The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 790: It's not "Tsushima", it's "Collision"

"God, are they crazy?"

Galvez's voice became sharp because of shock. Because in his vision, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom fleet was making a maneuver that would make all naval commanders drop their jaws - the formation of five ironclad ships did not turn to seize the T-shaped position like in traditional naval battles, but drew a strange arc, with the bow of the leading ship piercing directly into the center of the column of the Spanish Invincible Fleet!

Pezzet's breathing became rapid, and he grasped the edge of the basket tightly, as if he was afraid of falling down due to excessive excitement. His next words were almost shouted: "They are going to hand over their bows to the broadside guns of the Invincible Fleet! Holy Mother, this is suicide!"

The two people on the hot air balloon cheered almost at the same time.

In their opinion, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom fleet made a fatal mistake, a low-level error that was enough to ruin the entire naval battle - this navy was indeed a place with a solid foundation, a century-old navy, and what they said was true!
Pezzet had even begun to think about how to re-consolidate the relationship between Peru and the mother country after the victory of the Spanish fleet. In his mind, he had already imagined himself holding a triumphal ceremony for the Spanish navy in the Lima Cathedral.

However, they did not notice a key detail - after the Taiping fleet completed the turn, its speed had increased to 13 knots, far exceeding the Spanish fleet's 9 knots. This speed difference would become one of the decisive factors in the next battle.

At the same time, on the bridge of the "Numancia", Spanish Admiral Castelho clenched his telescope tightly. The experienced naval commander could hardly believe his eyes, and his lips trembled slightly in shock.

"God bless you!" he crossed himself, his voice hoarse with joy. "How dare they play such a trick in the face of the Invincible Armada?"

Casteljo immediately realized that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He turned to the messenger and shouted: "All artillery aim at the Xi'an! Sink it and we will win! Spain will be great again!"

Following the flag signal from the "Numancia", the entire Spanish fleet quickly took action.

At this moment, all the officers and soldiers in the Spanish Invincible Fleet seemed to feel that the glory of the past was about to return! The gunners quickly adjusted the angle of the guns, and the gun windows of the 68-pound and 32-pound smoothbore guns were opened one after another, and the black powder shells were carefully loaded into the gun barrels.

On the "Numancia", the sailors carried precious picric acid shells. These weapons, imported from France at high prices, were placed with high hopes.

Admiral Castejo stood upright on the bridge, the medal on his chest glittering in the sun. He seemed to have seen the dawn of victory - the Taiping fleet's stupid maneuvers gave the Spaniards a perfect shooting angle. He even composed the words for the post-war report in his mind, ready to boast about this glorious victory to Madrid.

However, the Spanish admiral made a small but fatal mistake. He was so focused on the tactical advantage that he completely ignored the speed advantage of the Taiping fleet. When the "Xi'an" rushed at an astonishing speed of 13 knots, the Spanish muzzle-loading smoothbore guns could only fire two or three rounds at most.
On the sea, the Xi'an was like an armored warrior, relying on its "good protection" to rush forward against the Spanish artillery fire. Shells fell around it, stirring up tall water columns, and seawater poured onto the deck like a rainstorm.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The Spanish fleet fired the first salvo at the Xi'an, with shells raining down around the Xi'an. Because the distance was so close, several shells actually hit! One of the most powerful shells was a 68-pound black powder shell, which shook the entire warship and sent wood chips and rust flying everywhere.

But the 5200-ton ironclad ship only shook slightly and soon stabilized itself.

"Report damage!" Ding Ruchang stood in the command tower, holding the telescope steadily with both hands, not panicking at all - he was confident! He was the Prime Minister's favorite general, so he was not afraid even if he broke the "Xi'an".

Moreover, he participated in the entire "Tianjing" class improvement project and knew how amazing the protection of the "Xi'an"'s 120mm and 130mm "steel + iron" composite armor was - this "steel, iron" composite armor has a 30% higher protection than wrought iron armor, and 120mm composite armor is equivalent to 156mm when converted into "wrought iron" armor! In addition, the armor of the "Xi'an"'s waterline armor belt, turret front and conning tower, as well as the ammunition depot and engine room all have an inclination angle of 20-30 degrees, which is another bonus.

If the Xian was pierced by a shell from the Numancia, someone must have been corrupt.
"The armor belt is slightly dented, but there are no penetrating wounds!" the damage control officer reported loudly, with undisguised pride in his voice.

"Keep moving forward!" Ding Ruchang simply uttered four words - the voice sounded confident!

Another 68-pound black powder shell hit the bow, creating a cloud of thick black smoke. But under the teak deck of the Xi'an, the 40mm steel composite armor remained motionless. This layer of armor, carefully crafted by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, perfectly absorbed the impact of the shell.

However, the real test came. An expensive French picric acid shell whizzed in, brushed the top of the mast, and exploded with a "boom" into a huge yellow-green fireball. The sail was instantly ignited, a raging fire spread across the mast, and thick smoke rose.

I have to say, it’s expensive for a reason!
"Admiral, the sail is on fire!" The lookout's voice was filled with panic.

