Chapter 501 Post-War Summary

The "Battle of 218" was the second naval encounter between the Invincible Fleet of the Commercial Alliance and the North Sea Fleet of the Norton family. After the battle www.biquge.info the Armada claimed an undoubted victory, but the North Sea Fleet did not refute this.

Judging from the results announced by the Armada, the victory in this naval battle should indeed belong to them, and it was only the Fourth Detachment of the Armada, which recaptured more than 30 merchant ships loaded with military supplies held by the North Sea Fleet, and escorted them back to Zangjin Bay, while destroying two mine-striking warships and four large armed warships of the North Sea Fleet in the naval engagement.

It's just that the Armada did not announce their losses, and in fact if you count from the number of battleships destroyed on both sides, the fourth squadron can be said to have been crippled. Less than 50 of the more than 100 large and medium-sized armed warships that went out into battle returned to Zangjin Bay, and most of them still needed to go to the shipyard for repair. This is also the real reason why the Fourth Squadron has been cowering in Zangjin Bay before the rainy season arrives, and no longer goes out to sea to patrol and guard, with 7,000 casualties and a great sword division, it can be said that the Fourth Squadron no longer has the courage and capital to go to sea to fight again.

No one could have expected the North Sea Fleet to be so ferocious and cunning, and when two mine-striking battleships and a large armed battleship fell into the hands of the Fourth Fleet, the top brass of the fleet breathed a sigh of relief in their hearts. If you can capture the enemy's three warships and rescue your own thirty or so merchant ships, even if the fleet's losses are a little large, you can go back and deal with it, and capture the two main warships of the North Sea Fleet and bring them back to study, maybe the Invincible Fleet can also be equipped with that kind of bronze artillery in the future, and the North Sea Fleet will not be without the power to fight back in the future.

However, the commanders of the Fourth Squadron were a little too happy, and no one expected that the North Sea Fleet, which had already broken through the encirclement, would not take the opportunity to escape, but would kill them all and grab them, and they would also concentrate on shooting at the two mine-striking battleships and the large armed merchant ship that had fallen into the Fourth Fleet. Not only did he sink and destroy three warships, but he also concentrated his artillery fire and fired shotguns, killing the great swordsman who had captured a lightning battleship with a single sword and falling into the sea, with no bones left......

This was a heavy blow to the Fourth Fleet, seeing that a victory was in sight, but he did not expect that the enemy would have the strength to slap himself. At this time, the third and fourth waves of outflanking warships rushed over to rendezvous, and the warships of the fourth detachment gathered together with nearly 100 warships, in addition to a dozen or so warships that were seriously damaged by shelling, they also had strong combat effectiveness.

It's just that the North Sea Fleet has broken out of the encirclement, and fourteen mine-strike battleships are cruising a thousand nautical yards in the distance. The commander of the Fourth Squadron decided to end the battle, ordered the fleet to line up the defensive array, search for the merchant ships that were running in all directions, abandon the badly damaged warships, and prepare to return to the Zangjin Bay. And the North Sea Fleet in the distance did not seem to be interested in fighting any more, and quickly disappeared between the gloomy sky and the sea after turning around.

According to the experience of the Invincible Armada in the past naval battles, this naval battle has ended, but what they didn't expect was that Sambawood, who had suffered a big loss, was not ready to give up like this. For the North Sea Fleet, today's encounter was a great shame, not only was four large armed warships destroyed, but even two lightning battleships fell into the hands of the enemy, although they were finally destroyed, the casualties of nearly 1,000 crew members and the loss of six battleships were proof of a great defeat.

The final U-turn gave Sambarwood an opportunity to outmaneuver the enemy, the North Sea Fleet was inferior to the Fourth Squadron in terms of the number of ships, but the speed and agility of the ships, combined with the enemy's long-range attack power beyond that of any enemy warship. Thus the Norton family's seawolf tactics that terrified the enemy fleet were born, just like the wolves hunting bison on the prairie, the battleship group of the Fourth Fleet in front of them became the bison herd in the eyes of Sambarwood and the North Sea Fleet.

Sambarwood led the remaining fourteen Thunderbolt ships in a large circle, suddenly appeared in the rear of the Fourth Detachment at about three o'clock in the afternoon, and took advantage of the enemy's panic to launch a surprise attack. All lightning strike ships are one-hit and go, and never engage the enemy. And the first attack disrupted the defensive array of the Fourth Detachment. The five medium-sized and fast armed warships at the rear were directly sunk, while a dozen or so warships and merchant ships were damaged by artillery fire.

The commanders of the Fourth Squadron were in great pain, and if the situation continued, the entire fleet would be in a situation where they would be unable to fight back, and sooner or later they would collapse, but if they wanted to counterattack, they would have to fight back enough for the enemy. At present, any of the mine-striking battleships of the North Sea Fleet are as slippery as a loach, and they can't catch them, so they send battleships to pursue them and turn around and run, and if they chase them farther, they may not be able to come back, and several mine-striking battleships cooperate with each other to deal with those battleships that have been lured out. If you ignore it, those lightning battleships will shell the Fourth Squadron as soon as they reach the firing range, and now the morale of the entire fleet is getting lower and lower.

