At 10:05 a.m., the hull of the Fuso under the starboard draft was blasted by a shell with a huge bullet hole of more than 20 centimeters in diameter. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Hoshino Nariyoshi, the commander of the Fuso, tried to plug the bullet hole, but the bullet hole was too big and the water jet was too fierce, so Arai had to order the water blocking doors at both ends of the broken cabin to be closed and gave up blocking the rescue.

The bomb bay of the Fuso ship was soon filled with hundreds of tons of seawater.

As a result, the average speed of the Fuso ship, which has a theoretical maximum speed of only 13 knots, has dropped to less than 7 knots in wartime.

Sensing the abnormality, the five forts on Laolong Island immediately gave up the bombardment of the 'King Kong' and concentrated their firepower on the 'Fuso'.

With more than 50 coastal defense heavy guns, the "Fuso" ship was suddenly killed and brought back to life.

At 10:37, the Huangshan Fort hit the 'Fusang' ship with a cannonball, the shell penetrated the main deck, and just landed on the No. 3 gun position on the port side in the ship's gun room, and the 152mm caliber Armstrong rapid-fire gun was smashed into a ball of twist, 3 gunners were seriously injured, and 1 signal soldier died on the spot.

At 10:58, a 152mm solid bullet hit the deck of the 'Fuso' at an angle, forming a ricochet, which catapulted into the mechanical room of the 'Fuso', destroying the barometer, navigation watch, and measuring instruments. And break the vapor pipe to the steering wheel.

The 'Fuso' lost the ability to pneumatically brake the steering wheel, so it had to be reluctantly replaced by a manpower rudder and barely sailed.

The flagship Hashitachi, which was assembled at the mouth of Dalian Bay, received a signal from the 'Fusang' that "our ship is out of order, and we request to evacuate," and immediately ordered all ships in the bay to evacuate.

Soon after, the "King Kong" ship sailed to the rear flank of the "Fuso" to block the artillery fire for the "Fuso" and cover the escape of the "Fuso."

At 11:30 a.m., the Japanese ship group in the bay sailed towards the mouth of the bay, and the effective distance of more than 10 kilometers from the coastal defense battery in Dalian Bay gradually stopped.

In the middle of the fort on Monk Island, the heat of the artillery fire has completely melted the snow on the concrete base of the fort.

The meltwater was stained with a blood-red color, and flowed towards the hillside under the surrounding forts, and disappeared into the snow in a few meters, but it was just a few meters, and it was so white that it was dazzling and frighteningly red.

"What about the losses of the batteries?"

Seeing Huang Jianxing's tears swollen into red peaches and walked over, He Changying replied with a military salute and asked.

"The East Fort blew up and damaged a 120mm retreat gun, killing 11 people and seriously wounding 3 people; A 152mm coastal defense gun was damaged in the West Battery, killing 9 people and seriously wounding 4 people; Middle Battery—"

Huang Jianxing's hoarse voice suddenly deepened.

In this coastal defense battle, the shells of the Japanese fleet bombarded the batteries, and the hit rate of about one-fifty exceeded one-fifty, hitting the positions of the batteries.

And a small half of the fiftieth shells hit the middle battery.

"—A 120mm gun, a 152mm and a 208mm heavy gun were damaged, 31 killed and 9 seriously wounded."

He Changying's face turned blue when she heard this.

In just one morning's battle, nearly one-eighth of the artillery was lost in the three batteries on Monk Island, and the artillery battalion was reduced by more than one-sixth.

At this time, there was the sound of horses' hooves from behind.

Cheng Moyi, Mao Chao, and Yin Desheng of Laolong Island, including Pan Jinshan and Jiang Muchen, who were transferred from the Jinzhou defense line, and Xu Bangdao, who personally led two battalions of Gong Guards to support, all rushed over.

The tragedy on the middle battery shocked everyone.

