"The Yoshino is really fast, and even if it is injured like this, it will not be easy to catch up." Deng Shichang looked at the Yoshino, which had been slightly closer, but was always out of the effective range of his main guns, and slammed it on the hull of the ship fiercely, and let out such an emotion.

But the more this is the case, the more determined Deng Shichang is to sink the Yoshino, "There will be no second such a good chance, if you can't kill the Yoshino this time, it will be even more difficult in the future, even if you chase it all the way to Japan, don't think I will let you go!" ”

However, no matter how stubborn Deng Shichang's personality was, the fact that the prey could not be imported still made him somewhat anxious, but fortunately, as the billowing smoke gushing out of the Yoshino gradually dissipated, he could finally see the current miserable state of the Yoshino, and his mood suddenly relaxed.

After noticing from the telescope that the Yoshino's waterline was very close to the upper deck, at least less than 1 meter, Deng Shichang immediately realized that the Yoshino had entered a large amount of water, and then thought that the smoke on the Yoshino quickly dissipated, Deng Shichang quickly guessed the truth, "It seems that the Japanese must have poured water into the coal bunker, so the draft will be deepened so much, but this means that the Yoshino can only burn wet coal?" The speed must have dropped a little, right? And it has sunk to this extent, how dare you drive so fast, are you not afraid that the hull will sink further or even capsize and sink because of the serious waves? ”

Of course, Tsuboi knew that this was risky, but he had no other way, but even if he did not hesitate to take such a risk, as the old coal burned out, the power of the Yoshino was inevitably weakened, and even some units broke down due to the sudden and drastic drop in coal quality due to long hours of high-load operation.

The increasing draught of the Yoshino further increased the already large sailing resistance, and the speed of the Yoshino slowed down even more.

Unconsciously, the speed of the Yoshino had slowed down to within 16 knots, and seeing the Zhiyuan chasing closer and closer, its twin 210mm main guns also began to roar, Tsuboi Kozo finally fell into despair completely, seeing that there was no hope of escape, he almost screamed hysterically, "Since you refuse to give you a way to live, let's die together!" ”

"The Yoshino is starting to turn? Could it be? Deng Shichang saw the enemy's intentions at a glance, and couldn't help but sneer, "Do you want to ram my ship?" Where is it so easy? ”

Even if the speed of the Yoshino has dropped a lot now, if the two ships are sailing in opposite directions, they still hope to hit the Zhiyuan because it is not easy for the ship to turn.

But the problem is that the two ships are currently moving in the same direction, the Zhiyuan is biting the tail of the Yoshino, and the Yoshino is turning, and the Zhiyuan is also turning, in this case, how can the Yoshino turn around and carry out the ramming action?

After struggling a few times like a dying fish, Tsuboi Kozo finally dispelled all illusions, and after seeing the flag of surrender sent again on the Zhiyuan, Tsuboi Kozo sighed and gave his final order faintly, "The Yoshino must not fall into the hands of the Qing people, and the order to open the water gate and sink itself, it's a pity that I didn't see the day when the imperial kingdom was proud overseas."

Due to the deep draft, the Yoshino sank extremely quickly after opening the water gate, and most of the lifeboats did not have time to be lowered; On the other hand, because of the rush to return to the main battlefield to reinforce the team, and remembering the crime of the Japanese Navy in massacring the officers and soldiers of Beiyang who fell into the water after winning the Battle of Toshima, the Zhiyuan only rescued a few people so that they could go back for questioning and hurriedly returned home. Coupled with the fact that the site of the Yoshino's sinking was far from the shore and the main channel, it was almost a dream for those who fell into the water to swim to shore or wait for rescue.

As a result, the Japanese officers and men on board the Yoshino were almost completely dead, and 354 men from the commander of the Ichiyu, Kozo Tsubii, and the captain of the ship, Yoshiichi Kawahara, sank to the bottom of the sea together with the most advanced and fastest protective cruiser in East Asian seas at present

After seeing the words "Yoshino sank" on the message board, Li Hui jumped up suddenly, tears involuntarily welled up in his eyes, clenched his fists and shouted in a low voice, "Okay, okay, Yoshino has finally sunk!" With this foundation, the victory of Dadonggou has been decided, and then it depends on how much success can be achieved on the main battlefield, and the Japanese Navy must be completely disabled, so that even if they have the money to urgently purchase ships to make up for the losses, they will not be able to find so many qualified personnel on the ships for a while! ”

Even before the sinking of the Yoshino, it was almost time to decide the victory or defeat on the side of the main battlefield, because the speed of the Beiyang Naval Division's main team, especially the steering speed, was much faster than the Japanese expected, the forward of the Japanese Combined Fleet had just sailed in front of the Beiyang Naval Division's horizontal team, and the latter had already inserted a sharp knife into the Japanese army's main formation.

Except for the flagship Matsushima, which rushed to the front, several warships after it were intercepted by the Beiyang Naval Division's main team (only the Japanese ship Itsukushima, which was on the edge, rushed out, and the rest were all entangled and difficult to get out. The warships of the two sides were mixed together, and the "chaotic war" situation, which was most favorable to the Beiyang warships that mostly adopted the design idea of the bow against the enemy, finally appeared!

As the distance closes, the weaknesses of the Dingzhen main gun's barrel that is too short and the accuracy is not good have been largely concealed. At 13:19, the main gun on the right side of the Dingyuan was the first to fire, and a huge bomb weighing more than 460 kilograms hit the rear of the Japanese ship "Hashidate".

Originally, the hit part of this shell was not too close to the waterline, but because the breach was too large, the waves stirred up during the Hashidate navigation continued to pour into the cabin, and with the gradual increase in water intake, the draft of Hashidate continued to deepen, so that the position of the breach began to move down accordingly, causing the speed of water to enter faster and faster, forming a vicious circle that was fatal.

What's even worse is that soon a 210mm blasting bullet fired by the main gun in front of the Yuan hit the side of the Hashidate and detonated a large amount of ammunition piled up under the deck, and the terrible explosion caused a large number of casualties among the Japanese officers and soldiers on the Hashidate, and also caused a fire that was difficult to extinguish.

In the end, the protective cruiser with a displacement of more than 4,000 tons capsized and sank at 13:32 due to excessive water ingress on one side, and a total of 326 people were killed from the captain of the ship, the captain of the ship