The shooting of the cruiser Tsukushi is quite high-quality, and his target is the fourth "Zhenbei" mosquito ship commanded by Ye Zugui in the First Fleet sequence, this Beiyang mosquito ship, even these pipe belts in the Beiyang are quite criticized, this ship is not big and the cannon tube is very thick, and the 254mm heavy gun has a front and back, but it is just a big dumpling with thin skin and a lot of filling, and the armor is only two centimeters thin, which is basically an iron sheet!

The error of the landing point of the two shells is less than 200 meters from the Zhenbei ship, while the target of the Fusang is the "Huashan" ironclad ship, and the two shells have no accuracy at all, with an error of nearly 500 meters, which is also because the distance of 4000 meters has exceeded the best effective range of the 240mm heavy gun, and at this time the battleship is turning at full speed, this shooting accuracy is naturally completely difficult to ensure.

Seeing that the top position of the T-shaped in front of the battleship had been occupied by the battleships of the second squad, Arai Yougong was naturally unwilling to be passively beaten, and made a right-hand turn and prepared to retreat to the north for a tactical retreat, after all, as a qualified naval commander, after two rounds of firefighting, the strength of the two sides was already very clear.

Among the 10 battleships of the opponent, there are more than 17 heavy guns that can shoot at the same time, and there are only three heavy guns that can compete with them.

It was unwise to conduct a decisive battle when the number of warships and firepower were far lower than that of the other side, and he immediately took action and had to retreat while preserving the strength of the fleet!

The Japanese fleet immediately made a sharp turn and prepared to break through to the north, and the distance between the battleships was also shortened, and the attack on the interception of the enemy in front was completed with concentrated firepower, and the enemy was trying to break out of the encirclement.

Lu Han looked at the Japanese fleet that turned around in the distance at this time, and the other party's decision to retreat immediately was obviously the wisest thing to do, but ...... If you want to run, you have to see if you have the strength of your feet! He calmly gave the order, "Order, keep the relative speed with the enemy ships for artillery bombardment, and the second fleet intercepts at full speed to force them to engage!" ”

The first squadron maintained an unhurried pace to keep up with the accelerating Japanese fleet, and the average speed of the Japanese fleet was about 12 knots, of which the "Soun" ironwaki wood-hulled cruiser had the lowest speed of only 10 knots, while the maximum speed of Hiei, Kongo, and Fuso could reach about 13 knots, and the cruiser Tsukushi had a maximum speed of 16.5 knots.

In the bridge of the Fuso, Arai Yougong looked at the Qing fleet intercepting in front of the flank very depressed at this time, and the distance between the other party and the other party did not shorten at all after accelerating with all his strength, it was obvious that the other party's speed completely suppressed himself, and it seemed that the only one who could fight with the other party was the cruiser Tsukushi.

And after accelerating the retreat, the Cangyun cruiser, which had a speed of only 10 knots, obviously couldn't keep up with the fleet's advance, and now a decision must be made, is it to abandon Cangyun and break through with all its might? Or gather firepower for a decisive battle and break through the blockade of the battleships ahead? Aso, the commander of the Cangyun, had a good relationship with him, but he didn't expect to face a life-and-death choice when he went to sea this time!

Just when Arai was making a painful decision, the two sides carried out two rounds of heavy artillery fire at each other, and the poor three heavy guns of the Japanese fleet naturally made no achievements, and the 34 shells of the Nanyang and Beiyang coalition forces finally hit the battle!

The 701 heavy cruiser commanded by Xu Shoushan was responsible for interception, and the turret fire angle of the 701 ship reached 300 degrees, so that the two heavy guns on the battleship and one heavy gun in the bow of the ship could easily attack the side and rear, and the dead angle of the shooting was only 30 degrees!

Three shells flew out of the air, and the chain slashed at the front of the Hiei cruiser in front of the Japanese fleet. Two misses, one directly hit the foredeck, a 120mm gun on the foredeck of the battleship Hiei was directly overturned, but this shell exploded directly on the deck, causing a small fire!

