At 12:50 p.m. on September 17, 1894, with the first deafening roar of the Dingyuan's 305-mm main gun, a naval battle broke out that decided the national fortunes of the two countries and affected the whole of East Asia and even the whole of Asia.

Vice Admiral Sukehiro Ito, commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Chief of Staff Osaki Samejima, and Staff Officer Suio Shimamura sat in the flagship Akitsusu and led a total of seven warships, including Chiyoda, Edogawa, Matsushima, Itsukushima, Hiei, and Fuso, to form a squadron.

Rear Admiral Tsuboi and Staff Officer Captain Shizuka Nakamura sat on the Izumi and led Yoshino, Naniwa, Takachiho, and Hashidate to form the 1st Guerrilla Fleet.

The gunboat Akagi and the auxiliary cruiser Saikyo Maru formed a special squadron, and the military commander Shikiri Kayama supervised the battle on the Saikyo Maru.

Ding Ruchang, the commander of the Beiyang Naval Division, sits in the flagship Dingyuan, and is located in the center of the horizontal array together with Zhenyuan, and the left and right are guarded by Yuan, Guangjia, Zhiyuan, Jingyuan, Jingyuan, Chaoyong, and Yangwei.

When the two sides were 5,800 meters apart, they took advantage of the advantage of the firing range to open fire first, and the shelling at this distance was inaccurate, and the shells landed 50 meters away from the starboard side of the First Guerrilla Fleet, and a huge column of water was struck.

Then Matsushima and Itsukushima began to return fire, and the Japanese fleet was the only one with these two ships that were better than the two ships in terms of artillery range and power, but Matsushima and Itsukushima's shooting was also futile, not only that, but the deviation of the course of the two ships almost disrupted the column of the team, and the two ships hurriedly adjusted their course.

And the 1st Guerrilla Fleet did not return fire, their rapid-fire guns could not play an advantage in this distance, and now all they had to do was to get the Beiyang Naval Division close to the best distance where they could exert their firepower. The Hequan, which started with the head, adjusted its course slightly, began to accelerate, and the distance between them and the team gradually widened, and then led the entire fleet to turn right, narrowing the distance between them and the Beiyang Naval Division.

When the combined fleet was 3,000 meters away from the Beiyang Fleet, the first guerrilla fleet had already closed to 1,600 meters, and at this time, the Japanese finally opened fire.

The persimmon has to pick a soft pinch, and at the very beginning, Tsuboi Kozo aimed at the two ships Chaoyong and Yangwei on the far right side of the Beiyang Fleet, and the tonnage, firepower, speed, and age of the two battleships were not good, and they were the most easily defeated battleships on the right flank of the Beiyang Fleet, so the First Guerrilla Fleet aimed all its firepower at these two weak ships.

The high-explosive shells fired from the 27 150-mm rapid-fire guns on the side quickly enveloped the second ship Chaoyong Yangwei, while the Jingyuan, Jingyuan, Chaoyong, and Yangwei on the right flank of the Beiyang Naval Division could only put in two 254-mm guns, two 210-mm guns, and six 150-mm guns.

After only 10 minutes of fighting, Chao Yong and Yang Wei were hit several times, caught fire and burned, and the two ships fell behind and began to break away from the formation.

Due to the huge size of the three ships of Akitsusu, Chiyoda, and Edogawa, which were the most threatening ships in the eyes of the Beiyang Naval Division, the second ship of Dingzhen and the ships on the left flank were concentrating on attacking the main group of the Combined Fleet, so the first guerrilla fleet sailed in front of the Beiyang Naval Division, and Tsuboi Hangzo boldly ordered the left full rudder (Note 1), and the fleet outflanked the Beiyang Naval Division to the right and continued to attack Chaoyong and Yangwei.

Chao Yong and Yang Wei, who had fallen behind, could not escape the doom in the face of the Japanese ship that pounced again, and only persisted in resisting for 10 minutes before it began to sink.

After the combined fleet made the first battle and sank Chaoyong and raised its might, the satisfied Tsuboi Kozo ordered the fleet to turn sharply to the left, and after forming a 180-degree U-turn, he attempted to cross directly in front of the Beiyang Naval Division again.

While the First Guerrilla Fleet was showing its skills with the guns of the clippers, the Combined Fleet itself was in trouble. At this time, the Japanese fleet was following the rear of the 1st Guerrilla Fleet, and it also sailed directly in front of the Beiyang Naval Division, and was preparing to turn to the right and outflank the rear of the Beiyang Naval Division, so that it could flank the Beiyang Naval Division with the 1st Guerrilla Fleet in front and rear.

However, the slowest ships of Fuso, Akagi and Hiei fell behind, and the three ships that fell behind were immediately targeted by Zhiyuan, Laiyuan, and Guangjia on the left flank.

At this time, Deng Shichang, the pipe leader of the Zhiyuan, made an astonishing decision, since Admiral Ding Ruchang ordered each ship to do its own thing, and only asked to accompany the flagship as much as possible, then this gave him room to play.

He ordered the Zhiyuan to move forward at full speed, although the Zhiyuan could only reach a speed of 16 knots at this time, but it still moved forward quickly, and when it came to the side of the Yuan, it sent a light signal, asking the Laiyuan to follow behind him, cutting off the connection between the three ships of Fuso and the Japanese main team.

Guangjia adjusted the course and began to follow the Laiyuan, and there was a gap between the three ships because of the horizontal formation, but Laiyuan and Guangjia began to fine-tune the course and narrow the distance after the Zhiyuan went out, forming a longitudinal formation that was not a straight line, which was directly in front of the Hiei, and a non-standard T-shaped formation was formed at this moment.

