"The stupid yellow-skinned monkey actually discharged a horizontal formation. Captain Scholes, the captain of the Hawke, put down his binoculars, "In the Battle of Dadonggou in the Sino-Japanese War 10 years ago, the Qing fleet was discharged from the horizontal array, and was defeated by the Japanese fleet. ”

The first mate on the side, Colonel Fleman, frowned, and said, "They are not the Qing Kingdom, but the fleet of the East China Government, they will not make such a low-level mistake, could it be some kind of trap here?"

Scholes laughed out loud and said, "What about the East China government? The same is also the yellow-skinned monkeys, they have fought some victories before, but what kind of opponent is that, the Japanese are just the same yellow-skinned monkeys as them, the Russians are a group of barbarians, it is nothing to be able to win them, and we are different, we are the Royal Navy of the British Empire, we have a glorious naval tradition and rich experience in naval warfare, but it is not comparable to the yellow-skinned monkeys and barbarians, if they had met our British Imperial Navy in the past, they would have been beaten back to their original shape long ago. ”

Since the establishment of the East China government, it has made very brilliant achievements in the military, so basically all countries will not despise the army of the East China government, and treat the East China government and the Qing court separately, but the European countries have been ahead for too long, and there are still some people whose ideas have not been reversed, and still have a contemptuous attitude towards the East China government, Scholes is a young Zhuang officer of the British Navy, and believes in white supremacy and racial superiority, regards the East Asian nation as an inferior race, and still looks down on the East China government.

"But they have 10 warships, 2 more than us, and it seems that the two warships in the middle should be large cruisers about the same as our Hawker and Gibraltar, but our remaining 6 are all destroyers, and they should have at least 4 small-tonnage cruisers, as well as 4 destroyers, so if we compare the strength of the fleet, we have a very obvious gap." ”

Scholes said: "My Colonel, I admit that their warships are indeed stronger than us on paper, but the competition in naval battles does not look at the data on paper, if you only look at the data on paper, then the winner of the First Battle of Dadonggou should be the fleet of the Qing State." Just looking at the current battlefield situation, the column is the best tactic for naval warfare, and this has been a basic principle recognized by all countries 10 years ago, but the navy of the East China government is still using the horizontal team tactic, even if such an opponent has stronger warships than us, what is the use?"

At this time, a signal came from the lookout, and the distance between the two sides had been shortened to within 5 kilometers, which was the distance at which an exchange of fire could be made in this era, so Scholes immediately ordered the single 243-mm guns in the bow of the Hawker to open fire, and at the same time ordered the fleet to speed up, from 14 knots to 18 knots, and plunge straight into the gap between the Jining and Gaomi on the left side of the KPA Navy. Because in the Battle of Dadonggou, after the battle began, the first guerrilla group of the Japanese fleet penetrated directly to the right flank of the Beiyang Naval Division at high speed, separated the two ships of the Beiyang Naval Division, Chaoyong and Yangwei, from the main fleet, and concentrated firepower to quickly sink the two warships, which not only hit the morale of the Beiyang Naval Division, but also seized the weakness of the Beiyang Naval Division and struck hard, laying the final victory.

"Boom!" The first shell fired from the single-mounted 243-millimeter gun on the bow of the Hawk fell about 400 meters from the left front of the Jinan, stirring up a column of water more than 20 meters high.

"Do you want to replicate the Battle of Dadonggou? The mind of the-stirring stick is too simple. The Jinan and Tianjin opened fire. The captain of the Jinan, Colonel Chen Changzhi, who was also the commander of the fleet for this attack on Shanghai, also gave his own order.

The bow of the Jinan and Tianjin ships is a 2-pack 200mm main gun and 2 2-pack 155mm secondary guns, which are "products" Because this type of warship was designed with the bow of the ship in mind to fight against the enemy, it may also be arranged in the bow and stern of the ship with more naval guns, which is also an important reason why the People's Army Navy dares to use a horizontal formation, so the two warships have a total of 12 guns to fire together, although they also failed to hit the opponent, but they stirred up 10 water columns with different heights and bottoms on the sea, causing a much greater momentum than the Hawke.

Chen Changzhi also nodded with satisfaction, looked at the flat panel monitor on the side again, and said, "Pay attention to the Gaomi, pay attention to the Gaomi, your position is one ship behind, pay attention to maintaining a good formation." ”

Before the war, Jinan has released a small four-rotor UAV, although this UAV is not as powerful as the drone of several warships crossed, strictly speaking, it is a flying camera, of course, it is much stronger than the general civil aerial photography UAV, the flight altitude can reach 1000 meters, which can basically clearly show the situation of the entire battlefield, and it is also convenient for command.

At this time, Dongchang, Jining, Linqing, and Wuding also opened fire, and these four were all 3,500-ton protective cruisers, and the main guns were two 130-millimeter naval guns in the bow and stern, although they were not as good as Jinan and Tianjin, but they also increased the firepower of the People's Army Navy.

