"How's it going?" Togo Heihachiro asked depressedly, he had expected many results, but he didn't expect that Itsukushima would be the first command flagship to be hit. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Itsukushima, as one of the three scenic ships, was designed by the French design master Bai Laoyi himself, after successively designing the "Kaohsiung" and "Yaeyama" unprotected cruisers, Bai Laoyi began to study the targeted warships of the Ke Yuan, and at that time, because of financial reasons, Bai Laoyi gave up the design of the 6,000-ton first-class coastal defense ship that was enough to resist the Dingyuan ship, and instead designed a second-class coastal defense ship with a slightly smaller tonnage and low cost.

Finally, the French "Yellow Spring" class small ironclad ship as a blueprint, the hull structure refers to the "Sfax" protective cruiser, to build a special coastal defense ship, because it can not compete with the Dingyuan ship in armor, so Bai Laoyi finally chose to highlight his advantages in firepower, so that the gap between the two sides is not so big, therefore, later generations will Songdao-class protective cruisers collectively referred to as the Sanjing ship.

The armament is equipped with a 320 mm naval gun, with a total length of 12.778 meters, a gun body weight of 66 tons, a bore length of 12.16 meters (38 times the caliber), an effective firing range of 6,000 meters, and a maximum firing range of 12,000 meters. The piercing capacity of the shells through wrought iron is 1110 mm at the muzzle, 907 mm at 1000 m, 823 mm at 2000 m, and 334 mm at 8000 m, using old-fashioned black powder.

In terms of firepower, Itsukushima was definitely able to suppress the Dingyuan ship back then, but because its protection ability was too poor, most of the time, Itsukushima could only hide behind and secretly open fire.

And often hiding behind to shoot black guns, and can get combat exploits, but also can protect themselves, is naturally the first choice of the flagship, although the power of the Itsukushima is only 5400 horses, the maximum speed is 16.5 knots. But it still does not affect his position in the fleet.

Therefore, Itsukushima has naturally become the flagship, and it is not the flagship of a warband, Itsukushima is the flagship of the commander of the Third Fleet and the Fifth Sentai Fleet, that is to say, on the Itsukushima, his commander is not a rear admiral who is only in charge of one team like other warships, but Vice Admiral Shichiro Kataoka.

Under its command of the 5th, 6th and 7th teams, a total of three teams and eight torpedo boat fleets, a total of 17 capital ships, 30 torpedo boats, Itsukushima was hit, although the commanders of the other two teams will quickly take over the command of the entire Third Fleet, and ensure that the next battle is not subject to any command problems.

But the flagships of the commander of the Nima fleet were bombed, what should be said about the morale of the officers and men? In any case, just after the Itsukushima was hit by that torpedo, it meant that the Japanese were already at a disadvantage, at least in terms of morale.

"Report to Your Excellency Commander, the situation may not be good, the speed of the Itsukushima has slowed down, according to the judgment, the wound should not be small, and it is not clear whether the Itsukushima can be saved." The staff officer with him turned back into the control tower with a depressed face.

Itsukushima is not the most powerful warship of the Third Fleet, the most powerful warship is the battleship Fuso, but according to convention, battleships generally do not serve as flagships, to put it bluntly, because it has rough skin and thick flesh, and when it goes to the battlefield, it is to go to the front to be shot, anyway, ordinary small guns can't help him.

"Inform Kataoka to rescue the battleship as much as possible, and if it really doesn't work, abandon the ship as soon as possible." Heihachiro Togo sighed, Luck, is the fortune of the Great Japanese Empire coming to an end?

After finishing speaking, Heihachiro Togo slowly stood up and couldn't help but look at the Chinese fleet in the distance. It has been almost half an hour since the two sides started the war, so far the Japanese side has sunk a Izumi, and now it has basically damaged Itsukushima, and the other capital ships are currently fine, at most they have taken a shot and some losses, which are all within the normal range.

As for the torpedo boats, he does not know how much they have lost at present, and at present, the only one that can use radio communication in naval operations is the Chinese Empire, and other countries do not have this capability at all, although the Japanese side is also trying its best to study, but the technical barrier is not so easy to break through, and the torpedo boat fleet that has broken away from the formation, no one knows what their results will be?

Of course, it is certain that so far the Chinese fleet has not seen a single explosion, and even if there is, it is caused by the naval guns here. On the contrary, the destroyers of about three or four thousand tons in the outermost part kept venting, although those warships looked strange, but by observing their firing angles, it was not difficult to find that their target was actually the torpedoes fired by those torpedo boats.

And their main guns were also bombarded indiscriminately against the torpedo boats, and with the expansion of the fleet's defensive circle, the torpedo boat formations could only be forced to continue to retreat, and then until now, it is estimated that they have been out of the range of torpedoes.

Not only the torpedo boat felt depressed, but Togo Heihachiro also felt depressed, how to say, the Chinese Empire seemed to deliberately keep a distance from them, the two sides always kept so far away, and then kept firing at each other.

