After about an hour of driving at a speed of ten knots, the drill ship had left the dark green coastline far behind, and the blue sea and clear sky in front of him made people feel refreshed. Pen % Fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info in "Caesar." From the bridge observatory of the "Frederick III", Kaiser Wilhelm II looks out into the wind. Before his accession to the throne, the German Navy was only a near-shore defensive fleet, and 16 years later, this navy is now the fifth largest in the world. In the Baltic Sea, the German fleet had obvious advantages over the Swedish Navy and the Russian Baltic Fleet, but the sea area was light and resource-poor, and it could no longer satisfy Germany's ambitions. However, Germany's rise was too late, it had missed the best opportunity for the great powers to carve up its colonies, and so far it had only obtained some less desirable overseas territories in Africa, the South Pacific and the Far East.

After arriving at the predetermined sea area, a group of white floating targets appeared on the surface of the sea in front of the left side of the joint formation. The mast of the "Wiecchersbach" raised the signal flag "Everything is ready", "Caesar." The "Frederick III" responded with a bright red starting flag, and the naval drill to celebrate the Kiel Naval Harbour Festival officially began.

Seeing the "Wicchersbach" hoisting the battle flag, the participating ships aimed their main guns at the target, but before approaching a distance of 3,000 meters, only the rumbling sound of the power turbines came from this imposing training fleet. At 3,000 meters, that is, the distance at which the Qing and Japanese fleets launched an artillery battle 10 years ago, the flagship "Wiecchersbach" took the lead in firing guns. Its twin 240-mm guns opened fire at the same time, and the rumble still echoed across the sea, and the other four battleships also let out a deafening roar. Sunny weather brings an ideal field of view, and ordinary telescopes are enough for people to distinguish the situation on the sea surface in the distance: a cannonball equipped with a trigger fuse will make a large splash when it falls into the water, some will swallow the floating target in an instant, and some will still be thirty or forty meters away from the floating target, and the accuracy of the hit will be clear at a glance.

Purely in terms of the caliber of naval guns, the German Caesar. The 240 mm guns used by the Frederick III and Wiecchersbach classes were the smallest of the capital ships built by the countries during the same period, so the British considered them "large armoured ships" rather than "battleships". This is not because the Germans could not produce large-caliber naval guns of acceptable quality, which were better than Caesar. The Brandenburg-class armored ships built earlier in the Frederick III class were equipped with 280 mm naval guns, and the Dingyuan-class ironclad ships built for the Qing Empire were equipped with 305 mm Krupp breech guns.

The primary reason for installing smaller caliber guns on capital ships with larger tonnage was the Battle of the Yellow Sea between the Qing and Japan ten years ago, when the Japanese fleet, which was inferior in tonnage and naval gun caliber, won the victory with the rapid and accurate fire of rapid-fire guns. The German Navy, which was moving forward in the process of exploration, attached great importance to the experience and enlightenment brought by this naval battle, and with first-class metallurgical technology, they produced the largest rapid-fire gun of this era, that is, the 40 times diameter 240 mm gun of Krupp, supplemented by a new ammunition feeding system, which reached a rate of fire of 3-4 rounds per minute, several times that of traditional 11-inch or 12-inch naval guns. Secondly, the harsh sea conditions in the North Sea made it difficult for the battleships to ensure ideal accuracy when firing at long distances, and the real battles often took place at close ranges, and the armor-piercing shells of the 240 mm naval guns were enough to tear through the armor of the vast majority of battleships of this period.

At a distance of about 3000 meters, the first round of firing of the five German battleships hit one direct hit in ten, most of the shells fell around the floating target, and the accuracy of the artillery fire was basically satisfactory. In order of ship, it was the turn of the British Navy's two Cressey-class armored cruisers to fire, their twin 234 mm front guns were not much less powerful than their German counterparts, and with a considerable number of 150 mm single secondary guns, their forward firepower was comparable to that of heavyweight fighters among armored cruisers of the same period. After the British guns were discharged, those who participated in the drills and watched the performance from a distance, regardless of nationality or status, were all engrossed in looking at the sea. A few seconds later, a striking white column of water sprang up from the surface of the sea, and they were in the center of the longitudinal chain of floating targets, and the scatter points appeared to be very concentrated. By the time the waves had fallen, a floating target had disappeared.

The high-precision firing of the two British warships had very different reactions to the drills. Driven by huge maritime interests, the great powers attach great importance to the development of their navies, and as long as they are related to their naval combat capabilities, they have all worked diligently in formation, gunnery, torpedoes, mines, and other aspects, but the same investment of time and energy may not be able to achieve the same results. In this respect, the British Navy is a model and leader in the navies of other countries, and they have been in the leading position for a long time, gradually forming a set of rigorous and authoritative naval disciplines, and their actual combat experience far exceeds that of other powers. Because of this, there was always a sense of reverence for the Royal Navy fleet, and the British officers and men had a very clear sense of superiority in the face of their counterparts from other countries.

