The battle kicked off in a fierce way. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The Z-shaped flag hoisted from the mast of the Mikasa played a role. The captains conveyed the orders of the commander-in-chief to their crews. Moreover, every Japanese sailor was eager for revenge for the sunken battleship, for the fallen comrades, for the damaged honor, and for the emperor and the Japanese Empire. They carried out their duties with boundless zeal, either pushing the ammunition hard or swinging their shovels vigorously to feed the high-quality anthracite of Wales into the blazing boilers.

Officers shouted alongside these hard-working sailors, issuing orders, passing instructions, updating them on the situation, and urging them to do more.

Some of the cadets of the Naval Academy, who had not yet completed their studies, were doing the same thing - only by putting them into the battle sequence could Togo Heihachiro give each battleship a sufficient number of crews - they were still young, lacking combat experience and prestige, but these problems did not prevent them from shouting at the sailors.

"Speed up, speed up!" A first-year cadet at the Naval Academy, who looked to be seventeen or eighteen years old, urged the soldier at his gun emplacement at a near-roaring volume, "Move faster, you're too slow!" ”

A sailor carrying a cannonball stops. "However, this is the fastest speed, Warrant Officer Takano [note]-"

"Not fast enough!" The cadet called, "You can only fire four shells a minute, and you can't defeat the Lucians!" ”

"We're only operating fifteen-centimeter guns—"

"Even if it's an eight-centimeter gun, we're going to let it deal a heavy blow to Lucia's fleet!" The Navy cadets announced, with a look of no joke.

For a moment, though, the sailors thought he was joking, and it was only when they noticed his increasingly stern gaze that they realized it was true, and they all sped up.

"The rise and fall of the imperial kingdom is in this battle, and the monarchs work hard to kill the enemy!" The naval cadets shouted, "For His Majesty the Emperor, for the sake of the Great Japanese Empire, artillery, rapid fire!" ”

With his shout, and a roar that was enough to temporarily lose one's hearing, the muzzle of the six-inch gun erupted into a bright flame that shot the shell out of the chamber.

Its target is the "Eagle". The battleship, which had turned into the "good fortune" of Rear Admiral Vizofort's new flagship, was at the head of the Russian naval formation, and the fluttering rear admiral's flag and its position made it a wonderful target; Moreover, all the Japanese sailors heard about the battleship's outstanding performance in the Battle of Guam. Two armored cruisers, as well as thousands of naval soldiers, all this made them angry and hateful about it, and saw it as a target that had to be destroyed.

With the exception of those crews that had been assigned to shoot at the target, every ship gun that could aim at the Eagle and open fire was firing at it. Hundreds of shells smashed into the battleship, sending its officers and sailors into a panic.

"God, how can this be? Why are the Japanese monkeys all firing at my flagship? Rear Admiral Wizofort looked blankly and bewilderably at the chief of staff and the captain of the ship beside him, as if he really did not understand why he had become the target of concentrated fire by the Japanese fleet.

How innocent he looks. The chief of staff thought it was very funny. He turned to the captain of the battleship, gave the stunned man a helpless wry smile, and then turned back and reminded his commander: "General, we are in the first place in the formation, and there is your rear admiral's flag on the mast. ”

"I'm afraid that this battleship has long been targeted by Japanese monkeys." The captain continued, "After all, she sank two armored cruisers. ”

Vizofert's body shook slightly. The position of the battleship, its record, and his flag...... The rear admiral shook his head full of reproach. "I should have thought of a—"

His self-talk was interrupted by an explosion on the port side of the battleship: an apparently twelve-inch shell drilled into its hull from above the waterline armor belt, tearing a gaping hole there. The battleship shook violently, almost knocking the unsuspecting Wizofort to the deck.

The rear admiral's face turned pale.

"Fight back! Fight back! He shouted frantically, "Fire all our artillery fire, immediately!" ”

"Please remain calm, General." His chief of staff reminded him to "follow our predetermined plan......"

Booking a plan? Wizofert frowned. Yes, before the battle began, there was indeed a predetermined plan: the Eagle, and her two sister ships, were to start firing when the Japanese fleet was close to within five thousand meters - a measure that had to be taken, and less than half of the thirteen-inch shells used by the three battleships had to be exchanged for accuracy.

Now is not yet the time to open fire - the two fleets have not yet reached such a closeness.

But Vizofort couldn't wait any longer.

