"It's so ruthless!"

Zeng Tao, the admiral of the Nanyang Fleet, on his flagship Weiyuan, looked at the fleeing British army and said with great interest.

The latter was practically on the verge of total annihilation.

Lieutenant Colonel Townlinson brought out three infantry battalions to counterattack the beachhead, a total of less than 2,000 infantry, the British Army has always had a strange establishment, the number of their infantry regiments is not fixed at all, seven infantry battalions of 5,000 troops are also a regiment, and an infantry battalion of 500 men is also a regiment. However, the average infantry battalion is more than 600 people, and the reason why it is said to be average is because in fact, this number is not accurate, in short, Lieutenant Colonel Tang Linsen took three infantry battalions and one cavalry battalion against the first Marine Brigade and one battalion of the Ming Army, which had a total of 800 infantry, plus a howitzer team.

In terms of strength, the British army had an absolute advantage, but because of the gap in weapons, a Swynpwood-style tragedy was finally staged.

Originally, relying on bravery and quick decision, Lieutenant Colonel Townlinson was still able to save a little face for the British Empire, after all, he still rushed to the Ming army position with his cavalry.

It's a pity that the two machine guns that had just landed ruined everything.

"This is a killing machine!"

Zeng Tao looked at the machine gun that was spewing flames with a telescope and said with emotion.

"Admiral, the British fleet has arrived!"

The officer next to the telegraph behind him said.

"Let's go, there's nothing to do here!"

Zeng Tao immediately ordered.

His order was sent by telegram, and smoke began to billowing from the chimneys of all the Ming capital ships at the mouth of the Singapore River, and then headed west towards Longya Gate.

At this time, there was a huge gap between Singapore and Hyundai.

In fact, at this time, the coast only reached the north bank of the reservoir within the Singapore barrage dam, and the east bank of the Singapore estuary had to shrink nearly one kilometer to the north. Sentosa Island has not become a fortress, and the artillery at this time is not enough to block the Strait of Baba, and the dragon's tooth in the Strait that brought the domineering name of the Dragon's Tooth Gate to Singapore, or the reef across the channel, has not yet been blown up.

At the same time that the other battalions of the 3rd Marine Brigade also began to set foot on the coast, fourteen capital ships and another ten cruisers sailed through Longya Gate.

At this time, on the sea level in the distance, a dense jungle of sail masts slowly emerged.

"Array, prepare to meet the enemy!"

Zeng Tao took a deep breath and said.

The fourteen capital ships that had just sailed out of the strait quickly turned around, and a column headed south, and when the British fleet could already see clearly, they also formed a horizontal wall on the sea, which locked the Singapore Strait in a north-south direction, and on the starboard side, including sixteen six-inch guns, more than two hundred cannons were all pointed at the British fleet, and then the speed slowed down to wait there quietly.

"What do they want to do?"

On the Trafalgar, Yilu watched the scene suspiciously.

The performance of the Ming army is very abnormal, the advantage of the Ming army is speed, under normal circumstances, they should move forward at full speed, cut horizontally to the rear of the British fleet, and then follow like maggots attached to the bones, while keeping a distance and constantly concentrating firepower to shell one by one, using the advantage of their fast and flexible warships to play each break.

But now what is this for?

Abandon the speed advantage and let these formidable battleships act as floating batteries?

"Attack on the battle line!"

He immediately gave the order.

The eighteen battleships sailing in two columns changed their formation, also formed a horizontal formation, with the standard battle line headed by the Trafalgar and St. George, the diagonal line cut forward, and gradually narrowed the distance between the battle line and the Ming army, a decisive battle at sea with the most classic tactics, so as the distance was shortened and gradually unfolded, whether it was on the British battleship or on the Ming battleship, all the soldiers were in full array, and one cannon stretched out the cannon door, quietly waiting for the moment of roar.

However, at this time......

"What's that?"

On the cruiser Crocodile, which was on guard south of Guikor Island behind the British battleship, a sailor who was manipulating the rigging suddenly said suspiciously.

As he spoke, he leaned out.

The companions beside him immediately leaned out and looked at the azure sea, a faint golden color approached under the water, it looked like it was the size of a dolphin, and the speed was about the same as that of a dolphin, but it was golden, although it was underwater, it was still possible to see the reflection of metal, this strange shadow quickly passed from their field of vision and disappeared below the sixth-level ship.

