Although the battlefield was filled with gunsmoke at this time, the Ito brothers still noticed the appearance of four new warships, and at first they thought that the reinforcements sent by China led by the ironclad ship "Longxiang" had arrived, and they were all pleasantly surprised. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 But soon they were frustrated to find out that the other side was a foreign warship that had come to watch the battle.

The Chinese fleet did not pay any attention to the appearance of foreign warships, but continued to attack the Japanese fleet, and while the five Chinese cruisers were besieging the "Dong" and "Nisshin", the four Chinese gunboats "Fusheng", "Jiansheng", "Fuxing" and "Jianxing" were also besieging the Japanese gunboats "Fengxiang" and "Mengchun", in fact, forming two battlefields.

Standing on the flybridge in front of the chimney, the captain of the gunboat "Fengxiang" Yamazaki Keinori Navy Shozo was flushed, he cursed in his heart that his fleet commander was a fool, using such chaotic tactics, he had at first ordered the engine room department to try to increase the speed as much as possible, in order to rush the enemy formation, but as time went by, the "East" and "Nisshin" had fallen into the siege of the Chinese fleet and were too busy to take care of themselves, and the distance between his battleship and the two capital ships had irretrievably opened up to more than 1,000 meters, completely out of the queue.

The gunboat "Hosho" was ordered by the Japanese Yamaguchi Domain in the United Kingdom, built by the British Aberdeen Shipyard, launched in 1868, completed in 1869, and was donated to the Meiji government of Japan by the Yamaguchi Domain in June of Meiji 4. The hull of the "Fengxiang" is an all-wooden structure, with a displacement of only 316 tons, a length of 43.9 meters, a width of 6.7 meters, a draft of 2.05 meters, a turbine power of 240 horsepower, a hybrid of sails, a speed of 11 knots, and an armament of one 178 mm Armstrong breech gun and one 140 mm Krupp breech gun.

The "Meng Chun" followed behind the "Fengxiang", with a displacement of 357 tons, equipped with a 140 mm breech gun and a 70-pounder gun, the steam power of the "Meng Chun" was 2 steam engines, two-shaft propulsion, and the speed of the new construction was 10 knots, and now the fastest can only reach 7 knots.

With the two capital ships surrounded, the two small gunboats began to be exposed in front of the Chinese fleet, and at 11:09 the Chinese warships exchanged fire.

After receiving the signal from the flagship, the four Chinese gunboats immediately broke away from the queue and rushed straight towards the "Fengxiang" and "Meng Chun" ships at high speed. From the smoke of gunpowder that filled the naval battlefield, the Japanese naval officers and men aboard the "Fengxiang" suddenly discovered that four Chinese gunboats appeared on their starboard side, all of them approaching at high speed with a murderous spirit.

In the face of four Chinese gunboats with complete superiority in firepower and speed (all four Chinese gunboats are of the "Meiyun" class modification, equipped with one 140-mm breech-loading gun and four 75-mm Krupp breech-loading guns, with a maximum speed of 13 knots), although the two Japanese gunboats tried their best to cope with the battle, they were soon unable to resist, and large and small shells continued to fall on the decks of the "Fengxiang" and "Mengchun" and on the nearby sea.

"When the 'Meng Chun' ship was about 1,000 meters away from our ship in front, the enemy ships 'Fusheng,' 'Jiansheng,' 'Fuxing,' and 'Jianxing' sailed toward our 'Fengxiang' ship together and approached a distance of 700 meters. At this time, the 'Meng Chun' ship, which was in danger, was close to the enemy ship and far away from our ship, and the shells fired by the enemy's four ships were as dense as raindrops, and our 'Fengxiang' ship was almost ...... to death" ("The Brave Battle of the 'Fengxiang' Ship," "Records of Taiwan's Expedition")

"Meng Chun," which followed "Feng Xiang," began to turn to the left to avoid it, and "Feng Xiang" was also desperately turning to the left, and "Feng Xiang," which had no wingman support, actually began to turn its bow and rushed straight toward the "Fusheng" and "Jiansheng" two ships, as if to launch a ramming attack.

At this time, Yamazaki Jing is like a gambler who loses red eyes and wants to make the last game.

