Having received the flag command, the Victoria quickly turned the rudder and turned the left side directly in the direction of the shell.

In the narrow chamber, the sailors stuffed the flowering shells from the barrel into the 229mm heavy gun, which was the main gun on the Victoria, and was equipped with only four guns in total, two on one side, which was extremely powerful.

The defenders of the port of Palermo saw the Victoria turning, clearly sensing a threat, and no sooner had the gunners reloaded their ammunition than another round of fire roared in.

This time, three shells were fired, two of which sank into the nearby waters, and one hit Victoria's gun chamber impartially.

"Bang!!" With a loud bang.

The sailors in the gun chamber found out in horror...... Eh, it doesn't seem to have any effect?

If it is a naval battle in the future, it will definitely be finished if it is hit by such a vital part, but the ironclad ships of this year are really solid, and if they don't break the defense, they won't break the defense.

Especially for the ironclad ships with the waist gun room, the gun room is the focus of protection, and the armor thickness in this area of the Victoria has reached as much as 130mm!

As long as they hadn't opened the firing window, even if the port troops had finished all the shells, they wouldn't have been able to hurt them in the slightest.

The sailors who came back to their senses hurriedly opened the window and pushed the heavy artillery halfway out.

The opponent has just finished shooting a round, and it is the firepower gap, and it is only right to hurry up and suppress it.

"Boom! Rumble! "Bang ......"

Led by 229mm guns, followed by 203mm and 160mm guns, fired from left to right.

The cannonball made a beautiful arc through the air, and then fell heavily into the harbor.

Only a few violent explosions were heard, followed by smoke and flames.

Looking at this battle, most of them ignited flammable materials such as cotton.

Accompanied by the firelight, there were many figures shuttling back and forth in the distance, although the sound could not be heard clearly from a distance of several hundred meters, but it must have been mostly crying.

The gunners were quite proud to see this, they were sure that they had hit the target, otherwise they would have been subjected to a third round of shelling.

Lieutenant General Morales saw clearly on the Numancia, and he was not too happy, and it was only natural that 20 guns fired in unison, hitting a static target at close range.

He was a little distressed, and just now he didn't know who was on the wrong side and hit a huge merchant ship on the dock that was unloading.

The merchant ship was about 90 meters long, about the same size as the ironclad ship under his feet, but after all, it was a civilian ship, and the fire of a cannonball spread rapidly, and it was slowly sinking at this time.

Through the telescope, Morales saw that the ship was a British merchant ship with an English name.

I only hope that the crew inside can be smarter, if they really don't run and stay on the ship, then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will have one more job.

After confirming that the defensive fire that had destroyed the harbor, Morales ordered the fleet to wait in place for 8 minutes to give unrelated personnel a chance to evacuate.

During this period, even the soldiers in the port almost ran away, after all, who would stay and look for death? Not even artillery, do you rely on rifles to fight battleships?

Morales and the others were afraid of hurting too many innocent people, so they acquiesced in this act, and anyway, this KPI did not expect to be completed by killing.

Eight minutes passed in a flash, and in the empty harbor, the fleet spread out and began to shoot at their targets.

You hit the lighthouse, I hit the dock, he hit the office, and without interference, the fleet destroyed most of the buildings in the port in less than half an hour.

As if that weren't enough, Morales counted the merchant ships with Italian names and fired at them, destroying as much of Italy's transport capacity as possible.

In fact, neutral ships in the ports of hostile countries can also be destroyed, and no one can say whether they are wrong or wrong in war.

The prohibition of attacking neutral ships is the prohibition of attacks on the high seas, and if they are destroyed in ports, it is the responsibility of Italy for the poor protection.

But it is one thing to be reasonable, it is another thing for a neutral country to be unhappy, Italy's main trade partners are Britain, France, Austria-Hungary and other European powers, it is better not to provoke or not.

After doing all this, the harassing fleet flew away, leaving behind the ruined port of Palermo.

And the garrison fleet of Sicily was also late, looking at the mess and feeling a little cryless without tears.

It's hard to say that the timing wasn't intentional.

Italy's coastline is too long and too long to be guarded.

The Italian government had expected Spain to attack northern Italy, which was more economically and industrially developed, and most of the fleet was deployed in Genoa and Venice.

Sicily, a large island on the edge of the island, will inevitably have some empty defenses, even if they come out to fight against the harassing fleet, they will not be able to fight, and it is helpless for them to avoid fighting.

Unlike during World War II, when the navy could not defeat and could still send the air force, it always brought some threats.

At this time, the navy could not defeat it, and there was no land weapon that could break through the defenses of the ironclad ships.

After destroying Palermo, the fleet returned to Rome after more than a day's voyage, and on the way sank two old and broken offshore patrol ships.

By the time the battleship was anchored in Rome, all the sailors were already exhausted, and it was not good to have no naval base, and the mission was a particularly long journey.

This mission is quite smooth, but the next time the other party is prepared, it will be much more difficult to run long distances.

After all, it's just a harassing mission, and it's a bit of an overkill to say that they're being heroically welcomed, but they're also a big show in front of their colleagues.

Being able to destroy one of Italy's major ports on the first mission is undoubtedly quite a good result.

The attack on Palermo quickly spread throughout the countries of the Western Mediterranean, and the newspapers of various countries once again expressed doubts about Italy's national competence, having destroyed an important port so easily, does the country really have a future?

In the case of both land and sea blossoming, the odds of winning and losing in the British salon, Spain and Italy have reached 1.3 and 2.7, which is enough to show how underestimated Italy is.

There was no further reaction, after all, it was just a small episode in the war, and the bombing of the port was inevitable in most wars, and no one except the belligerents paid much attention.

Instead, the British lodged a diplomatic protest and demanded compensation from the merchant ships.

In addition, there were two unlucky men on the merchant ship who were sunk during loading and unloading, and there were two unlucky people who slept in the cabin and did not have time to escape, namely the boatswain and the second mate of the merchant ship, and the British also demanded compensation for them in accordance with their status.

Of course, Spain didn't want to lose, so they asked them to go to Italy, and after several communications, Italy and Spain each lost half, which was considered to be a peace of mind.