In order to pass through the firing area of the Japanese fleet's bow heavy guns as soon as possible and move to the Japanese wings to attack, Pei Jinquan ordered the cruiser formation to increase the speed to 11 knots. The gunboat formation immediately behind www.biquge.info Pen, Fun, and Pavilion also swooped down on the two Japanese gunboats at high speed.

Although they were aware of the enemy's strength, the morale of the officers and men on the warships of the Japanese fleet was still high, and the batteries were extremely busy, with reloading and firing cannons one after another, and sailors carrying shells rushing around on the deck. Soon, next to a warship at the end of the Chinese cruiser's fleet, a shell fired by a Japanese ship exploded into the water, and shrapnel hit the hull of the ship, bursting out a cloud of black smoke, and the sky over the Japanese fleet was filled with thunderous cheers and cheers.

In the face of the attack of the Japanese fleet's ironclad ships, which are extremely deterrent to large-caliber artillery, and in the noise and smoke environment unique to the battlefield, the Chinese fleet, which lacks more actual combat experience, has to face tactical orders that must wait until a suitable distance before firing, and the mental pressure is conceivable. But on the Chinese warship, there is not the slightest panic and nervousness.

The long-term and high-intensity training has made the officers and men of the Chinese Navy unusually familiar with their duties, and they firmly believe that with their excellent combat skills and cutting-edge warships, they will definitely be able to defeat the enemy.

At this time, their most urgent desire is to enter the attack position as soon as possible, so that the invaders can learn their power!

Seven minutes later, the 279-mm guns of the "East" opened fire again, which was the fastest speed at which the Japanese gunners operated the giant cannon to fire, but unfortunately, as with the result of the first shell fired at the Chinese cruiser, it unsurprisingly fell far into the sea.

When the Chinese cruiser fleet rushed to the stern direction of the "Dong" and "Nijin", three 190-mm breech guns on one side of the "Fujing" opened fire at the same time. Seeing that the flagship was the first to fire, all the ships of the Chinese cruiser fleet also opened fire one after another.

Following the "Fujing", the cruiser "Jianjing" of the Chinese cruiser also fired at the "East", and the cruiser "Princess Heshuo" opened fire on the "Rijin". Immediately after that, the "Chaowu" and "Chengqing" ships also opened fire on the "Rijin."

The waves of the sea began to boil.

“…… In the battle of Langqiao, when the Japanese ships saw our ship, they fired their cannons and attacked, but they were far away. Yu Li was on the flybridge of the "Fujing" ship, calculated the head, and suddenly saw a bullet from the Japanese ship, fell straight to the side of the ship and fell into the sea, spun and jumped, passed over the ship, and began to sink to the bottom of the sea ......" -- the memoirs of Shen Renfa, the first mate of the "Fujing" ship.

“…… The starboard gun, as well as one of the front and rear rotating guns, adjusted the gauge to 3,005, then retreated behind the gun and held the noose, looking at the enemy ship through the gauge. With the sound of the 'fire' order, the rope was tightened, and with a bang, the whole ship shook, and five shells flew in unison against the enemy ship. Due to the smoke of our guns, it is impossible to identify whether it hit or not. In order to wait for the smoke to dissipate and determine the situation, Yu hurried to the side of the ship. At this time, a bomb exploded, and the shrapnel destroyed the bridge ladder ......" - the memoirs of Bei Shanquan in the "Chengqing" ship.

After 10:43 a.m. on June 10, 1874, the warships of China and Japan gradually exchanged fire, and the Battle of Langqiao, which had a far-reaching impact on later naval history, officially kicked off.

In front of the Chinese cruiser fleet, which consisted entirely of cutting-edge cruisers, was the paddle gunboat "Kasuga", located on the outermost right flank of the Japanese fleet, and was also the oldest old ship among the Japanese warships participating in the war. And this old ship still has a deep relationship with the Chinese Navy.

In the middle of the 19th century, the Taiping Rebellion swept across the south, and its momentum was in full swing. As a vital water force in the Kingdom of Heaven, the Taiping Army Water Battalion repeatedly defeated the Qing Army's water divisions and once seized control of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Tens of thousands of warships strengthened the Taiping army when fighting in the south, where the water network was dense.

