The Queensland Coast Guard's two Seagull-1 high-speed cruisers, one of which was the "Haiyan," was the captain Wu Gang, who graduated from the British Naval Academy in Manchester.

One "Puffin", captain Zhang Daoru, graduated from the steam torpedo department of the Maryland Naval Academy and was one of the returned naval elites.

Wu Gang, the captain of the Haiyan, was the commander of this patrol fleet composed of two ships, and when he approached the enemy's landing joint fleet at high speed, he waved the flag of lone wolf tactics.

According to the tactics practiced countless times beforehand, the two battleships broke through the blockade line like sharp arrows from the string, using lone wolf tactics to disrupt the enemy fleet formation, waiting for an opportunity to hunt and kill.

At this time, the huge group of Dutch landing ships in front of them was displayed in front of them.

The landing ship group spread its countless sails and made a clumsy turn on the right side of the clear blue sea, and the huge cruiser "Seven Provinces" sailed head-on, followed closely by the second-class sail battleship "Dutch Giant".

The distance between the two sides is about 6 nautical miles, and the distance of 2~3 nautical miles behind the cruiser "Seven Provinces" is a huge group of landing ships.

Wu Gang held the crossbar of the front bridge tightly with both hands, his body rose and fell in the violent bumps, and the flesh on his face was shaking and shaking.

Smoke billowed from the four steam boilers on the battleship "Haiyan", pushing the steam engines to run at full speed, and the speed had been increased to the extreme of 23 knots, and it was rushing on the sea surface.

"Order the main gun crew, aim at the enemy ship and fire."

Order

The German-made 239mm guns in the bow roared, firing shells in the midst of a huge cannon sound and dazzling fire.

Immediately, between the cruiser Seven Provinces and the rear ship group, a high column of water exploded, which was more than ten meters high.

This shell could not hit four or six, and the nearest one was 1.6 nautical miles away, and the range was at least seven nautical miles.

This cannot be blamed at all on the artillery crew, the bow of the ship that rushes at high speed from time to time buries itself in the waves and then rises high, and the ups and downs are constantly fluctuating, coupled with the sideways roll of the hull in the change of direction, and the shells fired in this situation do not even know where God fell?

Wu Gang's purpose was not to shell the enemy ship, but only to serve the purpose of measuring the range and disrupting the enemy's position, he looked at the landing point of the main gun, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and said in a deep voice; "Course 7 degrees to port side and continue to advance at high speed."

A cannon shot on the "Haiyan" seemed to stab a hornet's nest.

The cruiser "Seven Provinces" and the 1,750-ton second-class sail battleship "Dutch Giant" opened fire one after another, and the left wing sail fleet, which had been briefly broken through, adjusted its hull and opened heavy fire with starboard guns.

The fire flickered, and the cannon fire continued.

Countless high columns of water stirred up on the surface of the sea, as if they had been stirred to boil.

5 nautical miles...... 4 nm...... 3.5 nm......

The "Haiyan" and "Puffin", which were advancing at high speed, quickly shortened the distance between them and the cruiser "Seven Provinces" and gradually broke into the dense area of artillery interception.

The cruiser "Seven Provinces" and the sail battleship "Dutch Giant" quickly turned around, drew two huge question marks on the sea, and aimed their sides at the high-speed cruiser that continued to rush wildly, preparing to cover and intercept with firepower.

This moment

The huge black hole muzzle brought a heavy pressure of death, and three German-made 239mm guns roared and fired the first salvo of shells, the closest being about 850 yards from the "Petrel".

Due to the high-speed movement of the ships on both sides, this round of salvo was a little outrageous, but the high column of water that the shells fell into the sea showed that the power of the heavy artillery was not trivial.

The sail battleship "Dutch Giant" then opened heavy fire, scattering dense shells onto the surface of the sea, stirring up a large column of water.

By surprise, a 95mm shell hit the Gatling heavy machine gun on the left side of the Puffin.

In the loud explosion, the Gatling heavy machine gun and sailors on the left were blown to pieces, and the wreckage flew high in the fire.

See it all

Captain Wu Gang's eyes narrowed dangerously, his eyes stared at the enemy ship coldly, and he ordered in a deep voice; "Left rudder 8 degrees, target enemy transport fleet, order the main gun and secondary guns to fire."

