The sea was filled with a large cloud of gunsmoke, and the battleship seemed to be shrouded in smog. The huge column of water continued to splash up, and the battleship seemed to sleepwalk in the column of water. The battle is heating up, the fear seems to disappear, and the hatred in both sides is focused on who will destroy who will destroy first. Naval battles are fought to this extent, even if they are afraid and obscene, it will not help, because there is nowhere to hide, and death will come at every moment, and the cruelty of naval warfare lies in this.

Zheng Haitao commanded the battleship Fuzhou and singled out the enemy ship Washington. Since the enemy gunboats went all out to entangle the flagship Shanghai, the pressure on Zheng Haitao was relatively small. Frankly speaking, Americans are more sleek than the persistent British. While commanding, Powell ordered the battleship to avoid in a serpentine manner. This can reduce the hit rate of enemy artillery fire, and the probability of hitting the enemy is greatly reduced.

Zheng Haitao saw that the Shanghai and the Northern Expedition were in danger of being pounced by wolves, but he couldn't help, so he was in a hurry. A few gunboat shells were hit on the foredeck, and the damage was not great, he was bent on the Washington, but the more anxious he was, the more he lost his level, and the coalition warships became more and more courageous, and gradually the enemy fleet gained the upper hand with rich experience in naval warfare, and the situation became worse and worse, and the losses of his own warships increased.

The battleship of the Northern Expedition had stopped, and the battleship was flooded in large quantities, and although the side-rotating guns were still roaring, the battleship was gradually sinking. "Report to the captain, the flagship commander ordered us to abandon the ship." Deng Shichang said firmly: "If you don't succeed, you will become benevolent, I want to live and die with the battleship, and I order you to abandon the ship." "Captain, I'm sorry. This is the order of the commander. The adjutant waved his hand, and two soldiers came up to hold Deng Shichang and left. Deng Shichang roared loudly to no avail.

When Dai Hui saw the officers and men of the Northern Expedition leave the ship safely, he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. "Report to the commander. The Northern Expedition came with a flag, and Captain Deng left the ship safely. Dai Hui held the telescope without squeaking, and saw that the Northern Expedition was gradually swallowed by the sea, and his heart ached. Suddenly, the bow of the Northern Expedition jumped up from the sea, and suddenly Xiangshang sank rapidly, and suddenly a huge whirlpool formed on the sea surface, and Dai Hui raised his hand to salute. All the generals in the command cabin raised their hands.

Deng Shichang commanded the Northern Expedition and with a fearless spirit of sacrifice, he severely damaged 6 enemy gunboats. It greatly relieved the pressure on the flagship Shanghai. At this time, the main gun in front of the Shanghai was silent, and the battery hit a shell, causing the barrel to fall. Dai Hui turned the bow of the ship and bombarded it with a tail gun. This is when the situation is even more dangerous. In addition to the Shanghai and Fuzhou, your own warships. Outside the torpedo boats, there were only a dozen ships left. The enemy's battleship Polang, seeing the sinking of the Northern Expedition, boosted the morale of the allied fleet, and began to go all out to aim at the Shanghai.

Suddenly, the rear of the enemy fleet was shelled, and the enemy fleet was in disarray. "Report to the commander, a large number of Chinese fleets have been found behind!" An adjutant panicked. Commander Paulson raised his binoculars to check, and sure enough, he found a large number of fleets outflanked. Among them were two huge warships, which pounced on them like fierce gods. Just as Paulson was surprised. A shell landed on the aft deck, and the aftermath of the violent explosion shocked Paulson in a dizzy and stupid state. It was so sudden, like in a dream.

In an instant, the enemy fleet was crushed, and the situation on the battlefield quickly reversed. The outflanking fleet suddenly appeared behind the enemy fleet, completely disrupting the formation of the enemy fleet, its will to fight came to naught, and the enemy fleet lost its unified command. At this moment, Webber, the captain of the Breaking Waves, did not care about contacting the flagship, and ordered the battleship to break through the defense line and flee north at full speed, intending to turn against the main fleet. Suddenly, the Washington was at full speed and headed straight for the Shanghai.

At this time, the enemy fleet on the sea was in chaos, and a gunboat suddenly crossed the channel of the Breaking Waves, and there was no time to dodge, only to hear a loud noise, and the huge hull of the Breaking Waves directly hit the waist of the gunboat, only to see the gunboats instantly roll their bellies to the sky, and then sink into the sea, such a scene is dizzying. The huge impact of the Breaking Wave caused the bow of the ship to rise up, and a large hole was clearly visible under the bow.

Then the bow of the ship plunged into the water, and quickly slammed forward for some distance, and due to the large amount of seawater pouring into the bow area, the bow began to sink slightly, and the speed slowed down significantly. At this moment, the Shanghai tail gun seized the opportunity and launched a fierce bombardment of the Breaking Waves. A shell accurately hit the command module, and the captain of the ship, Webb Zuihou, realized that he was lifted up by the air wave of the explosion. When the smoke cleared, a large hole appeared in the command module and a fire broke out.

As the propeller of the Breaking Wave was still working, the battleship taxied forward for another distance, and the bow continued to sink, causing the tail to rise, the propeller to the surface, and the battleship to a standstill as a live target. The Kung Fu Shenzhou battleship caught up from behind and launched an artillery bombardment on the Breaking Waves. Gunsmoke hung over the deck of the Breaking Waves, and many British sailors scrambled to jump into the sea like dumplings.

