Dominate the Country

The Li Guang rushed out of the Spanish's dense rain of bullets with billowing smoke.

The escort fleet's counterattack caused chaos in the entire Spanish fleet, especially their preemptive attack - the detonation of the San Antonio in one fell swoop, which added to the panic of the Spanish and Sardinian warships.

Zhu Fu would not miss this opportunity, and immediately led the fleet to rush to the east where the enemy fleet was the strongest.

The Osman I followed closely behind.

The distance between the warships of both sides was shortened a lot in the next half an hour, and rockets exploded from time to time.

But in the end, the Li Guang still rushed out of the encirclement.

Although the warships of the eight main fleets were all scarred, each warship suffered varying degrees of damage, especially the fourth-level sailing warship Zhang Fei, which was hit badly by shells and was hit by a rocket during the breakout, and the entire rear deck was blown away. The sails were severely damaged and the casualties were even more severe.

The captain, the first mate, and the sail and cable chief were all killed, the second mate and the navigator were seriously injured and unconscious, leaving only the boatswain in charge.

There were 330 Austrian officers and soldiers on the ship, and the loss of personnel reached 100, including nearly ten officers of various ranks. The casualties were not insignificant.

However, the Spaniards and Sardinians did not take advantage, especially the Spaniards. The explosion of a third-level sailing battleship cost them 560 people in one fell swoop. Adding the casualties of other warships, the total loss was close to 800 people.

Neither side could say that they took advantage.

However, after the smoke of gunpowder on the sea extinguished, neither the Spaniard nor the Sardinian easily said that they would continue to pursue eastward.

Because this battle told them that the Chinese really dared to fight desperately.

The Li Guang was the flagship of the ship, and it was the first to try to approach 500 meters in the battle, the range of rockets. Regardless of whether the commander was really so brave, he really did such a move in the battle.

Enver Pasha on the Osman I admired Zhu Fu's courage very much.

The lethality of rockets is really too great.

The San Antonio is a living example. The Marlin XI was really blessed by God. It survived two rockets at the same time. Look at the end of the Zhang Fei. If such an explosion happened to the Marlin XI, then the Marlin XI could be announced to be removed from the fleet.

If it doesn't sink, it must be abandoned immediately.

Therefore, the number of ships sunk in this battle and the number of casualties on both sides cannot properly reflect the pattern in the Central and Western Mediterranean. This night battle came to an end, but this is only a point in the entire war. Before Zhu Fu's fleet passed through the Tunisian Strait and entered the waters of Crete, they still had to face the crazy interception of Spanish warships. It was still difficult and dangerous.

Fortunately, the Spanish Navy did not have the British tradition of "fighting every enemy". And the bounty system of the British Royal Navy is really crazy.

At the dock of Valletta Harbor on Malta Island, George Hamilton was silently watching a fleet passing through the Strait of Malta one after another.

This fleet was large in scale, and among them was a rare first-class sailing battleship, with the star-crescent flag of the Ottoman Empire flying on it.

The Knights of Malta were the old enemy of the Ottomans, and they still remembered the star-crescent flag.

After Zhu Fu led the fleet to break through the Spanish blockade again, the fleet that had just rushed out of the Strait of Tunisia turned around and entered the Strait of Malta.

Zhu Fu did not ask the Knights of Malta to dock, but stayed in the Maltese waters for two days and then passed directly.

The Battle of the Strait of Tunisia was Zhu Fu's third battle with the Spaniards, and they also lost ships for the first time, and two at a time.

Once again, the desperate Marlin XI did not have the good luck of being protected by God. It was hit by three rockets, and a terrible explosion occurred on the ship. The captain, the first mate, the second mate, etc. were killed on the spot. Of the 250 people on the ship, only seven escaped.

However, the desperate Marlin XI also caused serious damage to the main ship of the Spanish squadron, a second-class sailing battleship. Then, under the continuous attack of the Osman I, the side of the ship was pierced and flooded seriously, and it was on the verge of abandonment.

