Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 229: Battle for Hegemony at Sea (5)
The current situation on the battlefield is: the five warships Yangwu are fighting with four British warships; the three warships Jiangyuan, with the support of Zhenyuan, Hurricane, and Chaoyong who just killed them, have boosted their morale, and the six warships have taken the Intrepid Surrounded by groups; Dingyuan and Zhenyuan did not lose the wind in the battle with the six British ships.Now, a large battlefield has become several main sub-battlefields, and whoever wins a sub-battlefield first will develop a more powerful situation for the winning side.

In order to increase the speed of the ship, Zhuang Mingwu had an idea and ordered the marines to move the air blower to the furnace to continuously blow air into the furnace to promote the full combustion of coal and increase the speed of steam generation. Suddenly, the speed of the warship was slightly increased.The Triumph Triumph rushed into the middle of the fighting fleet in one go.

At this moment, the Orion and the Warspite attacked the smaller flat armored ships Nanchen and Nanrui with their dense rapid-fire guns on the sides, while Severn launched a confrontational battle with Yangwu and Yingrui.Hajime was tied with the smaller but more powerful Black Falcon.

Although they are German cruisers, Nanchen and Nanrui have good defensive capabilities among cruisers of the same level, but the two ships with a displacement of less than [-] tons cannot withstand the powerful Orion and War Spite.

A 234mm shell fired from the war-weary pear-shaped main turret directly penetrated into the Nan Rui's ammunition depot, which was only protected by a layer of thin armor, and immediately triggered a terrible red flame. The strong explosion almost lifted the right side deck, fierce In an instant, the flames rushed up to a height of 30 meters, and Ye Chen and more than 50 sailors were killed on the spot by the Nanrui horn pipe.

Seeing the tragic situation of the Nanrui, the Nanchen tried to avoid it temporarily, but he ignored the speed of the Orion and the war-weary terror. The two ships concentrated their firepower offensive, which was bound to send the Nanchen into the bottom of the sea.

Zhuang Mingwu saw that the situation of Nanrui and Nanchen was extremely critical, so he resolutely commanded the three Triumph ships to rescue them.The addition of the three warships brought an immediate turn for the situation in this divided battlefield. The Triumph three warships came from behind, and the rear of the Orion and Warspite's ships became the happiest targets of the three warships. From this angle, Orion and Warspite There is no ability to fight back at all.

"Turn right, quick, quick!" Warspite's commander Stephenson shouted angrily. He planned to turn the warship sideways and use the side guns on both sides to deal with the two Narui ships and the third Triumph that were flanking the front and back.

But Zhuang Mingwu didn't give him any chance at all, commanding the Triumph to chase the war-weary stern in circles like a lantern, and at the same time use the side artillery to continuously attack the war-weary rear deck.Shengli and Tong'an sandwiched Orion from left to right, and the rapid-fire guns and machine guns on both sides quickly turned Orion's side into a hornet's nest.Nan Rui and Nan Chen turned around and launched a fierce retaliatory counterattack against the two war-weary ships.

For Warweary and Orion, the current situation on the battlefield has reached a freezing point. Under the siege of five enemy ships, Stephenson, who was originally ambitious, also had unprecedented fear in his heart.The high speed advantage of the two ships disappeared under the attack of five enemy ships.

The Triumph, Victory, and Tongan ironclad ships are all equipped with 240mm heavy guns. Maybe they can't penetrate Dingyuan's 305mm thick steel armor, but for Orion and War-weary who are a circle thinner than Dingyuan, they are not at all. There are any problems.In just 5 minutes, the rear deck of the war-weary ship was lifted, and two shells fired from the Triumph shot into the war-weary hull, and exploded, leaving a large hole with a diameter of three meters on the rear starboard side of the ship. More than half of the power boiler inside was blown up, and the entire upper turret was also badly shot by machine guns.In the face of the powerful explosive power, the 25-caliber main gun was almost twisted into a twisted shape, and most of the side guns on both sides lost their ability to fight back.The Warspite has almost become a pile of scrap metal drifting at sea.

Compared to Orion, being war-weary is lucky. Orion's bottom steel plate can no longer withstand the torpedoes launched continuously by the opponent, and finally a structural crack occurs. Sea water is poured into each cabin crazily. Loud metal cracking.

Seeing that Orion and War-weary were severely damaged, the Severn, which was almost playing Yangwu, immediately abandoned the Yangwu to support the two armored cruisers that were on the verge of sinking. This made the struggling Yangwu and Yingrui I finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"We have already disengaged from the Severn. Shall we leave the battlefield to the northwest first, and wait for the fire to be extinguished before engaging the British ship." A young officer said to Gao Tengyun.

At this time, Gao Tengyun's face was blackened by the burns, his clothes were ragged, and his navy uniform had long lost his original appearance.Hearing what the officer said, Gao Tengyun took his binoculars with one hand. "There are no cowards on our Yangwu, chase after it, and hit its tail like the Triumph."

"Yes!"

"The main gun and the torpedo are launched together, and the speed must be slowed down." Gao Tengyun took a sip, trying to spit out the black ash sucked into his mouth.

The main guns on the Yangwu fired together, and all the torpedo tubes were opened at the same time. The torpedoes drew six white wavy lines on the sea surface, and they exploded on the stern plank of Severn, and Severn trembled a few times. The speed finally slowed down.

At this time, Shengli and Tong'an went to support Zhaohe, which was fighting fiercely, while Kaixuan led Nanrui and Nanchen to kill Saiwoen in a hurry.The Warspite used the remaining three power boilers to flee to the southeast sea in a panic, while the Orion sank slowly amidst a series of explosions, ending its dream of conquering Asia.

Soon the Severn faced the same situation as her two companions. Behind her were Yang Wu and Ying Rui who were chasing wildly, and in front of them was the menacing Triumph Triumph. The captain, Colonel Haslem, knew that he was caught in a sandwich The feeling was uncomfortable, so he shouted loudly: "Sail to the northwest and get closer to our fleet, hurry up!"

"Report to the commander, the ship's engine wheel was severely damaged by the enemy ship's torpedo, and the horsepower could not be increased." The chief engineer said with a bitter face.

Haslem watched the two Chinese warships galloping towards him, and said to himself, "Is the Chinese navy really stronger than the Royal Navy?"

Under the pincer attack of five warships, the powerful Severn was suffering from fierce artillery fire from two sides. A 280mm armor-piercing projectile fired by Yang Wu interrupted its steam pipe, making its speed even worse than no On the last fishing boat, a 240mm high-explosive grenade fired by Yingrui hit its officer's room. Haslem was injured by shrapnel. Two large holes were left in the deck.The luxurious furnishings in the officer's room were gone, and the beds, boards, and clothes were all messed up and burned to pieces.In particular, the explosion ignited the ammunition bag depot not far from the officer's room, posing a fatal threat to the Severn.

After a series of earth-shattering explosions, thick yellow smoke filled the sky above the Severn, and one-third of the entire warship was blown to nothing, and fragments of steel armor and wood shot everywhere in the air.All the lifesaving sampans were blown up, and the officers and men of the ship lost hope of escape.

Haslem stared into space, drew a cross on his chest, prayed silently, and slowly sank to the bottom of the sea with his ship.

(End of this chapter)