At 10:52 a.m., a minute after the battleship opened fire, the battlecruiser "Victory" opened fire again, this time pointing not at the light cruiser "Aomori", but at the battleship "Fuso". The first salvo of the "Victory" hit the aft deck of the "Fuso". Immediately, a thunderbolt of flames rose from the "Fuso", and the flash of red explosion pierced the darkness, and even the bright moon hanging high in the sky was eclipsed.

Seeing that the enemy ship had been hit, the officers and men on the "Victory" could not help but cheer in unison.

The ** of this night war is finally coming.

"Victory" began to fire a salvo again, and the "Minquan" behind her also opened fire at this time, and after discovering the "Mountain City" hidden behind the "Fuso", the "Minquan" moved the artillery fire away from the "Fuso" and fired at the "Mountain City", and the two battleships were not to be outdone, and the two "multi-turret temples" unprecedented in the history of the Saiben Navy began a ferocious salvo, and countless bright spots flew everywhere in the night sky, Captain Scott, the captain of the "Victory" who was charging at the time, recalled: " It was the most magnificent sight I had ever seen, with meteor-like cannonballs drawing arcs of death in the night sky, as if the great hail of the end of the world in the 'Apocalypse' had fallen from the sky, stirring up a wall of water like a hill on the sea, and I held up my binoculars and looked at the two battleships that were constantly firing at us, and they were like two brightly lit trains speeding over the hill in the darkness. …… It was said that the vicinity of the fleet stirred up walls of water that could barely fall, and the deafening explosion almost made everyone lose their senses. ”

At this time, on the battleship "Fuso", Captain Masakichi Daisa Oshi witnessed the flames from the guns of two Chinese battle cruisers in the distance, reflecting the sky red, and his heart was full of shock.

At this time, the searchlight of the "Fuso" swept towards the "Victory", and Taijiro Nagata and his staff officers carefully inspected this tall battleship like a fire-breathing dragon with binoculars, and Taijiro Nagata carefully looked at the bridge of this giant ship, and finally became convinced that this was the latest "battleship" of the Chinese Navy.

At this time, all the ships were aimed at the "Victory", and all kinds of shells of different calibers were fired at the battlecruiser, and the light ships fired a large number of torpedoes at the same time. But luck befell the "Victory" again, and none of the torpedoes fired by the "Fuso" hit, and the three 356-mm shells fired by the "Fuso" were all blocked by the armor plate of the "Victory," and more than 20 shells of different calibers hit the superstructure of the "Victory," causing extensive but only superficial damage. Nevertheless, these superficial sabotages caused quite a few problems for the "Victory": the lines of part of the communication system were destroyed, and one of the artillery commanders was damaged.

I didn't know that unlike the battle cruisers of the European navies, the Chinese battle cruiser in front of them was extremely strong, such as the main armor belt of the "Victory" was 305 mm, camber 21 degrees, horizontal protective armor was 180 mm, and the deck armor was 90 mm, while the frontal armor of the turret reached an astonishing 460 mm, and the armor of the conning tower reached 420 mm at its thickest point. In a sense, the "Victory" should be classified more in the category of "fast battleships" than "battle cruisers".

As the first generation of "super crossbow" class battleships, the "Fuso" has a broadside armor belt of 305 mm at its thickest, a turret frontal armor of 305 mm, a turret top armor of 114 mm thick, a gun mount thickness of 203 mm, a dome armor of 76 mm, and a command tower armor of 350 mm at its thickest point. The "Fuso" is the product of one-sided pursuit of firepower and neglect of protection, and the serious consequences caused by such a design will be fully exposed in this naval battle.

At this time, the "Victory" and "Fuso" fired at each other, the "Minquan" and the "Yamashiro" fought together, and the gunners of the "Shengli" kept entering the relevant data into the rangefinder, and then soon, a huge cannonball flew towards the battleship. "Our fire control system and artillery are running very smoothly, as if it were a well-rehearsed firing exercise." Lieutenant General Li Jingxi was very satisfied with the performance of the gunners, "We quickly hit Yu himself. ”

Soon, the main gun of the "Victory" again obtained firing control data, this time the data was unusually accurate. At this time, it was exactly midnight, and the "Victory" fired a new round of nine salvos at the "Fuso", and this round of volleys hit the center of the "Fuso", causing a huge explosion immediately.

The "Fusang" was completely drowned in a rain of bullets, and Captain Wei Tiancheng, the rangefinder officer on the "Shengli," observed that one of the battleship's six 356-mm twin-mounted main turrets had been blown off by the shock wave from the explosion, and that "a dark red fire appeared in the middle of the enemy ship, and then it became brighter and brighter." Soon, the "Victory" fired another volley, again accurately hitting the "Fuso". The explosion occurred again, this time the damage to the "Fuso" was extremely serious, another main turret was destroyed, several holes were pierced in the waterline, the rudder was jammed, a fire broke out on the ship's surface, and part of the water caused the hull to begin to roll to the port side, and smoke continued to rise.

