"Reported, the Qiujinzhou turned its rudder in the direction of eleven o'clock, intending to intercept the Caojiang. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info The Japanese ship is fast and slows down and approaches Takasami. ”

"Report, Jiyuan began to accelerate again, has crossed the Gaosheng, and is heading towards us at high speed. Only the Japanese ship Yoshinoo pursued Jiyuan and was still approaching Jiyuan. ”

"Grandma, damn Fang Boqian knew that Gao Sheng was our troop carrier, but he didn't care about it, and took advantage of the opportunity of the Japanese to intercept Gao Sheng and Caojiang to continue to run for his life, it's really damned."

Xu Tong cursed Fang Boqian loudly while stomping his feet angrily.

Amid the incessant reports of the staff officers, the dull roar of large-caliber naval guns could already be heard.

As the sound of the cannon got closer and closer, on the channel more than 800 meters away from the starboard side of the Surprise, Jiyuan and Yoshino were coming at high speed one after the other, and Qin Chuan, who was on the low Surprise, could already see the shadows of the two warships.

Jiyuan, who was hanging the white flag and the Japanese military flag, just ran forward without firing a single shot, while Yoshino, who was chasing closer and closer, kept bombarding one cannon after another with his front main gun, eager to sink it with one shot. The huge water column from the rapid-fire guns on the Yoshino ship rose from time to time in front of and left and right, which made Jiyuan panic like a frightened bird.

"Report, the Saint-Louis asked, has the fleet changed course to avoid the Japanese ships?"

"Tell them."

Qin Chuan, who was staring at the blood-red Japanese flag on the Jiyuan ship with the telescope in his hand, gritted his teeth and shouted: "All the ships in the fleet keep course, and when they return to Tianjin, Lao Tzu will pay them twice the ship." ”

"Commander, shall we go up and attack Yoshino?"

Xu Tong stared angrily at Yoshino, who was getting closer and closer: "If Yoshino can be sunk and the Jiyuan turns back to join the battle, the Japanese ships Naniwa and Qiujin Prefecture will throw down the Caojiang and Gaosheng to rush to the rescue, so that we can save Gaosheng and Caojiang." There are a lot of weapons and ammunition on them, and those things are urgently needed by our troops in North Korea. ”

Qin Chuan, whose telescope was close to his eye sockets, did not look back, but scolded Xu Tong in a deep voice.

"Don't panic, calm down."

"You have to use your brains more to fight. Now that we are near Yoshino, we will surely die. Don't say that the 150mm cannon on it will blow us up to pieces if it hits us directly, and even a close miss can overturn our surprise. And the dense 47mm Hatch Chase rapid-fire guns on it can also beat us into a sieve. Let's surprise this thin layer of iron sheet, in front of it is paper paste. ”

"We have to wait for the opportunity, we must hit it with one blow, otherwise it will be difficult to get out."

"Boom."

A dull cannon rang out, followed by a flash of fire on Yoshino's deck.

The shadow was enough to see the figures on Yoshino's deck running around, apparently the stern guns of the Jiyuan ship fired and hit Yoshino.

"Good!"

Xu Tong, who saw this situation through the telescope, couldn't help but shout loudly.

Xu Tong said with some annoyance: "I thought that this coward Fang Boqian would only run for his life and not fire." ”

It's just that Jiyuan's cannon didn't stop the footsteps of Yoshino, who was chasing closely, and the Yoshino still pounced. At the same time, several rapid-fire guns in the front of the ship were constantly bombarded with Jiyuan.

After a while, the muzzle of the stern gun of the Jiyuan flashed again, and a cannonball fell dozens of meters in front of the bow of Yoshino, splashing a small splash on the sea, Xu Tong was about to cry out regretfully, but he didn't want the near miss that should not have hit Yoshino but suddenly hit the sea, as if it was drifting with a stone, and the shell that bounced up actually crashed into the side armor of Yoshino, and Xu Tong, who was stunned, opened his mouth and couldn't speak for a long time.

