The temporary withdrawal of the Prince from the battle, and the approaching attack of the Russian and Rurik heralded the end of the first phase of this battle! More bloody close-to-mid hand-to-hand combat is about to begin. Lin Taizeng did not want to continue to concentrate his firepower on sinking the Prince, but the actual situation was that the Prince, as a standard battleship. It was extremely difficult to sink him in a short period of time. The Russian is not easy to deal with as a new patrol, so the easiest thing to deal with is the Rurik that participated in the last war, and this battleship that fell into the hidden disease in the Sino-Japanese War is the softest persimmon. In Lin Taizeng's opinion, if his fleet can't even pack up the Rurik, the other two ships will be useless at all, in this case, it is better to find a soft persimmon to pinch first!

After adjustments, five armored cruisers of both sides lined up in two almost parallel battle lines at a distance of 3,500 meters and sailed northeast at a speed of 14 knots. Five battleships spewed a deadly rain of fire like five volcanoes, and for the first time, the Russian Far East Fleet's armored cruiser lead ship Russos showed its strength to the world. With a displacement of 13,000 tons, four 274 heavy guns, two 203 heavy guns, four 6-inch guns, and a bunch of 120 rapid-fire guns, the steel behemoth fired shells that instantly covered the Taipei.

The explosion of shells, the crash of shrapnel on the side of the ship and the sound of steel plates shattering instantly filled the Taipei. Although the heavy armor protected the vital parts well, the superstructure and the upper part of the head and tail were still hollowed out by the dense rain of bullets. At such a close distance, it was difficult for the Taipei's long-range shooting skills to exert its power, but the powerful 11-inch 40L gun still hit the opponent first.

An 11-inch shell passed through the smoke of the battlefield, and this shell hit the top of the turret of the 8-inch gun on the left front of the Russian, and at such a distance, this 11-inch shell was not enough to penetrate the top armor close to level, but there were exceptions to everything, in order to maximize the protection of the ship. The Russians also used hardened armor on the top of the turret, and the hardened armor became stiffer and less tough, so the hardened armor on the top shattered under the hammer-like hammer chiseling, breaking the body but penetrating the inside of the turret, and then the hot, high-velocity shrapnel scattered in the closed turret and ignited the propellant located at the rear of the turret. With a loud bang, a bright yellow flame accompanied by a black column of smoke rose from the rear of the turret, and the smoke gradually drifted backwards under the blowing of the sea breeze, affecting the observation of the rear guns.

"Distance yourself and let the Kaohsiung and Fuzhou continue to concentrate fire on the Rurik behind, and leave the flagship alone." The blow of the Taipei just now temporarily relieved the pressure on the Taipei, but the situation did not fundamentally improve, and the opponent's secondary artillery group was too strong. The fire projection at medium and close ranges is too powerful. Compared to the 5 6-inch guns and 3 105-gun guns of the King, the 2 8-inch guns, 4 6-inch guns and 3 120-gun guns of the Russian side line can be called demonic. Lin Tai had also wanted the Kaohsiung to support him, but in this way, it was possible for the Rurik to escape and ascend to heaven. You want to be wrecked, not repelled.

The Taipei shifted slightly to the left by half a compass point, and taking advantage of the sudden reduction in the Russian firepower, the crew of the damage crew fought the fire and smoke with water dragons. Although it was hit by numerous bullets, this German-made battleship at this moment showed the characteristics of the Germans who attached importance to protection. With the exception of a few fires, key parts of the hull withstood the Russian Navy's 8-inch and 6-inch guns, and as the fire subsided, the medical team began to force the trapped crew. But at this moment, the Russian, which extinguished the secondary turret, came up again!

Another rain of bullets swept over, and the Russian, which had lost an 8-inch gun, was like a wounded giant beast and carried out a frantic revenge on the Taipei that had just wounded it. And the Taipei was not afraid, and the two steel behemoths fought together again. Almost simultaneously, two huge flames rose on both ships at the same time, and a 274 shell from the Russian slashed the compass bridge of the King directly from the hull! More than a dozen officers and soldiers inside were blown into a ball of minced meat without even reacting. And this shell from the King hit the foremast of the Russian directly, blowing the rangefinder on the top to pieces. Both sides continued to fire and hit. As time passed, the two battleships were riddled with large and small craters. The siding of the Taipei was destroyed with two 6-inch guns and one 105 guns. And the Russian did not take advantage, another 8-inch secondary gun turret was jammed, and 2 6-inch guns were blown into twists by 11-inch armor-piercing shells.

And just when the Taipei and the Russian were inseparable, the battle between the Kaohsiung and Fuzhou and the Rurik was nearing the end. Rurik was so strong that even four years later, as the only armored cruiser comparable to the PISA-class armored cruisers, it was still the shining star of the Russian Navy. But after a long time in the face of two newer and more powerful King-class armored cruisers, this veteran of the Sino-Japanese War finally came to an end.

