But at this time, the majestic Haitian did not have the slightest intention of constricting, although it has been retreating, so as not to chase after the Fuji, but the diamond-shaped layout at this time fully reflects the superiority, even if it is facing the enemy with the side and rear, the Haitian can still exert 3/4 of the main gun firepower

Although the Fuji also adopted a comprehensive protection design, even if the bow and stern were protected by armor, it was difficult to cause substantial damage to it in a short period of time, but when the Haitian made a big circle, so that the only remaining Japanese patrol Suma finally appeared in its artillery range, the latter immediately became a cup

Due to Japan's limited domestic shipbuilding capacity, the standard displacement of the Suma is only 2,657 tons, and it is difficult to think of a high strike resistance. What's more, its dome armor is too thin, the thickest part is only 50mm, and it can't prevent the 210mm blasting bomb from the Haitian at all, and the result is like a papier-mâché window, hitting a big hole, and then the fire naturally spreads towards those core cabins

What's worse is that according to the original construction plan, the Suma was supposed to be officially put into service in 1896 at the earliest, but after the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Daitogou, the Japanese Navy, in order to recover its strength as soon as possible, not only tried to compress the construction period, but even risked omitting many necessary testing and acceptance steps, resulting in a large number of hidden dangers on the Suma that could not be discovered and eliminated, making its already fragile hull even more vulnerable.

In addition, the Suma has been in service for too short, and the ship is full of rookies and rookies, the real one, so the damage management of the ship after being shot is also a mess

"1 minute and 23 seconds, only 1 minute and 23 seconds passed between the attack on the Patrol and its sinking, and the firepower is simply that," said German Rear Admiral Paul Hoffmann, putting away his pocket watch, looking incredulous.

As the naval battle continued, they became more and more aware of the strength of the Haitian, and if they were to be their enemy, what would they do to survive it?

But the commander of the British Far East Fleet, Philistine, regained his composure at this time, and he calmly analyzed, "The firepower of the armored cruiser Haitian is indeed terrifying, but the Japanese ships she sank are all protective cruisers without waterline armor without exception, and for the armored ship Pratt Captain, she seems to have achieved nothing until now." From this point of view, it is not so much that she has too much firepower, but that the protective cruiser is too incompetent"

"That's true." , French Navy Captain Frank also affirmed Philmante's opinion, "I think after this naval battle, no one will continue to build large and medium-sized protective cruisers of more than 4,000 tons, once the enemy is all replaced with the same armored cruisers, although the Haitian is still an excellent ship type, but it is certainly impossible to have an overwhelming advantage like the one shown in this naval battle."

"It's not that there is no way at all, she can lean over and launch torpedoes, anyway, there is only one enemy ship left, the Captain Pratt," said the American Adu, but he didn't know that Li Hui had not installed torpedo tubes on the Haitian at all

"Sure enough, you still need torpedo tubes!" , Deng Shichang looked at the hard bones that couldn't be gnawed, and let out such an exclamation. However, it did not get Zhou Chunyu's approval, the latter pointed out that this kind of work can be completely handed over to Zhijing Guangbing to complete, and there is no need to let a capital ship like the Haitian risk torpedo explosion and heavy damage, and a warship that the enemy cannot sink dies in his own hands, which is too speechless

However, the three warships are not able to carry out this mission at least for now, because the maximum speed of the Fuji is faster than that of the two ships of Zhijing (mainly because the ship is much newer), and the diamond-shaped main gun layout is not afraid to flee at full speed without facing away from the enemy, and the three ships cannot catch up with it at all

Speaking of which, Haitian and Fuji are really similar in terms of design ideas, the same comprehensive protection design, the same diamond-shaped main gun layout, but the former has a larger tonnage, better subsystems, and better handling of details, and the performance is enough to crush the latter

Li Hui also remembered this sentence at this time, but it was because he found another serious mistake of his own

With a caliber of 210 mm, armor-piercing shells are enough to pose a mortal threat to the Captain Pratt, even without capping. Even if you can't penetrate the main armor belt in the middle, you can at least penetrate the bow and stern armor and cause water ingress, and the thickness of its armor is too large, resulting in a narrow main armor belt, and it doesn't need to sink too much to cause the main armor belt to sink underwater, which is almost like no protection.

However, when Li Hui asked the venture capital company to sell shells to Beiyang, he only sold blasting shells, which is the fundamental reason why Haitian has no way to deal with the Fuji now

actually inadvertently made a serious low-level mistake, which couldn't help but make Li Hui a little embarrassed, but at the same time he was also relieved, today's Haitian performance is really amazing, hiding clumsiness is not a bad thing, he doesn't want to raise the flag against the Qing Dynasty in advance, and attract the Eight-Nation Alliance in advance, anyway, no matter how strong the Fuji is, it can just be able to breathe a little longer

Vice Admiral Yoshishin Inoue, commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, also has a clear understanding of this, although the Haitian cannot sink the Fuji, but the Fuji cannot help the Haitian!

On the one hand, the difference in firepower between the two sides is four or five times (in terms of ammunition projection); On the other hand, the armor coverage area on the Fuji is much smaller than that of the Haitian, so the shells hit by the Fuji have a greater chance of falling on the unprotected parts, although they are all superstructures, will not enter the water, and generally do not affect the firepower (iron aiming is good), but casualties are inevitable

In addition, the hit rate of the Haitian's shelling was also more than ten times higher than that of the Fuji, and after the sinking of the Suma, it changed the previous obscene practice and boldly approached the Fuji gun, and the hit rate was even higher, and soon the latter smoked everywhere, and the secondary guns on the enemy's side were all dumb, but fortunately, the main gun had strong armor protection, and there was no one that could not be used for the time being, otherwise the loss would be great.

However, it was still very dangerous to continue, because the arson power of the silver explosives was fully demonstrated on the deck of the Fuji under the intensive and precise shelling of the Haitian, and the ability of the Fuji to extinguish fires continued to decline as casualties continued to increase