The commander-in-chief of the Chinese fleet commanding this naval battle was none other than Navy Commander Ye Zuqi, and the deputy commander-in-chief was Navy Vice Commander Sa Zhenbing, and the senior naval officers who participated in the battle included Liu Guanxiong, commander of the First Detachment of the Chinese Imperial Fleet, Cheng Biguang, commander of the Second Detachment, Lin Baoyi of the Third Detachment, Li Dingxin, commander of the Fourth Detachment, the 'Jiaolong' Fleet, and Huang Zhongying, Commander of the Fifth Detachment, the 'Ghost' Submarine Force.

As for the Combined Fleet, Heihachiro Togo was the commander of the Combined Fleet, and Yuhiro Ito was the deputy commander, and the senior admirals who participated in the battle included Sotaro Misu, commander of the First Fleet, Hikonojo Uemura, commander of the Second Fleet, and Shichiro Kataoka, commander of the Third Fleet.

In this naval battle, the Combined Fleet adopted the desperate 'T-shaped tactics' because of its small number but large number of heavy warships, and this tactics theory was to form a tactic of fighting more and fewer in local areas.

The commander of the Combined Fleet, Heihachiro Togo, and the deputy commander, Yuhiro Ito, mistakenly believed that the commander and command system of the Chinese fleet were on China's only 10,000-ton battleship, so they concentrated their powerful firepower composed of four 10,000-ton battleships and fired at China's only 10,000-ton battleship in an attempt to kill the commander of the Chinese fleet.

However, they did not know that the 10,000-ton battleship was only the capital ship of a 'wedge fleet' array of the Chinese fleet's frontal attack, and that the commander-in-chief and core command system of the Chinese fleet were on the command ship of a 'wedge fleet' formation behind the 'wedge fleet' formation composed of 10,000-ton battleships.

Relying on the absolute superiority in the number of warships of the Chinese fleet, the two adopted a 'saw-shaped ship formation', that is, the Chinese fleet was temporarily changed into ten 'wedge-shaped ship formations', except for the command ship formation behind the central 'wedge-shaped ship formation' composed of the 'Liaoning' 10,000-ton battleship, the remaining eight 'wedge-shaped ship formations' were lined up on both sides of the 'Liaoning' battleship in turn, and the two sides were horns with each other.

The general 'wedge-shaped ship formation' faintly formed a large meniscus saw-shaped formation, forming a semi-encirclement posture against the combined fleet.

Among them, the three 'wedge-shaped ship formations' centered on the 'Liaoning' on the front are the first detachment of the Chinese fleet commanded by Liu Guanxiong, the left flank is composed of three 'wedge-shaped ship formations', which are the second detachment of the Chinese fleet commanded by Cheng Biguang, and the third detachment of the Chinese fleet commanded by Lin Baoyi on the right flank.

As long as the time permits, the second and third detachments of the Chinese fleet will immediately be able to drive to the flank of the combined fleet and launch an attack on the fleet from the flank.

On the surface of the sea, thousands of meters away, under normal circumstances, it is difficult to judge that the other side is in a crescent formation, and it is only felt that the other side is in a formation lined up, and the commander and deputy commander of the combined fleet now think so.

The advantage of the 'saw-shaped formation' composed of 'wedge-shaped formations' is that at the same time, the two sides of the triangle meet each other at the same time, which can double the firing scale of naval guns and the density of shells, and can give full play to the advantages of a large number of warships.

The most important thing is that the 'wedge-shaped ship formation' is flexible, and it can leave the battlefield in an instant without affecting the overall formation, because the 'wedge-shaped ship formation' next to it is diagonally facing the front, and it can completely block the wide area in front with naval guns.

The fourth detachment commanded by Li Dingxin, that is, the 'Jiaolong' fleet, was far from the main fleet of the Chinese fleet, and with its super-fast speed, it could reinforce everywhere at any time, or at the necessary moment, it would return to the rear of the combined fleet and launch an attack on the combined fleet from the rear.

