Chapter 193: Confrontation in the New World (5)

Pershing, who was short of ammunition, knew that he could no longer capture the St. Martin Imperial Logistics Base, which was still strong in combat, and even if he could attack the base, he believed that those tenacious troops would burn the entire base to the ground, and now Pershing was not thinking about cutting off the back road of St. Martin's **, but how to bring his soldiers back to the Boston Empire.

Taking advantage of the night, General Pershing led the troops to quietly leave the camp and advance towards Marceau Beach, where they landed, in order not to let Qiu Yu'an find out, General Pershing did not take everything away, tents and other items were not put away, all the soldiers tried to be as light as possible, and all unnecessary items were discarded, and the whole army began to retreat along the way they came.

In the dark night, I couldn't see my fingers. In order not to be discovered by the St. Martin's ** team, the soldiers of the Boston Empire did not dare to light the way with torches, and they could only grope their way forward in the pitch darkness. From the logistics base of the Empire of St. Martin to the Terlaxia Gorge, they walked for four hours in a short distance of more than ten kilometers.

When the spearhead troops came to the entrance of the canyon, the first few soldiers stumbled and fell into the deep ditch of blockade dug by the soldiers of the 1st Brigade of the Lanfang mercenary army. Hearing the movement ahead, the Boston army was alarmed, and they immediately stopped their actions, while observing what was happening in front of them, while waiting for the order of Admiral Pershing.

The Lanfang mercenary sentries on the other side of the ditch also heard the scream, and several soldiers standing guard immediately woke up, and they immediately lay down on the position opposite the trench, loaded their rifles flat, and stared at the dark night opposite.

Hearing about what had happened earlier, Admiral Pershing immediately ordered to find out, and he knew that it would be dawn in another hour or two, and that the St. Martin's ** team in the logistics base would find that they had retreated, and if they were allowed to pursue them, their own side that lacked ammunition would not be comfortable.

In order to find out the situation, more than a dozen Boston soldiers boldly lit torches and cautiously searched forward. The groans of the Boston soldiers in the ditch caught their attention, and when they spotted the ditch and asked about it with torches, a grenade flew in from the opposite side of the ditch and blew up the Boston soldiers.

Hearing the explosion in front, General Pershing didn't have to wait for the report to know that he had encountered the enemy's blocking force. Now that there is a lack of ammunition on their side, even if the number of blocking troops is small, it is not something that can be defeated in a short time, and once they are caught up by the St. Martin's ** team behind, they are in danger of being surrounded.

Seeing that there was no way forward and no way to retreat, Admiral Pershing gritted his teeth and ordered his troops to turn south and march directly into the territory of the Saint-Martin Empire. Now there are blocking troops on both sides of the east and west, and in the north is the large army of the St. Martin Empire, which he can't afford to provoke, and the only way to go is to go south and attack the country of the St. Martin Empire, where the strength is already empty.

Although it was dangerous to go deep into enemy territory, it was already their only way out, so Admiral Pershing resolutely decided to take advantage of the weak forces in the Empire of St. Martin to break into his territory, occupy one or two important places, get some supplies, and then contact the domestic fleet and ask them to send warships to pick him up.

Although he was defeated, he finally invaded the territory of the San Martin Empire, which has not happened in the two countries in a hundred years of war, and I believe that he can offset the merits and let himself escape. It's a pity that Admiral Pershing, who is wishful thinking, does not know that at this moment, on the sea, the stormy ocean fleet of the Boston Empire is undergoing a severe test.

At this time, the Imperial Navy of St. Martin had just received four 'Lanting'-class battleships and six 'Tongjiang'-class cruisers from the Chinese Consulate, and the Chinese Consulate even secretly lent them a group of naval officers and sailors to help them familiarize themselves with the operation of the Chinese Consulate's warships.

With a fleet strong enough, Marshal Dinant decided to take the initiative and seek an opportunity to annihilate the Storm Ocean fleet of the Boston Empire and seize sea supremacy. Just when the Boston Imperial Storm Ocean Fleet was covering the movement of Admiral Pershing's army towards the coastline of the Federation of Central and South Africa, the main fleet of the Empire of St. Martin led by Marshal Dinant had also pulled anchor and set sail towards the coast of the Federation of Central and Southern Africa.

Just as the Boston Imperial Storm Ocean Fleet had completed its mission and was about to return home, it ran head-on into the main fleet of the St. Martin Empire, which was looking for them, and when the lookout posts of the two countries spotted each other almost simultaneously, a new naval battle was inevitable.

"Spot the enemy." The lookout post quickly informed the fleet commander about the situation. This time, it was not the inexperienced Vice Admiral Dewey who led the Boston fleet on the expedition, but the experienced admiral Admiral Godard.

