Several coastal defense ships are next to their flagships, and Yashiro Rokuro can see it by the light of the explosion, the Okishima and Matsue have sunk, and the situation of the Mijima is not very good, it has been hit by a torpedo, although there is no danger of sinking for the time being, but it seems that it can no longer move, and it is estimated that either the propeller was blown up or the boiler was destroyed.

In the distance were the Shubo, Iwami, and Tango, who should have also been attacked, as it was obvious that there was also a raging fire on those ships.

The position of several warships such as the Zhou Fang is in front of the fleet, because a small attack mission has just been completed today, so it is moored at the periphery of the fleet, and at this time these warships are also the target of key attacks, the reason is that they are too conspicuous, these warships are the largest in the fleet, the tonnage is more than 10,000 tons, and the largest Zhou Fang has a displacement of 13,500 tons, which is definitely a big guy.

In the first round of attacks, these big guys were the key objects of care of the submarine force, and basically more than half of the torpedoes were coming towards these three warships, and the concept of the submarine force was to eat the fat first, and let the surface fleet gnaw the bones.

At this time, the bridge of the Zhoufang had been ignited with a raging fire, and the huge hull was hit by three torpedoes, even then there was no danger of sinking, but coincidentally, a torpedo hit the ammunition warehouse, and a large number of shells exploded, causing the battleship to suffer secondary damage, and a large number of soldiers on the battleship were killed on the spot.

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Standing in the thick smoke of the bridge, Captain Daishi Masayoshi shouted into the microphone, "The maintenance team hurriedly organized people to repair the boiler to see if the battleship could still start, and the logistics team hurriedly tried to find a way to fill the hole, we must seize the last opportunity and resolutely not give up." ”

The surviving Japanese soldiers on the battleship were desperately busy. Trying to save his ship, "Sir, the hole is too big to be repaired," one soldier shouted.

"Then close the watertight chamber and weld him to death. If you can escape today, you will be tinkering here. The first mate also knew that the two-meter-long hole was no longer repaired by the equipment on the ship.

"Report to the captain, two boilers are completely damaged, only one is still functional, and it will take at least 5 hours if it is to be repaired." A staff officer ran in to report.

"Bastard, 5 hours, do you think the enemy will give us 5 hours. Tell them to start the boiler first, and never stand still, as it will become a fixed target and may be blown up and sunk to the bottom of the sea at any time. Captain Masayoshi Oishi scolded angrily.

However, he also knew that the Zhou Fang was basically a fee, a battleship without power, although there was still a cannon in storage, but how could it be possible to participate in the battle. This is already a target ship, and it can only be bombed. He never wanted such a thing to happen, even if he couldn't defeat his opponent, he had to save the battleship, even if he withdrew from the battle now, because according to the custom of naval warfare, Xiang Zhou Fang was injured like this. It is possible to automatically withdraw from the battle.

Your Excellency Commander Yashiro Rokuro, there is nothing I can do, just now the flagship has already played a signal light to inquire about the situation of each battleship, and Oishi Masayoshi has already reported the damage to the battleship. And ask for instructions to withdraw from the battle.

But Masayoshi Oishi was lucky, definitely lucky, at least he saved his life and saved the battleship, which was already scarred. And the other two poor Iwami and Tango battleships have no chance to withdraw from the battlefield.

Oishi Masayoshi looked at the Iwami and Tango battleships that were sinking to the bottom of the sea not far away, and sighed infinitely in his heart, these two large ships are definitely the main force of the Japanese Second Fleet, and now under the first round of attack by the enemy, there is no chance to resist, so he sank to the bottom of the sea, looking at the sea water that keeps whirlpooling, and the naval soldiers who keep wailing and struggling, Oishi Masayoshi's heart has a trace of helplessness and a trace of happiness.

He hurriedly instructed the deputy captain to organize people to put down the life raft and rescue the soldiers who fell into the water, which he could only do now.

Yashiro Rokuro stood in the bridge, his face was so cold that he could freeze to death, looked at the chief of staff who had just come in and asked, "Have you found no trace of the enemy until now?" ”

Chief of Staff Ishii Shokichi said in a deep voice: "For the time being, we have not found the situation of the enemy ships, and we suspect that it is the submarine force, but according to this attack distance, the enemy's submarine force should be very far away from us, which is a bit puzzling, after all, the attack distance of the torpedo is not so far, and if it exceeds a kilometer, there will be no accuracy." ”

"It is possible that the enemy used some means that we do not know, or that it has submarines that are more advanced than the Japanese fleet." Yashiro Rokuro said.

"We're analyzing this possibility." The chief of staff replied.

