Seeing the smoke trail in the distance, the entire fleet immediately became vigilant, and the six ships dispatched this time were divided into two teams to protect the merchant ships in the middle to keep the original course and continue to advance, and at the same time prepare for battle.

It didn't take long for the observers on the mast to report that it was Yoshino, Naniwa and Takachiho, and the battle bell rang in an instant, while the six ships came forward to form a goose-winged formation again, while the four merchant ships turned around and sailed north to the shallow water to avoid the battle.

Speaking of which, during this time, Ito Shosuke was also under great pressure, Japan from the emperor to the Ji women's festival clothes and food, and finally bought so many warships, but the two wars made him lose three, if it wasn't for Ito Hirobumi's protection, he would have been removed by the angry cabinet members, even so, the army is still holding on to his abandonment of the Sixth Brigade, fortunately, Prime Minister Ito understands things and knows that he has nothing wrong in this matter, compared with the combined fleet, the lives of thousands of army troops are not worth mentioning, and people can be recruited again if they are gone, Without the Combined Fleet, Japan is finished.

In this case, he naturally can't sit back and watch the Qing army reinforce Korea, and find the Beiyang Naval Division for a decisive battle before the repair of Songdao, it is estimated that he will have to pay for it if he doesn't get it, and the terrifying power of the main gun in Dingzhen still makes him have nightmares from time to time, but there is no problem in sending the three high-speed cruisers of Yoshino out to attack and disturb, even if he can't fight, he can get out lightly, so in this way, in the vast waves of the Yellow Sea, the fleets of the two sides met for the third time.

Despite the decisive battle formation, Ding Ruchang did not think that the Japanese army dared to attack him, even if it was Yoshino, it was still a little too crazy to challenge twice as many opponents as three warships, but the next scene made him stunned for a moment, they really had to rush up.

Yoshino took the lead, at a distance of five thousand meters, only saw a fire shining on its side, and then the sound of shells breaking through the air came, almost instantly seven of the six ships of the Beiyang Naval Division rose in the water, and the two ships in Dingzhen in the voyage did not show weakness, the eight main guns immediately let out a roar of return fire, and almost at the same time the remaining ships on both sides also opened fire one after another, but the first round of artillery bombardment was fruitless, just when the main gun of Dingzhen was loaded, the rapid-fire guns of both sides continued to pour shells at each other at the fastest speed, In the blink of an eye, the firelight exploded on Jingyuan and Gao Qiansui.

But at this time, with the high speed, the three ships of Yoshino have turned to the right flank of the Beiyang Naval Division, because of the speed problem, the Beiyang ships that turned too slowly immediately became opposite to the side side, but with the addition of the tail gun, the firepower did not have much impact, but only four of the main guns of Dingzhen were left to use, and soon the four 305 mm cannons spewed flames, but it was obviously not easy to hit the Japanese ships that were sailing at high speed of nineteen knots, compared to the staggered six ships of the Beiyang Naval Division, the target was larger, and when the main guns of Dingzhen fell short again, Jing Yuan also suffered a 120 shell.

At this time, Yoshino has already turned to the back of the formation of the Beiyang Naval Division, in the end, the speed gap between the two sides is too big, the Dingzhen second ship, which was originally only fifteen knots, because of various problems, is now able to run thirteen knots is already good, facing this high-speed cruiser that is almost twice as fast as himself, like a clumsy buffalo facing a dexterous cheetah, this scene saw Ding Ruchang's head in cold sweat.

Yoshino, who had rounded the back of the fleet, faced the six tail guns, and the firepower of a single ship even exceeded that of the entire Beiyang Naval Division, while at the same time, Nansu and Takachiho, who were slightly slower than it behind, had also broken away from the main gun firing range of Dingzhen, and it was obvious that they were preparing to attack from the rear.

"Turn around, turn sideways!" Ding Ruchang immediately ordered to change the formation, but at this time, he was afraid for a while, if there was still the United Fleet in front of him, then this battle would definitely be lost.

In fact, Tsuboi Kozo, who was opposite him, was also remorseful at this time, because he made a big mistake, he was too impulsive, there was no doubt that he had inadvertently found a way to defeat the enemy for the combined fleet, but because of the impulse to be exposed, in this case he did not hesitate, just when the Beiyang Naval Division turned around, Yoshino went straight to the merchant ship in the distance.

At this time, Ding Ruchang also understood his intentions, from the very beginning, Yoshino's goal was the merchant ships, and rushing up to challenge was just playing the tiger away from the mountain, and one person's move away from the mountain, limited by speed, the Beiyang Navy Division could not stop it from attacking those merchant ships.

The power of speed is on full display here.

In the angry gaze of the Beiyang Naval Division in the distance, the distance between Yoshino and the merchant ships is rapidly shortening, the four merchant ships are not stupid, they were originally sailing in a column, they immediately scattered and desperately fled to the shallow water, Yoshino immediately chose one of them to chase after it, but it did not open fire, this is a British merchant ship, no one dares to attack it unless necessary, the rice flag on the mast is more effective than the Beiyang Naval Division.

