The turbulent sea water poured into the British command ship in an instant, and the commander had just ordered the soldiers to enter the cabin to block the hole, followed by another shell hitting the side side."
Boom, boom" The British command ship shook violently as if it had hit an iceberg, and in an instant a huge hole appeared on the side side.The waves rolled and rushed into the cabin.The British entered the bilge and hurriedly took out the planks to block the hole.But under the tremendous pressure of the navy, the water at the entrance of the cave is like a fountain, where can it be blocked."
The ship is sinking, the ship is sinking" The soldiers fled out of the cabin in horror, their lives were so important that they couldn't even care about the artillery.The two main ships of the Huaxing Army at the top of the herringbone were still rushing rapidly, the main guns were constantly rumbling, and the shells were whizzing out of the British command ship.The two sides were already less than a kilometer apart, and the accuracy of their shots was greatly improved, and almost every shell hit the British command ship.At this time, the shells of the Huaxing Army had been replaced by flowering shells weighing more than 200 kilograms.The cannonballs continued to fall in a parabola, and as soon as they hit the British command ship, a thunderous roar erupted with a "boom".The British command ship burst into flames in an instant, and the commander was already preparing to evacuate in a small boat, but as soon as the shell exploded, the huge air flow directly tore him to pieces.Under the influx of seawater, the command ship sank rapidly, and was soon swallowed up by the sea.The herringbone fleet of the Huaxing Army soon broke through the middle of the British fleet, splitting the British fleet left and right into two halves.The sides of both sides were exposed to each other's guns at this time, and they opened fire almost at the same time.In the sea area within a thousand meters apart, the two sides are completely hard fighting, without a trace of skill.However, the British artillery fired only three shells a minute, and after completing a round of fire on the warships of the Huaxing Army, they were covered by the artillery fire of the Huaxing Army.The rapid-fire guns equipped by the Huaxing Army can fire 10 shells a minute, and 30 rapid-fire guns are equipped on each side, firing nearly 300 shells per minute.The shells of these rapid-fire guns were more than 30 pounds, all of which were loaded with gunpowder, and once they exploded, they would be a skyrocketing fire.The British battleships were suppressed by the artillery of the Huaxing army, and in a short time, ten wooden battleships were the first to catch fire and sink.In the end, there were only ten ironclad warships left, and seeing that the situation was not right, they hurriedly fled towards the Gornopuri River.In a vain attempt to lure the warships of the Huaxing Army into the river, they used the forts of Chittagong to sink the warships of the Huaxing Army.However, the ten ironclad battleships were badly damaged, and although the sides of the ships were not damaged due to the heavy ironclad armor, there were fires on the deck, which had already ignited the masts and sails.Unscathed, relying on the power provided by four steam boilers, the Huaxing Army chased after the butts of the British battleship.Without waiting for the British to enter the river, they blocked the entrance of the river in advance, and attacked the British in front and back.The British command ship was destroyed, and it was completely scattered, and the formation was very chaotic.They fled to protect themselves, and they didn't care about taking care of each other.The Huaxing army fought two against one, flanking the British warships in front and rear.At this time, the bows of the two sides faced each other, and both used their main guns to fire.Although the main gun of the Huaxing Army fires slowly, once it hits, it can directly penetrate the heavy deck.The two sides were separated by less than 500 meters, just like the knight charge in the era of cold weapons.The main guns of the Huaxing Army were fired with a huge roar, and the hit rate at this distance was almost 100 percent.The shells of both sides crossed in the air and hit the side of each other's ship.However, the shells of the Huaxing army directly blew the side of the British battleship into pieces.However, the British shells only smashed the side of the Huaxing battleship out of a hollow.Ten huge ironclad battleships of the British army slowly sank in billowing smoke.At this time, the sea boiled violently like boiling water, and the waves continued to roll outward, mercilessly engulfing all the British warships.The afternoon sun shone slanting on the sea, and the battlefield, where the cannon rumbled just now, is now quiet again.The naval warships of the Huaxing Army are perfectly coordinated, and they are already very proficient in using various formations to fight against the enemy.It is also handy to fight, and it is easy to put the opponent to death.The sea swallowed everything up as if it were just a normal afternoon and nothing had happened.After the Huaxing army completely annihilated 30 British warships, it took advantage of the situation to swim up the Gornopuri River.The British built dozens of batteries on the banks of the river, each with more than thirty guns.The British troops stationed at the fort did not know the news of the total destruction of the navy, and still as usual, the sun flashed leisurely on the fort.At this time, all the twenty warships of the Huaxing Army had been redressed into the British flag, and the sentries of the battery did not take it to heart when they found out that the fleet was coming.Because at this time of the day, the British fleet would swim up the river to inspect the enemy on the riverbank.When the fleet was at the level of the battery, the British troops in the observation post suddenly noticed that something was wrong, and quickly sounded the alarm.He saw that there were two huge ships weighing 10,000 tons in the fleet, such a behemoth that he had never seen before.The most important thing was that he saw the figures on the deck, all of them with the faces of orientals.Among these