As for the fifth detachment commanded by Huang Zhongying, that is, the 'Ghost' submarine force, it lurked at the bottom of the sea below China's main fleet from the very beginning, and only waited for the beginning of the naval battle to move from the ocean to the bottom of the combined fleet, and launched an attack on the combined fleet from the bottom of the sea!

If the ship formation composed of the first, second, and third detachments is positive, then the 'Jiaolong' fleet and the 'Ghost' submarine force are strange!

At 12:30 p.m., the naval battle of the Chinese and Korean seaweeds began with the firing of the first artillery shell of the combined fleet.

Due to the distance, the first shell of the combined fleet did not hit the warships of the Chinese fleet at all.

Subsequently, the combined fleet, led by four 10,000-ton battleships, opened fire on the Chinese fleet at the same time, and only a few shells hit the ships of the Chinese fleet due to the distance.

Because the warships of the Chinese fleet have been refitted long ago, the front and two wings of the warships have been replaced with thick warship armor steel, and the most powerful armor steel has also been installed on important parts of the warships, and the first round of shelling of the combined fleet did not cause substantial damage to the Chinese fleet.

When the first cannon was fired, under the orders of Ye Zuqi and Sa Zhenbing, the Chinese fleet was not far behind and began to fire on the combined fleet, which was two or three times denser than the shells of the combined fleet, and exploded like raindrops in the combined fleet.

Although most of the shells exploded in the sea, and only a small number of shells landed on the warships, this small amount was for the number of shells fired by the Chinese fleet, which had already hit eleven warships.

The power and lethality of the shells of the Chinese fleet were obviously much stronger than those of the combined fleet, and in addition, many of the shells were incendiary bombs containing phosphorus, and five of the 11 warships of the combined fleet that were shot were already on fire in an instant.

Of course, these are just small things for such a sea battle, and no one pays much attention to it, and it is too late to pay attention to it.

The two sides are still desperately firing at each other, without any technical content, and the comparison is whose shells are more accurate, whose shells are more powerful, and whose warships have stronger defense!

In order to try their best to destroy the main warships of the Combined Fleet, Ye Zuqi and Sa Zhenbing ordered all the main naval guns of the Chinese fleet of warships of more than 3,000 tons to shoot at the warships of more than 7,000 tons of the Combined Fleet, and even if they could not sink them, they must completely destroy the naval guns on the main warships!

By 1:25 p.m., five small warships had been sunk in the Combined Fleet, including two destroyers, two torpedo ships, and one battleship.

At this time, the battleships "Asayasu," "Asama," and "Chitose" of the First Fleet of the Combined Fleet, the battleships "Akashi" of the Second Fleet, and the "Matsushima" and "Kaohsiung" of the Third Fleet had all been hit.

It is said that the main naval guns of the 10,000-ton battleship "Kyushu" have been destroyed, and the "Shikoku" and "Hokkaido" have also been shot.

The Chinese fleet also had three small warships sunk, including two destroyers and a torpedo ship, and the only 10,000-ton battleship 'Liaoning' was also hit by several shells, but fortunately the damage was not great, while the rest of the warships also had four bullets one after another, and because the modified warships had strong armor resistance, the damage was not fatal.

At this time, the distance between the two fleets' fronts was less than 3,000 meters, and the hit rate of naval guns on both sides began to rise generally, while in contrast, the Chinese fleet's naval guns and rapid-fire guns were more numerous, more powerful, and more dominant.

At 1:55 p.m., the Chinese fleet's 'Haichen' was hit on the port side by multiple shells, the ship's hold was flooded in large quantities, the hull of the ship was seriously overturned, and Tang Tingguang, the captain of the 'Haichen,' was seriously wounded.

