Although they were sad in their hearts, Liu Tan and others could not be immersed in grief. Because when the two giant ships were slowly sinking, the lookout post on the Yansui saw the lights of a large number of French ships on the east sea.
.
Alfonso stood in the cabin of the Ocean Flower, his face twisted, and he kept cursing in his mouth.
He witnessed the entire battle not far away. The moment the Holy Cross was hit by the opponent's armored ship and the two ships were entangled and sank, Alfonso's heart was not filled with regret and grief, but filled with anger.
There were only two warships on the opposite side, but they occupied a favorable terrain and used flexible tactics and firepower advantages to sink and damage seven of their own warships, including one of their own flagships.
This result was completely unacceptable to him.
Even the blockade of two enemy warships cannot be broken, and the losses are so huge. How can we still fight this battle? Now the fleet he leads only has more than twenty warships. Among them are four supply ships that are unable to fight.
The three flagships, the Flower of the Sea, the Holy Cross and the Glory, are the main flagships, and the rest are small and medium-sized warships. The combat effectiveness is actually not that powerful. But I never expected that I would be defeated by two enemy warships.
The fight was so embarrassing.
Fortunately, one of the opponent's armored ships sank, and now there is only one enemy ship left. What we need to do now is to resolve the battle quickly, without causing any more heavy losses or wasting any more time.
In fact, the previous attack on the west side was Alfonso's plan. He deliberately used the Holy Cross to lead several warships to storm the west channel. The purpose was to attract the enemy ship in the east channel to come for reinforcements and thus give up the channel.
control.
Because during the battle at dusk, Alfonso saw that the enemy ship to the east was fighting aggressively, and this strategy of luring the enemy was prepared for them. But what Alfonso did not expect was that the opponent was so brave, not only injuring
Two ordinary warships were destroyed, and finally the Holy Cross was sunk.
But in any case, the east channel has been opened, and it is time to rush through the narrow deep water channel.
Alfonso issued an order to lead three warships with the Glory to rush into the west channel to entangle the remaining enemy ship with cunning combat. His own ship, the Flower of the Sea, led several warships to rush through from the east side.
, attack the enemy ship from the flank in a roundabout way. The opponent fights alone, and soon they end up being sunk.
Two ships were exchanged for seven, which was a loss in terms of quantity, but the opponent was the main armored ship and a roadblock, but it took the initiative in the overall situation. Recapture Guri Port, expel the invading enemies in the city, and everything would be under control again.
.
Three French warships headed by the Glory rushed in from the west channel, and the artillery fire roared towards the Yansui. Several warships on the sea ignited fires, and the sea was illuminated red. The shells exploded from time to time.
It made everything around them clearer. This also made the Yansui's attempt to enter the blackout again come to nothing. They had no way to escape and were tightly locked by the enemy ships.
For the Yansui, it is now out of control. The area controlled by an armored warship is only two or three miles, and the deep-water channel is six miles wide. This is why two armored ships are sent to guard this place. The Yansui is
It is absolutely impossible to cope with the opponent's impact from the east and west sides at the same time.
Liu Tan calmed down and quickly judged the situation. He knew that it was impossible to block and repel the Yansui with one ship. Now he had to change his strategy from blocking to harassing, or simply attack the opponent's fleet.
impact.
Harassment operations mean retreating quickly and giving up control of the deep-water channel. Under the current circumstances, it seems to be the wisest choice. However, then, the mission of blocking the Eastern Fleet will fail. The Duke of Guo explained
The mission was in vain.
Liu Tan knew that he could not do that. Although Feng Mazi made a big mistake, at the last moment he washed away his guilt by dying with the enemy. He could not let down the Duke of Guo, nor let the blood of Feng Mazi and other soldiers be lost.
White flow.
Liu Tan made what seemed to be the most unwise choice. He wanted to rush into the enemy's formation, confuse the enemy, and engage in close combat. He wanted to drag the opponent here.
"Send the order, fire all smoke bombs, hide the traces. Rush eastward at full speed into the enemy's formation." Liu Tan gave the order coldly amidst the heavy artillery fire.
"What?" All the generals under his command were stunned.
"Do you need me to repeat it again? Tell all brothers to be prepared to die in battle. But even if we die in battle, we will never take a step back. Let the people of Folangji know the bravery of our Ming soldiers. Let them know
, I, the Ming Dynasty, are invincible." Liu Tan shouted sternly.
Everyone around them straightened their chests and even felt a sense of relief. When people truly know that death is inevitable, people will become open-minded and fearless. Knowing the outcome of today's battle will make them no longer worry about gains and losses.
No more distracting thoughts.
After the order was issued, the Yansui's cannons were loud and five rounds of smoke grenades were fired continuously. After nearly two hundred smoke grenades were fired, a huge smoke screen was immediately formed on the sea, covering most of the middle section of the channel.
