Fierce artillery fire, heavy gunsmoke, splashing flesh and blood, and soaring flames...... De la Perel's consciousness was confused, as if he had returned to the Sino-French battle he had fought as a captain thirty years earlier. After a while, a sharp and sharp pain in his arm suddenly awakened his nerves; So the heavy eyelids slowly opened, and the long-lost light re-entered his eyes.

"Your Excellency, you have finally woken up!" The adjutant's familiar voice came from his ears. De la Perel struggled to look around, and found that he seemed to be in the captain's quarters, which were less than ten square meters, and the floor below him was swaying slowly with the ship's roll. He cleared his throat, which had become a little hoarse from dryness, and said, "How long have I been unconscious, why don't you carry me to the command's cabin, which has been leveled by the Austrian fire?" What happened to the Dandong and the fleet? ”

Hearing the series of questions asked by de la Perel, the adjutant had a sad and sad look on his face, and said miserably: "Your Excellency, we are now in the captain's room of the battleship Vigno, and the Danton has been sunk by the Austro-Hungarian battleship!" The Austro-Hungarian Radec-class battleship, which was located behind the United Forces, suddenly turned to us and opened fire, and a 305-mm shell hit the base of the command tower, and you fell to the ground wounded and unconscious. In the next twenty minutes, the Dandong was hit by eight large-caliber shells in a row, the waterline was pierced one after another, and the battleship was soon filled with 2,000 tons of seawater; Since the generator compartment was also destroyed, a large number of pumps could not be operated, and we were forced to abandon the ship because we were unable to prevent the flooding. At the moment, he briefly told de la Perel what had happened.

De la Perel's face was pale, and his eyes were full of shock and anger, as if he had experienced a commander like him. It is also difficult to accept this fact in a short period of time. It's not too late. He seemed to remember something again. His lips twitched: "What about the situation of the fleet, how is the current battle situation?" ”

"Within an hour of your coma, our situation took a turn for the worse: Voltaire was pinned by a combined Italian and Turkish battleship, and because the signal cables and searchlights were destroyed, we had no idea what kind of trauma Voltaire had suffered, except for the constant rise of huge fireballs on its bridge, side, and deck. Due to the slow down, Voltaire was no longer able to make deft maneuvers; In a salvo of the Dante, it exploded after being hit by three shells. Flames and clouds of smoke rose to a thousand meters into the air, and in a few minutes, the heroic battleship was gone forever! The adjutant said to De la Perel with a deep heart.

"In addition to the sinking of the two dreadnoughts Danton and Voltaire, the Mirabeau was also hit with seven 305-mm main gun shells: the starboard guns were destroyed so that only one of the bow main turrets was still usable, the number of casualties among officers and men was close to three hundred, and the upper bridge was almost completely gone. The two British old man star dreadnoughts 'Ambition' and 'Ocean' in the rear were sunk by the Austrians, and the 'Honor' and 'Revenge' withdrew from the battlefield due to serious injuries. In exchange, we sank the Italian Queen Margaret and Bundeto? The Bollinger was two dreadnoughts, damaging the Zollini, Radetz, and Dante, as well as two other Austro-Hungarian dreadnoughts. At present, the shape shì is extremely unfavorable to our side. None of the Allied dreadnoughts sank, and Chief of Staff Heller was acting commander. Command the fleet to retreat at full speed to the west. The adjutant added to de la Perel.

"Boom!" The sound was like thunder, and the hull shook; The adjutant stumbled under his feet, and hurriedly held on to the wall next to him to stabilize his figure. Seeing the frightened, stunned, and inquiring face of the fleet commander, the adjutant spoke again: "As you can see, Your Excellency, we are still being pursued by the Austrians, and even the smoke screen raised by the torpedo boats has not been able to stop their shelling. However, we can be somewhat reassured that the Austrian battleship has also suffered a lot of damage, and some of their main guns are already unable to fire, and the high ammunition consumption also makes it impossible for them to maintain the rate of fire of the previous half minute of fire. Even though our ships have sunk more tonnage than their opponents, it will be very difficult for them to eat us in one go. ”

De la Perel's eyes were gloomy and he did not speak; The depression and stagnation in his heart is difficult to describe in words. From the beginning of the war to the present, the French Navy has lost more than 100,000 tons of its fleet. Although the armored cruisers such as Gueydon, Gloire, and Michelet were originally the scum of a whole era behind the world, although Charlemagne, Mrs. Sister-in-law, and Liberty were all relying on numerical superiority to run rampant in the confrontation of the same level. Although the 18,300-ton Danton-class is generally considered to be inferior to the 16,200-ton Radetz-class, these warships are all carrying the arduous efforts and firm determination of the French nation that was defeated in 1870 and intended to return to the world's first-class power. Countless young people in their prime stepped on the deck of the warship with high morale and dedicated themselves to the dream of themselves and the nation; And their eternal sleep under the sea is undoubtedly a great and painful loss for France!

