Munitions Empire

The loading of the main guns on the battleship was a slow process, and in fact, even with mechanical loading machines, it was very difficult to increase the firing rate of the main guns on a battleship.

Since they were not modern battleships and the loading system's efficiency was indeed not high, the main guns of the Dongwan-class battleships of the Tang Army fired at a rate of about one shot every few minutes.

The lengthy and irritating wait made Bernard frequently lift his binoculars to look at the enemy warships in the distance.

There was no activity from the enemy's side at that time either, as their main guns also required time to load. Bernard was silently counting to himself, trying to calculate the firing frequency of the enemy ships.

Of course, there were more professionals doing this job, where other sailors used stopwatches to calculate the enemy's firing frequency.

But soon they all took a deep breath of relief because, once again after their own side had finished loading and fired, the enemy's warships remained silent, without launching a new round of cannon fire.

There was good news and naturally bad news as well. The good news was that the enemy ships really did have a slow loading speed, taking half a day without firing a second volley. The bad news was that their own shells had missed once more, still falling short.

The distance between the two sides was closing steadily, but with the mechanical ballistic calculation equipment, the soldiers in charge of operating the equipment had already roughly summed up their experience.

The point of impact for each shell reflected the speed at which both fleets were approaching each other. As long as they adapted to this speed and properly allowed for the necessary lead time, they could improve the accuracy of their hits.

After several trial and error attempts, the officers responsible for the ballistic calculations finally put forth a new plan with a set of data they believed to be reasonable.

Then, all the turrets and cannons were once again readjusted to this data.

Following that, the gunners fired the cannons again. Bernard felt the slight vibration of his warship beneath his feet, the feedback of power when the 305-millimeter caliber giant cannons roared.

"Boom! Boom!" A succession of booming sounds echoed through the air; the shells traveled nearly ten kilometers and once again diagonally smashed into the sea, raising towering columns of water on both sides of the Shen Hai Navy's warships.

The spotter at his post, holding his binoculars, excitedly shouted so loud that even Bernard in the command tower could hear him: "Straddle! Straddle! Near miss!"

"Straddle! Near miss!" many officers also shouted excitedly, after nearly an hour of effort, they finally heard this good news.

"Beautiful!" Bernard couldn't help but excitedly clench his fist; he had finally heard the cry he had longed for.

As if the enemy ship had been hit, everyone celebrated excitedly. While they were celebrating, the enemy ships fired a second volley.

All the officers inside the command tower of the bridge became tense again, and soon a lot of shells fell, smashing into the water and splashing towering water columns.

Whether it was due to the Shen Hai Navy's well-trained skills or unbelievable luck, the point of impact for this second volley was noticeably very close to the Tang Army's line of battle.

However, before the towering columns of water had even completely fallen, three Tang Army battleships once again fired salvo.

Luck still wasn't on the side of the Tang Army; although it was another straddle, all were near misses! The Shen Hai Navy once again escaped by a hair's breadth, with the closest shell skimming past their warship's mast and falling far beyond.

The man from Shen Hai was already turning pale, standing on the bridge of his warship, the shell that had just fallen had scared him into a cold sweat.

He heard the piercing whistle of the shells, which proved that the shells that had just fallen were very very close to him.

What scared him even more was that for two consecutive times, the enemy's shells had fallen around his warship. This indicated that the enemy had very advanced aiming methods and could accurately direct their cannons to adjust the firing angle.

The enemy's warships were faster, and their cannon loading and preparation were faster too. After firing two or three volleys, he was only able to return one salvo. In terms of firepower density, the Shen Hai Navy was obviously at a disadvantage.

On his warships, the cannon loading speed was very slow, and they could only roughly adjust the shooting angle with the help of aiming scopes, so hitting the enemy ships clearly required more luck.

This overwhelming sense of inferiority was very uncomfortable for the man from Shen Hai; had he known the enemy's warships were so powerful, he wouldn't even have planned such a decisive battle.

Heaven knows how much pressure he was under now; the warships lined up here were almost all of the Shen Hai Navy's assets.

If anything happened to these warships, Shen Hai would have lost control of the sea, which was tantamount to being at the Tang Country's mercy.

"If it weren't for those idiots in the army, how could I have taken such a risk to have a decisive battle with the Tang Country Navy at this place!" the man from Shen Hai cursed to himself internally.

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But even after the cursing, he still had to consider how to deal with the unfavorable situation before him. Although his fleet of battleships had a slight advantage in numbers, it seemed that the combat power exhibited by the Tang Army was a bit more formidable.

