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In September 1905, the days in the Gulf of Polomerania became shorter, and the slight cold of the early morning did not make people feel cold, but made people feel very comfortable, looking from the Gulf of Polomerania towards the Szczecin Bay, the coast was lined with the horizon, like a slender black line, the breeze blew, and the sea surface of the Balomarania Gulf was rippling, and the sky was dark, and the sun was shining in the sky.

On a small fishing boat, the German fishermen had a smile on their faces, good weather often means a good "harvest", suddenly, a few black smoke appeared on the horizon, the next quarter of an hour, the fishermen were surprised to see a fleet sailing out of Szczecin Bay, the fleet was getting closer and closer, when the leading warship sailed into their sight, the first thing that surprised those fishermen was to see this fleet of seven warships, their hulls were painted an inconspicuous dark gray, and the golden "monster" bow badge on the bow of the ship shone in the sun, Although the dark gray livery of the battleship is not conspicuous, it also makes the battleship look particularly elegant and beautiful, and it also reflects its murderous atmosphere.

As the fleet drew closer, the fishermen were amazed at its sheer size, the armor and superstructure of the battleship were all painted dark gray, the bow and stern had huge twin turrets, and the east and west sides were covered with rapid-fire guns, the muzzles of which gave a sense of terrifying power.

On the deck of the battleship, there are constant shouts of people, the sound of boatswain's whistle, the sound of iron bells, and even a group of sailors in new uniforms, wearing sandbags on the command tower, all ready to fight.

"Is there going to be a war?"

Looking at this fleet, the fishermen muttered in their hearts, but the next moment, when the stern appeared in front of them and saw the German merchant flag flying on the stern, they finally breathed a sigh of relief, it was originally the Chinese fleet

This is the Chinese fleet, and in the past few days, they have heard that this Chinese fleet is an old warship that the Chinese bought from the Royal Navy at a high price, and those old warships have been refurbished and maintained at the Volken shipyard before.

When the fishermen looked at this fleet with strange eyes, Cheng Biguang, who had a telescope hanging on his chest on the command tower of the Dingyuan ship, held a stopwatch in his hand, and whenever the first mate made a report, he would always press the stopwatch, frowning and tightening.

At this time, several German naval officers on the side were muttering softly.

"This is a sea trial, and it is clearly an exercise"

"Isn't it, from the speed to the preparation of artillery, maybe they will still fire......"

"It's definitely going to be fired, and today's subject has a gun test"

The shrug of the German naval officer was only exchanged for Cheng Biguang's slight frown, now he did not have any interest in chatting with those people, he knew that he and the 3,612 officers and men on this fleet did not have any time for small talk.

Although the officers and sailors had been mastering and learning about the seven warships for the past month and a half under the guidance of German instructors, he was very dissatisfied with their performance from the moment they sailed out of the docks of the Szczecin Volkeng shipyard until now.

They did their best

Thinking that in the past month and a half, the officers and men went to the warship that was still parked in the dock almost as soon as they got off the train, and began the quasi-training while the workers were repairing and renovating the warship, and their training almost reached the point of never sleeping, eating and resting for eight hours a day, figuratively training for 10 hours, and training on paper for six hours.

Warships and soldiers need to run in

Although they were making excuses in their hearts, everyone could see the dissatisfaction shown in Cheng Biguang's expression.

At this time, everyone in each battleship was busy, and on the watchtower on the command tower, a 3.5-meter rangefinder had been turned, and the 3.5-meter rangefinder was commissioned by the Admiralty to the German Karl a year ago. Designed and manufactured by Zeiss Company, the rangefinder who wears a binaural headset and a telephone microphone around his neck is designed and manufactured by Zeiss Company, and when he reads a reading, if you look down from the watchtower armored fort where he is located, you can see that the two turrets in front and rear that have been replaced with British Armstrong MK7 ten-inch naval guns also start to rotate. …,

When the turret locked the firing boundary, several young officers sitting on the table in the armored fort of the command tower, also wearing special binaural headphones, and hanging a telephone microphone around their necks, were lying on their sides on the chart with a ruler to calculate the direction of the target, and calculating the advance amount according to their speed, while several young officers with the same "equipment" on the other side held a shooting ruler and a logarithmic table, and calculated with a shooting ruler and a shooting table according to the number of drawings reported by their colleagues, yelling out, to be exact.