"I, the two ships 'Meng Chun' and 'Fengxiang', met the enemy together. Enemy ships approached our fleet in the heat of the battle. Due to the slow speed of the two ships, the 'Meng Chun' and 'Fengxiang' ships prevented our two ships from joining up with the friendly ships. Because the enemy ships shelled the 'Meng Chun' and 'Fengxiang' ships from the left flank, the two ships were in a position of quite hard fighting. ("Records of the Sino-Japanese War", "The Battle in the Taiwan Strait")

The "Fengxiang" changed course and sailed directly between the two warships, "Fusheng" and "Jiansheng," which really surprised the officers and men of the Chinese warship. This move made by Captain Yamazaki Kei of the "Fengxiang" at the time of the impending catastrophe was not so much a bold strategy as an expression of instinctive subconscious reaction to avoid harm. The reason why the "Fengxiang" came head-on at the Chinese warships was more because they were worried that the area of the bombs on the side side would be too large when facing the enemy, and it would be difficult to avoid the collision of the Chinese warships, so they wanted to rush through the queue of the Chinese gunboats and flee. At this time, Yamazaki Keonori's mind was full of how to escape the danger, and he didn't know where to sail.

The "Fengxiang" ship subconsciously made this turn, and in fact walked out of the key to survival in death. In the face of the Japanese warship that suddenly rushed straight over, the four Chinese gunboats that were carrying out heavy shelling seemed somewhat puzzled, and if they fired fiercely at such a close distance, the enemy ships would certainly be doomed, but they would inevitably be easily hit by the enemy ships.

Despite this, the Chinese artillery fleet did not stop firing, but concentrated its firepower on the "Fengxiang", and after the "Fengxiang" ship was besieged, the follow-up "Meng Chun" ship did not implement any cooperative combat measures, but abandoned the friendly ship and turned away!

The inglorious move of the captain of the "Meng Chun" was described in the post-war report as follows: "The personnel on the 'Meng Chun' thought that if we turned to the right a little, we could fire artillery to support the friendly ship, so I made a suggestion to the captain. However, the captain of the 'Meng Chun' took it calmly and unexpectedly turned to the left,...... The purpose is to keep a valuable warship for our navy."

Seeing that the "Meng Chun" ship was about to escape, the Chinese gunboats immediately pursued it, and soon a shell hit the port side of the "Meng Chun", the bulwark of the "Meng Chun" was damaged, and nine Japanese sailors were killed and wounded. However, the captain of the command tower, Isobe Baoyi, could no longer care about the casualties of his subordinates, and he shouted hoarsely into the intercom microphone, urging the engine room to speed up, and the "Meng Chun" gradually left the "Fengxiang" and sailed into the distance, leaving the "Fengxiang" alone to withstand the deadly fire of the Chinese warships.

As a gunboat, the hull design of the "Fengxiang" is slightly strange, and the main identifying feature of the warship's appearance is a three-masted single chimney, and the front and rear masts are equipped with lookout masts. The main deck of the warship is very low, in order to enhance the seaworthiness and improve the ability to break waves, the bow of the warship is designed with a short section of the first floor, the first floor deck is equipped with an anchor bed and a hanging anchor rod, and a 178 mm caliber old breech gun is installed, and the first floor is the anchor winch, anchor chain cabin and other facilities and cabins. From the first floor to the rear, the main deck of the "Fengxiang" ship is equipped with a 140 mm caliber Krupp breech gun, which is also an old type, and carrying such a large gun on such a small hull makes the deck of this small gunboat look crowded. Since the low main deck is prone to waves when sailing, a ring of foldable baffles has been added to the outer edge of the main deck of the "Fengxiang" ship, which is propped up when sailing at high speed to prevent the waves from hitting the main deck, and when fighting, it is folded down to expose the guns mounted on the main deck and facilitate firing. Because the sides are densely covered with folded baffles, and the artillery armament on the deck seems to be submerged in the shadow of debris and superstructure, it is difficult for the "Fengxiang" to be associated with a warship in the eyes of strangers.

The reason why Ito Yuma included the gunboat "Fengxiang" in the sequence of this trip was that he did not expect to encounter the main force of the Chinese Navy, but only wanted to take this warship with a shallow draft to facilitate the entry and exit of the harbor and rivers, and to reconnoiter the signs of the activities of the Fanmin and the Chinese defenders, and did not consider at all that the "Fengxiang" ship would participate in a large-scale naval battle. But at this time, the weak "Fengxiang" ship had been abandoned by friendly ships in front of the guns of the Chinese fleet, and the captain of the ship, Yamazaki Keinori, who was in the command tower, was horrified to find that five Chinese cruisers were approaching quickly!

