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November 3, 1919, the Yellow Sea.

16:27.

In the past, it was 76 kilometers west of the Dadonggou Naval Theater and 73 kilometers south of Lushunkou. When the Korean Cruise Fleet, consisting of two Kongo-class ships of the Japanese Navy, and the First Fleet of the Republic of China, which is a well-deserved naval power in the Far East, were separated by 35 kilometers, they discovered each other's traces at the same time.

Twenty-five years ago, after a life-and-death naval battle, the Japanese fleet turned around here and returned to Dadonggou to look for overboard and lost ships. Twenty-five years ago, the strongest Beiyang Fleet in the Far East stared at this place, covered with scars and did not dare to fight again, and returned to Lushun gloomily. Fate, a word with a strong feudal superstition, has reappeared dramatically 25 years later. Historians decades later see the decision as a turning point in the geopolitics of the Far East, and the BB Party is trying to recreate the scene. Draw conclusions from personnel, naval guns, ammunition and even weather, etc., and be evenly matched. This made many new party members wonder why the duel between the 356mm naval gun and the 305mm naval gun was considered evenly matched. Only the old birds know best that armor and protection determine that both sides have the ability to completely penetrate each other!

King Kong class, the test product of the British Empire Lion class before the battle patrol.

The Anhai-class, American firepower and German-style large ship and small artillery emphasize the combination of protection and survivability.

If these two types of warships are placed in Jutland, then the winner is undoubtedly the latter, because the comprehensive protection capability of the Anhai class is higher, while the same Lion class of the King Kong class has proven to have huge hidden dangers in the protection structure. But the problem is that the Chinese Navy, which has not yet completely emerged in just a few years, does not have so many elite sailors. And their opponents, though slightly less structured, have a group of ascetic, tenacious killing machines that even Europe would envy.

All the data points to a close match.

But some people who love to delve into the story behind the war have found something strange in a declassified document in the National Archives of the Republic of China. They found that at the same time as Cheng Biguang and Nozaki Kojuro encountered, at least 24 Dapeng bombers and 36 Haidongqing were on standby on the tarmac in Lushun Naval Base, while the Wulianghai training aircraft carrier of the First Fleet was inexplicably transferred to Shanghai for transformation half a month ago. What's even stranger! In the First Sino-Japanese War, the submarine forces that established a great reputation, at least a generation more advanced than Japan, have no trace of them. And the two submarine commanders, Chen Shaokuan and Bai Yutang, who were known as the leaders of the First Fleet, were actually on the cruiser Qingdao.

What's going on?!

Cheng Biguang knew, but he never mentioned these things. Many officers of the First Fleet at that time knew about it, but they all secretly brought it into the coffin. But one thing is clear. A few days later, the Japanese Navy was tied to the cross along with the smuggling ship that had been on public display in Tianjin in front of Britain and the United States. Underneath the cross, there were piles of explosives and dry firewood.

Those who vaguely guessed but had no evidence turned their gaze to the back of a figure that had shrouded the Far East for decades, and then summed up this strange and unpredictable naval battle in one sentence.

War is a continuation of politics.

Zhang Zhaoyang also guessed the meaning of the above. But he would not say it either, because it was a matter of honor for the country and the navy, and it was better to concentrate on work than to focus on the war. The 27-year-old came from the Chinese community in San Francisco, returned to China in 1913 and was hired by the Navy, and after graduating from the Guns Department of the Nanyang Naval School in 1916, he was escorted to the Annapolis Naval Academy in the United States, during which he participated in three Atlantic escort operations, and just graduated in August and returned to China.

Deck guns are important work. If the gun officers are the brains, then they, the deck gun non-commissioned officers, are the nerves, and every command must be issued through them to the various gun positions, and the situation of each gun position must be transmitted by them to the command center. At the same time, it is also responsible for auxiliary ranging, observation and observation of enemy ship losses, etc., which is a very professional job. So far, only a dozen people in the Chinese Navy have passed the professional gun examination after the dreadnought era.

Life jacket, imitation American-style anti-burn hood, diagonal first aid kit, flare gun, shipboard telephone, 6x graduated Zeiss navy telescope, fixed 1.5 m side auxiliary rangefinder. That's all he has to fit and use. Compared with the upper main deck, the secondary guns are not very good due to the installation of the gun profile gun in such a way that the secondary gun is lower than the main deck, so the line of sight and working environment is not very good, in order to strengthen the protection, each auxiliary gun is actually an independent enclosed space wrapped in steel, so the auxiliary guns can only be connected through the internal corridor.

