The Tsugaru Strait is a waterway between Japan's main island and Hokkaido island, and between the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean. It is more than 100 kilometers long from east to west and 20-50 kilometers wide. The general water depth is 200 meters, and the maximum depth is 449 meters. The terrain at the bottom of the gorge is complex, with many basins and valleys. The complex terrain caused rough seas, which affected transportation between Japan's two largest islands.

On the morning of May 9, 1869, an ironclad ship flying the Meiji government naval flag appeared in the Tsugaru Strait with a group of steam warships and even sail warships. From the dense cobweb-like rigging, the sails that were almost completely puffed up after eating the wind, and the smoke-emitting chimneys, it was certain that the ship was a mixture of steam sails. The more striking thing is the 3.5-meter-long angle of attack in the bow and a huge cannon mounted in the bow gun frame.

There is nothing striking about the ship other than the bow, and the displacement of 1,358 tons makes the warship look rather thin, undulating in rough waves. The reconnaissance network set up by the Liberation Army at sea was actually a little disappointed when it saw this warship, because this warship was the killer "Kotetsu" ironclad of the Meiji government navy at this time.

In the distance, the Japanese fleet patrolled the Tsugaru Strait, and the steamships flying the Japanese flag of the Japanese Seal, also known as the Hinomaru flag. After the outbreak of feminine products in China, China is also known as the menstrual period. In the 8th century, the emperor of Japan began to use this flag, and in July 1854, the Edo shogunate issued a notice to use the Hinomaru flag on civilian ships and merchant ships, and from the middle of the 19th century, all Japanese ships flew the Hinomaru flag, and the Hinomaru flag gradually became the flag representing Japan.

It is a naval tradition to fly flags to confuse the enemy, just as China does not believe that the fleet that attacks Chinese warships under the Spanish flag is the Spanish fleet. Flying this flag at this time only shows that the ships of the "Republic of Ezo" are still in control of this area.

The Japanese fleet did not immediately retreat and did not pursue it. On the contrary, several Chinese warships quickly retreated in a predetermined direction. Seeing the movements of those "Japanese ships", on the flagship Kotetsu, the commander of the fleet, Masuda Toranosuke, frowned. After the retreat of the ships of the Republic of Ezo on the opposite side, there is probably a possibility of good breeding. One is that they ran back to inform that knowing that the government forces were coming, the other ships were hiding to get out of the limelight. The second is that they ran back to inform them that knowing that the government army was coming, other ships poured out of the nest and fought desperately with this Japanese fleet.

Masuda Toranosuke was ordered to make a tour of the Tsugaru Strait and explore the reality of the landing battle that would take place soon after. With this order, Masuda Toranosuke decided to take a look at the reality on the other side first, if the enemy has a large number of naval warships, then temporarily avoid the edge, and if the enemy's strength is weak, he might as well have a big battle with the enemy. Instead of retreating, the Meiji government navy formed a formation and continued to sail toward the Tsugaru Strait near Ezo Island.

Three hours later, at about two o'clock in the afternoon, the lookout post of the Japanese Meiji government fleet suddenly signaled that an enemy warship seemed to be coming in the distance. It was also at this time that the lookout post on the Qingdao signaled that the Japanese Meiji government fleet had been spotted and the flagship was determined to be the Katetsu.

The exterior of the wooden hull of the Katetsu is covered with iron armor with a thickness of 4.5 inches, and the top speed is 6~8 knots. There was one Armstrong 300-pounder gun in the bow, two Armstrong 70-pounder guns, two six-pounder guns and two 4-pounder mountain guns. This warship was the second of two ironclad ships ordered by the southern government of the United States to France, the first was delivered to the south through Sweden, and the second left the factory relatively late, just after arriving in Havana, and the Civil War ended. As a result, it was suppressed by the new US administration. After a lot of twists and turns, it finally fell into the hands of the Meiji government. The Meiji government named the warship Kotetsu.

Of course, the principle of unanimity of the great powers is subtle here. The Americans sold the ship to the Meiji government, but gave the ship's parameters and photographs of its appearance to the Chinese government.

The cruising speed of the Qingdao was 10 knots, and it was determined that its maximum target was in front, and at the command of the captain, all eight boilers began to operate. Two triple-rise steam engines increased the power output, and it didn't take long to reach a speed of 16 knots. The Qingdao is also a test ship in a sense, in fact, except for the Liberty Ship of the United States in World War II, the warships made by all countries in the world are different. Every warship or every big ship has its own flaws, so build one, summarize one, and the next big ship will adopt a corrected plan.

The Qingdao was discussed between six boilers and eight boilers when it was designed, and the future 6,500-ton battleship was just eight boilers, and the 4,000-ton Qingdao power system was exactly the same as the 6,500-ton battleship, which really made people feel a little bit like that.

The final design is still positioned as an eight-boiler, which is also a practical measure. The faster the warship, the better, and what level can the powerful power system of the eight-boiler make the Qingdao achieve? Will the power system work well for a long time? This is all the content of the real yàn.

The powerful power system really played a role, and 16 knots is not the upper limit of the Qingdao, but it is enough. The distance between the two sides is 12 nautical miles, which is about 30 kilometers. To the great horror of the Japanese Meiji government fleet, when they finally saw the gray-painted, slender warship, the warship swooped down at a speed that the Japanese navy could not understand.

