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[Today's second update]

The cannon roared, and the smoke of gunpowder filled the air. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Eighty kilometers east of Atlantic City, the first battle of battle between the Chinese and American navies was taking place.

The fleets of both sides have advantages over each other. The battle cruisers of the US Navy had an advantage in numbers and caliber of main guns.

Since the Imperial Chinese Navy had abandoned the plan to develop battle cruisers many years ago, the most powerful battle cruisers in service were the Sui-class battlecruisers with 15-inch guns, and there were only two. In addition, the two battlecruisers that were promoted to 1909 were still in service, and the earlier ten Zhou-class battlecruisers were actually facing retirement before the Sino-American war, and after the outbreak of the Sino-American war, they were only serving as escorts and patrols, and had already separated from the main fleet.

The U.S. Navy has always been stabbed by the Imperial Chinese Navy and has never given up building battle cruisers, until the outbreak of the Battle of Jutland, the U.S. Navy still has 4 Olympia-class battle cruisers equipped with 18-inch guns under construction. In addition to the four Seattle-class battlecruisers that were sunk in Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Navy's active battle cruisers include four Frankfurt-class battlecruisers with 17-inch guns, four Denver-class battlecruisers with 16-inch guns, four Atlanta-class battlecruisers with 14-inch guns, and the early Birmingham-class battlecruisers with 13-inch guns. It can be said that the US Navy still has 16 battle cruisers in the main fleet, while only 4 in the Chinese Empire remain in the main fleet, and the number gap is huge.

And the battle cruiser detachments of the Imperial Chinese Navy had an advantage in terms of speed and central fire control commander.

This is due to the fact that the Imperial Chinese Navy has always controlled the world's most advanced impulsive and counter-impulse steam turbines and gear speed control and other cutting-edge technologies, so that although the battle cruisers of the Imperial Chinese Navy are relatively old and have been designed seven or eight years ago, their speed is still higher than that of any battle cruiser in the world. In particular, the Sui-class battlecruisers had a combat speed of 34 knots and could easily shake off the pursuit of any class of battlecruisers of the US Navy.

Similarly, the Imperial Chinese Navy has experienced a hundred battles and has developed an advanced fire control system after countless naval battles, which makes the naval gun hit rate of the Imperial Chinese Navy higher than that of the US Navy.

In this way, although the battle cruiser led by Meng Te had an advantage in numbers and firepower, it did not take advantage of Wang Shouchang's battle cruiser after fighting.

What made Meng particularly sad was that the ten battleships assigned to him by General Eberly were all early Shenbow-type battleships, with a maximum speed of only about 20~21 knots, which could not catch up with the Chinese Imperial Navy at all, which was equivalent to a spectator who came to watch the battle, and could not help at all.

At 10:25, the Chinese and US navies had been engaged in battle for more than an hour at a distance of 18 kilometers. Although the U.S. battle cruisers' main guns were larger, the Imperial Chinese battlecruisers were thicker in armor, so that the damage caused by the shells was actually equal to that of both sides.

However, for battlecruisers, armor was only used to defend against ships with a main gun of 240 mm caliber or less. The armor of the battlecruisers on both sides could not withstand the attack of large-caliber main gun shells from the opposing side, and the protection was basically negligible.

During this period, Wang Shouchang's fleet fired a total of 232 rounds of 356-mm and 381-mm large-caliber shells, hitting 7 rounds of enemy ships, with a hit rate of nearly 3 percent, and the six battle cruisers of the Meng Special Fleet were each painted, among which the Denver suffered 1 381-mm shell and 1 356-mm shell, the rear half of the island was destroyed, the flames soared into the sky, the smoke rolled, the entire rear half of the hull was shrouded in smoke, and the No. 3 and No. 4 main guns lost their firing range.

The six battle cruisers of the Meng Special Fleet fired 196 rounds of 356 mm and 406 mm large-caliber shells, with a hit rate of one percent, and only two 356 mm shells hit the Sui Yang Emperor and Jin Wu Emperor of Wang Shouchang's fleet respectively, causing the two battle cruisers to ignite a fire, but they were quickly extinguished by the experienced officers and men of the Chinese Imperial Navy.

After an hour of fighting between the two sides, the losses of the Mengte fleet were relatively large. Originally, Wang Shouchang could have better inflicted heavy damage on the U.S. battle cruiser, but considering the overall situation, he always limited the fleet's speed to 30 knots, so that the Mengte fleet could always keep up.

But soon the situation on the battlefield changed, and the sky, which had been sinking all the time, suddenly cleared up a little. The position began to move in favor of Mengte.

