According to the results of the cabinet meeting, Wellesley quickly organized a group of British officers to prepare to go to the United States to support the Southern Army and resist the attack from the North.

Nelson dispatched several of the latest armored cruisers, together with escorted mid- and low-class cruisers, to form a special mobile fleet with a speed of more than 20 knots.

Nelson himself was to rush to the United States with Army officers headed by Wellesley.

The subsequent mobilization of the Grand Fleet and the convergence with the French fleet were handed over to his partner Collingwood.

Naval warfare was equally important in this war, and if the North used its existing fleet to blockade the southern coastline, leaving the United States and France unable to support the South, then the defeat of the South was a matter of time.

The southern region is dominated by plantations, which can be regarded as a huge rural area with very weak industrial production capacity.

If external ties are cut off, not to mention the supply of weapons and ammunition, there will be problems in the supply of daily necessities.

If the lives of ordinary people cannot be maintained, of course, there is no need to think about the issue of war.

Nelson's motorized fleet maintained a speed of twenty knots and continued to sail for eight days, crossing the Atlantic in one fell swoop, and rushing to the eastern part of the United States, ready to enter the Chesapeake Bay.

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest bay in the United States and the most important bay.

The mouth is small and the abdomen is large, the entrance is only twenty kilometers, and there are many internal fjords and a dense network of rivers.

Inside the bay is Annapolis, the capital of Maryland, and Baltimore, the largest city in Maryland.

There is also the most important Newport News shipyard, the largest naval base in Norfolk.

From the main rivers in the bay, it can also reach important cities such as Washington and Richmond in the United States.

Of course, this world doesn't yet have Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C. was a compromise between the North and the South, a compromise between New York and Richmond.

The Chesapeake Bay is also the natural border between the North and the South.

Most of the bay and north belong to Maryland, and the entrance and south belong to Virginia.

If the bay is blocked from the north, then the south will be connected by Tessie, and Charleston in South Carolina will be connected.

At that point, Virginia would probably not be able to hold it, and then the South would be even more dangerous.

Nelson felt that he understood this, and that Napoleon and Adams should have understood it too.

So when there are still five hundred kilometers from the bay, the fleet has already spread out and entered a combat state.

As a result, after sailing for most of the day, I found nothing.

It was not until the forward reconnaissance fleet arrived on the outskirts of the Chesapeake Bay that a message was sent back to report that a patrol fleet under the flag of America had been spotted near the exit of the bay.

In a simple patrol fleet, there is one armored cruiser and two secondary cruisers.

When Nelson saw the news, he discussed it with Wellesley, who was beside him:

"The United States of America itself did not have more than a cruiser, and they did take in and use the United Kingdom fleet that escorted Queen Charlotte's coronation."

Wellesley analyzed with a serious expression:

"It may be that knighthoods were given to the officers on the ship, and we have received news that Napoleon and Adams canonized a large number of noble ...... in the name of two kings"....

Nelson let out a long breath:

"Yes, most of the time, so that those officers can be mobilized, at least part of them can be mobilized, and the navy's fleet can be mobilized.

"There are armored cruisers in the patrol fleet, and I don't know how many other fleets will stay in the bay, and most of the original two capital ships have also been transferred.

"The other side's strategy is obviously to block the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, and they don't even want to intercept us in the ocean, we have to go through this entrance to Richmond.

"So all we can do now is rush in and beat up these boys and take control of the entrance to the bay."

Wellesley agrees with Nelson's earlier analysis, but is taken aback by his final decision:

"Lord Nelson, are you really going to rush straight in? You also said that the other side may have capital ships, and we only have armored cruisers at most......

Nelson smiled rather casually and said:

"Lord Wellesley, don't worry, war on the seas is different from on land.

"On land there is already an era of war for armed civilians, and on the sea there is still an age of knightly warfare.

"Because the cost of naval ships is so high, no country can turn the Grand Fleet into armed civilians.

"In this case, the outcome of the war is determined not only by the strength of the weapon, but also by courage and luck.

"If nothing else, they won't have a chance to get the capital ship out.

"The fact that they patrol the bay gates instead of coming out to control the sea shows that they are timid.

"They let secondary capital ships like armored cruisers patrol the bay, which shows their timidity even more.

"They are afraid of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, they are our subordinates, and I know what they are capable of.

"If we can't defeat them even in this situation, we might as well just let America become independent."

Wellesley didn't know much about the navy, but he knew that Nelson was the strongest admiral.

Since Nelson was so sure, he did not interfere with the command.

