At 9:40 a.m., while the main fleets of China and Japan were engaged in a fierce artillery battle, a mobile formation of two battle cruisers in the Chinese special fleet, after successfully circumnavigating southeast and sailing to the right flank of the 1st Japanese Navy, fired torpedoes at the Japanese ship "Hanoi," which had suffered heavy damage. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Several heavy torpedoes, glowing with white spray, galloped towards the "Hanoi". Although its captain Machida Komajiro Osa tried his best to command the battleship to make corresponding maneuvers and evasive actions, it was difficult to maintain its speed of even ten knots due to the failure of the power system, and it was unable to avoid all the torpedoes.

Hit by two heavy torpedoes one after another, and after two large holes were broken in the underwater armor, the "Hanoi" instantly poured into a large amount of seawater. In less than a minute, the entire hull tilted to the right about fifteen degrees.

Despite Machida Komajiro Daisa's order to fill the port side with water to keep the hull balanced, the sea water quickly flooded the interior of the hull, including the power compartment, due to the high speed of the water intake and the large amount of water entering the ship. In this way, the "Hanoi", which originally had a speed of less than ten knots, began to sink quickly after completely losing power.

Seeing the "Hanoi" sinking on the distant sea, Kato Yuzaburo's eyes were torn, and while his heart was dripping blood, he also felt a deep sense of powerlessness.

At this point in the decisive battle of the main force, the enemy's flagship "Dingyuan" had already hit dozens of shells, although it seemed that the hull was riddled with bullets, and the No. 3 turret had also lost its combat effectiveness, but it was far from sinking, and it was not even a heavy hit. This could not help but remind him of how similar today's situation is to the fact that when the Combined Fleet attacked the Beiyang Naval Division's "Ding" and "Zhen" ships 20 years ago, hundreds of rounds were fired but did not sink.

It's just that time didn't make Yuzaburo Kato think for long, and the naval battle continued.

At 9:53 a.m., at the same time that the main gun of the "King Kong" hit the side armor of the "Dingyuan" again, a shell fired from the "Zhenyuan" also hit the base of the "King Kong's" No. 1 turret. Although the shell did not directly penetrate the frontal armor of the No. 1 turret, its violent explosion caused the base of the No. 1 turret to bend, so that it completely stuck the turret and could not rotate. The turret could not be rotated, which meant that it could no longer continue to aim at the enemy and fire, and it could be said that the No. 1 turret of the "King Kong" had completely lost its combat effectiveness.

Yuzaburo Kato, who received the damage report, was full of worry. He knew that by now, the Japanese navy was already at a disadvantage in the decisive battle of the main force.

"Commander, the 5th Sentai sent a final farewell message, and their battleships have all been ......" Although the voice of the chief of staff Gentaro Yamashita was low, it still shocked Kato Yuzaburo's heart!

The "Hanoi" has sunk, the "King Kong" has also suffered heavy losses, and now the 5th Sentai has been completely destroyed...... No way! It can't go on like this!

"The whole team, the right rudder 4, get out of contact with the Chinese fleet as soon as possible." Yuzaburo Kato hurriedly gave the order. He knew that he had been completely defeated this time. Even if the Japanese Navy, which has now lost its numerical superiority, it is impossible to defeat it under the condition that the warships of China are superior in firepower, speed, and protection.

Yuzaburo Kato knew that in 1894, the incident of the Qing Beiyang Navy retreating in the military port was now going to be repeated in the Japanese navy. The difference is that the Beiyang Naval Division still had strength, but because of the problems of strategic thinking and tactical command, it took the initiative to become a turtle in an urn. Today, the Japanese Navy is under the blow of the superiority of China's new naval forces, and has no choice but to go to the military port to take refuge......

"Nope! Your Excellency Commander, Kato-kun! The Imperial Japanese Navy was not defeated! We still have a chance, please take back your life! Yamashita Gentaro was a little excited, he couldn't believe that his respected commander would give such an order. In his heart, the tragic encounter of the "Hanoi" just now was absolutely unbearable.

"Order, 'Tsukuba' and 'Kurama', let them stay and snipe the Shina fleet! Yamashita-kun, I've made up my mind, so please don't say it again! Kato Yuzaburo's tone was cold, although he had already thought about his own end after this battle, he couldn't bury all the essence of the Japanese Navy here.

The blind arrogance of the Japanese Navy led to today's defeat! After the Battle of Tsushima, the morale of the Japanese Navy was unprecedentedly high, turning a blind eye to the rapid development of the Chinese Navy after the Xinhai Dynasty, and overemphasizing the influence of naval tradition and the level of education of officers and men on the combat effectiveness of the Navy. But they forgot that in the navy, a branch of the military that advocates technology, they never believed that the small body of a person could compete with the cannon of a giant ship.

Time, the Japanese Navy now needs time, time to technically catch up with China. Otherwise, the vanquished in the future will always be the Japanese Navy! Today, the losses suffered by the side in just a few hours of fierce fighting have fully illustrated this problem.

