Jericho was not as desperate as Magifin would, and he was completely unaware of the fierce and decisive command style of Magifin, who had experienced several naval battles. So when the fleet commanded by Magifin suddenly approached again, Jericho was actually a little caught off guard!

At one point, the two fleets were close to a distance of only 1500 meters! The gunners on both sides frantically filled the shells with shells, then aimed and fired. At such a close distance, the warships on both sides were full of firepower, from the 8-inch main gun, to the 12-pounder 6-pounder small-caliber rapid-fire gun, and even the 1-pounder gun, in just about ten minutes, thousands of shells of various kinds were fired from the guns of 7 battleships, and the dense shells that crossed the air formed a barrage to envelop the battleship!

At this moment, even the Manila and Santiago, which have relatively good armor protection, are covered in fire with dozens of high-explosive shells! OF COURSE, THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE ARMOR PROTECTION, BUT THE 12-GUN EMPLACEMENTS AND BRIDGES WITHOUT PROTECTION WERE DAMAGED, AND THE 57MM SIX-POUNDER SHELLS WERE SMALLER, BUT THEY COULDN'T HOLD MUCH. The Manila and Columbia were hit by more than a dozen rounds of 6-pounder shells in a very short time, flammable materials such as teak decks were quickly ignited, and the billowing smoke even affected the aiming of the artillery! The two cruisers unconsciously shifted a little to the left, trying to pull some distance. But then the fleet looks a little scattered!

If the Santiago and Manila at this time encountered some trouble, but they only looked miserable, then the Pluto behind was really miserable! After the two sides approached, Pluto truly realized the ferocity of the Olympia! This battleship of less than 6,000 tons concentrated almost all its firepower on the Pluto design, and the barrage formed by 8-inch shells, 5-inch shells and 6-pound shells completely covered this only 4,000-ton battleship!

An 8-inch shell broke through the fragile hull and hit the Pluto's dome armor fiercely, and the 4-inch steel-faced iron armor shook violently, although it did not break down due to the angle problem, but the huge impact still made the back plate of the steel plate burst open, and scattered fragments spread in the internal cabin. One of them happened to cut off a steam pipe, and the high-temperature and high-pressure steam instantly filled the entire cabin, and the power of the entire battleship began to decline! In addition to this internal injury, the deck and hull of the Pluto were also swept by the other side, it had no waterline armor, so the side of the ship was also hit by the flying cannonballs. One 6-inch rapid-fire gun and two 12-pounder guns were overturned by the enemy's ferocious fire, and the entire deck was also heavily wounded. Covered with minced meat and all sorts of burning debris. For a while, there was no living person on the entire bridge!

As the saying goes, killing a thousand enemies will cost you eight hundred, especially this kind of close-quarters hand-to-hand combat. Both sides had a high hit rate, so when the Olympia beat Pluto, the almost ignored fury of the horn interpreted the true meaning of the sentence. With a close distance, a non-distracting shooting environment, and no attack in the slightest, if you can't hit accurately, the furious gunners will have the option to jump off the building!!

So. As the Olympia stormed the Pluto, the Fury attacked her opponent like a moving target! When the American sailors on the Olympia cheered because an 8-inch shell hit the Pluto, an 8-inch shell from the Fury also hit the stern of the Olympia! The American gunner, who was operating in the aft turret, only felt a sharp shock in the stern, and when the gun commander looked out, an 8-inch shell pierced the left rear of the hull side chord, and a bright yellow flame erupted from the breach, and yellow-green smoke began to gradually spread.

And that's just the beginning! Two more 6-inch shells and several 12-pound shells then hit the Olympia. To make matters worse, because the Fury was on the left rear of the Olympia, the shells were mostly concentrated in the tail of the Olympia, and the same hits were evenly distributed throughout the ship and concentrated in a smaller area were completely different concepts. Under the dense firepower, the cruiser, which was the third most powerful cruiser in the US Navy, was punched a hole in the stern. Bright yellow flames and green poisonous smoke filled the entire stern! U.S. Navy damage crews tried to rush to extinguish the fire, but no one dared to go up again after two groups of brave lads were swept down like wheat by flying shrapnel. Shrapnel, flames, and smoke have turned this stern into a hell of blood and fire! Any creature that tries to approach it will be torn to shreds. …,

At the same time, the two American cruisers at the head of the team also returned fierce fire after the Spaniards reacted! People have better protection than you, and artillery is more than you and bigger than you. Although Ma Jifen's raid brought some losses to the other party, it was after others eased up. Columbia-class cruisers simply could not withstand the wrath of the other side!

