"Nope! ――”

Lin Yizhe, who fell on the flybridge, screamed, and he stretched out his hand with all his might, as if he wanted to grab the forehead that fell from the high cliff to the sea like a petal, but he could only watch her fall into the sea. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Lin Yizhe jumped up suddenly, staggered down the flying bridge, Bei Jinquan and the others were shocked, and hurriedly followed off the flying bridge.

Lin Yizhe rushed straight to the side of the boat like crazy, Pei Jinquan realized what Lin Yizhe was going to do, and said hurriedly: "Quick! Stop him! ”

At this time, Lin Yizhe had already rushed to the side of the ship, and was about to jump into the sea, two Chinese sailors not far from him flew in unison, and the sailors who were a little closer desperately hugged Lin Yizhe's waist, and the other sailor who was a little farther away grabbed Lin Yizhe's legs, and the three of them rolled together on the deck in an instant.

Lin Yizhe, who has always been weak, didn't know where he got the strength at this time, and he actually broke free from the hands of two strong sailors, and at the moment when he was just able to get up and run to the side of the ship again, another sailor pounced, hugged him, and dragged him back. The two sailors who had stopped him also pounced, and the three of them tried their best to suppress Lin Yizhe to death.

Lin Yizhe rolled his eyes, made a "hehe" sound in his mouth, and suddenly fainted.

Bei Jinquan, who witnessed this scene, was cold for a while, and his heart was almost jumping out of his cavity, a sailor saw Lin Yizhe fainting, as if he understood the cause, and immediately swung his fist at Lin Yizhe's chest and slammed it, Lin Yizhe's body was shocked, and he spit out a mouthful of bloodshot thick phlegm with "wow" in his mouth, and woke up.

"Quick...... Save people......" Lin Yizhe said weakly.

Bei Jinquan hurriedly rushed to the side of the boat, raised the binoculars, and looked at the sea where Eaya fell, only to see that there was only a bright red on the surface of the sea, but where was the shadow of Aya's body?

Lin Yizhe coughed violently, and coughed up a mouthful of bloody sputum, Pei Jinquan put down the binoculars, came to him, and was about to ask him how he was, but Lin Yizhe grabbed Pei Jinquan's arm and stood up hard.

At this time, Lin Yizhe's face was pale and cold, his eyes were like black holes, and Pei Jinquan couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart when he saw his appearance.

"Telescope......" Lin Yizhe said in a hoarse voice.

Pei Jinquan hurriedly took off his telescope and handed it over, Lin Yizhe snatched the telescope and looked at the place where his forehead fell into the sea.

At this time, the blood on the sea had spread out, turning into a faint red streamer, Lin Yizhe looked at it for a while, but he still didn't see the body of Aya, his body shook, and he almost fell again.

Seeing this, Pei Jinquan hurriedly stretched out his hand to support him. Lin Yizhe raised his binoculars and looked at the cliff.

At this time, there were already a lot of lion-headed soldiers dressed in white on the top of the cliff, and when they saw the appearance of the Dragon Banner battleship, they actually howled like wolves as if they were demonstrating!

"Fire!" Lin Yizhe returned the telescope to Pei Jinquan and ordered hoarsely.

Lin Yizhe's voice seemed to come from hell, so that all the people present couldn't help but be frightened when they heard it, Pei Jinquan saw the anger in Lin Yizhe's eyes, and was shocked for a while, and when he heard him order to open fire, he was a little at a loss.

"I said shoot! Didn't you hear?! Lin Yizhe said sharply.

Only then did Bei Jinquan come to his senses, he nodded again and again, turned around and gave the battle order.

When Lin Yizhe and Pei Jinquan re-boarded the flybridge, the sailors and gunners on the deck were all in place, and Lin Yizhe mechanically turned his head to see that the battle signal had been raised on the mast - the red battle flag, and wanted to look past the telescope and look at the stern side of the ship.

The "Jianjing" followed by the "Fujing" also raised the red flag at this time, Lin Yizhe put down the binoculars, looked at the bow of the ship, and saw that the gunners had pushed the 190-mm Schneider breech gun to the side of the gun door and began to reload the load.

