Kowloon wins

Chapter 1117 The Boiling Ocean ([-])
Both sides of the battle line can choose to drive in the opposite direction, or they can choose to drive in the same direction. Generally speaking, these choices are made according to the situation on the battlefield. When the position is favorable, the battle will be fought in whatever pattern is formed, but at this time the United Fleet seized the downwind line first, and the battle line has been set up, the Qing army naturally has the maneuver to choose the formation. Under the dominant situation, Wang Yanxia naturally chose the way of fighting against gallops. He first lined up a longitudinal queue at the far end, and then drove into the battlefield unhurriedly.

"Order the ships to steer at a [-]-degree angle and move forward!"

As soon as the battle line of the Qing army sailed to the battlefield, Edward Vernon, standing on the front deck of the "Brave", immediately sensed something was wrong, and instantly understood the intention of the Qing army's move, which was to rely on artillery The combined fleet was caught off guard by the superiority in range and power, and he refused to comply with the Qing army's wishes, so he hurriedly issued the general order, and as the semaphore soldiers waved two small flags, the order was quickly conveyed to all countries. Immediately, all the ships of the United Fleet changed their course one after another, facing the Qing army array obliquely and killed them.

"Order: All ships immediately change their course, at an angle of [-] degrees to the east, and widen the distance from the enemy ship array!"

Wang Yanxia didn't dare to sit idly by such a change of direction of the United Fleet, and hastily ordered the entire fleet to adjust its direction in order to increase the distance between them.

When the large fleet is traveling in line of battle, it is not easy to adjust its course. It is definitely not a matter of a single order. The two armies have started to adjust one by one, and the formations will inevitably appear. There was some confusion, nothing else, the United Fleet is a multinational force after all, although there is not much difference in the semaphore, but there is a big gap in the training level of sailors from various countries, the British Navy is of course quick to move, but France and The Portuguese fleet is obviously not in tune. Even though the naval officers and soldiers of the two countries have gone all out, their tactical actions are obviously lagging behind by a large margin, so that the British Navy, which has completed its maneuver, has to slow down and wait for the lagging two countries. As for the navy, as for the Qing army, the sailing ability is obviously slightly worse than that of the British navy, but the victory is that it is uniform, and it is obviously easier to adjust. The line remained at a parallel position again, and at this time, the longitudinal distance between the leading vanguard warships of the two sides was less than 300 meters, leaving not enough time for the combined fleet to maneuver again.

"Order: Each ship leans another [-] degrees, leaning firmly!"

Facing the result of the maneuver, Edward Vernon was very unwilling. No matter what, if all the warships participated in the battle, the result of the maneuver would be completely different at this time. The Qing army shortened the distance between each other before the maneuver was completed. Even if it was impossible to approach the usual combat distance of 200 meters, it could be shortened to a distance of about 600 meters. When the two sides exchanged fire, they could continue to maneuver and approach , at least it will not allow the Qing army’s superiority in firepower to be easily brought into play. It is a pity that the efforts of the British Navy were completely blinded by the actions of the navy of France and other countries. Seeing that the Qing army’s artillery advantage is about to be brought into play, Edward F. Nongzi didn't want to be beaten for nothing, so after gritted his teeth, he decided to take a risk.

"Order: each ship fires sequentially as appropriate!"

Although Wang Yanxia had already noticed the move of the United Fleet to adjust its course again, he obviously didn't care about it. In his opinion, this kind of move was already considered a change of formation before the battle, and it could not really achieve anything other than chaos. It has too much effect, nothing else, considering the speed of the two armies traveling towards each other, even if the combined fleet can close the distance, it is not enough to close the distance to within 300 meters when the battle lines cross and pass by, at most That is, the dozens of warships at the end of the two armies will shoot at each other for one or two rounds within a relatively short distance. In terms of the battle situation, the impact is not great. The Qing army's artillery advantage can still be used well. As for the two sides turning around When the hedging starts again, the Qing army can make adjustments again to ensure that the distance between the two sides will not be drawn too close.

"Boom, boom, boom..."

Just as Wang Yanxia's order was conveyed to the ships, the "Zhenyu", which ranked first in the Qing battle line, had already sailed to line up with the Spanish second-class battleship "Fedre", which ranked first in the United Fleet. Although the Spanish warships were traveling obliquely at this time, the distance between them was still about 100 meters. Although the Qing army's medium-sized artillery could also catch the opponent's warships, Lin Xudong, the captain of the "Zhenyu", However, he did not order all the artillery to fire, but only let the fourteen heavy artillery on the bottom deck shell one by one. With the rumbling sound of the cannons, the fourteen conical blasting shells pierced the sky and roared towards "Fedre The "Federer" smashed past, but unfortunately the distance was a little farther away. None of the fourteen shells hit, and only one hit a near miss, and a flower exploded less than five meters away from the "Federer". Huge waves.

"Heavy artillery strikes back!"