Order

The cannon roared on the "Haiyan", and the shells fired from the bow of the ship were violently vented and landed in the transport schooner flotilla in front, blowing up five high columns of water.

Although these water columns did not hit the target, they were scattered in the ship's group, and they were more or less different from the surrounding three-masted sail transports, which made Captain Wu Gang's eyes light up and he ordered loudly; "Three minutes of rapid fire, fire."

The cannon of the "Haiyan" rumbled, the flames flickered continuously, and the artillery fire began to pour out to the fullest.

The "Puffin" suffered heavy losses after the shelling, and the two Gatling heavy machine gun crews arranged next to each other on the left side were all scrapped, and the six machine gun crew members were either killed or wounded, leaving a shocking battery crater.

But that's about it

A single 95-mm shell did not make the "Puffin" lose its combat effectiveness, and in the interval between the second round of artillery fire of the enemy ship, the "Puffin" under the calm command of Captain Zhang Daoru flexibly and sharply turned to avoid it, and at the same time opened heavy fire on the ship group.

This presented a conundrum for the Dutch.

The range of the cruisers advancing at high speed on the left and the right was very wide, and the sail battleships of the Seven Provinces and the "Dutch Giant" were faced with a difficult choice to concentrate their firepower on the "Petrel", so they would have to miss the "Puffin" and vice versa.

If each of them is against one, then the density of fire is seriously insufficient.

The three 239-mm German-made main guns of the Seven Provinces, plus six 120-mm secondary guns, could only fire 9 shells in a salvo, which could not form a sufficiently dense firepower coverage, and they were a little frantic in the face of the high-speed ships that were in a erratic position.

The Dutch Giant, originally armed with 86 breech guns, was rebuilt with 32 German-made breech guns, 16 on each side.

Of these, 6 doors 150 mm caliber, 10 doors 95 mm caliber.

The fire barrage formed by the interception is barely competent against a ship, and the key is that the opponent's ship keeps turning in the high-speed rush, forcing the "Dutch Giant" sail battleship to turn with it, and the hull is constantly adjusted, which seriously affects the accuracy of firepower coverage.

At this time, an amazing scene appeared.

The "Petrel" and "Puffin" launched a rapid fire for almost three minutes, and the 95-mm secondary gun was like a Gatling heavy machine gun, and it had already hit the transport galleon in the third salvo.

The flames were blazing into the sky, and the cannon was rumbling.

The splinter of the struck transport galleon flew in a frenzy, the corpses were tossed away by a strong wave of air, the canvas was set on fire by the firelight, and the deck was a hellish mess.

The galleons themselves had more than 150 crew members, plus a large amount of supplies and equipment, and no less than 200 heavily armed soldiers on each ship, crowded together like sardine cans.

Although it is impossible for the 95-mm gun to sink with one shot, it is extremely lethal to personnel and fragile wooden planks.

"Oh sell ga, oh sell ga...... See what you've all done? Lieutenant Admiral Jan-Kok-Bulkhov screamed, his head following the trajectory of the enemy battleship's shells, and saw the shells smash into the transports, one of which hit the foremast.

After a loud "boom", a large explosion flashed with fire.

The strong air wave swept away at least a dozen soldiers, and the blasted sawdust flew like rain, forming sharp wooden thorns large and small enough to kill, setting off a bloody storm on the narrow deck, and the soldiers fell like leeks in the miserable howl.

"Oh sell ga, oh sell ga...... This is too much for a true gentleman to do. Lieutenant General Jan Kok-Bulkhov turned pale with astonishment and could not say anything else.

Not to mention the panicked Vice Admiral, in the bow wheelhouse of the Seven Provinces, the officers were all panicked and watched this tragedy happen.

Oh my God! Can you tell me what kind of artillery this is?

The "Petrel" and "Puffin" are each equipped with four 95-mm Miss Australia guns, and in three minutes of rapid fire, more than 100 hot shells will be frantically poured out every minute, passing over the heads of the interceptor warships and densely covering the huge transport ship group.

Due to evading the fire interception of the "Seven Provinces" and the "Dutch Giant", the "Haiyan" and "Puffin" constantly changed the direction of their voyage on the outer sea, frantically pouring fire from a distance of 3~5 nautical miles, and fired more than 400 shells in just three minutes, forming a dense firepower covering network.

Miss Australia was furious, each 95 mm gun was worth the power of 6 German-made guns of the same caliber, and 4 Miss Australia were powerful at the same time, and in a unit of time, the pouring of fierce firepower was worth an entire artillery regiment.