At 2:18 p.m., the 10,000-ton battleship "Kyushu" was hit by the "Liaoning" and "Haitian" at the same time on the ammunition depot and starboard side, the hull was seriously damaged, and the right compartment was crumbling under a large amount of water, and it had no choice but to break away from the battle, and the "Shikoku" and "Hokkaido" of the other three 10,000-ton warships were also hit by multiple shells, among which the bow and main naval guns of the "Hokkaido" were destroyed.

At 2:30 p.m., the Chinese "Haiqi" was hit and the hull was destroyed in many places, but all of them were slightly damaged, while the "Haixin" battleship, which was converted from an 8,000-ton battleship of the former Russian Arthur fleet, caught fire and was extinguished, and the personnel suffered many casualties, but it did not affect its combat effectiveness.

During this period, four small warships of the Chinese fleet were damaged and sunk, and eight small warships were sunk.

At this time, the Chinese fleet completely attracted the combined fleet, and the battle between the two sides had become a state of anxiety, and no one dared to rashly withdraw from the battle.

Ye Zuqi and Sa Zhenbing immediately ordered to dispatch the 'Ghost' submarine force!

At 3:15 p.m., the 10,000-ton battleship "Hokkaido" of the United Fleet was attacked from the bottom of the sea by the "Ghost" submarine force, and the bilge was destroyed and sunk!

And the Chinese fleet "Haiqi", which attracted the "Hokkaido", was also seriously injured and withdrew from the battle.

At 3:29 p.m., the stern and port sides of the 10,000-ton battleship 'Shikoku' were hit by a large number of shells, and the bottom of the ship was also hit by torpedoes fired by the 'Ghost' submarine force.

The only 10,000-ton battleship of the Chinese fleet, the Liaoning, which confronted the Shikoku head-on, was also seriously injured and withdrew from the battle!

As of 3:30 p.m., more than 6,000 tons of warships of the Combined Fleet, including the Matsushima, Akashi, Asahei, Mt. Fuji, Takao, Shimakai, and Takachie, had been sunk, and three of them were successfully attacked by the "Ghost" submarine force.

The Chiyoda, Tsukushi, Shintaka, and Zhenyuan, which were captured during the First Sino-Japanese War, were all hit, their hulls and guns were damaged, and their combat effectiveness was seriously reduced.

The 'Haixin' and 'Haifeng' of the Chinese fleet have also sunk, the 'Haima' has also been seriously injured and will not fight again, and eight of the remaining warships of all sizes have also been hit, two of which have sunk and three have withdrawn from the battle.

At this time, after a three-hour naval battle, the main warships of the combined fleet had already lost two-thirds, the strength of the fleet had dropped by more than half, the number of warships had dropped from the original 69 to only 40 or so warships, and the Chinese fleet had also lost 13 warships, of which four were more than 5,000 tons, but there were still more than 100 warships.

During this period, Shichiro Kataoka, commander of the Third Fleet of the Combined Fleet, was unfortunately hit by a shell in the command room, and he was loyal to the emperor with hatred, and Rao Huaiwen, deputy commander of the first detachment of the Chinese fleet, was also unfortunately shot and died.

At 3:45 p.m., under the orders of Ye Zuqi and Sa Zhenbing, the second detachment of the Chinese fleet returned to the right flank of the combined fleet at Cheng Biguang, and the third detachment detoured back to the left flank of the combined fleet, and launched a fierce attack on the combined fleet from the left and right.

The fourth detachment of the Chinese fleet, the 'Jiaolong' fleet, which had been waiting for several hours, also received orders from Ye Zuqi and Sa Zhenbing, and under the command of Li Dingxin, quickly detoured back to the rear of the Yueben Combined Fleet, and launched the most fierce artillery bombardment on the Yueben Combined Fleet with the most advanced naval guns and the fastest speed.

The 'Phantom' submarine force also launched a divergent sneak attack on the Combined Fleet from the bottom of the sea.

At this point, the combined fleet was completely surrounded by the Chinese fleet! (To be continued.) )