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In addition to the 80 ships of the Jiangning Naval Division of the Qing Army, which were sunk by a mine or lost their ability to maneuver, more than 180 other warships rowed an arc-shaped wave on the river and rushed towards the Mawei fleet without fear.

This section of the river is as wide as five kilometers, and the Qing army's naval division is also two kilometers away from the Mawei army's battle fleet. The speed of the Mawei Army was extremely slow, almost maintaining the same speed as the current, and if you didn't look closely, you thought that the Mawei Army battleship was stopped there and didn't move. Far away, the naval guns of the Mawei Army had already begun to exert their might, but in the first round of shelling, more than ten warships in the Qing army were hit.

"Tom Tom"

"Tom Tom"

"Tom Tom"

The artillery roared, the ship's side shook, and the river was suddenly filled with gunsmoke. At this distance, the first round of firing is usually of a calibrated gun position and a demonstrative and intimidating nature, with limited accuracy. However, at this time, the results of the usual extensive training could be seen, and a large number of shells flew out and most of them fell into the water, but almost a tenth of the shells still hit the enemy ships, and the shells that fell into the river stirred up columns of water.

Wang Zhiding, who was at the back of the sailor fleet, couldn't help but widen his eyes after hearing this deafening cannon sound. Isn't it a waste of shells that the Mawei Navy opened fire at such a distance? Could it be a bunch of recruits? No, the Mawei Navy has been in the army for several years. It is said that he has been able to clear pirates many times at sea. Combat experience should be quite abundant. There will never be such a mistake, could it be that as soon as he thought of this, he clearly saw countless huge cannonballs accurately falling into the array of warships in front of him, only to see his own dozen or so warships were hit with sawdust flying, and at the same time, after the cannonballs fell on the warship, there was a burst of explosion, and at the same time, more than that, he saw countless water columns rising in front of and behind the warship, and he couldn't help but stare in horror. What kind of artillery is this? Able to accurately hit targets at a distance of almost two kilometers?

Now it is the main warships of the Qing army that are bombarded, if it is the fireships of the Qing army or other small warships, then the Mawei army may be replaced with solid bullets. For those small boats, the power of solid bullets may be even greater. At such a distance, a solid bullet weighing more than ten pounds with huge kinetic energy smashed into the small warship, which absolutely smashed a big hole, ensuring that the sawdust of the small warship flew sideways, and the ship was destroyed and killed.

However, today Wang Zhenbang did not plan to use solid bullets, and all the flowering bullets were waiting. Whether the power of the flowering bomb is used against a large ship or a small ship, the power is very high.

"Boom Boom"

"Boom Boom"

"Boom Boom"

Violent explosions continued to sound from and around the Qing warship. Although the size of those Qing warships is not small, after all, they are all wooden hulls, and how can they withstand the explosion of bombs. Only one flowering bomb landed on the warship, that is, it blew a big hole in the deck or damaged the ship's building, and the other was to injure the sailors and soldiers on the ship. And if more than two flowering shells fall on the ship at the same time, the ship will be traumatized. On the side of the Qing army, there was a lucky boat (the Zheng army warship captured before), and at the same time it was hit by four flowering shells in the front of the warship, and the whole warship could not withstand the explosion of the four flowering bombs in the same small area in a short time, and suddenly the front of the hull was shattered, and a large part of the hull became a scattered wooden plank floating on the river. Then the whole warship was like a giant beast with its mouth open, swallowing the river with its big mouth, and the warship sank quickly.

It was just a round of artillery bombardment, and the distance between the two sides had not yet been nearly fifty meters, and the Qing army had already had fifteen warships hit by shells, three warships were extremely badly damaged and were sinking, and six other warships either had big holes in their hulls or their masts were broken and their sails were ignited, and they all lost the ability to continue sailing. According to this progress, when the Qing warships approached the Mawei naval warships, it would be good if half of their one hundred and eighty warships could be left.

Immediately after a round of shelling, the Mawei naval fighters began a second round of reloading. And because the firing of each ship is not synchronized, there are first and last, but as long as it is within the range of the guns of their own battleship, the captains of each ship will decisively give an order to open fire immediately. Therefore, at this moment, the river is full of cannons, and every second stops. The sound of "boom boom" rang out, and the Qing warships were constantly shot.

