At 3:40 p.m. on November 18, the First Detachment of the Qi Expeditionary Fleet resolutely moved forward and steadily approached the English fleet, which consisted of more than 30 ships.

At this time, the Qi fleet still had no idea of competing for the upper hand, the battleships that went out were recalled, and the flagship "Houji" gave the order to prepare for battle, forming a battle line pointing to the north-east.

A few minutes later, the fleet commander signaled all ships to turn to the port side, and the fog descended again, temporarily distracting the two sides from each other's sight.

A quarter of an hour later, the fog cleared again, and the two armies suddenly found that they had formed two parallel lines on opposite courses, and that they were only a little more distant from each other than the range of their artillery.

After another quarter of an hour, the Qi fleet, led by seven steam warships, took the lead in the attack, heading straight for the English avant-garde fleet.

When it was nearly 400 yards away from the British avant-garde fleet, the flagship "Houji" suddenly signaled that the whole army would turn its course in turn, intending to make its own fleet turn close to the downwind position of the enemy's central defender and fight on the same course as the enemy's army, so as to give full play to its own firepower superiority.

After the previous signal was lowered, the commander then played "attack the enemy's central defender", followed by "form a tight attack formation" ten minutes later.

"Boom! Rumble! Rumble! ……”

At 4:35 p.m., a fierce naval battle began.

Like a lion on the grassland, the flagship of the fleet, Houji, bravely broke into the "hyena pack" with a fearless attitude. After ramming into the central flotilla of the English, the guns on both sides fired a salvo first, and all of them were explosive shells.

As soon as the battle began, the Qi warships that broke into the formation felt that something was wrong.

"Enemy ships are battleships!"

“…… All enemy ships are warships! ”

When the two sides of the merchant ships suddenly broke through the camouflaged windows, the black holes of the guns stretched out, and as the flames flickered, the smoke of gunpowder rose, and countless shells flew towards the "Houji," the officers who were closely observing the enemy's situation immediately turned their heads and shouted hoarsely at the command platform.

"Signal flares are fired at the rearguard sail fleet, and our army encounters the main fleet of the Yingyi, and after getting rid of the enemy in front of them, the camera withdraws from the battlefield."

"Order all sail warships to rush forward, break through the enemy array with a fearless attitude, and sail into the outer seas."

"General, are we going to retreat with the whole army?"

"Nope." Zhong Zhilin said in a cruel voice: "Since the English have made such a battle, then we will accompany them and have a big fun!" ”

"General......

"Do you remember a real combat exercise between steam warships against sail warships that took place in the North Sea (near the Timor Sea) five years ago?"

"Take advantage of the maneuverability of the steam warship, get rid of the siege of the sail fleet, and attack it with the technique of wolves on the perimeter?" Zhao Jinchun, the captain of the Houji, immediately understood, revealing a look of excitement.

"In today's battle, you might as well follow it!"

"Yes, General!"

The English navy disguised a large number of warships in the form of merchant ships, trying to lure them into a siege in order to limit the maneuverability of the sailing ships and annihilate their fleet in one fell swoop.

However, the English Navy still underestimated the power of the steam warfare ships.

While the speed of a Steam Battleship is significantly higher than that of a Sail Battleship, the main difference between the two is not just speed. A sail battleship is a ship that uses wind power as power, whereas a steam battleship uses a steam engine for power. This means that the speed of a sail ship is limited by wind conditions, while the speed of a steam ship is limited only by the power and design of the steam engine.

In battle, the speed and maneuverability of the steam warfare ship allow it to better perform various naval combat missions, such as assault, turning, chasing the enemy, retreating, and performing special tactics, etc.

Thanks to the use of steam power, adding a layer of heavy armor to the wooden hull did not slow down its mobility. Therefore, more than a dozen steam warships participating in the expedition to England were equipped with heavy forged iron armor in the main parts. In battle, after using steam power, it is no longer affected and hindered by wind and sea currents, and even when there is no wind, it can freely carry out tactical maneuvers, and the maximum speed can reach 15-16 knots, far exceeding all sail warships of the same period.

Most of the sail warships of this period were equipped with solid shells, and after the projectiles were discharged, they could only attack the enemy ships by breaking the mast and breaking the sail cable. The ships of the Qi Expeditionary Fleet are equipped with a large number of explosive shells, compared with solid shells, such shells can not only penetrate the hull structure, but also cause devastating blows to the hull and personnel caused by the shock wave and shrapnel generated by the explosion. More importantly, it was possible to ignite a fire on the ship, thereby destroying the enemy ship.

