At 7:53 a.m., just as the first round of fierce fighting between the Chinese main fleet and the Japanese Fifth Squadron was over, the "Huashan," which was cruising on the periphery of the battlefield, sent a message to the flagship "Dingyuan": In the southeast, a Japanese naval formation was coming at high speed toward the engagement area. It has been confirmed that this formation is the capital ship www.biquge.info of the 1st and 3rd Sentai Squadrons of the Japanese Navy.

To fight or not to fight? Qiu Baoren was in a dilemma.

Although when he first met the 5th Sentai team, he had the idea that the main fleet of the Japanese Navy was not far from here, but when the news was really confirmed now, he was a little hesitant.

"Commander, let's fight! With the overall speed advantage of our warships, even if we can't win in the end, we can remain undefeated! Lan Jianshu, the chief of staff, leaned over and looked at the chart for a while, then came to Qiu Baoren's side and said. These old Beiyang naval soldiers do not want to wash away the shame of the First Sino-Japanese Naval War in the past, and when they see the opportunity coming, they naturally do not want to give up easily.

At this time, political commissar Fu Jianlin also said: "Let's fight!" If we go back like this, then our navy's reputation for cowardice before fighting will be reinstated. ”

Qiu Baoren nodded, already clear about the stakes. The navy has fallen into decline several times since the First Sino-Japanese War, and the construction has started again after Xinhai, no matter what it does to others, but for Chairman Xiao, there must be an explanation! In that case, let's fight!

"Order, all the 'City' class heavy cruisers form a sub-fleet, under the unified command of Chen Shiying, the captain of the 'Chengdu', implement pressing tactics, and continue to engage the enemy's 5th squadron!"

"Order, the mobile formations 'Huashan' and 'Hengshan' will cooperate with the battleships of this team to carry out guerrilla attacks on the battlefield later!"

"Order, all 'Dingyuan' class battleships, closely follow the flagship action. Target, the enemy's main battleship! Heading southeast, left rudder 6, full speed! Qiu Baoren had made up his mind, so he gave the order cleanly according to the enemy's situation. After all, on the battlefield, fighter planes are fleeting.

"All ships must bear in mind the shame of our navy and establish the idea of achieving all the results in the first war!" Immediately, under the leadership of the flagship "Dingyuan," all the battleships belonging to the Chinese Navy gradually changed course and headed for the main Japanese battleship at high speed, which was still 20 nautical miles away.

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The naval battles in these years were quite boring and long.

After Colonel Chen Shiying gave the signal on his "Chengdu," he quickly led the detachment and began maneuvering on the sea. For a long time, it was not until it turned to the southwest in a uniform manner that a battle line was pulled diagonally towards the 5th Sentai of the Japanese Navy.

"The whole team right rudder 3, artillery ready! Target, enemy ship "Shikishima". Chen Shiying saw the new movements of the Japanese army and hurriedly issued a combat order. Maneuvering on the surface of the sea for so long, it has also shortened the distance to 10,000 yards, and now that it is difficult to catch the opportunity to fire a salvo, how can you not bite it and beat it hard?

Six battleships, a total of 36 305mm caliber cannons, threw their respective armor-piercing blasting shells at the Japanese warships with full charges. Just one salvo was fired, and the "Shikishima" became heavily riddled with bullets. Obviously, because the distance between the two sides has been further narrowed, the artillery skills of the officers and men of the Chinese Navy have been raised by more than one grade.

On the "Hizen", Kawanami Yasukatsu Osa watched the "Shikishima" being ravaged by enemy artillery fire, although he was a little helpless, but he still thought more about revenge. At 10,000 yards, without the threat of the giant cannons of the battleships of China, it was time to launch a counterattack!

Naturally, there is nothing to say about the quality of the Japanese navy, and after the gunners accurately calibrated the parameters and fired at Zhu Yuan, the front and rear main guns of uneven calibers on their warships quickly began to fire. For a time, the sound of artillery rumbled, fires burst out, and the sound of violent explosions and screaming shells breaking through the air dominated the entire Yellow Sea.

Suddenly, Chuan Lang An Sheng shouted: "Yeongxi! Well played! ”

Following his line of sight, he saw the heavy cruiser "Chengdu" of the Chinese Navy, and a violent fire broke out in the front of the bridge. It is clear that one of the 305 caliber shells of the "Hizen" hit the "Chengdu". The Japanese naval officers and men on the "Hizen" began to cheer in unison, and the sound of "onboarding" suddenly became endless.

On the "Chengdu", which had been shelled, the command room was in shambles. When Chen Shiying's face was covered with blood and he staggered up from the floor, the first thing that caught his eye was Su Mutao, the political commissar who was standing beside him, and half of his head had been cut off by shrapnel. However, Chen Shiying knows that now is by no means the time for grief, and the most important thing at the moment is to find out the damage to his warship as soon as possible and treat the wounded on the ship.

