Ten Dragons Take the Inheritance

Chapter 491
The action of the English fleet was extremely fast. Before the Qing First Squadron began to turn, the English Fleet had already adjusted its battle line. The battle lines were less than one nautical mile apart, forming an angle of 45 degrees, while the first fleet of the Qing Dynasty, which was closely following the English fleet, was behind the English fleet, about half a nautical mile away, forming an angle of [-] degrees. The Qing fleet was not in a straight line, and adjustments had to be made in order to merge into one fleet—one of the two Qing fleets had to bypass the outer edge of the English fleet’s line of battle. Because of the turning radius, no matter which Qing fleet wants to do this as soon as possible, it has to turn partly along the British battle line, so it will be baptized by the British battle line artillery fire, But he himself was unable to fight back, or could not effectively fight back.

Liu Tianlong, the deputy commander of the Second Squadron, in his early forties, the rank of Major General, a graduate of the first batch of Shanghai Aviation School, was originally the captain of a large warship in the Second Squadron. He was promoted to admiral because of his military exploits, and served as Xiao Sanlang's deputy. Although he had served in the navy for many years, he had never participated in a formal naval battle. Yunyu, a powerful prince, had no choice but to blame his own fate.As soon as he received the message from Liu Ninghai today, Liu Tianlong was in a terrible mood - there is no port in Kota Ting, and the unloading can only be carried by small boats. Although nearly ten days have passed, more than 30 days have passed. A supply ship full of materials has completed more than half of the loading and unloading tasks. Except for some materials that are already on the way to Xinshan, most of the materials are still piled up on the beach. The ship can be withdrawn, but those materials cannot be taken away. Lost strategy Liu Tianlong couldn't bear the charge of supplies, so when he received Liu Ninghai's letter from Feige, Liu Tianlong could only grit his teeth and lead his few warships to the sea to intercept the English fleet, hoping to persist until the main force The fleet comes to aid.

"Master Liu, the First Squadron has sent a flag to tell our army to slow down immediately, turn to forty degrees, adjust the formation, and wait for the First Squadron to come to join." The semaphore soldiers on the mast of the "Weicheng" spotted the first The movement of a squadron was hurriedly reported loudly.

Liu Tianlong raised his binoculars to inspect the formation of the English fleet and the steering movements of the First Squadron of the Qing Dynasty. With a wave of his hand, he ordered loudly: "Order: The whole fleet lowers half sail, turns forty degrees, and forms a battle line." Line up and head to the southwest." As the semaphore soldiers on the "Weicheng" conveyed Liu Tianlong's order, the eight warships of the Second Squadron immediately began to adjust their formation, cutting out an arc, along the southwest course and The British army drove in the opposite direction at an interval of more than [-] meters, with two large warships in the center, and the rest of the warships were lined up on the left and right. At the same time, the bold actions of the Qing First Squadron also started.

Admiral Nadal originally did not intend to get entangled with these two Qing squadrons, but he saw that the tactics of these two Qing squadrons were extremely skillful, compared to the Qing fleet in the Black Island naval battle. Said that after a qualitative leap, his heart suddenly sank—this battle is not easy to fight. If the two Qing fleets cannot be severely damaged, it may not be easy to get rid of the opponent's entanglement. Once the main force of the Qing Dynasty The fleet came to help in time, and the English fleet is bound to be unable to escape the fate of failure!

It was too late, but soon, the First Squadron of the Qing Dynasty began to turn along the tangent, trying to bypass the battle line of the English fleet. The distance between the two sides was getting closer and closer. Slower, the gunners of the warships were already ready to fire, while the first squadron of the Qing Dynasty was sailing at full sail, moving forward quickly, although the gunners were already in place, but the ship was shaking violently, let alone aiming, Even standing on the gun deck is a strenuous task, not to mention that the distances between the ships of the Qing fleet and the English battle line are different at this time. The line was about 200 meters away, and the last ship "Sheng Cheng" was still more than 700 meters away from the British battle line, so it was impossible to concentrate its firepower.

