A roaring cannon sounded, and the left and right forts, four hidden forts, and strands of pale green smoke mixed with flying yellow dust fluttered around. △ Top Novel,www.

The smoke and dust kept spitting fire, and the sound of the cannon was like a symphony. The water column around the warship on the river was just rushing into the sky, and the turbulent river surface threw the warship into the air like a toy, and then fell down hard. From time to time, warships were hit by shells that hit them in the face, but they did not dare to increase their speed because they knew that there were mines in the vicinity.

Spinning around in place, several warships soon became full of smoke, and gray-black smoke clouds surrounded the warships on the river, and flames danced in all directions in the smoke.

Of course, the French warships will not be beaten. Ten warships, especially two ironclad ships, conceited a layer of turtle shells, stopped straight at sea without moving, let the shells fall on their bodies, and the ship's guns were full of fire! Strings of shells landed around the forts and bunkers, and black and red fireballs exploded on the battlefield.

The left fort was equipped with four 260mm guns, all of which were aimed at the Indochina, the largest cruiser of the first class in the French fleet.

The Indochina, which weighs more than 5,000 tons, is an old ship launched in the sixties, a purely wooden battleship. So although the tonnage is only six or seven hundred tons larger than that of the Triumph, it is much larger.

Mines are the greatest threat to wooden warships. Almost as soon as it exploded, it was a big hole. So the Indochina had to carefully return along the same route, it was the penultimate ship of the French right column.

Among the ten French ** ships, the tonnage of the Indochina is finally equipped with a gun caliber that is one inch smaller than that on the Triumph, but the caliber of eight inches is second only to the 239mm heavy gun on the Triumph.

Hongji Port was armed with a total of 12 10-inch [260] heavy guns. But no one knows how useful it will be to hit the five or six inches thick iron armor of the Triumph. So concentrate your firepower on a large, thin-skinned wooden battleship to attack. It is a strategy directly set by Liu Xian.

How many ironclads did the French fleet have in total? Without the wooden battleship helpers, Liu Xian is still afraid of them!

Although the nine-inch heavy guns on the Triumph. When a bullet hits the port area, it is a big pit with a radius of two or three zhang, and when it hits the fort, the top of the town will be three towns. However, in the end, it has not done substantial damage to the fort and bunker. Liao Wenhui also ranked its threat second.

Under the concentrated fire of four 10-inch heavy guns, as well as the pumping of other caliber coastal defense guns from time to time, the large and small white water columns around the Indochina have never been cut off. From time to time, red fireballs rose from the ship, and the red, white and blue flags that had been hanging high on the tail mast sail turned into a burning rag and floated down from the mast sail. Finally, with the air wave of the shell exploding, it tumbled up and down, and fell lightly into the river.

Under the blazing sun. The deck and sides of the huge warship Indochina were quickly beaten, and a large amount of seawater poured into the hull, and the entire hull was slowly tilted sideways. Yellow smoke billowed from the ship, and the flames danced happily in the smoke and dust.

The Qin army's blasting shells were filled with picric acid, and its powerful explosive power and burning ability compared to black powder, as well as the ability to carry out 'poison gas', made the French on the Indochina suffer a lot.

The bridge of the Indochina was mutilated by blasting shells, and two tall chimneys broke off in the middle. Skewed down. The warship could no longer move, so it could only stop and spin slowly on the sea. The main guns on the ship, which were originally mighty, have lost their right to speak, and only a few secondary guns on the side are still trying to promote their own existence.

Seventy-five shore defense guns were installed throughout the port of Hongji, some of which were original Krupp cargo bought from Germany. One shell after another slashed through the head. As soon as it is hit, picric acid can turn a piece of wood into a burning purgatory.

The water column burst into flames, and some of the French sailors who had fallen into the water jerked out of the sea. After two circles in the air, it was gone, except for a series of scarlet blood foams on the water. The boiling sea quickly wiped away the blood foam. The water is still so blue. It's as if nothing happened.

As a fleet ready to attack the port, bombard the battery. That in itself requires being prepared for sacrifice.

The quality of the French Navy also does not need to be said.

Perennial second in the world, the French Navy is not as famous as the British Royal Navy, but it does not mean that it cannot fight a tough battle.

Therefore, the French fleet was always fighting back. The landing also hits the turrets or bunker perimeter fairly accurately.

The entire surface position was plunged into a sea of fire, and the flying shrapnel scattered in all directions, and the dirt was thrown down all over the place. The mountains were whimpering, the earth was trembling, and those sturdy artillery fortifications were always stubbornly holding on. There were so many shells on the top, but there were stones + reinforced concrete, and there were only countless potholes on the top of the fort covered with a thick layer of sleepers and reinforced with mud. Not even the concrete was exposed, let alone collapsing. Only the observers from outside suffered casualties from time to time under the ferocious shelling of the French army.

The battery was now filled with choking smoke, and the soldiers inside were coughing, even though they had covered their mouths and noses with wet towels, and tears were flowing uncontrollably.

