For this battle, the Chinese Empire has been preparing for ten months, during which it has made a lot of efforts, and what can be seen on the surface is only all the preparations needed for the fleet's sudden appearance here, but it does not know that the appearance of the fleet here is only the beginning of the whole plan. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Later, there is information on the Ryukyus collected from Xiang Meitoku, information on the garrisons of various places collected by intelligence officers sent to the Japanese mainland, and other information, as well as the location of the Ryukyu king, the defense around him, and the secret delivery of special forces and equipment into Japan through various channels, arranging retreats, and preparing for the attack on the Ryukyus.

With the current strength of the Chinese Empire, it is indeed not easy to open up three battlefields at the same time, but these three battlefields are just located in three different places, and in fact they still belong to the same one, and in terms of the current military strength, they are still sufficient.

At the same time as the Imperial Navy went to sea, a telegram was sent to Russia, which is now the northern province of the Chinese Empire, although it is only a province, but its area is larger than the area of the entire Chinese Empire, but because it has just been occupied, the population is not large, so there is no need to set up so many government agencies.

After the armistice between China and Russia, the million-strong army stationed on the front line did not return, but rested in place. This telegram ordered that the Second Army, the Second Army, the Second Army, the Second Army, the Second Army, and the Sixteenth and Eighteenth Armies of the Third Army, a total of six armies, and more than 550,000 men of the Third Army, be transferred back to the mainland for rest and recuperation.

And announced that in the next year, the troops on the front line will be transferred back to the mainland in turn for rest.

But who knows, these six armies transferred back to the mainland, plus one army drawn from the Fourth Army, two armies drawn from the domestic reserves, and the 100,000-strong Marine Corps ordered to be formed ten months ago, as well as the 105th and 106th armored divisions, a total of one million people, have been secretly formed into the Eastern Expeditionary Force of the Royal Army of the Chinese Empire, and the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Expeditionary Force is none other than Cao Kun, who shined in the Sino-Russian War.

All of this was just a preparation for the future expedition to Japan, and although the previous superficial work was good, after the outbreak of the Ryukyu Naval War today, perhaps everything will be a foregone conclusion.

The two fleets of China and Japan were chasing each other on the sea, and the distance between the two fleets was getting closer and closer, but they were getting farther and farther away from the transport fleet.

Seeing that the two sides were basically about to enter the distance of fire, Heihachiro Togo also ordered the fleet to turn around and prepare to enter the battle. It's not because Heihachiro Togo doesn't want to run farther, but there is no chance anymore, and if they continue to run, they can only be beaten passively, which will only make them more passive when the time comes.

Land warfare still needs to seize advantageous terrain, let alone naval warfare? In naval battles, in addition to competing with the military strength of both sides, it is also necessary to compete with luck, and seizing advantageous terrain is the best manifestation of luck.

On the battleship Deng Shichang, located behind the two main guns in front, the main gunner Sun Xiang was staring at the sighting device with his eyes, which was another improvement of the Chinese Empire, the principle was to refer to the design concept of the sniper rifle, and then made a larger scope, and installed it on the naval gun, through this quadruple scope, the main gunner can see farther, more accurate.

However, the quadruple scope still cannot meet the current needs, because the maximum firing range of the main gun equipped is fifteen kilometers, and even if it is equipped with a quadruple scope, the target beyond fifteen kilometers is still difficult to see, and a huge battleship, at a distance of fifteen kilometers, is just a black shadow in the scope, and the area is not even a quarter of the size of the scope.

But it doesn't matter, after many years of experiments, it has been found that the sighting system equipped on the battleship is still very effective, if the weather is clear, the figure of the enemy battleship can be seen in the scope, then it means that the enemy has entered the firing range, and at this time you can open fire.

"The enemy to get into range! The second degree to the left, the maximum elevation angle, the test projectile is ready to be loaded. Sun Xiang immediately reported a set of data.

There are many kinds of test projectiles, but they are basically the same, the main thing is that the inside of the shell is filled with a large amount of paint, and after the shell explodes, the water column will turn into the color of the pigment, so that the gunner can adjust his shooting elements, and in order to distinguish, generally speaking, a battleship will be equipped with a color test projectile, as long as a gun shoots it out, then the whole battleship will know how to adjust it.

Because the layout of the artillery is dead, after years of research, they have long known the difference in shooting Zhuyuan, but in fact, the shooting Zhuyuan of a battleship is actually no different, in general, it is to set a coordinate, if the target is located in the center of the left side of the battleship, then the front gun is slightly offset to the left, and the rear gun is slightly offset to the right, of course, this is the case of a salvo.

