Strictly speaking, however, although Japan now attaches great importance to intelligence work, neither the operating time nor the financial resources invested are far from being comparable with those of the later Republic of China period.

Even in history, they did not have even a single spy who could infiltrate the Beiyang Naval Division (if it weren't for this, the Beiyang Naval Division would definitely encounter all the main warships of the Japanese Navy during the Battle of Dadonggou, and it would not have brought such a burden as the Saikyo Maru, and that naval battle would inevitably be more difficult to fight.) Not to mention that in this time and space, the latter has also strengthened the secrecy work under Li Hui's reminder, which is even more difficult.

Therefore, if the Japanese Navy wants to figure out the basic tactical formation of the Beiyang Naval Division, there is no better opportunity than for a semi-open drill such as the sea parade.

In other words, as long as the Japanese Navy is careful not to show its bottom in this link, the Japanese Navy will not want to find out the tactics of the Beiyang Naval Division in advance

After the brief parade, the torpedo boat unit of the Beiyang Naval Division and the three Guangzi torpedo gunboats that were first inspected for a lightning drill made Lao Li's face turn pale.

Unlike in the past, when they were all fixed targets and achieved extremely high hit rates, this time, at Li Hui's suggestion, the Zhijing 2nd ship was changed to a target ship, and the speed of these two warships was as high as 16 knots, and the steering was also quite flexible; in the case of their bent avoidance, the three old torpedo gunboats with the same speed as them could not catch up at all, so they were directly out of the game, and although the maximum speed of the remaining nine torpedo boats could reach 24 knots, it took a lot of effort to close the distance.

And even if the distance is finally narrowed to the point where the torpedo can be fired, after the torpedo is really fired, it still does not even touch the edge, which is not completely because there is no aiming, but because the maximum speed of the current white-headed torpedoes is only more than 20 knots, and once Zhijing avoids at full speed, the relative speed between the two is only five or six knots, and these torpedoes have lost power before they can catch up with the target.

You must know that the maximum firing range of the torpedo at this time is only a few hundred meters, and it will be fired for less than 20 seconds after being fired, and with a relative speed of five or six knots, the torpedo must be launched at least within 200 meters before it can be obtained

The first round of lightning strikes did not hit, and it was in such a dumbfounded way, the pipe belts of the torpedo boats were all angry, and they did not care about the requirements of "close to actual combat" under the old shame and anger, and chased until within a distance of 50 meters before the second round of torpedoes was fired.

Deng Shichang naturally knew this, and when he saw that the torpedo boat unit was so shameless, his face immediately turned dark, but considering that if none of the lightning drills hit, Li Hongzhang would definitely lose face, which was not a good thing for the Beiyang Naval Division, and in the end he could only suppress the anger in his heart and order to do so, and also asked the crew to slow down the speed of the voyage, so as not to collide with those torpedo boats if they were not well controlled

This distance is too close, no matter how well-trained the officers and men on the Zhiyuan are, it is impossible to avoid it, although the torpedoes are not loaded with explosives during the exercise, but it is not a pleasant thing for the ship to be hit, seeing the torpedoes getting closer and closer, the Zhiyuan ship is silent.

But what Deng Shichang and the other officers and men on the ship did not expect was that they did not hear the sound of the torpedo hitting the hull, but instead saw a strange scene a few seconds later, "Torpedo!" How did the torpedo come out of here! ”

"What's going on?" After receiving the report, Li Hongzhang was also dumbfounded, and hurriedly called a naval officer to come over and ask the reason, the latter pondered for a while with a bitter face, and finally found a possible reason, "Probably because the distance is too close, the torpedo that sank into the water has not had time to rise to a fixed depth, and it has drilled directly under the ship."

"How so? Could it be that torpedoes are completely useless? It shouldn't be! If it is really useless, why do the navies of the Tessie countries still need to be equipped in large quantities? Li Hongzhang couldn't help but fall into deep thought, and after a long time to no avail, he asked Li Hui to call over, and unconsciously, he became more and more dependent on this young man whose origin was never clear

"Of course the torpedo is useful, but we used it in the wrong way before, and today you have seen that the current torpedo is not good at speed and range, and it is only expected to hit when it is very close, so it is completely impossible to pose a threat to enemy ships in navigation, so it can only be used to attack low-speed targets. The so-called low-speed targets are nothing more than three kinds, one is the ship at anchor, but our imperial court can't do anything to attack first, and even if it seizes the right to control the sea, it will definitely take into account the attitude of the great powers and dare not hit the opponent's doorstep, so this greatest use will be abolished. From this point of view, in fact, we should not have bought torpedo boats at all, and these savings could at least buy one more ironclad ship. But now that you've bought them, you can only try to make the most of them and make the most of them."

"Against enemy transports and ships that can't move after being heavily damaged? That is, the only effect is only to save shells? But the price of torpedoes is dozens of times more expensive than shells! Li Hongzhang now sincerely regrets that he followed the trend and bought so many torpedo boats, but unless there is a "prophet" like Li Hui, how can a backward agricultural country know better than the Western powers what is practical and what is not practical among those new weapons that have not yet been tested by war?

At this time, Li Hui added, "And the current torpedo is not up to this task, because the distance is really difficult to master, and if you are not careful, there will be a situation like the one just now, especially when hitting a transport ship, because the draft of civilian ships is much shallower than that of warships." So I suggested that the depth of the torpedo be adjusted to 3 meters, or even 2 meters, so that even if it did not have time to rise, it would not be possible to get under the ship. Of course, a low set depth will weaken the power of the torpedo, but anyway, it is used to hit civilian ships or dead dogs, and a weaker power is enough. You must know that even if it is a fixed town, under normal circumstances, a torpedo will be sunk."

"It can only be like this, it is better than these millions of taels of silver (including the cost of maintenance training and salaries of officers and soldiers) all in vain, alas, this is really," Li Hongzhang sighed after hearing this, and then said to Li Hui with regret, "It would be nice if I could meet you a few years earlier, I am really reluctant to let you out!" ”