The steel behemoths on the sea lined up neatly, and the commanders of both sides gave the order to fire almost at the same time. The observers stood behind the observation mirror, concentrating on the other side's warships.
The hardware comparison between the two sides had not changed much from the previous wars, and the tonnage of the British ships was larger than China's. China had four 14,000-ton battleships and four 880-ton heavy cruisers. Britain had eight battleships of more than 14,000 tons each. In terms of artillery, China's four cruisers had a total of 32 300 cannons, and the British eight cruisers had 32 350mm cannons. In terms of armor, the thickness of China's armor ranged from 160mm to 21mm. The British armor was 356mm to 46mm, and there was a 1o2mm to 2o3mm thick teak support layer inside.
Even in terms of the quality of the gunners, the British had the advantage. After two rounds of firing, a 350mm armor-piercing shell hit the middle armor belt of the China's flagship, the Anqing.
The first to hit the enemy almost made the British Royal Navy cry tears of pride. Perhaps the Chinese Navy pursued the accuracy and firing of artillery too much, the caliber and power of China's naval guns were not as good as the British Royal Navy. The Chinese Navy's advantage was only in their creative targeted damage. The British Royal Navy did not expect the Chinese Navy to focus on the deck gun position.
After suffering from the Chinese Navy, the design and manufacturing of the Sovereign class battleship had reached a very high standard. If the Chinese Navy continued to play those little tricks, the Sovereign class battleship could use the balanced attack and defense capabilities of the battleship to teach the Chinese Navy a good lesson, and let China know what was called a warship with good firepower and defense. Up to now, the script was undoubtedly playing out according to the British design.
The excited British observer screamed: "Hit the enemy!"
The fleet commander who heard this great news waited for further good news. Was it to penetrate the armor of the medium warship? Or even hit the internal ammunition depot of the medium warship and blow the medium warship directly in two from the inside? The commander waited, and the officers in the command room held up their binoculars and tried to observe the results of the battle. After being hit by the British 350mm cannons, it was impossible for the medium warship to be unscathed.
He waited for half a minute, one minute, one and a half minutes. The officer holding the binoculars high in the command room finally spoke. "Oh my God! My God! "
Seeing that nobody reported the result of the battle, an extremely ominous feeling spread in the chest of the fleet commander.
"I'm sure! The British warships are using refined black drugs! "The observers from China's warships shouted into their phones at the same time. After hearing this report, everyone in the fleet command center and the various ship command centers breathed a sigh of relief. Black gunpowder couldn't compare to smokeless gunpowder even if it was opened to the limit. The initial effect of the two cannonballs was completely different. High speed has great kinetic energy and high penetrating power. If the British Fleet used smokeless gunpowder, the Chinese Navy would be in trouble.
Even though his ship had been hit twice, Ding Ruchang's expression remained calm. The British armor-piercing shell fired with black powder failed to penetrate the carburized nickel-chromium alloy armor. The shell bounced off the sturdy armor and fell into the sea. Lieutenant General Ding Ruchang said calmly, "Let the British know what an artillery battle is!"
This kind of non-standard order stunned the communications staff officer. Ding Ruchang's words were not an order, but rather an instigation.
Seeing the expression of the communications staff officer, the political commissar immediately followed up, "Tell everyone this!" Since the commander and the political commissar had said so, the communications staff officer immediately carried out the order. The radios between the ships quickly received the flagship's order. Under such instigation, the already highly excited cannons of the ships exploded with unprecedented enthusiasm.
The Chinese warships took the initiative to approach the British Navy from a distance of 250 meters, and the distance between the two sides was soon reduced to less than 20,000 meters. At this distance, the accuracy of the Chinese Navy's artillery was greatly improved. The first to suffer was the Indian Queen. Two 300 cannons' armor-piercing shells crossed a distance of less than 20,000 meters in four seconds and directly penetrated the Indian Queen's 460mm composite steel armor.