At ten thirty-five o'clock, Mengt's fleet was not only facing away from the sun but also shrouded in a layer of mist. Wang Shouchang's fleet was facing the sun, and the optical observation equipment in the tower above the island affected the ballistic observation of the Imperial Chinese Navy due to the strong light reflection. The mixture of gunsmoke drifting in the wind reduced visibility on the naval side of the Imperial Chinese Navy.

Mengte had felt at a loss, and was contemplating abandoning the pursuit, for his military instincts told him that danger was approaching. But when he found out that the time was in his favor, he didn't want to give up the opportunity and wanted to win the first round, so he ordered to continue the attack.

At 10:45, the two ships of Atlanta and Nashville launched a fire salvo on the Jin Wudi, and a 356-mm shell hit the No. 3 turret of the Jin Wudi, causing the No. 3 turret to be destroyed and the three 356-mm main guns to be silent. Compared with the double-mounted main gun, once the turret of the triple main gun is hit and destroyed, the loss of three main guns is all at once.

At the same time, the Columbus and Pittsburgh also took advantage of the backlight advantage to carry out multiple fire salvos on the Jin Huidi, including two 356-mm shells hitting the starboard side of the Jin Huidi battle patrol. One shot hit the island, causing dozens of casualties and a fire broke out on the island. A cannonball caused a starboard shot to be pierced, and a large amount of seawater poured into it. The captain of the Jin Hui Emperor hurriedly ordered the watertight door on the starboard side to be closed, and at the same time, the watertight cabin No. 7 on the port side watertight door was filled with water to maintain the balance of the hull. However, due to the water ingress of the ship's hull, the speed of the Jin Hui Emperor plummeted from 25 knots to 18 knots. Fortunately, the normal speed of the Jin Hui Emperor was as high as 30 knots, and the speed quickly recovered to the point that after discovering that the Jin Hui Emperor had been severely damaged, he immediately ordered four Atlanta-class battle cruisers to focus on attacking her and trying to sink it.

After Wang Shouchang learned that the Jin Hui Emperor had been severely damaged, in order to save the Jin Hui Emperor, he ordered the Jin Hui Emperor to break away from the battle sequence and continue to sail northeast to strive to join the main fleet. At the same time, in order to attract the firepower of the U.S. fleet, Wang Shouchang ordered the other Sui Wendi and Sui Yang Emperor battle patrols to turn around and officially fight with the U.S. military battle patrols. The Jin Wudi and four other Fengxian-class light cruisers were responsible for covering the Jin Huidi from the battlefield and preventing it from being torpedoed by U.S. light cruisers and destroyers.

"Full right rudder, full speed ahead."

"Full rudder right! It has reached a top speed of 34 knots! ”

The order was issued, and soon Wang Shouchang led the two battle patrols of Emperor Wen of Sui and Emperor Yang of Sui to show their housekeeping skills, and made a big turn to seize the "T" prefix to shoot the horizontal position.

Previously, Wang Shouchang had not accelerated his speed in order to hold back the Meng Special Fleet, so he was unable to carry out tactical "T" movements. At this time, in order to cover the Jin Hui Emperor from the battlefield, Wang Shouchang led two of the most advanced battle cruisers to seize the "T" prefix of the Meng special fleet at the fastest speed.

Meng Te, who was on the USS Denver, had always thought that the speed of the most powerful battle cruiser of the Imperial Chinese Navy was only 30 knots, but when he suddenly found that the other party had accelerated to 34 knots, he suddenly felt deceived.

"Damn it! Is this a seven- or eight-year-old ship? ”

The adjutant was also taken aback and said, "How can it be so fast?" Oh no, they're stealing our "T" for the horizontal position. ”

Meng snorted coldly and said, "It's not that easy to grab. If you are not careful when grabbing the T-shaped horizontal position, it is equivalent to becoming a beaten vertical position. Right hand drive 25! ”

Meng specially ordered a small angle turn in the same direction to prevent Wang Shouchang from grabbing the T-shaped horizontal position. The adjutant next to him suddenly said: "General, if we turn around, it will be equivalent to giving up attacking the heavily damaged enemy ship." ”

Of course, Meng Te knew in his heart that the other party was obviously encircling Wei to save Zhao, and the purpose was to let the battered battleship get out of the battlefield. But at this time, Meng Te had no choice, if any of the battle cruisers continued to pursue the heavily damaged enemy ship, they would undoubtedly become the direct horizontal targets of the two Sui-class battle cruisers that were turning at high speed.

"The other party is a seasoned veteran, and we had to give up."

In this way, Wang Shouchang led two battle cruisers to contain Mengte's six battle cruisers and circled around the vast sea.

"Report!" The signal corps suddenly reported: "Lost contact with General Eberly!" ”

Meng Te frowned suddenly, this situation made him a little worried, but he couldn't find a reasonable explanation.

