Chapter 262 Teach a Lesson in Britain and France

"What should we do?" the first mate said anxiously.

"Order the fleet, lined up in two columns, and advanced at full speed." Pifa immediately issued an order.

Pifa wanted to get close to Zhenguo warships and fight close to the enemy, so he adopted the approach of the Japanese-Russian joint fleet, because the only advantage of the joint fleet was armored ships and heavy fire artillery, and there was no advantage in long-distance naval combat.

A large vibration came from the bottom of the water. Although the Baihe took a quick maneuver to avoid the torpedo, they immediately found that there were more than one torpedo on the water. When they dodged one, another torpedo had hit the back of their port side, leaving a huge hole in the body of the Baihe. The Baihe suddenly vibrated violently, but the Baihe, with a thickness of nearly 400 mm on the side armor, did not receive a severe injury and could continue to sail normally.

But the nightmare was far from over, and then several other torpedoes were concentrated on shooting at the Baihe. The Baihe hurriedly avoided again, but at the same time, four torpedoes blocked their channel, and two torpedoes, one in front and one behind, hit his port again.

Then several torpedoes roared past and shot over dozens of meters away, but failed to hit the target.

"The port side armor is seriously damaged, but the Baihe can still drive." Pifa, panicked, fell to one side, quickly got up from the ground, and immediately received the damage.

In order to avoid torpedo attacks, the British and French fleets gradually lined up into two columns when driving, pulling two long runs, so it would be much more difficult for the torpedoes to hit the target. Moreover, after changing the position, the torpedoes of the Zhenguo Army were difficult to find the positions of the battleships and destroyers they were going to find. This move immediately worked.

However, during the fleet's transformation of formation, another battleship, Marseille, was hit by the sixth torpedo, and it stopped on the sea surface, emitting thick smoke and could not continue sailing, but the heavy armor protection prevented the battleship from sinking.

But the other destroyers were not so lucky. Two destroyers were seriously injured, two were slightly injured, one of the two cruisers was sunk, and the other one was slightly injured.

"The enemy lined up in a column, allowing the fleet to widen the distance a little and continue the second round of attack." Wu Haifeng immediately obtained the information that the British and French fleet changed the original goose-shaped array and turned into two columns. He immediately ordered the fleet to disperse a little, so that the aiming angle could be increased and the torpedo hit rate could be increased.

At this time, the first fleet had already stopped on the sea and did not continue to move forward. The second round of fifty torpedoes roared out again. This time the torpedo attack was scattered because the sound-guided torpedo may choose the wrong target to attack. In some cases, it will also attack its own ships, or even return to attack the ship that just launched the torpedo. This kind of accident has happened before, and some torpedoes may not explode or fail to hit the target to explode in advance. These failures occur from time to time, which will reduce the hit rate of the torpedo.

But after all, it was fifty torpedo volleys, so the blind cat always had to hit dead rats. With the huge roar, it sounded in the formation of the British and French fleets from time to time. Then they left four warships, one of which was sunk, and the large ships were only one battleship, a cruiser and a destroyer.

The third round of torpedo attack "fire" is launched again.

Fifty torpedoes flew forward, and this time the British and French fleets lost only one cruiser and four other gunboats. The Baihe relied on the cover of other gunboats and was still moving forward.

"The enemy ships are too close to us, so I ordered all ships to turn around and retreat, launch torpedoes to continue attacking." Seeing that it was almost done, Wu Haifeng ordered the fleet to retreat at the right distance.

Since the torpedoes of Zhenguo Army are line guides, acoustic guides or magnetic guides, the torpedo can be launched in the direction of the target. They can be launched from the front and the torpedo can be turned back and fired, but pay attention to the control wires for guidance, otherwise the torpedo may attack its own ships.

After the fleet turned around, it began to move forward at a rapid speed while the British and French fleets were in a chaotic formation. However, the speed was similar to that of the British and French fleets, slightly slower than their destroyers. It was easy to be caught up after a long time. However, the fleet can launch torpedoes to interfere with the opponent's speed, causing them to frequently turn and lose their maximum speed to avoid being caught up.

Then the British and French fleets tried to move eastward, trying to bypass the route of the Zhenguo Fleet, but the Zhenguo Fleet's radar had already locked them. The fleet also moved along with their routes, but it always maintained a distance of more than 16 kilometers. Although it was night at this time, I was still worried that I would be hit by the opponent's long-range artillery. After all, the surface ships of the First Fleet were all unfired, and a single armor-piercing bomb could kill them.

"General, our position is firmly locked and it seems we can't get rid of it at all." The first mate said anxiously to Pifa, who was also anxious.

