"Prepare for battle. ”

After the commander of the Borodino, Rear Admiral Kashnilov, gave the order, he helped his military hat and tidied up his military uniform, but in the previous battle, Kashnilov's military uniform had been gray and black in many places, so it still looked a little embarrassed. This batch of Russian ships was not formally formed, but put together on an ad hoc basis, and since Kashnilov had the highest military rank, according to the practice of the Navy, he was the commander of this temporary formation.

And at Kashnilov's side, the first mate of the Borodino, Djokovic, said: "We are not in a very good situation now, in this case, will we be able to defeat this fleet?"

Although there are now two cutting-edge battleships in this Russian fleet, in the battle just now, these two battleships have suffered a lot of damage, after all, in the battle just now, it has always been 4 Borodino-class battleships to take the lead, the first two have been sunk, and the Borodino was hit by 24 bullets, and the Eagle was hit by 21 shots, although the power and main guns of the warship were not damaged, but Djokovic knew that the combat effectiveness of his ship was less than 5 percent, and the situation of the Eagle was estimated to be no better。

Faced with the question of the first mate, Kashnilov said: "If we can't defeat the enemy, then let's die a glorious battle, as a soldier, we should face death calmly, and it is an honor to die on the battlefield." As he spoke, he raised his binoculars to inspect his opponent's situation.

Djokovic turned his head and whispered: "I am not afraid of death, but I am not willing to die on such an unknown battlefield." ”

In fact, although his voice was low, Kashnilov also heard it, but he just pretended not to hear it. To tell the truth, Kashnilov's heart is also confused, the Russian fleet has crossed more than half the world, sailed more than 30,000 kilometers, from Europe to the Far East, the whole army has long been exhausted, and morale is low, plus intercepted by the combined fleet, heavy losses, although this part of the Russian ships escaped, but to go there, Kashnilov does not know. Although the Russian fleet, before its departure, received an order to reach Port Arthur, later Arthur was lost and instead arrived at Vladivostok.

But now that the road to Vladivostok has been blocked by the Combined Fleet, let's take a detour, but there is not enough coal, so no one knows where to go, and Kashnilov is unwilling to die in battle in this way, but what is the way out except to die in battle? After all, Kashnilov is an old soldier who values honor more than life.

"Boom!"

When the two sides were 7,800 meters apart, the Weiyang, the leader of the KPA Navy, opened fire first, and the two 305 mm guns in front of the ship let out an angry roar, spewing out hot tongues of fire, and fired shells at the Russian fleet.

When the two sides first met, the distance was about 13,200 meters, at an angle of about 130 degrees, and in the process of approaching each other, the KPA Navy constantly adjusted the angle, and by the time it reached a distance of 8,500, it had been stretched into a straight line.

Although the Kunming ship provided the shooting parameters, the first round of firing of the Weiyang still deviated by nearly 300 meters, and it fell to the water surface and stirred up a column of water more than ten meters high.

"Captain, are we going to fight back?" A staff officer asked Kashnilov.

Kashnilov said disdainfully: "The overseas Chinese are too composed, and they will open fire when they are so far away, and order the front main gun, calm down, and shoot after entering 5,000 meters." ”

In fact, if you only look at the shooting, the 305 mm caliber artillery can reach 30 kilometers, but due to the limitation of optical equipment, this range has no value for naval warfare, and the range of naval warfare in this era is within 10 kilometers, and generally within 7 kilometers, sometimes in order to pursue a high hit rate, it will be narrowed to 5 kilometers, and the People's Army Navy fires at a distance of 7800 meters, which in Kashnilov's view is a manifestation of insufficient experience and irritability.

Djokovic also nodded and said, "It seems that overseas Chinese don't understand naval warfare at all, if we are new ships, we should be able to defeat them, but it's a pity...... But this warship seems to be the Crown Prince?"

Kashnilov said: "Yes, I can also see how the Crown Prince fell into the hands of overseas Chinese?" Since the Crown Prince is the prototype ship of the Borodino, the two are also very familiar with this type of warship, and they recognize it at once.

While the two were discussing, the other opened fire again, and the second round of shelling was carried out, and this time it was much closer, less than 200 meters from the Borodino.

―――――――― Divider ――――――――― Dividing Line――――――――

"Positive direction, angle 178.65 degrees, distance 7185 meters. Wind speed is northerly 5. ”

The distance provided by the Kunming ship is much more accurate than the gauge on the warship, and the error can be controlled within 3-5 meters, which is naturally nothing for a warship that is 100 meters long and more than 20 meters wide. The guns on the warship set the firing unit according to this distance, and there was no need to worry about it at all.

In fact, the accuracy measured by modern instruments and equipment can be done even to centimeters and millimeters, and the reason why there is such a large error is due to the consideration of the amount of 30 seconds of lag, which is to adjust the firing unit of the artillery and the flight time of the artillery. Of course, due to the artillery technology of this era, coupled with the floating of warships at sea, it was impossible to have an extremely high hit rate even if there were precise distance parameters, and as a result, the first two rounds of fire of the Weiyang were off target.

