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The Mawei Navy on the opposite side had already appeared in Shang Zhixin's field of vision at this moment, and after counting, a total of twenty-two capital warships appeared on the opposite side, of which there were eight third-class warships alone. Look at my side again, there are only two in total, and I am really unbalanced at the moment. In addition to the twenty-two main warships, the Mawei Army was also surrounded by a total of thirty clippers, these were only small ships, but there was nothing to worry about.

For the powerful battleship group in front of him, Shang Zhixin still adopted a conservative tactic, looking at the number of battleships in others, his own sailors are indeed not enough for others to eat. At this moment, in accordance with Shang Zhixin's order, the Guangdong Navy Fleet has discharged the traditional half-moon array battle formation at Humen Haikou, consisting of two third-class warships and six fifth-class battleships in the forefront, spreading east-west, with two two-month sharp convex and concave in the middle, two third-class battleships as the main battleships are located at the two-month tip, while six fifth-class battleships are in the rear, and gradually slow down and distance themselves from the battleships.

Shang Zhixin stood in the shipyard, staring at the Mawei fleet that was approaching him. Because there are two fleets in the Mawei Navy going to Guangzhou, the third fleet is only in the forefront, and the seventh fleet is a little distance away from the third fleet in front, Shang Zhixin did not see the fleet behind at this moment, thinking that the opponent's strength is so much in front of him, and he has been so well prepared, so he is not afraid at this moment.

The formation of the third detachment Situ Gui adopted the classic column formation, and at this time, seeing the situation clearly, also ordered the fleet to begin to slow down. The distance between the two sides is only four kilometers at the moment. And as shown on the map. Forts are arranged on the hills around here. But when I looked closely from the battleship, I found several black holes in the muzzles of the guns from the telescope.

"General, look, fireship!" Just when Situ Gui was still observing the surrounding terrain, the mast raised an alarm.

"I knew they were going to do it!" Situ Gui said with a chuckle. "Order, just like the other side, change into a half-moon array!"

The most powerful thing in the Mawei Navy is firepower, and the four third-class warships and four fourth-class warships at the forefront are the first to change formations. It turned into a crescent moon. By the time the formation was complete, the fireship had come within a kilometer. They had dealt with this kind of fireship attack a few years ago when they were in the middle of the war, and the artillery at that time was able to cope with such a situation, not to mention the new general cannon that has now been re-forged. This is an all-round increase, whether it is range, power, or rate of fire.

This fireship is a self-destructing weapon, which is used to fight by spontaneously igniting in the vicinity of enemy ships, and then igniting enemy ships. But once the attack is successful, it can quickly burn a huge battleship, which can be called a man-operated torpedo in naval warfare in this era. But it also has its own weaknesses. And it's obvious.

First of all, the attack of the fireship is quite complicated. First of all, you need to approach the enemy with good sailing skills, hook the enemy ship with a grappling hook, leave the ship in a rowboat, and only ignite the ignition on the ship at the last moment. Secondly, the fireship was fully loaded with gunpowder and ignition materials, and could not withstand the shelling of the battleship at all, so it could only engage the enemy from the blind spot of the artillery in the melee, or give the final blow at a regular time in the overall situation of the artillery battle. Sophisticated attack methods and fragile hulls make fireship sailors the most dangerous and risky group in the navy today.

At this moment, the fireships of the Guangdong Navy Division rushed out directly, and in this narrow Humen Estuary on the Pearl River, the dense queue of fireships will pose a great threat to the Mawei battleships. However, the 240 general guns and the general guns on the right side of the eight battleships that had already been set up in formation were all ready, and only one order, at most, only three rounds of artillery bombardment were needed to send all the less than 200 fireships into the Pearl River to feed the fish.

"Fire!" The news came from the ships that it was fully prepared, and Situ Gui immediately issued an order.

"Tom tom!"

"Tom tom!"

"Tom tom!"

The flowering bullet of the Ponytail Army, it's time for these dirt buns to see and see. In fact, at this time, even if you don't fire a flowering bullet, it is an ordinary solid iron bullet, which can almost hit the fireboat into the Pearl River, but what the battlefield pays attention to is a momentum, and what Situ Gui needs at this moment is to play with momentum, on the one hand, to boost his own morale, and on the other hand, to deter the enemy.

"Order, free shelling, sink all enemy ships!" Although dozens of fireships were sunk in the first round, the fireships were getting closer and closer to them, and there were only 800 meters left, and if each battleship came to ask him to fire again, it would be obvious that time was completely delayed. The Mawei Navy would never use such a rigid system, and as soon as the first round ended, Situ Gui immediately issued a new order, and at this moment, the gunners of each ship were urgently reloading.

"Ready!"

"Fire!"

"Tom!"

"Fire!"

"Tom!"

"Tom tom!"

The gunners of each ship are trained for a long time, and the difference in technology is negligible, and each gunner is adjusting the angle, loading, and shooting as fast as he can. The two hundred and forty guns roared incessantly, firing one more round than Situ Gui expected, and basically four shells were fired from each cannon, and the fireships of the Guangdong Navy Division in front of them were basically gone. There were still seven or eight boats floating on the river, burning violently. The explosion of the fireship next to them just now, some of the burning wood chips splashed on their ship, which instantly triggered flammable materials such as fire oil and sulfur on the ship. After a while, a burning fireship made a loud noise, and the gunpowder in the cabin was detonated! Twenty of the nearly 200 fireships had hidden gunpowder, and one of them was the last to explode.

