On April 27, two days after Roland left Parnia, on a bright spring morning, a huge fleet marched into the waters off Parnia, led by three giant battleships, namely the Imperial Navy's flagship "Charlemagne" and its two sister ships, "Queen Teresa" and "Crown Prince Frank".

These three huge ships were so large that the six cruisers scattered on their two wings were extraordinarily small, and when the fleet sailed into the sea near the harbor, the lookout on the lighthouse on the shore was surprised to find that the inferior warships of the Imperial Navy were not to be underestimated, and the tonnage was comparable to that of the flagship of the Parnia Navy!

The lighthouse sounded the alarm, and the Vijeess Cathedral, located in the middle of the port square, sounded the alarm. At about the same time, Prince Carol and Lady Theodora informed the inhabitants of the imminent attack of the Imperial fleet through the local Magic Radio news program in Parnia, asked the shore defense forces to be ready for battle, called on the people to unite against the invaders, and advised the elderly and weak women and children in the city to evacuate to the villages and towns outside the city as soon as possible.

While the city was in chaos, the Imperial Navy fleet had already spread out a battle line on the periphery of the Palnia military port, sending a round of intimidating artillery bombardment over the harbor, and the rumbling of artillery increased the tension in the city.

The commander of the Imperial Navy, Admiral Charles Lucien, sat on the bridge of the flagship HMS Charlemagne and ordered his lieutenant to send a pre-prepared letter of surrender to the royal family of Parnia. A quarter of an hour later, the adjutant returned: "The Parnians refuse to surrender!" ”

General Lucien shrugged his shoulders and was not surprised by this. Since the Parnians are so ignorant of current affairs, he doesn't mind using a more brutal way to remind the other party to recognize reality.

General Lucien, who had extensive command of naval warfare, did not rush to order an attack on the port, and the main battleships did not move, first sending 10 high-speed destroyers and double the number of minesweepers to the seemingly calm bay to carry out the task of clearing mines.

This mission is crucial. The Empire's main battleship, which is heavily armoured, can withstand shelling from shore defense positions, but it only takes a small mine to be destroyed.

General Lucien made the following arrangements for the operation process at this stage:

The mine-sweeping detachment divided the front sea into several blocks, cleared the mines in blocks, and advanced layer by layer until it was 8,000 yards away from the shore defense battery. Within this cordon, the number of tethered mines scattered is bound to be more dense than in the outer seas, but if the minesweeping fleet crosses the cordon, it will inevitably be heavily bombarded by shore defense batteries. General Lucien and his staff had already learned the details of Parnia's coastal defense positions from the Hailan arms dealers, and it was not difficult to calculate the maximum killing distance of the shore defense guns from the caliber of the coastal defense guns, which was about 8,000 yards.

The Parnians may have thought that a cannon range of 8,000 yards was sufficient, but in the eyes of General Lucien, this notion was completely outdated. Since the beginning of this century, the technology of naval ships has continued to advance, and new records have been set for the caliber and range of naval guns. Most of the main warships that have been put into service in the last ten years of the Varess countries have a range of about 7,000 to 8,000 yards for their main guns, and considering that the defense of the warships cannot be compared with the coastal defense fortresses, the result of the two sides firing each other must be the loss of the warships, which is also the source of the common belief that the warships storming the coastal defense positions are tantamount to asking for hardship - at least the Parnians think so. The expeditionary fleet under the command of General Lucien will refresh the Parnias' perception, and the three new battleships, including the flagship "Charlemagne", will have a range of 10,000 yards for their main guns, and at this distance, the coastal defense batteries are beyond the reach of the whip.

According to General Lucien's plan, the mine-sweeping squadron will spend two to three days to clean up the sea surface of the harbor outside the range of the coastal defense batteries, and then the three main warships will pass through the relatively narrow sea area in front and approach the coastal defense positions on the left, spread out the battle line at a distance of 8,000 to 10,000 yards, and bombard the shore defense batteries, destroying or subduing all the fortresses within the range, and then the mine-sweeping squadrons can safely advance into the sea areas originally protected by the coastal defense batteries and continue to carry out the task of clearing mines. In this way, the main battleships pulled out the batteries one by one, and the high-speed light ships stepped forward to clear the mines, until they reached the dock on the shore.

By successfully completing the above-mentioned tasks of dismantling the batteries and clearing mines, the Imperial fleet will be able to take control of the docks and bombard the city of Parnia, causing a more substantial threat to the local government and residents. If the Parnia authorities still refused to surrender under these circumstances, General Lucien had no choice but to send marines to the docks and, under the cover of naval guns, forcibly take over this beautiful city with a rich history and artistic tradition, which was not something he would like to see as an amateur art connoisseur.

……

Due to the passive evasion of the Parnia fleet, the Imperial fleet had completely mastered the sea control in the waters near the port of Parnia, and the mine-clearing work was carried out in a step-by-step manner, and by dusk the channel had been cleared for about five nautical miles. This progress cannot be said to be slow, but given the approaching night and limited vision, General Lucien had to withdraw the minesweeping fleet and continue its work until sunrise the next morning.

However, on that very night, something unexpected happened that delayed the minesweeping work.

The next morning, the weather was still fine. The minesweeping detachment of the Imperial Navy assembled and set off, still ten high-speed cruisers plus twenty minesweepers. Buoys had been set up on the channel that had been cleaned yesterday, and the detachment thought it was safe to sail in the sea area it had just cleared, but it was precisely in this sea area that a minesweeper first accidentally struck a mine and capsized on the spot, and then the high-speed destroyer "Hussar" hit a mine, and a large hole was opened in the left side of the ship, and all the officers and men on board were forced to abandon ship and move to other warships. After just 30 minutes, the hapless "Hussar" sank to the bottom of the sea.

If it is said that the minesweeper hit a mine by accident and hit a mine that was not cleared yesterday, then the "Hussar" hit a mine in the same water area cannot be explained by accident. The minesweeping detachment carried out operations on the spot and re-inspected the waters that had been cleaned yesterday, only to be shocked to find that no less than 200 mines had been dropped on the local area overnight!

By this time, the commander of the minesweeping detachment had come to his senses, and not long after their withdrawal last night, the Parnia's navy, under the cover of night, sent a large number of small ships to sneak out of the military port and relocate a large number of mines on this necessary route of the Imperial Navy.

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