As the warship approached gradually, Lu Qingyun was so excited that he shed tears when he saw the flag of "white ground and blue cross" (St. Andrew's flag) fluttering on the mast of the warship.

Although he did not recognize the Russian script and could not speak the Russian Chinese, he would not be mistaken about this flag.

When he first accompanied his proprietor Hu Yulin to the Bank of Russia to discuss the loan, he saw such a flag on the model of the warship in the Russian's room, and listened to the Russians explain that it was the Russian naval flag, and later saw the Russian warship flying this flag at the mouth of Dagu, Tianjin.

At this moment, Lu Qingyun heard the sound of scolding coming from outside the cabin, followed by the sound of fighting. He knew that it was Lei Wan and the people of the dart game who did it.

Lu Qingyun wanted to go out to check, but he knew that he could fire the pistol at most if he had a waste of firewood, and he didn't have to think about it at all, especially when Lei Wang warned him just now, don't go out and be injured by a stray bullet (the subtext is that he is afraid that he will get in the way), so he dispelled this idea.

He listened with bated breath to the movement outside, and suddenly, a shrill gunshot rang out, so frightened that he immediately jumped up and hid under the bed.

Several miserable howls came, including Japanese and Qianguo, Lu Qingyun was terrified when he heard it, and every time he heard a gunshot, his body couldn't help but tremble.

I don't know how long it took, the gunfire ceased to go off, and all that was left was the painful groans of the wounded.

Lu Qingyun didn't know what to do. Suddenly, I heard hurried footsteps in the hallway.

He was in his own confusion. The hatch was kicked open, and two Satsuma sailors rushed in with rifles with bayonets, looking for him in all directions, they saw that there was no one in the room, they were stunned at first, but immediately saw Lu Qingyun hiding under the bed, and immediately aimed their bayonets at him, shouting loudly. Meaning to let him out.

"Don't! Other! Don't do it! If you have something to say, it's good to say! Lu Qingyun frightened the bright bayonet, waved his hand again and again, and said in horror.

The two Satsuma sailors couldn't help but say, dragged him out from under the bed, escorted him out of the cabin, and came to the corridor, Lu Qingyun saw that the other servants were also escorted out, his heart was full of panic, and he walked a little slowly, and the Satsuma sailors who escorted him stepped forward and kicked him. He nearly fell and was shoved onto the deck by the Satsuma sailors along with his servants.

Came to the deck. Lu Qingyun peeked around, the captain was gone, only Fukatsu Jiro commanded a team of heavily armed Satsuma sailors, looking at them murderously, on the side of the deck, Lei Wang and the others had all been tied to one side, Lei Wang and the people in the dart bureau seemed to be injured, Lu Qingyun noticed that Lei Wang's face was pale leaning on the mast, surrounded by his brothers, there were small pools of blood on the deck under their bodies, and some people were also stained with blood, and I don't know who shed it. On the other side, several Satsuma soldiers were bandaging each other's wounds, apparently having just experienced a fierce battle.

Lu Qingyun didn't see the figure of Uemura Hikoto, he thought that Uemura Hikotoshi might have been killed by Lei Wang, and he was even more worried in his heart, and unconsciously turned his head to look at Lei Wang, Lei Wang noticed his gaze, sighed, shook his head, and glanced in the direction of the sea.

Lu Qingyun followed his gaze and saw a steam boat speeding away from the "Funing" and heading towards the Satsuma ironclad ship, on which the captain stood straight and seemed unharmed.

Seeing this scene, Lu Qingyun's heart sank.

He knew that the captain should have seen the arrival of the Russian warship and hurried back to command his warship.

At this moment, the Satsuma sailors escorted Captain Kalensky and all the Russian crew members on the ship to the deck to take care of it, Lu Qingyun knew that the ship was now in the hands of the Satsuma, and his hopes now could only be pinned on the Russian warship that arrived.

On the flybridge of the ironclad ship "Hiei", Heihachiro Togo couldn't help frowning when he looked at the military uniform of Hikonojo Uemura, who hurried back, with a few traces of blood on his uniform, and there seemed to be a trace of gunsmoke on his body.

Just now, his attention was all focused on the new Russian warship, and he didn't pay too much attention to the merchant ship that had already been captured, until he heard the sound of gunfire over there, he didn't look back, and because of the white smoke from the rifle shot, he couldn't see what was happening on the merchant ship, and when the white smoke cleared, everything was over.

Although he didn't see it clearly, Togo Heihachiro knew that there must have been a fight, and he was very annoyed by Uemura's rudeness and recklessness, thinking that he shouldn't have gone to the merchant ship to check it out himself, and just as he was worried about Uemura's safety, he saw Uemura Hikonoshi returning in a steam boat, so he was relieved.

In order to be able to quickly capture the enemy's merchant ships, before going to sea, Heihachiro Togo specially ordered all the dinghy to be replaced with steam sampans, and now it seems that his decision is very correct.

"What happened? Uemura-kun? Heihachiro Togo asked.

