At the mouth of the Yangtze River, clouds are shrouded in the sea breeze blowing from the southeast, rolling waves of waves towards the shore.

The East China Sea Fleet dispatched all the main fleets, including ten shallow water heavy turret ironclad ships and twenty-two sail battleships, ready to fight at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

"The enemy fleet is eight nautical miles away!"

On the tower of the high mainmast tower of the battleship Songjiang battleship, a sailor lowered his telescope and made a loud announcement to the bottom.

On the deck, there were dozens of senior generals. Among all the black uniforms, a young man in white uniform was the most conspicuous. He was the Grand Marshal of the Nanyang Army and the King of Wu Li Weiguo.

Li Weiguo personally supervised the battle, which greatly boosted the morale of the East China Sea Fleet. In addition, he won the victory of the Sichuan-Sand Naval Battle a few days ago. The good start of the first naval battle made all the officers and soldiers of the East China Sea Fleet more confident in defeating the world's most powerful British Royal Navy.

"The enemy ship is seven nautical miles away!"

Upon hearing the notice, Lin Jiyun persuaded Li Weiguo again: "Prince, you are a body of gold. Please go back to the shore to supervise the war. This place is too dangerous!"

Li Weiguo waved his hand and said, "No need, I am here, I want to watch my naval soldiers defeat the powerful enemy!"

What a joke? Since we are here to supervise the battle, we have to show off. Since all the officers and soldiers of the East China Sea Fleet know that he is supervising the battle on the Songjiang battleship, if we go down at this time, the officers and soldiers will think that their leaders are afraid of death, and then the 2% morale that has finally been stimulated will be gone in an instant.

Since he has come, Li Weiguo has no plans to go down.

Lin Jiyun's persuasion was ineffective, so he could only bite the bullet and said, "Since the prince has made up his mind, the minister will dare to ask the prince to grant the minister full power to command in the next battle."

The generals and officers of the General Staff who accompanied Li Weiguo suddenly turned dark, and even the naval officers under Lin Jiyun burst into tears in an instant.

Damn it's because Li Weiguo is afraid that he will interfere in command!

Speaking to the supreme leader like this is a rhythm of seeking death!

"You are arrogant! The prince personally supervises the battle. Are you afraid that the prince will interfere with your command?"

Before the generals on the General Staff got angry, as the third in command of the East China Sea Fleet, Rear Admiral Chen Baocheng was the first to reprimand.

Lin Jiyun was also startled and hurriedly apologized to Li Weiguo: "I don't dare! Just"

"It's okay!" Li Weiguo smiled slightly. He was not angry. Although he was the supreme leader, he still trusted his generals. There are great hidden dangers in commanding higher-level commands. It is the distrust of his generals, which can easily lead to huge mistakes. Don't you see that Chiang Kai-shek often commands higher-level commands. He is obviously just a two-knife, but he has to show off his commands higher-level commands. As a result, Chiang Kai-shek's subordinates all had vests and were defeated in the battle.

Of course, Li Weiguo had self-knowledge. He could point out the direction for the development of the navy and provide inspiration for the research and development of warship equipment, but he did not have the experience of commanding naval operations. Random command on the battlefield would kill people, and exhausting the three armies would not happen to Li Weiguo.

"Prince, Lin Jiyun is too presumptuous. Since the prince personally supervises the battle, it is naturally the prince who commands the battle!"

Chen Baocheng and Lin Jiyun are in a competitive relationship on weekdays, because the Fleet Chief of Staff Li Jun was unwilling to compete for the position of commander of the fleet. But Chen Baocheng wanted that position. Now seeing Lin Jiyun dared to offend Li Weiguo, he thought that Lin Jiyun would definitely be done this time, so he took the blame.

In the past, Li Weiguo would not have given him a good face, because he did not like his subordinates to intrigue, which would affect the combat effectiveness of the army.

However, as Li Weiguo's power becomes larger and larger, his subordinates' ambitions become larger and larger. Fighting for official positions and interests is a human nature. Who doesn't want to be a high-ranking official, and who doesn't want to get more benefits?

Of course, there is a kind of person who is called "no enterprising spirit". He is satisfied as long as he is given a job and has something to eat. But that is only a very small number, and most people are improving every day.