In order to regain superiority on the water, the Qing government began to plan the purchase of new warships in addition to vigorously training sailors. Upon hearing the news, France, Russia, and other countries expressed their willingness to provide military assistance. Originally, the intention of the Qing government was only to buy ships, but the ambitious British Li Tai of the Customs and Excise Department bought a mixture of old and new 6 gunboats (3 for new warships, 3 for second-hand goods purchased from the British Navy), 1 barge and 1 supply ship (all purchased from private individuals), and established the famous "Aspen Fleet" in modern Chinese history. The paddle gunboat had a displacement of 1,269 tons, a length of 214.5 feet, a width of 29 feet, a draft of 9.25 feet, four boilers, a main engine of 300 horsepower, a speed of 12 knots, and two 68-pounder guns and four 18-pounder guns.

At this time, "Jiangsu" had just arrived in China. Due to Li Taitai's arrogance and ambition to control the Chinese navy, the Qing court finally decided to dismiss the Aspen fleet, and after that, the ships of the Aspen fleet were successively purchased by India, Japan, and Egypt. Among them, the "Jiangsu" was brought under the command of the Japanese Satsuma Clan at a great cost.

As one of the "Four Great Clans of the Southwest" in Japan at the end of the Edo period, the Satsuma Domain was keen to learn Western technology, and had a long tradition of seafaring and a long history of naval warfare (the Satsuma people had always been at the forefront of the Japanese invasion of China and the invasion of Korea, and even invaded the Ryukyus on a large scale and captured their kings), and placed great emphasis on developing the naval power of the domain. On November 3, 1867, through the intermediary of Captain Fabes, Masayoshi Matsukata (who later became one of the nine elders of the Meiji government) of the Satsuma Domain (the official in charge of the ships) purchased the "Jiangsu" for 160,000 taels of silver (Matsukata is said to have borrowed 60,000 taels from Nagasaki merchants) and renamed it "Kasuga" as the seat ship of the feudal lord. The name comes from the name of a warship built in 1592 by the Satsuma clan during Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasion of Korea (hence the name of the ship, which was made of wood from Mt. Kasuga). The ship was active in the war of aggression against Korea, and its name was so loud that it spread throughout the Satsuma Domain, and the folk song "見えた見えたよ Matsubara Koshitsugashi しにあれが薩のKasuga Maru" was spread throughout the Satsuma Domain. The Satsuma clan named the "Jiangsu" in the hope that it would "make a contribution" to Japan's foreign expansion, just like that warship.

After the Kasuga was purchased, it was highly valued by the Satsuma Domain. This warship was one of the few "big ships" in Japan at that time (at this time, the only warships in Japan that surpassed it in strength were the shogunate's "Kaiyang" and "Huitian"), which made the Satsuma Navy feel steep and thick. In the era when sail warships were popular, this kind of warship with a straight bow mast was eliminated for the first time in Japan, which was refreshing. By this time, it had been fully strengthened, and it was equipped with one 100-pounder breech gun, four 40-pounder guns (two on each side), and two 12-pounder guns. On January 3, 1868, the shogunate faction launched the "Imperial Rebellion", announcing the abolition of the shogunate and the establishment of a restoration government in Kyoto, and the shogunate completely broke with the shogunate faction, and war broke out. On January 28, 1868, Kasuga, which had just been incorporated into the Satsuma Domain, fought the shogunate Navy's Kaiyo ship off the Awa Oki Sea in the Battle of Awa Oki (also known as the Battle of Hyogo), which was the beginning of modern naval warfare in Japan.

