As the uniquely shaped van tower slowly rose from below sea level with an antenna on top of it, all the captains of the coalition couldn't help but widen their eyes and try to see it clearly.

Nearly twice as tall as the previous command tower, with a large bulge above the central armored fort and a chimney wrapped in the middle, it is simply the world's number one freak in the eyes of the navies of various countries.

Lieutenant General Seymour couldn't help but exclaim: "What are the Chinese thinking in their heads?" How dare they pile so many things on the deck, are they planning to let this battleship capsize quickly in the sea? ”

Can't figure it out!

Everyone knows that because of the vertical steam engine, most of the large warships of this era had a higher center of gravity. Especially in the previous "Sovereign class", those ships generally adopted a low freeboard design, and the weight brought by the heavy armor meant that it was difficult to keep the center of gravity sinking, and basically each battleship had little margin. If there are too many things piled up on the deck, the center of gravity is too high, and if you are not careful, the ship will capsize.

This is why the difference between the standard displacement and the full load displacement of modern warships is extremely small, and you have to be afraid to add some weapons and ammunition. When sailing, most of them have to follow the route close to the shore, and if you can't go to the depths of the ocean in bad conditions, you can't go there.

But the image of "Dingyuan" completely subverted their old concepts. The British originally thought that the superstructure of their "Nile-class" battleships would be bulky enough, but now they know that the strongest of the best is even stronger!

However, their taunts only said a few words, and then each honestly closed their mouths. Because they quickly calculated the speed of the opposite side, it actually reached 18 knots!

Such a speed. Almost exceeds the maximum speed of any of the combined warships. Even the "Sovereign class" adopts the excellent hull design after the high freeboard. I can't reach it, and I don't dare to run so fast when it comes to engaging - are you still going to fire? Are you still planning to maneuver?

But "Dingyuan" did just that!

Her graceful bow had changed from a knife to a spoon, crashing into the waves and splashing to the sides, like a giant wading across the sea. When it was clear that a battleship made people feel an invisible heavy oppression!

The two sides are getting closer and closer, and Vice Admiral Seymour really sees it, and keeps making judgments in his mouth: "The freeboard has been greatly improved, and the center of gravity is very stable." During the voyage, the attitude was steady, and the gun was placed in the middle...... Damn, how could her body be that long! It's incredible! ”

He couldn't believe what he saw, turned his head and asked the chief of staff and the rest of the lookouts standing side by side, and received the same shocking and inexplicable answer, which was the same surprise and admiration: "God! It's really unbelievable that the Chinese have learned our essence! She looks as pretty as the 'Monarch Class'! It's completely unrecognizable that it's the original ironclad! ”

Not to mention that they can't recognize it, even the German father who personally designed this kind of battleship can't judge! From head to toe, there is hardly a trace of the original design, the steel plate has been replaced, and the paint has been completely changed. The low freeboard appearance of the big bathtub is long gone.

There were too many familiar features in front of him, and Lieutenant General Seymour's face was grim and heavy. He almost saw a small "Sovereign-class" battleship approaching him, heavily armored, extremely fast, and ...... cannons Damn cannons! Didn't the Japanese say that they developed only 35 times the diameter of the main gun? But this shadow looks like it has a longer body!

The body tube is the firing range, high muzzle velocity means high armor-piercing ability, the already powerful 305mm cannon, after a little more growth, how strong is it?! With a range of more than fifteen thousand yards? Reach eighteen thousand? Twenty thousand?!

How much has the rate of fire really increased? Can you really shoot a minute? It was a nightmare. The 343mm gun of the "Sovereign class" can only do one shot in two minutes, which is twice as slow!

There is also lethality, the Japanese have personally verified it with the "Izumi", and the "Zhenyuan" cannon they encountered last time can tear their armor like a piece of paper. A 4,000-ton armored cruiser can't withstand the bombardment of a single 305mm grenade, which means what an amazing destructive power! Can the seemingly powerful armor of the "Sovereign class" resist?

"Can't take any chances!"