"Order: All ships should ignore the enemy forces in the direction of Kota Ting, and attack the enemy fleet that is chasing behind with all their strength, and fire!" Admiral Nadal issued a combat order with a cold face. The nearest warships in the fleet immediately unceremoniously smashed hundreds of shells on the head of the "Yanwang" which had already cut within the range of the British artillery. Water jets splashed around the "Yanwang", and the unlucky "Yanwang" was hit by more than [-] shells without even firing a single shot. After a while, sea water rushed into the cabin of "Yan Wang" frantically, and the whole ship tilted up in an instant, and the speed suddenly slowed down, snaking around crookedly on the sea surface.

The "Yanwang" is a new ship, and all officers and soldiers on the ship are freshly assembled. Even the captain, He Shanlan, is a new captain who has just been promoted from the first officer, but at this critical juncture, no one tried to jump. Escaping from the sea, all officers and men on the ship desperately tried to put out the fire and drain water, but the hull was damaged. There was no hope of rescue. He Shanlan stood under the mast with a livid face, glaring angrily at the English fleet not far away With a wild roar, "Zuo Manruo, hit his mother!"

"My ship sank, see you at the Monument of Heroes!" The semaphore on the "Yanwang" sent back the last message to the follow-up battleship, and the whole battleship suddenly turned full left and rushed towards the English battle line crookedly. A posture of dying with the enemy.At this time, the "Yanwang" was like a large burning torch. Whichever ship was hit must have been due to bad luck. The English warships next to the "Yanwang" frantically poured artillery fire at the "Yanwang". In a short period of more than 200 meters, two consecutive salvos fell on the head of the "Yanwang" again. This medium-sized battleship of the Qing army finally couldn't bear the baptism of so many artillery fires. The whole ship spun on the water surface, turned over and sank to the bottom of the sea more than 30 meters away from the British battle line, and the more than [-] people on board All the soldiers of the Qing army sank with the ship.

A medium-sized battleship was lost in a single encounter without firing a single shot. This kind of result immediately made Liu Ninghai feel distressed and wanted to roar, but as the fleet commander, he knew better that this is not the time to vent his dissatisfaction. It is to take advantage of the moment when the English fleet is madly attacking the "Yanwang" and try its best to bypass the battle line of the British fleet, otherwise the blood of the officers and soldiers of the "Yanwang" will be shed in vain.

"Order: All ships must not slow down and fire, and rush over at full speed!" Liu Ninghai looked at the sinking "Yanwang" with a dark face, and ordered loudly.The first fleet of the Qing army did not stop and fire to counterattack due to the sinking of the "Yanwang", and continued to sail at full sail, crossing the British fleet. The ships of the Qing army who opened fire and counterattacked bombarded them for two rounds. The Qing army was in a state of disarray, and finally broke out of the fire range of the English fleet. The dozens of warships in the first squadron were damaged to varying degrees. The most serious The most important one was the small battleship "Sheng Cheng"—four shells hit the rudder compartment of the "Sheng Cheng", the helmsman was killed, the rudder was damaged, and it was impossible to continue fighting. Withdrew in the direction of Kota Ting; the flagship "Veyron" was also interrupted by a side mast, and the speed slowed down. Fortunately, it had already rushed out of the range of the British artillery.The first fleet began to turn again, lowered half of its sails, and prepared to join forces with the second fleet to block the way of the English fleet.

Dissatisfied, very dissatisfied!Although the English fleet took advantage of the fact that the Qing army was unable to fight back, it sank one ship and injured another, but Admiral Nadal was not satisfied with the result at all. For the squadron, Admiral Nadal issued a combat order with a dark face: "Order, the whole fleet adjusts its course, leans up, at a distance of 200 meters, and attacks the Kota Ting fleet with all its strength!"

