He Bu thought very clearly, rather than devoting more than half of his troops to take the risk, it was better to retreat temporarily, if the Qing army did not have torpedoes, and only relied on the superiority of artillery, he could reorganize the attack, and he would not be able to take such a risk.

Although he had shaken his previous speculation after seeing the huge advantages of the Qing army's new naval artillery - the speculation that the Qing army had developed a torpedo, he was still very cautious, and the experience of fighting with the Qing army in Tianjin told him that he must be cautious, cautious, and cautious in the battle with the Qing army!

'Jingyuan', the bridge, saw his own fleet turn around and rush to reinforcements, Zai Zhao couldn't help frowning, he felt that the reinforcements were too early, like this level of fierce fighting, it is an extremely rare opportunity for the officers and men of the Qing Navy, although it will lead to some casualties, and the battleships will also be damaged, but there are really not many opportunities for this kind of actual combat training.

After more than an hour of fierce fighting, the 'Jingyuan' can be described as full of bullet marks, I don't know how many shells were hit, and bullet holes of different sizes and torn armor could be seen everywhere on the sides and decks of the ship.

Although it was a mess everywhere and it was shocking to look at, the battleship was actually not very damaged, and the British flowering shells did little damage to the battleship, and could only kill and injure the soldiers moving on the deck.

Although solid bullets can penetrate or tear the protective iron armor above the waterline of the battleship, it is just a few more holes or openings for the battleship, and it does not matter, unless it hits the part below the waterline of the battleship, it can seriously damage the battleship, but because the trajectory of the shell is parabolalic, it is not generally difficult to shell the part below the waterline of the battleship with artillery, unless it is a big luck.

Just as Captain Zaizhao said, he completely regarded this naval battle as a training exercise, and of course, this was a training exercise with real guns and ammunition, and casualties would occur at any time.

Seeing Xiao Mingliang rushing to reinforcements, Yi Zhengxing's heart couldn't help but sink, he could see Xiao Mingliang's intention at a glance, this was to attract the British fleet to rush over and trigger a larger-scale scuffle, and he was already a little relaxed, and he suddenly became nervous again.

Although the battle situation in front of him is already very fierce, the warships of the two sides have been fighting artillery battles, that is to say, they are basically still in a controllable range, and once there is a large-scale melee, the situation is beyond anyone's control.

Report ——。 The communications officer came in and said aloud: "The flagship order, if the enemy ship escapes, it will be directly torpedoed and sunk!" ”

Needless to say? Zai Zhao nodded, "Convey orders to the ships." After a pause, he then ordered, "Summons, torpedo ready, ready to be on standby." ”

The battleship was equipped with a flywheel-powered torpedo, and the winch inside the torpedo had to be accelerated to about 10,000 revolutions per minute by using a steam winch in advance, so Zai Zhao would order early preparations.

On the sea, after more than an hour of fierce fighting, the ironclad ship 'Sovereign' agreed to be scarred, there were many bullet holes of different sizes on the side of the ship, and there were many serious deformations on the deck, which were all caused by the fire formed by the explosion of the Qing army's special bombs.

Arthur Hood, who had a face of gunpowder, looked at the 'Jingyuan' on the opposite side with a cold expression, and he had to admit that the Qing Navy, which had only been established for thirty years and had no background, was already qualified to become the opponent of the Royal Navy of the British Empire.

Although the naval guns of the Qing ship have a fast rate of fire and a high hit rate, the number of artillery is too small to form an overwhelming advantage, especially when the two sides swim around each other to evade, the artillery advantage of the Qing army is not obvious, on the contrary, they have a large number of naval guns, but they still occupy the advantage, and every salvo can hit the opponent embarrassed, if it is not for the Qing ship's evasion technology is good, their advantage will be more obvious.

Of course, if the distance can be greatly reduced, their advantage will be more obvious, after all, the Royal Navy is good at and likes to be close to the shelling, however, he did not dare to close the distance, although some of the warships have unconsciously closed the distance in the fierce battle, but the 'Sovereign' has always maintained a distance of a thousand yards from the other side, for him, this is a safe distance.