The Fourth Squadron had not counterattacked, so it wanted to re-encircle the North Sea Fleet by relying on its numerical superiority. But the North Sea Fleet was not fooled this time, and when it found out that the Fourth Fleet was outflanked in three directions, it immediately turned around and ran, and then drew a big circle and bombarded the battleships outflanked on the right flank, and only after the battleships outflanked on the right flank were withdrawn, the commanders of the Fourth Fleet found that a dozen or so battleships could never come back......

Next is the North Sea Fleet's show time, Sambarwood divided the fourteen mine-strike battleships into groups of three or four, respectively, from all directions to carry out a surprise attack on the fourth fleet, as long as it enters the firing range, it is a round of artillery fire, do not pursue continue to fire, if there is a pursuit, run, lure the pursuing battleships to the periphery and then carry out a combined attack......

At that time, the commanders of the Fourth Fleet thought that if this continued, the fleet would soon collapse and be completely destroyed, and they began to think in their hearts whether they should raise the white flag and surrender. But soon the darkness and the depleted ammunition of the North Sea Fleet gave the Fourth Squadron an unexpected lease of life. The remnants of the Fourth Squadron, which had returned to Zangjin Bay the day after the night had passed, were unbearable to see, and only about 50 of the 120-odd warships that had attacked in a majestic manner three days earlier had returned, and the hulls of most of the warships still had traces of damage and temporary repairs caused by artillery bombardment.

The only commendable thing is that the Fourth Squadron rescued more than 30 merchant ships held hostage by the North Sea Fleet and escorted them back to Zangjin Bay. These more than 30 merchant ships loaded with military supplies finally solved the problem of insufficient supply of military materials for the overwhelmed senior management of the Chamber of Commerce. Now that the sea passage has been cut off by the Norton family's North Sea Fleet, the news that nearly fifty merchant ships and cargo ships loaded with military supplies and grain and grass have been coerced and sailed to the island of Shilois has been transmitted to the Chikde Chamber of Commerce by land, and there will no longer be foolish to send merchant ships and cargo ships to transport supplies to the wolf's mouth.

The top brass of the Commercial Alliance were helpless to find that if they wanted to rely on sea transportation to obtain supplies and reinforcements, they had to defeat the Norton family's North Sea Fleet first. They were ready to wait for the rainy season to pass and order the armed fleet of the Second Fleet and the Chicked Chamber of Commerce to move north, on the one hand, to escort supplies and reinforcements to the city of Moldon, and on the other hand, to find the Norton family's North Sea Fleet for a decisive battle at sea, and if possible, to occupy the island of Shilovas and completely eliminate the threat of the Norton family's North Sea Fleet to sea traffic.

But soon the summary report of the 4th Detachment on this naval battle came to the top of the Chamber of Commerce. In this report, all the commanders of the Fourth Detachment who had experienced this naval battle signed their names to ensure the correctness of this report. The combat experience they mentioned in the report shocked the top brass of the Chamber of Commerce, and it was almost impossible to believe that the Invincible Armada had no power to fight back against the Norton family's North Sea Fleet.

A veteran captain stated in his report the fact that most of the ships of the Armada were far behind the Norton family's North Sea Fleet in terms of long-range attack power. At a distance of more than 300 meters, the iron projectiles fired by the guns of the North Sea Fleet can easily shatter or break the thick wooden hull of a ten-centimeter-thick battleship, and at a distance of more than 100 meters, it can break the thick mast in its arms. And whether it is a twisted stone cannon or the latest type of stone throwing machine fired on their battleship, even if it hits the opponent's battleship within a range of 100 meters, it will only leave a small mark on the hull, and it will not be able to cause threatening damage at all.

Not only that, but even in terms of ship design and protection, the large and medium-sized armed warships of the Armada could not match any of the main ships of the Norton family fleet. Those ships that could fire guns were extremely agile in maneuvering, quick in turning, much faster than the Armada ships, and even better than the Armada ships in seaworthiness.

Perhaps in addition to having an advantage over the Norton family's North Sea Fleet in terms of numbers, the Invincible Armada is competing with the Norton family's fleet in the southern seas with those small fast ramming battleships, but once they encounter strong winds and waves, these small quick ramming battleships will be scrapped. Therefore, the commanders of the Fourth Fleet hope that the upper echelons of the Commercial Alliance will allocate a large amount of money to research artillery and rebuild new warships that can compete with the Norton family fleet.

The high-level of the business alliance looked at this report and smiled bitterly, the Norton family invented a very powerful artillery, which is not even much inferior to the dwarven artillery of the legendary dwarven kingdom, and the information that the dwarven artillery is not much inferior to the legendary dwarven kingdom has long been known to them, and the great swordsman sent last year infiltrated the northland to assassinate the seriously injured Lorist, and when he searched for the artillery training base, he was attacked by artillery, and four were killed and three were wounded. Although the remaining Great Sword Divisions carried out a massacre of the soldiers at that base, after all, the power of the artillery had reached the ears of the upper echelons of the Business Alliance.

