Good luck is always temporary, and even more so for a group of sailors whose brains are already soaked in alcohol. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Wizofut soon saw an embarrassing picture, similar to what Uchida had seen: shells were constantly falling around the Asahi, sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right, sometimes forward, sometimes backward. To the comfort of the rear admiral, firstly, this was the effect of the guns of the "Letvizan", not for the entire fleet, secondly, he did not put much in the expectations of the sailors who were drinking vodka, and thirdly, the situation was improving.

After the Japanese flagship was shot on the bridge, for a time the frequency of Japanese firing slowed down, as if morale had been taken - and this was very likely, the loss of the commander would always be a blow to the morale of the fleet - although they had since re-accelerated their firing and became more violent than at the beginning, but the "Leetvizan" had taken advantage of this opportunity to complete the turn.

This is the first good news, and in addition to this there is another: there is a problem with the command of the Japanese fleet.

The Japanese should have turned some of their fire to the Borodino, the new name of the Indiana, which had not yet been finally turned, but with some effort it had secured a firing position for its thirteen-inch guns, and the third shot had almost hit the third ship of the Japanese fleet.

It was still a moment of good fortune, it seems, but the Japanese on that battleship could not have known so much, and they should have turned part of its firepower to the Borogino in response to the threat it posed - but not on that battleship, nor on several other Japanese ships.

Something went wrong with the command of the Japanese. No one corrected the initial directives, and no one corrected the blind vengeance impulses of the junior officers out of anger.

They fired so many shells at the "Letvizan", apparently, no longer because of the orders they had received. They want revenge.

Vizofort was not surprised, since the shell that had exhausted the sailors—and perhaps the entire fleet—had struck the bridge of the Japanese flagship, and the Japanese commander and his staff there were either dead or seriously wounded, and no one would have been spared. The top of the chain of command was destroyed, and so it turned out.

Until the new commander raised his battle flag.

But if the commander of the Japanese fleet did not appoint his successor before the battle, and none of the captains had enough courage and initiative, it would have taken a long time for a new commander to be born, and before that the fleet was a mess.

It cannot react in time to changes on the battlefield.

Determined to take advantage of this opportunity—or at least that was still an instinctive quality for him—Wizofort issued a new order for the "Eagle" at the end of the formation to adjust its speed slightly so that it could engage the two armored cruisers at the end of the Japanese fleet after completing the turn.

It's a card that is forced to be played. The Japanese had a numerical advantage, and if a standard line of battleship was used, with one battleship against another, then the two Japanese armored cruisers would be free to participate in any group of firefights by virtue of their speed superiority, forming a local firepower advantage and assisting the Japanese battleship in sinking or inflicting heavy damage on its opponents. And then......

A vicious circle in which the situation becomes more and more unfavorable, eventually leading to the destruction of the fleet.

So Vyzofert ordered the "Eagle" to deal with two Japanese armored cruisers. With only thin armor and guns not strong enough to tear through the battleship's armor at normal engagements, the Eagle would not fall into disadvantage in a one-on-two battle, but it would have a high probability of killing its opponents.

Two together.

Vizofort had a little ambition, and if the Eagle could not do this, his tactics were meaningless: three battleships against four battleships, the Japanese could concentrate the firepower of two battleships on one target - this behavior could be spontaneous, or even misaimed and not necessarily necessary for orders - and in the end, if the battle dragged on for too long, the same result.

The Eagle had to move quickly.

It's not easy to do, but there's hope.

Wizofert's gaze darted back and forth over each of the Japanese fleet's warships, then turned to his chief of staff, giving him a wrenched and embarrassed smile.

"Hopefully this time it will be a success."

"At least the Japanese haven't changed their speed and course yet." The chief of staff was reassured, but it didn't work.

Explosions from various parts of the "Letvizan" ruined his efforts at once, and they told everyone on board the warship that their opponents had found a sense and that their shots were becoming more accurate.

The hard time has arrived, a little sooner than expected.

"Take care to look for cover, order all the artillery that can be fired at full speed," the rear admiral shouted, "tell the gunners not to care about the hits, I only hope now that they can disrupt the Japanese aiming." ”

He was answered with more and more violent explosions. The bad news that the bridge got began to increase.

"Starboard fire!"

"The officer's canteen was shot, and the captain, the medical detachment and the wounded there were all killed!"

"Water in the boiler room!"

"We lost two hundred and fifty-two mm guns!"

"Captain......

In Vizofert's mind, panic quickly replaced nervousness, and when the rear of the bridge was hit by a shell, possibly three inches, it gave way to panic.

The "Letvizan" was already enveloped in thick smoke, and the hull was damaged in many places, in many fires, and slightly tilted, which the Japanese achieved in less than twenty minutes. It was a concern as to how long the ship would last under fire - the only consolation to the rear admiral was that his flagship had not yet lost control.

Perhaps there was something else that could give him comfort: the drunken gunners of the "Letvizhan" hit the target again, four times, the "Borodino" and the "Duke Suvorov" inflicted more scars on their opponents, and the "Eagle" began to exchange fire with two armored cruisers. However, being too concerned about the damage to his flagship, Vizofert didn't notice any of the good news.

All he saw and heard was bad news, and worse news.

