Start: Datang Wanli a lonely city

Chapter 1055 A Hundred Years of Avenge ()

At around 1 noon, the island country’s first guerrilla fleet relied on its high speed.

Crossing in front of the Beiyang Fleet formation, they turned left and changed course and galloped around. After making a large circle, they attacked the two relatively weak warships on the right wing of the fleet, which were extremely brave and powerful.

Say it! Chaoyong and Yangwei are both old warships launched in the seventh year of Guangxu's reign, and are already thirteen years old. Moreover, 'the middle and middle walls of the ship are all made of wood and painted to give them a beautified appearance.'

To put it simply, these two battleships are old and outdated and poorly maintained.

As a result, the speed is quite slow, the artillery power and rate of fire are insufficient, and the defense is extremely weak.

Including the four ships of the First Guerrilla Fleet, the caliber of the naval guns is not very large. The main gun of the 4216-ton Yoshino ship only has four 4-inch 6 times caliber cannons, which is 40 mm caliber.

Switched to the Xuange Battalion team, the flagship 'Barong', which is relatively small in tonnage, is equipped with twin 260mm naval guns.

But on the Japanese First Guerrilla Fleet, there are all new Armstrong rapid-fire guns. The firing speed is much faster than the old guns of the Beiyang Fleet.

Facing the Japanese attack, the two ships Chaoyong and Yangwei tried their best to resist.

However, under the superior firepower attack of four Japanese fast cruisers, they were hit by bullets and set on fire soon after.

In the first year of Guangxu's reign, this person went abroad for several years as one of the fourth batch of young children to go to the United States. After returning, he graduated from the Jinmen Naval Academy with outstanding performance, and then joined the Beiyang Fleet.

Some of the officers on board the ships of the Beiyang Fleet were of quite good quality, and they immediately had some thoughts in their minds that these four ships must be killed first.

On the Beiyang Fleet side, the two ships Chaoyong and Yangwei had to signal that they would temporarily withdraw from the battlefield for rescue after receiving several more shots.

Seeing this, Deng Guandai bit his lip and punched the podium in front of him with all his strength, not even caring that his knuckles turned white from the punch.

In desperation, he could only rely on his own Zhiyuan ship to deal with the threat of this guerrilla fleet alone, especially the Yoshino ship, which had the strongest firepower and was the most arrogant.

The problem is, it also has to hit the opponent.

Under such an order, the Zhiyuan soon fired several shots at the Yoshino ship.

no way! In these days' naval artillery battles, except for direct bombardment at close range, the hit rate is really not high.

Other ships also suffered some casualties.

Among the artillery shells coming and going, the slower-moving Hiei, Fuso, and Akagi of the island country's main team became the key targets of the Hooyang fleet.

Regarded as a rare elite among Daqing, at this moment, he could see the huge crisis that his fleet was currently facing.

To know! The Zhiyuan ship he commanded was the fastest ship in the entire Beiyang fleet. When it was first bought, its top speed reached 18.5 knots, which was not inferior to the Japanese Yoshino ship.

After hearing such a sentence, Deng Guandai frowned and glanced at the flag that had fallen. Even Admiral Ding was not sure whether he was alive or dead at the flagship Dingyuan.

After receiving several shells, the two ships Hiei and Akagi had obvious gaps and fires in their hulls.

Unfortunately, after the intensive artillery fire passed, in addition to blowing up the seawater around the Yoshino ship, not a single shell hit the ship's hull directly.

But in these years, what if he and the sailors under his command took care of them as carefully as if they were his own eyes?

There are some things that the crew cannot solve.

Because the boiler has been burning low-quality coal all year round, its performance has declined significantly.

Taking all of the above into account, how can the Zhiyuan ship still run at a high speed of 18.5 knots?

At almost the same time, large and small artillery shells also fired continuously at the Yoshino ship.

Attack our army with other enemy ships to form the advantage of using more to defeat fewer.

Knowing that in this battle, they could no longer count on Admiral Ding to command and coordinate the fleet orders.

Another point is that although the Yoshino ship has more than 4,000 tons, it is quite flexible and high-speed. Under its maneuvering to avoid, it is even more difficult to hit.

He took the Naniwa and three other warships to turn around, preparing to kill the two warships Chao Yong and Yang Wei with a carbine. He was determined not to stop until he sank these two ships.

It means that now, the Beiyang Fleet has suffered a loss in the bombardment.

Immediately, his mouth passed through a copper tube used for communication, and he issued an order:

"Attention, as long as all the cannons find the firing angle, they will immediately attack the Yoshino ship with all their strength without asking for instructions; even if they cannot sink it, they must slow it down."

The reason for this is that when comparing the naval guns of the two sides, although the main guns of the Beiyang Fleet are old, they have a larger caliber and are naturally more lethal.

It seems that before the war, the Zhiyuan ship only scraped the bottom of the ship in a hurry. The water creatures attached to it that affected the speed of the ship were not scraped clean, which greatly affected the speed of the ship.

As soon as the war started, the powerful threat of the four warships of the island nation's first guerrilla fleet had already been completely exposed.

