When the four "Longxing" class opened fire, Takaji was still thinking about whether to make adjustments to the four light cruisers in the south, such as turning a few dozen degrees to the right, using the fifth cruiser squadron to divert the opportunity of the enemy's avant-garde heavy patrol detachment, and finding the main detachment hidden in the rear.

In fact, Takaji originally had the opportunity to discover the four "Longxing"-class battleships hiding under the clouds in time.

At about 11:50 a.m., the 10th Cruiser Squadron, which had turned south from the front, sent a message announcing the appearance of four unnamed battleships to the north.

From a relative position, to the north of the 10th Cruiser Squadron was the main detachment of the Home Fleet.

At that time, what the lookout of the flagship of the 10th cruiser squadron "Nagara" saw must have been the battleships of the main detachment, but unfortunately they did not recognize it.

As a result, after receiving the report of the "Nagara", the staff officers of the "Imuro" not only did not pay attention, but also reminded the "Nagara" that it was the Fifth Cruiser Squadron that was engaged with the enemy, and there was no need to make a fuss and not worry about anything.

Subsequently, when reporting to Takaji, the staff officer did not focus on the discovery of the "Nagara".

Given the situation at the time, if we had paid attention to this report, even if it was just a telegram to inquire about the Myoko, we would have been able to detect the imminent threat in time.

Unfortunately, no one thought to send a newspaper to ask.

Ten minutes passed in the blink of an eye.

When the lookout reported that he had spotted the muzzle flashes from an unknown enemy ship and suspected that it was the enemy's capital ship, Takaji was stunned.

Before he could come to his senses, the cannonball smashed.

The first to be shot was not the "Imuro", but the "Hisato" that followed behind.

In the first round of shelling, the "Hisato" was hit and received three armor-piercing shells.

Not bad luck.

On the side of the home fleet, in addition to the "Imuro" aimed at by the lead ship "Longxing", the three ships that followed behind were the largest deviation value taken by the ordnance chief when calculating the fire control parameters because of the angle problem, and the aiming point was behind the "Imuro", which was closer to the "Hinago".

In other words, the three battleships behind were actually firing at the "Hinago".

Such a "misunderstanding" is actually excusable.

More than 10 kilometers apart, and at night, what the lookout and gunner saw was actually only a projection of the enemy ship, and it was difficult to distinguish between the two enemy ships that were almost in the same direction and separated by several kilometers between the front and rear.

If you choose the minimum deviation value, the shell will fall in front of the target enemy ship, and if you choose the maximum deviation value, it will fall behind the target enemy ship, and it is possible to hit the enemy ship behind.

If you can't hit the enemy's lead ship, you can hit the second ship behind, and you can accept it.

In addition, the dense formation adopted by the second main team.

At that time, the distance between the "Hisato" and the "Imuro" in front was less than 3,000 meters.

Almost at the same time, to be precise, within about half a minute before and after, the "Hisato" was hit by three shells one after another, and the hit points were all on the forward superstructure.

As a result, almost all the main officers on the "Hisato", including the captain, were killed.

After being beaten, a fire broke out on board the "Hisato".

Now, it's serious.

It's just deadly!

Although the "Hisato" was already slowing down, to be precise, after being beaten, the fire lit up the "Imuro" in front of it.

After reacting, Takaji immediately gave the order to turn the left full rudder and avoid it in the southwest direction.

It must be admitted that Takaji's first reaction was very decisive.

This order almost saved the second main team.

In the next five minutes, the "Imuro" not only took the lead in completing the turn, but also fired back the enemy ship with 10 main guns at about 0:05 a.m.

It wasn't until just after 0:08 that the four battleships on the opposite side fired a second salvo.

It is understandable that after the "Imuro" was illuminated by the firelight of the "Hisato", the four battleships of the "Ryuxing" class would definitely have to re-aim.

The point is that under the influence of the firelight, the four "Longxing" class could not aim at the other two battleships.

Continue to fire at the "Hinato"?

There is no need.

Besides, Gui Boyong did not adjust his tactics, and the four battleships of the second main force did not complete the tactical turn, so he still had to concentrate on shelling the leading ships.

Being targeted by four battleships is no joke.

Sadly, the "Imuro" was only an old former treaty-type battleship, and the transformation carried out a few years ago was not thorough, and the fastest speed was only 26 knots. The point is that before the shelling, the speed was only 16 knots, and the acceleration took several minutes.

At that time, only six boilers were running, and the other two boilers had been ignited an hour earlier, and the temperature and pressure had not risen!

In the next ten minutes, the performance of the "Imuro" was very eye-catching.

According to the record of the engagement of the "Longxing", counting from the second salvo, in about 17 minutes, the four battleships fired a total of 216 shells at the No. 1 enemy ship, while only four hits were observed, and the overall hit rate was less than 2 percent.

It is undeniable that there must be some objective factors in such a low hit rate.

It's just that the ability of the Imperial Navy to fight at night, especially to conduct artillery battles at night, really does not dare to compliment. To put it mildly, it's terrible.

In fact, this is also the result of the Imperial Navy's lack of attention to night battles.

In addition, the tactical evasion of the "Imuro" is really too coquettish.

While continuing to accelerate, the "Imuro" avoided most of the shells and caused great problems for the gunners on the opposite side by constantly making tactical turns. It's just that each salvo needs to be re-targeted, which reduces the shelling efficiency of the four "Longxing" class ships by half.

Taking advantage of this precious 10-odd minutes, the "Hichigo" extinguished the fire, and the surviving second officer took over the command.

It's a pity that even if it can still fight, it will be difficult for the "Higo" to exert its due combat effectiveness, and at most it can be regarded as a full amount of abuse.

In addition, two "Fusang" class ships took advantage of this opportunity to overtake the "Hisago" and increased their speed to 24 knots, and were making every effort to catch up with the "Imuro" in front.

It's a pity that at the beginning of the coquettish move to dodge, the "Imuro" used up all its luck.

At 0:28 a.m., the "Longxing" fired its ninth salvo after the engagement, and hit the "Imuro", and it was visually judged that the hit point was between the tower mast and the chimney, perhaps at the rear of the tower mast, which was the telecommunications center of the "Imuro".

Although no significant explosions were observed, judging by what happened next, the cannon scored ten rings.

It was this cannon that knocked out the command ability of the "Imuro".

However, according to the situation at the time, this result may not belong to the "Longxing", and should be counted on the bow of a sister ship behind.

The reason is also very simple, the interval between the firing of the "Longxing" and the bulleting of the "Imuro" is less than 20 seconds.

Obviously, too short.

In any case, after the "Imuro" was hit by this shot, it could not use the radio to give orders, and could only use the lantern language and flag language at a much lower rate.

The key is that the "Fusang" has to send a report and indirectly issue the combat order of the high temple.