Chapter 390: The Battle of Tsushima (16)
The Western Fleet sent people to reorganize the surrendered Nicholas I, and rescued hundreds of Russian soldiers who had fallen overboard, and at this time the 3rd cruiser detachment that pursued the Japanese ships also returned, and in the chase with the 3rd Squadron of the Combined Fleet, the 3rd cruiser detachment sank two smaller Shintaka and Otowa ships, while the Kasaki and Chitose escaped the pursuit of the 3rd cruiser detachment due to their speed.
Despite the escape of two Japanese ships, the Western Fleet also achieved quite brilliant results, and by this time the battlefield was almost cleared, and the Western Fleet separated a cruiser and a destroyer, and escorted the Nicholas I to the assembly point to join the other captured Russian ships.
At this time, the Kunming ship came with another order, it turned out that a Russian fleet was scattered by the Japanese ships, and two warships, the Pearl and the Emerald, fled, and the battlefield was not far from the Western Fleet, and the Western Fleet was required to disperse to intercept the Russian ships that had escaped.
It turned out that the 4 battleships of the 1st Sentai of the Combined Fleet were beaten to three sank and one ran aground, and the remaining two armored cruisers, Kasuga and Nisshin, ran away and met the 4th Sentai of the Combined Fleet in the southeast of Tsushima Island, when the 4th Sentai was engaged with a remnant Russian fleet composed of three warships, the Pearl, the Emerald, and the Diamond, and 4 cruisers, and Kasuga and Nisshin immediately rushed to help.
After the two armored cruisers joined the battle group, they immediately turned the situation around, first sinking the Diamond, and the other Russian ships saw that the situation was not good, and scattered one after another, and the Japanese ships did not chase after them, and temporarily gathered together, and at this time, the remaining 2 warships of the 3rd Squadron, the 6th Squadron, several destroyer fleets, and * boats also came over, so they gathered more than 2 or 30 ships at once and anchored near Tsushima Island.
Since radio could not be used, many warships did not know that the East China Government had also participated in the war, and although some warships did know about it, they did not know the results of the People's Army's naval war. As a result, the two armored cruisers recruited the captains of their ships to the Kasuga, and everyone realized that the current situation of the war had taken a huge turn, the combined fleet fell from the clouds of victory into hell, all four battleships were sunk, and the six armored cruisers of the 2nd Sentai were estimated to be more than lucky.
Some people advocated concentrating the existing warships and fighting to the death with the People's Army Navy, but they immediately attracted the eyes of most of the people, and what kind of death did they decide? The 2 warbands were wiped out, not to mention the current warships, the navy is not an army red deer, and the jade will be broken at every turn, and the navy is a high-tech branch, not a rifle can go to the battlefield, this battle The Japanese navy was indeed defeated badly, and almost all of the accumulation of more than 20 years was lost, so it was necessary to leave some seeds to prepare for future reconstruction.
After the continuation of the fight was vetoed, there were only two ways left: one was to immediately return to the home port of Zoseburg, which was the safest, but there was a high possibility of encountering the overseas Chinese fleet on the way, and the other was to find a place to hide in the waters around Tsushima Island and wait until it got dark before leaving, or simply hide for 1 or 2 days, and it was impossible for the overseas Chinese fleet to stay here for a long time.
However, before the captains could discuss a result, the alarm came, and a large group of enemy ships was discovered, so the captains hurried back to their warships.
In fact, the Japanese ships assembled near Tsushima Island, and the Kunming ship has seen it clearly through the UAV, although the Western Fleet is not far away, but at this time the Japanese Navy has gathered 2 armored cruisers, 9 anti-cruisers, 8 destroyers, 13 * boats, and the strength should not be underestimated. However, at this time, the Northern Fleet had already moved south, so the Kunming ship commanded the Northern Fleet to be responsible for attacking these Japanese ships.
However, although these Japanese ships are certainly not the opponents of the Northern Fleet, after all, there are many of them, so after the defeat, a considerable number of warships will definitely escape from the battlefield, and the responsibility of the Western Fleet is to intercept the fleeing Russian ships on the one hand, and on the other hand, to intercept the Japanese ships that have been routed and scattered by the Northern Fleet.
The Eastern Fleet, on the other hand, was dealing with another scattered Russian fleet, the only remaining Russian fleet on the battlefield, including the cruisers Admiral Nasimov, Dmitry Donskoy, Monomakh and two destroyers. At the same time, the drone also spotted the other two armored cruisers of the United Fleet, the Asama and the Iwate, whose positions had escaped to the edge of the range monitored by the drone, only more than 10 kilometers off the northwest coast of Japan's Honshu Island.
After escaping from the battlefield, the Asama and the Iwate did not dare to stay on the battlefield, but took the nearest distance and went straight to the coastline of Japan. As a result, the two warships turned on their full horsepower and used strong pressure ventilation to allow the warships to run at a speed of more than 21 knots and run more than 30 kilometers in one go.