The two sailors stared blankly at each other.

Then they shrugged at the same time, and almost at the same time, a scream erupted from the cabin.

"Oh my God, it's leaking!"

……

The captain, who was not far from them, rushed headlong to the hatch without hesitation, but before he could open it, the hatch opened from the inside, and several of the sailors in the bottom compartment rushed out like madness, as if they had seen the most terrible sight, and their faces were white and screaming.

"Damn, what's going on?"

The captain grabbed one of them and yelled angrily.

"Devil, no, Poseidon, it's Poseidon!"

The sailor screamed incoherently.

At this time, a strange sound suddenly came from the cabin, like a huge wave crashing against the side of the ship, and at the same time the battleship with a full load of nearly a thousand tons also shook, and the captain's face changed suddenly, and he pushed the sailor away, but at the same time the sailor on the artillery deck also screamed and began to pour out.

"Go back, no matter what happens, go back and stick to your posts."

The captain roared.

He kept pushing away the sailors, trying to rush into the cabin to see what was going on, but he couldn't succeed, and just then the frightened sailors began to pour out of the other hatches, shouting that the water was leaking, that the ship was sinking, and so on, and rushed desperately to the dinghy. At this time, the sound in the cabin of the battleship was louder, the shaking was more violent, and even the whole ship was sinking significantly faster, and the sailors on the deck also began to scramble for the dinghy and lifebuoy, and even the hull was making an overwhelmed sound.

"Damn, what the hell is going on?"

The captain roared in despair.

And at this moment, flames erupted from the Ming warships in the distance.

"Keep moving forward and don't waste shells!"

On the Trafalgar, Yilu shouted as he watched the shells grazing the deck.

The cannonball, with a splash of splinters, flew out of the starboard side at once, but then exploded, and although it had been more than five meters away from the Trafalgar, the force of the explosion still lifted an eighteen-pounder gun directly off the deck, and two of the artillerymen were blown to pieces, and several others also fell on the deck and screamed bloodily.

"The Avenger has been shot!"

The officer next to him said, looking behind him.

Smoke rose from the Avenger in the distance.

"It's still holding up!"

Yilu said with a resolute expression.

"Admiral, the Crocodile is sinking!"

Suddenly, an officer rushed up to him and shouted.

"The Crocodile?"

Yilu was stunned for a moment, he hurriedly rushed to the port side and climbed the mainmast as fast as he could, and then raised the telescope to look north, and a battleship on the distant sea in the field of vision was only left with a mast, and at the same time another battleship not far from the battleship was also slowly sinking, the sailors on the ship kept jumping off the deck, and the cruisers and frigates gathered there, including the steam paddle steamer, were all moving in confusion, and on the mast of a cruiser, the signalman was anxiously waving the signal flag, and the flag was ......

"There's a sea monster?"

Admiral Yilu was speechless.

Suddenly, a series of legends flashed through his mind......

Anyway, there are monsters!

He looked around with a hint of panic, he was bounded to the north by the entrances to Singapore and the Straits of Johor, and to the west by a cluster of large and small islands such as Koh Kalimen and Koh Kundur, although there was a narrow channel at the southern end of Kalimen Island that was not passable at all, and the channel was full of shallows. This group of islands formed the southern shore of the Singapore Strait to the north, across the sea from the islands of Kuka and Cape Piai to the north, with his cruisers and frigate gunboats in the middle, and to the east of him was the Ming battlefleet across the Singapore Strait, and to the south of him were the equally dense innumerable islands of various sizes.

He's in a pocket.

He didn't care about the sinking third battleship behind him, rushed down as fast as he could, and shouted in the confusion of those men: "Turn due south and go full speed!" ”

Due south is the only option.

Despite the same dense number of islands, the waterway between Kundur and Sugi could still be ventured through, and the other islands were simply not enough for battleships with a draft of more than seven meters to pass, and he finally understood why the Ming army had put up such a formation, which was not prepared for a decisive battle with him, that is, to block his passage through the Singapore Strait. And what really dealt with him was underwater, it was the legendary god emperor who could summon meteors, move freely underwater, and even tear the keel of the battleship at the bottom of the ship, it was the monster, the latter must have taken that cruiser to his back, and when his huge fleet was forced to the pocket of the Singapore Strait, he blocked the strait with his fleet, and then he killed at will underwater.

