The night was already deep, and there were not even stars or moon in the sky. Thick dark clouds obscured the sky with not even a trace of starlight, and the entire sky and sea were shrouded in a thick and thick darkness, and only the sound of the waves could be heard. The lights on the warships loomed in the thick darkness, like starlight.

In the command of the Kunming ship, the lights are bright, and every soldier on the operation platform is carefully watching the display screen in front of him, and constantly reporting various data to the command platform.

Visibility tonight is not very high, less than twenty meters, and in this day and age, it is very dangerous to sail at sea at night, not to mention that there is no direction at sea. However, this is not a problem at all for several passing warships, each of which has advanced radar, sonar, and navigation systems, and the route and water area have been surveyed, so it is basically no different from daytime. On the contrary, such a night, which can barely be seen, is quite advantageous for the operation through the fleet.

At this time, navigator Jiang Feng said: "Captain, we are only 3 nautical miles away from the predetermined sea area. ”

Shang Jinfeng nodded and said, "What time is it?" ”

Jiang Feng said: "At 23:27, it is expected that there will be 10 minutes to enter the predetermined sea area. ”

Shang Jinfeng nodded and said, "Report the location of the other ships." ”

Jiang Feng said: "The other ships are all about 1,000 meters behind us, and only the Changbai Mountain ship is 16 nautical miles behind. ”

Among the several warships crossed, the Kunming ship had the fastest speed, reaching 32 knots, and the Yueyang, Sanya, Xiangyang, and Huaihua ships were all 27 knots. However, the economic speed of these five warships is 18 knots, because the Kunming ship uses a hybrid of firewood, a gas turbine at high speed, and a diesel engine at low speed. The Changbaishan ship is not a combat warship, and the speed requirements are not high, the maximum speed is only 21 knots, and the economic speed is only 16 knots, so although they set off together, when they are about to reach the predetermined sea area, the Changbaishan ship is more than ten nautical miles behind. However, this does not affect the operation.

Shang Jinfeng looked at Xiao Jianjun, who was sitting in the command seat of the formation, and said, "Chief of Staff, you give an order." ”

After the capture of Tianjin, Xia Bohai and Qin Zheng had basically withdrawn from the first-line command, but were in charge of the overall situation, so this time in the attack on Shandong, only Xiao Jianjun went out with the fleet alone, and took full command of the responsibility, and Shang Jinfeng, the captain of the Kunming ship, assisted Xiao Jianjun.

And after the end of this operation, Xiao Jianjun will also withdraw from the front-line combat command, and fully take responsibility for the work of the staff department, in the future battles, several captains will begin to take charge of themselves, this time is also to let Shang Jinfeng adapt to the new position, after all, commanding fleet operations, and commanding a single ship operation, is a completely different experience. Xiao Jianjun also served as the captain of the ship for a period of time, so he naturally understood this truth, so he said: "Slow down to 15 knots, notify the Xiangyang ship and the Huaihua ship, go to the predetermined sea area to meet us, notify the Yueyang ship and the Sanya ship, and order them to break away from the formation and rush to their predetermined sea area." ”

Weihai Bay is surrounded by mountains on three sides, the coast is approximately semicircular, the mountains on the north and south shores are steep, the coastline is tortuous, and Weihaiwei is located on the northwest coast of Weihai Bay. And Liugong Island lies quietly at the mouth of Weihai Bay, becomes the natural barrier of the bay, and divides the mouth of Weihai Bay into two mouths in the north and south, the north mouth is narrower, about 1600 meters wide, the deepest part is 34.5 meters, it is the main channel leading to Weihai, and although the south mouth is relatively wide, reaching 4500 meters, but the deepest point is only 19.8 meters, and there is a small island called Ridao in the middle of the south mouth, which divides the south mouth into two, so generally large ships enter and exit Wei Bay, all go to the north port.

After the British leased Weihaiwei, they mainly strengthened the defense of the north pass, and set up 16 guns on the Beishankou battery in the north of Weihai Bay, which were divided into six batteries, including 8-inch (203 mm) heavy guns, to guard the north pass, while at the south entrance of Weihai Bay, only 8 guns were set up on the island of Japan, divided into four batteries, but only two 6-inch (152 mm) guns. In addition, 8 artillery pieces were set up on Qiding Mountain on Liugong Island, including two 8-inch heavy guns, which not only protected Liugong Island, but also supported the north-south exit.

However, it is completely different from the heyday when the Beiyang Naval Division was stationed in Weihaiwei, with more than 20 large and small forts and more than 160 artillery pieces of various kinds, including more than 10 Knoob heavy guns with a caliber of 280 mm.

The predetermined sea area of the crossing fleet was about 12 kilometers north of the north mouth of Weihai Bay, with the north mouth of Weihai Bay as the main direction of attack, and the Kunming, Xiangyang, and Huaihua warships first used artillery to destroy the Beishankou Battery, and then the Changbaishan warships carried out two landing operations, while the Yueyang and Sanya warships rushed to the south mouth of Weihai Bay to set up an ambush to intercept the fleeing British ships.

