Especially these French naval officers, their hearts are full of anger at this moment. I think back then, the French Navy was one of the five major naval powers in the world. It also had extremely brilliant achievements and an eye-catching status on the vast ocean. But who would have thought that just because of the insidious sneak attack by the Royal Fleet, the entire French Navy suffered heavy losses and suffered a huge loss in strength. It suddenly fell from its peak to the bottom and was directly reduced to the level of a third-rate country's navy, even the Italian Navy. It's not even comparable, how can I swallow this breath? At this time, facing the British army, these French naval officers would not show mercy at all. They held back their energy and wanted to pay back all the humiliation they had suffered before. In the battle, they were even able to perform exceptionally. The hit rate of the cannonballs was extremely high. It seemed that every cannonball carried their anger and unwillingness and roared straight towards the British ships. "Well done, beat these sons of **** hard." A French naval soldier shouted at the top of his lungs while busy preparing for battle, his voice full of resentment. "Let the British see how powerful we are." Another soldier echoed, with a fiery light shining in his eyes. The British have brought so much pain to the French Navy, and now it is time to let them know that the French Navy is not easy to mess with. "Come on, defeat these sons of bitches." More soldiers also shouted and cheered, and the morale of the entire French naval fleet was raised to the extreme.

On the majestic Richelieu-class battleship, the ammunition crews quickly stuffed the shells into the main gun chambers one by one. Their movements were skillful and precise to ensure that the shells could be loaded smoothly. The gunners were concentrating on the calculation and aiming work. They used various instruments and equipment to carefully calculate the distance, angle and other data to the target, and then steadily adjusted the aiming direction of the main gun, just waiting for an order. The next step is to let the powerful main gun roar, slam the shells hard at the British ships, and let the enemy taste the revengeful fury of the French navy. Although daybreak was about to dawn, at this critical moment before dawn, the four-nation joint fleet knew that it must first kill the searchlights on the Rock of Gibraltar, and must not leave any chance for the enemy's coastal defense guns to exert their power. After all, the caliber of the coastal defense artillery is not small, and its power cannot be underestimated. With its relatively thick armor, a battleship may be able to withstand a few shells without suffering an immediate devastating blow. However, the same cannot be said for destroyers and cruisers. Their armor is relatively weak. If they are hit by a coastal defense gun, A cannonball would definitely blast a big hole, and the consequences would be disastrous. "Boom!" At this moment, the four-nation combined fleet fired another salvo. However, this time, the shooting accuracy of the artillery shell was somewhat off. It did not hit the searchlight on the rocky mountain as accurately as expected, but directly hit the bunker built by the British army on the rocky mountain. In an instant, the explosion produced huge power, and the strong shock wave was like a raging wave, which instantly blew away the solid bunker made of cement. The British soldiers in the bunker had no time to react, and were killed by the living earthquake. The scene was very tragic. You know, for hundreds of years, the British army has been sparing no effort to build fortifications in the Strait of Gibraltar. It can be said that after a long period of hard work, the entire Gibraltar has turned into a huge fortification complex, covered with various defense facilities. These fortifications were originally an important reliance for the British army to resist the invasion of foreign enemies. . But now, facing the attack of the 380mm naval guns of the four-nation combined fleet, the defensive capabilities of these fortifications seem a bit insignificant. The power of the 380mm naval gun is absolutely insane. No matter how strong the fortifications on the land were once built, they are as fragile and vulnerable to such a large-caliber naval gun. The British soldiers on the rock mountain felt extremely uncomfortable at the moment. In the past, they have always been proud of these quite solid bunkers, believing that they could effectively resist invading enemies with these bunkers. Unexpectedly, facing the attack of naval guns, these bunkers were unable to fight back. They could only watch the shells fall and then bear the devastating blow. What's more important is that from time to time, the 381mm naval guns of the Italian fleet are there to help. Although the hit rate of Italian naval guns was average, when several naval guns exploded one after another not far away, the deafening sound and strong shock wave still scared many British soldiers, who were already under attack. The somewhat low morale dropped rapidly, and the entire team was enveloped in an atmosphere of panic. "Your Majesty the Governor, the firepower of the enemy ships is too strong. Please ask for reinforcements." A British officer reported to the British Governor with an anxious face, his voice trembling because of nervousness.