Mixed in with an unquantifiable element of luck, the performance of the two British armored cruisers instantly outperformed the German battlefleet. Just when people were lamenting the top strength of the British Navy, the German cruisers participating in the sea exercise Leng Buding gave them a "little surprise": two Victoria named after the German princess. The first round of shelling of the Louise-class second-class cruisers (between armored cruisers and small cruisers in terms of tonnage and firepower) actually destroyed a floating target. Considering that they used 210 mm caliber single-mount guns, and there was only one main gun in the bow direction, the hit rate was converted to a better score than the British. However, the eyes were so drawn to the British warships that they ignored the rapid progress made by the German Navy in gunnery, which sooner or later surprised the world with its increasingly mature training standards, rigorous and pragmatic work attitude, and state-of-the-art optical equipment!

Compared to the majestic sound of battleships, armored cruisers, and large cruisers, the shooting of small cruisers was much softer. The British Compass-class, German-Gazelle-class, Tsarist Russia's "Pearl," and Dutch cruisers "Flevolland" all used 4-inch main guns, and although the 3,000-meter range did not exceed the limit range of these naval guns, the simple sighting equipment and the ballistic characteristics of the small-caliber guns made their firepower accuracy at this distance unsatisfactory. After a burst of brazen shelling, the number of floating targets did not decrease significantly.

By the time the second round of firing was carried out, the combined formation had already completed course adjustments, and the ships were able to switch from main gun fire to side firing, and their firepower was multiplied. Under the pressure brought by the British, the officers and men of the German battlefleet performed calmly, and they invariably adopted the main gun rotation-adjustment mode, that is, the right gun of the twin main gun fired first, and then adjusted the parameters according to the impact point, and then the left gun carried out the shooting, this mode is more time-saving and more efficient than the conventional salvo-reloading, especially suitable for the initial positioning of the fleet artillery battle.

After quick and effective adjustments, five German battleships hit four of the twenty direct hits at a distance of 2000 meters, turning a third of the floating target into sawdust.

The British officers and men of the visiting British Navy did not show weakness in the strong performance of the German Navy, and the main and auxiliary guns of the two armored cruisers fired in unison (the Cressy class only had two 234 mm guns, and 150 mm guns were used on the side and stern), and the single ship hit rate was still higher than that of the German battleships, and after the firing distance was closer, the power of the small cruisers also began to appear. After this round of shooting, only two mutilated floating targets remained on the surface of the sea. It was no longer necessary to expend shells on them, and the "Wiecchersbach" soon gave the command to turn.

At this moment, four fast fleets approached at high speed in the northwest sea. In terms of outline, they belonged to the German torpedo boats of the 1898 type, also known as "high sea torpedo boats", which were not inferior in tonnage to the old destroyers of some countries, and reached a maximum speed of 32 knots. In the telescope, they are like swords speeding against the surface of the sea, the bow of the ship stirring up white waves, and the chimneys spewing out black smoke. Since the Russian-Turkish War in which the Russian military used torpedoes to create a classic example of small boats attacking large ships, high-speed torpedo boats have gradually attracted the attention of the navies of various countries, and have gradually explored a tactical system suited to their own conditions.

As soon as the four ill-intentioned torpedo boats appeared, the large and small warships in the combined formation suddenly sounded the battle alarm, and the bridge and deck were full of busy figures. The officers responsible for observation, dispatch and command performed their duties, and the sailors rushed to the fore deck and broadside positions. In actual combat, there will not be such a lively scene on large ships, because most of their main and auxiliary guns are enclosed in turrets and gun cages, and in order to reduce the wear and tear of the main gun barrels, the crew often uses external training guns (mounted on the main guns or erected separately). At the same time, the eight escort torpedo boats voluntarily turned to meet the enemy in accordance with the flagship's instructions, and the plumes of smoke from their chimneys suddenly became thicker, the roar of machinery also increased significantly, the sharp bow split the waves, and the brave hounds took a fighting stance!

The four torpedo boats approaching in the distance did not seem to intend to storm a large fleet with their meager strength, and they suddenly turned around as they were about to come into the effective range of the ship's guns, and white smoke rose from the ships one by one. The smoke quickly rose and spread to form a curtain wall on the surface of the sea that obscured the view. With the rapid spread of the smoke screen, it seems that Beihai has entered autumn and winter in advance, and a thick morning fog fills a large area of the sea.

Without waiting for the opposing escort boats to approach, the four torpedo boats quickly disappeared into the smoke screen. Since the situation behind the smoke screen was unknown, the escort boats that broke away from the combined formation did not dare to rush forward, but maintained combat alert on the sea between the smoke screen and their own fleet. After ten minutes of waiting, the smoke screen gradually faded under the sea breeze, and the spread area was much larger than before, and there was a buzzing sound from far and near behind the smoke screen. Under the curious gaze of the audience, four large torpedo boats of the 1898 class suddenly rushed out of the smoke screen with 12 torpedo boats of the 1895 class with a displacement of less than 200 tons.

(End of chapter)