The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 789: Invincible? Times have changed. Only a strong industry can be invincible!
On the eighth day of the eighth month of the fourteenth year of the Tianli calendar, the Pacific Ocean, near the Bay of Callao.

The morning mist had just dissipated, and on the narrow waters east of San Lorenzo Island, the chimneys of five steam warships were spewing out a faint smoke. Including the "Xi'an", five of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's latest warships had been lurking on the waters between this island and the South American continent for twelve days, waiting for the Spanish invincible fleet!
Just an hour ago, a sentry on a hot air balloon rising from the Santa Rosa Fort near the port of Callao had already spotted an unidentified fleet sailing in formation from the ocean in the south - most likely it was the so-called awesome-sounding Spanish Invincible Armada!

Admiral Ding Ruchang of the Pacific Fleet of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom stood on the bridge of the lightly loaded 5200-ton Xi'an armored cruiser. This "veteran" of the Heavenly Kingdom Navy, who had fought two bloody battles with the Dutch Navy in the South China Sea and had now been promoted to vice admiral, was staring at the sea chart at this moment - if the Spanish Invincible Fleet wanted to reinforce Lima, as long as the Spanish Invincible Fleet entered the deadly "anvil"-shaped gorge of the Bay of Callao, then this batch of Invincible Fleet would be harvested by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!

It is said that since the Age of Discovery, every maritime overlord had to defeat the Spanish Invincible Fleet to prove himself, and now it is finally the turn of the Kingdom of Heaven!

"Admiral, the flag signal from the Echeng Tulou indicates that the Spanish fleet will enter the Gulf of Callao within half an hour!" Lieutenant Colonel Li Rongfa, the first officer and chief of staff of the Xi'an, came to report quickly. Li Xiucheng's second son also joined the navy at the suggestion of Luo Yaoguo. He was only in his twenties. With the help of the great expansion of the Heavenly Kingdom Navy, he became a lieutenant colonel first officer a few years after graduating from the Naval Academy. He was also the first officer of the elite battleship "Xi'an". It can be said that he was on the rise!

Ding Ruchang nodded and turned to the messenger: "Order all ships to maintain a single column formation and wait until all the Spanish enter the gorge before attacking. Tell Chen Yongchang that his Changshu will lead the charge!"

The "Changshu" is the second ship of the "Wuxian" class. The "Wuxian" class is an upgraded and improved version of the "Shanghai" class. It is also a masterpiece launched by the Jiangnan Arsenal and the Shanghai Naval Academy in recent years. It is said that it has also received guidance from the "Angel" Luo Yaoguo, and has adopted many design ideas of the "Tianhe Navy" light warships, such as the twin rotating turrets on the central axis layout, key protection, etc. It is also equipped with a double-expansion steam engine and "steel + iron" composite armor technology introduced from the UK. Although only 25 mm "steel + iron" composite armor is used in the engine room, ammunition depot and waterline, it still greatly improves the survivability of this type of light steam gunboat with a light load displacement of nearly 1500 tons in naval battles.

On the teak decks of the four Wuxian-class cruisers, sailors were wiping the wedge-shaped breechblocks of the 90mm breech-loading guns with palm oil. Chen Yongsheng, the captain of the Suqian, a captain of an armed merchant ship who had made great contributions in the Battle of the Java Sea, had now graduated from the advanced training class of the Shanghai Naval Academy and became a lieutenant colonel captain of the Heavenly Kingdom Navy. At this moment, he was personally checking the nitroglycerin shells in the ammunition compartment.

"Open it and take a look!" he shouted to the sailors excitedly, patting the ammunition box.

An ammunition box containing four 90mm nitroglycerin shells was quickly knocked open with a crowbar, and the brass shell casings of the shells inside were polished to a shine!
This is the secret weapon of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!

In fact, the passivation scheme for nitroglycerin was developed by the "Psychic Laboratory" of Taiping University six years ago. But at that time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's nitric acid and sulfuric acid production facilities had not yet been put into production, and nitroglycerin was dependent on imports. So Luo Yaoguo ordered the passivation scheme for nitroglycerin to be locked in a safe, allowing the Taiping Army to continue to use dangerous picric acid shells. It was not until two years ago that the nitric acid and sulfuric acid production lines of the Xuzhou Chemical Plant were fully put into production, and the Taiping University disclosed the patent for passivating nitroglycerin with diatomaceous earth. However, the explosives produced by the nitrocellulose gelling method used by the Taiping Army, which is a step further than the diatomaceous earth passivation scheme, are safer than picric acid and have great power! However, compared with trinitrotoluene, which was just invented by the Germans last year, it is still a little worse in terms of safety, so it is only a transitional product.

But it was enough to make the Spanish Armada suffer, because according to reliable information, only the flagship "Numancia" was equipped with some French-made picric acid shells - that stuff is precious! If you can't make it yourself and rely on imports, you really can't afford it!
On the distant sea level, the 120mm-130mm wrought iron armor of the Spanish flagship "Numancia" seemed indestructible in the strong winds of the South Pacific. The muzzles of 34 68-pound rifled guns had already protruded from the gun ports on both sides, and the sailors in the gun cabin were carefully carrying the expensive picric acid shrapnel shells.