"General, should we... adjust our course?" the executive officer of the Shen Hai, a man who seemed quite nervous, asked.

He too was worried about being hit by the enemy first, so at this moment, he was already considering the idea of evading enemy fire. Since their own cannons were still a far cry from hitting the enemy warships, wouldn't it be a better option to maneuver and avoid the enemy's gunfire for now?

However, Shen Hai did not think so. It wasn't that he was reluctant to lose the firing parameters obtained from two full salvos, but based on his naval battle experience, dodging sometimes did not change the outcome of being hit.

He felt that naval gunnery was basically a matter of luck; with good luck, a couple of salvos could hit the target, but with a bit less luck, even more than a dozen salvos might not strike the mark.

If they started to adjust their course now, perhaps the originally missed shells would just end up hitting their mark, wouldn't that be handing the advantage to the opponent?

So, after pondering for a few seconds, he shook his head and decided to keep to his course, aiming to close the distance between the two sides to eight kilometers or even seven kilometers as quickly as possible.

At a distance of seven or eight kilometers, the Shen Country Navy's cannon hit rate would increase significantly, because at this range, just relying on experience and roughly-made aiming scopes, one could hit the target, which was quite large to begin with, with a bit of luck.

Thus, Shen Hai shook his head, gritted his teeth, and stuck with his choice, "Maintain our course! Let's talk after the third salvo!"

Following his command, the Tang Kingdom Navy's battleships fired another salvo, with the shells whistling fiercely toward the direction of the Shen Country Navy.

After several rounds of probing with artillery fire, the mechanical ballistic calculation equipment finally produced a fairly perfect solution.

On the swaying sea, the third Shen Country Navy battleship in the line was suddenly struck by something, bursting into a dazzling flame.

One shell had struck directly at the center of the warship's hull, first piercing through the side wall of the first layer of buildings on the deck, then blasting through the floor below, and crashing into a lower compartment before exploding at the top of the boiler.

Another shell had pierced the hull of the Shireck-made battleship near the waterline, leaving behind an ominously large hole.

In just a moment, the battleship constructed by Shireck had its outer shell torn apart by the explosion, and in less than thirty seconds, it was engulfed in thick smoke, its speed reduced to almost a standstill.

In the grisly first round of explosions, parts even flew onto the decks of the two other battleships at either end of the stricken vessel.

The damaged warship then drifted increasingly farther away from the ship ahead, and was soon overtaken by another battleship following behind.

Shen Hai turned as pale as death; he had once marveled at the hundred-millimeter-thick armor on the Shireck-made battleships, thinking these vessels were sturdy sea fortresses.

However, in a blink of an eye, the supposedly indestructible Shireck battleship was hit by a Tang Kingdom warship and completely lost its combat capability.

At that moment, the Shen Country's battleships were as fragile as a piece of paper!

"Turn immediately after firing! Take evasive maneuvers!" With his expression completely uncontrollable, Shen Hai clenched his fist and issued orders to his executive officer.

"Boom!" This time, the Shen Country Navy's 320mm caliber heavy cannons roared. Only this time, instead of the original four battleships, only three managed to fire a full salvo.

The battleship that had just been hit seemed to have utterly lost its ability to fight; thick smoke obscured the bridge, making it look like a gas canister about to explode at any moment.

Indeed, as the Shen Country Navy's shells once again fell into the sea, stirring high columns of water, the completely immobile Shireck-made battleship that had almost been overtaken by its own cruisers, blew up!

The explosion almost lifted the entire upper structure of the warship off, and flames engulfed the massive turret between the two smokestacks.

The main turret in the very front was hurled into the air by the explosion and then crashed heavily onto the round gun mount.
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The battleship, which had been constructed without proper understanding and simply copied larger versions of cruisers and ironclad warships, exposed all of its flaws at that moment: defenses severely inadequate due to just being an upscaled version, armor thickness compromised for speed was incapable of withstanding large caliber artillery fire.

The outdated propulsion system forced Shireck to cut back on the battleship's armor, the choice of 320mm caliber main guns to outdo the Great Tang Group had an incredibly slow rate of fire, and the targeting system, which couldn't be copied, had to make do by enlarging targeting systems from other outdated Great Tang Group warships.

In short, the Shireck battleship, which was only outwardly formidable, exposed its true frailty the second it was struck by a shell: it was essentially a battlecruiser that lacked a fire control system, had only the speed of an ironclad, and was equipped with merely the armor of a heavy cruiser...

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