At noon, the very thin fog on the sea surface was finally dissipated, although the sky was still gloomy, but the line of sight was no longer obstructed, the Qing fleet slowly swimming on the sea and the high-speed Japanese naval division could already see each other clearly, but the distance was still four miles away, even if it was the Qing army's powerful naval artillery could not exert its power, as for the Japanese naval division's naval artillery with a range of only less than 300 steps, it was impossible to talk about it, and it was impossible for both sides to fire at this time, although the clouds of the war were already dense, But it was not yet time for the bayonet to see red.

"Nine miles ahead, a group of Qing warships was found, six large and twelve small, a total of eighteen ships!"

Just as the Japanese naval division was sprinting at high speed, on the main mast of the flagship of its vanguard fleet, the Shimono Maru, the lookout post suddenly discovered the arrival of the main fleet of the Qing army, and couldn't help but exclaim.

"Yaga, report to General Sakata!"

As soon as he heard the watchpost say this, Shinji Ono, who was planning to storm the Qing army's vanguard fleet with great interest, was immediately taken aback, and after scolding his throat, he hurriedly ordered the enemy situation to be conveyed to the Chinese army.

"Order, all ships move forward at full speed, go all out, eat the current enemy first, and the rear army accelerates, bypassing the current enemy, blocking the enemy's reinforcements!"

Sakata Yokozo obviously didn't expect the main force of the Qing army to appear at this time, and he was also surprised, but he didn't have the idea of avoiding the battle, but quickly made tactical adjustments, intending to concentrate the superior forces of more than 300 warships of the Chinese army to defeat the vanguard fleet of the Qing army first, and then go to the main force of the Qing army to fight the victory.

"Report, Lord Admiral, eight miles ahead, the enemy fleet has been divided into two routes, one of which is about 340 large and small warships, the original direction of action remains unchanged, and it is killing our vanguard fleet at high speed, and more than 110 large and small warships are heading in the southeast direction, looking at the track, it should be planning to make a detour to block our main fleet!"

With such a division of troops, the lookout post standing on the tall main mast of the "Zhenwu", the flagship of the main fleet of the Qing army, immediately saw it in its eyes, and did not dare to delay it too much, and hurriedly reported the changes in the enemy's situation in a loud voice.

The Qing army's expedition to Dongying had a total of 30 large and medium-sized warships, of which the first with the word "town" were large warships, a total of nine, and the first with the word "Wei" were medium-sized warships, among which the "Weifeng" was killed in the first battle of Osaka Bay, although the battleship was not sunk, but it was also damaged in many places, and it is now being repaired at the Osaka wharf, and seven warships led by the "Calm" were left in Osaka Bay, for cover, and the rest of the ships are all here.

"Order: The first squadron immediately turns to the northeast to block the enemy squadron, and the rest of the ships are full sail and full speed, continue to move forward!"

In terms of the number of warships, the Qing fleet is only less than one-tenth of the Edo Naval Division of the Japanese State, but Sun Mingxu did not care at all, not only not afraid, but excited, no side, the fleet originally had to fight with the Japanese Edo Naval Division, if the Edo Naval Division was cowered in Edo Bay, although the Qing Naval Fleet was strong, but it was inevitable that there was a risk of not being able to let go, and now, the Edo Naval Division actually dared to go to sea, and the Qing Fleet fought a decisive battle with the Qing fleet on such an open ocean, which was simply to find death, Sun Mingxu would not be very polite at all, and gave a-for-tat order with a solemn face.

Sun Mingxu gave this order, and the main fleet of the Qing army immediately rushed out of the sequence at high speed, turned to the northeast, and prepared to meet the division of the Japanese naval division, as for the main fleet of the Qing army, it remained unchanged, and went straight forward at high speed, quickly approaching the main battlefield.

"All ships are ready, the target is directly in front of the enemy vanguard fleet, fire!"

The speed of the vanguard fleet of the Edo Naval Division of the Japanese State led by the "Shimono Maru" was extremely fast, and it was not long before it had rushed to a distance of less than 400 steps from the battle line of the Qing army. Wang Changgeng immediately waved his hand vigorously and gave the order to fire loudly.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

General Wang Changgeng gave an order, and the heavy guns on the starboard side of the ships facing the vanguard fleet of the Japanese State that had been on standby for a long time immediately began to fire one after another, and in the midst of the roar, 90 huge cannonballs roared across the sea and smashed heavily towards the place where the vanguard fleet of the Japanese Navy Division was.

"Steady, keep rushing, rush for me!"

