The waves are monstrous!

Waves crashed on the bow of the "Jibo", although the flying scissor bow gave it good stability, avoided the problem of burying the ship's head to the greatest extent, and improved its longitudinal stability in high sea conditions, but the waves still continued to swell onto the deck. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Despite the raging waves, on the armored cruiser "Zibo" there was no one in a state of idleness, but unexpectedly in "combat readiness", on the mast, sailors with binoculars searched the sea in all directions, and suddenly, a target appeared on the distant horizon.

"Icebergs, icebergs......

With the shouts of the lookouts, the atmosphere on the battleship instantly froze, the most terrible enemy in the North Pacific is the iceberg, as for the diffuse sea fog that will envelop the entire sea, it is secondary, if there is no influence of the iceberg, the sea fog will only block the view at most.

Just when the news of the discovery of the iceberg came, Sun Keli, who was in the bridge, stood there without moving, he just looked at the iceberg several kilometers away with a telescope, and the iceberg hidden in the sea fog was only faintly visible, and it was even very likely to be ignored.

"5800 meters away!"

When the rangefinder used the phone to transmit a distance, Sun Keli's brows were furrowed, as if he was a little dissatisfied with this.

"Really, I found the target so closely!"

As if reminding Xu Zhiyuan beside him, Sun Keli said softly.

"According to the Admiralty's plan, our training should be maintained above 6,000 meters, and if possible, preferably between 6,000 and 12,000 meters. This distance ......."

"The U.S. Navy's gunnery training is 3000 yards to 5000 yards!"

Don't wait for Sun Keli to finish speaking. Xu Zhiyuan took his words. Another fact is revealed - the distance of gunnery training in the navies of various countries is only a few thousand yards.

"And more than 90% of the gunnery training is concentrated within 4000 yards! If we increase the engagement distance to 6,000 meters, then the current artillery training of the Russians is completely meaningless, and if it is increased to 12,000 meters, it will be difficult for their artillery to even threaten us! ”

This is a very simple fact - the 12-inch naval guns used by the navies of various countries today have an extremely limited range due to their firing angle of only 9-12 degrees, 12,000 meters, which is almost their ultimate range, in other words. If the Northeast Navy is able to master long-range artillery skills and achieve average hit efficiency, then it will undoubtedly have the result of bombing the opponent's warships from a distance.

"However, this is obviously impossible, and according to our tests in Zhenhai, even with the more stable 12-inch coastal defense guns on land, with the same rangefinder, can shell targets at a distance of 12,000 meters, and the hit rate is not more than 2%, which is too low. So, the focus of the fleet is on 6000 to 8000 meters. Our training target is normal sea conditions, with a hit rate of 10% passable, 12% excellent, bad sea conditions 8% excellent, and 6% passable......

Just as the words fell, the breeched guns on the battleship were the first to sound, and the gunnery training began, and the target was naturally the icebergs in the distance, and there was no more suitable target position in the North Pacific than those icebergs.

The old man's explanation made Xu Zhiyuan finally have a certain understanding of the current naval tactics, and in the roar of artillery, he nodded and said.

"In other words, we are seeking long-range firefights to compensate for the lack of naval strength?"

It is a well-established fact that the Northeast Navy is inferior to the Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet, which has as many as eight battleships and six armored cruisers, not counting the ten Russian battleships deployed in the Baltic Sea.

In contrast, the only advantage of the Northeast Navy is the armored cruisers -- eight armored cruisers with firepower equal to that of second-class combat ships, and as a countermeasure, in addition to building four armored cruisers of the same type in their own country, the Russians have also ordered two similar armored cruisers from the United States to make up for their lack of firepower.

It can be said that with the commissioning of the new type of battle cruisers, the Northeast Navy is running out little by little, and it is precisely because of this that the Navy will make up for the disadvantage in strength by seeking superiority in "gunnery".

"There's no way around it, my family has twenty battleships, what can we do? There are only six, well, in the words of some good deeds, we barely have 8, because the "Jinghai class" also has four ten-inch secondary guns, although it is not equivalent to one battleship, but four through the sea, barely equivalent to the firepower of six warships, okay! Even so, there is a big gap in power between us and the Russians, moreover, there is the American ......"

In the roaring cannon, Sun Keli glanced at Xu Zhiyuan.

"You have been a military attache in the United States, do you think that if we add another United States, we have a chance of winning the fight?"

"This ......"

Sun Keli's words made Xu Zhiyuan silent for a while, put down the telescope in his hand, and his brows locked slightly.