.also obscured the figure of Yansui.
This move was the one Zhang Yanling used to attack the Almeida fleet. He used the smoke to break into the enemy's formation.
The smoke slowly spread along the sea surface, which made the Francois feel danger. After losing the position of the Yansui, rushing into the smoke was an extremely unwise approach, because it was very likely that the opponent would use cannon after the smoke.
Point your mouth towards yourself. Rush over and send it to the muzzle of the cannon.
In addition to crazy and aimless shooting and bombing on the other side of the smoke screen, the Franco's warships slowed down. With the current wind speed on the sea, the smoke screen will blow away in a short time. Instead of taking risks, it is better to wait
.
On the flagship of the Flower of the Sea on the east side, Alfonso used a telescope to move and observe among the smoke screen that filled the dim sea surface, trying to see some traces of enemy ships through the wall of smoke screen. However, it was obvious that he could not see anything.
.The smoke slowly drifted in with the wind, as if a shadow was slowly approaching and swallowing him. This made Alfonso feel an inexplicable danger.
The smoke screen has reached the sea surface more than a hundred steps ahead, and is gradually becoming thinner, seeming to be dissipated soon.
At this moment, in the tube of Alfonso's telescope, the smoke not far away experienced strange disturbances. It was like clouds and mist blown by the wind, rapidly rolling and dissipating.
"Could it be that..." A thought flashed through Alfonso's mind. The next moment, he stumbled back as if he had seen a ghost, almost falling to the ground, and the telescope in his hand was also thrown on the floor.
"Damn it! Fight, fight!" Alfonso roared loudly.
The telescope has a magnifying effect. When he looked closely at the cloud of smoke, he saw a huge and terrifying animal head emerging from the smoke, which frightened him with goosebumps all over. That was the huge beast of Yansui. On the bow of the ship, the unknown beast stared at Alfonso with huge eyes, and Alfonso almost lost his mind.
The Yansui was hidden in the smoke, and followed the movement of the smoke and rushed into the enemy ship formation on the east side. Like a huge beast, the Yansui had no intention of slowing down at all, and headed straight forward, rushing into the five ships. The middle position of the Folan warship.
The position he was facing was the flagship of the Ocean Flower. The Yansui was charging fiercely, and seemed to be destined to die together with the Ocean Flower. This caused the Ocean Flower to quickly start to turn its rudder to avoid it.
The Yansui opened fire. The ships rushed straight into the formation, with enemy ships on both sides. The Yansui did not even need to adjust its position, and the cannons on both sides could directly bombard them.
"Boom, boom, boom!"
Flames spurted out from the gun holes on both sides of the Yansui, like a giant beast with two sides spitting fire.
The formation of the Folan robots is already very tight. According to the normal battle formation, the entire channel can only accommodate four or five warships passing together. Now in order to seize the channel, the Ocean Flower and the other four warships pass through the east channel. Although they are arranged in a plum blossom shape, the distance between them is less than a mile.
The space was already cramped, and the Yansui was squeezed in. The distance between the enemy and ourselves was less than three to five hundred steps. Such a distance did not require angle adjustment for artillery shooting. It could be bombarded with direct aim, and avoidance was inevitable. .
After two rounds of bombardment, a large number of fragments exploded from the Amethyst warship on the west side. Two iron bullets penetrated the hull and opened two large holes in the side of the Amethyst. An explosive bomb penetrated in time and exploded in the cabin. The Amethyst was turning and approaching, but suddenly it lay motionless on the water. The flames inside the cabin began to rise.
"Sink it, sink it," Alfonso yelled.
"But... it will cause accidental injury..."
"Damn it, give the order to fire and sink him." Alfonso was furious.
The order was issued, and the warships began to bombard the Yansui. Intensive artillery fire passed over the bow and hull, some bursting into flames on the iron armor, and some hitting the sea on the other side. The distance was too close, The formation was too dense, and it was difficult to avoid accidental damage during this kind of bombardment. The unlucky Amethyst was unable to move and was hit by one exploding bomb and two solid bombs from the Poseidon on the other side, blowing away a dozen panicked soldiers on the deck. Two huge wounds were added to the hull. The Amethyst began to sink slowly with an unwilling explosion.
The Yansui took no less than six or seven artillery shells, but the protection of the iron armor allowed it to still sail. The gunfire in the cabin continued to bombard it, but the bow of the ship rushed towards the huge Flower of the Sea, which was a hundred steps away.
Although Liu Tan didn't know that the ship was Alfonso's ship, he knew that the ship must be the main flagship. Because of its huge size, no other enemy warship could get closer to him than the Yansui and sink it. , or sink him.