"Camp Commander Huang, please wash your eyes immediately,——"

Second Lieutenant Wei Cunli, a field doctor, walked over with a small basin of eyewash drops: "All the soldiers have been cleaned, if you still want to continue to command the Japanese ships, you can't delay it any longer." ”

Huang Jianxing's eyes were swollen, and he scolded angrily: "These Japanese soldiers are so despicable, and there are poisonous smoke in the bombs, which is really shameless!" ”

"They used a new type of high gunpowder with picric acid as the main ingredient, which was much more explosive than cotton gunpowder; In addition, after the explosion, the core temperature will form a fire of up to 1,000 degrees, and the flames will spread out and flow like gasoline on fire, and can continue to burn for a period of time even in water. ”

He Changying had to do some popular science for the officers present: "In addition, the explosion will produce this toxic yellow smoke, which will damage the trachea and irritate the eyes. ”

"The key is that we don't have flowering bombs in our hands, otherwise we can definitely sink one of their warships today."

Cheng Moyi said helplessly: "I don't dare to let the gunners use the more than 1,000 flowering shells of various types produced by the Beiyang Bureau stored in the Dalian arsenal, otherwise our own gun barrels will be blown up without waiting for the bombardment of the Japanese ships." ”

"Yes, if there are high-explosive flowering bombs in the West, Hashitachi, and Fuso, they will be crippled if they don't die today!"

Huang Jianxing was washing his eyes, and when he heard Cheng Moyi's words, he also said with an angry face.

"I can't produce it myself, and I don't want to spend money to buy it; When I landed in Lushun, I heard that there was a lot of complaints in the naval division, complaining that if the high-explosive flowering bombs were enough, the Dadonggou naval division would definitely not be able to defeat so badly, and at least it could sink a few Japanese ships. ”

He Changying's adjutant Huang Bojie felt uncomfortable in his heart, and he couldn't help it, so he interjected: "It's incredible how much silver it costs to buy 10,000 high-explosive bombs!" ”

This matter involves the fighting methods between Li Hongzhang, Weng Tongyi, the Imperial Party, the Hou Party, and the Beiyang Party.

understands how to grow a tassel, Xu Bangdao, and is silent.

And Huang Bojie and others, who were in a daze like seeing flowers in the fog, naturally scolded Li Hongzhang, the king of the black pot.

"And our artillery is said to be large-caliber heavy artillery, but in fact, it is just a rack of artillery gradually eliminated by the West, which is sold to us at a high price; Every time this retreat gun is ejected, it has to be readjusted and reset; The Japanese ships are now reequipped with rapid-fire tubes, and the firepower of one of their guns is equivalent to five or six of us! ”

Li Yuanhong, the first judicial chief who followed He Changying, although he behaved ordinarily in the Battle of Dadonggou, as a former middle-level officer of the navy, still has a basic vision.

Major Peng Qianyan, the second deputy chief of staff next to him, said: "According to the report of Director Jinmen Xiong, after the Battle of Dadonggou, the imperial court also noticed the importance of importing high-explosive flowering shells; Jinmen Customs Road and Nanyang Navy Division have imported a batch of flowering bombs from Britain and Germany, which are expected to arrive in Shanghai and Tianjin at the end of this month and early next month. ”

"I want to reach a consensus with you now, the defense of Dalian Bay is to delay the Japanese offensive and transport away the military resources in the arsenal; Dalian Bay must be lost! ”

After listening to He Changying's words, the generals were silent, because everyone knew that this was an indisputable fact.

Including Huang Jianxing, who had previously refused to allow Shen Zhaoao to place explosives on the forts on Monk Island and was ready to blow up all the heavy artillery, after experiencing with his own eyes the ferocious firepower of the Japanese ship group today, he also knew the fact that Dalian Bay would fall sooner or later.

"The decisive battle of our Japanese army is in Port Arthur, where there is no way to retreat! The Beiyang Naval Division is no longer usable, and as long as the mouth of the Tiger Tail Gorge is sealed with heavy artillery on the Port Arthur waterway, even if the Japanese combined fleet all rushes in, we can sink them all one by one. ”

He Changying said in a deep voice: "So to hold Port Arthur, the key is by land; Between the mountains, the infantry and artillery formed a three-dimensional crossfire, blocking the Japanese army to the east of Tuchengzi! ”