My Italy

"boom."

A huge explosion sounded from the cruiser Primogai. The gun at the stern of the ship exploded. A 140mm naval gun was blown into the sky, revealing a hole nearly eight meters wide. The seawater The surge came over, and its boiler and steam engine had stopped, leaving the Primorgai motionless on the dangerous battlefield.

Rear Admiral Lisby's eyes turned red when he saw this scene on his command ship, the cruiser La Pérouse.

I relied on many years of experience to surround the two battleships, but the strength in my hands was weaker. Although I surrounded the opponent, the strength in my hands could not cause enough damage to them. The 160mm and 140mm The naval guns cannot pose a sufficient threat to them at all. Only 193 mm and above naval guns can threaten these two warships. However, there are very few warships in our fleet equipped with 193 mm and above naval guns. The total number is less than ten. There is no way to get close to the door.

Just now, the Primogai tried to get closer, but was met with concentrated fire from two Venice-class cruisers. Its armor was like paper in front of the enemy's large-caliber long-barreled naval gun. Two rounds of shooting turned into So.

Looking at the two Venice-class patrol ships that were still punishing the murderers, Major General Lisby could only give an order. "Send a semaphore and ask all ships to pay attention to their distance. Don't let these two Italian-made warships increase their speed."

After giving the order, he took a look at the large cruiser formation about 8 nautical miles away and the armored ship formation about 10 nautical miles away. As long as they enter the scene, these two Qing Dynasty's last maritime forces in the South China Sea will be completely destroyed. Give closure.

If Major General Lisby could discover something, how could the three Qing commanders who were among them not know about it. It was clear what they were about to face.

"In which direction should we break through now?"

Liu Buchan looked at the French warships in all directions, his expression becoming a little nervous. I don't blame him, anyone would be nervous when encountering such a situation.

As de facto commander, Leifer pointed in one direction. "We break out from here."

"What?"

Liu Buchan was shocked when he saw Leifer pointing in the direction, because he was pointing to the southeast, which would shorten the distance between his enemy's armored ships.

"Don't you reconsider?"

"No, let's do it this way."

After answering Liu Buchan, Leifer gave the order loudly. "Target southeast, prepare to break through."

The reason why Leifer chose the southeast to break out was very simple. Because the enemy warships basically focused on the east, so there were the most enemy ships to the east, and it was very difficult to force a breakthrough. Not to mention that the two ships have not reached angle of attack. Of course there is an angle of attack, but he will not attack his opponent. His own battleship is so expensive, and these second-rate goods in front of him are not worth it.

Following Leifer's order, the two ships Zhiyuan and Jingyuan immediately moved left and right in the encirclement, waiting for an opportunity.

When the two cruisers Champlain and Sonny in the southeast did not cooperate well and exposed a gap of nearly 500 meters, Leifer felt that an opportunity had come.

"Now, full speed southeast, between two enemy ships."

Leifer's order caused the second ship Zhijing to immediately accelerate towards it.

Major General Lisby, who was commanding the battle, was shocked when he saw the actions of the second ship Zhijing. "Send a semaphore immediately and ask the Champlain and Sauny to turn immediately. We can't let them escape."

Although Major General Lisby did not say who they were, it was all obvious.

But is it too late to remember to close the gap at this time?

Seeing the enemy ships in the encirclement rushing towards the gap desperately, other warships responsible for the siege immediately rushed forward. At this time, they completely ignored the powerful firepower of the two patrol ships. They only knew that if they let these two ships If they run away, it will be difficult to catch them.

Therefore, they fired the most violent artillery fire at the Zhijing 2nd Ship that was speeding past. Of course, the Zhijing 2nd Ship was not a vegetarian. Its powerful firepower also made these warships who tried to stop it suffer. The worst among them was Rigod. The Genui's power compartment was hit by a 254mm artillery shell, causing it to lose power and stop motionless on the sea.

In a normal naval battle, it will become a target ship for enemy ships. Fortunately, the enemy is on the run now and can't care about it.

