On the bridge of the Sichuan Navy's moral "Jianghu"-class shallow-water gunship flagship "Jiangjiao" ship, He Wenjun was holding a telescope in his hand to observe the Tang Xiangming fleet a few kilometers away.

"Ziqiao is so suffocated by these small boats? Didn't he always boast that no matter what kind of fleet, he can't beat his cannon group?" He Wenjun put down his telescope. "But these ships of Tang Xingming are really small, smaller than those shown by the photos provided by the Military Intelligence Bureau..."

No wonder He Wenjun said this. After all, all of He Wenjun's 15 gunboats are large gunboats with a 800-ton rank, so naturally they look down on the small ships in Tang Xingming's hands.

Hearing He Wenjun said this, the captain of Jiangjiao Ship, He Jishi, also smiled.

"Commander, you might be a bit bullying if you say that."

He Wenjun and He Jishi both have the surname He, and they are considered to be the family. They have always had a good relationship, so there is no need to be too restricted when speaking.

As for He Jishi's saying that He Wenjun bullies people? The 15 shallow-water gunboats purchased by Yan Guang reached 1.3 million yuan. In Tang Xiangming's fleet, even the highest-priced Flying Eagle was less than 1 million silver dollars. Jiang Li and Jiang Yuan, with a displacement of 550 tons, were only worth 300,000 yuan, and there was no comparison between the two.

Just as He Wenjun and He Jishi were pointing at Tang Xingming's fleet and chatting, nine white strips suddenly rushed over from Tang Xingming's fleet.

"It's a torpedo."

Just as He Wenjun and He Jishi made their judgment, the Jiangjiao ship had already sounded a rapid alarm, and the same was true for the other 14 gunboats.

He Wenjun didn't need to give command at all. After seeing the torpedoes passing by, the 15 gunboats had automatically evaded.

Torpedo, since British engineer Robert Whitehead invented the first torpedo with practical significance (range 180--640 meters, speed is only 11 kilometers per hour, which is quite chewy), this new naval combat weapon has been constantly being improved, but it is still the British engineer Robert Whitehead.

In 1895, Robert Whitehead made the first important improvement to the white-headed torpedo. This improvement enhanced the range of the white-headed torpedo, changing its range from 180--640 meters to 640 meters, which is six and a half kilometers...

In addition to Robert Whitehead, there are also others who are improving the torpedo. For example, the thermal torpedo invented by the American E. Brees in 1904, namely the steam gas torpedo. After replacing the cold power (compressed air engine) with thermal power, the speed reached 65 kilometers per hour, but the range was only 2,740 meters...

Of course, the American one has nothing to do with us, because Tang Xingming and the others used British white-headed torpedo...

Although the theoretical range of the white-headed torpedo has reached 6,400 meters after improvements by Robert Whitehead, if it is really launched at this distance, it is difficult to say how far the target is.

Although the waters in which He Wenjun and others are not as wide as those in the Yangtze River estuary, or 7 or 8 kilometers wide as the estuary, they are also more than 1 kilometer wide. In addition, the sailors on Tang Xingming's fleet suddenly saw such a large hostile fleet, and they were somewhat "fertilized" psychologically, so the torpedoes launched naturally lost accuracy. Moreover, Tang Xingming's purpose was only to disrupt He Wenjun's formation.

The 9 torpedoes with no accuracy were somewhat thrilling in the avoidance process, but in the end, He Wenjun and others still successfully avoided the torpedo.

But just like what Tang Xingming hoped, after avoiding the torpedo, He Wenjun and his team completely became messy.

"Dog-ho..."

Looking at the white-headed torpedo passing by more than ten meters next to the Jiangjiao ship, He Wenjun spoke up and looked at He Jishidao on the side.

"Reorganize the formation, and then sank the two scrap copper and iron ships of Jiang Yuan and Jiang Li first."

With his legs together, He Jishi nodded to show his understanding.

A few minutes later, the 15 gunboats that had restructured the formation pointed the four 120-caliber naval guns on the fore deck at the two ships Jiang Yuan and Jiang Li... The Flying Eagle destroyer and Hu Falcon and Hu Ying both speeds were 23 knots, while the maximum speeds of Jiang Yuan and Jiang Li were only 13 knots, so naturally they landed far behind.

Standing inside the bridge, Zhu Tiansen, the captain of Jiangli ship, first looked at the Feiying and other ships who were fleeing towards Wuhan, and then looked at the Jiang Yuan ship who was sympathetic beside him. He understood that his fate was the only thing he could have been sunk besides surrender. Zhu Tiansen ordered the gunner to use the 75mm Armstrong gun at the stern of the ship to shell the Sichuan naval army chased from behind... Although Zhu Tiansen knew the consequences of doing so, as a regular soldier who had studied at the Greenwich Naval School in the UK and Portsmouth Naval University, he did not want to do such a thing as a surrender without fighting, even if the final result would be death...

