.“ Hit again! Oh, hooray! ”

Seeing the school firing report sent from the German battleship, Rear Admiral Yashiro Gonbei, the captain of the Japanese task force battleship "Fuso", raised his arms and shouted with joy, this is already the 25th salvo of the two Japanese battleships, of which a total of 16 rounds of 31 shells fell within meters of the opponent's battleship or directly hit, and the most direct result was to severely damage the Argentine battleship "Rivadavia". According to the report of the German reconnaissance aircraft, the 28,000-ton giant ship, built by the Four Rivers Shipyard in New York, USA, has now left the battle sequence of the coalition fleet and has withdrawn from the battlefield under the escort of two destroyers.

In stark contrast to Rear Admiral Yashiro's excitement, Lieutenant General Hiroko Fushimi Miya, who was standing beside him, his own shells were fired in a deafening roar, and the opponent's shells fell heavily on the sea in the distance, all of which did not make the prince change his composure and composure, but before he learned that the carrier-based aircraft groups of the two German aircraft carriers had only sunk and damaged a few light ships of the other side in three sorties, he had talked and laughed with Rear Admiral Yashiro and his staff, but now he was completely silent.

Rear Admiral Yashiro did not mention the bet between the two at all, but anyone with a discerning eye knows that Prince Fushiminomiya is very disappointed, and as a supporter of the aircraft carrier faction in the Japanese Navy, this fact undoubtedly gives him a big blow.

"Your Excellency, Congratulations! When the battle is over, I will ask His Majesty the Emperor for your credit! Fushimiya said in a calm tone.

Yashiro was very modest, he put his legs together, and said: "Your Royal Highness, this is all the credit of your subordinates, and you don't dare to take credit alone!" ”

Fushimiya added: "There are people with excellent gunnery such as those who serve the navy, and the future of the imperial navy is full of confidence!" ”

"His Royal Highness the Prince has won the prize! His Majesty the Emperor is wise and powerful, the empire is prosperous, and with the first-class shipbuilding and artillery technology in China, we can attack the enemy here with a sharp weapon that surpasses the European and American powers! Therefore, it is His Majesty the Emperor and His Royal Highness the Regent who have made the greatest contributions! ”

Fushimiya nodded slightly. "Your Excellency the Major General is too humble! As far as I know, Your Excellency and the officers and men on the ship practiced artillery skills day and night, so that our army's salvo hit rate was so high! ”

Rear Admiral Yashiro no longer shirked, "Having said that, Your Royal Highness, the role of the Germans' aircraft carriers is indeed very large, and today is an eye-opener for us!" Previously, I only knew that there were balloons and planes in land warfare, but I didn't know that the same is true for aircraft used in naval warfare! Now that I think about it, it's really a lonely frog at the bottom of a well. After returning home, he proposed to the Admiralty to build up more naval aviation units in the next direction, so as to provide good reconnaissance and artillery fire instructions for the battlefleet! ”

"That's true, but what happened today always makes me feel a little different, but I can't tell what is different! I always feel that the power of aircraft carriers is more than that! In the latter sentence, Fushimi Miyahiro's voice was lowered a lot, and almost only he and Yashiro could hear it.

Major General Yashiro smiled, in his opinion, this was just a step that Fushimi Palace had found for himself to lose his bet. Since the prince wants to save face. He also gave a favor, "What His Royal Highness said is very true!" In my humble opinion, today's trend is due to the increased anti-aircraft firepower of various countries. As far as I know, most of the US ** ships have added 5-inch and 3-inch anti-aircraft guns, perhaps because of their fierce artillery fire, German planes cannot attack in close quarters, and it is difficult for German pilots to have the determination to die in overseas battles, and the effect of bombing is naturally greatly reduced! In contrast, cruisers and destroyers had much weaker ground anti-aircraft firepower, which became the best choice for German pilots! ”

Fushimi Palace pondered for a while, clapped his hands, and said, "Your Excellency the Major General is really a person who woke up from his dreams!" Presumably, the Germans were stingy with their fighters and pilots, so they did not fight for their lives like Pascalflo during the Battle of Pascalflo, and the Union fleet at this time was not the British fleet of the year. Therefore, the German fleet did not achieve satisfactory bombing results! ”

"What is provided here is only a rough idea, but here it has become a classic theoretical text, and His Royal Highness's talent in the navy is really admirable!"

Yashiro complimented at the right time, and before Prince Fushiminomiya could say anything, a loud but very emotional bell sounded on the ship, it was the ten-second firing alarm of the main gun, because the power of the 12 360 mm naval guns in a salvo was too huge, not only the deck near the front, middle and rear gun emplacements and on the bridge were not allowed to stand on the bridge, but even the conning tower had to be closed. In order to prevent damage to personnel and equipment caused by a strong shock wave.