"Oh, the crew of that ship tried to kidnap me and fled, but was thwarted by our sailors." Hikoyuki Uemura smiled, skipped the battle, and turned the topic to the silver that everyone was interested in, "You know? Dongxiang-kun, this ship is loaded with almost six million taels of silver ingots! ”

Hearing the number reported by Hikonojo Uemura, Heihachiro Togo couldn't help but gasp.

"In that case, we should think about whether or not to fight the Lucia warship in front of us." Heihachiro Togo looked at the rapidly approaching Russian warship and said in a deep voice.

"No matter what the Lucia people want to do, this ship, we must bring it back to Osaka!" Hikonoki Uemura looked at the Russian warship that sailed over proudly, and said viciously.

"Get ready for battle!" Heihachiro Togo nodded and ordered, "Send a signal to the 'King Kong' as well, and prepare to accompany the flagship." ”

Hikonojo Uemura gave the order loudly. Heihachiro Togo held up his binoculars. Observe the Russian warships approaching this direction.

As the Russian ship approached. Heihachiro Togo quickly recognized the identity of the Russian ship: the cruiser "Ascolld" with a displacement of 2,200 tons, a French-style three-masted single-chimney warship, with a large nose and French ramming angles like the "Hiei" and "King Kong", equipped with 6 152-mm cannons and 4 107-mm cannons, and a speed of 10 knots. This warship is an old ship completed in the fourth year of Bunkyu (9064 AD), and has served in the Pacific region for many years, and Heihachiro Togo has seen this Russian cruiser more than once in the port of Nagasaki, and has also visited it as a non-commissioned officer.

He never thought of it at the time. One day, they will meet this familiar Russian warship on a narrow road at sea.

Heihachiro Togo felt a little stunned in his heart, but when he remembered the atrocities of the Russians in Japan, the anger in his heart burned brightly.

The "Askold" soon sailed over, stopped the "Funing", which was about to set sail to join the Satsuma fleet, and fired a shot at the bow of the "Funing".

"The open ship sent a signal to our ship that our ship must not capture the Lucia merchant ship." The signalman reported.

"Send them a signal: the ship is carrying contraband! Our ship has captured it! They will be taken back to the port and disposed of in accordance with public international law, please do not interfere! Heihachiro Togo said with a calm face.

Soon, a series of signal flags were raised to the top of the mast, but the Russian warships seemed to turn a blind eye to the signals from the "Hiei". Instead, he approached the "Hiei" from the other side.

I saw that the 6 gun doors on the side of the "Askil" had all been opened, revealing the muzzles of the black holes. Hikonojo Uemura sneered.

The arrogance and arrogance of the Russians can be said to be evident at this time.

Although the size of the Russian ship is not much different from that of the "Hiei", after all, it is a cruiser without armor protection, and the "Hiei" is the leading ironclad ship in Asia.

Uemura Hikonosei believes that despite its aggressive appearance, the Russian ship will not dare to fire the first shot under any circumstances.

But that's when the incredible happened.

"Bang!" Hearing only one cannon sound, a dark red fire erupted from the gun door at the bow of the "Askold", followed by billowing black smoke, accompanied by the sound of cannonballs breaking through the air, and a cannonball flew across the sea, hitting the bow of the "Hiei"!

A flash of fire burst out on the port side of the bow of the "Hiei", and a large cloud of black smoke rose up, and Heihachiro Togo and Hikoyuki Uemura were caught off guard, and their feet shook violently, and they almost fell on the flybridge.

"Bastard!" Uemura Hikoyuki managed to stabilize himself easily, did not fall off the flybridge, he looked at the Russian ship on the opposite side that opened fire without hoisting the battle signal flag at all, and cursed.

Heihachiro Togo helped the crooked military hat, staring at the Russian ship opposite with great annoyance, he also noticed that the Russian ship did not hoist the battle signal flag, and guessed in his heart that the Russian ship might want to fire warning guns on his side and hit the sea in front of his warship, but the gunner's gunnery was not good, and the ghost made a shot that hit the "Hiei".

The Russian ship has already opened fire, do you want to return fire?

Just when Heihachiro Togo's brain was spinning, Hikonojo Uemura had already answered for him.

"Fire!" Hikonojo Uemura gave the battle order loudly.

Heihachiro Togo instinctively wanted to stop Hikonojo Uemura, but it was too late at this time, and the Satsuma sailors had already been ready to go, and after receiving the order, as the red battle signal flag was raised, the three 170-mm cannons and three 150-mm cannons on the side of the "Hiei" immediately began to fire a salvo.

Clouds of white smoke rose from the main gun door on the left side of the "Hiei", and at the same time, the three 170-mm guns made a loud sound like the sky and the earth cracked, followed by a huge shock, and the cannon weighing more than ten tons was slowly pushed to the end of the lower gun carriage by the huge recoil, and the entire gun position was shrouded in choking smoke. Huge 170-millimeter steel warheads spun and flew out of the barrels of the guns and fired at the Russian ship "Askold".

The first round of shells fired by the "Hiei" whistled and flew towards the "Askold" and landed in the sea about 400 meters from the starboard side of the "Askild", stirring up a high column of water.

