No one is going to lose twice in a row, unless you simply can't find a solution.

Hu Chuyuan is different from Yue himself, he knows how to solve the problem, and he is sure that after Yue Ben has already used picric acid shells on a large scale, he will also fully list picric acid shells.

Through the examination of the bullet casings of Yue himself, it was unexpectedly discovered that he actually had an invention with an original surname, and in comparison, his own method was more reliable than that of the Americans.

Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau and Fuzhou Shipbuilding General Factory have also learned this method.

In addition, Hu Chuyuan also had new gas masks developed, and ordered them to be produced in large quantities in Shanghai, and in the United States, they had an invention patent for a fire extinguisher with the surname alkali, which can deal well with the high-temperature chemical flame produced by picric acid.

In order to reduce the damage of the gunner, Hu Chuyuan specially ordered a high-temperature protective suit for the gunner in the United States, and the local method is not high-tech, that is, adding a layer of refractory brick material to the outside of the traditional armor, which can only be used once or twice, and will be replaced after the war.

At 18:07, the two sides finally began a large-scale exchange of fire.

The furious cannon fired, and the rain of bullets fell on the decks and sides of the ships, smashing into a continuous explosion, and the huge flames could not dissipate themselves at all, but spread along the metal.

In a situation where the hit rate and rate of fire and firepower are roughly equal, small details determine a lot of things.

He said that he did not have time to modify the artillery, but only temporarily replaced it with new fire control technology with the help of the French, and then secretly let all the capital ships sail out of the dock, secretly assemble on Tsushima Island in the northern sea, and then quietly entered the West Korean Bay.

In terms of overall firepower, there is not much difference between the Zhiyuan class and the Dingyuan class, the former has 10 new 275mm caliber Krupp main guns, and the latter has 8 identical main guns, but there are 4 more 150mm caliber secondary guns.

It is precisely because of this high degree of similarity that the four main ironclad ships of Dingyuan, Zhenyuan, Zhiyuan, and Yingyuan were unified in the First Fleet, and in terms of the caliber of the main guns alone, the four battleships are not as good as the two Ise class, but in terms of average power, the four ships together have 36 new barreled main guns of 275mm caliber, with an average rate of fire of 2 rounds per minute.

Combined with the 24 guns of the six Jingyuan-class ironclad cruisers, a total of 60 275mm caliber Armstrong's new barrel guns, the average attack power of the birth is very amazing.

Although this had been predicted for a long time, Youdi Zhiyun also adopted a tactic against the surname, trying to cut the opponent's formation by speed, but with the cooperation of the two Spring Rain and a number of cruisers, Ye Fu even did not hesitate to lose two transport merchant ships, effectively preventing this tactic.

After more than 10 minutes of fighting each other, the two dome-armored cruisers of the fleet were sunk and lost their combat effectiveness, and the other two dome-armored cruisers were significantly reduced due to a fire in the boiler area, forcing the whole ship to reduce its speed to 13 knots to maintain the formation.

In this case, many of the modified gunboats were exposed, and Ye Fu could finally implement the tactics he wanted to implement the most, using two Xinyangwu-class cruisers to cooperate with the Spring Rain to assault the column formation of the Ben, and adjust all the main gun fire to the modified gunboats.

The two sides continued to exchange fire, and after the Xiangwu, which had been damaged in advance, was sunk, the First Fleet in the North Sea also completed its plan one after another, sinking four modified gunboats, which reduced the firepower of the fleet.

At this time, Ye Fu adjusted his tactics again and redirected all his firepower at the two flagships.

It was getting late, and even in the middle of summer, the sky was getting darker, and it was impossible for the two sides to continue fighting in the dark.

Therefore, Ye Fu had to fight for the last time, striving to sink the two most critical battleships in Yuben.

The two sides began a new round of tug-of-war, due to the slowdown of many warships, there is no way to evacuate the battlefield now, can only survive until dark, the original plan to sink any two of the Dingyuan class and Zhiyuan class...... It also looks like it's hard to finish.

Goro Ijiin proposed to abandon the damaged battleship, and the plan to withdraw the main force was also vetoed by Yuki Yujino, who was indeed inferior to Kozo Tsuboi and Yuhiro Ito in terms of actual talent.

He had no choice.

The searchlights of all the battleships have been turned on, illuminating the entire sea area, and the two sides continue to fight fiercely in front of this impending black curtain, all the main guns are focused on the Ise and Shima, and the dense artillery fire continues to deter the two capital ships.

With a loud bang, the Shima failed to hold out into the night, and a large hole was opened at the junction between the right side and the deck, and the blast of a flowering cannon spread to the boiler room, causing an even larger internal explosion.

The Shima could no longer hold on, let alone leave, and could no longer protect the formation.

Seizing this gap, Ye Fu led the battleships to forcibly use their speed to cut through the opponent's column, and the badly damaged Pingwu and the remaining three transport ships carrying supplies began to break away from the main battlefield and provide some pitiful long-range artillery fire.

The Haruhoo continued to trail at the rear of the fleet's formation, and after cutting the Shima and Ise apart, two Haruhi and several carrier-based torpedo boats were responsible for the attack, using gas torpedoes to completely sink the Shima.

At the same time, the ironclad group led by the Ise and the cruiser group led by the Shima were cut apart, and all the main guns were aimed at several ironclad cruisers and the remaining two dominated cruisers.