Misfortune did not leave because the Indian Queen was shot. The Chinese warships continued to attack the Indian Queen fiercely like sharks that smelled blood. Within five minutes, four armor-piercing shells from the USS Anqing and USS Hangzhou opened up four big holes on the side of the Indian Queen. When the main cannons of the two Chinese warships began to turn to other British warships that were firing fiercely at the Chinese warships, the 150 cannons on the ship fired fiercely at the Indian Queen. In a short period of time, the ten 150-caliber cannons on the side fired two hundred shells. At least five 150-caliber explosive shells flew into the hull of the Queen of India through the six huge holes. The violent explosion caused the Indian Queen to completely lose its combat effectiveness. At this time, the British damage control personnel showed high skills and impressive determination. While trying to put out the flames in the hull, they closed the watertight door to the gunpowder magazine. The wheel compartment was operating at full speed, allowing the Indian Queen to get out of the Chinese Navy's attack range as quickly as possible.
The Chinese Navy did not aim to completely sink the British warships. The other seven enemy warships were desperately shooting at the Chinese Navy. The armor-piercing shells did not work, so they replaced them with explosive shells. Learning from China's electric fuse was very useful. Once the shells hit the Chinese Navy, they exploded violently. Even if the shells hit the sea, a considerable part of them exploded.
However, this did not turn the British Navy's defeat into victory. The battleship Resolution was the second unlucky one. The two rounds of volleys from the Chinese Navy warships blew up the upper deck of the Resolution. Three armor-piercing shells hit the command room, and in the blink of an eye, the command room was full of flesh and blood. The command room, with the captain as the leader, was basically wiped out. The deputy command room had to take over the command and barely commanded the wheel compartment to start to turn away from the battle line.
The four against eight became four against six. The morale of the Chinese Navy was greatly boosted, and they aimed at the next target, the Royal Oak. The demonic armor-piercing shells quickly opened up several big holes on the upper deck. Not only were the 150 cannon positions on the side destroyed, but the main cannon turret on the front deck was also hit by an armor-piercing shell, and its rotation failed. This time, the Royal Oak had to start to leave the battle line.
"It would be great if all eight warships were battleships!" Vice Admiral Ding Ruchang sighed. The 300 cannons didn't shoot high, but they were powerful enough. The power of the 150 cannons wasn't enough, but the Chinese Navy could also rely on the high firing of the 150 cannons to bring firepower suppression. In the ongoing naval battle, the heavy cruiser's 26 cannons looked similar to the 300 cannons. In fact, armor-piercing shells couldn't penetrate the enemy's armor. The explosive shells didn't have enough range, and the hit rate was very low, so the damage they could cause was very limited. However, in the face of the enemy's 350 cannons, the heavy cruiser's armor was insufficient, and it didn't dare to go head-on with the British battleships. This made Vice Admiral Ding Ruchang, who once had high hopes for the heavy cruiser, very disappointed. The British Fleet on the opposite side was a sea of battleships. This was the real way to go.
The praise and approval of the China Fleet Commander was meaningless to the British Fleet. The British Fleet confirmed that the imaginative Chinese Navy had made a new breakthrough in artillery technology. The Chinese could determine from the first few dozen shells that the British used refined black huo powder. Now that they had been firing for almost an hour, even the British could see that China used a new type of huo powder. This kind of huo powder was much more powerful than the British refined black huo powder.
The British had hit at least 60 to 70 shells on the Chinese warship, but none of them could penetrate the Chinese warship. The British Navy didn't lose their fighting spirit because of the loss of three battleships. The warships were still fighting with all their might. The 350 cannons were firing at a rate of one every two minutes, hoping that the British cannons could create a miracle in the battle.
However, in this material world, to create a miracle, one had to first have a physical foundation. The kinetic energy provided by the refined black huo powder was only so high, and this kind of kinetic energy couldn't allow the shells to penetrate the armor of the China Navy.
Vice Admiral Ding Ruchang's instigation of "let the British know what an artillery battle is" stimulated the Chinese Navy. The fighting spirit of the artillerymen was no less than that of the British Navy. The fourth to suffer was the Sovereign. The Fu Zhou battleship and the Nanning battleship concentrated their fire on the British warship that had already taken two shells. The God of Luck didn't care about the Sovereign this time. After two consecutive rounds of artillery fire, the China's armor piercing shells broke through the armor, and the 300 mm explosive shells followed closely behind.
There was an ammunition channel between the two gun mounts at the stern of the Sovereign, and the British artillerymen were pushing the ammunition carts and running through the channel. The huge explosion of the explosive shells released high temperature flames that instantly ignited the gunpowder on the ammunition carts, and the gunpowder gas flowed along the artillery channel like a hurricane. The high temperature of nearly a thousand degrees caused the British sailors who were caught in it to instantly turn into human shaped pillars of fire, bringing with them the stench of burning humans. The high temperature gunpowder gas rushed into the open door of the gunpowder warehouse, and in the blink of an eye, ignited the refined black huo powder inside. The entire gunpowder warehouse immediately became a huge bomb.