However, this second-class sailing battleship finally escaped the fate of sinking on the spot.

When the outcome of the battle became more and more obvious, the Spanish squadron was no match for Zhu Fu's fleet. As mentioned in the previous article, the Spanish Mediterranean Fleet has a total of 22 battleships of level 3 or above, including four level 1 battleships. In addition to the Saint Trinidad battleship that appeared in the Strait of Gibraltar, two of the other three level 1 battleships are in the waters north of Sardinia.

The Spanish Navy has a total of 16 battleships in the waters north of Sardinia, and in the battle outside the Port of Nice, Spain only dispatched 10 battleships of level 3 or above. One level 1 battleship, one level 2 battleship, and eight level 3 battleships!

The other six battleships of the Spanish Navy are all concentrated in the Strait of Tunisia. There is a level 1 battleship, a level 2 battleship, and four level 3 battleships!

From the number of battleships, this Spanish squadron is not as large as Zhu Fu's fleet. Zhu Fu's fleet has eight battleships and six fourth-class sailing warships.

So the Chinese navy won the battle in the Tunis Strait. The Spaniards persisted on the sea for seven hours, but in the end they did not wait for the arrival of the "reinforcements".

——The Spanish-Sardinian fleet after the Battle of Nice did not follow closely.

When the battle was over, Zhu Fu suddenly discovered that the second-class sailing battleship that was hit by at least 100 bullets and suffered a fatal blow from the Marlin 11 was dragged away and disappeared, which made the Chinese and Austrian officers and soldiers present all sigh with regret.

In this battle, the Chinese visiting Austrian fleet sank a total of three Spanish warships, including a third-class sailing battleship, a fourth-class sailing battleship, and a single-masted schooner with only one gun deck.

The other ship lost by the Chinese side was a transport ship. The Tunisian fleet did not have as many main battleships as Chen Han, but they had quite a few small warships. In the seven hours of fighting, they still found loopholes and boarded a Chinese transport ship through a small boat.

However, their warship was bombarded by a Chen Han fourth-level sailing warship and had to turn its head and flee in the opposite direction. The Spanish soldiers who had boarded the Chinese merchant ship cursed at this. After killing the crew and igniting the flammable materials on the deck of the ship, they took more than ten small boats and rowed wildly away from the war zone.

The entire merchant ship was engulfed in the raging fire.

This was the first merchant ship to be burned since the operation. The more than 200 crew members on the ship were all from the logistics department, but they were all soldiers. As the Spaniards continued to bombard with cannons, approached by small boats, and climbed onto the deck of the ship, their resistance was very fierce. Of course, the losses were also great.

There was no living person on the upper deck, and the remaining crew members retreated to the lower deck.

Finally, the Spaniards set fire to the ship and chose to evacuate. They ran out from the bottom and jumped into the sea frantically. At the end of the statistics, only 103 of the 236 officers and soldiers on a ship survived.

After another naval battle, Zhu Fu's fleet stopped in the Maltese waters for two days, and each ship repaired itself. The flagship Li Guang and Osman I were both severely damaged, especially the former. The hull, canvas, and mast were damaged many times, and they could only barely sail. Under the command of the officers, the sailors took the time to replace the canvas and repair the easy-to-replace board and mast.

The Spaniards never caught up, which somewhat relaxed the atmosphere in the team.

But the atmosphere in the team was not high, although they won the naval battle. Because they were not satisfied with the previous battle, although the fleet captured three enemy warships, it let the cooked duck that Tuna 11 exchanged for "life" fly away from the pot, which made many people depressed.

But in fact, they didn't know that the second-class sailing battleship had not escaped far from the battlefield before it had to rush to the coast - the leak was getting worse and worse, and it had to run aground.

But when it rushed to the shore, the second-class sailing battleship ran aground again. Although the Spanish Navy tried every means to repair it in the following month, it still failed to make the warship float again. In a strong storm a month later, the second-class sailing battleship was completely destroyed.