Yashiro Rokuro continued to ask, "Can the damage of the fleet be counted, and how many warships can participate in the battle?" ”

The chief of staff said with a very bad face, "It has been preliminarily counted, the cruiser Iwami, the cruiser Tango, the coastal defense ship Okishima, the coastal defense ship Mijima, and the coastal defense ship Matsue have all been sunk. The cruiser Zhou Fang was injured and could no longer fight. ”

"Of the remaining battleships, the three cruisers, the Iwate, Yakumo, and Tokiwa, were intact because they were covered by other warships. Of the four protective cruisers Chitose, Akitsuzu, Chiyoda, and Tone, the Chitose was hit by a torpedo on the port side, and one boiler was destroyed, which affected its combat capability, and the remaining three armored protection cruisers were intact and had full combat effectiveness. ”

"However, it is a pity that the telegraph communication between the ships is no longer available, which greatly affects the command of operations." Speaking of which, Chief of Staff Shoyoshi Ishii had to sigh.

"The enemy's attack is very strange, we can't sit still here, notify the battleships, form a temporary formation, and break out." Hachishiro Rokuro ordered directly.

He knew that now after the Japanese Second Fleet received this inexplicable blow, its momentum was very low, and the soldiers suffered heavy casualties, while the enemy was hiding behind and did not appear, if he did not do something, it was estimated that the entire fleet would fall into an atmosphere of fear, which would be very dangerous and its combat effectiveness would be greatly reduced.

Lin Haichao stood in the bridge of the Zhulu ship, waiting for the report of the first round of attacks, not for a long time, the chief of staff Song Huaishan said to Lin Haichao excitedly: "The results are out, according to the radar scanning results, the reflected signal of 5 enemy ships has disappeared, it should be sunk, and the other losses are not clear for the time being, but this round of attacks alone has sunk 5 Japanese ships, which is definitely a very big gain." ”

"And the observation post reported that the enemy ships are now using signal lights to transmit information, and it seems that your electronic jamming warfare has worked, and now the Japanese fleet can only use the most old-fashioned means of communication, which will greatly limit their combat coordination process." The more Song Huaishan spoke, the more excited he became.

"The most advanced communication used on the warships of various countries is the electric spark telegraph, which is very simple to interfere with it by using the electronic equipment on our warships, but it can indeed greatly affect the communication between the enemy's warships, and it is definitely a way to jam the enemy's throat. Lin Haichao said.

Song Huaishan asked at this time, "Commander, do you see if you let the ship troops attack, several captains came to ask, when to attack, they all screamed." ”

"Don't worry, the Japanese Second Fleet is already a turtle in an urn, and it can't run anywhere, and the battle must master the rhythm, and you can't just rely on momentum to go up, just like playing chess, you must be optimistic about the fall of each step, so that you can take every step into action, and wait to see the enemy's next move." Lin Haichao said.

Now that the enemy has been prepared, the Japanese warships have been launched and entered a state of combat readiness, if they rush forward rashly now, of course, they will inflict another heavy blow on the Japanese fleet in the shortest possible time, but I am afraid that the loss will not be small, after all, the artillery on the enemy ship is not a decoration, Lin Haichao is unwilling to take this risk, because the Huafu fleet is still very weak, and it cannot afford to lose any warship, even a speedboat, it is important in Lin Haichao's heart, and it is the family of the Huafu fleet, and he is not willing to lose.

There was not much time, and a radar observer reported: "Report to the commander, captain, that the enemy has made some moves and is moving in a direction of 45 degrees, with a total of 7 ships. ”

Lin Haichao, Song Huaishan and Zhang Peng, the captain of the Guandu, walked together to look at the chart, and finally Zhang Peng said, "Why are there only 7 warships, don't they want their auxiliary ships, look at the direction of escape, it should be the direction of Qingdao." ”

Song Huaishan said: "I guess this is a trick to lure the enemy, if it is transferred, it is impossible to leave all the family assets behind, isn't this self-cutting of arms." ”

Lin Haichao thought for a while and said, "I think the Japanese Second Fleet may have two ideas, the first is that they were stunned by our first round of attacks, and they didn't know what we were doing, so they chose to escape, but this escape is not a blind escape, there are also traps in it, if we attack it, we will fight to the death, so they didn't take the auxiliary fleet with them, because that would affect their battle." The second is that they may also really want to go, if we don't chase, they will go back to Qingdao directly, as for whether the auxiliary fleet can go back, it depends on luck, after all, the loss of the auxiliary fleet is not very big for a fleet, they value the loss of warships more. ”

Song Huaishan asked: "Then what should we do, to chase or not to chase." ”

Lin Haichao slapped his right hand on the chart, and said in a firm tone, "Of course you have to chase, whether it is a trap or not, none of them want to run." (To be continued......) R1292