Flames surged out from below the deck, and the gaps between the turrets of the Sovereign spewed out hundreds of meters of huge tongues of flame. Following that, the 145 ton flagship Sovereign broke into three pieces within a minute, and sank into the sea along with the fleet commander and the fleet headquarters.
The British battleship had already become a 4 vs 4 battle, and there were still 4 Chinese heavy cruisers firing at the British battleship from a distance of 300 meters away. The Vengeance quickly raised its flag, and the Vengeance ordered the warships to start retreating, and not bravely fight to the death.
The 3 injured warships had already begun to retreat towards the Red Sea, and the British battleship that had not suffered any major damage was at the rear, and the Royal Navy began to attempt to escape the battlefield.
The Chinese Navy did not give up on the chase, and both sides were sailing at 15 knots. The firing rate of the British battleship had also decreased. Ignoring the results of the battle, the Chinese Navy only had half the number of shells they had at the start of the battle, and if this continued, the British battleship would have the opportunity to turn defeat into victory in an hour.
After chasing for 4 hours, the Remillis suddenly slowed down. The Vengeance, which was responsible for the rear of the fleet, quickly saw the flag displayed by the Remillis. "My ship's boiler has a problem, and I can't keep up with the fleet. Now I've decided to cut off the rear alone, good luck to the fleet! "
After confirming that the flag was seen by the other British battleships, the Remillis struggled to change direction, and with the maximum horsepower that the remaining boiler could provide, it rushed towards the pursuing British battleship. All the cannons that could fire were fiercely fired at the British battleship, and looking at its resolute charging posture, if the Remillis had the opportunity to hit the Chinese battleship, it would not hesitate to rush up and perish together with the Chinese battleship.
The Chinese battleship fleet was also shocked by this brave action. The warships dodged while adjusting their muzzles, and fired fiercely at the Remillis. In the eyes of the flagship Vengeance, the Remillis relied on the armor to resist the siege of China, and at the same time, fought to the end bravely. The commander of the trusted fleet couldn't help but burst into tears. He raised his hand respectfully in the direction of the Remillis. Slow for a moment, all the personnel in the command room saluted the British Navy who sacrificed themselves for the fleet.
Thanks to the heroic sacrifice of the Remillis, six British battleships escaped. Of the six battleships, three were seriously damaged, and three were injured. Along the way, they encountered not only British battleships, but also other fleets that caught up after learning that the British Grand Fleet was dispatched to try to see the naval battle. Seeing the injured British Fleet, the navies of France, Germany, Italy, and even the Osman Empire all had their own ideas in mind.
The news of the British Navy's defeat soon shook Europe. China's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Lv Cheng, waited until the British newspapers had to publish the news, and then went to see the British Foreign Minister again.
"Your Excellency, I think it's time for China to show its sincerity. If Britain is willing to recognize the reality and restore peace with China, we are willing to cooperate with the British Royal Navy." Lv Cheng said in his usual sincere tone.
The British Foreign Minister wanted to retaliate with harsh words, but he managed to restrain himself. It was human nature for the defeated to mock the victor, but this only proved the weakness and helplessness of the United Kingdom. The Foreign Minister chose to fight back as respectfully as possible. "Is China willing to transfer warship technology to the United Kingdom?"
"If we can restore peace between China and the United Kingdom, if we can promote comprehensive cooperation between the two countries, transferring some military technology is not a problem," Lv Cheng said straightforwardly.
The British Foreign Minister stared at Lv Cheng's face, trying to see malice and deception from Lv Cheng's expression. But Lv Cheng looked sincere. He continued, "I have said that our King Vézé believes that Britain is a great country. We, China, hope to coexist peacefully with Britain and work together. At this time, is Britain really willing to exchange the fate of the entire United Kingdom for a victory against China? "
Even if they didn't want to reach peace with China, Britain needed time to repair its warships and build new ships. Knowing the failure of the British Royal Navy, other European countries would definitely be ready to make a move.
On November 11, 1881, China and the United Kingdom announced to the world that China and the United Kingdom had begun formal negotiations to end the war between the two countries.
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