Seeing Yoshino, who was still sailing at an unabated speed and there were no fireworks in the cabin, passing by at high speed from the side, Qin Chuan couldn't help but sigh.

"It's a solid bullet, and it shouldn't have hit the point."

"Report."

The staff officer who was in charge of observing the flags on the Saint-Louis in front reported again: "The Japanese ship has forced the Gao Sheng to stop, and the wave speed has also dropped anchor a quarter of a nautical mile away from the Gao Sheng, and the small boat is being released, and it is estimated that someone has been sent to board the ship to check." Qiujin Prefecture intercepted the Caojiang on its way, and the Caojiang was forced to turn back. ”

"Commander."

Xu Tong asked Qin Chuan inquiringly: "Stop at a fast speed, we happened to pass by it and suddenly leaned over and him hard." ”

"Nope." Qin Chuan shook his head after thinking for a moment.

"Signal the St. Louis to lead the fleet to turn towards the Chojang, and then, whatever happens, follow the second plan not to Asan, but to the northern part of Korea. In addition, the Nautilus behind was notified not to change course, and the camera rescued the crew of the Gao Sheng overboard, in case the Japanese dog jumped over the wall and sank the Gao Sheng. ”

As soon as he heard that Qin Chuan no longer cared about Gao Sheng, but turned to rescue Cao Jiang, Xu Tong couldn't help but feel a little anxious.

"Commander, let's just watch that boatload of weapons and ammunition cheaper for the Japanese?"

"Now, if we attack Naniwa, the entire fleet will inevitably be blocked by Akitsu Prefecture and Yoshino, and even if our surprise can rush out, the more than 1,000 people on the St. Louis will become prisoners of the other side. I mean attacking Akitsu Prefecture in the far west, and then taking advantage of the Naniwa rescue Akitsu Prefecture, the fleet took the opportunity to evacuate. ”

After Qin Chuan explained his thoughts, he gave an order to Xu Tong.

"Don't talk too much, go and prepare."

Hearing that he was going to attack Qiujin Prefecture, Xu Tong was so excited that he didn't have time to agree, so he plunged into the cabin again.

"Left rudder, keep up with the fleet ahead."

After Qin Chuan gave the order to the helmsman, he turned back to the cabin and ordered, "Prepare the grenadiers." ”

The speed of the Caojiang is only nine knots, and it is full of weapons and ammunition, and the speed is even slower, seeing that Qiujinzhou, who is dressed in black and swarthy iron armor, is slowly approaching, and the muzzles of the black hole are clearly visible, but the few small cannons on the Caojiang are scratching the other party, and they are already frightened and panicked.

"Send a signal to tell the Caojiang to turn to the right side of the fleet and go with the fleet."

Xu Tong, who returned to the cockpit with ten fighters holding grenadiers, stood at the hatch and leaned out and loudly ordered the three soldiers to send flags to the Caojiang.

Cao Jiang was not stupid enough to think that with the help of the merchant fleet could avoid the pursuit of Qiu Jinzhou, rushing over was just a helpless move in a hurry, naturally he would not have thought that the small boat behind the fleet could not be found without looking carefully actually sent a flag, Cao Jiang did not have time to ask, just passed through the gap between the merchant fleet and the strange one, and then turned the rudder and followed the right side of the fleet to the north with the merchant fleet.

Qiu Jinzhou was not polite to the group of foreign merchant ships that were rushed to the door, and directly hung out the signal and ordered the fleet to stop and wait for the Japanese ships to be inspected.

The St. Louis sent a signal and replied: "We are a foreign merchant ship and do not accept the inspection of Japanese ships." ”

The Akitsu Zhou, who was a little annoyed, was obviously a little impatient, "Bang bang bang." "Three empty rounds were fired.

Since Akitsu was already less than a kilometer away from the flotilla, the sound of three large-caliber guns was very loud.

Qiujinzhou once again signaled that the ship must be stopped for inspection, otherwise it will bear the consequences.

After hesitating for a moment, the Saint Louis issued a signal: "For the safety of the ship and personnel, we are ready to accept the inspection of the Japanese ship." ”

The signal sent by the Saint Louis was obviously to tell Qin Chuan that they were unwilling to take risks.

