Geng Weiming is indeed an expert in artillery warfare (in fact, the Tang Imperial Navy has always had no shortage of masters in artillery warfare, and a large number of artillery masters emerged in World War I). After Tan Renhao handed over the task to him, Geng Weiming did not delay at all, and immediately led the nine heavy cruisers in the artillery formation, and the four destroyers killed the sea area north of the Ogasawara Islands at a speed of 32 knots.

The sky had completely darkened, the fire on the "Frostfall" had been extinguished, and the fleet maintained strict lighting control, even if there were Japanese suicide planes, the fleet would not be much threatened, unless those Japanese pilots had night owl eyes, otherwise they would not be able to see the dark battleships on the dark sea.

At 10:35, the fleet reached the sea area 25 nautical miles north of the Tsushima Islands, which was the interception line of the artillery formation. Further north is Sumiju Island, the southernmost of the Izu Islands. The strait between the Ogasawara Islands and the Izu Islands is about 220 nautical miles wide, and until now, Japanese convoys had been hovering the waters between Myojin Jiao and Sumiju Island, waiting for an opportunity to go south. The telegram sent back from the submarine of the Japanese transport convoy where the Japanese transport fleet was found also stated that there was a convoy that was not too small, but did not have heavy warships.

Geng Weiming also learned about the situation, and at about nine o'clock, that is, about an hour and a half before he arrived at the predetermined sea area, he sent out all the seaplanes in the fleet to search along several possible shipping lanes of the Japanese fleet. During the evening air defense operations, these seaplanes were on duty outside and returned to the fleet at about 7:40. Outcome. More than a dozen seaplanes that originally belonged to those large cruisers had to refuel on the heavy cruisers and then go after their own mothership.

At eleven twenty-three o'clock, the seaplanes sent back a telegram that the Japanese convoy was spotted about 85 nautical miles north of the fleet heading south at full speed at about 21 knots. In addition, there were several cruisers in the transport fleet, as well as several destroyers. There are about 30 transport vessels, all of which are large transport ships of thousands of tons.

The battle alarm immediately sounded. At this time, the nine heavy cruisers in the shelling formation formed a column, and the destroyers operated to the south of the cruiser. The fleet began to turn, sailing from east to west, and took a fifteen-degree cut to approach the Japanese fleet. The radars on the four heavy cruisers were also all turned on. These four heavy cruisers were staggered with the other five heavy cruisers that were not equipped with radars, and when shelling, four radared ground cruisers would open fire first, guiding the battleships without radars to carry out the shelling.

The atmosphere in the shelling formations was tense and breathless. All officers and soldiers are at their posts. Officers and men resting in shifts acted as damage control officers and helped carry ammunition for the secondary artillery (120 mm anti-aircraft guns). Geng Weiming has been standing on the bridge of the "Lichun", and he is calmer than anyone else.

At 12:48 p.m., the radar on the "Lichun" first discovered a target 25 nautical miles to the north. The strong radar reflection signal made the radar screen white, and it took a lot of effort for the radar operator to judge that there were at least 20 strong radar reflections, but it was impossible to judge the model of the enemy ship from these reflections (the radar at that time did not have this function). It was at this time that Geng Weiming sent back the news of the battle. The time when the "Yangtze River" flagship received the telegram was 12:51 a.m., and the time when Tan Renhao arrived at the command cabin was 12:58 p.m.

The first salvo of shelling formations began at one o'clock past eighteen minutes. The main guns of the four heavy cruisers with radars ("Lichun", "Sting", "Heat", "Cold Dew") fired shells first, half a minute later. Five more heavy cruisers also began to be busy shelling. And the Japanese ship (ship) flotilla is nine nautical miles north of the shelling formation!

Geng Weiming had his own idea of shortening the shelling distance to nine nautical miles. He could not tell whether there were heavy cruisers in the Japanese fleet, and the 200-mm armor-piercing shells used on the "Tsuki" class heavy cruisers could not penetrate the armor of the Japanese heavy cruisers at the maximum range. At the nine-nautical-mile range, 200 mm armor-piercing shells are still difficult to deal with the main armor belt, but they can easily tear through the armor in the secondary parts. Therefore, in order to ensure the effectiveness of the shelling, if the guns were fired at this distance, the Japanese fleet would be confident that it would defeat the Japanese fleet, even if there were heavy cruisers in the fleet.

