My Italy

The naval battle came to an end with the escape of the second ship Zhijing. In this naval battle, the French stole the chicken but lost the rice. More than ten battleships were lost, including the cruiser Renoburg, the cruiser Volda, and the cruiser Primogai. The combined tonnage of these battleships was more than 13,000 tons. As for the loss of more than 800 personnel, this loss was not much. It's not serious.

As for the second ship Zhijing that China participated in the war this time, although it escaped unscathed, it was not without losses. Both ships suffered considerable losses in this naval battle. The Zhiyuan lost three 150mm secondary main guns, as well as eight 75mm and 57mm secondary guns, as well as the twin 254mm main batteries on the aft deck. , because it was hit by too many bullets, causing it to jam. Despite emergency repairs by the ship's personnel, the rear main turret was still jammed and was in urgent need of repair.

Compared with the Zhiyuan, the Jingyuan is much better. At least its main gun is intact, but there are still some losses. Two 150mm secondary main guns and six 75mm and 57mm secondary guns were also considerable losses.

Of course, except for the main guns, the appearance of the two warships was full of holes, and even the armor plates had fallen off in some places. But after all, they won, their spirits were different, and now they had an elite aura.

However, on the way back, the small fleet had a dispute.

"You said there's no way to fix it?"

Leifer looked at Liu Buchan in surprise.

Facing Leifer's piercing eyes, Liu Buchan lowered his head. "Yes, the largest shipyard in our country can only accommodate ships of 5,000 tons, and it is a shipyard run by the British in Shanghai."

Facing Liu Buchan's answer, Leifer, who had just made great contributions in the breakout battle, couldn't help but ask. "So what is the largest shipyard you currently have, and how big of a ship can it accommodate for repairs?"

"There is a shipyard in Lushun in northern my country that can accommodate four thousand tons."

"Liu, I remember that your two Saxon-improved ships are returning to China, right?"

"We can't go back now."

"If you can return to China, where will you go for maintenance?"

Liu Buchan, who was so annoyed, could only sigh secretly. Among the many things the navy had done, he had forgotten this. He was really unqualified as an assistant.

However, now that there is a lack of maintenance dock, the second ship Zhijing can only drag its injured body and carry out simple repairs.

It can be said that most of the tasks that Gubo failed to complete were achieved with the help of the Qing people's own divine assistance.

The naval battle between China and France in the South China Sea has come to an end, but this is not a battle without spectators.

The gunboat HMS Leopard of the British Far East Fleet happened to witness this battle with his own eyes, and of course he happened to do it at the right time. However, Captain Byrd described the performance of both parties in this naval battle in detail in his report, and finally he made a concluding comment.

Dear General David, both sides in this naval battle performed wonderfully. General Guba showed his excellent planning ability. It can be said that this battle to ambush two Venice-class cruisers met his expectations at the beginning. He completely led two Qing warships into the trap, but unfortunately, his net was too worn and the prey escaped.

After praising General Gubo, Captain Byrd changed the subject. Compared with the abilities of General Guba, the Qing people's performance was not bad this time, but compared with the experienced Vice Admiral, they were lacking in experience. Of course, this wonderful naval battle, the encirclement and suppression and counter-encirclement and suppression battles were very exciting.

However, what impressed me most about this naval battle was the two Venice-class cruisers. Their performance in the naval battle was amazing. It was a perfect combination of firepower, protection and speed. I have reason to believe that the empire will also need to face such a situation in the future. As the results of this naval battle are known to all countries, I believe that a wave of large-scale construction of armored cruisers will definitely come. Then at this time, the empire's maritime trade lines will face a more complicated situation.

Captain Byrd's report was handed over directly to the Admiralty in London by General David, commander of the British Empire's Far East Fleet, without changing a word. This made many people in the Navy Department interested in it, and a colonel named Fisher paid the most attention to it.

Of course, this is not the focus. The current focus is still the Sino-French war in the Far East.

The fleet encirclement and suppression of the second ship Zhijing failed, causing considerable losses to itself. As the fleet commander and the person in charge of this plan, General Guba submitted his resignation to Paris immediately. In his resignation, Guba placed all the responsibilities on himself.

The Admiralty in Paris was not an unreasonable person and immediately rejected Gupa's resignation and asked him to continue his efforts to bring China to its knees as soon as possible. For this reason, the Navy Department also dispatched six large cruisers, including the first-class cruiser Acosta and the first-class cruiser Petrescu, based on the battle report he provided, to support General Gubo in the Far East.

These six large cruisers are not comparable to the ships under Gupo. These six cruisers are all large-tonnage cruisers of five to six thousand tons. Considering the speed of the two Venice-class ships up to 18.56 knots, these six large cruisers are all It can run at a speed of more than 16 knots, and the Acosta can even run at a speed of 17.5 knots.

As for why there is no large cruiser that can compete with the speed of the Venice class, it is because before this, no country had thought of building a cruiser so fast. After all, the cost of each increase in speed is not low at all. Of course, in addition to these six cruisers, France has also sent three liaison ships, all of which are the latest models and have just been in service. They can all run at a speed of 19 knots.

It can be said that in order to deal with the two Venice-class patrol ships, the French Navy selected elite soldiers and strong generals. Although the French Navy is preparing to reinforce the Far East Fleet, this will also take time. It will basically take a month for these ships to arrive in the Far East.

However, in the face of the defeat in the naval battle, the French side was certainly unwilling to accept it. However, the navy was temporarily unable to invade the north and could only consider looking for opportunities on land.

For this reason, as the top commander of the French Route Army in Bei Qi, General Miller certainly had the responsibility to restore France's honor. So in early June 1884, more than 3,000 French troops launched a surprise attack on the Qing troops stationed in Bei Qi near Lang Son. The Qing army launched an attack. Although they had repeatedly raised their vigilance, the Qing army stationed in Beili was still no match for the French army. Under the attack of the French army, the more than three thousand Qing army could not resist for long before they collapsed. Flee into the country.

After solving the Qing army in Bei Li, the French army then launched an attack on Lang Son. Pan Dingxin, the governor of Guangxi, retreated without a fight. Half a month later, the French army invaded Zhennan Pass. Due to insufficient troops and difficulty in supplying supplies, they burned the pass and retreated to the line between Wenyuan and Lang Son.

The French army's continuous victories on land were enough to cover up the defeat at sea, and for a while the French became arrogant again. Of course, they did not forget the Italians hiding behind the Qing Dynasty.

Two updates today, and one more chapter.