Aramura Nakago couldn't help but be taken aback by seeing the flagship being hit so quickly, and at this time he didn't care about his own safety, and ordered another decisive attack, so the escort fleet turned back again and fired eight torpedoes at the "Victory", but all of them were lost. The course of the ship was directed at the "Victory". At this time, the Chinese direct defense ships made a mistake, and these warships opened a distance from the battle cruisers because of the relationship between avoiding artillery fire, so that the battle cruisers faced the impact of the ships alone at this time, and the only advantages of the Chinese battle cruisers at this time were themselves: high speed, strong firepower, no damage, heavy armor and well-trained crews. Li Jingxi didn't care about the order to summon his own direct guard ships, but continued to maintain the attack on the battleship.

At this time, the shells fired from the remaining main guns of the battleship "Fusang" began to fly towards the "Shengli", and Captain Wei Tiancheng, the rangefinder, recalled: "Six white dazzling shells were fired from the turret of the enemy ship, and they seemed to float slowly towards us in the air, and then accelerated as they approached, becoming brighter and redder. It is worth mentioning that we were not afraid of being hit, but evaluated these shells with a professional eye. ”

Another rangefinder, Captain Xi Cheng'an, recalled: "Between the fire of our secondary guns, a large number of water columns were raised, and judging from the size of the water columns, these were large-caliber shells, and the second row of shells was a typical pattern of hitting too close, so my attention was all focused on the impact point of the third row of shells." At this time, I saw the smoke screen released by the warship, and the figure of the battleship began to blur. The destroyers tried to launch a torpedo attack, and in the direction of our starboard side, two destroyers appeared, but their firing position was very poor, but despite this, he still fired torpedoes, still as before, not a single torpedo hit the target, only one torpedo exploded inexplicably in the wake of the 'Victory', stirring up a large mushroom-shaped column of water. ”

Not long after, the Chinese direct escort ships, realizing that the battlecruiser was in danger, gathered again towards the flagship, and a total of 6 ships, 2 light cruisers and 4 destroyers, formed a standard textbook battle column and bombarded the rushing warship with all the side guns. Two battle cruisers also joined the bombardment with secondary guns. In fact, the battle cruisers did not use all their strength, and in order to save ammunition, the two giant ships used only half of the salvo.

Although the "Aomori" nimbly dodged left and right in the rain of bullets, and miraculously was only hit by a shell fired from the main gun of a Chinese light cruiser, the explosion of this shell still caused it a lot of damage, and the violent explosion caused the ship's ammunition to detonate, so that it had to turn around and flee the battlefield. At 2:52, the bridge of the "Yuejin" was directly hit by three main shells fired by the "Victory", and almost all the main commanders, including the chief and deputy captain, the chief navigator, and the chief of mines, were killed, and the chief gunner could only take over the command, and other shells hit its boiler engine room, and for a time the warship immediately lost power and became a torch floating on the sea.

During the fierce battle between the "Shengli" and the "Fuso", the "Minquan" and the "Yamashiro" were also engaged in fierce battles with their main guns. The "Minquan" continued to fire nine salvos at the "Shancheng", two of which hit the target directly, and the "Shancheng" began to burn violently, but the "Shancheng" also caused some damage to the "Minquan" after returning fire, and the power system on the "Minquan" was partially interrupted, and one of the main turrets was stuck by shrapnel and could not operate, but the brave sailors quickly eliminated the fault.

"It's real hand-to-hand combat." An American [***] officer who served on the USS Civil Rights said, "There were shells flying everywhere, the explosions were deafening, but no one was afraid, all the men were holding their posts, one of our main turrets was hit by an enemy ship, and we stopped firing, and our firepower was reduced by a third, but after a while, it began to roar again, and at that moment we suddenly found that another battleship was ......."

This time it was the battleship "Zhoufang" that appeared. It had been hiding behind the "Mountain City", but at this time it was forced out by several Chinese destroyers that suddenly appeared.

At 22:14, the destroyer "Ni" who was on guard spotted three rapidly approaching torpedo boats flashed in the shadow of the island in front of the left, and the "Ni" immediately opened fireThe ship was always in a state of tension. Just as the armored cruiser "Pante" led three destroyers to drive away the Chinese torpedo boats and return to its own unit, it was shelled by the "Yamashiro" as a Chinese [***] ship, and a 356-mm shell hit the "Iwate", causing a fire and a large number of casualties on the ship, and the fleet was suddenly in chaos.

