The Sun Never Sets In Spain - Chapter 136

The sinking of an ironclad ship was extremely eye-catching, and the battlefield filled with gunpowder seemed to stagnate for a moment.

Rodriguez noticed this scene, in fact he had been watching with a telescope since the first impact.

He originally thought it was a suicidal act, a heroic sacrifice made by the De Gries in order to buy them time.

It never expected that it would actually complete the reversal of defeating the strong with the weak and the big with the small. It only took a few minutes to capture the head of the first iron-clad warship in this war.

“Russ, good fellow! It deserves a Spanish cross badge!” Rodriguez exclaimed, standing in the bow of the ship.

However, Captain Ruth didn’t know if he could get the medal alive.

Because the De Gris in the distance was given retaliatory fire from the recovered Italian battleship, many shells were poured around it.

The surrounding Spanish warships were trying to rescue the hero, but the De Gris itself was severely damaged in the impact just now. Due to the difference in quality and the opponent’s too much, its bow was damaged to a certain extent.

After being hit with 4 shells, it began to leak water and lost its mobility.

At this time, the gunners were still working hard to load ammunition into the artillery, but their fate was already doomed. The Italian warship cruising in its blind spot, bullied the old ship for not being able to deal with the enemies at both ends.

Lieutenant General Rodriguez couldn’t bear to keep watching.

In fact, their escape has not stopped. It is expected that in another five minutes, the Numancia and De Gris will be out of sight of each other.

The sacrifice of the De Gris was not meaningless. It bought precious time for the escape of the remaining Spanish warships, and it also objectively allowed Spain to win the conflict.

…

The time came to 4 pm, and the distance between the decoy fleet and the Italian fleet was re-extended to 2 nautical miles.

Both sides were a little uneasy at this time. The Italian fleet was afraid of hitting the French Mediterranean fleet, while the decoy fleet found itself lost.

There is only an endless sea level on the high seas, and it is difficult for them to find any reference to determine their position when driving at high speed.

From the previous turn in front of Genoa, they deviated from the scheduled course, and after a great battle, the course was even more ridiculous.

If everything is correct at this point, the decoy fleet should have been mixed with the main fleet and successfully completed this mission.

But Rodriguez saw sea water besides sea water.

Occasionally I can see a French merchant ship, but when the other party sees them, they go around far away, running faster than one.

Moreover, the pressing Italian fleet did not leave them any time to stop the merchant ships.

In desperation, the decoy fleet can only take the opponent around in circles.

Rodriguez is quite sure that he is around the predetermined location, maybe 10 nautical miles away is the main fleet they are looking for.

But if you can’t find it, you can’t find it. Now you can only hope to find some landmark reference objects-this possibility is very small. The Spanish Navy rarely moves here and is not familiar with the terrain.

In addition, there is a relatively inefficient method, which is to wait patiently for the night to come, and determine one’s position by the stars.

However, the worst plan did not come in handy, and after half an hour things turned around.

An Ottoman steam freighter sailed into this sea.

The huge figure and slow movement make the decoy fleet happy.

Unlike the Mediterranean merchant ships that are small and fast, only need to run short distances, and are flexible like earthworms, the route from Ottoman to France is one of the longest routes in the Mediterranean.

Correspondingly, the ships running this route are larger, have longer use time, and carry more cargo.

Especially this “Cunningham” is one of the best. Rodriguez estimates that this guy has less than 20 years of service history.

Under his order, a cruiser on the left flank left the team and headed for the “Cunningham”.

Sure enough, the other party stayed in place obediently and didn’t dare to move.

The stubborn French could run as they wanted, but the cargo ships of the Ottoman Empire, like their motherland, had learned to bear with the Western powers.

Seeing this, Rodriguez took the fleet to escape in the opposite direction with satisfaction, lest the Italians find the two ships in the negotiation.

It’s a pity that it didn’t happen. Soon, at 4:50, an Italian reconnaissance ship spotted them.

The two boats leaned together and stood still, not knowing what they were doing.

But the Italians don’t care what they are doing. On the sea, being still means death.

The reconnaissance cruiser opened fire at a super long distance, and hit the Spanish “Spino” directly after a shot.

Fortunately, due to the long distance and the fact that it did not hit the critical part, this solid bullet only caused slight damage to the hull. As long as the carpenter repaired it in time, it wouldn’t be a major problem.

But even so, the Spanish crew were shocked. After obtaining the information they wanted, they hurriedly returned to their ship and ran away in a hurry.

The Cunningham was not so lucky. In the second round of strikes, they replaced the “Spino” and withstood everything, and was severely leaked by two shells.

When the Italian cruiser saw this situation approaching, the crew of the “Cunningham” thought that the other party was helping themselves by recognizing their mistakes. They all mumbled in Arabic with angrily and happily. There were also several Ottomans dressed as wealthy businessmen. People tried to greet them in French.

Unexpectedly, the visitors were full of malice, and the Italians who were not catching up with “Spino” vented their anger to the innocent onlookers.

“Boom!” “Boom!” Several blooming bombs blasted on the “Cunningham” one after another, causing it to ignite a raging fire on the sea.

The panicked Ottoman crew jumped into the sea one after another, floating on the sea looking up at the culprit and cursing loudly.

It’s a pity that the Italians didn’t understand what they were talking about. Even if they could understand, they didn’t care. They laughed and mocked the embarrassed Ottomans.

The idea of ​​the Italian sailors is very simple. If you do something unclear with the enemy, then you are also the enemy.

They would still have scruples when switching to other European countries, but the Ottomanization of the barbarians, and the relationship with Italy has not been good, so they just fought.

…

Perhaps no one thought that the retribution would come so quickly. The cargo on the “Cunningham” was tobacco produced in Asia Minor.

The tobacco was quickly ignited, leading to a soaring fire, and with the burning cargo ship, gray smoke floated straight into the sky.

Not only did the decoy fleet and the Italian fleet notice this movement, even the main Spanish fleet, more than ten nautical miles away, also noticed the changes here, and sent several reconnaissance ships to investigate…