The heavy artillery of the Qing army this round of fire are solid bullets, each shell weighs forty pounds, it is really not the Japanese naval division of those thin-skinned warships can afford, once it is hit, regardless of whether the Japanese warship is big or small, it is immediately a big hole through the bottom of the ship, if there are two in the middle, the smaller ship will be smashed to a pulp, only one round of artillery down, more than a dozen ships of the Japanese vanguard fleet that swarmed to kill were blown into pieces, and more than a dozen ships were smashed to the point of leakage, and slowed down crookedly, at first sight, Ono Shinji's eyes were red, and he shouted angrily, desperately driving his warships forward, trying to take advantage of the Qing army's loading ammunition to catch the Qing army by surprise.

"Ships fire freely!"

Ono Shinji's idea is undoubtedly beautiful, but unfortunately the reality is cruel - the heavy artillery used by the Qing warships is not the old-fashioned artillery such as the Japanese naval division, although it is also troublesome to load, but after all, there is no need to bury black powder, and there is no need to ignite, just load the shells from the breech and fire the gunpowder bag, no, before the desperately rushing Japanese vanguard fleet rushed through a hundred paces, the Qing army had already loaded the shells, and with Wang Changgeng's order, the four warships of the Qing army began to exert their might again.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

In this round of shelling, the Qing army no longer used solid shells, but replaced with flowering shells, 90 huge shells exploded in the formation of the Japanese naval division, and in an instant the flames were everywhere, shrapnel flew indiscriminately, and the officers and men of the Japanese naval division who were caught off guard were even more bombed to the point of crying wolves, and more than a dozen warships were even more ablaze into the sky, and the fire was so great that it could not be extinguished at all, and the sailors on the ship were forced to jump into the icy sea like dumplings.

"Fire, counterattack, counterattack!"

Ono Shinji's flagship "Shimono Maru" is naturally one of the key targets of the Qing army, but as luck would have it, the "Shimono Maru" was unscathed under the two rounds of artillery bombardment of the Qing army, but Ono Shinji did not feel lucky, but was angry, no side, the forward fleet he led did not even touch the side of the Qing army's ship, it was already sunk thirty-two warships, and more than a dozen battle damage, it was already unable to keep up with its own charging formation, in the face of such a huge loss, Ono Shinji was almost crazyAs soon as he rushed to a distance of about two hundred paces from the Qing army's battle line, he roared regardless of it.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

The Edo Naval Division belonged directly to the Tokugawa Shogunate, and was the elite of the Japanese Naval Division, which was much stronger than the Osaka Naval Division, both in terms of soldiers and the quality of the warships, all of which were the same - the large warships used by the Edo Naval Division were equipped with two bow guns and a cannon in the stern, and the medium warships had one cannon in the bow and stern, while the small warships had only one bow gun, and as for the side guns, they were not set up with guns, and there was no side, just because most of the tactics of the Japanese Naval Division were still at the level of the broadside battle, and the dependence on artillery fire was not large. Besides, the so-called large warships of the Japanese Navy Division are actually not really big, and the total is only more than 30 meters long, compared to the 100-meter-long sea giants of the large warships of the Qing Army, it is just a small thing like a toy, and the power of the old-style artillery used is also small, although it is already close shooting, but for the artillery of the Japanese Navy Division, the range is still too reluctant, and the hit rate is pitifully low, although more than a dozen shells barely hit the Qing warship, but unfortunately the penetration is insufficient, Except for the clanging of the warship, there was no result.

"Raise the sails, turn to the left, and prepare to rendezvous with the main fleet!"

Seeing that the fleet of the Japanese Navy Division was getting closer and closer, Wang Changgeng didn't want to play with it in a big battle, so he waved his hand solemnly, and gave the general order in a loud voice, and then saw that the vanguard fleet of the Qing army began to accelerate, first along the north-west direction, with the help of the crosswind, drew a beautiful arc on the ocean surface, and then took advantage of the tailwind, quickly shook off a large section of the vanguard fleet of the Japanese Navy Division, and drove towards the direction of the battle line of his main force at high speed.

"Chase, chase me!"

The vanguard fleet of the Japanese State finally took advantage of the opportunity of the Qing fleet to turn and shortened the distance between the two sides to about eighty steps, and was about to rush up to fight a broadside battle with the Qing fleet, but did not expect that after the Qing army turned to complete, the speed actually increased several times at once, and in an instant, the pursuers were thrown out of the two hundred steps.

"Yaga, Ono, fool! The Chinese fleet is there, turn to the southeast, copy the past, and eat the small fleet behind first! ”

Before going on the expedition, Sakata Yokozo had learned about the battle formation and artillery power of the Qing Army's naval division from the defeated soldiers of the Osaka Naval Division, but he didn't believe it very much at first, otherwise, he would not have led the whole fleet south to fight a decisive battle with the Qing fleet so easily. He himself led the main fleet to turn, took the tangential line, avoided the battle line where the main force of the Qing army was located, and rushed straight to the southeast battlefield, intending to join forces with his own interceptor fleet and eat the first detachment of the Qing army responsible for covering......