"Our dispute with the United States is entirely because of Hawaii, and if it were not for Hawaii, I believe that the United States would support us, after all, the expansion of the Russians in the Pacific Ocean also infringes on the interests of the United States!" For example, the Philippines, now, the reason why Russia will issue an order to the United States for warships is to ease relations with the United States, since last year, the Russians have issued orders to the United States for two battle cruisers and three protective cruisers, which has eased relations between the two sides to a large extent, I have made a similar proposal to the ministry, and now we want to ease relations with the United States, there are only two options, to issue an order for warships to the United States, but the ministry refused......"

When mentioning this matter, Xu Zhiyuan seemed a little helpless, as a military attache in the United States, he has been trying to ease the relationship between the two, but the tough attitude of the ministry has caused him to be completely unable to work in the United States, and even now for the US Navy, its first imaginary enemy is China!

"This is normal, the ministry has always been very stingy in the procurement of warships, after all, the purchase of warships is too expensive, and it does not conform to our naval tactical thinking, just like the "Jibo" ...... "

Neither the three-expansion steam engine nor the coal-fired boiler met the needs of the navy, and the navy had no intention of transferring steam turbine and oil-fired high-pressure boiler technology to other countries out of "technical secrecy", resulting in the navy's inadvertent purchase of warships from the West, but directly led to the navy's inability to ease relations with other countries through orders.

"What else is there to do?"

"Either make concessions on Hawaii, or at least get the Navy out of here......"

Without waiting for Xu Zhiyuan to finish speaking, Sun Keli glanced at him meaningfully, and then said solemnly.

"In the future, just talk about it here, as for leaving here, don't say it again, Hawaii is too important for the navy, get out of here? If you say such things at the Admiralty, it is estimated that you will be punished by Chief Han and them as a cold bench! ”

It was at the strong request of the Naval Tactical Research Center, which he presided over, that the Navy did not hesitate to risk offending the United States and marched into Hawaii and used it as the Navy's Pacific forward base.

If the words of giving up Hawaii reached his ears, Sun Keli didn't have to think about it, Sun Keli knew what kind of cold bench his old fellow would do, let alone the captain, maybe when the time came, he wouldn't even be able to do it. In the Navy General Staff, Chief Han's "dictatorship" and "arrogance" are well known.

"Didn't Vice Minister Akiyama also agree with the détente with the United States?"

Xu Zhiyuan turned his attention to another deputy minister Akiyama who advocated détente with the United States, Han Che, Su Yueyang and Akiyama Mayuki, these three can be described as the "three stinkers" in the navy, but in fact they are all Zhuge Liang-style figures.

"The relationship is to be relaxed, but it will never be at the cost of withdrawing from Hawaii, well, this kind of strategic issue, it is not for you and me to think about it, the question we need to consider is, how to improve the ship's gunnery, how, do you have any ideas?"

This is the most practical problem, for the captains, the strategic issue is not what they need to consider, it is the matter of the Admiralty and the Naval Staff, and for the captains, it has nothing to do with it at all, and now for the captains, they need to consider more about how to improve the level of gunnery, so as to turn the operational plan drawn up by the Naval Staff into reality, so as to ensure that the plan can be successfully completed.

"Now, there's no better way, I'm afraid there's no better way than to train! This time, our mission is to complete the 600-round artillery training......"

When the two were talking, in the huge waves, at the tail of the barrel of the ten-inch main gun, two gunners stood on the platform, loading shells for the breeched training gun, which is the "standard equipment" of the Northeast Navy, and added 75 mm guns to the main gun to save the life of the main gun barrel and reduce the training cost.

At the same time, the artillery crew that completed a round of "salvo" once again filled Allah Cannon with fake training ammunition, as if it had completed loading preparations in wartime, and after aiming at the "target", it fired the rifled gun again, and the iceberg as the target was within the range of the rifled gun, and then the normal calibration procedure, which was the standard procedure for training naval artillery of the Northeast Navy.

"Fire control, especially the experience of shooting water columns, can not be experienced without the randomness of live ammunition, a junior fire control officer can not be out of the division without ten rounds of personal shooting, and without a hundred rounds of spectators and speculative school shooting. However, not to mention the high cost of the main artillery shells, the wear of the gun chamber is more troublesome, so the small-caliber out-loaded guns are used to shoot live ammunition for daily practice, and the full-charge target shells are used for formal martial arts drills. ”

Explaining to Xu Zhiyuan the role of the rifled cannon, Sun Keli once again cast his eyes on the distant "target", observing the water column near the iceberg, and while observing, he only listened to him and added.

"The most important thing for the big guys to hone now is how to keep the aim of the target waterline in the undulating waves, and the calibrator's estimation of the distance of the water column on the ball. Only through continuous training can we improve our artillery skills in bad sea conditions! That's what the staff needs! (To be continued.) )