The bow of the dreadnought "Bellerophon" was flooded, the hull was out of balance, and the shock caused by the explosion caused the power output plummeted, and the speed was reduced crookedly.

The "Magnificent" hurriedly accelerated diagonally to grab it to help as a meat shield, but only turned the hull of the ship less than 30 degrees, and suddenly a volley of diagonal stabs blasted in, and two heavy armor-piercing shells from two German ships hit its amidships and tail respectively!

"Bang!"

The entire battleship shook twice in succession, and when it landed, steel crashed and flesh splattered!

The weak side main armor could not stop the Chinese-made feeding armor-piercing shells at all, and under the ferocious high-kinetic bombardment, they could not even resist at all, so they directly surrendered and were fiercely poured into the middle compartment.

The tail shot stabbed into it, destroying a group of propellers and spindles, and then the violent explosion tore two huge holes in the front and back of the battleship, and a stream of turbid smoke erupted like a volcano, rolling and sweeping towards the whole ship!

One of the main turrets on the starboard side of the "Magnificent" was completely destroyed, and the stern rudder was not easy to use, not only the speed was lost, but even the firepower plummeted.

It's going to kill you. The ship's damage management personnel rushed to extinguish the fire and rescue like crazy, for fear that a bad one would cause a martyrdom, so they played directly. But the constant near-misses around them, coupled with the violent roll of the battleship, made them unable to stand steadily, let alone do serious work.

The two ironclad ships, which had been following behind with the intention of taking advantage of the opportunity, had to rush forward bravely, interspersed between the two dreadnoughts, and bombarded them with forward artillery. Because the optical ranging and fire control coordination is not smooth enough, in the face of overwhelming artillery fire, they simply do not care about the shooting of Zhu Yuan at any time, and the members of each turret play freely, relying on visual measurement, and constantly loading and firing with experience.

And so on. On the contrary, it was a mistake, almost squeezing the rate of fire of the battleship's main guns to the limit, and with the upper secondary guns, it shot a dense barrage, and occasionally a shot could force into the battleship on the opposite side, blowing up an exciting and spectacular column of water.

But that's about it.

Rely on speed and agility. The two armored cruisers rushed forward desperately, firing indiscriminately with their main guns while trying to force in and release torpedoes to create chaos.

Rear Admiral Spee stood firmly in the combat command room at the top of the bridge, and gave an understatement order: "Tell each ship to choose the target enemy ship by yourself and attack with all your strength without discrimination!" Well, try to keep a distance of more than 8,000 yards from them, and don't let them seize the opportunity to release the torpedo. ”

Anyway. The four battleships were tasked with the great task of the rise and fall of the empire, and could not be easily consumed in naval warfare of this magnitude. On the premise of ensuring one's own safety, it is the wisest thing to hunt the enemy as much as possible and obtain military merits.

After issuing the order, His Excellency the Major General gently stroked the chart table with a little affection, and praised leisurely: "What a good guy, you can give full play to the advantage of high-speed maneuvering." Compete with cruisers. Who is her opponent for such performance? ”

He was a little sorry. Such an excellent warship, the current imperial shipbuilding industry still can't come up with it. Even half a year ago, the battleship models and drawings obtained from the Chinese were secretly sent back to the homeland for analysis by excellent engineers in their own country. As a result, they all had to frankly admit that the Chinese design was too ingenious, in comparison. Industrially recognized by Europe as a superb German battleship, clumsy like an old woman.

There are too many gaps in it to count. Roughly calculated, the main aspects are all-round gaps.

For example, in the hull structure, the utilization rate of the internal space of the Chinese-built battleships is at least 20 percent larger than that of the "Bavarian class" designed by Germany itself. Although the length of the Pakistani ship is ten meters shorter. Compared with the living and passage and activity space inside the Chinese warship, the comfort level feels like the wooden battleship of the last century, aggrieved, cramped, full of unsmooth corridors, and the air is suffocating.

At the same time, the Chinese-made ship with three triple 356mm main guns is much smaller than the Pakistani ship with four twin 381mm main guns! The main turret, the command tower, and the horizontal armor are all superior. A comparison between the two shows that the gap between the two is huge.

