Munitions Empire

Shen Hai led the fleet, escorting the transport ships of Shen Guo that were ready to reinforce the island, and arrived at the open sea off Dongwan Island three days later.

Because he had lost contact, he had already determined that Dongwan City was more likely to be in a dire situation than not. Yet he did not retreat but instead led the fleet to continue charging towards Dongwan City.

According to his plan, he intended to severely damage the enemy naval fleet in the open sea, and then command the land military troops to forcibly charge onto the docks of Dongwan Port and take back Dongwan City.

He was still very confident in this: on one hand, his naval fleet was large enough; on the other hand, the land army he was escorting consisted of elite soldiers.

The Shen Guo naval fleet included 15 Ming Wheel Ships—already a formidable force that could not be ignored in the western part of the Endless Sea.

In addition to that, he had 30 sailing warships and some armed merchant ships to pad the numbers; with such an immense fleet, Shen Hai did not believe he would lose.

As long as he crushed the enemy's naval fleet at sea, then he could suppress the port with shipborne artillery and land the soldiers.

The soldiers he brought were all equipped with Shireck Model 1 Bolt-Action Rifles, the elites among the elite of the Shen Guo land forces.

Once these troops landed, their combat capabilities would naturally be much more formidable than the second-rate troops equipped with Shireck Flintlock Guns. Taking back the port would not be a problem at all; they could even advance south to crush the enemy and retake Dongwan Island!

It was precisely because he was so confident that Shen Hai led the fleet to continue advancing south, even though he knew that Dongwan Port had been occupied by the enemy.

Soon, they reached the open sea outside Dongwan Port, and then they saw the weak enemy fleet—Great Tang Group Fleet laid across the sea surface, seemingly not many in number, only six warships in total, with three large and three small.

However, these warships were very fast, and without waiting for Shen Guo's naval fleet to approach, the Great Tang Group's warships advanced instead of retreating, coming closer with a resolve as if ready for a desperate fight.

Shen Hai did not flinch as he had also planned to stake everything on a single battle. Seeing the enemy fleet not fleeing, he was overjoyed, and both sides immediately deployed their formations at sea.

Bernard put down the telescope in his hand, turned to his adjutant, and ordered, "Maintain a parallel formation with the enemy fleet! Load all side cannons! Open fire at 2 kilometers! The enemy formation is dense, there's no need to worry about hit rates."

"Understood!" the adjutant saluted and immediately relayed the orders to the various ships. Under a series of commands, the entire fleet turned to align their broadsides with the distant enemy fleet.

Following that, all the turrets on the broadside began rotating, and a series of long 150mm caliber guns turned their dark muzzles towards the direction of the enemy fleet.
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On the morning of the 12th day of the battle for Dongwan Island, the two naval fleets engaged in the first large-scale sea battle of steam-powered warships in human history off the coast of Dongwan Port, which later became known as the Great Sea Battle of Dongwan.

The Great Tang Group Fleet, led by the Wolf No. 3 Ship, fired first, with six broadside cannons firing simultaneously and directly hitting enemy sail ships two kilometers away.

Just one round of artillery fire destroyed two sailing warships in transit, immediately disrupting the formation of the approaching Shen Guo naval fleet that was attempting to engage in close combat.

To avoid the two burning and sinking sailing warships, Shen Guo's naval fleet had to turn again, which also affected their sailing speed.

Consequently, the Great Tang Group's naval fleet, holding an absolute advantage in speed, began to penetrate the enemy's T-head, maintaining a distance of about 2 kilometers throughout.

After Shen Hai noticed the enemy fleet's superior speed, he immediately changed his tactics, ordering the fleet to turn north to form a round formation in an attempt to protect each other and prevent the enemy from penetrating their fleet in a beneficial T-formation.

Amidst the chaotic change of formation, the Great Tang Navy's Wolf 4 Warship seized the opportunity to fire. All six cannons blasted simultaneously, striking two sailing warships once again and sinking these poor excuses for warships equipped with muzzle-loaded cannons.

The Shen Hai Navy began to descend into chaos. Their sailing warships, already slow and presenting large targets, were not very robust. The captains on board were now regretting their presence in such a dismal place.

Finally, one of the Shen Hai men realized that the enemy warships were far more formidable than his own Ming Wheel Ships. The fleet stationed at Dongwan Island was not a bunch of inept soldiers but rather truly outmatched in battle!

Upon confirming this, the man from Shen Hai had already plunged into despair—he couldn't run away, and he seemed unable to fight back. Victory had become very difficult to achieve.

More tragically, if his fleet were merely unable to overcome the enemy and suffered complete annihilation here, it would have just been a loss for the Navy, and he could have died with some peace of mind.

But the problem was that he was also escorting troop transport ships! And on board were the elite troops of the army! Those troops were armed with bolt-action rifles bought with real silver. If all were to be lost... who would take the blame?

"General... what do we do..." his deputy also realized the severity of the situation and asked dejectedly from behind Shen Hai's man.

"What else can we do? At all costs! Get the army onto the docks!" The man from Shen Hai, his eyes already red with killing intent, decided to go for broke.

He knew he couldn't possibly cover for the slow-moving troop transports in retreat. Under the current circumstances, getting the landing troops ashore first seemed to be the best solution.

As he watched the enemy warships firing again in the distance and yet another vessel on his side exploded after being hit, the man from Shen Hai grew increasingly anxious.

The vanguard, previously the cream of the Shen Hai Navy made up of 10 large sailing warships, was almost completely eliminated during the process of turning around.

If the fight continued, the 15 Ming Wheel Ships that made up the main force of the central army where he was would directly engage the enemy.

This was the last remaining strength of the Shen Hai Navy. If it were to be destroyed here, the Shen Hai Navy wouldn't be able to recover for a long time.

Or rather, Shen Hai might even never recover—if this war didn't end in a dignified manner, the loss of the Navy would put Shen Hai in a very passive position.

As he stood by the railing of the ship, watching the enemy fleet firing continuously in the distance, Bernard was also inside the bridge of his ship observing this Shen Hai Navy fleet.

To be honest, this was the most combat-capable enemy fleet he had ever seen. They had swiftly and securely dealt with his incursion, only their warships were simply no match for him.

But he had no intention of holding back. Mercy didn't suit his persona—so he ordered continuous firing, instructed his fleet to begin a slaughter, encircling the enemy fleet, and prepared to annihilate this massive Shen Hai fleet right where it was.

However, what he didn't expect was that halfway through his fleet's encirclement, the enemy went mad, began to spread their formation, and attempted to entangle Bernard's fleet at all costs.

Meanwhile, the enemy's core transport fleet, which had been protected, started a desperate charge toward the port of Dongwan City.

——

I admit I am an idiot, and damn it, I'm starting to fantasize about 004's long legs, black stockings, and generous chest now...

The word count is low today because I stupidly watched 003 all day, yeah, watched up until now, and suddenly felt a jolt, lost interest and didn't know why...