"Help me up, I'm going to the Command Tower." De la Perel's voice was slightly hoarse, but the will he revealed was inviolable. The adjutant looked at him with some hesitation, but finally obeyed the order, put the old man's arm on his shoulder, and walked out of the captain's room step by step. Walking through the corridor and onto the deck, a thick smell of gunpowder smoke hit his face, causing De la Perel to stop. Soot gushes and the sea breeze blows. Looking up, the four remaining French dreadnoughts on the sea are no longer the majestic scene when they first entered the battlefield. They were all battered by the terrible artillery fire, and the decks and bridges were filled with huge holes, and steel plates blackened by the heat rolled up everywhere; In the shattered and deformed turret, the original stout guns that reached the sky were also hanging on the deck weakly, and there was no hope of firing again.

De la Perel's eyes turned, and he saw the row of Confederate battleships in the distance. Similar to the scarred French ships, they also showed significant damage to their appearance; Their search for local firepower superiority is more like the two-wound spell used by an evil mage in a fantasy novel, which completely covers the target while exposing themselves to the opponent's steady output without pressure. At present, although the distance between the two sides has been further reduced, the firepower of the Allied battleships has suffered considerable losses in previous battles, so that their accuracy has not improved substantially. However, this move was definitely a fruitful and wise decision, which is enough to prove from the current lineup of only 4 French dreadnoughts still floating on the sea, while the 6 Allied dreadnoughts are not damaged!

"Your Excellency Admiral, the open deck is too dangerous, let's hurry up and go to the conning tower." Seeing that de la Perel was still standing and looking, without the slightest intention of moving forward, the adjutant was a little anxious in his heart, and couldn't help but whisper admonishment. For those exposed to the deck, the threat to their lives is manifold: in addition to the devastating explosion caused by a direct hit of a cannonball, a near-miss can also pose a fatal threat to them. Once the waves are rolled up on the deck, the huge kinetic energy contained in them will be like an invisible hand clasping the ankles of the sailors, and they will be swept directly into the sea with the waves; And the agitated shrapnel produced by the shell after falling into the water and exploding undoubtedly has a range of more than double digits, and the damage suffered by these things penetrating the body is undoubtedly much more than being hit by a bullet!

Della Perel sighed, and reluctantly stepped forward, as a veteran professional soldier who had just joined the army, he naturally knew that the command tower under the protection of heavy armor was far safer than the dangerous open deck. However, after only a few steps, a row of majestic and wide walls of water suddenly appeared out of the corner of De la Perel's eye; He turned his head to look like a launch, but saw the battleship Mirabeau more than 1,000 meters behind him burst into flames, and after a while, the sound of explosions like a tsunami and thunder suddenly reached his ears!

The red light is furious, and the sea of fire is like a rainbow. Streams of high-pressure steam rushed out of the Mirabeau's square portholes, spewing out dozens of meters away, and the glass exploded and shattered everywhere it went; From a distance, it looks like a dragon and silver Jiao are soaring into the sky and into the sea, roaring and dancing. The battleship, which was already scarred, came to a complete halt under the thunderous blow that destroyed the boiler room, and the light and smoke dominated the entire deck. Looking at the dreadnought of his own side, which was like a large buffalo full of water, and no longer moved on the surface of the sea, a strong feeling of dizziness suddenly came through de la Perel's mind, and his whole body trembled slightly; This was already the third dreadnought lost by its own side, and more than 52 million francs were lost; And judging from the momentum of the 40-meter-high wall of water just now, the perpetrator can only be the Allied flagship United Forces, which is equipped with 350mm heavy guns!

"Damn the British, haven't they come yet?" De la Perel looked down at the pocket watch on his arm, and his heart was so angry that he couldn't help but let out a loud roar. Now, three hours had passed since the initial engagement, and it was almost time to negotiate with the British beforehand; And Milne, the commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet on the Old Man Star, also told him that he was constantly contacting Betty by secret telegram! Not only did a thought flash through de la Perel's mind, could it be that the British deliberately released this news to reassure themselves, so that they could use the hands of the Austrians to get rid of the French navy? (To be continued......)

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