Vice Admiral Seymour immediately made up his mind and ordered the ships: "Don't let the enemy ships get too close, and intercept the fire from 5,000 yards away with the main guns as much as possible!" ”

The captains of the ships did not dare to slack off, and stared at the menacing "Dingyuan" with a strong fighting spirit, like a pack of wolves facing an approaching tiger.

Even dead objects made of steel can exude an aura that shocks the soul when it is given a spirit by the user. Just like the "Dingyuan" in front of her, no one regards her as an old and backward ironclad ship, which is full of fierce and murderous charm, which makes people involuntarily pull it into the ranks of battleships. Even if it looks like the boat is a little smaller.

That is, the British had the capital to be proud, and the rest of the German, French, and Russian warships only felt a piercing chill. Although their ships were of similar tonnage and the caliber of their guns was not small, no one dared to say that they could withstand a strong blow from the other side.

The strong self-confidence that was brought about by the number before has now collapsed and there are not many left. In particular, the observation results from the ships in front of the ship have been transmitted one after another, which proves that the ship's main guns seem to have changed dramatically, and everyone invariably thinks about the worst.

Vice Admiral Seymour was very decisive, and then issued the second combat order: "All the capital ships immediately abandon the subordinate ships, move closer to the flagship with all their might, and form a joint force, we must sink this dangerous enemy ship in one fell swoop in the shortest possible time!" Gentlemen, the victory or defeat of the war in the Far East depends on this battle, show all your courage and move forward! ”

Armored beasts raise battle flags to the top of the mast. A loud horn, officially blown!

The "Dingyuan" stands out from the whole army, at least two kilometers ahead of the rest of the ships, like a lonely and peerless swordsman, alone proud of the hordes of powerful enemies, and forge ahead!

Liu Buyun calmly watched the changes in the enemy ship, and said with interest: "It is worthy of being the strongest navy in the world, after a whole night of harassment." It was possible to respond so quickly. Very good. Such an enemy. In order to achieve the prestige of our Chinese Navy! The order goes down, the main and secondary guns are all loaded and ready, and the enemy fires from 10,000 meters away! ”

The long whistle resounded across the water, the battle flag was raised to the top, and the "Dingyuan" slowly slowed down to 15 knots, and the other side was growing at a rapid pace, and the relative speed was almost unchanged.

The straight-line distance of less than 30 kilometers is rapidly decreasing, and neither side has any intention of maneuvering to avoid it.

Lieutenant General Seymour looked back. Make sure that the two columns are forming a staggered array, and that the distance between the battleships is increased to more than two kilometers, to ensure that each other does not collide in the maneuvering direction, and also to provide sufficient angle of fire for the left column.

Turning around, he locked the "Dingyuan" that he had single-handedly killed, and a long-lost heroism surged in his chest: "Very good opponent, you are worthy of letting the Royal Navy of the British Empire deal with it with all its might!" Hopefully, this battleship can be as impressive as it looks! Hmph, hero, it's not so easy to be! ”

The other party does not evade and does not maneuver. The dignified naval warships of the British Empire cannot retreat from the enemy! Especially behind yourself. A long list of powerful warships, almost the most ferocious attack group in the world today, against an enemy ship that does not know the depths, if you have to think about it, it will be a loss of face for the great powers!

The "Counterattack" was growing at a faster pace, and the power system that had just been run in was running at full speed, and the three propellers stirred up a bright splash, pushing the heavy hull to continuously impact the waves, increasing the speed to 14 knots.

It's close! It's close! The two sides are getting closer! The lateral distance between each other is about five kilometers, and the diagonal distance is quickly reduced to twelve kilometers! At this moment, Vice Admiral Seymour saw a cloud of smoke suddenly rise in the distance, instantly covering the bow of the graceful hull, and then being swept away by the wind.

"Enemy ship shelling!"

The lookout shouted loudly, and the warnings sounded one after another, and then I heard a thunderous whistling in the sky, and a thick column of water rushed into the sky from 300 meters away from the left rear of the "counterattack", which was spectacular and beautiful, like a hidden dragon soaring into the abyss!

