Although the People's Army's escort fleet has only 7 ships, its firepower is far above the Anqing Naval Camp. Even if it is only the cannons that can be used on the bow, each warship has 3 cannons available, and there are 3 medium-caliber artillery such as 105mm and 4 75mm. The other 14 are all 50mm rapid-fire guns; while the Anqing Naval Camp has 19 warships, only Huang Jingong's ship has an 88mm caliber main gun, and the other 4 wooden iron-shelled ships have a double 63mm caliber main gun; there are 6 wooden steamers who only have a 47mm caliber Hakikas rapid-fire gun at the bow, while the 8 wooden sailboats have no artillery installed, because the task of these wooden sailboats is to fight on the sidelines. Therefore, both sides are far from the Anqing Naval Camp's escort fleet in terms of the number of artillery and the firepower projection.

Moreover, although the seven warships of the People's Army's escort fleet do not have surface hardened carburized steel armor, they are all made of warships made of all steel. The 47mm caliber Haqikas rapid-fire gun of the Anqing Navy have basically no threat to these warships. The 63mm caliber gun is not very damaged. Only the 88mm caliber main gun of the Huang Jingong ship can pose a certain threat to the People's Army's escort fleet. In addition to the 5 wooden iron-shelled ships, the rest of the warships of the Anqing Navy are all made of wooden structures, which cannot even be prevented by 50mm rapid-fire guns. The wooden iron-shelled ship is actually a layer of iron sheet outside the wooden body, with a thickness of 30-40mm. Although its defense is much stronger than that of the wooden ships, it is also much worse than the all-steel-made warships of the People's Army's escort fleet.

Whether it is offense or defense, the Anqing Navy was not as good as the People's Army's escort fleet, so it can be said that the outcome was determined before the war began. Of course, Huang Jingong did not realize this and still believed that he had a greater chance of winning. After all, there were many ships on his side.

Both sides used a horizontal formation and drove towards the other side while firing. The People's Army's escort fleet hoped to narrow the distance with the other side to improve the hit rate, while the Anqing Navy hoped to jump the side after getting close. Moreover, the People's Army's escort fleet is now against the current, and the Anqing Navy is downstream, so it can't stop even if it wants to. Since both sides use small and medium-caliber artillery, the firing rate is fast, so they can only attack the water columns on the water surface.

Just when the distance between the two sides was closer to within 3,000 meters, the patrol boat Shipu first achieved the results. The 75mm main artillery on the bow of the ship hit a wooden steamship. At the same time, a 50mm rapid-fire gun also hit the wooden steamship 3 or 4 shells in succession. In fact, a 75mm shell was enough to cause fatal damage to such a wooden ship, not to mention that there were 3 or 4 50mm shells, so the wooden steamship was immediately blown out of recognition, and the whole ship was in a fire and was about to sink.

Almost at the same time, the South Bridge on the left side of the Shipu was also captured. Two 50mm rapid-fire cannons at the head of the ship shot continuously, hitting a straight water column on the river surface, and finally landed on a wooden sailboat, and hitting more than 10 bombs in a row. A wooden boat could withstand such a blow. The wood chips splattered all over the place, and in a blink of an eye the entire hull was also broken and basically no rescue.

The other two patrol boats also achieved their own results at about the same time, sinking two wooden steamboats and one wooden sailboat in succession.

Just as patrol boats all achieved their own results, the three destroyers of the escort fleet also made their own achievements. First, the 105mm caliber main artillery on the head of the flagship Yongcheng hit a wooden iron-shelled ship of the Anqing Navy.

Although the wooden iron-shelled ship is much stronger than the wooden ship, the 105mm shells and 75mm shells are not the same. As a result, after a loud explosion, more than 10 soldiers were blown out. A large gap of 4 or 5 meters was blown out of the head of the wooden iron-shelled ship, and a raging fire was ignited on the twisted metal and broken wooden bodies. In addition, countless wood iron debris and crew members' bodies were scattered on the sea near the warship. At the same time, a large amount of sea water poured in from the gap in the bow. The hull was tilted almost at a speed visible to the naked eye. The bow sank, the stern raised, and sank into the river.

At the same time, the 50mm rapid-fire gun on the Zhecheng also successively hit another wooden iron-shelled ship with more than a dozen shells. Although the 50mm shells have a little lethality to the wooden iron-shelled ship, it is not easy to be hit by more than a dozen shells. The artillery, command room, mast, chimney and other buildings on the deck were all hit and destroyed, and only a thousand holes were hit. The soldiers on the ship were also injured and killed. The deck was covered with bloody corpses and broken limbs.

The Yucheng was not willing to be outdone. The main gun hit two wooden iron-shelled ships in succession, smashing almost all the bow of the ship and sinking into the water.

At this time, the battle lasted for more than 10 minutes, but the People's Army's escort fleet had sunk two wooden iron-shelled ships and severely damaged two; sank four wooden steamships and three wooden sailboats. The Anqing Navy's losses had exceeded half. The river surface was covered with broken masts, broken shafts, broken boards, and countless Anqing Navy soldiers' bodies, as well as a large number of soldiers struggling hard in the river water, sometimes fighting against each other for a wooden board and a lifebuoy.