After Shang Jinfeng gave the order, the Yueyang and Sanya ships immediately broke away from the fleet and headed for the south entrance of Wei Bay. The Xiangyang and Huaihua ships approached the Kunming ship. Ten minutes later, the three warships entered the predetermined sea area, and at this time, the commander-in-chief of the fleet, Xiao Jianjun, officially ordered to prepare for battle.

The officers and men on the three warships immediately took action, the command department switched the operation system to combat mode, and the gun department divided a part of the soldiers, came to the deck, removed the gun jackets of the ships, and in the command center, the soldiers operating the guns also entered the fire control data into the system. At the same time, on the helicopter platform behind the Kunming ship, a WZ-2000 UAV took off and flew in the direction of Weihai Bay.

Five minutes later, the drone flew over Wei Bay and transmitted the view of Wei Bay back to the Kunming ship, although it was dark night, but the WZ-2000 drone was equipped with a thermal imaging camera, so it could still shoot everything clearly. The system on the Kunming ship is also busy calculating, comparing and correcting the images captured by the drone with the data previously detected, and there is almost no sound in the entire command except for the sound of keyboard tapping and the prompt sound from the computer.

Time passed little by little, and the gun department first reported: the data was corrected and the artillery could be fired. Then it was reported that the early hours of the morning had arrived.

Xiao Jianjun looked at the clock, re-recorded the time from zero, and said, "Five shots, fire." ”

With Xiao Jianjun's order, Li Juntao, the squad leader of the first squad of the Gun Electricity Department, who was responsible for operating the ship's gun, entered the firing data into the system, and then pressed the button to open the gun, and said in a deep voice: "Fire." ”

"Boom, boom, boom!"

Five huge roars in a row spewed orange fire from the H/PJ38 single-barreled 130mm naval gun in the bow of the Kunming ship, which was very dazzling in the dark night.

The target of the first round of shelling was the No. 2 battery of the Kitayamaguchi Battery, which was naturally the first target of the crossing fleet because it was equipped with two 8-inch heavy guns. Although the night was dark, from the porthole of the Kunming ship, you could still see the dazzling fire on the shore. Of course, the officers and soldiers of the command headquarters saw the footage transmitted back by the drone. Despite the fact that the thermal image is black and white, it is still clear that at least two shells hit the range of the battery, and the other three shells were not far off, indicating that the parameter base of the ship's guns was correct.

And soon the explosion percentage of five shells also came out, one of which had an explosion hit rate of more than 50%, while the other shell also had an explosion hit rate of 29.3%. The other three shots missed.

Xiao Jianjun listened, nodded, and said: "Pass the firing parameters to the Xiangyang ship and the Huaihua ship, and continue to fire, five rounds of continuous fire, two rounds of artillery fire." ”

After the order was laid, the three warships opened fire almost simultaneously, and for a moment the guns roared, the flames appeared, and the shells were dense, and they bombarded the shore. And the shore base continued to burst out of bright fire, which was very eye-catching.

By the time all three warships had carried out two rounds of shelling, the No. 2 battery of the Beishankou Fort had been beaten beyond recognition, and the two 8-inch heavy guns had apparently been destroyed. And only then did the sound of artillery come from the shore base, and the counterattack of the British troops was finally belated.

I only heard a few loud "booms, booms, booms", and a few water columns were stirred up on the sea, but they were at least a kilometer away from a few warships, and there was no threat at all.

It turned out that the British army guarding Weihaiwei did not expect that the traverser would attack Weihaiwei at this time, you must know that the British Empire has dominated the world for more than 100 years, and the last time someone took the initiative to attack the British Empire, it was necessary to chase back to the Napoleon era. And since Lunge, although there is still competition between Russia and Britain, the polar bear does not dare to go to war with Britain easily, and the Boer War was also provoked by the British first. Although the Traverser had previously issued a sternly worded statement, which the British considered to be a declaration of war on various countries, in the British judgment, the Traverser should have attacked Beijing rather than turned around and raided Weihaiwei. Therefore, in Weihaiwei, there was no defense at all.

As a result, the first round of shelling across the fleet stunned the British, and after three rounds of shelling, the No. 2 battery was completely destroyed before they reacted. Fortunately, although the British did not expect that the traversers would come to attack Weihaiwei, there were still regular garrisons, and there were soldiers on duty at night on each battery, so after coming to their senses, the soldiers on the other batteries hurriedly pushed out the artillery, loaded the shells, and fired back.

However, two 8-inch caliber heavy guns were destroyed, and now the strongest artillery of the Beishankou Fort is 4 6-inch caliber guns, although the 6-inch caliber can be regarded as heavy artillery in the army, but in the navy, it can only be regarded as medium-caliber artillery, whether it is power or range, it is far from being comparable with 8-inch artillery.

Of course, although the range of the 6-inch caliber gun is not as good as the 8-inch caliber artillery, but it can hit more than 10 kilometers, but in this dark night, it is impossible to aim at all, although the flame of the Kunming, Xiangyang, and Huaihua ships exposed the position, but this flash of fire, no matter how good the gunner can not carry out ranging aiming, so the British soldiers of each battery can only judge a general direction from the position of the flame, and then they are indiscriminately beaten, as for whether they can hit or not, they can only resign themselves to fate.