He believed that as long as he could maintain this advantage and continue to fight, as the advantage gradually accumulated, even if the opponent was tenacious, they would eventually be able to crush the opponent," he said——, another formation of the enemy army was rapidly rushing towards the battlefield. ”

Listening to the report of the communication officer, Arthur Hood hurriedly turned around, and sure enough, another formation of the Qing army, which had been chasing their formation, left behind the opponent and was rushing towards the battlefield.

This change was obviously a bit unexpected to him, and in the current battle situation, their advantage was obvious. He naturally didn't want other changes, once the Qing army joined forces, the battle situation would become complicated, and there were only two choices in front of them, either a big scuffle or a retreat, what choice would He Bu make?

Soon, the flagship sent an order through the flag - evacuate the battlefield!

After receiving the order, Arthur Hood felt a little regretful in his heart, after all, as far as the current battle situation is concerned, their advantage is obvious, and if they miss this opportunity, the Qing Navy may avoid the battle when they realize that the firepower of the battleship is insufficient, and once the Qing army's ironclad ships add naval guns, they are afraid that they will not even have the opportunity to fight in close combat and melee!

Although he felt a little regretful in his heart, Arthur Hood did not hesitate to give the order to evacuate the battlefield!

After more than an hour of fierce fighting, the Monarch had maintained a safe distance of 1,000 yards from the enemy ships, and in Arthur Hood's opinion, it was easy to evacuate the battlefield, after all, there were ten non-combating ironclads behind them ready to respond and cover with artillery fire.

As soon as the 'Sovereign' turned the ship's hull, they heard a violent explosion, and Arthur Hood turned around and saw the 'Captain' not far from them rising a wave of water rushing to the sky, and he changed color and changed his color, this is definitely not the power of naval guns or mines!

Before he could react, there was another violent explosion, and the 7,892-ton 'Captain' was lifted by the sea like a fallen leaf, and then fell heavily, and the huge ironclad battleship seemed to be more fragile than a wooden-hulled ship, breaking into two knots from the middle.

Is this a torpedo? Definitely torpedoes! Arthur Hood's pupils shrank, and he suddenly shouted loudly: "Avoid! Full speed evasion! ”

Arthur Hood's quick reaction saved the fate of the 'Sovereign', and the battleship that was about to speed away from the battlefield suddenly turned around, causing the two torpedoes fired by the 'Jingyuan' to miss, seeing this situation, Zaizhao couldn't help but be very annoyed, because he couldn't judge whether the other party avoided or evacuated, so he hesitated, because once the torpedo was fired, the battle was decided, and he was unwilling to end the naval battle prematurely.

The effective range of the flywheel-powered torpedo itself is one thousand meters, and the other party itself is about a kilometer away from them, and now if he is frightened, he will fire the torpedo again, the probability of hitting is very small, it is better to hit the nearby target, after all, the torpedo needs time to prepare.

The 'Sovereign' narrowly escaped, but the other British ships were not so lucky, one after another violently exploded, one after another huge waves rose and fell on the sea, and one British ship after another rose and fell on the sea like a piece of fallen leaves.

The frightened Arthur Hood looked at this scene dumbfounded, the previous guess was good, the Qing army really developed a torpedo with actual combat value, not only can be directed to the depth, but also has a fast speed, a long range, a speed of at least 20 knots, and a range of at least a thousand yards, which is simply the nemesis of ironclad ships!

On the 'Jingyuan', Yi Zhengxing was also stunned to look at the most spectacular scene in his life, although he had long known that the power of the torpedo was extremely powerful, but after witnessing it with his own eyes, he knew that the power of the torpedo was so great! It seems that a single torpedo can sink a battleship of the main force of the British army!

After a while, he asked, "Why is the torpedo so powerful?" ”

Zaizhao couldn't answer this question, he only knew that the underwater explosion was not comparable on land, so he immediately smiled and said, "Go ask those people from the Torpedo Research Institute." ”

The explosive power of the torpedo is great, mainly the water is helping., the density of water is a thousand times greater than that of air, so the explosive energy transfer is almost a thousand times larger, and the torpedo attacks the part below the waterline of the battleship, that is, it explodes under water, and the power is naturally not comparable to that of artillery shells.