However, the third round of shelling finally paid off, with one shot landing about 70 metres on the starboard side of the Borodino and the other 30 metres to the left front, which was a near-miss.

The column of water stirred up by the two shells shallow a large amount of sea water up the deck of the Borodino, and because the portholes of the command room of the Borodino had been broken in several places during the battle just now, a lot of sea water even rushed into the command room, drenching most of Kashnilov and Djokovic, and the hull of the ship also shook violently.

But Kashnilov ignored the sea water on his body and said loudly: "Report the loss." ”

"Sealed chamber No. 7 cracked and flooded. ”

"The No. 11 sealed cabin cracked into the water, and the water injection was 50%. ”

"Sealed chamber No. 15 cracked and flooded. ”

"The No. 8 sealed cabin cracked into the water, and the water was injected with 30%. ”

"The No. 21 sealed chamber cracked into the water, and the water was filled with 75%. ”

Kashnilov smiled bitterly, this time at least 2, 300 tons of seawater to be filled, in the battle just now, the Borodino was damaged by the bullet, poured out nearly 800 tons of seawater, and in order to maintain the balance of the hull, had to inject another 300 tons of seawater, the draft deepened by nearly two meters, but during the period of escape, after emergency repairs, drainage, to the discharge of more than 600 tons, the draft was maintained at about half a meter, but if it continues like this, I am afraid that Weiyang will deepen the draft again.

Then the Weiyang fired continuously, and carried out 4 or 5 rounds of bombardment, and the Borodino suffered a close miss of about 30 meters, and in the 8th round of shelling of the Weiyang, it finally hit the right port side of the Borodino, fortunately, at this time, the two sides were still facing each other, and the Borodino was using the inverted broadside structure, so this bomb actually formed a ricochet and bounced off, and the explosion exploded at a distance of more than ten meters, in addition to increasing the cracking, it did not cause great damage to the Borodino.

However, at this time, Kashnilov and Djokovic couldn't hold their breath, the opponent fired 7 rounds, a total of 14 guns, and formed 2 close misses, 1 hit, and the hit rate exceeded 20%, this value is simply against the sky, and at this time, the distance between the two sides was shortened to about 6000 meters, which was less than the 5000 meters required by Kashnilov, but Kashnilov could not wait any longer, and ordered the Borodino to fire back, even if it could not hit the opponent, at least it could create some interference for the other side.

In fact, at this distance, the Eastern Fleet of the KPA Navy could turn to seize the "T" crosshead, but the Eastern Fleet still maintained the array of the bow of the column against the enemy and did not turn. It turned out that Shang Jinfeng was considering that once the Eastern Fleet turned, the Russian Fleet might turn in the opposite direction, so as to escape contact with the Eastern Fleet, although the speed of the Eastern Fleet was faster than the Russian Fleet, and it could still catch up with the Russian Fleet when it turned around, but it would take a lot of time, after all, there were still many scattered Russian and Japanese fleets on the battlefield, and the Eastern Fleet could not consume too much time here.

So Shang Jinfeng decided to adopt the tactic of striking backwards, waiting for the Russian fleet to turn first, and then turn in the same direction as the Russian fleet, so that he could tightly entangle the Russian fleet.

Of course, in this way, both sides faced the enemy on the side side, and neither of them grabbed the "T" cross, so they could only fight hard, but now there are many warships in the Eastern Fleet, and the Kunming warship provides firing parameters, and the Russian fleet has fought a battle with the combined fleet first, and many warships have been damaged, so even if it is a hard fight, it will still be beneficial to the People's Army Navy; if the Russian fleet does not turn, the two sides will charge each other in this way, and the result will be that the Eastern Fleet will have the upper hand.

First of all, before the two sides stagged, the lead ships would fire at each other, which of course was advantageous to the KPA navy, and there was a great chance that the enemy's lead ship would be sunk or severely damaged before the two sides staggered. And when the two sides are staggered, there is still a chance of firing at each other, because the strength of the Eastern Fleet is superior, if this round can seriously damage the opponent, you can ignore the remaining remnants of the enemy, or leave a small fleet to destroy the remnants of the enemy, and the main force can go to find other enemy ships; if there is no heavy damage to the opponent, you can turn around and come again.

Kashnilov originally planned to wait for the other party to turn, and then turn to the opposite side and flee, although Kashnilov did not know where to flee, but first dodged the enemy, but the other party did not rush to turn, obviously saw through his own plan. Of course, he knew that if he turned, the other side would definitely follow him, and entangle himself with him, so he would definitely be finished, so he ordered the fleet to move forward at full speed, hoping only to resist the blows of the other side when the two sides were staggered, and to send out the enemy's entanglement.