Several cruisers cleared out the surplus sailors to guard the prisoners, and at the same time drove the ship back to Yingkou Harbor, while the other warships continued to pursue, but due to the delay in receiving three old ironclads, most of the main forces of the Japanese navy fled, and only the unprotected cruiser 'Chiyoda' was sunk.

"Let the Yoshino run." Zhang Haiyang slammed his fist on the table. The high speed of the 'Yoshino' was a hidden concern for the Chinese Consulate Navy, but I didn't expect it to let him run.

The first mate on the side scratched his head and said, "We really think that there is a new weapon called torpedo, which is useless." Zhang Haiyang said with annoyance: "Yes, I have never used this kind of thing, and I forgot it when I was in a hurry, but this torpedo has a short range and slow speed, so it is not very useful." ”

After all, this is the first time for the Chinese Fleet to go to war, and the officers and men from top to bottom are all novices, and they can't help but be nervous about the battle, and it is normal to have such omissions. The Japanese navy also had little combat experience, and this time it was because of their lack of experience that they did not have enough self-defense shells to cause such a result.

Later historians have analyzed when writing this paragraph: "By virtue of a chance opportunity, the Chinese navy made the soldiers feel the atmosphere of real naval warfare with a miraculous victory, so that they completed the transformation from recruits to veterans, while the Japanese state, which was also a new soldier, paid a heavy price. ”

Although some of the combined fleets escaped, the battle was not over, and all the leading Chinese ships began to assemble in the direction of the Seto Inland Sea.

The "King Kong", the flagship of the United Fleet of the Japanese Kingdom, did not dare to stay after breaking through the encirclement, and ran directly back to the Yokosuka Military Port with a body of scars, and several other warships also returned here one after another with injuries of varying severity.

Seeing that the only warships that came back were the four cruisers "Kongo", "Tsukushi", "Katsuragi" and "Yoshino" and the two ironclad ships "Matsushima" and "Itsukushima", Ito's heart was cramped, this time he was really unjustly defeated, and he was chased and beaten because of the lack of shells.

Thinking of this, Ito only felt a cramp in his heart, a mouthful of blood spurted out, and the person fainted, and the officers on the side hurriedly carried Ito out of the command tower and rushed to the hospital in the port.

"Are you all assembled?" Zhang Haiyang asked. The observer on the side said: "Report to the commander, all the warships have arrived." Zhang Haiyang said: "All warships descend warships, change incendiary bombs, and target Jiangtian Island." ”

The flagship's signal flag was hoisted, and the other ships moved one after another, and five cruisers and three gunboats began to turn and move in the direction of Etajima.

At this time, it was dinner time on Etajima, and after a day of study, all the students gathered in the cafeteria, chatting and eating happily, and the most talked about here was naturally the United Fleet of the Japanese Kingdom that had already sailed.

"Our fleet will surely return victorious." A chubby male classmate shouted with a meaty fist, and a short boy next to him also excitedly proposed: "When the combined fleet comes back, we will all go and greet it." ”

As he was talking, a boy ran into the dining room in a hurry and said, "Come out and see, our fleet is back." The students who were eating all threw down their jobs and ran to the beach.

Seeing the crowd of people, Zhang Haiyang was a little puzzled, why didn't these people hide but came to the warship, aren't they afraid of death? After looking at his ship, Zhang Haiyang suddenly realized that he had not hung the flag of the Chinese collar in order not to expose the target, and was mistaken by the other party for his own fleet.

Looking at the crowd of swarmers, a cruel smile appeared at the corner of Zhang Haiyang's mouth: "All artillery began to load incendiary bombs and fire freely. ”

Just as the students were cheering, all the muzzles of the guns were turned around. Seeing the muzzle of the guns turned, the students thought that the warship was going to salute them, and the cheers in the crowd became even louder, and some students even threw their hats into the sky.

'Boom' a burst of cannon rang out, incendiary bombs exploded through the ranks, picric acid splashing everywhere and igniting the clothes of nearby students. The explosions kept going one after another, and the students were stunned, they had no idea what these warships were doing.

The students soon began to flee in all directions, but the shells of the Chinese fleet mercilessly covered the fire, engulfing everyone into the flames.

The hot flames and the peculiar yellow poisonous smoke of picric acid turned Etajima into a living hell, and by the time the search and rescue force arrived the next day, it had turned into ashes, and no one survived on the small island.

"It's a good fight." Zhang Haiyang had no pity for these students, because their predecessors had caused heavy casualties to the Imperial Fleet, but among those people there were many of their own seniors and teachers, but now their lives and deaths were unknown, and if they didn't destroy these people, they would do the same to themselves in the future. "There's not enough blood flowing." Zhang Haiyang gritted his teeth and said, "Order the fleet to march towards Wu Harbor." ”

Kure Port is the second largest port in the Wa Kingdom and is home to eighty percent of the country's shipyards. It was dark again, and after a day of fighting, the sailors of the fleet were exhausted, but they still stuck to their posts without slackening.

