Fox of France

However, the mooring positions of the other two colonial cruisers are a bit far from the "Miracle". Although the Saldanha Bay is calm and calm like a large pond, it is the sea after all, and there is still obvious shaking. There are rumors that the guys from the Academy of Sciences are working on a gun stabilization system, but God only knows if these rumors are reliable. Because there are rumors that one of the tasks of the Ministry of Truth is to spread these true and false things on the market. Many research directions, from a theoretical point of view, are indeed possible, but if you really invest in research, you may bump into a certain technical problem at some point, and then what? Naturally, just like the controllable nuclear fusion power generation of later generations, it is always fifty years away from being practical. It is said that the British were led into the ditch by the French more than once in the direction of scientific research. They spent a lot of money and made a lot of progress, but almost none of them were usable.

Therefore, the current rumors about the artillery stabilization system also sound beautiful, but no one really knows whether it is also a big pit where you can throw bundles of money into it without a sound. Anyway, at least now, neither the United Kingdom nor France has used this kind of thing on any warship.

As the most low-end large warship in France, colonial cruisers certainly don't have this thing, so although the range of naval guns has long exceeded five kilometers, in actual combat, the distance between the two sides generally does not exceed one kilometer.

At this time, the distance between the other two colonial cruisers and the "Miracle" was about seven or eight hundred meters. At this distance, the French's hit rate was also not high. The two colonial cruisers fired several shots, but failed to hit. However, the design of the tracer of the shells did show a certain effect, at least the impact of these shells was getting closer and closer.

Several shells landed nearby, or passed overhead, before the Miracle spotted the other two warships firing at her.

The British didn't know the composition of the combined fleet, but they could also guess that it was impossible for the French to send a main fleet to carry out such an operation, and the most likely thing was to send a few colonial cruisers. But the French will send a few colonial cruisers, and the British don't know it. However, considering that the ship that had been shining its searchlight on them did not shoot at them with cannons, it was the two ships farther away that were firing at them. The British commander Johnson on the "Miracle" made such a judgment:

"It is not a battleship staring at us with searchlights, but an unarmed transport ship."

So Johnson immediately issued an order to turn the "Miracle" and use the hull of the "Atlantic Transporter" to block the shells from the enemy ship.

Jossen's approach had an immediate effect. The shooting range of the two French colonial cruisers firing at the "Miracle" was blocked by the "Atlantic Transporter", which was unarmed and unable to move. , The "Miracle" can be directly attached to the face for shelling.

Because the distance between the two sides was reduced to no more than tens of meters, almost all of the shelling of the "Miracle" hit. The "Atlantic Transporter" caught fire. But the searchlight still stared at the "Miracle".

Jossen knew that it would be very difficult to sink a ship with the Miracle's guns, but if the ship caught fire, that was another matter. Now that the "Atlantic Transporter" was on fire, and the fire was obviously out of control, Major Johnson decided to change the target and stop wasting shells on the "Atlantic Transporter". Wasted time on board the Atlantic Transporter.

The French warships are already firing, although it will take some time to regain power, and if too much time is wasted on the "Atlantic Transporter", then the situation will be difficult to tell.

And now, another ship, the "Fortune", was unfortunately hit by the French and caught fire. Looking at the fire on the "Lucky" from a distance, Major Johnson knew that he had lost the "Lucky". There is no way, there is an entire era between his fleet and the opponent's fleet. The killing efficiency of the cannons of the two sides is really far worse.

And at this time, because the "Miracle" hid behind the "Atlantic Transporter", a few French guns could not hit her, so those guns gathered and fired at the "Lucky". As a result, the "Lucky" was unfortunately hit by several incendiary bombs, and now it has burned like a big torch. But at this time, the "Lucky" at least played the role of a shell magnet, using its own misfortune to successfully cover the "Miracle".