The bow and stern of the "Fujing" each have a powerful 190-mm breech-loading gun, which adopts the mast type, and the bow can shoot forward when facing the enemy, and when firing to one side, the gunners only need to push the cannon mount along the circular metal slide rail to the side of the gun door to complete the gun turn. In this era when the turret has not yet been effectively developed, this is a very advanced and mature design.

At the same time as the bow main gun was prepared, the main gun on one side of the ear platform and the stern main gun were also turned.

With the gunner's command, the gunners completed their aim at the cliff, and after the gunner's loud command to "fire" in French, the gunners jerked the arquebus.

The main gun in the bow of the "Fujing" was the first to let out a roar, a dark red fire shot out from the muzzle, followed by a large cloud of black smoke, and after only a few seconds, the main gun on the ear platform opened fire, and then the main gun at the stern also roared.

At the top of the cliff, a huge cloud of smoke rose in an instant, and I saw that the trees and gravel on the top of the cliff were scattered and flying for a while, and many of the soldiers of the Lion's Head Society who couldn't dodge were blown up into the sky in an instant, and several soldiers fell to the bottom of the cliff together with the severed limbs that were blown off.

The soldiers of the Lion's Head Society obviously did not expect to be hit by such a terrifying blow, and immediately lost their ferocity just now, but before they could disperse, more shells fell on their heads.

After the guns of the "Fujing" completed a salvo, the "Jianjing" and the "Princess Heshuo" also began to fire a salvo, and for a time the cliff was completely shrouded in rising black smoke.

Lin Yizhe held the binoculars and looked at the cliff silently, and soon, the sea breeze blew away the gunsmoke, and Pei Jinquan saw that on the cliff, there were corpses of lion-headed soldiers in white clothes everywhere.

And just when the five cruisers completed the first salvo, and the next four gunboats did not have time to open fire, the huge cliff may not be able to withstand such a fierce artillery bombardment, and it collapsed with a bang!

Seeing a large number of rocks and cliffs falling into the sea one after another, setting off huge waves soaring into the sky, the Japanese officers who stood in the dense forest and watched this scene could not help but change color on their faces.

Saigo's eyes widened, and his face was full of consternation.

From the moment he heard the sound of artillery, he judged that it should be the sound of naval gun fire from the Chinese fleet. Because this kind of cannon sound is by no means capable of being produced by the Japanese fleet!

Although he had a certain psychological preparation for the arrival of the Chinese fleet, he still did not expect that the firepower of the Chinese fleet in front of him would be so powerful!

Thinking of the possible fate of those Japanese warships on the coast, Saigo's heart could not help but be clenched by a great fear that had never been seen before.

"Tell the ships to stop shooting!" Lin Yizhe looked at the cliff that fell into the sea, turned his head and said sharply to Pei Jinquan, "Go ahead, let's go find the Japanese!" ”

Pei Jinquan gave a loud order, and the "Fujing" raised the signal flag again, and began to turn, heading in the direction of the Langqiao coast. The rest of the battleships turned in turn, following behind the flagship.

At this time, the warships of the Japanese Navy were quietly moored in the Langqiao Sea, and the sky over the fleet was covered with black smoke from the burning of coal. The Japanese did not know that the Chinese fleet was sailing at high speed to the northwest of them.

At this moment, except for Saigo Komichi, who had already seen the power of the Chinese fleet's artillery first, where he was anxiously calculating his next move, the Japanese naval officers and men, who knew nothing about the arrival of the Chinese fleet, did not know what would happen in the next few hours.

At this time, the sea was calm and calm, and several seagulls flew leisurely by, Rear Admiral Ito Yuma stood on the flybridge of the ironclad ship "To", looked at the rough sea, took a deep breath of the salty sea breeze, stretched out his tired arms slightly, and felt extremely comfortable. The oppressive feeling that had just arisen in the bow and main gun room of the "East" was swept away.

In order to explore the reason for the slow firing speed of the 11-inch main gun of the "To", the brothers Ito Yuma and Ito Yuhiro led several technical officers into the bow gun room of the "To".

