After all, Prussia is an emerging industrial country, and its foundation is much worse than France. In order to prepare for this war, Prussia almost drained all its national strength and brought out a powerful army that could compete with the French army.

Prussia no longer has money to invest in the navy, and even has not built a fort in such an important strategic land as the East Friesian Islands.

The limited turrets are concentrated in Hamburg, William Military Harbour and other places, and these long coastlines are completely unprepared!

Moreover, the order given to the navy this time was very simple, which was to stick to the support. No naval ship could take the initiative to go out to sea to fight the enemy in a decisive battle, because the result of the decisive battle would definitely be death.

In order to preserve a little naval seeds of the future empire, Psme even left two armies on the west coast of Prussia, which was to rely on the army to defend the long coastline.

It is precisely because of the navy's passive strategy of avoiding war that Hoff's fleet was rampant and as if it was in a state of no one!

Borcoum Island, Just Island, Nordnay Island, and Lange Island, these four important islands were easily captured by the French army without any resistance. Through the island and the straits of the mainland, the French army was ready to land in Lower Saxony.

However, Hoff's ambition is not just to face Bremen and Hannover. These places have no political value. All he wants is Hamburg Free City.

At this time, the people on the Prussian coast had been awakened by the sound of cannons that lasted for more than two hours. Countless people gathered to the coast, watching the war on the islands across the strait in a icy sea breeze.

"God! The French are coming... It's the French fleet, what should I do?"

"Why don't our fleet go to war? Don't Wilhelmshaven have several warships?"

I'm afraid these simple farmers and fishermen will never know the difference between pure ironclad ships and those pseudo ironclad ships with iron plates covered with wooden shells.

These people don’t understand the tonnage of various warships and the types of artillery. They don’t even understand that the Navy is really built with time and a huge amount of money.

In this era, in addition to the British Royal Navy, France is the well-deserved second overlord!

"It's useless. Wilhelmshaven's bell rings in the whole Hong Kong, and the military port is in a defensive state... None of our warships went out, and none of them left the port..."

The sea breeze became heavier and colder. These pessimistic and helpless Prussian people could only kneel on the ground and pray to God, praying that these tiger-and-wolf-like French troops would not land from their hometowns.

They are also praying for God to bless the Kingdom of Prussia so that this nation full of disasters can survive this disaster!

The self-confidence of the Prussian nation was still under the slow establishment process, and the Franco-Prussian War was not over yet. At this time, many people in Prussia were indeed nervous.

Many people even have fear of failure in their hearts. They are afraid that Napoleon III will be like his uncle, riding horses and soldiers in Berlin.

But no matter how nervous they were, they had no choice but to face this war, they could do nothing!

Just as the French landing troops burned, killed and looted the East Friesian Islands and brutally massacred the garrison, Captain Hoff on the sea suddenly ordered the stop of artillery fire. The six main battleships quickly changed their formation, and the muzzles headed to the northwest and aimed vigilantly at the shadows faintly coming from the southwest.

This is the most classic T-shaped battle formation in naval battles. Whoever can take the lead in seizing the horizontal line above the t-shaped will have a wider shooting surface.

This is an excellent tactic determined by the structure of the warship, because the warships are narrow and long, and the artillery is concentrated on both sides, while the bow and tail of the ship only have a small-caliber self-defense artillery.

It is precisely because of this warship structure that the firepower on the sidewalk is much greater than that on the frontwalk. In naval battle, whoever grabs the horizontal line in the t-shaped first, that is, whoever prepares for a sidewalk volley first will have the advantage of naval battle.

During the movement, always ensure that your formation is a horizontal line on the t character, which is the key to victory in the cannon battle!

Now the unknown fleet appeared in the southwest direction. Hoff asked the warships to penetrate northwest in advance and set up a long snake formation, so that all the artillery on the port side of the six battleships became a huge shooting surface.

The 140 and 150 caliber artillery were all on guard. The searchlight lights formed snow-white light columns on the sea, and the figures of unknown fleets in the distance became clearer and clearer.

Hoff also became nervous at this moment, because in his telescope vision, the number of warships in the distant fleet was increasing.

Among the dark waves, one, two, three... more and more battleship figures can be distinguished, and soon more than ten black shadows with independent outlines were exceeded.

"God! What kind of fleet is this? It cannot be from Prussian! It is absolutely impossible... It depends on the number of this fleet that has at least twelve warships!"

At this moment, the lookout hand suddenly roared, "There is a signal... the other party sends a signal... the other party has a light signal coming..."

Anyone could hear the excitement of the roar of the lookout hand. These people knew that the other party sent a signal instead of firing a gun when they came up, which meant that the other party was not an enemy.

"God... it's great!" Captain Hoff involuntarily drew a cross on his chest. "It must be the British fleet. Since he did not choose to fire or change the array, he sent a signal to communicate, it must be the British Royal Navy!"

It was nothing wrong. This fleet that suddenly appeared on the battlefield was the Royal Navy, and its flagship was the fastest-speed battleship of the Monarch in the world at that time.

This is a giant with a displacement of more than 8,000 tons. Its power is a composite power of sails and propellers. The white sail in the night pressed towards the French fleet like a cloud.

"Captain, the other party sent a signal. The British fleet was escorting the special envoy to Berlin to mediate the war! The special envoy is the Duke of Newcastle of Britain!"

"There are eleven battleships in total, and the flagship is the Monarch!"

Listening to the long-term translation of the correspondent, Hoff swallowed and cursed in his heart, "Damn, these British guys are so rich. Is the navy's wealth so good?"

"Just to send the special envoy to show off his power, eleven battleships were shipped out in one breath... In my expedition to Prussia, there were only six battleships, and the rest were cruisers..."

"It's really impossible for people to compare with others!"

After muttering a few words, Hoff said loudly, "Send a signal to the British, convey my respect for the Duke, and to the Queen's health!"

"Please forgive me for the British fleet. France and Prussia have now entered a state of war. At this moment, the sea area has become a battlefield..."
Chapter completed!