Chapter 570: The Battle of the Iron Sea Continues
It was not until about 1,500 meters that the hit rate of the unified navy increased, and the hit rate of medium-caliber naval guns of 150 mm, 120 mm, and 100 mm could probably be maintained at about 3 percent.
When the distance of some warships is reduced to less than 1,000 meters, the hit rate can be greatly increased, because at this distance, skilled gunners can aim at enemy ships with experience and technology, while above 1,500 meters, it is difficult to aim with gunners' experience and technology alone, and they need the assistance of mechanical equipment.
This data has already made Huang Xinggang more satisfied.
At this time last year, their hit rate at a distance of 1,500 meters was infinitely close to zero, and this was only achieved this year when they were popularized and equipped with a new sextant rangefinder!
I heard that the Navy's Ordnance Department has set up a special fire control department to organize technical personnel from universities and enterprises to prepare for optical rangefinders and the like, and if they can do it, then they will be able to give full play to the power of naval guns in the future.
Today, the naval guns and firing range of the Navy are seriously unequal!
Nowadays, the navy is equipped with a longer range and more powerful rear-loading rifled guns, and if such artillery is used by the army, the army can accurately shell targets of tens of thousands of meters with observation and sighting equipment such as hot air balloons!
This shelling distance makes the Navy not even qualified to look up!
Limited by the constant swing of the hull from side to side, and the constant maneuvering of the ships on both sides, the hit rate of the navy's naval guns has always been very scummy, and it is difficult to directly exert the effective range of the naval guns themselves.
Fortunately, after the Daheng unified army was equipped with rear-loading rifled guns and improved sextant rangefinders, although the hit rate was still not high due to the limitations of naval warfare, but at the time of 1,500 meters, its hit rate had been greatly improved, and when it was lucky, it could even hit the enemy ship at a distance of two or three thousand meters.
The navy is now able to increase the effective firing range to about 1,500 meters, which seems to be far from the army's artillery bombardment of several thousand meters, or even more than 10,000 meters!
But compared to the traditional smoothbore gun, it is still a huge surpass!
In the past, the combat distance of smoothbore guns was generally within 500 meters, and more often it was even in the range of 300 meters or even closer, but rifled guns were able to pull this distance to more than 1,000 meters or 500 meters.
And the rear-loading rifled gun has another advantage, which is a faster rate of fire!
In particular, the 120-mm, 100-mm, and 75-mm naval guns, which are equipped with integrated projectiles and warheads, have a very fast rate of fire, and they can fire several rounds in one minute.
Even the 150-millimeter naval guns, which still use split ammunition, have a much faster rate of fire than the front-loading guns, and under the operation of skilled gunners and with more loaders to rotate, the 150-millimeter naval guns on the Pingbo can barely achieve a rate of fire of one round a minute.
Even a two-hundred-millimeter naval gun can achieve a rate of fire of one shot in three minutes, which is too large, too cumbersome to reset, and more difficult to reload.
The rate of fire of rear-loading naval guns is faster, and even if the hit rate is relatively low in shelling at about 1,500 meters, it can still hit enemy ships.
This is the direct effect of equipping a breech-loading rifled gun.
His side is equipped with a large number of rear-loading rifled guns, and Huang Xinggang naturally will not let his own warships and enemy fleets fall into close hand-to-hand combat, and let the opponent's front-loading smoothbore guns, which only have an effective range of a few hundred meters, exert their firepower.
With an average speed of 15 knots, the fast fleet has always maintained a formation for high-speed maneuvering and maintaining a combat distance, and in the process, Huang Xinggang also gave priority to attacking a Nanguang-class cruiser equipped with breech-loading rifled guns in the enemy fleet.
The ship is too fast, and it is easy to disrupt the formation of your own fleet with high speeds.
In the continuous exchange of fire between the two sides, the fast fleet hit the enemy ships one after another with the firepower of the breez-loading rifled guns that far surpassed the opponent.
In particular, an enemy Nanguang-class cruiser that had been hit by the rapid fleet's key attack was soon hit by multiple shells, although all the shells that hit the battleship were 150 mm, 120 mm, and even 100 mm, and 75 mm, but there were no 200 mm shells.
But these 150-mm shells are also quite powerful.
And the most important thing is that the Nanguang-class cruiser is only an unprotected cruiser with iron ribs and wooden hulls, and the protection ability is not very good, and after a large number of shells hit, the Nanguang-class cruiser quickly ignited a fire and began to enter a large number of waters.
It didn't take long for the Nanguang-class unprotected cruiser to withdraw from the battle, and the crew was busy extinguishing the fire and pumping water, and in a few minutes, the captain of the ship gave the order to sail towards land, and it seemed that it was difficult to hold on, and wanted to rush to the beach.
Not long after the battle broke out, it solved the fastest warship in the opponent, which greatly boosted the morale of the soldiers in the fast fleet, and the opponent only had four warships left, and the speed was not fast, even if there was an armored ship of more than 5,000 tons, but their own strength still occupied an absolute advantage.
The other side obviously also knew that it would be difficult to rush up and engage in hand-to-hand combat, and the advantage of medium and long-range artillery bombardment was at a great disadvantage, and the most important thing was that they had already discovered that a huge fleet had appeared in the south at this time.
This directly led to the fact that they began to break away from the battle and retreated towards the port of Quping, trying to resist with the help of the cover of shore defense artillery.
The huge fleet in the south they found was naturally the First Fleet Slow Fleet, which was a fleet of twelve warships, although the speed was slow, but in fact, several of them were armored ships, with strong firepower and protection.
Unlike the seven battleships in the fast fleet, except for the Pingbo armored ship, the others are all cruisers, and except for the Luo Hai, which is an iron-ribbed steel-hulled dome cruiser, two of the other five are iron-ribbed steel-hulled cruisers, and the remaining three are iron-ribbed wood-hulled unprotected cruisers.
Generally speaking, these seven warships all have the same characteristics: they are new, they are equipped with more advanced steam engines, and they have relatively high speeds.
However, in terms of protection, except for the Pingbo and Luohai, the other five ships are still relatively weak.
In terms of firepower, it is an ordinary level, neither high nor low.
The slow fleet is different, although most of them are old warships, and the speed is slow, but there are five battleships in it that are armored ships with waterline armor belts, and the tonnage is not small, enough to carry more naval guns, so the firepower is generally not bad.
The arrival of the slow fleet directly changed the battle at sea outside the Quping Naval Base, and the four warships in the combined fleet of the two states chose to retreat and retreated to the Quping Naval Base.
Huang Xinggang's First Fleet successfully blocked the enemy fleet at the Quping Naval Base.
n.