At this time, on the battle line, the Chinese detachment in the rudder received another salvo of the main guns of the whole ship. The "Kunming" and "Nanning" warships, which already knew about the tragic encounter of the "Chengdu", would certainly not let this great opportunity go in vain at this time.

At 8:26 a.m., dozens of armor-piercing blasting shells and armor-piercing incendiary bombs were successively poured onto the Japanese ship "Hizen" in the order in which they were fired. In less than a minute and a half before and after, almost all the superstructures were destroyed, and the whole thing became a huge torch floating on the sea.

In another short half hour, in this nightmare half hour, not only did the Japanese Navy lose two more warships, but even its 1st and 3rd Sentai teams, which had begun to fight ten nautical miles away, were in trouble at this time.

The Navy is a branch of the military that has extremely high technical requirements, and among these warships equipped by the Japanese Navy, whether it is the "Hanoi" class or the "Satsuma" class, they are all former dreadnoughts that have fallen behind compared with the world's mainstream warships. Although they are also equipped with main guns of relatively uniform caliber, because of the small caliber of the artillery, the inconsistent length of the barrels, and the lack of attention to the unified firing of the main guns, they are now fighting, at a long distance, in the face of the Chinese Navy's "offensive and defensive" super dreadnought-class battleship "Dingyuan" class, except for the "King Kong", the threat that other ships can pose is not very obvious at all.

Therefore, when the two sides began shelling from a distance of 20,000 yards, gradually to 18,000 yards, and then to 16,000 yards, firing hundreds of shells back and forth, not to mention the Japanese navy hitting several one after another, but the damage caused was really minimal. On the contrary, the Chinese Navy, the main gun of the "Zhenyuan" hit only one shell, and the No. 2 turret of the "King Kong" was directly blown into a pile of scrap metal.

On the "King Kong", Kato Yuzaburo looked at the No. 2 turret below, which had become ruins and was on fire, his face was extremely ugly, and he ordered loudly: "Aim all the artillery at the enemy's flagship 'Dingyuan'!" ”

The order was quickly carried out, and the seven warships of the 1st and 3rd Sentai Squadrons of the Japanese Navy concentrated their guns on the "Dingyuan". As a result, as many as 40 or so 305mm naval guns continued to smash their respective shells into the sea area around the "Dingyuan", and soon two shells hit the target.

"Onboard! Hit the third turret of the enemy ship! ”

The excited voice of the lookout on the "King Kong" came, and Yuzaburo Kato's face softened. However, just when he was about to make persistent efforts and hit a few more shells for the "Dingyuan" of the Zhina people, the lookout above clearly saw through the telescope that the main gun muzzle of the No. 3 gun of the enemy ship that was hit actually opened flames again: they opened fire again!

With the watchman's frustrated voice, Yuzaburo Kato slammed his fist on the table. He already knew the tragic situation of the 5th Sentai team, and after the advantage of winning by numbers was gone, he instinctively wanted to rely on the excellent gunnery of the Imperial Navy to win, but at the current distance, his main guns could not cause fatal damage to the enemy ships at all, how could this not make him feel angry?

On the other hand, on the "Dingyuan", Qiu Baoren asked with a solemn face: "How is the situation of the No. 3 turret?" ”

"Although the turret itself is fine, more than half of the casualties inside!" Captain Li Dingxin next to him replied: "The reserve gunner and ammunition man have replaced the original artillery group, and now the battle can be resumed!" ”

"Order, 'Zhenyuan', 'Zhiyuan' and 'Jingyuan' to attack the enemy's 'Hanoi' ship with fire, and 'Dingyuan' continue to shell the 'King Kong'!" Qiu Baoren nodded, knowing in his heart. Although the shells fired by the Japanese ships did not directly penetrate the main armor of the No. 3 turret of the "Dingyuan," the huge blast wave still shook the people in the turret with tinnitus and eyes, and even pierced the nostrils with blood, causing a lot of casualties.

Of course, compared to the thousands of casualties on the Japanese Navy's side, the Chinese Navy's casualties of only a few hundred are really nothing.

At 9:12, when the distance of the battle was 14,000 yards, the shooting percentages of both sides began to climb dramatically. At this time, even if the Chinese Navy's gunnery was no longer as good as that of the Japanese Navy, the shortened distance still allowed them to achieve a considerable hit rate.

At a time when the No. 3 turret of the "Dingyuan" was once again hit by the Japanese ships "Hanoi" and "Setjin" and completely lost their combat effectiveness, the "Zhenyuan," "Zhiyuan," and "Jingyuan" also hit the "Hanoi" with their main guns. The enormous power of the 380mm caliber shell, directly penetrating the rear half of the "Hanoi" side armor, immediately penetrated deep into the inner compartment and exploded. The tremendous force of the explosion instantly caused the entire "Hanoi" to shake and destroy its internal power system, causing the speed of the "Hanoi" to drop from the original maximum speed of 21 knots to 9 knots at once.

After watching the smoke billowing from the "Hanoi" and even the two turrets in the rear stopped shelling one after another, Yuzaburo Kato could no longer calm down, and he finally became worried about the next battle.