After rushing through the front of the Chinese artillery fleet, while the fire of the Chinese gunboats had ceased for a while, the "Fengxiang" was about to quickly flee the battlefield, but it did not want to face the five Chinese cruisers that were shelling in a circle around the "Dong" and "Nisshin"!

The oncoming Chinese cruiser approached about 800 meters away from the "Fengxiang" and began shelling, and the "Fengxiang" also used its own artillery to return fire. In the face of several cruisers of the Chinese Navy, the small gunboat "Fengxiang", which was too weak, was obviously unable to resist the superior Chinese warships, and the hull without any additional protection was penetrated in many places, and in the exchange of fire, the Japanese officers and men on the "Fengxiang" ship suffered heavy casualties.

"When the 'Fengxiang' crossed the enemy formation, the three Qing cruisers, the 'Princess Heshuo', the 'Chaowu', and the 'Chengqing', shot at the 'Fengxiang' at a distance of about 800 meters, and the 'Fengxiang' formed a covering artillery fire, and the degree of bitter fighting can be imagined." ("History of the Sino-Japanese War" - "Essentials of Modern Naval History")

On the broadside of the three most cutting-edge cruisers of the Chinese Navy, 140 mm breech guns fired frequently, and the "Fengxiang" could no longer withstand such blows, and the hull began to tilt slowly.

Seeing that the Japanese gunboat had already suffered heavy damage, the Chinese cruiser did not continue to attack it, but continued to go around the stern direction of the "East" and "Nisshin" and violently attack the two warships.

The departure of the Chinese cruiser fleet allowed the "Fengxiang" to temporarily avoid the terrible fire net of the Chinese warships and sail out of the battlefield in an attempt to save itself. However, at about 11:25 a.m., the Chinese artillery fleet caught up and continued to fire a dense rain of bullets at the "Fengxiang", and the "Fengxiang" ship, which could no longer resist the deadly shelling, began to sink slowly in the flames and gunsmoke.

Since it was already very close to the coast at this time, just as Yamazaki Keinori Shaoza ordered the "Fengxiang" ship to seize the beach, a 140-millimeter shell fired by the gunboat "Kenkatsu" hit the command tower of the "Fengxiang," and all nine Japanese officers, including Yamazaki Keinori Shaosa, were killed. The "Fengxiang," which had lost its command, endured the violent blow helplessly, and at 11:32, the "Fengxiang" capsized and disappeared into the sea. Of the 65 officers and men on board, only 12 survived.

At 12:15 p.m., the lead ship of the Chinese artillery fleet, "Fusheng," hit the deck of the "Meng Chun" with a 140 mm breech gun in the bow, and the captain of the "Meng Chun" ship, who was trying to command his warship to get rid of the pursuit on the flybridge, was thrown into the sea with the shock wave formed by the explosion of the shells, and at the same time, the deck of the first floor of the "Meng Chun" ship was also continuously shot. A shell easily penetrated the top deck of the tail tower, destroying the ammunition transport device used to lift ammunition from the main ammunition depot in the tail tower, and the Japanese soldiers who were on standby nearby to fight the fire damage at any time were killed and 2 wounded, and the 140 mm guns on the "Meng Chun" lost their ammunition supply. Soon another shell penetrated the top deck of the aft tower again, killing two firefighters and one repairman in the aft tower.

Seeing the captain fall into the sea, Katsuichi Kimura, the navigator of the "Meng Chun" ship, who was originally commanding in the wheelhouse under the flybridge deck, immediately came to the flybridge deck to take over the captain's command. The new captain ordered the valve of the ventilator to the boiler room to be closed, stopping its ventilation function, and changing the ventilator to a bomb transport channel to ensure the supply of ammunition on the gun emplacement. The "Meng Chun" ship apparently used the winch and iron drum that originally lifted cinders as ammunition lifting devices. On the one hand, he hurriedly commanded the warship to turn sharply to the left. Soon, an even bigger blow fell on the "Meng Chun" ship, and the rear mast, which had been shot many times, was hit again, and with a loud bang, the back mast flying the Japanese naval flag could no longer support it, and finally broke and collapsed.

