1825 My New Daming

Chapter 125 This Is The King's Power? (Third update, please subscribe)
Served at three o'clock in the morning!

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The British Royal Navy's Sovereign-class battleship Revenge was hit in the third round of salvo by the Ming Navy formation. A 155mm armor-piercing projectile was impartial and hit the building below the Revenge's conning tower.But it didn't penetrate, but exploded when it hit it!

This is because the armor-piercing projectiles used by the Ming Navy are filled with picric acid explosives that are not passivated properly. After a violent impact, these incompletely passivated picric acid explosives usually do not wait to penetrate the steel plate of the enemy ship. It exploded because the charge was too sensitive.The first explosion that shook George Elliot was caused by this.However, this explosion would theoretically not cause much damage to the sturdy Sovereign-class battleship.

The reason why I say it is theoretical is because of another fatal and weird defect of the Sovereign-class, the two twin 13.5-inch naval gun turrets located at the bow and stern of the Sovereign-class have no top cover!

I don't know what the British shipbuilding experts think?So many pounds have been spent, so much armor steel has been used, why not add a cover to the most important battery?

All the secondary guns on the Sovereign level are protected by a steel shield, basically there is no need to worry about shell fragments, even if they are directly hit by a 155mm shell, most of them can withstand it.However, the two huge forts located at the bow and stern of the ship had no covers.

This is not the worst, the worst thing is that behind these two large forts are tall superstructures (front and rear conning towers), which are very easy to be hit.Originally, an armor-piercing projectile filled with picric acid that "exploded on touch" would not cause too much damage to the superstructure of the monarchy class, but when the burst shrapnel and burning fireballs (picic acid has a certain arson effect) When it fell from the sky and landed in the uncovered fort, things got worse.Not only killed all the members of the artillery squad in the fort, but also exploded a 13.5-inch artillery shell that had not yet been loaded into the barrel—this was also a picric acid shell, and the British picric acid explosive copied Daming’s formula , the same is easy to fry.

This is the end, a 13.5-inch picric acid shell exploded inside the fort without a roof, directly blowing up two giant cannons, and also ignited two propellant barrels filled with black powder and other miscellaneous things, It also stunned more than half of the officers and soldiers in the bridge behind the fort, so that the formation did not have a command to look at for a while, just to save two covers, and made it like this, what about the British Empire?
And how to blow up and burn, the battleship Revenge was in a mess, the bow turret was disarmed directly, and the "ship head" was still burning, but there was an ammunition depot under the "head"!This is going to be burned, and this revenge number can't be taken.And the command center of the entire fleet was directly stunned, unable to issue orders at all, and could only rely on the subordinates to fight on their own.

However, the quality of the British Royal Navy officers and soldiers on the Revenge is still high. Although no one commanded them, the officers and soldiers in charge of damage control still strictly followed the procedure to inject water into the ammunition depot under the bow turret to cool down the battleship.

However, after the bow of the ship was filled with water, the speed of the ship inevitably slowed down, and the bow also sank, causing the hull to tilt forward, and it could only drive forward with "pouting its buttocks".

This majestic Sovereign-class battleship was only hit by a 155mm armor-piercing bullet, and it was "on fire", with its buttocks upturned, and could only sail crookedly.This embarrassment not only shocked the officers and soldiers of the British Royal Navy at sea, but even the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty Navy were stunned.

So this is the monarchy?

And the gunners of the Ming Navy are very clever, and they can see where the weakness of this "sovereign" class is at a glance?There is also an uncovered fort on the upturned butt of the ship!So there was no need for Li Chenghui and Zhuge Wei to give orders, all the 155 guns were aimed at the pouting buttocks of the Revenge and hit them.

The 24 155 guns were followed by three rounds of bombardment, which were dedicated to hitting the "ship's buttocks". As expected, they lived up to expectations and set the "buttocks" of the Revenge on fire.A 155mm armor-piercing projectile filled with picric acid fell directly into the fort, and it exploded with a "boom", not only killing all the gunners, but also detonating a 13.5-inch cannonball. The two cannons were blown up, and then it also caused a fire. The characteristic of picric acid is that it is easy to explode and burn!

