Xie Fuzhan picked up the binoculars and looked at it carefully, and sure enough, he saw that the Qiujinzhou was turning to the left, but Xie Fuzhan shook his head and said: "This should not be an escape, but to seize the 'T' cross, to the side of the enemy, to give full play to the maximum firepower of the battleship, this is a commonly used naval tactic in this era, but at this distance to turn, it seems that the little devil is forced by us, does the Yueyang ship have any instructions?"

At this moment, the correspondent Zhang Yang said: "Captain, the Yueyang ship ordered us to turn to the left, and then, as just now, attack the enemy ships in turn with naval guns. ”

Xie Fuzhan nodded and said, "Understood, reply to the Yueyang ship, and we will follow the Yueyang ship to fight." ”

The two opposing fleets turned left at the same time, in fact, they were staggered, and the Yueyang and Xiangyang ships were both bow guns, so there was no problem of seizing the 'T' cross, and the reason for this action was to let the ship also move and reduce the opponent's hit rate, although the current distance was not the effective range of the Japanese ships, but if the Yueyang and Xiangyang ships had been stationary, the Japanese ships could constantly correct the data of artillery fire, and there was also the possibility of hitting the Yueyang and Xiangyang ships. If you take a shot, although the probability of being sunk is not large, the damage is definitely not small, and there is no good place for maintenance in this era, in case an important module is hit, the loss will be great.

In addition, the guns of modern warships have an automatic targeting system, which is not affected by the movement and the pitch and side swing of the hull, so firing in motion does not have a great impact on the hit rate of modern warships, and can still allow the Yueyang ship and the Xiangyang ship to give full play to the advantages of the artillery in range and accuracy, and in addition, they can attack the Japanese warships behind in turn just like the two ships just took turns bombarding the Qiujinzhou.

In fact, at this time, Iwasaki Tatsuto ordered the Japanese fleet to turn around and seize the "T" crosshead, which was also a helpless move, Iwasaki Tatsuto of course knew that the current distance was far from the effective range of the Japanese warships, even if it was to turn first, occupy the "T" cross, and concentrate the side guns to open fire and attack, it would only be a random bombardment, but if the Japanese ships continued to advance and met the Japanese Navy's requirement of "firing within 3,000 meters", it would take about five minutes or so.

Although five minutes is really not a long time in a naval battle, and the older large-caliber guns can only fire one round in five minutes, judging from the rate of fire and accuracy that the opponent has just shown, I am afraid that the Akitsuzu will be sunk by the opponent before it enters the effective firing range. Therefore, at this time, you can only choose to turn around, let all your own ships face the enemy with the side and exert the maximum firepower.

Of course, Tatsuto Iwasaki also knows that firing at this distance is basically not accurate at all, but after all, it is full firepower, which is naturally much better than the two guns with only the bow of the Akitsuzu, and if you are lucky, you may be able to hit a few shots of the opponent, and even if you can't hit the opponent, it can also play a certain role in jamming and reducing the opponent's hit rate. In addition, after turning, even if you can't win the opponent, it is convenient to evacuate from the battlefield.

Seeing that the other party's two warships turned in the opposite direction from himself, Iwasaki Tatsuto also breathed a sigh of relief, fortunately the other party did not choose to go in the same direction as himself, otherwise it would be really troublesome, at this time the Akitsu Island had completed the turn, the lookout on the mast reported, and then the Akashi also began to turn, Iwasaki Tatsuto immediately ordered, put out the flag of free fire, and ordered the warships that completed the turn to fire at the Yueyang ship and the Xiangyang ship.

The main armament of the Akitsuzu was one twin 152 mm gun in the bow and stern, three single 120 mm guns on the port side in the middle, and four 47 mm guns, so four 152 mm guns, three 120 mm guns and four 47 mm guns could be concentrated on the side side, while the Suma and Akashi ships were a reduced version of the Akitsu Island, so one gun was reduced in the bow and stern, which was a single 152 mm gun, while the 120 mm guns were the same, two 47 mm guns were added to the port side and two on the port side, and two 152 mm guns, three 120 mm guns and six 47 mm guns could be concentrated on the side side。

In addition, there is the notification ship Tatsuda with a displacement of 650 tons, also equipped with two 120 mm guns and four 47 mm machine guns, while the smallest shallow water gunboat, the Atago, although only a small ship with a displacement of only 614 tons, is equipped with a 210 mm large-caliber gun and a 120 mm gun. In fact, this kind of shallow water gunboat is a common type of ship in this era, that is, the small hull is equipped with large-caliber guns that only capital ships are equipped with.

