At eight o'clock in the evening, the battleship group slowed down to sixteen knots.

Sailing at night is a test for the navy of long-range operations, because the sextant does not work at night, and can only be determined by the compass, but fortunately, the navy of Huaxia has an advantageous condition, that is, the transmitter, which can report its course to the flagship at any time, so that the flagship can uniformly adjust the general direction of the battleship group to ensure that the entire fleet does not deviate from the course.

A five-level gale blew on the sea, and layers of huge waves rolled up on the sea, and the battleship broke the waves and moved forward, and there were great bumps on the battleship.

Takayama has adapted to the life of seafaring, so it is used to such bumps. He returned to his private room, took out a red blanket, turned off the light, lay down on the Taishi chair in his kimono, covered it with a blanket, and prepared to sleep.

He did not dare to lie down in bed, let alone undress and sleep, and on a night voyage, in case of any emergency, he could get up quickly without delay.

It was also a very comfortable pleasure to lie down like this in the Taishi chair, and I fell asleep in the shaking of the battleship. It was a scene as an old song goes: the night in the military port is quiet, the waves gently shake the battleship, and the young sailors have their heads resting on the waves, and they smile sweetly in their sleep......

A red sun rises from the sea, the sea is dyed brilliantly, the white clouds flutter in the blue sky, the seagulls fly happily on the sea, and the battleships sailing in the South China Sea usher in a new day.

On this day, Gao Junshan woke up late, and he slept very deeply, and did not wake up until nine o'clock in the morning. Breakfast was delivered by Li Derong, a plate of beef in sauce and a plate of green vegetables, and the staple food was a big bowl of porridge.

After breakfast, he first came to the cockpit to learn about the navigation of the battleship, and the captain Deng Shijie reported to him that the battleship was advancing towards Johor at a high speed of 21 knots.

Gao Junshan asked if there was any deviation in the course of the night, and Deng Shijie replied: "The course did not deviate in the slightest last night. ”

Because the sextant can only be used during the day, it is an optical instrument used to measure the angle between two distant targets. Sextants can be used to measure the angle between the Sun or other celestial bodies and the sea horizon or horizon at a given time, so that the latitude and longitude of the ship's position can be quickly known.

Gao Junshan praised the spirit of cooperation of the entire fleet, because at night, only by relying on the compass to grasp the direction, without the cooperation of the aerial surveyors on the twelve battleships, it is difficult to maintain the accuracy of the course, in the vast sea, as long as you deviate from a small angle, you will miss a hundred miles.

"Tomorrow the naval battle will begin, let's go and see how prepared the batteries are." Gao Junshan waved his hand to Li Derong, then walked down the stairs and headed for the lower deck.

Li Derong led several subordinates and followed closely behind inch by inch.

The firepower configuration of the Zhenghe-class battleships: three 70-pounder main guns and six 50-pounder secondary guns on the foredeck; The aft deck guns had nine 50-pounder guns; There were one hundred and seventy-four gunwales, arranged on the upper, middle and lower decks, of which thirty-six were 32-pounder, fifty-four were 18-pounder, and eighty-four were 9-pounder.

The guns on the front and rear decks have special turrets, which can fire at 180 degrees without blind spots.

Gao Junshan first came to the main turret on the front deck, the three giant gun turrets were triangular layout, and the gun commander saw that the emperor came down to inspect, and hurriedly lined up to meet the emperor.

Three large cannons, controlled by sixteen people, each cannon has five people, and one gun commander.

The storage of shells here is not large, in the center of the three turrets, there is a lift, this elevator is managed by the arsenal, through which the shells can be transported from the ammunition depot in the bilge. Originally, the elevator was manually shaken up and down, but now with the generator, it has been changed to electric.

Gao Junshan enters one of the turrets, the turret is semicircular, there is a rocking wheel to control the cannon to swing left and right, the swing range is about 180 degrees, the muzzle can be adjusted high and low, adjust the height of the muzzle, can adjust the range of the gun.

