Master Yuan, start!

So now he is wandering around the waters off Zhejiang with five cruisers: Kaiji, Nanchen, Nanrui, Chengqing and Shiyuan.

Wu Ankang was right. After Courbet set sail from Taiwan, the first thing he thought of was the Nanyang Navy in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and he was ready to give the Qing people another big gift.

Only after the Qing navy in Zhejiang was eliminated could Courbet safely transport troops to northern China. Otherwise, he could not bear the accusation that thousands of French soldiers were feeding fish along the Chinese coast.

According to the Japanese, the vast majority of the Qing Dynasty's navy in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas were wooden-hulled ironclad ships, with iron ribs and wooden hulls.

They posed no threat to the French main fleet. The only thing they needed to be careful about was the gunboats. If the ammunition from these gunboats hit the hull, even the Baya would not be able to withstand it.

Even if they realized something in advance, it would be useless unless the French ironclad ship exploded. Otherwise, Courbet could not imagine how he would lose this battle.

What he was worried about was that the Qing Dynasty's warships would hide in the port and not come out. If he encountered such a situation, coupled with the counterattack from the Qing Dynasty's coastal artillery, he would most likely not be able to wipe out the Qing Dynasty's fleet in one go.

He had no intention of fighting near the shore. His plan was to annihilate the enemy at sea, just waiting to encounter Qing warships.

However, Courbet did not know the situation of the Qing Dynasty's Zhejiang Navy at the moment, so he was very cautious when sailing in the waters near Fujian and Zhejiang.

"Captain, the weather in the Pacific is much milder than that in the Atlantic." Courbet looked calm, put down the telescope in his hand, and said to Lisby.

Lisbi, who was standing behind him, also looked relaxed, gazing at the vast sea and greedily breathing in the sea breeze.

"General, it's been a long time since we last sailed on the sea. I thought we would have to stay in that damn place, Keelung, forever!"

"Hahaha, the jungle and swamp are indeed terrible. After this battle, I will take you back to Provence to taste the wine of my hometown and enjoy the sunshine and beaches."

"We will definitely end this battle as quickly as possible, General. French warships are invincible in the Pacific."

In order to deal with the Qing Dynasty's Jiangsu and Zhejiang fleet, Courbet only left some coastal defense warships in Tokyo Bay, Beibu Gulf and Saigon, and all the remaining warships were sent out.

Finally, when the thick fog off the coast of Jiangsu and Zhejiang was about to dissipate, Courbet was the first to discover the five cruisers led by Wu Ankang.

"Enemy ship spotted, prepare to load ammunition!"

Chapter 55: The Meteor Flying Backwards

Wu Ankang also discovered the French fleet at almost the same time. Seeing the thick black smoke coming out of the Baya in the center, all the crew members' hearts were in their throats.

"Raise the flag and run!"

Wu Ankang did not hesitate at all. Not to mention that he only had 5 warships at the moment, even if all the Nanyang Navy came, they would not be a match for the French. With the idea of ​​preserving his strength, he quickly ordered all the ships to escape.

"Nanrui reported back, asking where to run!"

"Chengqing, the Sailing Faraway raised the flag to ask if we want to return to Zhenhai Port!"

"There's no damn time to tell them where to run. Tell them to run as far as they can and make sure they don't get sunk by the French."

In this way, under the wise command of Wu Ankang, the admiral of the Nanyang Navy, the five warships dispersed, slowed down, turned around, and ran in all directions.

Courbet, who was far away, saw this scene through the telescope and couldn't help laughing out loud.

"Look, boys! I originally thought the Qing navy dispersed to seize the T-position, but I didn't expect they were just trying to escape."

Lisby also laughed nearby, "Hahaha, I heard that the warships of the Qing Dynasty's Jiangsu and Zhejiang Navy were built by the Qing people with the assistance of us French people. It's really a pearl in the dust, and it disgraces the reputation of the French shipbuilding industry."

"Then let us, the French, put an end to these counterfeit and inferior products." Courbet said this and drank the rum in the glass in one gulp.

"Boys, let us charge bravely and restore the glory of the French Navy!"

"Yes!"

Although the warships were far inferior to the Baya, Courbet did not relax at all. He ordered the French fleets behind him to divide into groups of three or two to chase the fleeing Qing fleet.

He himself took his flagship Baya and two cruisers and sailed towards Wu Ankang's flagship Kaiji.

Ciyuan-Ji 96?690^?

The speeds of the Baya and Kaiji were similar, both around 14 knots, but because the Kaiji wasted some time slowing down and turning around, its speed had not yet increased, giving the Baya a chance to approach.

Just as Wu Ankang was waiting anxiously, the Baya led two warships to separate from the main French fleet and rushed towards the Kaiji at full speed.

Due to the lack of protection from friendly ships, the Kaiji could only watch the Baya approach step by step.

The two sides were getting closer and closer. Wu Ankang's ship, the Kaiji, had just picked up speed when he realized that the French fleet was approaching a dangerous distance.

"boom!"

With a roar from the Baya, its bow roared and fired a cannonball, which landed on the sea not far from the Kaiji.

"Boom!"

The water splashed dozens of meters high, and even blew out a school of fish.

Wu Ankang was already at a loss at this moment. If it were under normal circumstances, he would definitely think that this place was a good place for sea fishing, and he might even stop the boat to fish for a whole day.

But at this moment, Wu Ankang just stared blankly at the water splashing in front of him, not knowing whether to turn around and fight or continue running.

They would definitely not be able to escape by running, and would be caught up in the sea sooner or later. The French ships were faster than theirs, so they could only run towards the shore, but that would be like inviting a wolf among the flock of sheep.

Staring blankly at the French warships in the distance, Wu Ankang was a little hesitant to make a decision.