This distance is 6,000 to 8,000 meters, which is indeed within the range of fire, but in terms of strike effect, this is not the best firing distance, because the Japanese side can only rely on the human eye to judge the target, even when the line of sight is excellent, the best firing distance is within five kilometers, so that not only the line of sight is good, but the power of the artillery is also large enough.

Just like during the First Sino-Japanese War, the warships between the two sides were even less than 500 meters away at one time (the Zhiyuan ship was torpedoed and sunk when it hit the Japanese ship, and the torpedo range equipped by Japan at that time was only 500 yards and more than 400 meters away), but now the two sides can only engage in battles at a distance of 6,000 meters, and it is difficult to judge the target with the naked eye of the soldier alone, and the officer in command can only observe through the telescope, and then report the data, which also greatly affects the accuracy of the Japanese naval guns.

Although it also affected the accuracy of the Chinese Empire, because so far, the hit rate between the two sides was about less than five percent, that is, for every hundred shells fired, less than five hit the opposing warship. The Japanese side had an even worse hit rate, and so far, warships of all sizes had fired at least three or four hundred shells, and less than eight of them had hit the other side, and the effect was not ideal, and the huge fire that had been ignited quickly disappeared, which proved that it did not bring much damage to the other side.

On the Japanese side, almost every battleship has suffered one or two shots, one of which directly scrapped a main gun, and the rest have suffered various losses, while the remaining ships have also been hit, but fortunately, it is not the artillery fire of the opposing battleship, otherwise, the consequences will be even more terrifying.

This scene, coupled with the ultra-long-distance shooting of the Chinese fleet before, made Togo Heihachiro gradually realize the seriousness of the problem, the Chinese must be equipped with advanced aiming equipment, at such a distance, they can see the target clearly, and effectively lock on the target, attack it.

And fighting at this distance is the most advantageous for them, and the Japanese side can only pin their hopes on luck, at this time it has little to do with experience, the longer the fight, let the Chinese master some experience, then their hit rate will rise in a straight line, and then the Japanese fleet side because of the problem of limited sight, the hit rate will still not be able to make a breakthrough, it will continue for a long time, the only fate is to be destroyed, or the ammunition is consumed, Then he picked up his feet and ran away.

In order to solve this problem, completely reverse the current unfavorable situation for Japan, and firmly control the advantage of the battlefield in his own hands, the only thing Togo Heihachiro can do is to order the fleet to get as close to the other side as possible and shorten the distance between the two sides, so as to improve his own hit rate, replace defense with offense, and abolish the advantage of the other side.

Ten minutes ago, Togo Heihachiro gave the order to move forward at full speed and close the distance, but unfortunately, in the first few minutes, this distance was indeed shortened, and in these ten minutes, the Japanese fleet sent three shells to the other side, which proved that Togo Heihachiro's response was correct.

However, in terms of speed, the Japanese fleet was at a disadvantage, and after realizing that the situation was beginning to turn against him, Sa Zhenbing immediately ordered the fleet to re-distance itself from the Japanese navy, and sent special personnel to keep an eye on it, and as soon as the distance between the two sides changed, he immediately adjusted his position.

This is a battle, but in Sa Zhenbing's view, it is also an excellent training opportunity, according to the aiming equipment they are equipped with, coupled with the performance of the naval guns, the conclusion given by the laboratory is that if the weather is good and the line of sight is not affected, the battle line should be kept at a distance of more than 8,000 meters as much as possible, and the other party will be consumed little by little.

Similarly, at this distance, no warship could withstand the attack of the battleship's main guns, and although the 305 mm 45 times caliber main gun was not the largest, the naval guns equipped with the latest high-strength armor-piercing shells were more penetrating than the Japanese at the same distance.

In addition, Japan lacks resources, so many of their warships can only choose the concept of heavy attack and light defense due to various problems when designing, and Itsukushima, as an old warship, although it is only a protective cruiser, but in fact, his equipment situation is infinitely close to the concept of a battlecruiser, that is, it has the lightness, speed, and firepower of a battleship.

But after eating a 533-mm torpedo, Itsukushima turned out to be a tragedy.

The violent explosion destroyed the entire bow of the Itsukushima, and the huge hole allowed the sea water to flow into the bottom of the ship.

The nearest compartment was also torpedoed and did not do anything at all, and the second compartment was opened urgently, and although a lot of seawater still entered, at least it was no longer poured in as before. Because of the suddenness of the incident and the fact that the damage control force at the bottom did not have time to respond, even if the second water barrier was opened, the bottom of the entire ship still entered a lot of seawater, and even directly affected the power system of the Itsukushima.

This is also the reason why the Itsukushima gradually stopped, and at the same time that everyone breathed a sigh of relief, the opening part of the water trap began to gradually increase because it could not withstand the huge pressure of the seawater, and more and more seawater entered the bottom tank, and the working speed of the pumping system was far from keeping up with the speed of the seawater entering the water.

And with the entry of seawater, the draft of Itsukushima is getting higher and higher, and the entire warship is slowly sinking. Obviously, if the backflow of seawater cannot be stopped in time, then the sinking of Itsukushima is only a matter of time. (To be continued.) )