"Blow the horn, send emergency warning...Unknown ship found in the northeast! Unknown identity, unknown type..."
"Visually the speed of the incoming ship is 15 knots. It has no sails and is powered by pure steam... Oh my God, why is this ship so fast?"
"The supply ships and troop carriers separated from the fleet and moved to the rear...the main battleships entered the defensive formation, the St. Peter controlled the left wing, and the Diamond controlled the right wing..."
The young men from the Shipbuilding School have good eyesight, and these sailors from far away Northern Europe also have good eyesight. When the faint smoke ribbon appeared on the sea level, the horns of the entire fleet sounded continuously, and the flag bearers began to send signals to each other. The fleet moved in an orderly manner. Make formation changes.
Yan Fu, Liu Buchan, Ye Boxun and Deng Shichang were all the best in the school. They were all top-notch in all subjects. Of course they could understand the meaning of the smoke ribbons on steam ships.
Generally speaking, coal with more impurities, mainly coal with too much sulfur, is cheaper. However, this kind of coal has weak firepower and insufficient heat. When burned, it produces a large amount of black smoke, which can travel more than ten miles away on the sea. See clearly.
This kind of coal is only used by merchant ships that pursue profit maximization.
White coal, also called anthracite, is a high-quality coal that can be ignited with a match. It has strong firepower and sufficient heat. The key is that the thick smoke it releases is light in color and contains few particles. It can also help people burn on the ocean. Warships reduce detection distance.
However, the biggest disadvantage of white coal is that it is expensive, with the price already close to three times that of ordinary coal. Apart from being used on battleships, ordinary factories are really reluctant to use this good stuff.
"Emperor Bodhisattva opened his eyes! The one that can use white coal must be a warship. Where do the warships come from? British? French? Or American..."
In fact, everyone has a name lingering in their hearts, but no one dares to say it. They are afraid that everything in front of them is a dream and the dream will be broken if they say it.
Maybe there really is fate controlling everything. At this moment, Deng Shichang's tears couldn't stop flowing down. They were no longer tears one by one, but two streams sliding down his cheeks.
I don't know what he was doing, but at such a tense moment, he actually had the intention to tidy up his clothes.
"It's that battleship! I have a hunch that it's that battleship! The legendary ocean steel behemoth that attacked Dakar at night and challenged Iquique... is Zhiyuan, it must be Zhiyuan!"
"Xiao Letian is here, Xiao Letian is really here!" Deng Shichang choked, his shoulders kept rising and falling, and his fists were clenched so tightly that his nails were embedded in his flesh.
Yan Fu was much calmer than him, and he said tremblingly, "Not necessarily! Prime Minister Xiao only has one armored ship. Rumor has it that this battleship sneaked back from Europe and was almost destroyed by Britain and France on the Atlantic Ocean!"
"This is Ryukyu's ultimate weapon, this is their last trump card. How could they send it out to take the initiative? This is against common sense!"
After all, Riyige is a Frenchman. He has no good impressions of Xiao Letian and Liuqiu. "Don't worry about the warships. We will immediately avoid sailing to the mouth of the Minjiang River. The first priority now is to send you back safely..."
"No!" Everyone shouted in unison, "Instructor, please let us watch the battle. We want to see that battleship, and we want to see this naval battle even more!"
"Nonsense! You are all students. My mission is to take you to class, not to watch the battle. Who will be responsible if something goes wrong? Besides, so what if it is Xiao Letian's battleship. An armored ship can never be the opponent of a fleet. , only you fools would hold such unrealistic expectations..."
The students' emotions were already unstable at this moment. They could not withstand the cynicism of the French instructors. Liu Buchan and Deng Shichang led a group of students around them.
"What did you say? If you dare, say it again..." Liu Buchan pointed at Ri Yige's nose and scolded, "You get a salary of one thousand taels of silver a month, and your income exceeds that of a first-class official in Beijing! You You actually said you would only take us to class?"
"Let me tell you, Mr. Zuo hired you to teach us how to become naval officers, not to let us do business after we become ship bosses! Now the naval battle that will determine the fate of the Qing Dynasty is about to begin. Do you dare not let us watch the battle? If you dare, say it again!"
"Yes, if you dare, say it again!" The crowd was excited, and the students surrounded Riyige tightly, and now the French man with a big nose was scared.
"No, no, no, I'm just worried about your safety... What if something happens to you and you ask me to take responsibility? What if you rely on me?"
"Fuck! Four generations of my family are scholars and officials. How can I blackmail you? Listen carefully. Even if we all die here today, you won't have to bear the responsibility!"
While the training ship of the Shipbuilding School staged a drama of seizing power, a fierce quarrel also broke out on the Russian flagship St. Peter.
French knight Molière said nervously, "No, I absolutely do not agree to a naval battle here. If that ship is really the Reach, we have absolutely no chance of winning. I can't let you take the risk!"
Stefanski looked at him coldly, "What did you say? You let our entire fleet escape? Escape in front of a battleship? Are you insulting us? Even if that battleship has advanced performance, we rely on our numbers to The advantages can also drown him!”
"No! Commander, please listen to me... Please take a look at these documents first. These are all sent to me by the intelligence ship we just contacted. We cannot afford to offend this battleship, and we cannot fight head-on!"
Molière had a thick stack of information in his hand, which was first-hand information recorded in detail by British and French military attachés when the Zhiyuan was cruising in Ryukyu.
There are photos, hand-drawn sketches, and some data deduced by military attachés. And Molière had fought against the Zhiyuan at close range, so of course he knew that all the data was true.
To be exaggerated, the data here is far from the Zhiyuan's true combat effectiveness. The true combat effectiveness must be at least double this!
"Commander, I ask you to calm down... We can't match the firepower of the Zhiyuan at all. The power of the 210-caliber main gun cannot be withstood by our armor! As long as it is hit, it will definitely penetrate..."
"Not only that, the diameter of the Zhiyuan's artillery is many times greater than our artillery. I have observed that within eight kilometers, the accuracy of these three main guns has reached the level of our four-kilometer close range! How to fight this? They can kill us slowly from eight kilometers away!"
"Fighting speed? You haven't seen how fast this ship is. Except for clipper ships, there is no other ship on the ocean that can catch up with him! This is a devil ship. This is not what it is at all. What a devilish ship that technology can produce now!”
Note: Another chapter has been added. The promise of the fourth layer of cake has been fulfilled. Tomorrow I will add a fifth layer of cake for everyone!
