"Pengpengpeng..."

Three consecutive flares were fired, forcing the darkness to illuminate a nearby sea. The smuggling fleet hidden under the night sky was completely exposed in front of the "Cuckoo" warship.

But the situation seemed a little bit wrong. The 1,150-ton ironclad ship "Lupeff" covered two three-masted sailboats through the barrier, and sprinted towards the Lucky Bay with a speed of about 11 knots.

At this speed, you can reach Lucky Bay in just one and a half hours.

An emergency battle notice from Sanmalinda shows that at least there should be a second-class sailing battleship "The Netherlands Giant". Where is he?

Now there is no time to care about these things, so we must stop the landing team in front of us who are trying to pass the level.

After the small mixed formation composed of three ships exposed its traces, thicker black smoke emerged from the chimney of "Lupeff". The bilge boiler had already begun to accelerate with all its might, and took the initiative to face the lonely "Cuckoo" and tried to cover two three-masted sailboats to break through the blockade line.

The "Cuckoo" began to accelerate immediately and fired three signal flares, one red and two green, into the dark night sky. The signal flares flew high into the night sky and exploded like fireworks. They could be seen 20 nautical miles away.

This is a signal agreed in advance. One red signal flare represents an escort ship, and two green signal flares represent two cargo ships.

The light hull of the "Cuckoo" less than 1,000 tons, quickly accelerated to more than 20 knots under the powerful force, and rushed towards the enemy ship on the sea, quickly narrowing the distance between the two to within 2.5 nautical miles.

According to the summary of previous combat experience, the main lethality of high-speed cruisers comes from the 95mm Miss Australia artillery. This kind of artillery hits a target outside 2.5 nautical miles during high-speed rushing. It must advance to a range within two nautical miles and lay the flat gun barrel and bombard it violently, forming a dense barrage coverage, and the hit rate rises sharply.

As for a German 239mm main gun equipped with a bow, the hit rate is almost infinitely equal to 0 in the case of a single battle. This also requires a flat gun barrel and a blast to increase the hit rate.

Both sides are light ships without armor protection. If they are absolutely necessary, the Cuckoo will not adopt the defeat-lose style of fighting bayonets at sea.

So the Cuckoo did not fire first, but drew a clear arc on the sea, trying to bypass the escort ship to intercept the Dutch three-masted sailing cargo ship.

The Dutch three-masted sailing cargo ship was loaded with heavy cargo on the sea surface. The main sails and the secondary sails were all opened and filled with the sea breeze. They were full of energy and were about 11 knots. The two ships changed direction, one in front and the other in the back and fled in a panic.

"Boom..."

The ironclad ship "Lupeff" left the team and took the initiative to fight, and took the lead in firing the artillery to fight. The high water column exploded more than 220 yards in front of the right of the "Cuckoo", and rushed towards him with the breath of death.

These two 150mm secondary guns equipped by the "Lu Pev" ironclad ship opened fire. They showed extraordinary skills at first strike, and the accuracy of the artillery shooting point was quite high.

First of all, it was due to night battles. When they were discovered, the distance between the two sides was already very close, no more than 3.5 nautical miles.

Secondly, the Dutch were prepared for a long time, otherwise it would be impossible for the fight to be so accurate in a hurry.

The Cuckoo found that the other party might have a near-missile bomb, which was a serious threat to the already side. He immediately turned around and opened the distance between the two, bypassed a larger arcuate track, and tried to use the high speed to get rid of the entanglement of the "Lupeff" ironclad ship, and directly stabbed the chrysanthemums of two three-masted cargo ships.

Sure enough, in the second round of bombardment, the shells fired by the "Lupeff" ironclad ship was as far as 600 yards, losing the threat to the "Cuckoo".

The distance between the two has not been shortened, but has widened. The Cuckoo obviously does not want to get entangled with the other party. The main goal is to attack the cargo ships, and it chose to avoid the enemy's head-on battle.

This is because both are crispy ships without armor, and no one can stand the heavy blow.

At this moment, both sides reached the highest speed. The Cuckoo, which was chasing the 23-knot at a speed of 16 knots, was obviously unable to do so. Although it fired several rounds of shells as if it was venting, it still could not stop the Cuckoo from reaching the front of the freighter's route.

Seeing that the opponent's speed advantage was too obvious, the Dutch "Lupev" ironclad ship could only send a signal to allow the freighter to return to the formation, further reducing the speed and implementing close protection, always pushing the three-masted sailing freighter to drive out the enemy ship.

The two sides chased each other for more than 10 minutes and fired more than a dozen rounds of shells to each other. Due to the sharp changes in their mutual positions, they did not cause any near-missile bombing.

Just at this moment

Five signal flares suddenly rose on the deep sea in the distance, one red and four green, about ten nautical miles away, which means another Dutch landing formation was trying to pass the level.

At this point, the intention of the Dutch landing formation was completely exposed.

These Dutch people are really terrified. They know that Moresz's ships are not many than the water police area, and there are only two ships normally blocked, no more than three at most.

