Seawater sprayed into the bottom cabin along the torn steel plates. In the corridor of the bottom cabin, people and rats ran wildly at the same time. As long as they saw the ladder, they climbed up regardless of where it led. In the boiler room, the sailors were swept by the turbulent waves.

The incoming sea water rushed here and there.

"Seal the cabin! Seal the cabin!" The only voice of reason was drowned by the noise.

There was even more chaos on the upper deck, with everyone hurriedly crowding to the edge of the lifeboat. In order to board the lifeboat, the Japanese soldiers used a series of weapons ranging from fists, teeth, forks to samurai swords and even revolvers.

There are also some people who know that they can't get a seat on the lifeboat, so they just hold a lifebuoy and jump into the sea. Those who don't have a lifebuoy, just tear down a piece of wood and rush into the sea without caring whether it can support themselves.

The Japanese soldiers on the warship were in chaos. They had only been on the ship for more than a month. They were far from familiar with steam-engine warships, and now they had encountered major changes and were even more confused. As for the roaring orders of Maori Hanbei, no one listened at all.

The Japanese people have strict military discipline, and the outer skin of obeying orders is stripped naked.

On the other two warships, the Japanese soldiers were even more confused than here. In order to snatch the few lifeboats, a large-scale fire broke out on the ship. The living and the dead were thrown into the sea like dumplings.

Through the telescope, Wu Sangui saw the burning battleships on the sea, and felt his face burning with excitement.

"Look! I said, no matter how much money you spend to buy information, it's worth it." Wu Sangui pointed to the three torches on the sea and smiled so hard that his little tongue showed off.

"Three thousand silver coins may seem expensive, but compared with three ships, it is still much cheaper. And judging from the firelight, these ships are all ironclad ships. If they are really ironclad ships, let alone three thousand silver coins, even if it is thirty thousand,

Three hundred thousand silver coins were spent in vain." George put down the telescope, his face full of excitement.

"Let me just say, homing pigeons are still reliable. It's not in vain that we stayed here for a full week. Mines are really good. He has no intention of coming to attack Bombay. He must break my mine array first.

If he dares to leave the Marines elsewhere, hey! I'll see where they go in the vast sea, and let him taste the feeling of never coming back." Wu Sangui looked at the sea fiercely, imagining that Li Xiu was there.

If it were like that on one of the boats, it would be perfect.

There is no greater military achievement than killing the commander of the Ming Dynasty Navy, the brother of the actual ruler of the Ming Dynasty. Drake, sent by the Queen, ruined the entire Far East Fleet. Now, it is time for revenge.

"Don't let them escape, the coastal artillery fires." George laughed wildly and immediately ordered the coastal artillery to fire.

When the 240mm cannon rotates, two strong soldiers are required to shake the rocker arm. The rotation of the gun position is achieved through a series of gears of various sizes. A shell that is nearly one person long requires four soldiers to work together to move it.

The bullet cart is pushed for loading.

Although it costs a lot of money and is extremely slow to load. It takes five minutes to fire one cannonball, but the advantage is that the charge is sufficient and powerful. If a man-long cannonball hits a warship, even an ironclad ship will be smashed into pieces and the hull will be scattered.

Disintegrated and sunk.

In the darkness! The warship burning like a torch on the sea was a living target. The six coastal batteries carefully arranged began to take aim nervously.

In fact, there is no need to shoot the three ironclad ships. In this situation, they will sink themselves. The power cabin has no power, and the entire warship is a fixed target floating on the sea. For coastal artillery batteries, it is easier to hit such fixed targets.

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!"...!

In the first salvo, Maori Hanbei's flagship was blown apart. The parts on the warship were blown hundreds of meters high. When it fell, the stern of the warship had already submerged the sea level. Inside the cockpit

The Mori Hanbei was instantly vaporized and disappeared without a trace. That was truly ashes, earning him the reputation of cannon fodder.

The remaining two battleships are already sinking.

When designing these two warships, Fleming, a communication expert from Oxford, drew on the watertight compartment design of the Ming Dynasty ships. Even if the mine explosion is seriously damaged, the warship can actually float on the water as long as the watertight compartment is closed.

What a pity! The Japanese soldiers had been on the ship for a month, and their training was completely gone. When the ship was on fire, everyone was thinking about escaping, and no one was thinking about the watertight cabin.