After seeing that none of the ships could stop the two patrol ships, the cruiser Suoni suddenly made a bold move. It turned its bow and rushed directly towards the second ship Zhijing.

His intention is already very obvious. He will stop the Zhijing 2nd Ship even if he loses his own warship. When a warship of less than 2,000 tons collides with a warship of 7,000 tons, the result is self-evident.

Affected by the crazy move of the Sauny, another cruiser, the Champlain, also made the same move. Now, in front of the second ship Zhijing, two enemy ships were charging towards them menacingly, one to the left and one to the right.

Faced with such a critical moment, Leifer was unusually calm, because every decision he made was related to the life and death of nearly a thousand officers and soldiers on the two ships.

"Keep full speed, don't slow down."

"The artillery targets the battleship on the right side first, and stops it first."

"Damage control team, immediately put aside other matters and prepare for possible collision situations."

As Leifer issued orders one after another, everyone on the ship quickly received orders, and the tension that had not yet arisen was diluted.

Of course, this is just a dilution. If the enemy ships still rush over like this, it will be difficult to ensure that the tense atmosphere does not spread.

“5500 meters”

"5000 meters"

“4500 meters”

Especially when the observer hand is constantly reporting the distance between the two parties.

Fortunately, they were lucky. In the next shooting, a 254mm shell hit the bow of the USS Sonny near the waterline.

So after a bang, a large hole was blown out of the bow of the cruiser USS Sony, and sea water poured in directly along this place. On the bow of the ship, although such a large hole is not a fatal injury, it affects the speed of the ship abnormally. I saw that the speed of the Sony dropped directly from the full speed of 15.1 knots to 10.2 knots.

As a result, its speed and that of the cruiser Champlain were immediately separated.

This is a good opportunity.

After seeing that the Sonny was slowed down, Leifer continued to issue the order, "Go southeast, 15 degrees to the left, then aim at the Champlain and continue firing."

Following Leifer's order, the second ship Zhijing veered a little to the left. Although it was not too far, it allowed the main gun at the stern to attack the cruiser Champlain, which was charging straight.

"Boom, boom, boom."

After a round of tail gun fire, the Champlain, which had been hit by several rounds, still remained unabated.

"Three thousand meters."

When the observer reported two distances, two shells fell on the Zhiyuan, and one of them hit a distance of more than ten meters from Leifer. Fortunately, the current shells still use black powder. If it were replaced by smokeless Medicine, then Leifer is destined to lose his fortune, and maybe a memorial service will be held.

After getting up from the deck in embarrassment, Leifer gritted his teeth. "Inflict full firepower on the Champlain."

Therefore, as long as all the artillery of the second ship Zhijing can be reached, they will output firepower at the Champlain. In particular, several 254mm naval guns, with a barrel body of up to 30 times the caliber, provide sufficient accuracy.

Therefore, with the kind care of the two Venice-class ships, the last three thousand meters of the Champlain was extremely difficult. When it reached one thousand meters, the bow of the Champlain was blown off.

Without the bow, the Champlain's speed was even worse than that of the Sauni, and she could only watch the two Venetian-class ships drifting past in front of her eyes.

After getting rid of the two enemy ships, the people on the two ships cheered because they knew that they had broken through the siege and no one could stop them now.

As for Lieutenant General Gubo who planned the ambush, he was also so angry that he vomited blood at the news of the two ships' breakout.

This was the end of this somewhat anticlimactic naval battle.

I'm sorry, I was lazy yesterday and didn't make excuses. I want to say here that many people may not be satisfied with the somewhat anticlimactic naval battle. Of course, Mantou does not want to write it like this. However, after neutralizing the actual situation, Mantou thinks this is the most reasonable, because after all, there are too many ants to kill the elephant, and two patrol ships Although they are better than their opponents in terms of fire protection and speed, these are the only two ships in the hands of the Qing Dynasty. If there is an emergency, everything will be lost. It was impossible to continue to let these two ships go to sea after encountering an ambush. Therefore, the drama of subsequent attacks on French transportation lines ended.