As the two sides moved southward in tacit agreement, the three armored ships became farther and farther away from their sail battle line, and finally disappeared from everyone's sight.

During this process, both sides continued to fire artillery bombardments at each other. During the southward advance that lasted for more than half an hour, the Fengyang fired more than thirty artillery shells one after another, while the two Spanish ironclads fired nearly a hundred shells.

A cannonball.

Among so many shells, the one with the most accurate accuracy was fired by the Casti. It was only more than thirty meters away from the Fengyang, so it was considered a near-miss.

The reason why such a result was achieved was of course that the Fengyang had consciously lowered its speed, and the distance between the two sides had now been shortened to less than three thousand meters.

"How far away are we from our team now?"

In the command room, the map staff picked up the compass and measured it: "Report, we are now nearly ten kilometers away from the mouth of the bay."

"Okay, what I am most worried about is the opponent's two iron-clad ships. One is fighting with me, and the other is rushing into the sail battle line to kill everyone. I didn't expect that the opponent was so cooperative, and both ships followed. Now, it's time

Give the other side a good look. Send the order, speed remains unchanged for the time being, right rudder is 30, and the whole ship is heading due west."

"yes!"

Following Li Guozhu's order, the Fengyang's hull sailed from southeast to southwest to heading due west. With the change of the hull's course, the entire Fengyang's six main guns and four secondary guns on the starboard side,

They also aimed at the Casti and Aragon in the northwest direction.

"Okay, it seems that the other party is finally not ready to continue running. I'm really worried that if this continues, Casti's turbine won't be able to hold on."

Although ironclad ships are a new thing, the commanders of both sides have long understood during domestic tests that when faced with sailing battleships, except for fear of too many ships on the other side and desperately rushing towards them to engage in boarding battles, other times they are completely

Invincible. Therefore, in the Duke of Alva's opinion, when one of our ironclad ships' engine may have problems at any time, and our single-ship bombardment is not powerful enough, we should concentrate two ironclad ships and knock out the opponent's ironclad ship first.

This is the safest approach. As for the duel between sailing warships, in his opinion, Spain has been traversing the seven seas for more than a century. With the strength of both sides being about the same, he is convinced that his side can win even without the participation of ironclad ships.

.

When he was thinking about this, he suddenly felt a shaking under his feet: "What's wrong?"

"Your Excellency, it was a near-missile, only more than ten meters away from the stern of our ship."

"Investigating battle damage."

Soon, a voice came from a copper pipe: a near miss, and the flying shrapnel killed three soldiers in the stern secondary battery position and injured two others.

"It seems that the Chinese artillery fire is becoming more and more accurate, and we have to further close the distance. Not good!"

Just when the Duke of Alva was about to try again and increase the speed again, he suddenly felt a black shadow flying from the top of the command room out of the corner of his eye!

"Wan Sheng! Finally there is a cross-shooting!"

"TMD, the six main guns take turns firing. If this were a salvo, it would have been four rounds. Finally, there is straddle fire!"

However, before it was Li Guozhu's turn to continue to be happy, he felt his body shaking involuntarily: "What's wrong? Where was he shot?"

"Commander." Soon a voice came from the copper pipe connected to the damage control team: "The armor belt in the middle of the waterline was hit by a shot, opening a gap of about five or six centimeters, but the rest is fine."

"Okay, speed and course remain unchanged, continue bombardment."

...

"Long live!"

"God bless!"

The Fengyang here had just received a shot, and bursts of cheers suddenly sounded from the two Spanish warships over there: Our side was hit directly without even taking a cross-fire shot. How lucky is this? What is it if it's not God's blessing? No.

Thinking that in the far east, God’s power has not weakened even one bit!

The distance between the two sides at this moment is about 3,500 meters. For sail battleships, this distance is not a combat distance at all. Therefore, although the gunners on the three ironclad ships at this moment have all undergone special training, what exactly are these guys?

I am used to operating muzzleloaders on sailing battleships within a range of 500 meters. The combat distance suddenly increased to several thousand meters. In addition, this was the first actual battle, so the gunners on both sides were extremely uncomfortable.

But no matter whether they are suitable or not, this distance is too close for a breech-loaded cannon that uses smokeless gunpowder as propellant and Dana explosive as shell gunpowder. Therefore, the hit or something, naturally begins to slowly

Appeared.

In this process, the Spanish warships are most likely to hit first: there are many ships, the artillery calibers are reasonable, and they can fire salvos. In this way, the high number will naturally lead to the first hit.

Not long after a shell fired by the Casti hit the Fengyang, the Aragon's main gun also fired across the Fengyang!

"Huh~" In the cold winter, Li Guozhu wiped the hot sweat from his forehead. Looking at the worried staff who were expecting him to order the entire ship to speed up, he gritted his teeth and said, "What are you looking at?"

!At this moment, the enemy is not too far away from my sailing team. We have to continue to think of ways to tie the opponent down, speed up, etc., but don’t do it for the time being... Oops!" After staggering, he yelled in anger.

: "Where was he shot again?"

"Report to the commander, a shot was hit on the stern deck, seven brothers were injured, but the rest are fine."

"Oh~" Li Guozhu breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately shouted at the copper pipe: "Where is Zheng Yiguan! Is Zheng Yiguan dead?"

"Commander, the general is still at the gun position."

"TMD, you are the chief of artillery! Why haven't you hit yet? I'm telling you, if you don't hit, you will put yourself in the cannon and shoot it out!"

"Commander, the barrel of the gun is too small and the general won't be able to fit it in."

Although this guy is nicknamed an officer, his real name is Zheng Zhilong. He had excellent eyesight because he worked as a lookout before, and later showed talent in arithmetic and geometry when he came to the Naval Academy for short-term training. So he was assigned to serve on the Fengyang.

He was a master of artillery. But after all, he was only over seventeen years old this year, so he was inevitably young and energetic. Even in the face of Li Guozhu's roar, he had the courage to say something back.

Of course, as the gunnery commander, he was also annoyed that he could not get a hit after firing so many guns. After fighting Li Guozhu, he simply pulled away from the gunner and entered the gun position himself. He gestured with the crude aiming instrument with his left hand for a while, and with his right hand he

Constantly making fine adjustments to the gun position. After completing so many actions quickly and coordinatedly, he pulled the trigger hard!

"Boom~" A cannonball soared into the sky. After flying in the air for only six or seven seconds, it suddenly fell from the sky and accurately hit one of the chimneys of the Casti!

"Hit!"

"Wan Sheng!"

The power of the shell fired by the 150mm naval gun is much greater than that of the 100mm naval gun. The shell first hit the chimney, then made a diagonal hole along the wall of the chimney, and continued downward with its potential energy, hitting the

The explosion occurred only on the deck at the base of the chimney. Then, the violent explosion directly broke one of the two chimneys on the Casti!

At this moment, the Casti was hit by this shot. The billowing smoke did not go through the chimney cooling and centralized emission. It poured out directly from the engine room below the deck. For a moment, the scene on the Casti looked like

When I stood up, it was quite miserable.

"Sir, we are in trouble!"

"How to say?"

"The engine, the Casti's engine, is on strike again!"

"Damn it! At this time."

...

"Commander, that's not right."

"What's wrong?"

"The opponent's gunboat, this speed..."

"Huh? Hahaha, that's it. Zheng Yiguan can't say that he destroyed the opponent's engine room with one shot!" Li Guozhu slapped the command table hard, and shouted the order: "The whole ship speeds up to twelve knots, and the course changes from the correct direction.
Chapter completed!