When the distance between the two sides narrowed to 6,500 meters, the first-class battleship of the southbound fleet opened fire.
The eighteen 125mm main guns all pointed at the Helan Fleet and then fired a salvo.
After the shells easily crossed a distance of more than 6,000 meters, three shells immediately hit the two Helan IV-class battleships at the front.
As mentioned before, the Helan people’s classification of battleships is different from that of the Star Sea Kingdom.
The Helans' fourth-level battleships are all large ships with a tonnage of 1000-1200, equipped with 50-60 guns and a double-layered gun deck.
Of course, compared to the third-level, second-level, and first-level battleships, the caliber of the guns of the fourth-level battleships is definitely much smaller. Basically, they are between 12 pounds and 18 pounds, and a few of them are 24 pounds.
But even such a warship can be regarded as a big ship when placed in the waters close to the Ming Dynasty.
After all, converted into materials, it is more than 2,400 materials.
In the waters near the Ming Dynasty, Qianliu was considered a big ship.
There is no way, the treasure ship blueprints have been burned long ago.
But for such a large ship, after the deck was directly pierced by a cannonball, the cannonball exploded directly on the gun deck and ignited the gunpowder barrels piled on the deck.
Two loud noises were heard in unison, and the two fourth-level battleships suddenly lifted upwards and broke into two pieces in an instant. They smashed into the sea. Countless wood fragments flew and sank quickly, sinking to the bottom of the sea in a short time.
To be honest, at this time, after Lieutenant General Wilster discovered the appearance of the enemy fleet by the lookout, he ordered the entire attack, preparing to directly crush the opponent with the greater number of Helan fleets.
What he never expected was that the enemy's artillery was so sharp. From such a long distance, the first round of firing sank two of his own warships.
Although this did not do much harm to the strength of the Helan fleet, it also made Lieutenant General Wilster alert. He immediately ordered all warships to continue to accelerate and get as close to the enemy as possible.
This is also Wilster's helplessness.
In this era, although naval guns have developed to a shell weight of 48 pounds, the accuracy of naval guns is still disappointing.
Hence, whether it was the former strongest navy of the Franji or the strongest navy of the Helan people, they all liked to pull the enemy within a hundred meters, first with a burst of artillery fire, and then engage in a boarding battle!
Of course, the Franji Navy prefers to engage in boarding battles, so many of the sailors on their ships are swordsmen, while the Helan people have more elite gunners on their ships.
Let’s put it this way, in the past, the Helan people used the sharp repair of naval guns to educate their enemies, but this time, they were educated by others.
Before Lieutenant General Wilster could recover from the explosions of the two fourth-tier battleships, three explosions sounded in succession.
A Helan second-class battleship was hit on the bow, and the shell exploded, blowing the exquisite unicorn bow statue directly into the sky.
The other two third-level battleships were hit on the main mast and deck respectively. One had its mast broken, its canvas fell down, and it lost power. The other ship's deck was spattered with blood and flesh, which looked extremely disgusting.
“Signal signal! Everyone continues to speed up and prepare for artillery battle!”
At this time, Vice Admiral Wilster could only encourage the warships under the fleet.
It is impossible for him to drag these battleships to the enemy.
The distance between the two sides continued to get closer. When the distance narrowed to less than 4,000 meters, ten warships in the Helan fleet had been sunk, and nine warships were damaged or incapacitated.
It can be said that this was the first time for Lieutenant General Wilster to encounter such a blow. The enemy killed ten of his warships without even firing a single shot!
But at this moment, as they entered the range of the 88 naval gun, the bombardment suddenly turned from a gentle breeze to a violent storm in an instant.
All 24 Star Sea battleships pointed their muzzles at the Helan fleet. Countless flames flashed at the muzzles and sent shells one after another to the bow of the Helan battleship.
Dozens of water jets splashed up on the sea surface, but more of them were fires from the Helan battleship, which was frequently hit by shells.
But having said that, the Helan fleet was beaten violently, but because the power of the 88 naval gun shells was relatively small, and most of the Helan warships were made of high-quality teak, as long as they were not hit on the mast or
If the gunpowder barrel triggers the explosion, the combat effectiveness of the Helan battleship will not be greatly damaged.
Of course, even so, every time a cannonball explodes on the Helan battleship, it will more or less take away the lives of the Helan sailors.
As the distance continues to get closer, the hit rate of the Star Sea Battleship is also increasing rapidly.
When the distance between the two sides was reduced to about a thousand meters, the hit rate of the Star Sea Battleship increased to over 60%!
Almost every two guns will hit the Helan battleship.
Such a hit rate caused the losses of the Helan battleship to suddenly increase.
At this time, the flagship of the Star Sea Fleet issued an order to continue turning, from a 70-degree angle to the enemy fleet to a 110-degree angle.
In other words, the current Star Sea Fleet is equivalent to turning away from the Helan Fleet with the Helan Fleet as the axis.
At this time, Lieutenant General Wilster was almost going crazy.
In just twenty minutes of naval battle, the Helan fleet lost 31 warships, and 17 more ships completely lost their combat effectiveness.
The exploding shells of the enemy fleet brought huge trouble to the Helan fleet. Every time they were hit, a large number of Helan boys would fall, which made Lieutenant General Wilster's heart bleed all the time.
“Pursuit! They want to escape!”
He keenly discovered that if the enemy wanted to turn away, it must be because the enemy's artillery shells were not enough! Catch them hard!
It has to be said that the Helan fleet is indeed the most powerful navy in this era. Even though it was beaten so badly unilaterally, the boys on the Helan battleship are still so energetic. They believe that as long as they catch up with the enemy and get close,
them, then the enemy will be finished!
Well, in the next thirty minutes, no matter how the Star Sea Fleet turned, the Helan Fleet stayed behind them, enduring the constant baptism of shells!
By the time the Star Sea Fleet drew two big S-curves on the sea, the Helan Fleet's battle losses had reached 112 battleships.
Even Lieutenant General Wilster's flagship, the Blue Tulip, was hit by a shell, causing a auxiliary mast to fall and 12 sailors were killed.
By this time, Lieutenant General Wilster finally understood.
The enemy has been leading them by the nose.
To put it simply, the enemy took advantage of the long range, high accuracy and fast speed of its artillery to keep the Helan Fleet hanging and constantly attacking with artillery from long distances, leaving the Helan Fleet with no chance to fight back.