Therefore, this type of warship adopts a diagonal turret design, that is, the front and rear turrets are staggered along the diagonal. This allows the front and rear rotating turrets to attack the bow or stern at the same time, while the ship's cabin is placed between the two turrets and does not block the emplacement's firing range.

Although this design made the stability of the warship poor, it was popular in the Western Continent for a long time because it was suitable for the bow engagement rules, until the 'Lanting' class battleship designed by Fang Xiaoyu was a great success, defeating the Cossack fleet that used the bow engagement method popular in the Western Continent, and the countries of the Western Continent changed this design idea.

With a displacement of 9,748 tons, the design of the Carlando, the flagship of the Imperial Navy of San Martin, is outdated in the eyes of the world, but it is already the latest ironclad ship of the San Martin Empire.

Of the other seven ironclads that followed the flagship, there were two of the same class as the Carlando, the Saint-Edda and the Trada, and the other five were more old-fashioned ironclads with a waist gunhouse.

As for the cruisers, there are four unprotected cruisers that are still commonly known as 'glass ships', which are simply shot and killed, so that the patchwork fleets purchased by different eras are all the belongings of the Imperial Navy of St. Martin.

Marshal Dinant sighed, his own warships are too old, compared to the newly launched warships of the Boston Empire, they are far from the performance of the warships, but it is impossible to build warships in China, and the Western Continent has carried out a military and technical blockade of its own country, and now the warships are even customized from the Chinese territory, not to mention the upgrading of warships, and even the gradual elimination of wooden sail warships like the Boston Empire.

Thinking of the speed of development of the Chinese leader, Marshal Dinant was envious, it took only a few years of hard work for people to change from a barren land that no one cared about, to one of the few great forces in the eastern ocean, and they were strong on land and sea, and they defeated the Cossack Empire as a great power country in both directions, which is simply a miracle.

The current Marshal Dinant did not have the luxury of expecting the Empire of St. Martin to rise as quickly as the Chinese Empire, and what he hoped most was that the new warships built by the Chinese Empire for the Empire of St. Martin could be delivered as soon as possible, so that he could be more confident at sea.

"Marshal, find the enemy ship." The sailor's report pulled Marshal Dinant's thoughts back, and he raised the telescope he had purchased from the Chinese Consulate and looked ahead, and a thick black column of smoke appeared on the sea level, which was obviously a large ironclad fleet.

In this era, the steam engine is still a relatively high-end product, its price is expensive, for the sake of economic consumption ratio, merchant ships are more sailing ships, even if there are occasionally a few steamships, there will not be such a large scale.

The opposing mast gradually appeared on the sea level, followed by the ship's cabin, turret, and hull. When this fleet appeared in front of Dinant, the corners of his eyes twitched.

It was a fleet of eight ironclads and eight cruisers, and although it seemed that this fleet was smaller than the Imperial fleet of St. Martin, Dinant knew in his heart that he was definitely no match for it.

Not to mention the other party's large ironclad ships with a displacement of more than 12,000 tons, even those eight cruisers are definitely not less than 4,000 tons. Judging by Dinant's experience, these warships are all new warships that have been in service for no more than a year, and they are much more advanced than their own warships.

Seeing the other party driving towards him at full speed, Dinant realized that he might have fallen into a well-prepared trap, and it was obvious that the news of the Boston Empire's invasion of the Confederation of Central South Africa was definitely deliberately released by the Boston Empire.

This well-armed fleet did not carry any troop carriers at all, they were definitely a trap deliberately prepared for themselves by the other side, and if this is really the case, then today their own fleet is in trouble.

Although he couldn't beat it, Marshal Dinant knew very well that he couldn't turn and flee immediately, and he knew very well that with the speed and firepower of the other party, if he ordered to escape, the outcome would be very miserable, and under the pursuit of the other party, at least all the sailing ships and warships would definitely not be able to outrun the other party, and there would be no more old ironclad ships left.

All Dinant can do now is to consume the strength of the Boston Navy as much as possible, and even if his fleet eventually collapses, he will paralyze the Boston Imperial Navy for a while, so as to buy enough time for the new warships built by the Chinese Consulate to enter service.

Marshal Dinant gritted his teeth and ordered: "The whole army is assaulted, close to the enemy ships to attack." "The Imperial Navy of St. Martin has been in battle for a long time, and it is still relatively well-trained.

Receiving the order of Marshal Dinant, the Imperial fleet of St. Martin immediately began to form a battle formation, with eight ironclad ships forming arrows, the cruiser lined up on both wings, and the slowest wooden sail warships as backup, and the entire fleet headed for the Boston Imperial fleet at full speed.

Just when the ironclad fleet battle at sea was about to break out, the conspiracy on land was also going on simultaneously. A small group of soldiers in Boston uniforms crossed the border between the Federal Republic of Central and South Africa and the St. Martin Empire and attacked a patrol of the St. Martin's Imperial Army stationed there, killing seven St. Martin's Empire soldiers.