The action of the English fleet was very fast. The 42 warships adjusted their course in unison. The First Squadron was still adjusting its course in the distance, and failed to arrive at the battlefield in time. The Second Squadron was alone and unable to compete with the British fleet. When the squadron arrived, the eight warships under Liu Tianlong were severely damaged.Liu Tianlong is not a fool because he has no actual combat experience. Seeing that the British army was planning to defeat them one by one, he would not be willing to be beaten. He only glanced at the adjustment actions of the English fleet, and guessed the British army's intentions. He ordered without hesitation: "Order: The whole fleet is here, turn left [-] degrees, half sail, keep the distance!"

In terms of the sailor ability of the fleet, I am afraid that the English fleet is still slightly higher, but it is not too high. The English fleet played very well when the battle line changed direction, but the Qing army was not bad either. Furthermore, the Qing army had fewer ships, so it was much easier to adjust. The two sides changed directions several times, and the distance between each other was always kept at 300 meters away. Even if they opened fire, they couldn't penetrate the sides of the Qing warships, so the English fleet never fired, and Liu Tianlong just wanted to drag the main force of the Qing army to help, and didn't intend to fight to the death with the British army, so the two sides maintained a tacit understanding. The battlefield was calm until Liu Ninghai's first squadron arrived on the battlefield and joined Liu Tianlong's troops. The two sides finally started a fierce battle at sea.

Although the First Squadron and the Second Squadron of the Qing Dynasty belonged to the First Fleet, they basically acted independently. Although there were many cooperative exercises with each other, it was the first time that they jointly formed a battle line to attack. At this time, the two squadrons were not fully equipped, and only some warships participated in the battle. In terms of military rank, Liu Ninghai was a lieutenant general, Liu Tianlong was a major general. Undoubtedly, Liu Ninghai's unified command should be the command of the battle. Therefore, as soon as Liu Ninghai led his troops to arrive, he immediately issued a combat message: "Use our ship as the flagship, and the whole army obeys orders. Be sure to hold back the enemy and wait for the main force of our army." Come help!"

It is an open secret in the First Fleet that the First Squadron and the Second Squadron are at odds. In particular, Liu Ninghai was originally only a major general, not even the deputy commander of the squadron. In Liu Tianlong's eyes, he belongs to the category of upstarts. Seeing that Liu Ninghai didn't even have a discussion and was about to take over the command as soon as he arrived, he felt a little annoyed, and he hesitated when he returned the order. It was just such a hesitation that was seized by the veteran Admiral Nadal. Taking advantage of the fact that the Qing army had not yet formed a command consensus and was slightly confused, he commanded the British army to narrow the distance between the two sides. Admiral Dahl's command to fire, the British flagship "New Wales" opened fire first, and a bloody battle kicked off...

At noon on May [-], the eighth year of Yuanzhuo, the main force of the Qing Fleet sailing all the way arrived in the Basta sea area, but at the end of the day, the official card did not wait for the arrival of Liu Ninghai, the first squadron of the Qing Dynasty—because The First Fleet of the Qing Dynasty had already left the Tamilan waters after sending out the pigeons to convey the message, so it did not receive the emergency letters from the pigeons sent by Liu Ninghai's and Liu Tianlong's troops. It is not clear that the English fleet turned to To attack the Kota Ding transport fleet, the main fleet of the Qing army waited for more than an hour in the Basta waters without receiving any news.At [-]:[-] p.m., Xiao Sanlang's troops, who were ordered to meet up, arrived in the sea area of ​​Basta. Except for the two medium-sized warships and three small warships left by Xiao's troops to keep watch in Batavia, the rest of the ships had all rushed over. arrive.

what happened?Calculated according to the voyage, the First Squadron should have reached it even if it climbed. Could it be that the entire First Squadron was wiped out?It doesn't make sense, Liu Ninghai is not the kind of person who forgets orders when the battle starts. With the strength of the First Squadron, he can't beat the British, but it is not difficult to escape. See people?Yunyu walked back and forth anxiously in the war room, watching the time go by, feeling restless in his heart...

(End of this chapter)