When it comes to naval warfare in the age of sails, it is impossible not to mention one person and one method of warfare, that is, Horatio, who is known as the "soul of the British Royal Navy"; Nelson and the Nelson method of battle he advocated, it was precisely because of the birth of Nelson's method of war advocated by Nelson that it led to the demise of the battle line method of the sail era. The so-called Nelson's method of warfare is actually not complicated -- when the enemy fleet adopts a long snake formation, our fleet can be divided into two columns, cut the enemy fleet into three sections, one column to block the attack, and the other way to concentrate on besieging the enemy's cut off and encircled ships with superior forces, and adopt the mode of broadside battle to encircle and annihilate the encircled enemy, and after annihilating the besieged enemy, continue to launch a general attack on the remaining remnants of the enemy, and always form a local advantage on the battlefield with more battles and fewer battles, so as to win the entire naval battle.

Despite the fact that at this time away from Horatio; Nelson was born for half a century, but this does not prevent the Qing Navy from understanding Nelson's tactics, in fact, the Qing Navy has long been familiar with this tactics in its daily training, and has not carried out corresponding exercises on this tactics, but Nelson's tactics have three important prerequisites, one is the direction of the wind, which requires that the fleet using Nelson's tactics must have the upper hand, otherwise it will not be able to launch a strong impact to cut off the enemy fleet; Second, Nelson's tactics require extremely high requirements for the ability of the sailors of the fleet, if your own ability to manipulate the sails is insufficient, before you can launch an attack, the opponent has already been prepared to respond, once you cannot achieve the suddenness of the attack, forcibly using this tactics can only bring heavy casualties to yourself, but cannot effectively destroy the enemy; Third, because Nelson's tactics were to attack the enemy's battle line in a straight column, they could not fire at the enemy while driving, and could only be beaten passively, which was also a great test of the courage of their own soldiers, and whether they could withstand that crucial impact was a severe test.

Guts? The last thing the Qing navy lacked was courage. Although at the beginning of the war, the Qing officers and soldiers who had never experienced such a big scene would be a little flustered, but the Qing navy, which advocated attack and adventure, definitely did not lack the courage to fight to the death; Upper hand? As soon as the Qing fleet came up, it seized the upper hand, in addition to showing its own courage to fight to the death, it also wanted to use Nelson's tactics, but at the end of the day, Qiao Hailong still did not use this kind of assault tactics, it was not that Qiao Hailong did not have the spirit of adventure. It is that the basic capabilities of the Qing Navy are not enough to use this kind of tactics - in my heart, the training of the Qing Navy is very strict, and the training level of sailors is also good among the naval powers today, at least not worse than Spain, the Netherlands and other countries, but compared with the English Navy, the gap is still obvious. Once it is impossible to implement the battle plan of cutting off the enemy fleet, the only thing waiting for the Qing fleet is to fall into the heavy encirclement of the enemy fleet and be crushed by the enemy's superior fleet.

Now. The rear line fleet of the Great Qing Dynasty dragged down the rear line fleet of England, and the middle three Weizi ships entangled the flagship of the English fleet, and the front and middle lines of the two fleets had reached a stalemate, and the front line fleet of the Great Qing Dynasty had successfully broken away from the battlefield, and the conditions were ripe for the implementation of Nelson's tactics. The only key point is whether the "Yanlong" can withstand the attack of an enemy ship, so as to buy time for the maneuver of the Qing front-line fleet. Or if they are sunk, then the four enemy ships that were originally attacking the "Yanlong" will inevitably approach the center of the battlefield, so that the Qing front-line fleet will not only be unable to break through the battle line of the English fleet, but even the three prestige ships that were originally in a superior position will be dealt a heavy blow by the enemy's superior forces, and if so, the Qing navy will certainly face a crushing defeat of the entire army.

