Just like a bulldozer rolling over the broken copper and iron on the ground, the huge hull of the Star directly rode onto the deck of the Warrior. The huge impact and weight caused the Warrior to break in its middle.
Amidst the tooth-grinding sounds of friction and roar, smoke and dust flew into the air, the mast tipped over, the bow and stern of the ship tilted up, and seawater quickly poured into the cabin.
The Loyalty on the side was affected by the waves, and the tilted stern of the Warrior was swung sideways and swept hard to the bow. The hull shook violently, and the sound of cracking was heard from the hull. The officers and soldiers of the Franchise on the Loyalty were all shocked.
The Star rode the wreckage of the Warrior and collided with it, and the commander issued the order with all his strength.
"Full rudder, full rudder, evacuate, evacuate."
The Loyalty turned its bow and quickly dodged to the side. Finally, the ship was small and easy to control. In addition, the Star was slow after experiencing the impact. The heavy blow from the damaged stern of the Warrior sent the Loyalty away. The Loyalty escort ship
Kankan turned the bow of the ship, and the huge body of the Star slipped from one side. The ship's sides were almost touching the ship's side, and the sound of the ship's sides rubbing against each other was sharp and harsh.
The Loyalty lived up to its name. It fled quickly without looking back. The commander's face turned pale and he gasped for breath. Fortunately, he escaped.
Although they were well prepared, the huge impact force still caused the soldiers on board the Star to stagger and fall. Zhang Yanling supported the command podium with both hands, but the impact force still made him almost fall from the front window of the command podium.
If it weren't for the guards around him hugging him, he would probably have been beaten to death and his head would be bleeding.
The hull of the Star made a terrible rattling sound, and the impact obviously caused damage to the Star.
Zhang Yanling stood up in disgrace, glanced left and right, and saw the huge broken wreckage of the enemy ship sinking into the sea. The sea was full of struggling French soldiers, floating corpses, and shipwrecks.
"Check whether the bow of the ship is damaged." Zhang Yanling shouted loudly.
"Reporting to the Protector, the bow of the ship was broken and seawater poured in." Bad news soon came.
"Close the watertight cabin on the bow." Zhang Yanling shouted.
Watertight compartments are emergency evacuation structures that are commonly found on ships. Once a part of the cabin is damaged, the watertight compartment can be closed to seal in the sea water, keeping other intact compartments from being filled with sea water. This allows the large ship to continue to float on the water.
, will not sink.
The Star was designed according to the structure of the Ming Dynasty treasure ship, and the watertight compartment was naturally a necessary structure. The soldiers quickly closed the bow watertight compartment and drained out the incoming seawater. But this was only an emergency measure, and the seawater poured into the front was still pouring in.
, the damaged front cabin was quickly filled with seawater. The ship's center of gravity tilted forward, and the bow slowly sank from a high state, like a man who was holding his head up and lowering his head.
"My lord, the ship has been seriously damaged. Can you please withdraw from the battle and order the Datong to come to rescue you?" Chen Shiyi rushed in and shouted.
Zhang Yanling turned around and glanced at the battlefield behind him, where artillery fire and flames were soaring into the sky. Several ironclad ships were shuttled and engaged among a large number of enemy ships. At this time, each ironclad ship was under tremendous pressure, withstanding attacks several times his own.
The battle between enemy ships is difficult. At this time, it is absolutely impossible for the Star to withdraw from the battle.
"Send the order, the Xingchen attack, the target is the enemy's flagship ahead." Zhang Yanling shouted in a deep voice.
Chen Shiyi hesitated for a moment, and Zhang Yanling shouted loudly: "What are you doing standing there in a daze? Why don't you send the order quickly?"
Chen Shiyi proposed to withdraw from the battle for the sake of the safety of the Duke. His goal was to protect Zhang Yanling's safety. This was why before departure, the Zhang family's wives and concubines specially invited Chen Shiyi to come to the mansion for a banquet. Xu Wanyi
Tan Ruqing and others asked them in person.
Of course, in this situation, Chen Shiyi had nothing to do. The Duke of Guo was already red-eyed. Life and death were no longer a matter for him to consider.
The Star left the wreckage of the Warrior and rushed toward the Flower of the Sea flagship, which was hundreds of steps away. It lowered its head, like a gambler with red eyes, lowered head and gritted teeth, rushing towards it, menacingly.
, extremely vicious.
On the flagship of the Ocean Flower, Almeida was stunned to witness the Warrior being smashed into pieces, and he took a deep breath. He did not expect that the opponent's warship was so fierce and powerful.
Seeing the opponent rushing over desperately, Almeida was faced with a dilemma. Either fight to the death with the opponent, or evade immediately. It was still too late at this moment.
Almeida was having a fierce battle in his heart. If he fought with the opponent to death, he might die together and be buried here. He might defeat his opponent and win the naval battle. But today's battle was almost out of his control from the beginning.
The opponent's desperate fighting style and close combat style made him very uncomfortable. He was even caught off guard.
If the battle continues like this, he may not be able to win, because after being approached by the opponent, the initiative lies in the opponent's hands. Their armored ships are running rampant, and it is really difficult to contain them.
Although we have suffered a lot of losses, our combat power is still there. There are still more than 20 warships, and with the arrival of more than a dozen warships transferred from the South Asian seaport Guri, we can still organize a huge force.
fleet. In the next battle, the lessons learned from today's battle will be learned and the opponent will not be allowed to break into the fleet. There are many ways to prevent enemy ships from approaching, but there is no way to implement them in today's battle.
The opponent's ships are small in number and will inevitably be damaged after this battle. Our own ships can return to port for repairs, but they cannot. No matter from any aspect, there is no need to fight against the opponent.