In the next moment, the electric turret began to fine-tune the firing boundary, adjust the firing angle, and began to load the propellant, and when the fire controller chief standing in the center heard the completion of the firing preparations from each turret, the indicator lights on the improvised fire console representing the four main guns of the two turrets and the five 150mm naval guns on one side turned from red to green, and then pressed the electric activation button to complete a salvo of the main and auxiliary guns of full fire.

This seemingly complicated process, in fact, only takes twenty to twenty-five seconds, which is exactly the same as the rate of fire of the battleship's main guns.

Of course, although a salvo of the whole ship was completed, there was no cannon sound and no gunsmoke, because this was just a drill, to be precise, from the moment they left the port, they continued to carry out the corresponding drill.

"Order, the Amikiel sails southeast at full speed"

In the command tower of the fleet's flagship "Dingyuan", Cheng Biguang, who had always looked slightly unhappy, opened his mouth to give an order.

The Amikil was a German Navy-owned target troller, but was now employed by the Chinese Navy for maritime gunnery training.

As the target ship "Amikil" was getting farther and farther away from the fleet, the officers and men of the fleet began to get nervous, knowing that today they would fire the Chinese Navy's naval guns again in the Gulf of Boromania.

When the Amikil sailed in the direction of the command, on a slow-moving German light cruiser in the distance, the German naval officers and men also witnessed this fleet, and most of them looked at the "Chinese fleet" equipped with German warships with curious eyes, and their expressions were curious and complicated.

"Seven Distances"

"Eight Great ......"

Most of the German naval officers and sailors who were snuggled to the side spoke in a curious tone about this fleet, which was the name of the fleet.

In 1887, when a fleet appeared in the East, the whole world was amazed, and even called it "the hope of the rise of the Far East." The navy -- the Beiyang Naval Division and its eight ships, "Dingyuan," "Zhenyuan," "Jiyuan," "Jingyuan," "Laiyuan," "Zhiyuan," "Jingyuan," and "Pingyuan," were collectively called the "Eight Great Distances" of the Beiyang, and these eight warships constituted the main lineup of the Beiyang Naval Division and were the essence of the whole army.

Later, this Beiyang naval division, known as "Asia's first", turned into history in the smoke of the Yellow Sea, and the Chinese's road to the ocean was interrupted.

For various purposes, in the mouths of officials and politicians, the defeat of Beiyang became "corruption of officers and soldiers", "greed for life and fear of death", "lack of skills" and other stigma were detained on the Beiyang naval division, in order to cover up the incompetence and short-sightedness of the court and officials, which led to the defeat, and lies are always lies.

But in any case, defeat is always defeated, and the "Eight Great Distances" that once fascinated all Chinese have also dissipated with the smoke of gunfire and turned into history, and the "Eight Great Distances", as the main force of the Chinese fleet, can really be described as a combination of honor and disgrace.

And today, the "Eight Great Distances" appeared on the ocean again, but today when the Dragon fleet set sail again, the Eight Great Distances became the Ten Great Distances, and the Zhiyuan-class battle cruisers occupied the names of the two ships of Zhiyuan and Jingyuan, and at this time, the seven warships sailing in the Gulf of Ballot Merania were "Dingyuan", "Fuyuan", "Jiyuan", "Jingyuan", "Laiyuan", "Weiyuan" and "Pingyuan" 7 ships. …,

At this time, sailing in the seven distances of the Gulf of Bolomerania, it looked majestic, the thick smoke spit out by the fleet filled the air, and the faint soot that filled the sky seemed to be ominous, as if to blame the Chinese for choosing the name of the ship that was not said.

