The firepower of colonial cruisers is actually quite poor, with only a 75mm gun at the bow and tail of the ship. In order to keep it confidential, this gun is not even used in the pipe retreat technology, but fortunately, the task performed this time is relatively important. Considering that if you have the opportunity to perform ground cover tasks, the three colonial cruisers in this operation are equipped with pipe retreat 75 guns. This has increased their firepower efficiency several times. However, even so, because they cannot move and the warship itself does not have armor, the French must ensure that they can succeed in the first strike. Otherwise, the British cannons can still have an overwhelming advantage as long as they cut into the bow direction and then rely on the firepower of their twenty guns on the side.

Especially the gun positions of colonial cruisers are not protected by turrets, only one shield, and this shield can barely block the rifle bullets (if it is too close, it is not reliable,) most likely to be unable to block the grape bullets of the British warship. Fortunately, the British should not have time to discover themselves at this time. Captain Edmundor felt that one or two shells at the beginning would be decisive.

Edmunddo was born as a gunman. Before he became the captain, he was a gunman for a while. So this time he simply threw off his hat and came to the bow to control the gunman himself.

The Gulf of Saldania is in the westerly wind belt, and to the west is the vast Atlantic Ocean. Due to the influence of the westerly wind belt, westerly winds are blowing here all year round. But on the other hand, every night, the temperature of the air on land drops faster than that on the ocean, which makes the air pressure on land significantly higher than the air pressure on the ocean. Therefore, from a microclimate point of view, the air should flow from land to the ocean. The result of the competition between large and microclimates is that the Gulf of Saldania is calm at night, like a large lake.

Such sea conditions are of course very suitable for long-distance artillery bombardment. If it weren't for insufficient light at night and the guns were not used, but only aiming with the naked eye, Captain Edmundor would be confident that he could hit the enemy ship in the first shot. However, now, whether the first shot can hit the first shot is still a matter of luck and faith.

If the first shot cannot hit, the subsequent reshoot is very important. So Captain Edmundor chose a semi-armor-piercing tracer bullet specially prepared for night battles. After this shell is fired, it can drag out a long light belt, clearly showing the trajectory of the shell. Of course, it will expose itself, but considering that the cannon sound and muzzle flames when firing cannons have inevitably exposed itself, and with a light belt, it is actually nothing.

After the shell was loaded, Captain Edmundor looked at the enemy ship again. Unfortunately, the direction of the enemy ship was not very good, so he could only use the first gun. Otherwise, using the first gun and the last gun to fire together will make the grasp bigger.

Captain Edmundor adjusted his aim again, then prayed to God, then closed one eye and waved his hand.

With a loud bang, a long belt of light flew straight out and shot towards the British sailing patrol ship "Lucky".

The "Lucky" was obviously not lucky enough at this moment, and this shell hit it. But relatively speaking, in the misfortune, he was lucky. The shell did not hit any key points, but just hit a small debris warehouse at the head of the ship. Of course, the shell ignited these debris, but the fire was not particularly large, and it would not immediately have a great impact on the combat effectiveness of the warship.

In contrast, if the shell is a little further back and penetrates into the cannon bay, the half-armor-piercing bomb with solidified fuel can not only burn quickly (the cannon bay is more spacious, with better ventilation and more air), but it can also quickly produce a large amount of toxic smoke - that would be really fatal.

The shelling revealed the cruiser "Trade Wind" in the dark, but although the British discovered him, it would take some time to aim.

"Hurry, load it!" Captain Edmundor's eyes opened was affected by the flames of the muzzle and the tracer of the shell, and almost nothing could be seen. He quickly opened the eye that could still see things and shouted.

A soldier pulled the handle, and a shell made of brass landed on the deck with a bang. Another soldier who had been ready quickly stuffed the shell in his hand into the barrel and closed the bolt.

Captain Edmundor gently shook the handle with his right hand, fine-tuned the muzzle, then closed the still visible eye again and waved.

A soldier pulled the firing rope suddenly, and another shell flew towards the Lucky.

The shell hit the "Lucky" gun cabin and exploded in the gun cabin, throwing dozens of fires into the gun cabin. One of them fell into the gun cabin that had been opened, and the fire immediately started to burn.

"Okay, it's done!" yelled Edmundor, "Where is another boat?"

Just as Edmundor was yelling with joy, a string of fire flashed from the Lucky Number - when the British entered the bay, each gun had been loaded with shells. Now they also reacted and launched a counterattack.