The superiority of the lateral fire of the four 210-mm guns and the 11 150-gun guns was brought into play, and the Hiei, which was driving in front, was immediately hit hard, and a 210-mm shell hit the middle deck of the Hiei, killing more than 40 people on the spot.

Don't look at Hiei as an old ship, but the Japanese are poor people who can't afford to lose even a small sampan, and Shikinori Kayama, who was in charge of the Saikyo Maru, immediately ordered the First Guerrilla Fleet, which had not yet completed the U-turn, to come back to the rescue.

However, the 1st Guerrilla Fleet, which had already distanced itself from each other, was 6,000 meters away from the Hiei, and the water could not quench its thirst, and it soon caught fire in the face of the artillery coverage of the three ships of the Beiyang Naval Division. The Hiei immediately broke away from the line and turned left in an attempt to escape.

Although the age of Zhiyuan and Laiyuan is long, it can only reach a speed of about 16 knots, but the chasing area Hiei is still chasing, and the Hiei after turning left exposed the side of the hull, and was immediately hit by the three ships of Zhiyuan one after another, the captain Sakurai was killed on the spot, the power compartment was penetrated, and the Hiei, who lost its speed, has become a lamb to be slaughtered.

After dropping the slower Guangjia and approaching the Hiei to give her a torpedo to make her completely finished, Zhiyuan and Laiyuan continued to move forward, intercepting the smaller tonnage Akagi gunboat, forming a T-shape again, and the Akagi was also a dead end at this time.

The distance between the two sides was shortened to 300 meters, the captain of the Akagi, Hachiro Sakamoto, was killed, the captain of the voyage, Tetsutaro Sato, was seriously injured, and the whole ship caught fire in many places, and the hull tilted to the right.

However, the rabbit was in a hurry and still biting, and the bow gun of the gunboat Akagi hit the side ear of the Laiyuan, and a 150-mm gun was blown away, disappearing along with the surrounding gunners, and a fire broke out in the middle of the hull.

Just when Zhiyuan and Laiyuan attacked the Akagi, the Fuso, which was following behind, turned right and inserted itself from the left flank of the Beiyang Fleet.

On the other side, the battle between the main team of the Combined Fleet and the left flank of the Beiyang Naval Division was damaged, and the Akijinzhou, the flagship of the Combined Fleet, which was beaten to death by the Dingzhen Second Ship, was hit by two 305-mm shells, but fortunately, the Qiujinzhou was originally an ironclad ship, although the armor was not as thick as the Dingzhen Second Ship, but the damage was not great, and more than 20 people were killed and a main gun was paralyzed.

A 260-mm shell from Qiujinzhou hit the bottom of the mast, not only causing a fire, but also causing the entire foremast to fall, and the collapsed foremast affected the bridge, and Admiral Ding Ruchang was injured, although Ding Ruchang had not issued a single order since the battle, but now it is really impossible to issue an order.

Seeing that Dingyuan was injured, the Japanese Combined Fleet was jubilant, and although the Akagi had not yet sunk at this time, it could not be saved, and the score of the two sides was 2:2, and it returned to the same running line.

At this time, the 1st Guerrilla Fleet, which had already turned around and re-crossed the front of the Beiyang Naval Division, decided to take advantage of his illness to kill him and began to project all its firepower on the Dingyuan, which was shrouded in smoke and flames.

At this time, the ships of the Beiyang Fleet, which had been copied by the main team of the Combined Fleet, had basically become fighting on their own, and Zhenyuan next to Dingyuan had to fight with one enemy and five, even if she was the largest giant ship in the Far East, she could not cope with it.

Seeing that the flagship was in danger, Deng Shichang led Zhiyuan to turn around and take the lead in rushing to the first guerrilla fleet, and Laiyuan, who had already extinguished the fire on the deck, followed closely.

In the face of the rushing three ships of the Beiyang Naval Division, the First Guerrilla Fleet unhurriedly adjusted the muzzle of the Zhiyuan, which was the head, to concentrate fire. In order to make use of the sideboard fire, the Izumi began to turn to the right, and then the ships began to turn their rudders. As a result, the Japanese ship's shells in the process of turning the rudder were inaccurate, and although they blew up a column of water around the Zhiyuan, none of them hit, and the turning point became the best target.

At this time, the main gun in front of the Zhiyuan made a miraculous stroke, followed by the third Hashidate when it passed through the steering point, two 210 mm shells were hit, the shells hit the rear main gun of the Hashidate, and then the chain detonated the stacked cartridges, and the huge chain explosion made the stern of the Hashidate sink down as if it was pressed into the water by an invisible giant hand.

The explosion of the ammunition not only killed and injured more than 60 people in an instant, but also caused the power of the explosion to break the propeller shaft, and the Hashidate suddenly lost its ability to sail and collapsed on the sea like a dead fish.

It didn't matter if the Hashidate was seriously injured, the Japanese ship was in the process of turning at this time, and the routes of the two ships Takachiho and Naniwa who were following behind were blocked by the Hashidate. In order to circumvent Hashidate, Takachiho quickly turned to the right, and Naniwa followed Takachiho closely, which caused the 1st Guerrilla Fleet to be disjointed before and after.

At this time, the Zhiyuan only had to deal with the Izumi and Yoshino, but the Izumi was strong and was hit by a number of shells during the engagement, except for the unarmored protection area of the hull bulging superstructure, which was penetrated by a 150 mm shell and caused some damage.

Since the shells were weak, in the face of this giant ship that the Japanese Navy actually posed the greatest threat, Deng Shichang once again issued that heart-wrenching order: "Crash into Hequan!" ”RS