At 7:15 p.m. on July 9, 1861, the huge Russian fleet finally reached the sea area 33 kilometers east of Dongsha Atoll, and continued to sail north-east, apparently to enter the Taiwan Strait directly.

In fact, as early as a day ago, the intelligence ship that was following was discovered by the Russian expeditionary fleet, but fortunately, because the ship was an American merchant ship flying the American flag, and the captain on it was also an "American" who had already joined the Chinese nationality, so it was only temporarily detained and followed the fleet.

But they didn't know it, and this would allow the intelligence officers who pretended to be merchants to locate them more accurately, because the small sailing ship with a steam engine had already been refitted, the mast itself was an antenna, and the radio equipment was in the cabin, placed with the steam engine, and the Russian soldiers who came to inspect it did not know it at all, but thought it was part of the steam engine.

In this way, the intelligence officers can use the radio to transmit more accurate coordinate information, which is convenient for the First Fleet's positioning.

Of course, even without the radio transmission of intelligence officers, it is not difficult to locate this huge fleet, not to mention the radar station on Dongsha Island, even if you use visual inspection, you can find the traces of this fleet.

You must know that the Russian expeditionary fleet is such a huge fleet, there are many steam sailing ships in it, especially the British and French escort fleets, almost all of which are equipped with steam engines, and the steam engines at this time are all to burn coal, and there is a big chimney to exhaust smoke, so if the wind is not strong, you can see the black smoke above the sky from afar, and when you see the black smoke, you can basically determine the general direction of the fleet.

It's July, and even if the latitude of the sea near Dongsha Island is relatively low, it will take after half past seven in the afternoon to make it completely dark, and before that, the thick black smoke column has long been discovered by the First Fleet of Dongsha Island. Even if you don't turn on the radar, you can know the approximate location of the Russian fleet.

On the contrary, the ships of the First Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy, most of them are traditional sail warships, even if they have been modified with a power system, they are mostly oil-burning diesel engines, which basically do not smoke, and they have been hiding on Dongsha Island and have not sailed, so the Russian fleet did not find this assassin fleet.

However, despite the fact that it was dark. But today's weather is cloudless, the stars and moon are brilliant in the sky, and although the moonlight of the first quarter moon cannot be compared with the full moon, it is not so dark that it is impossible to see, which is a slight reduction in the disadvantage of the Russian fleet.

"It's a nice day." Mo Haihu, who was wearing a white vice admiral uniform and had a bald head, stood in the captain's room, looking at the moon in the sky with his hands behind his back, "It's a pity." It would be nice if it was a little more cloudy. ”

"Lord Admiral." The adjutant on the side reminded, "The power boiler is almost hot, and it is ready to be dispatched." ”

Although the diesel engine on the Zhenyuan is installed, it still needs to be warmed up in advance. In order to achieve the optimization of performance, this is not the same thing as driving a car, the same reason, even if it is the power boiler on the Gray Arrow 1 frigate. The same is true.

"Hmm." Mo Haihu nodded, slowly put on the big white cap, and then picked up the walkie-talkie. Full-range calling is turned on.

"All the officers and men of the First Fleet, I am your Admiral Mo Haihu." Mo Haihu said in a muffled voice, "The time has come, and we are about to officially set off for our first hunt!"

I won't say anything superfluous, I have already said enough in normal times, and here, I only ask you to fulfill your duties, take out all the skills you usually train, and be sure to send all the Russian fleet back to your hometown!

Okay, now I order, the First Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy, according to the original plan, all attack! ”

After saying this, Mo Haihu put down the walkie-talkie, and then nodded to the adjutant and helmsman: "Let's go, go full speed." ”

"Yes!" The adjutant saluted, and then gave the order to move forward at full speed.

Soon, I felt that Zhenyuan moved all over his body, and instantly regained his balance, while Mo Haihu took off his hat again and touched his bald head: "Hey, I'm really not good at speaking in battle or something." ”

As usual, the First Fleet divided the fleet into two according to the previous plan, with the Zhenyuan and Gray Arrow 1 as the main attack fleet, and the other warships following behind.

In the main attack fleet, the Gray Arrow 1 and the Zhenyuan went hand in hand, without turning on the lights, both turned on the night vision system, and at the same time pursued the Russian fleet at a speed of 25 knots.

Although the smoke column of the Russian fleet could no longer be seen clearly due to the darkness of the night, the specific position of the opposing fleet was clearly reflected by their respective radars.

Although the Russian fleet was still moving, because of its own speed, it only pursued for an hour and forty minutes, and the Zhenyuan and Gray Arrow No. 1 chased to a distance of 6 kilometers southwest of the Russian expeditionary fleet, and with the range of the main guns of these two ships, they had already reached the attack position.

However, Mo Haihu demanded to move on, and asked to approach the battleship three thousand meters away from the most edge of the Russian fleet, and to stop the ship and attack.