"Don't worry about the plan." He shouted, "Fire!" ”

"General!" The Chief of Staff rushed to Vizofort and blocked him, while holding the captain who was about to deliver the order, trying to stop the mistake from happening. "At such a distance, it is simply impossible for our gunners to hit anything......"

"They can, and they must." Wizofort pushed him away and said to the captain, "Colonel, tell your gunners, everyone, that if they still want to go home alive to be reunited with their wives and children, aim at the bridge of the Japanese flagship and blow it up to the sky." ”

"Uh......" The captain swallowed with difficulty, and said slowly, "General, my crew is very taboo to mention going home, wife or fiancée before the battle begins, they think it will lead to their death......

"Stupid superstition!" Vizofort shouted angrily, his body trembling as if he had suffered a stroke - he had a hard time controlling his emotions. At this critical juncture, the battle was raging, and the captain of his flagship actually reminded him of the superstitions on this ship.

Wizofort even came up with the idea of removing this stupid guy from his post.

However, he couldn't do that, after all, he couldn't find a more suitable officer to replace the dumb guy in front of him, and no matter what, he was always a qualified captain with an excellent track record.

He can only urge him to do the right thing.

"Immediately convey my orders, and inform the other ships—"

Another explosion interrupted his words again and exacerbated his panic: it had happened just below the bridge, close at hand, and if the Japanese had been a little luckier, or if it had been a twelve-inch shell, the "Eagle" would have lost its command structure.

He is a leading member of this command body.

Vizofert's face turned whiter. He urged, "Move fast, Colonel, we're getting beaten!" ”

The captain did not hesitate any longer.

A few minutes later, the Eagle broke its silence and all its guns on the port side began firing at Mikasa. Then the "Borodino" and "Alexander III" joined the firefight.

In turrets filled with gunpowder smoke and the smell of vodka, the gunners of the Russian Navy poured twice as much enthusiasm into their work as their opponents. They all remembered that they had sunk two Japanese armored cruisers, and how the fleet had escaped the Japanese trap and turned defeat into victory in the naval battle near Guam: the gunners of the "Letvizan" destroyed the bridge of the Yellowskin Monkey's flagship with a single accurate shot, leaving these cunning enemies out of command and into confusion - and that was exactly what they were trying to do.

The artillerymen believed that they could win the battle. Confidence makes them passionate and motivated.

It's just that their passion and drive don't translate into hits.

Vizofut gazed at the rising but not a single column of water near the Mikasa, and was agitated: they were proving that his order was a mistake and that the chief of staff was correct.

What Vizofort wanted to see was the opposite, not just for his face, but for his life - if the chief of staff was right, then now, every shell fired, represented another step towards defeat.

He felt his soul gripped by something.

As if sensing his feelings, the chief of staff put his mouth next to the captain's ear and whispered: "Tell your gunner, pay attention to the rhythm, you don't need to deliberately aim at the bridge, but you must aim and then fire......"

He knew what Vizofort was thinking, but good fortune was always temporary, not forever.

He can only try to make up for the mistakes that have been made.

The battleship was shaken again.

"Shot in the stern!" Someone shouted.

"We hit!" A cheerful voice echoed through the air - it belonged to the young first-year cadet. Brigadier Officer Takano, whose eyes were filled with joy, patted the gunner's shoulder and encouraged, "This is the standard of the Imperial Navy, gentlemen, please keep up the good work." ”

The gunner did not speak. His work is so important that he must concentrate his full attention. But the sailors who loaded the ammunition shouted.

"I'm running out of ammunition, warrant officer."

Takano turned his head to the rear. It was only then that he noticed that there were not many shells and cartridges left that had been piled up near the artillery.

The sailors responsible for carrying ammunition from the ammunition depot to the gun emplacements were hard at work, and their movements did not pause for a moment, but their speed could not keep up with the rate at which the ammunition was consumed.

Joy vanished from his eyes. He walked up to a sailor and tried to figure out why this was the case.

It was at this time that the explosion occurred.

Roaring, flames, waves, Takano felt his body float up, catapulted like a projectile into the bulkhead of the cabin, and collided violently with it.

Then he lost consciousness.

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Note: The rank of the first-year students of the Japanese Naval Academy is the first-class Kaicao, but in this book, these cadets were assigned to the fleet when they were given temporary military ranks (to be continued, if you want to know what happened next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )