Now these huge ships have fully met Yang Feng's expectations, and under the protection of dozens of cruisers and destroyers, four Combined Force-class battleships are side-by-side on the narrow main channel of the Otranto Strait in a classic bow-to-enemy manner, in a haughty posture, facing the surging enemy.

In order to break through the gate of the Adriatic Sea, Britain and France mobilized almost all the naval forces in the Mediterranean, and they were supposed to join the Russian Black Sea Fleet, but unfortunately the Ottoman Empire forbade Russian warships to pass through the Guò Bosphorus on the grounds of neutrality, but even so, this huge fleet also has six French newest Lone class battleships and eight old diesel battleships of the British Navy, and the difference in strength between the two sides is more than three times.

But unfortunately, the difference in strength did not translate into results, from the beginning of the war the French were beaten with a stick, because of the gap between the sighting system and the range of the artillery, the first to fire was their enemy, the four combined forces class in front of the twenty-four 356 mm guns fifteen kilometers apart fired the first salvo, huge shells roared across the sea, and then fell in the Anglo-French fleet that was cutting forward in columns, and the exploding water columns rose one after another, just in the exclamation of the French, A cannonball slammed straight into the gun turret of the Jeanbar.

Although the high-quality alloy armor imported from Sweden blocked the three-five-six-millimeter piercing shell produced by the same manufacturer, the shell that was brushed away still smashed on a twin one-five-two secondary gun next to it, easily penetrating the weak armor and then exploding inside, and the huge explosion power instantly detonated the shell that was about to be loaded inside, tearing the entire turret into countless pieces.

This scene made the hearts of all French people sink. Because that's how their nightmare started in Vietnam, and that's not a good sign.

Fortunately, the enemy at this time did not have the terrifying speed of those Chinese battleships, and the French navy at this time was no longer what it used to be, and the generals on the French battleships quickly threw away their ominous premonitions and gave their warships the order to fire.

At a distance of thirteen kilometers, the coalition fleet fired the first salvo, and the same shell hit the St. Istvan, but unfortunately this 305 shell was directly fired by the hard Bofors alloy armor.

"Come, come. It's a bet. Bet on when the Austrians will sink the first enemy ship, and I bet in fifteen minutes, a hundred dollars! On the battleship Ottoman I not far away, Captain Du Xiqi of the Chinese Navy, who came to watch the battle, said with a smile.

"I'll bet on you. The good guy is also more than three times the strength. Even if it is impossible to break through the Austrian defense. It's not going to let them beat up, is it? The fellow countryman next to him, Tang Xiangming, who had just graduated from the Naval Academy for only one year, said with great insight.

"I'm betting too." An Ottoman officer who was in charge of interpreting for them spoke in stiff Chinese, and then explained it to his fellow citizens around him. After understanding the gamble, a dozen other Ottoman officers soon joined in, and all of them bet on Du Xiqi to lose.

Du Xiqi looked at the banknotes and gold and silver coins piled in front of him with a smile, and inadvertently smiled at Tang Xiangming and the translator, while several other Chinese observers next to him looked at the fools with pity.

The armor of the Lone Pull class is made in Bofors, and the 356 main gun of the combined force class is also Bofors's, and the Chinese Navy has long secretly made a real yàn, at most 12 kilometers, it can penetrate the most important waterline armor in normal engagements, and the 305 main gun of the Lone Pull class is impossible to penetrate the combined force-level waterline armor at a distance of seven kilometers in any case, but this kind of real yàn is only known to those senior officers inside.

At this time, the battleships on both sides have fired one after another, on the calm sea, a steel beast sprayed dozens of meters of muzzle flame towards the opponent and kept pouring shells, the piercing whistling sound tore through the air, huge explosions one after another, a column of water pierced the sky, steel and will here to start a bloody contest, so that a group of spectators blood boiling, this is the first perfect battleship duel, not only the Ottoman Navy, Italy, Spain, and even distant Brazil, Argentina have come to visit.

However, in the final analysis, the British and French forces were still outnumbered, and the fourteen battleships added up to nearly 100 large-caliber heavy guns, even if the rate of fire of a single gun was not comparable to that of the combined forces, there was a numerical advantage there, and the amount of firepower projection still had an absolute advantage.