Not to mention the power system, the same is a steam turbine with Chinese technology, the weight made in Germany is at least 20% larger, but the output efficiency is more than a quarter lower than others. The same heatpipe high-pressure boiler, regardless of the outlet steam temperature or the working stability of the impeller, is a big difference.

To give a simple example, these four Chinese-built battleships actually dared to stop halfway from Saipan, and then cross the Pacific Ocean, forming 8,000 nautical miles, without stopping in between! Although the two groups of mainframes work in turns, the voyage is real. If you add to this the warring waters from Arthur to Saipan, from the public port of Chile to the present warring waters, almost fifteen thousand nautical miles were run!

After such an exaggerated range, all the mechanical systems of the four ships were functioning normally. Since the start of the two battles, not a single host has dropped the chain!

That's amazing performance! It can be called an epic voyage, an unprecedented first time since the world's warships entered the era of steam power.

On the other hand, the Germans' own "Bavarian class", not to mention the difference in power, the Nima range is only 5,000 nautical miles, and the maximum speed is 22 knots, which is not half a star!

Because I understand, I feel emotional. Rear Admiral Spee became more and more reluctant to let the four battleships be damaged. He made up his mind that no matter what difficulties he encountered, he would definitely bring these four warships back intact and let his country's engineers study them thoroughly from the inside out, so as to greatly promote the level of his country's shipbuilding and rise to a new level.

His supplementary order was designed for this purpose.

The rigid German captains did not hesitate to carry out his orders, and immediately regarded the two British armored cruisers attempting to break through as dangerous elements, first using their nimble single secondary guns to send a dense rain of blocking bullets, and blasting their superstructures into steel with grenades with long range and high accuracy. Then, at least two-thirds of the main guns were taken out, aimed at the two ships in two waves, and opened fire fiercely!

Maybe it's God's blessing, maybe the German gunners are too well trained, or maybe two consecutive battles have warmed their hands, like an unexpected three-point storm on the basketball court. It didn't take a few salvos for them to hit two British armored cruisers one after another!

The heavy 356mm armor-piercing bullet roared and slammed into the narrow British ship, and the naked eye could see that the hull weighing thousands of tons was blown up on the spot, followed by the explosion and rushed up a thick column of fireworks, which exploded a brilliant glory!

A British ship was smashed into the conning tower from its front against the front turret, and the weak armor was unstoppable. It was pierced out from behind, and the chimney was blown to pieces one after another. The terrifying kinetic energy almost disintegrated the command tower on the spot, and there were only a few dead and wounded inside, including the captain.

The other shot was shot at a relatively small position, and after being hit directly into the turret, it went down into the cabin. First, the shell exploded, followed by the explosion of ammunition, and with an earth-shattering bang, half of the hull seemed to be thrown upwards by the big hand of the giant of the desolation, and it disintegrated and broke neatly. With the whole crew of the ship, it sank rapidly.

It didn't take long for the previous armored cruiser to spin around in place like a headless fly, hitting the waist with several shells that followed, and three explosions from front to back twisted the keel of the ship, followed by the explosion of the boiler, shattering the entire stern and turning the bow upturned. Also began to slowly water.

Seeing this, Major General Craddock closed his eyes in pain. After a long time, he reluctantly ordered: "Let the 'Sovereign' and 'Ireland' immediately withdraw from the battle and move in the direction of Uruguay." Together with the Magnificent, we concentrated all our guns and opened fire on the last enemy ship with all our might. Hurt her seriously at all costs! ”

Sink something, he didn't dare to think about it. Now there is no possibility of even getting closer. Outside the range of the ship's precision strikes, people have always played kite tactics, and their hopes are too slim.

Undoubtedly, such an order was a stimulus to the officers and men of other battleships. The commanders of the two armoured ships refused to obey this order, which amounted to flight, and left their flagships behind. It was humiliating!

Rear Admiral Craddock was moved and helpless, so he had to send a telegram to the British mainland, declaring: "This fleet has launched an all-out exchange of fire with the enemy ships, and we will do everything in our power to strike at the enemy, hoping that the main fleet will arrive in time to encircle and annihilate it." ”

He didn't mention that he was trying his best to support, hoping that the main fleet would arrive in time. It would be great if we could make it to that point. But that's unreliable after all, who made him excited for a while, didn't delay enough time, and went into battle?