The "Yanlong" was a medium-sized warship with a total of 64 guns. In addition to the two guns in the front and rear, only 30 guns could be put into attack, and in the face of the indiscriminate bombardment of a first-class battleship and three second-class battleships of the English Navy, a total of 192 guns, although the Qing army's rear-mounted rope-mounted guns fired at a rate higher than that of the British army's old-style guns, in the face of the overwhelming firepower superiority of the English side, within a quarter of an hour of the start of the battle, the "Yanlong" was already seriously damaged: the mainmast was broken, the hull was damaged everywhere, and the whole ship caught fire in many places. The most fatal thing was three bullets near the waterline. The water leak was severe, and less than ten guns remained on the two-tier gun deck to barely fight back. The officers and men were killed and wounded, the captain was killed in battle, the first officer was killed in battle, and the second officer was killed in battle, and more than 40 officers and men of the Qing Dynasty in the remaining areas fought tenaciously under the leadership of Liao Chenghong, the third officer.

Liao Chenghong, a native of Ningbo, Zhejiang, graduated from the Shanghai Naval Academy, with the rank of lieutenant, less than 30, only four years on the ship, and was an unknown person in the Qing Navy. Yes, rigid, Liao Chenghong is a person who strictly abides by orders, he never knows what flexibility is, for him, an order is an order, and it is just executed, there is no need to ask why, and there is no need to pay attention to what will happen after doing it. Liao Chenghong will definitely not be a qualified admiral for the keen insight required by a senior admiral, but as a junior officer of the navy, Liao Chenghong, who executes orders without discounting, is undoubtedly extremely good - the captain, first mate, and second mate died in battle one after another, the hull was damaged, the battleship began to sink, more than half of the crew was killed or wounded, the artillery was completely damaged, and the mainmast was broken. But Liao Chenghong did not forget the captain's confession before he died - to fight to the last man.

What is the meaning of insisting on fighting Liao Chenghong is not clear, he only knows that this is an order, since it is an order, then it must be carried out desperately, so although at this moment the "Yanlong" has almost no firepower to counterattack, but Liao Chenghong did not give the order to withdraw from the battle, but gritted his teeth and commanded his officers and soldiers to insist on staying at the forefront of the Qing army's battle columns, and at this time, due to the broken mainmast of the "Yanlong" and serious water ingress into the cabin, the speed of the ship inevitably slowed down, and the central battlefield, which had been opened for a distance, gradually caught up, through the thick black smokeLiao Chenghong gave an order that surprised both the enemy and us -- to turn 120 degrees to the left and crash into the "Great Britain." At this time, the "Yanlong" caught fire in many places, and the whole ship, like a huge torch, emitted thick black smoke and rushed towards the battle line of the English fleet.

Chaos, a big mess! Seeing that the "Yanlong" launched a suicide attack like an arson ship. The four English battleships that were originally attacking the "Yanlong" were suddenly in disarray, and kept firing shells to cover the "Yanlong" in order to stop its crazy impact, and suddenly the bullets rained down, and the "Yanlong", which had been hit by dozens of bullets, was immediately beaten into a sieve, and Liao Chenghong, who was standing on the deck, and his officers and men were immediately swept to the ground by the chain bullets and shotguns fired by the English fleet, except for the sailors at the helm and the more than ten officers and men in the bilge who were desperately draining the water. There was no longer a single officer or soldier on the entire deck who could stand up, but just like that, the battered "Yanlong" still rushed towards the battle line of the English fleet like a monster covered in flames, although the speed was slow, but it was extremely resolute.

Crazy! Absolute madness! The frenzied onslaught of the "Acting Dragon" attracted all the attention of the English fleet, but unfortunately this madness did not last long, and the slow "Acting Dragon" did not have time to rush to the front of the British battle line, and was bombed by the British army. More than 20 bullets were hit near the waterline, and the water ingress was serious, and the hull of the ship tilted and sailed for a while before turning over on the water, and after tossing for a while, it slowly sank to the bottom.

Although the crazy impact of the "Acting Dragon" failed to achieve the goal of killing the enemy. However, the tragic sinking of the "Yanlong" bought enough time for the detour of the Qing frontline fleet, and just as the British army was cheering for the success of sinking the "Yanlong", the Daqing frontline fleet had completed its turn around a circle not far away, and was sprinting at full speed like an unsheathed sword towards the gap between the "Rose" and the "Dancing Girl" in the central battlefield of the English fleet's battle line.

