hour, you will freeze to death.

On the river, there were only two lone warships moored in the same place, namely the British flagship battleship Gladun and the Dutch flagship Neeland battleship.

Although the Gladun was wearing 30 centimeters of iron armor, the torpedo attacked near the waterline, and this position was not armored, and the water of the Gugu River poured into the hull along a large hole with a radius of more than two meters, and the angle of inclination of the hull gradually increased.

The Nilander was fortunate not to be torpedoed, and in addition to taking more than a dozen shots, it basically did not suffer major damage, which was obviously the result of the mercy of the NLD forces.

After a moment of discomfort from the noise to the quiet, Van der Berg shouted: "Your Excellency Cowles, there are only two ships left for us, surrender quickly, this thing is too terrifying, surrender to live!" ”

"Quick, fly the white flag, surrender quickly, and try to dock the warship to the shore!" Cowles wiped the sweat from his forehead and exclaimed.

The soldiers on the two ships reacted, hurriedly waved the white flag, and shouted in unison, as if they were afraid that they would not be able to see it on the shore: "stop, stop, we surrender, surrender!" ”

Someone on the shore waved a flag to allow the docking, and the helmsman immediately slammed the direction, and the battleship turned around and sailed towards the riverbank, especially the Gradun, where the hold was seriously flooded, and at this time, regardless of whether the mudflats on the river bank were suitable for docking, first put the people ashore.

"Zi~~Zi~~" There were two muffled sounds of rubbing the sand on the bottom of the ship in succession, perhaps understanding that the confiscation of the warship was inevitable, and the helmsmen of the two ships invariably chose to land on ground.

The Netherlands was the first to dock, and although Gladun was torpedoed, the engine was not damaged and it was also docked crookedly not far away.

In fact, in the case of their own ship-building capabilities, the Democratic Alliance forces are still very interested in British warships, which are more technologically advanced than France and the United States, and can be temporarily incorporated into the navy to fill the vacancy.

Although the battleship Gradun was broken with a big hole, the structure was complete, and the engine could run normally, while the Netherlands was an old maritime power, and with the decline of national strength, the design and construction of warships gradually showed many characteristics such as exquisiteness, provincial materials and compact structure without affecting the practicality, which was for the Navy of the Democratic Alliance, in addition to being in active service, the Netherlands also had a certain reference role.

The two warships each lowered their gangways, led by Cowles and other high-ranking officials, and a group of soldiers walked down with their hands raised and their heads down.

Cowles looked around, and saw the NLD soldiers struggling to carry the torpedo launcher back, and couldn't help asking, "Excuse me, can you tell me what kind of weapon this is?" ”

An officer said with a cold face: "This is not what you should ask, gentlemen, tonight you are camped at the foot of Shizhong Mountain, tomorrow you will be sent to Anqing for temporary detention, as long as you stay honestly, I can guarantee your personal safety." ”

"Thank you!" Cowles lowered his head and bowed slightly.

There were more than 300 prisoners, some of whom were wounded, and were given stretchers, and the foreigners themselves carried them back to the Shizhongshan camp to give them a certain degree of treatment, and some of the soldiers of the Democratic Alliance Army scattered along the river with lights to search and rescue the British and Dutch soldiers who had fallen into the water.

According to Cowles's confession, there were a total of 4,000 sailors and marines who came this time, but in the end, there were less than 700 people who fell into the water and brought them to search and rescue, which means that the coalition forces lost more than 3,400 casualties.

The warship ran aground and could not be driven away, so it could only be left on the spot, but at most a few days, someone would come to repair and tow it away.

About 700 kilometers from Jiujiang to Nanyang, three days later, Wang Feng received the whole process of the Shizhongshan ambush, and after another six days, Jiang Zhongji led 15,000 Hunan troops into Nanyang, after three days of preliminary reorganization, Wang Feng left a division of the 14th Army and two brigades of the newly established 16th Army to garrison Nanyang, and he himself took the Fourth Army and the 16th Army and two other dissatisfied divisions, more than 35,000 troops, and marched to Xinyang on January 17, and at the same time ordered Li Shixian's Ninth Army stationed in Xiangyang to act in coordination, which meant that the Democratic Alliance Army officially turned to the counteroffensive.

"What?" On this day, at the headquarters of the allied fleet temporarily set up at the Xiaguan wharf in Nanjing, Raglan received the bad news that more than 60 ships sent to the middle reaches of the Yangtze River to blockade the Wuchang River were completely annihilated.

In fact, in the past few days, there were constantly wooden planks, uniforms of British and Dutch soldiers, and corpses of foreigners soaked like fat pigs floating from the upper reaches, which had already brought an uneasy atmosphere to the coalition forces, but they comforted themselves and explained that there were no dead people in the war, and they did not want to admit it, but it has dragged on to this day, and it is not possible to admit it.

There was a charcoal fire burning in the house, and the melting ambiguity could not dispel the cold in the heart, everyone's face was extremely heavy, and the atmosphere was extremely sullen.

The annihilation of the whole army again, it seemed that it was fighting against the Democratic Alliance army, and the annihilation of the whole army became commonplace, and Raglan only felt irritated and abnormal, and couldn't help but go to the window and look at the city of Nanjing not far away.

I heard that there are six more days, it is the most solemn traditional festival in China, the Spring Festival, although the allied army Chen Bing is outside the city of Nanjing, but except for the cold and quiet on the river, there is not a single ship, it does not seem to have much impact, the citizens of Nanjing are as if they did not feel the rhythm of the war, the whole city is full of joy before the festival, and even faintly there is the sound of popping firecrackers.

What is even more excessive is that the construction of the Yasukuni Martyrs' Shrine in the east of Nanjing and the Temple of Heaven in the south of the city has not stopped, which clearly shows contempt for the allied forces.

On several occasions, Raglan had the urge to destroy these two construction sites, but in the end he endured it, after all, it was meaningless, and maybe it was a trap to lure the coalition forces deep into the interior to gather and annihilate them, or there was another reason that even he did not want to admit, that is, when he first entered the Yangtze River, the large warning slogan hung on the surface of the Shanghai River! (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the monthly pass ~~~~