The experienced British sailors were also unambiguous, and poured water on the "ship's buttocks" of the Revenge again. This time it was balanced, but the speed dropped again, and it could only run to 10 knots.

What is more troublesome than the speed drop is that this "Europe's first ship" with a full load displacement of more than 5000 tons, now only has five 5-inch guns on one side left to fight.Of course, it also has six small-caliber rapid-fire guns and 6 torpedo tubes, but the small-caliber rapid-fire guns cannot damage the Lushun and Vladivostok at all, and it is too slow to use the Revenge as a torpedo boat.

As a result, the Revenge could only fight bravely with five 5-inch guns, but this is not the most ridiculous thing, it is much stronger than the Indomitable.It still has at least five 6-inch rapid-fire guns to fire!

And the Indomitable, which is equipped with a diagonally connected turret and has four 4-inch front-loading rifled guns, is simply embarrassing and sweaty. The rate of fire of the 16-inch front-loading gun is so slow that it can make people fall asleep. It can be fired for 16 minutes and 10 minutes after the first shot, and it can't be fired at all. It is completely unsuitable for naval battles on battleships.And it does not have a 10-inch rapid-fire gun, only three 6-inch rapid-fire guns on one side for naval battles.

A large ship of more than 3 tons can be fired with only three and a half rapid-fire guns.This "half-rapid fire" is a retreating cannon. The theoretical rate of fire is one shot per minute, and the combat rate of fire is one shot per two minutes. Today's actual rate of fire is about three to four minutes.
Therefore, the Ming Navy simply ignored the Indomitable, and continued to greet the Revenge with all its firepower.

However, except for the two "uncapped" large turrets on the bow and stern of the ship, the other parts of the Revenge are extremely strong, not to mention that the 155mm armor-piercing projectiles cannot be fired, even if the 305mm main gun of the Hongwu Emperor class is used. It's hard to penetrate the Revenge's strongest side main armor belt - that's 457 mm of armor!Even the protection of the superstructure of the Revenge cannot be penetrated by a 155mm gun.

Therefore, although the Revenge was covered in fire and black smoke billowing from the concentrated fire of 24 155 guns, it still had nothing to do, and it still responded calmly with 5 rapid-fire guns. From time to time, it could also hit Lushun No. One shot and two shots.

However, the British 6-inch artillery shells are also as good as Ming's 155mm artillery shells. They also explode on impact, and their armor-piercing capabilities are compromised.Moreover, Lushun's protection ability is not bad. Although it is only a cruiser with a standard displacement of over 5000 tons, the armor plates it uses are all the latest and best nickel alloy steel, so the vital parts of Lushun are not so easy to be destroyed. break through.After a few rounds of 6-inch shells, it was still the same as the "nothing boat".

When the exchange of fire between the two sides fell into a stalemate, George Elliot and Charlie Elliot, the unlucky guys who were stunned by the 13.5-inch shells, had already woken up. After the two brothers found that they were still alive, they quickly supported each other to get up. He limped to the window of the conning tower, and after seeing the holes blown out on the bow deck and the dead bodies strewn about, he knew that the "monarchy" was wrong.

Then, in a blink of an eye, I looked at the starboard side which was exchanging fire with the enemy. It was completely suppressed and beaten. Fortunately, the "thick skin" was beaten up, but it could still withstand it!

However, the mere 6-inch guns seemed to be unable to deal with the Lushun.And the artillery of the three protective cruisers following the Indomitable could not reach the two Ming cruisers, because the distance was too far, and the hit rate was very bad.

It seems to be too bad to fight like this.

Thinking of this, George Elliot yelled loudly at the officers who were still in a daze in the command tower: "Hang up the flag and let each ship fight on its own!"

(End of this chapter)