Chapter 1119: Collapse

"Boom, boom, boom..."

On the sea surface covered in blood and fire, warships were chasing one another.

The remnants of the Coalition warships were fleeing in all directions like birds and beasts.

The Ironclad Warships held onto these fleeing warships tightly, their rotating turrets and side artillery roaring from time to time, sinking the warships they caught up to.

Facing the terrifying Ironclad Warships, the Coalition navy had completely lost its will to fight.

Now, the only thing they could think of was staying alive.

Because they knew clearly that no matter what tactics they employed, their feeble Sailing Warships could not defeat Great Song's new warships.

"Tell Gong Ying to blockade the river entrance immediately. That bastard is having such a good time killing that he's forgotten what he's supposed to be doing." As the rotating turret of the Jinling blasted a Sailing Warship diagonally ahead into pieces, Zhou Yi noticed that some Xitu Guo warships had escaped into the inner river.

At this moment, Gong Ying was also in the direction of the river entrance, but the lad seemed to be only focused on hunting down Xitu Guo warships.

Hearing this, Song Xiang's face flushed slightly.

After the battle situation turned completely in favor of the Great Song Navy, he had also been overwhelmed with excitement, thinking only of killing the enemy, and had not noticed the river entrance either.

With an embarrassed smile, he immediately ordered his soldiers to relay the command.

Every Great Song warship had designated lookouts tasked with keeping an eye on the Jinling to receive orders in a timely manner.

Seeing the flags change on the Jinling, the lookouts in the watchtowers immediately passed down the order.

Gong Ying, who was immersed in the pleasure of the hunt, soon received the order.

His mind cleared instantly; Gong Ying patted his own head and immediately ordered the Ironclad Warship to maneuver, leading four Sailing Warships toward the inner river entrance of Calcutta.

After eliminating the Coalition warships in the harbor, he had transferred from a Sailing Warship to the Ironclad Warship.

Zhou Yi was responsible for the main fleet in the east.

He was responsible for the Coalition support fleet coming from the west.

After the main Coalition fleet was routed, the supporting Coalition western and southern fleets also collapsed rapidly.

This had left him in a state of frenzy after his eyes turned red from the slaughter.

"Almost let you slip through the cracks." The inner river entrance of Calcutta was on the west side of the harbor.

At this moment, more than ten warships had already hidden inside the river.

Seeing more warships surging toward the river entrance, he ordered the Ironclad Warship to go full throttle, and before long, it was positioned across the outside of the river entrance.

The surging Coalition warships saw this and had no choice but to head toward the open sea.

And in this back-and-forth, these Coalition warships had effectively missed the best opportunity to escape and were sunk one by one by the Great Song warships.

"Governor, Governor..."

While the Great Song warships were chasing and slaughtering the Coalition warships, Bolt in the harbor suddenly felt his body go limp, his head spin, and he fainted.

Many British officers and officials immediately swarmed over, and someone shook Bolt violently.

After a while, Bolt gradually regained consciousness, and then began to wail in grief.

From the initial certainty of victory,

to the current despair, watching one Coalition warship after another being destroyed, his heart was bleeding.

In the end, he simply could not bear the massive shock of the defeat and fainted.

To every British person, the invincibility of the British Fleet was a consensus accepted since birth.

Britain was the center of the Western Lands, and the Western Lands were the center of the world.

Now, the Coalition fleet, with the British Fleet at its core, had suffered an unprecedented, crushing defeat in what they considered a land of barbarians.

Nearly five hundred warships; from the start of the naval battle until now, there were fewer than one hundred and fifty Coalition warships left on the sea.

This number would continue to decrease.

A naval battle with such a number of ships sunk—this event would be recorded in the pages of history as a disgrace.

And Maluofu, including him, Bolt, would be recorded because of this naval battle, leaving behind an eternal infamy.

But these were matters for the future.

In truth, what he could not accept most was that this battle signified the fall of British maritime hegemony.

From now on, they, the British, would no longer be able to use their strong ships and powerful artillery to knock open the doors of any country in Dongtu at will.

Perhaps, the Great Song, with its own strong ships and powerful artillery, would even turn the tables and knock open the doors of the Xitu Guo countries.

This feeling of falling from being above others made him feel suffocated.

Yet this was the cruel reality.

Witnessing the entire process of the naval battle, he had also gradually come to his senses.

The core of this Great Song fleet was those twelve new warships with peculiar designs.

The current pursuit was also led by these warships.

No matter how their warships bombarded these vessels, they could not inflict fatal damage.

Moreover, their sailing speed was even faster than their Steamships.

In front of these warships, his Sailing Warships were simply as slow as snails.

"Too terrifying!" Bolt's entire body was soaked in cold sweat.

Twelve such warships had defeated their Coalition fleet.

If Great Song produced more of these warships in the future.

Then would they, the British, still be able to sail freely on the seas in the future?

Their great Britain relied on maritime hegemony to have colonies in every part of the world, forging the Empire on which the sun never sets.

Without maritime hegemony, they would be like someone who had lost their legs, becoming a crippled empire.

"Governor, Admiral Maluofu's fate is unknown; we need to immediately report the news of the naval defeat to Admiral Hariman." Bolt was only the Governor of Tianzhu.

This time, the Coalition was in fact under the command of Maluofu and Hariman.

The sudden, massive turn of events made both the Britain officials and officers in Tianzhu feel that an unprecedented, enormous crisis was imminent.

They needed Hariman to tell them what to do next.

"No! This news must absolutely not be leaked! Hariman is currently engaged in battle with the Great Song Army; if news of the naval defeat reaches him, it will greatly affect the morale of the Coalition soldiers," Bolt shouted.

Many officers, having witnessed the sharpness of the Great Song Navy, had completely lost the confidence to resist.

Especially the officers from other Xitu Guo.

Hearing this, someone shouted, "Governor Bolt, do you still intend to foolishly continue resisting? Look at the corpses floating all over the sea; do you still want the corpses of the Army soldiers to cover the battlefield as well?"

"That's right, this is truly a foolish war. We are not facing a weak indigenous army, but an army even more powerful than our own. Fighting such an army ten thousand miles away is simply madness," another person yelled.

"Stop playing dumb. We have lost the ocean, and no more Warship will come from the homeland to support us; that would be no different from sending them to their deaths. Once the Great Song Navy blockades the Tianzhu waters, Tianzhu will become an isolated island. Although the Ottoman Empire is our ally, are you not aware of how great the cost of transporting supplies by land would be?"

"..."

The many officers spoke one after another, and no one was intimidated by Governor Bolt's status enough to show him deference anymore.

Now, they only wanted to live to return home; they would rather face a military tribunal than die in this godforsaken place.

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