The explosion of a torpedo under the waterline was enough to tear the hull material of the warship. At the same time, the torpedo exploded at a fixed depth below the bottom of the ship, creating a huge shock wave and bubbles in an extremely short time. Because the water is incompressible, the explosion shock wave carries the bubbles to impact the bottom of the ship and spread, forming a foam jet, the shock wave acts on the hull, destroys and jacks the hull, and then the diffused foam "dilutes" the buoyancy of the water to sink the hull, the hull is in a state of up and down shock, and the damaged hull is "bent" and will eventually be broken by its own weight.

On the British flag ship 'Sultan', Hebu couldn't help but be shocked, angry and secretly glad when he saw this scene, the Qing army had really developed a new torpedo!

Fortunately, he was cautious enough and didn't dare to risk more than half of his troops, otherwise, he would have lost more than just these ironclad ships! The Qing army is really cunning, and it is obvious that it can easily sink the small fleet he used for temptation, but it pretends to fight fiercely for more than an hour, if it is changed to a naval general to command this naval battle, it is possible that the whole army will be annihilated!

"Withdraw!" Without hesitation, he ordered what else to do if he didn't retreat, waiting for the Qing fleet to catch up with them and launch torpedoes.

The military observers of various countries who watched the battle from afar were also dumbfounded, and they quickly guessed that the Qing army might have developed a new type of torpedo, and the slow reaction was still confused, and what kind of weapon was so powerful that the Qing army used?

In less than five minutes, the British ironclad ships, which originally had a considerable advantage, were all sunk without exception except for one that escaped from the battlefield, and all of them were broken into two sections.

Originally, many people scoffed at the commander of the British expeditionary force who commanded this naval battle, thinking that he was timid and cautious and indecisive, but when he saw this scene, he immediately changed his opinion, if He Bu was not cautious enough, it would definitely not be these nine ironclad ships that were sunk.

Most of the military observers of European countries are in mixed moods, the combat power of the Qing navy far exceeds their expectations, the Qing ironclad ships with new artillery and new torpedoes will inevitably replace England as the new maritime hegemon, and in terms of the army, the new weapons of the Qing army are also emerging in an endless stream, and the combat power is strong, it is undeniable that the ancient empire in the East has become one of the strongest military powers in the world, and may even be the strongest military power.

The military observers of the United States and Russia are all excited, and having an ally with such a strong military strength is a joyful event for both countries!

The sea was quiet, the British fleet withdrew from the battlefield as fast as possible, and the Qing fleet did not pursue, (anyway, it couldn't catch up, so it didn't take much effort at all.) Rather, the British sailors and sailors who were busy salvaging overboard on the surface of the sea, both for humanitarian and bargaining chips, and these captives would later be bargaining chips with the British.

On the flagship 'Zhiyuan', through the flag communication, hearing that the casualties of each ship were less than 20%, Xiao Mingliang couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, this battle could have sunk these nine British ironclad ships with slight casualties, but in order to drag more British ships in, he deliberately fought with the British ships for more than an hour, and the result was that only these nine British ships were sunk, if the casualties were too large, he didn't know how to explain to Yi Zhi.

Hearing that the casualties were not large, Guo Zhongmu was also relieved, and asked instead: "The British fleet fled north, are we going back to Maputo.......?" ”

"Let Zai Zhao lead the battleship back to Maputo to rest." Xiao Mingliang said in a deep voice: "Let's go to the port of Durban, the British army can capture Maputo, why can't we capture the port of Durban?" Even if you want to negotiate, you have to talk about it in Durban! ”

Guo Zhongmu smacked his words, it didn't seem to mean that Yi Zhizhi meant, and after hesitating, he tentatively said: "Is it the principal's intention to capture Durban?" Why not just open Pooltown? ”

"Cape Town, that's so easy to fight?" Xiao Mingliang said slowly: "The principal has no intention of expelling England from South Africa, nor does he intend to expand in South Africa, even if he captures Durban, it is just to increase the bargaining chips." ”

Guo Zhongmu said suspiciously: "The principal just wants to keep the gold mines in the Transvaal?" ”

"Is that simple?" Xiao Mingliang smiled: "What the principal wants is the Persian Gulf." ”