Probably seeing the Qi warships equipped with iron armor, the English Navy also experimentally installed armor on sail warships to strengthen their protective performance. However, the armor design caused the displacement of the battleship to rise sharply, and the sails were overwhelmed, and the sail battleship could not run at all after being armoured, so many English admirals thought that it was a foolish choice to install armor on the sail battleship.

Later, with the continuous research and "borrowing" of the steam engine technology of the Qi country, the English Navy also moved the steam engine to the ship more than ten years ago. When the manufacturing technology of the three-expansion steam engine matured, the power density also increased rapidly, making the speed of the ship jump from a few knots to a dozen, which was worthy of catching up with the pace of the Qi Navy.

However, due to the backwardness of processing technology, the reliability of the steam engine made by the English was very poor, and it was normal to turn off the engine seven or eight times a day, so the English navy was very cautious in its exploration of the steam age. They also imitated the warships of the Qi Navy, combining the steam engine with the original sail warship, and the battleship normally sailed with wind power to reduce the wear and tear of the steam engine. The steam engine will only be activated when it is in a state of war or when the wind speed is low.

The English Atlantic Task Force, which encountered the Qi fleet this time, originally had three steam warships, but when it was about to set off, due to mechanical problems, one of them lay down. The other two ships were all deployed in the rearguard fleet of Fleet Commander Payne, in order to take them by surprise in battle.

In the two naval battles of Algeciras Bay and Cape Verde, the Royal Navy suffered heavy losses with steam warships and flowering bombs under the banner of the Qi Navy. In order to cope with this unfavorable situation, the English navy, in addition to gathering more warships to besiege the opponent and limit the mobility of its steam warships, also prepared a large number of sandbags on the sides of the ships and on the deck to prevent the attack of flowering shells.

However, the old unarmored sail battleship, in the face of explosive flowering shells, still can not weaken its destructive power, every shell, will become a sail battleship's lifeline, a just right high-explosive bomb falls, may make a sail battleship immediately become a huge fireworks.

"Order the gunner, all artillery to bombard the enemy ships on both sides with maximum firepower, without saving ammunition!"

"Command the chief engineer, until there is no new order to be transmitted, make sure that the steam engine is at maximum load!"

"Order all sail pilots to receive rockets and carry out long-range coverage strikes on all enemy ships within visual range!"

“……”

In just ten minutes, the battle entered a white-hot state, several Qi steam warships seemed to be fire-breathing monsters, a burst of artillery roar sounded, and one or several English warships flashed dazzling firelight and countless splashes of broken wood, as well as human bodies that were constantly being lifted.

Seeing that the "Houji" was about to break through the heavy encirclement of the Central Guard Fleet and sail to the outer waters of the fleet, the British second-class sail battleship "Ajax" with a displacement of 700 tons bravely rushed over, and with the help of the headwind, suddenly turned its hull in the direction of the "Houji" forward, tried to prevent the other side from continuing to rush forward, and fiercely bombarded the bow of the enemy with its gun.

However, when the "Houji" was intercepted by a ship in front, its course remained unchanged, and it rushed straight at an extremely high speed, intending to ram the "Ajax" with its huge body.

"Boom!"

"Click!"

Under the stunned gaze of the officers and men of the "Ajax," the "Houji" met their artillery fire and slammed into the starboard side of the "Ajax."

The ramming angle in the bow of the "Houji" easily broke through the starboard board of the "Ajax", and a huge crack appeared below the waterline, and the sea water suddenly rushed in and poured into the hold.

Oh God, the battleship of the Qi State was actually installed with ramming horns!

After the "Ajax" was knocked open with a huge crack, the hull tilted and began to sink rapidly, and the officers and men on board continued to scream in surprise and jumped into the sea with wooden barrels in their arms.

The installation of ramming horns for warships, first invented by the Egyptians around 1200 BC, was widely adopted by ancient Phoenicia, Greece and Rome, and was also popular in the age of galleys. However, with the progress of the times, especially the emergence of artillery, after entering the era of sail battle, the ramming device was eliminated by the navies of various countries.

