"Turn around, don't let that enemy ship escape!"

As soon as he saw that his main fleet had arrived, Su Ke's spirit was immediately lifted, and then he saw that the two British battleships that were chasing had turned around, and the injured "Victory" Wuzi was still struggling to turn around on the ocean, even if he was happy, he didn't want to miss such a great opportunity to make the first battle exploits, no side, the "Shunfeng" was just a cruiser, not the main battleship, like this main decisive battle, the cruiser was not qualified to turn sideways in the battle line, so he could only stay on the sidelines and watch the main forces of the two armies fight, At most, when pursuing, give full play to the speed advantage and harass the opponent, it is basically difficult to get the possibility of getting the results, as for now, the "Victory" is such a soft persimmon in front of you, not pinching it in vain, it is out of this kind of thinking, Su Ke does not intend to meet with his main force, but brazenly ordered to turn around and attack the "Victory"

"Captain, the Qingren are back again!"

In the previous fierce battle, the "Rose" and the "Victory" suffered a lot of damage, when it comes to the number of soldiers killed in the battle, the "Rose" is actually a little more, and the damage to the hull is also heavier, fortunately, the "Rose" was damaged as soon as the battle began, and the back ran more slowly, although it suffered a lot of shells, fortunately, there was not much damage, although the mast was broken, it could barely be driven, it was worth the "Hundred-Eyed Giant" when the retreat, the "Rose" also followed the trend and fled back, but " The "Victory" was obviously not so lucky, not only was one of the masts broken, but the tail rudder also had problems, even if the sailors were already struggling to repair it, but the damage was too heavy, and it was difficult to control the hull for a while, so they could only helplessly turn around on the ocean, but fortunately, the lookout post on its mast was still loyal, and as soon as the "Shunfeng" turned around, he was already roaring and sounding the alarm.

Hearing the alarm from the lookout post, Lieutenant Colonel John Jones, the captain of the "Victory", suddenly turned pale, and hurriedly picked up the glasses hanging from his waist, and looked in the direction of the "Shunfeng". Unless surrendered, the sinking of the battle is already the inevitable result of the "victory".

"Warriors of Great Britain, the time has come to test us, for the king, for the honor, stabilize the hull of the ship, and fight to the death!"

Lieutenant Colonel John Jones is not from a famous family, but a veteran naval officer who has really rolled all the way from the grassroots level, and has made many military exploits, but unfortunately there is no one in the DPRK, and after being promoted to the position of lieutenant colonel, he has not been able to rise, but he was sent to India a few years ago, out of the main force of the British Navy, and was marginalized, but this did not affect his blood and bravery, seeing that there was no possibility of escape, Lieutenant Colonel John Jones did not intend to surrender, but raised his arms and shouted a declaration to fight to the end.

"Fight to the death, fight to the end!"

The officers and men of the British Navy have always been proud, even in the face of a desperate situation of death, they have never been discouraged, one by one they roared at the top of their throats, not only roaring, but also acting extremely quickly, and soon fixed the tail rudder, with a relatively intact port side towards the galloping "Downwind", the nine cannons on the gun deck were in place one by one, and the bow guns on the foredeck were also ready to shoot, just waiting for a final battle with the "Downwind".

"Turn the rudder right, go around to the tail of the enemy ship, and give Lao Tzu a damn blow!"

Lieutenant Colonel John Jones was looking forward to a knightly battle to the death with the "Shunfeng", but unfortunately Su Ke did not have such a plan, seeing that the "Victory" locked the tail rudder, and had completely lost the ability to maneuver, he did not want to play a head-to-head duel with the opponent, and gave the general order with a wave of his hand.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

Although the "Shunfeng" was also damaged in many places in the previous battle, it did not affect the maneuverability, Su Ke ordered it, and the sailors did not dare to slack off, and completed the steering with their hands and feet quickly, and cruised at a distance of less than 100 meters from the "Victory", and headed towards the tail of the "Victory" with an almost intact starboard side. Even though the British officers and men on board were angry and frustrated, they did not suffer the slightest damage to the "Downwind," and only three salvos were fired, and the stern of the "Victory" was blown into countless debris floating on the sea, and the "Victory," which had lost its balance, entered the water in large quantities, and the stern gradually sank, but the bow of the ship was raised high, and it swayed on the surface of the sea a few times, and then sank, and dozens of living British officers and men fell into the sea like dumplings, and most of them were dragged to the bottom of the sea by the whirlpool of the sinking of the "Victory." and a small part of them are struggling and swimming in the sea.

"Get out of the field!"

After sinking the "Victory" in an incomparable way, all the officers and men on the ship couldn't help cheering, but although Su Ke was also smiling happily, he did not forget his business, seeing that his main fleet was already approaching the battlefield, he did not dare to stay in the same place any longer, so he hurriedly gave the order, commanded his officers and men to withdraw to the west, and together with the other seven cruisers that had evacuated the main fleet in advance, they stood by outside the battlefield.