Annoyed and enraged, the Imperial Commander of St. Martin, Admiral Caolan, immediately ordered the pursuit, and with the strength of one regiment as the lead, the Imperial Army of St. Martin crossed the border and advanced into the hinterland of the Central and Southern Federation.

The attack on the San Martín patrol was by soldiers in Boston uniforms, and Caolan took it for granted that since the attack came from Boston soldiers who had crossed the border of the Confederation of Central and Southern Africa, then the Bostonians must have entered the Confederation of Central and Southern Africa.

This situation also proves that the information received by the empire must be true, and since the authenticity of the information has been confirmed, according to the predetermined plan, it is necessary for him to enter the Central and Southern Alliance to attack the Boston Army in order to prevent the other side from occupying favorable terrain.

The southern part of the Federal Republic of South Central Africa was full of rainforests, and the roads were extremely difficult to navigate, and the Imperial Army of St. Martin struggled through the rainforests, trying to track down the small group of soldiers who attacked the patrol. Fortunately, that small group of soldiers did not move quickly, and always walked in front of the Imperial army of St. Martin.

After traveling more than ten kilometers, the small group of soldiers disappeared near a large barracks. Seeing the sporadic bonfires in the barracks, the excited Cavolan thought that he had finally found the Bostonian barracks, and the first strike was strong, and Admiral Cavolan immediately ordered the troops to launch an attack on all fronts.

The St. Martin soldiers of the brigade immediately attacked the barracks, but strangely the other side seemed unprepared. The barracks were surprisingly weak, and after two hours of fighting, the resistance of the opposing side collapsed. The excited Kaolan didn't think that there was anything wrong with this, and immediately personally led the team to take advantage of the victory to pursue and drive the enemy back ten kilometers.

Kaolan, who was in the midst of excitement, received a report from a regiment commander: "General, the enemy troops we killed are all wearing the uniforms of the Central and Southern Federations. ”

"What?" Kaolan exclaimed, he was not an idiot, when he heard this, he immediately understood that he had been tricked, the previous attack on him must have been a small elite force of Bostonians, they deliberately attacked the patrol and then led themselves to the vicinity of the military camp of the Confederation of Central and South Africa, giving themselves the illusion that the Boston army was stationed here.

"Stop the pursuit and take up the spot. Clean up the battlefield and search for Boston soldiers. Although he knew that such an arrangement would not work, he needed to calm down, think about countermeasures, and verify the situation. However, when Kaolan saw the corpse in the uniform of the Central and Southern Federation carried by his soldiers, he was completely out of ideas.

"Full speed ahead, all ironclad main guns fire." Dinant commanded loudly. At this time, the Boston Imperial Fleet had just entered its own firing range, but the opponent's main guns, which had a longer range, had already carried out five rounds of fire coverage, and one cruiser in its own fleet had already been shot and began to sink.

Heavy shells began to fall around the Boston fleet, and the fleet commander, Rear Admiral Dewey, immediately ordered the fleet to speed up its turn, and while continuing to fire its guns around the Imperial fleet of St. Martin, while evading the artillery fire of the other side, his tactics completely copied the method of the Chinese leader against the Cossack fleet.

Seeing that the other party began to maneuver, a smile appeared on the corner of Dinant's mouth. Dewey's fleet had just sailed a short distance when a group of wooden warships came in front of them, which were the Imperial sail ships of St. Martin that were dragged behind, and they were deliberately left behind by Dinant to deal with this hunting tactic of the Boston Imperial fleet.

This tactic, which was first used by the Chinese navy, became famous in the battle with the Cossack Empire expeditionary fleet, and was regarded as a classic tactic of naval warfare by various countries.

Naturally, Dinant had studied this tactic considerably, but it required a good enough warship, and it had to have a powerful battleship with uniform gun specifications.

These battleships also needed to have enough firepower, thick enough armor, and considerable speed so that they could rely on dense firepower while avoiding enemy artillery fire.

With the old and chaotic fleet of the St. Martin Empire, this advanced tactic could not be used, although it could not be used, but it did not prevent Dinant from coming up with a way to crack it.

This time, when Dinant saw the composition of the opponent's warships, he vaguely felt that the opponent would use this tactic, so he deliberately left the slowest and least valued wooden sail fleet behind the other party to intercept the opponent's warships maneuvering, and this plan really worked.

This tactic only took advantage of the Boston fleet's unfamiliarity with this tactic, and if it was encountered again next time, it would be difficult for this tactic to work if the other side was more careful.

At this time, Marshal Dinant also couldn't care much, this time whether the St. Martin fleet could be saved was a question, and who would think about the next naval battle.

The Imperial warships of St. Martin, which were blocking Dewey's fleet, disregarded their own safety, and they desperately attacked the warships horizontally, shooting the Bostonians with all their strength with fierce broadside fire.