Three thousand meters is already a relatively close combat distance for the Zhenyuan and Gray Arrow 1, but for the Russian fleet, it is not an effective shooting distance, but a relatively long shooting distance.

In addition, when the ship is in motion, the shooting effect will definitely deteriorate, and if the ship is stopped to attack, the attack accuracy will be greatly increased.

In order to reduce the noise, the two ships reduced their speed at the same time, and in this way, after about 20 minutes of Zhenyuan and Gray Arrow 1 moved forward, the ironclad cruiser Zhenyuan approached 3,600 meters away from the Russian fleet, and the Gray Arrow 1 approached 3,000 meters, and in both places, the brilliant lights ahead could already be seen.

That's right, because of the large number of Russian fleets, in order to avoid danger, they sail with lights on at night, anyway, they have no intention of hiding it, and in their minds, with the strength of their fleet, there is no need to hide it in Asia.

After hearing Mo Haihu's order to stop the ship, Mo Haiwen, the captain of the Gray Arrow No. 1, immediately ordered the ship to stop, and then did not turn sideways, but turned the rudder slightly, so that the bow of the ship pointed obliquely in the direction of the opponent's fleet, so that he could reduce his own battle surface, and at the same time, he could also use his front and rear main guns to give full play to the power of his main guns.

"Battery No. 1 is ready!"

"Battery No. 2 is ready!"

Hearing that the two twin-mounted 57mm gun emplacements in the front and rear were ready, Mo Haiwen nodded, and then said softly: "Pass my order, target." The nearest big ship ahead, free fire, fire! ”

With the order, the two twin 57mm naval guns of the Gray Arrow No. 1 spewed out angry flames at the same time, and fired out the armor-piercing blasting projectiles one after another, which was the first shot in the naval battle of Dongsha Island.

Just thirty seconds after the Gray Arrow No. 1 preemptively opened fire, the Zhenyuan's 76mm main gun also began to roar, and it also found a target by itself and began to fire freely.

Although they are all free fire, it really just means that each turret can freely fine-tune the angle and rate of fire. But the targets of a ship are all the same.

In other words, whether it is Gray Arrow No. 1 or Zhenyuan, their plan is the same, that is, to find the nearest target first, and then pour all the main artillery fire on this one, and then switch to the next target when the opponent is completely sunk, which is called hurting ten fingers rather than cutting off one of its fingers.

The rate of fire of twin 57-mm naval guns could reach 240 rounds per minute. Combined, the two twin batteries can pour out 480 shells in one minute!

These shells are blasting shells, and even steel battleships can be torn apart, not to mention these wooden battleships.

It didn't take five minutes. The ship that was targeted by Gray Arrow One was hit with flames, and it seemed that it would not work, while the Zhenyuan had already sunk a ship and had already begun to attack the second target.

This one is fat. The Russian fleet was blinded, and they knew they were being attacked, but the Gray Arrow No. 1 and the Zhenyuan were far away. The lights were not turned on, and there was hardly any trace except for the fireworks when they were launched.

But this is night, whether it is a 57 mm gun or a 76 mm gun, strictly speaking, the fireworks at the time of launch are not large, at a distance of 3,000 meters, it is really difficult to accurately locate it with the naked eye alone.

Moreover, the Russian expeditionary fleet did not have radios, and it still relied on light to transmit orders at night, which also increased the difficulty of transmitting orders and reduced the reaction time.

By the time the Russian fleet reacted and found the approximate direction of attack, twenty minutes had passed, and in that time, the Zhenyuan and Grey Arrow had sunk six ships, three of which had sunk, and the other three had set fire to the surroundings.

The confusion soon began, and although it was impossible to find out the exact location of the attacking fleet, most of the Russian warships fired indiscriminately in the direction of the attack, not so much to try their luck as to embolden themselves.

Not only the Russian warships, but also the British and French warships also began to fire in the direction of the Zhenyuan and the Gray Arrow One, and the British fleet reacted the fastest, having divided four ships and rushed towards the location of the Gray Arrow One, obviously intending to close combat.

This is a very wise decision, in this kind of situation where the enemy is dark and I can only be beaten passively, the best way is not to fire the cannon indiscriminately, but to bravely rush up to the melee combat, so that when the lights on your ship can see the other party, you can have a dignified duel.

But unfortunately, although they can't see the situation of Zhenyuan and Gray Arrow No. 1 clearly, their every move is under the monitoring of these two ships, so any action they have can be fed back to their radar system and night vision equipment as soon as possible.

Seeing that four ships were rushing towards him, the main gun fire of the Gray Arrow No. 1 did not change much, and it was still slamming at the target that had been found in advance, but the two Type 69 twin 30mm secondary guns began to quietly aim at the four British ships that came to engage in close combat.