"Commander, what should I do? Is it a signal to them? ”

Seeing that the Saint Louis was about to stop, Xu Tong couldn't help but be a little anxious.

Qin Chuan held the binoculars in his hand, observing the activities of the people on the Qiujin Prefecture ship who were getting closer and closer, and stopped Xu Tong at the same time.

"Don't signal again, Akitsusu will see. Our ships are approaching the flotilla and waiting for my orders. ”

The St. Louis was obviously just saying hello to Qin Chuan, and was not ready to risk his life for money, and did not wait for the surprise to reply, but after a short while, he slowed down the ship and slowly stopped. As soon as the St. Louis in the lead stopped, the four merchant ships behind also slowly stopped, but in this way, the Caojiang was a little flustered, but obviously they had nothing to do, so they had to stop as well.

"Report, Qiujinzhou raised the flag and ordered the Caojiang to surrender, otherwise it will be sunk immediately."

Although it was separated by the merchant fleet, since the fleet had stopped, and his ship was sailing slowly as if it was climbing, Cao Jiang knew that it was impossible for him to run away, so he hesitated for a while and slowly raised a white flag on the mast.

"Fuck, they're all spineless." Xu Tong scolded hatefully.

Seeing that the merchant fleet and the Caojiang were very obedient, Qiujinzhou had obviously completely put his mind at ease, and the few small cannons on the Caojiang with a wooden hull obviously could not make Qiujinzhou, who was dressed in steel armor, have any fear, Qiujinzhou also slowed down and slowly approached the fleet, and only stopped the ship after approaching a distance of only about 400 meters, and the dozen or so rapid-fire guns of large and small calibers on the port side turned their muzzles to aim at the merchant fleet and Caojiang. Although there were shooters on the gun emplacement, these Japanese sailors wearing white navy summer uniforms looked very careless on the gun position.

Akitsusu once again issued a flag and ordered all ships to drop anchor, and after watching the ships drop anchor, Akitsusu also lowered the iron anchor. Then a sampan was lowered, and five sailors and an officer in a dark officer's uniform descended to the sampan, which the sailors steered towards the Saint-Louis.

Obviously, this is Qiujinzhou is not at ease, and wants to see what is loaded on these ships, if there is a Qing army and weapons and ammunition, then it will never let go.

However, the captain of Akitsusu made a great mistake, because he neglected the strange shape and color of the dinghy at the back of the fleet.

Slowly, the Surprise that drifted with the waves had drifted out of the fleet queue for more than 100 meters, and when the distance between the Qiujin Continent and the Qiujin Island, which had been anchored and firmly parked on the sea, was reduced to only about 300 meters, Qin Chuan, who had been observing the situation above the Qiujin Island in the cockpit of the Surprise, finally showed a smile until this time.

"Grenadier preparation."

Xu Tong, who was already ready, couldn't help but be overjoyed when he got the order, and with a wave of his hand, the ten soldiers behind him immediately got out of the cabin, lined up on the deck, and quickly supported the light grenadier on the deck in a group of two, the shooter held the grenadier with one hand, quickly stretched out the other hand, raised his thumb to measure the distance and aim, and then adjusted the angle of fire of the grenadier, and the loader on the side skillfully loaded the short grenade into the canister.

Qin Chuan has always been very close to the training of the secret weapon of the grenadier, not only teaching the shooters of the battalions and companies of the Yan Regiment how to operate it, but also teaching them his unique skills of pressing the bottom of the box, the simple visual aiming method, without reservation, and without hesitation, he took out a large amount of ammunition for them to train. Through the past year and a half, Qin Chuan has used a large amount of ammunition to train these shooters into hands.

Now the grenadier shooters of the salt regiment are almost able to locate the first shot and hit the level of the stationary target with the second shot. These five shooters are the best among them. What's more, Qin Chuan did not ask them to accurately kill and injure the Japanese sailors on Qiujin Prefecture, nor did he require them to blow up the artillery on Qiujin Prefecture, but only asked them to hit the grenade on the deck of Qiujin Prefecture. At a distance of three hundred meters, these people had absolutely no problem completing the task.

