Admiral Codrington aboard the battleship Revenge had already spotted the chaos in the sea transfer area, but the experienced admiral would not panic. Because he was well acquainted with the performance of torpedo boats and torpedoes.

In the past two years, due to the popularization of small steam turbines, first-class industrialized countries such as Daming and Great Britain have begun to equip high-speed torpedo boats driven by steam turbines, and the fastest speed has reached 34 knots and 35 knots, and the impact is of course amazing. But torpedoes, driven by compressed air, run very slowly, usually only 6-7 knots, and have a close range, generally within 1000 meters. At this distance, even torpedo boats running up to 35 knots could easily be hit by small and medium-caliber guns mounted on large warships.

So Admiral Codrington ordered unhurriedly: "Turn on the searchlights, turn on the searchlights, fire freely from the guns, and do everything to prevent the torpedo boats from approaching the convoy!" Strengthen search alert to the north to prevent enemy ships from coming and sneaking up on enemy ships in the direction of the Persian Gulf! ”

As the admiral's order was issued by the light, the cruisers, destroyers, and small guns mounted on the transport ships in the Indian Grand Fleet all opened fire on the torpedo boats that were rushing at speed, almost simultaneously, under the direction of the searchlights that suddenly lit up!

The lights were like injections, the shells were like rain, and the water columns were rising one after another on the route of the torpedo boats! Occasionally, a 9.2-inch or 10-inch shell from a first-class armored cruiser fell, and the column of water stirred up was like a wall of water. Fragments of shells whistled and flew on the sea, but the tiny torpedo boats were still moving straight forward at a maximum speed of 34 knots!

Wang Zuo took the lead, standing in the cockpit of the torpedo boat with his chest straight, while personally holding the steering wheel to steer the torpedo boat through the water columns, while squinting his eyes to find the biggest target among the ships of the Royal Indian Navy. He only had two precious steam gas torpedoes, enough to sink a battleship! It's a waste to use them against a destroyer of several hundred tons, why do you have to sink a cruiser of two or three thousand tons, right? It would be even more beautiful if it could sink a larger armored cruiser of the first rank. If it doesn't work, a large troop carrier will have to be sent away

Originally, the ships of the Royal Indian Navy on the sea did not dare to turn on the lights, but only occasionally turned on the searchlights to shine, so Wang Zuo and the others did not know which ship was the most valuable. But with Admiral Codrington's order, the sea was full of second- and third-class cruisers with their searchlights turned on and flying themselves, and even a few Shannon-class, Northampton-class, and Barbarian armored cruisers that could be counted as first-class cruisers in terms of tonnage were very brave enough to "stand up" and protect in front of the troop carriers full of Indian and Athani infantry.

Wang Zuo has already set his sights on a Northampton-class armored cruiser with a standard displacement of more than 7,500 tons, which is the second type of steam-powered ironclad built by the British Empire after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, although it is equipped with a steam engine that is enough to provide 6,000 horsepower, but it still retains three tall masts that can be used to hang sails, and the bow has a unicorn-like mast, and the underwater part of the bow has a powerful ramming horn!

This ironclad ship, which looked very mighty, was not afraid of the torpedo boat approaching at high speed, and did not bother to hide the huge hull in the darkness at all, but turned on all the searchlights, aimed at the torpedo boat piloted by Wang Zuo, and fired a dazzling light!

The torpedo boat caught by the searchlight was a live target, and although the accuracy of the naval guns in those years was relatively poor, and it was not difficult to hit the torpedo boat three or four kilometers away, at a distance of 1,000 meters, it was not difficult for an armored cruiser to sink a small torpedo boat with all kinds of guns on the side of the side. With the Northampton-class reaching a speed of 13.17 knots, it is not too much of a problem to dodge a 6.5 knots compressed air torpedo.

So. This suicide torpedo boat assault launched by the Ming army has failed!