Although the first round of shelling by the Qing army was fruitless, the captain of the "Federal" Ferdinand did not intend to be beaten for nothing, even though the effective range of the heavy artillery equipped on the ship was only just enough to reach " "Zhenyu", but he still gave the order to counterattack. Immediately afterwards, the eighteen heavy guns on the bottom of the "Federle" fired one after another, but they also failed to hit the target, and even the near misses were not fired.

Although the array lines of both sides are not sailing at full sail, they are hedging after all, and it is only a blink of an eye to cross each other. Whether it is the "Zhenyu" or the "Federle", it is too late to launch another attack on the other side. By mistake, soon, the two "Wei" ships that were almost connected end to end on the Qing army's array line rushed forward again. The "Wei Wu" ranked second and the "Wei" ranked third. "Yuan" fired successively.

This time, the "Federer" was not as lucky as the previous one. First, it was hit by a heavy gun from the "Mighty" on the position of the second gun deck on the side. A large piece of the ship's side was gnawed off, two medium-sized naval guns were completely destroyed, and a dozen gunners were either killed or injured. Immediately afterwards, the "Weiyuan" heavy artillery and medium-sized naval guns fired together, and twenty shells hit Three of them, one of which was an explosive shell fired by a heavy artillery, hit the front deck of the "Federer", and immediately opened a huge crater on the front deck, and the flying shrapnel swept around. The sailors who were busy on the deck were blown into sieves, and although the two medium-sized flowering bombs hit the side, they failed to penetrate the thick side of the "Federer". There was not much to gain. Instead, a heavy gun from the "Federe" hit the rear deck of the "Weiyuan". On the deck, there was only one unlucky gunner of the Qing army who was injured by random shells—medium-sized artillery in Western countries had begun to use flowering bullets, but heavy artillery still used solid bullets. The chemical research has not yet been completed, and the stability of the 32-pound heavy artillery shell is insufficient, and there is a danger of explosion. All countries, including the British Navy, dare not equip it to the navy.

Except for being hit by a few bullets in a row at the beginning, the "Federe" started to get lucky again. The 21 Qing warships that passed by successively were not shot. Instead, they hit the Qing army's array line with heavy artillery one after another. Among the "Zhenning", "Weimeng" and "Wei Ting", unfortunately, due to the range of the artillery, the results were not too great, and only the "Wei Ting" was a little unlucky and was shot by two bombs. Heavy artillery shells hit the same position on the side of the ship one after another, destroying a medium-sized naval gun, killing four gunners and seriously injuring one.

After all, good luck is hard to last, and the lucky journey of "Federe" finally came to an end in front of the Qing army's flagship "Zhenyang". The medium-sized artillery fired in turn, and eight heavy artillery shells and ten medium-sized explosive shells hit the "Federe", among which four heavy-duty shells hit the side of the "Federe", and two hit hit the front deck, and the other two hit the middle of the "Federe", and the impact points of the ten medium-sized explosive shells were all over the hull. Not to mention being blown up, the ship was also on fire everywhere, thick smoke billowed up, the officers and soldiers suffered heavy casualties, and the speed slowed down instantly. torch.

Beating a dog in the water has always been the most refreshing thing. Although the "Zhenyang" had already missed the opportunity to give the "Federie" a final blow because of the route, but the "Wei Ming" who followed closely behind However, the two ships "Federie" and "Viashun" will definitely not let go of the "Federe", which has almost lost its speed. Seizing the opportunity is to bombard the "Federe" with fierce firepower overwhelmingly. Covering the past, although the distance between the two sides is still about 80.00 meters, for the gunners of the Qing army, such a target that is almost a fixed target is simply too easy to hit. The salvo of each round of the two ships is [-] % of the shells hit the target, and what was even more terrible was that the two explosive shells of the "Weissun" hit the waterline of the "Federe" fiercely, and the middle draft of the "Federe" was immediately watered. The line was blown to pieces, a large amount of seawater was poured into the cabin of the "Federer", and three water-tight compartments were damaged in succession. The entire warship tilted uncontrollably to the right, and finally lay flat on the ocean. , whirled and sank to the bottom of the sea, less than a third of the more than [-] sailors on board, including the captain, Lieutenant General Ferdinand, had time to abandon the ship, and the rest were brought into the sea by the sinking ship. On the bottom of the sea, Ferdinand refused to abandon the ship to escape, and sank with the battleship, becoming the first senior general of the United Fleet to die in battle.

Perhaps due to the bad luck of the "Federe", the luck of the "Zhenyu" who fought against it first was not too good. Fighting all the way, the results were always very few, and nearly [-] combined fleets passed one after another. The warship fired fourteen rounds of salvo, but only hit five rounds, none of which caused much damage to the United Fleet, but the "Zhenyu" itself was killed by the company in the battle with the flagship "Brave" of the United Fleet. Four heavy-duty explosive bombs were hit, and many fires broke out on the ship, and the situation was precarious...

(End of this chapter)