The main gun room of the "East" was built directly on the bow deck, and the bow was completely integrated into the ship, in a triangular shape, this gun room had a total of four gun windows, on each side of the slightly rounded and blunt triangular tip, and on each side near the root of the triangle, and on each side of the side near the root of the triangle, the 11-inch main gun of the "East" in wartime was fired outward. In the last battle with the Chinese warship, because the Chinese Navy's high-speed reconnaissance ship was sailing too fast and constantly changing positions, the main guns of the "East" often moved to another position when the main guns of the "East" were stretched out of the gun window, so that the gunners of the "East" had to move their cannons to another gun window, and at that time the Chinese warship ran to another position, and as a result, the Japanese gunners could hardly find a suitable opportunity to open fire while scolding the "Bagaya Road." I can only waste all my time on the back and forth movement between the cannon windows.

After learning about this situation, Ito Yuma formulated a new operating specification for the Japanese gunners, that is, to determine the position of the main gun to move back and forth between the gun windows on both sides, and when the warship is maneuvering, it is not necessary to remove the cannon from the gun window that has already stretched out, but to wait for the enemy ship to appear in the corresponding direction, and then shoot, so as to improve the shooting efficiency.

After this arrangement was completed, Ito wanted to summon the captains of the ships to a meeting on the "East" to discuss tactics against the enemy, but somehow he felt a little tired and did not give the order.

Probably influenced by his younger brother's luck mentality of "the Chinese fleet will not appear" and the victorious mood of firing artillery to save the army from fire and water that day, Ito Yuma also felt that this military adventure of conquering Taiwan might succeed.

Ito Yuma didn't know that his fluke idea would soon be shattered by the ruthless facts!

"Soot found!"

Suddenly, the lookout of the ironclad ship "East" shouted loudly!

Ito was taken aback when he heard the shout, and immediately ran out of the command tower, and when he came to the flybridge, he saw that his brother Ito Yuma had already raised his binoculars and was looking in the direction where soot appeared.

Ito raised his binoculars, and his telescope vaguely showed that there seemed to be a wisp of black smoke on the sea in the northwest direction!

This important discovery was immediately reported to the ships "Rijin", "Meng Chun", "Fengxiang" and "Kasuri" in the distance in the rear. The ships of the Japanese fleet were suddenly boiling, and almost all the captains of the ships were looking vigorously to the northwest with binoculars on the flybridge, and the lookouts were even more intent, nervously catching the targets that were flickering in the distance.

"Maybe a British warship watching the battle." Ito put down his binoculars and said to his brother, "It could also be a French warship." ”

Ito's speculation is not unreasonable, because just yesterday a British warship and a French warship appeared in this area.

"Maybe." Ito Yuma heard his younger brother's tone of indifference, so he only replied coldly, and did not put down the telescope in his hand.

Ito took out his pocket watch and looked at it, it was 9:12 (June 10, 1874).

Time passed minute by minute, and soon, the soot in the northwest direction changed from 1 wisp to 2, 3, and 4 wisps, and by 10 o'clock, the lookout soldiers of the "East" could roughly distinguish 5 to 6 wisps of soot from the telescope, and the amount of soot was still increasing!

"Certainly not British and French warships!" Ito Yuma put down the binoculars, glared at his younger brother, and said loudly, "It should be the Qing Fleet!" Get ready for battle! ”

At this time, the "East" again hoisted the signal that "soot was found in the northwest direction". At 10:16, the warship under the smoke in the distance gradually became clear, and a fleet of French light blue paint was slowly revealed, not only the lookouts on the "East", but also Ito Yuhiro and the first mate Hidematsu Tsunoda were also stunned.

What was shown in front of him was all the main ships of the Chinese Fujian Shipbuilding Fleet, which consisted of 5 cruisers and 4 gunboats!

“…… At first we saw only soot, then we saw the top of the tree, and when we got closer, we saw the light blue hull of the ship...... The enemy that appeared was the Great Fleet, which included all the elite ships of the Qing Kingdom and the Fujian Ship Administration and Naval Division! Kihachiro Okura, a Japanese arms dealer who was aboard the "East" at the time to provide artillery for the Japanese army, recorded this real scene in his diary.

