Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 989
However, Major General Fagan also admitted that these two weird-looking battlecruisers are still very effective. The high-speed exciting performance, thick armor and powerful firepower have caused the United Fleet to suffer a lot.Fagan arranged for the four battleships "Rose", "London", "Little Bee" and "Sunset" as the main force to surround the Chinese warships, while cruisers and destroyers wandered outside to assist in the attack.

At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the warships of the two sides began to exchange fire at a distance of 6000 meters. The waves stirred up by the shells caused some small-tonnage ships to shake non-stop.The Chinese warships that were fleeing all the way seemed to have made up their minds not to back down for half a point at this time. They stubbornly fired round after round of shells and exploded around the joint warship.

The British destroyer "Sparrow" rashly attacked the "Shanghai" from the left flank, but its intention was immediately discovered. The artillery fire on the left side of the "Shanghai" concentrated on it, and the poor "Sparrow"'s draft was torn a three-meter-wide hole, and the sea water rushed into the "Sparrow" unscrupulously. The captain of the ship watched helplessly as the ship sank but could do nothing. He paid a heavy price for his recklessness.

2:25. The heavy cruiser "Cyclops" and the light cruiser "Dame" were shot one after another, and the "Cyclops" was forced to withdraw from the battle, while the fate of the "Dame" was much more tragic. "The torpedoes sent out on the USS ended their mission in Asia.

At 2:30, two shells hit the "Shanghai" one after another, but relying on its solid armor, the "Shanghai" was only slightly injured, which did not affect its continued fighting.But the situation of the "Nanjing" on the other side is a bit bad. Unfortunately, its boiler room was hit by a shell, which slowed down its speed all of a sudden.

Of course, Major General Fagan would not give up such a good opportunity, and immediately continued to entangle the "Shanghai" with the "Rose" and two cruisers, while using six cruisers and four destroyers to cooperate with the "London" and "Little Bee" The "Nanjing" and the "Sunset" bombarded the "Nanjing". Within 15 minutes, the "Nanjing" suffered at least a dozen shells. Although the armor was hard, but it was hit so many times at once, the "Nanjing" Gradually showing a look of being unable to hold on, at this time Xue Yue was determined to rescue the "Nanjing", but the enemy ships in front of him dragged it to the battlefield. Although Xue Yue commanded the battleship to sink a cruiser, but only Can watch "Nanjing" under attack.Major General Fagan breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the two warships had nowhere to escape. As long as the "Nanjing" was sunk, the remaining one would be doomed to defeat.

"Major General, Major General!" His staff officer stumbled over as if he had encountered a ghost.

"What's the panic?" The well-educated Fagan frowned. He didn't like the panic of his subordinates, which would damage the image of the combined fleet officers.

The staff officer tried hard to swallow his saliva: "A large number of warships appeared on our rear and two wings. It must be Chinese warships. I think we are surrounded!"

Feigen's face turned pale immediately, and he forgot all his good education and image: "Say it again, are you sure it's an enemy warship?"

"Yes, I promise!" The staff officer looked at the panicked major general and said, "Many warships are far more powerful than us. Mr. major general, we can't fight any more. Hurry up and evacuate, or we will all die here."

"Retreat, retreat!" The nervousness of his subordinates affected Fagan: "Immediately send a report to Admiral Bernie, telling him that we have encountered a large number of Chinese fleet attacks, and now we are preparing to withdraw from the battlefield, asking for assistance, asking for assistance!"

Major General Fagan made a major mistake in command. If he did not order a retreat but resisted the defense on the spot, then the entire Far East Fleet might not have suffered a devastating blow. It was this wrong decision he made that caused the war to stop. From the beginning, it developed in a direction that was unfavorable for the combined fleet.

The warships that were fighting suddenly received an order from the commander to withdraw from the battlefield urgently. Although they felt strange, they still carried out the order firmly. After all, no one wanted to die, and retreating was better than attacking.

The retreat seemed flustered and disorderly. The "Shanghai" and "Nanjing" took the opportunity to launch a separate counterattack. Under the strong attacks of the two ships, the British battleship "Little Bee" was hit one after another, and there were explosions one after another. It sounded on the "Little Bee", and it was forced to raise the white flag to surrender after losing the ability to sail.In the chaos, a French light cruiser collided with the "Little Bee". As a result of the collision between the two ships, the hull of the light cruiser, which was much lighter than the battleship, split in two and sank on its own. under the ship.

The "Shanghai" and "Nanjing", which were also exhausted, did not pursue the enemy fleet, but took on the task of accepting the surrender of the enemy battleship and salvaging the crew who fell into the water.

It seems that Feigen's plan to escape is unlikely to come true. The Chinese fleet is pressing up from several directions with its bloody mouth wide open. It is far more than the fleet commanded by Feigen in terms of number and gross tonnage. Now Fagan's only hope is that the rescue fleet can arrive in time, otherwise he will face the end of failure.