The seawater filled in more and more, and the warship gradually sank. The coastal artillery fired a second salvo, but not a single shell hit the target. Only one shell was considered a near miss, causing some damage to the warship.

The third round of salvo still missed, and this time there was not even a near miss. It just exploded into the sky on the sea. Some Japanese soldiers floating on the sea were unlucky, and the huge shock wave from the sea directly hit them.

It shattered their internal organs. These guys swam and bled to death.

Those anxious sharks were also shocked. They didn't even get a bite of human flesh, and were shaken by the explosion and floated on their backs on the sea.

There was no fourth salvo, because the two warships were already standing high. The whole ship was sinking rapidly, and the terrifying exhaust sound of the sinking warships could be heard from a distance.

The sky was twilight, and through the hazy skylight you could see the tragic scene on the sea. There were many Japanese soldiers floating in the waves, some rowing lifeboats, and some simply paddling in the water. The luckier ones had a piece of wood, or

It's a lifebuoy.

These people were scattered far and wide, and the unlucky ones were all sucked into the whirlpool of the sinking ship. They were sucked into the bottom of the sea and probably wouldn't be able to float up for a while.

Li Xiu's hand holding the telescope was trembling, as if the telescope was as heavy as a stone.

It’s over! It’s all over!

In less than an hour and a half, all three armored ships sank. Li Xiu was certain that the three armored ships were not sunk by shelling. But what weapon caused such a big explosion, Li Xiu couldn't tell clearly.

All ships immediately change course, which is different from land. Ships on the sea usually do not anchor in deep sea areas. Besides, the length of the anchor chain on the ship may not be able to scrape the seabed. All that can be done is to change

course.

The situation ahead was unclear, and it was obvious that Wu Sangui was prepared.

Li Xiu really wanted to change places and spread out the Marine Corps. But after thinking about it, he gave up this tempting idea. Without the help of the Navy, it is impossible to defeat the huge number of British troops with just one Marine Division.

military.

According to Li Yongfang's intelligence, while vigorously developing the navy, Wu Sangui also trained a strong army. Especially the Gurko people from the north. While they carried rifles, each of them had a self-made Gurko

Scimitar. Each scimitar is engraved with the name of the user. After death, the knife will be buried with the owner as a funerary object.

It is said that the Gurkos are not afraid of death in battle, and they will attack with their knives when they run out of bullets.

If there were two people, Li Xiu would think that these people were 250, the type with sick minds. But what the Marines have to face are more than 200,000 guys with sick minds. In Mumbai alone, there are 100,000

Erko soldiers.

This does not include other soldiers recruited from various states in India.

In Li Yongfang's intelligence, he said that Britain has recruited 600,000 troops in India. And more than one million people can be recruited at any time as needed. As a result, there are not enough officers from the British mainland, and the grassroots need to be selected from Indians.

Officers. The British only serve as commanders of battalions and above!

If a Marine Corps division goes head-to-head with 200,000 lunatics, you can imagine the outcome.

But I prepared for a month and a half, and re-armed the three captured British ironclads. In just one and a half hours, they were destroyed by force. The most cowardly thing is that I don't know what the hell they were attacked by.

Even if it's struck by lightning, there still has to be a fucking lightning bolt!

I want to leave, but I won’t give in. I want to stay, but I can’t fight.

Li Xiu was caught in a dilemma. He was holding a telescope and could even vaguely see the huge shipyard in Mumbai. But there was no way, it was not within the range. He had no way to destroy those being built, which would become his own in the future.

The opponent's battleship.

Just when Li Xiu was hesitating, suddenly another loud noise came from the sea. Li Xiu's heart twitched!

"Commander! Oh no, there was an inexplicable explosion on the side of the Jiyuan." Deng Yongchang ran over and reported to Li Xiu breathlessly.

"Enemy artillery fire?"

"No!" Deng Yongchang shook his head.

Li Xiao dropped the pencil in his hand, left the battle map and ran towards Jian Bridge.

Standing on the Jian Bridge, holding a telescope, you can see the Jiyuan with billowing smoke!

The battleship Jiyuan was already injured, and I don't know what will happen now, whether it can survive it.

