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At 1,200 meters, it finally reached the shooting distance specified by Smith: "Fire, fire me hard, let those proud Gallic roosters taste the power of our great Royal Navy of the British Empire." Smith roared frantically. He has lost his mind a bit, because a gunboat in his fleet was very unlucky to be hit by a 75mm field gun during the march just now. The shell hit the port string of the gunboat, just at the waterline of the battleship. The wooden battleship couldn't stop the explosion of the high explosives, and was torn open a gap of more than two meters. The frantic influx of icy sea water, fortunately, the damage control personnel on the ship rescued it in time and blocked the opening, but at this time, hundreds of tons of sea water poured in, causing the gunboat with only more than 500 tons to tilt and almost lost its life. fighting power.

This is the first warship lost since Smith's fleet went to war. How could Smith not be angry anymore? With red eyes, he gave the order to the entire fleet to fire. However, he seems to have forgotten that the most important thing for a naval commander is to maintain sanity in battle. The navy is a technical arm, and he does not need to be the first to fight the enemy as soon as his blood surges like an army commander. A commander who loses his mind can bring a devastating disaster to a fleet.

Seeing Smith like this, George was a little anxious, and quickly persuaded Smith. At the same time, he also had a bad feeling, which he had never seen in the decades since he joined the army.

The captains of the Smith Fleet obeyed Smith's order very well, hit the hull horizontally, pointed the side of the battleship at Barcelona, ​​and began to pour out their anger.

The position of 1,200 meters is the best shooting distance for the British Royal Navy. In this position, their combat effectiveness will be maximized. Hundreds of naval guns fired, and immediately flooded the artillery position of the 88th Army that was firing. Fortunately, the fortifications were well repaired, otherwise there would not be much left on the battlefield. But despite this, two cannons were unfortunately hit, and one of the shells hit the place where the shells were piled up, causing a martyrdom explosion. Immediately, all the nearby cannons and artillery were engulfed, leaving only a pile of broken copper and iron.

Seeing this situation, Xiao Jie's heart tightened immediately. It seems that he has always underestimated the strength of the British navy. Apart from the artillery technology, the opponent's shooting level can not be kept up by the French army's flattery. It seems that there is still a long way to go to build a navy.

Smith also saw the spectacular explosion on the 88th Army's position, and danced with excitement. "Hurry up and kill them, they are going to shoot." Smith yelled. It turned out that in order to lure Smith's fleet to move forward, Xiao Jie specially prepared some people to pretend to be "deserters", and Smith was really fooled.

"Bastard, cowardly Frenchman, they are going to shoot, come closer." Smith ordered.

"Old man, I'm afraid it's not good to be closer. If they have any conspiracy, then we are not..." George persuaded.

"Don't worry, they are all running for their lives. If you don't hurry up, they will all run away." Smith didn't pay attention to George's persuasion at all, as if he had already won the victory.

Seeing that Smith didn't listen to his advice, George sighed and said nothing. I prayed silently in my heart that nothing would happen, because I was suspicious.

In this way, the Smith fleet is getting closer and closer to the coast of Barcelona. Almost all the warships, except the supply ship, are less than 1,000 meters away from the coast. The nearest one is a third-class battleship. The coast is already only 500 meters away. At this time, the 88th Army finally completed the pre-war arrangements, completely packing the Smith Fleet into the "bag". In order to complete this deployment, they lost 12 75mm field guns and suffered more than 100 casualties.

"It's time to save the dead soldiers. Order all units to fire with all their strength, and make sure not to let one go." Xiao Jie ordered.

"Yes." Eck immediately went to convey the order. Seeing his soldiers being blown away continuously, he was also full of fire in his heart.

"1st Battalion, aim at the big guy at the front." Thomas, the head of the heavy artillery regiment, ordered. As the head of the Heavy Artillery Regiment directly under the 88th Army Corps and the senior general of the Legion, he did not stay in a safe place with Xiao Jie like other officers, but went to the battlefield in person. He seemed to prefer the sound of his beloved cannon roaring. That pungent smell of gunpowder smoke.

Under Thomas' order, eight 105mm howitzers aimed at the third-tier battleship closest to the coast that was firing continuously, waiting for the order to fire.

At this time, Xiao Jie's order to fire the guns was preached, and Thomas roared: "Fire the guns." Similarly, he had been full of fire since the bombardment of the Smith Fleet.