It's madness!

Fortunately, there is still a glimmer of life, as long as you rush south through this waterway, you can enter the South China Sea, as for Singapore......

I don't care so much now!

The entire British fleet made an abrupt turn two thousand yards from the Ming fleet, and then sailed due south.

Behind the battleships, the cruisers and frigate gunboats turned in the same confusion, and by this time five battleships had sunk strangely into the sea, and the sailors on the deck were staring at the surface of the sea with trepidation, and all the guns that could reach were firing desperately as soon as the golden color appeared. But unfortunately, no matter how much they attacked, they couldn't stop the golden ghost from disappearing under their battleship, and then immediately after their battleship keel broke off and the sea rushed in.

They are powerless to resist.

What's even more terrifying is that the golden ghost is faster than their battleship, like a golden dolphin that passes silently and can't avoid it at all.

Unstoppable, unavoidable, it followed the fleet like a maggot with bones, like a god who dominated the sea, bringing warships to the bottom of the sea, and a desperate panic enveloped the entire fleet, even on the battleships that were fleeing south at full speed, those sailors looked behind them in the same horror, watching the cruisers and frigates continue to sink strangely one by one, and then rushed to the deck, looking at the blue sea as if they were watching the bottomless abyss of a demon at any time.

In order to reduce weight in order to accelerate, the sailors on these battleships began to constantly throw superfluous items, and the battleships with a tailwind continued to accelerate slowly.

Yilu didn't look at his feet, he was staring at the Ming fleet.

The Ming fleet has begun to accelerate.

The twenty-eight chimneys of the fourteen warships spewed smoke like a magnificent black dragon in the sky, slanting diagonally towards the front of their course at an increasing speed, and at the same time a cannon spewed flames, and flowering shells flying over the sea of two thousand yards continued to fall on the British warships. Although the shells could not penetrate more than two feet of oak, and because of the fuse, the vast majority of shells exploded after being bounced off, their power, especially the arson effect, still caused smoke to bilute several British battleships. However, at this time, the sail battleships were not so easy to ignite, including the sails were also fireproofed and soaked in flame retardant solution, unless they were poured oil to burn, it was difficult to really ignite, and those well-trained sailors also had a lot of fire extinguishing equipment, and they could still withstand this level of arson.

Except for a few, the other guns were basically in the cabin, and even the gunpowder used by the guns on the deck was not directly placed aside, but was constantly transported by special soldiers.

Actually, they're half-grown teenagers.

The British have always had a tradition of using small children to transport ammunition on battleships.

At the same time, the cannons on the British battleships had also fired, although it was difficult to hit at such a distance, and even if it did, it was impossible to penetrate the planks of the Ming battleships, but it could still cause damage to the Ming troops, especially those made of cruiser planks, if they were hit by sixty-eight-pounder shells at such a distance, it was not impossible to penetrate the possibility. In the long-distance artillery battle between the two sides, the two fleets were getting closer and closer, and the battle became more and more fierce, and even those British soldiers simply left behind the strange ghost behind them and went all out to engage the Ming army in front of them.

After all, this is their only way to survive.

In this sea, surrounded by Singapore, the Malay Peninsula and the Riau Islands, almost comparable to an inland lake, the two fleets shot at each other while accelerating with all their might, but the speed gap was indeed inexplicable, although the British battlefleet with a tailwind, the speed had reached nine knots, but it was still unable to rush ahead of the Ming fleet of more than fifteen knots to enter the waterway, including Yilu, all the officers and men watched the first Ming warship enter directly in front of them, and then one by one continued to insert the course, A classic T-word appears on the sea.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the time for a bloody battle has come!"

Yilu straightened out his military uniform and said.

At the same time, less than a thousand yards away from the Trafalgar, the four six-inch main guns on the Ming Zhiyuan and Jingyuan suddenly erupted into flames, followed by 20 four-inch naval guns on the starboard side also began to spray flames, and on the Trafalgar, which had slightly adjusted its course, a 68-pounder gun and more than 50 32-pounder guns also roared from each other.

The whistling of shells staggered across the sea.

Thus began the real battle of the fleets of both sides!