Fearing being killed for his overwhelming merits, the empress decided to marry him.

Chapter 456 The Battle of the South Pacific: The Third Bombardment—

Another shell accurately hit the hull of a three-masted ship.

slam-la-

One side of the ship was instantly pierced, and surging seawater relentlessly poured into the cabin.

"Quick, get cover! Don't let the seawater flood in!"

The officer immediately ordered his subordinates to begin blocking the seawater.

However, the hole was so large that the seawater crashed in and knocked the sailors who had just approached to the ground.

Squeak——

"what sound!"

Just then, a piercing cracking sound of wood breaking rang in everyone's ears.

The officer roared, wiped his face, which was wet with seawater, and stood there stunned with red eyes.

Squeak——

The sound of wood cracking became more pronounced. At this moment, all the Li soldiers in the cabin held their breath, not daring to make a sound, and listened quietly to the source of the sound.

click-

Suddenly, a sound of breaking bones rang out, and everyone lost their footing and tumbled to the side.

"Oh no! The ship is about to break apart! Run for your lives!"

The surging waves crashed against the ship, and the warship was instantly split in two.

All the officers and soldiers on the ship roared and fell into the sea like dumplings being dropped into boiling water.

On another ship, after the deck was ravaged by armor-piercing shells, countless officers and soldiers let out mournful cries.

"Oh my god, I got pricked in the ball! I'm doomed!"

A sailor clutched his groin, which was covered in blood, and cried out in utter misery.

"My knees, my knees!"

The sailor on the other side, clutching his mangled left leg, also let out a mournful cry.

Some had their eyes blinded by sawdust and their faces disfigured; they were rolling around on the deck.

The entire ship was filled with a desolate and mournful atmosphere.

The command ship, whose mast was broken, was in an even worse state.

The heavy mast fell, instantly killing two sailors who couldn't get out of the way.

But the worst part was yet to come. Most of the mast fell off the hull on the left side of the ship, causing the entire warship to go out of control and slowly be pulled toward the friendly ship on the left.

"Don't come any closer! Don't come any closer!"

"Turn the rudder! Turn the rudder quickly, hurry up!"

Seeing their friendly ship heading towards them, the officers and soldiers on the other warship cried out in despair, and sailors ran back and forth on the deck.

but……

boom--

With a loud bang, a group of soldiers who were clinging to the ship's side were thrown backwards.

One of them slammed his head into the corner of the cabin door, and driven by inertia, he did a Thomas Flair spin and fell into the sea with his back to the ground.

The other officers and soldiers weren't much better off; after being hit like that, they immediately fell to the ground like kites, their whereabouts unknown.

At the lookout tower atop the mast, the observer, struck by the impact, lost his balance, tumbled sideways, and fell heavily onto the deck, dying instantly.

Even more terrifying, the mast pierced the hull directly upon impact, and the wind ripped a three- or four-meter-long gash in the side of the warship, throwing all the naval officers and soldiers hiding inside out.

Shen Lang was very satisfied to see three ships destroyed with a single shot and immediately gave another order.

"Pass on my order: switch to high-explosive shells!"

Soon, the officers and soldiers inside the main and secondary gun emplacements of the Po Jun began to get busy.

Before long, all the armor-piercing rounds had been replaced with high-explosive rounds.

"emission!"

Boom boom boom boom——

Thirty breaths later, all twelve large-caliber cannons, both main and auxiliary, fired simultaneously.

The scorching shells rained down on the enemy ship like shooting stars.

boom--

With a loud bang, a cannonball landed directly on the deck of an enemy ship.

The officers and soldiers on deck were thrown into the air by the shockwave from the shrapnel, and didn't even have a chance to groan.

A soldier merely poked his head out, and instantly all the parts above his neck vanished, leaving only a pool of warm liquid as proof that he had once existed in this world.

The secondary guns were smaller in caliber than the main guns, but they used a rapid-fire principle, firing an average of twelve rounds per minute, directly covering enemy ships with firepower.

Meanwhile, the Kaiyang on the other side also began to launch an attack on the enemy ships on the other side.

The fierce firepower kept the Lebanese warships pinned down, preventing them from even raising their heads.

Within a mere fifteen minutes of the battle, thirty Lebanese warships were sunk or blasted apart, and more than twenty others had their masts broken, rendering them unable to sail.

The sea was filled with sailors, constantly sending distress signals to their nearby comrades.

When Zheng Haichao saw this, his face began to contort.

"What kind of weapon is this, that it is so powerful?"

This was the first time he had encountered such a problem.

How did the Chu warships manage to suppress the Li navy from a distance of nearly a nautical mile?

A lieutenant shouted, "General, quickly make them withdraw! If the fighting continues, the warships on both flanks will be completely annihilated!"

Zheng Haichao shook his head: "It's probably too late to let them retreat now. The enemy's warships will definitely not let them go."

The only way to turn the tide of the battle now is to take a desperate gamble and order the entire navy to converge on the enemy ships.

Once boarding action begins, the enemy ships' advantage will be lost. The order is given: all sails must be raised to full speed, and the enemy ships must approach at full speed.

woo-

Soon, the bugle calls for attack rose and fell, and the remaining 260 warships raised their sails and rushed toward the Po Jun, where Shen Lang was.

"madness."

Shen Lang, who witnessed this scene through the telescope, couldn't help but smirk.

"Notify all artillery positions and the Kaiyang command post to fire freely at the Lebanese navy."

……

Zheng Haichao had no idea what kind of enemy he was facing.

They went all in, intending to use sheer numbers to bridge the gap between them.

When the two sides were less than a nautical mile apart, the battleships, which had been silent for a moment, roared and howled wildly once again.

Boom boom boom——

One high-explosive shell after another landed on the sea, raising towering columns of water that astonished the sailors on board.

"Fire arrows!"

Perhaps the fear caused the commander on one of the warships to lose his mind.

He directly ordered his soldiers to fire arrows from a distance of over a thousand meters.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh—

After a volley of arrows, just as expected, they didn't even manage to hit the battleship's hull, let alone the ship itself.

boom--

Their response was an 88mm high-explosive shell exploding on the deck of the Kaiyang.

After a loud bang, the command cabin and the officers and soldiers on the deck were all thrown into the air.

Some soldiers' bodies were blown in two, one part in the sea and the other on the ship...

Several soldiers were lucky enough to survive, but their faces had been cleanly sliced ​​off by shrapnel from the high-explosive explosion, revealing a row of terrifying, white gums...

The howling cannon fire intertwined into a network of firepower, easily tearing through the enemy ship's defenses.

In just a few quarters of an hour, the Lebanese navy had lost nearly a hundred warships.

With the battle having progressed to this point, Zheng Haichao understood that defeat was inevitable, and the gap between the two sides could not be bridged by sheer numbers.

Just then, he received another piece of bad news.

Upon witnessing the horrific battle, the Angbi fleet, which was following Zheng Haichao's main force, immediately ordered its ships to turn around and flee with the eight warships it had brought, breaking away from the main force to escape.

"That cowardly fellow, I'll teach him a lesson after today!"

Zheng Haichao's chest heaved with genuine energy.

The departure of the Ombi fleet will further dampen the morale of the fleet.

boom--

Another loud bang, and a warship exploded and capsized on the spot.

Seeing this, Zheng Haichao suddenly made a decision.

"Notify all naval vessels to gather their elite soldiers and use speedboats to scuttle them!"