After five volleys, the shells of the Japanese fleet's counterattack fell. Nine heavy cruisers on the battle line were not evacuated and did not evade. In a regular artillery battle. Battleships on the battlefield line cannot be circumvented casually. Geng Weiming adhered to the strictest artillery tactics. And those falling shells also reassured Geng Weiming. Judging by the column of water created by the explosion of the shell on the sea, it can be judged that there were no heavy cruisers in the Japanese fleet. At most, there were only a few light cruisers. The reason is simple, those shells that fell were at most armor-piercing shells of about 150 mm caliber, and they were not at all 203 mm shells used on heavy cruisers.

By this time, there was no need for unified command in the fleet, and the fire coming from the guns of the Japanese battleships was enough for the lookouts in the shelling formation to see the position of the Japanese battleships clearly and provide the gunners with the parameters of the shelling. In fact, in this case, the observation of the lookout is much more accurate than that of the radar. However, radar is by no means completely useless.

The fierce artillery battle lasted for more than ten minutes, and the two Japanese battleships were on fire, and the "Bailu", which was in the fourth place in the shelling formation, also suffered two shells, but it did not cause much damage, and the battleships were still able to continue fighting. The Japanese fleet also completed its turn at this time, and the transports that followed behind began to sail eastward.

Geng Weiming did not "take care" of the transports first, the speed of heavy cruisers could reach 33 knots, and the speed of destroyers was more than 35 knots. The fastest speed of those Japanese transport ships was only about 22 knots, and even if they were allowed to run for half an hour first, Geng Weiming could still lead the fleet to catch up and kill them before dawn. Now, the most important thing is to deal with the Japanese ground escort warships.

One thirty-two points. The radar operator sounded the alarm that the Japanese destroyers had broken away from the fleet and were rapidly approaching the shelling formation. Geng Weiming immediately knew that the Japanese destroyers were about to launch a torpedo attack, and he immediately gave the order, and while the four destroyers were killed, the guns on the nine heavy cruisers were all aimed at the oncoming Japanese destroyers.

Before the outbreak of the war, Japan's military technology was not advanced. It can only be regarded as a second-rate scientific and technological power. However, the Japanese Navy's torpedoes were the best in the world. This has to be admitted. In particular, the "Lance" large torpedoes, whose technology far surpassed those equipped by other naval powers of the time. This is also one of the direct results of the Japanese Navy's emphasis on night battles, in which torpedoes are more threatening than artillery shells!

On the sea, seven gray battleships were like seven sharks, galloping towards the battleships that shelled the formation. The guns of the Japanese destroyers were not very powerful, but the torpedoes on them were the most in the world. And the speed reached 37 knots, which was 2 knots faster than the destroyers of the Tang Empire. The task of these destroyers was to attack the enemy's large warships with torpedoes, and not to be mainly responsible for anti-submarine warfare, as was the case with the destroyers of the Tang Imperial Navy. Each destroyer has three quintuple torpedo tubes, which can fire 15 torpedoes in one salvo, while seven destroyers have 105 torpedoes, which can completely cover the entire course of the shelling formation, and one "pike" torpedo can seriously damage a heavy cruiser. Even hit heavy cruisers.

The first three rounds of shelling took out the Japanese destroyers, and at this time four destroyers of the Tang Empire also rushed head-on. The other five destroyers, sailing to about 7.5 nautical miles from the line of battle of the shelling formation, immediately turned and turned their flanks at the fleet, ready to fire torpedoes. In an instant, two more destroyers were shot, but three more (perhaps five) had already successfully fired torpedoes.

The captain of the "Lichun" quickly calculated the time of the torpedo impact. The speed of the "Lance" was 49 knots, and the Japanese destroyer fired a torpedo at a distance of about 7.5 nautical miles, so the torpedo would have hit in 9 minutes. And in order to avoid torpedoes, the fleet had to evade three points in advance. And at this point it was 1:51 points.