Ten seconds later, the battleship's more than 30,000-ton hull once again shook with an earth-shattering sound, of course, this shaking lasted only for a moment, 12 shells weighing 625 kilograms had to fly in the air for nearly 25 seconds, whether they hit the target or not had to be transmitted back by wireless telegram through the German fighters hovering over the enemy fleet, and then the German battleship receiving the signal informed the other ships through the flag, this process took about 2 to 3 minutes, In other words, the report they got was the result of the previous salvo.

In the process of waiting a little boringly, Prince Fushimi began to think about the relationship and future of Japanese aircraft carriers and battleships in the future, and learned that the era of aviation as capital ships had not yet come, or that this weapon would never replace battleships as the protagonist of naval warfare, and that the miracle that Germany had created at Pascalflo was perhaps just a miracle and not universal to every naval battle.

The reason why Prince Fushimi Miyahiro has so much to think about is not only because of his status as a vice admiral and his interest in aircraft carriers, he is the eldest son of Prince Fushimi Miya, the crisis of the heirs of the Japanese royal family has been a long-standing problem, only the Fushimi family is prosperous, after getting the second and third sons, Fushimi Miyaya Sadai inherited Bogong to another branch of the family - the Huading Palace family, Fushimi Palace Bogong soon became the heir of the Huading Palace family, but the world is impermanent, Fushimi Palace's third son died at the age of nearly two, and the second son, Fushimi Palace, was frail and sickly, which made Fushimi Palace Hirokoshi return to the Fushimi Palace family in 1904 and became the co-heir of the two families, and the influence in the Japanese imperial family is needless to say. On the other hand, in the competition of the Japanese army and navy, as the most influential imperial family, the Fushimi palace family and the Kanin palace family stand in different teams, the Japanese army is trying its best to win over the Kanin palace family, and the navy is backed by the Fushimi palace family, Fushimi Miyahiro and his father are both hard-line naval factions, and the development plan and budget of the navy have a great relationship with them. It can be said that as long as the Fushimi Miyaya family points to one. The Japanese Navy would not have gone in the second direction, provided that the emperor did not personally intervene.

"Hit again! Banzai! Banzai! Banzai! ”

Seeing that the German battleship in front of them once again sent the signal that the shell hit the target, Yashiro and his officers couldn't help but shout long live, and the hit rate at this time was already comparable to the best results in their usual practice. At this time, no one cared about the accuracy of the German reports or the errors of visual inspection, and for these fanatical Japanese soldiers, the Emperor's divine might had really come this time!

On the other side of the sea, the allied fleets of Brazil, the United States, and Argentina were devastated by the long-range artillery bombardment of the other side. Although the maximum visual distance on the sea surface is 40 nautical miles, it is difficult to see the waves raised by the shells when they reach the enemy at a distance of 20 nautical miles, and even if they stand on the mast of the battleship, they do not know how many yards the impact point of their main guns is from the opponent, but judging from the undiminished firepower of the opponent, even if the shells can hit the opponent by chance, the damage caused is insignificant.

On board the Brazilian battleship "Santarém", the three-member command group of the coalition fleet deliberated and unanimously came to the conclusion that whether to continue the battle or evacuate. The entire fleet can no longer continue to be beaten passively like this.

"I advise the fleet to pretend to withdraw. The submarine will set up an ambush on the enemy's path, and when the enemy suffers heavy losses, our fleet will shoot another rifle! "The U.S. commander, General Richard White, is still the same advice as before. He felt that if it weren't for the damned Brazilians and Argentines who were determined to use their numerical superiority to fight each other quickly, the situation of the Union fleet would not have been so bad at this time. Look at the sea outside the porthole, the mighty steel battleships venture through the columns of water one after another, two of them have already ignited a fire, billowing smoke and black smoke from the chimney mixed with the formation of a large cloud of smoke over the fleet, less than 20 light ships are still faithfully guarding the sides of the battlefleet, but under the stormy waves of the opponent's shells, their thin hulls seem to be about to capsize at any time.

Brazilian Admiral Valaccio and Argentine Admiral Noccioni whispered a scene that made the Americans angry, as the two had been honoring their rank of admiral and not taking their little major general seriously. It is also said that the naval battles that took place in South America were naturally commanded by the South Americans, and the combined fleets of Chile, Germany, and Japan were also commanded by the Chileans. If it weren't for the need to unite against the enemy, White would have turned against these two old guys a long time ago.

"General, are you sure that the enemy fleet will come in pursuit after we turn and not simply attack with carrier-based aircraft? Also, can those 7 of our submarines inflict enough damage on the other side? "It was the Brazilian Valaccio who spoke.

