I'm in the Red Mansion

At this time, Arthur and other commanders of the coalition forces found it difficult to understand why the people of Central Plains knew that they were planning to launch a surprise attack on Central Plains?
And they have set up defenses here in advance?

However, this did not prevent Arthur from quickly mobilizing the nearby navy to encircle the Central Plains fleet, preparing to launch a thundering attack on them and keep them all here.

They have absolute confidence in their fleet.

After they gave the order, more intense artillery fire was soon heard.

However, for some reason, they vaguely felt something was wrong.

But they didn't have to wait long before news came again.

It turned out that the fleet they sent to support was attacked again.

This news immediately shocked the commanders headed by Arthur.

How can it be?

Where do so many troops from the Central Plains come from?
Where are they hiding?

This is on the sea, not on land. How is it possible to hide so many fleets without being noticed?
Shocked, Arthur quickly asked someone to bring a nautical chart.

After looking at the nautical chart, he suddenly discovered that there were many islands here.

Some places are still shrouded in fog.

These places can hide a large number of ships.

Thinking of this, these cautions, I felt more and more uneasy.

They also had to admit that the news from Central Plains was too well-informed.

Not only did he know in advance that the coalition forces were going to attack the Central Plains, but he also knew their movements and even routes clearly.

And an ambush was set up in advance.

But they knew nothing about the situation in the Central Plains.

How can we fight this war when we have no idea about the enemy?
However, although these gentlemen were surprised, they did not take it too seriously.

After all, they believe that in the face of absolute strength, any conspiracy or trick will be exposed.

Next, Arthur quickly ordered people to release a hot air balloon, and let his personal soldiers climb onto the balloon to begin to detect the situation on the battlefield.

Countries like Zhenzhen Kingdom also have hot air balloons, but their technology is much inferior to that of Central Plains.

However, it is sufficient for simple detection.

Through detection, Arthur finally gained control of the situation of the Central Plains Navy.

The navy sent by the Central Plains consisted of only a few hundred ships and tens of thousands of people.

In terms of numbers, there are only a few tenths of them.

Arthur felt more relieved about this.

He immediately dispatched more allied naval forces according to the situation to encircle and suppress the Central Plains navy.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the Central Plains Navy retreated quickly.

As for Arthur, a sneer appeared on his face.

Did you enjoy the sneak attack just now?

Don't you think it's too late for you to leave now?
The encirclement has been formed, and these Central Plains navy will have no way to escape!
However, the progress of the war was far beyond his expectations.

These Central Plains navy members actually managed to escape before their encirclement was broken.

Arthur's face suddenly showed disbelief.

In order to observe the battle between the two sides more intuitively and effectively, Arthur decisively took a telescope and personally rode a hot air balloon into the air.

This time, Arthur finally observed the situation on the battlefield personally.

After observing for a while, Arthur couldn't help but gasp.

He finally understood why the Central Plains fleet was able to escape.

It turned out that the warships from the Central Plains were much faster than theirs.

Their warships simply couldn't catch up with the enemy.

Moreover, the cannons of the Central Plains warships have a longer range and are more accurate than theirs.

Therefore, in the current pursuit and escape battle, only the Central Plains warships can attack them, and they cannot attack the Central Plains warships at all.

So far, they have lost dozens of warships and suffered thousands of casualties.

The Central Plains warship on the opposite side was completely unharmed.

Seeing this, Arthur became even more shocked.

Ever since they began plundering the entire world, they have always used their advanced technology and weapons to crush all the natives.

This was the first time that they were crushed by the enemy in terms of weapons and equipment.

Fortunately, the Central Plains fleet is small in number and does not have many troops.

Otherwise, this battle would be really difficult to fight.

But the Central Plains is a vast country.

Even though they did not send much navy to attack and delay their advance.

But how could the number of the Central Plains Navy be small?
Our weapons and equipment are crushed by the enemy. How should we fight this battle then?
Until this moment, Arthur had not realized the seriousness of the problem.

What he wanted to do was to continue attacking the Central Plains and was considering the situation after entering the Central Plains waters.

I never thought that the Central Plains Navy wanted to kill them right here.

Next, Arthur decisively gave orders to have more Allied naval forces disperse and surround the area.

We need to form a huge encirclement and issue a death order, making sure to capture several Central Plains warships.

Arthur wanted to see what kind of power their warships used and why they could run so fast.
And their cannons, why can they reach such a long range and be so accurate?

If they could use all these technologies, then their fleet would be truly invincible.

However, the subsequent battle situation once again exceeded Arthur's expectations.

Just as their coalition forces were mobilizing their troops.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the Zhongyuan fleet accelerated again and soon shook off the pursuers behind them.

This scene surprised Arthur.

It turns out that the speed just now was not the fastest speed of the Central Plains Fleet?

It turns out that their warships can be even faster?
Why are their warships so fast?

Arthur just found it incredible.

Their warships were all steam-powered warships, powered by steam engines.

In principle, the larger the boiler of a steam engine, the more power it can provide.

The only problem is that the larger the boiler, the more fuel it requires, and the larger and heavier it becomes.

However, the length of a battleship is limited, so it is naturally impossible to increase the size of the boiler indefinitely.

A balance must be found here.

But looking at the warships from the Central Plains, there was not much smoke coming out of them, which clearly showed that they were not using steam engines.

This made Arthur even more curious.

Because the Central Plains fleet increased its speed, it immediately disrupted the coalition forces' formation.

They were still chasing closely, but their speed varied, and the battle line began to grow longer and longer.

However, at this moment, several Central Plains fleets suddenly emerged from hiding.

The artillery fire of these fleets is really too sharp.

The pursuing coalition forces were caught off guard. For a moment, many warships were hit by artillery fire and thick smoke billowed out.

