The fifty-knot high-speed torpedo crashed straight into the mine protection net of the Prince of Wales, and then easily cut through this fragile layer of protection with a sharp cutter at the front end, and slammed into a position six meters below the waterline, and the mixed charge of half a ton of passivated black sokin and thermite was instantly detonated.

At this time, the battleship, in terms of anti-torpedo explosion impact, did not have too many mature designs, plus when this battleship was built, in order to reduce weight, the British also used a large number of welding technology, but their welding process is difficult to compare with the Chinese, which also caused the structural strength of this cutting-edge battleship to be low, and the huge power of the explosion tore its body in an instant, smashing its keel, just as the Prince of Wales was thrown more than a meter above the water at the same time, Its bow also began to tilt at an eerie angle.

The battleship broke.

This terrible scene frightened everyone at sea.

"What's going on? Explosion of ammunition depot? Admiral Simon looked at the rapidly sinking Prince of Wales behind him with a trembling hand holding up his binoculars, and said with a pale face, he certainly understood what the sinking of the battleship meant to him.

Until now, the commander had not realized that it was a torpedo attack, or that he had realized it, but he just didn't want to believe it.

"Impossible, this is an external explosion, a torpedo, or a mine, yes, most likely, a mine, the Austrians released a drifting mine." The captain of the London next to him said confidently, it should be said that this is a very reasonable explanation, after all, no one has seen the eye-catching track of the torpedo, and the torpedo cannot have such a huge power, but the mine is the most likely, and the current sea flow direction is indeed more suitable, although the drifting mine hits the battleship, this luck is too against the sky, but naval warfare is such a thing, sometimes it is the character.

"Order the attention of all ships. Be alert to mines on the surface of the sea, and additionally order the cruiser to attack. Admiral Simon accepted this explanation, and then ordered, he always found the Austro-Hungarian light fleet hiding behind the four Combined Forces-class battleships a little uneasy, and in this case, he simply led them into the battlefield as well.

After receiving the order, the British and French cruisers and destroyers, who had been hiding in the distance, immediately rushed to the left flank of the Austro-Hungarian battlefleet like hungry wolves, and at the same time those Austro-Hungarian cruisers and destroyers also rushed up to protect their battleships, but the four cruisers equipped with spear torpedo tubes did not join the battle, but turned to a different position. Targeted the five Lone class battleships.

The torpedo aimed at the Queen did not hit the target, which was not too surprising, and it was lucky that one of the two torpedoes could hit at such a distance, but the terrifying power of this torpedo did stunned the Austro-Hungarian sailors.

The next target was replaced by the Lone Pull, the flagship of the French.

This time the four cruisers were launched at the same time, and the distance was further forward, closing to fifteen kilometers. The distance was already dangerous, and even the high stray bullets on the French battleships occasionally exploded nearby, and in order to ensure the success of the first blow, two torpedoes attacked the Lone. The other two torpedoes were aimed at the Jeanbar.

The strange behavior of these four cruisers has already attracted the attention of the British and French fleets, although their intentions are not known, but if it is really like the speculation of the release of drifting mines. Their current behavior is well explained, and the five Lone class immediately split part of their main artillery fire to attack these small cruisers, although of course there is no centralized fire control system for the French at such a distance. It will be difficult to hit them with the main gun.

"Put!" After determining the parameters, in the loud explosion of the 305 mm shell, Lin Jiasheng calmly gave the order to launch, the torpedo that had just been loaded flew out again, and then the other three ships also shot out of the torpedo one after another, but at this time the accident happened, almost instantly after the last cruiser fired the torpedo, a huge explosion sounded not far from its bow, and the impact of the explosion caused the cruiser to suddenly retreat, and even some sailors fell off guard.

This torpedo exploded when it ignited.

Although he had been mentally prepared, Lin Jiasheng still watched this scene with some pain, he knew that a ton of gold was gone, and the torpedo that exploded during the launch according to the agreement could not be charged, after all, the Austrians were not stupid.

This accident made the French on the opposite side even more sure of the guess of drifting mines, although they sighed at the luck of the Austrians, but after understanding that it was drifting mines, they were relieved, being able to use drifting mines to sink the battleship is already against the sky, if it can continue to be blown and sunk, it is not against the sky, it can only be said that God is wearing a pair of pants with the Austrians, and this thing is very easy to prevent, just stare at the sea, the British are unlucky does not mean that the French are also unlucky, the real opponent is still the battleship in front.