"Distance: 12.5 km"

When the first mate reported a distance, Cheng Biguang's brows tightened, and he immediately opened his mouth to order.

"The fleet turns left ......"

This is an order to change the battle formation.

"The fleet turns left ......"

With the repetition of the order, the "Dingyuan", which was originally sailing at a speed of 14 knots, immediately began to adjust its course, and at the same time, the rangefinder officer in the armored fort on the watchtower had begun to constantly adjust the optical rangefinder, and constantly reported the readings, each costing as much as 215,000 yuan The optical rangefinder gave full play to its own performance, and it almost perfectly approached the "enemy ship" 12.5 kilometers away, and at the same time accurately measured the distance, speed, and course of the enemy ship.

"Target enemy flagship Shikishima"

As soon as he opened his mouth, Cheng Biguang reported the shipwright Shikishima of the Combined Fleet, which was originally the flagship of the Combined Fleet was the battleship "Mikasa", but ten days ago, everything changed, perhaps because of joy and sorrow, the flagship of the Combined Fleet, the battleship "Mikasa", which had made great contributions in the Battle of Tsushima, had a major accident after the explosion of the ammunition depot during the port berthing on September 11, and the warship sank into the sea, and almost all the more than 300 people on board died, the only regret was that Togo was not on the ship at that time.

Naturally, this will be trained, and the flagship of the enemy ship will become a participant in the Shikishima.

"Heading 312, distance 11590, speed 10 knots......"

And on the starboard side of the secondary gun position, this will already be busy, and the moment the armored shell box is opened, the gunners are busy.

"Test firing a marker bomb."

And the officer, who was wearing a headset and hanging up the phone, shouted, and the shell went into the chamber.

"Putting ......"

A long roar, the deafening sound of the cannon sounded, the port side No. 1, No. 6 secondary guns sounded first, and at this time, the "Dingyuan" ship has not yet completed the turn, the main gun can not be fired, but in the main gun turret, the bomb machine has already lifted the 500-pound high-explosive shell into the turret, in the roar of the bomb machine, the heavy shell into the gun chamber, the base charge bag began to be loaded in turn, the powder pack is stuck into the turret, all the work is being carried out in an orderly manner.

Dozens of seconds later, in the range-measuring armored fort of the watchtower, the observer clearly saw two huge water columns and black smoke rising one after another near the artillery target, the water column and the artillery target.

At the same time, the rangefinders on the seven warships that were deployed in turn were trying to catch the target and get the most accurate target, and when the Dingyuan ship changed the formation of the formation, the fleet also changed the formation in turn.

"Okay, Dingyuan is going to fire"

A few minutes later, when the Dingyuan ship completed the change of formation, the German officers observing from a distance all thought that the main gun of the Dingyuan ship that had completed the formation change would open fire, the range measurement had been completed, and the formation had completed the change, so it was reasonable to fire the gun, but to their surprise,

One minute, two minutes...... Dingyuan still did not open fire, but the fleet changed its formation in turn.

"What are they going to do?"

All those who witnessed this scene and believed that the Chinese Navy was using artillery test firing to conduct artillery drills would have been confused by the "silence" of the fleet.

The main guns of Dingyuan did not sound, and the main guns of "Fuyuan", "Jiyuan", "Jingyuan", "Laiyuan", "Weiyuan" and "Pingyuan", which changed their formations in turn, were also "dumb".

One minute, two minutes, just when everyone was surprised, the German naval officers and men watching from a distance suddenly laughed, they could clearly see that the formation of the Chinese fleet may be because they are not skilled enough, resulting in the distance between the front and rear of the ships, or even less than 100 meters, and just when they shook their heads and sighed at the "youthfulness" of this fleet, they saw an astonishing scene, when a warship at the tail of the fleet changed its formation, because it was too close to the front ship, in order to avoid being hit by the front ship, it made an emergency evasion. …,

"That's Pingyuan"

Pingyuan is an armored cruiser, that is, the former German Navy "Prince Heinrich" armored cruiser, with a standard displacement of 8857 tons, a full load displacement of 9806 tons, equipped with 2 single-mounted 240 mm main guns, 10 150 mm secondary guns, 10 88 mm guns and 4 450 mm torpedo tubes, although his speed is only 19.9 knots, it is the fastest armored cruiser in the fleet.