It's a pity that the Great Swordsmen have obtained a lot of blueprints for new and powerful weapons from the Norton family, but there is no information about the artillery. It is also unclear where the Norton family got the gunpowder for the launch. Just looking at the number of hills and mountains on the map of the Northlands, the higher-ups of the Business Alliance believe that the Nortons have a good chance of unearthing a nitrate mine to prepare the gunpowder needed for the artillery.

In the study of artillery, the business alliance pinned its hopes on the dwarven kingdom in the Titagini Mountains, but the communication and negotiation with the dwarves did not go well, and it took some means and a while. But the massive amount of research funding needed to build a new warship, as proposed in the report, left the upper echelons of the business alliance at bay.

Although business alliances are known for their wealth and power, this does not mean that business alliances have endless wealth. Since the Glass War, the business alliance has been subjected to hostility from all over the world, and its business activities have been suppressed, which has finally forced the business alliance to adopt a policy of external expansion to ensure its commercial interests and sphere of influence. It took so much time and effort to defeat and disintegrate the hostile alliance of the kingdoms of South Central China, making the commercial alliance the largest country in the territory of the Gelinthia continent in one fell swoop. But it turned against the Kingdom of Antinac again, and the intensity of this war was even more intense than the wars in which the previous commercial alliances had participated.

The business alliance can no longer bear it, and now it is up to the Andinac Kingdom to fight to the end to see who collapses first. The new territories obtained by expansion have not been properly sorted out for effective management, and this side is fighting with the Kingdom of Antinac. To put it mildly, the Business Alliance has poured all its resources into this war. At such a critical juncture, where can a large amount of money be allocated to the research of new warships......

The Fourth Fleet's post-war summary report led to a consensus among the top brass of the Business Alliance that the Norton family's North Sea Fleet would be destroyed at all costs and the island of Shilowas. Since the development of the Norton family's fleet has left the Invincible Armada far behind, so that the Invincible Fleet cannot catch up and surpass in a short period of time, then take advantage of the small size of the North Sea Fleet to use the numerical superiority of the Invincible Fleet to destroy this enemy, no matter how much sacrifice is made, the Norton family's sea power will be pulled to the same level as the Invincible Armada, and everyone will compete and develop together.

As long as the island of Shilovas is captured, then there is no need to worry even if the Norton family vigorously develops its sea power. The loss of the island of Hiloas by the Nortons meant that they would lose the initiative and anchoring base on the battlefield at sea, and would no longer be able to pose a threat to the sea trade routes south of the Zangjin Bay. The top leaders of the Commercial Alliance are very confident, with the golden coastline of the sunny sea in the central and southern part of the continent, the Invincible Armada will only develop faster and faster, and relying on a remote and desolate Northland, how can the Norton family compete with the Invincible Fleet of the Commercial Alliance at sea again?

The top management of the business alliance who had made up their minds once again expanded the size of the northbound fleet, and this time they planned to let the first squadron of the Invincible Fleet stationed in the kingdom of Chigda also go north together, first rendezvous with the second fleet, and then join the armed fleet of the Chikde Chamber of Commerce to escort grain, grass and military supplies, as well as reinforcements to the Tibetan Golden Bay. Then gather all the fleets and go straight to the island of Hilovas. Even if the Norton family's North Sea Fleet is very powerful, how can a dozen battleships equipped with artillery be able to defeat seven or eight hundred warships, even if they are targets, it is impossible to hit so many ......

Just as the upper echelons of the Business Alliance were thinking about how to attack the island of Hilovas and take away the threat of the Norton family fleet to the sea routes. Sambarwood also returned to Hiroas with fourteen Thunderstrike ships. This sortie was a failure in Samba's eyes. Not only were four large armed warships destroyed, but even two mine-striking battleships were sunk by his own order. This is an intolerable shame for both Sambarwood and the members of the North Sea Fleet!

It was only later that the North Sea Fleet adopted the correct Sea Wolf tactics to besiege the enemy, and when it saw that the fourth fleet had fewer and fewer warships, and that it could be completely annihilated with more efforts, the North Sea Fleet's ammunition was exhausted. Sambarwood had no choice but to return to Hiloas Island with fourteen Thunderbolt ships. Sambarwood was unhappy about the lack of success, and now he only hoped that the ships that had gone to Northland Cowhorn Bay to be rebuilt and equipped with artillery would return home as soon as possible.

However, the rainy season was soon approaching, and Sambarwood did not have time to sail again to the sea route south of Zangjin Bay to find trouble with the Armada. The lightning battleships that returned from this trip more or less had to be repaired in the shipyard. Sambarwood could only keep the thought of revenge in his heart, looking forward to settling accounts with the Armada after the rainy season.

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