Fox of France

The British sent the "Queen Elizabeth" to North America, which of course put tremendous pressure on the Americans, but on the other hand, it also greatly weakened their power in Europe.

And this situation immediately brought about a change.

On the day Nelson's fleet attacked Savannah, a French fleet appeared outside Cardiff harbour. This is a powerful fleet including the battleships "Imperator" and "Caesar". After the "Queen Elizabeth" went to North America, there were no warships of the same level as them in the British Navy for the time being.

However, the Royal Navy mustered up its courage and sent a small fleet of two armored cruisers to approach the French fleet, and asked the French about their intentions with semaphore.

"They asked why we came?" On the bridge of the "Imberado", Admiral Treville said in a sarcastic tone, "Tell them that we are sailing freely. On the sea, where do we want to go?" Just go wherever. None of their business!"

So the French fleet set up a battle line, arranged a bombardment formation, and practiced the tactics of bombarding the port at a distance of only three nautical miles from the port of Cardiff.

Then the French fleet turned around and left Cardiff, crossed St. George's Strait, and swaggered towards Liverpool. Naturally, the fleet of the British Navy came from all directions, and followed the French fleet to watch the French sail freely.

The French fleet continued to advance at a speed of about six knots indifferently, until it arrived outside the port of Liverpool, and then sailed freely there for a while, then left Liverpool, sailed east, and then sailed freely outside Dublin for a while. Bundle.

In the process, more and more British warships followed them. From the beginning with only two armored cruisers, to now, almost the entire British navy has gathered.

With more and more British warships behind them, the French began to feel the pressure.

"Okay, it's time for us to leave here. Otherwise, people will really have bad thoughts." Admiral Treville said. The Irish Sea is a relatively closed and limited sea area. If the British are really allowed to transfer all the remaining naval fleets here, maybe they will come up with the favorable terrain here by Li Yong and fight the idea of ​​destroying this French fleet.

So Admiral Treville looked at the British fleets following his fleet, and then checked the mobilization of the British fleet observed by spies near various British ports. (The information was first sent back to France with carrier pigeons, and then the fleet was notified by radio that was still in secrecy.) After estimating the possible mobilization of the British, they ordered to leave the Irish Sea.

With the order of Marshal Treville, the fleet turned to the south and quickly accelerated to sixteen knots-this is also the highest speed that the "Inberado" and "Caesar" can reach.

As the French fleet accelerated, the British fleet following them began to split. Except for the latest cruisers, other warships couldn't keep up at once.

The French fleet ran south at full throttle. This move took the British by surprise. Because the British did have the idea of ​​taking advantage of the most important ship of the French fleet to come to this relatively closed sea area, so they gathered their strength to kill it with one guy. Of course, the idea has not yet gained enough support in the government. But it is indeed one of the possible options. But this move by the French made this possibility suddenly impossible.

Before the British fleet was concentrated in the Irish Sea, the French fleet crossed St. George's Strait again, returned to the Atlantic Ocean, and then turned west, heading towards the west coast of Ireland.

At this time, even the armored cruisers of the British could not keep up with the speed of the French fleet. The French fleet quickly threw off the British fleet, and then appeared on the sea near Clare County. Port Carroll here is the largest port under the control of the Irish Independence Army. However, the British have been deploying a squadron of four armored cruisers in Galway and using this fleet to block Carroll Port.

Now, the British army has begun to counterattack in Ireland, and Ireland urgently needs more supplies.

Several merchant ships loaded with supplies urgently needed by the Irish had reached the waters near Port Carroll, but they were unable to break through the interception of the British Navy by themselves and send these important supplies ashore.

Now the French fleet met with these merchant ships and came directly towards Port Carroll.

Today two British cruisers "maintain a presence" outside Port Carroll. They suddenly noticed a large row of smoke columns appeared in the sky. Then a group of murderous French warships appeared in the sight of the two cruisers.

The commander of these two cruisers, Colonel McDerford, saw the posture on the opposite side, and knew that it would be very difficult to stop them today. Because the two cruisers in his hands could not fight against the ships on the opposite side in terms of quantity or quality.

But he still commanded two cruisers to meet them, and shouted over there with the high-power horns imported from France: "You are about to enter British territorial waters, turn and leave immediately!" But the French were on the top of the mast, hanging A "D flag" was raised. The British know that in the French semaphore system, the D flag means: "Our ship's steering gear is out of order, please avoid it."

To put it more clearly, the more real intention of flying the D flag is to play bumper boats. As long as the D flag is hoisted, you can directly ram and try to stop the British warship. That means: "If you don't let me get out of the way, I will kill you!"

Speaking of this move, it is also a commonly used method in the ocean competition of later generations. Later generations have modern frontier poems saying:

Today the sky is clear and the blue waves are high, and the D flag is fluttering on the leading ship's mast.

Order the barbarians to avoid quickly, I don't care about bumping into them.

This is what is described.

It is said that the French warships hoisted the D flag one by one, and they rammed directly towards the two British cruisers.

If the British are sober, they should be able to quickly determine that they have no chance of winning this bumper boat game. But the British didn't dare to fire guns, and they didn't dare to really play bumper boats with the warships of the French fleet. After all, just take a look at it and you will know that it must be impossible to play.

But the Royal Navy has never had the habit of turning in in front of the enemy. So they could only guard the waterway while continuing to shout: "You are about to violate the territorial waters of the United Kingdom, please turn immediately...please turn immediately..."

Then there was a loud "Boom!"