However, the other two colonial cruisers were a little far away from the Miracle. Although the Bay of Saldania was as calm as a large pond, it was still shaking obviously. There are rumors that guys from the Academy of Sciences were studying artillery stability systems, but only God knows whether these rumors were reliable. Because there are rumors that a major task of the Ministry of Truth was to spread these real and fake things on the market. Many research directions, from the principle point of view, are indeed possible, but once you invest money in research, you may hit a head-on-head on a technical issue, and then? Naturally, just like the controlled nuclear fusion power generation in later generations, it is always fifty years away from practicality. It is said that the British were taken into the ditch by the French more than once in the direction of scientific research. They spent a lot of money, but made a lot of progress, but there were almost no results that could be used.

So, the rumors about artillery stability systems nowadays also sound beautiful, but no one knows whether it is a big pit that can't even hear any noise when throwing bundles of money into it. Anyway, at least now, no warship is used in either Britain or France.

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

At this time, the distance between the other two colonial cruisers and the Miracle was about 700 or 800 meters. At such a distance, the French hit rate was also not high. The two colonial cruisers failed to hit the target. However, the design of the tracer of the shells did show a certain effect, at least the landing points of these guns were getting closer and closer.

After several shells fell nearby or passed over her head, the Miracle discovered two other warships that were firing at her.

The British did not know the composition of the joint fleet, but they could also guess that in carrying out such an action, the French would not send a main fleet over, and the most likely would be to send several colonial cruisers. However, the French would send several colonial cruisers, but the British did not know. However, considering that the ship that had been illuminating their searchlights and did not shoot at them with cannons, two ships from further afield were firing at themselves. The British commander Josen, on the Miracle, made this judgment:

"Now the one who stares at us with a searchlight is not a warship, but an unarmed transport ship."

So Qiao Sen immediately issued an order to turn the Miracle and use the hull of the Atlantic Transporter to block shells from enemy ships.

Qiao Sen's approach immediately achieved results. The shooting boundaries of the two French colonial cruisers that fired at the Miracle were blocked by the "Atlantic Transporter", and the "Atlantic Transporter" was not armed and could not move. The "Miracle" could directly hit the face and shoot.

Because the distance between the two sides was only a few dozen meters closer, almost all the Miracle shelling hit. The Atlantic Transporter ignited a flame. However, the searchlight still stared at the Miracle.

Josen knew that it would be very difficult to sink a ship with artillery on the Miracle, but if a fire broke out on the ship, it would be another matter. Since the Atlantic Transporter had already caught fire and the fire was obviously out of control, Major Josen decided to change a target and no longer waste shells on the Atlantic Transporter, and of course, it was more important to waste time on the Atlantic Transporter.

The French warships were already making fires, and although it would take some time to restore power, it would be hard to say if too much time wasted on the "Atlantic Transporter".

And now, another ship, "Lucky", was unfortunately hit by the French and a fire ignited. Looking at the fire on "Lucky" from afar, Major Josen knew that he had lost "Lucky". There was no way, the entire era was different between his fleet and the opponent's fleet. The killing efficiency of the cannons on both sides was too bad.

And at this time, because the Miracle hid behind the "Atlantic Transporter", several French cannons could not hit her, so the several cannons gathered together to open fire at the "Lucky". As a result, the "Lucky" unfortunately got several more incendiary bombs, and now it was burning like a big torch. However, at this time, the "Lucky" at least played the role of a shell magnet, and successfully covered the "Miracle" with its own misfortune.

The Miracle began to widen the distance between the Atlantic Transporter. At this time, because the fire burned out the wires, the searchlight of the Atlantic Transporter had already gone out. This also gave the Miracle the opportunity to hide in the dark again.

"We will bypass the enemy's warships and attack those transport ships." Major Josen ordered.

Previous battles have proved that even though the enemy's steam warships temporarily lost power, the new artillery and new shells brought them the power of almost killing one blow. Therefore, even in this case, the sail warship is still no match for the steam warship. The current situation of the "Lucky" fully illustrates this point.

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

"Their dock has not been completed yet, so the cannons must still be on those transport ships. Destroying those transport ships can destroy those cannons. By doing this, our goal will be achieved." Major Josen thought.

But where are the other possible transport ships? Now there are two ships burning on the sea surface. With these two torches, it seems that in theory, it should help Major Qiaosen find his target. But in fact, the stimulation of the fire light causes the person's pupils to shrink, and as a result, those already dark places even feel darker.

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

Inspired by the "Atlantic Transporter", the three French warships also turned on their searchlights and used these searchlights to sway on the sea. However, these searchlights obviously avoided some angles when they swayed. Obviously, they knew that there was something that could not be exposed, so, there was no doubt that those ships were deliberately bypassed by the light columns and did not illuminate them.

Qiao Sen carefully controlled the warship, avoided the light column of the searchlight, and walked around the place where the searchlight deliberately avoided. Sure enough, he soon discovered a boat.