And Admiral Bernie, who received Fegan's call for help, tightly twisted his nervous fingers together. It was terrible. Now the relationship between ambushing and being ambushed has been completely adjusted. It seems that the Chinese have known him for a long time. The plan of the original fleet was completely used to confuse him.

However, Admiral Bernie was not very worried. He believed that Fagan would be able to persist until his arrival, and once he joined Fagan, the powerful United Fleet would never be afraid of those shameful raiders.

The Chinese fleet's attack was swift and ferocious, and they didn't seem to want to give the enemy any chance to breathe.The strongest battleship "Yuntian" of the Second Fleet, which took the lead, rampaged like a ferocious god, and didn't pay attention to the enemy's battleship at all.The "Yunsheng" and "Yunqing" behind it fired shells one after another at the enemy ships, as if they would not be reconciled until the entire enemy fleet was sunk.

Under such powerful and violent artillery fire, the enemy panicked and tried their best to avoid the shells sent by the Chinese warships, but the Chinese offensive was so crazy that a cruiser and a destroyer were quickly torn to pieces.

At this time, Rear Admiral Fagan calmed down instead. He gathered the battleships together and aimed all his naval guns at the heavy cruiser "Yanzhou" that protruded forward. Feigen also clearly saw that his battleship He is by no means an opponent of Chinese battleships. The only thing he can do now is to concentrate his firepower to wipe out as many Chinese warships as possible. As long as he delays for a second, Admiral Bernie will be able to get closer to him by one nautical mile.

Under the concentrated artillery fire, the "Yanzhou" was quickly shot and caught fire, and then the ammunition depot exploded, and the "Yanzhou" quickly began to sink.Seeing the sinking of a Chinese warship so quickly, the sailors couldn't help cheering, and more and more violent shells fell on the enemy with the anger of avenging the "Yanzhou".

The enemy is also very tenacious, relying on their flexible dodging and superb skills, they dodged the shells again and again.

At 4:15, the cruiser "Taylor" of the United Fleet sank at the same time.The light cruisers "Longyan" and "Shaoxing" in the Chinese fleet were forced to withdraw from the battle after being shot. At 4:30, the Dutch battlecruiser "Sunset" was attacked by the two battleships "Yuntian" and "Yunsheng". The hull was shot in many places and began to sink at 5:[-]. Let the Chinese heavy cruiser "Luoyang" lose its combat effectiveness.

The night gradually fell, and the night Fagen was looking forward to most finally arrived.And with the coming of night, the two warring parties stopped fighting at the same time. The solitary coalition warship parked tensely and carefully on the sea surface, and a large number of Chinese warships were watching them vigilantly around him.

In this day's naval battle, together with Xue Yue's victory in luring the enemy fleet, the United Fleet lost a total of two battleships, many cruisers and destroyers, while the Chinese Navy lost the "Kunming" and "Yanzhou" heavy cruisers. The ship was damaged.Judging from the results of the battle, China has an absolute advantage.

However, China's strong logistical support is beginning to emerge.Wounded warships began their journey to Singapore Naval Port, where they were quickly and efficiently repaired.Especially the injured "Nanjing", through the efforts of skilled workers overnight, the damaged boiler was repaired. If the Ministry of the Navy did not require a comprehensive and thorough repair of it, the "Nanjing" could even continue to participate in the war immediately.

Under the cover of night, the empire's newly launched super battleship "Shihuang" was moored quietly but majesticly on the water, its huge body arrogantly watching everything around it.

Before China's "Shihuang" class and Britain's "Queen Elizabeth" class battleships came out, the power of warships around the world at that time mainly came from steam engines. It was time-consuming and laborious to transport coal, and black smoke from huge chimneys It will also make the battleship earlier. The "First Emperor" class and "Queen Elizabeth" class battleships became the first batch of fuel-powered battleships in the world.Their advent means that coal-powered battleships will gradually fade out of the sea.

The "Shihuang" class battleships surpassed the "Queen Elizabeth" class in both speed and artillery power.

排水量：35540吨/39100吨；尺寸为230ｘ32ｘ991米；动力为12座锅炉，3台蒸汽轮机。3轴125000马力，双舵；最大航速28节，续航力10000海里/17节；主炮为9门三座三联装356毫米/50倍口径主炮，4座双联装150毫米/55倍口径副炮，10座双联装127毫米/38倍口径高平两用副炮，12座双联装37毫米/56倍口径机关炮，38门20毫米/71倍口径机关炮。该舰可搭4架水上侦察或校正飞机，乘员1862人。其中军官82人。在帝国海军的研究里，“始皇”级战列舰是除了航空母舰之外的重点研制对象。

(End of this chapter)