The battleship shook again.

"Shot in the engine room!" Someone shouted.

Panic turned into fear. Wizofert's body trembled, almost speechless. "Report, damage report, how fast do we still have?"

"Five knots, it can't be any higher, General." It took almost two minutes for the captain of the "Letvizan" to get an answer from his chief engineer and turn it to the ears of the rear admiral.

He dealt a heavy blow to Wizofort.

"No!"

With only five knots left, any tactics were pointless at such a slow speed, and even if the Japanese did not react so quickly, with twice the speed, they could easily regain their ideal firing position. Vizofort was deflated and lost the last shred of faith in the fight.

But his chief of staff leaned in.

"General, you must temporarily transfer command." He advised, "Let the Borokino command the formation and continue to carry out your plan." ”

He said, "Your plan," hoping to get Vizofort to agree to a temporary transfer of his command. However, the rear admiral's mind was another thought - "abandon the ship". Wizofert was tempted to give the order, but he did not want to hand himself over to a vulnerable lifeboat, which was the only ship he could board since he left the Letvizan, though only temporarily.

The rear admiral hesitated, his mouth open, but no sound came out. His attitude and the new explosion on the warship made everyone anxious.

"General?" The chief of staff urged.

"I can't be sure...... "Do you think we should abandon the ship, Colonel?" How many more opportunities do we have? ”

"Not much, but you have to take a gamble, General." The chief of staff said, "If we give up now, we will all be killed by the Japanese." ”

He was right, but Vizofort had his own concerns. "Do you think the Borodino will leave us behind and lead the fleet to escape?"

"I don't know, General." The chief of staff replied, "But you have no other choice. ”

In fact, there is another option, raise the white flag, surrender, stay in the Japanese prisoner of war camp until the end of the war, and then return to Russia to be tried by a military court, stripped of his rank and honor, and finally spend the last part of his life in a prison.

Vizofort will not choose this path, he knows, others know, and the rear admiral also knows.

So there's only one answer.

"Signal the Borodino to take the place of the Leetvizan." Vizofut's voice was lowered and became heard only by a few, "May Admiral Andreyev be a brave patriot." ”

"Hopefully, we'll be able to hold out until the situation changes." The chief of staff muttered beside him, looking to the rear of the battleship. Although the smoke obscured his vision, he knew where he was and what he was doing.

The "Eagle", the battleship on which the fleet had all hopes, was exchanging shells with its two weak opponents, thirteen-inch against eight-inch, shooting inaccurately but absolutely ferociously. The gunners, who had nothing to do since the beginning of the battle, threw several times more enthusiasm into the work than at other times, loading, aiming, firing, again, and again, and again...... They repeat all the steps like a machine, so that the cycle goes on in an orderly manner.

The actions of these soldiers caused the captains of the two armored cruisers to feel psychological pressure beyond expectations. Admiral Osa Dewa Shigeto, the captain of the "Tokiwa", had already had a slight concern about the battle that the battleship was forced to be involved in, and now he had to keep his eyes on the rear main gun of the "Eagle", and every shot it fired made him tense his nerves.

Thankfully, the deadly large-caliber shells were all missed.

With a little rejoicing, the Admiral prayed to the gods for the blessing of the opponent's cannonballs that continued to deviate from his own ship until the end of the battle.

He did not realize that the prayer would not always work, and the shells of the Russians would not always miss the target.

A thirteen-inch shell suddenly hit the front main gun of the "Tokiwa". It easily tore through the turret's five-.9-inch-thick gun cover, killing all the sailors inside the turret with a violent explosion, and then causing a fire.

After a while, along the bomb shaft, flames began to spread towards the ammunition depot.

Nothing could stop it: in order to increase the rate of fire, Japanese sailors opened every fire door in the turret and ammunition depot - just like the Royal Navy they followed. It was also a parody of the Royal Navy, and in order to maintain the maximum rate of fire while still remaining long enough to fight, the Japanese increased the amount of ammunition carried by the warships by fifty per cent for each gun - and these extra shells and their cartridges were piled up at the doors of the ammunition depots and on both sides of the passages, and no protection was taken for ease of use.

Even if they had resorted to protections, they would have been removed - still the practice of the Royal Navy, the fearless Nelson spirit, the persistent, desperate intent to attack, the arrogance and arrogance that must have arisen of a fleet that had not encountered a rival at sea since the Battle of Trafalgar.

The Japanese did not know, and certainly could not know, that in another world, sixteen years later, the Royal Navy would lose three expensive battlecruisers in a world-famous naval battle, but now they would face their own disaster.

As the flames spread downward, a rapid chain reaction immediately began: the projectile packets piled up on both sides of the passage were ignited first, which led to a new explosion, spreading over more areas, which in turn led to more explosions, violent and unstoppable, along the position of the front main gun, from the inside to the outside, a dazzling fireball erupted, and then the entire battleship was split in two without any suspense.

Every gaze that could see the Joban was drawn to it, though it had begun to sink rapidly by the time many of its eyes turned in this direction. Soon, in just a few minutes, the warship's stern was raised high, and then it sank vertically into the sea, leaving only a group of struggling sailors.

On the bridge of the messy "Letvizan", the chief of staff of Vizofort began to laugh. (To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )