"In other words, the Japanese have suffered a loss this time." After listening to the report, Lin Jianzhang said happily.

"According to the brothers of the Army Patrol, it seems that the Japanese have deliberately come out to provoke us this time." An officer reported, "There is nothing wrong with the defense zone of the American ** team and the British and French troops." ”

"*** Lao Tzu still wants to find their stubble, they provoked us first," Lin Jianzhang said with a sneer.

Hearing Lin Jianzhang's words, the eyes of the surrounding officers flashed with strange excitement.

Lin Jianzhang is a native of Changle, Fujian Province, graduated from the Nanyang Naval Academy, and has successively served as the pipe band of the destroyer "Flying Eagle," the pipe band of the cruiser "Nanchen," the captain of the cruiser "Hairong," and the captain of the cruiser "Haichou." After the outbreak of World War I, Lin Jianzhang accompanied Xu Zhenpeng to Europe to participate in the war, responsible for commanding the battleship "Free Spirit", for his bravery in the Second Battle of the Gulf of Helgoland and the Battle of the Celtic Sea, he was awarded the Order of Victoria by the British government, and the Beijing government awarded Lin Jianzhang the rank of Vice Admiral. After the end of World War I, he returned to China in advance and was responsible for commanding the "Glorious" and "Shengli" battle cruisers that returned to China to defend the Beijing-Tianjin area. After the Entente decided to intervene in Soviet Russia, Lin Jianzhang was ordered to lead the "Glorious" to cover the landing of the army in Vladivostok.

Like those comrades-in-arms who were born in the Beiyang Navy, Lin Jianzhang, who was born in the Nanyang, also had a clear understanding of Japan's aggressive ambitions against China. As a result of his personal experience of the great changes in the Republic of China at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the baptism of blood and fire in World War I, Lin Jianzhang was very clear about the gap between the Chinese navy and the Japanese navy, and he knew that although the Chinese navy has now become unprecedentedly powerful, it is after all a "bought navy", and it will take time for China's industrial development to reach the level of the United States, and Japan, which is ambitious, will obviously not give China time for development. Lin Jianzhang believes that the Chinese Navy should take the initiative and inflict heavy losses on Japan while still having a certain advantage, so as to win precious time for China's future development.

And in the current Chinese Navy, there are not a few people who have the same idea as Lin Jianzhang.

Such an idea is not a momentary rush of enthusiasm and whimsy, but a summary and reflection on the history of the past.

"We should be ready to fight now." A staff officer advised, "Don't wait for the Japanese to really make a move on us, and catch people off guard like they did in the first year." ”

"That's right, in the future, the rule of 'don't provoke me' will have to be changed." Lin Jianzhang nodded and issued an order for combat readiness, "Notify all ships to strengthen combat readiness, and be in good spirits tonight." ”

After all his subordinates left, Lin Jianzhang came to the bridge and looked at the coast in the distance, he looked at the fort hidden in the darkness, and the murderous intent in his eyes grew,

Lin Jianzhang returned to his cabin, he looked at the clock on the bulkhead, the clock showed the date of March 12, 1921, and the time was 18:22.

Lin Jianzhang sat down at the table, took a pen and paper, and began to draft the telegram.

Early morning, Beijing, Governor's Office.

"General, there's an emergency."

Xi Xue, who was standing at the door, called out while listening to the voices in the house.

Her voice is neither loud nor small, clear and gentle, just enough for the people in the room to hear, but not too abrupt and too sweet.

"Got it, I'll be right away." Yang Shuoming's voice came from inside the house, followed by the sound of clothes flipping.

Xi Xue heard his answer and understood that he was getting dressed, and her face was somehow feverish, so she turned around and came to the hall, where she was waiting for him.

"Where's the emergency electricity early in the morning?" Huang Yunzhi leaned out of bed, looked at the sky outside the window, which was still a little dark, covered her mouth lightly and yawned, and asked sleepily.

"It's hard to say, there should be an emergency military situation." Yang Shuoming quickly got dressed, looked at his beloved wife with a lazy face, leaned down and kissed her lightly on the cheek, and said, "It's still early, you can sleep for a while, you have a lot of things to do during the day, don't be tired." ”

"Don't be tired, it's you, you haven't been idle since you brought over the affairs of the border superintendent." Huang Yunzhi wrapped her soft arms around his neck and closed her eyes, "I see, our family is now ready to catch up with the State Council." ”

In the "Nine? After the "28" incident, Yang Shuoming succeeded Duan Qirui as the border superintendent, in order not to let the people recall this unbearable tragedy all the time, Yang Shuoming set up the office of the border superintendent at home. ,

"It's not always going to be like this." Yang Shuoming closed his eyes, deeply inhaled the fragrance emanating from his wife's half-naked delicate body, and felt this warm moment, "It will be fine in the future." ”

"It's a pity I can't help you much." Huang Yunzhi muttered softly, "It would be nice to have more helpers." ”

Hearing her last sentence, Yang Shuoming thought of Fu Zhuoyao who was alone in the empty room, and couldn't help but sigh secretly in his heart.