At this time, seeing that the darkness had completely fallen, the Ise issued a new order, and all the battleships broke through and evacuated southward, preparing to use the darkness to evacuate the battlefield.

At such a final moment, the two Spring Rain cooperated with each other to cover a large number of high-speed torpedo boats to assault the fleet group, assuming a large amount of firepower, using the seven small torpedo boats behind them to suddenly attack the two ironclad cruisers, causing one heavy damage and one being forced to leave the formation.

Youpinzhiyun looked through the telescope at the two incomparably brave, bizarre high speed and defensive Spring Rain, and his heart became more and more puzzled.

"What the hell is going on?"

He couldn't figure it out, the Spring Rain could obviously reach 23 knots or even 24 knots at the limit speed, but in terms of defense, it could completely compete with second-class ironclad ships.

He had no choice but to lead the remnants of the fleet to evacuate quickly, and Ye Fu also began to shrink his formation to attack several cruisers that lacked the speed to break through and the old Fusang, the first ironclad ship of the original company, forcing these ships to surrender and transform into new ships of the North Sea Combined Fleet.

In the end, the Fuso, whose hull had cracked, chose to explode and sink by itself, while the other two Nagano-class domes, with cracked boilers, and one Matsumoto-class ironclad cruiser with its hull tilted over the sea, chose to be captured.

After an hour and 47 minutes of bloody fighting, the Battle of the Gulf of West Korea was completely concluded at 19:41 on the evening of August 17, 1890, and the Combined Fleet lost two ironclad ships, two ironclad cruisers, four dome cruisers, and five converted gunboats, of which three cruisers were captured, and only three ironclads, two ironclad cruisers, and one converted gunboat were evacuated safely.

The first detachment of the North Sea Combined Fleet lost one ironclad cruiser, one dometro, and four transport gunboats, two ironclad cruisers and one domeclad cruiser suffered heavy damage, and the Zhenyuan ship suffered a torpedo attack and damaged tail rudder, but it was able to maintain a speed of about 5 knots.

The overall strength of the two sides is roughly equal, and the opponent also has more rapid-fire guns of 120 mm caliber, and it turns out that the guns of the main ship are still larger, and at the same time very numerous.

The Qing army's naval warfare thinking led by the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Administration was very clearly reflected in this naval battle - the flagship should accommodate the other main warships of the fleet, realize the unification of the main guns on the basis of the average maximum caliber, and use the formation of a column to carry out intensive bombardment with the opponent at a unified range.

Ye Fu's entire tactics were formulated around this characteristic, at the expense of some ships, by attacking the opponent's cruiser, forcing the opponent's average speed to decrease, and then using the advantage of average speed to widen the distance between him and the combined fleet, using the 275mm average main gun to bombard the opponent's flagship intensively, forcing the opponent to be unable to give full play to the advantage of the number and rate of fire of the 120 mm caliber small guns, and had to choose to flee.

The second defeat of the Ben Navy will also have another effect, that is, Hu Chuyuan's control over the entire Chinese Navy will be further strengthened through the Fuzhou Ship Administration.

On this basis, he will also quickly develop new plans to raise the overall strength of the Chinese navy to a higher level, preparing it for the defeat of Russia and France.

After all, Asia is China's, and this trend is difficult to change.

Ye Fu divided the fleet into two groups, the flagship of the main force protected the rest of the ships and slowly sailed towards Nanpu, and the two destroyers Chunyu and two ironclad cruisers were responsible for protecting the three material ships and Ye Bojun's troop carriers, and continued to sail to Nanpu Port.

Four transport ships, which had been prepared in advance for the transportation of supplies, sank...... Whether this point is right or wrong will inevitably cause a lot of controversy within the Qing political axe in the future, and even Hu Chuyuan is a little difficult to accept.

Yu Ben's main plan went bankrupt, but on the army side, since Song Qing did not have a suitable transport ship, he could only blow up most of the baggage and heavy artillery, shrink to Nanpu Port, and with the help of Ye Bojun and Ye Fu, temporarily hold Nanpu Port.

On August 20, the army besieged Nampo and withdrew while fighting, but in the end, more than 2,000 soldiers and some supplies could not be evacuated.

On August 24, 1890, the Qing army withdrew from Nampo, and due to the lack of more troops between Pyongyang and Dandong, the whole of Korea had fallen under the control of the army.

The loss of the four transport ships was not small, because Hu Chuyuan only had these military transport ships in his hands, and the rest were temporarily converted merchant ships.

As Hu Chuyuan expected, although Ye Fu won a big victory, Li Hongzhang and others still criticized it, questioning whether Ye Fu's decision to use transport ships to share firepower in naval battles was wise.

Hu Chuyuan couldn't say this clearly, but he understood that in the face of the sudden outbreak of a naval battle, Ye Fu, who had not prepared much in advance, could indeed do whatever it took to win, which was the choice that a soldier should make.

Transport ships, it is enough to temporarily convert merchant ships, and if you lose one warship, you have to wait for a year and a half to replenish it.

He used this as a reason to argue with Li Hongzhang and other people who thought they were naval know-it-alls in the imperial court, and by the way, the Huai army, which attacked Li Hongzhang in a big way, was a bunch of rags.

(To be continued)