At this time, the coalition fleet actually had the advantage, although the combined force class was strong, but after all, the number was too small, and it could not move, under the intensive bombardment of 305 shells, the four battleships were all miserable from the outside, and even the waterline position of the Prince Eugen was penetrated, the combined force entered the water for hundreds of tons, and the other two ships were also full of smoke.

Although they also beat the opponent to a thousand holes, and in fact the British and French fleets have suffered heavy losses, after all, after closing the distance, the hit rate of those three-five-six-millimeter cannons has soared, among which the British Fortress has even had to withdraw from the battle because of too much water, and the French Oceanoline has also been on fire, the two front main guns have all been destroyed, and the whole body has been skewed, and it will not take long to withdraw from the battlefield, but because of the numerical superiority, the winner will definitely be the British and French forces, After all, even if they didn't have these, there would still be six capital ships left, and as the Austro-Hungarian battleships became more and more wounded, those old battleships began to join the battlefield.

But just when the British and French forces had seen the dawn of victory, the nightmare suddenly came, the first to be hit by the torpedo was the Lone Pull, and the two were all hit, after all, the hit rate must have increased after the distance was closer, and more importantly, at this time, because the combined forces class was anchored in the sea, the British and French battleships attacking them had to stop in the same way, although such a position was very beneficial to naval warfare, but it was a tragedy for anti-torpedoes.

Two spear-torpedoes hit the bow and stern of the Lone almost simultaneously, and with two huge explosions like thunderbolts from the sky, the flagship of the French Navy's Mediterranean Fleet, together with the fleet commander above, sank into the sea in just three minutes.

"Torpedoes, torpedoes, ultra-long-range torpedoes, immediately ordered the fleet to turn and re-open the distance." Admiral Simon on the London roared hoarsely, and even the dullest man should have understood that it could not be a drifting mine, but just as he had finished saying this, he saw the bow of the Jean-Bar, which was turning to avoid the sinking whirlpool of the Lone, flashed with fire, and then jumped upward, and then half of the bow was blown away, and soon followed in the footsteps of the flagship.

The whole battlefield was reversed in this instant, nine British and French battleships were sunk three times, two were seriously injured, and the remaining four were all wounded, and although the four Austro-Hungarian ships were also scarred, they basically did not lose much in combat effectiveness, and more importantly, they also had mysterious ultra-long-range torpedoes, which was still a fart, after seeing that the four light cruisers began to move again in search of new targets, Admiral Simon did not hesitate to order the entire fleet to withdraw from the battle.

The Second Battle of the Strait of Otranto by the Anglo-French forces ended in a crushing defeat again, it was a real fiasco, especially for the French, who had already lost half of their capital ships in two battles, although there were still two more on the slipway that could be put into service immediately, but this blow to the morale of the French could be said to be extremely heavy, and the country had never won a real war since the end of the Napoleonic era, except for occasionally being able to find some glory in bullying the weak, Countless French people lamented what had happened to the great republic.

The mysterious ultra-long-range torpedo of the Austro-Hungarian Navy shocked the world, and although the Austro-Hungarian official did not respond to the news of the existence of this torpedo, intelligence officers from various European countries still flocked to Austria like flies in blood to find out the secret of this torpedo, of course, these are all things for later.

The victory in this battle is of great significance to Yang Feng, because at least in the short term, he no longer has to worry about his trade line.

Because of the need to use valuable resources on the land battlefield, the subsequent construction of battleships by the French has been suspended, so at least until the end of the war, the French can continue to have a maximum of four battleships, so the French are resolutely unwilling to continue to let their precious battleships run to the Strait of Otranto to adventure. And the British had to keep the main sea forces against the German fleet, the sinking of the Prince of Wales had already distressed them, and the Mediterranean Sea was originally the work of the French, and now the French did not want to do it, and they naturally did not have much enthusiasm.

And even if the Strait of Otranto is opened, they will not be able to really block Yang Feng from selling arms to Germany and Austria, after all, this is only one of his trade routes, and he has several such channels.

For a time, Britain and France lost the courage to attack again, although they still held the control of the Mediterranean, but they could only watch those Ottoman merchant ships, ship after ship of supplies sent to Trieste, and they could not even express any dissatisfaction for this, because they really could not find any reason for dissatisfaction.

In this case, Italy became their most important job. (To be continued......)