(The second chapter arrives!)
Slowly, the fleet led by Nelson approached Valencia step by step. When it was less than eight kilometers away from Valencia, the artillerymen of the 122mm Heavy Artillery Battalion of the 88th Army Heavy Artillery Regiment faithfully obeyed their crown prince. Following the orders of His Highness, a fierce bombardment was launched against Nelson's fleet. Eight 122mm howitzers roared loudly, and eight huge shells slammed into Nelson's fleet. Probably due to the distance, none of the eight shells hit the target, only one It was a near miss, but even if it was a near miss, the huge waves generated by the explosion overturned the frail three-masted clipper.
At this moment, the people in Nelson's fleet were stunned. They had never seen such a long range and such a powerful cannon. In fact, this is not the maximum range of the 122mm howitzer. After using the new explosives, the maximum range of the 122mm howitzer The firing range has been increased to 10 kilometers. The reason why Nelson's fleet is only 8 kilometers away from Valencia before firing is just to improve the hit rate. Unexpectedly, there is still a big deviation.
Only then did Nelson realize that his opponent was not a weak sheep, but a ferocious tiger. For the first time, he felt that it might not be so easy to complete this mission. But after all, he is a tried and tested person, and he responded immediately: "Send me an order, and the ships will immediately disperse and rush to Valencia at full speed. Please remember, our goal is the Valencia shipyard. , as long as we can destroy the shipyard, we will win." Since the exact location of the Valencia shipyard had been communicated to the ships before departure, Nelson decisively issued the order to disperse and fight freely.
In an instant, the British warships that were originally gathered together separated, and quickly approached Valencia from different routes.
Nelson's tactic caused a lot of trouble for the Iberian side. As the distance between the battleships of Nelson's fleet widened, their hit rate dropped greatly. As a last resort, Xiao Jie had no choice but to order the artillery positions to choose their own targets, but the main focus was on the battleships of Nelson's fleet. Compared with those battleships with many artillery pieces, they were the biggest threat.
At 5:40 p.m., a warship of the Nelson fleet finally reached within their range, but it only had time to fire one shot, and it was torn to pieces by the artillery fire of the Iberian army. Also because it was too hasty, it didn't hit the shipyard, and only killed a wild dog that was wandering near the shipyard at any time. But at this time, the Nelson fleet had already suffered a lot of casualties. A second-tier battleship was sunk, a third-tier battleship was sunk, and two other gunboats were sunk, all of which were from Iberia. The reason why the artillery put their main energy on these large warships.
But the loss of these large warships was not without rewards. It was precisely because they attracted most of the firepower of the Iberian artillery that the three-masted fast ships rushed to a very close distance from Valencia. The range is not far.
At this time, Xiao Jie quickly ordered all the cannons with a caliber below 75mm to concentrate on attacking the British warships approaching Valencia, but these three-masted clippers are very flexible, they are like light seabirds flying through the wind and rain. Shuttle through the artillery fire of the Iberian artillery, it is impossible to hit them without a lot of effort.
Under Nelson's fierce shelling, the artillery positions of the Iberian army began to suffer a large number of casualties, and one artillery position after another was destroyed.
Seeing this situation, Xiao Jie was very anxious, but he couldn't transfer the main force of the artillery to deal with Nelson's battleships, otherwise he would not have enough strength to suppress those nimble three-masted clippers, and the direct consequences would be It would be the shipyard under attack, which was the last thing he wanted to see.
In this dilemma, time passed slowly until 6:30 in the afternoon. At this time, Iberia's artillery had lost 20%, and the Nelson fleet also lost a third-tier battleship and a battleship. gunboat.
When Xiao Jie was thinking about a solution to the problem, a staff officer called out: "Look, what is that?"