After Nelson finished speaking, he directly gave the order to regroup the fleet and break directly to the entrance of the bay.

The American Northern Fleet in the Gulf seems to be ignorant of movements in the outside world.

Maybe he didn't expect Britain to send a fleet to North Yinzhou so soon, or maybe he didn't expect the enemy to break through directly.

It was only when the distance between the two sides was just over ten kilometers that the patrol fleet spotted the British fleet rushing at full speed.

In the process of signaling and adjusting the attitude of the fleet, the distance between the two sides was further narrowed.

Wellesley instinctively asked Nelson, who heard the report:

"Why don't you fire right away? Hasn't the Navy already validated the technology of engagement for ten kilometers?"

Nelson subconsciously said:

"Ten kilometers can be fought, but we can't penetrate it, and we don't have Ming shells.

"Besides, now is the time to be more courageous, and it can only have the greatest effect by rushing directly to the close combat."

While Nelson was writing and drawing on the planning board, the distance between the two fleets was quickly compressed to less than six kilometers. ….

Six kilometers is already the combat distance of a 160-mm rapid-fire gun, and what continues to pull in is to shoot bricks in the face.

Upon hearing the report, Nelson immediately ordered the fleet to assign targets and open fire separately.

An active and raid-style naval battle officially began.

Nelson's fleet had come from afar, but it was still in high order.

The entire fleet was under radio command, giving Nelson a sense of coordination.

Comparatively speaking, the American Northern Fleet is a bit of a mess.

Originally, it was a fleet that had just surrendered, and not all of the original sailors on the ship surrendered, only a part remained.

In order to control the fleet, the small northern court also arranged a group of new officers and sailors to supervise and control the command on board.

If it's on the ocean, with a step-by-step engagement, they might be able to play at a normal level.

But Nelson's rampage of approaching engagements is a contest of the ability of the crew in a state of high tension.

So the performance of the Northern Fleet was a bit chaotic.

The hit rate of the 160mm rapid-fire gun is a great test of the gunner's "feel".

Without sufficiently coordinated command, almost all of the ships opened fire when they were close enough, and the jumble of shells landed on the water, sending a chaotic column of water.

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bar. 】

In some places, several warships attacked the same British battleship of the enemy, causing the shells of several ships to fall into the water and stir up the water columns mixed together, and there was no way to carefully distinguish them, and there was no way to correct the firing parameters.

The first round of shooting all missed, and there was no way to calibrate the shot, but the second round of shooting was not started, and all of them still failed, and there was not even a single straddle shot.

Several British warships were not attacked at all, and rushed forward at full speed all the way.

The British fleet had already assigned targets, and each armored cruiser aimed at an enemy cruiser and opened fire.

In the first round, there was a cross-shot, and in the second round, it was a direct hit.

The decks of the two cruisers of the Northern Fleet exploded, and thick black smoke and flames rose rapidly.

The rapid results of the battle, which once again boosted the morale of the sailors of the British fleet, also added to the confusion of the Northern Fleet.

As the war continued, the British fleet scored one hit after another.

Soon one of the northern cruisers was unlucky, an explosion occurred in the middle of the hull, and it began to sink directly.

A burst of cheers erupted from the British armored cruiser that had been hit.

The sailors on the opposite boat began to jump ship in a mess.

In the chaos of the battlefield, the Northern Fleet finally got lucky to get the hit.

A flash of fire was made on the broadside board of a British armored cruiser.

But the cruiser did not seem to have suffered any damage, and was still pumping out ammunition at full strength on the battle line.

The main force of the British fleet was eight armored cruisers of more than 10,000 tons, and they were the secondary capital ships in the fleet of this era.

Without the capital ship guns attacking at a close enough distance, it would be difficult to directly penetrate their surface-hardened alloy steel armor.

Of the fleets arranged by the Northern Fleet to patrol the entrance to the bay, only one armored cruiser was in charge, the rest were low-rank cruisers of several thousand tons, and the same cruisers were also in a group of the British fleet.

Before the capital ships and more armored cruisers in the bay set sail for reinforcements, the British fleet was now bullying the small with the big and fighting the small with the more, and still had the advantage of command and training, and it was impossible to lose.

In the overall inferiority of the battle, the American Northern Fleet soon could not bear it, and warships began to flee the scene.

As soon as someone ran away, others followed suit, rushing out of the bay and running north.

Nelson ordered part of the cruisers to stay, guard the entrance to the bay, and personally lead the team out in pursuit with armored cruisers.

Raids quickly turned into chases.

Prince Void