Almeida has been in business for decades and has long been familiar with the way of advance and retreat. He understands that giving in is not a failure, but a better way to defeat the opponent. Today, the enemy has strong momentum and high morale. It is a good thing to avoid its edge. Is it really necessary to act out of emotion?
, can't you fight with the other party here?
Almeida quickly made the right choice.
"Turn the helm, raise the sails, and retreat at full speed. Give the order to the other warships to withdraw from the battlefield. The three ships, the Emerald, the Evergreen, and the Blackbird, are behind. Cover each ship's withdrawal from the battle." Almeida shouted in a deep voice.
.
Hearing this, the generals around him breathed a sigh of relief and immediately conveyed the order.
The flagship of the Flower of the Sea turned its bow and fired its side guns, bombarding the opponent while quickly turning around.
The moment the ship's bow turned, Almeida raised his telescope and looked through the long window in front of the command podium at the Etoile's command podium. He saw him standing there in full armor, looking at himself with his telescope.
The young Duke of the Ming Dynasty.
The Duke of Ming Dynasty obviously saw him too and actually grinned.
Almeida felt the other party's humiliation, put down her telescope, straightened her clothes, and stood up with her head held high. She never looked at the other party again.
"Damn it, he actually ran away, Folangji people don't have the guts to chase!" There was a joy on the Star, and the soldiers were cursing and taunting.
However, Zhang Yanling gave the order to stop chasing and turn to the north cliff. It was not that he did not want to chase, but that he could not catch up at all. The Xingchen had been damaged, the bow of the ship was flooded, and the speed could not be increased at all. He wanted to catch up with the opponent.
It is absolutely impossible to leave an intact warship. If the other party is willing to fight, that is no problem. If the other party wants to leave, they can only watch helplessly.
Moreover, a large number of enemy ships are retreating in the rear. If we don't give way immediately, they will be in danger of being sunk by their concentrated fire. As the saying goes, don't chase the enemy and don't fight the trapped beast. At this moment, the best strategy is to give way.
Of course, a more important reason is that Zhang Yanling did not see the possibility of destroying his opponent at this stop.
The Eastern Fleet of the Franco Kingdom is indeed powerful, but he was too confident before. Even when he had the upper hand, he was not sure of defeating his opponent. To have such a situation today, he has already taken a big advantage.
The opponent was caught off guard today. If it were a normal battle, we would have been defeated. We don't know the damage to our warships at the moment, and the Star was also seriously damaged. Since the opponent took the initiative to retreat, it is best to give up here.
To put it bluntly, Zhang Yanling felt a little guilty.
Coming from thousands of miles away, I once thought that I would sweep my opponents with ten armored warships. But now it seems that I am too confident. If I want to drive the Folang robots out of Manlajia and annihilate their opponents, I need to at least double the number.
With the above strength, I believe too much in the strength of my own warships.
In fact, neither the warships nor the firepower have reached the level of dimensionality reduction. The gap between the two sides is actually not as big as I thought.
The flag signal was passed, and the armored warships quickly broke away from the battle and gathered on the cliff on the north side. Although the two sides broke away from the battle, their naval guns fired at each other from a distance for several rounds, which was very heated. But this was nothing like the fierce battle before.
Comparability.
Although the battle lasted only a short time, it was only in the afternoon. However, this battle could be described as a true sea artillery battle. Both sides fired thousands of various types of artillery shells. At one point, the shells flew across the sea and there were explosions.
Like New Year's firecrackers.
Of course, the great significance of this battle was ultimately ruined by Zhang Yanling's tactics. Originally, this was a classic ship-to-sea artillery battle, but Zhang Yanling's breakthrough tactics turned it into a boarding battle and a brutal collision battle.
Of course, this is also a commonly used strategy in naval battles, but it is much less exciting. But it is even more brutal and bloody.
The Eastern Fleet lost a total of seven ships. These seven ships were all sunk. Another five ships were seriously injured and were evacuated under the protection of other ships. Of course, the other ships were all damaged, but to varying degrees.
Not one of the Ming Dynasty's Invincible Fleet sank, but every armored ship suffered heavy damage. Some of the bows were broken, some of the hulls were broken, and some burst into flames. The Yansui was once attacked by the enemy and something happened.
There was a short hand-to-hand battle. Fortunately, the Ningxia came to the rescue and used Jingua Lei to bombard the enemy navy, and the Yansui was saved.
In addition, the side armor of the Datong was shattered and the hull was seriously damaged. If it did not break away from the battle in time and rush to the shoal under the cliff on the north side to dock, there was a risk of sinking.
The Xingchen's bow was shattered, and it actually couldn't hold on for long. The watertight cabin could only avoid sinking. If we continued to fight and hit others, there would actually be a risk of sinking the ship. Zhang Yanling ordered a fierce charge, which was actually the top priority at that time.
, with a command of bravery.
On the battlefield, there is no possibility of retreat. But it is not a rational decision.
In terms of casualties, more than 100 people were killed and more than 300 were injured in the Armada. The Francois suffered even more casualties. There were thousands of soldiers who fell into the water in the shipwreck alone, and there were also injured on other ships.
I'm afraid there are more than a thousand people.
In short, no matter what, the Ming Dynasty Armada won this battle. Although the price paid for this victory was not small, seven warships were able to achieve such results against the opponent's more than 30 warships, forcing the opponent to flee in despair.
, this is already a very remarkable thing.
You know, that is the Eastern Fleet of the Franco Kingdom that sweeps across the ocean. Its commander is Almeida, who has experienced hundreds of battles and has never been defeated. He is a figure whose reputation shocks the world.
On the Ming Dynasty, almost everyone was novice as far as naval warfare was concerned.