"I didn't expect the Japanese to have their own steamboats!" Colonel Liu Sha put down the binoculars and couldn't help but sigh. What he never expected was that because this was China's first ocean-going naval battle in the true sense, it was recorded in the history of the war. After all, the naval battles before the Liberation Army were at most fought with the British in the coastal waters. Traveling thousands of miles to fight in the Ryukyus, which has not been visited by troops for hundreds of years, this historical significance cannot be considered low no matter how you evaluate it.

But this sentence later raised quite a few questions. I have to say that the big countries are sometimes so sluggish, they have a myriad of things to manage, and the internal pressure is beyond imagination. The ineffective collection of intelligence on Japan can only be said to be that everyone did not regard Japan as an imaginary enemy before. The problem is that this sentence really leaked the flaws of the time, which caused criticism from many people later.

And Colonel Liu Sha forgot all about this topic after saying this. Seeing that the tonnage difference between the warships of the two sides was too large, Colonel Liu Sha decisively ordered, and the fleet began to attack.

After receiving the order, the captain commanded in a loud and deep voice peculiar to sailors: "The right rudder is full!" The helmsman struggled to move the wheel, and when he had finished his work, he also replied loudly: "Full right rudder!" ”

At the same time, the signal flag had been raised to the mast of the flagship warship 054, and the three warships 055, 056, and 057, which were almost identical in appearance, followed by almost the same operation, began almost the same operation. By this time, the fleet had already lowered its sails, black smoke was thick in the chimneys, and the four warships made a snow-white trajectory on the sea, and rushed towards the Japanese fleet with full power.

Japan introduced Western culture earlier than China, and steamships are an example. Hakuho Maru, Tenyo Maru, and Blue Eagle Maru, three steamships became the main force of the Satsuma Domain's navy. Saigo Takamori was well aware of the gap between steamships and sail warships, and when he saw a huge warship coming from afar, he immediately split the fleet in two. Steam ships form a sub-fleet, and style ships form another fleet. The two fleets showed a situation of encirclement, trying to flank the Chinese warships on the left and right.

Colonel Liu Sha, of course, could not let the situation develop to this point, and he ordered the fleet to circle around the Japanese sailing ships first. In any case, the maneuverability of sailing ships was far inferior to that of steam ships, and the tonnage of ships in the navy of the Satsuma clan ranged from a few hundred to thousands. As long as they are not surrounded and flanked, and the two sides shoot at each other in battle columns, the Guangfu army will be able to give full play to the advantage of having more ships and artillery. At most, a dozen guns can be installed on one side of the small ship, and if it is a warship with dense muzzles, the caliber and power of the guns must be far inferior to the navy of the Liberation Army.

The warship of the Liberation Army had two layers of gun emplacements, with more than 20 guns on one side, and two 32-pounder guns in the bow that could rotate 360 degrees. The only thing worth worrying about was the speed of the Japanese steamships, and if he couldn't go around to the side of the fleet of the Satsuma Domain, Colonel Liu Sha really didn't dare to start a war immediately.

After an hour of maneuvering in the mountains, Colonel Liu Sha discovered a problem he had never thought of. The Japanese Navy itself was in disarray. The four warships of the fleet commanded by Colonel Liu Sha are sister ships, and they are all four of the eight ships produced in the same batch by the Guangdong shipyard. Although the armor is installed and the technology applied inside is somewhat different, the basic capabilities are very consistent. So when these four warships circled the Japanese fleet in a neat queue, the fleet was in unison.

The steamship of the Satsuma Domain on the opposite side is okay, the overall speed is not as good as the Chinese warship, and it can be quickly and slowly unified. The sailboat also wanted to keep a neat queue, but it was beyond its capabilities. The big boat was faster, and gradually left the small boat behind.

Seeing this, Colonel Liu Sha immediately ordered the fleet to be inserted into the fault of the sail fleet, and then ran around the small fleet of the Japanese fleet.

The artillery command, of course, did not misinterpret this order, and when the fleet was inserted into the air raid between the Japanese sail fleets, the artillery commanders shouted the same order, "Fire!" ”

The Chinese Navy has also introduced the Armstrong gun, as well as the Armstrong rapid-fire gun, but at this stage it is equipped with the Wetworth breech rifle. The caliber of this gun is not large, but it is extremely accurate. Ten shots were fired in a row on land, and the difference in the point of impact was no more than five inches. After the fleet slowed down for the sake of shelling, twenty-four Wetworth breech rifles on the starboard side began to fire heavily.

The Japanese navy did not give up the battle, and the Satsuma domain was worthy of being a strong Japanese domain, and the navy calmly fought back. For a while, columns of water were stirred up on the surface of the water.

Hakuhomaru was the flagship of the Satsuma clan this time, and when the battle began, the gunners knew that they could not join the battle group at this time, so they craned their necks to watch the battle in the distance. Oyama Iwa and Togo Heihachiro are gunners and cannonballs, and the two watched the battle intently, and Oyama Iwa heard Togo Heihachiro suddenly say: "I see!" ”

"Togo, what do you see?" Oyama asked.

Faced with the question of his superior, Heihachiro Togo replied: "There is a time difference between the shelling of Chinese warships. ”

"Oh?" Dashan Yan frowned at first, and after thinking about it carefully, it was indeed the case.

Heihachiro Togo continued: "They figured out guò to determine which cannon hit. ”

Although this is simple, Oyama Iwa has also understood what Togo Heihachiro means. The Satsuma clan often had military training in Kagoshima, and once the artillery fire hits, the rest of the adjustment is much simpler, as long as it is adjusted according to the relative distance of the two sides, the hit rate will be very high.

The problem is that there are dozens of guns on a warship, and if you can't know exactly which one hit the other side, there is no way to adjust it. A single sentence from Heihachiro Togo proves that the Chinese Navy on the other side is a well-trained army.

The subsequent battle did fulfill Oyama Yan's fears, and in the initial shelling, the hit rate of both sides was not high, but as long as a Japanese warship was hit, the probability of the ship being hit was getting higher and higher.

Wooden ships of several hundred tons could not withstand continuous hits at all, and the military was still used with explosive bombs, and the hulls of backward ships in the Japanese fleet were constantly exploding, or the hulls were completely burning. Even less fortunate was the gunpowder inside that ignited, and the ship was blown to pieces by the explosion inside.

And the Chinese ironclad ships were rough and thick-skinned, and they were shelled by Japanese boats, and nothing happened at all. The corners of Oyama Iwa and Togo Heihachiro's eyes were split, and the destruction of every Japanese warship meant the death of dozens of Satsuma Domain's sailors. These are all their comrades-in-arms and villagers who get along day and night!

Captain Liu Sha breathed a sigh of relief, the attack on the Japanese small fleet was very successful, and none of the seven ships escaped. At this time, there was already a thunderous cheer in the command room, even if they knew that discipline did not allow it, but everyone still couldn't help it. It's a great feeling to cut melons and vegetables to destroy enemies.

However, the cheering soon ceased, and the Japanese fleet seemed to have no intention of taking revenge, and judging from the course, they were trying to get out of the battlefield. How could Colonel Liu Sha let the Japanese ship escape, he gave a new order, "Catch up!" ”R1058