Four warships were also hit by the People's Army's escort fleet, namely the Zhecheng, which was 1 63mm shell and 1 47mm shell; the Yucheng, which was 2 47mm shells; the Shipu and Tangqiao, which were each hit by 1 47mm shell, but the damage of the warship was not large and basically did not affect combat effectiveness. In addition, a total of 12 soldiers were injured.

Although Huang Jingong was quite confident in this battle before the war started, he was still ignorant. After ordering the fire, he ordered his ship to slow down the speed of advance and landed behind the other four wooden iron-shelled ships. Not only was it not attacked by the People's Army's escort fleet, but it could see the situation on the entire battlefield clearly. What Huang Jingong did not expect was that his confidence was completely destroyed after only more than 10 minutes. Is the navy in East China so powerful?

However, Huang Jingong's reaction was not slow. He knew at a glance that the battle was about to be in full swing, so he immediately ordered to turn around and retreat. Enqing had no objection to Huang Jingong's order. Although he did not understand the water battle, he could also see that his defeat was determined. So when would he wait until he didn't run away? Although he was following Enming's order to supervise Huang Jingong's battle, he could not take himself in. Anyway, whether the battle was victorious or defeat had nothing to do with him, it was important to save his life first.

Of course, Huang Jingong was not the only one who was smart. The commanders of several warships knew that this battle could not be fought any longer, so they did not say hello to Huang Jingong at all, so they ordered their warships to turn around and prepare to escape from the battlefield. When other people who were slightly slow to reacted, they immediately felt sorry when they saw that the warships turned and retreated, so they naturally had no intention of fighting and ordered their warships to turn.

But the turn of the ships on the water is not as easy as on land. Moreover, the battle is not over yet. The People's Army's escort fleet will not let them go because the Anqing Navy is about to retreat. Instead, they will take advantage of your illness and kill you, kill them all. Moreover, destroyers are basically the role of cannon fodder in the Navy sequence of the People's Army, mainly doing some jobs such as fighting ships, large cruisers, blocking guns, and replenishing guns. Patrol boats are not combat ships, so these warships are rare to play the leading role on the battlefield, and they also have the opportunity to reap the results of the battle. Although only wooden ships are sunk, they are also considered the results of the battle. You must know that some battleships may not have the results of the battles in their lifetime. Now, when they encounter such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in this escort, do not hold on to them, perform well, and strive to achieve more results.

Moreover, at this time, the flagship issued an order to "annihilate the enemy completely, no one is allowed to be let go", which naturally made the effort to start and fire on the Anqing Navy's warship. However, at this time, the remaining warships of the Anqing Navy began to turn to withdraw. Not only could they not fire and fight back, but they also exposed the firepower of the People's Army's escort fleet when turning. The area of ​​bombing was much larger than when both sides fought against the enemy with their bows.

As a result, all the warships of the People's Army's escort fleet opened fire and fired wildly, striving to achieve the greatest results. At this time, the distance between the two sides had been narrowed to within 1,000 meters, and the shooting accuracy was greatly improved.

As a result, during the turn of the Anqing Navy's warship, there were two more wooden iron-hulled ships, one wooden steamer, and three wooden sailboats, which were sunk by the People's Army's escort fleet. Only one wooden iron-hulled ship, one wooden steamer, and two wooden sailboats were left. At this time, several warships of the People's Army's escort fleet had almost advanced with each other and the warship, and the artillery on the side of the warship also locked their respective targets.

At this moment, a wooden steamship and two wooden sailboats all set off white flags and announced the surrender of the People's Army's escort fleet, because it is impossible to escape now. If you want to save your life, you can only surrender. Of course, no one can guarantee whether you can survive after surrender, but you can live for at least a while. Once the warship is sunk, it will be the result of a lifetime of death.

Seeing that the opponent's ship had hit the white flag, the People's Army's escort fleet also stopped shooting, because capturing the enemy's warships in naval battles was the greatest military achievement. Although these ships were not very useful to be captured and could only be bought for people as fishing boats, they were captured enemy warships after all, and this honor was quite great. So someone and the warships called on the Anqing Navy's surrender warships, asking them to close the artillery, put on the cannon, lower the sailboat, and shut down the airplane. All the personnel put down their weapons and gathered on the deck, waiting for the People's Army's escort fleet's warships to lean on, board the ship, and accept their surrender.

Only Huang Jingong's warship fell behind other warships at the beginning of the battle, but it was not hit, and it was not replaced at all, and it was the first to flee. Therefore, it not only had enough room to turn heads, but also avoided the attack of the People's Army escort fleet when turning heads. So after the ship turned heads, Huang Jingong also hurriedly ordered the power cabin to increase the power of the warship to full power and escape from the battlefield at full speed.

Note: Anhao book lover pointed out that in the previous chapter, it was written that [Second, the jurisdiction of the Governor of Huguang is Hubei, Hunan, and the jurisdiction of the Governor of Liangjiang is Jiangsu and Jiangxi, all around Anhui, but even if you don’t care about Anhui, there is no way for Enming to do so.] There is an error, the jurisdiction of the Governor of Liangjiang is Jiangsu, Jiangxi and Anhui.

After I checked, I was indeed wrong. "Two Rivers" originally referred to Jiangnan and Jiangxi provinces, and later Jiangnan provinces were divided into Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, but the name of the Governor of Liangjiang was retained. It has been corrected in the previous chapter.
Chapter completed!