The Type 69 twin 30 mm naval gun, which is imitated from the Soviet AK230 double 30 mm naval gun, is a weapon that uses radar and optoelectronic equipment to double aiming, fully automatic operation, and adopts the automatic structure of the rifled gun.

Due to the use of a rifled gun structure, its single-barreled rate of fire reached 1,000 rounds per minute, and the double-barreled rate of fire could reach a terrifying rate of fire of 2,000 rounds per minute, and the effective firing range was 3,334 meters.

However, the rate of fire of 2,000 rounds per minute is completely unnecessary, so against these rushing ships, the actual rate of fire of this secondary gun is adjusted to 300 rounds per minute, and it is not a continuous fire, but a burst fire, in order to save ammunition.

But even if it is made into a rate of fire of 300 rounds per minute, this rate of fire is powerful enough, and although the caliber of 30mm shells is not large, these are real anti-personnel explosive incendiary shells, which can even tear apart steel battleships. Not to mention hitting on wooden warships.

It can be said that once it is swept by this kind of cannon, the wooden battleship is basically ignited, and as long as it hits twenty or thirty rounds in a row, the wooden battleship is basically beaten into a torch.

In order to facilitate accurate shooting at night, all shells are separated by partial anti-personnel blasting incendiary shells with a tracer bullet, so as to facilitate their own shooting positioning, and with tracer bullets, they can indeed increase their own accuracy, even if they expose themselves. But all in all, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

It only took five minutes for the two British battleships that rushed over to be turned into two torches by the Type 69 30mm secondary guns, and the third fourth-class ship was even more unlucky, directly hitting the ammunition depot, and with a bang, the whole exploded on the sea, and even affected the relatively intact fourth ship.

However, this also made more warships of the Russian expeditionary fleet react, and the warships that were still intact began to turn their bows. Heading towards the Zhenyuan and the Grey Arrow No. 1 respectively.

In this way, the Zhenyuan and Gray Arrow No. 1 stayed in place, as if playing a fixed target, using the cover of night. He kept harvesting the opposing warships with his sharp artillery fire, turning the Russian fleet into torches and even exploding one by one, while he was almost unscathed.

That's right, even if there are more Russian battleships. According to the direction of the tracer bullet, the cannon kept being fired in this direction, but the accuracy was too poor after all. And whether it is Zhenyuan or Gray Arrow No. 1, the bow is ahead, and it can be said that the battle surface is quite small, which also greatly reduces the probability of being attacked, plus luck, so many artillery fires on the other side, and it does not hit these two ships at all, at most it only hits the waves on the side.

The Gray Arrow No. 1 and the Zhenyuan have been fighting for more than half an hour, losing more than half of their ammunition and the barrel of the cannon is also red, but the results are also very remarkable, and they have killed 18 warships, including the French armored ship Glory.

In the rear, the officers and men of the Chinese Navy all lost their temper, and the artillerymen all took off their clothes and went shirtless, roaring and continuing to fire artillery, firing cannons, and firing again.

This is also thanks to the advanced barrel cooling system, and the rate of fire has been reduced in advance, otherwise, if you really shoot at full speed, the barrel will not be able to survive for a long time, and this is one of the gaps between modern weapons and weapons of the old era.

It can be said that this is a modern war against a modern one, the technology is too poor to be comparable at all, even if there are only two ships, it is completely possible to completely abuse each other.

Eventually, after an hour and a half of fighting between the two sides, when the Zhenyuan and Grey Arrow 1 had run out of ammunition and were ready to go down to resupply the ammunition, the Russian fleet, which had lost more than two-thirds of its all, finally collapsed completely, and some began to flee, while others began to raise the white flag.

Among them, most of the ships that escaped were warships, while the white flags were mainly those troop carriers and supply ships that were slow and had little protection.

By this time, the battle was decided, but the First Fleet did not want to let them go, but wanted to be completely annihilated!

For this reason, the three modified bird boats that had already rushed over and were on standby behind quickly dispatched to pursue the fleeing battleships and increase the results of their double 37 anti-aircraft guns, while the supply ships quickly approached the Zhenyuan and Gray Arrow No. 1 to carry out intense ammunition supply operations, but none of the ships with white flags paid attention.

Also, for ships with low protection and slow speed, when the escort fleet has been completely defeated, if they don't surrender, they are looking for death, no matter how arrogant the Russians are, they are not brainless, and they will never do that kind of stupid thing to attack the battleship with rifles, not to mention that these ships carrying Russian soldiers are British and French, and when the war situation is decided, there is no obligation to sell their lives.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!" Mo Haihu, who was red-eyed, simply turned on the megaphone and roared, "Hurry up and change the ammunition, the sooner the better!" Our goal is to leave no one behind! Do you hear that? Don't let go of one! (To be continued......)