But, obviously, this shot was not fatal! Many sailors and soldiers immediately appeared on the Hiei to extinguish the fire, and at this time, the super brave ship that accompanied the attack also launched an artillery attack on Hiei, and one of the shells hit the bow part again with a miraculous effect, and more than 200 kilograms of shells immediately opened a large hole in the bow steel plate.

The flying fragments swept a large number of Japanese soldiers who were fighting the fire to the ground, and the air wave of the explosion overturned some Japanese sailors who were arranging water pipes directly into the sea. ,

The mechanism of the operation control of the cockpit of the Hiei suddenly failed! This can make the captain Sakurai very annoyed, the piloting of the battleship can only be changed to manual operation, which makes the reaction process of the battleship's operation greatly delayed, he shouted loudly, and ordered the repair team to immediately rush into the mechanical room under the cockpit for emergency repairs!

At the same time, due to the interception of the second squadron of the combined fleet of Nanyang and Beiyang in front, Arai Yougong issued a new tactical order, and the fleet turned into a wedge-shape, preparing to forcibly break out of the Qing fleet.

Of course, this is also the most dangerous method, after all, it is necessary to be attacked by artillery fire from both sides at the same time, and at close range, the power of the opponent's heavy artillery can only be described as terrifying, but Arai is obviously determined to win, and the advantage of the Qing fleet will make the other party give up the hard-hitting style and get out of the gap!

However, the great crisis that had been seen in the four rounds of artillery bombardment, the fierceness and accuracy of the opponent's firepower, completely exceeded his expectations, even if he broke through the encirclement, how many warships could survive? That's a problem!

The Japanese fleet has broken through at full speed, but the opponent's artillery still maintains a very fast rate of fire of 2 and a half minutes and a cannonball, and the landing point of the shells is always near the fleet, there have been many close misses, this time Hiei was shot is actually expected, Arai Yougong has seen some ni at this time, and the second squad of the other party to intercept himself can completely drag himself to death in terms of speed!

He immediately understood that today's situation was already extremely dangerous, and he had to break through at the first moment, and if he wanted to get rid of the other party on the sea, he had to pull at least 7 kilometers away, so that he could have the opportunity to use the limit of the sea perspective to get rid of the enemy, but for him, at this time, the Japanese fleet had been seen dead by the other side, and if it was to fight, the first squad of the opponent who followed closely would encircle and attack him.

Naturally, the Japanese wedge-shaped formation was greeted by two rounds of artillery from both flanks, and the whistling shells fell on the sea around the fleet, and it has to be said that up to now, the luck of the Japanese fleet was still very good, and the fleets were separated by no more than half a nautical mile, and many of the shells that fell one after another fell between the battleships, and none of them hit.

But it's definitely not a pleasure to see shells whizzing overhead, exploding around the battleship and setting off patches of waves! At this time, the cruiser Hiei, which was the top of the fleet's wedge, had accelerated to the limit of 13 knots, followed by Kongo, Fuso, and Tsukushi, forming a cone and breaking through with all its might!

In the Battle of Lisa more than ten years ago, despite the disadvantage in the number of warships, Austria had 7 ironclad ships, while the opponent Italian Navy had 11 ironclad ships, but the Austrian fleet defeated the relatively powerful Italian fleet with this wedge formation.

The beginning and end of this battle has been studied and discussed in detail in the internal tutorial of the Nanyang Naval Division as an example of naval warfare in the era of ironclad ships, when the Austrian fleet had 7 ironclad ships, of course, all of them were ironclad ships with side guns, in addition to 14 other warships, while the opponent Italian Navy had 11 ironclad ships and 22 other warships.