Eight 105mm artillery shells full of the anger of the French army flew out of the barrel and slammed into the flamboyant third-tier battleship. At the same time, countless shells flew from the artillery positions of the French army, and with their endless anger, they slammed into the Smith Fleet.

I don't know whether it was the luck of the French army or the misfortune of the British army. The third-tier battleship under Thomas' care was hit by three 105mm howitzer shells. This is obviously not the damage it can withstand. The 105mm howitzer tore the 1,000-ton battleship into pieces in an instant, forming a huge fireball on the sea. The 300 crew members on board were engulfed in the fire before they could even escape for their lives.

"Okay." Seeing that one of the opponent's warships was hit into a ball of fire, Xiao Jie shouted. The other officers basically had the same expressions, and everyone became excited. The 88th Legion's first round of shooting sank a third-tier battleship of the opponent, and at the same time many battleships were damaged, which can be described as brilliant results. At the same time, the morale was also greatly shaken. Many gunners took off their shirts, bare their chests, and frantically moved the shells.

Contrary to the reaction of the 88th Corps, the people in the Smith Fleet saw this situation as if they were stupid. They had never seen the battleship they were proud of being hit into a ball of fire, and they were all stunned. Only Smith was clamoring: "Fire, fire back."

But the Smith Fleet is also a well-trained fleet. After a short pause, it woke up and started shooting frantically. The Royal Navy of the British Empire is the most powerful navy in the world, and their honor cannot be tarnished. For the sake of honor, the morale of the soldiers of the Smith Fleet also boiled up, and they launched a life-threatening shooting.

Only George faintly felt that something was wrong, and he found that the other party seemed to be deliberately seducing them. From the opponent's shelling just now, he also felt the strength of the opponent, and he was definitely not under his own fleet. Originally, he wanted to persuade Smith to be more careful, but seeing that he was like an angry lion now, he had no choice but to shut up. What a good friend he is, but he just can't stand the stimulation, he will go crazy and lose his mind when he is stimulated, and he can't listen to anyone's words. In other words, you just can't afford to lose.

The artillery battle was extremely fierce, but the balance of victory was slowly tilting towards the 88th Corps. Although the Smith Fleet had more naval guns than all the artillery units of the 88th Corps combined, at this time, this did not change them at all. decline. First of all, the 88th Army is far stronger than the Smith Fleet in terms of the quality of the artillery, the range, and the lethality of the shells. Secondly, the artillery positions of the 88th Corps have all been reinforced. Although the effect is not very good due to the tight schedule, it is much stronger than the wooden hull anyway. Again, Lieutenant General Smith, the commander of the Smith Fleet, has lost his mind, and the 88th Army followed the plan to wipe out all the enemies step by step.

At 12 o'clock, the artillery battle had been going on for 3 hours, and the Smith Fleet suffered heavy losses. Three of the five third-tier battleships were sunk, and the remaining two were seriously injured and the other slightly injured. Two second-tier battleships were sunk and one was injured. Smith's flagship, the first-tier battleship "York", was also hit by a 105mm field gun and two 75mm field gun shells, losing 30% of its combat effectiveness. 11 gunboats were also sunk and 4 were sunk, and the rest were more or less wounded, and none of them were intact. However, the dozen or so fast boats were not damaged. It was not the 88th Army that took care of them, but because they were small in size, fast in speed, and good at dodging shells, but if they were hit, they only needed a 75mm shell. It rips to shreds. But the probability of hitting them is really very small. After a few hours of fighting, only one of the most unlucky ones was hit, and the others were fine, with no injuries at all.

The 88th Army also suffered some losses~lightnovelpub.net~ but it was not serious, and it was just that the density of shelling was a little lower. Compared with the Smith Fleet, they were much better.

"Smith, we've lost, let's retreat, or we'll all die here." George suggested to Smith seeing that the situation was over.

Smith glared at George, but then he sighed. For the sake of the battle, he also calmed down. Watching his warships being destroyed, he also understood that he was fooled and underestimated the 88th. The strength of the legion. "George, are we still able to escape? Look at the trajectory of their shells, they have enveloped our entire fleet. The Smith fleet is over, and I killed everyone." After saying this, Smith seemed to have aged a lot. At the age of ten, the whole person became decadent. If he had been an ambitious admiral before the war, he was now a feeble old man. His fighting spirit has been completely destroyed.

Seeing this situation, George was also taken aback. He had never seen Smith like this before, and it could be seen that this failure hit him hard. At the same time, he sighed, if the development continues like this, the fleet is really finished this time.

(To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to .FU., more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)