In the naval battle, Kasuga fired 18 shells at Kaiyang, but only one shell hit the opponent (the clumsiness of the Japanese navy's gunnery can be seen), causing minor injuries. Interestingly, the current captain of the "Nisshin", Heihachiro Togo, was a third-class non-commissioned officer in charge of operating the guns on the "Kasuga" at that time, and the poor gunnery of the Japanese ships at that time had already made the idea that "a cannon with 100 rounds is better than a cannon with 100 shots and 1 shot" took root in his mind. It is worth mentioning that in addition to Heihachiro Togo, the captain of the "To" ironclad ship Ito Yuhiro was also on the "Kasuga" to help his brother Ito Yuma fight. "Kasuga" later also participated in the "Battle of Miyako Bay".

In June 1869, the Meiji government began a campaign to return copyrights. At the same time that the feudal lords handed over their land and population, the warships of the feudal lords were also taken over by the government. In April 1870, Kasuga was "consecrated" by the Satsuma clan and became a member of the Meiji government's navy, and later showed off force against Korea along with the "Unyang" during the Ganghwado incident, contributing to Japan's foreign expansion.

And in this time in the war of Japan's armed invasion of Taiwan, the "Kasuga" came in again, but when the time came to June 10, 1874, the "Kasuga" did not know that this day would be its limit!

The "Spring Day" ship, which was supposed to be a member of the Chinese Navy, began a face-to-face fight with the battleship under the dragon flag for the first time!

Of course, Lin Yizhe knew the origin of the warship flying the Japanese flag on the other side, but the admirals of the "Fujing" with Pei Jinquan, the "Jianjing" with Lu Wenjing, and the "Princess Heshuo" with Deng Shichang knew the identity of this paddle gunboat, and they did not know how they would feel. Because if "Kasuga" can continue to serve under the dragon flag, the three pipe bands may also practice and serve on this warship!

Soon, while attacking the "Dong" ironclad ship, the Chinese cruiser fleet did not let go of the "Kasuga"; because it happened to sail between the "Dong" and "Rijin" formations and the "Kasuga," the Chinese cruiser could start to fire the whole ship's guns, and the "Fujing" was equipped with three 40-millimeter five-barreled heavy Haqikais machine guns and the Gatling machine guns on the mast to rain bullets on the "Kasuga" ship. The "Jianjing," "Princess Heshuo," "Chaowu," and "Chengqing," which followed immediately after the "Fujing," opened fire in the same way, and the five Chinese cruisers fiercely attacked the "Dong" and "Rijin" with the main gun fire on one side, and after entering a suitable position to attack the "Kasuga," on the other side of these warships, most of the 40-mm machine shells were fired at the old ship "Kasuga."

"Although the five ships of my first group are different, they are roughly at a distance of 3,500 meters. The Fujing' accurately measured 3,500 meters before it began to fire. Due to the accuracy of the measured distance, it is assumed that the hit rate of our shells was extremely high. Pei Jinquan said in the post-incident report.

The "Kasuga" was attacked by an unexpectedly fierce attack, and the Japanese naval officers and men on the old warship never dreamed that the firepower of the Chinese fleet would be so strong. In the dense rain of bullets that came from the head and face, the paddle gunboat was constantly shot, and in less than a few minutes, the hull plate was pierced in many places, and a large number of Japanese naval officers and men on the deck were beaten to the ground.

After completely suppressing the deck of the "Kasuga" with the secondary artillery fire on one side, the five Chinese cruisers had already moved rapidly to the stern direction of the "East" and "Nisshin".

In fact, 5 Chinese cruisers have already seized the "T" prefix in the tail of two Japanese warships! And this is exactly the battle essentials that Lin Yizhe has been preparing for a long time in advance!

Taking advantage of the fact that the Japanese ship's guns could not be fully functional, they concentrated their secondary guns and attacked the large gunboat "Hishin" under the command of Togo Heihachiro behind the "To" with the main guns. For a time, the rain of bullets fired by the five Chinese cruisers was all concentrated on the "Rijin".

History is out of place at this moment.

At this time, Heihachiro Togo, who was the captain of the "Nisshin", would never have imagined that there would be a young Chinese who would use the classic tactics he created and invented in the future to deal with himself!

Under the heavy artillery fire of the Chinese cruisers, the "Rijin", which had no tail guns, desperately completed the turn and fought back with its broadside guns, but the Paliser armor-piercing shells fired by the advanced 190-mm breech-loading guns of the Chinese cruisers easily tore through the thin hull plates of the "Rijin".

