Sometimes, luck is so speechless, but I have to sigh at the great luck. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

The two shells that went in and out accurately hit the front deck of the Shikishima, the flagship of the Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet Commander, and caused a violent fire, but what made people feel helpless was that it only penetrated the front deck of the Shikishima and caused a fire, and the shells exploded violently and were blocked by the specially reinforced protection of the ammunition compartment, plus the difference in the angle of intake, so this shell did not plunge into the ammunition compartment of the Shikishima, but caused an explosion in the water compartment in front of the ammunition tank.

A huge hole was blown out of the bow of the battleship Shikishima from the inside out, but because the lesson of the sinking of Itsukushima had been learned, the water compartments in the front and rear of the Japanese fleet battleship were now closed.

A large amount of seawater entered the ship's hold, and the bow of the ship was destroyed out of shape, because the structure in front of the hull was changed, and the resistance of the battleship Shikishima to the water was increased, so the greatest merit of this shell was to change the maximum speed of the battleship Shikishima from 18 knots to 15 knots.

Because the water compartment was closed in advance, although there was still a lot of seawater seeping into the other warehouses inside along the hatch, it didn't matter, and the water that entered would be pumped out quickly, and the tragedy of the Itsukushima would not happen at all.

The shot of the battleship Shikishima cast a shadow on the Japanese Combined Fleet, and even the commander of the Combined Fleet, Heihachiro Togo, was even more entangled in his heart at this moment.

The gap between the two sides was gradually widening, and Japan only regained some disadvantages for a short time at the beginning of the war, but then the Chinese navy once again took advantage of the advantage of high-speed maneuver to reopen the distance, and firmly occupied the advantage of the entire battlefield.

What made Togo Heihachiro even more helpless was that although the Japanese Combined Fleet had an absolute advantage in terms of strength and experience, the gap in equipment was too great, and this was the most fatal thing.

The Chinese Empire had four dreadnoughts in the true sense of the word, while the Japanese side only had one dreadnought, and this former dreadnought was the Mikasa, which was sent by Heihachiro Togo to escort the troop carrier formation, the Shikishima-class No. 4 ship, a former dreadnought built by the British.

There is a standard for dreadnoughts, but anyone who meets this standard can be called dreadnoughts, but on top of this standard, a clear level is divided, which is not very important at the beginning, but with more and more dreadnoughts, the dreadnoughts built by various countries are also becoming more and more powerful, so today's dreadnoughts are also divided into two classes: pre-dreadnoughts and dreadnoughts.

One of the characteristics that can be called a dreadnought is that the secondary main gun used for attack on the previous battleship has been cancelled, and the main gun of the same caliber is doubled, and only the small-caliber secondary gun used to defend against light warships is retained, and the high-power steam turbine is used as the power, and the British battleship Intrepid is the ancestor of the dreadnought-class battleship.

But at the moment when the dreadnought began to be built, it was already in a backward state, and ahead of them were the two battleships authorized by the Chinese Empire to be built by the United States, which are now the Deng Shichang and Lin Taizeng, and later the two dreadnoughts built by the Chinese Empire itself, the Liu Buchan and Ding Ruchang, were even better than the blue.

Today's Japan is still the same as Japan in history, because it did not catch up with the fast growth of battleships, coupled with various external factors, so the Japanese have not been able to have a real dreadnought from beginning to end, even if this Mikasa dreadnought, it is also a preface.

In terms of firepower, Mikasa had only two twin 305-mm guns, 14 single-mounted 152-mm guns, 18 single-mounted 76.2-mm guns, and four 450-mm torpedo tubes.

This kind of firepower configuration is not bad in the top five classes, but compared to the ranks of dreadnoughts in the Chinese Empire, it is not enough.

These four dreadnoughts of the Chinese Empire, because of the knapsack layout scheme, so a battleship has five 305 mm twin 45 times the caliber main gun, the main gun firepower is one top two and a half Mikasa, 16 127 mm 50 times the caliber of the secondary guns, although the caliber is not as good as the Mikasa, but the power is not much different, plus equipped with armor-piercing shells, so it can also fight with the Mikasa.

As for the 18 76.2mm guns, this is directly ignored, the shells hit the armor of the dreadnought hardly played any role, and at this distance, it was difficult for it to participate, in fact, even the secondary guns were difficult to participate in, if not in a particularly good position.

Then, in a long-distance engagement, the four dreadnoughts had a total of twenty main guns capable of attacking the combined fleet of the Japanese Navy, while the Japanese side only had two main guns of the Mikasa who could barely cope with it, and counting the other six battleships, at best, there were less than fifteen main guns that could effectively return fire.

