Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 227: Battle for Hegemony at Sea (3)
Jiangyuan, Henghai, and Guangjia have all been severely damaged by enemy ships. Jiang'an was hit by fierce artillery fire, leaving only one-third of the hull still exposed on the sea. The young Guandai Zhou Jun was covered in blood. Standing on the top of the tower, holding up and waving the flag, he played the semaphore of "killing the enemy and serving the country with generosity". All the Chinese sailors who saw this semaphore couldn't help being moved. It was torn apart, and Zhou Jun and more than 500 officers and soldiers of the entire ship were all killed in the line of duty.

The bow main guns of Jiangyuan, Henghai, and Guangjia have almost been paralyzed. They used the zero-boundary angle of the steering to forcefully turn their bodies, and fired at the Imperial Power-class battleship Warspite and Severn with their side cannons. At the same time, when the three ships completed their turn, they turned to face the British army with a wide side, and the bombing area was larger, and the situation would become more severe.

Seeing the sinking of the Jiang'an with his own eyes, and the three warships being battered with holes, Liu Buchan felt as if he had been pricked by a needle. Yang Yonglin angrily said to him: "Zixiang (Liu Buchan's word), don't be so reckless again. Now, our broadside artillery is not as powerful as the enemy ships, if this continues, Henghai, Guangjia, and Jiangyuan will be sunk in a short time."

"You want to do this?" Liu Buchan's face was sullen, his eyes fixed on Yang Yonglin.

"Send a tactical unit to rush over, just like what the Austrians did in the Battle of Lissa, and disrupt the British column." Yang Yonglin's eyes sparkled. In 1866, the then weak Austro-Hungarian Navy used horizontal formation tactics to ram the Italian fleet in a T-shaped formation, sinking the Italian flagship Italia in one fell swoop.Thus establishing the victory.Almost all the officers of the Chinese navy have learned this battle example. Yang Yonglin is now going to use this method to rush through the middle of a column lined up by the British and completely disrupt the enemy's formation.

Liu Buchan snorted, glared at Yang Yonglin and said, "It's okay if we succeed in adopting horizontal team tactics. If the British find out in advance, we will have to sacrifice a tactical unit in vain. The price is too high. At present, the two Dingyuan class and two Imperial Powers have already entangled eight enemy ships Imperial Powers. Taking this opportunity, I want to send a tactical unit to rush to the front of the British fleet, seize the position of the T prefix, and then attack with close-range artillery fire. Intrepid. However, the risk of doing so is too great, I am afraid they will be sunk before they can seize a favorable position."

"General, Jiang Yuan, Guangjia, and Henghai have all played semaphore!" A sentinel said, pointing to the southeast.

The three warships raised their semaphore, wanting to storm the T prefix, and hoped that the rest of the ships would do a good job of artillery cover.Looking at the three dilapidated warships, Liu Buchan frowned tightly, and shouted in a hoarse voice: "Send ten gunboats and five torpedo boats to quickly plug in, and Kaiji, Yangwu, Zhaohe and the gunners will face each other. Quasi-Dreadnought, hit hard!"

There was a raging fire on the interior cabin and deck of the Jiangyuan, and Lin Guoxiang organized soldiers to discard all the wooden structures on the ship that could be dismantled into the sea, and ordered the fire brigade sailors to lift the heavy fire pump to the appropriate position, Long rubber water pipes came out, and the drains on the outer deck were blocked to store water on the deck to prevent the fire from spreading further.

At this moment, the engine room at the bottom of the warship has already become a purgatory on earth.In order to prevent the fire from entering the engine room, all the passages leading to the upper deck have been sealed. The heat is scorching every officer and soldier here, their hair has long been curled up, and everyone's skin is flushed.The chief engineer was still pulling his neck and shouting: "Add more coal, don't stop, don't touch the bulkhead"

Although the fire was under control for the time being, it was impossible to completely extinguish it, not to mention that the enemy shells were still firing crazily here. They seemed to have made up their minds that they must sink this warship that was on the verge of collapse first.

"My lord, abandon the ship. If you don't leave, it will be too late." A sailor persuaded Lin Guoxiang.

With a smoky face, Lin Guoxiang put down four words: "The ship is here and the people are here!" He turned and ran to the position of the command tower.

Lin Guoxiang stared at the front and said to the sailor in charge: "Full left rudder, heading 40 degrees northeast, and rush over with full power!"

"My lord, the power cabin is overheated, and full power may cause the boiler to explode." The sailor reminded.

"Don't worry about it so much, listen to my order and drive at full speed!" Lin Guoxiang emphasized his tone.

Both the Guangjia and the Henghai saw the semaphore played by the Jiangyuan. In a short moment, the pipe belts of the two ships ordered almost at the same time: "Full left rudder, heading northeast, full power!"

At this time, the dense fog had dispersed, and a round of red sun rose from the sea, dyeing the entire seawater golden.

On the surface of the sea, Jiangyuan, Guangjia, and Henghai three ships rushed towards the huge Intrepid with billowing smoke and flames at the fastest speed. Many British sailors saw this scene and thought the Chinese were crazy .

"Three Chinese warships are rushing here at a high speed of 15 knots." A sentinel reported to Hamilton.

"Concentrate the artillery fire, and we must sink them before they arrive." Hamilton said sullenly.

Since the three ships were traveling at high speed, and the bows of the ships were facing the enemy head-on, the bombardment area was very small. In addition, although many of the naval guns at that time had a range of more than 5000 meters, due to the turbulence at sea and the large recoil force, etc., The hit rate of the shells is not very high, and the effective distance of the actual firing is within [-] meters. Therefore, many shells fired from the British ships hit the sea. At the same time, Kaiji, Yangwu, and Zhaohe formed The artillery offensive was extremely fierce, attracting a considerable amount of firepower from the opponent, which played a great role in covering the three Jiangyuan ships.

Lin Guoxiang's eyes were red, he stared at the giant ship Intrepid, and listened to the report of the ranging sailor.

7300 m.

6700 m.

5000 m.

4400 m.

At the same time, a power boiler on the Jiangyuan finally exploded because it could not bear the pressure of high-load driving. The huge shock wave directly tore apart two airtight compartments, and a hole more than one meter wide was made in the bottom of the ship. It poured in backwards. Although the sailors quickly closed the water blocking gate, the pressure of the sea water was so great that the gate could not support it, and the entire hull began to slowly tilt to the left.Guangjia and Henghai, who followed closely behind it, were also riddled with shells.

"Fire!" Lin Guoxiang gave the order decisively. The only remaining main gun on the Jiangyuan finally burst into flames. Insignificant in front of the Dreadnought, the shells can't even penetrate the thickened steel plate of the Dreadnought.

"Keep going!" Lin Guoxiang said calmly.

Even Liu Buchan, who has experienced the baptism of war, did not expect that the three warships could pass through the heavy artillery fire of the enemy ships with an unstoppable momentum. He ordered Jingqing and Huantai to immediately participate in the artillery cover, attracting the artillery of the surrounding ships of the Intrepid .

At this time, in the middle of the firepower network intertwined with heavy artillery shells, the Jiangyuan, which was burning ragingly, came within a fatal distance of 1350 meters. Lin Guoxiang was ecstatic, and he immediately ordered the right full rudder to turn the entire hull. Within range, most of the well-preserved rapid-fire guns on the starboard side can tear through the thick armor of the Dauntless.

(End of this chapter)