However, unexpectedly, the Qi Navy, which prides itself on being ahead of the times, picked up this outdated equipment again, installed a hard ramming angle in the bow of the ship, and relied on the high speed and high maneuverability of the steam warship, coupled with its own huge hull and tonnage itself has a strong offensive - especially the ironclad ship, which makes this ancient ramming tactic reappear in the world.

Thirty minutes after the battle, there was also a rumbling cannon sound from the southeast of the first detachment of the Qi expeditionary fleet, and it was obvious that another detachment of the British army in ambush had rushed to the battlefield and was encircling the Qi sail detachment.

After a bloody battle, the steam battleship detachment successfully broke through the British encirclement and reached the position behind the British fleet. However, the Qi fleet did not take advantage of the situation to withdraw from the battlefield, but dispersed the various steam warships, passed through the wake of the British fleet, turned downwind to the south-west of the port side windward, and took advantage of its superior maneuverability and high speed to constantly wander around the periphery of the British fleet, shelling the opponent's sail warships that were inconvenient to turn.

If we look at the entire warring sea area from a high place from God's perspective, we will find that the battlefield is divided into two parts: more than 20 sail warships with the British advance fleet and the rear support fleet are besieging the Qi army's sail warship detachment in an extremely wide fan-shaped area, and trying to encircle it all; However, the British army's huge Central Guard fleet was in chaos in the battle group on the other side, and was constantly bombarded by seven Qi steam warships roaming around the periphery, and almost every round of approaching salvos caused huge damage to the British warships.

Mist and smoke obscured the view, and the two sides continued to exchange fire at close range on a south-westerly course, and for most of the time they had no idea who they were firing at, only vaguely firing at the vague figure of the opposing ship and the flash of the muzzle.

The Qi steam warship detachment was constantly following the British fleet, and sometimes it was impossible to tell whether the enemy was on the port side or the starboard side. Under such circumstances, it was inevitable that the friendly forces would hit each other by mistake, and after the "Tianshu" had turned, it had fired at its own "Haoshan".

The chaotic and fierce fighting continued until 9 p.m., when both sides sailed away from the sea and licked their wounds.

When the battle was over, the British managed to capture three Qi sail warships, which were paralyzed by serious injuries after heroic resistance and unfortunately drifted into the downwind British fleet. The Royal Navy 1st Class battleship Bavler made the greatest contribution to this, but the damage was also extremely severe: its foremast was broken, and its crew was killed and wounded 45 people.

An officer present praised it for its "brilliant performance", and judging by the casualties, it and Admiral Pell's flagship, the Nasby, which also had three gun decks, caused the most damage to the enemy, forcing the Qi fleet to retreat and finally escape into the depths of the ocean under the cover of night.

In a letter the following morning, Admiral Pell wrote: "...... The enemy fled in a hurry, several of their ships were crippled, and our troops still retained the battlefield advantage. After the battle, the cheers of victory resounded through our fleet. ……”

If it is said that the Qi fleet took the initiative to withdraw from the battlefield, Admiral Pell did not exaggerate, they successfully defeated the Qi people and gave the other side effective damage.

However, from a strategic point of view, the Atlantic Task Force led by Pell did not achieve the intended goal, that is, it did not inflict heavy damage on the fleet of the Qi country, and the three warships captured were only sail warships that the other side was forced to abandon after fighting inexhaustibly.

Looking at their own losses, not only did Admiral Pell himself remain silent for a long time after seeing the statistical results, but even the commissioners of the Royal Navy Commission would probably jump in shock when they received this battle damage report.

"The first-class battleship 'Neptune' sank."

"The second class battleship 'Mars' sank."

"The second class battleship 'Gorgeous' sank."

"The battleship Achilles sank in the third class."

"The third class battleship 'Ninotaur' sank."

"The fourth-class battleship 'Brave' sank."

"The fourth-class battleship 'Canopus' sank."

"The cruiser 'Kent' was sunk."

"The cruiser 'Warrior' was sunk."

"The 1st class battleship 'Prince', the 1st class battleship 'Nasby', the 2nd class battleship 'Enemy', the 2nd class battleship 'Northumber', and a number of cruisers were severely damaged."

"More than 290 officers and men of the Royal Navy were killed, more than 530 were missing, more than 1,340 were wounded, and a total loss of more than 2,160 people."

"Order the fleet to turn south-east and prepare for the return to England." Admiral Pell had a gloomy expression and ordered in a gloomy tone, "We...... Go home. ”

(End of chapter)