Therefore, the Dutch divided the formation of eight ships into two to pass the barriers. If the three small ships in front were found, they could fight and go, attracting Moresby Water Police District ships to pursue and encircle. Another five large ship formation could sneak across the blockade line while the chaos was in chaos, and transported to Lucky Bay with reinforcements and artillery ammunition. This was to survive the broken arm.

For landing formations, the most important thing is to safely send more than 1,200 reinforcements to the ashore, followed by expensive artillery and ammunition, and then logistics supplies.

It is obvious that the two three-masted sailing cargo ships in the Dutch team transported more than 900 tons of logistics supplies, and even if they were completely lost, it had nothing to do with the overall situation.

If both formations were discovered, then with the firepower of the escort ships, it would be impossible to keep all ships. At worst, they would hurt each other and forcefully break through!

There are also self-defense artillery on the three-masted sailing freighter. Although it is not a professional warship with weak firepower, it can make the other party more afraid and dare not get too close.

This poses a problem for Moresby to block the fleet. Which one should I intercept?

Although the "Cuckoo" blocked the direction of the route and forced the opponent to turn, he became obviously anxious after the signal flare was launched in the distance. He suddenly turned and obviously rushed in. He gave up You Dou to prepare to fight with the opponent in close combat.

A few minutes later

The "Lupeff" ironclad ship "Lupeff" was the first to fire a near-lost bomb at a distance of 2.2 nautical miles. The main gun and the secondary guns bombed violently together. Five shells were fired in each round, pouring firepower at a speed of 13 rounds per minute (the main gun and secondary gun fire speeds were different), blowing the sea surface to a boil.

The "Cuckoo" advanced in the face of artillery fire, and drew a clear "Z"-shaped track on the sea surface. A few minutes later, when it approached 1.8 nautical miles, it began to fire violently. The main guns and secondary guns were all flattened and the gun barrels were fired.

In a moment

The "Cuckoo" was like a monster full of fire-breathing fire, and a German 239mm main gun plus 4 95mm Miss Australia shots fired 55 to 58 rounds per minute in a rapid shooting. Among them, the German 239mm main gun could fire two heavy shells per minute, and the other firepower was contributed by the four Australian Miss Australia.

The two sides reached 1.8 nautical miles, and the sound of cannons rumbled and the flames soared into the sky.

The "Lupeff" ironclad ship was hit by no less than 6 95mm shells, and the mast of the sail was lit up. The surface of the ship was blown to a charred mess. The main guns and secondary guns that were crazy to output fire were all silent, and they looked like they had been cruelly ravaged.

The Cuckoo was not easy either. He was hit by two 150mm shells, one hitting the bow of the ship, and blasting a large pit of 1.2 meters by 0.9 meters from the sharp bow. Flying iron filings swept across the main gun and caused a bloody storm. The 12-man team who controlled the main gun died seven times and two seriously injured, and the remaining three were all slightly injured.

It was a coincidence that a piece of shell shattered the glass of the driving building and directly killed the helmsman. Several officers were scratched by different weights, and blood reflected the steering table red.

Another 150mm shell pierced through the chimney and exploded. Rolling smoke filled the cabin, causing several casualties and injuries in the boiler room. The shell fragments blasted through two high-pressure steam pipes. The ship's speed suddenly slowed down and could only maintain a speed of 15 knots.

The captain Li Sixian, who was on the Cuckoo, wiped the blood from his face, immediately took over the steering wheel and shouted to open fire, and used the most violent firepower to fight back against the enemy.

From 1.2 nautical miles to 800 yards, the 95mm cannon on the Cuckoo violently poured out more than 170 shells, of which about 30 hit the iron-clad ship "Lupeff", bombing it and breaking it like a rag doll.

The burning flames illuminated half of the sky, and also reflected the terrified expression of two Dutch sailing cargo ships. One cargo ship directly raised the white flag and surrendered, and the other turned the bow and was about to run away.

At this time, the "Haiyan" led by Geng Baogui drove out at high speed from the darkness, less than 1.5 nautical miles away from the fleeing crazy cargo ship. It layed down the barrel and fired violently. In just 4 minutes, more than 160 shells were fired, turning them into a large torch burning on the sea.

The "Haiyan" drew an arc without any slowing down. Through the light signal, the "Cuckoo" was ordered to immediately solve the battlefield, participate in the encirclement and suppression of another Dutch formation, and then headed towards the direction of sending the signal, and soon sank into the boundless night.

The Cuckoo, who received the order, immediately arrived near the surrendered three-masted cargo ship, ordered the other party to put away the main mast, secondary mast and all other sails on the ship, lowered the small sampan to participate in the treatment of the soldiers and crew members who fell into the water, stayed in place and were not allowed to leave, otherwise the consequences would be borne by themselves.

After issuing a series of orders, the Cuckoo immediately turned around and rushed towards the direction of the rumbling cannon sound in front of him.

The captive cargo ship doesn't have to worry about it, even if it escapes, there will be no loss. As long as the logistics supplies are not transported to the Lucky Bay, it will be impossible to cause any substantial harm.

Besides, if you want to salvage these survivors who fell into the water in the night, you can't even think about it for an hour or two. Fierce battles ahead are in full swing. How can the Cuckoo have so much time to delay here?
Chapter completed!