"Asahi", the newest battleship of the Combined Fleet, cruised like a mechanically equipped Angel of Death in the sea directly in front of the Russian fleet. Pen %Fun www.biquge.info her four twelve-inch guns and half of her six-inch guns were firing at Rear Admiral Wizofert's flagship, and as the distance between the two fleets continued to shrink, the battleship's three-inch guns joined the fray.

The commander of the First Fleet's First Sentai Squadron, Rear Admiral Masatoshi Uchida, was watching the decisive battle at sea from the bridge of the Asahi. Unlike the elated Japanese officers around him, his face was extremely heavy, and his eyebrows were unusually twisted - no one realized it, but the rear admiral had seen that, although the Japanese navy still had the upper hand and Lucia's fleet looked precarious, the situation could change radically at any moment.

There is a fatal flaw: the hit rate, which is too low.

From the beginning of the battle until now, in ten minutes, the battleship "Asahi" alone has fired hundreds of shells, but almost all of them have missed, either to the left or to the right, either too far forward or too far behind, and only a few have hit the target - and none of them are large-caliber shells - and for a large battleship with heavy armor, this damage is not worth mentioning at all.

The same was true of several other ships of the fleet, only the "Fuji" performed slightly better, although the hit rate was still low, but it hit at least one twelve-inch shell.

It's better than nothing.

The dense barrage of hundreds of guns fired together seemed ferocious, and the columns of water splashed by the falling shells were spectacular, but in fact they had no meaning - except to deplete the fleet's ammunition reserves. Uchida's mood slowly became irritable. The flagship of Lucia's fleet should have been badly damaged, and the fleet could calmly turn its fire to the next target, but the reality was too bad.

The Lucians could turn the tide at any moment.

The rear admiral's eyebrows tightened.

Unfortunately, his worries did not make the situation better. The four battleships and two armored cruisers of the First Sentai maintained their rate of fire and their accuracy as well as their accuracy, and their targets were still shuttling through the water curtain, approaching a desperate attempt to lead Lucia's fleet out of the trap and gain a favorable firing position. And from time to time, its front main gun would also fire two shells at the "Asahi", of course, always missing.

It seems that this is the only effect of the barrage thrown by the fleet, interfering with the aiming of Lucia's artillery. However, Masatoshi Uchida has a bad feeling that this interference effect is gradually becoming weaker.

The shells fired by Lucia's flagship are getting closer and closer to the "Asahi".

Uchida Masatoshi looked at the column of water that was only a little distance from the "Asahi", and turned to the captain of the battleship standing next to him, the Admiral Osa of Sotaro Misu. "Sotaro Misu, your gunners should increase their hit rate. They are now behaving as a waste of shells, and there is still time. Lucia is getting used to the battle, and it may not be long before the shells will land on your ship. Can't delay any longer! ”

"I beg your pardon, Your Excellency." Sotaro Misu bowed to him and explained, "The officers of this ship have done their best. However, this ship is a new ship, and there is a lack of experienced officers and sailors......"

"Misu Daisa, I don't need your explanation, the explanation is meaningless." Uchida Masatoshi scolded. He knew that what Sotaro Misu was saying was true, that the "Asahi" was a new ship that had only been completed for a few months, that much of the equipment had not yet been fully commissioned, and that many of the officers and sailors were newcomers - cadets who had not completed their studies and recruits who had just been drafted, a flock of fledglings.

This is a helpless objective reality. Before the completion of the "Asahi" and "Shikishima", the navy had only two first-class warships, the "Fuji" and "Yashima", but now the navy has six first-class warships, and three first-class warships remain in Britain to be received, and the number has increased by 3.5 times at once, and the experienced officers and sailors of the previous point are simply not enough to keep them in normal operation.

Of course, the Navy also has two armored cruisers, the "Asama" and the "Tokiwa", several second-class battleships and a dozen protective cruisers, but in addition to the armored cruisers, there are also the crew of the "Zhenyuan", and the crews of other warships are also unfamiliar with first-class battleships. They have a lot of advantages over mere novices, but just as much it takes time to fully meet the requirements.

And the time, Lucia did not, and neither did Japan - the time for the delivery of the battleships was too close to the time of the official declaration of war. The Navy had to compensate for this problem by taking crews from several old ships and dispersing them to new ones. It's just that Uchida Masatoshi feels that this is a mistake, the combat capability of the new ship has hardly improved, and the old ship has been reduced.

That's just the way it is.

This battle exposed all the weaknesses of the Combined Fleet.