"Asshole, ask Fleet H to support them immediately. Don't let them cross the strait." Upon hearing this, the British Governor's eyes widened, his face filled with anger, and he shouted loudly. He knew very well that if the four-nation joint fleet was allowed to successfully cross the strait, the consequences would be disastrous, so the only hope at this moment was to quickly have Fleet H come to support and use more powerful firepower to resist the enemy's attack. "Yes!" After receiving the order, the officer responded solemnly, and then hurried to convey the governor's urgent order. The entire garrison of Gibraltar was trembling at the moment, and they looked at the sea with horror on their faces. On the sea, hundreds of warships were lined up like steel behemoths, one after another pouring out their anger at the rocky mountains. The dense artillery fire continued to fall on the rock mountain and its surrounding areas like raindrops. The fire caused by the explosion illuminated the entire sea surface and the vicinity of the rock mountain like purgatory. "Continue shooting and shoot according to the predetermined target." Nagumo Chuichi stood at the command position of the flagship and said calmly to the staff beside him. The original plan was to wait until daybreak before continuing the attack, so that with a clearer view, the battle could be better commanded and the artillery shells could hit the target more accurately. But now the situation has changed. Since the battle has started in advance, it doesn't matter. Anyway, it will be less than an hour before dawn. Moreover, the searchlights were basically killed at this moment, which had no big impact on their shooting at all. Anyway, the rock mountain is there, and the target is clear. All we need to do is bombard the rock mountain. As for the specific location of the rock mountain where the shells hit, we don't care about that much for the time being. On the Gibraltar side, the British Governor stood in the headquarters and watched helplessly as the shells outside the headquarters streaked across the sky like meteors, and then hit the ground hard. As huge explosions sounded, the whole earth seemed to be shaking. "boom!" At this moment, a cannonball hit the power station instantly, as if it had eyes. In an instant, thick smoke billowed into the sky, followed by a violent explosion, and the power station was instantly destroyed. The whole of Gibraltar was instantly plunged into darkness. However, since it was very close to dawn at this time, for some ordinary defense facilities, the lack of power supply from the power station would not have a great impact. But if an important place like the headquarters loses electricity, the impact will be huge. Various communication equipment, command systems, etc. are unable to operate normally, which has caused great inconvenience to command operations. "Quick, start the backup power generation unit immediately, quick!" The British Governor was anxious and shouted loudly. At this time, he knew that he must not panic, but must stick to his post and wait for the arrival of reinforcements. As long as Fleet H can arrive in time, with their strength, they will definitely be able to defeat the enemy ships in front of them. "How is the border? Have you found any Spaniards?" the British governor asked with a frown. He knew very well that Spain's attitude was also crucial in this battle. If the Spaniard stabbed him in the back at this time, the situation would be even more complicated and dangerous. "Nothing has been found yet." The officer in charge of intelligence replied immediately. "Very good, order the frontline troops to pay attention to the enemy's movements. Once the enemy is discovered, there is no need to report it, and they will fight back immediately." The British Governor ordered decisively. He is not a fool, he knows very well the purpose of the Four Kingdoms fleet appearing here.

Their goal is clear, Gibraltar. Because the geographical location of this place is so important, whoever can occupy it will be able to control the entry and exit of the entire Mediterranean Sea, which is equivalent to holding the choke point of the Mediterranean Sea and having an absolute strategic advantage. "How long will it take before the power is restored?" After waiting for almost five minutes, the British Governor frowned and asked again. He is now very worried that there is also a problem with the backup power generation unit. If the power supply cannot be restored as soon as possible, it will be a disaster for the command of the entire defensive operation. Rock Hill is completely different from other urban areas in Gibraltar. It has been carefully built and has many strong fortifications. A large part of these fortifications are cleverly built inside the mountain. This design can not only enhance the defensive capabilities with the cover of the mountain itself, but also avoid enemy artillery attacks to a certain extent. However, this design also has a thorny problem, that is, the space inside the mountain is relatively closed and the air circulation is not smooth. Therefore, a huge blower must be continuously running to blow fresh air into the mountain. Only in this way can the soldiers inside the mountain be able to breathe normally. Otherwise, they will suffocate due to lack of oxygen. The consequences of dying inside would be unimaginable. On weekdays, keeping these blowers running mainly relies on power plants to generate electricity. The power generated by the power plant is stable and sufficient, which can well meet the needs of blowers and other electrical equipment inside the mountain. However, in the event of a special situation like now where the power plant is destroyed, backup generators must be relied upon to provide power. Fortunately, when designing these fortifications, the relevant engineering personnel had fully considered such emergencies that might arise. Therefore, a high-power generator set was specially placed at the foot of the mountain. This generator set uses a large diesel generator as its power source. The electricity it generates is enough to support the normal use of all fortifications in the mountain, even in the power plant. In emergencies when power supply is unavailable, the power needs of various facilities and personnel inside the mountain can also be guaranteed. When the British Governor issued the order to start the backup generator, the engineers responsible for guarding the backup generator did not dare to neglect at all. They immediately took action and tried to start the generator according to the operating procedures. "Report, the backup generator cannot be started." A soldier was sweating profusely with anxiety and helplessness in his voice. While reporting loudly, he was still fiddling with various parts of the generator, trying to He found the problem, but no matter how hard he tried, the generator just didn't respond and stayed there quietly, unable to provide much-needed power for the fortifications inside the mountain. This sudden situation undoubtedly made the already severe situation even worse. Hearing this, the officer next to him suddenly widened his eyes, his face full of disbelief. He blurted out: "Why?" There was surprise and anxiety in the voice. I never expected that the backup generator would have problems at this critical moment. "It seems to be broken." The soldier also looked helpless and said uncertainly. After all, I just started the generator according to the operating procedures, but it didn't respond. It was difficult for me to accurately determine what went wrong at the moment. "It's broken?" When the officer heard this, his face suddenly filled with black lines. Indeed, since Gibraltar has always been in a relatively peaceful state and has not experienced a real war for a long time, they have not paid enough attention to this backup generating unit. Most of them just regard it as a symbol on weekdays, thinking that maybe Never need it. I rarely do maintenance on it at ordinary times. I only come here occasionally to check it and do some maintenance work. Now that I think about it, it has been almost two months since I last maintained it. During this period, there may have been various minor problems with the generator, but they never discovered it. Now when it was really needed to function, it was out of order. "Asshole, fix it quickly. If you can't fix it, the soldiers in the mountain will suffocate to death." The officer roared angrily, his eyes widened, veins popped out on his forehead, and he urged the soldiers anxiously. In his opinion, the life and death of the tens of thousands of soldiers inside the mountain depend on whether the generator can operate normally. If the generator cannot be repaired and cannot provide fresh air inside the mountain, then these soldiers will really be in trouble. They were about to be suffocated to death due to lack of oxygen. The consequences were too serious. After receiving the news that the generator set was broken, the British Governor's face turned pale instantly. He knew very well that if there was no electricity and the blower could not be started to bring fresh air to the inside of the mountain, then the tens of thousands of soldiers inside the mountain would definitely face disaster and would really be suffocated to death inside. (End of chapter)