"Let it burn!" Ding Ruchang sneered, "It will be a perfect target for the Spanish!" His eyes were fixed on the "Numancia" which was getting closer and closer. Ding Ruchang knew very well that except for the "Numancia", the black powder shells of the other warships in the Spanish fleet could not penetrate the armor of the "Xi'an". This seemingly risky charge was actually a carefully calculated math problem involving complex addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and simple probability theory. In short, the "Xi'an" was going to attract the Spanish shells, so as to shorten the distance between the entire fleet and the enemy and buy time to complete the interspersed division.

"Long live!"

"Mary bless you!"

The Spaniards were overjoyed when they saw the "Xi'an" on fire - the Spanish Navy is an "old navy" with hundreds of years of history, and they knew best what a fire on a sail meant!

"Concentrate your firepower and hit hard!" Cashote was so excited that tears came to his eyes. Spain is about to be great again!
When the distance between the two armies was reduced to 1200 meters, the gunner of the "Xi'an" raised the red signal flag. The 120mm twin breech-loading guns at the bow had adjusted the firing angle, and the gunners' fingers were on the triggers, waiting for the final order.

"Fire!"

With Ding Ruchang's order, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom fleet's first round of precision shooting began. The copper shells of the nitroglycerin shells rotated at high speed under the rifling, and flew towards the "Numancia" with a death whistle.

Due to the close firing distance and the solid training of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Navy gunners, the first round of fierce shooting achieved amazing results. Three shells accurately hit the armor outside the rudder engine room of the "Numancia", two of which hit first, blowing the "Numancia" to pieces, and one 120mm shell directly exploded in the confined space.

This is "colloidal nitroglycerin" explosive, which is much more powerful than picric acid!

"boom--!"

A deafening explosion resounded across the sea, and a huge fireball exploded from the stern of the "Numancia". Thick smoke rolled up into the sky, the steering gear room was completely destroyed, and the 7305-ton steel behemoth began to lose control.

Casteho was shaken and staggered. He finally managed to steady himself and turned his head to look back. The scene in front of him made him feel like he was falling into an ice cave. The "butt" of his "Numancia" was on fire!
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's four "Wuxian" class cruisers had already completed the encirclement, and 24 90mm rapid-fire guns poured shells at the "Viracocha" steam frigate at an astonishing rate of fire. The thin wrought iron armor of this old steam ship was like paper in front of the nitroglycerin shells. The Spanish sailors on the deck did not even have time to jump into the sea before they were thrown into the air by the shock wave of the explosion. The remains of limbs and hull fragments hit the sea like raindrops, and the blood soon dyed the surrounding sea red.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's gunners showed an amazing level of training. They used a "three-stage" shooting method: the first round of calibration, the second round of correction, and the third round of all-ship artillery salvo. 90mm nitroglycerin shells hit the "Viracocha" like they were free, and soon the steam frigate was turned into a fire ship.

However, Ding Ruchang still felt that the power of the cannon was a little too weak, and he had more powerful means!

That is... collision!
The "Xi'an" is a steam armored ship with a cast iron ram!

"Prepare for impact!"

Ding Ruchang's roar pierced through the roar of artillery fire. When the distance from the "Numancia" was less than 200 meters, the steam engine of the "Xi'an" gave a final roar, and the 5200-ton steel behemoth rushed towards the enemy ship with a thunderous force.

"Boom——!"

With a deafening metallic crash, the cast iron ram of the Xi'an wedged heavily into the stern of the Numancia. The keels of the two giant ships made a tooth-grinding twisting sound, and the 130mm wrought iron armor curled like paper under the kinetic impact. As the Xi'an reversed and pulled out the ram, seawater rushed in frantically along the five-meter-wide crack, and soon flooded the lower deck of the Numancia. In the blink of an eye, the stern of this 7350-ton giant ship, which had just been launched from the French Mediterranean shipyard not many days ago, had sunk into the sea, and the bow had just lifted up, posing a butt-down, sinking to the bottom.
As the mast of the Numancia slowly sank into the sea, the Inca warriors on the Santa Rosa battery finally saw the truth. The Spanish ship, which they regarded as "invincible", was bombarded into burning scrap metal by 38 breech-loading rifled cannons in just minutes, and then sunk by a "head-on" collision with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's armored ship!

As for the smaller "steam gunboat", it was already burned into a fire ship.
On the sea filled with gunpowder, the four "Wuxian" class cruisers of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom used the "Changshu" as the spearhead to drive the remaining Spanish ships to the "anvil" dead corner of the Bay of Callao. Although the teak decks and thin armor on the waterline of the four "Wuxian" class cruisers were covered with bullet holes, the steam engines were still roaring - the steel boilers of the Jiangnan Arsenal and the British double-expansion steam engines made them as flexible as light cavalry on the sea, rushing around on the sea, blasting one Spanish sailing ship after another into pieces!

On the hot air balloon of the Presidential Palace in Lima, the telescope in Pezzet's hand fell to the ground with a bang. He stared blankly at the sea, where the Spanish Invincible Fleet was defeated again, and it was a terrible defeat!

Galvez's face was pale and his lips trembled: "I was wrong, I was wrong, I shouldn't have hurt the Spanish motherland like that. Now she has no power to save us. We are finished! Without Spain, 20 white people would not be able to rule over 200 million Indians."

(End of this chapter)