However, the actual use of such ships was not to go to sea to fight, but to use them as mobile batteries in the near sea. Compared with the batteries built on land, shallow water gunboats are less expensive, can move, are convenient and flexible, and can also be used in some rivers and lakes, so they are more practical. In China at that time, there was a very similar name for this kind of shallow water gunboat, called mosquito boat, which did not mean that the hull was small and weak, but that the ship was small and large, like a small mosquito, which seemed inconspicuous, and it was definitely not a pleasant thing to be bitten.

In the Battle of Dadonggou five years ago, the Japanese Combined Fleet relied on a large number of medium-caliber rapid-fire guns to inflict heavy losses on the Beiyang Naval Division, which was dominated by large-caliber artillery. Therefore, with the turn of the Akashi and Suma in turn, the Japanese fleet was able to fire a total of one 210-mm gun, eight 152-mm guns, eleven 120-mm guns, and twenty 47-mm guns.

For a time, the cannon roared on the sea, the fire was dazzling, and the smoke of gunpowder was filled, and the momentum of the Japanese fleet was quite amazing.

However, although all kinds of shells fell into the sea like raindrops, the landing points were far from the Yueyang and Xiangyang ships, and the nearest ones were more than 300 meters away, so dozens of water columns were stirred up on the sea surface in the air, but they did not cause any damage to the two ships, and not even a drop of water fell on the ships.

Of course, the Yueyang and Xiangyang warships were not idle, and after the Japanese warships turned around, they all used the side to face the enemy, although they could give full play to the greatest firepower advantage, but they also expanded the enemy's striking surface, and the Yueyang and Xiangyang ships could calmly attack the side of the Japanese ships and cause greater damage to the Japanese ships, unlike the front of the Qiujinzhou ship just now, which could only bombard targets above the deck.

However, the installation of the protective cruiser was mainly installed above and below the waterline on the side side, except for the two small ships, the side loading of the other three cruisers reached 100 mm thick, and only the guns of the Xiangyang ship could penetrate it, while the main guns of the Yueyang ship appeared to be a little insufficient to penetrate the armor of the Japanese ships. Therefore, the two ships also divided labor, with the Yueyang mainly attacking the part on the deck, while the Xiangyang focusing on the side hull.

In this era, even if it is a battleship, there are many places above the deck that cannot be protected by armor, such as: masts, lookouts, chimneys, etc., and a layer of wooden flooring will be laid on the surface of the deck, although it is fireproof, but after all, it is wood, which is easy to burn, so attacking the parts above the deck, although it will not sink the warship, can still cause significant damage to the warship.

The Yueyang ship still used the rate of fire of 60 rounds per minute, 30 seconds of continuous fire, the first to be attacked was the Akashi immediately behind the Akitsu Island, dense shells fell on the deck of the Akashi, the bridge, mast, smoke barrel and other parts were shot one after another, causing a series of explosions, almost the entire battleship was shrouded in smoke from the explosion, and the Japanese soldiers on the deck were killed and killed, and a large number of facilities were damaged.

The captain of the Akashi, Ota Morimi Osa, was stunned in the command room, and only then did he understand what kind of scene the Akitsuzu had just experienced.

The shelling of the Yueyang had just ended, and before the Japanese officers on the Akashi could breathe a sigh of relief, the Xiangyang ship began to fire again, and it was the same as the attack on the Qiujinzhou ship, with 20 rounds in burst.

By the time the Xiangyang bombardment was over, at least a dozen shells hit the side chord of the Akashi, and another three or four shells fell into the sea near the side of the Akashi, forming a near-miss. On the side of the Akashi, three large holes with a diameter of more than one meter were blown up, and the sailors and soldiers in the cabin were injured and killed, two of which were very close to the waterline, and the hull was affected by the shelling and near-misses, and the huge shaking from side to side also caused the hull of the Akashi to be a lot close to the water, and another shell hit the power room, damaging a boiler, and as a result, the speed of the Akashi was greatly reduced. On the ship, there was chaos. The captain of the ship, Ota Morimi, did not care about commanding the enemy ship to fire back, because he could not hit it, but hurriedly ordered the personnel in charge of the damage to step up the rescue.

Fortunately, at this time, the two sides had staggered, and the Yueyang ship and the Xiangyang ship aimed at the Suma behind them.

As a result, after two rounds of shelling, a total of 22 shells were fired on the deck of the Suma, and 13 guns were hit on the side side, of which two 100-mm shells hit the ammunition room under the bow 152-mm main gun almost simultaneously, causing a large explosion on the Suma's first start. The 152 mm guns in the bow of the ship, along with more than a dozen soldiers operating the main guns, were blown off the spot, and the entire foredeck of the Suma was in shambles, and there was hardly a good piece of land to be found.

However, fortunately, the explosion occurred above the waterline, and it was only because the explosion caused cracking and seepage of the hull below the waterline, but it did not cause a large amount of water to enter, and the power system of the Suma was not damaged, so not only did the Suma not sink, but also the speed was not greatly affected.

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