The "Miracle" began to distance itself from the "Atlantic Transporter". At this time, because the fire burned out the wires, the searchlights of the "Atlantic Transporter" had gone out. This also gave the "Miracle" a chance to hide in the darkness again.

"Let's bypass the enemy's warships and attack those transport ships." Major Johnson ordered.

The previous battles have proved that even if the enemy's steam warship temporarily loses power, the new artillery and new shells have brought them the power to kill with one blow. Therefore, even under such circumstances, sailing warships are still no match for steam warships. The current situation of "Lucky" fully illustrates this point.

However, Major Johnson felt that he didn't need to fight the French warships.

"Their docks haven't been completed yet, so the cannons must still be on those transport ships. Destroy those transport ships, and you can destroy those cannons. If this is done, our goal will be achieved." Major Johnson thought so.

But where were the other possible transports? Now there are two ships on the sea that are burning blazingly. With these two torches, it seems that in theory, it should help Major Johnson find the target. But in fact, because of the stimulation of the fire, people's pupils shrink, and as a result, those places that were already dark even feel darker.

However, there are still traces of where those transport ships are located.

Inspired by the "Atlantic Transporter", the three French warships also turned on their searchlights. And use these searchlights to roam the sea. But these searchlights obviously avoided some angles when they were swaying. Obviously, they knew that there was something that could not be exposed, so there was no doubt that those ships were in the places where the beams of light deliberately bypassed and did not illuminate.

Qiao Sen carefully controlled the warship, avoiding the beam of searchlights. He made a detour towards the place where the searchlights deliberately avoided. Sure enough, a boat was soon spotted.

The "Miracle" approached quietly, but at this time the ship's searchlight suddenly turned on, and the light beam immediately covered the "Miracle". The strong lights made the sailors on the "Miracle" almost unable to open their eyes. At the same time, gunshots rang out from the opposite ship.

In order to pursue a high hit rate and injure or even eliminate the opponent in the shortest possible time, the distance between the "Miracle" and the target ship is very close, not even fifty meters. This distance is already within the distance that the rifle can shoot accurately. This round of rifle shooting immediately knocked down more than a dozen sailors who were busy on the deck.

However, the British immediately retaliated, and twenty cannons fired a salvo at such a short distance. At such a short distance, eighteen of the twenty shells hit, and the hit rate was as high as a shooting at close range.

But even so, the solid shells may have good lethality to the people on board, but the lethality to the ship itself is very limited. There are very few cases of sinking enemy ships with solid shells alone. Unless it can directly hit the opponent's gunpowder magazine, otherwise, even if all the shells are fired, and every shell is hit, it is impossible to sink the enemy ship.

Therefore, in the age of sails, the real purpose of bombardment was to kill and injure as many personnel on the opponent's warship as possible, and then capture the enemy ship through boarding battles. But now, it is impossible to seize the enemy ship in time. The French warships are already firing, and in half an hour at most, the French warships will regain power to a certain extent. In such a short period of time, it is completely impossible to complete the action of capturing the enemy's ship. Therefore, the British army had to adopt another approach, which was to use "hot bombs" as the main attack weapon, hoping to use "hot bombs" to cause fires and destroy enemy ships through fires.

The so-called "blazing bomb" is actually to put a solid iron shell in the stove to burn red, and then shoot it out with a cannon. These red-hot iron balls are knocked down on the opponent's ship, which is likely to cause a fire.

Of course, this primitive incendiary bomb is not a bit worse in performance than the semi-armor-piercing incendiary bombs used by the French and the British's own new warships. The shells were far less effective at starting fires than the newer incendiary shells. As long as the gap in the damage control personnel on the opponent's transport ship is not particularly large, the fire caused by this shell is not difficult to control.

On the other hand, such shells are heated before being fired, which takes time. The number of furnaces also limits the number of "blazing bombs" that can be fired per unit time. And it is also very troublesome when loading, and it will reduce the rate of fire. But in the current situation, this is still the most feasible solution.