Gao Junshan walked to the front of the rocking wheel, he wanted to try how to use this thing, and the gun commander explained while demonstrating by Gao Junshan's side: "Before firing the gun, shake this handle, and the turret will rotate accordingly, so that you can aim at the target." ”

Gao Junshan followed the gun commander's demonstration and stood in front of the crank, which was just right to observe the sea surface in the distance, and there was an optical sight through which the sea surface could be observed more clearly. He bent down and shook the handles, the drivetrain made perfect sense, and he didn't have much effort to shake the turret up.

Gao Junshan straightened up and asked the gunner: "There will be a large-scale naval battle tomorrow, are you ready?" ”

The artillery commander gave a military salute to Gao Junshan and replied: "Report to Your Majesty, the 'Zheng He No. 1' front cannon can be put into battle at any time, please instruct Your Majesty!" ”

Gao Junshan said: "You must maintain a high degree of vigilance, once you find an enemy ship, give me a hard beat!" ”

……

After inspecting the front deck, Gao Junshan went to the back building, the front and rear buildings of the battleship were separated by three large chimneys, and the three large chimneys stood in the center of the battleship, because they were lined up horizontally, so the space occupied was not very wide, and the distance between the front and rear buildings was only ten meters away.

When Gao Junshan walked to the middle of the battleship, he saw that the damage management team was training. Damage control is the abbreviation of damage control, damage control refers to the measures and actions taken by the ship to prevent, limit and eliminate damage in order to maintain or restore its own vitality, and the equipment of damage control mainly includes leakage plugging equipment, drainage equipment and fire-fighting equipment.

The fifty members of the damage management team were going through the deck hatch and down the ladder to the bottom cabin one by one, and the captain saw Gao Junshan, stepped forward and saluted: "Report to Your Majesty, the damage management team is conducting a fire drill, please instruct!" ”

Gao Junshan said: "After this exercise is over, you should seize the time to rest, tomorrow will be a large-scale naval battle, it is right to pay close attention to training, and it is your task to save your physical strength and devote yourself to tomorrow's battle." Back! ”

"Obey!"

After Gao Junshan finished speaking, he continued to walk in the direction of the back building.

He ascended to the second deck and came to the port side battery, where there were two kinds of guns, 9 and 18 pounder, where the artillerymen were busy wiping the barrels and carrying the shells, and these shells were packed in boxes, and each box contained six shells.

An artillery commander ran to Gao Junshan and saluted Gao Junshan, and Gao Junshan asked, "Your artillery has been improved, is it much better?" ”

The artillery commander replied: "After the artillery was improved, we have gone through actual combat exercises, and our hit rate has increased by 80 percent. ”

Gao Junshan asked, "You are also a disciple of Chongwen?" ”

"Back to the mountain chief, the student is from the eighth phase of Chongwen Artillery School."

Gao Junshan encouraged: "Apply the knowledge you learned in the artillery school to actual combat and strike the enemy hard!" ”

The shipyard engineers made a complete overhaul of the battleship's gunwales by designing a spring-loaded plumb device that reduced the gun's recoil and allowed the gun to return to its firing position more quickly after firing.

The engineers also built a composite block device for these guns, with this device, the gunner can aim at the target more accurately and flexibly, in addition, the engineers also installed a wedge-shaped wooden seat under the gun body to adjust the high and low angles of the muzzle, and the composite block can also move horizontally left and right 45 degrees, which greatly enhances the firing range of the gunwale, and the hit rate will of course be improved.

This improved artillery not only increased the firing range, but also increased the rate of fire, because the time after the gun was fired was shortened, and the speed naturally increased.

Gao Junshan asked the student in front of him to show him the improved firing action, and the student neatly loaded three shells on a gun carriage in front of Gao Junshan, and demonstrated the firing process to Gao Junshan.

Gao Junshan asked: "Can you fire three times in a row like this?" ”

"Absolutely." The gun commander replied confidently.