Now for Li Weiguo, as his status and power continue to improve, his emperor's mind is becoming more and more mature. The way to control is balance. The more his family is bigger and his career is bigger. The more worried that his subordinates will be more powerful and their ambitions will be reversed. Therefore, Li Weiguo is no longer disgusted with Chen Baocheng's behavior of taking the opportunity to attack Lin Jiyun, but instead supports Chen Baocheng and Lin Jiyun in confrontation. This is called the technique of balance. Lin Jiyun cannot be the only one in the navy.

However, Li Weiguo has a bottom line. He can tolerate Chen Baocheng and Lin Jiyun fighting for power and profit, but in the face of major issues, Li Weiguo still adheres to principles. Now that the enemy is in front of him, Lin Jiyun has a reason to ask for full command. After all, the battle changes rapidly. If Li Weiguo suddenly interferes, it may lead to a huge danger of command chaos and defeat.

After figuring out this section, Li Weiguo said again: "It's okay, I'm just here to supervise the battle to improve the morale of the fleet. Commander Lin is the commander of the navy fleet, so he naturally has full command power. I promise that he will not interfere with your command."

Chen Baozheng saw Li Weiguo say this and no longer talked more. The other generals breathed a sigh of relief and secretly scolded Lin Jiyun for being too straightforward. Speaking to the leader like this was a rhythm of seeking death.

Lin Jiyun disagreed and immediately saluted: "Thank you for your trust, and your subordinates will live up to the prince's expectations and win this battle!"

Li Weiguo nodded and smiled and said, "Okay, I have you, Lin Jiyun, why worry about not being able to wipe out the five continents and the four oceans? I am here to cheer for you."

Lin Jiyun thanked again, and a crisis passed easily.

At this time, the warning came again.

"It's a distance of four miles!"

Li Weiguo and others immediately looked up. At this time, without using a telescope, they could see black smoke columns appearing on the sea in the east of the horizon. Dozens of British warships came through the waves, full of murderous intent.

The air suddenly became nervous.

"Prepare for war!"

Lin Jiyun gave the order and the flag verbs were typing out, and the officers and soldiers of the entire East China Sea Fleet quickly moved and took their place.

Ten shallow water heavy artillery ironclad ships were placed in the front, acting as flesh shields, and twenty-two sail battleships were placed in the back, acting as firepower output.

The entire East China Sea Fleet is a defensive situation and a ladder firepower configuration.

In the distance, on the battleship of the Royal Navy's Asian Fleet flagship, the British Commander Klaus, also saw the East China Sea Fleet in front of him through the telescope.

"It's just twenty-two wooden sail battleships, and you dare to compete with our commander's ironclad ship and destroy you in minutes!"

During this period, the concept of ironclad ships was very vague and the definitions of different countries were different.

In the Royal Navy, the ironclad ship refers to a battleship with wooden keels wrapped in thick iron armor. The French Navy called the armored battleship. It was not until ten years later that France built the first battleship with full ironclad construction abolished sail locks that it was uniformly called the ironclad ship.

Now, under the vigorous construction of Li Weiguo, the East China Sea Fleet has taken the lead in building a battleship with the abolished sail locks of all iron armors ten years ahead of schedule. Therefore, the ten Weiyuan-class warships were defined as iron armor ships by Li Weiguo.

It can be said that the Weiyuan-class ironclad ship is the real ironclad ship, although its function is only shallow water gunboats, used for offshore defense, and the so-called ironclad ships in Britain are not worthy of their reputation.

"Hiss Commander, please take a closer look at the five hundred meters ahead of the enemy fleet, where is their new ironclad ship!"

The person who spoke was Marin. Although he was punished and imprisoned, Klaus had to release him again if he wanted to understand the reasons for the failure of the Sichuan-Sand Sea Battle a few days ago.

Klaus then observed the past and found the new enemy warship mentioned by Marin in the waves.

"What kind of warship is this?"

It was the first time that Klaus had seen such a rotating turret warship, and was very curious.

Marin hated this kind of gunboat and explained: "The freeboard of this kind of warship is no more than one meter, and the entire hull is almost under the sea, with only the turrets and chimneys exposed. Our navy's naval guns are direct cannons. The shells are difficult to hit the opponent. Even if they hit, the opponent has a thick armor protection. In the recent battle, our 64-pound gun failed to penetrate its armor. It was initially judged that its armor thickness was at least 1 mm. The opponent's turret can rotate and the armor is also strong, so our shells cannot penetrate it. Each of the opponent's turrets lacked two 35mm main guns with huge diameters, with a range of more than 3 nautical miles. It is very powerful. Our 4-ton warship was sunk by the opponent's shells."