・・・・・・

On the "Dingyuan", Lan Jianshu, chief of staff of the fleet, was directing several staff officers to constantly measure the charts and make calculations.

Qiu Baoren looked at the Japanese navy in the distance heading towards the southeast with all its might, and the two ships "Tsukuba" and "Kurama" that were about to fight with their own mobile formation, and couldn't help but praise: "Kato is worthy of being a wise commander!" In this case, the decision to take the initiative to retreat and preserve strength was actually made! ”

"Commander, if my fleet pursues it now, then at around 13 o'clock, it can also be intercepted in the waters south of Jeju Island." Lan Jianshu sorted out the numbers, and soon marked them on the chart, and then reported to Qiu Baoren.

Qiu Baoren walked beside the chart, looked at Lan Jianshu's newly marked route, and groaned. He knew that the Japanese Navy was now in de facto defeat. According to their speed, they would not be able to distance themselves from their own fleet at all, otherwise they would not have left two warships to entangle their own fleet. After all, if you want to escape, you have to open the distance! But if we pursue it now, will it work? After a morning of fierce fighting, although they won the naval battle and their morale was high, they faced the dying throes of the Japanese navy after the next long run......

"Order, all battleships quickly support the maneuvering formation!" Qiu Baoren has already made a decision. If you are greedy and chew more, what you eat in your mouth belongs to you. Therefore, he targeted the Japanese ships "Tsukuba" and "Kurama" that were left on the battlefield to delay his own movements. As for the other Japanese ships that escaped, it will be a long time coming!

After a short time, four battleships of the "Dingyuan" class followed the battle patrol of the mobile formation and began shelling the "Tsukuba" and "Kurama" in front.

The commanders of the two Japanese ships were aware of their intentions in staying. At the same time, they also knew that the main guns of their battleships were not enough to cause serious damage to the protection of the enemy's "Dingyuan" class battleships. Therefore, now, in order to achieve better results in shooting, they began to order to concentrate their firepower on the "Hengshan" in the mobile formation.

At 10:12, due to the closer distance, in the first salvo of the "Kurama" against the "Hengshan", the hit was achieved and caused great damage. A 305mm shell hit the central side armor of the "Hengshan" and exploded in its internal compartment after penetrating through it, causing part of its power system to be damaged, and its speed was suddenly reduced from the maximum speed of 28 knots to only 15 knots.

Seeing this, the Japanese ship commander began to rejoice. Knowing that they could not leave the battlefield and that it was impossible for them to return to China with the main fleet, they had already made up their minds to pull their backs before the battle sank. And now, the "Hengshan", which is seriously damaged in power, has naturally become the best target.

Seeing that the opportunity was not good, the "Hengshan" battle patrol immediately turned around and withdrew to the northwest, but it was still too late. A shell fired from the main gun of the "Tsukuba" directly detonated the ammunition depot after penetrating through the weak side armor at the front of the "Hengshan". Although the violent explosion did not directly break the "Hengshan" into two, nor did it cause the "Hengshan" to cause a large rift to enter the water, judging from the smoke and flames that kept coming out of the "Hengshan", the situation was still very bad.

However, the matter did not end there, and the "Tsukuba" and "Kurama", seeing the opportunity, fired another torpedo at the "Hengshan" and successfully hit three of them. Although the "Kurama" was also hit by the retaliating "Hengshan" with a single shot on the bridge, the "Hengshan", which was fatally damaged, sank into the sea in just a few minutes.

The whole process lasted less than five minutes, but it became the most tragic confrontation in this naval battle.

No one thought that at the end of the battle, the luck of the two Japanese ships would be so good that it would burst. It took less than ten minutes to sink a Chinese war cruiser with a tonnage far exceeding theirs.

Of course, their luck ended there.

After the arrival of the four "Dingyuan" class battleships, in the face of the retaliation of many large-caliber naval guns, the "Tsukuba" and "Kurama", which had only more than 15,000 tons of their own, were soon sunk due to lack of support.

At 10:42, it broke out at dawn, and after more than four hours of fierce fighting, the sea battle finally came to an end.

In this battle, the main fleet of the Japanese Navy suffered heavy losses, and the 5th Sentai was completely annihilated, and the "Kawachi", "Kurama" and "Tsukuba" were sunk on the spot, and the "Kongo" was seriously injured and had to return to Hong Kong for overhaul. On the Chinese side, the battle patrol "Hengshan" sank, the heavy patrol "Chengdu" was seriously injured, and although the four battleships did not suffer fatal damage, the "Dingyuan" still needed to be returned to the factory for repair because of the serious damage to the turret.

At noon that day, Xiao Mubai, who was in Beijing, received a battle report from the navy. He sighed deeply and gave new instructions on the battle situation.

"Let the navy make every effort to do a good job in the compensation of the fallen officers and soldiers. In addition, the General Staff, it is necessary to quickly deploy combat operations for landing on Taiwan! ”