When the Japanese destroyers began to retreat, the shells on the heavy cruisers were concentrated on the Japanese light cruisers. And it was at this time that the Japanese light cruisers also began to charge. Geng Weiming was not surprised, because the Japanese light cruisers also used torpedoes as their main weapon, and their torpedo armament was not under the destroyer. Obviously, the Japanese fleet found that it was no match for the artillery formations of the Tang Empire in terms of artillery battles, so it launched a torpedo attack in a desperate way.

The shells are getting denser. In the end, even those 120-mm anti-aircraft guns were firing. The four destroyers that came out of the front fired torpedoes about 5 nautical miles from the Japanese fleet. All four destroyers quickly withdrew. The Japanese battleships valued only those heavy cruisers. Didn't take the destroyers of the Tang Empire in their eyes, probably they also knew. The heavy torpedoes equipped by the Navy of the Don Empire are really bad!

The three light cruisers began to turn 7 nautical miles from the Tang Imperial fleet, and the exposed silhouette immediately became an ideal target for shelling, and the three heavy cruisers against a light cruiser were torn to pieces by the dense rain of bullets in an instant.

At 1:57 a.m., the artillery formation began to turn to avoid the first round of torpedo attacks, while the two turrets in the bow direction of the battleship were also firing incessantly at the fleeing Japanese destroyers.

Just after two o'clock, a torpedo grazed the port side of the "Lichun". Geng Weiming sneered, but his smile immediately froze on his face, located on the right side of the "Lichun", the bow of the heavy cruiser "Autumn Equinox" in the third position of the fleet was directly hit by a "spear" torpedo, the flames of the explosion rose hundreds of sides high, and two huge iron anchors were blown up to a hundred meters away, and the explosion sound came a few seconds later. The battleship undulated a few times on the sea, and its speed quickly decreased to 23 knots, and Geng Weiming had to order the heavy cruiser "Autumn Equinox" to withdraw from the battle at this time.

At two o'clock five, three Japanese destroyers fled north with their mutilated limbs. At the same time, the fleet again turned to avoid torpedoes fired from Japanese light cruisers. This time, all eight heavy cruisers dodged the incoming torpedoes.

On the sea, several Japanese battleships had sunk, and the last three Japanese battleships that had not yet completely sunk were also on fire. The destroyers of the Tang Empire, which had failed at the beginning of the torpedo attack, rushed up again after completing the torpedo loading, sending the three Japanese battleships on their last journey. At this time it was 2:16, and of the five light cruisers and seven destroyers escorting the convoy, only three destroyers escaped, and the others were all destroyed by the artillery formation.

Geng Weiming did not delay time, and immediately led eight heavy cruisers to pursue the fleeing Japanese fleet at full speed. The battle lasted for an hour, and instead of fleeing north, the Japanese convoy sailed eastward, preparing to circle the Ogasawara Islands to the south while the escort warships entangled the Tang fleet.

… At twenty-five minutes, the radar of the "Lichun" detected the Japanese convoy in front of it, and arrived ... At fifty-five minutes, the fleet caught up with the Japanese convoy, and then the shelling began.

This time, instead of shelling according to strict artillery tactics, the heavy cruisers hunted the Japanese transports that were defenseless. In addition, Geng Weiming also asked the fleet communications officer to shout surrender to the Japanese on the international radio channel, so that the Japanese ships would stop sailing and surrender to the Tang Imperial fleet.

The hunt continued until just after five o'clock, when the last Japanese transport, blown in two under blazing gunfire and spun and sank to the bottom of the sea, the fleet began to return. All thirty-two transports were wiped out, none surrendered, and none escaped. These transport ships were loaded with tens of thousands of tons of ammunition, fuel, food and other combat materials, in addition to carrying a Japanese army of 12,000 people. As a result, more than 14,000 Japanese, including 12,000 Japanese ground troops, all became sharks in this area.

At 5:15 a.m., the fleet began to return south at full speed. Geng Weiming chose the route to the east of the Ogasawara Islands, not the route to the west. He did not forget to call for air cover to the aircraft carrier fleet.

Tan Renhao, who had been nervous all night, also breathed a sigh of relief at this time, and asked Lei Shaoqing to arrange for two fighter squadrons to take off at half past five, and then he left the command cabin, preparing to go back and sleep well, and then think about how to write this combat report.