"Miracle" quietly leaned over, but at this time the searchlight of the ship suddenly lit up, and the beam of light suddenly covered the "Miracle". The strong light made the sailors on the "Miracle" unable to open their eyes. At the same time, gunshots sounded from the ship opposite.

In order to pursue a high hit rate, in order to severely damage or even eliminate the opponent in the shortest time, the distance between the Miracle and the target ship is very close, even less than fifty meters. This distance is already at the distance where the rifle can accurately shoot. This round of rifle shooting immediately knocked down more than a dozen busy sailors on the deck.

However, the British immediately responded with their colors, and twenty cannons fired a volley at such a close distance. At such a close distance, twenty shells hit eighteen, with a high hit rate as if they were performing a gunfight at close range.

However, even so, solid shells may have good lethality to the personnel on the ship, but their lethality to the ship itself is very limited. There are very few cases of sinking enemy ships with solid shells alone. Unless they can directly hit the opponent's gunpowder depot, otherwise, even if the shells are completely destroyed and each shell is hit, it is impossible to sink the enemy ship.

Therefore, in the age of sails, the real purpose of artillery bombardment was to kill as many people on the opponent's warship as possible, and then seize the enemy ships through platoon battles. But now, it is impossible to capture the enemy ships in time. The French warships are already making fires, and for a maximum of half an hour, the French warships will recover their momentum to a certain extent. In such a short time, it is completely impossible to complete the action of capturing the enemy ships. 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 "hot bomb" is actually to place solid iron shells in the stove and burn them red, and then shoot them out with cannons. These red-hot iron balls are likely to cause fire if they knock down the opponent's ship.

Of course, this primitive incendiary bomb is less than a little bit worse than the semi-armor-piercing incendiary bombs used by the French and British new warships. The efficiency of this shell to cause fire is far lower than that of those new incendiary bombs. As long as the gap in the damage 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, this kind of shell must be heated before being fired, which takes time. The number of furnaces also limits the number of "hot bombs" that can be fired per unit time. It is also very troublesome when loading, and it will reduce the rate of fire. However, in today's situation, this is still the most feasible solution.

Of course, cannons cannot wait for the stove to slowly burn shells, so the British always hit a few "hot bullets" every round of fire, hoping to ignite the opposite transport ship with it.

The continuous artillery bombardment at close range, even if it is a backward thing like solid shells, will still cause great damage to the people on the ship. If the infantry on the ship had not arrived ashore long ago, the number of casualties would have been greater.

Due to a large number of casualties, the damage capacity of this passenger and cargo mixed loading ship called the Shepherd Dog has dropped rapidly. Smoke began to emerge in several places on the ship. If it could continue to attack for a while, the fire on the ship would probably be unable to control it.

But the lookout sent a warning, and they found that the chimneys of the three French cruisers over there were beginning to emerge - the chimneys of steamships of this era seemed to be Mars at night. Seeing these Mars now means that the French warships will soon recover their power. If they continue to attack and wait until the French warships recover their power, they will not be able to escape.

Major Qiaosen calculated the results of the war tonight. When his fleet faced a French fleet that was significantly higher than his technical level, he lost a sailing patrol ship; destroyed a steam transport ship and severely damaged a steam transport ship (the ship has been burned, but it is hard to say whether the fire can be extinguished. However, Major Qiaosen felt that even if it could be extinguished, the ship would probably not work), and may also severely damage a French cruiser. As a fleet with only two old sailing patrol ships, it is almost a miracle to achieve such results. Such results will definitely make him a British hero. However, if you want to enjoy the benefits of a hero, one of the prerequisites is that he must be able to escape tonight.

"Stop the attack, full sail, let's retreat." After thinking clearly, Major Josen immediately issued a retreat order.

It is said that Major Qiaosen's instructions were issued a little earlier. Judging from the memories of those who experienced this battle later, he actually had time to shoot two more volleys. However, in the dark and chaotic battlefield, Major Qiaosen could not have such precise commands. Therefore, Major Qiaosen actually mastered the timing of retreat.

The Miracle slowly moved away from the battlefield and hid 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 did not hit the target.

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

Both Philip Treville and Leon Bertier witnessed the naval battle on the shore. The British's cunning and decisiveness left a deep impression on them. Later, when Philip educated his juniors, he mentioned this night more than once. He told them: "When the advantage is the better, be careful."

After dawn, the French took a look at the losses. After that night, their combined fleet with the Netherlands could be renamed the French South African Squadron. Because the only ship with the Netherlands flag was burned. However, considering the friendship with the Netherlands, the French South African Squadron lent another transport ship (the one that was severely damaged) to the Netherlands. Well, the fleet can continue to be called the Joint Fleet.

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

In general, when the French army was attacked by the despicable and shameless sneak attack by the British, they calmly fought back, not only repelling the enemy, but also sunk a British warship. They achieved such results in extreme unfavorable circumstances, but they only paid the price of a transport ship. More importantly, no one on the ship died! The French also felt that this battle was won by themselves.

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