“…… The open ship "Ascord" was a cruiser and somehow opened fire on our ship first. A cloud of smoke erupted from its bow gun. Then there was a loud bang. A cannonball flew and hit the starboard side of the bow of our ship, and although the power of this shell was amazing, the iron armor of our ship was strong and there was no major damage. Heihachiro Togo wrote in his diary, "From this point of view, the artillery skills of the Luren are far inferior to those of our army, although the Zhilu ship has many cannons. But there is no iron armor protection, and the artillery skills are poor, so it is not enough to be afraid, and ......"

Heihachiro Togo's evaluation of the Russian ship is actually biased. He didn't understand that the judgment he made just now about the Russian ship's artillery was actually very correct.

The shot fired by the "Askold" at the "Hiei" was actually a warning gun, and it was not really intended to attack the "Hiei", but in this era, because the aiming method of the artillery was very simple and primitive, the Russian gunners had a problem aiming. That's why such an oolong incident happened.

In all fairness, if it was wartime. The sailors of the cruiser "Askold" should be rewarded for operating the 152-mm guns, which had a very slow rate of fire, and using a simple and primitive aiming method at long distances.

After the 170-mm guns of the "Hiei" opened fire, three 150-mm cannons on the same side also fired at the "Askold".

Three minutes after the "Hiei" opened fire, the "Askord" began to return fire after a brief hesitation.

“…… The artillery fire of the rebel fleet was very fierce, like a meteor shower, they opened fire on our ship at a distance of about 3,500 meters, most of the shells fired by the enemy ship in the first salvo flew over our ship, fell into the sea on the other side and exploded, although it did not hit our ship, but the sea water stirred up was like a hill, the waves splashed on the deck, and many sailors were washed to their feet,...... While our ships were reloading their guns with all their might, the enemy ships began another round of salvo fire, this time the enemy's shells fell in the sea on the port side, but the impact distance was much closer than the last time. Our ship was surrounded by waves in an instant, which greatly interfered with our ship's firing, and I could not see the situation on the other side of the bridge standing on the bridge, let alone our gunners...... Although the situation was unfavorable to our ship from the very beginning, the officers and men of our ship still persisted in fighting and did not flinch in the slightest. ”

These are the words of the captain of the cruiser "Askold" Klivonosky in his memoirs. In addition to putting gold on his face and prevaricating responsibility, he wrote these words to reason with the Satsuma people in the future.

Now, both sides are fighting on the principle of "if you are beaten, you must fight back."

On the 152 mm main gun emplacements on the starboard side of the bow of the "Askold", despite the extremely poor vision and the interference of the waves caused by the Satsuma warship's shells, the Russian gunners were still firing hard, and they were very focused on aiming, trying not to miss every shell.

The efforts of the Russian sailors soon paid off, and after several rounds of firing between the two sides, a 152-mm shell hit the target again - this time it was not the "Hiei", but the "Kongo" that rushed up!

In less than 10 minutes after the start of the war, the Russians hit two Satsuma ironclad ships twice, and today's Russians can be said to be truly "explosive in character."

With a loud bang, Heihachiro Togo, who was on the flybridge of the "Hiei", turned his head and saw a thick cloud of smoke rising from the deck of the "King Kong".

Heihachiro Togo raised his binoculars and looked at the flybridge of the "Hiei", and happened to see that Izuba Shigeto, who had already fallen, was struggling to stand up with the support of two officers.

Togo Heihachiro looked at Dewa Shigeyuan carefully, and saw that his arm seemed to be injured, and an officer seemed to persuade him to go to the doctor, but he resolutely refused.

"Dewa-kun...... You okay? Uemura Hikonojo said with some concern.

"It may be injured, but it shouldn't matter." Heihachiro Togo looked at it for a while, and only after making sure that Izuha Shigeto was okay did he put down the binoculars.

At this moment, "Hiei" and "Kongo" also hit the "Ascord" one after another, and the violent explosion attracted the attention of Heihachiro Togo and Hikonojo Uemura to the "Ascord" again.

"This Lucian warship is really not strong, hahahaha!" Hikoyuki Uemura said with a smile.

Heihachiro Togo did not answer, he saw that two 170-mm shells and two 150-mm high-explosive shells hit the hull of the "Askold" directly, and after the four fires dissipated, black smoke was everywhere, and the guns of the "Askold" immediately fell silent.

"Broken down the enemy ship." Heihachiro Togo said in a deep voice.

Just as Togo Heihachiro finished speaking, the guns of the "Hiei" began to roar again, and both Togo Heihachiro and Uemura Hikonojo saw the fire rising from the deck of the "Askil".

A 170-mm high-explosive bomb flew away like a meteor, hitting the mainmast of the "Ascord", and Heihachiro Togo saw the flash of fire, and the mainmast of the "Ascord" broke in an instant, and the burning wood chips flew in all directions, as if it was a rain of fire, and the broken upper mast mainmast fell along with the signal flag above, smashed on the side of the ship, and slid into the sea.

"Well played!" Seeing this scene, many Satsuma officers on the flybridge shouted loudly. (To be continued......)

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