Wan Yong personally commanded the 'Baishan' to take advantage of the night to approach Wugang to reconnoitre, and when he returned, he immediately took a small boat to the flagship 'Tongjiang'.

"Report to the commander, the combined fleet of the Japanese state is not in the harbor." Wan Yong reported. "Absent?" Zhang Haiyang's brows furrowed, he had planned to gather and annihilate the remnants of the United Fleet, but he couldn't find it.

Several captains were waiting on the flagship, and Feng Ju said: "I think the Japanese fleet should have been frightened and ran to the farthest Yokosuka military port." ”

Sun Xiaohu said: "What now? If we go to the Yokosuka Naval Port, we will continue to go deep into the Seto Inland Sea. By the time we get there, it's dawn, and the situation will be very unfavorable. ”

Gao Tonghui also agreed: "The deep channel of the Seto Inland Sea is narrow, and our warships cannot maneuver there, not to mention that we don't have many shells, and if we are entangled by the defensive fleet of the Japanese country, we will not be able to bear it even if it is all wooden ships." ”

Li Weiguo suggested: "Why don't we fight Wu Gang." ”

Wan Yong said: "Wu Gang has nothing to fight, not even a larger ship." ”

Li Weiguo said with a smile: "It is more meaningful for us to build a shipyard and shoot out all our incendiary bombs, so as to completely destroy the shipbuilding capacity of the Japanese State than to strike the fleet." ”

"yes, hit their shipyards." Gao Tonghui nodded. Zhang Haiyang said: "Okay, then everyone starts to prepare, and the shelling will start in half an hour." ”

Due to the lag in communications, Kure Harbor has not yet received news of the fiasco of the Combined Fleet, and there is no sense of defense here.

In fact, even if they defend, it doesn't have much effect, Wu Gang's vision is relatively broad, the terrain is flat, and there is no danger, so the batteries here are all built on the plain, and the iron ore of the Japanese country is poor, and there are not so many steel cast cannons, so the shore artillery here is also sparse and there are not a few.

The eight warships of the Chinese Collar were already lined up, and all the main guns were aimed at Kure Harbor in the dark. "Open fire." With Zhang Haiyang's order, the main guns of the 'Tongjiang' first began to roar, and then the guns of several other warships also began to bombard.

In order to avoid the danger of the shore artillery, Zhang Haiyang did not let the fleet approach Wu Harbor, but attacked with the main gun outside the range of the shore artillery, and the fire of the sixteen 203 mm guns was not dense, but the power of picric acid was undoubtedly revealed.

Most of the buildings in the Japanese country are made of wood, and once these buildings are stained with the flame of picric acid, they immediately burn, and it just so happens that tonight the west wind is strong, and the wind borrows the fire, and it can't help but the shipyard area near the wharf, and even the residential areas north of the wharf are also on fire one after another, and people have run to fight the fire, but many people are smoked by the poisonous smoke of picric acid, and then burned alive by the spreading flames.

It wasn't until the nearby garrison arrived and dug a barrier outside the fire that the fire slowly subsided, and by the time the fire was extinguished, the entire Kure Harbor wharf had turned into ashes, more than seventy percent of the residential areas and industrial areas in the city had been destroyed, and the wharf and forts had already been destroyed. By the time the day dawned, the Chinese Fleet had already sailed at full speed and headed for Yingkou Port.

The victory at sea was not the whole battle, and the Wa Kingdom did not only send a fleet to attack the Imperial Navy, but also set sail at the same time with a merchant fleet of 20,000 Japanese infantry escorted by 21 old sailing warships, and their target was Han Pingguo, a vassal state of the Lanfang Empire, which was not far from the Wa State.

The Hanping Kingdom is small in area of only a few thousand square kilometers and has a population of only hundreds of thousands, but it is indeed a peninsula extending from the eastern continent. As long as they occupy this place, the Wa Kingdom will have a springboard to attack the mainland, and their continental dream will be realized.

Although the speed of the sailing fleet was slower, the distance from the Japanese mainland to Hanping was much shorter than that to Port Arthur, and when the combined fleet of the Japanese combined fleet bombarded Port Arthur, this fleet had already landed in the port of Busan unsuspected.

The port of Busan is located in the southernmost port of the Hanpyeong Kingdom, and it is also the closest large port to the Wa Kingdom, but the Hanpyeong Kingdom, which has always paid little attention to sea power and is loosely armed, has only a few small sailing warships here, and an army of less than 1,000 people is stationed.

The Japanese army quickly boarded the dock, occupied the port of Busan, and saw that the forward fleet was successful, and the follow-up fleet began to transport troops and supplies here in a steady stream, and a day later, Fang Xiaoyu received the news that the Japanese army had landed in Hanping, and the Japanese army had advanced thirty kilometers from the port of Busan.