My Italian: Chapter 80 The Battle of the South China Sea Part 1

The South China Sea has been a major transportation route since ancient times. Merchants from all over the world rushed to Quanzhou and Guangzhou to buy porcelain, tea, silk and other unique commodities in China, and then sold them all over the world.

Of course, with the development of the times, the means of transportation of merchants have also kept pace with the times. From the galleys and sailboats at the beginning to the modern light and dark ships, the transportation route of the South China Sea has become more prosperous.

In the South China Sea near the coast of Vietnam, a long queue of freighters is sailing slowly on the sea. The weather was not very good today, and a lot of clouds blocked the sunlight, making the scenery in the distance not so clear.

That's right, this is the fleet from Saigon, and their destination is Beiqi.

Among the long fleet, the French fleet's wooden-hulled cruiser Vorda led the way.

As the captain and commander of the **** fleet, Major Barrow was using a telescope to observe the surrounding sea.

"Why haven't these Italians come yet?"

The first officer, who was doing the same thing beside him, couldn't help but complain.

In the face of the chief officer's complaint, Major Barrow put down his telescope and said. "Be at ease. If you want to hunt, you need to have enough patience."

"But this is our third time. If the Qing people still don't come, then the cost will be high."

Yes, it takes a lot of manpower and material resources to organize so many ships to run back and forth with a full load, and it costs money. And in order to make a full set of the show, they really transported materials, but it was not military materials, just some worthless goods. This will cost more, after all, it requires manpower to move up and down.

"This is not something we should be concerned about. This is what the Lonely General considers. We only need to care about when the Qing fleet will come."

In the face of the chief officer's excessive worry, Major Barrow corrected him.

In fact, they didn't know that two Venice-class cruisers were sailing on the sea thirty nautical miles away from their fleet.

How could Liu Buchan, who is the nominal commander of the fleet, not know about France's actions in the North Vietnamese border area. After bearing the pressure of the outgoing Zeng Taiwan's many banquets, he and the two captains Gomes and Lefer It was negotiated that the French could not continue to send supplies to North Vietnam in any case.

Of course, in order to prevent possible accidents, they did not rush to the route immediately, but after waiting for the French fleet to set off, they dashed to the route.

After two hours, the fleet spotted smoke from ships sailing on the east side.

"There's a boat on the east side!"

On the observation deck, the sharp-eyed sailor immediately reported his findings.

"Let the Viper go check the situation."

Major Barrow, the commander of the **** fleet, immediately gave the order. The Viper is a gunboat made of iron and wood. It is mainly responsible for **** and offshore operations. It has a displacement of 471 tons, is equipped with 9 guns of various types, and has a maximum speed of 10.14 knots.

When the messenger on the Volda sent Major Barrow's order to the Viper in a semaphore, the gunboat immediately left the formation and rushed over to the spot where the ship was found on the east side.

Such a sudden intrusion of a ship has happened many times before, so this time the Viper is just a routine inquiry, and intends to let the intruding ship leave quickly.

But this time is destined to be different.

After a while, not only can the lookout platform see the figure of the intruding ship, but even other people on the ship can see its figure. Although due to the distance and weather, the specific figure of the ship cannot be seen clearly, but everyone is there. A thought flashed in my mind, the speed of the ship is so fast.

"There are two ships coming."

At this time, the sailors on the observation deck finally found out that there were two ships coming with their binoculars, and everyone immediately became more vigilant.

"Send the order, all ships are ready for battle."

Since there are two ships and the speed is still so fast, in Major Barrow's mind, the ship is the target he wants to wait for nine times out of ten, so he first issued an order to prepare the ships for battle.

And following his words, the ships of the **** fleet immediately rang the bell for battle, and the sailors rushed to their respective combat posts.

It didn't take long for it to prove that Major Barrow was very foresight. He saw that the Viper sent a semaphore, and that the arriving ships were the Zhiyuan and Jingyuan, which were sold to the Qing by Italy. Because of its flying flag of the Qing Dynasty, it has been clearly seen by the officers and soldiers on the Viper.

"Immediately let the cargo ship leave as planned, and let the Baswar contact General Guba immediately and tell him that the prey has been hooked."

In fact, he didn't need to inform Baswar. The liaison ship also saw the semaphore of the Viper, and immediately turned the bow and evacuated to the rear.

Because he only knew one of his tasks, he needed to inform the General Lonely who was hanging behind the Qing Dynasty as soon as possible after the arrival of the pretend patrol.

After issuing this series of orders, Major Barrow immediately issued another order. "Let the other ships move closer to me immediately and meet the incoming enemy ships."

That's right, Major Barrow will use his weak fleet to entangle the incoming enemy and create an opportunity for the lonely general behind him to surround him.

As for Liu Buchan and the two captains, Gomes and Lefer, the French fleet that was attacked reacted too quickly, which made them feel a little bit unusual.

"The French responded too quickly."

After putting down the telescope to look at the French fleet, Liu Buchan expressed his doubts to Captain Lefer next to him.