Yoshino, who rushed up at high speed, quickly forced it to stop, but fortunately the ship was not loaded with soldiers, and after receiving the promise of compensation for three or two times the price of the ship, the British merchant ship quickly lowered the dinghy, and all the crew evacuated, followed by the Yoshino gunfire, and the merchant ship turned into an explosion of fire along with the supplies to Asan.

Ding Ruchang, who was desperately coming from afar, could only watch this scene helplessly, after sinking the merchant ship, Yoshino and the other two ships each chose a target and chased after the remaining three ships, now the Beiyang Naval Division is powerless, the only thing to do is to pray that they can escape into the shallow water before the enemy arrives, but it is obviously not easy.

But just then, the observer suddenly exclaimed, "Look, what's that?"

Ding Ruchang hurriedly turned his head and ran towards the mast, but before he could climb up, a small warship flying the Yellow Dragon Flag like himself on the sea in the distance was flying at a speed that made everyone jaw-dropping.

"Oh my God, at least thirty-five verses." A foreigner next to him shouted with a jaw-dropping expression, Ding Ruchang's heart moved, and he immediately knew who was coming, he received a telegram from Taiwan yesterday, and the destroyer Flying Eagle of the Naval Division Battalion under Yang Feng, the commander of Taiwan Town, will escort the Prince of Ryukyu to Beijing to thank him, I didn't expect this guy to arrive so soon, looking at it, he rushed to Yoshino's small warship as if flying, such a speed is simply incredible.

On the Yoshino, which was chasing merchant ships, Kozo Tsuboi was also stunned.

"Where did this come from?" He asked the chief of staff beside him dumbfounded.

"It seems to be the kind of high-speed destroyer from Sweden's Young's shipyard, I have seen it in the UK, it is either a flying eagle or a flying thunder, and now it should belong to the Taiwan fleet in Dagou Harbor." The chief of staff said with a solemn expression.

"Weapons?" Tsuboi asked directly.

"Two triple steam gas torpedoes, five seven or six mm rapid-fire naval guns."

"Inform all ships to turn around, immediately form a combat formation and retreat at high speed, and prepare anti-torpedo artillery." Tsuboi Kozo shouted without hesitation, he still has lingering fears about the new torpedo that will kill Akitsu Prefecture with one blow, and if he hadn't destroyed the torpedo tube last time, maybe even the wave speed would be dangerous.

The Yoshino destroyer immediately gave up the pursuit of the merchant ship, and then lined up in a column and retreated at high speed to the east, and the destroyer Flying Eagle still rushed up at a high speed of 36 knots, but before it could reach the four-kilometer range, the Yoshino three ships opened fire at the same time, and the large-caliber shells exploded around it.

Probably thinking it was too dangerous, the Flying Eagle hesitated, but gave up the attack, although it ran another kilometer, it was only a minute, but in this minute it had to face hundreds of shells from nearly twenty large-caliber naval guns, it was very dangerous to do so without cover, in the final analysis, it was only here to help, and it had its own work, there was no need to work hard.

Seeing the retreat of the three Yoshino ships, the three merchant ships turned around and returned to sail, and then rejoined the Beiyang Naval Division, and after receiving a reward of one thousand taels of silver from Ding Ruchang, the Swedish captain of the Flying Eagle, Anderson, happily agreed to escort them to Asan, one destroyer escorted two battleships and four cruisers, which was definitely something worth showing off.

Although the loss of a merchant ship did not have any impact on the supply of Asan, this trip was originally to take the opportunity of escort to send some to the front line, the supplies there are now piling up, Li Hongzhang also desperately stuffed arms for Nie Shicheng and others every day.

Just as the fleet sailed into Asan Bay at nightfall, the battle on land had already begun.

Ye Zhichao gave up Gongzhou, which he was responsible for defense, and then returned to Tian'an with two battalions of Zhengding training troops, and after handing over the two battalions of soldiers to Zhang Gaoyuan's command, he himself withdrew to Ashan, as the commander-in-chief of the armies on the southern front, in fact, he is a decoration, the battalion system of the Huai army is destined that no one will listen to the command of others, not to mention that his prestige in the army is not as good as Nie Shicheng, and Zhang Gaoyuan is not something he can command, this guy will basically not buy anyone's account except for Li Hongzhang and his old boss Liu Mingchuan.

During this time, with the help of Hannagan, Zhang Gaoyuan built a series of forts relying on these mountains, and combined the lessons of Nie Shicheng in Cheng Huan and Burton's construction, digging trenches around these forts, instead of repairing those speechless breasts, and at the same time, fifteen new smokeless medicine Makqin and ten Grimm guns purchased from Bofors were placed in these forts, of course, these Makqin were no longer wheels, all of them were new tripods, and in addition to stacking sandbags behind the defense line to form a ring gun emplacement, 12 Krupp 75 guns were placed, and 20 Bofors 82 mortars were placed.

As for the artillery of other calibers, they were scattered along the defensive line, and the ring gun emplacements were also piled up with sandbags, which were all five seven, three seven, six zero, four seven, and even four Haqikes five-barreled three-seven-millimeter rapid-fire guns with a rate of fire of sixty rounds per minute, and now there were outrageous numbers of guns.