At this time, the gunboat "Fusheng" under the command of Li He approached a position only 500 meters away from "Meng Chun," and a shell fired from the 140-millimeter breech gun in the bow of the "Fusheng" hit the flybridge deck of the "Meng Chun" ship, and the acting captain Katsuichi Kimura was wounded in the face and wrist and was sent below deck for treatment, and the post of captain was replaced by Masao Matsumoto, who was commanding the bow gun position, and the bow gun position was commanded by Commander Kondo Tamaki. At this time, the little "Meng Chun" seems to be unable to escape the fate of being sunk.

Despite this, the trapped "Meng Chun" hit the foredeck of the "Fusheng" with a 70-pounder gun from the stern of the ship at 12:30. After a loud bang, dark red flames rose, shrapnel scattered in all directions, and the four Chinese gunners who were operating the 140-mm main gun were killed on the spot, and the small shrapnel even shot into the observation window of the command tower, and the head of Li He was grazed by shrapnel and his eyes were blinded for a time. The "Fusheng" was filled with gunsmoke for a while.

Despite this, the four Chinese gunboats behind the "Meng Chun" saw that their prey was about to flee into the distance, and further accelerated the speed of the pursuit, and the shells continued to fall around the "Meng Chun", and the "Meng Chun" was also trying to fire tail guns to resist.

Although Li He was slightly injured, but he did not go down to rest, but insisted on commanding the battle, after a short period of blindness, Li He re-examined the battlefield, ordered to speed up, "Fusheng" soon increased the speed to 12 knots, give full play to the advantages of the fast gunboat, at this time after receiving the flag signal of the lead ship, "Jiansheng" ship management belt Xu Shoushan also ordered to speed up, rushing to chase "Fusheng", "Fuxing", "Jianxing" immediately also accelerated to keep up with "Jiansheng", the high speed of the four Chinese fast gunboats for the aging "Meng Chun", Ten minutes later, the lead ship of the Chinese artillery fleet "Fusheng" had approached from the left rear of the "Meng Chun", firing continuously at a distance of 1,300 to 2,000 meters, and constantly correcting the Zhu Yuan, and the "Fusheng", equipped with a new breech gun, had a great advantage in the rate of fire of artillery. When it approached less than 1,000 meters from "Meng Chun", "Fusheng" began to fire fiercely, because the distance was very close, and the artillery hit rate during this period was quite high.

"'Fusheng' test-fired at the Japanese warships at a distance of 800 to 1,500 meters, and then approached to a distance of 800 meters and began to attack the Japanese ships." (History of the War in the Taiwan Strait)

In the 20 minutes from 12:48 to 13:08, the "Meng Chun" ship was hit with a high intensity second only to that suffered by the "Dong" and "Rijin", and the "Meng Chun" was not as protective as the real ironclad ship after all, and soon a disaster occurred. In the fierce shelling of the four Chinese gunboats, the port hull of the "Meng Chun" was hit one after another, the hull immediately cracked, the hull plate was torn, and the Chinese sailors on the "Fusheng" could even see the bare ribs of the "Meng Chun"! Soon the shells fired by the Chinese gunboats caused several fires on the main deck of the "Meng Chun", and the whole ship was surrounded by fire, thick smoke billowed out, and sea water poured into the "Meng Chun" ship from the crack at the waterline, and the hull of the ship irretrievably tilted to the left. The officers and men of the "Meng Chun" rushed to the main deck where the shells were gathered and tried to jump into the sea to escape, but most of them fell in the flying shrapnel and fire.

Seeing that the situation was imminent, Matsumoto Masao, the acting captain of the "Meng Chun" ship, gave the order to surrender, which was undoubtedly unprecedented for the Japanese Navy. Seeing that the "Meng Chun" ship raised the white flag, the Chinese gunboats stopped firing, but at this time, I don't know which Japanese indignant young gunners did not obey the order and fired another shot at the "Fusheng," and the Chinese gunboats immediately opened fire on the "Meng Chun" again, and the "Meng Chun" ship, which had already become a raging sea of fire, kept tilting to the left, and the officers did not have any command to resist the enemy or direct the firefighting, but jumped into the sea one after another. Soon, the "Meng Chun", which had been continuously subjected to saturation shelling, could no longer support it, the hull continued to tilt to the left, the propeller at the bottom of the ship on the right side gradually exposed the water, and the warship's roll gradually reached a terrible 90 degrees, while the artillery fire of the Chinese warship continued to pour into the "Meng Chun", and a larger fire ignited in the bow of the ship. Two minutes later, "Meng Chun" flipped to the left and capsized into the sea. The Japanese Navy lost another warship in this battle.