"From the moment we rushed up, we had the advantage five minutes ago. The rapid-fire guns of the whole ship smashed the surface of the opponent's ship into a sea of fire, and I looked from my position. I could clearly see the bullet holes in the bridge of the opposing ship spewing black smoke and flames like the mouth of the devil, and the opposing team members tried to extinguish the fire on the ship, but we responded to them with 6-pounder guns and 1-pounder guns, and right in front of my eyes, a squad of Spaniards was swept up by a string of 1-pounder shells, like the scythe of death, and after the fire, only a pile of mutilated corpses remained. Under the blowing of the sea breeze, a puff of gunpowder smoke mixed with the strong smell of blood made us all sick to our stomachs. Judging from the situation at that time, it seems that as long as we continue to fight like this, we will be able to suppress the opponent until we completely destroy the opponent! ”

"But the facts tell us that we couldn't be more wrong! The two Santiago-class cruisers looked badly beaten, but the damage was only skin wounds, and it was difficult for our guns to penetrate the opponent's key protective area, and in these 5 minutes, at least one 8-inch shell hit the Manila, but in the face of the opponent's armor, our shell was bounced away, and then turned into a fireball on the sea. The other side is starting to fight back, and their firepower is even more fierce than ours! Two 8-inch shells hit my Columbia almost simultaneously, and a bright yellow flame rose from the bow and amidships of the ship at the same time! The whole battleship slammed into a slam! I was knocked to the ground because I was close to the bombing site. When I got up to look, the 8-inch gun gallery in the bow of the ship had been blown to pieces, the long gun barrels had been blown off, and one of them had even smashed a large hole in the deck, and I understood at that time that it must have been a bunch of boys who had put the propellant packs behind the gun gallery! ”

"After this round of blows, the bow of the Columbia was completely covered in flames and smoke, and a huge column of smoke rose up. And this was only the beginning, and then the high rate of fire of the 6-inch guns and the rain of shells from the remaining 12-pounder guns also fell on our battleships, and the first thing to suffer was a 4-inch gun gallery. A 6-inch high-explosive shell directly turned the entire gun gallery into a flaming flare, and then another 6-inch armor-piercing shell pierced the sidechord hull and opened a hole in the waterline. And the 12-pounder rapid-fire gun turned the deck into a sea of fire, coupled with the grenades equipped by the Spaniards, hundreds of steel balls flew on the bridge, knocking the boys down one by one. Afterwards, a veteran who had served on the Columbia recorded the situation.

"Turn the rudder right, deflect a compass point, we need to get away to put out the fire!" Majifen ordered after looking at the three burning battleships behind him with a grim face. A feeling of powerlessness quietly rose in his heart. After a hand-to-hand attack, in addition to taking advantage of the beginning, in the later battle, in the face of the Santiago-class cruiser with good firepower, the Columbia-class assault only had a slight advantage on the scene, and then the opponent used 8 guns of more than 6 inches to teach this battleship with a displacement of 7,000 tons but no commensurate firepower. Majifen won the first move, but did not win, although the two large ships are relatively strong in terms of tonnage, but the scarred hull, the crew with heavy casualties and the blown up artillery all no longer tell Majifen that it is not possible to fight like this!

But fortunately, the Olympia hit the Pluto hard, slowing down the 4,000-ton battleship, so that the other side only had two choices, either abandon the Pluto and leave it to fend for itself, or the fleet slowed down and ceded the speed advantage to the American fleet. However, although he had the upper hand, Magiffin knew that his fleet could not endlessly advance and then withdraw like this, and that the two Santiago-class cruisers of the other side were too strong for him. Moreover, it is not only their own three ships that will decide the outcome of this battle. …,

Thinking of this, Magifen couldn't help but look at the Brooklyn and New York in the distance, as well as the King and Cologne opposite them, because of the entanglement just now, in fact, the formation of the fleets of the two sides has been broken up, the United States and Spain are both large ships in front of them to keep shooting at a distance, and the small boats behind are scuffled, and after a period of time, a certain distance has been opened between the front team and the rear team. Both sides may have some confidence in their rear team, and both have given the commander of the detachment a certain amount of authority, so neither side can reduce the speed to cover the rear team.

Yang Yonglin rest assured, Ma Jifen can understand, after all, the strength of the opponent's 4 warships is there, after a long battle, it will inevitably be the American fleet that will lose, and on his own side, if he wants to win, then when Shirley's two cruisers can arrive will be the key to victory or defeat! If Shelly had come early, the U.S. fleet would have chosen to run away immediately after crushing or even sinking Pluto and Fury, but if it came too late! Perhaps, the Majifen fleet has already been crippled by the other side!

But for now, the two sides are still at loggerheads. After a round of fighting, both sides wanted to fight the injured wolf, licking their wounds while looking for a new opportunity, and both sides retreated to a safer distance to extinguish the fire and save themselves. At the same time, two rounds were fired from time to time with naval guns. The fight in the rear team is over, but the real fight has officially begun!

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