But as the distance between the two sides narrowed, the power of the three, five or six giant cannons began to appear, only three minutes after the start of the battle, a piercing bomb fired from the Taghoff directly penetrated the waterline armor of the French Ocean, and then with twenty kilograms of antimony and antimony charges tore a large hole in its waterline, and seawater began to pour into this brand-new battleship, fortunately, the French were still quite good in terms of watertightness, and did not cause fatal damage, but the bow of the ship sank slightly, so that the speed had to be sharply reduced, Moreover, the main gun, which originally had a low elevation angle, was now even more difficult to hit far.

When the naval battle went on in the fifth minute, the British and French battleships were a little chaotic, because they had hit more than ten shells on the other side, but none of them could penetrate the opponent's waterline armor, the opponent only hit six rounds, but no matter which one of them caused serious damage to their own battleships, after understanding this, the commander of the French Mediterranean Fleet in charge of the command immediately ordered the division of troops, with six Lone class frontal continue to drag the fire of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, and the other eight British battleships went around to the right to attack, At the same time, the accompanying cruisers and destroyers were ordered to attack to the left, attracting the Austro-Hungarian light battleships behind the battleships.

In addition to the four combined forces class, the Austro-Hungarian Navy also participated in the war this time with four Princess-class heavy cruisers, six light cruisers, and fourteen destroyers and thirty old armored cruisers, protective cruisers and even large torpedo boats.

Besides, there were not many warships in the strait, and as the cruisers and destroyers in the Anglo-French forces stepped forward, these battleships also rushed forward at once, and the two sides each started a melee with heavy cruisers as the core, and at the same time the eight old British diesel battleships began to break away from the formation and sail to the right flank.

Although the tail guns could not be used, it was much better than showing the side sides of the side to side, and this could also prevent the enemy from attacking around the flanks, so after understanding the intentions of the British battlefleet, the four battleships immediately staggered and pulled into a diagonal line, showing their tail guns and preparing to meet them.

However, the British commander who led eight old battleships to attack the right flank was not prepared to rush forward like this, these battleships of a little more than 10,000 tons in his hands were not only small in tonnage, but also old-fashioned Harvey carburized armor, and he could be killed at sea if he was casually hit by a three-five-six piercing bomb, so his tactic was to simply bypass the enemy's range and make a gesture of directly going north to bombard Trieste, forcing the four battleships to separate, as long as they were not gathered together, It was much easier to deal with at that time.

It is a pity that his idea is very good, but there is no basis for implementation, just as the British battleship was going around in a big circle, the commander of the Ottoman fleet on the Ottoman I looked at the chart, and with a blank wave of his hand, a powerful fleet of five battleships immediately stepped forward, and soon crossed in front of the British fleet, and then waved the flag.

"Your army has violated the territorial waters of the Ottoman Empire, please withdraw immediately, otherwise it will be regarded as a provocation." The British commander almost got angry when he read the flag, but he looked at the charts and saw that he had indeed entered Ottoman territorial waters, but the question was when did the British Empire care about this?

But now he had to care, even if he simply broke through the blockade of the Ottoman navy, which was four perfect battleships and one quasi-perfect battleship.

His Excellency, who had also been high in the Mediterranean, had no choice but to give the order to turn around with a sneering gaze on his face, and re-follow the normal course to the Prinz Eugen, which was on the far right side of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, and the main guns of the Prinz Eugen, who were engaged with six solitary ships, and the stern guns of the St. Ivan Stein immediately opened fire on this fleet, and the first salvo hit a cannonball on the Majesty in the front.

The power of three-five-six-millimeter piercing shells is indeed ruthless for these old battleships, you must know that after deducting the speed advantage after replacing with diesel engines, these battleships are not much different from those American battleships that were killed by the Princess class in other aspects, and even the thickness of the armor is not as good as the Americans, while the Princess class is a 240 main gun, and the weight of the shell is only a fraction of the three-five-six shells, so you can imagine what this shell means to the Majesty.

And what is even more tragic is that this shell hit the front main gun, easily penetrated the waterline armor and then drilled into the ammunition depot, with a loud sound like the sky cracking, under a jaw-dropping gaze, the entire capital of this giant ship of more than 10,000 tons was blown away.

"Fourteen minutes, haha, count the money!" On the Ottoman I, Du Xiqi hugged the banknotes and gold coins in front of him and shouted excitedly. (To be continued......)