If the Jiyuan sinks again, then this time it will be considered a waste. Not only will all the winnings be lost, but the damn money will also be lost. Fortunately, the captain of the Jiyuan is Zheng Zhilong's younger brother Zheng Xintai.

This old guy has been sailing at sea since he was a child, and has extremely rich experience at sea. He also received special training at the Qinhuangdao Naval Academy. At the age of forty-five, this old guy won the outstanding cadet of that year.

Twenty minutes later, Li Xiu began to sweat on his forehead. The attack came so mysteriously that he had no idea what it was that exploded.

The signal light on the Jiyuan began to flash. The signal soldier recorded while the people next to him helped translate:

"Captain Zheng said that the left string suddenly exploded, as if something was under the water. The fire on the ship has been controlled, but the boiler on one side is damaged, and the power is only 30% of the original, and the speed will become very slow."

At the beginning of the explosion, it was discovered that the hull was broken and the leak could not be plugged. Zheng Xintai decisively ordered people to close the watertight compartment and at the same time inject water to the other side of the hull to ensure the balance of the hull. After a series of operations, the ship was finally saved from sinking, but only the power was left

The original 30% can only sail on the sea extremely slowly.

With this kind of speed, it will definitely fall behind the fleet.

Li Xiu was so angry that he couldn't help it. He didn't fire a single shot, lost three armored ships, and severely damaged one. And he didn't even understand who was behind it!

This battle was fought cowardly, I have never been so fucking cowardly.

"Commander! We can't fight like this. The enemy's attack method is unknown. If we attack rashly again, we might even damage some warships. We only have this little money and we can't afford any more losses." Chen Laohu saw.

The three armored ships sank to the bottom of the sea, and they began to twitch with distress.

Now that I see that Jiyuan also had an accident, I can no longer remain calm.

"Return!" Li Xiu bit his cheek as hard as a rock and slammed the pencil in his hand onto the combat map.

"Fuck!" Li Xiu was so angry that he kicked over his chair and walked into the cabin without looking back.

"What are you still doing? Pack up and return home!" Chen Laohu glanced at the frightened officers and began to perform the captain's duties.

Laiyuan was responsible for the warning, while Zhiyuan and Jingyuan towed the Jiyuan, which had slowed to a tortoise, back to the ship.

The ship sailed along the coastline of the Indian subcontinent. When it was more than ten o'clock, Li Xiu saw another Indian city through the telescope.

There are not only docks in this city, but there also seem to be factories. White smoke is coming out of the chimneys of the factories, and I don’t know what they are producing.

"Grandma's fault! Let Zheng Xintai command the fleet to continue its return voyage. I want to relieve my hatred." Back on the Jian Bridge, Li Xiu became more and more cowardly as he thought about it. Now that he saw some industrialized Indian cities, he couldn't bear it anymore.

"Second Master! Let's return home, just in case...!" Chen Laohu was really scared of that unknown weapon.

People who run the sea are actually the most superstitious, not to mention that Chen Laohu is a pirate. Four ships had inexplicable accidents, and Zheng Xintai on the Jiyuan ship also said that it seemed to be an attack from the bottom of the sea. Could it be said that British ships can dive?

"You're afraid you'll leave first!" Li Xiu took out the wine bottle and took a swig.

"Promise!" Not daring to contradict Li Xiu who was in a rage, Chen Laohu could only bow and agree. This man was offended now, but he didn't dare to say anything.

Li Xiu's flagship turned the rudder, and the mountain-like battleship headed straight for the Indian port of Alibag.

Alibag is a small city on the edge of Mumbai, with a population of only 70,000 to 80,000 people. This is a relatively small population in India! The city is small, but its industrial structure is not low.

Here is the third largest steelmaking plant in India - Alibag Steelmaking Plant.

The ore here mainly comes from the Middle East. After preliminary refining, it can be rolled into steel plates or cast into various things.

Although we are on the edge of Mumbai, the protective power is several levels behind that of Mumbai.

Wu Sangui knew that India had a long coastline, and it would be very easy for Li Xiu to land. He might as well set up a key defense, as long as Bombay was preserved. I don't believe that Li Xiu would go ashore and rob those poor Indian farmers.

If Li Xiu's Marine Corps dared to go deep into the interior, Wu Sangui would unceremoniously teach Li Xiu a profound lesson.
Chapter completed!