Arthur was shocked when he saw this and hurriedly gave orders for all warships to stop chasing and retreat to defend.

It was not until this time that Arthur realized that the Central Plains Navy that had attacked them earlier was just a vanguard.

They are just bait.

It turned out that Zhongyuan's plan was to keep the enemy out and did not want the war to happen at his doorstep. However, after Arthur gave the order, the scene that frightened him appeared again.

He gave the order to retreat, but not a single fleet of the coalition forces retreated.

Some of them not only did not retreat, but even accelerated to pursue.

Some of them left the battlefield and began to move sideways inexplicably.

The actions of all the fleets became inexplicable.

Some simply made a suicidal run, while others inexplicably left the battlefield, disrupting the defense line of their own coalition forces.

The entire coalition forces on the battlefield were in chaos!

However, all the changes are actually the most beneficial to the Central Plains Fleet.

The Central Plains Navy began to ruthlessly reap them.

This made Arthur's pupils shrink and he became extremely frightened.

What is going on? What happened?
Why did all the coalition forces not obey his command and all act on their own?

Why is this happening?

At this moment, Arthur suddenly discovered that the command ship under his feet began to accelerate and headed towards the front line of the battlefield.

Arthur was immediately furious and asked hurriedly, "What the hell are you doing? Who told you to run over there?"

The guards below were stunned and said, "Commander-in-chief, didn't you ask us to go to the front line?"

Arthur was furious and said, "Asshole, I'm right here. When was the order given?"

The guard quickly said: "It was an order issued via telegram..."

At this point, even the bodyguards themselves finally realized that something was wrong.

They are the headquarters here, and they are the only ones who can give orders to other coalition forces.

How could anyone give them orders?

What's more, the commander-in-chief is here, and all orders should be issued by the commander-in-chief.

The commander-in-chief clearly did not issue such an order, so who issued this order?
How come they were so stupid as to not think of this and choose to execute decisively?

At this moment, Arthur took a deep breath and finally realized what had happened.

He finally understood why the coalition forces were in such chaos and why they disobeyed his orders and acted recklessly.

All of this must be a conspiracy of the Central Plains people!

They intercepted the orders they had sent out, and issued one order after another in their own tone to deceive the coalition forces.

At this moment, Arthur felt a black screen before his eyes and he almost fell headfirst from the hanging basket.

He hurriedly ordered the soldier who was controlling the hot air balloon to land from mid-air.

At this point, there was no point for him to stay in the air.

He just felt that the future was bleak!
Finished!

It's all over!

The information has been completely cut off by the Central Plains Fleet, and their information cannot be transmitted.

What’s even more terrifying is that the coalition forces may not even know this yet.

How is this fight going?
Soon, Arthur landed from mid-air.

At this time, Arthur no longer dared to use telegram to deliver messages.

He could only send out his own personal soldiers to notify the coalition forces one by one.

All their messages were intercepted by Zhongyuan.

All the orders they received were issued by people from the Central Plains.

Next, they will not give any orders by telegraph.

Arthur asked them all to retreat and defend.

The battle line was long, and it was also very dangerous for Arthur's personal soldiers to shuttle through the artillery fire.

The transmission of information is also very slow.

In the process, the coalition warships were destroyed one after another.

One soldier after another either died in the artillery fire or jumped into the sea to struggle.

Fragments of Allied warships and broken limbs were floating on the sea.

Seeing this scene, Arthur's heart was bleeding.

Fortunately, the information was finally passed on bit by bit.

The coalition forces also began to retreat slowly.

Two hours later, the coalition forces finally retreated completely.

Of course, the army of one country was completely destroyed, and the army of another was completely crippled.

At this point, only eleven of the thirteen countries remained.

The Central Plains warships also knew when to stop, and when they saw that they had completely retreated, the Central Plains fleet slowly retreated.

Arthur and other commanders were busy counting casualties.

The final statistics showed that a total of 30,637 people died and as many as 150,000 to 160,000 were injured.

The loss of 628 warships was a heavy loss.

And this happened when they hadn't even reached the door of Nakahara's house.

This made each of them lose face.

Several commanders were furious, while most of them remained silent.

And take revenge?
How to take revenge? Take your head?
What a mess the battle just now went like. Don’t you have any idea how terrible it was?
Forget about revenge. If you dare to fight back at Zhongyuan's doorstep, they will make sure you never get back.

So, in the end, after some discussions, they decided to withdraw.

There is no way, the Central Plains is too powerful.

Since you can't win, just choose not to fight.

After the discussion, they decided to retreat tomorrow.

Let those in power deal with the affairs of the Central Plains.

However, they still did not realize the seriousness of the problem...

Until now, they still naively believe that they can come and go as they please.

Soon, it got dark.

Arthur did not lose his vigilance and sent out enough patrol ships to prevent the Central Plains fleet from launching a sneak attack.

In fact, naval battles were not often fought at night.

Because no one can see clearly, what if you miss the target?
Besides, it was dark and difficult to mobilize the army.

There may be sneak attacks, but there will definitely not be large-scale battles.

As for sneak attacks, they were all gathered together and were not afraid of sneak attacks from the other side.

Unexpectedly, at night, they were ambushed.

What made them very angry was that the Central Plains fleet launched a surprise attack without even getting close.

The range of their artillery is more than twice as far as theirs.

The enemy would stop within the range and attack, and they could only passively take the beating without any ability to fight back.

After Arthur received the information, he was very annoyed, but he did not send the coalition forces to surround them.

It was pitch dark, who knew how many ambushes the Central Plains Navy had set up?

If we chase after him rashly, we might just fall into the enemy's trap!

Anyway, the troops that were attacked were not from their own country, so they just ignored them. (End of this chapter)