Although the combat report written by the Spring and Autumn Period last time and the strength of the family made Vice Admiral Dewey appreciated by the high-level, the excessive loss of ships still made the Admiralty very distressed, so they chose the more experienced and famous Admiral Gordal for this attack.

As soon as he saw the thick black smoke over the opposing fleet, the experienced Admiral Godard concluded that this was a huge naval fleet, and he immediately ordered the battle alarm to be sounded, and the entire fleet dispersed in battle formation and accelerated to meet it.

Since the last time all cruisers were lost, the Boston Imperial Storm Ocean Fleet has undergone a replenishment. After learning of the imminent arrival of the warships sold by the Chinese Consulate to the St. Martin Empire, they immediately sent two newly launched 'Missouri'-class battleships.

Although the Missouri class battleship only has a displacement of 10,000 tons, it is the first real battleship built by the Boston Empire itself, unlike the Gallino class ironclad ships, the Missouri class is not a wooden ship with armor, and the all-steel design, after receiving the technical assistance of the Thar Empire, they can finally make the rivets strong enough to support the weight of 10,000 tons of warships.

The Missouri-class battleship was equipped with four 305-mm guns and ten 152-mm secondary guns, and thanks to the use of new boilers imported from the Saar Empire, it reached a speed of fifteen knots, three knots faster than the 12,000-ton Gallino-class ironclads.

In addition to the Missouri-class battleships, there were also the 5,000-ton Monette-class cruisers that had just entered service, and eight of them also came with the group. Admiral Godard quickly divided the warships into two teams, formed a two-battle line formation, and met each other.

Seeing the other party's swift reaction, Marshal Dinant understood that this time it was not the inexperienced hairy boy who led the team last time. He smiled and tapped his fingers on the table and smiled: "I don't know which old fellow is here again, this time my warship is not behind you, let's try again." Although his face was relaxed, Marshal Dinant did not dare to slack off, and he immediately ordered the fleet to spread out and prepare to meet it.

Due to the mixed ship types of the St. Martin Empire, Marshal Dinant did not put up a neat battle line formation like Admiral Gothal, but divided the fleet into arrays. The first group was naturally four 'Lanting'-class battleships, these rough-skinned battleships with 330 mm guns, they would take on the task of meeting the enemy head-on, these four huge warships lined up in a line, and quickly began to turn, intending to attack the incoming Boston Imperial Navy fleet with broadside fire.

Three 'Xibai'-class ironclads and two old ship-waist gun house ironclads cruised around as the second group, providing fire support for the first group with bow firepower.

The thirteen cruisers were divided into two groups, one was the First Cruiser Fleet, consisting of six 'Tongjiang' class cruisers, who intended to make a big detour tactic and make a detour behind the opponent to attack.

The other group is the second cruiser fleet composed of seven old cruisers, which is responsible for guarding the perimeter, and by the way, striking at the injured warships of the other side that have left the battlefield, completely looking like a handicap, waiting to pick up some bargains.

Seeing that the four 'Lanting'-class battleships were beginning to turn, Admiral Godard immediately ordered the fleet to move forward at full speed and scramble into his own range. He knew that the opponent's 330-millimeter artillery not only had a long range but was also powerful, and if he could not close the distance as soon as possible, he would only be beaten.

Sure enough, after the four 'Lanting'-class battleships completed their turn, the sixteen 330-mm guns immediately began firing. Since the most advanced optical sights on these battleships were removed before they were exported, their accuracy was not as accurate as in the first battle against the Cossack fleet, and the first round of firing did not result.

This round of firing was similar to a test firing, the shells fell into the sea a hundred meters in front of the Boston fleet, after a round of test firing, those already experienced St. Martin sailors quickly found their senses, and then the gunners of the St. Martin Imperial Navy who found their senses hit more and more accurately, and when the fourth salvo was fired, three of the sixteen shells finally got the result.

A cannonball penetrated from the bow of a cruiser in the lead, because the trajectory was relatively straight, and the kinetic energy of the shell of more than 400 catties was relatively large, this shell penetrated the coal bunker of the bow compartment of the ship, and penetrated into the ammunition depot of the main gun, although the shells here have not yet been equipped with fuses, but the Boston people are inexperienced in building ships, their shells and propellants are mixed, the explosion of this shell ignited the gunpowder bag as a propellant, and the fire quickly engulfed the bow.

Since the Boston Imperial warships fired the charges and shells together, the fire quickly ignited the charges in nearby shells, and the chain reaction quickly became irreparable, with a huge explosion blowing the entire cruiser into the sky.

The other two shells plunged into the deck between the main gun emcourse and the conning tower of a Galino-class ironclad almost simultaneously, and exploded in the boiler compartment at the same time, causing the ironclad to lose power immediately.