Of course, the cannon cannot wait for the stove to burn the shells slowly, so the British always hit a salvo with a few "blazing bombs" in each round, hoping to ignite the transport ship on the opposite side with it.

Continuous shelling at close range, even with outdated things like solid shells, still caused a lot of damage to the people on board. If it weren't for the infantry on the ship who had already gone ashore, the casualties would have been even greater.

Due to the large number of casualties, the damage control capability on this mixed passenger and cargo ship called "Shepherd Dog" declined rapidly. Smoke began to rise from several places on the ship. If the attack could continue for a period of time, the fire on this ship would probably be out of control.

But the lookout sent a warning, and they found that the chimneys of the three French cruisers over there were all starting to emit sparks-the chimneys of steamships of this era seemed to emit sparks at night. Seeing these sparks now means that those French warships will soon regain their power. If you continue to attack and wait until the French warship regains its power, it will not be able to escape.

Major Johnson calculated the outcome of tonight's battle. When his fleet faced the French fleet, which was obviously superior in both number and technical level, he lost a sailing frigate; destroyed a steam carrier and severely damaged a steam carrier (this ship had been burned. It's just that it's hard to say whether the fire can be extinguished. However, Major Johnson feels that even if it can be extinguished, the ship probably won't be able to survive), and it may have severely damaged a French cruiser. As a fleet with only two old-fashioned sailing frigates, it is almost a miracle to achieve such a result. And such a result will definitely make him a British hero. However, in order to enjoy the benefits of being a hero, one of the prerequisites is that he must be able to escape unscathed tonight.

"Stop attacking, full sail, let's retreat." After thinking about this, Major Johnson immediately gave the order to retreat.

It should be said that Major Johnson gave the order a little earlier. Judging from the memories of those who experienced the battle later, he actually still had time to fire two more rounds of volleys. However, on a dark and chaotic battlefield, it was impossible for Major Johnson to make such precise commands. Therefore, Major Johnson had a good grasp of the timing of the retreat.

The "Miracle" slowly moved away from the battlefield and disappeared into the dark night. During this process, the searchlight on the French transport ship kept shining on her, and the three French cruisers also fired at her from a long distance, but because the distance was too far and the shooting angle was limited, all the shells they fired were not shot. hit the target.

At this time, it was midnight, the moon set, and the sea became darker and darker. The "Miracle" quickly disappeared into the darkness.

Both Philippe Treville and Léon Berthier witnessed the naval battle from the shore. The cunning and decisiveness of the British made a considerable impression on them. Later, when Philip reeducated his juniors, he mentioned this night more than once. He told them: "When the advantage has the advantage, the more cautious you must be."

After dawn, the French took stock of their losses. After this night, their joint fleet with the Dutch can be renamed the French South African Squadron. Because the only ship flying the Dutch flag was burned. However, considering the friendship with the Netherlands, the French and South African Squadron lent another transport ship (the one that was severely damaged) to the Netherlands, um, so the fleet can continue to be called the United Fleet.

In addition, there is another small problem, that is, as the transport ship of the Dutch was burned and sank, the Dutch could not find a large Dutch flag that could be hung on the mast of the transport ship. But this matter is simple. The French gave them their spare national flag, and then asked them to modify it to become the national flag of the Netherlands.

In general, the French counterattacked calmly and calmly when they were attacked by the shameless and shameless British. They not only repelled the enemy, but also sank a British warship. Such a result was obtained under extremely unfavorable circumstances, and it only paid the price of a transport ship, and more importantly, no one on this ship died! The French also felt that they had won this battle.

So on this night, the French Navy and the British Navy reached a win-win situation.

But in terms of material and personnel losses, it is really not small. In this battle, the coalition forces killed 120 people and injured as many as 219 people. Many of them were seriously injured. Although these seriously injured people generally feel that they can be rescued again, considering the conditions in South Africa, most of them are hopeless.