But that's not a question now. Even if there are so many unqualified newcomers in the fleet, it still has to complete the task assigned by Vice Admiral Togo. If the officers and sailors do not have enough experience and ability, they have to make up for it with double efforts.

This is war, not a drill.

Another column of water rose in the sea very close to the Asahi.

"We must annihilate the Lucian fleet, or inflict heavy damage on it. If this task is to be accomplished before our ammunition runs out, the hit rate of the fleet must increase. Since the "Asahi" is the flagship of the fleet, it should lead by example and play an exemplary role. Misu Daisa, this is my order, you must complete it. Masatoshi Uchida demanded in an irrefutable tone.

Sotaro Misu could only bow to him and accept his request. "I will do my best to push the gunners of this ship to complete the mission."

These were the last words he uttered.

Because at the next moment, many people saw that the bridge of the battleship "Asahi" suddenly burst into a bright, spreading fireball.

Rear Admiral Vicefort froze in stunned place, barely believing his eyes. And when he realized how real it was, that one shell had indeed hit the bridge of the flagship of the Japanese fleet, and that his battleship was still struggling in the water, and despite a few more shells smashing into its hull, the commander, who had been troubled by despair and fear for several minutes, fell into ecstasy and began to shout excitedly.

"Praise God, who did this?" He shouted, and repeated, "I'm going to reward him!" I'm going to give him a medal! ”

Not a single officer answered his question, because the facts were obvious: only the front main guns of the "Letvizan" were able to fire at the flagship of the Japanese fleet. But the officers still couldn't accept the fact that it was in their favor - and indeed not by Vizofort, otherwise he wouldn't have asked who did it - it wasn't like what the gunners on this battleship could achieve.

The officers knew about the sailors, they didn't have such good technology and it seemed impossible to have such good luck.

But the explosion at the flagship of the Japanese also does not seem to be a hallucination. It was hit, and it was shot on the bridge, and it looked like someone inside the turret had good luck.

This is the only plausible explanation.

Still, the bewildered officers spent much of their time speculating in vain speculation, whispering questions, exchanging ideas with each other, discussing, trying to reach an agreement. Then they abandoned this doomed approach, and a lieutenant was singled out and sent to the turret to check the situation there.

The lieutenant rushed to his destination as fast as he could, opened the hatch of the turret, and was taken aback.

What he saw was a group of cheerful sailors dancing and cheering in the smoke in the choking turret, celebrating like a rear admiral on a bridge. Unlike the rear admiral, though, at least a third of these guys still carry bottles of wine in their hands; Looking at the deck again, several empty bottles were rolling back and forth as the battleship shook.

The gang looks like they've drunk quite a bit of vodka.

The lieutenant felt that this was the most incredible situation he had ever seen, crazy and chaotic. How could such a group of sailors hit the target? They can't even see the target clearly! He thought, trying his best to separate the mess from what had just happened.

But the shouts of the sailors reunited the two facts.

"We hit! We hit! They surrounded a sergeant who looked delirious with gunpowder and alcohol, took turns hugging him and cheering at him: "Well done, Yuri, so beautiful!" ”

"Guys, listen......" After being hugged by the last sailor, the sergeant staggered to his feet and confidently but vaguely announced, "Give me another bottle of vodka, and I can blast that Japanese monkey battleship under water......"

Without warning and without knowing why, the lieutenant suddenly erupted in a violent burst of anger. He rushed forward, grabbed one of the sailors by the collar and snatched the vodka from his walk, then dragged the drunk back to his post while yelling at the other drunks: "Get back to your posts, this damn battle isn't over yet!" ”

The sailors were silent for a long time, and finally they got into action and staggered back to their positions. But the sergeant shook it slowly, snorting a puff of wine. "What can I do for you, sir?"

"Bomb me the Japanese flagship!" The lieutenant began to be hysterical.

"Yes, sir. That's what we're going to do. The sergeant replied, gave him an irregular salute, and walked back with a slower, swayer pace than when he had come.

A little later, the turret, which had experienced a brief silence, opened fire again.

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Note: Based on his qualifications, it seems that Masatoshi Uchida should not just be the commander of the First Sentai of the First Fleet

PS: Some friends who have already read it have paid attention, the "Misu Sotaro" that appeared before in this article has been revised to "Misu Sotaro Osa" and "Misu Osa" - Misu Sotaro's surname is Misu, I was going to use all the full names when I coded the word last night, but I gave up this idea halfway through the type, and it turned out to be an inexplicable Sansu Zong (to be continued.) )