Klaus didn't feel anything when he heard Marin's return a few days ago. At this moment, he suddenly felt palpitations and fear when he saw the huge black muzzle.

This is a 35mm cannon. Even the Royal Navy only has the main gun of the most powerful warship, the Warrior battleship, to compete.

Fortunately, the opponent only has ten iron armored ships, each with only two to three turrets and four to six 35mm cannons. Although Klaus's fleet did not have such a large caliber cannon, it was because of the large number of warships and the large number of artillery guns.

In Klaus's view, he still has an overwhelming advantage.

Of course, you have to finish this before you can know the result.

At this moment, a fire suddenly flashed from an iron armored ship in the East China Sea Fleet, and several meters of gunpowder sprayed out of gunpowder.

Immediately afterwards, a loud bang came, like a bolt from the blue.

A 35mm shell exploded more than 100 meters away from the left of the Nelson ship, stirring up a huge column of water, splashing waves, and making a huge noise.

This power is so powerful that it is against the will of heaven!

Klaus was also stunned in an instant. Although he had seen the huge firepower of the 11-pound naval gun (caliber about 3 mm) of the Warrior Iron Craft, it was much worse than the power of the 35-mm shell of the enemy Iron Craft in front of him.

This is unscientific!

They are also more than fifty kilograms of shells. Even if the charge is a few kilograms, the power of the explosion will not be so big!

No, this is not a hey medicinal medicine.

Even if the medicine explodes in the sea, it will be black in the huge waves, and there is almost no black in the huge waves that explode in front of you, but grayish-white.

Klaus keenly discovered this, but he didn't have time to think about it.

"Can the opponent's 35mm cannon hit 4 nautical miles?"

"This should be the enemy ships are competing with artillery!"

"Yes, it's the artillery that is firing, they're going to fire!"

Klaus's eyes tightened and he immediately ordered: "All fleets are ready for combat! Pay attention to avoiding enemy ship firepower!"

Sure enough, as soon as Klaus and Marin finished speaking, ten shallow water heavy artillery ships of the East China Sea Fleet opened fire one after another, and a 35-mm shell weighing more than fifty kilograms roared.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang b

The shells exploded on the sea near the British Asian fleet ships, and huge columns of water soared into the sky, and the sea water boiled instantly.

This time, the East China Sea Fleet changed its tactics and no longer waited for the British fleet to enter within 1 nautical mile before firing, but instead carried out long-distance artillery bombardment.

A few days ago, when facing Marin's squadron, Lin Jiyun used to pull it closer and then fight. After all, the British Navy did not know the power of shallow water heavy artillery boats. But today, it is obvious that the British Navy has learned a lesson. Facing dozens of British Navy's main warships, it is not worth it to put it in and fight. It should give full play to the long-range killing advantage of the 35mm main gun.

Faced with the huge power of the 35mm cannon, the British troops on each ship were a little scared. The more time-honored the British troops, the more they knew how powerful the shells that could cause huge waves of eighty or ninety meters were. Once they hit the warship, it would be a devastating damage, which could instantly tear the flesh and blood.

"distance!"

"3 nautical miles. Sir!"

Klaus rolled his eyes, why is this so far? According to the British combat code, the fleet needs to approach an enemy ship one kilometer before the naval gun can be opened. Although this is not a mandatory regulation, it is the most suitable distance for British artillery to exert its power and can hit the enemy's maximum firepower.

But now, it is still four kilometers away. Although the maximum caliber 64-pound cannon can barely enter the range, it is useless.

"accelerate!"

Klaus was helpless and could only order the fleet to accelerate its attack.

I saw black smoke coming out of the chimneys of British ships. At this time, the steam engine could only provide faster speeds.

Dongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdongdong...

The second round of gunfire sounded again, and the East China Sea Fleet still had only ten shallow water heavy gunboats fired again. The twenty-two sail battleships behind also did not fire for the time being because of their small gun caliber and insufficient range.

The main gun at the stern of the Zhiyuan ship opened fire, and a 35-mm shell was shot at the British ship Immortal, exploding near its starboard side, almost hitting the Immortal.

Although it was just a close-arrow bomb, it also caused huge damage to the Immortal. It caused the Immortal to be broken by an explosion below the starboard waterline, and the sea water poured backwards along the cracks.
To be continued...