Soon, a string of large signal flags was hurriedly raised to the top of the mast of the ironclad ship "East", "Enemy fleet found!" The "East" used this long-range signal to alert the four Japanese warships behind it.

The original cluster of soot turned out to be the main force of the Chinese Navy at this time. Ito's illusions of luck are completely shattered, and he must face up to the facts that appear in front of him, and the decisive battle seems to be inevitable.

Since the complete annihilation of China's Penghu naval division, the Japanese navy has always had an inexplicable fear of the Chinese fleet, fearing that it will encounter retaliation, and now the main steam warships of the Chinese navy, including two unfamiliar cruisers, have all appeared in front of them, and the Japanese fleet is full of fear and anxiety about the imminent big war.

Almost at the same time, the Chinese Navy also discovered the Japanese fleet.

"Soot from enemy ships spotted in the distance!"

Listening to the loud report of the watchmen on the mainmast in front of the armored cruiser "Fujing", Lin Yizhe, who was standing on the flybridge against the sea breeze, took a deep breath of salty air and clenched his fists.

After receiving the alarm, Pei Jinquan, the pipe band of the "Fujing," immediately ran onto the flybridge with the officers to take a look, and after confirming that everything was correct, the flag was quickly raised on the "Fujing" to inform the whole fleet of the situation. Almost at the same time, the lookouts on the masts of other Chinese warships also discovered the situation in the southeast direction, and all the ship's management bands went to the flybridge to watch, and the battle alarm sounded over the Chinese fleet for a while.

It was determined that it was the Chinese fleet that appeared, and Ito Yuma immediately ordered to "raise anchor" and "stand in the gun position". He understood that he had to be the first to stop the incoming ships ahead of him at a distance from the coast. He knew that the purpose of the Chinese fleet was not just to avenge the old sailors armed with old sailboats! Most likely, there will also be a fleet of ships transporting the land to destroy the Japanese army that has already landed!

The Chinese must have made careful preparations for this, otherwise, the Chinese fleet would not have appeared for so long!

At this time, Ito Yuma ordered the Japanese fleet to take the initiative to pull anchor and attack, although there was a consideration for a decisive battle, more to attract enemy ships from a distance as much as possible, so as to complete the task of covering the army, quite a tragic battle.

Thinking of the attitude of the "Saigo thug" towards himself, Ito Yuma's heart gave birth to a trace of anger.

As a series of signals such as "anchoring" were raised at the crossbow truss end of the Japanese fleet's flagship "Higashi," five Japanese warships carried out anchoring operations one after another. The sailors worked diligently to lift the heavy iron anchors from the mud and sand of the seabed. On the bow deck, the departmental officer was commanding loudly, and soon, the Japanese warships were launched one after another.

At this time, on the masts of the ships of the Chinese Navy, the huge red yellow dragon flag was replaced, and in the navy of the 19th century, this large-size battle flag was replaced, which means "combat". In the command tower of each ship, the sailors carried out various operations in an orderly manner with the French command issued by the pipe belt, and the whole process was like a well-functioning machine, interlocking. The connecting rods of the steam engines of Chinese warships began to accelerate and reciprocate, turning faster and faster, emitting a rhythmic roar similar to that of a steam train, and the propellers on the bottom of the ships accelerated and rotated, stirring up large swaths of surging water.

Like the Chinese warships, the masts of the Japanese warships were also replaced with huge sun flags, and the Japanese sailors worked hard to transport the shells and propellant packs to the main deck by sled, and the distribution was piled up at each gun position. In addition to the captain and first officer, some senior officers were assigned to various important positions on the ship to supervise the battle, and the Japanese sailors in white uniforms had already completed the loading of the first shells and stood by the guns. When the Japanese fleet was gradually preparing for battle, on the flybridge of the flagship "To", Ito Yuma saw the figure of Hayashi Yoshizhe standing on the flybridge of the "Fujing" through the telescope.