"Yes, we can't give hopeless orders! If we turn and the other side does not chase us, it means that not only will we have no hope of attacking the other side for the next few hours, but we will also be chased by the other party's planes, and then we will lose both the battle and the courage. There is no way to explain to the people of the country when you go back! The Argentine Nochioni was of similar opinion, and it seems that the two South American generals were always able to achieve unity of opinion, which made it impossible for White to put his vision into practice by voting, and if Brazil and Argentina had been as humble as the Chileans, the war would not have developed into the situation it is today.

White forcibly suppressed the anger in his chest, and said in a resolute tone: "Okay, damn the responsibility is on me, we don't have time!" ”

Admiral Valachio and Admiral Nochioni you look at me, I look at you, after which Valaccio nodded, "Okay! General, may you lead the fleet to victory rather than destruction! ”

White finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Five minutes later, the exhausted and embarrassed coalition fleet turned, and the submarine, towed by several cruisers, also released its cable and dived into the water.

The intelligence was quickly reported to the commander of the coalition fleet by reconnaissance aircraft.

Although the Chilean Admiral Marcos Pinto is old, the Chilean government and navy trust him very much, and the German Navy also requires the German ships in the coalition fleet to actively cooperate with the admiral's command when acting, and in coordinating joint operations, the German Rear Admiral von Dalwik has done a very good job.

"Will our carrier-based aircraft be able to make sorties again?" Admiral Pinto ordered to ask the Germans in the back with the flag.

"Anytime!" Von Dalvik's ship quickly sent a reply.

"Keep a distance from the other side and continue the shelling, and the carrier-based aircraft force will launch the fourth air attack with all its might!" Admiral Pinto gave the order to the entire fleet.

Twenty minutes later, more than 70 warplanes flew over the head of the allied battlefleet.

After another quarter of an hour, the German aircraft group launched another wave of air raids, this time dropping C-type bombs and E-type torpedoes, the results of which were not remarkable, an American cruiser, a Brazilian cruiser, and two Brazilian destroyers sank to the bottom of the sea, and more than 1,000 officers and men were floating at sea waiting for rescue. At the same time, more than 120 American sailors and more than 90 Brazilian and Argentine sailors quietly approached the Allied battlefleet that had almost collapsed with American-made submarines......

As night fell, the naval battle, which lasted for nearly a day, ended with the complete defeat of the Alliance fleet, and was known as the Battle of Laura, because the place where the battle began was located in the sea east of Puerto Lara, Argentina. In this naval battle, the German aircraft carriers, 130 carrier-based aircraft seemed to become the vanguard of the battle, from the discovery of the other side, the seizure of air supremacy to the launch of air strikes, they made great contributions to the victory of the coalition forces, but throughout the entire process of the battle, the six main battleships of the coalition forces have become a veritable mainstay, in the shelling that lasted nearly two hours, the six battleships fired a total of more than 44,000 large-caliber shells at the other side, "Fuso" and "Yamashiro" contributed the most, The 96 rounds of ammunition for each of the main guns of the two ships were left to the end of the battle, and their 360-mm guns repeatedly hit the battleships of the Allied fleet, outperforming the 305-mm guns of the four German-made battleships.

On January 12, 1920, the warring parties finally sat down at the negotiating table. After two weeks of painstaking negotiations, the two sides signed the South American Peace Treaty in Santiago, Chile, and the southern part of Peru and the northern part of Argentina were given to Chile as peace guarantees, and the two regions are also known as "Alsace and Lorraine of South America". The warring parties will coexist peacefully under international supervision, Brazil and Argentina will not be allowed to build new battleships for 10 years, the number of light warships and submarines will be limited, let alone the possession of aircraft carriers, the army will be limited to its current size, and the aviation force will not be allowed to invest in development; In exchange, the Chilean armed forces will remain unchanged at their current size, and military spending will increase by no more than 10% per year; In addition, the legality of the lease of military ports by Germany and Japan in Chile will be recognized.

The outcome of the peace treaty had its own advantages and disadvantages for both warring sides, and the successive battles and battles in the war also became the object of study by various countries, especially the battle of Laura, which was regarded as a classic, and since then, the German, Japanese, and American navies have embarked on completely different development directions. After losing ground in Mexico and South America in a row, the United States announced its withdrawal from the Washington International Naval Treaty and restarted its naval expansion program. Subsequently, Germany and Japan also announced their withdrawal from the naval treaty, which lasted only four years before being null and void, and a new round of naval arms race inevitably began.

At the end of 1920, after several years of careful preparation, the German Navy began to replace the aircraft carriers in service.