Up to now, Fu Zhuoyao has been married for a while, but there has never been a husband and wife between the two.

Yang Shuoming's loyalty to his wife's love and the deep-rooted concept of monogamy brought by later generations, coupled with the intentional or unintentional closure of Fu Zhuoyao's emotional world, have drawn a huge gap between Yang Shuoming and Fu Zhuoyao.

"She's there, you still have to go over a few more times, don't snub her. That's not good. Huang Yunzhi seemed to understand what Yang Shuoming was thinking, and whispered in his ear.

"I know." Yang Shuoming's heart swelled with a warm current, he hugged her hard, and got out of her embrace, "I'm leaving." ”

Yunzhi nodded, let go of him, Yang Shuoming covered her with the quilt, turned around and left the bedroom.

Seeing Yang Shuoming's figure appear, Xi Xue immediately greeted him.

"Where did the telegram come from?" Yang Shuoming asked.

"It was transferred by the Admiralty." Xi Xue replied.

Listening to her answer, Yang Shuoming seemed to have a premonition, and the pale red light in his eyes began to flicker again.

The two came to the telegraph room, and a staff member saw Yang Shuoming appear and immediately handed him a telegram.

Yang Shuoming opened the telegram and looked at it carefully, the content of this telegram did not seem to be long, because Xi Xue noticed that Yang Shuoming seemed to have read the telegram several times.

Yang Shuoming raised his head and looked at the clock on the wall, then looked at the date the telegram was sent, and said to Xi Xue, "Let's go to the Admiralty immediately." ”

Although Yang Shuoming's tone was as flat as usual, Xi Xue still felt a strange aura.

"The Japanese dared to strike ahead." Yang Shuoming said to himself, "This 'next gram' is really powerful."

March 13, 1921, 5:30 a.m.

"Boom"

A huge cannonball into the water exploded to wake Lin Jianzhang from his sleep, and soon, a piercing siren sounded.

"General, we were shelled by the Japanese," an officer ran to report to Lin Jianzhang, "Please get on the bridge quickly."

Lin Jianzhang followed the officer to the bridge, and at this time, another shell flew from the shore with a whistling whistle and exploded next to the seaplane carrier "Pinghai" not far from the "Glorious" battlecruiser, splashing high waves.

Although he was prepared for the possibility that the Japanese might make the first move, Lin Jianzhang was a little surprised when he saw that the Japanese actually used the coastal artillery they had snatched from the Russians to shoot at his own fleet.

At this time, in the fort on the shore, a Japanese officer who seemed to be supervising the battle was jumping to his feet and shouting loudly.

"I didn't hit you fools again, so keep shooting"

Under his shouting and scolding, the battery commander's face turned the color of pig liver, but he did not reply, but shouted the battle order to his subordinates loudly.

"Armor-piercing bullets, kit four"

Kengoro Ota, a Japanese artillery officer in the artillery pit shouted.

Kengoro Ota was originally a non-commissioned gunnery officer on the battleship Tango of the Japanese Navy and the Russian battleship Poltava, which was captured by Japan during the Russo-Japanese War. Although the 254-mm bunker fortress guns in the Russian fortress were completely different from the naval guns, the generals of the Japanese Army did not know what their psychology was, and they asked the navy, which had always been at odds with the army, to send someone to help operate the artillery. It was with their help that the Japanese gunners in a short time mastered the firing of the Russian fortress guns.

Following Kengoro Ota's order, the ammunition man laboriously hoisted a 254-mm armor-piercing shell with a sling and hoisted the shell onto the slipway, where two loaders used a ram to slowly push the shell into the chamber, and then four propellant packets made of cotton cloth weighing more than a dozen kilograms were stuffed into the chamber. After the reload was completed, as the pawls were released, the pivot of the support arm of the 254 mm trap gun lifted a counterweight and subsequently lifted the massive gun shaft back up. ,

The 12 254-mm fort guns of the coastal fort in Vladivostok are all old guns from the time when the fortress was first built, and they are old 45 times the diameter of the old pit guns, which have the advantage of making the guns retract into the pit when not firing, and are not easy to be detected by the enemy. What the Japanese didn't know was that the most important reason for the use of pit guns was that the use of pit guns and their installation of crypts was much cheaper than the construction of bunkers compared to ordinary armored bunker fortifications, which was one of the reasons why the Russians also used pit guns in large numbers in other fortresses.

Although the construction cost is low, the ground pit gun does have its own uniqueness, otherwise this kind of gun installation method would not be popular all over the world, and the Weihaiwei fortress fort in China also has a ground pit gun. The trap gun was easily reloaded at the lower part of the fort and then lifted above the sturdy breastwall to fire, protecting the gunner from direct enemy fire. The recoil energy generated by the artillery shot is saved in the form of potential energy, which is then used to lift the gun up. The lower pulley could be moved circumferentially for aiming, and the pitch of the gun relied on the sector and screw of the upper gun mount.

One of the drawbacks of firing a trap gun is that someone has to stick his head out and be responsible for looking and indicating the target, and he will definitely be exposed to the enemy's sight when he goes to operate the gun to lift and ignite.