At the same time, while Zhiyuan and the two battleships were desperately firing at Yoshino, the main fleets of the Beiyang Fleet and the Japanese Combined Fleet also opened fire on each other because the two sides were close enough.

And on the sea in the distance, a big circle was drawn.

Because now, his heart is filled with an inexplicable sadness and anger:

In the following time, the Yoshino ship and the other three ships relied on high speed to gradually widen the distance from the Zhiyuan ship, making the possibility of hitting it even lower.

Thanks to the damage control team members on both ships, who used various fire-fighting tools to put out the fire, the fire was not burned down in a short period of time, but for a while they were no longer able to fire back.

Even though the boiler is currently burning the best "five-tank coal" from the Kaiping Mining Bureau, the speed is only 14 knots, which is a long way behind the boss opposite.

As time goes by, the little devils continue to accumulate advantages by relying on such a tactic, and the outcome of this battle for our army will probably be quite dangerous. "

For example, Chen Jinkui, the first mate on the Zhiyuan.

In short, even if Deng Guan and his subordinates wanted to risk their lives and lead the Zhiyuan ship forward to eliminate Yoshino, a huge threat, there was no way to catch up with him.

Such a huge feeling of powerlessness made the entire command tower, including Deng Guandai, feel extremely aggrieved.

Coincidentally, Lin Guandai on the Jingyuan ship also saw the current crisis facing the Beiyang Fleet, and issued almost the same order as Deng Guandai.

After turning his head, Chen Jinkui turned to Guan Deng beside him and said anxiously:

"Guandai, these ships led by the Yoshino ship are too threatening. If they are not dealt with as soon as possible, they will continue to appear in any position on the battlefield with their high maneuverability.

However, the damage control team was able to continue fighting even as they opened fire.

For the United Island Fleet, the Armstrong rapid-fire cannons that have been replaced in recent years are smaller in caliber.

But these small and medium-caliber rapid-fire cannons have a higher rate of fire; often they fire three or four times, and the 305mm-caliber main guns on the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan fleets have no time to fire off a single shot.

Under the situation that the artillery fire rates are almost the same between the two sides.

The advantage of the Japanese side in artillery fire was immediately revealed.

In history, even such a naval battle had a profound impact on the development of naval guns by Yinfa and other great powers.

We no longer simply pursue the caliber of the naval gun, but also consider the balance between the two in terms of rate of fire.

Of course, these are all things for later. The current crisis facing the Beiyang Fleet is that the four ships of the island country's first guerrilla fleet are attacking the retreating ships Chaoyong and Yangwei.

After planning to sink these two battleships, they will attack the Beiyang Fleet from behind.

For a time, everyone in the Beiyang Fleet felt a huge crisis...

******

"Look, sir, there is something new.

To the southeast, that is, behind the Japanese guerrilla fleet, three more battleships appeared. They, they were the Royal Concubine, the Peiji, and the Fenghua of the Xuange Camp fleet. "

When the situation of the naval battle was not good, suddenly in the command tower of the Zhiyuan ship, the lookout shouted with surprise. After hearing this sentence, Deng Guandai felt a thrill all over his body.

He immediately picked up the telescope at hand and looked toward the southeast.

Then, not only did I see the three warships of the Xuange Camp Squadron that I had encountered in Surabaya City, but because of the new modification, they were somewhat familiar and yet unfamiliar.

I was even more surprised to see that at this moment, on the Imperial Concubine, the flag with the word "Hu" in the character for commanding all the warships was actually raised.

There were still people waving flags and signals to this side. While distinguishing the contents of these flags, Deng Guandai repeated them in his mouth:

"Gentlemen of the Beiyang Fleet, although you and I have different positions and are brothers at odds with each other, under the current situation of foreign enemies, it is better for you and me to put aside our disputes, unite with the outside world, and defeat the Japanese first.

Next, please follow our tactics.

Gentlemen, please feel at ease to deal with the enemy's main fleet and immediately use the new batch of artillery shells just supplied; leave the enemy's first guerrilla fleet to us.

We will definitely win this battle~"

After reading the semaphore on the opposite side, and after a slight hesitation, Deng Guan led the troops to put down the Xuan Ge camp, thinking that this was Da Qing's close enemy.

As the other side said, everyone is of the same lineage of flower growers.

Just like two brothers fighting for family property, they almost broke their own heads; it does not affect at all that when outsiders come in to grab things, they work together to beat the opponent out first.

As for whether such a practice would be pursued by the court in the future, he no longer cared.

Immediately, through the communication copper tube in front of him, a brand new order was loudly spoken in his mouth: "Attention all gunners, turn the muzzle to attack the Little Japanese fleet.

Target Hiei, sink this Japanese warship for me.

correct! Immediately change the shells to the batch of explosive shells just supplied. "

The reason why there is "change the shells immediately" is such a speechless saying.

That's because according to the gunnery regulations of the Beiyang Fleet, the gunners need to use the old shells first when loading to avoid problems caused by storing them for too long.