"Half an hour has passed since the last briefing, and Admiral Eberly said that our main fleet was being attacked by the Imperial Chinese Naval Aviation, but our air force arrived in time to defuse the crisis," the adjutant said. Now it seems that it should have been the enemy's bombs that destroyed the radio system of the flagship of the fleet. ”

Unable to find another explanation, Meng believed the adjutant's words and ordered the signal corps to continue calling until he was connected.

What they didn't know was that the communication interruption was not due to the destruction of Eberly's flagship radio system, but the communication jamming ship sent by the Imperial Chinese Navy that rushed to the middle of the Mengte fleet and the Eberly fleet half an hour earlier, cutting off the fleet's radio communication between the two sides.

At this moment, Admiral Eberly, who was on the battleship North Carolina, the flagship of the fleet, was already in a hurry. He asked Meng Te to contact him every twenty or thirty minutes to let him know the location and situation of Meng Te Fleet. However, the Meng Special fleet suddenly lost contact, and the dozen or so reconnaissance planes sent out had also not moved for more than an hour, which made him worry that the Imperial Chinese Navy had begun to move.

At this time, Eberly felt that he was blind, and he had lost his judgment of the movements of the Imperial Chinese Navy, which made him nervous.

"Order the fleet to move forward at full speed and move closer to Mengte, I have a hunch that something is going to happen to the Mengte fleet."

"Your Excellency, General!" The chief of staff said: "We have lost contact with Mengte for more than half an hour, and they are engaged with a battle cruiser fleet of the Chinese Empire, and with the speed of their battle patrol, the area of engagement must be far from where it was half an hour ago, and even the direction may change. ”

Eberly asked rhetorically, "Then what do you want me to do?" Do you want me to press into the air? Now we can only move forward according to the position and course reported by Mengte half an hour ago, hoping to arrive in time. ”

What Eberly didn't know was that the course of his fleet had already been ninety degrees away from the course of the Meng Special fleet, even if the communication was restored at this time, Meng Te reported that it was attacked by the main force of the Chinese Imperial Navy, and it was too late for Eberly to turn around the fleet and reinforce it, because their straight-line distance was already 150 kilometers away, and the main fleet of the Chinese Imperial Navy was only less than 50 kilometers away from the sea area where Wang Shouchang and Meng Special were engaged, and the radar system on the island of the Ming-class battleship had locked on the Meng Special fleet, Li Dingxin was giving orders to the various sub-teams and was encircling the Meng Special Fleet from the southeast, north, and south.

At 11:13, Wang Shouchang finally grabbed the "T" shot horizon by surprise after four laps with superb tactics.

"Knock knock!"

The two battle cruisers of the Sui Wendi and the Sui Yangdi let out a roar, and the 18 381-mm main guns fired a salvo, and the shells fired at the flagship of the Meng special fleet, the Denver.

"Boom!"

A series of explosions rang out, and the Denver was hit by two 381-mm shells in an instant. One shot hit the No. 3 chimney of the USS Denver, and the shell pierced through the chimney and hit the rudder of the stern, and the violent explosion instantly blew off more than half of the stern, and the flames and black smoke gushed out, and the entire battleship lost its ability to steer. Another shell directly hit the No. 2 main gun turret in the bow of the ship, and coincidentally, the U.S. military had already loaded the No. 2 turret with shells, and it was hit at the critical moment when it was being fired, which immediately caused a large explosion in the turret, which was equivalent to the explosion yield of two large-caliber artillery shells, and instantly blew the entire No. 2 turret into a twisted shape.

Due to the loss of the rudder of the Denver, there was no way to circumvent it. This gave Wang Shouchang the opportunity to organize a second salvo of fire in the T-shaped horizontal position.

A minute later, Emperor Wen of Sui and Emperor Yang of Sui fired another volley of fire. Since the Denver could not avoid it, six of the 18 shells fired this time hit at the same time.

"Boom!"

I saw a fiery red mushroom cloud rising from the bow and amidship of the USS Denver, and the entire battleship was instantly engulfed in flames and black smoke.

There was a loud "boom", like a thunderbolt on a sunny day, followed by a series of explosions one after another, like a hundred lightning and thunder gathered together. It was a 381-millimeter bomb that hit and penetrated the ammunition depot, causing the USS Denver to be killed.

In a matter of moments, the massive hull of the USS Denver turned into an erupting volcano. The flames soared into the sky, the smoke obscured the sky, and the entire hull disintegrated in the sound of explosions, and countless fragments were projected into the air hundreds of meters into the air, and then sprinkled on the sea in a radius of five kilometers.

Since the 1,350 US officers and men below the MENG Special Fleet were buried in the sea with their flagship Denver, the entire MENG Special Fleet suddenly lost its command.

At the same time, the main forces of the Imperial Chinese Navy under the command of Li Dingxin had surrounded the fleet from all sides, and a massacre was about to begin