Airship...... Lots of airships!

Not one or two, but a full twenty-five airships formed two columns, flying over the sea over Shikoku Island to the southeast.

Bo Mai hurriedly raised his binoculars to look at the sky, carefully distinguished the shape of these airships and the cabins hanging below, and found that these twenty or so airships in the sky were not the kind of small airships that Britain "aided" to Japan (to collect money for aid), but large long-range airships that only the Ming Empire had!

The airships apparently took off from the Daeming Navy's base on Jeepage Island in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and flew over Japanese territory (there is no concept of airspace yet) over the Kiyin Waterway to support their fleet.

But the question is...... How did the Daming Navy Airship Force on Jeeme Island know that their warships and the British Royal Navy and the Japanese Shogunate Navy had "strong friction" because of a misunderstanding?

Now that only a few hours have passed since the start of the battle between the two sides, it is impossible for the Ming army's hull to drive back to Shadow Island to report the news. Even if their airship was hidden in the air at that time, it would take at least four or five hours to fly from the Kiyin Waterway to Jedi Shadow Island..... Even if an airship arrives at Jueying Island, the Ming army's airship troops will set off immediately, and it is impossible for them to fly over the Ji Yin Waterway now!

Could it be that Daming's airship can reach speeds of 200 kilometers or even 300 kilometers per hour? Or do they have a telegraph or a telephone that doesn't need wires? But whatever the reason, it is not good news for the British Royal Navy's visiting fleet.

Colonel Bomai still hasn't figured out how the airships in the sky that are "firing" flew to the Ji Yin Waterway in such a short time? The fourth wave of shells is already whistling and flying from nowhere!

Because someone on the destroyer Xinchang was the eyes and ears of the two cruisers on the other side of Cape Muroto, guiding the 20 155mm guns on the two cruisers to open fire, and they were also fired under radio command, so those cannons were surprisingly accurate, and the first two waves of salvo fire had already achieved close loss and straddle fire, and the third wave should have been hit!

I only saw one shell after another, whizzing and falling around the Lid'an, except for the hit, most of them could be regarded as near-misses. The armor-piercing shell that hit the Lidsman was impartial, hitting the aft deck of the cruiser and directly into the officer's rest compartment under the stern deck. The fierce explosion caused by picric acid immediately caused a disaster in the officer's cabin!

Picric acid originally had the effect of arson, and the luxurious interior of the officer's cabin, as well as the wood and various textiles that can be found everywhere, were all flammable, and they were soon ignited by the burning picric acid, and the fire in the cabin quickly began to spread, and in just a few minutes the fire burned all the way to the deck, and soon the "butt" of the 4300-ton cruiser burned red.

Of course, the disaster of the Lidson was not over, because the fourth salvo came shortly, and it was still 20 rounds of 155-mm picric acid shells whizzing, all of which were hoisted, most of them close misses, and two more hit directly on the weakly protected deck of the Lidrian. One of the shots exploded prematurely due to the picric acid charge, and instead of penetrating, a huge fireball exploded on the Leander's holding deck, and the burning picric acid flew everywhere with the blast, not only igniting many cables, but also blowing corpses all over the bow battery. The lying corpse stuck in the bow battery, making it difficult for the powerful 7-inch cannon to move.

Immediately after that, the fifth and sixth waves of salvos came and ...... It's coming! In total, these two salvos had four 155-mm armor-piercing shells hit the target! The first shot hit the building below the bridge, exploding on the spot, shaking everyone inside the bridge. Two more shells hit the port deck of the Liddian, and one broke through, exploding in the coal tank below the port deck of the Liddian, which then caused a fire.

The deadliest of them pierced a chimney, but instead of exploding, the cannonball filled with picric acid fell down the inner wall of the chimney and into the boiler room of the Leander, where it blossomed and exploded in the boiler room. On the spot, the boiler was blown up, the pipes were damaged, and all the British veterans in charge of burning the boiler were killed.

Lid'Ion's motivation was soon completely lost!

At this point, the Lid'an had already taken six 155-millimeter picric armor-piercing shells, plus dozens of near-misses. The 4,300-ton cruiser caught fire and lost power, and the surface of the hull was also cholted by shrapnel that had missed the bullet, and it "hurt" to look at - if the Lid'an could speak, it must have been screaming by now.

But Rao blew up this cruiser like this, but it was still very stubbornly floating on the sea, and it just refused to sink...... What a tough ship!

However, Colonel Burmai was still very aware that the ship was no longer available, and immediately gave the order to abandon the ship, and let the destroyer Hippo come up to save people. But as soon as he gave the order, a naval officer next to him told him that the smoke-billowing Ming Navy destroyer just now was no longer smoking, and was shelling the Hippo with another Ming destroyer!

"What? This...... Is it a trap? When Colonel Bourmet looked back, he immediately fell into despair!

Because he found that the Hippo was in a worse situation than the Lid'an, and it was not only the two Ming destroyers that shelled it, but also the cannons that didn't know where to hide!

I saw shells raining down on the Hippopotamus, which was only a few hundred tons. Suddenly, a huge fireball suddenly erupted on the hippo not far away.

In the smoke of gunpowder, Colonel Bomai only saw that the destroyer of several hundred tons seemed to be cut in two by a giant, and then sank rapidly at the same time, and completely disappeared from people's sight in the blink of an eye.

Even though it was only a destroyer that sank, Burmai felt the Grim Reaper's scythe dangling over his head. As an old navy, he knew very well that the reason why the Lid'an could carry it until now was because the Ming Dynasty's 155-mm shells were not powerful enough. If it had been replaced with shells of more than 200 mm, a single shot could have sunk the Lidjan.

But now the Ming Navy does not need a 200-mm cannon to sink the Lid'an, which has lost its combat effectiveness...... Just let those two destroyers come up and fire torpedoes.

Thinking of this, Bomai could only order in a trembling voice: "Abandon the ship...... I order, all abandon the ship......"

However, contrary to Colonel Burmer's expectations, the two destroyers of the Ming Navy did not fire torpedoes at the burning Lidjan, and certainly did not prevent the abandoned British from rowing small boats or swimming to Shikoku Island, they just fired indiscriminately around the abandoned Lidjan...... It's as if the battle is still going on.

Bermai, who was sitting on a small sampan, of course, did not know that the reason why these two Ming destroyers did not sink the Lid'an was actually to use it as bait to attract the Indomitable formation, which was rushing at a speed of 15 knots, to rescue the Lid'An.

The Indomitable is an ironclad ship of more than 10,000 tons, and it still flies the flagship flag!

Guan Tianpei, who had already flown over Ji Yin Waterway, could see the "chubby" unyielding horn with a high-powered telescope...... Look straight at it!

If this battleship could be blown up and sunk by airship, the Ming naval aviation would be famous.

Guan Tianpei pointed the telescope in his hand at the sea northwest of Cape Muroto, and then stared at the Indomitable that was rapidly moving south under the protection of a destroyer.

"Electricity for Vladivostok and Lushun...... Tell them that the Indomitable is coming, and there is only one destroyer by its side. The opportunity to blow it up and sink it has come, please come to the aid of Vladivostok and Lushun immediately, and let's kill the Indomitable together! ”

"Yes, sir!"