Fortunately, the Baya did not speed up the pursuit, but gave the route to the other warships.

"Master Wu, Master Wu! You can't run anymore. If you run again, all our brothers will be finished!" Xu Chuanlong, the deputy captain of the Kaiji, was almost mad with anxiety when he saw Wu Ankang's panic-stricken look.

He could only shake Wu Ankang vigorously to cheer him up.

"Brothers, yes, cover the brothers..."

When Wu Ankang returned home, he came to his senses and realized that if he continued running like this, he would be defeated one by one sooner or later, but it was too late for him to regret.

His face flushed, and he shouted to the sailors in the cabin who were staring at him eagerly:

"Damn it, prepare sideways, aim at the enemy ship, and shoot while running!"

At this time, the other fleeing warships, which were watching the flagship Kaiji from afar, saw Kaiji opening fire and thought it was an order to counterattack.

Except for the Nanchen which sailed alone towards Zhenhai and did not return, the other three ships made detours to rescue the Kaiji.

"General, the Bashar reports that some Qing warships appear to be gathering. Should we pursue the fleeing ship or destroy the nearby ones?"

Lisbeth quickly reported the information to Courbet and waited for his next instructions.

Full of confidence, Courbet put away the rum he had not finished and took out a cigar from the drawer in front of him.

He puffed out smoke, put his hands in his pockets and said to Lisby, "The Qing people are afraid of us and want to escape. This is a very wise choice."

"But they are unwilling to be sunk by our French soldiers in vain and want to fight back and bite off a piece of meat from us. That is really naive."

"Let those Qing warships converge. Once they get close to each other, we only need a few salvos to easily destroy them."

"Yes." After receiving the order, Lisbi immediately asked the soldiers to communicate by flag signals.

Although Courbet said this, he was still very cautious in actual operation. After some observation, he recognized that the 210mm Krupp gun on the Kaiji ship still posed a certain threat to the Baya.

Although the 210mm Krupp guns on the Qing army have a low rate of fire and the number of warships is not large enough to pose a salvo threat, if they are unfortunately hit, the Baya will not be in good shape.

"Have the Triumph lead several warships to pursue the fleeing Qing ship. We will fully siege the Qing warship in front of us."

The French formation changed again, and Lisbeth quickly adjusted it, allowing the French ships to gradually encircle Wu Ankang's Kaiji.

"La Galizonta reporting in! After several rounds of test firing, we've basically locked onto the enemy ship's location. They're closing in on the Atalanta and Bashar, preparing for a fierce attack!"

"it is good!"

“Great job guys!”

Excited cheers came from the operations room where Courbet was. The French navy was indeed trustworthy and much stronger than the army that surrendered at the gates of Paris.

Long $: 631 zero ^ 109?

"La Galizonta reports that the shells have hit the enemy flagship, but the enemy ship is still escaping and returning fire from time to time!"

It would be good if they hit the target. The Qing Dynasty's warships were at most made of iron hulls covered with wood. As long as La Galizonta's shells could hit the enemy ships, they would be sunk soon.

Courbet was on the Baya, stationed at the rear of the battlefield. After issuing the last order, he quietly watched the French warships hunt down the Qing fleet.

The situation at the front was very good for the French. At the beginning, after the four Qing fleets joined together, they occasionally fired back a few shots.

However, since the French warships were scattered in a pocket shape, it was difficult for the Qing fleet's shells to hit the French ships.

Instead, the Qing fleet was surrounded in the center of the pocket, with shells falling around the warships from time to time. The splashes on the decks of Chengqing and Saiyuan made it difficult for the Qing soldiers manning the cannons to adjust their angles.

French artillery shells rained down on the four warships in the center of the formation. Wu Ankang's heart sank as he watched the friendly ships being hit one after another.

At this time, he saw a French warship approaching sideways, intending to use the ship's string guns to bombard the Kaiji at a high frequency.

Wu Ankang's eyes suddenly became firm.

"Xu Chuanlong!"

"The mark is on!"

"Go at full speed and ram the enemy ship ahead!"

"Sir, no, if we collide, it will be irreversible. Let's surrender!"

"Bullshit! You may have escaped the French cannons, but can you escape the court's punishment afterwards? If you want your wife and children to be worry-free, do as I say!"

Thinking of his wife and children at home, the deputy captain Xu Chuanlong could only hold back his tears and fear of death, and forced the Kaiji to speed up and ram into the approaching Bashar.

Only a few hours had passed since the two sides met and the pursuit began, and the Qing army ships led by the Kaiji were badly damaged, and many artillery batteries lost the ability to fight back.

But with Wu Ankang's order, the Kaiji gradually approached the Bashar.

9.6 [Six paint 9102 Philip Lu position?tiqu Jun

"boom"

A shell hit the powder magazine of the Kaiji. Under the illumination of the fire, the mast of the Kaiji collapsed heavily after less than ten seconds of support.

The burning Kaiji was like a meteor streaking across the sea, except that it was rushing from the sea to the sky.

With the obsession of Wu Ankang and the soldiers on board, the Kaiji finally hit the stern of the Bashar, which was trying to avoid it.

The Kaiji, having exhausted its last bit of power, finally sank.

This also seems to indicate that the short fleet history of the Nanyang Navy will disappear in the long river of history like a meteor.

Chapter 48: Come to cheat, come to attack!

The French Navy's attack was not a surprise attack, and Wu Ankang had received Li Hongzhang's telegram long ago, but he still died in the sea in a naval battle with a generation gap.

After seeing the collision of the flagship Kaiji, the remaining three warships also took the initiative to follow suit, but were avoided by the French who were on guard.

The Chengqing and the Haoyuan sank one after another. The Nanrui was leaderless after its captain was killed in battle, and finally raised the white flag to surrender.