The Qing front-line fleet was sailing with the wind. The speed was already amazingly fast, and although the battle line of the British army at this time was still intact, the four battleships gathered together because of the annihilation of the "Yanlong" inevitably opened a certain distance from the central battlefield, and when they discovered the sprint of the Qing army's frontline fleet, it was too late to fill the gap that was not too wide, so they could only keep firing, trying to use ferocious firepower to crush the impact of the Qing army's frontline fleet.

At the forefront of the fleet on the front line of the Qing Dynasty was the "Yansheng", which at this time only had two foredeck guns that could fire. However, due to the problem of their own speed, the firing effect of these two guns was about zero, and the guns of the four British battleships smashed the shells at the "Yansheng" like hail, and in an instant, the sea around the "Yansheng" was flooded into the sky, and the dense rain of bullets hit the "Yansheng" through thousands of holes, and as soon as it rushed to the front 50 meters of the British battle line, the "Yansheng" had to sail sideways after being so badly damaged. Gave way to the forward position. After a few turns on the surface of the sea, it slowly sank to the bottom.

The "Yanlong" and "Yansheng" sank one after another. It was undoubtedly a big blow to the Qing fleet, which was already at a numerical disadvantage, but the heroic sacrifice of these two "Yan" ships created the best fighter for the impact of the Qing front-line fleet, and the "Weining", which was lined up behind the "Yansheng", took advantage of the opportunity of the British fleet's concentrated firepower to attack the "Yansheng", rushed to within 50 meters of the British battle line, ignored the British baptism of gunfire, and inserted the battle line of the English fleet at full speed, the gun portholes of the three-story gun deck were fully opened, and one hundred and eight guns were fired one after anotherThe whole ship was like a fiery hedgehog, smashing the cannonball rain at the "Rose" and "Dancing Girl" who were busy adjusting the shape of the ship, and suddenly the "Rose" and "Dancing Girl" who were caught off guard were beaten into a sieve, half of the solid bullets, half of the flowering bombs, the stern of the "Rose" was blown open, and the flying shrapnel instantly cleaned the three-layer gun deck of the "Rose", and the English gunners who were busy fighting on the gun deck were all spared, and the "Rose" completely lost its combat power, and the main mast, The side masts were all broken, and in addition to spinning on the water, they completely lost the ability to continue sailing; Although the three-story gun deck was only partially damaged, and only more than 20 guns and more than 60 officers and men were lost, the main mast of the "Dancing Girl" was also interrupted by the "Weining" blow, and the "Dancing Girl," which was originally entangled with the three Weizi ships in the central battlefield, suddenly became the key target of the three Weizi ships after losing one-third of its firepower, and it was severely damaged after holding out for less than a pillar of incense, and completely lost its combat effectiveness.

After rushing through the battle line of the English fleet, the "Weining" rushed forward for some distance and then immediately began to turn, aiming at the "Great Britain" which was in the midst of a bitter battle with the side of the ship, and the other three ships of the Wei Zi attacked the "Great Britain" and the "Mayflower" left and right, and the rest of the Qing frontline fleet that rushed into the English battle line made all their efforts to block the England frontline fleet that had begun to turn around and tried to break through the blockade of the Qing fleet, and a great melee began.

"Order: The rear line fleet will attack diagonally and entangle the British rear line fleet; The front-line fleet held back the enemy forces at all costs; The two ships of 'Weiyi' and 'Weiwu' covered it, and the 'Weilong' leaned up to fight broadside battles, and must annihilate the enemy's flagship and kill! Never die! Seeing that the front-line fleet of the Qing Dynasty had successfully achieved its intended combat purpose, and the fighters had appeared, Qiao Hailong, who had always stood on the deck of the "Weilong" and watched the battle, finally gave the order for a general attack.

As the heralds on the main mast of the "Weilong" conveyed the order to the ships, the morale of the officers and men of the Qing Navy was immediately boosted, and they shouted "Never die!" The English fleet was suddenly in a state of chaos, and the disjointed English fleet was fighting separately, and they were all busy attacking the central battlefield, and the situation on the battlefield was chaotic for a while......

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