But in a real naval battle, the chances of hitting the enemy are not great, because both sides are moving, which is the same as having you run to shoot another running opponent with a gun.

"Get into range and attack freely." Deng Haohong said lightly.

There is nothing to worry about, being able to hit the opponent with artillery from outside the enemy's range is a must-do thing that must not be missed.

In fact, the Japanese side has also entered the firing range, but in addition to the battleships, other battleships can not hit at all, plus the distance is too far, the range is enough, but the line of sight is invisible, and the Chinese Empire is because of the use of advanced sighting equipment, so it can be able to fire at such a long distance, if it was before, in this case, it can only take one method, that is, according to the position of the black smoke above to judge the approximate position of the enemy fleet, let the rear open fire, whether it can hit or not depends on luck.

And this kind of hit rate is too low, and a lot of ammunition is wasted, so in general, countries will choose to close the distance and fire, rather than aimlessly consume their own ammunition.

Don't look at this time, it's very cool, what if you run out of ammo later?

'......Boom'

A burst of white smoke rose into the air, and there was a sizzling sound in the air, the air seemed to be burning, and the temperature around it instantly increased a little, and the moderation was greater than before, and with it, there was a burning sensation.

This is the heat generated by the shell at the moment of discharge, and the heat produced by the rapid collision with the moisture in the air, just like putting a dry pot on the fire and then pouring half a bowl of water into it evenly.

'Boom! ’

After flying for about ten seconds, a huge red column of water suddenly rose into the air in front of the Japanese fleet, and the scene was very spectacular, and the Japanese Navy was stunned for a moment, but immediately after, there was a loud laughter in the Japanese fleet.

As an experienced and qualified old navy, it is not without reason that instead of being frightened and nervous when seeing this scene, it laughed out loud. Because veterans with combat experience know that this situation occurs on the battlefield, then it can only prove one thing, that is, the other party is more nervous than them, and the other party is a new soldier and does not have any combat experience, otherwise, anyone who has a little brain will not choose to fire at this distance.

Because this is a complete waste of ammunition, and after seeing this scene, the Japanese Navy, which was originally a little worried because its equipment could not keep up with its opponents, suddenly put its mind at ease and played with a group of recruits, what is there to worry about? Even many Japanese soldiers were already secretly thinking about how to finish the Chinese navy on the other side later.

On the mast, the binoculars in the hands of the lookout were aimed at the front, because the moment the ship's guns opened fire, a huge smoke would be generated, blocking the view around the entire gun position, so they could not observe the firing situation, and the lookout on the mast of each battleship basically took on this duty.

"Hit the enemy fleet directly in front, about two kilometers or so." The lookout shouted downwards that he didn't have time to calculate the numbers, and besides, it wasn't his job.

If the target of a battleship is an opponent, then the combat process is that the lookout is responsible for reporting the landing point of the shell, the location of the enemy, and then there will be a professional staff officer below according to these data, and then synthesize the previous shooting elements, and finally give a new shooting element, and then notify the shooting element to each gun position, and each gun position can be adjusted according to this shooting element.

If it is free fire, then the commander of each gun position needs to calculate the data by himself, which seems to be quite difficult at first, but after becoming proficient and contacting more times, the experienced gun commander only needs to look at the landing point of the shell to know where to hit the next shell.

In the current naval warfare, in fact, it is still based on experience, and the combat effectiveness of each ship also has a lot to do with the personal quality of these crews.

After receiving the report on the landing point, the estimator staff quickly calculated a new shooting element, but this shooting element was not conveyed to the gun positions, and through the shooting just now, it was proved that the enemy had not yet entered their range of fire, and the shells should be spared at this time.

The fleet continued on for about five minutes or so, and then the whole fleet began to move towards the front right, and if the Japanese fleet was compared to the 12 o'clock position, now they were moving in the direction of 2 o'clock.

At this time, the estimator staff recalculated the new shooting elements according to the speed of movement of the two fleets, and this time the calculation results were directly notified to the gun positions.

The battleship went to the front to the right not for anything else, but to be able to fire five naval guns on the battleship at the same time.

'......Boom'

The five naval guns opened fire one after another in less than three seconds before and after, and the entire battleship was instantly shrouded in a white smoke, and the hull was slightly tilted to the right, but it quickly returned to its original state, and the swing range was also within the acceptable range, and the speed of the warship was also affected somewhat, but the impact was not great. (To be continued.) )