Chapter 330: Meeting on a Narrow Road

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

Noisy shouts and chaotic footsteps woke Franz up. He immediately got out of bed, put on a coat and walked to the captain's room.

"What's going on?! Where is the enemy attack coming from?! Signal! Let those Arab ships not come over, otherwise they will be regarded as hostile acts and annihilated."

"Yes!" As soon as the messenger left, an adjutant answered the fleet commander's question. "At the changing of the guard in the morning, five lookouts were found dead, and then we discovered a large number of galleys and frigates, as well as small troop carriers, in the northeast."

Friedrich slammed his fist on the table. Bagamoyo's harbor was just big enough for the Austrian fleet to break out of the bay and form.

But if they want to rely on the terrain to hold on to the bay, the Beiyang Navy has learned from the past, not to mention that Bagamoyo has no decent defense force at this time.

"Commander, we can use our artillery advantage to defend the bay. The enemy's numerical advantage is not enough to make up for the lack of firepower!"

An adjutant suggested confidently, but before Archduke Friedrich could praise him, Archduke Franz poured cold water on him.

"What if the other side blocks the entrance of the bay and sends troops to capture several forts on land at the same time? Although they pose no threat to the enemies outside the bay, they are fatal to us inside the bay. Just imagine if they are attacked by both land and sea at the same time. "How long can we hold on?"

Especially the terrain at the mouth of the bay made Franz think of a word, that is, catching a turtle in an urn.

The adjutant wanted to argue, but was stopped by Friedrich.

"Stop talking nonsense! Obey the order! Once the opponent completes the siege, there is no need to occupy the land fort. You only need to guard the mouth of the bay and get some fire attack and self-destruct ships to trap us alive. At that time, even if you want to rush out with all your strength, the opponent will As long as a few warships are scuttled and turned into artificial reefs, the exit can be blocked!"

"But it will take time for the steam engine to start."

"Damn it! You idiot, what are we keeping our sails for? Set sail and set sail!"

At the most critical moment, Friedrich chose the most correct approach. All the warships in the fleet spread their sails and rushed towards the Arab fleet.

The two fleets were like two sharp arrows colliding head-on on the sea, and the "Venecia" was the sharpest arrow.

Inside the bridge.

"What's going on? We just transported some weapons and gunpowder. Even if the Omanis want to retaliate, they can't mobilize the fleet to Bagamoyo so quickly to surround us."

Muscat, the capital of Oman, is the theoretical core area of ​​the Sayyid Dynasty, and it is nearly 4,400 kilometers away from Bagamo on the Persian Gulf.

"Impossible. I also saw the Arabs who escaped yesterday, but it would take ten days at the fastest for them to make a round trip, even with the help of ocean currents, monsoons and steam power. What's more, it seems that the other party did not Install steam power."

Franz was also confused. He was very confident that no fleet could do all this. Suddenly he had a very scary idea, that is, the whole encounter, starting from negotiating terms, using Bagamoyo and Tanzania as bait, and then loading up the so-called "Bagamoyo businessmen", and The current attack by the Omani fleet is all a conspiracy.

The other party had already taken action from the first day, and arrived just the morning after we arrived at Bagamoyo Port, so as to catch us by surprise.

But that seems unreasonable, because such sophisticated plots often cannot be realized in reality. As long as there is a problem in a certain link, everything will be lost, just like Babbage's Analytical Engine.

(Babbage is currently director of the Austrian Imperial Institute of Numerical Computing and a member of the Royal Society of Sciences.)

And even if Benny Erbin lied, where would he find these thousands of professional actors? The local people's feeling of being rustic and pretentious cannot be achieved by just any extra act.

The "Venecia" and the four first-class battleships barely managed to rush out before the other party blocked the entrance of the bay, but don't even think about grabbing the T's head.

Seizing the T-front is a very important step in naval battles. The party occupying the T-front can face the other side of the ship and have a good view, which is convenient for command and concentration of firepower.

For the side that did not grab the T head, only the flagship has a good view, and the ships behind have a large number of blind spots. Even after being misplaced, it is still difficult to command and dispatch.

And the most important thing is that the battleship artillery of this period was on both sides of the ship. At most, there could only be a few movable carron cannons concentrated on the bow. This kind of firepower was too small in naval battles.

Even a super first-class battleship cannot resist the firepower of dozens of 58-gun micro-battleships at the same time.

Omani Navy Pasha Mayed couldn't help laughing when he saw the Austrian Navy rushing out of the bay and heading straight towards him.

"Yes! A very correct decision. The other party is a very good general. This kind of judgment and execution ability are really admirable. But it is a pity that he met me, otherwise he would also be a man who can engrav his name on A genius who entered history.

Let us praise Allah and send off His enemies! "

The twenty battleships of the Omani Navy spread out in a row, the gun doors slowly opened, and the black muzzles were pointed at the "Venecia".

"Fire!" the gunner of Mayed's flagship gave the order, and the six-pounder and eight-pounder guns spit out tongues of flame one after another, and black smoke covered the sky.

These Omani navy are veterans who have fought in the Indian Ocean for many years. They did not slack off because the opponent did not change hands. Instead, they reloaded at the fastest speed and prepared for the second round of shooting.

Whether the opponent chooses to continue to die or retreat to the bay to survive, they will not escape their sanctions in the end.

They are waiting for the smoke to dissipate so that they can appreciate the other party's face that is distorted by fear or anger. Because only in this way can it be proved that Omani people are the masters of the Western Indian Ocean and East Africa, and the false gods of white people are worthless here.

However, a round of salvos from a fleet did not sink even a warship of the Austrian Empire. Although there were many broken bodies on the deck of the "Venetiana", the crew still manipulated the tattered sails and continued to move forward.

Mayed did not see what he wanted to see from the telescope, no white flag, no sunken ship, and no screaming crew members jumping into the water to escape.

"Keep shooting! Kill them all, otherwise they will inevitably become the enemy of our great Oman Empire! In the name of Allah, grant them eternal death!"

In the second and third rounds, the "Venetian" pressed forward like an immortal ghost.

In fact, these new battleships of the Austrian Empire were all wrapped with a layer of iron sheet. Although it was just an extra layer of iron sheet, the protection was greatly improved.

In addition, the "Venetian" was originally a super-class battleship with a very thick oak armor, and it was not easy to break the armor with small-caliber artillery.

At this time, its exterior was covered with another layer of iron sheet armor, and the main artillery of the Oman Navy could only do a scratch.

"Scatter!" When Mayed discovered the other party's intention, it was too late.