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Chapter 1686 The Prestige of the Ironclad Ship

An unprecedented naval battle took place at Dunkirk, with black powder smoke obscuring the view.

The Spanish defenders of the Dunkirk Fortress watched the earth-shattering sea battle not far away, dumbfounded.

There has never been such a fierce battle in Europe, and there was no such a large-scale contest between sailing warships when the Armada was at its most glorious.

The increase in productivity has made the war more tragic. These big guys floating on the sea show the violent aesthetics of the era of sailing battleships, like fortresses on the sea, carrying as many artillery as possible.

"I don't know who will win?" The Spanish defenders were blinded by the thick gunpowder smoke, unable to judge the outcome of the war.

They should be lucky that they are defending fortresses on land, not fighting on the sea.

The Huo Qubing and the Weiqing ironclads fired their heavy artillery at the opposite ships, and the solid bullets weighing more than 100 pounds hit the wooden sailboats in the Netherlands and France. The solid bullets easily penetrated the ordinary wooden hulls, giving The sailors and artillery in the cabin caused no small casualties.

Behind the steam ironclad, wooden sailing ships followed closely behind, maintaining the battle line and firing on one side.

The Zheng He trembled because of the recoil from the continuous firing of the artillery and the undulation of the waves. Zheng Chenggong needed to supervise the helmsman and the gunner to perform their duties at the same time, and use the artillery to cause casualties to the enemy as much as possible while maintaining the navigation of the ironclad ship.

The Dutch and French ships also tried to organize a formation to fight back. They sailed in the opposite direction to the Holy Alliance fleet, and the ships and artillery of both sides were on opposite parallel lines!

A large number of shells fell on the sea, and Zheng Chenggong's ears were filled with the roar of artillery, and occasionally waves splashed on his face.

The fleets of both sides almost passed each other, and thousands of artillery pieces fired one after another!Just the black powder consumed by the artillery is an astronomical figure!
The gunners reloaded ammunition without stopping, and both sides were competing whose gunners were well-trained and could complete a round of artillery loading in the fastest time and hit the enemy ship accurately.

The Zheng He also ate a few shells when the 200 warships passed by on the opposite side. Zheng Chenggong could clearly feel the bad sound that the Zheng He made when it was hit by the shells.

"Captain, the starboard side is severely damaged!" A crew member ran up from the cabin to report.

"Is there any water?" Zheng Chenggong asked.

"No signs of water ingress have been found for the time being, and one artillery was destroyed."

"That's good, continue to follow the warship ahead."

The Zheng He followed the battle line closely, and the steam ironclad met the European Union fleet, then began to change its course, and confronted the enemy's warships again.

The two sides constantly changed their course on the sea and rushed towards each other. The scene was once very chaotic. The warships of both sides were entangled with each other and became a mess.

A scene that caused headaches for the generals of both sides appeared. There are too many ships on both sides. There will always be ships that affect the battle line due to unskilled sailors or damaged hulls from artillery attacks.

Several ships were sunk or badly damaged in the melee.

When the two sides worked hard to adjust their formations, the two sides were finally on the same route and entered the artillery battle!
The two sides are like parallel lines, and each warship is a line segment, shelling towards the enemy ship parallel to itself!

The "Crown", the flagship of the European Fleet, was tightly bitten by the "Wei Qing" of the Holy Fleet. The two ships were the leaders of the two battle lines, and they both tried to sink each other with artillery!

The commander of the French fleet, Blazer, personally commanded the battle on the deck of the "Crown", and he was finally fortunate enough to see the power of the steam ironclad ship.

How powerful is this kind of ironclad ship that looks narrower and longer?

"fire!"

The shells fired by the artillery loaded on the Crown fell on the hull of the Weiqing!

boom!The solid bullet was bounced off the solid iron plate, and it couldn't cause effective damage to the hull!The Wei Qing was unscathed and was still advancing at high speed.

"Long live!" There was a burst of arrogant cheers from the deck of the Weiqing iron-clad ship. The opponent's shells couldn't sink the iron-clad ship at all, and the iron-clad ship was already invincible!
The Ministry of the Navy spent a lot of money. If the two sister main ironclad ships that took so many years to build were easily destroyed by the 18-pound and 32-pound artillery of this era, then the funds spent by the Ministry of the Navy would be in vain.

Blazer wiped the cold sweat off his forehead. The opponent was indeed as strong as imagined, and the hull protected by iron plates could not damage it in the middle and long distances.

He didn't expect that the Wei Qing was also very capable of attacking. The large-caliber front-loading rifled naval gun it was equipped with had already aimed at the Crown where he was. Under Nelson's command, the 100 to 200-pound shells were fully loaded.

The Weiqing ironclad ship seems to be equipped with only more than 20 artillery pieces, but its artillery lethality exceeds that of contemporary artillery.

Wei Qing roared a few times, and the roaring solid bullets fell on the crown of the wooden battleship, and the solid bullets easily penetrated the armor of the crown!
Some of the artillery pieces of the ironclad ship Weiqing were also loaded with explosive bombs, and the shells exploded under the action of delayed fuzes!

"It's...on fire, put out the fire!"

The sailors on the Crown scrambled to extinguish the fire accidentally caused by the explosive bomb.Catching fire is a complete disaster for a wooden sailing ship, and the entire ship can be set ablaze!

Seeing that his ship was in a hurry under the bombardment of the opponent, but the opponent was still unscathed, Blazer felt a chill in his heart.

Ironclad ships are both offensive and defensive, with the sharpest spears and the strongest shields. How can they defeat the ironclad ships?

The rest of the wooden sailing ships that fought Huo Qubing, General Fubo, Yun, and Feng also faced the same problem as the Crown. They could not penetrate the enemy's armor!

In the case of not being able to destroy the opponent's ship, they can only choose to kill unprotected crew members, although this effect is very limited.

Some wooden sailboats seem to risk being hit by large-caliber naval guns to approach the ironclad ship for hand-to-hand combat.

However, the ironclad ship also provides short-range firepower. The open deck is equipped with a hand-cranked Gatling machine gun, and there are several boxes of bullets next to the machine gun!

Ironclad ships are equipped with machine guns for emergencies, which come in handy at this time!

"Da da da!!"

The machine gunner shakes the handle and shoots at the approaching sailboat. The metal bullets sweep across like autumn leaves, and can even penetrate wooden boards at close range!
"Do not……!"

The sailors of the French warship who had just approached the ironclad ship found that the opposite side was shooting from a long distance, and many companions on the deck were killed by Gatling machine guns.

Except that the wooden sailboats behind the battle line are relatively fair bombardment duels, and the battle between the steam ironclads and wooden sailboats in front, the steam ironclads from a more advanced era are simply one-sided.

(End of this chapter)