"Launch."

With Xu Tong's order, the five shooters pulled the cowhide rope under the grenadier at the same time, and there were five muffled sounds, and five small grenades rushed out of the barrel mouth and rushed to Qiujinzhou in an arc.

The sailors of the Japanese Navy on Akitsu had already noticed its existence on this small boat that was slowly drifting along with the current, but no one on Akitsu felt the slightest threat to such a small tonnage that was harmless to humans and animals.

Because compared to the more than 100-meter-long big guy of Akitsuzu, it is so small, not to mention that it will be torn apart by strafing with the ship's 47mm Hatch Chase rapid-fire gun, even the huge hull of Akitsuzu will make it sink if it passes near it at high speed.

When someone on the Akitsu Island noticed that from this small cabin, there were a dozen or so military men in blue-gray uniforms on the deck, although it was a little strange, they did not raise the slightest vigilance, because the entire fleet had already been anchored to accept the inspection of the Great Japanese Navy, even if there were a few soldiers?

Moreover, the clothes of these people are very different from the five-cloud coats of the Qing army, no matter how you look at them, they will not be the Qing army.

Even when they saw the people on the dinghy take out a few short and small iron pipes and fiddle on the deck, they still didn't pay attention to them, until a few slight muffled sounds came, and then five small black dots flew out of the small iron pipes in the hands of those people, flying towards Akitsuzhou at a very fast speed in the air, which surprised the Japanese on the ship.

It's just that at this time, they reacted too late.

Just as the officers were shouting for the muzzles of the Hatch Chase rapid-fire guns on the warship to turn to the Surprise, the small black dots had already flown into the air and exploded one after another on the deck, although the small shrenching shrapnel flew into the guns and the bridge and "clanged" chaotically, and even a few screams of sailors were heard, but such a slight explosion at least calmed the officers on the ship.

It was only the next scene that surprised them again, because these small bombs did not just explode, they exploded and actually raised five large clouds of thick yellow smoke on their respective explosion points, and this smoke spread rapidly, and within a few seconds the smoke filled most of the deck, and the sailors on the ship not only could not see the small boat, but also stopped at the opposite side of the huge fleet of four hundred meters and disappeared.

Fortunately, at this time, there were no weapons such as poison gas bombs, and although these sailors were blinded by the slightly choking smoke, they did not have any psychological burden.

As soon as those grenades exploded on the deck of Qiujinzhou, Qin Chuan slammed his fist on the bridge and shouted: "Left rudder, target Qiujinzhou, go at full speed." ”

With Qin Chuan's shout, the soldier in charge of operating the two gasoline engines in the rear cabin quickly increased the throttle, so that the two German latest gasoline engines instantly roared again.

"Quack."

With the sound of Hatch Kaiss shooting from the Qiujin Prefecture, Qin Chuan obviously felt a shock to the hull of the Surprise, and knew that the Surprise must have been shot, but he didn't have time to care about these now, and now he had to rush up and get as close to the Qiujin Prefecture as possible.

Qin Chuan looked at the smoke that was gradually fading and spreading, and the hazy and huge body of the Qiujin Prefecture hull was getting closer and closer, and Qin Chuan gave an order in a loud voice.

"Torpedo preparation."

"Two hundred meters."

"One hundred meters."

"One hundred and fifty meters."

"One hundred meters."

"Launch."

As soon as Qin Chuan's shout passed, he only felt that the speed of the strange was slowed down slightly, and then the hull of the ship was light.

Knowing that the torpedo had been launched, Qin Chuan didn't dare to hesitate anymore, and ordered in a loud voice: "Full rudder right, go at full speed." ”

The torpedo launched by the Surprise is called the white-headed torpedo, which was invented by the British engineer Whitehead in 1866, because Whitehead's transliteration is whitehead, so this torpedo is called the white-headed torpedo. This fish is still very primitive, with a speed of only about three meters per second and a range of only a pitiful 640 meters. If such a torpedo is launched at a slightly greater distance to attack a ship sailing at high speed, it is a pipe dream. The first time a torpedo was used in a naval battle was nine years ago.