"Don't do unnecessary maneuvers anymore. Give up the complete formation and scatter directly towards the enemy ships and catch up with them." Pifa immediately decided to let the fleets scatter their attacks. If this continues, they will definitely be destroyed by the Zhenguo Army.

A destroyer with a speed of 27 knots and five other fast ships with a speed of 25 knots immediately rushed forward and began to chase after him. However, when the gun shot out the first bird, they immediately became the focus of Zhenguo Army.

With the arrival of the fifth round of strikes, the five ships in front were cared for by thirty torpedoes. One warship sank and three seriously injured. Only one destroyer was still moving forward. Pifa saw it and the pain was in his heart. He felt that he could not deal with the enemy no matter what. The British and French fleets had no hope. It seemed that they would never catch up with their opponents and could only be beaten passively.

The unique destroyer suddenly opened fire, which shocked the depressed Pifa spirit and immediately opened his eyes wide and looked forward.

The destroyers then opened fire and fired frequently, and one shell was shot on the sea between the ships of the First Fleet. Fortunately, the distance between the fleet was far, and the French destroyers could not see the target clearly, so they fired randomly, so they did not hit the target.

The good times did not last long. After five minutes of fierce attacks, a huge explosion came under the side of the ship on his right side. Then Pifa saw the destroyer in front slowly stop. It was hit by the third torpedo, obviously it had been severely damaged and could not continue moving forward.

"Commander Pifa, let's retreat. As an allies of Japan and Russia, we sacrificed more than a dozen warships this time, which can be regarded as fulfilling our obligations. If we continue to move forward, the enemy will probably kill us all." The first mate suggested in a slightly trembling voice.

"Hey, this naval battle seems to be really hopeless. Let Japan and Russia continue to get entangled with the Chinese. It is wise for us to retreat here, otherwise we can only die here in battle. The Chinese have become extremely powerful at this time. We have not even seen the shadow and have suffered such a severe blow. It is really a failure." Pi Fa shook his head, sighed deeply, and immediately accepted the advice of the first mate without hesitation. After all, this is not a life-and-death battle to defend the French mainland, so why should he lose his life here?

After being beaten to the point of being unable to find the north like a headless fly, the British and French fleet, which had ten warships left, had to retreat helplessly and immediately fled at high speed. However, the First Fleet refused to give up and continued to fire two torpedoes to bombard them. It was not until the British and French fleets had only five warships left that they escaped the torpedo range. The Zhenguo Army sent a reconnaissance aircraft to track them in case they attacked near the port. There were still some shore artillery at the port that could withstand for a while. If they were ready in advance, the losses would not be too great.

The First Fleet participated in a large-scale naval battle for the first time and returned to the voyage. The Baihe of Pifa lucky to have fled south with four remaining ships, in a mess.

"This battle was so exciting," Zhan Xiong said with great excitement.

"Yes, I didn't expect that our old fleet, under the nourishment of the new China Kingdom, will have doubled its combat effectiveness after the old trees sprout. Today is so exciting," Wu Haifeng also said with a smile.

"I remember how cowardly we were when we were generals of the Qing naval army. Our navy was so small that it was like an egg to a stone in front of the Japanese and British and French people. But today we were able to escape easily. This change was so refreshing." Wu Haifeng, as a former Qing general, was deeply moved by the backwardness of the Qing navy. When the navy saw the foreign fleet, he still remembered the depression of bowing his head to everyone, and he immediately sighed.

"Order the fleet and return at full speed"

After ending this seemingly intense battle but without much suspense, Wu Haifeng led his team to sail to the sea east of Shanghai at full speed. After more than half an hour of naval battle, the time has come... Half an hour, the Japanese and Russian fleet is less than 70 kilometers away from Shanghai Port at this time, while the first fleet is 130 kilometers away from Shanghai. It is estimated that it will not be able to catch up with the most intense naval battle. It can only rely on the other two fleets to block the attack of the Japanese and Russian fleet.

On the command ship of the Sea God, Sa Zhenbing and Li Guoqiang looked relatively calm. It was already four o'clock. The distance between the Japanese and Russian fleet was less than fifty kilometers from Shanghai Port, and the submarine troops of Zhenguo Army had already raised their heads forward and were ready to start an unreserved battle.

Yoshimatsu Shigetaro's heart began to become even more nervous.

"Commander, the British and French coalition forces are coming soon. We will soon rely on the remaining 100 warships to launch a decisive battle with the Chinese. Without their help, it would be difficult for us to win." The adjutant said from the side.

"I hope they can move forward bravely. If they come, they can at least help us complete some tasks and distract the Chinese people." Yoshimatsu Shigetaro said expectantly, but he didn't know that the British and French fleets had fled in a panic at this time, but they really dispersed some of the ships and relieved the pressure on them...

More to, address
Chapter completed!