Inside, the smoke was smoky, and the soldiers were sweating profusely, but each one of them stopped to rest.

Carry ammunition, load ammunition, calculate the firing dollars, adjust the muzzle, fire -

The coastal defense battalion is using its own efforts to defend the interests of the Qin army and the interests of China.

"The captain ordered, and the gun positions were aimed at the fifth to the left—"

In the battery on the right wall, a communications soldier conveys the orders of the battery commander among the four main gun emplacements. The environment here is really harsh, and you have to shout with your mouth to your ears when you speak.

And the position of the Qin army is not comfortable, and the days of the French ** ships on the sea are even more difficult.

The guns of the batteries had strong cover, which was not comparable to those turrets on warships. Under heavy artillery fire, the gunners of the ships suffered casualties. To make matters worse, the fire and poison gas caused by picric acid made the situation of the French battleships even worse. The warships were all wooden, and in addition to the Indochina, two warships burned one after another in a fire that was difficult to extinguish.

And then there is the anchor mine, not counting the first one that opened the beard, in the artillery battle that lasted almost an hour. Three more anchor mines were detonated one after another. As a result, two warships had their windows open, and one of the warships, which had suffered a double burst of mines, had a malfunction in its power system. Direct shutdown. Like the Indochina, it could only be made into a thin-skinned floating battery for a short time!

And at this time, the Indochina did not sink to the bottom of the sea. Still barely gasping on the surface of the sea. Countless sailors were jumping into the sea from above, and the huge deck structure was almost a large torch.

Therefore, the lethality of flames for wooden battleships should never be underestimated.

Not only because the fire engulfed the hull, but also because of so many shells piled up on the deck. A large part of the reason why the cruiser Indochina was running out so quickly was that part of the ammunition on the deck was partially detonated by the fire. The force of the explosion swept half the deck away.

Now the bare part of the water continued to burn, the raging flames illuminated the sea, and from time to time there was a huge explosion of shells from the ship.

If it was on a sea with freedom of navigation, the two French battleships that caught fire would definitely leave the battlefield first. Once the fire is extinguished, start anew.

It's just that now this condition obviously doesn't allow it!

The two ironclad ships such as the Triumph are like two Zhenhaishen irons, standing on the sea. Hit the battery and hit the bunker one by one.

Like the losses of the French Navy, the Qin army also began to have problems with artillery positions.

The concussion of one or two shells may not hurt anyone, but what about ten, twenty, or hundred? Earthquakes can also shock people to death.

Gunner casualties on the Qin artillery emplacements also began to appear. Even by this time, there were already ten small cannons that had gone out.

The coastal defense battalion was not well prepared at this point, and Liao Wenhui did not expect that the gunners in the fort were not killed, but were shocked to death. Liu Xian, who was far away in Guangzhou, didn't pay attention to this. So some of the gun emplacements began to stall.

This situation occurred in the artillery positions of the Qin army. It undoubtedly gave the French a great encouragement. Bakali was so excited, he saw the hope of victory!

But at this moment, an earth-shattering loud bang was heard from the Indochina, and the explosion was like a small mushroom cloud. Liao Wenhui's telescopic lens once again appeared in the frightened and panicked appearance of the French sailors.

The dazzling light made his eyes close unconsciously. When I opened it again, there were only pieces of scattered wood chips on the original Indochina position, and the remains of the Indochina itself. Like a piece of charred black charcoal, it slowly submerges into the seawater.

The orange-red fireball quickly swirled upward. The fireball quickly subsided, and only a gradually expanding black mushroom cloud condensed in the sky.

The French fleet, which was fighting the battery, was stunned by the scene in front of them. The Indochina was the main battleship in the entire French fleet second only to the four ironclads. As a result, they were crippled by their opponents as soon as the battle began, and now they are sinking again, which makes the captains of other warships not feel a sense of panic?

Except for the two ironclad ships, the remaining seven warships were all made of wood. And after fighting for a long time, the artillery fire on the shore was indeed extinguished a little, but how much less than it was at the beginning? There is no obvious gap!

But he sank a first-class cruiser in earnest, and the rest of the warships were more or less wounded.

The morale that had just been raised fell suddenly. Everyone has a sense of retreat in their hearts, and if they don't retreat, this detachment will be wiped out except for two ironclad ships! Although the French are as arrogant as roosters, they still know how to be powerful at this time.

They are battleships, and they can't fight once, so they just bring other warships and fight a second time. There's no need to lose the entire detachment here!

In the short period of two hours, the morale of the Bakari detachment, which had been beaten by the artillery fire of the coastal defense battalion, turned around and fled to the open sea under the cheers of the Qin troops on the shore. In the midst of the chaos, the two warships struck mines again. But fortunately, at this time, Western ships have already implemented the application of watertight cabin technology. The two warships that had struck the mine were still able to sail back smoothly after drinking countless seawater.

But the French battleship, which had eaten two strikes from mines, was self-sunk. The two warships, which were burning with fire, also fled under the sound of artillery. (To be continued......) R527