Opening game, American Tycoon

Chapter 1106 The Last Letter (Third Update, Please Subscribe)
In the setting sun, in the starry night, the two fleets sailed towards each other.

That night, the sailors on both sides slept soundly, and even after breakfast the next morning, all officers and soldiers of the Imperial Fleet had to take a "combat bath" according to tradition.

This is the tradition of the imperial army since the Nanhua era - take a bath before the battle and change into a new military uniform. This is to keep the body clean and avoid the chance of wound infection. Don't look at this humble tradition, at least reduce the number of injuries and deaths by more than 30%.After all, half of the wars in this era died from blood loss, and 30% died from wound infection.In a word, seven out of ten people died after being injured.

At [-]:[-] in the morning, the fleet completed its final battle preparations.At the same time they received a telegram from an aerial reconnaissance airship.

"Looks like we've become blind!"

Put away the telegram, Cheng Degong said.

"The fog is so thick, it must be impossible to see clearly from the air."

"Shanxi" captain Li Xingyun frowned.

"No way, this is the situation here. The sea and continental fog areas of more than 1000 kilometers, if they are in dense fog areas, even sightlines will be a problem."

Sailing in this sea area has to get used to this kind of foggy weather. After all, most of the time of the year, thousands of kilometers of sea area and land from the coast of Shanxi to the coast of southern Peru are shrouded in fog.

At [-]:[-] in the morning, the lookout sentinel of the "Shanxi" shouted.

"Multiple smoke columns were found in the north!"

Because the fleet was shrouded in thick sea fog, the fleet could not distinguish the type of the new ships.But even so, Cheng Degong still issued an order for combat readiness. ,
"The whole ship is ready to fight!"

With an order, the fleet that had become a column began to meet the enemy ship.

10 minutes later, the Mybo Federation Fleet spotted the fleet's plume of smoke.

"Discover the Ming Fleet!"

With the ringing of the alarm bell, the entire Fleet of the Boss Federation boiled up, and then the sailors saw the imperial warship appearing [-] nautical miles away, and the fleet's cannons aimed at them immediately, while the gunners aimed at the enemy ship.

Miguel Grau stood on the bridge and began to mobilize his officers and soldiers before the battle.

"All the officers and soldiers of the Peruvian-Bolivian Federal Navy, what we shoulder now is the responsibility of defending the Federation. The fate of the Federation has been linked to our victory or defeat in this battle. Right ahead is our compatriots in the occupied capital of Tacna , and the hitherto unpunished enemy, now the time has come for blood! I want you all to know what to do, long live the Peru-Bolivia Federation!"

In the Federal Navy, at least one-third of the sailors are Chileans in exile. After all, the size of the Chilean Navy far exceeded that of Peru. Compared to the Peruvians or Bolivians, their hatred of the Empire never faded away.This is why it is said that blood debts are paid with blood.

They didn't even need to be mobilized, the Chilean exiled sailors howled and stood at their respective posts. They operated the 6-inch cannon and the [-]-inch secondary gun to prepare for the next battle.

At the same time, the officers and soldiers of the Imperial Navy also began to prepare for the upcoming sea battle.

"Order the Thunderbolt ship to port! Enter the fog zone."

Following an order, ten small lightning strike ships sailed to the port side, and soon they disappeared into the sea fog.

Now there are only 6 warships left in front of the Peru-Bolivia Federation Fleet, and after another half an hour, the two sides can finally see each other clearly, and at this time the cannons of the entire Peru-Bolivia Federation Fleet are aimed at the six warship.

Despite the sea fog, after a period of identification, the officers around Grau still saw the details of the Imperial Navy warship clearly through the ship model, and he immediately said to Grau.

"There is only one Nanhua class! One Linhai class, and four cruisers!"

"Are you sure?"

"I can't go wrong,"

The officer replied in the affirmative.

"They have different rigging and ship types, so you can't go wrong."

Grau nodded at the officer's answer, and then said.

"Shoot empty guns and order the fleet to prepare for battle!"

Grau said expectantly when he ordered to fire a cannon into the air to notify the fleet.

"we won!"

At this time, Grau was conceited, and he had even begun to plan the next battle plan in his heart - after defeating the Imperial Navy, while blocking the coast of Takna, he wanted to burn the war to the mainland of the Empire, he wanted to Let the Empire feel the wrath of the Federation.

At this moment, a sudden gunshot broke the silence at sea. Perhaps because of the gunner's inner anger, a six-inch gun on the port side of the "Vasca" fired. Everyone was startled. Near the bow of the fleet's second warship.

With the sound of a cannon, the other ships of the entire fleet took this as a signal and fired at the same time. The deafening sound of the cannon echoed throughout the sea. This naval battle started suddenly, not because of the orders of the officers, But because of vengeful sailors.

The Imperial fleet also began to fight back, and the artillery shells directly hit the nearest federal warship. Colonel Pratt on the "Vasca" armored cruiser was surprised to see that the imperial artillery shells exploded almost instantly when they approached the water surface. The water column and black gunpowder smoke, and after the explosion, the sea surface was even filled with flames. These were test projectiles and range-finding projectiles used by the Imperial Fleet to correct the accuracy of aiming.

"A new type of shell?"

Colonel Pratt explained.

"Their shells can burn on the surface of the sea. They should be shells filled with picric acid. 17 years ago, our fleet was defeated by this shell at sea, but until 17 years later, half of our shells were used It's still black powder, and it's exactly the same as before!"

Colonel Pratt's complaints are full of helplessness. Although the empire introduced silica explosives and explosives 20 years ago, they are not suitable for use in high-pressure artillery, so they use picric acid fuel As explosives, this is also the fundamental reason why the imperial artillery is so powerful.

But what about other countries?
Still staying in the era of black medicine, at most it is the era of water-containing gun cotton. After all, the use of picric acid shells has various shortcomings.

While Colonel Pratt was complaining, the naval battle was already intensified, and shells from both sides were bombarding the sea. Five minutes after the naval battle started, the roar of the 5-inch cannon finally came to the fore. The sea rang.

This naval battle was destined to be written into the history of human naval warfare from the very beginning. It created too many firsts, the first large-scale ironclad naval battle, and the first duel between twelve-inch cannons.

A moment later, when the [-]-inch shell fell near the warship, a huge water column rose into the air, and the shock wave formed by the explosion threatened the sea waves and hit the hull. The sailors of the Imperial Navy inside the cabin were desperately shoveling coal , Listening to the sound of the waves crashing against the bulkhead, they couldn't help but have an idea in their hearts—fortunately, they sent a letter to their family members before setting out for the expedition.

The reason why they had such an idea was because——that was the last letter they could send alive!

(End of this chapter)