The Japanese Combined Fleet does have an advantage in terms of troops, but they don't give you a chance to get close to fight, and they rely on the advantage of large-caliber naval guns to consume you little by little, and this tactic is also quite successful, just look at the losses of the Japanese Combined Fleet now.

The embarrassed Togo Heihachiro suddenly realized that he might have made a fatal mistake, he should not have sent the Mikasa to escort the troop carrier formation, and that was the only former dreadnought ship in the Japanese Combined Fleet, although it still couldn't fight the other side in terms of firepower, but at least with the Mikasa there, their chances of victory would be greater, instead of being passively beaten like now.

The two-hour battle had already proved that the Japanese Combined Fleet, even if it had an advantage in terms of strength, was still no match for the Chinese Navy in this situation, because they had no ability to confront it at all.

"Damn dreadnought......" Heihachiro Togo slammed into a row of tables, staring at the black smoke in front of him.

If the Chinese Navy did not have those four dreadnoughts, the current battle situation would definitely be that the Japanese Navy crushed the Chinese Navy, even if they were equipped with something that could help them improve their hit rate, Togo Heihachiro would have absolutely sure that the Chinese Navy would repeat the mistakes of the Beiyang Navy.

But now, it's too late, Heihachiro Togo is not a fanatical warmonger, his mind is always clear, he knows at what time and what decisions to make.

Now the main fleet is simply unable to close the distance between the two sides, and the torpedo boat formation has been driven out of the attack circle by the enemy's destroyer formation, and has suffered a fierce attack from the enemy's firepower, and the torpedo boat formation can only passively fight with the destroyer formation, and it does not occupy any advantage, and they have lost the role of surprise soldiers.

In this case, is there any hope for victory for the Japanese Navy? At least Heihachiro Togo doesn't think he can find a way to win, this situation is no longer artificially something that can be changed, this is a gap in equipment between the two sides, and it can be solved in a while and a half from time to time.

"Order the torpedo boat formation, detour behind the enemy fleet, and look for an opportunity to lean in and release the torpedoes." Heihachiro Togo ordered a little helplessly, he didn't want to give this order, because it might cause heavy losses to the torpedo boat formation, but he had no choice, he had to give this order.

Immediately afterwards, Heihachiro Togo continued to order: "Order the fleet headquarters, charge at full speed after half an hour, close the distance between you and the enemy fleet, stick it and hit it hard, and prepare to retreat." ”

Yes, Heihachiro Togo is ready to retreat, the tide of battle is not in their favor, and at this time only a fool will continue to maintain such a war situation and fight a war of attrition with the Chinese Navy like this. But just retreating like this, Togo Heihachiro was a little unwilling, so before retreating, he planned to fight, if he could successfully shorten the distance between the two sides, then they would not have to retreat, and it was even possible to defeat each other.

Although the strength of individual warships in the Chinese Navy is relatively strong, the Japanese Navy is better in numbers, as long as they can be pasted, then it is still possible to beat the master to death indiscriminately, and the current Japanese Navy is more like a state of power and nowhere to go, so it will always be so passive.

Of course, if it can't be posted, then Togo Heihachiro can only order a retreat, and for him, keeping the combined fleet is the most important thing.

Why did the Chinese suddenly gather a large number of warships to attack them this time? Is this just to prevent the army from landing on Taiwan? Heihachiro Togo absolutely didn't believe it, if it was just like that, why did they have to fight with the Combined Fleet with the possibility of defeat? Although the Chinese navy has developed very well in recent years, its number is still too small, and if it really goes head-to-head with the Japanese navy, no one can say who will win before the war begins.

If Heihachiro Togo were the commander of the other side, if he only prevented the landing of the army, then he would release the news of the naval fleet going to sea in advance, and block the shipping route to Taiwan, so that the formation could not pass, and then forcibly land on Taiwan.

The Chinese can rise in just a few years, in addition to their own heritage, relying on the heads of the upper class, they will definitely not do such a thing when they are not sure, so think about it, now there is only one possibility, that is, after the victory on the Russian battlefield, the Chinese Empire did not plan to stop the war to digest the benefits brought by the Sino-Russian war, but to start a war with Japan, a shame.

This can be felt from the naming of the other party's warships, but everyone did not expect that the Chinese would be so anxious. And once the combined fleet is gone, then Japan's coastal defense will also be gone, according to the habits of the Chinese, is the next step to land on the Japanese mainland?

ps: Thank you for the support of the Happy Bear Army, well, there is one more change, 16 more, today is still three watches, I've been so tired lately, let me rest for two days, Saturday will start to explode, and the reward will come to your heart's content, I'm ready to go out anyway. (To be continued.) )