Suddenly, a shell hit the vital part, causing a large explosion, and the steam wrapped in smoke fragments rose rapidly, forming a cloud of mist in the sky. An even louder explosion was heard, the ammunition compartment was ignited, a huge hole appeared in the side of the battleship, and sea water gushed in. In such a terrifying scene, there was a brief silence on the battlefield. Both sides watched the Zuihou performance of the Breaking Waves, so the shelling stopped.

The smoke dissipated, the middle of the Washington was in a mess, and a large amount of sea water gushed in from the right side, causing the battleship to begin to tilt, and the bow of the ship was submerged into the sea, and the stern of the ship jumped high and slowly sank into the sea, forming a huge whirlpool on the sea surface, and many sailors who had no time to escape nearby were involved. This battleship, which was launched only one year and eight months into the water, fulfilled its historic mission.

On the command ship of the USS Zhonghua, Fan Tao gave the order to launch a Zuihou attack on the enemy flagship USS Washington. At this moment, Commander Paulson, in a desperate situation, was very wise and ordered to surrender under a white flag, he did not want to accept the scene just now, for the Americans, life is more important than anything else. Due to the agility and speed of the torpedo boats, 15 torpedo boats of the enemy fleet successfully escaped from Dai Hui's side. An hour later, on the deck of the Zhonghua, a brief surrender ceremony was held. When Powell, commander of the enemy fleet, handed over the command knife and gun to Fan Tao, all the sailors cheered.

After statistics, the coalition enemy fleet had a total of 52 warships, the battleship Breaking Waves was sunk, and the Washington was captured. Of the 15 sail ships, 3 sank, 7 were wounded and 5 surrendered. Of the 17 gunboats, 4 were sunk, 6 were seriously wounded and 6 were captured. Fifteen torpedo boats of the enemy fleet managed to escape, 4 transport ships were captured, and the naval battle was an unprecedented victory.

Dai Hui led the detachment to suffer heavy losses, the battleship Northern Expedition sank, the Shanghai was seriously wounded, 8 of the 12 sail warships were sunk, two were seriously wounded, and two were slightly injured. Of the 20 gunboats, 12 sank, 6 were seriously wounded, and only two were intact. 10 torpedo boats, 4 sunk, 2 wounded, 4 intact, one transport ship intact. It can be seen how tragic the naval battle was at that time, and due to the limited role of sail wooden battleships, after this battle, they did not appear in naval battles.

On the deck of the battleship Zhonghua, after the surrender ceremony, a military meeting was held to study the enemy reinforcement fleet. At the military meeting, Dai Hui reviewed: "Commander, the loss of the fleet is so huge, I have to bear the main responsibility. If the outflanking fleet does not come up, I am afraid that the whole army will be annihilated. Fan Tao waved his hand and said: "There is a gap between you and the enemy fleet's Liliang, and you lack experience in naval warfare, but without your tenacious fight with the enemy fleet, how could we achieve such results." ”

Fan Tao continued: "Since ancient times, it is impossible to fight without paying the price, as the saying goes, it is normal to kill a thousand enemies before the road and lose eight hundred. Moreover, our young navy won a great victory in its first large-scale naval battle, which fully tested the results of our training and strengthened our confidence. In a word, we are fully capable of competing with foreigners on the ocean, which is commendable. In this battle, we recognized our own shortcomings, that is, a powerful battleship must be protected by a frigate in order to exert its might in naval battles, and the foreigners fully realized this and used gunboats as frigates, which played a huge role. ”

Fan Tao continued: "Now is not the time to sum up the lessons learned, now we have to face the enemy's main fleet. Dai Hui! "Here!" Dai Hui stood up. "The Shanghai was seriously wounded, and you led the officers and men of the ship to quickly accept the battleship Washington and familiarize themselves with it as soon as possible." "Yes, Your Majesty." "Deng Shichang!" "Here!" "You lead the officers and men of the Northern Expedition to take over the Shanghai, escort all the wounded warships, and turn back to Mawei Military Port!" "Yes, subordinate order!" The Northern Expedition sank, and Deng Shichang bore unshirkable responsibility, but the commander Fan Tao did not have any words of accusation, and the more he trusted him, Deng Shichang was very excited.

Zuihou Fan Tao stood up and said, "All the sail battleships are left behind to support the landing force." After dusk, the 7th Infantry Brigade was ordered to launch a landing operation on Penghu. The fleet was ordered to intensify preparations, and at midnight the main fleet went north to meet the enemy. "After the military meeting, you quickly turned back your ships. Dai Hui handed over the Shanghai battleship to Deng Shichang, and then led all the officers and men to board the battleship Washington. Deng Shichang led the battleship Shanghai to escort the wounded battleship and a large number of allied prisoners of war back to Mawei Military Port.

At midnight, the 7th Brigade captured Baisha Island and then launched an attack on the main island of Penghu. In the rumbling of cannons, Fan Tao led the main fleet to disappear into the northern sea curtain.

(To be continued......)

PS: It is necessary to withstand the test of blood and fire in order to get the maximum harvest.