"The Ming army's raid has failed!" Admiral Codrington was relieved to see that the beams of light from the searchlight had locked on to more than ten torpedo boats, and he smiled lightly, and said to Elphinstone, "Colonel, it seems that we will be able to occupy Muscat soon!" ”

Just when Admiral Codrington was full of confidence and expected that this attack by the Ming Navy had failed. Wang Zuo's torpedo launchers were all in place, and their torpedo boats were cut in from a 65-degree angle. The torpedo tubes on the boat were all turned at an angle, and a sailor who was in charge of aiming behind the torpedo tubes put half of his body outside the small torpedo boat, squinted his eyes, and tried to aim the launch tube at the large warship that was shining his searchlight four or five kilometers away. I saw him holding a red flag in his hand, and he shouted at the same time: "Release!" ”

One of the torpedo men in charge of firing immediately shouted: "Torpedo. Launch! ”

At the same time as he shouted, both hands had already pressed down the wrenches on the two torpedo tubes, one left and one on the right. Only two "bang" sounds were heard, and under the action of air pressure, two 530-mm steam gas torpedoes had been sprayed out of the thick launch tubes and plunged into the undulating seawater. The torpedo motor drove the propeller mounted in the tail section to start spinning at a very fast speed, and the two torpedoes were quickly accelerated to a high speed of 40 knots under the propeller ground!

This is an unbelievable high speed, and what is even more unbelievable is that this torpedo, propelled by the power of an internal combustion engine, can actually hit 5,000 meters away! You must know that the main guns of today's battleships are not very accurate at a distance of six or seven thousand meters, and the ideal artillery battle distance between battleships is within 5,000 meters!

After the two 530-mm torpedoes were launched, the torpedo boat piloted by Wang Zuo suddenly became lighter, and the whole thing went up and down, and the speed was much faster. However, without the torpedo, Wang Zuo is looking for death by driving the torpedo boat to charge, and the most important thing now is to feel like running away. So he immediately turned to the steering wheel, maneuvered the torpedo boat in a different direction, and prepared to make a detour from the stern of the armored cruiser in front of him and flee the battlefield north.

At the same time, it was not only Wang Zuo's torpedo boat that turned around, but almost all the torpedo boats on the sea turned at the same time at about the same time, turning on the full-speed escape mode.

"They. Ran away? ”

Colonel Elphinstone, who was holding a telescope to watch the torpedo boat being blown up, spoke with disdain.

Escaped! simply disregards the decency of the soldiers, and the so-called force of the Great Ming Dynasty seems to be nothing more than that.

Admiral Codrington sighed: "It's a pity"

As soon as his words fell, something that made everyone stunned suddenly happened.

At the same time that the Ming torpedo boats on the sea turned around one after another, a huge column of water suddenly rose on the starboard side of the armored cruiser USS Northampton, with a standard displacement of more than 7,500 tons, and there was still a flicker of fire in the water column.

In the mist, Codrington only saw that the 7,500-ton ironclad ship, which had made Rakshasas, Prussia, France and Austria all deeply feel the invincibility of the British Royal Navy, began to roll over at a speed visible to the naked eye before it could show its powerful firepower, and then sank at a very fast speed, and just as the Northampton was sinking rapidly, there were one, two, three, four loud noises on the sea!

This was followed by the exclamations of the people in the bridge of the battleship Revenge.

"Oh God! Shannon"

"Wild Bull"

"Oh my God, the Oxford. It's over too! ”

"Oh, look, the Plassey, it looks like it was torpedoed too!"

How is this possible? Codrington couldn't believe his ears, 2 armored cruisers, 1 cruiser of the second class, 2 cruisers of the third class, a total of 5 cruisers was finished like this?

Codrington hurriedly raised his telescope and looked around on the sea, and after a look, he found that there were really three or four very large ships on the side of the sea transfer area, either flipping and sinking, or drilling head-down into the water, or the butt of the ship entering the water, and the lightest one was that the hull was seriously tilted but regaining balance, and it should have been injected with water on the other side.

But even so, Codrington inexplicably lost 2 mounted cruisers and 2 third-class cruisers

"Admiral," Elphinstone's somewhat trembling voice rang out, "are we going to retreat?" ”

"Retreat?" Codrington looked at Elphinstone with a grim face, "Retreat now, won't the Royal Navy die in vain?" Now, get your people to land in a hurry! I need to take Muscat! ”

"Yes, Your Excellency!"

(End of chapter)