A total of 8 Miss Australia guns on the two ships brought a rain of shells and shells that destroyed the world, which was like chattering bar girls, and there was no chance to refute at all.

And all this caused great damage to the slow-moving landing ship regiment, and the losses are difficult to estimate.

It was a dialogue between the artillery of two eras that evolved into a one-sided slaughter.

"Fire, fire, I'm going to sink these damn ships, concentrate my fire on the enemy ships in front of me, die, I curse you all to hell!" Colonel Van Basten's eyes were bloodshot and he cried out in a madness that bordered on gaffe.

The two main battleships concentrated their fire, and the range and density of the artillery fire were doubled, and the effect was really immediate.

Together, the two ships fired 25 shells from each round of artillery fire, exploding a column of water around the nearest "Haiyan".

In the third salvo, two shells hit the cruiser "Haiyan" one after another, inflicting heavy damage on it.

A 120-mm shell hit the stern on the right side of the ship, and the violent explosion tore through a large hole about 1.3 meters long, setting off a column of fire and smoke in the sky, accompanied by heavy burning.

The shell hit the coal bunker, setting off a column of black smoke more than 30 meters high and soaring into the sky, and the fly ash caused a deflagration at the high temperature, blowing up the stern on the right side of the ship.

The high-temperature steam pipe at the stern of the ship was blown up, and the high-temperature steam exceeding 100 degrees Celsius caused the death and injury of more than a dozen officers and men in the engine room in just one minute.

Another German-made 239-mm shell hit the right forward side of the ship, inflicting fatal damage.

It was as if the Angry Sea Giant had punched hard, and in the earth-shattering explosion, it blew a huge crater in the right front of the "Haiyan".

The 239-mm shell is different from the 95-mm shell, which is more than five times more powerful and has an amazing lethality.

After the explosion, the blackened hull of the "Haiyan" was covered with desolation, splattered blood stains and fragments of corpse flesh were sprinkled everywhere, and the two 95-mm Miss Australia guns with low front and rear high configuration on the right side were blown to pieces, and all 12 guns were killed.

Four of the two Gatling heavy machine gun crews on the right rear were killed on the spot during the shelling, two were seriously wounded, and completely lost their combat effectiveness.

Affected by the powerful blast waves, three of the 11-man gun crew were killed in the semi-open main gun position in the bow, blood was spilled all over the battle position, and the rest were slightly and seriously wounded, completely losing the ability to continue fighting.

The violent explosion deformed the right side of the "Haiyan" wheelhouse, and the inside of the wheelhouse was covered with bloody rain, and large clouds of white steam came out of the blown steam pipes, which sharply reduced the pressure of the two steam boilers.

The "Petrel" was like a drunkard who had been slapped in the face, and its sailing speed dropped sharply.

"Captain, Captain......"

Wu Gang woke up in the violent shaking, reluctantly opened his eyes and found that it was blood-colored, the wheelhouse seemed to have been ravaged by a storm, the helmsman was lying weakly on the steering wheel and died, the sharp handle of the steering wheel passed through the helmsman's chest, exposed from the back, and blood flowed drop by drop.

The captain was shaking himself vigorously, shouting the captain's name loudly, Wu Gang felt a wave of dizziness in front of him, and his ears were buzzing and he couldn't hear the sound clearly, but his tenacious consciousness knew that he couldn't faint now, and said reluctantly;

"Voyage...... Navigator, now ...... Now it's up to you to take over the command......"

"What, Captain, what did you say?"

"It's up to you to take over the command, and lead the ...... Lead the battleship out of battle, ...... fast Run......"

"Ahh

"Run!"

Wu Gang mustered up the last trace of strength in his body, let out a loud roar desperately, and then fainted very simply.

The captain finally heard the order clearly, he screamed "Captain......" in his mouth, and then stood up with the pain on his body, and forcefully tore the body of the helmsman apart, hugged the captain tightly with one arm, grabbed the steering wheel that had been soaked in blood with the other hand, and swept the messy hull with his eyes with grief and indignation, and the comrades who fell on the battle position were scattered and muttered; "Brothers, I'll take you home!"

After saying that, turning the steering wheel, the seriously injured Petrel braved billowing smoke and fire, and sailed away from the battlefield, taking the lead out of the battle.

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