After being sold to China by Tipilz, the Prince Heinrich armored cruiser was remodeled at the Volken shipyard, and initially the navy preferred to replace its main guns with a twin 8-inch turret, but after some discussion, considering that the transformation was time-consuming and too late, it finally referred to the transformation of the "" class battleship, and replaced the 240 naval guns with British 10-inch naval guns to obtain the same firepower as the battleship in order to centralize fire control.

Feeling the strange eyes of the German officers around him, the expression of the commander of the Pingyuan ship, who had just stood firm, was slightly embarrassed, but the regret did not exceed three seconds, and then a few lines spit out from his mouth.

There will be time to regret it, but he knows that from now on, the Pingyuan ship may not be able to raise its head in the entire fleet, and everything is fine on paper, but once he really drives the warship, everything will change.

"Damn"

The report of the subordinates made Cheng Biguang curse in his heart, there are too many young officers in the fleet, although the Pingyuan ship has studied in Mawei for 7 years, but it is only a year on the ship, and he was sent to the United Kingdom to study, when he was appointed as the captain, he didn't even have the experience of commanding a battleship, if he had a choice, of course he knew that all the officers under his command were ......

Looking around at the young officers around him, Cheng Biguang sighed in his heart, this is just an illusion, can unfamiliar warships, young officers, and young sailors win this battle?

"Fleet Completes Formation Conversion"

Suddenly, a voice interrupted Cheng Biguang's thoughts, he first looked at the stopwatch, it had been 6 minutes since he gave the order, if it was on the battlefield, this would have been his "Dingyuan" had been hit hard.

"Target Shikishima fires"

With a command, the silent fleet finally roared, first Dingyuan, followed by "Fuyuan", "Jiyuan", "Jingyuan", "Laiyuan", "Weiyuan" and "Pingyuan".

In an instant, the sky in the Gulf of Balmerania seemed to be torn apart by a giant cannon, and the deafening sound of cannons echoed in the sea space, and the interval between the main guns of each warship may only be one second, or even shorter, and in just one or two seconds, 24 10-inch naval guns on seven warships aimed at a target and fired at the same time.

In fact, although the Chinese naval fleet is only in its infancy, it is not as "inefficient" as the outside world thinks, and in view of the limited number of its own ships, in order to seize some advantages, since the establishment of the Chinese Imperial Sea Guards Navy, it has vigorously practiced the tactics of long-range artillery bombardment and multi-ship coordinated attack on the same target, trying to rely on quantity to make up for the lack of quality in naval warfare.

This hand was even earlier than the British Royal Navy thought of it, and at this time, the world's navies did not even have this concept. In order to prevent multiple warships from attacking the same target, it is difficult to judge the impact point of the own ship and it is difficult to correct the aiming. After many tests, the tactical principle adopted is actually very simple, that is, the distance between the multiple warships is compressed, and the middle one is used as the fire command ship, and the shooting is commanded in a unified manner, so that the multiple warships are logically turned into one, so as to achieve the goal of destroying the enemy with overwhelming firepower.

And this time, at present, Cheng Biguang used this tactic during the test launch, and the fire command ship he designated was the No. 2 ship "Fuyuan".

When the smoke cleared on the sea, everyone was stunned by the previous scene, the first salvo of the Chinese fleet had at least two shells accurately hit the target, and the 500-pound shell directly tore the wooden target to pieces.

Looking at the disappearing target, Cheng Biguang let out a sigh in his heart, looking at the young officers around him, the excitement on their faces filled him with worry,

"I wish ......" ......,