The wedge formation is conducive to concentrating firepower and breaking through a little, but that was the story of more than ten years ago, with the bow of the enemy, one of the important means of defeating the enemy is the ramming angle of the ironclad ship, in fact, the most brilliant record in the Battle of Lisa is the Austrian flagship "Ferdinand? The "Ferdinand Max" struck the side of the "Italy", which capsized and sank a few minutes after being hit.

A few years ago, the British's 6,500-ton ironclad ship Iron Duke, which is now the flagship of the British Far East Navy, sent the sister ship Qianwei to the bottom of the sea with an easy collision in a foggy day.

And the purpose of the Japanese was obviously not limited to the use of ramming tactics, and Lu Han immediately gave the order to carry out a siege! In fact, the Japanese fleet's so-called ramming attack was the only imaginary tactic left, and at their speed of 13 knots, they were simply unable to knock down the second group of high-speed warships that were intercepting. ,

In the bridge of the battleship Hiei at the tip of the wedge formation, Sakurai Nakasa is directing the battleship to constantly change course to avoid the opponent's shells, and it seems to be working well at the moment, but it was actually hit by two shells in a row just now, but luck is obviously good, and the concentration is exactly on the foredeck and the coal storage tank below.

The thick coal seam played a very strong protective role, in this era, coal was an important supplement to armor protection, many warships designed the coal tank on board after the armor of the important parts, once the shell penetrated the armor, it was also necessary to penetrate the coal seam to hit the important parts! Obviously, this design worked out very well this time!

At this time, the small cannon held by the Hiei has been destroyed, but the fire has also been extinguished, although the mechanical control device in the cockpit has not been repaired, but it can still cope with it for the time being, after all, it is only necessary to change the direction at present!

However, at this time, Sakurai suddenly felt a bad omen, both sides had already fired 6 rounds of artillery at each other, but there was no special achievement, at this time, as the top soldier of the fleet, he suddenly found that the distance between him and the second team of the other party was narrowing, and the Qing fleet ignored the possible ramming tactics of his own ironclad ships!

"Turn the rudder 15 degrees to the right, and the side guns are ready to shoot at the enemy ship in front of the left!" Sakurai gave the order to fire, and the distance between the two sides was already about 3,500 meters, and the 170mm heavy guns on the Hiei could reach this position, although it was somewhat beyond the optimal range.

Before Hiei could get the first round of shelling, the seventh round of artillery bombardment of the Combined Fleet roared, seventeen 254mm shells smashed into the besieged Japanese fleet from multiple directions, and the officers all looked nervously at the enemy ship group in the distance, and had already fired six rounds of 102 shells, only two of which hit inconsequential, with a hit rate of less than 2%.

This hit rate is a record for the Nanyang Naval Division, and of course it is the worst record! However, rigorous training and steady performance have finally ushered in the long-awaited results! Lü Han saw the sky-high flames and thick black smoke rising from the Japanese fleet in the distance, and the siege of the fleet finally hit the enemy ship again......

This time it was the result of the salvo of the 501 ship, the chain smashed at the back of the wedge, the shells were distributed between Fuso and Tsukushi, and a shell at the end of the chain accurately hit the terrace gun emplacement in the bow of the Tsukushi fast cruiser, the so-called terrace gun emplacement is a circular or square fence surrounded by thick steel plates around the gun emplacement.

Such a gun position can prevent the fragments that fall on the deck after the explosion of the shells from injuring the artillery in the terrace, the Tsukushi fast cruiser terrace gun enclosure is made of 105mm thick steel plates, and the height reaches 1.2 meters, which can effectively defend against fragments and even direct hits of shells, but this thing is a roofless turret, if the opponent's shells are smashed directly into the terrace, the result is definitely a cup!

The gun of the 501 ship did not directly hit the terrace, but smashed on the steel plate of the terrace gun enclosure, but the 105mm steel plate was obviously not enough to withstand the bombardment of the 35 times the diameter of the heavy gun, and the 220 kg shell directly smashed through the steel plate gun position, and after the shell penetrated the steel plate, there was a violent explosion, and the steel plate of the gun position on the left side was blown into several pieces.