To tell the truth, Rurik is in a very aggrieved situation, if he is fighting alone, he can choose to evacuate, but the fleet operation is different, the Prince was injured and extinguished the fire, and now there is only Russia and himself left on the field, if he withdraws, the tragic Russia will have to face the encirclement of 3 10,000-ton armored cruisers, as long as a few shells hit the right place, then the slowdown is inevitable, in the case that the other party has an absolute advantage, slowing down means being destroyed! So the Rurik can't leave, he can only hope that his battleship can hold on for a little longer, and then the Russian can use this time to knock the opponent's flagship out of the battle, or the prince to return to the battle. Soon, however, the accurate gunnery of the Ocean Fleet frustrated the Russians' attempts.

At such a close distance, there is no need for complicated comparisons, and a rangefinder and telescopic scope alone are enough to get a high hit. The non-stop salvo of 8 11-inch 40L guns on the two battleships crushed Rurik's 2 12-inch guns and 2 10-inch guns at the beginning. At least 12 rounds per minute of 11-inch 40L guns of 262kg shells flew towards the poor battleship.

The 12-inch single-mounted gun in the bow of the Rurik was hit twice in a row by the opponent's 11-inch gun within three minutes of the start of the battle, and the first hit left a huge pit in the turret. At this moment, the Rurik was blessed by the St. Andrew's flag, not only did the turret not wear, but also did not have any critical components damaged. But then a shell exploded directly near the barrel, the barrel of the 40 times caliber was directly blown off, and the flying barrel was bounced into the sea after smashing off a ship's plank, and the Rurik's most powerful weapon was scrapped!

More shells still landed on the sides of both sides. After the Rurik's forward main gun was destroyed, three more armor-piercing shells were chiseled into its broadside, one of which opened a large hole in the bow. The other shot hit the main armor belt of the hull, which, although unable to penetrate, still caused the armor to crack and knock out a gap of several square meters. Another shell directly penetrated the upper armor belt of the Rurik, and after splitting the 6-inch upper armor, the huge shell exploded near the bombardier of a 6-inch gun, and then the raging flames and shrapnel destroyed the fragile protection near the bullet channel, and a fire dragon rolled in the channel, although the ammunition depot had a fire door, but this fire dragon still ignited the picric acid high-explosive shells accumulated inside the tunnel and on the gun position. Then I saw that a large piece of the Rurik's sideline was suddenly torn off by a huge explosion, and steel, flames, gunsmoke, and minced meat erupted in an instant, and the entire battleship was shaken like chaff by such a strong explosion.

The massive influx of seawater has tilted the hull about 5 degrees. Several steam pipes also burst under the blows of various shells. Rurik's speed dropped dramatically, and his maximum speed could only remain at about 12 knots. Just when the Rurik could not hold on, the Russian at the head of the team hit the Taipei again, this time with a 274 shell grazing the Taipei's conning tower. Although it was not in the middle, the huge explosion still shook Lin Taizeng and Deng Shichang and others in the command tower enough.

At that time, I only felt a flash of fire outside the observation port, and then the flames mixed with debris directly shattered the glass at the observation port, and pieces of shiny things instantly filled the entire command tower. Lord Deng immediately threw Admiral Lin next to him to the ground. The blow cost us dearly, as four of us were killed instantly by shrapnel and the rest struggled in the smoke and flames. Soon the medical team smashed open the gate of the control tower with the anti-gas area and transferred the wounded out of the city, and Lord Deng was among them, his back was hit by shrapnel, and Admiral Lin was lucky, except for being hit on the forehead. A Beiyang officer recorded the scene in this way.

"My lord, the Kaohsiung sent a signal to ask about our situation." An officer wiped a handful of blood from his head and pointed to a signal light in the distance.

"Tell them that the plan doesn't change! There is no victory without sacrifice, let them use the Rurik to pay tribute to their fallen comrades! After saying that, Lin Taizeng, who was full of hideous faces, glanced at the armored cruiser Russia that was still spraying this deadly flame in the distance.

After a short pause, the Taipei pounced on the Russian like an unyielding lion, this time, it was he who took the initiative to close the distance, in order not to let the Russian have another chance to rescue the Rurik in a desperate situation, the Taipei needed to entangle the opponent until it sank or the Russian chose to give up the rescue. War is like that, it depends on who on both sides can hold out longer. The Rurik has already stepped into the ghost gate, and now Lin Tai needs to give it the last ride! Once the Rurik sinks, then the rest is the Russian ship, and if the Prince chooses to retreat or does not rescue in time, the battle of the foreign fleet will be very profitable!

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