The scene is set in the Taiwan straits, 1928, after almost two years of naval warfare against France over the Korean concessions. A Chinese force is patrolling the area to prevent French operations off Taiwan. While of only modest size with three battleships, two battlecruisers, twelve destroyers, and a reduced cruiser force of two cruisers and a light cruiser split between two major squadrons, its presence forces the French to maintain a significant naval force in the area of unknown strength. At late night, a storm rises up in the straits, and the Chinese batten down the hatches and prepare to weather it at sea. At 4:51 AM, the sun not yet risen, a thoroughly wet and miserable watch officer aboard a Chinese destroyer spots a light in the darkness. Seconds later, a squadron of French destroyers blasts right on past the Chinese counterparts. The Chinese barely have time to sound battlestations before no less than four French battleships pour out of the gloom, their own crews scrambling in shock at the unexpected encounter. The Chinese battlecruisers immediately signal for assistance from the battleship squadron as they begin to open fire, manoeuvring to avoid cannon fire from the French battleships and torpedoes from the unobstructed destroyers; on the French side, they similarly begin to evade as the Chinese destroyers put every fish in the water that they can in a desperate attempt to distract the qualitatively- and quantitatively-superior French force.
In the stormy night, two lines of battle clash in an entirely unexpected battle, Chinese reinforcements being met by French reinforcements. As ships fade in and out of the gloom, the Chinese fail to recognize immediately that they are engaged not with four, but eight French battleships, but the torpedoes don't care. Solferino and Courbet each take multiple torpedo hits and, despite valiant efforts by the French crews to stem the tide, founder and sink in the stormy waves. The Chinese cruiser Heilongjiang, misidentified as a battleship by the French, takes two torpedoes amidships as well, and retaliates by aiming multiple blows at an unknown French battleship over twice its tonnage (later identified as Republique) before disengaging. Of the entire battleline, only two battleships on either side (Gaulois and Baekdu) successfully avoid the torpedoes. Gaulois and Republique are subsequently hammered into scrap metal by Chinese 13" main guns, capable of firing more rapidly than the French 15-inchers and, in the desperate grapple, penetrating armor just as well as the heavier French guns. The Chinese battlecruiser Zhulong takes an early strike on the rudder, losing the fleet in the gloom and drifting into range of no less than three French battleships (Desaix, Latouche-Treville, and Gueydon); despite a valiant struggle, it quickly succumbs. Its sister ship Huang Long successfully disengages after a pitched struggle in which it engages successively the battleships Gaulois, Courbet, Chanzy, Gueydon, and Republique before making for port, arriving despite flooding and damage throughout the superstructure.
The end result: France has lost four of their eight battleships to storm, torpedo, and cannon, and their remaining battlewagons are all badly damaged, having each lost half of their primary armament to hostile fire. Of their heavy ships, only the battlecruiser Amiral Charner, technically in theater but with no knowledge of the battle taking place, was counted as unharmed. Four of their destroyers were sunk outright; two escaped with heavy damage, and five fled intact. On the Chinese size, the battleship Badaling escapes with heavy damage and severe flooding, three of its four turrets out of commission and the holes from several dozen hits from French 15" guns shredding its hull, turrets, and superstructure. The battlecruiser Huang Long and battleship Chakragil similarly took moderate damage. The battlecruiser Zhulong was the only outright loss on the Chinese fleet, and the battleship Baekdu has not even lost so much as a turret, though a lucky strike through the hull by the Desaix sent saltwater into the feed lines and reduced the engines to 2/3 power. This is ultimately the last major battle of the war. Their overseas power badly damaged, various raiders persist for a few months but are unable to stem the Chinese tide. In the final treaty, they are forced to concede their holdings in Korea and northern Vietnam.
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