There is no doubt that this is the biggest achievement of the Chen Han Navy in this battle.

George Hamilton is an Englishman. Although he is a member of the Order of Malta, he serves London more. He knows that the fleet in front of him is a Chinese fleet, and their destination is to trade in Istanbul, the Ottoman Empire. Before that, they had fought three battles with the Mediterranean Fleet of the Spanish Navy.

Under the current circumstances, the battle between the Chinese and Western fleets is still very fierce, and the result should end with the Chinese having the upper hand. This surprised many people, and Hamilton was one of them.

Hamilton couldn't imagine that the powerful Spanish Mediterranean Fleet in his memory would be "defeated" by a weak Chinese fleet thousands of miles away from the country. This even made Hamilton feel a little unreal.

The Spanish Navy has nearly 50 battleships, most of which are deployed in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, and there are as many as 22 in the Mediterranean, including four first-class sailing battleships.

The Spanish were reluctant to use the first-class sailing battleships to compete with other countries' third-class sailing battleships or even fourth-class sailing battleships in the Atlantic Ocean.

This Mediterranean Fleet is not an opponent worth mentioning.

Even the powerful British Mediterranean Fleet has to pay great attention to it.

But such a powerful fleet that makes the British feel threatened was actually taken advantage of by an escort fleet that is less than half of its strength in continuous battles. How incredible it is.

But the fact is that the last battle between China and the West in the Tunis Strait was fought under the watchful eyes of a British sixth-class sailing battleship. In fact, George Hamilton now knew that the severely damaged second-class sailing battleship had hit the reef directly when it was beaching after leaving the battlefield. It could be said that it was unlucky and tragic.

The three naval battles launched by the Spanish only caused the Chinese to lose a harmless clipper warship and a transport ship, while they stranded a second-class sailing battleship and silenced two third-class sailing battleships. It can be said that they lost a lot of money.

This must make the British sigh at the good luck and courage of the Chinese.

The British have always paid close attention to the construction and real combat effectiveness of the Chinese navy.

It’s a pity that they can only know the former clearly. The "model" of the Chinese warships being built like dumplings in the water makes London feel like Alexander.

The total tonnage of Chinese warships is not as strong as that of the Kingdom of Great Britain, but the Chinese warships are concentrated. It is in the Pacific Ocean, and has only recently been quietly spying on the Indian Ocean. The powerful naval fleet of the Kingdom of Great Britain is "fragmented", which is London's biggest disadvantage.

And the actual combat effectiveness of the Chinese navy is really hard to talk about.

After they formed an army, they fought with the Spaniards, which was like adults beating children, and nothing could be seen at all.

So much so that within the British Royal Navy, more than one voice shouted: The Chinese are just a showpiece. No matter how powerful the fleet is in their hands, it is useless.

But after the details of the three battles were announced, George Hamilton believed that they would definitely shut up the blind and arrogant mouths of the British Royal Navy.

Zhu Fu led the fleet to anchor in the Maltese waters for two days, and some news had been delivered to some people through the British's extremely fast communication methods. That included some details of the Battle of Nice! George Hamilton was one of them.

In these three battles, the Battle of Gibraltar was an appetizer, the Battle of Nice was a real feast, and the Battle of the Tunis Strait was a dessert after dinner.

The Chinese commander dared to lead the flagship to always rush to the front in the battle, and dared to be the first to let the flagship approach 500 meters and play with rockets. Regardless of whether this commander is brave or not, he must be extremely brave.

Just like those officers who led the soldiers to charge in the face of dense grapeshot.

Among his subordinates, the captain of the sunken clipper warship commanded the warship to approach the enemy ship within 500 meters and launch rockets in two battles with very short intervals. This courage is enough to fight a giant dragon alone.

The Chinese naval tactics are very conventional, but the fighting spirit and courage of the naval officers and soldiers cannot be ignored.

If all Chinese naval officers and soldiers are like this, then the Chinese will at least be an enlarged version of the French Navy.

This is not good news for London and the British Royal Navy.