Standing in his position, he could still see the smoke billowing from the northeast. At the same time, Kojuro Nozaki also saw the column of smoke of the galloping First Fleet, and the report of the mast lookout made him frown suddenly. There is no doubt that at this time the Kurama had already exchanged fire with the Chinese Navy, but a cruiser exchange of fire and a fleet-level exchange of fire are completely different, the former can be interpreted as a conflict at sea, and the latter is war! Compared with the fanatical army, these naval officers are obviously much calmer, and they all know very well whether Japan can fight a big war, although they all look down on the army, but once a full-scale war breaks out, it will inevitably lead to a full-scale war in Korea and Taiwan, and they do not believe in the ability of the army's stupid asses to resist millions of elite national defense forces.

The Navy doesn't want to fight for this alone, but the problem is that since the Kurama has opened fire and two Anhai-class ships have also appeared in this position, if they don't fight, it means that the Kurama has no chance of surviving and leaving! An armored cruiser was still lost, but the dignity of the Navy would never allow the Kurama to be sunk in front of the fleet's eyes!

So he didn't have a second option.

"Send a telegram to the base camp that the Kurama is surrounded, and our ship has been intercepted." Kojuro Nozaki sent this telegram before the attack. The sudden appearance of the Anhai class here explains the whole situation, since they can't dodge, let them know the price of challenging the Imperial Japanese Navy!

"33,000 meters!"

"30,000 meters!"

"Speed 25 knots, and it's still approaching!"

"Report Dazuo. Yoshioka Fanze Osa had already rounded the Miashima archipelago and was heading towards us, and he reported that he had found 3 destroyers in Shina again, and now there were as many as 5 in pursuit of him! ”

The captain quickly drew a situation map based on the information provided by the Kurama. Judging from the situation, at this time, the bow of the two ships of the King Kong is pointing towards the Bohai Strait, while the bow of the First Fleet in the distance is pointing to Yantai, and the two fleets are in a T-shape, while the Kurama is fleeing eastward along the sea off Yantai under the pursuit of a total of five destroyers. If the First Fleet engages in this situation, it can get a T-position. And it can quickly block the Kurama's retreat route! From this alone, it can be seen that the opposing commander is fully prepared and completely premeditated!

At 16:55, at a distance of 28,000 meters, Kojuro Nozaki ordered a left turn. Approached the First Fleet on its own initiative, but did not give the order to open fire immediately.

At this time, the soldiers on both sides knew that the big battle would start in a few minutes, because there was no way back for both sides! If the First Fleet were to be escaped by the Kurama, it would be another great shame after the First Sino-Japanese War. Therefore, Cheng Biguang also ordered the Tsukuba to break away from the formation and take two destroyers to block the Kurama first. And for Nozaki Kojuro, if the Kurama was sunk in front of him, the history of the Japanese navy rampaging in the Yellow Sea would be rewritten.

At 17:03, Zhang Zhaoyang saw the majestic posture of the King Kong and Hiei through the rangefinder, because they were close to the setting of the sun, so the sea was shining with gold, and the two enemy ships were like the gods of war bathed in the glow. This gave him a hint of nervousness, and he picked up the phone and reported: "The port side auxiliary gun position has a range of wind speed 3, a distance of 25,000 meters, and the speed of the enemy ship is 25 knots. Correction angle 11. ”

"Fire!"

"Fire!"

Almost at the same moment, Cheng Biguang and Nozaki Kojuro gave the order.

Thundered.

The low, piercing sound of the main cannon fire that could even affect the speed of heart contraction suddenly drilled into everyone's ears, Zhang Zhaoyang only felt a shaking under his feet, and two huge hemispherical water waves formed on the sea surface in the direction of the bow on the right side, and the two hot muzzle fireworks spread violently in all directions. Even if you leave a few dozen meters, you feel that your mouth is dry from being smoked by the hot wind! But now he and everyone didn't have the heart to feel that the momentum of the first full-power explosion of the main cannon was so terrifying, but clung to the binoculars to find the spot where the shell fell into the water.

As soon as I saw the picture of the water column rising on the opposite side, I was blocked by several water columns, and the 16 356mm naval guns of the King Kong and Hiei were much larger than the Anhai class in terms of explosion power and splashing water columns. The peers on the opposite side are also watching the landing point, and no one thinks that they can be lucky enough to hit the opponent in the first round. Therefore, the most important thing for the lookout and rangefinder at this time is to transmit the data back to the shelling bridge as soon as possible, and the fire control will correct the muzzle according to the shelling landing point.

