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The entire Franco-Prussian War was simply a farce for France. In the final analysis, the failure of Napoleon III meant that he had run out of energy!
Look at the generals under him, none of them fight battlefield wars with pure intentions.
The marshals and generals of the army had little thoughts one after another. Some wanted to preserve strength for the French Emperor, some wanted to preserve strength for themselves, and some were watching the political chaos in Paris every day.
Even the naval admirals don't focus entirely on the battlefield. They always think about irrelevant things, such as politics!
Why do they think about this? After all, they are still afraid that they will win the war but lose the politics. In the end, instead of having no merit, they will be guilty!
Not to mention these generals, even the Bonaparte family themselves were in commotion. Didn't you see that Queen Eugénie had already begun secretly packing up and transferring property?
Even the Bonaparte family has begun to think about how to make a comeback after stepping down. How can we blame ordinary soldiers like Hof?
In this naval battle, Hof first made the mistake of underestimating the enemy's advance. He ignored the bad weather and advanced late at night without detecting the enemy's situation. This was his biggest mistake!
Immediately afterwards, Hough misjudged the British fleet's intentions. This Hough was actually a coward and a coward at heart!
He insisted that the British were here to steal his retreat and launch a surprise attack!
In order to prevent the British, he actually let the army land on Spike Island. It was a crime in itself for 30,000 troops to land on the beach in this kind of late night and in this kind of weather!
The third mistake was to divide the troops hastily. He asked the cruise fleet to protect the landing merchant ships, leaving only six battleships to face the Zhiyuan. This kind of arrogance directly caused huge losses to the French fleet!
The fourth mistake is lack of willpower! From the beginning to the end, his attitude towards the Zhiyuan changed continuously, from sinking it at the beginning to trying to persuade it to surrender, and then trying to sink it in anger after failing to persuade it to surrender!
But when he heard that the commander of the Zhiyuan was an heir to the king's title, he began to have random thoughts in his heart. He was actually thinking about whether he would suffer endless abuse from the Xiang Ying family after Xiang Ying's death. revenge!
Who can't see this kind of swaying like a wallflower? The morale of the military has completely collapsed since then!
But he still had to pretend to be stubborn and fight to the death. He yelled like a roaring gorilla in the command cabin, completely unaware that the people below had already looked at him coldly!
"What a bullshit prince! France is not afraid of him...continue to fight, ignore the British, and sink the Reach!"
"Fire...fire...fire..."
The roar of cannons on the sea was like thunder, and the Duke of Newx anxiously unbuttoned his uniform, while the naval officers around him said in unison, "Let's intervene! Is it really possible to see Xiang Ying die here?" ?”
"Your Excellency, if we rescue Xiang Ying now, it will be beneficial to Britain!"
"Xiang Ying is not only the heir to the Far East Kingdom, he is also likely to succeed Xiao Letian as prime minister. If we show our goodwill to such a person in advance, it will be of great benefit to our diplomacy in the future!"
"As for the protests of the French, we don't have to care at all! The French Emperor may not be able to keep his throne this time. They have no ability to fight against us, the British!"
"Let's do it! Rescue the Zhiyuan and the crew, and tow the Zhiyuan back to our port. Our engineers will go crazy with excitement!"
The Duke of Newx had actually been moved for a long time, but he still wanted to take another look. The Duke raised his hand, "Wait a minute...Wait a minute..."
The Duke of Newcastle looked at his pocket watch. It was already 4:50 in the morning, and the sky would light up in less than an hour... Of course, the storm was still very strong at the moment, but the storm on a summer night came and went quickly. Maybe the storm will stop in the early morning.
"Wait another hour...at six o'clock! If the Zhiyuan cannot hold on by then, we will intervene! There is no way we can let the French take such a huge advantage!"
At this time, all the officers and soldiers of the Zhiyuan were completely crazy. The whole ship of the Zhiyuan, which had lost power, was aware that the last moment was coming.
The coal shovelers, maintenance workers, cooks in the bilge... all members in non-combat positions were also assigned weapons and rushed to the deck to help the soldiers fight.
The place where the Zhiyuan ran aground was only twenty meters away from the coast. From the deck, rifles could easily shoot the soldiers escaping on the shore and the struggling sailors in the sea.
More importantly, every round of enemy shelling will cause casualties to the gunners and heavy machine gunners. At this time, fresh blood is needed.
At the most intense moment of the fighting, even the coal shovelers began to operate heavy machine guns and started shooting, and the hail of bullets continued to tilt towards the crowd on the shore.
"Fire...keep firing! Use up all the ammunition on the ship!" Lin Zhen held a syringe in his hand. He had just given himself another injection of morphine, which suppressed the dizziness of severe pain and blood loss. .
Every shot from the main gun around him was like an earthquake, shaking him so hard that the sun and the moon were dimming. At this time, he could no longer direct the battle and could only rely on roaring to cheer up the brothers around him.
There was too much blood left. Although the pain was relieved after two injections of morphine, the dizziness increased a lot. He tilted his head, staggered and fell to the ground.
"Sir..." The soldier next to him was about to help him, but at this moment the gunner suddenly pulled the gun rope, and the twin main guns roared again.
Boom... there was a muffled sound. The Zhiyuan's good luck finally ran out. The left one of the twin main guns could not withstand the huge pressure of the explosion. After a muffled sound... it exploded!
At that moment, the energy of the charge pack was completely released on the main turret. A large hole was blown through one third of the barrel, and the entire front third of the barrel drooped on the deck.
Six soldiers, including the gunner, loader, and aimer, were injured all over in the accident and lay in a mess on the deck.
Lin Zhen escaped the shrapnel attack because he fainted early and fell to the ground, but the soldier who tried to help him was not so lucky. His chest was pierced by a piece of shrapnel, and he fell onto Lin Zhen's body. He used his own body as a human shield for the commander.
"Xiao Wang...Xiao...Xiao Wang..." Lin Zhen's consciousness had blurred. He shook his head desperately to wake up, but what he got was still spinning!
"The chamber exploded! The Zhiyuan's main gun exploded!"
The explosion at the bow of the Zhiyuan shocked everyone on the battlefield. Hof couldn't believe it at first when he saw the scene in front of him, and then he screamed like a madman.
"Hahaha... the chamber exploded! Sure enough, the chamber exploded! Let me just say that this battleship is not omnipotent! It is also weak!"
"Hahaha... The more powerful the naval gun, the higher the danger. Look... it exploded! Hahaha..."
Hoff once again made a stupid decision while laughing wildly!
"Send the order, stop the bombardment! The enemy's biggest threat to the weapon has been disabled, let the army attack!"
"Capture this battleship, capture these Chinese people!"
"France needs this battleship! Execute the order!"