It is said that Germany now has an improved torpedo called the blackhead, which is much more advanced than this white-headed torpedo. It's just that black-headed torpedoes are not sold in Germany now, which makes Qin Chuan have no choice but to use white-headed torpedoes.

The Surprise rushed out more than ten meters before drawing an arc, and when the Qiujin Prefecture turned to the north more than seventy meters away, it was only less than fifty meters away from the dark and cold hull of the Qiujin Prefecture.

Qin Chuan must now break away from Qiujin Prefecture as quickly as possible, and the farther away from it, the better, because according to the speed of the white-headed torpedo, it will hit the side armor of Qiujin Prefecture in about thirty seconds, although the speed of this torpedo is lackluster, but the explosion power is huge.

Qin Chuan had test-fired twice three months ago, and with a single torpedo, he blew a freighter with a displacement of about 1,000 tons in two, and the waves from the explosion almost overturned the surprising.

Amid the heart-rending screams of the two German gasoline engines, the Surprise drove faster and faster in the dead corner of the Hatch Chase shooting in Akitsu Prefecture, and the Hatch Chase shooter who had seen the Surprise in the fading smoke was adjusting the angle of fire, just waiting for the Surprise to shoot as soon as it broke out of the dead corner, and had to tear the culprit who released the smoke to shreds.

It's just that Qin Chuan can't care about these things now, he just wants to rush to the safety range as soon as possible, he doesn't want to be overturned by the waves set off by the explosion of two torpedoes.

"Quack."

There was a burst of Hatch Chase shots, and a splash of water splashed in the sea in front of the bow of the Surprise.

"Right hand rudder."

While giving the order, Qin Chuan reached out and took out a grenade from the back butt of a soldier of a reconnaissance platoon who had already run back to the cockpit, and took out a grenade from the bullet bag with four grenades on his back. Because as soon as the surprise turned, it was heading towards the small boat that had been put down on the Akitsu Prefecture.

"Boom."

Two violent explosions rang out behind him, and the shock wave made even the hull of the strange ship shake violently.

In the explosion, two huge white water columns rose on the side of the Qiujinzhou, and at the moment when the water column rose, the heavy hull of Qiujinzhou, which was still shrouded in faint smoke, suddenly tilted outward, and then fell back heavily, and in the violent swing, many sailors on the ship were thrown high and fell into the yellowish water.

When the explosion point came out of the water in the violent swing, it could be seen that there was a large black hole there, and the steel armor at the entrance of the hole was scattered and cracked, like a huge mouth with a bloodthirsty monster full of fangs, waiting to devour the flesh and blood of the Japanese sailors on the ship.

It's just that Qin Chuan had no intention of appreciating all this, and when the surprise passed by the Japanese dinghy that was stunned, he threw the grenade that had been pulled into the cabin of the Japanese dinghy. Without waiting for the overwhelmed Japanese army to react, "boom", there was another explosion, and several Japanese soldiers on the boat were already flying flesh and blood.

The Surprise rushed out more than 200 meters before it turned the bow of the ship again and slowed down under Qin Chuan's order.

Looking at Akitsu Prefecture again, the huge hull of the ship, which was still imposing and imposing, had already been seriously tilted, thick black smoke was billowing out from all the hollows and crevices on the deck, and Japanese sailors were constantly rushing to jump into the yellow-green water on the deck and on the bridge.

"Good! Enjoyable! ”

Xu Tongle jumped to his feet and shouted loudly, and the other officers and soldiers of the Salt Regiment on the Strange also jumped up excitedly.

Qin Chuan looked through the hatch at the Langsu and Gao Sheng merchant ships that were just two black dots in the distance, and forcibly suppressed the excitement in his heart and ordered.

"Give a signal to the Saint-Louis and Caojiang, immediately lift anchor, and head north at full speed. If it's too late, the wave will rush over. (To be continued.) )