"The telegram said, let us hold on for two more days, and the follow-up rescue fleet will come to rescue."
In the shelter, 13 unshaven men gathered around the radio station and read the new telegram word by word.
"Why do you have to wait two days?"
Someone complained.
Li Siming explained patiently: "The sea surface is not flat, but an arc, and electromagnetic waves travel in straight lines.
The rescue fleet's ability to contact us only means they entered a 40-kilometer visual area.
With the rescue ship as the center and a radius of 40 kilometers, the islands within this range are the targets of inspection.
Also, we must remember the telegram's instructions. We must not show up unless the steamer comes. "
"Oh~"
On the other side, after He Changxu sent the telegram to Prince Xue, he sent a telegram to the coastal defense ship in the rear.
The coastal defense ships were asked to leave two ships behind and notify the other sailboats one by one to return home.
Other coastal defense ships headed for the Hawaiian Islands.
He Changxu stood by the window and couldn't help rubbing his hands.
Without the worry of enemies tearing up votes, he could go ahead and do it boldly.
He looked at a 90mm naval gun on the bow deck.
Small, short.
There is no closed turret, only a steel plate gun mantlet.
There is no automatic bomb hoist, so you can only rely on manual loading.
But it is undeniable that this naval gun is the most advanced naval gun outside the naval fleet.
This naval gun has been completely self-produced, and the output is large.
The Ministry of Industry was full of confidence and wanted to install these naval guns on the four Admiral Shen Yulong-class battleships as secondary guns, but was sternly rejected by almost all naval generals.
Just kidding, it doesn’t even have a 120 caliber, and the barrel isn’t long either.
Just this, how dare you put it on a noble battleship?
The Ministry of Industry could only settle for the next best thing and redesign a ship type based on the Coast Guard's duty needs.
It has no armor, a large coal tank, and is equipped with a 90mm short-barreled naval gun from the Ministry of Industry. This is the origin of the coastal defense ship.
This kind of coastal defense ship can be built very quickly due to its low material consumption and simple structure.
Almost every few days, one is launched from the slipway to replace the Coast Guard's old sailing battleships.
"Today, I will let you natives know that Dad Ming's fatherly love is as great as a mountain!"
He Changxu asked the communications troops to maintain contact with the rear coastal defense ships, and at the same time asked the flag bearer to raise the battle flag.
Several gunners came to the deck, removed the gun jacket and muzzle plug, and loaded the self-produced short-fuse high-explosive ammunition.
In the bottom cabin of the coastal defense ship, shirtless soldiers accelerated the speed of shoveling coal, and creatively sprinkled some pulverized coal into the boiler to cause deflagration.
The black smoke from the chimney is getting thicker and thicker, and you can even see some orange-red sparks coming out.
The coastal defense ship gradually increased its speed and broke away from the formation of the sailing fleet.
This move also attracted the attention of the Hawaiian Kingdom's fleet.
The first mate entered the captain's cabin and called Kamehameha, who was immersed in his dream, to the deck.
"Your Majesty the King, that steamer is escaping!"
Kamehameha came to the side of the ship, leaned out half of his body and looked out, and saw the coastal defense ships getting further and further away.
"Damn it, are these Akito guys going back on their word? Pity my machines!"
Kamehameha immediately beat his chest. In the feudal era, it was a very common method to use information gaps to deceive opponents. He did not expect Ming to stay in the dark.
In his opinion, only getting the machine is more real than anything else.
Unfortunately, seeing the cooked duck fly away, Kamehameha became angrier the more he thought about it.
At this time, the first mate heard a suspicious voice again.
"Your Majesty, the ship seems to have stopped again. No, she maneuvered 800 meters to the left of our fleet and remained relatively stationary!"
"Um?"
Kamehameha came back to his senses. He raised his telescope and observed that the small water pipe on the coastal defense ship was rotating and seemed to be aimed at the fleet.
Can such a small naval gun shoot 800 meters away?
His doubts were answered by a flash of light and smoke.
A cannonball emerged from a small water pipe, flew a distance of 800 meters, was caught by the huge sail of a sailing battleship, and then exploded.
Shrapnel swept across a large area of the deck, and a group of bloody natives fell on the deck and howled.
The giant sail was ignited, and the flames spread along the jib to other giant sails.
Soon, the sail battleship seemed to be carrying a ball of flame, its speed gradually slowed down, and it broke away from the formation.
Kamehameha rubbed his eyes when he confirmed again that one of the sail battleships in the fleet lost its combat capability in an instant.
He was sweating profusely.
"My ship! Counterattack quickly, close the range and bombard us!"
A large number of natives gathered on the deck, and communication between ships did not rely on semaphores, but primitively relied on human voices.
Fortunately, the distance between the ships is not too far, so the message transmission can be completed.
The remaining four sail battleships took action. They swung themselves at an angle and tried to get close to the coastal defense ship.
"We must win..."
Kamehameha clenched his fists tightly, cold sweat slipped from his forehead, and he stared fiercely at the coastal defense ship in the distance.
However, the coastal defense ships strictly abide by the battle essentials of fighting at a distance of 500 meters, relying on the abundant power of the steam engine to easily break the enemy's illusions.
At the gun position of the coastal defense ship, the gunner kicked the shell casing aside, took out a shell from the shell box next to him and pushed it into the gun chamber.
The ship's guns began to aim again.
Because it is a short-barreled gun, the bore pressure is lower, and the parabolic trajectory of the ballistics is more obvious. Properly raising the muzzle can bombard the deck and sails.
The Ming Dynasty's coastal defense ships were usually tasked with coastal patrols, or participating in combating pirates, smuggling, etc.
Those who can use naval guns will not aim to directly destroy an entire ship.
What is more important is to do some deck cleaning work, especially the attack on the sails, which can quickly render the target ship incapacitated.
Therefore, the combat method of coastal defense ships is based on making the target incapacitated and forcing the target to surrender.
If the enemy still refuses to surrender and resists stubbornly, the coastal defense ships will have no choice but to fight for the spoils and carry out humanitarian destruction.
After the gunner took aim, another shell was fired.
The gunner held his breath, waved his hand to drive away the thick smoke in front of him, and took a closer look.
"Damn, it's crooked!"
"Come again."
The two sides are pulling each other on this sea area.
The Kingdom of Hawaii's fleet tried to get close to the coastal defense ships many times, but failed.
After many shellings, the coastal defense ships finally achieved victory again, and the sails of another sailing battleship were set alight.
Seeing that the situation was not optimistic, Kamehameha turned around anxiously.
I can't fight anymore, I can't run away anymore.
There are still three ships that can move, even if they want to break out of the encirclement.
Kamehameha did not think it would be successful, and the coastal defense ships had enough time to capture them one by one.
He finally figured out that this group of Ming people didn't want to sink them directly, but wanted to capture them alive.
In this tense state, the Hawaiian Kingdom's fleet began to fire randomly, regardless of whether the artillery range was sufficient, they just wanted to vent the fear in their hearts.
They recalled it.
They are indigenous people, inferior people in the eyes of European civilization, and barbarians in the eyes of Eastern civilization.
They were born to be exploited by the colonizers.