Hearing Zhu Tiansen's order, although the gunner and loader at the stern of the ship were trembling with fear, he still aimed the gun at Jiang Jiao and other ships who were chasing him. However, before they could fire, a rain of cannons had already hit...

120 caliber naval gun? For the Fearless Class battleship, it may be just a drizzle, well, it may be a needle rain. Although it hurts, it will not hurt the root cause. But for the two gunboats Jiang Yuan and Jiang Li, which have a tonnage of only 550, the 120 caliber shells only need to be hit by a few shots, which is enough to hurt them severely... If you are lucky, you may be able to sink them to the bottom of the river with one shot.

During the Jutland Naval Battle, the average hit rate of German large-caliber shells was 10%...33, which showed the extremely high training quality of the German Navy. Of course, the Sichuan navy could not compare with the Germans, and even the British 2.17% could not reach 2.17%. However, 60 120 caliber guns, based on the probability, even if they were scattered, they could at least capture one shell...

1 120 caliber shell? Of course, it is not painful to the Fearless Class battleship, but it is really a fatal blow to Jiang Li and Jiang Yuan's small body...

Shortly after Zhu Tiansen on the bridge issued an order, he first heard the roar of artillery coming from a distance, and then felt the violent shaking of the ship and the deafening explosion.

"After shooting"

This was Zhu Tiansen's first reaction. After holding on to the table next to him, he didn't fall, and when the swaying of the ship was not so violent, Zhu Tiansen ran outside the bridge to see how the loss was.

But before he could run out of the bridge, an officer on the ship had already run in and shouted.

"Captain, we were shot"

"I know, how is the loss."

With such a big noise just now, even a blind man knew he had been shot.

The officer also knew that he had just said nonsense, so he spoke and continued.

"The situation is not too bad, but it is not very good. I just got a shot at the end of the ship. The gunner, loader and 75 guns were all in the sky, and there is also..." When he said this, the officer hesitated for a moment.

"what else?"

Seeing his appearance, Zhu Tiansen quickly asked.

"And there seems to be one of the propellers broken, and the speed has dropped a lot now..."

This is not good news. The speed of the Jiangli ship is not as fast as that of humans. Now another propeller has broken. The only news that it can be worse than this is probably that the ammunition depot exploded...

After hearing the news, Zhu Tiansen was also stunned.

Looking at Zhu Tiansen's appearance, the officer said anxiously.

"Captain, what should we do now?"

It's a speed of less than 10 knots and is on the Yangtze River. If they don't think of a solution quickly, they will be all living targets.

Just then, there was another roar of artillery fire, and it was obvious that the ammunition for the second round had been filled.

However, the Jiangli ship was lucky this time. Although many of the 60 shells fell beside the Jiangli ship, none of them hit the target... However, the Jiangyuan ship not far away was not so lucky. In the round of artillery bombardment just now, a shell hit the middle of the ship's ship. It is unknown how many casualties the explosion caused. However, the two, and the only two chimneys were all blown up by the shell...

Facing the Jiang Yuan ship that was igniting a raging fire, Zhu Tiansen and the officer both had a strong sense of indifference...

But at this point, the officer calmed down for some reason.

"Captain, let's surrender."

Either surrender or die. Now there are only two ways to go before them.

After a brief but careful choice, Zhu Tiansen held one hand on the officer's shoulder.

"This battle will definitely not be won, there is no need for you to die with you..."

"captain"

After hearing what Zhu Tiansen said, the officer said in shock. Although Zhu Tiansen did not say it clearly, the meaning in his words was very obvious...

"Okay, go quickly"

After gritting his teeth, the officer turned around and went behind. Soon, a white flag was hung on the Jiangli ship.

After seeing the Jiangli ship hanging on the white flag, the Jiangyuan ship also hung on the white flag. Looking at the two gunboats that chose to surrender, He Wenjun wanted them to sink to the bottom of the river to feed the Dragon King, but he had no choice but to order the attack to stop. After leaving two gunboats to accept the surrender of Jiangli and Jiangyuan, He Wenjun took the remaining 13 gunboats to continue chasing Tang Xiangming.

At this time, looking at the gunboat that was gradually approaching, Zhu Tiansen slowly raised his pistol.

As a man born in 1881, Zhu Tiansen is only in his early 30s and is young... definitely not, but he is still a little more energetic. Although he had to choose to surrender for his subordinates,...

It doesn't take it but it goes down. Before Zhu Tiansen's pistol was lifted much, the officer just now had already joined forces with several other officers on his ship (85 people in the entire ship) to snatch Zhu Tiansen's pistol and press him tightly on the railing.

"What are you doing? Let me go quickly"

However, in the face of Zhu Tiansen's roar and struggle, the officer just said with great sincerity.

"Captain, now it's not an invasion of foreign races. It's just that we Chinese are fighting against the Chinese. Why do you have to seek death?" As he said that, the officer swept the pistol out of the railing with his feet.

With a "pop", the pistol slowly sank into the bottom of the river...

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Chapter completed!