The hull of the "Nisshin" was suddenly enveloped in thick black smoke. Due to the large number of wooden components used in the interior of the 19th century warships, the interior of the hull of the "Nisshin" was quickly blown into a mess after being hit by one bullet after another. Fires broke out in some places, forming billowing black smoke.

The 190-mm heavy guns of the Chinese cruiser mercilessly struck the hull of the "Rijin", and some of the shells swept across the deck, and some passed directly through the hull. Seeing this scene, the Chinese cruiser fleet shelled the "Rijin" even more violently.

Witnessing the "Nisshin" struggling painfully on the sea, Ito Yuhiro commanded the ironclad ship "To" to try his best to support the "Nisshin" with guns, but to no avail. Under the intensive artillery fire of the Chinese cruiser, the "Rijin" continued to tilt while the ship also ignited a catastrophic fire, and gradually showed signs of being unable to support it.

At this time, the ferocious firepower of the Chinese cruiser fleet had been completely displayed in front of the Japanese, and the Japanese felt the horror rising from the bottom of their hearts for the first time.

"The 'Nisshin' is going to die!" Ito Yuhiro looked at the "Nisshin", which had been tilted very hard, and his face was full of horror.

"We rushed up to fend off the artillery fire for the 'Sunjin' and cover them for a while." Ito Yuma was still very calm, although at this time his heart was not much less frightened than his brother.

At this time, the battle situation had already shown that the squad chaos tactics he wanted to adopt were no longer effective.

Because the Japanese ships were weak in their gun positions and slow in rate of fire, they were unable to inflict great damage on the Qing warships in a short period of time, and the Japanese ships were not able to make a result when the Chinese cruiser fleet crossed their own front, and as the distance between the warships of the two sides gradually approached, the Japanese ships had lost the advantage of using large-caliber guns to attack the enemy at a long distance. Now the Chinese cruisers had moved to the best distance conducive to artillery battles, and began to give full play to their ferocious firepower to conduct artillery battles. However, as far as the Japanese fleet was concerned, due to the overall slow speed, it was not possible to approach the Chinese fleet in a short period of time to cut into the enemy's position, and Ito Yuma would have to temporarily put aside the chaotic tactics of completely active attack, and would be forced to first engage in a naval confrontation with the Chinese cruiser fleet, in which he did not have the slightest advantage.

Seeing that the "Nisshin" was already showing signs that it could no longer be supported, Ito Yuma decided to make a desperate effort to give full play to the strong armor advantage of the "Higashi" ironclad ship to resist the shells of the Chinese fleet for the "Nisshin" and buy time for the "Nisshin" to save itself.

The main armor belt on the side of the "East" is 150 mm thick, the draft armor belt is 120 mm, and the bow and stern armor plates are 90 to 120 mm thick, which can withstand the bombardment of large-caliber shells. Now the thick iron armor on the "East" has become an important weapon for Ito Yuma to defeat the enemy.

Ito Yuma's plan was to use the "East" to attract the firepower of the Qing ships, and when the Qing ships approached, he would take the opportunity to launch an attack with 11-inch main guns to deal the enemy ships as much as possible.

The younger brother Ito Yuhyung understood his brother's plan, nodded, and immediately gave the order. Soon, the ironclad ship "Dong" was horizontally in front of the "Rijin", which was constantly tilting and had lost its ability to resist.

At 11:12 a.m., Lin Yizhe, who was observing the naval battle in the armored command tower of the "Fujing" ship, suddenly felt a violent vibration in the hull of the ship.

Two shells fired from the direction of the "Dong" and "Nisshin" accurately hit the aft deck of the "Fujing" ship.

Lin Yizhe looked out of the observation window and saw that two sailors carrying the shells had fallen in pools of blood, and five sailors were wounded. When he saw that the wounded sailors still had no intention of evacuating, but gritted his teeth and continued to transport shells, his heart couldn't help but be enthusiastic.