Therefore, despite the fact that the Beiyang Fleet has sent out many artillery shells before, they are all old artillery shells from before.

The power of these shells is beyond words, especially the armor-piercing shells.

Don't look at it. As long as you hit the target, you can create a gap in the Japanese warship; but as long as you don't hit the underwater position, or key parts such as the boiler room and ammunition room, the damage will be caused. Not really serious.

Under the command of Commander Deng, the gunners on the Zhiyuan quickly loaded the shells that had been supplied in Weihai a few days ago into the barrel.

Then, the gunner began to quickly adjust the muzzles of the ship's 210mm main gun and 150mm secondary gun.

The other battleships in the Beiyang Fleet were not as decisive as Deng Guandai.

The hostile relationship between Daqing and Xuan Geying, as well as the consequences if the court investigated them after the war, made them somewhat undecided for a while, whether to follow Xuange Ying's command and statement.

But soon, they no longer cared about the scruples in their hearts.

On the one hand, after the island nation's fleet discovered three warships from the Xuange camp and attacked directly from the right rear, perhaps because of the limited tonnage of these three warships, they actually had no intention of retreating.

Under the order of the flagship Songdao ship, the First Guerrilla Fleet gave up its plan to continue attacking the two ships Chaoyong and Yangwei and sink them first.

He began to turn the bow of the ship and took the initiative to meet the three ships.

After all, the 4216-ton Yoshino alone is almost equal to the total tonnage of the Xuange Camp Squadron, the Imperial Concubine, the Kick, and the Fenghuakai.

The other warships of the fleet did not retreat even half a step, and continued to fire wildly at the Beiyang Fleet.

After just being stunned for a while, the bow of the Jingyuan ship was hit by a shell, and a huge gap was made in the bow.

On the other hand, the Zhiyuan ship, which had been equipped with new shells, also opened fire.

Coincidentally, it hit the left and rear side of the Hiei ship, and a violent explosion immediately occurred there, making the entire cruiser, which was only 2284 tons, tremble violently as if it was shaking.

Wait until a burst of flying wood chips and explosion smoke dissipate.

The steel curly hull of the Hiei ship had a hole in the hull on the left rear quarter. It was not the kind that the little devil's damage control team could repair.

To be honest, if the location of this hole were one or two meters further down, the cruiser would probably be flooded with a lot of water and the hull would start to tilt.

But now, the edges and inside of the hole are already burning, and it has a tendency to spread rapidly.

In short, this round was only supplied to the ship before departure. It is probably because of the arrangement of Xuange Battalion that they obtained the new type of explosive ammunition.

Although it only has a caliber of 210 mm, it is quite powerful.

It seems to be more powerful than the 305mm main guns on the two armored ships in Dingzhen.

So here comes the question, if the 305 mm caliber main guns of the two ships were to use such new type of explosive ammunition, how terrifying would their power be?

How enjoyable was it to bomb the warship that was used to bomb the Japs?

With these thoughts in mind, the commanders on board the other ships of the Beiyang Fleet came to the rescue.

No longer caring about being held accountable by the court, those who were a little forward-looking and hesitant, shouted out one after another:

"Put on new artillery shells, open fire with all your strength on the Japanese fleet, and kill these little devils."

And amidst such roars, the gunners seemed to move the shells faster.

These ordinary sailors did not have the scruples of the officers, whether it was the three ships of the Xuange Camp Squadron that came to support, or the powerful power of the new artillery shells.

For them, defeating the Japs and surviving are the key points.

Now that both sides can finally communicate to the outside world in unison, the morale of the sailors of the entire Beiyang Fleet has immediately changed...

"Send a semaphore and order the Kick and Fengkakai to attack the battleships. Together with my ship, we will bombard the Takachiho with all our strength. Kill this thing for me."

Watching the Japanese First Guerrilla Fleet, whose tonnage was several times theirs, rushing towards them at the highest speed.

Not only did Hu Biao not feel any panic in his heart, but he shouted such a sentence in his eagerness to try.

In fact, if he had a choice, he would most like to do it in the first place.

It can be said that it makes countless flower children sigh with regret.

Even when Hu Biao was a child, he fantasized many times about traveling to a ship and helping add a few more shovelfuls of coal to the boiler so that the Zhiyuan ship could sink him.

Secondly, it would be fine if we could kill the Naniwa first.

Because the grandson of Togo Heihachiro commanded such a battleship some time ago and sank the cargo ship Gaosheng, which was helpless to fight back.

But he also knows that naval battles cannot be based on his own preferences.

Prioritizing the destruction of the weaker Takachiho and Akitsusu ships, and reducing the wings of the First Guerrilla Fleet, was the wisest choice.

As for the Yoshino and Naniwa ships, it actually doesn't matter if they don't attack them first. It's just a matter of killing them later. Not a single one of the island nation's combined fleets can escape.

Such an order from Hu Biao brought terrible luck to the Qiujinzhou ship.

Captain Uemura Hikonoshima and his group of little devils had no idea what was waiting for them...

(End of this chapter)