Rear Admiral Craddock was just hoping that the Germans on the opposite side would be insatiable and would wander around like hyenas in order to sink his four ships. In this way, it can also buy more time for the main fleet to rush.

With a new goal in mind, he no longer insists on fighting hard with the other party. Through flags and wireless telegraphy, the two armored ships were beckoned together, forming a rotating hedgehog formation around the paralyzed "Magnificent". With the bow aimed at the last enemy ship, the forward and side artillery fire is used to concentrate on one target, no matter what position it can hit, and one shot can be counted as one shot.

Not only that, but he also ordered the ships to sail at full speed and keep as straight as possible, so that they did not have to worry about capsizing themselves carelessly.

However, the speed of the two dreadnoughts is definitely not much higher, and the two ironclad ships are also obviously seriously aging, and even the speed of 18 knots cannot be guaranteed, the performance of the main guns is also a generation worse, and the accuracy is seriously deviating from expectations.

In this way, it is equivalent to facing an enemy who is several times larger than oneself in a group fight, simply giving up one's back, letting others punch and kick indiscriminately, and only grasping one target to fight to the death. Before being punched to death, try to pull a cushion back.

This kind of street hooligan-like bastard tactics was used coldly, which scared Major General Spee!

He was reluctant to sacrifice any of his ships, so he immediately ordered the last battleship to speed up and throw off the enemy, and at the same time ordered the flagship to accelerate forward with the other three to open up the distance, and then maneuver and turn, and seize the T-head for the second time.

To be honest, what they have achieved in this round of bombardment is already quite good. In the entire history of the establishment of the German Navy, there were no better results.

It's just that Rear Admiral Spee is a bold and greedy commander, and he is reluctant to throw away the four big fat pieces in front of him, and he really wants to paint his four new ships with dazzling hunting achievements. After the whole fleet sped up to throw off the enemy ships, they did not hesitate to turn around and continue to charge!

Major General Craddock didn't even mention retreating! He ordered the whole fleet to keep the "Magnificent" as the core, adjust the speed and line up separately, and rotate slowly, so as to always use the bow in the direction of the enemy ships.

At the same time, he ordered all available forward guns to fire at the maximum angle into the distance. Regardless of whether it can be hit or not, as long as it can cause interference to the enemy ship, it must not be stopped.

This tactic is actually disgusting. Major General Spee looked at the shells that kept falling behind him, and he was terrified. Terrible what to come, when he and the fleet passed in an arc at a position of a little more than 12 kilometers, the "Wools", which fell in position No. 3, was actually hit by a shell precisely in the rear of the flank!

Major General Spee's heart jerked up, and he hurriedly ordered a telegram to inquire about the damage.

In a short time, the "Wools" telegraphed, and the damage was extremely slight, which did not affect the battle at all.

The Chinese-built warships are very conscientious, and the waterline armor belt is not short of a pound or two from beginning to end. With the 305mm shells of the British, hit at a distance of more than 12 kilometers, the kinetic energy was like the end of a strong crossbow, barely smashing a shallow dent on it, and even a piece of armor steel was not scrapped, and it fell into the water weakly.

Only then did Major General Spee put his heart back in his stomach, and then gave a fierce order: "Concentrate artillery fire and kill them!" ”

Almost! Even if he broke a deck, he felt that it was not satisfactory - it was clear that he would never know satisfaction, and he would get carried away with the excitement of the easy victories along the way!

Capable of adapting to the harsh sea conditions of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, the warship displays impressive agility when maneuvering at high speeds. With only a slight slowdown, they couldn't wait to turn around and push into the enemy ship again.

Although Rear Admiral Craddock tried to speed up the rotation of the fleet, in the end, it was a step behind, barely pulling into an oblique arc, and when the four battleships were all connected to each other, the German battleships in the distance had already grabbed the perfect position to open fire!

Looking through binoculars from the high bridge, the British battleships seemed to be connected in a long line, and Rear Admiral Spee shouted: "Fire!" ”

From front to back, thirty-six heavy guns spewed out thick smoke one after another! Steep bullet marks swept across the sea, like oversized bayonets, stabbing at the British battleship! (To be continued.) )