The dozen or so Japanese soldiers who were loading shells in the artillery enclosure did not have time to react at all, they were directly torn apart by shrapnel, and the stumps and internal organs were sprayed to the ground, and several circular beehive cartridges pulled up by the bomb machine were also ignited by the fire caused by the explosion before they could be loaded into the gun chamber, and immediately a chain explosion occurred again, and the bow of the Tsukushi was ignited with a raging fire.

Hiei, the first in the Japanese fleet, also began to counterattack at this time, and the distance between him and the second squad intercepted in front of him had been reduced to within 3,500 meters, and his broadside guns could finally exert their power, and after slightly adjusting the course, the three 170mm side guns fired the first salvo, but the shells were at least 3 chains away from his target 701 Heavy Cruise.

At this time, a situation of encirclement on many sides was formed on the battlefield, the Japanese fleet was in the center, forming a wedge-shaped formation to the north, and the squads of the Nanyang and Beiyang coalition forces had been split into three, the largest one was five pairs of slower warships, and they followed the Japanese fleet closely in pursuit.

During this period, the No. 501 ironclad ship had quickly followed the Japanese fleet, choosing the best firing position behind the flank and constantly firing artillery attacks, while the second fleet, which was responsible for the interception task, had completed the rapid adjustment of formation at this time, led by the 701 heavy cruiser, firmly occupied the position at the top of the T-shaped Japanese fleet, and continued to carry out artillery bombardment. ,

The distance between the two sides is getting closer, Arai Yougong saw that the Qing warship on the top of the T-shaped did not avoid, and his heart was quite excited, at this time the distance between the two sides was only more than 3,000 meters, and the impact at a speed of 13 knots estimated that ten minutes should be shortened to the best shooting distance, and if the other side avoided, it was necessary to complete the tail chase in a big circle, in that case, their fleet would have the opportunity to complete the heavy task of retreating.

The distance between the two sides seems to have narrowed a bit, but it is limited to the problem of firing angle, in the state of the bow forward, the whole fleet has few artillery that can carry out artillery counterattacks, and the main force of the counterattack, "Tsukushi", has just been bombed off by the other side in front of the main battery, this is not a one-way street!

3500 m ......

3400 m ......

3300 m ......

3200 m ......

Suddenly, Arai Yugong unexpectedly found that the ironclad cruiser that had been used as a decoy had actually fired a cannon to counterattack, and the guns on this battleship he had observed, all of them were small-caliber twin guns, it was obvious that this technology was very advanced, he had never seen this design on other warships, even the British warships!

However, it is completely impossible for this caliber of artillery to complete an effective attack at this distance, because the firing range of this cannon is generally more than 2,000 meters at most, and the distance between the two fleets at this time is definitely more than 3,000 meters, but the other side actually occupies a dead end of the Fuso artillery and launched a fierce attack on the first sharp soldier of the fleet, the "Hiei".

Lu Zhiyuan has been waiting for this opportunity for a long time, and before he has severely damaged the enemy's main force, a light fast cruiser like the 601 under his command will not take the initiative to attack, after all, the skin of this ship is a little thinner, and the armor belt is less than 100mm, which cannot withstand the bombardment of heavy artillery at all.

At this time, one of the opponent's main heavy guns, the "Tsukushi", was blown off the main gun position, and the dead angle of the "Fuso" ship in the four-corner battery was exactly 30 degrees from the bow of the ship, and he immediately threw himself into the attack on the light patrol "Hiei" in front of the breakthrough without hesitation!

At this time, the shooting officer reported loudly: "Pipe band, into the effective range, whether to attack or not!" ”

"Order, all A-type shells are replaced, maintain a relative position, and fire 5 rounds! Adjust the shooting angle at any time! "Lu Zhiyuan observed the Japanese warships in the distance, these two cruisers are thin-skinned stuffed things, let you see the fierce firepower of our Nanyang sailors!