faces, there were still people sneering at him.The smile was like that of a hungry lion, mocking its prey with contempt.The British soldiers in the fort also found out about the situation, emptied the barrels one after another, and filled the gunpowder and shells in accordance with the steps.But before they could light the fuse, the opposing fleet was already firing in unison.The explosion of "boom, boom, boom" was deafening, and at one time nearly hundreds of shells were fired, completely covering the British battery.Shrapnel flies sideways, gravel flies.The shrapnel formed a network of fire, like a meat grinder, tearing apart the British soldiers on the fort.When the smoke cleared, the stone fort was a pile of ruins.The British soldiers on the battery lay down in a row, all of them were blurred by the shells, and there were severed limbs and broken flesh everywhere.Thirty batteries were bombed into ruins, and several of them realized in advance that something was wrong.But the breech guns of the battery did not work against the ironclad ships of the Huaxing Army at all.Under the cover of the artillery fire of the ironclad ships of the Huaxing Army, the guns of the fort were all blown up after only one or two rounds were fired.In this era, the artillery of the army was generally inferior to that of the navy.Because there is no mechanical power, it is difficult to adjust the firing angle of the gun, so the equipment on the turret is basically small-caliber artillery.The largest of these guns is thirty-six pounds, and it is okay to deal with some small wooden cargo ships, but it is like mosquitoes biting elephants against ironclad battleships.After the British batteries were cleared, it was already dusk.Twenty warships began to transfer the Huaxing Army on the river bank again.The vanguard of the army has been assembled on the shore, and it is the strength of the two armies of the Yunnan Military Region under the command of Mu Weishan.Once they have settled on the other side of the river, they will also be responsible for setting up defensive positions and then covering the sappers to build pontoon bridges in the river for the rapid passage of subsequent troops.The army dispatched more than 200,000 soldiers and horses from three armies this time, and if all of them were transferred by naval ships, the fuel carried by the two fleets would not be able to return to the Singapore naval base.The fleet worked all night, and it was only after dawn that all 70,000 people were transferred to the other side.Mu Weishan quickly commanded the troops to deploy defenses within a radius of ten miles, wrapping the riverbank in a semi-circular shape.The sappers on the opposite shore had already collected enough boats and planks to build a pontoon bridge in the center of the circle.The British troops stationed in Chittagong soon got the news and immediately organized troops and horses to counterattack the Huaxing army on the riverbank.They all knew that if they let the large army of Huaxing cross the river, they would have no hope of victory.Now is the right time to concentrate on the first to destroy the vanguard of the Huaxing Army.Then, according to the natural danger of the Gornopuri River, block the follow-up troops of the Huaxing Army.The British garrisoned only 20,000 horses in Chittagong, but they armed as many as 100,000 Indian soldiers.The combined forces of the two sides were twice the vanguard of the Huaxing army, and the British commander Charlton immediately decided to launch an attack on the positions of the Huaxing army at noon.The Huaxing Army had already dug layers of trenches on the position, and machine gun companies and mortar battalions were also arranged in accordance with crossfire.The trenches were arranged in a dogtooth pattern, and whenever the enemy rushed in, they would be fired from both the left and right sides.Charlton personally went to the front line to command the battle, and after carefully observing the position of the Huaxing Army with a telescope, he couldn't help but gasp for a while.Their breech rifles and tactics are pirated by the Huaxing Army, and at this time, they encountered this teacher for the first time, and they were shocked to see the genuine trench defense system.But with his outnumbered men, Charlton quickly regained his self-confidence.He decided to adopt the tactic of opening fire from the center, concentrating his forces on breaking through the defensive center of the Huaxing army, and then expanding the results to both sides.The position of the Huaxing army was set up in a semicircle, and the attack was in the center, and the two sides could not respond.This is equivalent to breaking through the middle line with several times the strength of the Huaxing Army, and then spreading to both sides with several times the strength of the army.This time, Charlton also prepared 200 field guns, all of which were set up at a distance of 1,000 meters from the Huaxing Army.This field gun represents the highest technology of breech-loading artillery, and the barrel, like the barrel, is rifled for firing, and the closure and sealing are very strong, and there are no gaps at all.The propulsion generated by the explosion of gunpowder is also fully utilized, without any energy loss.However, due to the separation of shells and propellant gunpowder, it is also very troublesome to replace ammunition for breech guns.The first step is to remove the debris with a worm; The second step is to put the wet sponge into the inner chamber and clean the hot residues that have not been removed from the worm in the inner chamber; The third part puts the ammunition on the muzzle, punctures the powder bag with a needle, and puts it into the fuse; The last step is to ignite the fuse, which detonates the explosive pack, thus pushing the shell out of the inner chamber.The worm and the poke are equally useful, both to push shells and explosives packets into the barrel.However, the piercing bar is aimed at the smoothbore barrel, and the rifled barrel has a groove line on the inner wall of the gun, so it is necessary to use a worm with spiral teeth to poke down the groove line.At this point, it would take thirty seconds for even a skilled soldier to fire a cannonball
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