"Order: All detachments should be arranged in battle lines based on the Chinese fleet, with the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fleets on the left and the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th fleets on the right, and they should be lined up in columns at a distance of 1,200 meters from the enemy.

At the end of the day, Wang Yanxia led the main fleet to the battlefield, but did not rush forward, but wandered outside the battlefield, and carefully observed the arrangement of the combined fleet through the telescope, Wang Yanxia finally made up his mind to fight a decisive battle, but when he saw that he waved his hand, he had already issued the first order in a low voice.

In the naval battles of this era, they are all in battle lines to bombard, the two sides have two choices, one is to seize the upper line, which is convenient for attack and maneuver, and the other is to seize the lower wind line, although it is slightly disadvantageous in the offensive, but it can effectively prevent the enemy from escaping, in the European theater, the British Navy has always been to prevent the enemy from escaping, and habitually choose the downwind line to line up, this is no other, confidence ear, in the eyes of the officers and men of the British Navy, there has never been an enemy who cannot be defeated, in fact, since seventy years ago, After the rise of the British Navy, there were really no major defeats in the Atlantic theater, and some were only successive victories, and this time although Edward Vernon led a multinational coalition force, the tactical choice he could make was still to line up on the downwind line.

Of the twenty-three battleships of the British Navy, three cruisers (including the damaged "Rose") retreated to the rear of the battlefield, and the remaining twenty battleships were lined up, with the first-class battleship "Brave" as the core, two second-class battleships as the left and right wing supports, the remaining ten third-class battleships and seven two-masted medium warships were on the left and right, and the Spanish ten battleships (two second-class battleships, three third-class battleships, and five medium-sized battleships) were listed on the left flank of the British fleet. On its side were a French battleship of the third rank and two medium ships; The right flank of the Great Britain consisted of two Portuguese third class and three medium ships and two Dutch third class ships and four medium ships. (One of the six Portuguese battleships was a cruiser and was not lined up.) ）

The shape and related configuration of the second-class battleships of the countries in the combined fleet are not the same, like the second-class battleships of Great Britain are equipped with ninety-eight guns of various types, while the second-class battleships of Spain are equipped with one hundred and two guns of various types, as for the third-class battleships, the firepower of each country is roughly the same, all of them are about seventy-five guns of various types, more than seventy-eight, and there are seventy-two guns less, and the performance of the guns used by various countries is also different. Specifically, the effective range of the heavy artillery of the Britons could reach a distance of about 1,200 meters, while the effective range of the heavy artillery of the rest of the countries basically hovered around 1,100 meters.

The main force of the Bohai Fleet of the Great Qing Dynasty participating in the war had a total of 76 warships, excluding the eight cruisers that were waiting outside the battlefield, and a total of 68 were arranged on the battle line, of which the flagship was the "Zhenyang", and there were three medium-sized warships as cover, as for the eight sub-fleets, each of which had eight large and medium-sized warships, and the configuration was basically the same, all of which were composed of three large battleships with the prefix "Zhen" and five medium-sized warships The large battleships with the prefix had three gun decks with eighty-two guns of various types, while the medium battleships had two gun decks and forty-two guns of various types.

The lowest level of each battleship is heavy artillery, the effective range is as far as 1,800 meters, the use of the cartridge breech feeding method, the average rate of fire is two and a half minutes a round, the caliber is twenty-five, the shell is a conical blasting projectile, the power is huge, because of the use of the latest tungsten steel casting in the Qing Dynasty, the gun body is solid, and much lighter than the traditional cast iron cannon, the battleship with the prefix of "town" is medium-sized artillery, but the type of shells is different, most of the middle artillery is based on solid armor-piercing shells, Supplemented by some flowering shells, the main targets of the attack are the various gun decks of the opposing battleship, while the upper guns are attacking the opponent's deck personnel, and most of the shells used are flowering shells, and some shotguns.

On the whole, the Qing army is obviously superior in the number of warships, but the number of artillery on both sides is roughly the same, although the Qing army is superior, but in terms of the overall situation, it is not the decisive factor, as for the maneuverability of the warships on both sides, it is also roughly the same, from the perspective of the tactical maneuver of the two sides, even if the training level of the Qing army is not as good as the British Navy, but it is not too far behind, at least stronger than France, and Portugal and other countries are basically on the same level, Since the combined fleet has given up the upper hand, the gap between the two sides in the level of sailing is not too obvious, the strength of the combined fleet is strong in combat experience, while the Qing side has an indisputable superiority in armament, whether these advantages can make up for the gap between the two sides in combat experience, it will have to be known......