The loud bang rushed into his ears, and Lieutenant General Seymour shook involuntarily, unable to maintain his calm posture any longer, and blurted out: "Hell! The accuracy of their test firing is so high, could it be that God has sent grace to the Chinese?! ”

This is the first test firing, the two sides are still more than 12,000 yards away, or the relative speed is nearly 30 knots, isn't their artillery afraid of the keel deformation of the battleship?!

With such accuracy, once it enters a constant distance shooting, how terrible it is, you can imagine!

Lieutenant General Seymour felt a malice that pierced his heart, and after the smoke passed, the vague muzzle of the cannon pointed at this side was unspeakably hideous!

He immediately shouted: "The front main gun fires back!" Order the ships such as the 'Revenge' and the 'Elector' to fire with the main guns in the bow, and do not worry about the consumption of ammunition, so as not to give the enemy ships more opportunities to fire! ”

The signalman on top of the mast desperately waved the flag, and the German battleship, which was also taken aback, reacted even earlier than the others. The corners of Commander Dietrich's eyes twitched, and he cursed indignantly: "Damn the Chinese guys, they must have stolen the technology of the Krupp company and used our artillery as the basis to develop such a terrible guy." Fire and kill that guy hard! ”

Krupp protested last year, expressing great dissatisfaction with the Chinese's unauthorized imitation of its 305mm cannon. Of course, they didn't see it with their own eyes, so naturally there was no conclusive evidence. But for the great powers, it didn't matter, the key was to be able to extort the technical information and more money they needed, which was the goal.

Yang Hao not only denied it, but also ignored the Germans at all, which not only made a feud, but also repeatedly defeated the Krupp company in the next arms orders, and the two sides were almost endless. No matter how much Li Hongzhang tried to mediate, it was useless, and no one was willing to take a step back.

It was precisely because of the understanding of the power of the Krupp guns that the German commanders understood how terrible their opponents were, and it was clear that all the previous speculations were fully proved by a test shot that he had now witnessed. The guy on the other side threatens Cheng dù more than they estimated!

The "Elector" also rushed to the front of the fleet, and because of the angle, the firing range of its bow twin 280mm main guns completely covered the "Dingyuan". Thanks to German metallurgical technology and Krupp's gun-making technology, the 40-fold diameter long barrel not only has a long range, but also has a very outstanding armor-piercing ability, which is not weaker than the British 343mm gun.

Eating the shells of the "Jiaozhou" last night, although it did not cause much damage, Commander Dietrich felt that his face was swollen. I have long wanted to find an opportunity to take revenge. Now it's time to catch the main one. Can he still bear it?

The order for the flagship has just been issued. The main gun in front of the "Elector", which had been prepared for a long time, immediately opened fire! The hull of the ship was slammed by the strong recoil, the whole trembled slightly, and two armor-piercing shells roared out of the chamber and pounced into the distance!

More than ten seconds later, two water columns rose from the front of the "Dingyuan", separated by nearly a thousand meters, and there was no threat at all.

But immediately after, the front main guns of the battleships "Counterattack" and "Revenge" fired one after another! Heavy shells that had been gathering for a long time smashed into the nearby water one after another. Blowing up scattered columns of water still doesn't pose the slightest threat.

The "Dingyuan" paused for less than a minute, and the two main guns fired a salvo!

Under the dual guarantee of advanced optical sight and radar rangefinder, the accuracy of the twin-mounted 305mm main gun with a stable firing mechanism can only be described as "incredible" in this era. After the first test firing, a straddle shot was formed, and the accuracy of this salvo was improved again than the former, and one of the shots actually formed a close miss on the starboard side of the "counterattack"!

"Boom!"

A small charge of heavy armor-piercing projectiles weighing 517 kg burst out, still bursting into a cloud of thick fireworks covering a radius of 50 meters, and large pieces of shrapnel were fired wildly, fiercely sweeping on the side armor belt of the "Counterattack"! Although the heavy impact did not penetrate its perverted 457.2mm nickel steel armor, it caused several rivets to collapse. Other shrapnel fragments hit the deck. A lifeboat was smashed into a sieve, and a 152mm secondary turret shield pierced. The inwardly shattered fragments swept the booktitle sailor inside to the ground!

