Perhaps a relationship that had been suppressed for too long by years of humiliation, despite the almost overwhelming artillery attack of the battleship Yomoto, this time the Chinese counterattack showed extraordinary heroism and tenacity, and the shells fired by the Chinese coastal artillery repeatedly hit the ship, and after the battleship "Settsu" was shot, the battleship "Satsuma" was also hit by a large-caliber shell in the stern, igniting a raging fire and a twin turret failed. What made him even more depressed was that the gunboat "Saga" was hit by a large-caliber shell and several small shells, and the gunboat with a displacement of 785 tons was broken in two by a huge explosion and soon sank.

Seeing the "Saga" disappearing into the sea little by little, Yuzaburo Kato was very annoyed, but he couldn't think about it.

The gunboat "Saga" is a large river gunboat built in 1912, equipped with one 120 mm gun and three 80 mm guns. When this gunboat was designed, it was a special "diplomatic ship" and was used as the flagship of the squadron stationed in China. When the Chinese army attacked Qingdao, the ship was operating in the coastal waters of Qingdao, and during the negotiation period when the "21 Articles" were being forced to accept the "21 Articles," the "Saga" sailed to the waters of Dagu to intimidate Yuan Shikai's political axe. Perhaps too contemptuous of Chinese relations, at the beginning of the shelling, the gunboat was too close to the coast (in fact, the entire Kato fleet was also obviously too close to the shore), and as a result, it received "key attention" from the Chinese coastal artillery, and unfortunately became the first warship to be sunk in this war.

After about half an hour, the counterattack artillery fire of the squadron began to gradually weaken, and finally stopped completely. Kato Yuzaburo saw through the telescope that the Chinese coastal defense batteries and fortifications on the shore had all been reduced to rubble at this time, and although he felt very happy, he could not offset the humiliating feeling caused by the flagship being hit by Chinese shells and the sinking of the "Saga".

In the opinion of Yuzaburo Kato and many of his subordinates, it was normal for the invincible Imperial Navy to face the weak Chinese coastal artillery and should be unscathed and free of any losses until the end of the battle.

"Let the ships report the damage immediately." Looking at the "Satsuma", whose flames were extinguished little by little, Yuzaburo Kato ordered in a gloomy voice, and his face seemed to be gloomy.

And just as Yuzaburo Kato's words fell, a violent explosion suddenly sounded again in the queue of the Sakamoto fleet.

"What's going on?!" Yuzaburo Kato immediately held up his binoculars and looked at the place where the flames were rising, and saw that at the tail of the array, there was a figure of a warship on fire, as well as the flames from the muzzle of the guns and the red lines made by the machine guns when the warships around it opened fire.

After a while, an officer of the Honmoto reported to Yuzaburo Kato in some panic: "It's the 'Hashidate', the general, the 'Hashidate' exploded." ”

"Was it hit by an enemy shell?" Yuzaburo Kato asked in annoyance, "Could it be that there are still hidden Chinese artillery positions that have not been destroyed?" ”

"It's not a cannonball, general, it's a torpedo!" The officer shook his head and said, "The Hashidate was attacked by the Shina torpedo boat......

Before the officer could finish his words, suddenly an explosion was heard again on the sea.

"We hit them!" The officer shouted in surprise.

Yuzaburo Kato raised the telescope again, and by the light of the fire burning on the sea, he saw that not too far from the old cruiser "Hashidate" that was on fire, the figure of a small ship on fire was moving rapidly.

The boat tried to evade the ship's attacking fire, but apparently failed, and another shell hit it accurately, and the boat exploded violently again, and then disappeared little by little into the sea.

After the Chinese torpedo boat was sunk, the ship's artillery fire gradually subsided, and the sea quickly returned to calm, leaving only burning wreckage fragments.

Yuzaburo Kato put down the binoculars, looked at the fire "Hashidate" half of its body had already submerged under water, and couldn't help but slam the bridge guardrail with his hand and sighed.

In 1912, the "Hashidate" was listed as a second-class coastal defense ship, and this time it was used as a large gunboat to participate in the bombardment of Dagukou, but unexpectedly became a victim of a sneak attack by Chinese torpedo boats.

The "Hashidate" was the second warship sunk by the Chinese when the Hiromoto fleet shelled Dagukou, and although for the powerful Hiromoto Fleet, the loss of this old ship and the previously sunken gunboat "Saga" did not in any way affect the overall strength of the fleet, but it was undoubtedly a heavy blow to Kato Yuzaburo and many people who had high expectations for the navy.