There are 20 guns on the side of the "Lucky" because they don't know the protection level of French colonial cruisers, so these guns use spherical shells with the strongest armor-piercing ability. Because the gun bay has caught fire and the fire is still expanding, the British counterattacks are relatively hasty, and the order of volleys is not neat enough. Of course, the hit rate cannot be compared with the Edmundor's gun. However, because the distance between the two sides is only about 300 meters, and the British fired enough shells, many shells still hit the "Trade Wind".

Although the thin shell of the "Trade Wind" is metal, its defense ability is actually not as good as that of the British sail patrol ships, so these iron balls easily penetrated the hull of the "Trade Wind" and caused considerable damage to the crew members who were preparing to make fires for the boiler.

However, the British shells were too backward, and the after-effect of the killing was incomparable to the tracer armor-piercing incendiary bombs of the French. So although the French only hit two shells of the British, while the British hit more than ten shells of French warships, in terms of the damage caused, the damage caused by the French shells was significantly greater. Now the fire on the "Lucky" has obviously expanded. Flames emerged from several gun windows, illuminating the ship at once.

The rumbling sound of cannons also alarmed other ships. The passenger and cargo mixed transport ship "Atlantic Transporter" responded first. The "Atlantic Transporter" is a steam-powered ship. At this time, of course it had already been shut down. It would be too late to rekindle the fire. However, new steam-powered ships often have something that the old sailboat does not have - arc searchlights.

The steam engine did not start, so the small generator on the ship naturally could not operate, but there were batteries on the ship, which could still support the searchlight to light for a while.

Captain Aguero was a retired French naval officer. Now he was captained by the European Union. His ship was now hired by the government of the Republic of the Netherlands. He hung the flag of the Netherlands. (This flag is a bit like the French flag). When the cannon sounded, he immediately realized what was going on. So he immediately sounded the alarm bell, called all the crew, and gave them the order to abandon the ship.

This order was very sudden, and it seemed to be put earlier. However, the crew did not intend to question the captain's order. Anyway, they were not far from the coast and could swim past, and abandon the boat early and be safe. Isn't it?

The sailors put down the boat and were a little impatient. They simply carried a wooden barrel and jumped down. Captain Aguero came to the searchlight by himself.

The searchlight lit up, and the snow-white lamppost pierced the darkness like a sharp sword. Aguero knew where the ships on his side were anchored. He carefully operated the searchlight, allowing the light column to avoid the ships on his side and swept across the dark sea to find another British warship still hidden in the dark.

The light column swept over and a warship suddenly appeared from the darkness. This was another British warship, the sailing patrol ship "Miracle". At this time, she was about to go around from another direction, and then use the side cannon at a very close range to give the "Trade Wind" a big surprise.

But a beam of light illuminated her, causing her plan to fall into vain. Moreover, because the searchlight was bright, the British army on the Miracle could not see what kind of ship the Atlantic Transporter was when the searchlight was lit. But even if you think about it with your heel, you can understand that at this time, it must be the French warship that could make such a move!

The British understood that the semi-armor-piercing incendiary bombs equipped by the French warships were almost the nemesis of wooden warships. The arson effect of this weapon was originally comparable to the original red-hot iron ball. Once they were hit by one or two shots, if they were not lucky enough, the entire warship might explain it here. So the Miracle immediately made a sharp turn, not only to get rid of the light column of the searchlight, but also to aim the side of the "Atlantic Transporter". Although under the irradiation of strong light, they could not see the outline of the "Atlantic Transporter", and they could not even accurately position it. However, they still fired violently at the estimated position as soon as possible.

Like Lucky, Miracle also uses solid shells, and because they can't see the "enemy ship" clearly, the hit rate is lower than the Lucky volley.

But the "Miracle" had better luck. Although it only hit a few shells, one shell hit the coal compartment and ignited the coal.

If there are crew members on the ship, this kind of small fire can be extinguished, and coal will not burn quickly. Of course, once it is really burned, it will be difficult to extinguish the fire. However, in order to reduce the casualties of the crew, Captain Aguero drove them all off the ship, so there is no way to damage the pipe. However, the flames in the coal cabin are not enough to destroy the ship for the time being.

Just as the Miracle opened fire on the Atlantic Transporter, two other French colonial cruisers also began to point their muzzles at the Miracle.
Chapter completed!