The thick column of water followed, slamming down on the hull and bridge, and the dull roar and tremor made the entire British army shudder! The rushing waters along the deck made them feel a chill to their bones!

Although Lieutenant General Seymour was not frightened, he was also frightened, and his hands involuntarily clenched into fists, making it difficult to stretch.

The terrible guys, with only the second shot, actually formed a close miss when they were close to each other to a distance of 11 kilometers! And the power of the explosive fragments has always been like this, how the hell did they do it?!

With the level of warships and artillery at the end of the 19th century, and with contemporary maritime combat technology, it is almost impossible to consider the problem of hit rate at a distance of 10,000 meters. There is no large-size optical sight, and only the estimation of the naked eye and telescopes is conveyed to the gun position when aiming and firing. Expecting the turret to aim and shoot on its own is no less reliable.

Therefore, in the naval battles of contemporary countries, the distance of exchange of fire is basically set within 3,000 meters. To measure the depth penetration ability of the main gun, most of them are also at this distance. No matter how far away, the bumps and rocks of the hull alone made it difficult for them to hit the target.

In the last Sino-Japanese naval battle, the warships of both sides basically embodied this tactical indicator, and the vast majority of hits were within 2,000 meters, and the fatal injuries were even less than 1,000 meters. Of course, there are exceptions, that is, the mysterious Yang Navy ships, even an armed freighter, can hit the outrageous results of ten kilometers away, and also pierce armored cruisers such as the "Yoshino".

The whole world couldn't guess how they did it, only later it became known that a rapid-fire cannon with a long barrel was used. But this thing is available to all major powers, but it can't be tested anyway.

Today, they were eye-opening again, but it felt, very bad!

The impact of the explosion that was close to missing the bullet made the hull of the "Counterattack" sway a little more, but it was this that caused the turret that was hurriedly loaded with shells to immediately lose its original observed coordinates. By itself, they can only achieve a rate of fire of one shell in two minutes, and now they simply can't work, aim? Don't even think about it!

The scary is yet to come! Only a minute later, the "Dingyuan" opened fire again, again with two salvos. This time, the distance between the two sides reached 10 kilometers, and the armor-piercing shells swept the sea with an almost straight trajectory, one of which hit the starboard side of the bow of the "Counterattack", and the 63.5mm outer armor easily penetrated like a piece of paper, and then penetrated through the two compartments one after another, and finally hit the inner 406.4mm bulkhead armor! A terrifying heavy warhead with an initial velocity of more than 800 m/s collapsed half of that nickel steel-like force!

It should be that the British have finally been favored by their God this time! What they encountered was an immature 305mm naval gun of the first version!

This is a shrunken version of the excellent MK8 naval gun of the US military, the body barrel has been weakened from fifty times to forty-five times, and the firing range has been reduced from 35,271 meters to 26,771 meters. Such a large gap is mainly due to the improvement of the life of the body tube and the weakening of the charge, but it retains a variety of comprehensive factors such as two heavy warheads. In addition, it is also necessary to take care of the old keel of the "Dingyuan", too much recoil will definitely be unbearable, in case you break up yourself first when you open fire, it is called wronged.

The "Dingyuan-class" battleship itself is not the main carrying platform of the gun, and the battleship that has completed its design and will start construction after the completion of the Qingdao Shipyard is where it should stay.

Even so, the armor-piercing ability of the gun is still amazingly high, even if it does not reach the full version of the 463mm armor-piercing ability at a distance of 9144 meters, it can reach the level of more than 400mm. You know, this number jù is for World War II armor, not the nickel steel armor of the British!

Two layers of armor in a row intercepted, and finally did not let the warhead penetrate completely, but the breach has been formed and the fuse has been triggered! There was just a moment of silence, and the shell exploded!

The bow of the "Counterattack" shook suddenly, and a large piece of shrapnel tore through the horizontal armor above, rushed out of the deck, and clung to the powerful air wave rising from the front main turret, blowing more than half of the exposed turret crew away! (To be continued......)

PS: ps: Fifteen thousand complete!