At this time, it is obviously too late to send warships to pursue, to sink these two ships, you can only rely on * attack, and if you want to sink with one hit, you can only use Eagle Strike 18*, but now the People's Army has a total of 6 Eagle Strike 18*, which are used to hit armored cruisers, which is too cost-effective, and with other *, at least 2-3 are needed * After thinking about it, Shang Jinfeng decided to abandon these two battleships, after all, only two armored cruisers escaped, which had little impact on the overall situation, and now the focus is still on the Japanese fleet gathered near Tsushima Island.
After assigning the combat tasks of each fleet, Shang Jinfeng also breathed a sigh of relief, and by this time he could basically ensure the victory of this battle, although he ran two armored cruisers, but sank or captured all the battleships of Japan and Russia, and also captured many warships, so after this battle, the People's Army Navy can basically control the sea dominance in the Far East Seas. At the same time, Shang Jinfeng also asked all fleets to end the battle before dark.
The KPA Navy entered the battle at about 5:30 p.m., and it was 6:50 p.m., and it was almost 7 p.m., and although the night at sea was coming later, the sun was already close to sea level, and the light was noticeably dimmer, and it was only about an hour before it got dark. And once it gets dark, then except for 5 modern warships, the other warships basically lose their combat effectiveness.
At this moment, Wang Yanling, a radar soldier, said: "Captain, I found that a group of warships was coming towards us, 17.5 kilometers away from our ship. After a pause, he said: "Now it has been confirmed that it is the fifth destroyer group of the Combined Fleet, including 4 warships, the Shiranui, Congyun, Xiwu, and Yangyan... Ah, there is a group of warships behind, 21.4 kilometers away from our ship, this is the ninth * fleet, there are 4 warships Goshawk, Geese, Yan, and Pigeon. ”
It turned out that these two groups of warships were fighting after the 1st and 2nd warships, and after the 1st and 2nd warships were defeated by the KPA Navy, the accompanying destroyer fleet and * boat fleet also went their separate ways, and the two fleets went around the battlefield and collided near the gathering point of the surrendered Russian ships.
In fact, this is not unexpected, because the Russian ships that have surrendered now are gathered about 7 kilometers northwest of Iki Island, and are guarded by two cruisers and two destroyers, while the Kunming, Xiangyang, and Huaihua ships are about 2 or 3 kilometers outside of him, which happens to be the middle of the entire battlefield, so it is normal to encounter other warships. Moreover, because it was fighting at home, the Combined Fleet dispatched a large number of small warships, a total of 27 destroyers and 36 * boats, to accompany the other fleets to the battle, and after the other fleets were scattered, these fleets roamed the battlefield, and naturally they inevitably bumped into the anchorage of the KPA Navy.
Shang Jinfeng said: "These warships, let's deal with them, inform the Xiangyang ship and the Huaihua ship that the enemy ships can use naval guns or Haihongqi 7* strikes if they enter within 10 kilometers of us." ”
Haihongqi 7* is an air defense * equipped with Xiangyang and Huaihua ships, which in the old time and space is an all-weather, low-altitude, ultra-low-altitude air defense * imitated by China on the basis of the French Sidewinder*. It is also the first type of effective air defense * equipped by the Chinese Navy, in the 90s of the 20th century, it was the main air defense * of the Chinese Navy, but the Haihongqi 7* projectile body is small, the range is short, and it can only provide point air defense and cannot reach the ability of regional air defense, so after the appearance of Haihongqi 16 * and Haihongqi 9 *, it gave up the position of the main air defense *, and it is the point air defense capability, which is not as good as the Haihongqi 10 * equipped on the Kunming ship. Prior to the fleet crossing, the Haihongqi 7* was one of the most popular weapons in the Chinese Navy.
However, in this era, it is still very useful to fight destroyers and small warships such as * boats, and the Xiangyang and Huaihua ships are equipped with a set of Haihongqi 7* systems, with a total of 8 and 4 spare bombs. There are still a lot of them, anyway, the range of this type * is relatively short, only 12 km, and it cannot be used to hit large warships, so it is not a pity to shoot it all, of course, it cannot be all wiped out, the principle of the Navy is that all * should be kept 1-2 pieces, as a research basis when the technical level is reached in the future.
After receiving the order of the Kunming ship, the officers and men on the Xiangyang ship and the Huaihua ship were also very happy, in the battle just now, the Kunming ship, the Yueyang ship, and the Sanya ship all launched * to attack the Japanese ship, but the Xiangyang ship and the Huaihua ship can only use 8 Eagle Strike 83*, so they can only watch from the side, and now they finally have a chance to shoot, although they can't shoot big fish, but they can't hit a small shrimp in vain.
It didn't take long for the Fifth Destroyer Group of the Combined Fleet to enter the range first, and because the distance was too close, there was no need for carrier-based helicopters to guide it, and the fire control radar on the Kunming ship was enough.
Receiving the signal from the Kunming ship, the Xiangyang ship and the Huaihua ship each launched two Haihongqi 7*, and flew obliquely into the sky.