For the Chinese, who have been bullied since the defeat of the First Sino-Japanese War, although they did not sink important ships, it is quite rare to be able to achieve such a result when the gap between the strength of the enemy and our own is too large.

At this time, unlike Yuzaburo Kato, commander of the Morihon's fleet, who sighed, Chen Shiying, captain of the Chinese Navy's torpedo boat "Lake Osprey," who was floating on the surface of the sea with a wooden plank, looked at the cruiser "Hashidate" that was slowly sinking on fire on the sea, and let out a happy laugh.

"A torpedo boat for a cruiser, it's a good deal!"

Although he could not make out the exact identity of the other party in such a situation of low visibility, he could still see that it was a large cruiser with a displacement of at least 3,000 tons or more that was hit by his torpedo boat "Lake Osprey" (the displacement of the "Hashidate" was 4,278 tons).

The "Hupeng" torpedo boat commanded by Chen Shiying was one of the four "Hupeng" class torpedo boats purchased by Zhang Zhidong in the late Qing Dynasty when he was preparing to build the Hubei Navy, with a displacement of only 97 tons and three torpedo tubes.

Starting today, the Chinese Navy's record in fighting against foreign countries can be regarded as a new level.

Of course, Chen Shiying would not have thought at this time that it would not be long before the performance of the Chinese Navy would rise to an unprecedented level.

Chen Shiying watched the cruiser disappear completely into the sea, and was about to swim towards the shore, when a burst of painful moans suddenly came from not far away.

Chen Shiying pushed the plank and swam in the direction from which the sound came, and soon found Wang Yonggang, a torpedo soldier on the "Lake Osprey", who was injured in the leg and was struggling on the surface of the sea.

"Hold on, brother!" Chen Shiying pushed the plank in front of Wang Yonggang, and while treading the water hard, he helped Wang Yonggang onto the plank, he let Wang Yonggang lie on the plank, and then pushed the plank hard to swim to the shore.

"Sir...... What about the other brothers......" Wang Yonggang asked in a weak voice as he paddled his hand to help Chen Shiying.

Chen Shiying turned his head and glanced at the direction where the torpedo boat "Hulu" was sunk, and said: "The brothers are all good! You know? We sank a cruiser! ”

"Great......" A smile appeared on Wang Yonggang's pale face, "Even if you die, it's worth it......"

"Fuck! Don't say stupid things! Hold on to Lao Tzu! Chen Shiying sensed that Wang Yonggang's situation was a little dangerous, and scolded loudly, "After healing the injury, we are still heroes of the Chinese Navy!" When you have a big ship, you can fight these dogs again! ”

"Yes! Sir! Tears oozed from the corners of Wang Yonggang's eyes, he nodded vigorously and said firmly.

"Their shelling has finally stopped." Tang Qianming lifted the glasses on the bridge of his nose and said to Li Dingxin calmly, "It seems that I just saw another warship exploded, I don't know if it was a big guy who was hit by a mine." ”

"It's not a big thing like a battleship, but it's not a small ship either, it's like a cruiser." Li Dingxin nodded and said, "It looks like it was hit by our mines or torpedoes." ”

At this time, the sound of an explosion was heard again on the sea, and Li Dingxin held a telescope to follow the sound from the already damaged observation window, and saw a fire rising in another part of the sea, but it was much smaller than the explosion just now.

"Hit again." Tang Qianming said, "This time it should be a small boat." ”

"They'll probably land in a moment." Li Dingxin put down the binoculars and said with some concern, "I'm afraid there aren't many of our cannons that can be used." ”

"I don't know what happened to Lan Jibei there," Tang Qianming looked at the watch on his wrist and said to Li Dingxin, "If it doesn't work, let's give up here, join up with the rear artillery, and block the landing of the Yue army together." ”

"Yes, although our place is destroyed, we can still use the deep river network, mines and artillery to deal with them." An officer said to Li Dingxin, "I want to land here with us, but it's not so easy. ”

Li Dingxin nodded, did not speak again, but raised the telescope and carefully observed the sea in the distance.

"They're gone." Someone said.

Tang Qianming couldn't help but be stunned when he heard this, he immediately took a pair of binoculars and observed them with Li Dingxin.

"No landing ships appeared." Li Dingxin said, with a hint of doubt in his voice, "Don't they have any plans to land?" ”

"It's also very likely." Tang Qianming said, "Tianjin has many concessions, and it is impossible for me to ignore the interference of foreign powers if I want to attack Tianjin. ”

"I hope so." Li Dingxin let out a long breath and said.

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