The level of steamships in these years is limited, and it takes a few minutes or even ten minutes to turn around. For the Qingdao, it only takes 40 minutes to cover a distance of 12 nautical miles. The captain was still driving leisurely, and when the maximum power was at full speed, the Qingdao was able to drive at a speed of 18.5 knots with stable sea conditions and a tailwind.

Masuda Toranosuke was already confused, and he always had to be a bit "style" as the commander of the fleet. Receiving the notice to observe the sailors, he calmly climbed to the top of the bridge with his subordinates and searched for the enemy with binoculars, which took seven or eight minutes. After seeing the enemy, they had to ask the staff officer next to them if they had seen this warship, what its name was, and what configuration it belonged to. Because the enemy warship was completely unfamiliar, the normal process was relatively long, and another ten minutes passed.

Masuda Toranosuke discovered something he had never thought of, the enemy warship that swooped down on it didn't look huge from a distance, but the closer it got, the bigger it looked. This visual feeling made Masuda Toranosuke-sama a little confused. This wasted another five minutes.

By the time he had decided to begin his retreat, and had signaled the other ships of the fleet with flags, it took less than ten minutes. Then Masuda Toranosuke-sama saw the enemy's strangely arranged turret begin to turn, not one door, but all together. The artillery, which had been straight forward, turned in the direction of the Meiji government fleet in an instant. After all, he was a naval officer, and Toranosuke Masuda immediately saw the advantages of such a design. Originally, the sides of a ship were densely packed with gun ports, and the utilization rate was only half. Now, according to the shooting of the warship on the opposite side, any gun can start firing at all angles, and the utilization rate of artillery is greatly improved. The utilization of hull space has also been greatly improved.

The warship on the opposite side had already reduced its speed and began firing at a distance of two kilometers from the Japanese fleet. The first to be attacked was the British-built Kasuga, a 1,015-ton warship with six main guns on it, lined up on both sides. The first round of firing caused a splash on the surface of the sea within a distance of 200 meters. Masuda Toranosuke watched the enemy's terrible shelling dumbfounded, and with a dumbfounded expression, Masuda Toranosuke saw the enemy's light gray warship firing another round of shells at the Kasuga. This time, the distance was from 200 meters to about 100 meters. For a 1015-ton warship, this is really close at hand.

After the second round of shelling, Masuda Toranosuke thought that the enemy would have to fill the gunpowder for a while, and the Kasuga was a wooden-hulled steamship that was launched in England in 1863. The speed easily exceeded 13 knots, and as long as the order was given to the Kasuga to increase its speed out of the enemy's shelling range, it should be able to avoid danger.

As soon as this idea was confirmed by Masuda Toranosuke, the third round of shelling of the warship on the opposite side began. Masuda Toranosuke watched the Kasuga shake violently once, twice. Not only was there a tremor, but there was a sudden splash on the surface of the sea far away from the warship. It is clear that the enemy used armor-piercing shells, and the armor-piercing shells not only hit the Kasuga, but also pierced the Kasuga.

There's no time to have any coping strategies, all thoughts are just thinking. The fourth round of shelling against the Kasuga began, and during the last round of shelling, Toranosuke Masuda was able to count that the Kasuga had been hit by two shells. This time he couldn't count it at all, but he saw sawdust flying across the Kasuga, and a mast slowly falling into the sea with rigging and sails.

This round of shooting was extremely accurate, so there was no need to adjust the parameters at all for the next round of shooting, and the shells came whizzing. Kasuga could no longer withstand the massive damage caused by the armor-piercing bullets on the hull. Because the time interval is too short, it is not known whether the boiler exploded first, or whether the ammunition depot was detonated. Black smoke, white smoke, and firelight poured out from the shattered hull of the Kasuga. After a few moments, apart from the pile of broken planks and strips of cloth on the sea, there was no trace of the original British warship.

The warship on the opposite side did not give Masuda Toranosuke time to be surprised, sad, and sad, and after solving the fastest Kasuga in the Japanese fleet, the gray-painted warship moved its guns. Fang Cai was too surprised, Masuda Toranosuke didn't have time to observe so carefully, and only after the warship on the opposite side began to shoot at the Kotetsu did he notice a detail. Only one of the two barrels lined up on the opposite side sprayed white smoke and fire each time, and each gun emplacements fired in order. After firing the guns, the gun positions soon began to adjust their various angles slightly, and after a few moments, the second round of shelling began in sequence again.

"Fire! Fire! Masuda Toranosuke shouted hysterically. As if waiting for his order, the guns on the Iron finally sprayed smoke mixed with the strong smell of sulfur. In fact, the Japanese gunners had already begun to prepare for the shelling, from calculations to firing Zhuyuan, to various adjustments, and their shelling speed was really too slow.

Seeing that the enemy's shells fell into the water at a distance of more than 400 meters from the Qingdao, the artillery commander shouted loudly into the call barrel: "Comrades, whether the 150 armor-piercing shells can penetrate the 140 iron armor, we will see it immediately, everyone, come on!" ”