Chapter 203

May 13, lerobel Bay.

"Ship found in the third channel, skuna type, one!"

"Order the badger to attack and the horseshoe to respond."

"Yes! Order the badger to attack the horseshoe, and the second ship replies!"

Listening to the chaos of battle instructions, Lorraine raised his mirror and looked for the badger on the broad sea.

This is not difficult. Although the warships of the Halloween are far apart, the general location has never been hidden from Lorraine.

He soon found the target.

Looking at the mirror, the badger stretched out its sails, drew a straight water line at sea, and stormed into the sneaky skuna more than ten kilometers away.

The ending is doomed from this moment.

With warships against non warships and soldiers against non soldiers, the badger has absolute advantages in both firepower and combat skills, and the horseshoe commanded by bell is on the side.

No matter from what angle, the poor skuna has no chance to turn over.

Lorraine put down his looking glass dully, leaned against the main mast, and glanced at Nelson, who looked solemn in the observation platform.

"Mr. commander, you don't need to pay so much attention to this battle. Major and bell will sink scuna soon."

"The lion and the rabbit have to go all out, Drake." Nelson touched the smooth hoop line of the observation deck. "Speaking of it, I haven't thanked you for lending me the golden deer."

"It's always high. It's obvious that the golden deer can see farther than the badger."

"A great help."

This conversation took place at the top of the main mast of the golden deer. Nelson and his messenger occupied the highest main mast lookout platform of the ship. Out of politeness and boredom, Lorraine chose to accompany him and sat bored on the yard extended by the lookout platform.

Lorraine meditated.

"Lieutenant, is it appropriate to bombard the coast?"

"Proper shelling? Intimidation?"

"Almost." Lorraine stretched himself. "Since yesterday afternoon, we started indiscriminate hunting on the inner side of the Bay, all the ships in the Bay have hid in the dock, and the scouts reported that there are 13. Since then, we have nothing to do except Limited ships entering the bay."

Nelson covered his chin depressed: "I thought they would organize at least one counterattack by boat. Now it seems that I overestimate the bloody nature of the French..."

"The general thinking of businessmen is rational. In the face of the golden deer, I don't think the impulsive can dominate the wharf. We have to help them make up their mind to save themselves."

"Shelling?"

"Take away those two old forts and let them know that the wharf can't protect them."

"I need to think again."

On May 13, the Halloween fleet took control of lerobel Bay. The next day, bell and the supplemented lucky horseshoe officially returned and participated in the fleet's hunting operation for the first time.

Le Rober Bay is a sheltered bay outside Le Rober, a coastal town of Martinique. It is adjacent to gallion Bay in the sea off latrinite to the north and Le Francois, where the French Defense Fleet is stationed, to the south.

This is a high-quality harbor on Martinique Island, second only to Fort Frank Bay, but it has not received corresponding attention and development.

Le Robel is not prosperous.

Compared with St. Mary's Town, the core commercial port on the Atlantic coast, and Le Francois, a military important place, this town looks ordinary from any point of view. Even if its geographical location is in the center of the two, it has had a lot of opportunities to combine the functions of the two from the beginning.

The culprit of this situation is the island reef belt at the entrance of the bay.

The arc-shaped island reef belt runs across the entrance of the Bay like a threshold. There are a large number of messy bright and dark reefs and islands along the line, resulting in twists and turns and narrow channels in and out of the Bay, which can not accommodate the entry of class III and above battleships. Even small boats must be careful to navigate in this area, like walking on thin ice.

However, it was this geographical and hydrological environment that made Nelson choose it as the place for a decisive battle with the French Defense Fleet.

There are five entrances and exits of the island reef belt. The narrowest No. 2 and No. 3 can only be used for small ketch ships of single mast and non-standard ship types, and the wider No. 1 and No. 5 channels can be used for class 5 and class 6 ships below 45 meters.

The condition of channel 4 is the best. It can barely pass through class 4 cruisers with a captain of about 50 meters and a draft of more than 6 meters.

After the loss of the lucky horseshoe, the existing combat power of the Defense Fleet still includes the class IV Andes, the class V Jupiter and three class VI ships. The soft and hard strength is stronger than that of the Halloween fleet.

Only by staying in this sieve bay can the Halloween fleet divide its opponents to the greatest extent, make up for the objective gap in combat power between the two sides as far as possible, and leave enough tactical space for the commander.

But Martinique is the home of the French after all. It is impossible to hide the situation of Le Rober Bay from the Defense Fleet. How to let the other party take the initiative to enter the filter when he knows it has become a problem that Nelson must solve.

His answer is provocation.

The aborted battle plan to destroy leloran was the original first provocation. Nelson intended to start from leloran, constantly expose his whereabouts and destroy the large and small docks along the coast, so as to convey the strength gap between the two sides, ridicule the incompetence and cowardice of the Defense Fleet, and force them to fight a decisive battle with the Halloween fleet in the battlefield selected by Nelson.

As a result, the plan didn't go well.

The fort of leloran gave birth to Nelson's original plan. The operation of hearty arsonist became a substitute for destroying leloran, and the lucky horseshoe and zilned became new tools to provoke the Defense Fleet.

This tool is the human flesh wind chime at the gate of hell.

The insult of the wind chime is unspoken, but its weight is insufficient compared with the ports caught in water and fire.

In order to continue the original strategy, Nelson had to take a desperate risk and changed the original shelling of lerobel to blocking lerobel.

Geographically, this is tantamount to putting the word "incompetence" on the face of the Defense Fleet commander.

The other side must respond to Nelson's ultimate provocation. The British have put their ships into the pockets of the French. If the Halloween fleet is left intact, the commanders of the Defense Fleet shouldering the security order along the Atlantic coast will only have to retreat.

Nelson felt that his bait was heavy enough. Whether shelling Le Rober would not have an impact on the decisive situation. In that case, why did Lorraine tirelessly propose shelling land?

Attacking land, even if only facing two old forts, the risk to the fleet is huge.

Is it the predatory nature of pirates?

Nelson shook his head hard.

Lorraine only suggested shelling and did not force landing, that is to say, his fundamental purpose was not le Robel's wealth, the refuge ships in the wharf

ships!

Nelson suddenly woke up.

These days he pays too much attention to the powerful defense fleet, so that he ignores the hidden threat close at hand.

The refuge ships in the dock are very weak, like children who have not grown up. They are only qualified to shiver in front of the Adult Halloween fleet.

But no matter how weak the ship is, there are still guns on their deck, and no matter how young the child is, they still have blades in their hands.

If... If these merchant ships take part in the decisive battle between the two fleets at any cost, the non dominant Halloween fleet will fall into a desperate situation, which is fatal!

Nelson was in a cold sweat.

"Drake, I don't know when the defense fleet will arrive in the battlefield. I can't turn all my guns to lerobel."

"Only golden deer and lucky horseshoes, only half a day. Are you sure to send all the boats on the wharf to the bottom of the sea before dawn tomorrow?"

"There must be no assurance," said Lorraine, scratching her hair in embarrassment, "but this kind of self-help must be done anyway, isn't it?"