From the moment the Zhiyuan appeared on the battlefield, no one of the more than 400 officers and soldiers on the ship thought about returning alive. From the beginning to the end, they had only one strategic goal, and that was to kill the enemy as much as possible before dying in battle!
From the beginning to the end, the Zhiyuan's navigation trajectory had not been adjusted. It appeared from the northwest of the battlefield and rushed southeast, walking in a straight line.
Along the way, he bombarded twenty-four rounds in a row, sank two French battleships and seriously damaged one, and successfully pierced the French T-head firing array.
At this time, the Zhiyuan had no intention of changing its course. It actually kept moving forward and rushed towards the cruiser fleet without even slowing down the ship's speed.
Could it be said that Xiang Ying's goal is those cruisers with sails and wooden hulls covered with thin iron sheets? But why did he not fire a single shot even though twenty cruisers had surrounded him?
Why did the Zhiyuan continue to charge southeast like a silent bull in the face of the French fleet's thousands of guns? You must know that the southeast direction is the beach of Spike Island, which is already the coastline of the European continent.
Could it be that your Zhiyuan is an amphibious battleship? Can you rush to the coast and run like a train?
Everyone cannot understand the Chinese strategy and tactics. What is this almost suicidal style of play intended to do?
Thousands of guns were fired, and the Zhiyuan was in a mess. Not a single piece of the entire Zhiyuan steel plate was damaged by the shells. The thick teak deck of the battleship had long been torn and shattered by this chaotic bombardment.
Soldiers are running on this messy deck, and if they are not careful, sharp wooden thorns will penetrate their military boots!
The Zhiyuan was already in a state of disgrace. Even the black smoking chimney had a hole blown through it. Rolling black smoke came out from both sides and the top. The black smoke even affected Xiang Ying's sight.
But none of this stopped the Zhiyuan from moving forward. Even the artillerymen didn't know what kind of orders they had received. They never fired a shot since entering the encirclement.
The sound of cannons rumbled in the encirclement, water spray rose into the sky from the sea, and the smoke was filled with smoke and dust from the Zhiyuan!
"What's going on? Why don't these Chinese fight back? What are they waiting for..."
"Look, they are still rushing forward. They are hitting the Nancy and the Moselle!"
"Are these Chinese crazy? They are almost reaching the shallows. They will be stranded!"
Just when the French army was exclaiming, the Zhiyuan had already rushed to the closest distance of 200 meters from the cruisers Nancy and Moselle. At this time, Lin Zhen finally stopped being silent, and he suddenly ordered the main gun to fire.
Three 210 naval guns spurted out flames at the same time. The shells penetrated the armor of the two cruisers at the closest distance, and huge explosions raged wildly in the fragile hulls!
The Nancy was hit by a bullet in the stern, the propeller and power system were completely destroyed, and rolling seawater poured in from the breach.
The main mast of the Moselle was blown off, and the heavy mast hit the deck, overturning two fixed forts. The remaining shell directly hit the captain's command room, and even the helmsman and captain were disembarked. hell.
Even a pure iron-clad battleship is no match for the Zhiyuan's main gun, let alone these large stuffed dumplings wrapped in a thin iron sheet.
There is no need at all, ordinary high-explosive shells can easily tear this layer of iron into pieces!
The wooden hull structure could not stop the fire at all, and soon the interiors of the two warships were engulfed in flames!
Two more cruisers were sunk, and the French people's noses were almost crooked. But what they didn't understand was why the Zhiyuan didn't slow down at this time, and why it got through the gap between the two battleships. .
"Why are these Chinese people still rushing forward? They are going to be stranded, going to hit the rocks..."
At this time, an ordinary major in the British Navy viewing group suddenly exclaimed, "Could it be? Could it be...could it be that the target of these Chinese is not these warships at all..."
"Their ultimate goal is thirty thousand French troops on the beach?"
"Oh God! Are they really going to die together?"
That's not wrong at all. The targets that the Zhiyuan has to deal with today are actually the more than 30 armed merchant ships and nearly 30,000 French army troops!
Xiang Ying's plan is very clear, which is to die together with the enemy, to maximize casualties and cause political impact!
Sinking enemy warships is certainly a good choice, but even if you sink all the warships in the entire French fleet, how many enemy troops can you kill?
During this period, the total number of officers and men on an armored battleship was only more than 500, while the number of cruisers was even less than 300!
For a new warship like the Zhiyuan, the approved number of crew members is actually only 210, which means that more than 200 people can operate this warship in combat.
It's just that in order to train troops, Xiao Letian increased the number of crew members on the Zhiyuan to 400. Half of them are actually intern officers and soldiers!
Sinking a warship only eliminates a few hundred enemies, but an armed merchant ship can carry at least more than 800 army soldiers!
Moreover, the so-called armed merchant ships are only used to deal with pirates. The four or five small-caliber artillery are just to scare those backward barbarians. They are not useful against toothpick-like shells like the Zhiyuan!
What's more important is that armed merchant ships have no iron armor protection and are entirely wooden-hulled ship structures from the 17th and 18th centuries. Such wooden-hulled ships don't even need main guns to fire. The small-caliber rapid-fire cannons on the sides are enough to sink them. A defenseless troop transport!
The intention of the Zhiyuan was finally guessed by those present, and Hof shouted loudly, "Oh God! His Majesty's Guards! The Chinese are going to massacre our army!"
Boom boom boom... At that moment, the Zhiyuan finally turned its left rudder full in the sea area closest to the enemy transport ship and headed north. The battleship's starboard side fired thousands of guns, and the firepower of various rapid-fire weapons opened up and poured into the French landing troops. There was an explosion on the coast. The smoke and blood fire!
57- and 37-caliber rapid-fire cannons fired quickly and accurately. The shells penetrated into the wooden-hulled ship like cutting tofu, and the explosion flames ignited from the inside.
The ten rapid-fire Gatling heavy machine guns also opened their firepower, and a fire dragon with a long trajectory began to fire at the troops assembled on the coast. The French army that had not yet established a foothold was mopped down one by one like wheat.
Boom boom boom... After just one encounter, the two transport ships were riddled with holes, and their interiors were completely burned by flames. At this time, the soldiers on the transport ships had just disembarked halfway, and hundreds of soldiers were burned alive. In the cabin!
