When the reconnaissance ship of the main fleet came to the vicinity of the "Cunningham", it happened to collide head-on with the Italian ship.

At this time, the decoy fleet was still being chased around, and the "Gran Canaria" and "Islands" who came to investigate did not see them.

But since the Italian ships appeared here, the decoy fleet must be around.

This was a relief to the sailors on the reconnaissance ship, who were now almost half past five, two hours later than the scheduled ambush time, and they were all worried that something had happened to the decoy fleet.

As soon as the two sides saw each other clearly, the Italians opened fire first, apparently using the opposite ship as part of the decoy fleet.

This played into the hands of the Spaniards, and neither "Gran Canaria" nor "Island and Reef" had the intention of fighting back, so they invariably chose to flee the way they came.

Neither the commanders of this petty conflict, Rodriguez nor Badoglio, knew that an Ottoman merchant ship had been sunk by the Italians.

The Italian fleet was tired of chasing on the high seas, especially since the other side was going around in circles with itself like this, no matter how you look at it, it was ill-intentioned.

Badoglio believed that the Spaniards had either contacted France or were waiting for reinforcements from Rome.

He guessed that the harassing fleet in front of him might have an agreement with the large forces in the Roman harbor, and when the time came, the main fleet would come to support before anyone was seen.

Although it can be a hassle to get bearing, there are a number of merchant ships passing by that that can help.

If it hadn't been for the fact that they had sunk an ironclad ship before, they would have retreated a long time ago.

"Turn around! Let's withdraw! Badoglio stepped down from the deck and commanded in a deep voice.

Major General Cataño and the others snorted a few times, wanting to say something, but in the end they remained silent.

This is the second time that Badoglio has offered to return, and anyone can tell that he is much more determined than before.

In fact, Badoglio still had a thought in his heart, that is, the Spanish harassing fleet would likely continue to interfere with their return.

It is not possible to take this opportunity to make the other side pay some price, at least to make the operation seem less a failure.

Therefore, although he gave the order to return, he put the gunners on standby and stretched the formation of the fleet.

Unfortunately, he miscalculated, and the decoy fleet had suffered heavy losses in a series of previous operations, and Rodriguez believed that his side was no longer capable of continuing the mission.

Let's not talk about how much risk it would take to provoke again, even if it succeeds, without the cooperation of the main fleet, their efforts will be in vain.

The Spanish officers stood at the stern of the ship, silently watching as the distance between the Italian warship and them grew farther and farther apart.

Seeing that the atmosphere was a little depressing, Osvaldo comforted: "Anyway, we sank an ironclad ship on the opposite side, even if the mission fails to succeed, it cannot be regarded as a failure." ”

Everyone nodded in agreement, sinking the ironclad ship with a wooden battleship, this is also the first time in history, and they will definitely be rewarded for this incident alone.

Rodriguez sighed, "I only hope Major Ruben is still alive......"

Everyone just wanted to open their mouths to echo the words of their boss and remember the hero by the way, but a sudden change disrupted their thoughts.

In their line of sight, a small cruiser that had not yet disappeared in the distance inexplicably fired into the distance.

Even if the sea is generally calm, the sound of the waves and the wind is not small, and if the shells do not hit their side, nothing can be heard.

After everyone was stunned at the beginning, they suddenly thought of a possibility.

"Quick! Binoculars for me! ”

After receiving the telescope from the lookout, Rodriguez glanced at it hurriedly.

He was immediately sure - there was a naval battle of no small scale going on over there!

"Hahaha, turn, go and meet the lieutenant general!"

……

The fleet that was at war with Italy in the distance was naturally the main Spanish fleet led by Morales.

After receiving the report that the Italians had been spotted by the "Gran Canaria" and "Island and Reef", they rushed to this direction at full speed, and now they just happened to collide with the returning Italians.

There is no nonsense when the two meet, just fire directly.

The difference was that the Spanish main fleet had 11 ironclads, while the Italian fleet had only 9 ironclads after sinking one.

In addition, because the Italian fleet has been chasing the decoy fleet at high speed, the formation is very open and quite loose, and the ships cannot take care of each other at all.

With mental calculation or unintentional, the Italian fleet fell into a great disadvantage at the beginning.

At 6:57, the two sides launched an artillery bombardment, and the Italian ships hurriedly met the enemy, directly exposing the "Roman" ironclad ship to this group of enemies from Rome.

The Zaragoza's massive 280mm guns directly cracked the Roma's propeller, making it a floating target.

The Spaniards only had to continue to project fire on it, and they could surely capture the head of another ironclad ship.

However, they did not do so, and Morales's tactical thinking was much bolder than that of the Italians, and after an initial round of firepower, he seized the opportunity of the loose Italian formation and penetrated into the enemy with a column of ironclad ships.

It took just 20 minutes for Morales to complete the manoeuvre, receiving little return fire from Italy in the process.

At this time, the Italian warships were still trying to gather in order to obey the command of General Badoglio.

Unfortunately, they were not destined to do this, and the cluster of 11 ironclad ships lay in the center of the battlefield, like an insurmountable copper wall, forcefully dividing the Italian fleet into two parts of 3+5.

The battle quickly turned into a scuffle.

In hand-to-hand combat, Spain had an absolute advantage, as the three ironclad ships completed between 1869 and 1870 were equipped with ramming angles.

Moreover, these three ironclads are all small frigate-class ironclads, they are flexibly interspersed in the battlefield, and whenever anyone can't stand the fire suppression and tries to dodge, they will rush up to give those guys a look.

With this simple and easy tactic, the losses of the Italian fleet increased dramatically, while the losses of the Spanish were minimal.

This is especially true after the decoy fleet arrives to help.

Where could the Italians not know that they had fallen into an ambush?

They were at a complete disadvantage in numbers, morale, tactics, firepower, and all the other factors that could affect the outcome of the battle, and the situation was far worse than the Battle of Lisa in 1866!

Knowing that there was no chance of victory, the Italians tried to escape, but without a unified dispatch and locked in hand-to-hand combat, it was undoubtedly a fool's dream to escape with the strength of a ship.

The Spanish warships quickly caught up and sent them into the sea one by one.

The escape of a single ship hastened the rout of Italy.

The battle lasted only three hours, and the remaining Italian fleet raised the white flag.

As of today, one of the most powerful naval forces in the Mediterranean will cease to exist.

------Off topic------

It's really busy these days...... I just graduated and was busy looking for a job and interviewing in Chengdu.

The shelves were also put on the shelves in a hurry, there were no manuscripts, and there was no way to even change them, and I couldn't get them for full attendance, and I also broke my promise.

After a few days, I'll try two more when I'm a little free...

That's it, I don't ask for anything to order, I'm sorry for the officials