"Hurry up and shoot, the *** ship is about to anchor," the Japanese army officer yelled again.

After the gun body was loaded and raised, the observer who operated the gun team mirror in the front armored bunker immediately used the telephone to loudly report the direction of the target and the firing elements.

As the readings continued to be reported, the Japanese fortress artillerymen, who were clumsily operating the 254-mm pit guns, immediately adjusted the fortress guns according to the Zhu Yuan reported by the observers, and once again aimed at the target several nautical miles away from the outer harbor -- the Chinese battlecruiser.

"Shooting"

After completing the preparation for the shooting, Kengoro Ota gave the order to launch.

"Boom"

With a loud bang. The muzzle of the 254 mm fortress gun emitted a huge cloud of black smoke, and a 450-pound shell flew straight at the target.

At the same time as the shells were fired. The strong recoil made the support arm of the gun collapse. At the same time, it also moved the block backwards, lowering the artillery under the protective breastwall of the fortress granite. The bottom of the support arm has a heavy counterweight. The gun was cushioned by hydraulic damping to slow down the impact of recoil. At the same time, a pawl jammed the curved face of the support arm, which kept the gun in the lowered position and entered the ammunition loading position.

The 12 254-mm guns of the Vladivostok fortress used a British-style hydraulic-pneumatic trap gun mount modified by the Russians themselves, and a large pit nearly four meters deep protected the gunners from ammunition loading and gun maintenance. Trap gun mounts like this, which use a hydraulic pneumatic cushioning mechanism, can be said to be scattered throughout the Russian forts.

Under the action of recoil, the barrel of the fortress gun was lowered back into the pit in a state of 20 degrees upward. Immediately after entering the ammunition loading position, the Japanese artillerymen hurriedly restarted the reloading.

At this time, the black smoke emitted by the artillery ** had not completely dissipated, and the observer couldn't help but shout and curse.

At a depth of more than 20 meters in the ammunition depot of Vladivostok Fortress, thousands of old armor-piercing shells and old brown slow-burning gunpowder propellant packs were stocked. In all fairness, shooting with these old antiques, it was quite good that the Japanese gunners could fight like this.

"We hit" The observer noticed the smoke coming out of the ** ship, and couldn't help but shout excitedly.

Kengoro Ota was directing the gunners to reload, and he couldn't help but be stunned for a few seconds when he heard the shooting results reported by the observers on the phone.

"Well fought, you are His Majesty's best artillerymen, keep up the good work," a hoarse roar came from above.

The "onboard" Japanese gunners shouted as if they had been doped, and began to reload feverishly.

The Japanese really have reason to be excited, for this group of Japanese army artillerymen who have not been in contact with the Russians for a long time, they can accurately hit the target in a short period of time with live ammunition, which can be said to have completely exceeded the expectations of naval officer Kengoro Ota, who was originally mentally prepared to miss the target. After all, this was their first actual shooting after coming to Vladivostok, and it was a fixed target.

Seeing the crazy appearance of the Japanese, several Russian gunners who were tending to shoot in the battery had a look of gloom on their faces. ,

They still do not understand why the Japanese suddenly shelled the Chinese fleet in the harbor.

The reason why they are willing to serve the Japanese is to help the Japanese attack the Bolshevik "red plague", but after the Japanese occupied this place, they suddenly changed their faces, and yesterday's incident in which the Japanese officers and soldiers tried to ** the Russian woman was killed has aroused their disgust, and today the Japanese suddenly moved against the Chinese who were originally in a camp, and they became accomplices in vain, and the anger in their hearts can be imagined.

"The rate of fire is too slow, a little faster"

There are two insurmountable defects of the ground trap gun, the first defect is that the length and size of the gun must be enough to be able to fall into the pit when the gun mount collapses, and later, although some people designed the gun mount to allow the cannon to fall into the pit at 20 degrees, but by the 90s of the 19th century, it could no longer meet the needs of those larger and larger guns. The second drawback was that the gun was lowered and reloaded and re-raised, which wasted a lot of time, making it difficult to increase the rate of fire. In the old days, the coastal fortresses could calmly shoot at the sea. However, when the firing rate of the guns of the warship was greatly increased, the disadvantages of the slower firing speed of the ground pit guns than the fixed guns became more and more obvious. This is because a fixed-mounted gun can fire and reload continuously at the target, while a well-equipped ground pit gun does not have such favorable conditions.

"Keep shooting, the ** ship sees us," the observer shouted in panic.

Hearing the voice of the observer coming from the other end of the phone, Kengoro Ota somehow felt a sense of foreboding in his heart.

At this time, at a hidden observation post in the fort, Ishihara saw through the telescope that the black smoke rising from the Chinese battle cruiser had completely dissipated, and the sinister smile on the corner of his mouth suddenly froze there.

The Chinese battlecruiser had anchored and turned its side in the direction of the coast, while the three triple main turrets on the surface of the ship slowly began to move and aim at the coast.

Ishihara stared at the huge barrel of the cannon until with a loud sound like the sky cracking down, and a huge orange flame with black smoke erupted from the muzzle.