Zhang Zhaoyang had just finished reporting the data he had observed, and the second round of shelling was fired again, followed by the third and fourth rounds. In terms of the speed of the main gun, the American naval guns, which have always emphasized firepower and density, have a higher advantage, with the speed of 2.5 pieces per minute of the 305mm/L50 naval guns second only to the 3 pieces per minute of Italy and Austria-Hungary, while the speed of the 356mm/L45 of the King Kong class is 1.5 pieces per minute. It seems that there is a round difference in a minute, but in reality this gap is meaningless in real combat, and no commander will order a continuous rapid shelling at 25 knots, in which case it will be nothing but a waste. The reason why the first five rounds of selection is so quick is that it is necessary to create momentum first, to give the sailors who are going to fight the first decisive battle a psychological hint that "our artillery is faster and more powerful", so as to relieve their pressure, and at the same time, it is also hoped to provide more data for the stepped fire control system, and strive to lock on to the target before the enemy.

In this era, the commanders of battleships and battlecruisers are undoubtedly the fastest and most capable people in the world, and they need to consider the psychology of soldiers, equipment disadvantages, environmental advantages, and so on while fighting. Cheng Biguang's attempt to use rapid firepower to inspire soldiers and quickly calculate coordinates has already shown that he has a command ability that is higher than that of domestic naval generals, but compared to his opponent this time, he is a little worse.

Because Zhang Zhaoyang suddenly discovered that the track of the Hiei was wrong.

According to the principle of engagement of the capital ships of various countries, as long as they are arrayed, they must move with the flagship, and the course and speed must not be changed without authorization. However, the Hiei suddenly slowed down slightly, and the bow deflected to form a staggered layer with the Kongo in front of it. If Hakan was here, he would definitely shout to be careful! Because this is a new battle patrol squad combat artillery tactic used by the British Royal Navy after Jutland, that is, to let the battleships distance themselves and form an equidistant staggered layer. In this way, an irregular triangle will be formed between the enemy ship, the flagship and the mobile ship, so as to provide more data to the mechanical computer and quickly calculate the accurate coordinates of the enemy ship!

This maneuver is not suitable for the operation of the large fleet, because the linear array is several kilometers long when the large fleet is arrayed, and it is easy to form a long equilateral triangle, and the small fleet is not as long as the shore artillery because the array is short, and the sea ranging baseline is not as long as the shore artillery can be hundreds or even thousands of meters, so the Royal Navy uses this way to find the difference between the landing points of the two shells to solve the accuracy problem of the small fleet when encountering the enemy. This was a new tactic developed by the British Navy after Jutland, and the Germans had mastered it through espionage, but apparently the Chinese Navy did not yet know about it.

"Boom, boom."

At this time, Zhang Zhaoyang saw that the Japanese fleet fired a distinctly different. Although both the Kongo and Hiei fired, there was a noticeable gap of two to three seconds between them. He didn't understand what was going on, you must know that the most important thing for battleships to engage is firepower-intensive, and the denser the firepower on a single platform, the better, but Japan is clearly violating principles by doing so. Why did the Japanese Navy, which was so stubborn that it could not even turn in front of hundreds of naval guns in the Battle of Tsushima, made such a mistake? At the strange moment, two water columns suddenly fell 700 meters away from the port side of Zhenhai, which was the closest point of impact so far in the battle, and Zhang Zhaoyang couldn't help but get nervous. This strange move was also mastered by Cheng Biguang and the officers in the command tower, and everyone did not understand what happened to the Japanese Navy, why it staggered a certain distance and there was a clear interval between shelling. Could it be because both sides were battlecruisers? This is possible, after all, at this time the whole world knew that the battlecruiser was not suitable for the linear formation tactics of the battleship, and the Japanese Navy groped for a new tactic?

Zheng Zuyi frowned deeply, and slowly walked towards the chart table, wanting to calculate the reason behind Japan's strange move, but a sharp whistle suddenly came from the top of the Anhai, and two thick water columns rose from outside the starboard side of the Anhai!

Straddle Shot!

Everyone's faces changed drastically, and after eight rounds of shelling, the King Kong was the first to complete the straddle fire! …… (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to come to the starting point (qidian) to vote for recommendation, monthly pass, your support, is my biggest motivation. )