And Wang Zhiding, who was at the back of the warship, and many officers and soldiers of the Qing Army's naval division were as if in a dream, which simply subverted their perception of artillery. Where is this artillery, it's just an artifact! How can this battle be fought? It's completely a passive bombardment! The effective range of their red-coated cannons is within a thousand meters, and the hit rate is the highest at a distance of about seven or eight hundred meters, and that is still when the enemy is not moving, and if the Mawei battleship moves again, the hit rate is quite low. In the final analysis, this is due to the lack of strict training of the Qing army. Until now, the Jiangning Navy Division has been in the army for a long time, and the gunners have not fired many rounds of live ammunition. In the peaceful period, even if there were cannons in the army, the Qing generals would not let the soldiers do artillery drills, so it was better to save the money for ammunition and put it in their own pockets!

Soon, the gunners on the ships on the Mawei Army reloaded the ammunition in turn, and the whole process took less than three minutes, and during this time, the Qing warships were less than three hundred meters closer, but at this distance, the twelve-pounder guns on the Mawei Warships could also be powerful at this time. The gunners of each ship aimed at the Qing warships that were speeding towards and opened fire again. This time, the number of artillery guns fired was larger, the shells were more dense, and many of the more than 100 Qing warships galloping on the opposite side were damaged at the same time. Especially for the ships that had already been shot, the fires on three of them had not yet been extinguished, and the newly arrived flowering shells exploded on them again, making these warships completely scrapped. Other warships, this time there were more than 20 warships were hit, and the shells were more or less different, that is, the explosion of this moment once again made three warships of the Qing army sink, and those that did not break and sank, also began to enter a large number of water, the speed is getting slower and slower, and it is impossible to get close to the Mawei battleship at all, if it is forced to continue sailing closer, the final result is automatic sinking.

The Mawei Navy is a super large V-shaped formation, and the Qing army is also a large V-shape, but in the gradual approach, it is given the maximum target to the soldiers of the Mawei Army, and the guns of each ship take turns to fire continuous salvos, and the warships of the Qing army are shot at all times, seeing this scene, Wang Zhiding's heart is dripping blood.

"Hahaha, you want to eat us with such a little ability. This king's peak is greedy enough! Geng Jingzhong didn't need to command the battle, and on the east side of Kaisha Island, he also quickly moved to the center of the river, and observed the situation on the battlefield from the telescope at the apex of the V-shape, and couldn't help laughing. Gu Ping, the commander of the guards beside him, was also holding a telescope to observe the battle situation on the river, and he agreed with Geng Jingzhong's words very much. Although he didn't know how to fight in water, but seeing that the enemy ships were hit by his own artillery fire, and his own battleships were still intact, it was obvious that his own Mawei Navy must have the upper hand!

"I haven't seen this Wang Zhiding's subordinates, the old prince and the Qing court Hanchen had very little contact, but seeing that he was able to defeat Zheng Junshui last time, he shouldn't be a reckless person, I'm afraid that this time he is too confident!" Gu Ping echoed casually.

"It is true that he is too confident, on this great river, he has so many fireships and small boats available, he should have used fireboats to sneak attack first. The strength of his Jiangning Navy Division has increased greatly, and he thinks that he can forcefully suppress our Mawei Navy, but in fact it is far behind. Geng Jingzhong put down the binoculars and said to Gu Ping with a smile.

"What the young master said is reasonable. On this Yangtze River, there is no comparison with the sea, and the most feared thing is the fire attack, if they send enough of them, and then follow the direction of the wind, and go down the river at dawn, it will become a burning red cliff! If that's the case, it won't really cause us a lot of losses. Know yourself and know your opponent, and you will not be defeated in a hundred battles; Knowing oneself without knowing the other, one wins and one loses; I don't know who I am, I don't know myself, I will die in every battle. "The Art of War" has long emphasized this point, but this Wang Zhiding didn't take it seriously, and dared to spread the whole army without knowing anything about us, it's really hard to say whether he was stupid or too confident! Gu Ping also put down the binoculars and replied

"Okay, keep watching!" As he spoke, Geng Jingzhong picked up the binoculars again.

After three rounds of artillery bombardment on the river, the Qing army finally approached within a kilometer, but the Qing army also lost more than 60 warships again, and there were less than 120 ships under them that could continue to advance. But on the side of the Mawei Army, three rounds of shells also cost 2,3400 rounds of shells on the battleship. No matter what kind of operation the navy is, it is too expensive, not to mention the construction and maintenance of warships, even the ammunition consumed in each major war is an astronomical amount, and it is no wonder that so many countries in later generations cannot afford to develop their navies!

The remaining warships of the Qing army continued to rush straight towards the Mawei fleet by the southwest wind, but at this moment the number of the main warships of the Qing army was less than that of the Mawei army. (To be continued......)

PS: There is one more chapter in the evening, ask for votes brothers