"I saw it too, but now is not the time to care about the enemy's reaction. Now you need to decide whether to fight or not to fight?"

Lefer, who has the same idea, is now more concerned about the incoming French **** warship.

This question stumped Liu Buchan. Although he had served on British warships before, he had never experienced naval battles, so it made him uncertain.

"What do you think?"

In the end, Liu Buchan handed this question to the person next to him. After spending so long with Leifer, Liu Buchan admired his ability very much, so if he didn't understand or was undecided, just ask him directly, and the other party would always give a reasonable answer. solution.

"Now we have to fight, otherwise the French are too arrogant."

Looking at the French warships approaching, the combined tonnage is not as good as the Zhiyuan under his seat. If you don't fight, it is not an opportunity for the opponent to show off his strength.

"Then let's fight."

Following Liu Buchan's decision, the messenger immediately sent his order to the Jingyuan number behind, and then two patrol ships with a load of more than 7,000 tons immediately greeted him.

As the two sides get closer, the other side can clearly see each other's every move.

"Damn it, these Italians are so shameless, they dare to collude with heretics."

Through the binoculars, Major Barrow, who had a clear view of the crew on the opposing ship, scolded fiercely. However, in his heart, he was worried about the next battle. The enemy was not weak and could deceive the Chinese, but the Italians. The next battle left a shadow in his heart. Although the Italian army is despised, the navy still has a certain strength.

"Tell the ships, cheer up, we are fighting the Italians."

Following Major Barrow's order, words of greeting to the Italians rang out from the ships.

Major Barrow, on the other hand, was staring at the opponent's warship, and the sound of the observer's constant notification came from his ear.

"The distance is 8,000 meters."

"The distance is 6,000 meters."

"The distance is 5,000 meters."

"4800."

"Order the ships to fire."

Following Major Barrow's order, the ships of this small fleet turned towards the two incoming warships, firing angry artillery fire.

Among them, the leading ship Zhiyuan received most of the firepower. In this round of shooting, the Zhiyuan ship even made three explosions on the bow and side of the hull, which attracted cheers from the French warship. It's just that they were happy a little early, and when the smoke cleared, revealing the painted hull, the Venetian-class average 129mm armor withstood the 140mm and 160mm fire of the French warships.

"Prepare to continue shooting immediately."

Seeing that he was not satisfied with the result, Major Barrow continued to give orders. But now the firing speed of naval guns is very impressive, even 140 mm naval guns basically take more than one minute.

While the French ships were being loaded, the two cruisers were still approaching.

"4000 meters."

The French warship continued to fire at another call from the observer, but the result was no different. It is not indistinguishable. A 57mm naval gun on the Zhiyuan was hit, and several sailors on duty fell in a pool of blood.

"3500 meters."

"3000 meters."

After enduring several rounds of artillery fire from the French warships, the second ship Zhijing finally opened fire. Their 254mm main guns and 150mm secondary guns were aimed at their first prey, the cruiser USS Fort Reynolds. This ship was chosen for the simple reason that it looks bigger and has more firepower.

Up to 8 254mm and 16 150mm guns gave the wooden-hulled cruiser a stormy baptism. Such a powerful firepower is simply not something that Fort Reynolds can withstand. The captain, Chambers, and the first officer, Kebazel, were killed on the spot.

At this time, everyone could see that the cruiser Fort Reynolds was dead, and even its surviving officers and soldiers could see that~www.mtlnovel.com~ chose to jump into the sea to escape.

The firepower of the second ship Zhijing shocked the French people present. They never expected the enemy's firepower to be so fierce.

Although they are two 7,000-ton cruisers, they shouldn't scrap an 1,800-ton cruiser in one round.

In fact, what is this? You must know that the 254 mm guns on the second ship Zhijing are as high as 30 times the caliber. The 8 guns alone cost 97,000 pounds. It is not comparable to those 140 and 160 mm naval guns with 18-24 times of ventriloquism on French warships.

And this time, the tactics used by the second ship Zhijing is to rely on its own advantages in all aspects, treat its own warship as an armored ship, and fire against the opponent's forehead. Let these little French warships have a taste of the artillery riding on the face.

Then the second ship Zhijing named the other warships in turn, the gunboat Rutin, the gunboat Viper, and the cruiser Volda. In just over half an hour, 5 of the 7 warships escorted had been sunk or sunk. Fighting out of combat. The remaining two gunboats struggled even more under their obscenity.

Just when the second ship Zhijing was planning to solve the two small gunboats and then chase the transport ship, the observer suddenly realized that the situation was not right. There were a lot of smoke pillars in the north, east and south, and it was obvious that many ships were coming. .

If you can come at this time, then you must have bad intentions.

That's right, General Guba finally led his fleet to complete the encirclement, but by the time he arrived, the warships he had kept as bait had almost been wiped out.

As for the second ship Zhijing, whether it is to escape or use other tactics, it needs to play a game.

There is nothing to say next, prepare for the next battle.

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