Xiao Jie looked up, and saw a few puffs of smoke and dust appearing far away from the horizon, he quickly raised his binoculars, oh my god, those were the four warships of the Burt Fleet that he thought had been lost, and he could distinguish them from the flags. They were listed as 'Malaga', 'Cadiz', 'Sevilla' and 'Zaragoza'. Excited, really excited, although there are only 4 warships, Xiao Jie is very happy, he knows that with their addition, all the problems will be solved. Just as he was about to put down the binoculars, two streaks of thick smoke appeared at the end of the sea. Another two warships? There is no doubt about this at all. In Europe now, only his warships produce such a large amount of smoke because they are powered by steam engines. From the slow sailing speed of those two warships, Xiao Jie knew that they had been severely damaged, but he was content with it, and exchanged the price of two warships sinking and two warships being heavily damaged in exchange for more than half of the strength of the huge Nelson fleet (he still had Didn't know that the 'Lisbon' was only battered and not sunk), he'd earned it. Fortunately, he didn't have a heart attack or anything else, otherwise he would have fainted happily.
Not only Xiao Jie and the others saw the return of the Boult fleet, but Nelson also saw it. For a moment, he just felt dizzy, he knew what it meant, that is, the Dragon Tedesk Squadron had been killed, and everything he had done was in vain. Perhaps what he should consider now is no longer how to complete the task, but how to save his life. If he is surrounded by the opponent's fleet, with the current strength of his fleet, there is only one dead end. The only chance to survive is to turn around and rush out from the northeast while their warships are still far away, or everything will be over.
Thinking about it, Nelson quickly issued an order to retreat to the northeast. The captains of the ships, who were familiar with the battlefield situation, faithfully carried out Nelson's order without the slightest hesitation, turned their bows one after another, and sailed desperately to the northeast. According to the current situation, they can only flee from the northeast, and then return to Gibraltar in a big circle. As for what to do after returning to Gibraltar, continue to carry out unfinished tasks or return to the UK, that is not something that can be considered now. During the retreat, Nelson's fleet once again paid the price of a second-class battleship and a three-masted clipper. The three-masted clipper was unlucky, and was directly hit by a 122mm shell, and it changed instantly. It became a ball of fire, and the second-tier battleship was injured before, and fell to the rear when fleeing. Of course, it was taken care of by the Iberian artillery. As soon as he escaped from the unformed encirclement of the Iberian fleet, Nelson collapsed. What a fleet he had commanded when he set out, and now? There are only one first-tier battleship, one second-tier battleship, one third-tier battleship, one gunboat and four three-masted clippers left. How could he figure it out? At this moment, Nelson understood that if the British could not develop a warship that could compete with the Iberian warships in time, then the future oceans would not be decided by the British.
Since it will be dark soon~www.mtlnovel.com~ and the soldiers have worked so hard for so long, Xiao Jie did not ask Boult's fleet to pursue the fleeing Nelson's fleet, but asked them to follow suit, in case Nelson The fleet goes back and forth, and if one returns to the carbine, it will be a big loss. At 8 o'clock in the evening, the "Lisbon" also struggled to return to Valencia. There were 8 warships at the time of departure, but now 7 ships have returned, and one is lying on the bottom of the sea forever. Of course, in order not to spread the technical information of the "Iberia" class battleship to the outside world, Xiao Jie ordered to send out the next day to salvage the "Barcelona" from the sinking place. The information is not circulated, and on the other hand, it can also be used as a testimony of Iberia's great victory against the British offensive.
Although the 'Lisbon' was determined to be irreparable after testing, in general, Xiao Jie won the final victory in this war. They sank one battleship, scrapped one battleship, and seriously injured two warships. The other four battleships were slightly injured, and the army artillery also suffered certain losses. The Valencia shipyard was also destroyed in several unimportant areas. Eighty percent of the strength of the mighty Nelson fleet was wiped out. A terrific victory. This is probably the biggest loss suffered by the British Navy since it gained maritime supremacy after fighting against naval powers such as Spain, the Netherlands, and France in the history of the British Navy.
(To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to .FU., more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)