Although the warship was not hit by a torpedo, the Chinese torpedo boat delayed and interfered with the movement of the fleet, and soon a torpedo fired by the Chinese torpedo boat hit the wounded armored cruiser "Iwate." The warship immediately began to tilt, and soon the tilt reached 45 degrees, and the captain had to give the order to abandon the ship, but most of the Saimen had no time to escape, and two minutes later, the old armored cruiser capsized and began to sink in the stern of the ship.

When the "Zhoufang" appeared in the field of vision of the Chinese sailors, the "Minquan" immediately adjusted its artillery fire, bombarding the "Shancheng" with two front main turrets and the "Zhoufang" with one rear main turret. This was the first battleship to be lost in recent battles, and the first battleship to be sunk by artillery since the Russo-Russian War.

After destroying the "Zhoufang," the "Minquan" refocused all its firepower on the "Shancheng," but at this time, due to poor sight and frequent smoke screens from the destroyer, it was impossible to effectively aim and shoot. But at this time the Chinese light cruisers and destroyers rushed to help, two light cruisers and two destroyers appeared in the left front of the ship, and fired torpedoes at the fleet from the other direction, this time it was the turn of the destroyer himself, and the destroyer "Ni" was hit by a torpedo, and the flames suddenly soared into the sky, "like a red-hot iron spear piercing into the water" made a "sizzling" sound, and quickly sank into the sea. In addition, the stern of the destroyer "Zaoxi" was also blown to pieces by a torpedo, and after a while, it spun and disappeared into the sea. At this time, the Chinese Navy's heavy mine-mounted light cruiser "Haiyun" carried out a torpedo salvo at the "Yamashiro", and five torpedoes shot straight at the "Yamashiro", the "Yamashiro" could not dodge, and the rear of the port side was hit by a torpedo fired by the "Haiyun", the hull of the ship was suddenly blown up, a large amount of sea water poured in, the "Yamashiro" began to tilt, and the captain Koshiro Otani had to order to fill the two ammunition depots with water to restore balance, As a result, the guns below turret No. 3 could not be used, and the main turrets No. 1 and No. 2 in the bow of the ship could only attack the "Minquan", but fortunately the power of the "Yamashiro" was not damaged at this time, and it was still able to maintain sailing.

At 2:43 p.m., the fierce battle dragged on, and the squadron suffered heavy losses and its morale gradually began to slump, while the Chinese fleet became more and more courageous, with the "Victory" taking the lead, followed by the "Minquan" and continuing to shoot at the ships. At this time, the squadron was again attacked by the Chinese destroyer fleet, which was ordered to come to support the six destroyers of the 5th Destroyer Squadron under the command of Colonel Deng Zhongwen, and the Chinese destroyers approached the ship at high speed, especially Colonel Deng Zhongwen, who was sitting on the destroyer "Broken Army," led two destroyers, the "Seven Kills" and the "Sky Wolf," to the close range of the ship, and fired a total of 12 torpedoes. Among them, the torpedo of the "Broken Army" once again hit the "Yamashiro", this time it was a mid-mine in the middle of the port side, and the communications in the "Yamashiro" were immediately interrupted, and the command fell into chaos.

The "Seven Kills," "Broken Army," and "Sky Wolf," which had completed the torpedo launch, did not return to their home, but changed course and began to fire at the "Yujin" and "Aomori" floating on the water with their guns. At 3:15 a.m., the Chinese destroyers began to withdraw, and the "Seven Kills" fired its last torpedoes at the time of parting, sending the "Yuejin" to the bottom of the sea.

After learning that the "Yamashiro" had been torpedoed, Taijiro Nagata realized that the defeat was a foregone conclusion, and he ordered the entire group to retreat south. The "Aomori" was still floating on the water, its boilers and engines were still functional, but the steering gear was damaged and flooded, and the rudder was locked. Nakago Aramura tried to save the "Aomori", but the water ingress of the "Aomori" became increasingly difficult to control, and the sailors were forced to fill the ammunition compartment with water as the fire spread to the ammunition compartment, but the water ingress worsened. At 3:27, the "Aomori" also sank. At this time, the crew of the Chinese destroyer, which was still waiting for rescue at sea, watched with great interest the final explosion of the "Aomori".

The Chinese fleet continued to maintain the momentum of the attack, at 3:49, the Chinese fleet's firepower concentrated on the "Fusang" in the smoke screen, and the "Fusang" was surrounded by uneven water columns, and one minute later, the Chinese light cruisers and destroyers gathered together again were all killed under the artillery fire of both warring sides, leaving dozens of torpedo tracks on the sea surface and then quickly withdrawing A torpedo fired by the light cruiser hit the waist, and the speed of the ship was greatly reduced, and the huge warship began to maneuver to the right, but it could no longer drive after a short distance.

(To be continued)