Fortunately, it seems that the fire deterrence just now has an effect, and the "V" on the left and right have stopped rushing forward.

It is not surprising that they have such a reaction, the wooden ship is very vulnerable in the face of such crossfire, and the overall shape is "V", which is reflected in the single ship but is all straight lines.

This angle made it difficult for them to project fire on the decoy fleet, and if they forced their charge, the casualties would be very heavy.

The former Spanish Armada was completely destroyed because of two T-shaped encounters with the British fleet.

The dominance of this T-shape will not change until 3-10 years later, when the main point of fire of the battleship will shift from the side to the bow and tail ends.

Like the British ravage, the Dingyuan with a clear is a similar design.

The reason for this shift was that ironclads were much faster than sail battleships of the past, spending less time on both sides of the stake and more time swimming and dogfighting.

As a result, more and more attention was paid to the head and tail guns with large ramming angles, and with the help of Alfonso, the traverser, the ships that Spain was currently working on were of this design.

But on this battlefield, the Spanish and Italian ships were still mainstream old ironclads, and the firing angles were quite limited.

There are not many warships equipped with ram angles, only the Victoria on the Spanish side has ram horns, and only 2 on the Italian side are equipped with ram horns.

After considering all aspects, Badoglio believes that hand-to-hand combat is a lose-lose choice, and it is safest to use conventional battle line tactics to have an advantage in troops.

Badoglio's order was given, and the momentum of the charge of the middle ironclad group was stagnant.

Rodriguez and the others on the opposite side couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when they saw that the ironclad was slowing down.

The threat of the guns of the Spanish warships to the ironclad ships is relatively limited, only the guns with a caliber of 203mm and above can successfully break through the defense, such as the 14 160mm guns on the Victoria, it is not painful to hit, if you rely on the 160mm guns alone, you may have to hit several shots, and find the weak point of the armor on the opposite side to break it.

If the other side is not afraid of casualties, it is impossible for them to stop it.

By the time the distance between the two sides had been reduced to 1,500 meters, the advance of the Italian ships had completely stopped, and they began to slowly turn to the left, in line with the direction of the Spanish battleships, which had taken the same course of battle.

The choice of the direction of the battle line also shows the attitude of the belligerents towards this battle, if it is a cross course or even the opposite course, the losses of the participating parties will be relatively small, if they can't fight, they can go straight forward, and the other side will not be able to catch up in any case.

However, Badoglio obviously felt that he had already eaten the other party, so he chose a more risky tactic.

…… In fact, it is not a risk, because the Spanish side is indeed at a complete disadvantage.

This disadvantage was evident in the ensuing encounters, where the Italian wooden ships, like the Spanish, were dominated by high-speed cruisers, and neither of them had the same firepower as the Spanish to determine the battle.

However, the ironclad ship is used to fight 7 ships, and the Victoria uses firepower for speed, and the firepower output is only about 3/5 of that of a normal ironclad ship.

In just 20 minutes of fighting, the Victoria was shot in several places, and even a mast was destroyed.

The Numancia is better protected and lucky, so there is no big problem for the time being, but they also know that if it continues, it will only be a matter of time before the entire fleet folds here.

"It's time to keep running away." Rodriguez thought to himself.

Now the distance between the two sides is more than 1,000 meters, and it is not far away, but there is no problem if he wants to run, he has this confidence - at most a few cruisers in the melee.

These wooden ships themselves only have the last few years of service, and when the time comes, they will be dismantled and used for other purposes if they are not sunk, which is not a pity.

Moreover, the cruiser will be out of battle for a long time, and it will be impossible to save it by any means.

The only problem is the precious sailors, who can now only hope for the Geneva Conventions......

After making up their minds, the two ironclads stopped shelling and began to move forward.

The breaking of one of the Victoria's masts was a drag on its speed, but his original speed was 13 knots, and he was able to run at 11 knots with the steam engine and the remaining two masts, just from a clipper in the Mediterranean to an ordinary fast ironclad.

The Italians soon sensed their movements and began to sail diagonally in an attempt to close the distance, and the pouring of artillery fire intensified.

This caused some trouble for Spain and even caused a slight confusion in the formation, which exposed a cruiser to the Italian net of fire, the hapless cruiser was hit by 4 shells in 5 minutes, the bottom compartment leaked and eventually flipped on its side.

Rodriguez noticed that some of the crew had managed to escape and float on the surface of the sea to wave to them, but as the commander of the fleet, he could not see such a scene, so he had no choice but to change the bow from the stern.

At this point, something unexpected happened.

The Parles was a shore defense ironclad ordered by Italy from France and had participated in and survived the Battle of Lissa with Austria-Hungary.

As a shore defense ship, its speed was quite different from that of other ironclads, and it fell behind when the Italian ironclads were close to Spain.

The other ironclads had already made their way through the brawl arena at the middle edge of the battlefield, but it landed in it, blocked by one of its own cruisers.

Obscured by the smoke of the battlefield, he chose the wrong path.

The cruiser that stopped it was only 25 meters, and at such a close distance, the Parroughs could sink it with a few shots, but it couldn't kill its teammates......

The Parles was slowly turning, and the Spanish cruiser Driges had spotted this perfect opportunity, a lonely, stagnant ironclad!

Although it is not an ironclad, it is equipped with ramming horns and is fully capable of causing damage to ironclads!

The "Boom" Degris came out of the smoke and slammed into the side of the Parles, making a loud muffled thud with a clattering sound of gold and iron.

At 60 meters long, the Parres is considered a small guy among ironclads, but the Degris that hit it was even smaller, only 35 meters! It looks like an antelope going to hit a rhinoceros!

However, the result was remarkable, as the impact caused the turning Parroughs to lose control of its direction.

After shaking like a drunken man twice, it collided with the own cruiser that was in the way.

This plunged the Parroughs into further confusion.

As it had gained a little distance, the relieved Degris took advantage of the victory and slammed into its starboard side again.

Several successive hits caused the Parroughs to tilt badly, and under the momentum and the sea water that poured into the breach, it could no longer maintain its balance on the surface of the sea and slowly tilted to the left......