Because the British fleet was a column array, only the leading Hawk could open fire, and the Hawke could only use a 234 mm main gun in the bow and two 152 mm secondary guns on both sides, a total of 3 guns.

Although the main gun of the Hawke was the largest caliber among the warring ships, because this type of warship was built too early, around 1890, the naval guns were also old guns, and the theoretical rate of fire was 2 rounds per minute, while in actual combat it could only reach the level of 3 rounds per minute. The eight warships of the People's Army participating in the war are all new ships built in the past 3-4 years, and the main guns and secondary guns are also the latest rapid-fire guns, the 200-mm main guns of the Jinan and Tianjin can reach a rate of fire of 1 round per minute in actual combat, and the 155-mm secondary guns can reach 5-6 rounds per minute. Many of the shells landed less than 100 metres from the Hawk.

At this time, the face of the captain of the Hawker, Scholes, was also very ugly, he did not expect that the firepower of the KPA Navy would be so fierce, although he looked down on the KPA Navy, but he also knew that if he continued to fight like this, before the Hawker was inserted into the KPA array, he would definitely be shot first.

First mate Fleman also looked nervous and said, "Captain, turn the handle now, it's too late if you don't turn it again." ”

Before the words fell, only a loud "boom" was heard, and the Hawk shook violently, and it turned out that a 155-mm shell hit the Hawke, and in the command room, many people did not stabilize their bodies and fell to the floor.

Scholes grabbed the handrail when he reached the extreme, did not fall, and said loudly: "Report the bomb site, report the loss." ”

Someone immediately reported: "The left side of the bow was shot, and the waterline of the part of the bullet was 3 meters, and the damage is being counted." ”

Scholes also breathed a sigh of relief, because the hit part was on the waterline, and the damage to the warship would not be too great, and the Hawk was a protective cruiser, without side armor, and the thickness of the horizontal part of the dome armor was 76.2 mm, and the thickness of the inclined plane increased by 127 mm, which was still reliable.

And at this moment, there was another loud "boom", and the porthole glass of the command room was shattered in several pieces, and it turned out that another 155-mm shell hit the command room of the Hawk. However, the Hawke's command room was the thickest armored, reaching 305 mm, which was almost the standard for battleships. Of course, this is also the usual style of British warships, which attaches the most importance to the protection of the command room, followed by the protection of weapons, and the protection of the hull can only rank third.

Of course, the 155 mm shell could not have done much damage to the 305 mm armor, so the shell did not cause many casualties, but in a short period of time, the warship was shelled twice in succession, and Scholes also realized that the situation was not good, which indicated that the enemy had locked on his warship, so he hurriedly ordered to turn and face the enemy on the side in order to maximize firepower, and the entire fleet could also participate in the battle.

However, it was also very dangerous to turn in front of the enemy's artillery fire, and when turning, the warship was almost immobile and became a live target for the enemy, but now the British fleet had no other way but to take a risk.

But as soon as the order to "turn" was issued, the Hawke was shot again, and this time by a 200-mm shell, the point of which was on the foredeck, and suddenly the entire deck was hit by the explosion, and it was a mess.

"The enemy ships are starting to turn!"

"Finally, I can't stand it anymore, don't you want to repeat the battle of Dadonggou?" In fact, Chen Changzhi can see clearly without a lookout report, because the distance between the two sides is only about 3.5 kilometers now, and you can see it clearly without a telescope, so Chen Changzhi also ordered all ships: "Concentrate firepower, bombard the British flagship, and before it completes its turn, this warship must be disabled." ”

In fact, in the Battle of Dadonggou, the Japanese fleet was able to insert into the array of the Beiyang Naval Division and divide the two ships of the Beiyang Naval Division, Chaoyong and Yangwei, from the main team, and an important reason was that the ships of Chaoyong and Yangwei were too old and too slow to keep up with other warships. However, the KPA warships are new, fast, and have drones to guide them in the air, so they will never give the British fleet a chance to take advantage of them.

Before the Japanese fleet was able to insert into the array of the Beiyang Naval Division, it was also hit by the fire of the Beiyang Naval Division, and for about 10 minutes, the Beiyang Naval Division had a clear upper hand, but the warship artillery of the Beiyang Naval Division was too slow, and although the four 305-mm main guns of the two main forces Dingyuan and Zhenyuan were powerful, they could only reach the level of one shot in 5-6 minutes, so they did not make full use of this rare favorable time. Moreover, in the whole battle, the Beiyang Naval Division failed to fully exert the great power of these 8 heavy guns.

However, the KPA fleet did not have the problem of rate of fire, so the Hawk had already suffered three guns in a row before it rushed to the front of the KPA fleet, and had no choice but to turn in front of the formation, and the KPA fleet of course would not let go of this opportunity, and for a time the ships were full of firepower, the guns roared, and the shells rained down on the Hawke.