This result was completely beyond Shang Zhixin's expectations, he originally thought that so many fireships, not to mention burning the entire fleet of the Mawei Army, would also burn about half of him. But the scene in front of him surprised him, so many fireships had no effect at all, and they were all wiped out by several rounds of shelling. What surprised him even more was the firepower of the Mawei battleship, and all the guns on the eight battleships on his side that formed the Half Moon Formation added up to only two hundred and forty guns, even if the batteries on the hills on both sides were added, it did not reach three hundred. You can look at the Mawei Army on the opposite side, only the artillery on the side of the eight battleships in front. It's almost up to their total. And the shelling just now, looks. It seems to be more powerful than their artillery!

Although each detachment was the same configuration, it consisted of eight third-class battleships, six fourth-class cruisers, and eight fifth-class frigates. However, the third squadron can still be said to be the stronger of the seven detachments of the Mawei Navy, after all, there are four third-class warships in the queue, which are the first batch of 20 ships to be built, and they are also the first batch to become an army. Not only did this group of officers and men train longer than the fleets behind, but they also served as the vanguard in the conquest battle. Therefore, the experience aspect is also stronger.

"Go ahead, carpet bombard Shajiao Mountain and Big Horn Mountain on the left and right, and break those forts for me first!" The Mawei Army's general artillery had a maximum range of more than 6,000 meters, but it did not have any accuracy, but the effective range reached 2,500 meters, and the target bombardment within a range of 2,000 meters had a hit rate of more than 70 percent. The two batteries were still more than three kilometers away from them, and they had to go a little further.

At this time, there is no need to worry about the Guangdong Navy rushing up, Situ Gui hopes that the dozen or so warships on the opposite side will rush over, so that the two armies will be able to fight, and he will not even have to change the formation. Just give it another salvo. But Shang Zhixin had already set up the half-moon array, obviously wanting to cooperate with the fort to hold it. Shang Zhixin was already ready. If the Mawei army continues to attack, they will give the order to let the battery fire before marching, if the Mawei battleship wants to destroy the battery first, it must be close, then they can also take advantage of the superior formation to launch an artillery attack on the Mawei army, and if the Mawei army comes straight towards them, the defenders of the battery can fire at the Mawei army without any scruples. But Shang Zhixin missed another calculation, the artillery of the Mawei Navy was far from being comparable to them, and the Mawei battleships began to fire their guns outside the range of the Guangdong Naval Division, so that they could not support the batteries at all.

Seeing that the fort had entered the line of sight and was about to enter the range of the general's cannon, Situ Gui decisively issued a new order. "Dingding followed Baoding, led his squad of battleships to turn fifteen degrees to the left, and the rear mast sail hit sideways, advancing at full speed. The direction of the Hongding and Zhongding remained unchanged, and all artillery was ordered, the target battery, to be ready for fire. At the same time, notify the fleet behind and accelerate to rush up. ”

"Tom tom!"

"Tom tom!"

"Tom tom!"

The defenders of Pingnan Wang on the fort did not sit still, and when they saw that the Mawei battleship was coming towards them, they also began to adjust their guns to fire at the Mawei army, compared to the Mawei battleship, their speed was indeed faster. The fort was condescending, the shells flew much farther than usual, and although the Mawei army fired from the back, it was better than the long firing range, and the two sides offset each other, and both sides almost just hit each other. But there is a huge gap in this, not in the number of artillery but in the number of shells.

The Mawei battleship was indeed hit, the bow of the Zhongding ate a shell, and several battleships on the side were also hit, and in the first round of shooting, the Mawei army was hit by six shells. There were a total of thirty Hongyi cannons on the battery, and six of them were hit in one round, which was a very good hit rate for the untrained defenders, but before they could cheer, the horsetail shells also fell on their heads. At this time, the huge difference was revealed, firing at the mountain, the Mawei Army did not hit much, and it was about 30% of the hit rate, but more than 30 shells fell on the fort, and the violent explosion caused a large number of defenders to fall, and the most unlucky in the center of the explosion, the whole was torn apart.

Where has the army of King Pingnan seen such a tragic situation, in the past ten years, except for a small number of soldiers of the original older generation, most of the rest are military camps that have only entered in recent years, and they have experienced real wars there, let alone such a tragic war. Although only one-fifth of the first round of bombardment was killed and wounded, it completely frightened the 500 defenders on the fort. The gunners had almost forgotten about it and continued to reload. By the time the second round of ammunition was reloaded on the Mawei side, the remaining cannons on the turret had only completed half of the reloading process.

"Tom tom!"

"Tom tom!"

"Tom tom!"

This time it was the Mawei battleship that roared first, more than 200 shells roared towards the battery again, this time the hit rate was much better than just now, almost half of the shells fell on the battery and its surroundings, the already frightened defenders suffered heavy casualties this time, at least 200 people did not be able to stand up again, the remaining lucky good about 200 defenders no longer cared about what to fire, held on, and scattered their feet and retreated towards the back of the mountain.

Although the Mawei Army saw the defenders fleeing, they did not stop shelling and continued to carry out a third round of shelling on the battery. Thinking about this scene now, this is the third time they have seen it. The first two were during the Japanese conquest, and there were batteries in Kagoshima Bay and Edo Bay, which were similar in power to this place, but both were destroyed by the Mawei battleships with superior firepower. Now, the Humen Fort created by the prince of Pingnan has also been destroyed in their hands, which is really a brilliant result! (To be continued......)

PS: More than six thousand