The 68-pound shell has a caliber of more than 200 mm! Even the 120 mm breech-loading gun of the "Xi'an" ship is far less powerful, except that the 120 mm breech-loading gun is a rifled gun, and it is also rear-loading.
"Report to the commander, we are about to enter the Bay of Callao!" The Spanish messenger saluted and reported to the fleet commander Admiral Juan de Casteljo.

The Spanish admiral, whose chest was covered with medals, deliberately showed a contemptuous expression: "Tell the ships to maintain the column and let these yellow monkeys see what a real navy is!" He turned to the expeditionary commander Gonzalez beside him and said, "If those yellow monkeys really dare to sail their fleet to South America, the 'Numancia' will let them learn what a real navy is!"

The Spanish major general smiled and agreed: "As long as those Indians see the might of the Numancia, the Spanish flag will fly forever over the sky of Lima!"

Castejo nodded gently: "Yes, the white nobles of Peru should now know that without their Spanish mothers, they are nothing."

He only said half of his words. In fact, the Spanish mother also needs the wealthy rebellious sons in South America. Without their filial piety, Spain is nothing.

Suddenly, a rapid bell rang from the lookout, followed by the scream of the messenger: "Commander, unidentified ships have been spotted, five in number, heading towards our fleet at full speed!"

"What? They really dare." Castejo stopped talking halfway, then his face darkened and he said in a dignified tone: "Sound the battle alarm and tell the children that God stands with us, Spain!"

On the sea, five warships of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom formed a column, like a sharp sword, piercing the throat of the Spanish fleet. The originally blue sky was instantly painted with several thick lines of ink by the smoke from the five steam warships.
The steam engine of the "Xi'an" roared like thunder, and the temperature in the engine room soared to 45 degrees Celsius. The boiler operators, with their upper bodies naked, worked hard to shovel tons of anthracite into the boiler.

Ding Ruchang stood on the bridge, his fingers tightly gripping the teak handrail - in the distance, the Spanish flagship "Numancia" was a whole circle larger than the "Xi'an"!
"Admiral, the Spanish column is about to enter the gorge!" Before the first mate Li Rong finished speaking, the Taiping fleet suddenly launched a textbook tactical maneuver. Captain Chen Yongchang of the Changshu turned the rudder hard to the left, and the 1500-ton light cruiser drew a sharp U-shaped arc on the sea. The bow ram split the waves, and the roar of the overloaded double-expansion steam engine made his ears buzz. At this moment, he seemed to have returned to the moment of the battle against the Dutch in the Java Sea a few years ago!
The four ships "Xi'an", "Wuxian", "Suqian", "Minhou" and "Nanhai" followed closely and rushed towards the left side of the Spanish Invincible Fleet.

The Spanish Armada came from south to north to the Gulf of Callao. The Gulf of Callao was like an "anvil". To the north was a peninsula protruding from the South American continent. If the left side of the Spanish Armada was surrounded, the right side would be the South American continent, and the north would be the peninsula, which meant it was surrounded.

Spanish Admiral Castejo's heart beat faster when he saw this scene!
The speed of the five steam ships is about 5 knots. The largest one seems to be of the "Glory" class, and the other four are only about 13 tons. It doesn't matter, we can still win!

Casteho thought about it, then gritted his teeth and ordered: "Turn left 5 degrees, maintain a single column, and rush towards the yellow monkey's fleet. Gunnery officer, prepare to fire, target. The enemy's leading ship!"

At the same moment, when the two fleets in the Pacific Ocean were forming their battle formations and preparing to fight each other, on the cliff under the Santa Rosa Battery right in front of the "Numancia", countless "Inca Heavenly Soldiers" with red scarves on their heads were stretching their necks, opening their mouths, holding their breath, staring intently at the two teams of warships charging face to face on the sea - the Spanish Invincible Armada coming from the south!
That was the invincible fleet of the Spanish "Heavenly Kingdom" that conquered half of America. There were twelve ships in total, and they all looked huge!
Of the five Taiping Heavenly Kingdom warships sailing south from the north, only one was relatively large, but it was still not as big as the largest Spanish ship.

In terms of quantity and size, it seems that the Spanish Armada is more powerful.
At the same time, in the back garden of the Presidential Palace in Lima, a hot air balloon took off into the sky. Peruvian President Pezet and Army Minister Galvez stood together in the hot air balloon's basket, holding binoculars and watching what was happening on the sea in the distance.

The Peruvian president muttered to himself: "12 to 5, the advantage is on Spanish mothers!"

Galvez also said: "Our ships are bigger. Our Spanish Armada must be invincible!"

The President of Peru suddenly raised his voice: "The Yellow Monkeys' fleet has turned. Do they want to turn under the guns of our Invincible Fleet?"

(End of this chapter)